This n' that

Sweeney has broken his tail. It actually happened last Tuesday, but I've gotten lazy and haven't blogged much. We have no idea how it happened, R sat on the couch with him Tuesday night, he was on his back, 4 in the air and his tail just waving like a flag. He's not in any pain, never has even shown any discomfort. R is working hard to get it to heal straight.

A guy died here on campus the other day, in the testing center directly across the hall from my office. Very surreal. I'm working on getting our department a group rate at The Red Cross for CPR/First Aid certification. I had to honestly admit that I was afraid to perform CPR on the gentleman for fear that I would hurt him. It's literally been 21 years since I had CPR training. Evidently it didn't matter, but I really do not want to be in that position again.

Just read Matt's blog entry over here. I'm ordering Merle's Door and I'll report.

I haven't been blogging much lately not so much because I'm lazy (see above), but because I've just been busy. We're consolidating a bunch of physical servers here. I'm working on that, but we're missing some key software. We'll have to wait til next FY before we can get that. E (9 yr old step-daughter) is taking riding lessons and has been at riding day camp all week. Running back and forth to these lessons is time consuming. Worth it, but time consuming. We've also been going to the pool as often as possible in the afternoon.

For some reason, R and I have decided that this is the summer for home repair/improvement, even though the bank account is as empty as ever! As background, I bought the house we're in as a foreclosure in 2001. It had been empty for a little over a year. It was in pretty good condition, but beginning to show its age as well as the signs of a years neglect. A couple of years ago I replaced the fascia on the back of the house because the gutters had leaked, allowing the wood to rot. Now I need to replace more fascia on the kitchen side and along the front of the garage. The deck is in need of a couple of coats of paint too. So why not go ahead and tackle painting the house while we're at it!! I spent four hours almost finishing pressure washing the deck last night, contrary to our local water restrictions. I'll make sure to take some pictures of the process of painting the house. It really does need a color update! Hell, it needs a roof and HVAC too, but that's really not in the budget right now!

The dogs are doing well, Sweeney's tail not withstanding. It's too damned hot right now to run them, but they'll be ready come fall.

Finally, I have to post about my friends the Alleys. I love the folks like they're my family. David and Beth, Jennifer, Daniel, Jessi and Christian are about some of the best folks you'll ever, ever meet. They've been through a lot and could really use your thoughts, prayers, whatever. Jenn had a multiple organ transplant a couple of years ago and has just passed an annual physical with flying colors! Congratulations to her. Beth had to have a grapefruit size brain tumor removed late last year and is recovering, but is having a hard time with the surgery site healing. Jenn's doctor in Pittsburgh put Beth in touch with a couple of doctors who are working with her to get this rectified. Unfortunately, for the time being, Beth and David are going to have to stay in Pittsburgh. Please take time to read their story here.

I'll try to do better about posting. If I don't, I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July!