Normally they're my sweet little darlings, but today? It was like there was this high pitched wail that started as soon as they woke up. It got louder through-out the day, and ended being at least 10 decibels louder than the last Metallica concert I attended.

I seriously have a headache!

The new modifications will actually allow us to purge not only deleted and suspended accounts, but inactive accounts as well, as announced in today's news post. This was not the only change put into the worker scripts; we also had to add logic that removed comments and community entries posted by accounts being purged.

Lovely, so all the people with whom I used to be friends, that commented on my lj, who are no longer active in lj or who deleted their accounts, will also have all their comments in my lj deleted, leaving those threads completely screwed for comprehension.

I'm not appreciating this.

Got back late yesterday from a long weekend at my mom's cabin. It was lovely... very restful. It's times like that when I wished I could take the summer off, and just enjoy it with the kids.

On a more serious note, I have to figure out what to do about the cabin's attic.

1) We found out we had a leak in the roof, so that's just lovely, it will have to be repaired.

2) We have a family of bats in there, and have had some for a couple of years. Except the family seems to have grown into a rather significant colony of a couple of hundred. Now we're pretty pro-bat here, but that many bats in my attic makes me a bit nervous that there could be some health concerns - and I mean health concerns in us staying at the cabin, not health concerns over going into the attic - we never go in (except for now that we have to repair the roof). I'm delighted that there's bats in there that will deter other things from living in there.

Saw some really nice bat houses online for a stupid amount of money. Don't really have that kind of cash lying around, so it looks like we'll have to try building some.

I think my cats would be in love with the bat house - it would provide them with hours of entertainment.

Will have to look into the bats thing a bit more. The more I read about them, the more I really want to get into bat conservation!

You know that little trip down memory lane I took the other night, listening to Roger Whittaker? Well I found this, and felt it was highly appropriate to post on Canada Day.



"CANADA IS was written by two young Canadians: Eric Robertson and Steve Hyde. To me it is special... very special. It sums up in words and music my feelings for a country I have visited and enjoyed so many times. I have sung it on countless occasions in concert since it was first recorded in 1974 and every time, without exception, it has been emotionally and movingly received.

In all my world travels, it is quite the loveliest tribute to any country I have ever heard. It is appropriate to release it as a single now. To Canada - Thanks for all our good times. I salute your future."
~ Roger Whittaker

In other news, I find it profoundly annoying that lj comment notification is slow when there is lj drama going on. Geez lj, get it together!

The kids had food poisoning on Sunday, which meant they couldn't go to daycare on Monday (sine we weren't positive at that time is was food poisoning). Since I'd been away from work all last week, Jason took the day off and stayed home with the kids. Since they seemed fine, he took them to the zoo, which was nice for all of them, since usually it's me who takes days off to do fun things with them.

One of the big attractions at the zoo, are the little feeding stations where you can buy seed for a $0.25, and feed the geese. The kids love it. Jason bought seed for both Alex and Stephen to feed the geese, both of whom have done this before.

Alex happily fed the geese. Stephen took one look at the bird seed, and promptly threw it all in his mouth. Apparently he was in need of a snack.

On this fine evening, I find myself remembering my father and some of the good times we had together. They included listening to Roger Whittaker. I love his music - seriously love it. I've spent the last couple of hours listening to some of my favs on YouTube.

I figured (tonight anyway) I won't subject you all to my nostalgic memories. but I will post this one song, because it is seriously the most amazing whistling I have ever heard in my life.

Lately, since the kids have been out in the sun, Alexandra's hair has been getting even more blond - practically platnim. She's been asking about her hair being yellow and everyone else's hair being brown. Jason was telling her how his hair was really blond too, when he was young.

Alex's response: "Daddy, YOU were young?"

Work:
At the end of April, one of the guest speakers at our annual research symposium invited me to do a joint presentation with him at next year's big international research conference. I was beyond flattered. I drafted a proposal and it was submitted today - we don't find out until October whether or not it's been accepted, but if it is, Seattle, here I come!

Home:
Since we were away for the May long weekend, we decided to open up the cabin this past weekend. We left on Saturday, and came back on Sunday. Somehow, we managed to fit in: Going to the play park; ice cream at the village store - twice; campfire with marshmallows; feeding the squirrel; watching the deer; going to the beach; visiting friends; and seeing a bear.

It makes me feel so good that my kids are developing the love for the lake that I have. Alex is asking constantly if we can go to the cabin. Stephen loves it there.

My dad and grandfather would be so pleased.

So yay, I got a new laptop!

So boo, I can't figure out the extra keyboard keys.

You know how on a standard keyboard, you hit SHIFT and the /? key to get the ?

Well on my laptop keyboard there's also an additional option, and that's E with an accent. It's in red. There are a number of other keys that also have this third option to them. Except that I can't for the life of me find the key that turns that third part on and off, and somehow, it got turned on.

So while I can easily reboot the computer to get it back to normal keyboard function, there are definitely times when I want that little e with the accent on it.

Can anyone tell me which key I want to turn it on and off, or help me figure out how I can find the answer?

This spring, we registered Alex for Kinder Soccer (Age 4-ish). I had really been targeting activities for her that would keep her moving, since she's such a spirited little one. I had figured that soccer would be a good fit for her, because of all the running involved. I did not consider the team aspect though.

The first class was... let's just say it was a disaster. It started out fine - she enjoyed running and kicking the ball. The problems started when they actually divided into teams to play something resembling a game.

Alex would run up to the ball, get ready to kick it, and then some other kid would steal the ball away from her. That's when the water-works started.

"Mommy! She's not sharing! She's not letting me have my turn!"

And then later on:

"They don't want to be my friend, they aren't sharing the ball."

My heart just about broke when I heard that.

Further complicating the issue, there were a couple of little kids out there who actually knew what they were doing, and this caused some problems - they would come up to the ball, steal it away, but then wouldn't actually pass it. It was a total clusterfuck.

I mean, I was expecting problems like not knowing where out of bounds are, and not knowing which goal was the one to shoot at... things like that. I did not at all appreciate that actually playing the game contradicted those values that we'd worked so hard to instill in her.

The next few classes were equally as painful. Fortunately though, Jason has been working really hard with her, to try to help her understand that it's just part of the game - it's not personal. He's doing this by providing a running commentary, suitable for a pre-schooler, during the hockey playoffs. It's pretty cute, but it's definitely worked.

Today, Alex played soccer, and there were no tears. Not only that, but she enjoyed herself, and she scored her first goal.