Rain

Posted on September 17, 2005 by Donna

It’s raining in Alaska. That pretty much sums up what scenery I have seen so far.

Steven turned a big one year old yesterday. He hasn’t taken his first steps yet, but I bet he will before another couple of weeks. Megan is a first grader and starting to read. She recited a 10 line poem about fall this morning to me (she has memorized it), and read Sleepy Bear to her mom and me.

We went up to Ken’s parent’s house last night. They have a beautiful mountain home with an incredible view of the bay out one side and a glacier out the other. They are surrounded by woods, and Steve has cultivated wild flowers and wild strawberries all over the property. We had homemade pizza (for Steven’s birthday dinner) and afterwards toasted marshmallows in the outdoor fireplace. Megan did a really good job of making a nice puffed centerless one to go on a tasty S’more.

It’s raining this morning, so today we are going to take in a film on the Alaska wilderness at the Imax theater. Maybe it will clear off before too much of the day is over and I will be able to see the mountains instead of just the clouds. The trees are in their fall beauty. They are mostly yellow, orange, green and gold. Robin and Ken say the mountains look like a patchwork quilt from Anchorage, but I have yet to see them because of the clouds.

I have some pictures, but forgot to bring my connection cord, so they will have to wait until I get home. Maybe I can get some of Robin’s uploaded in the meantime.

By the way, did I mention it’s raining in Alaska?

Posted in Travel | 1 Comment

I’m off!

Posted on September 14, 2005 by Donna

I leave in about three hours for the airport and will be in Anchorage tomorrow morning. I arrive at 12:42 a.m. local time.

I stopped by to see Nathan and Lauren today. I told Nathan I was going to see his cousin Megan, and he remembered that I would see Steven too. I promised I would call so he would be able to talk to Megan on the phone while I am there. He said he wanted to talk to Steven too. We’ll have to see about that!

Robin said the mountain is just coming into the fall chill and the colors are getting vibrant. I can’t wait to see that, and I’ll take pictures and post them on my gallery.

North to Alaska!!

Posted in Travel | 4 Comments

Sabbatical!

Posted on September 10, 2005 by Donna

My sabbatical started last night and I couldn’t even write about it until today. My cable has been out. There was a microburst yesterday afternoon and it downed power lines, which in turn, knocked out CableAmerica in a large portion of Mesa. I’ve had to watch TV from rabbit ears! Cable came back on tonight in the middle of the Diamondbacks game (which we won, I might add.)

But back to the most important event in my little world. Sabbatical! As I drove out of the Intel parking lot last night, I called Daryl, because I knew he would understand the elation. Then I called Alice, then Mom, then Robin. It feels good. It won’t really sink in and feel real, though, until Monday morning when everyone is getting up and going to work except me. All right, I know there are people who read my blog who don’t get up and go to work on Monday mornings, but I’m talking about my co-workers in my department still trying to tape out that chip. Yes, it slipped the deadline, and they are still working on it. But not me! I have 10, count ’em … TEN … glorious … weeks!!!

I’m leaving on Wednesday night for Alaska. I talked to Robin last night, and it looks like I’m going to need to pack sweaters and pants. Their highs have only been in the 50s. We had our last forecasted 100 degree day today, so fall is on the horizon, but it’s going to be a few weeks before our high is only 50. The Alaska temps will sure feel chilly.

With the disaster in Mississippi and Louisiana, Glenda and I are waiting to see if our road trip plans still make sense by October. If gas prices continue to hover around $5-6.00 a gallon in some parts of the country, we may make some adjustments to our route. We are also waiting to see when we can leave. Glenda’s dad is having surgery as soon as he is able (he is battling an infection that needs to get cleared up before they will operate on his hip). Of course, Glenda needs to be here with him until he is over the hardest part of his recovery. So we may not leave here until the first or second week of October instead of the last week of September. Since I took an extra two weeks of vacation, we have until mid-November to complete our travels.

Be sure to check out Heather and Mark’s website. They’ve joined the blogging world.

Posted in Life & Family | 1 Comment

Just had to share

Posted on August 29, 2005 by Donna

I ran across a website the other day called “This is Broken“. Pretty fun stuff. From there I linked to here, a website full of signs and manuals that should have been run past a proof reader. These got me giggling, and the more I clicked, the more I laughed. By the time I got to page 5, I couldn’t stop. Maybe it was because I was reading it really late on Saturday night (early Sunday morning), or maybe they really are funny. But I sure got a kick out of them.

Posted in Life & Family | 4 Comments

It’s working!

Posted on August 27, 2005 by Donna

My new security features seem to be working. Today I haven’t gotten any unwanted messages. However, poor Lauren’s site is getting more and more spam on her guestbook. We got that set up a few weeks ago so that Daryl, Brian, Carrie, or I could approve or delete entries before they show, but there is nothing to prevent them from coming in (and awaiting our approval). Each day, we have about 2 dozen to delete from the hidden waiting list. At first they were pornographic, but lately they seem to be mostly marketing ones. Maybe we can get Daryl to install some stop-gap feature like we have for our blogs, or maybe we should move the site to WordPress.

I stopped by Mom’s tonight to pick up a poncho she knitted for me. I saw a cute pattern a few months ago and asked her to make one for me to take on my fall trips. She worked feverishly to finish it in time. In fact, she was well ahead of time, because it’s still 112 degrees! I won’t be wearing it for a while. But thanks, Mom! It’ll feel good in Maine in October.

Posted in Blog | Comments Off on It’s working!

Hit with spam

Posted on August 26, 2005 by Donna

Twenty four hours ago, my blog began to be hit by spammers. There were about a dozen comments this morning, so I set it so I have to approve an entry before it gets published. But that left the problem of me still getting numerous hits that I constantly have to manage. So tonight, Daryl installed a security feature for me. It’s the one Don uses. You will now have to enter a numerical code that you see in a small graphic window to post a comment. This ensures that only live people can post comments, and not automatic entries. I am keeping the approval requirement for a few days to ensure this keeps out the junk. I also set up a blacklist of common spam words, and if anyone uses them in a comment, it automatically gets nuked. So be careful what you say or it won’t make it to the internet … at least not on azdonna.com.

Posted in Blog | 3 Comments