bookmark_borderToo much in my head

Blimey, ever get one of those weeks when, all of a sudden, EVERYTHING starts to happen? Now so of the following I knew was coming up, but the majority of it has kinda snuck up on me.

At work we are counting to down to a minor release, hoping to get everything done for the end of the week. Nothing too stressful in that but it does mean a lot of last minute chasing of bits and bobs.

We are currently re-mortgaging as the fixed rate period for our current mortgage runs out after the next payment. We’ve got a deal we want, and the paperwork has just popped through the door. Need to get on that ASAP or we’ll end up paying another month of our old mortgage and that’ll cost us £85!

Having spotted some cheap flights to Spain we need to get them booked ASAP before the rates go up. However we need to wait until we get the mortgage stuff sorted out, if we have to pay that additional £85 we won’t be able to book the flights (they are only £70 return at the moment!).

And we are away for a few days from Thursday next week, which we are both looking forward to, but of course that shrinks the timescale and it wouldn’t surprise me if the lawyer dealing with our re-mortgaging will ‘urgently’ need something signed whilst we are away. Sod and his flippin’ laws…

Ohh yes, and we are getting quotes for a new front door (the old one is needing replaced) which we’ll need to get done before the winter, I’ve got two websites to design, with a third on the horizon, and we need to spend a day in the garden at some point as the weeds are starting to creep back! I need to find a venue for the next Scottish blogmeet, I’m helping a mate with some DIY in a couple of weeks, we need to visit the caravan to pick up some DVDs and our spare Sky box, I need to buy a long sleeved top for running, and my Mum’s birthday is coming up…

OK OK, so everyone is always busy, but why does it always come in spurts like this?

In other news: Pringles “Gourmet (ha ha) Flame-Grilled Steak and Caramelised Onion Flavour” crisps are rubbish.

bookmark_borderBBC News

I WAS going to write about the article on Jacqueline Gold and discuss whether her Ann Summers shops were adding to the objectification of women, or whether they were helping women become more confident, empowered and… something else that fits the feminist checklist.

I WAS going to write about whether being normal was a good thing, or not and at what point ‘being normal’ becomes extraordinary.

I WAS going to tackle, as I said I would, the situation in the Middle East, hopefully offering some suggestions as to what (if I had the power) I would do to help rectify things but, in balance, I’m not sure there is much anyone can do. The simple fact, in that situation, is that there are two diametrically opposed groups, both of which are armed. The only solution is to disarm both. And that’s never going happen.

Instead I’m going to talk about one website that I visit every single day, usually more than once, and which has slowly been evolving.

In particular I want to mention the new ‘Show and Hide’ sections that have been added recently and, specifically the section that will supply “Local news, weather and sport”. It’s a great idea. I really like it but there is a tiny problem.

It loads AFTER the rest of the page!!

Previously when visiting the BBC News website, I only had to pause for a second to let things load and I could start clicking onto stories that caught my eye. Now?

Now I have to pause for a second then, just as I go to click on an interesting article in the top half of the screen… IT MOVES! The “Local news, weather and sport” section starts to load, causing the entire screen to shuffle to accomodate it.

This is REALLY beginning to piss me off, so much so that I even considered switching to another news source, something like FOX News maybe?

So, rather than switch to an entertainment channel like FOX, I decided to just delete the BBC News cookie from my machine so it would forget the local information I’d supplied. Now I can get the news I want, when I want, and where (on the screen) I think it’s gonna be!

bookmark_borderPuppies and Mountains

What a wonderful weekend.

Nothing much on Saturday, we pottered about the house for most of the day before heading down to visit our new god-puppies. I’ve not seen them for a week or so but they are growing up fast. They were very excited — I’ve got the scratch marks to prove it — and we had a ball playing with them. The ulterior motive was, of course, to get them knackered out so that they might sleep through the night.

And then, yesterday, we spent the day on a cabin cruiser on Loch Lomond. Photos will follow but I always forget just how stunning the scenery is as you get further up the loch. We stopped off at Tarbet for dinner, at the Ben Lomond restaurant which was excellent, before heading back down to Cameron House. I even got a wee shot, burling the boat about much to the delight of some nearby jetskiers (they like the waves ya see).

Top weekend. How was yours?

bookmark_borderM.I. : Sunshine

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find me a good forecast for this coming Sunday. I am only able to find ones that suggest it will be cloudy, or that it will be raining. This is not acceptable.

Why, I hear you ask?

For, this very Sunday, we will be living vicariously through our friends. Specifically we will be venturing out onto the “watter” of Loch Lomond, departing from Cameron House marina, for a wee jolly on their nice big boat.

So we are praying for sun, making our offerings to Ra. I think we’ll pass on performing a Sun Dance though.

This post will self-destruct in, um, well… OK, it won’t.

bookmark_borderCurrently…

Out for a jog again last night, and the difference in pace within the group is starting to tell. A few of us ended up quite far out in front and ended up turning back… only to end up way out in front again. My new shoes are definitely making a difference though, not a niggle or tweak to be felt. It’s like running on, um, gel-filled trainers I guess.

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Home to some paperwork as it’s re-mortgage time again. We are hoping to use the raised value of our house (it’s gone up by over £20k since we bought it) to get rid of a higher interest loan. Thanks to the Motley Fool website I can now understand people speaking mortgage-ese, and the lovely people at London and Country have been very helpful and very prompt. I spoke to Katie yesterday and received a thick envelope from them this morning, very impressive.

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Tonight we will be visiting my father-in-law as he flies back to Spain tomorrow. Three weeks he lasted, one more than we thought he would, and all told I think Louise will be happier once he’s home. I’ll just be glad that we get our spare Sky box back as the footie season has started and, as we use it for the spare TV upstairs in the bedroom, it means Louise will be able to watch telly when I kick her off the sofa.

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That aside there ain’t much going on. We’re trying to save some cash as we are away for a couple of days at the end of the month, and I’m always wary that the change of mortgage will incur more fees than I expect, so we’re having a quiet, cheap, weekend.

Oh wait, it’s only Thursday. Damn.

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Almost forgot. Netgear Wireless Router (WGT624) installed and working. Yay! I had to switch my cable modem (Webstar 100) from being a USB connection to a CAT (network cable) connection (BlueYonder installation gave me USB, not my choice). It was pretty simple actually, although I’m not completely sure what goes on behind the scenes, here’s what worked for me:

First up you need to release your IP address, go to a command prompt and type “ipconfig /release” (without the quotes).

Next you need to uninstall the USB driver software from your PC, usually from Add/Remove Programs.. in the Control Panel.

Then turn off the cable modem, and remove the USB cable completely.

You need to leave the cable modem off for three or four minutes – apparently they need this so they can ‘forget’ the details passed to it by your ISP.

Then you can turn on your cable modem, and let it start up before doing anything else. My cable modem has flashing lights on the front so just wait until they settle down and you should be OK. Shouldn’t take more than a minute.

Next up, connect the wireless router to the cable modem using a CAT cable and turn on the wireless router. It’ll run through it’s own diagnostics and again mine has lights on the front that indicate what it’s doing (to a point) but shouldn’t take long either, let’s say another minute to be safe.

Then you can connect the wireless router to your PC, CAT cable again, and then step through the setup instructions that came with your wireless router – usually you’ll go to a web address. I didn’t need to specify a domain or system ID for my router.

So I now have the wireless router in my network and can connect through it (via cable) to the internet. Next step is to connect to it wirelessly. And that’s the bit I’m having problems with. My laptop is at work, but I have my Airport Express here. But for some reason I can’t find ANY Wireless connections. It’s almost like Windows has forgotten about them… I’ve got no icon in the system tray, and nothing in Network Connections. Had a quick Google last night but to no avail, I’ll try again over the weekend. Bloody annoying though, especially considering the hassles I had getting the Airport Express to work in the first place!