Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: Painting Progress
The painting crew was not at our house as much as I thought they would be. They spent a total of three half-days painting and much of that time was doing prep work (taping and masking). They did get a start on the red trim in Eliana's room. But it is far from being done (not even worth snapping a pic).

(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Baton Twirler
While we were cleaning up after dinner tonight, Berkeley and Eliana were running around the kitchen (which is something that they love to do in the absence of the kitchen island). Eliana has this small broom which she was using like a baton twirling it around from hand to hand. Here is a small video of the kids with Berkeley pretending he is a train, and Eliana doing some baton twirling:

Kitchen Play

The baton twirling doesn't occur until the end of the clip. It's hilarious.

Those Thin-Skinned Mormons
I'm a practicing member of the LDS Church, i.e. I'm a Mormon. We Mormons are, in general, a pretty decent set of folk. It's just that (though maybe not unlike other religious groups) we seem to, again... in general, be pretty thin-skinned. What am I talking about? Well, let me tell you, just today I have received three e-mails about the ongoing e-mail campaign to boycott 'Big Love'. Two e-mails were more or less "have you read about the boycott?" and another was an invitation to participate in the boycott myself.

Here is the full text of the invitation (the only modifcations I made were to include some HTML markup for a clean presentation):

Source of info: www.lds.org click on Newsroom for News Media

HBO's new series, "Big Love", is about a polygamous family and is set in a Salt Lake City suburb. About the likely impact of this sexually driven show, the New York Times said, "We may never look at Utah and think white bread again."

Parodies of beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints occur- belief in priesthood by a man blessing his hunting rifle, belief in personal revelation from the Holy Ghost by dramatic visions that the polygamous leader discusses casually with a friend. Talk of "celestial kingdom", "free agency", and the "Choose the Right" slogan are included. There is a brief disclaimer stating that the polygamists don't have an active connection with the LDS Church. But if the writers don't intend for viewers to make the connection, one wonders why they set the show in Salt Lake City, the Church's world headquarters, and why they included distortions of LDS beliefs.

NBC recently canceled a show about a dysfunctional Episcopal priest who saw a "Jesus", after almost 700,000 people emailed and complained.

Couldn't we do the same for this show? If you agree, will you:

- forward this email to at least 8 people
- email a polite protest to HBO:

Go to www.hbo.com, scroll to bottom of page, click Contact Us, click on The Sopranos (unless Big Love is listed when you do so), scroll to the light blue box near page bottom, on the line just under Submit an Email, click on Contact Us.Then enter your information, specify it's about Big Love, and leave a message asking them to cancel this offensive show.

One or two sentences is all it takes. Or feel free to copy or edit this message:

I am offended that you would produce the series "Big Love". It demeans and distorts sacred beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By setting the show in Salt Lake City, it blurs the line between the Church and the long renounced practice of polygamy. Additionally, it is morally reprehensible to showcase an abusive family situation as entertainment. Please cancel "Big Love" immediately.

For "extra mile" effort and effect, call HBO's operator at 212 512 1208 from 9am to 5pm Mon-Fri EST and ask to leave a message asking them to cancel Big Love.

Thanks!

Source of info: www.lds.org click on Newsroom for News Media

Now, as a matter of context, I heard about Big Love a few days before it premiered. So I asked my neighbor (who subscribes to HBO, I don't) to record it for me so I could check it out at a future date. He obliged and has since then reminded me that his DVR is recording them every week for me now. I haven't had time to watch any of the episodes just yet.

With that said, here is how I responded:

Dear [name omitted to protect the innocent],

That reminds me... I've had my neighbor recording BL for the past few weeks. I need to make some time and go watch it before I can declare that "I am offended". And before you jump on the boycott bandwagon, I recommend that you do the same. Perhaps you already have, if so, then my apologies in advance.

From what little my neighbor has said, I get the impression that the differences between the "polygamists" and the "Mormons" on BL is quite distinct. In fact, he mentioned that the show sometimes seems to go out of its way to cast the mainstream LDS saints in a positive light. Like I said, I'll have to investigate these claims (both positive and negative) for myself and formulate my own opinion. But the fact that my (non-LDS) neighbor has had a positive impression speaks volumes. Of course, that is just one piece of anecdotal evidence that seems to contradict the claims made above, ymmv.

I continued by commenting on the fact that the entire letter is framed between two identical blurbs:

Source of info: www.lds.org click on Newsroom for News Media

Well, as I continued with in my response... I had a look at the official LDS website:

[...] I looked [at the LDS web site], and I found this:

< http://www.lds.org/newsroom/showrelease/0,15503,3881-1-23019,00.html>

But there is no official call for a boycott. There is concern expressed about confusion over the continued practice of polygamy, but as the news release mentions... this is not peculiar to this particular production. (The news release cites a recent "Prime Time" production where polygamy terms were used in an egregiously confusing manner.)

What I do find offensive is using the "Source of info: www.lds.org" in the context of the e-mail in such a way as to give it a thin veneer of official LDS sanction. This subtle (and effective) reference is only included (imho) in order to conflate a non-official boycott with an officially sanctioned one. Doesn't it seem somewhat hypocritical to use such sleight of hand to complain about claims of confusion and distortion? It certainly seems hypocritical to me.

Please forward my concerns on to whomever sent you the original missive and to at least 8 other people. tia.

cheers.

--rus.

I have another longtime non-LDS friend (let's call him "Carl") who wrote to me about his impressions of Big Love. He agreed that, after seeing the show, he thought that the production portrayed modern LDS people positively. After showing him the boycott e-mail solicitation, he had this to say:

If a bunch of mouth-breathers go to the HBO website, click on "Sopranos", cut-n-paste the complaint without specifying "Big Love" instead of "Sopranos", and subsequently manage to get the Sopranos canceled for misrepresenting Mormonism, I'm going to initiate my own personal Jihad against Mormonism, starting with you. There are some things that are sacred.

lol.

Mailman on FreeBSD
I am in the midst of migrating my personal web hosting content from an old iServer FreeBSD-based virtual server platform to the next generation hosting platform that the web hosting company I work for (Verio) has developed. The new platform is also "virtual" and is FreeBSD-based, but it is identical in look and feel to a dedicated server... a virtual dedicated server if you will. The marketing term coined for the new platform is Virtual Private Server or VPS.

Everything you are viewing on this blog is hosted (and has always been hosted) on one of the new next-generation Verio Virtual Private Servers. I haven't moved the other stuff (mail, family web content) yet because of 1) inertia, 2) it ain't broke, and 3) lack of time. Recently however, the old iServer Virtual Server has become somewhat cluttered (having served our family well for almost 10 years now) and is low on free disk space (the new VPS platform has over 10x the storage capacity). Over the past few days I have been moving content over, one domain at a time. The last ones (berrett.org and sorenson.org) I'll move probably sometime late at night when no one will mind a delayed e-mail message or two).

I maintain a few mailing lists on several of the domain names I host for family and friends. I use mailman - which I highly recommend. While migrating over the mailing lists to the new platform (which basically acts and feels as if it were my FreeBSD-based desktop system), I learned a few things and thought I would share.

Setting up mailman mailing lists on a FreeBSD server:

1. Set up a 'mailman' CNAME (canonical name) in each of the domain names that will be hosting a mailing list.

2. Install mailman. This is easy... just cd to /usr/ports/mail/mailman and type:
   make install

3. Set up Apache to handle all domain requests for the mailman.* virtual host names. To do this add the following VirtualHost blocks to your Apache config file:

   <VirtualHost YOUR.IP.ADDR.ESS:80>
     SSLDisable
     User           www
     Group          www
     ServerAlias    mailman.*
     DocumentRoot   /usr/local/apache/htdocs
     TransferLog    /dev/null
     ErrorLog       /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log
     ScriptAlias    /mailman     "/usr/local/mailman/cgi-bin"
     Alias          /pipermail   "/usr/local/mailman/archives/public"
     Alias          /icons       "/usr/local/apache/icons"
     RewriteEngine  On
     RewriteCond    %{REQUEST_URI}       !^/icons/
     RewriteCond    %{REQUEST_URI}       !^/mailman/
     RewriteCond    %{REQUEST_URI}       !^/pipermail/
     RewriteRule    .*     http://%{HTTP_HOST}/mailman/listinfo [R=301]
   </VirtualHost>
   <VirtualHost YOUR.IP.ADDR.ESS:443>
     SSLEnable
     User           www
     Group          www
     ServerAlias    mailman.*
     DocumentRoot   /usr/local/apache/htdocs
     TransferLog    /dev/null
     ErrorLog       /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log
     ScriptAlias    /mailman     "/usr/local/mailman/cgi-bin"
     Alias          /pipermail   "/usr/local/mailman/archives/public"
     Alias          /icons       "/usr/local/apache/icons"
     RewriteEngine  On
     RewriteCond    %{REQUEST_URI}       !^/icons/
     RewriteCond    %{REQUEST_URI}       !^/mailman/
     RewriteCond    %{REQUEST_URI}       !^/pipermail/
     RewriteRule    .*     http://%{HTTP_HOST}/mailman/listinfo [R=301]
   </VirtualHost>

4. Set up the new mailing lists. cd to /usr/local/mailman and for each mailing list type:
   bin/newlist --urlhost=mailman.domain.name \
      --emailhost=domain.name listname

   where "domain.name" is the domain name that is hosting the mailing list name "listname". Note: I broke up the newlist command into two lines... type it as one line on the command prompt.

Works like a champ.

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: Painting Started
The painting crew arrived today (Ron, owner; Gary, employee) and began the prep work. They should be done by the end of the week. While they are here, I may break out my painting gear, get some tips from the professionals, and paint some of the remaining white trim in the kitchen.

(Update Wed Mar 29 16:30:13 PST 2006 // fixed a grammatical error)
(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Had Enough?
I've have long passed my breaking point with the Bush Administration (and the Republican leadership and right-wing pundit class that enables this President). Although the faith in my party has been shaken severely, there have been some rational voices that were speaking out against President Bush and this Administration's insane policies from the very beginning... these include Bob Barr, Bruce Bartlett, Pat Buchanan, and a few others.

Lately however, with the incredible failure in Iraq looming large, many conservative heavyweights are attempting to put President Bush at arm's length... albeit without acknowledging that it wasn't so much that the policies that President Bush embraces are bad, but only the Bush Administration's implementation of the policies is flawed. For example, William F. Buckley writes:

"One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed."

But the failure wasn't because the cause itself wasn't "reasonable" as Mr. Buckley puts it (the cause he is referring to is conveniently not ridding Saddam of his mythical WMDs), but it was just that President Bush and his staff weren't up to the task of democratizing the stubborn Iraqis who would not "suspend internal divisions in order to get on with life in a political structure that guaranteed them religious freedom." Yes, if only the Iraqis had bought into the vision of democracy at gunpoint! I guess when your family members are being blown apart and tortured by an occupying army, you kind of lose sight of the "reasonable postulates" to which Mr. Buckley alludes. Yes, their bad Bill. Not surprisingly, Mr. Buckley is now arguing for an armed intervention in Iran and wondering aloud:

"Is [military intervention] something Mr. Bush is going to handle before the end of his term in office?"

Brilliant, Bill... just brilliant. You have learned nothing.

I was reading some news just now and stumbled on an article in TIME magazine posted today. It gave me just a wee bit of hope (but it's still early):

Republicans On The Run

[...]

As the campaign season kicks into gear, Republican incumbents are having a hard time figuring out how close they want to be to the White House. Voters have plenty to take out on Republican candidates this year--ethics scandals, the G.O.P.'S failure to curb spending, the government's inept response to Hurricane Katrina, a confusing new prescription-drug program for seniors and, more than anything else, an unpopular President who is fighting an unpopular war. Iraq could make a vulnerability of the Republicans' greatest asset, the security issue.

The midterm contests in a President's second term are almost always treacherous, but this time around, Republicans thought it would be different. The 2006 elections, coming on top of their gains in 2002 and 2004, would make history and perhaps even cement a G.O.P. majority in Congress for a generation. George W. Bush's credibility on national security and the states' aggressive gerrymandering, they believed, had turned the vast majority of districts into fortresses for incumbents. But that's not turning out to be the case. In recent weeks, a startling realization has begun to take hold: if the elections were held today, top strategists of both parties say privately, the Republicans would probably lose the 15 seats they need to keep control of the House of Representatives and could come within a seat or two of losing the Senate as well. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who masterminded the 1994 elections that brought Republicans to power on promises of revolutionizing the way Washington is run, told TIME that his party has so bungled the job of governing that the best campaign slogan for Democrats today could be boiled down to just two words: "Had enough?"

[...]

I know many of my blog faithful don't see eye-to-eye on me with respect to President Bush and his inept handling of our foreign policy (and don't get Bruce Bartlett started about how President Bush bankrupted America and betrayed the Reagan legacy... er, wait, nevermind, he already wrote a book about it) - but my question to you is this, when have you had enough?!

I made a friendly wager with my friend Dan that there would be U.S. soldiers in Tehran by November of 2008 and I fully expect to collect on that bet. If the U.S. populace writ large can swallow all of the lies the Bush Administration told about Iraq and not really blink an eye... President Bush was re-elected after all... then I don't see what is going to stop the Bush Administration (and his willing enablers) from committing US forces to an Iran invasion in order to mitigate would will be sold as a "grave and gathering threat" to US security. It really is nothing more than a matter of selling the same crap, just on a different day. The US public will buy it... again... hook, line, and sinker.

(Update Mon Mar 27 16:27:27 PST 2006 // fixed a spelling error)

Morning Person
Eliana is the definition of a morning person. She is, in general, the first to wake up and does so usually by 7am (like clockwork); sometimes I'll get up before her (like this morning), but by and large she's up well before I'd like to arise. In fact, we don't set our alarm much anymore, as we can count on Eliana to wake us up. This failed once a couple of weeks ago when Eliana - out of nowhere - slept in past 8am on a Sunday. Needless to say that we were late to our 9am church service that morning.

After Eliana gets up she will have quite an appetite. I've mentioned her healthy morning appetite before (see here). After we make our way downstairs, I'll open up the fridge and have her grab an egg. Then I'll sit her down on the kitchen countertop and have her "help" me crack the egg, "help" me open the egg, and "help" me scramble the egg. I snapped a picture of here helping this morning:

After her first breakfast (scrambled egg, yogurt or cereal, and orange juice) at 7am-ish, she will typically have a second breakfast when Berkeley wakes up (which is around 8-8:30am). For example, this morning she had a first breakfast in which she consumed a scrambled egg, a Li'l Yami Yogurt, a bowl of cereal, and a sippy cup full of orange juice. For her second breakfast with Berkeley, she had another bowl of cereal and another glass of OJ. By contrast, Berkeley has eaten a single bite of yogurt and a few sips of orange juice.

"Again Too"
This evening I was playing with the kids. I'd have them count to a specified number and then when they reached that number I would grab them around their chest and throw them up in the air a couple of times. The kids were in a pretty giddy mood so it was good for plenty of laughs. After Eliana's turn, she would ask for more by saying:

"Again too, Daddy, again too."

When Berkeley was her age, he would use similar wording by saying "more again, more again."

Layering with CSS
Ok, so I don't do much web design any more. Hardly any really. If you don't include what little design I did for this blog, I haven't designed anything from scratch since the old iServer days. Since that time, support for Cascading Style Sheets (or CSS) has become much more robust. While working on my current project (redesigning my wife's website... Berrett Psychological Services), I decided to dabble a bit more with CSS-based design.

I'm by no means an expert at CSS, but I did have some fun and learned a few new things during my project. The most useful of which was learning how to do layering with CSS using the "z-index" property. If you look at any web page on Kristy's new site (other than the home page... for example, see here, here, here, here, and here), you'll see a little logo in the upper left corner of the page. This logo is actually sitting in it's own layer, neatly isolated from everything else on the page. The underlying content is presented in a simple table with some left-justified padding so that it isn't obscured by the logo. Sweet.

PNGs with Alpha Channel Transparency and MSIE
I've been hacking on the BPS web site for the last few days (er, uh, technically, the last few years). As part of the new design effort, I created several PNG images that have alpha channel transparency. Alpha channel transparency allows an image to sit on top of any background (single-color or multi-colored) and look like it fits in the place perfectly. It is an extremely useful and versatile feature... and a necessity for what I'm doing with Dr. Kristy's new web site.

During my web design phase I did all of my testing using FireFox (of course!). Everything was looking great until I popped up Kristy's new website in an MSIE browser I keep around just for compatibility testing. You guessed it (*smacks head*) MSIE doesn't appear to properly support the alpha-channel transparency (at least the version of IE I'm using on Windows XP, which appears to be up-to-date). MSIE will show the image, but all of the pixels that have opacity values are rendered with a light cyan hue. To see what I mean and if you are using a version of MSIE that is flawed, nav here... you'll see the light cyan in the lower right of the image. Yuck.

So, I fished around on google and found a workaround for MSIE that uses a style filter that only MSIE recognizes. Using a nice JavaScript browser sniffer I found, I was then able to author some code so that the PNG images with alpha channel transparency are displayed on MSIE through the style filter, and simply displayed directly as the image source for all other browsers. Here is an example of what I did:

  <html>
  <head>
  <title>MSIE Workaround for PNGs with Alpha Channel Transparency</title>
  <script language="Javascript" src="/browser_detect.js"></script>
  <script language="Javascript">
  <!--
    function loadAlphaTransparencies() {
        var logoImage = document.getElementById("logo");
        logoImage.src = "/media/home_left.png";
    }
  -->
  </script>
  </head>
  <body>
  <img id="logo" border="0" 
       style="width: 250px; height: 450px; 
              filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='/media/home_left.png',
									sizingMethod='scale')"
       width="250" height="450" src="/media/sp.gif">
  <p>
  <script language="JavaScript">
  <!--
    if (!is_ie) {
      loadAlphaTransparencies();
    }
  -->
  </script>
  </body>
  </html>

Works great.

(Update Sun Mar 26 15:55:44 PST 2006 // updated the code to wrap better)

JavaScript Browser Detection
While I have been working on redesigning my wife's company web site, Berrett Psychological Services, I encountered a problem with browser support for PNG images that include alpha channel transparency... specifically, older (but still widely used) versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer do not correctly render such images. Because too many people have not yet switched to Firefox (which renders the PNG images just fine), I was forced to modify my perfectly valid design to accommodate for the implementation flaw in MSIE. Blech.

The first step in making such an accommodation was to detect whether or not the browser viewing the pages is MSIE. Fortunately, many people have walked this path before I have and authored some very robust browser detection code in JavaScript. Here is one such example:

JavaScript Browser Sniffer - WebReference.com
<http://www.webreference.com/tools/browser/javascript.html>

If you view source on any page found on the BPS site, you'll note that I am importing my local copy of WebReference's browser sniffer from here. It works great! I'm glad I didn't have to re-invent the wheel.

"Gooster"
There are a couple of words that Berkeley mispronounces consistently that are worth mentioning... if only to preserve it for time immemorial. The first I have mentioned previously, "blankelet". The second is "booster", as in the seat boosters we place on our kitchen chairs so the kids can elevate themselves while eating. Berkeley calls them "goosters" - no idea why. But it's funny.

The Last Dance
We had our eighth and final dance class this evening. Overall I'd have to say that it was a very positive experience. We had a good time together and we weren't terrible at all of the dances. After the review session today, I actually got much better at the rumba. The teacher encouraged to sign up for the next set of classes (which start up in April), but I think we will take a break for now. Perhaps for Christmas again I'll get Kristy another set of lessons.

Desktop Earth
I downloaded and installed Desktop Earth 2.0 on my XP laptop (and moved Berkeley to my Win2k laptop). Desktop Earth 2.0 is designed for a dual-head display, but it still looks great on a single screen.

(Hat tip // e)

(Update Fri Mar 24 15:53:42 PST 2006 // fixed the URL to Berkeley's desktop image)

"Heh-bee"
Kristy needed to get some work done tonight for BPS. So I loaded the kids in the car and took them out to our favorite bowling alley. When we arrived (at about 7pm), we were the only ones there. Nice. The clerk set us up with a couple of 6-lb bowling balls from behind the counter, elevated the bumpers on our assigned lane, and set up the ball ramp.

Eliana was the first to go. She picked up her ball off the return track where I had placed it and grunted a bit. As she carried the ball the 10 or so feet from where she picked it up to the head of the lane where the ball ramp was situated, she kept grunting while repeating:

"Heh-bee, Daddy. Heh-bee."

But she managed to get the 6-lb ball just fine without any help. In fact she carried a 9-lb ball about 30 feet from one of the bowling ball racks; a bright pink bowling ball that had caught her eye. Nine pounds is about a third of her total body weight. Now that's tough.

Double tough.

After we bowled for an hour, we drove over to the North Bend Baskin-Robbins and had a couple of cones before returning home.

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: Tile Done
Jason stopped by this afternoon and grouted the bathroom tile. It looks fantastic. I snapped some pictures, see below:

(Update Tue Mar 21 16:24:57 PST 2006 // added pics)
(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: Progress Update
Our contractor scheduled the tile sub to finished up the bathroom today, or the tile sub asked the contractor to work today. Either way, the tile sub was here at home working away when we came home from church. Not something we would approve of generally, but I guess someone's schedule demanded it. Nonetheless the tile in the bathroom is all installed.

Jason (the tile subcontractor) will return tomorrow to grout everything. Baxton will show up on Tuesday to finish installing all of the trim that is going to be painted. Then the painter will show up later in the week to start painting.

(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Goodbye Eliana's Binkies
We tossed Eliana's binkies in the trash a few days ago. She has struggled a little bit with it, but the binkies have started to make her teeth go crooked... so it is time for them go. She's quitting cold turkey, but not without a fight. Tonight she cried (no... screamed!) for a half-hour straight before finally going to sleep. If we still had the binkies, we probably would have caved... as the binky would have immediately soothed her. Glad we tossed them.

To be fair, we did keep her up pretty late tonight. We went over to the Thurmonds in the afternoon and watched the UW basketball game against Illinois in the NCAA tourney. We stayed on for dinner and then late into the evening playing games while the kids watched a couple of movies. Eliana started crying when we put her in the car for the ride home (because she didn't want to share a blanket with Berkeley), and screamed for the next 20 minutes in the car and 10 minutes after we got her home and into her bed. But we're confident that in a few more days she won't miss her binkies in the least.

Product Review: Stonemill Kitchens Artichoke Jalepeño Spread
I picked up a tub of this incredible Artichoke Jalepeño Spread at my local Costco to serve at Eliana's Birthday Party. I finished the last of the spread today for lunch and I'm wishing I had more. It is a chunky spread that is light on the mayo and heavy on the artichokes and jalepeños. In fact, the first item on the ingredient list is chopped artichokes (not mayonnaise). It is a great spread on all types of crackers - fantastic stuff. Check your local Costco and pick up a tub, you won't regret it.

(Update Sat Feb 3 07:23:44 PST 2007 // &ntilde; -> ñ)

Eliana's Favorite Movie
Kristy had a meeting this afternoon so she left me with a couple of kids napping (she will usually find a sitter, but she couldn't locate one today). Eliana woke up about an hour ago. I heard her wandering around upstairs, so I went up to fetch her. I found her in her new bathroom covered with the fine dust that has been generated by the tile guy cutting stone. I brushed her off and brought her downstairs.

Eliana's favorite movie, by far, is "Woody Buzz" - better known as Toy Story. Since I'm still busy at work (but I guess not too busy to write this blog entry!), I queued up Toy Story on the DVD player knowing that this was a sure fire way to keep her in one place for an hour and a half. Since I started the movie, I've had the door to my office cracked to I can listen for evidence of her scampering away; she hasn't moved, but instead is content to sit on the couch in the family room and chatter back at the movie... which she has been doing for the past half hour.

(Woody is trying to knock Buzz Lightyear behind the bed using RC)

"Watch out Buzz!", blurted out Eliana.

(pause... I hear the movie audio for RC hitting the cork board, the cork board falling, the globe rolling, and then the lamp knocking Buzz out the window and falling to the ground below)

"Oh, no!", cried Eliana.

She's seen the movie a dozen times (at least). It's funny to listen to her warn the characters about impending danger and then react, almost in surprise when what she knows will happen in the movie, actually happens. She's cute.

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: Radiant Heating Thermostat Connected
I took 30 minutes out of my morning and ran some 12/2 wire over to the radiant heating thermostat box. Then I connected all of the wiring for the radiant heating system and fired it up! About an hour later, I went up to check out the floor. Ooooooh la la - 82° - very nice. So, for $500 in material costs and about 5-6 total hours of labor we now have a working radiant heating system in the bathroom. Sweet deal.

Here is a picture of the thermostat:

The wide button on the bottom illuminates the display. The controls are accessed by flipping out the two white side pieces. The themostat is fully programmable. The default program has the floor heated from 6am to 8am in the morning and for a few hours in the evening. I'll have to tweak that a little... but, no big deal... it's a pretty intuitive interface.

(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Two to Tango
We learned our sixth and final dance step tonight, the Argentine Tango. After my experience last week with another Latin dance, the Rumba, I wasn't exactly looking forward to the class. However, much to my surprise, I think I'd have to rate the tango as one of the more enjoyable dances we learned. In fact, if I were to rate the six dances we learned, here is what it would look like:

1. Waltz
2. Foxtrot
3. Tango
4. Salsa
5. Swing
6. Rumba

I think what I like most about the tango is that is has a few basic step sequences, but the dance is meant to be an improvisation. The male lead stitches step sequences together as he pleases, pretty much making it up as he goes along. The female following part is basically just along for the ride and is, by and large, just ornamentation (Kristy will like that characterization... heh). The tango is a fun dance.

Blosxom Plug-in Mods: comments
I use the comments plug-in (v0.6) on my blog. This allows visitors to contribute their snarky thoughts and feelings about my blog content. I have made considerable modifications to the original plugin, including:

1. trap on reloads after POSTs to prevent duplicate entries
2. e-mail comments posted back to a specified address
3. obfuscate posted e-mail addresses
4. better subject and title support
5. require password to post comment

You can download my modifications to the blosxom comments plugin in the full context of the file itself, or as a patch. My cvs development log for the comments plugin is also available.

comments modified source code
comments source patch
comments change log

Open Source Web Design
If you are thinking about putting a blog together, or if you already have a blog and are fumbling around looking for a decent idea for a blog design (or if you just changed the color scheme of your brother's blog and called it good), then perhaps some of the free web design downloads at Open Source Web Design will strike your fancy. I'm just saying.

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: Tile Progress
The tile subcontractor (Jason) spent the day starting on the walls in the bathroom. He claims that he and his helper (Shane) will have all of the tile done by Thursday. After that, Baxton will install all of the remaining trim and then schedule the painter to come in.

(Update Tue Mar 14 08:59:33 PST 2006 // fixed a grammatical problem)

(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Enough Is As Good As A Feast
We have gobs of food leftover from Eliana's Birthday Party yesterday. So we invited Kristy's family over to help us consume it. We made a small dent in the leftovers but still have enough veggies, chips, dip, cookies, and cake for many days to come. Drop by if you are in the neighborhood and have a piece of cake.

Big Love
I'm having my neighbor record this for me:

<http://www.hbo.com/biglove/about/index.html>

Think having three wives is a dream come true? Meet Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton), a modern-day Utah polygamist who lives in suburban Salt Lake City with his three wives, seven children, and a mounting avalanche of debt and demands. The owner of a growing chain of home improvement stores, Bill struggles to balance the financial and emotional needs of Barb, Nicki and Margene (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin), who live in separate, adjacent houses and take turns sharing their husband each night. While managing the household finances together and routinely sharing "family home nights," they try to keep simmering jealousies in check and their arrangement a secret - polygamy is illegal in Utah and banned by the mainstream Mormon Church. Adding to Bill's woes are a series of crises affecting his parents (Bruce Dern and Grace Zabriskie), who live on a fundamentalist compound in rural Utah, and his ruthless father-in-law, Roman (Harry Dean Stanton), the powerful head of the polygamist commune where his parents live. Bold, funny and wholly original, Big Love explores the evolving institution of marriage through a typical atypical family. The new series airs Sundays at 10pm beginning March 12th, immediately following Season Six of The Sopranos.

I'll catch it later on in the week over at his place.

March 2006 Eliana Birthday Party Photos
We celebrated Eliana's second birthday today and invited our family and friends. The theme of the part was butterflies. Kristy made all of the kids little foam butterfly wings and antennae. The kids wore the wings while they played several games: musical flowers, pin the butterfly wings on the caterpillar, and a treasure hunt which ultimately led the kids back to a butterfly piñata. After the games we had the traditional birthday cake and opened some presents. Eliana was very cute throughout the day.

Here are some sample images from the party:

You can review the full Eliana Birthday Party gallery here:

March 2006 Eliana Birthday Party

Whole Foods... Overrated and Overpriced
I have been hearing all kinds of rave reviews from family and friends about Whole Foods Market since they recently opened an eastside location in Bellevue. The store has probably been open a year, but since there are at least a dozen other grocery stores between us and the Whole Foods Bellevue location, we just haven't gotten around to visiting the store.

Well, we have now visited Whole Foods twice in the last week to buy food for Eliana's family party and her big let's-invite-all-our-friend-and-family party that we are hosting tomorrow. In a word, I was unimpressed with Whole Foods. The bakery is ordinary. The produce is not noteworthy and is nothing better than you can find at your local "non-Whole" grocery store. The "365 value brand" is hardly a value for the poor quality of the product line. The variety and selection of off-the-shelf food is dismal. Whole Foods does appear to have very good meat, fish, and deli counters, and the cheese counter looks top rate... but it doesn't look like it is anything better than what I can find at Larry's. Yet Larry's has better produce, a better bakery, and several thousand more products available on the shelf... products that I would actually stock in my pantry at home.

Basically Whole Foods is just a bigger (but not necessarily better) version of a PCC Natural Market. There is a PCC very close to us down in Issaquah - a store we have probably visited about 3 or 4 times in the 6 years we have lived here. Why so few times? Because the product offering is so narrow at PCC - and it is just slightly broader at Whole Foods... it's just organic this and organic that... nothing "mainstream".

Now, don't get me wrong, I love organic produce and organic dairy, but I'd rather pour my organic milk over a bowl of Crunch Berries than some of that nasty organic Kashi. However, there isn't a box of Crunch Berries to be found at Whole Foods (nor at PCC for that matter). Yet, I can buy a nice delicious half-gallon of organic milk at QFC, Safeway, or Larry's and (perish the thought) at the same store, pick up a big 21oz box of Crunch Berries.

Whole Foods... there are better options out there.

(Update Tue Mar 14 08:58:09 PST 2006 // they're -> there)

Water's Edge Guesthouse on Pine Lake
While looking for hotels in the area last weekend (on the presumption that we would be re-refinishing our floors), I solicited feedback from a group of friends about possibilities for our family. One of my acquaintances suggested a small Bed and Breakfast that is located right on the shore of Pine Lake:

Water's Edge Guesthouse

It is only 2 miles away from our home. But there are no kids allowed. However, I'll keep this in mind the next time we have both sets of grandparents come visit or any other time when out-of-town guests congregate to our home (like perhaps at the next Berrett baby blessing).

(Update Tue Mar 14 07:57:18 PST 2006 // short -> shore... oops)

Root Beer Ratings: Anthony's Root Beer Barrel
This root beer review site has more than 300 reviews... nice!

Anthony's Root Beer Barrel

Based on Anthony's rankings I located and tried several of those that were highly rated including Boylan's Natural Root Beer, Boylan's Creamy Red Birch Beer, Boylan's Original Birch Beer, and Jackson Hole Soda Company Buckin' Root Beer. All exceptional.

I may have to devise a root beer rating system of my own.

(Update Fri Mar 17 00:07:16 PST 2006 // fixed title)

Eliana's 2-Year "Report Card"
I almost forgot to mention this, but Eliana had her 2-year checkup with her pediatrician (Dr. O'Neill) today. She is officially weighing in at 27 lbs (70th percentile) and is 34½" tall (70th percentile). Berkeley at age 2 was 35½" tall (I can't locate his 2-year-old weight). Eliana got a shot (Hep A) and didn't even whimper when she was pricked... only frowned just a little. She's tough.

(Update Tue Mar 14 09:10:45 PST 2006 // % -> percentile)

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: Entry Trim Complete
Baxton showed up today and finished all of the trim in the entry way area, including the casement trim around the opening from the entry into the living room and the crown around the ceiling of the entry. It looks sharp.

The downstairs is just about ready for paint.

(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Rumba
Our ballroom dance sampler class today was pretty much a bust from my point of view... we studied a few basic steps of the Rumba. I just could not get the basic motion down (the hip sway)... I just don't have the right moves. We were only two of four people in attendance today (usually the class draws at least a dozen or so people), so you'd think the extra attention I received from the instructor would have helped... but it didn't. Ah well.

Family Party for Eliana
My daughter Eliana turns 2 tomorrow. Since we won't be spending much time together (the 4 of us) tomorrow, we decided to have a little family birthday party for Eliana today. We had a little cake, sang to her, and let her open the presents given to her by us, Berkeley, and her grandparents. I preserved some of the moments in picture, see below:

Eliana mainly received gifts that supplement her growing kitchen collection. She also received some dress up items for herself and her baby dolls. Also, both Berkeley and Eliana got glowing ducks from my Mom and Dad. Here is something I snapped of Berkeley watching his duck change colors (click to enlarge to 1024x768):

I needed a new desktop background image for my computer (the old one was getting a little dated); now I have a new one... it's nice and dark. Perfect.

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: Third Coat
The subcontractor (Matt) and crew stopped by today and buffed up the kitchen and office floors. The living room floor has a board that needs some repairs, so after that repair work is done (later this week) a third coat will be placed on the living/dining/entry room floors.

The third coat is already dry now and is fine to walk in stocking feet. The wife is pretty pleased with the floors... extremely pleased. Me, well... they look great, they look real good. And, yes, I think the scratches have softened somewhat. I guess the jury is out until coat four (the final coat).

(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: The War of the Floors
Our contractor (Baxton) dropped by this morning on his way to another job. We were discussing the tentative schedule about having the wood subcontractor come by this coming week to redo all of the floors, when we should expect to move out of the home, etc. Coincidentally, the subcontractor (Matt) showed up while Baxton and I were standing there in the entry way. Matt arrived with an "independent" colleague of his ("a competitor") to check out the floors and the shoddy work that I had been complaining about.

This new guy (Dan) walked around and looked at it and asked me some questions. I pretty much said when I sit down on the floor, I can look around and see scratches in the wood from the sanding process ("swirl marks" as it is called in the biz). I don't think I should see them so predominantly. The guy basically said that I can't complain because the job is not finished. After a couple more coats of the finish, I won't be able to see them hardly at all because "the finish has a diffusing effect" on the scratches... or so Dan claims.

Well, I disagreed based on the fact that the coat will be so thin, that any diffusive attributes of the finish will just not simply be enough to overcome the dark scratches in the wood. Of course, I'm not an "expert" and I haven't seen what 4 coats of this uber-$80-per-gallon finish we are using will do. The exchange was quite heated and everyone (except my poor contractor caught in the middle) was raising their voice.

So... the subcontractor is going to proceed with the next two coats. If I'm not satisfied with the final result then we'll revisit the issue (i.e. before the final payment for the services rendered is made). My impression however, is that even if I have him redo the floors, that this joker just doesn't have the skills to do a better job, since, well, he thinks they look fine right now! The floors look good enough, but they are definitely far less than perfect. My fear is that if anything, re-doing the floors will just make them look worse. Argh.

I'm shaking my head thinking about our options... basically, we just made the wrong decision about which floor subcontractor bid to take. This is the same guy who did the floors originally when the home was built new... and those floors looked great! So our hunch was to go with someone whose work we had seen; first-hand no less. Bah... I dunno, maybe the (Hoover Dam!) floors will look better after a couple more coats. It sure seems unlikely.

(Update Tue Mar 14 07:59:26 PST 2006 // fixed a grammatical error)
(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Baby Name Libraries
I scraped a few sites to build my baby name library, including the Social Security Administration. Direct downloadable copies of the "basic" versions of my boy and girl name libraries are available:

boy baby names (4043 boy names)
girl baby names (3122 girl names)

Baby Name Regex Search
As I mentioned previously, we are expecting another girl. Furthermore, our previous name of choice ("Olivia") is a very common one (at least going back for the past 5 years). So Kristy and I hunkered down around the computer and tried to find a good alternative to "Olivia".

While looking, I decided that the search interface at many of the baby name sites was just too limiting. For example, we like the nickname "Liv" but it is pretty hard to search for all names that have "liv" somewhere in the beginning, middle, or end of the name. Enter perl (see perl, see perl run, run perl run!).

Using a small script, I scraped a bunch of names off of a few web sites that seem to have a fairly comprehensive list. Using those names, I built a small local library for my own personal use. Then I authored a very simple interface to search the library using any (well... most any) regular expression. It makes baby name searching that much more fun! Here's the link:

Biff's Baby Name Search Utility

So if I punch in 'liv' and search (on the extended lib), I get a small set of alternatives to Olivia. I did a bunch of other regex searches. For example, the regex "^(a|e|i|o|u)[a-z]{4}(a|e|i|o|u)$" will yield all six letter names that begin and end with a vowel. If you aren't familiar with regular expressions, here are some other examples:

Regex	Functional Meaning
^z	starts with 'z'
a$	ends with 'a'
^z.*a$	starts with 'z' and ends with 'a'
^e.*ana$	starts with 'e' and ends with 'ana'
^[a-z]{3,4}$	all 3-letter and 4-letter names

The links provided by the search utility go to a handy little site that provides the meaning, origin, and relative popularity of the name.

(Update Mon Mar 13 14:34:22 PST 2006 // fixed an html problemo)

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: Washer/Dryer Upstairs
Our washer and dryer has been outside in the garage for the last 4 weeks. It was kind of fun doing the laundry out there for the first couple of loads, but it got pretty old pretty fast. I trimmed out the dryer plug in the utility part of the new bathroom this evening and invited my brother-in-law Scott to come over and help me lug the W/D upstairs to thier final resting spot.

The dryer fits nice and tight against the wall. The wall dryer vent was perfectly positioned to line up with our dryer outlet vent - and I mean just absolutely perfectly aligned - kudos to Baxton. However, the washer won't sit tight against the wall without kinking the water supply hose somewhat, so I'm going to investigate some possible solutions with our plumbing sub when they come back out to plumb the sinks (in a couple of weeks). But other than that, it looks pretty sweet. Here is a picture I took:

Yeah, the flash didn't pop. Still looks nice.

(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Blosxom Plug-in Mods: storytitle
I use the storytitle plug-in (v0.5) in order to include a nice page title on each individual blog entry page. I made just one minor tweak to the code, but other than that I pretty much use it out of the box. My mod can be reviewed here:

storytitle modified source code
storytitle source patch
storytitle change log

(Update Fri Mar 17 00:16:47 PST 2006 // added link to original source)

Blosxom Plug-in Mods: categorytree
I use the categorytree plug-in (v1.7) to show the nifty by-category display of my blog entries on the right hand side of every page of my blog. I made one minor modification to the original code; I added a new class to differentiate a top-level category from a sub-category. My mod can be reviewed here:

categorytree modified source code
categorytree source patch
categorytree change log

(Update Fri Mar 17 00:12:01 PST 2006 // added link to original source)

Blosxom Plug-in Mods: flatarchives
I use the flatarchives plug-in (v1.0) to show the convenient summary of blog entries by month on the right hand side of every page of my blog. Other than just one very minor tweak I made to the code, I pretty much use it out of the box. My mod can be reviewed here:

flatarchives modified source code
flatarchives source patch
flatarchives change log

(Update Fri Mar 17 00:15:01 PST 2006 // added link to original source)

Blosxom Plug-in: multicat
I love my blogging software - blosxom. It's just so light, compact, and easy to use. Blosxom is especially nice for someone like myself that prefers to use a mouse as little as possible while using a computer. I can use the command line to author a new blog entry using vi, spell check the new entry using aspell, modify the blog entry's publication date using touch, and use the standard unix file system commands to insert my new blog entry into my blog file structure (i.e. my blog's category heirarchy). And I can do all this as fast as I can type the commands at the shell prompt.

There is one limitation of blosxom that I just recently bumped up against. The limitation is a byproduct of using the blosxom data directory structure to double as the blog's category heirarchy. Each blog entry lives in one directory, and thus one category. Sure, a blog entry can be copied into (or a link made in) another directory to associate the entry with a secondary category, but then blosxom will show that entry multiple times. So, that's no good.

I wanted to find a way around this behavior primarily because I wished to associate the daily journal entries (located in "/daily_journal/2006") that I composed about our recent trip to Vancouver with a new category (something like "/vacations/2006/vancouver"). That way, I could still read my daily journal in a linear fashion using a URL like:

http://rus.berrett.org/blog/daily_journal/2006/

yet, at the same time, access just the journal entries that detail our Vancouver vacation using a URL like:

http://rus.berrett.org/blog/vacations/2006/vancouver/

(Note: the above examples of URLs to access blosxom blog entries presume that my modifications to blosxom with regard to "viewing by date" have been applied to the blosxom installation).

With that goal in mind (one entry - many categories), I set to the task of creating a blosxom plug-in that will allow me to "file" a blosxom entry under one or more different categories while, at the same time, suppress the display of the multiples. I was able to create a plug-in (which I've named "multicat") that does exactly that.

The "multicat" plug-in allows me to easily classify a single entry under many different categories (i.e. different directories) using symbolic links. The multicat plug-in controls when the symlinks to the entries are displayed and when they are hidden. Thus, the display of duplicate entries (which is the normal blosxom behavior when symlinks to files are encountered) is suppressed. Support for the comments plug-in and the writeback plug-in is built-in. Comments (or writebacks) that are added to or appear on a source entry will show up in the symlinked entry and vice versa.

I think what I have done is very clever and I'm very pleased with the result. I can now create symlinks to blog entries in other secondary categories and, in effect, file a single blog entry under multiple categories. This was something that was impossible to do before (and I scoured over many different other blosxom plug-ins) and, ultimately, I think it could be very useful to the blosxom blogging community at-large (but I could be wrong about that).

So, using the example above, I can now build a URL to access all of the entries in my daily journal that are just about our recent trip to Vancouver. Check it out:

http://rus.berrett.org/blog/vacations/2006/vancouver/

Note that each of those entries has not one, but two, categories that it is associated with. Mission accomplished.

More information about the multicat plug-in can be gleaned by reviewing the source code (my perl reads pretty easy), or by reading the man page. I have provided links to both (as well as my development log) below:

multicat source code
multicat(1) man page
multicat development log

cheers!

(Update Mon Mar 13 00:47:59 PST 2006 // fixed a grammatical error)

My Modifications to Blosxom
I use blosxom (v2) for my blog software. It's lightweight, simple to setup and administrate, written in Perl, and free to use and alter. Blosxom uses the file system as its organizational structure. Directory names become category names. Files are blog entries, and blog entry titles are simply the first line in each file. The file modification time is used as the blog entry's publication date. Managing a blosxom blog is nothing more than creating, editing, and manipulating files.

I've made just one minor modification to blosxom (see log). I wanted to be able to use all numeric directory entries, but this conflicted with blosxom's built-in "view by date" capability. The feature allows for the creation of URLs to isolate blog entries by date. The general form of such a blosxom blogi URL is:

http://blog_url/[optional_category_path]/[YYYY]/[optional_MM]/[optional_DD]/

This is a great feature of blosxom. Unfortunately, blosxom out of the box prevents me from using all-numeric directory names such as a year (e.g. '/daily_journal/2005' or '/daily_journal/2006'). I think this was simply a small oversight by the original blosxom developer, and so I've added some code to correct it.

You can download my modifications to blosxom in the full context of the file itself, or as a patch. My cvs development log for blosxom is also available.

blosxom.cgi modified source code
blosxom.cgi source patch
blosxom.cgi change log

(Update Fri Mar 10 14:23:17 PST 2006 // updated links and link titles)
(Update Fri Mar 17 00:09:24 PST 2006 // added link to original source)
(Update Fri Apr 7 12:58:43 PDT 2006 // added clarity to description of mods)

Out and About
The weather today was fantastic. I took the opportunity to get out and about in the yard and do some pre-spring clean up. Berkeley was out with me for much if not most of day too. If he wasn't pushing the lawn mower with me then he'd pull up his little camping chair next to the side of the lawn and watch me go back and forth. A couple of times he told me where I had missed a spot. He's a very helpful little guy and fun to be around.

After we spent a couple of hours on the yard, I tossed balls to him so he could practice his swing (at his request). He still prefers to bat left-handed even though he throws with his right. Batting is one of his favorite activities to do outside. I must have thrown 100 balls to him this afternoon before I decided that we needed to get a few more things done before dinner. I'm sure he would spend the whole day batting if I was willing to pitch to him that long.

For dinner, we ended up meeting the Sorensons for dinner at Triple X and had some good eats (burgers, onion rings, root beer!). Afterward we went over to the Sorenson's home and snuck in a game of Alhambra while the kids played. Fun.

Girls... Not Such a Good Idea
I met Kristy and the kids over at the Thurmonds this evening for dinner (Matt grilled some delicious hamburgers). When I arrived I asked Berkeley about the recently discovered gender of our third child:

"What do you think about having a new baby sister Berkeley?", I asked.

"I don't think that is such a good idea.", He responded in a serious tone.

Ok, then.

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: In a Holding Pattern
We can't make any further progress on our project until we get the issue with the wood floor scratches resolved. Baxton came by today to have a close look at the floor. He is straddling the fence. On the one hand, he'd like to move forward on the project and get it complete (and get paid), but on the other hand he agrees with me that there are some issues that need to be addressed. If we decide we want the entire thing stripped down, re-sanded, and re-refinished, then we are looking at a week delay (on top of this current week's delay while we think about how we should proceed). Not good.

(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)

Boy, Girl, ... Girl
We found out the gender of our third child today. It will be a girl. I know I stated earlier that "Olivia Louise" was our preferred girl candidate name. However, after doing some research (see here), I found that Olivia is a top-20 name for newborn girls for the past 5 years!! I can't give my daughter such a common name! After all, she is going to stand out... not blend in.

I've been brainstorming a few other possibilities, just to see what tickles the tongue. We have a Berkeley Russell and an Eliana Kristine - two strong names. Why not name our third child Mary Margaret? or Adalaide Lucille? It doesn't get too much stronger than that!

The Blue Car Turns 10
According to the documentation that came with my BMW 328 (which I bought used), it indicates that the car rolled off the assembly line on March 1st, 1996... 10 years ago today. I bought the the blue car on March 4th, 1998 (8 years ago on Saturday) and it still drives like a champ. I'm planning on driving it until Berkeley turns 16.

Foxtrot
We continue to enjoy our Ballroom Sampler class. Tonight we learned a few basic Foxtrot dance steps. Foxtrot is a "glide and slide" dance, which I seem to be better at (as opposed to those dances where you just stay in one place and show of your moves - like salsa and swing). Next week... the rumba!

Home Removation Project: Vault Removal: Wood Floor Opinions
Kristy has had a good look at the floors now (she arrived back home late last night). She isn't as bent out of shape about the scratches as I am. She is more concerned about the lack of smoothness on the finish; which is a problem due to the amount of gunk (and bubbling) present in all of the rooms. That doesn't bother me so much because it will get buffed out before the third coat of finish it put down.

I had a friend come over today and take a look at the floors. He is a property manager and has wood floors refinished at different properties on occasion. He agreed that the scratching was noticeable and recommended that it be re-sanded with a finer grit.

I also talked to our contractor today by phone. He had a look over the weekend and wasn't happy about the sloppiness either. He is going to stop by tomorrow. We are at a loss as to what needs to be done. Having the floors stripped down to the wood again will be a major pain.

(Update Mon May 22 22:26:27 PDT 2006 // title formatting)