Sunday, November 21, 2004

More site hacks

I've upgraded our blogging software to MovableType 3.12. This affects this blog plus our far move active and popular Summerhill Kitten Farm

I also also locked comments on this blog to require TypeKey registration. There are pros and cons of third party registration, but it's that or looking in other third-party blacklists to block comment SPAM.

This lets me drop the password prompt anyone sees when they try even look at a comment.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

A Rose By Any Other Name

I got my bank statement from Bank of America today. Let's see, since I opened my account in 1989 when I moved to the Boston area the bank has been called:



  1. BayBank Harvard Trust
  2. BayBank
  3. Bank Boston
  4. Fleet Bank
  5. Bank of America


And that doesn't include that they bought Shawmut Bank, which is how the New Garden come to be called the Fleet Center


If I had that many aliases, the FBI RICO people would be looking for me.

The Turkeys at the Keyboard

Holidays are coming; and that means it's time to fix family computers.

Auto Service

We, along with my eldest sister and the Bluegrass Mama, are all converging at the new Old Homestead in Syracuse for Thanksgiving next week. This 300 mile one-way jaunt through a upstate NY winter means the Audi needs its wipers (which have been bugging me for months) replaced now.

We got replacement inserts at AutoZone, and Katherine futzed with them in the parking lot for 10 minutes in the 40 degree weather before we headed home for tools. This was long enough to remind why I take the cars to the dealer -- I spent too many cold days in our garage while growing up, holding the light for my dad while he worked on our cars, both mundane and classic.

I mentioned this to Katherine as we got home, and she reminded me that she doesn't do home remodeling personally for similar reasons. I was promptly released from further standing around.

I went to be useful, namely by teasing the cats some more.

Saturday, November 6, 2004

Guess who's coming to dinner?

On Tuesday, I rode down to northern Rhode Island for dinner with a Bryant University AIS instructor.

The first time I drove any distance to have dinner with her, she was 17 and an early college admission to then Clarkson College. This continued with each change of season through her college years. The last time we had dinner she was 21, had her degree, was a new Army wife, and pregnant with their first and only child.

The "child" is now a sophomore at Rose-Hulman, and several inches taller than me.

There have been gaps caused by our zip codes being in different timezones and the general process of living our lives. A overnight stay with them while job hunting in Maryland, working by chance with her father-in-law at IBM in Kingston (NY), an Army change of command ceremony in Tennessee, a wake for the father-in-law in Maine 15 years after Kingston, an overnight stay while on vacation in another Kingston (Ontario) -- these are the intersections of 20 years. In between, mail, phone calls, and more recently e-mail & instant messaging.

She calls me a persistent friend. It is kind, and it is true.

When the seasons change again during this academic year, we will have dinner again. So it is with persistent friends.