I logged into my Instant Messenger accounts this morning and was immediately pounced upon by an unknown person. The conversation went something like this.

unknownPerson: hotgrits? great name! lol!
h0tgrits: hi. who are you?
unknownPerson: just a guy from Ohio. I saw your name on the [geeky forum’s] member list
h0tgrits: ah, ok

(A minute or two goes by. I’m hoping that’s the end of this.)

unknownPerson: so are you from the South?

(Pause. Is this guy still hanging around?)

h0tgrits: why do you ask?
unknownPerson: grits are in the South
h0tgrits: actually, its a slashdot reference
unknownPerson: oh! I am so uninformed…lol

(pause)

unknownPerson: what is slashdot?

(I could see that one coming. One too many lol’s and no idea what Slashdot is. What am I doing here?)

h0tgrits: slashdot.org
h0tgrits: hey, nice chatting with you. I’ve got to get to work.
unknownPerson: ok lol. goodbye

I then decided to check my profile for this IM account. Aha! Years ago, I listed my gender as “female” to mess with the corporate bean counters at the IM Corporation.

I’ve just been hit on over the Internet.

Whenever we hear an approaching train, we’ll ask if Hallie wants to go out to wave to it. We’ll then spend the next few minutes listening to the gathering thunder as the train gets closer. When it finally appears, we’ll both wave excitedly at the engineers. A few Saturdays ago, the engineer waved back and honked the horn just for Hallie. That thrilled her to no end, as you can imagine. I’m sure my neighbors had differing opinions, as it was barely 8 o’clock.

This past Saturday it was too rainy to watch from outside. I thought we’d miss our chance to wave to the train. All I could do was hold Hallie up at the window so she could catch a glimpse.

Instead of disappointment, something sweet happened. The instant the engineer came into sight, he waved and honked for Hallie, though all he could have possibly seen was a little face in the window. He had been looking out for her. It was very cool, and only adds to the magic regard I hold for trains and their crews.

Kelly said she and Hallie waved to another train today. As it sounded its horn, Hallie’s whole face lit up. Beaming from ear to ear, she then turned to Kelly and gave her the biggest, sweetest hug! Oh, how I wish I could have seen that!

Moments like these pass as quickly as these trains that rumble by. I hope I appreciate each and every one before there’s nothing left but dust and fading echoes.

I got home about the time Hallie was waking up from her nap. The whole family was on her bed, catching up on each’s day. The weather was too gorgeous for me to stay inside, so I suggested we all go out on the porch instead.

Travis and I settled down on the swing just as the neighborhood kids came out to play. Soon Hallie was among them, with Kelly and I watching proudly from the porch. Before long, the rest of our neighbors were out and about. I sipped a beer as I wandered after Hallie. While she played with her friends, I caught up with neighbors I hadn’t spoken much with for months.

It all reminds us again and again just how cool it is that we live in this neighborhood. It is the perfect place for Hallie and Travis to grow up!

Tomorrow marks the first full week at work without our Fearless Leader. Folks seem to have made the transition fairly easily, though it is a little quieter than usual.

One monkey still on my back is the quest for new office space. Though I’ve made significant progress, not a day goes by that someone doesn’t hound me about the process. I sure wish this decision was made long ago and by someone else, but that’s not what leadership is about. The buck has been passed to me and it is mine to act upon.

Fortunately, I’ve found an office candidate that doesn’t suck as bad as the others. If the so-called due-diligence gets done properly, we can finally move and be done with it. And I can go back to running the company. Or at least helping to run it.

I’m headed south to PC on Friday to pick up bedroom furniture that used to belong to my grandmother. It’s a long haul (11 hours each way), but I’ve done it enough that I tolerate it well. My goal is to be back late Saturday night, but I’ve got plenty of time built in to return Sunday if need be.

It will be very strange seeing my grandmother’s house empty. In addition to Grandma of course, the furnishings I’ve known all my life will be gone. It may be good therapy, though, to see it empty. The curtain has gone down on another performance and the stage has now been cleared.

Three weeks to Italy. Not that I’m counting or anything.

We got some comments from passing neighbors about our fantastic lawn. Until they praised it, all I saw was the weeds that still litter it. Stepping back, though, I came to appreciate how far it’s come. There was nothing but weeds last year, and I couldn’t wait to get some real grass. It may not be perfect, but its worlds better than it was.

We’re also considering landscaping options. The front of the house gets quite warm in the afternoon sun. Having some shady trees in front would be just the thing to cool us off.

Another pending landscaping job is regrading our backyard so that water doesn’t pool in it. We’ve got some quotes out on that job now and hope to get it done after we return from out trip. So many improvements to make, so little time. And money, for that matter.

I haven’t done much writing lately and I miss it. The previous excuses of taxes and March Madness have faded. I think I get lackadasical about writing when others on my blogroll get slack, too. Dadgum peer pressure.

I had fun taking this U.S. Navy Slang Quiz. Got a perfect score, too, which surprised me a bit as there were two questions I wasn’t sure about.

Let’s see how salty y’all are!

I don’t know if I posted about this or not, but I was all happy with my new Sipura SPA-841 VoIP phone … until it died. Yep, croaked. About two weeks from putting it on my desk, it became deaf to the network. The only thing worse than the buzzing sound was it dropping dead.
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There’s no better alarm clock than the smell of freshly-baked bread. Mmmmmm. We make bread about once a year it seems. Got to do it more often. Good stuff!

Speaking of alarms, the alarm at one of the commercial businesses nearby sounded all night long. That’s not neighborly of them.

Saw today’s obituary for Don Murray, the Raleigh barbecue maven who opened Don Murray’s Barbecue on Capital Boulevard. Quoted is his one-time employee, Silas Gooch, who called him “’bout top” in terms of influence over the vinegar-based barbecue of Eastern North Carolina. Murray was 64.

Ten years ago, my fellow coworkers at HAHT Software and I would occasionally eat lunch at Don Murray’s. The colorful Silas was frequently our server. Silas made such an impression that he was forever immortalized at HAHT by having a fileserver named after him.

But that’s neither here nor there. Silas is still at Don Murray’s. Don Murray is not, and hasn’t been for a while. He sold his namesake restaurant long ago. Still, the Don Murray barbecue experience was something you couldn’t miss.

Especially the banana pudding.

My server was down this morning between 9:30 and 12:30 PM due to an unexpected power-down. I’m still investigating the cause, but I think I’ll use this incident to consider beefing up the server itself. Perhaps a dual-ide software RAID setup or something.

Look for the system to be down this weekend as I implement my evil upgrade plan!

If we could harness the power of our Founding Fathers spinning in their graves, we would easily meet all of the country’s energy needs.