Walmart has vindicated itself somewhat for failing at the Columbo task. I just purchased the Star Wars Trilogy for $41.96. Ah, Instant Gratification…

Actually, I probably won’t watch any until tomorrow – I have a Columbo ep to finish (one of my favorites: Suitable for Framing). Well, maybe I’ll watch a little… I do have some physics tests to grade. And sleep? Who needs it!

And to make the evening even more perfect? Frische’s had their cream of broccoli soup! Mmmm! Man, if I ever got hold of that recipe, I’d be 400lb within the week.

Back when dad and I were installing our new webcaching server (using Mitel Networks SME server – a flavor of Linux – and free!) we kept calling it Johnny as our personal joke. And then when it came time to name it, I decided that JohnnyCache should be its name. (It’s a name that is rightly feared at school. Yup, the Man in Black is immortalized in the server that blocks our school game sites.)

It was built out of the same computers that were installed in my computer lab last year. And that was used in the elementary lab. And that had the batch of Seagate harddrives that die. So the poor server was just a ticking time bomb. When would the HD die, we all wondered? Um, the answer is “Today, dammit!”

I had one main tech task I was going to do today – set up the computers for the elementary special education teacher. Well, when I discovered the HD had expired, I called dad in and he took care of that one classroom while I put in a new HD (Western Digital this time – we’re not gonna put in a replacement Seagate) and reinstalled SME. Of course, wget needed to access our proxy server in order to download SquidGuard, but I couldn’t get that to work easily. After half an hour or so of faffing about with wget and .wgetrc, I finally got SquidGuard installed. This is the software that does the actual content filtering.

The next task was the blacklist. I actually had a sort-of up to date list of game sites. And when I went to start typing them into the web interface, I discovered to my delight that IE remembered the other domains that had been entered in the before. So I think I did get everything entered that was there before. (There were a few overlaps between what the browser remembered and my text list o’ domains). Once I got everything entered, I saved a text file of the list in case we have another crash.

So JohnnyCache crashed this morning and I had him repaired by the end of the day. Way to go me! (Not bad for a tech who works 1 period a day. Except that I usually work 2 periods a day – using my “plan period” for tech.) The next goal for dear Johnny is to also become our Pop Up Blocker. I know you can do that with SME, but I don’t know an easy way to do it, yet.

Despite a few false starts today, I managed to get some cleaning done – woohoo! It helps that I ripped my two latest CDs to my vast collection and listened to ’em on my MP3 player while I cleaned. The new CDs are Chumbawamba‘s latest album, Un, and George Harrison‘s Thirty Three & 1/3. (I had the second as an LP but I’ve been slowly upgrading all of my George Harrison stuff to CD.) Un is great – catchy, angry, funny, and melodical. In other words, what I expect a Chumbawamba album to be. Go buy it.

I haven’t completely finished yet – taking a short computer break first – but I did get a lot of cleaning (including laundry) done. My bed is made, even! (I love freshly washed sheets which have been dried on the line. So does Leo, apparently.) Even got my shoes sorted in the closet (you won’t believe how many I threw out. Why the hell did I still have them????)

Anyhoo, I’d probably better get back to work, or I’ll waste my time away on the computer playing Insaniquarium.

“When fine society sits down to dine, remember that someone is pissing in the wine.”

As I’ve mentioned before, my aunt, mom, and Granny all love to play cards, as do I (and judiang and Amy & Rachel). Shanghai Rum is the family favorite and tonight we got together for cards, just us four nonparenthetical ones. Dad grilled burgers and smokies, mom baked a peach pie (well, no, actually they bought a home-made one from the Lake Festival today), and there was still some leftover ice cream from mom’s slumber party last weekend. Wonderful supper.

And then, once the table was cleared, it was time for the game. And for the first time in ages (well, it just seems like it) I won the game – woohoo! Aunt Becky was second, with mom and Granny third and fourth. There were some swear words spoken at the table, but I managed to refrain from doing so (I can knock folks’ socks off with my swearing if I’m not careful). Despite the death threats and bitching, we all had a great time playing. Well, we certainly laughed a lot.

The early part of the day was spent doing some computer work at the school (gratis, as my treasurer prefers it) which took more than twice as long as it should have. Still, I got to watch my 7th grade cousin, Brandi, play volleyball. Her team won the first two games and she did a great job serving. I was quite proud.

Tomorrow I intend to make a dent in the housework. Wish me luck!

After school today, I was reading my flist and saw michaellee mention that he was off to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow tonight. “Oh yeah!” I thought to myself, “I wanna see that, too!” I’d missed the 4:40 showing (I was only just in the door at home then) so I decided on the 7:20 showing. And then I putzed around until it was almost too late to eat supper and then go. But I got supper et in 5 minutes and arrived 5 minutes into the trailers. But I saw the flick.

So, was it worth the rushed supper? (Supper, btw, was leftover General Tso’s on rice, which I had to make which explains one reason why I had only 5 minutes to eat.) Yes! Definitely. It was a fabulous movie. Another one that’s visually appealing. And I don’t just mean Jude Law and Angelina Jolie. It was really cool how they built this worldscape based upon 20’s style comic books (or whatever). Several cliffhanger-style bits gave it the old-style serial feel as well. Gwyneth Paltrow was good, too, but I’ve always fancied the other two in more of an eye-candy fashion. My only complaint to the flick, probably, is that there’s not enough Jolie.

After the movie, I kept up my spontaneity and went to Applebee’s for their Triple Chocolate Meltdown. Applebee’s has some of the best desserts in town. Mmmmm!

Next was Walmart for a few items of necessity (Leo’s been complaining about his litter boxes) and some other things I decided to buy. (Jeans, Black & White and the Expansion Pack, sweat pants, that sort of thing.) And then home again, home again. Now it’s time to gad with my friends until the wee hours. 🙂

There are three movie theaters within a 15 minute drive (or so) of my house. Two in Troy, one in Piqua. The movie prices are very reasonable. Piqua’s theater, which is in the mall, is $3.50 for matinee and $5.50 for evening. (Everything before 6:00pm is matinee.) Troy’s theaters, both owned by the same company, used to both be $4 for matinee and $6 for evening – but one of the two has become a $1 theater. (50 cents on Tuesdays – woohoo!) Considering that the Hollywood Video in Troy has returned its rental prices back up from 99 cents (a limited special that went on for two years) I might go to the Mayflower to see second run releases instead of renting. 🙂

So I’ve gone from 3 first-run theaters to 2, and I was shocked to discover that one of those theaters was showing Hero. (You may recall I loved the movie when I saw it Labor Day weekend.) I couldn’t pass up the chance to show the movie off to the parental units, so I invited them out tonight for dinner and a movie. We went to the 5pm showing and then I took them out for dinner at the Bamboo Grill, a nice Chinese restaurant in downtown Troy. The movie was, once again, stunning and even the folks were impressed. A bit confused, maybe, but they agreed with me that the movie was visually impressive. The meal was wonderful. We had crab rangoon then shared chicken w/ garlic sauce, General Tso’s (one of the few restaurants in the area that don’t use breaded/battered chicken for this), and Kung Pao chicken. Yeah, so we like chicken… And best of all, I’ve got about 4 more meals out of the leftovers.

The entire evening cost under $50, which is pretty good entertainment and lots of bonus daughter points (sorry Amy!)

Back in July, we got Clean Slate¹ for install on our computers at school. And discovered that once the computers had Clean Slate on them, they wouldn’t shut down properly. Grrrr…

Well, I played e-mail ping pong with one of the tech support people who first got one developer working on the problem and then two. And each time I tried something, there was no solution at hand. On Tuesday, I received another e-mail from the tech guy with something new to try. I didn’t feel up to disappointment yesterday, so I didn’t try it out. But today, I figured “what the hell?” and tried the latest update that he sent me.

And it worked! For the first time since I originally tested the product, Clean Slate shut down properly! Yes! Success!

Of course, the next hurdle for someone as lazy as I am² is to find a way to update all of the computers with the new version of Clean Slate without me having to go from machine to machine to do so. I asked the tech and hopefully he’ll have a suggestion. I even offered them a file of the registry changes in exchange³. (Regshot, BTW, is a great program for looking at your registry before and after you make changes in order to see exactly what bits changed.)⁴

—–
1. Clean Slate is a program which will undo any changes a student or teacher makes to a computer – including installing software, toolbars, adware, malware, spyware, other crap.

2. I think I became a chemist because I’m lazy. Let’s look at the evidence here – Chemists love symbols and abbreviations and so do lazy people cuz it takes less time to write! Proof, no? 😉

3. Well, no, not in exchange. Just told them I had a file of the registry changes if they were interested in seeing it.

4. Can you tell I’ve been reading Jasper Fforde lately? I feel like I’ve been attacked by a footnoterphone.

After my post yesterday about being out of money troubles (for now), fate decided to pull a fast one on me. Yes, today in my mailbox was an invitation to join The Scientific American Book Club. GAH! Book clubs are EVIL! I was a servant of the Quality Paperback Book Club for years (until I finally stopped ordering books and they kicked me out). I’ve been a member of the Children’s Book of the Month Club as well (and I don’t mean as a child). I once was on a Computer Book Club, but it went out of business (though not before I bought lots of books).

So, not only did I take advantage of their offer to get their 5 physics book collection (I can’t help it, I’m a physics teacher!) for $5.99 (plus $14.99 shipping and handling), but I looked through their online catalog and ordered 3 more books (thankfully totaling over $59 so I got free shipping & handling there). And I stuck 5 more books in my wish list. GAH!

Evil, evil book clubs! Go away! The link to the new Computer Book Club was just plain EVIL. But thankfully I held my own (this time around) and didn’t join that club as well.

Books are bad, m’kay?

At Newton, we get 26 pays a year. Every seven years or so, however, we end up with 27 pay periods for the year. But we only get paid for 26… So that means we have to skip one week of pay. In other words, go 3 weeks between pays instead of the usual 2 weeks.

Well, this happened to us in August. We got 1 pay on the 13th and then had to go until September 3rd for our next pay. I knew it was coming (indeed, we had 3 pays in July and I should have been just fine) and yet I still spent way too much money on PLASTIC. So I was hurting by September 3rd. (Even conned dad out of $10 to get me through the last week.)

We’re back on regular 2-week pays and this is a good thing. I’ve gotten all of my bills paid and there’s still money in checking, plus this Friday is pay day. And today I received two checks in the mail. $20 and $30 respectively. These were my rebate checks for buying Paint Shop Pro for Amy & Rachel for their wedding present. $20 for the software and $30 for recently buying a digital camera (which was their joint birthday/wedding present). Woohoo!

And as I’m paying bills today, one of my credit cards (the one I use solely online and is a “Rewards” card) tells me I’ve got $93 in dividends that I can cash. Oooh! (Considering that’s from 1% of purchases, you can see how much friggin’ money I spend!!!!!) So I tell the card to send me a check. Sweet!

I intend to be a good girl and put the checks in my savings account. My poor savings account took quite a hit during my spending spree and 3 weeks w/o pay. (Hey, I had to buy clothes for the school year. And, um, go to Boston and Chicago. And go to King’s Island!)

(And I’m *not* going to talk about the $140 I just spent at amazon.co.uk, nope! Not me!)

Money, that’s what I like. 🙂

Today I went to the annual Lowry Family Reunion. This is my dad’s side of the family. We started it up about 5 years ago when there were 5 of the sisters still alive (Granny and her sisters). Now there’s just two of ’em left (Granny and Maxine). It was fun, but like always, I didn’t get to talk to the people I really didn’t know all that well.

The Shellhaas family (my mom’s mother’s mother’s family) has had a yearly reunion for as long as I’ve known it. And alas, it’s getting fewer and fewer people attending it as the family gets older. (Most of Gramma’s generation, including Gramma and her siblings, is gone now.) It’s sad, but it happens.

When I mentioned yearly reunions to elsaf and judiang, they thought once a year was a bit too often for family reunions. So I’ve decided to see what other people think about family reunions. So come, vote in my poll. And tell your friends to vote in the poll. I wanna know what people think! (I’m sorry if I didn’t anticipate your answer to one of the questions – just do the best you can.)