Gallery software upgrade
Though we've not really been using it that much over the past year, I finally decided it was time to upgrade our online photo gallery software.
http://bernhard.us/photos/main.php
The previous version of the software was not tied to a database and had almost zero anti-spam tools. It was something of a mess.
The new version is much easier to manage, seems to be faster, and certainly offers more features. It took a while for me to migrate everything over from the old gallery install but I believe I've done it without losing anything. I've even managed to figure out how to get redirects to work so all the old url's automatically forward to the correct album in the new install.
Now, I just need to get back into the habit of uploading albums starting with the backlog of family photos. That task is only slightly daunting.
in which things are stolen
To provide additional backup space for our ever-growing collection of digital photos, I recently ordered a 1.5TB drive from Amazon.com. (I'm something of a fanatic when it comes to backups and have an elaborate but automatic system that works really well.)
Amazon shipped out the drive quickly and the package was sitting in our mailbox last night. And I knew, the instant I picked it up, that it was an empty box.
"Well damn", I thought, "someone at Amazon messed up and shipped me an empty box."
No, no, that wasn't it at all. What became clear, after bringing the box inside the house (where I could see it, as opposed to on the street where it's dark), is that the box had already been opened. The packing sheet holder had been removed. The packing sheet had been opened and read, and then someone had cut open the bottom of the box, took the hard drive out of the packing material, put the packing material back in the box (why, I have no idea) and then re-taped the box with shipping label intact.
Thank you United States Postal Service.
I called Amazon.com right away and they agreed to ship me a new hard drive (set to arrive on Tuesday next week). That's really cool of them. But I am a bit worried that now there's a note in my account: "Claims hard drive was stolen." If something like this happens again, then they're probably going to stop being so nice.
on fort building
helloheather went on a retreat to Oregon, IL this past weekend, being gone from Friday evening until late Saturday evening (having driven 2 hours in the fog at a snails pace).
This was the first time Nate and I were home alone.
We did not thwart the bumbling efforts of two would-be criminal types. John Hughes would not have been impressed.
Still, we had fun. I built a fort in our front room on Friday night and Nate and I had a camp-out. He did ask if we were going to have a camp-fire but alas, prudence dictated no open flame in the foyer.
I built our fort out of the kitchen chairs, a blanket, a couple strong clips, and our Therm-a-rest (tm) sleeping pads. It was fun. I have very fond memories of my dad building me a fort like this when I was a kid and it was nice to be able to do this for Nate.
Most of the time we just hung out. We played a lot of Cars (tm) which he's /really/ into right now. This was, in part, because I gave him a new car ("Sheriff") as a gift for the weekend. We also visited with another dad, who's wife was on the weekend retreat, and had lunch with him at the Burger King (which has a play area).
We had so much fun with the fort that we slept there again Saturday night, even though helloheather had returned home.
and while pregnant too!
I just want to acknowledge how blessed I am.
The last big snowfall we had (last week) was a multi-day affair but the bulk of the snow fell mid-day. helloheather was out in the driveway with the snow-blower keeping it ice and snow free.
And this isn't the first time this winter she's done that.
She rocks.
Our Second Child
I'm very ashamed that it has taken me this long to post an ultrasound picture of our second child. In fact, I just realized I never posted anything when helloheather made the original announcement. Wow, now I feel even worse.
I had no idea that with a busy life and a busy 3 year-old, time could move so quickly.
Here's the ultrasound from 11/4/2009; a profile shot.
Nate is very excited about being a big brother. He's convinced it's a girl, but mostly I think because he knows almost no one in his peer group who has anything /but/ a little sister. I'm not so certain it's a girl, but we have been concentrating more on picking a girls name than a boys. Or, at least, there have been more...shall we say...spirited discussions of said topic. 
Either way, the baby is coming and two and a half months away is no time at all. The March 29th due-date is really, frighteningly, close.
I am not sure I'm all that ready. But, I am ready to catch up on a lot of this stuff.
catch-up post #n
I was off work from December 23rd through January 4th and it was a really great. helloheather and Nate and I relaxed and spent a lot of quality time together.
Christmas was busy, as usual, with events every day from the 24th through the 27th. But, despite the big snowfall, and the driving around, it was really all very good. Nate was a trouper and really seemed to enjoy visiting the family. Lots of photos need to be posted.
We visited the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum after Christmas, mostly to see the Butterfly Haven they have there. I really thought Nate would enjoy it, but he was not impressed. There were other exhibits he liked though, and overall the visit was a good one. Also, with so many people being off work the week between Christmas and New Years, we had no problems driving into and out of Chicago.
Nate and I also spent a lot of time outside in the snow over break, which was really great. I'm very glad we've had all the snow and that it's been cold enough to keep it from melting. Though, I did hear on the news last night that, if it warms up on Wednesday or Thursday, it'll be the first time since Christmas that we've been at or above 32 deg F. So, it's been a little chilly!
Being back at work for a full week (last week) was tough. It's really easy to get into a habit of being lazy and family-oriented around the house and very difficult to get back into work-mode mentality. However, I've managed to chase the mid-day blues away a bit by bringing a DSLR to work and walking around in the cold and snow. Boots and thermals have been a must.
So 2010 is here and the end of March is rapidly approaching. I'm still not really ready for all of this but it's certainly not waiting for me to catch up.