Had dinner w/Erin & Mike last night at the Thai Orchid on Sawmill. Emma's such a little cutie. I can definitely see some of her mom in her—especially with the dark full hair and the ears. She was a perfect little angel all dinner. She slept for the first 15 minutes or so, but was just quitely observing the rest of the evening. I had the General Tso's w/Vegetables (extra spicy.) I know it's pretty predictable of me, but I haven't had Thai Orchid in a while and it sounded good. They really do have good food there. If you like Thai or Chinese, I recommend trying it out if you're in the Columbus area. It's not the fanciest restaurant in the world, but they have good food.

Also, I went to all the major hardware stores in the area in the past couple of days trying to find a replacement for the track wheels on my screen door to the back porch. I can't find an exact match for the bracket. I've tried two other brackets already w/no success and bought another one last night—hopefully I can rig it to work, otherwise I might just go by another screen door.

Posted by Dan on May 1, 2003 @ 10:28 AM

Tonight Jenn & I are meeting Mike, Erin & Emma for dinner at the Tai Orchid on Sawmill. I've eaten there a number of times and they have good food. This will be my first time getting to see baby Emma—needless to say I'm looking forward to see Emma (and mommy and daddy.) It's going to be a busy next couple of days, so I decided to take Friday off. I'm looking forward to having a day off. Not sure what I'm going to do yet though.

Posted by Dan on Apr 30, 2003 @ 4:56 PM

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to go to the airport to buy my tickets out to Denver. United Airlines won't let me cash my voucher in on-line. I'm going to try calling them, but I have a feeling I'm going to get screwed on the price either via the phone or if I head down to the airport.

Posted by Dan on Apr 30, 2003 @ 4:46 PM

First off, Maddie seems to be feeling back to normal. She's getting pretty ornary—I think she's missing getting her exercise. I really want to wait for at least a week before getting her outside for walks. I don't want to risk her opening up her sutures.

Yesterday the band got together and we all jammed. This session was much, much better than the last, but we're all still a bit rusty. It was a good little get together though. It was a blast as always.

Work was pretty busy today, just lots of little stuff coming up and I finished a few things up. On the way home, I got stuck while the Barnum Bailey circus train cars were going by—even got to see some Elephants and a few other animals in their cars. Anyway, I got home played with the dog a bit and cut the grass again. I'm trying to keep the grass a little shorter this year—I just hope I don't have to cut it every 4 days like I have been. Anyway, that's about it for today.

Posted by Dan on Apr 28, 2003 @ 9:38 PM

The iTunes Music Store is launching with a library of 200,000 tracks, with participation from all five of the major record labels. In addition, the store will list exclusive tracks from 20 artists, including Bob Dylan and U2.

The songs cost 99 cents each to download, with no subscription fee, and include the most liberal copying rights of any online service to date. Jobs has been an outspoken opponent of so-called digital rights management (DRM) in the past, arguing that limitations on digital music will undermine the market for legitimate content.

- John Borland, CNET News.com

Apple released it's much anticipated "iTunes Music Store" today. I've thought for a long time the record companies should be actively trying to sell music online. There's lots of music out there I'm willing to pay for, but I'm not a fan of paying $13-20 for one song on a CD. However, I'm more than willing to pay $1-3 for a song really like (depending on the length of the song.)

While I've yet to had a chance to check out the Music Store (as I don't have a Mac—which is required to run iTunes,) all the reviews have been very postive. It seems like the model is fairly decent and even with the DRM attached to the file, the restrictions on what you can do with the files are fairly loose (3 PCs, unlimited burns, max of 10 burns per playlist.) Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how well this works out. Hopefully the PC version will be coming before December—the projected release date—because the majority of people out there have PCs, so they're limited their target audience at the moment.

Posted by Dan on Apr 28, 2003 @ 9:23 PM

Well Jenn and I babysat for Nicholas last night—he was a complete angel. We fed him around 6:30, I played with him until about 8:10, then we changed him, fed him and put him down for the evening. It was all smiles and laughs all evening. Todd and Monica seemed to have a good time. They got home a little before 11pm. I'm glad they took some time for themselves.

The guys and I are getting together to jam this afternoon at 1pm. I spent yesterday getting all the equipment set up in the basement. I've definitely got to practice this morning before the guys come over. I'm looking forward to playing today.

Posted by Dan on Apr 27, 2003 @ 8:17 AM

Well last night went was pretty pathetic. Maddie would shake and cry every time she took a breath—it really broke my heart. She really could never get comfortable. Jenn and I watch X-Men and just monitored her during the evening. Finally around 11pm, I put her buster collar back on and put her in the cage. She just sat in the cage for a while and cried. I finally decided I just needed to go upstairs and let her work things out herself. She cried for awhile but seemed to rest peacefully most of the night.

When I came down in the morning I was excited to see that she was jumping around in her cage happy to see me. She's been much energetic this morning. She's still whining a bit, but I think more from having the buster collar on. It's pretty pathetic to watch her walk around, 'cause she bumps in to everything, but she's getting better. She's actually taking a nap at the moment. Anyway, I feel much better this morning about it.

Oh yeah, the other good news is my brother's back from his trip. He got back a little earlier than expected, so everyone was ecstatic to see him.

Posted by Dan on Apr 26, 2003 @ 8:40 AM

Well, I'm leaving work to go pick up Maddie. She woke up from surgery around 3:00pm.

Posted by Dan on Apr 25, 2003 @ 4:32 PM

I love this case—its one of the coolest factory designs I've seen in a while. It's got a retro/new age feel and it just looks cool. If I buy a new stock system, it may be this one. I'll at least consider buying the case.

They have a number of different colors and features you can add on to the case. You can even change the color of the lights in the air cooling (they lights are in the black groove pieces on the side—this picture doesn't show the lights on.) Check out Alienware's site for more info.

Alienware Case Specs

Posted by Dan on Apr 25, 2003 @ 10:58 AM

Ok, I just dropped Maddie off for her spaying and to get her dew claws removed. I decided to pay the extra money to pay for laser surgery—it won't really improve the recovery time, but it should be a more sterile incision. Anyway, I feel better when I get to see her this afternoon. It's amazing how fast pets become part of the family.

Posted by Dan on Apr 25, 2003 @ 8:54 AM

I got this e-mail from my Grandma earlier today. It's the history of the grocery store my Great-Grandparents used to run. Unfortunately, I never got to see the store (or my Great-Grandfather Barger.) My Great-Grandfather died three years before I was born and they sold the store shortly after his death in '69.

I really want to thank my Grandmother for typing this up. It's nice to have some written history about my family. Anyway, for those of you who are interested, here's the story. :)

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Posted by Dan on Apr 24, 2003 @ 3:36 PM

Well today was Monica's birthday and like a tool I totally forgot. I went out to Applebees tonight with Monica, Todd and Nicholas. Anyway, I had a great time at dinner. Nicholas is such a little ham—he's such a happy baby and it's great being around him. Baby and Mommy even both had a touch of the cold, but they were both in great spirits. (Not even Todd telling the waiter is was Monica's birthday ruined her mood.) Also, Todd & Monica got Nicholas' Baptism pictures today, so I got copies of all the pictures—they all turned out great. Anyway, dinner was great, and to Monica I say:

Happy Birthday Monica!

Posted by Dan on Apr 22, 2003 @ 9:36 PM

I've read about Benjamin Heckendorn before—at least siz months or so ago. He takes old consule units like the Atari 2600 and SNES and converts them to portable gaming systems. Although a complete novelty at the price you'd pay for one, it would be cool to have a handheld Atari 2600 or SNES. I really like the look of his handheld units, they have a lot of personality.

Heckendorn has refashioned 39 units out of old-school hardware. His signature model, the VCSp, is based on the Atari 2600, circa 1977. "It's a way to honor the old games. It lets people revisit something from their past - kind of like when they're at a bar and they hear a Bon Jovi song," he says. "Besides, it's cool." Make that supercool in the realm of classic gaming, where Heckendorn, 27, has become something of a cult hero since single-handedly inspiring a new hobby. He's even sold his handiwork to fans for up to $600 a pop.

- Stuart Luman, Wired Digital, Inc.

Posted by Dan on Apr 22, 2003 @ 5:16 PM

Wow, am I beat. This weekend was another busy weekend. Jenn went up to Niles to visit with her family for Easter and I stayed in the Columbus/Springfield area.

I spent the day in Springfield Saturday helping my mom move furniture from my Grandparents house to my parent's house. My Grandparent's recently moved, so there's some stuff they left behind for other family members (and some stuff to be auctioned off.) Anyway we moved a desk to my mom's office and rearranged her office a bit. We also tore down a few beds and got the everything ready to move—we were on a bit of a timetable, as we were having our annual family Easter dinner at 5:00pm.

We decided to move Easter dinner to Saturday night (instead of our normal Easter brunch on Sunday,) since the entire family would still be in town (my uncle was leaving for a golf trip down in Florida on Sunday morning.) As always, dinner was a good time.

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Posted by Dan on Apr 21, 2003 @ 12:38 PM

Well I just called and set up Maddie's spaying appointment for Friday. I feel pretty bummed about it—I hate the thought of something possibly going wrong, but these procedures are pretty common. I feel crappy about doing it to her, but after researching it, I think it'll be better for her long term. It reduces the chances of cancer and a few other ailments down the road. I figured I'd have it done Friday that way I can be home with her over the weekend.

I need to call Petsmart to see if this will interfere with her training. I think it might, but I decided I better get the spaying done ASAP. I have a feeling she might be getting close to her first time being in heat. I really think her hormones are what's behind her orneriness as of late. Anyway, hopefully I can work something out with Petsmart.

Posted by Dan on Apr 21, 2003 @ 12:38 PM