Sitting at the dinner table last night we were quizzing Liam on his animal sounds. I missed the first run-through, which was by far the best. Repeat showings are always a tad lackluster. But I was able to capture this second-showing on film. What follows is a catalog of many, although nowhere near all the sounds he knows. Enjoy!

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart. I love you!

So there’s this guy running a race. It’s a big race. A marathon. Biggest one he’s ever run. He’s spent months training, focusing, preparing for this race. At the pistol, he’s off. Like a shot. He’s out in front in the blink of an eye. Miles ahead of everyone else. Smooth sailing the whole way. As he nears the finish line he can hear the cheers from fans on the sidelines, excited that he’s about to finish this race, the one he’s spent months preparing for, in first place.

Only, as he approaches the finish line, there’s no more road. There’s NO ROAD! THE ROAD IS NOT FINISHED! How’s he supposed to cross the finish line, thus completing this race he’s worked so hard to run? From the sidelines, a guy in overalls hands him a spade and a mixing bucket. “Hey buddy. You wanna finish this race? You gotta finish this road!” Great! Wonderful! Outstanding! Now, not only does he have to complete his own race, he’s gotta lay the foundation to do so. A foundation he’d have been glad to lay many months ago, at the beginning of his preparation. But now, only now, as he nears the end of his race, does someone stop to mention that the road’s not done yet. Fine, he’ll finish the road. Exactly how is he supposed to do that? “Figure it out. Go to the library, get a book on roads. Take a look at what’s already there, make it look like that.” Fine. So where’s the asphalt or concrete or whatever this road’s gonna be made of? “Sorry, concrete guy’s busy on another project. He’ll get around to ya when he has time.” Jeez oh Pete! Is he EVER gonna finish this race? Not lookin’ good.

By the way, I’m the racer.

…and raspberries. Fiddlesticks and raspberries. I arrived at work this morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Tommy and I had planned on installing my new Wireless Services Module, or WiSM, into the campus network this morning. This module would allow me to begin converting wireless access points to the new Lightweight Mode in preparation for WCS, the Wireless Control System. This is the system that will allow me to better manage all of the APs on campus. “Better manage” really isn’t the right descriptor though. Comparing the new management system to the old is like comparing Her Majesty’s Royal Guard to a bunch of drunken redneck deer hunters. Yes, they both have guns. And the comparison ends there. The new system will show real-time signal strength and building penetration. It will physically locate individual users and rogue access points. It will even automatically disable rogues without me so much as lifting a finger.

So when Tommy and I went to General Services this morning to install the module and along the way I was informed my new server, the same one which will run WCS, had just arrived, my day couldn’t have looked better. We quickly unpacked the new blade, removed the slot cover from the chassis, inserted the WiSM, and… nothing. No little blinky lights, no quiet whirring of tiny fans. Just dark quiet.

It turns out that even though I pre-checked the power consumption, available slots, system configuration, and model number, I hadn’t checked the existing operating system on the chassis in which the WiSM was to be installed. I assumed, wrongly, that with all of our recent network upgrades the operating system would be relatively new. As it turns out, there isn’t a network chassis on campus with an OS version new enough to support the WiSM. It’s not a terribly big deal, really. All I have to do is download the new OS, copy it to the chassis’ supervisor, and reboot. It’s that simple. Oh… reboot.

Let’s just say there’s a reason this chassis hasn’t been rebooted in 46 weeks, 6 days, 11 hours, and 19 minutes. It manages a fourth of the networks on campus, as well as all the off-campus telephone connections and every single remote campus. So no rebooting today. Gotta plan ahead for those bumps. I’ve planned a reboot for 10 o’clock Sunday night. After that I’ll be able to config the WiSM blade.

No big loss though. I can spend the time until configuring the new IBM server and installing WCS. Except, as it turns out, that wasn’t my new server that was delivered. It was a large disk array for some project Brian’s been working on. Yay. Big ups for him. And look, oh good. Since I don’t have anything better to do, it looks as though I’ve been nominated for inventory. Wheee!

Raspberries!

So, yes, I’m a bit late to the table with all of the Harry Potter hullabaloo. Now, I’ve seen all the films, and thoroughly enjoyed them. And we do have all of the books. Missy’s read them all, some of them more than once. But I never took the time to actually read them myself. I think it had to with the fact that while she was reading book the first, I was trudging through Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, half-heartedly attempting to make it through the entire Dark Tower saga. (I’m still not there yet, 3 books in.) Hey, it took King 22 years to write them all, I’ve got time.

At any rate, with the final book hitting shelves next month (Of course, we’ve pre-ordered it.) and the fifth film launching a few weeks before, I decided it was time to catch myself up. But instead of reading them all, I’ve opted for the audiobooks. I was able to wrangle audiobook copies of all 6 current books, and not just any old copies… Instead of the Jim Dale read American versions (Although I’ve heard he’s quite good.), I’m listening to the original British versions read by Stephen Fry. I’m a huge fan of Fry, his comedy duo with Hugh Laurie (Yes, that would be House.) entitled “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” was always a laugh riot. Catch it on YouTube if you’re unfamiliar. He does an amazing job with the different voices and at times you can forget that it’s only one man reading.

So I’ve just finished the first book, that would be The Philosopher’s Stone, not The Sorcerer’s Stone. Stupid Americanization. Changing colloquialisms in fictional books to make them more familiar is one thing, but changing references to actual historical people, things, and/or events is really unacceptable. Oh well. I’ll begin book 2 tonight. The first 2 books are each only 8 hours long. But as they go on, they get much longer. Order of the Phoenix is, itself, more than 28 hours long!

So wish me well, fellow Potter fans. And I’ll see you all opening night for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!