Playground

Waiting for the Genius Bar now to get them to look at the iBook. Not really sure what miracles to expect, but just another brain working on the problem is a good thing. Even brought my external drive in case they could extract the old data. But right now, its not looking too especially hot. Damnit.

So I've been comtemplating switching jobs, mostly because the schedule can be rather brutal to the soul. I was actually supposed to be working right now, a 58 hour work week, but there was problem so the production and shipping operations have been stopped. The co-workers are pretty good, the work is inane but certainly no strain on the brain, though the labor does get tiring. But I was called into the review and got a slight bump on my hourly, and all that does is make my wanting to quit a little tougher. Boo.

I'm generally not one to believe in streaks of luck, good or bad. That said, it hasn't been in our favor as of late. Its nothing terrible or life-changing, but just enough of a kick to offset the stability.

The latest thing is a rather sad one. Alex was born 7 days after the school cut off date, which means kids who were born 5 years ago will be going to school this fall. Alex was out of that range so we had to pay 75 bucks to get him tested for early enrollment. If he was an only child, we wouldn't care, but since Zoe is 11 months behind, that would mean if the school would have it, they'd be going to school the same year. Either that or we'd hold her a year behind so they have that separation. Anyway, we got the results today and he didn't pass. That bummed us out and we had to tell Alex, who didn't make much of it. He just said, "Oh man," and moved on to something else. Now the big decision is whether to hold Zoe back or not.

Rotten Apple

Damnit all to monkey hell.

The Mac Mini usually just runs all day, and sometimes it does go for days without a reboot. Anyway, either this neglect or some other gremlin induced phenomena has caused the mini to be sluggish. I took it to the mac shop, spent 99 bucks on diskwarrior before finally deciding that it was all moot and I would just reinstall the OS. I hooked up the iBook, and then the iBook decided, well, screw it, that looks like fun.

So my iBook is now wacky, doesn't even advance beyond the startup screen. This is causing considerable grief for me because the Mac Mini is mostly for casual use, but my iBook has all my shit on it. Disk Warrior can't even read the drive, neither can that firewire target mode. I might possibly lose a lot of important files, including a chunk of photos from San Fran that I hadn't uploaded to Flickr yet. So I'm just sitting around the house. Moping and a little angry. I'm going to the Genius bar tomorrow in hopes of a miracle, but I have strong doubts about a positive outcome. Sigh.

Despite or perhaps I'm always harping Macs as the greatest things since shaved chihuahuas, my mac mini decided this week to act really freaking slow. Took it into the mac shop and his diagnosis was not very promising - either my disk directory was corrupted and needed repair, or the drive itself was on its way out.

I tried the first of three options he offered, to archive and reinstall the os and hope that its all good. But that didn't work, so I had to go to option B, which involved spending 99 bucks for Disk Warrior, supposedly either a supergreat utilty app or an overpriced coaster. Anyway, I've got my macs hooked up now running the darn thing. Hopefully this will fix the issue.

Alex's speech has caused some concern with my wife, she suspects that he might have a hearing problem, while I'm guessing its just his scattered attention. But we've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow for a hearing test. I don't imagine its anything serious. I think he slurs his speech because we let him. His words all meld together so sometimes hetalkssomethinglikethis. I think the biggest issue is we need to specifically acquire his attention before we talk to him.

Butterfly Allergy

DSC_3375, originally uploaded by diegomcnamara.

This has got to be one of my favorite photos.

Father's Day

Assorted kites are casting unique shadows on the wind swept grass, and the kids are shouting indiscernable commands and squeals to each other. Alex is running around, likely playing an entirely different game than the rest of the kids, and Zoe is speaking in a whiny, draggy drone. She's probably a little hot, bored, and thirsty. My wife and I are just sitting here in the sun, chilling.

I have to say that I'm not one of those kite flying types - the constant challenge of trying to keep something in flight while its natural inclination is to do otherwise isn't meditative or carefree in my eyes. I don't have anything against those who do, I just don't think much of it. Unfortunately, neither do the kids. They got bored with it rather quickly and decided to do other things.

I got to sleep in a little this morning and we went to dimsum, and I have a whole book to go through that the kids and wife made for me, and we dropped off my mom before coming to gasworks.