Wow.  You can tell I'm really bored today.  This is my 4th post.  Anyway, I added a channel called blogs that lists a few of my favorite blog sites.  Also, I have more costa rica pictures, so I'll get those in the gallery soon.  Thanks to Dave, Cassy and Jennifer for sending them!  You guys rock!  errrr.....girls, too...I mean...you people rock!  Anyway, it looks like there are comments trickling in from other people on the trip, too...which is cool.

Ever thought about hosting a web site from home, only to be foiled by the woes of dynamic IP addressing through your ISP?  Check out tzo.com.  They've got a pretty simple solution.

Somebody told me today that it took the creators of Hotmail about 18 months to design and build the web application, from idea to finish.  And for their efforts?  How bout a cool $450 million from Microsoft!  That takes the cake...

[House Update]  We have a slab!  We checked out our house last night and they had poured the concrete slab foundation.  Stay tuned for many more updates as progress continues.  I promise I'll bore you to death!

Heard the baby's heartbeat today!  Wow!  Suddenly, car insurance (or the lack thereof) doesn't seem so important anymore.

I've been wanting to do this for awhile.  Just to have one of their stock certificates.  So I can frame it and hang it right next to my collection of demotivators.  I had to dig deep for this one . . . $30 for 1000 shares of netoy.  The fiasco continues!!!

Well, as you can see, my site is back online.  I'm sure the millions of visitors I get each day are breathing a big sigh of relief.  Not.  Anyway, I added a nifty color changer so you can change the site colors.  I also added a darker scheme and made it the default.  It's much more fitting my mood.  The pastels were just a little too chipper.  I've seen other sites do the color shifter thing.  Most notably, imacfloppy.com (which, by the way, was developed by 2 guys in 8 months and sold for $1.8 million).  Perhaps if I get really bored, I'll throw in some functionality that will let visitors define their own color schemes.  Sort of like waferbaby.

I also removed the embedded IFRAME, so I'm netscape friendly now.  I had to make that concession after downloading the new navigator 6.0.  I was quite impressed.  That mozilla.org open source effort pulled it off.  I might even have to take back all the bad things I've said about netscape.  Well, maybe.  The jury hasn't come in just yet . . . but so far, so good.  In any case, I'm just happy to see they've improved their CSS support.

I am so NOT IN A GOOD MOOD right now.

I'm annoyed that my car insurance was cancelled because of a $20 mistake.

I'm annoyed it took allstate 2 weeks to let me know.

I'm annoyed that allstate will take my money over the phone at 10:38pm but won't reinstate my policy at 10:38pm.

I'm annoyed that progressive couldn't beat allstate's rates. Because cancelling allstate would have made me feel better.

I'm annoyed when a big company screws me and there is nothing I can do.

I'm annoyed that I didn't get gravy on my meat loaf from boston market, even though I asked for it.

I'm annoyed that I got green beans when I asked for mixed vegetables.

I'm annoyed that I never get exactly what I ask for in a drive thru.

I'm annoyed that road runner throughput is so fickle.

I'm annoyed that DSL is not offered in my area. Because cancelling road runner would have made me feel better.

I'm annoyed that there's a stupid pop-up window on netscape's home page.

Most of all, I'm annoyed that thanksgiving is less than a week gone and I've already slipped and lost sight of it.

Happy Thanksgiving!  I have much to be thankful for.  And its good to dwell on this.  But sometimes stating what you are thankful for lets you off the hook too easily.  I can almost do that without thinking.  So this year I'm going to think about those things that I'm not thankful for.  But should be.  Because usually it's not our circumstances that need to change.  It's us.  It's our perspective on those circumstances.

So here's my list.

taxes
You're not taxed on that which you don't have.  You're taxed on that which you do.  Which means that if you pay much in taxes, you must have much to tax.  And for this I should be thankful.

the election
Only a strong country could survive such a fiasco.  Democrat...Republican...Green Party...whatever.  The differences make the system work.  Our system doesn't deal with difference...it thrives on it.  And that's amazing.  In many countries, my apartment would have suffered the flame of a rioter's torch by now.

long hours at work
I work for a company that has lofty goals and a grand vision.  And I'm a part of that.  Not everyone gets such an opportunity.

traffic jams & congestion
Our cities are thriving.  People are moving.  Things are happening.  This is good.  This is not something to be complaining about.

a down stock market
A year ago, I didn't own any stock at all.  In fact, I didn't even have the money to open an Etrade account.  Today I do.  And for that I should be thankful.

Perhaps some of these are on your list.  If not, maybe you can find a few here.

This is not the kind of email you want to get at work.

"The water main repair is more extensive than originally anticipated and
will not be complete for a few hours. The plumbers believe that the water
will be turned back on by 7:00 PM tonight. In the meantime, we realize
that people must still use the restrooms, and this is fine - just please
don't flush. After the water is back on, we will go through and flush and
clean all toilets. We're sorry, but that's the best we can do right now."

My absolute all time favorite movie was released today on DVD. Thanks Bruce & Liz!

Check out this ascii art. And I thought the old :-) smiley face was clever.

A simple equation. 50°F + fleece pullover + beautiful, clear night skies + cafe mocha + outdoor seating @ Starbucks + good conversation = heaven. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Monday is definitely not my favorite day of the week.

Ok. On the mocha air freshener thing . . . it only works for the first couple days. After that, I wouldn't recommend it.

I love it. This is great.

Is it just me or are people really getting more rude? Today we're driving out to check the progress on our house and there were some kids playing in the road. You'd think they would move. Nope. One kid even sat down in the road and looked right at us. So we had to pretend he was a cone and swerve around him. Then we're in a parking lot and some lady walks right out in front of us. Which I know is pretty normal but we are in an SUV and it is moving. So go figure. And to cap the day off, we're heading over to my in-laws and there's a party on their street. Cars lining both sides of the road. So only one car can get through at a time. Here we come down the road and a car is sitting there waiting for someone, blocking the road. And there's an open driveway they could have pulled into. So there we sit. Ugh. Maybe some lithium or prozac in the water supply would help.

Some of these just crack me up.

The channel controller in the left margin (on the bottom) is active now. Some of the channels will be public and some private. This is just my way of controlling access to content (without creating accounts...which would probably be a little overboard for a personal home page). So if I send you an email like 'check out channel so and so' you'll know what I'm talking about. I only have a few working right now. Try channel 'costarica' or 'house' or 'voting' . . . those are the picture galleries. You can also try channel '123' to read one of my favorite stories. Once you type in the channel you want, just hit ENTER or click on the 'go' button.

Thank God it's Friday! And next week is only a 3-day week! Man, I love the holidays.

Want a great air freshener for your car? Leave an unfinished cafe mocha in it overnight. I was quite pleased to be greated by that aroma this morning. Of course, to leave a mocha unfinished is borderline blasphemy, but I did enjoy the effect.

This is the first pass at my home page. Haven't gotten the picture galleries converted to the new style. Hopefully, I'll have those looking good soon.

Just posted some pictures from my Costa Rica trip with Outward Bound. For sure, I'm no photographer...but some of the pictures turned out kinda cool. I'm going to try to collect all the pictures from everyone in the group and post them here, so stay tuned. I also setup the galleries so that people can leave comments, share memories, etc. Might get interesting. We'll see.