ChinnoDog's blog

On Monday Jen and I pulled in at home around 7 in the evening along side some other cars on the street. As Jen walked down the walkway towards the front door a cat appeared and walked up to greet her.  I followed with the items I was bringing inside from the car and the cat walked up to say hi to me as well.  After we had walked inside and I was unloading my cargo the cat walked up to the front door where Jen was standing and poked its head in, but we shooed it away.  A neighbor happened to be outside and said the cat had been wandering the complex for a week and tried to go into someone else’s house too, only to get kicked and left on the porch.  She was a very friendly cat, so after some debate we let it in.  On Tuesday we took her to the vet and on Wednesday she got spayed (to avert risk she was pregnant).  She is home now.  She is a very friendly cat, even after everything we have subjected to her to.  She doesn’t have a name yet.  Here are pics!  The picture at the left is from today not long after I gave her pain medication.   The picture on the right is from yesterday after she came home from the vet.

Annoyed cat at back door

Cat in Jen's lap chilling out

Front of Car

On May 7th my wife was in a car accident. I have not taken much time to post anything on here since then, so this post is long overdue. She was driving southbound on I-222 in the left lane at around 9pm and a collided with a pickup truck that was traveling north in the southbound lane.
Location of Accident (approximate)

About a week after the accident I was able to see the car. It was a 2000 Hyundai Accent. Jen swerved to avoid the oncoming truck at the last minute and the two drivers sides collided. Jen broke her humerous, ulna, femur, fibula, and left toe all on her left side. She also had hip fractures on both sides. Her left upper arm was damaged and was closed up with a skin graft. Luckily it is cosmetic only, and the arm is expected to function normally after she recovers. Here is what is left of the car. Note the roof was cut off by the emergency crew in order to get her out of the car.

There have been some articles online about the accident. The latest one from the Reading Eagle details the most recent developments.

Jen was in Reading Hospital for about 4 weeks before going to Manorcare in Sinking Spring. I have since rented us a first floor apartment and moved us both there. She gets around with a walker for now. We have a lot of things to unpack yet, but I hope to have a fully functional apartment within a month or so. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m testing remote control solutions at work for the next couple weeks.  For the moment I’m testing the small business solution from Bomgar.  It seems to be fully featured.  It supports everything!  Win / Mac / Linux / Win Mobile and soon Blackberry!  Anyway, anyone that has wanted my help in the past, now is your chance.  I will probably be testing a competitor product soon as well but it probably won’t have anything but Windows support.

I have not updated my blog in forever.  This is so bad.  This is almost two months old.  Well, here goes anyway.

I went to Michigan at the end of August to see my friends.  I try to go to the CRIM when I can.  I think this is my 5th time but I’m not sure.  I would have to count my CRIM t-shirts.  It’s really just an excuse to hang out with my friends.  Its a charity walk / race that happens in Flint every year.  We always do the 5k walk.  Once we did the 8k but we were younger / skinnier then.  Then again, weren’t we all?  I took my camera and then forgot it in my car.  I know, good one.  I have a few pictures though.

This is near the end of the CRIM in flint.  Its not the most vibrant of colors.  I think the camera in my phone has had some sun exposure.  There is no one there because most of the other people have already rounded the corner up ahead.  The second one is an official photo from the photographers.  They take them every year and then sell them to the participants.  I’m walking with Diane and pushing Ripley in the stroller.  She is playing in the puddle she made in her cup holder from cups of water we picked up along the way.

On the way back to the car we some some college age kids fishing rubber duckies out of the river from a race that had apparently taken place earlier.  The river isn’t particularly clean.  There was a general expectation they would get sick afterwards.  At least one had a raft.  The picture next to it is the disposable RFID tags they use now.  Everyone ties them to their shoes.  There are gigantic RFID readers at the start and finish lines.  The finishing order appears in the newspaper the following day.  (We were not very close to the beginning.)

We went to see Kristin afterwards, but I have no pictures of that.  I got to see Kristin’s apartment and then she made scalloped potatoes for dinner.  The Saturday of the CRIM was Diane’s birthday and we got drunk at her request.  For someone that doesn’t drink it seems to me that it takes me an unusually large amount of alcohol to get anywhere.  Peach schnapps + orange juice + bowls of scalloped potatoes = good times.

One of the features that I really wish WordPress contained was friend levels and filters.  LiveJournal happens to have a usable implementation of this though.  I am now cross posting to LiveJournal so that I can create posts that are neither public nor completely private.  In order to see these you need a livejournal account.  In order to access the RSS feed that contains the private posts you need an news reader that is able to download authenticated feeds.  Here is a link to the authenticated feed.  The user name and password are those used for your own LiveJournal account.

ChinnoDog’s authenticated news feed

Note: This link is now added at the bottom of the main page.

My mom has been carving fruit for some time now.  It is amazing the details that she can put into them.  The picture at left is a watermellon she cut for a birthday party.  I was going to show a photo of the watermellon laid horizontally but someone (kids) took a chunk out of the other side.  I guess they were hungry.  Production of a carving like this takes approximately 3 hours.  It is a full sized watermellon, purchased at the peak of summer.  She cuts a variety of other fruit into patterns as well, but watermellon is the most spectacular.  Anyone near Lancaster, PA need one of these? 

I went to Niagara Falls for 4th of July weekend with pleia2. I know, who goes to Canada for the 4th of July? Canada Day is July 1st they don’t even celebrate the 4th.  There were fireworks on the American side but we didn’t even bother going to see them.  By 3pm there were already throngs of people gathered down by the water on the Canadian side.

We stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast called Ambiance By The Falls just across the Canadian border.  It was only a three room B&B; small, the way I like them.  It has a great location on the edge of town in the adjoining development.  From there you can walk to all the attractions.  Breakfast was good and our hostess was kind.  Overall, a very nice trip.

Here are some highlights.  (Picture spam to follow!)

Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, I might be neglecting my blog.  Thats pretty sad since I always think of things I want to put here.  So, I’ll catch myself up now.  Part of the intent of having a blog at all was to collect a list of things to do and places to go.  I’ve been to some places lately.

Last weekend I went to DC on a business trip and took Lyz with me.  After a long full day meeting and a company dinner on Friday we went to the Natural History Museum and caught a 3D IMAX movie at the Air & Space museum on Saturday and then went to the zoo on Sunday.  The company put us up in the Renaissance Mayflower on Thursday and Friday and I picked up Saturday night at the Reniassance M Street from Priceline.  Lyz posted pictures, and.. well, I’m too lazy to post pictures right now, so see them here and here.

Closer to home I went to Union Barrel Works in Reamstown on Friday for a rather tasty meal.  Of the beer I only found the Kolsch to be drinkable, but thats pretty good considering I didn’t know I liked any beer until a month or so ago.

View Larger Map

Ok, enough for now.

This is the beginning of the life of my blog.  I will not pretend this is the first time I have tried to start a blog;  This one just seems to make the most sense so far.  I’m starting this blog in part for me but also so I can share things that I know and things that I do.  It doesn’t have a grand purpose or design.  Its just a place to put stuff.  The life of my blog starts with me moving to Lebanon, PA to a house I am renting.  It is just over 4 miles from where I work.  Being separated has been good for me.  Getting settled in my house is taking a lot of energy, but it is exciting.  More on all that later.