Sheep Guarding Llama

Min was exhausted when she got in this morning. But she was so tired that she couldn’t really sleep so she decided to watch the first season of Red Dwarf. Then she passed out on the futon in the living room next to Mr. Humphreys who is sleeping peacefully there as well. We never got the big storm last night like we were supposed to although the power did skip a beat here this morning.

I am having an incredibly slow day today. Last night I started installing Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 Small Business Server and I babysat it for about four hours and then let it run through the night. Then it kept on going this morning. It takes at least ten hours to install, at least on the machine that I have to install it on. I am anxious to get to play with it, though, because it is supposed to have tons of cool features.

I did a backup of the web site today. I can’t believe how huge it is. It took more than 25 minutes to backup the site over our high speed connection! I did add one more thing to our Funnies page. It has been a while since anything new was added there. I also moved the August material out to the archives. I feel like there hasn’t been very much written on the site but the archives prove otherwise. The last two months have been just as busy as they ever were.

Eric and I got free USB Memory sticks from Dell the other day. They were a free gift because we went to a Dell show a month or two ago. They are just 16MB sticks but still, pretty nice for a free gift. I plan on using mine to store security keys so that I can have extra strong passwords without having to remember them. Andy bought a 128MB stick a few weeks ago and loves his. They are a really handy thing and have pretty much replaced the floppy recently since they are SO much faster, small and resilient.

I can’t believe how slow things are today. I have gotten no phone calls or emails all day. I am enjoying the quiet and am working hard on learning new stuff today. Maybe the big storm that is “supposed” to be hitting us today is having an affect. I know that all of the schools are closed.

Eric stopped by since there was nothing for him to do at work either. We didn’t really feel like doing anything so we just hung out a little and then he went home to work on his lawn. Andy got home a little bit early today because he just couldn’t handle his work anymore and he put in his two weeks notice today. He had been really hopeful yesterday that a new project would pan out and that they would give him the opportunity to really shine over the next few weeks. Andy realized that even if they did give him the project, they would never support him on it and leave him hanging out to dry even though it would be their faults that the project went bad. They would make it look like it was his failure and that wouldn’t be good for him. So he decided that he should just leave and look for a more professional environment. His boss skipped work so he doesn’t know yet.

Andy, Min and I went to the Omega Grill for some dinner and then hit Wegmans. After that we watched some of the Simpsons Season Three on DVD (Andy’s, not mine) and played with Mr. Humphreys. He is so cute. Then Min went to work and Andy and I went to bed (seperately but at the same time.) We both have to be up early in the morning because we have to get his Buick Regal into the shop because the suspension is totally shot and he needs to get that fixed or he basically can’t drive the car anymore. This is his third round of major repairs in a month and a half.

Art wants to play multi-player Age of Empires 2 tomorrow night. Eric can’t make it because he is going to Comix Cafe. Min and Andy are in so that is four of us. It will be in the early evening or late afternoon. If anyone is interested, let me know. There will be a laptop free. If you don’t want to use that, it is BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer.) But we do have monitors, keyboards and mice, at least one or two opticals.

Another day, another update! Whoo-hoo. I can’t be sure but since I got off of the ibuprofin, my arms SEEMS to be doing a tiny bit better. I got a full night’s sleep last night and I feel a hundred times better this morning. Mr. Humphrey’s ran around like a maniac all night and is SO cute. This morning he was fast asleep bundled up in a corner of his cage.

Phil and Kate stopped by last night for a few minutes but I was out when they stopped by. I had to run over to my grandmother’s house for a few minutes to get something for the wedding and they were in and out by the time that I got back. Min had to work last night at the hotel so she didn’t get to go to bed. She got in just after nine this morning.

Today dad and I went to the two Microsoft shows that where being held at the Regal 18 in Henrietta. I love going to shows. They are always a lot of fun plus you almost always get lots of cool fun stuff to take home. We got a good haul today. We each got new t-shirts. Dad won Visual Basic .NET Standard 2003 as a door prize. That was pretty cool. I am sure that he will get a bit of use out of that. And they gave away tons of demo software too. We also got a full copy of Windows Server 2003 Small Business Server which is pretty cool. I stayed up late tonight getting SBS installed on the HP Vectra PII-350 that Eric brought over for me the other day.

Eric and Amanda came over this evening too. Eric wanted to work on his new computer that he got the other day and Amanda hung out with Dominica and they played with Mr. Humphreys. Mr. H has been running like a mad rodent in his little wheel. He sure likes to get his exercise.

I am hoping that if I keep up with the site, that I will be able to write enough each day. It is really hard with my hand being numb and my forearm cramping up after every two sentences. This morning I have a meeting with York High School to talk about the services of Niagara Telecom. Min and Danielle sent out letters to 158 local businesses last week on Friday morning and by Saturday afternoon we had already gotten our first call! So, things are starting to look a little bit positive.

Min has decided that she really needs to get a pet hamster so for lunch we went up to the city to meet Eric for lunch and then we went to PetSmart there to get hamster equipment so that we would be ready for when we got a hamster (you are supposed to have their home ready for them because it is very traumatic bringing them home from the pet store.)

Min and I went to our first Chamber of Commerce meeting today at the Caledonia Country Club. We met a couple of people but not many. We didn’t get there until really late because I really wasn’t feeling very well from having been taking ibuprofin. For those of you who have never gone eleven years without it and then try it all of a sudden, be prepared. It does a lot more to make you not feel well than you would realize. I have had a headache, stomach cramps and anxiety for two days now. I have had a terrible time sleeping. Min and I decided that I just can’t be on it anymore and that I will have to talk to my doctor and figure out some alternative solution because this is just awful.

After our meeting, Min and I went up to Greece to pick out a hamster from PetSmart up there (the one in Henrietta only has female hamsters and the Greece store only male.) Our new hamster’s name is Mr. Humphreys. He is really, really cute. We will try to get pictures of him for you all soon. Right now, he is adjusting to his new home. We hope that he will like it here.

Tomorrow, dad and I will be going to the Microsoft conference in Rochester for about half of the day so don’t be looking for me in the afternoon. Hey wow, this is like a real update today! It has really been quite a while. I know that you are all so realived to know that the updates are flowing again.

I think that my arm is feeling a little bit better today; I seem to be able to type much longer than yesterday. So that is a very good sign.

Eric managed to find some really good machines in the trash today. He got me a Pentium II 350 and himself a Pentium III 866. Can you believe that machines that fast are being pulled out of the trash these days. So Eric brought the computer over here to partake of the screaming fast network to get his updates taken care of before he takes the computer home. This machine is the same speed as his current fastest machine.

My left arm is no better today. I was really hoping that I would see the Ibuprofin making a difference but so far, nothing. Typing is still very hard and I have a lot of it that I have to do.

Tomorrow morning I have a meeting with the business manager of my old high school. This will be my first time returning to the office of York since I was in school there and the senior class was summoned to the office because of people drinking on the set of the senior play.

Min and Amanda spent the day in Ithaca together. Amanda went along to keep Min company while she had a dress fitting.

I worked around the house this morning and this afternoon had to drive out to Batavia to see the doctor about my arm. I am sorry that there have been so few udpates to the site, with my arm being the way that it has been, I really haven’t been able to type very much and I have needed to save my typing for work related activities. So I got to the doctor’s around 4:45 and had to wait for about an hour before I could get into see him. He said that he is pretty sure that it is my ulnar nerve but he is hopeful that there is just some swelling and that with some anti-inflammatories that maybe the problem will go away on its own. If it doesn’t go away in three weeks, then I have to go back to see him to have neurological tests done to see where the nerve is having a problem at since it could be in the wrist, elbow or shoulder.

Min cooked a big dinner for me tonight. Pumpkin lasagna and a chocolate pear tart! Yummy. Min is really enjoying having her own kitched.