Better?

Well, we had a good weekend and most of the sickness is out of the house. We went up north for the trees. We had a good time and beautiful weather, but the colors were just past peak.

Here's a few pictures:
















We also had two dogs show up at our house last night. I think that they might be purebred Jack Russells. We're looking for their owner. They're pretty cute, but the puppy keeps going after Copper, our 90+ lb German Shepard/Great Pyrenees mix. That's not going to work for too long. Here they are:



(We are calling the puppy "Sparkles" and the big one is Jack. Chase helped name them. I think that Sparkles is one of the dogs in Barbie and the Diamond Castle...)

(Jodie, you probably can't tell, but all those images are from the Jing embed code...)

Yikes.

So, today was the first day I was in the office this week. Chase has been sick. Viral something on Tuesday and 12 hours later, he also had an ear infection.

The kids did great at the birthday party, except for leaving... I was the only one with issues. I get so worried when both kids are not in my sight. There were several times when I didn't have either in my sight. It's a safe place, but I'm a worrier. Anyway, I survived.

So, Craig's home tonight, so hopefully things will get back to normal.

All my STC grad friends: We're hiring another writer, so anyone interested in working for an awesome company in Okemos, MI, let me know and I can let you know how to apply.

Have a good weekend!

We've got a birthday party, book club, and Craig's leaving for a conference in Texas.

I'm excited for Chase's first "friend" birthday party. It's at one of those big inflatable places. He's pumped for it. Of course, I'm wondering if he's going to fit in with all the other kids. I sure hope so.

Oh, funny enough, Chase LOVES the song Real Gone by Sheryl Crow from the movie Cars. He's been trying to sing it in the car lately. It's pretty fun to see him doing that kind of thing. It's his first song that doesn't involve numbers, monkeys, the alphabet, baby bumblebees, or Dora the "Explora".

I'm back...

After MUCH prodding, I'm back. While it seems I have time to check out other people's blogs, I can't seem to take the time to write anything myself. So, here I am.

Since it's been so long, here's a list of random stuff:

• Craig finished Fred. It's a great barn/shed/garage-like building. He did a great job. I'm so glad my husband's so handy!


• We had a nice, but busy summer. Lots of random stuff. I can't believe it's over!


• Chase is now in a "regular" preschool class. He still has an aid in the class, but he's doing pretty good. It was a bit rough at first, but things seem to be settling down. He's super smart and so high-functioning that most people see him as being "just difficult". He's not flexible in a lot of situations, and they seem to forget that he's autistic.


• Cory is something else. She's got a LOT of personality and attitude, but super polite. EVERYTHING is "please" and "thank you" although, we're hearing "gracias" more than thank you. (Thanks, I mean gracias, Dora.)


• My mom's car was shot at by a potato gun on her why to the mall after picking up Cory from daycare yesterday. A high speed potato hit her window and exploded. It sounds funny, but if her window would have been open, it would have hit her in the head. What's wrong with people. Oh, and this was in town on a residential street. WTF?


• We got a new cat this summer. His name is Jing (yes Jodie, like The Jing Project. It's just so awesome, and I'm a nerd.) He looks a LOT like Mica, so sometimes it's a little weird, but Jing is much, much nicer than Mica ever was.

That's all I can think of for now. Really, I'll try to post more.

Mango

April asked why Jodie calls me that.

Jodie! Help me remember exactly what happened!

Honestly, I can't remember the exact circumstances. I know that it had to do with the "Mango" character from SNL.

I just can't recall how it started. Maybe I tried to do his voice or something. I can't imagine that I was that funny, but after the initial use, which Jodie thought was funny, it just stuck. I would sign "Mango" on my emails to Jodie.

Jodie! Fill us in with what you remember!

WICKED.
We're going to see Wicked tonight. I saw it last summer with some of my girlfriends. I really liked it, so tonight Craig, my sisters, my friend Susanne, and her sister Erin, are all coming with me. And we're going to Ukai, a Japanese Steakhouse, for dinner first. I'm excited!

(Anyone sick of hearing from me yet? This is like a record of sequential days with posts...)

Almost done

Well, I'm almost done with my help files. I have two more little topics to finish up, some edit comments, and fixing the templates.

Oh, and then make all the HTML tutorials for the Learning Center...

Ok, maybe "almost" isn't the correct word...

WebWorks (well, kind of...)

Only one more help file to finish, plus fix some formatting in the help compiler.

I have to say, one of the few things I liked about Unicrap was the tools team. We had no responsibility for how the documents were produced. If Ihad a problem, I'd go talk to Jane.

There've always been issues with Word, but now, I have to design, implement, and support the document and help styles. It gets to be such a pain in the butt.

Using WebWorks to produce, you don't just have to take extra time to fix last minute edit things in the source files, you also have to fix last minute style issues, broken references, and number spacing. Not to mention you have to figure out why it's suddenly broken, when it worked 20 minutes earlier.

I also have to say, for being a company that makes a product to create help files, they have the suckiest help. Always a joy.

Oh well. I guess this is where the "technical" part of my degree comes in.