bradchoate.com

The last few months have been quite event-filled for us. Let’s recap.

April 22. Our third child, Arwen Cassandra Choate is born.

July 18. A brand New CAR!!!

September 1. I quit my job of 5 years and started work at Six Apart. I also started living on two coasts and being a Frequent Flyer. Oh and we now have a special room set aside just for rolling around in the cash.

September 19. My grandfather passed away. He was 87 and days from his 88th birthday. He died of a heart attack. My grandparents (maternal) have always been across the street from us. So he was also a father figure to me. When someone speaks of integrity, it’s natural to think of Papa. Mama and Papa were married for 68 years.

No, that deserves to be spelled out: Sixty-Eight Years.

Fortunately I was back in Connecticut and was there for the week. We took a flight to be there for the funeral. It was good to see the whole family.

October 6. My wife and 3 kids were rear-ended by a drunk driver.

Thankfully, none of them have any injuries from it. Savannah just asked, “what happened?” afterwards. Not to minimize the event though… it could have very well killed my whole family. It was a hard impact that propelled the van off the road into a nearby yard. And they were also were pushed into the car that was in front of them. Things happened so fast that Georgia didn’t even know they had hit the vehicle in front until the police officer told her. The guy was actually running from the police.

And this happened while I’m (still) in California and they’re in Connecticut. Our house is still on the market. I’m back in Connecticut all next week. And while this trip has been a little easier due to a couple of iSight cams, but I’ll be so much happier once we’re all living in the same state. Anyone interested in living in Connecticut?

Posted at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

My old Saturn is on its last leg. So I’m looking for a new set of wheels. I stopped by a Nissan dealership today and saw an Altima there that was begging me to drive it home. Well, OK — it was the dealer that was doing the begging, but I digress.

I’m looking to lease this time around. I bought my Saturn, but today I’m making payments to the service center to keep it running. The monthly is a little more than I’d like, but I’ve checked Edmunds, and it appears I’ve done a pretty good job talking them down as it is.

To offset the expenditure of a second car payment, I’m looking for 30 new customers for my web hosting service (or 15 that want the super-duper $20/month plan). Yes, you can find cheaper hosting elsewhere, but you won’t find better hosting.

OK, you may find better hosting somewhere else. But aren’t you tired of looking???

And hey, if you sign up with a yearly subscription, I may just bump your limits a bit as an extra thank you (since I can use that now to increase my down payment). And naturally, I have some Gmail invitations. First come, first serve.

Is it just me or are there more car commercials all of a sudden?

Posted at 2:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (2)

Someone should develop a CSS/PHP or CSS/Javascript technique that makes your site look like it’s collecting dust the longer it goes without an update. By now, this site would be completely covered. A whole month since my last post. I can do better.

Anyway, to catch up. Lots of things have been going on, mostly family related. Savannah had her third birthday. She starts preschool this coming Monday. She’s quite excited about it of course. Seth had his first birthday — actually, he’s having it today!

And let’s not forget that Georgia is expecting again. She’s about 2 months along. The due date is April 11th. Because of this, we’ve been looking at the real estate market to see if we can find a nice four bedroom that will contain us for the next 20 years or so.

Work has been going pretty well. We’re transitioning from Oracle to DB2, so that’s been interesting. We’ve also switched to Lotus Notes Release 6 — which is perhaps a safer platform than Outlook, but is missing an integrated Spambayes and I really, really need a good spam solution for work (I would promise never again to post my e-mail address to a newsgroup, but it’s a little late now).

Other than that, I’ll share that I’m considering switching to Interland for my hosting. They’re currently offering a $79/month server with specs similar or better to the server I’m using now. $240 a year is not pocket change to a family of 5. Also doesn’t hurt that they were in the top 10 most reliable hosts for August.

I also checked all my plugin work into a CVS server hosted on this web server. I’ll be using it as my development repository going forward. The CVS interface itself is not publicly accessible, but there is a web-based front end if you care to peek around. You’ll find a few works in progress that are unreleased. Feedback is welcome. And please use the bug tracker if you find something that needs fixing.

One more thing for closure — my friend Ron who was looking for a job has taken a teaching position for this school year, with medical benefits. I appreciate all the help with the “Hire Ron” campaign, but since he got the position on his own, so there is no prize (sorry Ron, but contest rules made you ineligible!).

Posted at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (2)

Brrr! Current conditions here in Connecticut are quite wintry. Last night the temperature (with wind chill) was 1°F. For me, that's pretty chilly.

Did I mention that my laptop's exhaust (from the cooling fan) makes for a nice hand warmer?

Posted at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, we had a good 8-10 inches dumped on us yesterday. It made everything beautiful and all, but it left a lot of work for me to do this morning. Our driveway never looks as big as it does just after a snow like this.

The next time they forecast snow, I'm going to invite all my friends that own vans or SUVs so they can park bumper-to-bumper down my driveway.

Posted at 1:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (3)

Well we had a great trip. Even the two days of driving (both ways) was fun in it's own way (I like to drive). It put around 3,200 miles on our van altogether (including the 8 hour sidetrip drive we made to visit Georgia's family -- another reason we took our own wheels).

In our preparations for leaving, one thing I neglected to do was get a haircut. I left the office too late that Friday and couldn't make the appointment. So I decided to find a place and get it done while on vacation. Well, I wound up getting one at a salon in a Wal-Mart Super Center. Now, I don't know if it's my fault or theirs, but I asked for a haircut using the size 3 clippers (this is what I always ask for and has served me pretty well). When she got done and asked me how I liked it, I said "Oh, it looks fine!" (which is what I always say, regardless of how it actually looks). Either she thought I said "point 3" or Wal-Mart was having a sale and gave me twice the haircut I was paying for. Needless to say, it's pretty short. Not quite shaven, but let's just say it's a haircut my grandfather would be proud of.

With all the snow that hit the northeast last week, we thankfully missed out. The road conditions were great on the drive back. The only road that gave us trouble was the stretch from our street to our garage. The driveway had a good 4-6 inches all over it. Our van had no hope, so we left it parked until I could shovel it off the next day (I realize I say this every year, but we should really buy a snowblower).

I made it through Thanksgiving this year pretty well -- only put on a couple of pounds, which I hope to lose before my next cholesterol checkup. Being 30 sucks in that regard. Having to worry about your health is no fun. For those of you like me who sit in a chair all day -- try to excercise something 2-3 times a week. I'm still trying to warm up to the idea of using a stationary bike. For a guy that likes to mountain bike, those are two words that don't belong together. But for the winter months, I need to do something with myself. Between the bike and the snow shoveling, I should be covered.

And speaking of sitting in a chair, now we just need to get through all these shows TiVo recorded for us... 2 episodes of 24 which we were determined to watch (and did on Monday) before Tuesday's show; one episode of Enterprise; 1 of E.R.; 2 of The Practice; 2 of Firefly; 1 of John Doe; and a few other 30-minute shows (Everybody Loves Raymond, Futurama, The Simpsons, etc.). TiVo works a little too well.

Posted at 12:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We had some very strong winds come through our area Wednesday. There were a lot of fallen branches and some trees too. The storm took out the power for the little neighborhood I live in. Normally, power gets restored pretty quickly, but since it affected so many people, the electric company has had trouble taking care of everything. Their automated recording said they even had to call on repair trucks from out of state.

The power was finally restored this morning just as I was leaving for work. Altogether the house was dark for about 40 hours. It's no wonder that people went to bed so early before electicity was available-- there just isn't much to do besides stare at candles. I went to bed last night at 10 PM. That probably hasn't happened since junior high school!

Posted at 10:21 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Last night, for the second time in the past month, I've come home to a dark house. Due to weather-related electrical failure.

No fun.

I've always been more comfortable with the electrical conveniences in life. But today with the Internet and the inter-connectedness to all things it provides, I feel so isolated and in the dark (figuratively and literally) without the power to connect to it. And not only that, but no TV, and no movies, no PS2, Gamecube or XBox (and no GBA either until I get my Afterburner kit).

So for the second time in the past month, I've come home to a dark house and in response, we all pile into the van and head to Uno's (our favorite). Trusting that by the time we return, power will have been restored.

(Yes, I know-- it's pathetic. Yes, I realize there is a 12-step program for my condition.)

Posted at 6:22 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The MT 2.2 release made for a very late late night for Ben and Mena this past week.

The picture Mena paints is one I can relate to-- I tend to put off sleep as much as humanly possible. It's not that I can't sleep... I simply prefer to be awake. I stay up until I just can't any more. That means that once I do go to bed, I'm usually out within 2 or 3 minutes. I'd rather be that way than tossing and turning for an hour or so...

Continue reading "Sleep and lack thereof" »

Posted at 1:29 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

"Cracked cylinder." A phrase that is sure to strike fear into any car owner. Something you don't want to hear on a Monday from your Saturn dealership. Or any day from anyone for that matter. That was their first suspicion after seeing discoloration in our cooling fluids-- they felt sure it was due to some oil leaking through. Fortunately, that was not the case. So instead of paying over 2 grand, we just needed the coolant flushed and replaced. What a relief. Well, we did have to get the brakes replaced-- they were about shot.

I'm feeling like an Even-Steven this month. We got a healthy tax refund, but all at once, my home laser printer dies, the touch-screen on my Visor goes out and my car needs major service. (Oh, and the 5th season of The X-Files and the 2nd season of Star Trek: The Next Generation just have been released.) Funny that.

Posted at 6:42 PM | Permalink