It’s supposed to be viciously hot this weekend for Hoopfest, so we are trying our best to stay out of the downtown area. We might catch a movie or something later to cool off. We did a little yard work this morning while it was cool (including repairing more sprinklers), but it’s started to heat up already.

The Website Is Down

Today we are mourning the loss of Lucky the Cat. He had gotten progressively more sick, and after a rough night, we decided to send him home this morning. He was a good boy and nothing will ever completely fill the hole in my heart he has left. I have put together a special album of all the pictures we’ve taken of him over the years. Please visit and hold his memory in your heart.

Lucky, I will miss you and love you always…

“No heaven will not ever Heaven be, unless my cats are there to welcome me.” —Author Unknown

NOTE: You can now watch the video in full HD resolution here. You can also download it, but bear in mind that at this resolution, the file size is around 266 MB.

And Spring arose on the garden fair, Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast rose from the dreams of its wintry rest. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Sensitive Plant”

Spring is definitely upon us here in the Inland Northwest. A 90+ heat wave has caused some serious snow melt and the Spokane River crested several feet above flood stage last weekend. We went down to Riverfront Park with the Melbys’ and took photos (see the album here). Also there is a small album of macro photos I took of various spring flowers in our yard. Film is expensive, but digital is free, right?

In other news, Jakki is terribly excited about how close she is to graduation. I’ve been brewing beer for her graduation party, and we are working on a slide show to show at the pinning ceremony. She’s on the graduation committee, assuring that things will be done right :)

In response to my inquiry, I received the following email, complete with more pictures:

Hello,

The laptop is still available and I hope you are still interested. My name is Kyle Mosson and I am now in Manchester, U.K. This machine has been used for professional needs over the past 10 Months, it is in great condition and runs perfectly, and beyond evidence of normal use the laptop is in perfect shape. The warranty is good until June 2008 and it is fully transferable. One more thing, it works on US voltage so you do not need a converter. I have attached some pics with the laptop to this e-mail so you can see the condition of the laptop. Please get back to me and let me know if you like the laptop if you’re really interested in buying it.

Thanks, Kyle

I was a bit skeptical about doing business overseas, so I searched Google and came up with this blog post detailing the exact message I received. I guess it was too good to be true. I reported the scam to the abuse desk at craigslist. Craigslist is such a wonderful tool, I have bought several things locally on it, but I guess as it gets more popular there will be an increase in scams like this.

UPDATE (4/29/2008): The ad mentioned above has been taken down from the Spokane craigslist.

Instead, I’m using some clever DHTML javascript to build an N-column table and populate it dynamically with a JSON call out to the Picasa web API.

Read on for instructions and code on how I built mine.

Drop whatever you are doing and check out the music and other things at www.whitegoldiswhitegold.com

Now I need to find a source for gold-flake Chuck Taylor high tops…

UPDATE: The upgrade to MT4 is done. Now I just need to re-prettify the templates. That should keep me off the streets for awhile… This weekend we are expecting snow, if you can believe it; so I’ll be cuddling up with a warm cuppa and my favorite web tools.

Thanks to everyone for the e-cards, blog comments, letters and other support.  When things get rough in the hospital, it's wonderful to be reminded of those who care.  Thanks and blessings to all!