General

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel! If all goes well, I only have one more document to write and a demo to give and I’ll be done. Of course, I’ve turned into a paranoid madwoman, backing everything up incessently. All I can think of are the poor people in the computer lab I worked at during college…the people who had their entire thesis on one floppy disk, which would get totally wiped out by a hungry computer. We could usually recover some of it. Like two pages or so. So, I have at least 10 CD-R’s with all of my code and documents at various stages, plus I copied it to another computer at home. Of course, if the whole house were to burn down, I might still have a problem…can CD’s survive fire? Maybe I should look into offsite storage… (See what I mean about paranoia?)

Just really busy. Last night, I finished the coding for my master’s project. Well, assuming I’ve found all the bugs. I also finished all of the screenshots and the user manual. Yay! Except that I still have another couple of documents and a final report to do. And a presentation/defense type thing. I just need one good night of sleep. Please???

So, what is this project that I’ve been slaving away at? Basically, a way to organize digital images under os x. Of course, I came up with the idea about 16 months ago – long before iPhoto was announced – and it even does mostly different things from iPhoto – but it’s fairly pointless now as shareware or freeware. That’s ok, though – I’m going to use it! I’m pretty proud of the end product, and I’d love to post pictures of the screenshots or something, but that would be pretty nerdy (and they’d be fairly boring). I just want to get everything over with, so I can move on to other things. Like finishing all of the half-finished projects in my craft room…and starting new ones.

Walking at 6 AM is certainly taking willpower…I’m used to hitting the snooze button a half-dozen times or so before actually starting my day. But it’s been four days and I’ve stuck with it so far. (Yeah, I know, that’s not much of a track record yet…) This morning, I decided to leave Molly home. Let’s just say that picking up poo at 6 AM is intolerable. Of course, the guilt thing kicked in when I saw all of the other responsible pet owners walking their dogs this morning while I meandered along, leash-free. Guilt, guilt, guilt. I guess I’ll just have to buy more baggies and deal with it, or feel guilty every morning. At this point, I’m not sure which is worse. Ah, the joys of living with a dog. ;)

Day 1 of swimsuit diet is going, well, swimmingly. So far today I have resisted Krispy Kreme doughnuts (that took willpower!), mall food court food, and vending machine goodies (I had to run to RIT to meet with my advisor.) I even got up at 5:55 to go walking with mom this morning, in the lovely 40 degree rain. I’m feeling very virtuous…and very hungry! And I have one last hurdle to get over when I get home…leftovers. (You can just hear the scary soundtrack playing, right?) So, I’ll just drink my hot chai and half a gallon of water, and hope that my “nothing tastes as good as thin feels” mantra gets me through leftovers at Grandma’s without undoing all the good I did today. I hope this gets easier, as I’m stretched to the limits of my willpower already…

I baked cookies, colored eggs, and ate until I couldn’t eat another bite. Tomorrow, the extra candy goes to work, and the diet for summer bathing suit season starts in full force… I guess it’s kind of a reverse Lent. I’ll just be happy if I can drop a size or two and fit into some of my nicer (read smaller) summer clothes – like the stuff I bought for Disney last spring. It’s a goal, anyway!

Will I be condemned for all eternity for lying to my grandma? It was just a little lie, only to prevent her from spending money on something…but now I feel so guilty! She was trying to insist on buying the that I’m going to prepare for Easter dinner (at her place), because it’s pretty expensive right now. I might have stretched the truth just a teensy little bit when I said I had a Wegman’s gift card that was going to expire soon that I had to use… I probably have an expired Wegman’s gift card somewhere – does that count? Italian and Catholic. Guilt is going to be the death of me someday, I just know it.

I need sunlight. Desperately. I’m in such a blah mood lately, which is probably due to the fact that it’s been gray and icky here for the past week and a half. I don’t even care if it’s still cold, it just has to be sunny. I wonder how much airfare to someplace sunny would be right now?

Last night I finished one of the twin’s cross-stitches. Well, except for putting in the personalization. Now I just have the other to do (completely) in a month, along with finishing my master’s project. I won’t tell you how long the first one took, except to say it was more than a month. ;) I think I’d better learn how to cross-stitch with my eyes shut.

…well, everywhere but here. It’s cold this morning, and it couldn’t decide whether to rain or snow. Ick. Times like this, I kind of wish I lived elsewhere. Like Ireland. (As if it doesn’t get cold and rainy there!) Or maybe I could just find a warm place to vacation for a bit. :)

Speaking of spring, check out the Kodak Birdcam and see the project that kept me so busy last month. The falcons have returned, although there’s a bit of a soap-opera going on around here, seeing as the male falcon appears to be a different falcon than we’ve had for the past four years. We’re pretty sure it’s still the same female. Me? I’m just hoping they produce a family so the project isn’t cut short after all that work!

I was too tired after the party last night to blog. :) It was a fun party, though! Lots of food and drink was consumed by all. I didn’t think that many people would fit in my dining room at once – it’s a good thing I didn’t go out and buy my new dining room furniture yet! I think we ended up with more beer than we started with, despite the number of empty bottles – either more people brought beer than I remembered seeing, or it was multiplying under the table…

Molly was much calmer than I’d expected, probably due to the fact that she went the groomer’s on Saturday. Unfortunately, the little green bows were a little ragged by the party, but still cute. She was very happy when Denis managed to spill all of the juice from the corned beef (which consisted of brown sugar, Guinness, and corned beef, um, juice) all over the oven and the floor. We cleaned up best we could, but Molly spent the rest of the evening licking the floor and the oven door! Despite the fact that most of the alcohol had probably burned off, I’m guessing there was some left, as she was out like a light by 8 pm. I guess a dog named Molly Reilly ought to be able to handle a little Guinness, though.

Just sitting in the living room, surrounded by good friends, with the Irish music playing and sipping my coffee made me all sentimental. I have wonderful friends! Thanks to everyone who came by…this may have to be an annual event in the Reilly household!