We had our first snow of the season tonight. We ended up going to Cheddars for dinner and it had been raining most of the day. After eating (some very good ribs) we noticed that it had gotten a little colder and the rain had turned to flakes. It wasn’t a lot but enough to cover windows of parked cars and the ground a little. It melted pretty fast after it hit the ground but was still nice. A picture was posted in my flickr.
I’ve been off for 4 days now due to Thanksgiving which has been nice. I needed the down time as it looks like December won’t be a slow month for me after all. I have a redesign for a client that has to be done next week. I made progress before the holiday and hope to pick it back up Monday morning. I was also recently contacted by a company to do some php and design work for them and get started on it Monday. Not the money that I would have liked for the project, but enough to make it worth it. Plus I’m still on a tight deadline for the Team Management System for the soccer club. In fact I have a board meeting with the club on Thursday (I was voted into the board in September) and we will be voting on my money for this system and some new things. So, the month is going to start off busy and I hope it will calm down by Christmas as we will be spending the holidays in Kansas (love the 7+ hour drive).
On a side note; I’m going to get my Xbox360 next week. I’ve held off on getting it and got the Wii last year instead of the 360 as I wanted to have the system for my family as well. My 4 year old son has loved the Wii and so do we when we have family over (its great for holidays, etc). So, the Wii was a great investment but I do miss my Xbox gaming days and XboxLive. I was tossing up between Halo 3 and CoD4 to get right away, however I’m going with Halo 3 for now. I will be able to finally relax off my computer instead of sitting here daily.
Update
I ended up buying the Xbox 360, extra Wireless Controller, Halo 3 Limited Edition, Chatpad, Vision Cam, and DVD remote yesterday. Got it all hooked up last night and played a little Arcade and Forza 2 but no Halo 3 yet. I was also forced to buy an iPod Touch. I’ve had my 2nd Gen iPod Nano for awhile and it died last night. Not sure why, just won’t power up. The Touch is really nice (note that I’ve never held the iPhone). The downside is nobody told me the Touch doesn’t support 64bit Windows (which I use). So, I’m stuck using it on the laptop.
Not really much going on right now so I wanted to do a quick video. I prepared a few of the other stuff like fudge and fruit salad and now got my Turkey in the oven trying a few new things this year on it, so we will see how it goes. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Tomorrow is the day. Most know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Turkey, Stuffing, Pumpkin Pie and Football! What could you not like about it? I have made it a tradition that I cook the Turkey however this year I will be cooking everything. Mostly because it will just be me, Melissa and the kids. My Grandma will be making an appearance as well. Normally we have around 14 people over, not this year. The shorten guest list is not keeping me from cooking a huge dinner though. Not as big as it would be with more but more then we will need. In fact, here is my food list;
18lbs Turkey
7lbs Ham (topped with pineapple and cherries)
Stuffing
Mash Potatoes
Brown Gravy
Deviled Eggs
Corn on the Cob
Green Beans
Fruit Salad
Cranberry Sauce
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Cherry Pie
Pecan Pie
Fudge
Cookies
I will be the sole cook this time so we will see how things go as its a lot to cook and the first time that I’ve had to cook it all. Melissa has to work until 5pm so we won’t be eating until late so I have time to get everything done before she gets home. Overall it should be a great Thanksgiving and I’m looking forward to it. Look for pictures and maybe a video tomorrow as well.
I had actually planned to post a blog today but didn’t get time so here is a quick Me Today instead. This one shows my current workspace at home. Nothing much at the moment as I really want a new desk when I switch computers. The light in the room is really bright as I hate having it dark but it causes problems with my crappy cam.
One of my latest client work has been a custom php/sql Team Management System for a soccer club. The goal of the system is to allow each team to have their own dynamic page to include their own schedule, snack schedules, coach information, etc. The coach is able to update all their information from their dashboard. Everything is generated on the site so we can generate team lists and coach listings elsewhere on the site just calling the database. The plus is allowing the coaches to control their own information and a quicker way for them to get information to their team/parents. The system is being written in php/sql. I have to have a working demo (read: rough demo) by Friday for a lunch meeting with the client. This isn’t really a problem as its mostly showcasing the features and mainly the flow of information inside the system and discussing features. The system doesn’t need to be complete until the end of December. I’m learning a lot of new things with this system. I’ve never messed with dynamic pdfs but for this system will be using fpdf to generate pdf’s of schedules, team roster and contact sheets. This will be great for the coaches and parents to have printable ready pdf that are generate with the latest info. The pdf’s will be branded with the club logo, etc. I am also working with mod_rewrite for the first time. Which is not going great. I had nothing but problems. I think I’ve since figured them out but won’t test it until tomorrow. The goal is to redirect team subdomains (teamname.clubdomain.com) to the team directory (www.clubdomain.com/teamname). Looking forward to showing the system to the client during our lunch meeting on Friday and discussing new pricing. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I love working with php however am looking at learning a new language. The top of my list is Ruby on Rails. I’ve always been interested in it but have never had the time to just sit down and learn. I know a few other people who use Ruby so I hope to take the plunge and start working with Ruby in December. I have a few client work to finish this month before I can take the time to spend with it. I also need to spend sometime with javascript. I know the basics and enough to modify current scripts to work for what I need but as far as writing one myself, can’t do it.
