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Monday, September 17, 2001

I installed the new battery in the alarm cabinet and powered the thing up. The time had to be set according to the routine in the instrustion book; I successfully negotiated the instructions for this, but ended up with a digit button still illuminated -- which refused to extinguish no matter what buttons I pushed. Eventually, I realised that the alarm box door was still open, and the tamper switch (which actually was not wired to tamper, but used to reset the fire sensor after activation) was live. I got the door screwed into place and the light went out. I guess I passed the intelligence test...

Joan had an appointment in town, so we were out at 10 am travelling via the tile shop. Joan wants to tile the sill on both the new kitchen window and the old one at the rear of the electric stove. We found a likely colour which matches the flooring vinyl, and now have to pick the size nearest the sill depth to minimise waste when they are cut.

I dropped Joan, and went on to the Post Shop to despatch the book copies as promised. The counter lady was rather pessimistic about the ones going to the USA; I've emailed everyone and told them that the delivery period is unknown. Back home for lunch and then get some office work done. Deirdre and Joan returned home about 4.30 pm; Deirdre had made her calls, but then met up with Joan and got seduced into clothes shopping.

Tuesday, September 18, 2001

A disturbing topic has bobbed up on the NZ ADSL listserver. It appears, for those who are connected to the Internet by ADSL, that if they are the subject of an attack by one or other of the 'coloured worms' that hammer your IP address with incessant attacks, then the Telco who provides the connection will proceed to charge you with the traffic. Whether or not you are aware of it. And pulling the plug on the modem doesn't stop it, either. It is theoretically possible to incur a bill of $NZ100,000 over a month. My connection entitles me to 600 MB of traffic per month before the charges cut in; I haven't as yet managed to exceed this amount of traffic. But there are already reports of people who have received accounts up to $NZ2000 -- no teenagers downloading games demos or MP3s, just a good solid citizen couple who got a hell of a shock when they opened their Telecom account.

Apparently, the only way one can detect this is to install a full-blown Linux firewall with the capacity to sniff out this sort of traffic and alert you before it builds to GB proportions. Telecom is *supposed* to ring you with a caution when your traffic goes over your preset limit by some undisclosed margin -- but anecdotal evidence finds that this doesn't often happen. Real scary.

Hard at work doing bookkeeping today, and paying the bills. I had a break when I went over to Lisa Cresc to pick up Joan, who had been helping Joanna hang her new bedroom curtains. I seem to have acquired a woodworking job: making a new bench top to integrate the oven/cooktop into the new position in Joanna's kitchen. So that will put paid to tomorrow... I'm not the best of chippies -- or the most willing, either <grin> -- but needs must when the women drive.

Wednesday, September 19, 2001

Joan had her hair appointment at 10.15 am this morning, so drove her over to the salon. The day was fine and sunny, so decided to walk down the back road from the salon, past a large industrial area, then back via the main road -- a good half-hour walk at a brisk pace. Joan was just finished when I got back. We stopped into the supermarket to get some top-ups, then back home for lunch.

In the afternoon, we drove over to Lisa Crescent to cut a piece of MDF for Joanna's cooktop bench -- she had some surplus which had come from Rebeccah's room. We took the piece back home, got out the saw bench and supports and cut it to the size I had measured yesterday. As it is to be tiled, I used one of the offcuts to stiffen the rear by gluing and screwing it under the back. Tomorrow, I'll take it back over and check the clearances before I put more wood underneath on the front and sides.

After TV this evening, I fired up the Mac G3 Powerbook with the object of transferring the web site files. I'll take it down to Wellington on Friday instead of the Acer laptop, so need to get it functioning using Dreamweaver. Hope this upload is OK.

Thursday, September 20, 2001

The Mac worked OK, as I expected (thanks, Keith for your confirmation). A very frustrating OS for one steeped in Windows, however. Who would expect that the menu bar for an application window somewhere down the screen, was in fact the menu bar along the top of the screen? And they say that Macs are intuitive to use....

I had my six-monthly visit to the doctor this morning for a service check and get my scripts. A clean bill of health on the blood pressure and pulse side: this GP is new to us (his predecessor had retired due to ill-health) so he gave me a good going-over -- including inflicting unspeakable things to my rear end to check the prostate -- and seemed quite satisfied. Got to get a slew of blood tersts done next week.

I had a ring from Don with a request to re-visit the engineering company for further photographs of one of the senior managers who had been away when I did the last lot. So I fronted up with the Nikon CP990 and shot a series in the factory with one of the engineers. Went back home and downloaded the images onto a CDRW and drove into town to pass them over to Don. I also called into Millennium Computers and ordered components for a new box; the NZ dollar has slipped several cents against the greenback, so I suddenly thought I should get in ahead of inevitable price rises. Interesting discussion afterwards about business: He said that last week was absolutely dead slow for sales -- everybody focusing on the WTC and not thinking about buying anything.

I spent a lot of time after tea, trying to get my trip images over to the Mac, and finding a slideshow program that I can use to show them to Sue and Jeremy. Lots of wrestling with the network, but finally managed to get the stuff transferred over.

Friday, September 21, 2001

This is a late post, as Jeremy and I started fiddling with the PowerBook last night, and the Kronikles got forgotten.

We didn't leave for Wellington until 10 am, as Joan was needed in town to sign some documents. The drive down was routine; made our usual stops at Turangi for coffee and hamburgers, then at Bulls at 1.30 pm for a late lunch. The traffic was light; the weather cloudy but no rain. I had phoned a close friend in a small town called Paraparaumu with the thought of calling in; she was home, so we spent a happy hour looking at her work. She is a gifted creator of fantasy dolls who has won heaps of prizes over the years. I have commissioned her to make a wizard for me -- Pug/Milamber from the Raymond Feist fantasy series. It is an on-going project because she mostly makes fairy-type dolls, and a masculine one is something of a challenge.

We pulled up outside Sue's apartment just before 6 pm, and unpacked our luggage. Jeremy was home to let us in as they had a new lock on the front door. We had Joan's previously-baked macaroni cheese for tea, and talked until an early bed. Just as well, because at 2.30 am my car alarm went off and shot me awake, even though we were three floors up, and on the building side. I dressed hurriedly and rushed down to the street, and found all was well -- except for the small wing mirror which was twisted sideways on its mount. Sue had heard loud oaths when the alarm wakened her (their bedroom is right over the street); what we think must have happened was that a drunk had lost his balance, grabbed for the mirror to steady himself which set off the motion sensor.

Saturday, September 22, 2001

I worked on the Mac this morning until I managed to get the connection to Wave sorted and yesterday's Kronikles uploaded. By then, Joan, Sue and Rebeccah came back from a leisurely shopping trip down Cuba Street. We decided to go out for a lunch at a place called the Brooklyn Cafe. I had a delicious Tomato and basil soup, while the rest had a large plate of breakfast goodies.

After lunch, Jeremy and I went through the Mac's applications and utilities and got rid of most of the ones I didn't need. That has freed up a lot of hard drive space. I continued on with Don's web site redesign, experimenting with colour combinations and a possible layout. Sue, Joan and Rebeccah went out for a sightseeing drive up to Mount Victoria, one of the best places to see Wellington from. I was satisfied with my day's work, too.

Sunday, September 23, 2001

Up more leisurely this morning; Joan and Rebeccah walked down to the wharf area to meet her old friends Joannie and Herb, who were helping prepare their son's launch. I did some more work on Don's website, before Sue and I went down to a different wharf to meet Joan and Rebeccah. We bought tickets on the cross-harbour ferry, and had a half-hour trip to Days Bay. A short walk to a convenient cafe for a light lunch, then a longer walk round the point to the next shopping area at Eastbourne. There were a couple of art galleries open, and we spent a little while browsing. The sun was warm, but the southerly wind must have come up from the Pole, and we were very glad to have polarfleece jackets.

We walked back to catch the return ferry, then back to the apartment for a short while, before Joan, Rebeccah and I drove out to the coast suburb of Seatoun to have dinner with Joannie and Herb. We drove back home at 8.45 pm and an early bed.