Aack

I Hate It When That Happens...

Anti-Adware Article

Brian Livingston's Windows Secrets newsletter published an article on 27-Jan that was pretty interesting (in a geeky way). He cites the work and draws his own conclusions from the raw data of Eric Howes, a professor at the University of Illinois.

In the article, Brian tallies the results from Eric's raw data to make anti-adware application recommendations. The winner is a one-two punch of Giant AntiSpyware (recently purchased by Micro$oft) and Webroot Spy Sweeper. However the punch is pretty weak at fixing only 70% of the adware found in the test.

Read the article as well as Mr. Howes' Spyware Warrior website for more info (because you ain't gonna find it here).

What a Schtoop

You may notice that the colors are back...sorta. I feel like I'm done grieving Bodie's death. It still hurts, but life goes on. Now the schtoop part...

I thought I made a backup plan for returning the site to the way it was, but when I went to revert it, I couldn't get it just right. I know the site ain't spectacular, but it's functional. Oh well, close enough.

Happy Birthday Valette

We're thinkin' of you...

-From Joat, Milady, Thing 1 & Thing 2.

New Sobriety Test?

Gotta love Scottish Humor!

Travelin' Man

I'm off to Boise for a series of meetings. If the fire community was a biological entity, then Boise would be the heart. Then again, it could also be the left armpit.

I'm going to discuss some things going on with IT Specialist and how they are used on a fire as well as work on an agenda for the annual conference that I will b attending in March. All in all, I'm looking forward to it, but will miss my family.

I'll see if I can post my Boise happenings. I expect I'll be seeing a few movies that I've wanted to see. What else, I don't know.

[Note: I wrote this Sunday, but forgot to publish...more later]

Alpha Geek Flops Big Time

Apparently Murphy can't be bought by even the richest man in the U.S. Gates was demo-ing several M$ technologies that crashed while he was delivering his keynote speech. Check out this video.

Browser Test

Check your browser security with a webtool being offered by Scanit. I walked (surfed) away clean, how about you?

How To Tell Time

Check out the Human Clock. Weird.

It's A Date

I'm so jazzed. The Newsboys are coming to Squarebanks. If the world were flat, we'd be perched on the edge - at least you would think so given the infrequency of concerts we get here that I would like to attend.

Rig-or Mortis

Last night my wife told me that I could drive the Durango (aka "The Rig") to work today. Woohoo! I'd much rather drive it than my car - it has a CD player and four wheel drive. So last night I plugged in the Durango. [Note: in cold weather climates, people put heaters in their vehicles so they'll start when it's -40°. All our vehicles have three heaters: one for the engine, one for the oil pan, and one under the battery.] The circuit I plugged it into was the timer circuit; it'll turn on about 5am. If I leave at 8:30 then the rig will warm up for 3½ hours. Normally that is enough time, however, it's been -50° (plus or minus) for 2 days and the rig hasn't been plugged in the entire time.

So I get up this morning, shower, dress and then go out to start the rig so it can run about 10 minutes before I leave. No problem, right? Wrong. Having been plugged only those 3½ hours was not enough for it to even think about running. No problem, I'll just drive the car...however, I didn't plug the car in, so it ain't gonna start either. It is at this point that I call work to inform them I'll be a little late. The car should be good in about 3 hours.

At that point I decide to sit down and eat breakfast. I come to the conclusion that I'm finally going to get the garage rearranged so that the rig will actually fit inside. Remember the bathroom remodel? We're still working on it. In fact there are several large boxes that contain items destined for said bathroom that are sitting in the garage blocking the rig's path.

Fast forward 3 hours. Car is running and the rig is not. The garage is clean(er) with enough room for the rig. We'll simply push the rig into the garage so it can warm up properly. No problem, right?

Wrong. The Durango won't roll. That's okay, we've been here before. We'll use the car to push the Durango into the garage. Everything goes fine until "The Lip". There is a small lip that the left wheel must traverse in order to be put into the garage. It's only an inch in height, but it could have been 6 as far as I was concerned. The car kept losing traction and icing up the ground under the tires.

Now we are in a real fix. The rig can't be pushed forward nor can it be pushed backwards. It's 40 below and I can't close my garage door! I call work, tell them I'll be in when I'm in and then try to figure out what to do (without spending any money on more viable solutions - must be the Scottish heritage coming out).

We lowered the garage door onto the hood, blocked up the gaps, plugged the rig back in, hooked up a battery charger, plugged in a space heater and as a last bit of inspiration, hooked up the propane burner from the turkey fryer. The garage dropped down to about +20°, but it should not have been too cold long enough to freeze anything - I hope. It looked real funny. Ever been to one of those restaurants that has a car or plane sticking out of a wall. That's what it reminded me of.

We went in for lunch (and a nap), came back out about 2 hours later to see if maybe it has warmed up a bit...nothing. However, there was more nothing than before. Progress.

Fast forward another hour. It's 4pm and I really want to get this taken care of. I'm out trying to figure a way to get it in the garage when I see my neighbor pull into his driveway. My neighhbor drives a ¾ ton pickup. I fix my neighbor's computer on a regular basis. I go over to chat with him, explain my dilemma. He and his son walk over and we try to push the rig in. We quickly surmise that we need more oomph. His truck.

Ten minutes later with no paint or plastic chipped or peeled the rig is safely parked in the garage and it is warming up nicely. Stay tuned to see if it actually will start when it is warmer. I wish I had a tub that I could go soak in...

AK Sunrise

Milady took this sunrise photo from the driveway this morning - 11:37am. Temperature was -44° and the haze you see is ice fog. Ain't Alaska grand!

Post-Dump

I fortunately have been off work the last 2 weeks, but I bet this has happened here considering the snow dump we just had. Since Jan 1, we've officially received just over a foot of snow. More in some areas (like my frontyard).

Note to self, start car before you start diggin'!

Angel Pound Sponge Food Cake

Tomorrow is The Wife's birthday (I really need to come up with a different name for her). Since we will be scattered from here to Neptune tomorrow, we celebrated her birthday today. I got up, fixed breakfast, folded a load of clothes, & cleaned the kitchen - all that domestic type stuff. When She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed (nope...to long) decided to grace us with her presence (I'm only kinding Sweetheart), we ate.

In the next several hours we opened presents, had lunch and played Hearts. I recently taught the game to Thing 1 & 2 (and no, there is not a 3). Thing 1 loves it, Thing 2 likes it, but gets tired of it easily...especially after Daddy shoots the moon. Since the day was still realtively young and it was a balmy +25°F, we sent the kids out to play. They had a blast digging tunnels in the slightly melted snow from the warm weather streak we've been having.

After dinner tonight (which I cooked), we had birthday cake. I suppose I should enlighten all you good folks that after Thing 2's birthday, Christmas, my birthday, & New Year's Eve that the last thing we want in this house is any more forms of sugar. However, you have to have something to put candles on.

Yesterday, I decided that I was going to make Milady an Angel Food Cake for her birthday. I've never made one, but I do consider myself fairly proficient in the kitchen (I did make a pretty good soufflé once and I don't remember being egg white whipping challenged). I tracked down an excellent recipe from our neighbor and proceeded to make it. Herein lies the problem - we have nothing in this house to adequately whip up them egg whites with. I worked at it by whisk and then by mixer, but could never get the lift that was needed. I gave up and baked the cake as is. In defense, I would not follow the steps as outlined next time, but when trying new recipes, it is not the time to experiment.

Flash forward 24 hours. We cut into the cake (which is half the height it should be) and it looks like a nice closed cell sponge. It was quite tasty, especially with the late season, cost an arm and a leg, strawberries, but it was seriously an Angel Pound Sponge Food Cake.

And everyone said..."It was good!"

p.s. I thought about SWMBO, but it sounded too much like a dating ad. Single white male, bondage, Oprah. Naw. I'll stick with Milady for a while and see how it feels.

Dog Names

My oldest (aka Thing 1) is looking forward to acquiring another dog since we put Bodie down. I recently discovered a list of dog names, both boy and girl, that she had created. They are as follows (with her spelling):

Obviously, I got quite a kick out of the last boy name. I just wonder who is gonna stand at the back door calling him in? We obviously are going to be looking for a new dog over the next few months. However, we do not want to potty train a puppy until it warms up. We learned the last time that that is not something that is advisable (especially at -40° F)