Home many times can you go to the hardware store in one day...

So I spent a lot of time driving back and forth from the hardware store today, I had planned to get a "lot of stuff done" in the yard, and I did, but I also spent a lot of time being stupid.

My day started with a "quick" trip, which took longer, and resulted in a very large piece of lumber sticking out the back of the car.  I only had wanted to do that one more time... but managed to buy the wrong thing... A 2"x8"x12' instead of a 2"x6"x12, yes I know 2 inches whats the big deal (other then I'm speaking in imperial instead of metric.)  The issue is that I need two equally sized pieces of lumber to act as the joist for my shelf, and I already had one 2x6 left from the first phase.

I did get the lumber for my potato box, but more on that later.

Okay I guess it is later, when I got home, Bryan and I started assembling the potato box, Cedar on the outside for weather resistance (plan to use that again next year) and pine stakes on the inside because 1. you can't buy 2x2 in cedar, and 2) they were 97 cents and sharpened.)  At some point I had realized my lumber bumble and decided I needed to go back to the store.  Erin talked up Mr B to the point he was excited to go, wanted to go, needed to go.  So who am I to say no to a kid who wants to go to the hardware store (train handiness in early.)

So back we go to the store, with a honey-do list of this's and thats to get.  I manage to return the wood, get a new piece, a weed whacker, a gas can, some screws, some clamps, a new tape measure, some brain damage, some brain damaged staff, a pricing issue, an ulsar, some rain, and some *sounds of exhausted exasperation*.

Returning home, Erin and I collude on the phone to get a snack ready for B, so we can go do the one thing that was planned for the day, which was go get our raspberries plants from the garden store.  So B, snack, Evie, and all hop into the car.  At this point it is 1:00 pm, also known as... Bryan's normal nap time....

So off we go, at the garden centre E was touch and go, it became obvious in the later half of the day she was having an upset tummy, (only after we were far away from the gripe water, which really works?!)

So we toddled about, and had a hard time finding everything.  Then we found a tree we really wanted (need to figure out about where best to plant it.)  It is a corkscrew hazel standard, first picture time.  We've always loved the one in Erin's parents yard, (which sadly died suddenly.)  This one was a standard, and already pretty corkscrewy.  The hard part, was that all other ornamental standards, except it were 30% off, and so I started a chain reaction by asking if it was miss labeled, it took an age and a day to discover it wasn't on sale, but because it was by criteria in the sale of the week category they would give us the sale price.

At this point, we wanted it, and the shenanigan to find out the price had gone on long enough that we felt obliged to get it.  It also meant that B was getting fussy and so was E.

Then we bumped into Huma, which was fun, and B had a great time showing her all the water features.  At some point it all fell apart and fun turned to toddler mania.

We bailed with tree and got home, the dieters (aka Erin and I) were starved and grumpy.  We fed B, got him to nap, Erin drugged Evie with milk, us fed, we tackled the gardening.

So we got our raspberries in the grounds, and added some lilly of the valley for extra smell.  So we have two invasive indigenous species who can duke it out.

Next up I got my potato box started, I have to blame/thank brad for this, I hope to swap potato stories with him this year.  I had so many extra Yukon Gold's left I gave them to my neighbours, we agreed between the potatoes, apples, tomatoes, and misc berries we are going to start a little garden fresh store at the end of the driveway.

This is the potato box, basically as they grow you add more dirt, and then add more boards.  At the end you have a lot of potatoes, in a box.  Let the frost kill the plant, the skins harden, then just get a tarp, take of the side, and presto potatoes.  It is supposed to be cool enough to cold store in the garage, so I should have potatoes all winter (I hope.)


The rest of the garden is starting to come back to life, first, of course, is the daffodils.  They are blooming, and the tulips and day lilies are starting to sprout.

My apple's are also starting to bud, and their leaves are ever so tiny where they are out.  I don't think I ever showed the "finished" garden planter, and in truth it needs a little finishing, but I'm going to photo bomb for a moment, and then get back to silly stories.

Daffies

Blue Berries, in pink and blue (yes pink.)

Almost finished raised bed, you can see the start of the top plate

Apple starting to bud, I sure hope it has enough bandwidth to get the nutrients it needs from the app store.

So back to hardware store anxiety.  SO the lumber that I took back and then got again with Bryan... Apparently distracted by everything... bought the wrong one again.  The first time was an honest mistake of ignorance, the second time was just incompetence.  Also the tap measure I bought was missing, and my mental recording of the incident left it clearly on the self checkout machine at the store.  I hate those things, really honestly and truely.  They put people out of a job, piss me off, they don't work and they are slow.

I digress...

So back we go, third times the charm, this time with Evie.  I actually didn't take the wood back, I just couldn't face it, but I wanted to get my tape measure before I missed my window (I figure the same people on duty is usually helpful.)

Third time was barely better then the second, store was FULL, and lines long and filled with cranky people, and there were a lot fewer cashiers then before (and of course only those automated crapinals (t crap + terminals.)

I got out of their, mostly unscathed, but I feel like I've been pithed some days.  The rest of the day went well, lovely family dinner, Charlie and Alex kept B bouncing off the walls, and he pooped in the potty (yes these are the victories of my days :) )

Now is now, and I've typed much more, and for longer then I thought, bed time.

G out

Abuse of blog

Thought I would abuse my blog  in a more conventional (and thus trivial way) an inane status update about crap :)

Got a bunch of little tasks done around the house.  The TV is up on the wall, and I got some of the bathroom fixtures up.  Not that exciting I know... Worse, I'm going to tell you about my lunch, here I was going "hmm PB + Bacon" that would make a good sandwich, but then I found the tomato, and the roast chicken (real not that sliced stuff that is mostly "meat protein" and lettuce.  BOOM throw down some montray jack and you have yourself a bitching club sandwich.  I don't know what the fight was, or who my opponent was, by my sandwich won hands down.  To accompany my awesome sandwich was a fine episode of "The greatest tank battles" clearly, full of win!

In random news, apple finally did what I said they would do, they came out with a Mac Mini with HDMI, finally invalidating the Apple TV, and producing a device that I've been saying for years "all apple has to do is make this device and I will buy it."  Damn you Steve, damn you... This didn't even qualify as "key note" material for WWDC this was like an afterthought half way through WWDC, just like "By the way, we refreshed this."

Its a rough year for me and my apple fetish, between the iPhone 4, the iPad, the new Mini, and the laptop catastrophe I find myself being drawing to just get a direct withdrawal setup off my paycheck right into steve's pocket.

Ah well sammich eaten, tanks destroyed, time to get back to Mario.

Available For Sale

So my app is now available for sale within the iTunes App Store, Huzzah!

I think that this link will work :)

Done, finally, or is it just a begining?

So last night Apple finished processing my contract, and its robots accepted my application for review. I'm about 3 months late, but my app is done. By done, I don't mean that it is finished, but that the first full commercial ready release has been made. My hope is that I will begin to garner some success, and then follow up with more and better releases. All done in my two hour train rides to and from my real work.

Its been a heck of a ride, especially the last few months where real work has been sucking all the room out of my schedule leaving me fewer and fewer hours to work on my app, and the attention my app needed was more then just the one hour intervals could provide. Fixing a defect can take hours of analysis, especially when they are broken up over 5 days. The few last minute problems were all paper work, and graphical, my icon fought me for days, and required external help from Alex before I beat it in to shape. I don't like the final look of the icon, but dammit I decided release the damn app and fix the icon in a future release. Here it is in its fully res glory, and I won't shame myself here with the cruddite version embedded in my app:



For those who haven't seen it, here is a peak into my app:





What the heck is this? Well for those who are D&D 3.5 players out their, this is a spellbook of all the freely available d20 SRD spells. Its a life saver at the game table where I can look things up quickly with out digging through a book. There are a lot of features I intend to add (hides future features from prying eyes of competition) but those will come later.

In the mean time, I plan to sit back for a few weeks, knit a pair of socks (cast them on this morning,) get http://www.rpgtouch.com up and running, and do a whole heck of a lot of work-work in my spare time ):

Probably going to blog a bit more as well, but as always I won't make any promises.

Anyways trains in the stations ttyl.

Just touching base

Hey all, just touching base, nothing really exciting, but I felt I should post something. The house was certainly a spike in excitement, but now we can hurry up and wait. We are really excited, but essentially our hands are tied until Mattamy calls us up and tells us its time to start picking stuff. We tried going out to the design center but the cabinet choices aren't available yet, the price lists aren't available yet, and basically they aren't interested in seeing us for a few months. So hurry up and wait...

Around the house we have, we have started looking around and saying "Okay, what do we have to do to sell this place?" And more importantly is it something we can do sooner and enjoy for the 15 months we have left, or should we wait until the last minute. I think the truth is we need to wait until it gets warm enough to throw the windows open, as we have a lot of drywall repair and paint fumes in our future.

We had a family bout of cold/flu last week and we are all recovered, or at least 90%, but it has made this week tough, and last week worse. Mother nature hasn't really helped with heaps of snow and bad train service. Seriously Monday I was almost 2 hours late after what I can deduce as Go Transit literally greasing/icing their own tracks... Thankfullly Mom was able to pick me up from Meadowvale and get me home or I would have been later still.

I've managed to finish all the paperwork with all the various governments to establish myself as someone who may sell apps on the Apple App store, but now I need to get my act in gear and finish my app. It is also at about 90% but that last 10% is killing me. I know there is a memory leak issue, otherwise the functionality is done. I'm on the cusp of releasing a bad app and fixing it once I get customer bug reports, but I feel the heel for doing it. So I will work for 95% and leave customers with only the last 5. I'm motivated to get it done, because the more apps I can sell, the more upgrades I can get in my new place. If it is successful I have a few ideas percolating that I think will do well, and appeal to a broader customer base.

Anyways that is the news, g

What I'm up to

Not with standing I can't tell you what I do at work (at least not in a public forum like this,) I also am disinclined to say what I am doing on my commute. I will go so far as to say I am working on an iPhone app, and it is really coming together. I know my memory management techniques leave much to be desired, but I'm learning and refactoring as I go. I'm getting used to using the initFromNib concept to properly integrate with Interface Builder, so my UI is getting stronger. If I could get a cert from Apple, I think my app would be ready for release by Mid October. Come on Apple, take my $99 dollars and let me into the inner circle of developers for iPhone/iTouch.

Speaking of Apple products...

My new phone should be here today, my new iPhone, glee.

Oh as for my project for the device, I will be hosting it here.

That is your only clue.

Happy Leopard Day

Well folks the day has come, Leopard has been set free. Long have the engineers of Cupertino toiled in the Mac caves of 1 Infinity Drive to produce OS X Leopard aka 10.5.

I'm sure it won't be without its own foibles and follies, but initial reports are strong, and today is not a day to dwell on the problems, but celebrate something that sucks significantly less then Vista :)

With that in mind, I pirate and link for you The Joy Of Tech's tale of How the Gates Stole Leopard

Apple puts on a good show

Well I'm glad I got my prediction in on time, I was 2/3. I guess Leopard was a forgone conclusion, they have announced October, so they are going to ship October, no further comment required.

iMacs? Check, two nice refreshes, nice styling, nice price, nothing more to say here, they are iMacs, my MacPro is a better machine, but they are a great computer for lay users.

iLife and iWork? I feel I was a rare predictor, and I was more right then I could have imagined. Announced? check, release date? Today! Not bad, not bad at all.

They look spiffy, so I'm sure I will stack up on them once they are actually physically available so Eri can buy them with her education discount.

Back to work

g

Hype and Fuss

Well there is an Apple Press Conference starting shortly, and for the last week there has been a lot of fuss on the interwebs about what Steve will announce. Since this isn't a fully blown mega-nouncement, and they have already put down rumors of a new ipod or iphone and everyone is flapping about this thats or the other thing. I want to go on record with my prediction:

1) A final release date for Leopard with either new demoed features, or no demo, gawd don't need to see the same demo again.
2) A speculative time frame for iWork and iLife Rev's with possible demo
3) iMac update.

The last one I say, just cuz thats what everyone else is saying and I don't want to be left out of the party if they are right :P

Did anything get anounced at WWDC ?

Well I've been chewing on the WWDC keynote from yesterday (for those non-apple aficionado's that is the Apple World Wide Developer Conference) and I've been trying to figure out what was said that was important or new.

The thanks to Intel, was an acknowledgment of success, the Leopard features, well those were the dame as last year, iPhone, Apple TV, yup all old news. Which was really all a dénouement. Even the announcement that developers can create websites for the iPhone was self evident, and kind of depression.

Now don't get me wrong none of these things were a disappointment, but they weren't new, and thats what we expect from Steve Jobs these days, something new and awesome. I think I would have settled for an announcement of iLife and iWork, but no, none of that either.

So I'm wondering what was announced, anything? Then it came to me, and it was ever so simple and ever so subtle. That announcement is that Mac's star is rising. Mac is becoming more and more prominent in the Zeitgeist, and that has brought to light a very clear market with a very clear deficiency. Games, until now there has only been one company building games (for simultaneous release) for the Mac, and that's Blizzard. So the big announcement is not that ID, and EA are coming out with games for the Mac, but that ID and EA recognize the Mac as a growing market share among there target audience (which is not office PC users.)

So by a not so subtle endorsement, that for EA can only be built on a reasonable business case, Mac is on the rise, and that was Steve Jobs big announcement. It was not made with bravado or chest thumping, it was made by simple economics.

With that brings honest competition with consoles, and windows, and that is great for consumers.

Mac Blogging 101

Well Ladies and gentleman, I am officially online with my brand new MacBook Pro today. I suppose officially it isn't BRAND NEW, I opted for the refurbished product, but I don't say that to loudly around the MacBook, I don't want it to feel bad. Seriously, I've been giddy since friday when I put the order in, but much of that giddiness was defused into our trip to Ottawa, which was a worth while distraction. In fact I may have some more images around here once I get myself completely switched.

So for all the fun details of what I have here, well its a MacBook Pro to start, its running an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz. 2 GB of the ol'memory. Enough spinning media to make my media collection spin (I think that means I have 160 GB, it may only be 120 GB, boo hoo, still more then I have else where. The crowning glory of these machine is its monitor, 17 beautiful widescreen inches of glossy LCD wonder. I think it was actually poured from molten lustrium, a liquid known for both its luster, and ium...

Anyways, long times window user, recent Mac adocate, and new Macolite of the cult of Steve. (Which I note Steve in Zapfino looks particularly swank, I wonder who did that little flourish.) Sadly I am only composing in Zapfino, not posting, as only the Mac users could see its silliness.

Well thats the big news, its quiet at the house as we get ready for the coming party, I must remind all of the surprise guest who will be attending, but I can say no more. It is nice having the cats home, I suspect kids must be something similar with there seemingly frustrating and disruptive behavior being missed when not present. Loki is of course his usual bad self, and Aslan was a pretty sucky (in that positive way.)

Anyways thats the update. Next post will either be Ottawa posts, or something about global warming.

Lazy Blogging

Hey all, I'm just the laziest blogger lately. I can't really give you a good reason, so I won't.

Recently did some skiing, and basement work (its really almost done, just quarter round, and touch up painting :)

Heading up to Ottawa this weekend for Winterlude. I can't wait, going to see ice and ice related activities. Skate the canal, see the mint (I suppose thats always fun for either those who like to hold gold, or numismatist.) Speaking of numismatists, the Mint announced or at least confirmed that they are considering making a $1 000 000 dollar coin!

So pictures of Ottawa to come, and maybe some blogging as I turn to the dark side, or at least the shinny happy apple side! The lappy hasn't been ordered yet, but I have made the commitment to go Apple, and am just saving my clams up until I have enough. While I think John Hodgman personifies a PC in actually a flattering light, I must trade my suits and pocket protectors for the sexy sleek anodized aluminum, and feline grace of the OS X. I blame Loki, and Steve Jobs (For Erin: Jooorrrrrrrbbbbbbbbsssss.)

Anyways for those asking, I'm telling, love the new job! Look forward to work in the morning! But don't worry, I'm not a workaholic yet, I still look forward to Friday's with zeal :)

better blogging through effort coming soon

SylGeoff