PHactotum Wheneverly

I like IBM Thinkpads. Some of that may come from working for IBM, but some may come from a dislike for the prevalence of the glidepoint mouse pointers in other laptops. I can't stand the things. Tom's Hardware Guide has a review of the latest laptop to come from IBM. I wish I had the estimated $4,000 to spare for this bad boy.

Get your word of the day at Dictionary.com. If it weren't for having a father that read the dictionary, I wouldn't know about the word factotum. And thus my website wouldn't be PHactotum.com. For those who don't know, my initials are PH. So, expand your vocabulary. Sign up for the Word of the Day.

Tonight the Evergreen Park Library held a Jammy Jamboree. Kids grade 1 and under went to the library in the PJs to hear stories and sing songs. Trey and I attended this function. Everything started out well. Trey and I got there a few minutes early and played with the puzzles. When the stories began, Trey was a little shy so I sat on the floor with him. It wasn't long before Trey spied something he wanted to look at. Another kid had brought an Elmo toy with him. Trey began to crawl over towards the other kid on his stomach. My cousins would be proud. He looked like he was in the Army crawling on his belly over the hilltop, sneaky as can be. Later as the lady was telling the story, Trey would go up front, winding his way through the other kids, to look at the items she had brought with her, and the pictures in the book. He would then run back to me with a big grin on his face. While this was going on there were two other girls who kept not paying attention to the stories and giggling and getting in general trouble. "Bunny's" Mom kept asking her daughter to keep quite. We then got to the singing and dancing part of the evening. Most of the kids would dance in place, and generally follow the lady leading the whole thing. Trey of course danced in his normal way by running around in circles, weaving between each of the kids. After two iterations of the song, came a couple more books. This is where Trey got in trouble. He, Bunny and the other girl were running around the back of the library. This was the second time that Bunny had done this. (Bunny's Mom had retrieved her the first time.) This time I went back there and found Trey and had a talk with him telling him that he needed to join the other kids and sit down and listen to the story. He agreed and proceeded to go to where the rest of the kids where and provoke the other kids. Never once sitting down. I once more told him that he needed to sit down and be quite. He didn't so we had to leave early. Now the frustrating part is Trey left gladly. It didn't even bother him. Although that made it easier to leave, I don't think he realized that he had done wrong and was being punished to an extent. Aaaaggghhh! So far I am raising a bully. He provoked other kids by trying to take their toys. They of course didn't give them up and their parents had to correct them. He tells me what I want to hear, just so he can get away and do what he wants to do, even if that is exactly what I told him not to do. Oh the joys of parenthood.

I just upgraded my weblog to MovableType 2.0. I really like the new version. The backend, the part you don't see, but I do as an author, is really first rate.

I do need to fix it though to work with Mozilla 0.9.9 I've seen the instructions, but I don't quite understand them.

Well it looks like I even have trouble keeping something as easy as a web log up to date. I mean here I have this very easy program that lets me log from any where I have an internet connection and my updates are still few and far between. I planned this web log as a way to keep family and friends up to date on the goings on at PHactotum's Place (Perry, Cherie and Trey's home). But, that won't happen if I don't write.

There are some things I'd like to do with this place. I need to put together the photo wheneverly (can't say it will be a photo d'jur since I take photos less often that I write). I also need to repost some old photo pages using a cohesive style. And that Phactotum Time thing (tells you what time it is where I am. See The Official US Time Clock.)

Of course all this comes after work, where I need to write a directory synchronization program (2 years), a distribution update program (5 weeks), and two programs to deal with expiring passwords (3 weeks). And after spending quality time with my wife and son, plastering a ceiling, scraping a wall, painting a room, cleaning a garage, ripping my CDs, finishing a fence, doing my taxes, and visiting some old friends.

Where does the time go?

PS. If you come here from the Movable Type web site, welcome. This is my hang out so it is all about me. Unlike at work, where it is all about Karen. (Hi Karen) So don't expect too much in the way of insite, or fantastic writing.

I think I forgot to tell everyone that Trey has new shoes. They are really cool. Basically the're running shoes with lights in the soles.

I'll try to get a picture up tomorrow.

So, it is spring time. The wind is blowing, the sun is shining, what a better activity than flying a kite.

Grandma and "Papa" bought a kite for Trey and today we took it out in the yard to fly it. The whole family was out there; Trey, Cherie, Grandma, Papa, and me.

Trey really liked flying the kite. We were all suprised at how well he held on to the kite. It would almost lift him off the ground and yet he could hold on. Of course one of his favorite things was to let go and let either me or Papa run after the kite as he let go. He just laughed as one of us ran after the kite.

We even had it get stuck on top of the barn.

All in all it was a good day for all.