Piles o'Loot

  There are a couple of piles stacking up in a spare bedroom of loot, one for me and one for my wife. There is even a small pile of a few things for the cats. Looking at it all there is quite a bit there. It starts each year with deciding which big present to get each other and then expands from there. Over time we both just buy small things in the run up to Christmas and then relatives start buying us things. In the weeks leading up the piles just get bigger and bigger. Right now it is almost enough to cover a bed if you laid everything out and even stacked as they are it still covers a fair chunk of it. Not a bad haul for someone who used to get maybe a dozen small things from parents and 3 sets of aunts and uncles and 2 sets of grandparents. Nowadays my wife and I get each other far more than we used to get. I suspect there is even more we would like to get each other but they would just be big expensive things that we can get any time of year.

  I think back to those old Christmases I had when I was a child and I can barely remember any of them. I can remember a few nice presents I got but rarely anything about the actual days. The odd memory from my teenage years when we would always go to one relative or another for one of the Christmas or Boxing day meals but other than that not much really. Nothing specific at least. Vague memories of what we would do and eat. Getting in to the time with my wife I can obviously remember more it being more recent and all of those have involved present opening, a big dinner which we both scoff down with surprising speed (it really is that good) and then time together playing with whatever we got that year.

  Less than a week now until we can do that all again. The ripping open presents, the moving cats of piles of wrapping paper they are trying to play with, the cooking and eating, the lazing about enjoying the day, the tea made from dinner leftovers and other stuff and finally one last big flop down stuffed to the gills after enjoying the day.

  Hmm, here's an idea. Why don't we do that every week :) .

A Bit Too Far

  After that snow we had the other day the weather went a bit to far in to the getting cold direction. As in down to -16C which is way colder by a good 12C than it normally gets here. As a consequence our water from the well has frozen in the pipes and we have no water pressure. Not good although we do have almost 2000 gallons of water in the storage tank to use so we are not totally stuck, just buckets are required to fill up the toilets and we have to boil water in a pot to wash dishes.

  Still it shows we can survive here when it gets pretty bad. Driving in to town has been ok if a little dodgy in a couple of places on the road. Some quite severe ice in a few places meant being very careful but we got there and back safely. Heck even the UPS driver made it to our house but a pox on the Fedex driver who hasn't made it our here for 3 delivery attempts in a row now (well two out for deliveries and one day where they have not even tried).

  I think we may actually have water tomorrow. Today we got to just about freezing point and some of the ice and snow it melting a bit. If that can continue the pipes should thaw out (especially now that I've lagged them, there were exposed before) and pressure will come back. If it doesn't then another call to the well people is in order to get them to look at it and sort it out. Fun.

  Anyway, the debate now is what to have for dinner. Eat out and save on washing and stuff or do a frozen premade dinner in the oven so we don't have to make stuff dirty with cooking.

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Well it is snowing here at the house. The first time it has snowed at the place we live since we moved to the USA and for quite a few years since we lived in England (seriously, I can't remember the last time we had a good snow back there). Outside has a good coating and it is still coming down. It should be like this all day, I just hope it sticks around for a little bit so we can enjoy it this weekend. The temperatures are certainly right for it, below freezing for a few days more, it would just be nice to get a decent depth to it all.

  It does feel kind of magical again, having this white stuff which I suppose is just frozen rain, tumbling out of the sky and covering everything in sight. It reminds me of when I was a child when it seemingly snowed every winter and not just every now and then that it did when I got older. If we can get weather like this through to the end of the month we can have a white Christmas for the first time in what has to be over 2 decades.

  I don't know, maybe I'm excited about this since it has been a long time that we have had snow. Maybe it is just another sign that we are so much better off in this house than the last one. Whatever it is it makes me and my wife happy and that is all that matters.

Almost Christmas

  Well it is almost Christmas again. Given how organised my wife is we have everything is pretty much ready to go. Food has been acquired, presents have been bought, decorations are now up and Christmas cards have been sent. We have even gotten the cold weather now (like really cold, below freezing cold) and might get a day or two of snow although I doubt it will hang around.

  Still it means we can have a great Christmas of food, sweets, loot and good time together. My wife and I have had Christmas on our own together for most of our marriage. Pretty much since we moved to the USA and escaped our families. Only 3 weeks to go now until a day of gluttony :) .

  Life around here has been fairly normal. Archer has completely settled in now, he gets along with us and the other cats with no problems and treats here as his home as he should. He is also easy to tempt on the sofa, just put down a soft fleece blanket and he will jump up and curl up on the blanket. He won't use the cat baskets at all it seems but give him a nice blanket to lay on and he will spend hours there. Also considering his age he plays quite a bit and gives the girls a run for there money when they get rowdy. He is turning in to a pleasure to have around.

  In other stuff my wife is recovering from the burn on her hand nicely now. The dead skin has all peeled off and the new skin is growing and healing. It should be back to normal soon which is nice considering how big of a burn it was. The way some people panic over the slightest injury it really makes me wonder what it would take for my wife to have to go to the emergency room. True I don't bother going to the doctor for anything much either but some people must really go for the stupidest small injury the way they talk about things.

  One final important piece of news, I managed to get my 20th platinum trophy over the weekend. Woo me huh? Sure some people have loads but I never thought I would get this many given that I really don't play games for the huge amounts of time that some other people seem to. Also since I got a deal on Playstation Plus I now have a load of "free" games that I can play in the run up to Christmas. I've tried a couple and they are pretty good if not as great as some games. Not a bad thing considering how cheap I got them for and I managed to get a couple of PS4 games for free with this as well. It will be nice to see what other games come along in the future with this.

Husband Cooking

  My wife is being subjected to me "cooking" most of the food at the moment. She burned the palm of her left hand on the fireplace which managed to get far too hot and almost pour smoke in to the house eventually setting off all the smoke alarms (which required turning of the power so I could go around and disconnect them all). I say "cooking" since generally it involves heating up premade stuff or my usual making easy breakfasts and lunches. I suspect there may be some eating out coming around as well. In fact we are doing that for thanksgiving, going to a local place for the traditional dinner (although we will substitute the pumpkin pie) on Thursday so that is one less meal to make.

  Even with all this I don't think we are going to die from food poisoning from my attempts to make food. I still need to decide what to do tonight (or what to reheat from the precooked stuff in the freezer) which means another decision that I'm not very good at making. Not good as in when I do eventually come up with an idea it usually isn't that great. I really have no idea what to do with food, I could just eat the same thing over and over and be alright about it. When I used to eat breakfast in the office it would be the same thing every day, some form of bowl of cereal. Then when we had a cafeteria it would be the same sandwich over and over again. They used to know exactly what I wanted when I went in since I had it so often. It is one less thing to think about and decide on. Then again maybe I could decide that my wife and I should eat poutine for dinner every day :| .

Sad Times

  It has been sad around here recently with Andy no longer being with us. Getting over not having her around any more has been hard even though she was with us for just two years. We put her stuff away over the weekend and not having that large habitat on the chest of drawers in the bedroom makes it seem empty. That and not hearing her rustling around or running in her wheel at night. The cats though have been super attentive as well, when we sit on the sofa at least one and up to four of them will sit with and around us on the sofa. They have made it easier by being there with us.

  On to something else though, dwelling on Andy makes me too sad. The weather here is so much colder now, it has been frosty every morning for like 5 days in a row now. Considering we never had that in California it is great to see weather again. Proper amounts of rain, temperature changes and a definite different feeling to the world around you during different parts of the year. Sure it gets cold and my wife got blankets for us to keep warm under in the evening but to be honest its great. I've missed this.

  Other than that I have been looking after the neighbours pets the last few days. I had them come around in a panic the other day since they were just about to go on holiday (like the next day) and their pet sitter had pulled out. So twice a day I'm walking over to feed the dog and cat they have. I've only seen the cat running across the house a couple of times but every time I go over there the dog is so happy to see me. It clearly loves attention like most dogs, they require someone to be there. Fortunately I've also managed to keep it quiet so my wife doesn't hear barking. We shall see if I can finally tempt the cat out but no luck so far. From what I've seen it is quite small.

  Anyway, I need to get on with a bit of work and make some lunch so off for now. I have no idea when I'll next write on here, maybe when things feel a bit more normal and we aren't quite so sad.

Thank You Andy

  We did something last night we have not had to do for almost 14 years. Say goodbye to a pet. I found Andy dead in her little nest last night while going to bed. She had obviously died in her sleep. We took her out and buried her safely in the garden. We had her for two years so obviously we have grown very attached. Saying goodbye is so hard.

  So thank you Andy for being the cutest little hamster who loved to run, sort food in to piles of types and build huge nests to snuggle down in to. You were so small but have had a big impact on both of us. We love you little one, rest easy.

Eye Stabbing

  My wife went for another eye stab this morning. She gets dilated and her retinas checked and the last few visits they have injected her eye with medication. This means numbing it, holding it open with a device and then literally injecting with a needle in to the eye ball. She is so brave to have that done. I know the needle doesn't go directly in to the eye but she ends up half blinded from brightness since her eyes are fully dilated in daylight, in pain from the injection and blurry vision from it as well. No way I could go through that.

  Our new cat Archer has settled down a lot and recovered from his fungal thing he had going. He is even seemingly playing with Lucy a bit with them chasing each other around and batting at each other. No claws or hissing yet so we have to assume it is play, it is just like Lucy and Daisy chase each other around and they are sisters.

  The weather here where we live now is so much better or at least more varied. We have had sunshine, rain, foggy days and varied temperatures. Much more like I had when growing up and definite seasons here with all the leaves and clear weather turning at the end of summer. Much more preferable I think. Sunshine for most of the year is nice but it comes with heat problems and much higher skin problems from all that sunshine. Another point for this house over our old one with its location.

What We Do For Nice Stuff

  Yesterday, in order to get some nice stuff to eat for Christmas, we drove the 130 or so miles to the nearest shop that carries a lot of English food. It took over 2 hours, fortunately the vast majority of it simply driving down the freeway, so we could visit one specific shop and get the exact things my wife and I like to have at Christmas. All those little things you like to eat that make it a special time. Even with all that driving I didn't give a damn. We got so much good stuff that it is all worth it. We will have everything we want come Christmas from food to presents. The thought of driving all that way for all that time didn't bother me at all since I knew the result what be worth it.

  It is strange to consider what we do for the things we really want. Normally I don't enjoy long drives too much after having done so much driving in my life so far. This though I did without a second thought. The reward from doing it so greatly outweighed the bit of annoyance getting the physical act of going and getting the stuff took that even now I really have forgotten it as it were. Weird that really, all that driving and doing stuff but it just became something that was largely automatic and so easy for me now. I was such a nervous driver at first all those years ago, not having a car of my own and borrowing my parents whenever I wanted to drive somewhere. Now though it is something I can almost do in my sleep since I've had so much repetition of it.

  Anyway, good to know that we can go through so much for what we want. Luckily though being with my wife and getting the things we want is pretty easy now. My wife is so great to be with that I consider myself lucky to be the one to do it and the slight annoyance of working is pretty bearable now I can do it in the comfort of my own home. It made all those years of hard slog, commuting, dealing with idiots and doing crap I really didn't enjoy worth it in the end.

Lunch And Prizes

  Another day working from home so another day going out for lunch with my wife. I have had eaten out more with my wife in these last few months than the last few years possibly. Being at home all day makes it so easy to just nip out and grab a bite to eat for lunch. It is very cool to be able to do this, step away from work and get out of the house with my wife. Heck even eating lunch at home with my wife every day is so great and such a change from my old working routine.

  In competitions this week I'm up to 26 out of 28 entries in to a competition for money and stuff for playing Borderlands 2. Sure there are probably a lot of people entering this but with a grand prize, 4 sets of weekly prizes and some other random prizes I have to win something right? That is how odds work huh :) . Then there is the competition I entered using the trophies I earned playing games via Sony. All those gold trophies (113 of the 2678 I have) can be used as entries so with those I now will have 141 entries to win something. Even better odds. Really hoping something comes of all this even though I have had fun doing everything required to get the trophies or boss monster kills to get an entry. Also hoping I win something so my wife who suffered through all that game playing I've done didn't suffer for nothing.

  I think the only strange thing is that this Borderlands 2 competition ends in two days so I won't have an excuse to play the game for a little bit every day. I suspect I will play a lot more of the game but won't get anything from it other than fun from playing. Given that I'm getting to the high level areas with serious powers now there is a good challenge but also serious carnage. All that playing has paid off with some seriously good game play the higher level stuff has.

  Anyway, I'm off to finish some work and then go relax again for the rest of the day. I'm definitely used to this easier life now and could in no way go back to how we used to live.

Still Happy Cat

  Well the results of Fudge's test came back and he did have a cancerous growth in him. The surgery got it out and it isn't going to spread to other areas so no chemo or treatment. The only thing we need to do is keep an eye out for if it comes back in the same spot.

  For all this Fudge shows none of it. He is still the same old happy cat he always is. He comes trotting over to us as soon as he sees us looking at him. He will be purring his head off and want nothing more than to be with you. An animal that is more overjoyed to be with someone I've never seen, he loves every moment of being with us. He has always been like that and shows no signs of the surgery and the lump cut out of him. As long as he stays that way this illness will have had zero negative effect on him. Strange to think of it like that where he had something growing in him that shouldn't be there but it didn't affect him at all.

  We want Fudge to be around for a good bit longer still. If he gets better from this and it doesn't grow back I suspect he will.

Nice Stuff

  I stayed up late last night, just past midnight, in order to place an order for my wife's Christmas present. The item I am getting her was available to buy from that time. Within a couple of minutes I had the order placed and guaranteed she will get what I wanted to get her for Christmas. It means she will definitely get something really nice which I try my best to make sure she always has.

  When I was younger and heck even when first working I didn't have much money. Getting gifts for my wife was hard and I really had to plan ahead. Now though it is much easier to find the money to buy something nice for her and I really enjoy doing it. I want her to have the things neither of us could have growing up and when we were first married. Being at this point in life is so much less stressful than a couple of decades ago in that way.

  The even cooler bit was I managed to get yet another trophy on a PS3 game last night about 10 minutes to midnight. Not bad timing to be honest. This trophy though has some form of us, it was a gold one which can currently be used in a sweepstakes to win prizes from Sony. Hah, all that time playing games paid off :) . I think I'm at 2664 trophies now, not a bad haul. By the time I start earning them on the PS4 I should be closer to 2700 at a guess with the trophies left to earn in the games I'm playing. It is nice to look back on them and see a record of what I played when and everything I've done in games. Some of them don't serve much purpose but others do bring back memories of the game and the fun I had playing it. A nice little visual history of me playing.

Cats Are Strange

  Archer has settled in with all the other cats now it seems. He has been here 3 weeks and is used to the routines and the house now. He happily wanders around looking at stuff, has found multiple places to curl up and sleep in although like most cats he uses one place for a few days and then moves on to somewhere else. Fudge seems to be the only one who sticks to one place. During the day when he sleep you will always find him in his tunnel near the desk where I work.

  Archer though has started to vocalise some things. When exploring around he will chirp and make squeaky noises. He will also happily chase a red laser pointer although now quite as enthusiastically as the girls given his age and weight. The other night he even spent a good amount of time curled up on my wife's lap rolling over on to his back getting a tummy rub and stretching out with his paws.

  All this playing around and making noises does make you wonder what cats think about though. What is Archer thinking when he chirps and is looking around? Why does Fudge love purring so much especially when he sees us. Is he always that happy to see us? I would hope so. Still I would love to know what they think some of the time. Get to know the easy life of our cats kind of thing.

Building Blocks

  More thinking going on right now in my head. I have a few ideas on some basic building blocks for the large feature in the next release of software we are doing at work. It will be something everyone needs to use and is a vast improvement over what is currently used. Still is requires some careful thinking since it will be the basic building block for a long while. I did something similar in the very first release of our product, well quite a few of us did really. A few of us senior guys came up with the framework of how the underlying interworking of the various systems will be and created it.

  That initial framework is still in place and now almost 3 years later has been functioning flawlessly for most of that time. There were a couple of issue but mainly in how people used it and even then not in the stuff I created :) . The overall thing though is to design this kind of thing properly in the first place. If you mess this up then everyone who builds on what you created is going to have a real problem down the line. It gives me a lot to think about and try and cover all the uses cases and make sure it works every time.

  Times like this I can really like my job, something interesting to think about and create something that everybody uses. Even if they don't realise it they are using my stuff and it is just working for them time after time after time. It is a nice feeling being able to do that.

More Waiting

  This time of year always seems to be the waiting game. Work is waiting for the code we have been working on for months to finish testing and get released for the world. Home is waiting for Christmas and all the food, loot and time with my wife. Also more waiting this week until we know the results from Fudge's test and if he is ok or needs some other treatment.

  I find that I can only get through these times if I do something to distract myself from it all. For me that is usually lots of game playing and with the games I'm playing this year I suspect I'll be set for quite a while. With Borderlands 2 and the competition stuff that is running right now (17 entries and counting for me so far), Diablo 3 and trying to reach the highest level and hardest difficulty and the mass of stuff still left to do in GTA V. All that playing and a lot of TV to watch with my wife in the evening means I generally can keep myself busy a lot of the time. It makes the waiting easier and with my wife and cats around me I can't think of a better way to spend it really.

Yay Fudge

  Well Fudge went in to the vets today to get a lump looked at. The vet didn't like the look of some cells in the sample taken so he took him for surgery to remove the lump. The surgery just finished and Fudge is coming back around. Hopefully this will be the last of it and the results of the tests that come back in a week will be ok and there will be no more problems with Fudge. Still it is good to know everything went so well and easily with Fudge. As usual everyone there loved him since he is a lovely friendly cat who just wants to be fussed. He did hide a bit after being poked and amazed the vets yet again by his ability to simply jump down and get in to his carry case. He is such a great cat. I can't wait until he comes home again this afternoon with his collar on to make sure he doesn't disturb his stitches.

A Rural Life

  Went out today to a state park nearby to see the sights and walk around in the countryside. Compared to where we used to live there is so much more rural areas around here. Today there was trees changing colour (something we rarely saw), a river to walk along, people fishing, lots of birds and various wildlife all around. It is something we never really saw where we were given the climate and mass of people where we used to be. Here though it is so common to see animals around since there are so much fewer people here.

  It really does feel like somewhere out of the way even with the people around here. Sure it isn't completely isolated but it doesn't take much to get away from other people. In the park we were at we saw maybe 10 other people in the almost 2 hours we were there. Heck one of them was even openly carrying along a hunting gun on his was to the wildlife refuge to hunt some animals or more likely ducks/geese. You would never have seen that in California.

  All this and it was a quick 40 minute drive away from the house. A change to get away from people, enjoy being out in nature and get a bit of a walk/hike in. Pretty damn good rural life I would say.

Easy To Please

  Talking to my wife earlier about what I want for Christmas and the PS4 I have preordered is all I really want. Obviously a few games to go with it but with that I'm happy and set for presents. We also talked earlier about if we are happy living where we do and came to the conclusion that we are. There is very little to complain about and once we redo a few bits of the house more to our liking it will feel like home. Give me a few yummy things to eat with Christmas and somewhere to cuddle up with my wife and I'll be a happy little guy.

  I don't know, I just don't seem to crave too much. I just want a few things that I enjoy to spend my spare time with and enough food to keep me sated. That and being able to be with my wife and I'm pretty much set for everything I need. I really am that easy.

Plan Ahead

  It seems my wife as usual is planning far further ahead than me. She has already acquired several of my Christmas presents where as I am only just getting around to ordering some. True her main one I can't get until next month but by the time most people actually start Christmas shopping my wife has finished. She really does get a good head start on things, something that just hasn't rubbed off on me even after all these years. Strange.

  I have no idea why this is clearly, I know things are coming and deal with them as they arise but getting stuff done way ahead of time never seems to be my thing. The end result is quite often the same although occasionally I can't get something due to leaving it too late but that isn't always the case. Damn you limited quantities, why isn't everything in the world infinite :| ?

Really Old Man

  I may be a relatively older person now but I'm nowhere near the equivalent that our cat Boots is. He is 14 now which equates to someone in their 70s or so I think. He Just had his yearly check up and vaccinations and he is pretty damn healthy. They could find nothing wrong with him, especially for his age. Other than the hyperthyroidism we treated him for a few years back he has been a healthy guy. He may be a bit slower now and sleep quite a bit more but if the vet is anything to go by he is in really good shape. A testament to how well we have looked after him and what a great cat he is I suppose.

  It would be good if both my wife and I could be as healthy as him when we are the same age he is. Admittedly if we had someone to look after us and give us our every need all the time it would be easier to do that. Something to look forward to in our older years so we can be as happy and as healthy as good old Boots.

Other People

  Well we met a whole bunch of our neighbours on Saturday and we are definitely the youngest around here by about 20 years at least. Admittedly people did think we were in our 30s instead of our 40s as we actually are but still, being the youngest does make you feel better about getting old. The snacks my wife made went down really well and we sent one guy home with the leftovers of one of them since he liked it so much. All in all it worked out well and everyone around here seems reasonable and lives here for the same reason as us, somewhere quiet to live in peace and get away from it all.

  In other news the new cat Archer has now settled in nicely, he for the last few nights he will come up to us on the sofa and sit with and around us. Either curled up near my wife or stretched out on the sofa back. He also isn't eating all the food in sight now that he is used to having enough food available for him and he doesn't have to compete for it with the other cats. It is a relief that he seems to be happy here and the other cats have accepted him. Yay for a bigger family.

  We did some more work on the garden/land around the house over the weekend. We have decided to try and brighten up the area we see out the front all day. So far I have planted 134 bulbs dotted around one area. We have another 100 or so in the garage to plant as well. A bit of strimming to clean up the dead grass and maybe a couple of trees to fill in some gaps and we will be much better. The area around the driveway then needs to be made a bit smarter, for some reason a large chunk of it is just bare dirt. If we can get stuff to grow there it will be so much better. The downside of owning so much land :| .

Here We Go

  We are off to meet the neighbours this afternoon. Well at least as many as turn up to the little get together being hosted by our immediate neighbours along the road. We've been around these people for some months now and barely met just a few of them. I have no idea who else lives around here really since a lot of people just keep to themselves. It is a really spread out kind of area full of people who live that way I suppose, nothing like the housing estates where you are 6 feet from next door.

  My wife has prepared a whole bunch of snacks for people to try, probably more than we need but again we have no idea how many are coming. They get to sample her delicious sausage rolls, lovely pavlova and a few other nommy snacks and bites to eat. We have to get them there somehow and driving seems excessive but we will have something like 5 plates I think. It may be easier for me to do a couple of trips back and forth since they are just the next house along although rather than a difference in house number of 10 or 20 we used to have this time it is 270. Quite a bit of difference this time and show just how spread out it is here.

  Anyway here we go to meet everyone.

Happy Cat

  Well it is official we have a happy and healthy cat. Archer's first visit to the vets went well, he has no real problem other than being overweight and the ringworm that is clearing up. The vet did give us a prescription to help clear it up faster. Now we just need to get it down his throat every day for a month, never an easy thing with a cat. Still I'm glad he is ok and seems to be happy here. He definitely doesn't like being in a carry case though, he peed himself in there again, the same as he did on the way here originally, so we had a slightly stinky cat at the vets.

  On another unrelated note, my weight seems to be stable again after going up a bit on holiday. It could go down a little bit but is staying within a lb or two at the moment. Nicely going with what I'm eating at the moment and I don't feel hungry all the time. Seems I've found the balance point to stay healthy with eating assuming I don't eat too much bad stuff. True we did go out for lunch today and I had a burger but it wasn't a huge one and I doubt I'll eat much for dinner tonight. My wife is also going well with her exercise and careful eating. Good on her.

  One final important piece of news, less than 5 weeks until playstation 4 comes out. Woo Christmas present for me. The only annoying bit about it is that one of the games for it I was looking forward to has been delayed until next year. Still lots to look forward to there with even higher def gaming.

Whats Happening?

  Let me see, whats going on right now? Work is a slight pause slow period while we get ready for the beta test of our latest release. In house testing is mostly done and not too many bugs this time around so it becomes the time when we wait to see if we have created what was actually needed by the customers. Then we get to put the final polish on it and do it all over again for the next release. I can't even count now the number of software releases I've been involved in. Generally they are anywhere from 2 to 6 a year and that has been over 16 years now. Good god that is a lot of software.

  Archer has settled in nicely, he has found a good spot on the office on the sofa here to spend his time on. I think once he realised he could sleep anywhere he tried out a few spots, even on top of the living room sofa and once actually stayed on my wife's lap for a bit (after being put there of course but still).

  Been very quiet around the house otherwise, we have barely seen anyone other than the odd delivery driver as parcels turn up. Living here really is very quiet now, especially since the neighbour over the road seems to have finished whatever construction they were doing. We barely hear anything from outside which is extremely nice.

  Other than that more game playing is under way. GTA 5 quite a lot although due to the size of that game I've still not finished it. I've also gone back to Borderlands 2 since they are running a competition at the moment where you kill a certain boss creature each day and get entered in to win a prize of $50k plus other weekly prices. Not bad for playing a game I enjoy. I doubt I'll win much but it can't hurt to try.

  So there we go, a good life here doing what we like in peace and quiet with our furry companions around us. Not a bad place to be at this point in life I think.

Bigger Family

  Well we did grow our family by one last week. The new cat arrived, a little stinky from messing up his travel crate, and took to us pretty easily. He needed a wash as soon as he got here and even after that had no real problems with us. It did take him a day or two to get used to being able to go where he wanted to in the house and only last night did he finally not spend all his time in his new basket. Anyway without much further ado let me introduce Archer.

  He is a very big cat, weighing in about 22lbs or so. He is also physically large, about as large a Boots but not quite as muscle bound, more fatty. We are trying to get him down to a healthy weight but he does seem keen on eating anything he can get ahold of and is always right there when food is being dished up.

  Other than that though he is an incredibly relaxed cat. He really enjoys a good comfortable place to curl up and sleep, being 9 years old I suspect he is used to that life, although he does try to be a little bit active unlike our older boys. He will try and chase a laser pointer but has problems moving quickly due to his weight. I do think he has lost a little since being here since we are not over feeding him as his previous owner apparently did. All the other cats get on with him ok although they were a bit wary and we did get some hissing from Lucy at first. Now though he is just another one of the gang that happens to be new and big. Here's hoping we can give him a happy life here with us so he can live out his older days comfortably.

More kitties

  Well to be specific one more cat. We promised ourselves we would get another cat when we got back from holiday and we have been looking at the local rescue/shelter cats. We found one grown one we liked the look of in the local shelter and called about him yesterday. Very soon he should be here for us to meet him, see if we like him and probably adopt him. Apparently he is very large cat at 24 lbs which is 6 lbs more than Boots. He has ringworm as well so we need to make sure that has been treated properly and he is not contagious to the rest of the cats and us. Other than that though we should have yet another cat here to live with us.

  Still it will be nice to get to know another cat, see how he reacts to our other cats who all get along with no fighting and seem to be extremely happy cats. I'm hoping we can give him as happy a life as we have manged with our current cats. I'm also sure that I'll post a couple of pictures of him once we get him settled down. In the mean time here is a picture of Lucy from earlier.

Actual Autumn

  After moving here and basically having summer that was nice without being too hot and after living in California for 15 plus years you tend to forget about the actual four seasons as opposed to California's summer and not summer. However getting back from holiday and you can tell summer has finished. Getting up in the morning to work and it is damn chilly and takes quite a while to warm up. Even during the day it doesn't get that warm anymore whereas where we used to live is still in warm summer days kind of weather. Lots of intermittent rain here as well (although most of it was when we were on holiday).

  Just makes it clear that we will get actual weather all year round and I can't wait for it to happen. After growing up with proper seasons it is nice to be back in that again. California wasn't bad but got too hot and had very little variation unless you really traveled around. It seems slightly off to be wearing jeans at this time of year but there we go. I think I may actually wear jumpers this year as well.

Back to normal

  Seems strange to be back to the normal day to day stuff after the holiday. The eating meals in the house and having to clean up after ourselves, the actual doing of work to earn money, going to doctor appointments, basically all the stuff that you don't have to deal with. There is nobody to call up to sort something out for you, nobody to feed you food and clear away everything and nobody to just make sure you have everything you need at any particular time.

  Still being at home does mean I get to spend quiet time with my wife with nobody else around. Just me and her sitting around living our lives. Us and the cats who are pleased to see us again now that we are home. Although it does seem the cat sitter gave them lots of attention, hours a day according to the report from her. Even then they are very keen to see us and one or more is always at our sides or sitting on us since we have got back.

  It seems weird the difference between that kind of holiday and normal life. Not that normal life is bad but the being waited on hand and foot most of the time is a really good way to live if you can afford it. Time to get really rich.

Can we do that again?

  Well we are back from our all important and fancy anniversary holiday. It was well worth it in the end, the lots of travel to get there. I got to spend some great time with my wife in a place which is pretty damn nice. Great scenery, amazingly clear waters, good weather (if a little hot every now and then) and in the first place we stayed a really quiet place to be.

  Just about everything I planned happened ok, a couple of trip mess ups due to weather etc (we had rain on one day that messed up that day) but we had things to do, lots of swimming and looking at tropical fish and other sea life, a private dinner on the anniversary day. We even got to do the swimming with green sea turtles that only a few people at a time a few times a day get to do.

  I'm just really happy we got to go, it is something we have been wanting to do for a long long time and making it happen for our anniversary is so great. Being able to take the woman I love to there and treat her to somewhere like that. Full 5 star hotel resorts (with prices to match) and to experience that kind of holiday where you are treated about as well as you can without having your own private island with huge staff of slaves. At the first hotel we stayed at especially everyone was so careful to be helpful and friendly. We got so used to people saying hello and thank you in Tahitian to us that we started to do it as well.

  There did seem to be a few strange things, like people bringing their children to a resort aimed at couples on honeymoon or romantic trips. That and the quite sorry state of the main island, seriously don't stay at any of the hotels on the main island of Bora Bora, stay at the ones around the outside or on their own island like we did.

  It still seems slightly surreal that we managed to do that trip. It was something we have been trying to do for so long and getting it done for this important wedding anniversary. If it wasn't for the huge cost of going there I suspect we would go every year. At least it is something we can now say we have done and I manged to treat my wife to it to show her how much she means to me. If only the travel to that place was easier (2.5 hour drive, wait at airport, 2 hour flight, 8 hour at airport, 8 hour flight, 5 hour wait at airport, 1 hour flight, 1 hour at airport, 30 minutes on a boat.....), maybe I should persuade work to open an office there for me to work from :| .

  Anyway we really really enjoyed ourselves despite the annoyances that happened there. It really was a great place for us to celebrate being together for so long.

T minus whatever

  Well the countdown to going away is getting smaller. Tomorrow we will be leaving this house and get to our final destination sometime the day after that after a lovely overnight flight. I'm still a little nervous about it due to the large travel time to get there but looking forward to actually being there and enjoying ourselves. A little over a week of relaxing and just being together is going to be great. We are mostly packed, house is mostly cleaned up and my last day of work is almost over. The final bit of waiting just has to be done, the last minute panic over something right before we go and then we are out of here.

  Dunno, just a matter of getting on with it now I suppose. This final waiting period always drags on the longest it seems. Still I get to go somewhere great with the woman I love to celebrate our long time together.

Stressed out

 Stressing a bit right now. We are so close to going on holiday for our anniversary that I'm panicking over having got everything right. I've already had to make sure the pet sitter comes for one more day since I confused the return date. I don't doubt the holiday will have some think that won't be perfect but the place we are going is very nice. In fact it is two different hotels in the same place, mainly due to availability of rooms since it is a popular place to go despite the cost. It is weird how nervous I am about this. Still I arranged all this since I love my wife and want to go somewhere with her to celebrate it.

  Work is having a last minute panic trying to make sure I have done everything I need to before I go. I have obviously but everyone thinks of something at the last minute and needs you to do it. Kind of frustrating and adding to the stress.

 Oh well, not much left now other than packing later and then heading off.

Literal scardycat

  Since it is a nice day outside we decided to let some of our cats out just to walk around the front garden. We started with Lucy since she was at the window observing the wildlife and seemed keen to get closer to it. However as soon as we got her out there she mewled and looked really panicked. She didn't know what to do with herself and found a corner to hide in.

  All this noise attracted Daisy who was then looking on from the front window so we brought her out too. She was much braver and immediately started investigating the plants and rolling around on the path. With her out there though Lucy became much more relaxed and actually purred and enjoyed herself.

  Of course all this activity brought Fudge to the front window who then meowed for attention since he wanted to come out so we brought him out as well. With a bit of careful herding we managed to keep all 3 of them safe while they explored the small front garden area. Fudge was mainly doing his grass eating as he does (after being dissuaded from eating the plants) and Daisy was rolling around and trotting here and there to look at things. Lucy now fully relaxed decided to roll around in the dust and cobwebs on the path getting herself all mucky.

  It is quite nice though how even though Lucy was pretty scared she soon got used to it with her sister and us being around so that she could enjoy the outside for a little bit and look around unfamiliar surroundings with us and her sister to keep her company. Even Fudge who is generally very skittish when confronted with something he is not used to had a whale of a time bobbing around in the grass chomping on it here and there.

  The simple things that keep cats happy and inquisitive huh?

A long time

  My wife and I have an important date coming up. Our 20th wedding anniversary. That is a long time to be married to the one you love. When we first got married it was only my parents 25th wedding anniversary to put it in to perspective. Only 5 years more than we have now been married. That is so strange to think about, we have been together long enough that we could almost be at the point where our children are getting married if we had children when my parents did.

  To celebrate we are going away, making it this far is worth something worthwhile. I've arranged it all so I hope it is a good way to enjoy being together and look forward to the next 20 years together. Who knows we might even make it to 50 or 60 years marriage if we live that long. That would be seriously cool and great to be with my wife for that long.

  Still it does mean the next week and a bit are a waiting game until we go away. Other than a bit of packing before we go there is not much to do so we are just both waiting until the day of travel arrives. Until then our normal quiet life carries on in this new house. Life is good.

Things that have changed

  Living in this new house and you start to notice the things that have changed (other than the purely physical location) in the day to day stuff. For instance power sockets, something people take for granted until you live in a house built 30 or more years ago that barely has a couple of sockets per room. Even then one of them would be half controlled by the light switch (who the hell uses lamps to light up their house, put lights in the ceiling) so would be useless. This new house though has at least two or more sockets per wall. Consider then the room in the basement which doesn't even have properly covered walls has 8 sockets in a room the size of most small bedrooms. It is so useful being able to plug anything in wherever you are in the house since their will be accessible power close by always.

  Then there is the wildlife that is ever present outside. This morning it was jack rabbits running past and a load of humming birds being around all day so far. Sitting at the desk working looking out occasionally I see all of this now rather than staring at bland cubicle walls or the other dreary cubicles around me. Not to mention it being easy to get anything I want to snack on easily instead of the pretty much nothing available at the office. Just the change in environment makes me very productive I feel. When I get to writing code I knock it out in no time giving me more time to think about other stuff. It is just a better working situation for me and for my wife since it gives her access to me all day.

  Even for me I don't have to go to bed so early either since I can just get up and start work, no spending an hour and a quarter getting ready and driving to the office. It gives me so much more time to spend with my wife and cats and for relaxing in the afternoon/evening. It has made me much less stressed I believe. Sure there are worries every now and then about stuff but nothing major, I just wish I could have done this whole move and work from home thing earlier and was not messed up so much by the house price crash that happened. It stopped this from happening for years.

Play for fun

  I played a fair bit more of Borderlands 2 last night, bringing my other character I started up through the levels. Something about playing it this time is even more fun, I know what and where to go. It is not just that though the way this character works seems to suit me more than the other one I tried. This one I am using now has a helper robot that goes around attacking things, keeping the enemies distracted from attacking you. There is also a skill where each time you kill something or fully empty an ammo clip for a gun you get more damage capability at the loss of some accuracy. Combine that with another skill where 50% of the shots you miss with rebound and hit an enemy and you end up roughly spraying bullets in the general direction of an enemy and doing multiple times normal damage to it and end up just ripping through most enemies. It is quite satisfying. Compare that to the other character who is built around immobilizing and grouping up enemies so you can take them out with large weapons and it isn't quite the same.

  For a game which for all intents and purposes I've played through completely it is amazing how much more fun it is the way I'm playing now. Less frustrating certainly. I think it just reinforces to me that mostly I play games for fun, sure there can be a good story like in The Last Of Us or pretty stuff to look at and watch happen but the action of actually playing has to be fun for it to be worthwhile to me. To be honest I can't wait until this character I have now is an even higher level where I will have even more skills to kill things. Fun and interesting times will be had.

Changing more stuff

  Just ripped out 3 crappy plants from the front garden and replaced them with something more to our taste. These were all nandinas and looked pretty naff so they were taken out. To be honest the few plants that were in the garden were not up to much anyway so the ones we have put in are a definite improvement. These were the first ones that we have taken out though other than removing random weeds and small bedding plants.

  Anyway just another small way we are changing this house and its surroundings to more suit what we like rather than how it was. Oh it is also useful having so much land, all the stuff dug up can be taken to a back corner behind the "workshop" and left in a nice pile to rot away. No need to take stuff to the tip or fill up a garden rubbish bin to be taken away, it can all just be left to form compost like stuff eventually. Sure it may take a while but it will get there.

  Now to decide what to do with the rest of the day and the day off I have tomorrow with Labour day (hah, spelling an American holiday with British spelling). I suspect some more game playing will be in order but other than that there is not much that needs doing right now around here. Heck yesterday I spent 2 hours lazing around in the hammock I got for my birthday enjoying the peace and quiet out back.

Almost there again

  I'm close to finishing up the latest piece of code development at work. I have it 90% working now with only two small things left to do. I think I can get both of those done tomorrow and the make sure all the small niggly things get taken care of afterwards. It always comes together so quickly at the end, progress at first was slow, lots of trial and error trying to find the cleanest way to code the design (contrary to popular opinion a design document is not the code but more the flow of the code, if you have code in your design document you've done it wrong).

  Still it is a relief to be this far. The schedule is to finish coding next week and go in to acceptance testing in 2 weeks. I think we will make it yet again, well I will I can't speak for the other development items going on. Some of the easy ones are already done and in (or those who started work on it at almost the beginning of this year when I only started a month or so ago) so I'm not the first but at this rate I won't be the last.

  Hopefully getting this finished in the next few work days will make it easier for me to pay attention to my currently poorly wife. I try to give her as much attention as I can when working from home but my mind gets so stuck in thinking about work it is hard to break out of it. The best I can do is let her know I love her and look after her in between getting work done. I love her.

Sweaty failure

  I think that aptly describes me right now. After finally bringing a whole bunch of logs from elsewhere on the property to shelter it was decided to cut down the small dead tree out front. I tried a simple saw (the tree being only 8 inches across) and got nowhere, a circular saw was tried and basically bounced off. Finally an axe was attempted and after barely making an inch dent in it failure was declared. This tree must have been dead for quite a while since the main trunk is as solid as rock. It is completely dried up and doesn't have any give in it. It is strong enough to keep the tree up but won't give way to cuts to bring it down. Le sigh.

  A chainsaw could have been attempted, it I had replaced the chain on my one, got some fuel for it and a ban on using chainsaws during the day wasn't in effect for fire prevention. I suppose at some point the tree will come down but not yet it seems.

  Makes me want to go lay back in my hammock that is now assembled on the downstairs back patio area. It made a good place to relax in the quiet after finishing working today. Definitely something I couldn't have done in the old house.

Missing

  Well I didn't do much work yesterday. There was a thunderstorm that came through the area and knocked out power to quite a lot of people through lightening strikes. We didn't lose power but our ISP did. As a result the internet connection went down and I couldn't work. It didn't come back until a couple of hours after I normally start work this morning. However nobody at work seems to have even noticed or at least commented on the fact that I was offline for a whole day. They saw no activity from me other than a brief bit in the morning meeting before the internet connection went dead. It is good to know people miss me so much :| .

  Being without internet access for a whole day is weird. My wife and I rely on it to keep us connected to various things and without it you feel strangely disconnected. Also there are too many games now that rely on the connection to work, for something that doesn't have to talk to servers being unable to play when there is no connection is a bad thing mkay. Even Borderlands 2, a game that is half around playing with other people cooperatively works with no internet connection.

  Anyway, poor game design decisions aside yet more delicious food was made and had yesterday. My wife went on a cooking binge and made two big lasagnas and a huge pot of chilli that portioned out to 11 servings for the pair of us. Having a freezer large enough to store all this is great, makes dinner time much easier on my wife from a cooking point of view. Loads of prepared yummy dinners. We even get home made tartar sauce with the fish and chips tonight (thus avoiding the soybean oil that causes my wife problems). Now my tummy is grumbling....

  Looks like the GPS map update is almost downloaded, 3.5 gigs of data that failed to download 5 times so far, this time it is at 96% after crapping out at 60% or so the previous times. I will get my new GPS properly updated....

Want for nothing

 I'm in a dilemma. I have a fair chunk of money to spend on amazon and can find nothing to buy. I mean if I really tried I still couldn't find something I want to spend the money on. I could get boring crap but since it is my birthday money it should be something I enjoy really. Looking around on amazon for almost 2 hours now I still can't find anything. It is a little frustrating but also slightly cool that I have so much stuff that when given the option there isn't anything really that is already available that I really really want.

  I could easily preorder a bunch of games and films but that won't spend the money now and some of that stuff won't come out for a couple of months. Kind of annoying when I was born that it doesn't line up with the availability of cool stuff. Being born in the summer when people generally don't make things available because most people go on holiday is a little frustrating. Give me what I want when I have a good excuse to get it please not when it will make you more money :| .

  So I'm going to give it another quick go and try and find something to buy right now otherwise it will be a case of looking around again tomorrow. I will successfully spend money eventually.

Another week gone

  I'm not sure where this work week went. It seems only yesterday that I was getting up and sitting down to work on stuff I have to do. Now here it is Friday afternoon, I've got stuff done but it is four and a half days later. Yikes. Another couple of days and my birthday will have been a week ago. Time really is just zooming by right now.

  At least this week has some achievements though. I got a fair bit of work done, both my wife and I got our hair cut, we cleaned up the house and got it presentable, I got a couple more trophies on Borderlands 2 including one that takes quite a bit of work, I got paid yet again (always a good thing to happen) and probably several more good things that all happened this week. Each on their own isn't always much but when you add them up and consider how much does happen and that none of it is bad I really can't complain much nowadays.

  Anyway, I'm off to enjoy my weekend. Not sure what is going to happen but no doubt it will be good. Living the non stressful life for the win.

Bits working

  I've been writing code for most of the last couple of weeks. I'm getting to the point where half of what I need to do (i.e. one of the two features I need to create) is working pretty much trouble free. It is always weird when I get to this point since from what I can see it works and I'm ready for other people to try it out and see if they can find something wrong. It is always a little daunting when you do that, handing off something you have created to other people to use. Did I do it right? Will it always work? All that fun stuff. Still at least that part is done, I just need to build something on top of this by the end of the month. I think I'll do the rough framework for that tomorrow and then fill in the details.

  Our first guests in the new house turn up tomorrow for a quick overnight stay. The house is presentable which isn't bad for a couple of months after moving in considering how long it takes some people to get stuff done after they move. Mind you someone coming to your house is always a motivator to get things ready and tidy. All those niggly little things that you never get around to finally get done.

  Now all I need to do is work out what to spend all my birthday money on, a surprisingly large amount. A couple of games are on my radar but other than that I have no freaking idea. Isn't it a shame when you have pretty much everything you want?

Cake coma

  Been quiet on here recently. I'll use my cake coma as an excuse, since starting eating the cake Saturday I've managed (with a little help from my wife) to eat about half of it. *huge burp* It is a delicious cake that is very chocolaty and covered in thick yummy icing. In fact on top of my bowl of cereal for breakfast this morning I had another slice of it. I'm not sure this cake is going to last a week.

Cake taunting

  There is currently a delicious chocolate cake taunting me in the kitchen. My wife made it for my birthday tomorrow and I got to lick the icing bowl clean. Talk about yummy, the cake smells great and the icing was a lovely chocolate flavour. Not long now until I can cut myself a big slice and scoff it down. Nom nom nom nom. *burp*

  Other than a few chores this morning I think today is going to be a lazy day. We are off out for my birthday tomorrow so today can be my relaxing day I think. Still need to chose somewhere to go for dinner tomorrow, I have no idea what I want or where to go for it. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get to eat something nice.

  No idea what to do now for the rest of the day. Any suggestions?

And another one

  Well yet another birthday is coming up this weekend. Seems strange that they roll around now, after passing 40 it really doesn't seem much. Although funnily enough I am spending this one in Oregon like I did my 40th. Cool how much has changed since then though with moving and everything.

  My brain has been stuck in a game playing mood at the moment. I keep playing Borderlands 2 for an hour or two before bed every night, trying to get my first character up to the highest level. It is getting to the point where things are getting hard as they should at the higher levels and I need to find some new weapons soon but so far I'm getting there. Not bad doing it all solo in a game that can be played as a 4 player coop game. There are some good games coming out at the end of this month and early september that I'm interested in so maybe I can get through the rest of this game before then.

  In other news not much else is happening. Life is carrying on as normal with no real drama, no real problems and just a quiet peaceful life (occasionally interrupted by mother in law Skye calls). Even the smoke from the fires is quite a bit less now so we can actually get some fresh air during the mornings. Sitting here at the desk by the window with the fresh air coming in is a great way to work.

Productive indoors

  Been pretty productive work wise this week, adding historical statistics support to various sub systems. I think I've done 5 so far and have another 3 to go. They all have worked well so far and it makes me hopeful I can get this part wrapped up quickly so I can get on with the slightly trickier part I have coming. Fortunately that doesn't have to be done until the end of the month but still until it is done there is always that thought in the back of your mind that something might not work or cause problems you didn't foresee.

  Way more smoke around here again, hence the indoors part of the title. It seems to be trapping people inside a lot more than usual, annoying for summer since it should be nice outside most of the time. Not that I mind, I can quite happily live indoors with my wife and our pets away from the rest of the world. I'm not sure how all the wild life we see outside during the day are dealing with it, it can't be fun or nice being out there all the time. Still at least the fires are being tackled and not left to run wild which would be more dangerous for the animals in the long run.

  Speaking of animals it is quite amusing how little attention the cats pay to the deers that walk by the window. A bird or insect or some other small animal they are all over. But these largish animals walking by eating the plants they basically ignore. I assume since the can't theoretically chase and catch them they don't care. Although watching Fudge or Lucy trying to catch a bird would be funny.

  Anyway, I'm done with work for another day so my 30 feet commute calls to me. Until whenever I get around to writing something more here.

Spare bedrooms

  We finished off redecorating the spare bedrooms this weekend. All the painting in both is done and furniture rearranged (or in the case of bookcases acquired via a 500 mile round trip to Ikea). All in all they both look really good, very livable in compared to the scarily coloured almost empty rooms they were before. It's nice to have things in this house our way, more and more of it is becoming that way now. Unfortunately now this means we can have people over to visit :| . At least the first use of them will go to an online friend of my wife's rather than the dreaded parents. All that and I only came away with one war wound, a blistered bit of skin in the middle of my palm from screwing in lots of joiny bits that Ikea furniture comes with. Now it is just a little flap of skin peeling off and healing over.

  In other good news the fires around here are getting under control, most especially the one nearest us. The biggest one still has a lot of work to go but is far enough away that it doesn't really affect us much other than a bit of smoke in the air, at least we can see the sky now though and there are actual shadows on the ground from the sun rather than a haze everywhere. What a fun first fire season here for us....

  Oh well, going to go and watch a bit of TV now. I've finished work for the day, got a reasonable amount done today with the interruptions from other people at work and things are looking good to get all my work done by mid September when things are scheduled to finish. It seems I'm pretty good at estimating how long to get things done after all these years.

Happy stuff

  Just watched Fudge, Daisy and Lucy all playing around with various things. It reminded me how happy they seem all the time. Boots is the only old and grumpy one although he is always happy to sit with you and cuddle up when he wants to the other three love running around, batting at toys and chasing them. Even Fudge loves it although he is quite a bit less energetic than the younger girls and generally just flops over and swipes at whatever toy he has.

  It all looks too energetic for me though. I would much rather relax on the sofa and play my games or watch some tv with my wife. Given me recent blood test results coming back ok it seems to be working for me. If I can keep this up for the rest of my life I will have done alright I think. Living with the woman I love, not having to work too hard, relaxing doing things we enjoy. Things that make me happy and give us a happy life just like we have managed to give our cats.

Leaving the house

  Well, we went outside in to the smoke to get some stuff from town for the first time in days. It seems strange basically staying indoors continuously for days at a time given I used to go outside to go to work 5 days a week and at least one of the 2 weekend days to get something done. Now though we went from Saturday morning to Wednesday without having or really wanting to go out.

  I know my wife would be inside the house for days at a time, me being the only driver in the house and going to work with the car. For me though it is still slightly strange in being different. To be honest I'm enjoying it, I don't have to deal with other people directly much at all. Being away from the world is so much more relaxing than having to go out in to it all the time.

  Next up, let us see how long we can go without going out. Sure we have a long shopping trip planned for this weekend but at some point we should see how long we can stay in the house :| .

Cough cough

  Well it seems that parts of Oregon around here are on fire. The sky above us is filled with smoke and as soon as you go outside you can smell it. The sun is bright orange and the sky is a light gray colour from all the smoke being blown our way. Fortunately the fires are quite a way away from us and not a threat but seeing all this smoke is not a nice thing to see. A disadvantage of living in a hilly mountainous area I suppose, large fire smoke can obscure the sky. I'm just looking forward to it being gone so we can get back to summer proper and actually go outside and also sit on our balcony.

  In other news I seem to still be healthy after my doctor visit as long as my blood tests come back ok. Weird to think that I've managed to stay reasonably healthy this long, I've no idea how I managed it. It is not as if I've tried that hard to be that way, it just happened.

  Life in this new house is so much easier it seems. No stress of other people, things in general are so much quieter and work is being easy at the moment. Even the cats seem happier here, they are more lively, play more and enjoy watching the wildlife outside. I just wish we could have been able to do this sooner.

Time goes on

  Want to know how to feel that you have grown up and are sort of middle aged and/or old? Have a younger sibling turn 40. In my case my younger brother is 40 tomorrow (which may actually be today soon since he is now in Australia). He has always been my younger brother, coming up through school after me, doing things like getting a drivers license after me, everything was done after I did it first. Then you realise he has hit the point where he has been around for 4 decades. Blerg.

  Still, had yet another person at work ask why I no longer come in to the office anymore. When I mentioned that it would involve a 450 mile commute he agreed it would be tricky to do so. Still funny having people only just notice I'm not physically there, just shows how much it isn't necessary for my job.

  Had a physical check up with the doctor yesterday, the first in a few years. Apparently I'm all healthy (assuming my blood tests next week come back clean) which is nice. One less thing to worry about so I can look after my family here and enjoy life with them.

  So, as I finish typing this, watching a deer walk through my land eating stuff, doing a little bit more work and wondering what to do this afternoon before my wife and I go out for a bite to eat, let's think how different things could be if I hadn't tried so hard to make things the way I want them. I get there in the end sometimes and sure I'm not a billionaire but I'm with the woman I love living a good life. Not bad for having a scarily old younger brother.

Lots of stuff

  Did a lot of work stuff today, I think I thought and talked to people about 15 different subjects today. Not to mention the 5 different functional areas of my own code I'm writing I did bit in. One of those days where you don't get to think about one thing for too long before an interruption comes along and causes you to change track. Those kind of days leave my brain very tired at the end of it. Right now I'm sitting here at the desk in a semi zombie state glad the work day is over. I can tell my brain is tired since I'm yawning and I'm not physically tired. I didn't do anything physically strenuous just used my mind a lot. Oh well, the joys of earning money.

  Still tomorrow should be easier, I get to be poked by a doctor and made sure I'm healthy. Then I get to take my wife to make sure her eye is ok after being injected last week (eeek for that, seeing the needle coming). Just driving and sitting around in doctors offices. Knowing my luck though I'll get asked lots of questions over email or something at awkward times while trying to do non work related stuff during the day. Ah the joy of working remotely where you can run errands during the work day, it makes things so much easier overall, especially when there isn't a 50 mile commute between the office and home.

  Speaking of which, my 20 feet commute is calling to me. Time to give this office chair a rest.

Making it ours

  Our new house is slowly becoming our house with our mark on it right now. We finished painting the pink bedroom to a more suitable colour and got everything situated in it. The initial rush of getting stuff in this house was easy, set up furniture, put up things on the walls and work out the best place to store everything. Now though we are making this house completely ours. We've got things how we want, another bedroom has started being painted. My wife the trooper she is got going on it and by the looks of it more than one coat of paint is needed this time, the colour we are using doesn't cover the current colour. Oh well, we will get it done.

  Still all these changes inside, the plants we put outside, heck even changing the house numbers on the outside are all part of us making this house our home rather than just as place we are living in. It always takes a little while to feel like that but I think we are at that point now. I've only done it a few times in my life, never really moved around a lot except for the brief period we rented places after we got married. I like to settle in to something and then keep it that way, change is not something I adapt to easily but once I get something how I want it to be then I make sure it stays that way.

  Anyway, we are making a home now. Somewhere for us to live for a while and be happy in.

Quiet life

  My wife and I sat out on our balcony earlier, relaxing after finishing painting the pink bedroom to some other colour that is more appropriate for us. There were lots of birds flitting around between the trees and the bird feeder at the edge of the balcony. A squirrel was running around on the ground, rustling the leaves. The outside temperature was pleasant at midday in July. All around it was quiet, nice and relaxing.

  This is why we moved here. We are away from the bustle and noise that goes on with people around. We have our own little piece of land to live in and be left alone to our own devices. Other than the occasional hum of the air conditioner as it kept the house cool there was very little to disturb us. Even right now it is just us and the cats being lazy after lunch, nothing too stressful to do for the rest of the day now that painting is done with.

  This is the life we wanted and now we have it. Yay us for getting what we want.

Irony

So, my wife found out what she is allergic to the other week and as part of that we have been getting various parts of the house allergen free etc. The bed has now got allergenic pillows and covers and we washed the bed sheets in allergen reducing washing powder.

  Now switch to the day after we washed the sheets. I woke up the next morning and my left arm looked like it had been nibbled on by an insect during the night. No big deal I think, annoying but they didn't itch or anything and died down during the day. The next day however I felt fine. It wasn't until my wife got up and looked at me she noticed my face was all puffed up from an allergic reaction to something. Again I felt perfectly fine and really didn't feel the puffiness. Really strange we thought and made sure it went down during the day, which it did. Then again this morning I woke up with a puffed up face and this time one of my ears, the ear which was resting on my pillow most of the night.

  So yeah, it seems I get an allergic reaction to the sheets washed in stuff specifically designed to remove allergens from them. Go me, we find something I am allergic to in the process of trying to get rid of things my wife is allergic to. I'm allergic to anti allergen stuff. Sigh.

  Oh and a final eff you to the idiot dentist from yesterday for being completely unprofessional with my wife.

All mine

  Today is rubbish day so the bin needs to be wheeled down to the end of the driveway and to the edge of the road. In our old house this was pretty simple and took 15 seconds. Here though it takes a couple of minutes since even getting the bin to the road takes quite a bit longer. Walking there and back it feels strange to know all this land is mine (well, mine and my wife's :) ).

  All this physical space belongs to us and it seems so bizarre that so much is ours now. True we have a mortgage but the ownership of this, especially when I think how little we had when we started out a couple of decades ago is scary sometimes. I can do whatever I want within reason with this land although it's main purpose is to put some space between us and other people.

  I dunno, it just still seems strange to me to have so much. Heck, even the fact that we practically have two houses on this land is even more bizarre. I never expected to be in a place like this. Right now I wonder how far we can go.

Wild Things

  Living in this new place it is great how much wild life there is around here. Just this morning I watch a large jack rabbit sitting out the back eating various bits of grass and stuff. True I would not have seen it if it were not for Daisy suddenly standing bolt upright on the chair by the window and then going to see what she was looking at but still.

  Consider when I was out mowing the lawn this weekend. I saw two different types of frog jumping around, several of the newt/lizard type things running around and heard several dear walking through the trees. I managed to get close enough to one of the deer (about 30 feet) to take this quick bit of video of it as it wandered around eating various things at the edge of the property.

  It is too cool that so much living stuff is around here. I sit at the desk while I'm working watching humming birds flit about and various other small things flying around. Quite a few small butterflies around here as well. Not to mention the vast numbers of birds that are around here, some of them quite large.

  Still it is cool to see so much life that isn't human just out there doing their own thing. Even Andy got in on the exploring today when I went in to the bedroom and had a slight panic seeing her scurry around the bedroom floor, 3 feet down from where her habitat is that she had gotten open from having a bit not latched correctly. Thankfully she didn't get out to where the cats were and I picked her up no problem. She seemed not skittish at all when I bent down to get her, she could have run like crazy and been really hard to catch. I think she is really getting used to us, she will let us get very near when we put a hand in to her habitat now.

  So, yay for animals huh?

So Soft

  Cuddling my wife a moment ago it really brought to mind how soft she is. As in her skin is incredibly soft and smooth. I've got all sorts of hairy bits, in some places incredibly hairy, and various rough patches (quite often in the hairy places like my legs) and general nicks and bumps. She however has so much smooth soft skin it is amazing. Consider we are both now past our 40th birthday she is in incredible shape. I've seen people 10 or 15 years younger who have worse off skin and overall condition than she does.

  This moment brought to you by my random cuddling of my naked wife before a shower. I just couldn't resist as is any husbands prerogative when presented with the visage of their naked wife before them.

Happy Birthday Old Man

  Boots our oldest cat is 14 today. I'm amazed we've had him for that long. I've never had a pet live that long before, nothing longer that 5 years. So to get so many years with our big boy is so special. Here's to many more.

PJ day

  Yesterday was a PJ day. Got up and did stuff around the house and relaxed all day. For all of that I spent the whole day in my PJs. Days like that where you stay indoors and the whole world can be ignored are great. It was a good day, not to mention the kick arse chips my wife made.

  And checking twitter I now feel crappy. It seems one of the main guys behind giantbomb.com died a few days ago. He was only 34 and had literally just gotten married. Even stranger he shares the same birthday as my wife and my mother. Shit that sucks. The even stranger thing, I was listening to the last podcast he recorded before going off to get married. He was talking about moving around a large arcade cabinet and managing to not get killed doing it.

  So with that I think I'll stop. Bad news always has a habit of making me wordless and this is one of those times.

20 miles

  20 miles isn't much when you think about it, the next town over maybe, or even in the case of really big places like where we used to live when we first got to this country the other side of the city. Where we live though go 20 miles and you can be in the middle of nowhere like this picture we took yesterday 20 miles from home.

  The road we drove down to get here is the back coastal road. They shut it completely for more than half of the year since it can't be maintained enough. There are gravel parts, huge great dips, cracks 10 feet long with one side of the road at a different height by several inches. The good thing though is that it goes through the middle of nowhere. Nothing around, no buildings, no other roads, just this long single lane winding road through country with views like this.

  I'm glad we live somewhere that it doesn't take much to totally get away from people. That was a large part of our goal in moving. Now if only we could get a house built out there.....

Mind on the matter

  Can't quite seem to get my mind on to what I need to at the moment. I'm trying to work but can't concentrate on it, probably since it is a bit of drudgery work, writing a design document on a boring bit of development. What needs doing is pretty simple but writing it down rather than actually doing it is always harder for me. Heck even writing this and my mind is wandering to something else, the chores that need doing over the long weekend, the stuff we need to set up to deal with my wife's new found allergies, what to actually do to relax over the next few days, stuff like that.

  Still it seems I can write this down, no idea how though. Just really can't think of much at the moment, kind of a brain dead day for me. At least the new allergy pillows we got yesterday were comfy to sleep on and my wife got an decent amount of sleep last night rather than wake up at 4am. And with me typing that sentence I let out a big yawn, my brain really is tired it seems. Bah, wake up you stupid thing.

Long suffering wife

  Well after another doctor visit we finally found out what my wife is allergic to. Lots of dust and pollen and plants. Unfortunately also cats but that won't mean anything to us, we are keeping them whatever. The good side is that other than soy beans and peanuts she is not allergic to food and considering she can eat peanut butter and actual peanuts with no problems they can't be that bad.

  Still it is another health thing she has to deal with, luckily this time it is relatively easy. Clean covers on the bed and pillows, hepa filter for the bedroom and house and she gets away with not doing the dusting, leaving that part up to me. Lucky me :) .

  Anyway, nothing life threatening it seems, more just a complete annoyance that needs to be dealt with. Also probably something she has had for a large portion of her life but never had diagnosed properly for a long time. Now the tests have actually been done we can sort it out.

Heat wave

  It seems the west coast of the US is currently having an excessive heat wave. Luckily for us our new house doesn't seem to be overly hot especially with its very good AC. Even outside, although hot, is not as hot as our old place used to be and this is considered too high. I think we can deal with this amount of heat especially since when the normal days of summer kick in we will be in temperatures we can live in easily. Also it is nice to have a super hot day and have the bedroom cool enough to sleep in with a cover on if need be. Even the ceiling fan I put in over the weekend doesn't need to be set on high speed to give enough air movement.

  Another point for this being the right kind of place to move to me thinks. So glad we are not living where we used to, it is stupidly hot there right now and our AC would have been straining by this time of day.

It doesn't work

  Dealing with another thing at work that just doesn't work. Simply changing the compiler to a new version has created all sorts of problems. Kind of annoying but the kind of thing that you have to deal with above and beyond just getting the code to do what you want. Standards change over time, compilers themselves are pieces of software with bugs of their own and even the hardware CPU you run on sometimes has a bug in it. Kind of hard to fix that last one but getting software to run cleanly is so much harder than it sounds, especially when you just change something outside that piece of software that you have no real control over and it breaks.

  It takes a lot of thinking about and fiddling with. As my wife put it, it broke because it doesn't work. That is the easy bit unfortunately, the working out the exact details why is so much harder and something people come to me for quite a lot. I've spent a lot of my career working out why things don't work.

  Oh well, today has been good anyway. Payday, half naked wife walking around, sausage rolls for a snack and now I get to finish work for the day and do what I want for the rest of today. Not a bad deal for letting people use my brain for a bit of time.

Plaintive mewling

  Got woken up again this morning by desperate meows from Lucy. That is got woken up for the second time after being woken up an hour earlier at 4:45 am by one of the cats in order for them to be fed. Still it has become a repeating theme that Lucy gets so anxious about having one of us up and about so she can go back to sleep she will not give up trying to get us up. Even water bottle spraying didn't dissuade her. In her own way it is her method of getting what she needs. A very annoying way but there it is. All of the cats have there own thing about getting what they want, Boots whines until he is followed, Fudge just barges in and sits down and Daisy will barrel through and climb her way at high speed in order to go where she wants.

  Still it does show how much they rely on us. Sure they go off to do their own thing but they cling to us like little children. They really are small fluffy kids at heart that never grow up and leave. Strange to think the oldest cat is 14 this year. That is the longest I've ever had any pet, 5 years being the most before in my childhood. Having a companion for that long is going to make it so different when they are not around. Hard to think about that moment. For now though even the annoying parts will be remembered and enjoyed in their own way. Even when they are being a nuisance our cats are so great.

Pictures in my head

  I've spent the day working today reading code and making pictures of code flow in my head. Quite a lot of people seem to be able to learn by reading a document and looking at diagrams. I find those pretty meaningless since they are so disconnected from the actual code that does the actual job of what the software is meant to do. Something about sitting down and reading through code in an overall level makes it so much easier for me to visualise how something works. I'm not sure why I seem to be so different from other software people in that way. Maybe they get lost in the details of each line of code without being able to just get an idea of the overall flow from the higher level view of the code.

  Maybe that is why I've gotten to where I am in my career. I can look at some actual code, of which there is a lot already written by other people, get an idea of what it is trying to do and how and then make it do something else. Or make it do something properly. Or even just make it do the same thing but in a better way that is invisible to the end user. I can sit and read code all day sometimes, I've done it most of today uninterrupted by other work people, and then it sticks in my head. I can still describe code flows from software I worked on almost two decades ago. Argh, why do I remember these things and not others?

  Still I'm glad I have this ability and can use it to earn a living for me and my wife. It allows us to live a decent life and not worry about things generally.

Crazy cats

  The two girl cats, Daisy and Lucy, being still quite young like to play a lot. Unlike to two older cats who are now both 13 going on 14 soon. Because of this they are particularly susceptible to the laser pointer. Even more so than the boys were when they were younger. Take this video as an example

  Sure Lucy doesn't run around as much after the pointer, her sister Daisy is much more of a chaser, but they both go nuts trying to get this little red dot.

Worry wart

  My wife had her first appointment with her new GP doctor today. For some reason I was nervous again, as I can be quite often when it comes to my wife's health. After the usual delays and getting through the appointment it seems my wife is pretty healthy but might have something else wrong with her. At least that is the explanation of a complaint she has had recently. We shall see once prescriptions, tests and other stuff is gone through.

  Still even with all that I do worry about her. She has had more problems than I have and I don't want her to have problems. I try my best to make her life easy but obviously can't directly control her health. The best I can do is make sure she has what she needs and has access to anything and everything. I know my wife noticed my worry, I was quite flustered as we got ready to go to this doctor appointment.

  So there we go, that is my instant worry wart moment. When it comes to my wife's health I will instantly worry about it. It matters to me so much that she is healthy and can enjoy life.

Savouring the experience

  I'm playing The Last Of Us every night at the moment, basically ever since it arrived Friday. It is turning out to be one of those games where I want to know what happens but don't want it to finish. Therefore I find myself playing a bit of it and then leaving it at that, maybe a couple of hours at a time. Inevitably there will come a point in the game each night where I reach a point where I get stuck as it were. Not stuck as in I don't know what to do but more in the challenge presented by the game to get past a certain encounter. I then realise that in order to not get frustrated by the game and to continue to enjoy it I leave it at that for the night. Playing this way is really working for me, I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience and getting the most out of it I feel.

  Kind of weird that most games I can plow through getting as much out of them as fast as I can but with this one I want it to last. I know I'll be sad when I finish it since the game won't be fresh to me any more, just like the first time you experience any new form of entertainment. Still I'm glad it is turning out to be one of games that I can really savour.

No stress

  Today I realised another thing living in this new house. Pretty much zero stress. I still deal with work, the bills and all that stuff but I don't stress about it. Just being somewhere more relaxing makes it all a doddle. Grrrr to all the people who made this a hard thing to do in the first place, our lives would have been so much easier so long ago if we could have done this sooner. I suppose work is going to stress me out sometime but I'll deal with it and at least here I don't have to deal with it face to face I can do it over IM, email and VoIP calls or some other form of online communication. Having an idiot standing there in front of you, trying to get them to understand what they have to do or why they are wrong really doesn't help the situation. As long as the potential new neighbours are quiet (since two houses near us have sold recently) this place is going to work out fine for us.

  In other more important news, a Lego film guys. All is right in the world with more Lego in it.

Rest of the world?

  I've found the one great advantage of living where we do now. The rest of the world doesn't exist for the vast majority of the time. There can be so little interaction and interruption from other people here you can just live how you want in your own world. That is exactly what we moved for and we seem to have found it here. In fact it has taken me until now to fully realise it since living here you really don't notice it if you like peace and quiet.

  So it has been what 3 weeks now? Other than the initial teething problems and getting around to having everything set up and in place it all seems to be great. It feels like home now and the rest of the world can stay away from us. Other than the odd UPS/Fedex delivery truck turning up to deliver the latest amazon delivery really nobody comes around here. Even the road at the edge of the property is quiet most of the day, just the occasional car going by to the few houses further up.

  So with all this quiet I've been catching up on my game playing, several good ones right now. I've nearly finished Borderlands 2, a definite improvement from the first one that gets rid of all the niggles that were there. Then The Last Of Us turned up and that is turning out so well. I'm about 40% through before I decided to try another game and I really want to see how it finishes. For once it seems that the characters seem like actual people than and the game play takes some skill to do well. Finally I picked up Bioshock Infinite, which although you can see similarities to the original Bioshock, manages to actually be a fun game to play unlike the first which felt like a chore some times and led to me not finishing it. Plenty of game playing time in my future with just these 3 games. Not to mention the literal foot high pile of blu rays to watch by the TV right now.

Sleeping in

  An advantage of working from home full time now, I get to sleep in. The cats wake me up to be fed before 6am every day so getting up to work at that time is really easy. Considering I used to get up at 4:30am this is a big plus for me. It also means I don't need to go to bed at 9pm each night I can stay up a little bit later and get more game playing time in. I've probably played more games recently than I usually do even though it isn't that much. I could play so much more, especially since I'm playing Borderlands 2 at the moment which has a lot of content in it.

  So after 3 hours I'm now back writing this blog, took a long lunch break with my wife and did some errands. Not bad for working from home and it seems nobody missed me. Just means I need to work a little longer and get what I need to do work wise finished now. All this working from home also means I get to have lunch out with my wife more often as we did today. Looking around town there are a few places to try for sure and so far everywhere we have eaten has been half decent at least, some of them actually pretty good. Nice for a little town like this one is.

  Anyway, going to finish my work now as my wife plants a whole bunch of new plants in the garden to make it less bare. Trying to spruce this place up a bit.