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      Wednesday, December 18, 2013


catstuff
05:12 PM - 12/18/2013

The topic: Okay, about Jackie
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(This seems to have taken a lot of time to do today, I'm having a very hard time focusing for some reason, there's always something else I need to be doing....oh, look, shiny....)

Jackie came to our house in August of 1999. He was too old to be properly socialized and, honestly, after his first trip to the vet, I wasn't really excited about getting him back into a carrier. He ripped one of my arms up at the vet's office that day when I tried to put him back in the carrier and I ended up having Betadyne poured over my arm and getting it washed off. The vet advised not having him neutered right away as Jack had an ear infection. 

And that was the last time I tried to put him anywhere. He became really pissy if we tried to touch him or pet him. I was afraid of him, I admit it. He had sharp teeth and he had razor claws, neither of which I was gungho about finding out first hand how sharp they really were.

Jackie never got fixed. Brian didn't want to trap him. He didn't want to catch him with the net we've got. He wanted Jackie to be a nice kitty and go into the carrier. That wasn't ever going to happen.

As the years went by, Jackie lost his teeth. His long hair became badly matted, so bad it affected how he walked. His gait became stilted. He had a hard time jumping. We watched him going down hill. We talked to him, tried to tell him he needed to nicely go into a carrier. We were pussies ourselves. And he got worse.

His stool became loose and when he defecated, it started to harden and drip on the mats by his butt. Every once in a while, he was able to get one loose and when I picked it up (wrapped in a paper towel), it was rock hard. We had to do something, he couldn't continue to live this way. We felt horrible, we felt we'd let him down. We were concerned about when his time came, what could we say about how he looked? We were sure we'd have been accused of animal abuse at the most, neglect at the least. Yes, something had to be done. But what? Okay, we trap him, where do we take him? Our regular vet does not like to work with ferals. And in Jackie's condition, chances were his advice would be to put him down. Was that something we really wanted to do? I mentioned back in one of my September entries about our concern for his health. And now it was time to make a decision.

 

Taken in September, you can see that one really huge mat on his lower back, about the size of a grapefruit.

                                                                             

I contacted a great guy that I met on Facebook. He always spoke of the ferals he has at his place and the efforts he goes to to make sure they're healthy. They get regular vet visits, even though he can't touch them or pet them. He traps them. He pushed me (I can be very wishy washy) to make a decision. He had an appointment at his vet's office for one of his cats on Friday (this was Tuesday). He said he'd call and switch it out for Jackie. I said okay. We made plans for trapping Jackson in the house on Thursday. I'd try it my way and if that didn't work, John would come to our house and use his net to get Jackie. My way was to have Jackie in the garage, then put the trap in front of the cat door, so when Jackie went through, we'd have him. John wasn't really sure this would work, but we were going to try it anyway.

Well, between that phone call and Friday, we started to waffle. We watched Jackie. He was acting pretty bad. I called John and left a message. We were just going to trap Jackie and take him down to the emergency clinic and tell them he was a feral and he needed to be put down.

John called Thursday and asked if things were going as planned, if we were ready. I said "well, I don't know" and he kept talking, making plans. John wanted to give Jackie a chance.  I was confused. I didn't mention my call or my message. But we made plans. I told Brian we were going ahead with the neuter on Friday. It turned out that John hadn't heard the message, he didn't listen to it until after everything was over and done.

The trapping went quite smoothly. John had recommended putting Jackie in a quiet room in the trap, the trap up on blocks in case Jackie pottied. That way he wouldn't have to be laying in it. Jackie was not happy, but I was thrilled it went so smoothly. 

Friday we met John at his vet's office. The plan was John would tell the vet that Jackie was a feral that stayed in our backyard. Not that he lived in our house. He took Jackie in and we left. That afternoon, John called. Jackie was done. He was neutered and shaved. We could come get him.

The vet told us that she figured Jackie was about ten years old, that someone must have owned him because his missing teeth (he has no teeth at all) were cleanly removed (omg, I felt like shit about this time, I was absolutely mortified). That it had taken them hours to get all of the mats off of him, he went through six blades and three razors. He'd had blood drawn and we'd get the results on those the next day. She stressed he should get the metrinidazole (?) for his diarrhea. He'd gotten an antibiotic shot and a steroid shot. He had some little pieces of skin that had gotten shaved, because of how badly matted he'd been. She wanted to see him in a week.

Vetting done, Jackie and trap in the car, John gives Jackie some head scratches through the trap.

He was really out of it, he'd been so upset by the visit, he'd gotten ketamine so they could work with him. When we brought him home, I put him in the big carrier, which was a mistake. He kept flopping around in it and I was really afraid he'd hurt himself. He was letting me pet him at that point. I realized if I petted him, he'd calm down. So, I spent the night on a cement floor in front of the crate. And everytime he started showing some distress, I'd reach in and stroke him. I was relieved the next day when the worst of the drug hangover was done.

And when the call came about the test results, I gladly opened the door and let him out. His results were good. He had nothing really bad going on. Whew.

Jackie in the crate

 

Not a happy camper

 

Now, that's not so bad, is it?

 

He didn't finish his drugs, he wouldn't touch food. And there's no way I could hold him down and squirt them in his mouth. 

I called the next week to make an appointment for his recheck. We trapped him in that trap the same way we'd done the week before. Pretty simple. That was on Monday, November 29. And all was good.

It scares me to realize how close we came to losing him. All it took was someone to offer us a helping hand, to do what we'd been afraid to do all of these years. Now we know that trapping him the way we did isn't really all that traumatic for any of us. And we'll be making appointments for him from now on out to get shaved (because I really doubt that he'll have this huge epiphany and allow me to comb him) so he doesn't EVER become that matted again.

He's a new cat. He's happy. He struts.

Two weeks later

Thank you, John.

Two weeks later

Two and a half weeks later

One month later

Still loving the chicken


geekstuff
07:29 PM - 12/18/2013

The topic: Computers and fans and heat and dust
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Last week while I was working on a video file that I took at Disneyland earlier this month, the fan on my PC kicked on. That shouldn't have happened, since the system shouldn't have been under that big of a strain. After all, it's a quad core, it has plenty of power. So, I figured it was time to air the puppy out.

Shut it down, uplugged everything (don't want any unexpected power surges) opened it up and there was a sheet of dust on the heat sink. Pulled that off between the fan blades and used some compressed air to blow out most of the dust bunnies (or would that be dust kitties?), closed it up and replugged everything back in. Started it up, the new quiet was pretty nice.

Then I noticed the webcam computer was pretty rackety, so I did the same thing to it. It was really bad. Got it up and running and once again, it's quiet.

Brian said "my computer's been making noise". Yeah, right. He just feels left out. I'll get right on that, dear.

So, he's back in the shop, his monitor is on, but there's nothing going on with his system. All of a sudden, the fan kicks on. I look at his computer. I keep looking at his computer.

*sigh*

I turn it off, open it up and clean it out. It had more fuzz than the webcam computer.

It's nice and quiet now.

      Thursday, December 19, 2013


otherstuff
08:05 AM - 12/19/2013

The topic: It’s raining!
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Woohoo!  It's supposed to rain almost all day. What a great thing to wake up to! I love it! (For those of you who get way too much precip, either rain, hail or snow, if we got as much as you, I'd most likely not love it quite so much...downer).

Great day for a movie matinee. Maybe go see Catching Fire before it's gone.

Hey, which brings me to another thought. How come Catching Fire was only in IMAX for three weeks? Then the IMAX is gone and it's just on a regular screen? Yet Thor, which opened before Catching Fire, is still playing in Real 3D? Doesn't make much sense. But then there are only so many theaters that do the IMAX and the Hobbit is playing on those screens now.

Well, a regular screen is better than no screen and it's a lot cheaper, too. I've got some passes I bought years ago (in my grasshopper days), so we can use those and most likely not pay a cent. That's good.

And I have a certificate for a one pound box of See's Candies that I was given when AAA screwed up the passes Brian bought for the Disneyland trip last October.

Oh, I never mentioned that, did I?

Okay, we had it planned out that we'd buy the three day parkhopper passes from AAA so we could get in on Saturday, then upgrade to the cheapest annual pass (which doesn't include Saturdays; a far cry from our grasshopper days...mail). We waffled between the two day parkhopper and the three day parkhopper, but we'd still have to add enough to whichever for the upgrade, so all told, it was going to cost us the same. We went with the three day in case we got there early enough on Thursday to hit a park or maybe on Sunday morning; or maybe take advantage of Saturday's early morning entry. Early morning was included in the three day pass, not the two day.

Well, we're packing the car Thursday afternoon and I look at the paper passes that Brian had bought and picked up earlier on his rounds. What the hell? Each pass was gone for one park each day, for two days? We paid for three day park hoppers! So, I run in the house and call. Being a little anal compulsive, I was upset that this monkey wrench had been thrown into our plans. Time was of the essence, we were going to be hitting traffic, we wanted to get checked into the room before heading over to the RainForest Cafe, where we'd meet up. I had all the shirts to distribute and some other stuff to hand out (which I'll show in my actual crafty Disney meet entry). This was the first year I figured I could pack them at the hotel room, then take them over. Previous years, they're in individual bags when we leave the house. I'm freaking. I mean, I'm freaking out. Something I do well.

I call on one line. I keep getting the message that the lines are busy, they'll get to me when they can. After ten minutes of this, I pick up another phone line and call the same number on that line. Get right through. I hang up the other phone, the one that's still on hold (I grrr multiple lines!). I try to not speak at a supersonic speed, but I talk fast on a slow day. It isn't easy to remember to breathe. They put me on hold. Meanwhile, the car is packed, we're ready to go. I have to hang up. I call on Brian's cell since we're leaving. I get put on hold again. Doesn't matter, we're headed down there. It's twenty minutes away. I hang up. I hand his phone back to him.

They call back ("thank goodness for caller ID!" she says). She was asking which hotel we're staying at, they'd FAX the correct passes there. I told her it didn't matter, we were heading to AAA to make the exchange. We hit every light yellow or red. The traffic light gods are not with us today. I was not pleased and in repeated strings of colorful expletives, I let them know exactly how I felt. They showed no mercy. We kept htting yellow or red lights. Every. Single. One. Brian pulls into the parking lot and I'm out of the car with the wrong passes in my hand (you'd never know I'd taken a Xanax when this all started) before the engine has been turned off.

They were waiting for me. Had the passes printed out and we were all set. And for the inconvenience, they gave me a gift certificate for a one pound box of See's. (I remember muttering to myself "how about the last hour of my life? I'd rather have that back.")

On the way up, I called the folks we were meeting with. They were able to get the reservations moved up an hour, so it all worked out nicely.

Maybe I'll get that candy today, since we'll be at that mall. Something with chocolate and caramel. Yum!

And a movie. Even better. 

      Friday, December 20, 2013


otherstuff
08:24 AM - 12/20/2013

The topic: Problems abound today
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Still not getting this weblog to run correctly.

And the power supply is crapping out in the catcam computer (which is down).

Sucks.


geekstuff
12:51 PM - 12/20/2013

The topic: Welp.
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Looks like I've got something to do in my free time.

Reconstructing my weblog. 

I lost all of the main entries I've made since November 2002. I can't find where any site had archived anything since the middle of November (and that means it's a good thing I hadn't been really busy with this). Amazingly, everything else is still there. The extended text, the comments, the dates, the categories...

I was able to find the latest on Jackie in my browser cache on my computer. That made me happy.

Fortunately, a good portion of those years is in the WaybackMachine. So, I'm going to use that to do what I have to do. It should be a fairly simple thing to do, just time consuming. Since everything is still here, all I'll have to do is edit each entry individually (there are over 2500...*lol*).

      Saturday, December 21, 2013


otherstuff
07:54 AM - 12/21/2013

The topic: So, here’s what happening with the blog
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This will probably be the last update on this.

Everything is up and running, I can make new entries without a problem. With the help from the WayBackDownloader website I was able to get everything on the Wayback Machine website on my computer. I'll copy the unzipped file to a flash drive and work on the re-entering the posts at night while we're watching televsion. I should be done by summer (there are less than 2400 entries). I figure 154 months of entries (12 years, 12 months each year, plus ten months for this year). 

Lucky me! I'm sure I'll get a rhythm going, though and it really won't take a half a year to do. I just love to exaggerate.

I was supposed to be making cookies this weekend. That ain't gonna happen. With the weblog stuff and my allergies, I'm just not that into it. I'll be handing out New Year's cookies instead. Take the pressure off, if just a little.

      Sunday, December 22, 2013


otherstuff
10:18 AM - 12/22/2013

The topic: Aaaaand once again
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I'm months behind in my paperwork. 

Looks like I haven't made any payment entries since September, the last bank statement I reconciled was August's. I haven't sent out any invoices since September (invoices get sent when the products get shipped). I've got stacks of estimates, payments, UPS shipment information and another stack of other paperwork that's personal that needs to be filed.

I keep saying that I won't let this happen again. And then I let it happen again.

Well, gee, there's always something else I need to do, you know?  Like not doing anything in October (like reconciling the September bank statement) because I was so busy getting ready for the Disney meet. Then I had to rest up from the Disney meet. And then there was Halloween, that took up a whole day! And I know there was something going on in November, oh, yeah, I remember, I had to make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. And my Christmas cards, I had to make my Christmas cards, that did take a couple of weeks (pictures eventually). 

And the only person I exchange gifts with, this year it was to be homemade and less than twenty bucks in materials. I made her an advent calendar (pictures eventually and I'll probably be making these to sell in my store), that took some time. So, there goes November. Then I had to address my cards and get them mailed out, I had to do that my mother-in-law's newsletter (it was small, but I had to use the paper cutter to get it to the perfect size to fit in the envelopes she wanted to use - she didn't want to fold the paper) and the pictures of her newest great-grandchildren, I volunteered to print those out here at home (since I had the photo paper - from my grasshopper days - bless those grasshopper days, they'll be keeping me busy for years).

Then we went to Disneyland on the 8th, spent the night at Pavilion's Best Western ($103 for one night and after I'd made those reservations, I got an email from Best Western that I was chosen to get a fifty dollar email rewards card, knocked the price down to $53 for the night -mail). Then I had to download the video I took and try to get it uploaded to the interwebs, YouTube spit it back at me saying I was using someone else's music (it was?) so then I worked on getting it uploaded to one of my websites. 

Then last week allergies were kicking my butt (I know I've described the feeling in my right ear that it needs to pop, but it won't; all that pressure makes it difficult to do anything - I asked my doctor about it, he said it was probably allergies and my eustacean tube was blocked, he had me open my mouth and say "ah" and I almost choked, started coughing...yeah, allergies, sadly the only thing that works is Benedryl and that puts me right to sleep). And then I had a lower intestine/bowel thing, a problem I've had since my twenties, seems Benedryl can cause constipation, oh, yeah, there we go. So, I can hold my head up before I go to sleep, then I get some pretty bad cramping. Yeah, it's all good. *lol* I think I'm starting to hit human again.

Oh, and I finally got disgusted with Internet Explorer. So, I started using Chrome, but my webcams didn't work, a problem with java, it seems, so it took a couple of days to sort that out (old version of Firefox and Chrome, old version of java and all of my old applets are working again). I'm still trying to adjust to Chrome.

Then there was the fact that I overwrote over 2300 entries in my weblog with nothing. Nice. Took a couple of days to come to terms with that. 

I did sign up for Covered California, our state's version of Obamacare. We're so broke that we'll be saving $462.00 a month in premiums for better care and paying less for the same doctor visits that we had with our previous insurance provider - thanks for pulling out of California, Aetna, hope your butthurt won't be too bad in the coming months. Oh, who am I kidding, I hope you can't even sit down, you rat bastards. At least we found a plan where we keep our doctor. Another big yay!  

I don't know why all these news reports of people having problems signing up are about. It was a pretty simple process, once you get the hang of the website. What took me the longest was taking the state portion and instruction sheets out of our Turbo Tax PDF of last year's fax forms. Of course, there was the notice that you aren't covered until you send payment, "wait for notification". That came Friday, payment was on it's way Saturday. So, we'll be covered here in California on the 1st of January. Dear Aetna, suck it. Sincerely, Dianne.

Well, I've got my piles of paperwork sorted (kinda). I'm gonna go take a shower then get busy with it. Unless I start baking. You know, I always make cookies this time of year for the vet's, mailman, trashman, etc....oh, what the heck, I'll make New Year cookies, today, I'm going to choke myself with paperwork. That always helps my attitude.

But I guess there's always something I'd rather be doing.


craftstuff
12:28 PM - 12/22/2013

The topic: Ready to work!
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Yeah, well, almost. While I wait for my ZipFizz to kick in. My ear started wanting to pop again, but tired of feeling tired, I'm going the route of running a saline solution up my nose to loosen up the stuff in my sinus cavity. All the chemicals I've been taking can't be that good for me, not in the long run. 

Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of the crafty things I did for Christmas.

the Advent Calendar

And here's a photo of the card. I mixed them up with different dark colors, so every card is a little unique.

The patterned paper is something I printed up right here at home. You can see it in this entry from October.

Well, I guess I should start on the work stuff. Bleh.


otherstuff
02:30 PM - 12/22/2013

The topic: We’re out of potatoes?
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How can I plan a meal when we're out of potatoes? Or when we're out of noodles? Or when we're out of rice?

Hmmph. It's always something.

(Still looking at the pile of paperwork, not making much progress.)


otherstuff
02:58 PM - 12/22/2013

The topic: Well, let’s see
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I just re-inked the 2000 Plus stamp. I needed to do this so I can stamp each individual piece of paper in that pile 'o paperwork. So I don't accidentally re-input the same piece of paper. Of course the ink refill bottle wasn't handy and I didn't know how to re-ink this stamp. I had to do a Google search and find out how to do it. Once I found that, I had to get the ink, it was in the closet behind the catcam chair, so I had to move that. Then I got ink all over my hands, I had to wash them.

Then I really needed to reload the soap dispenser in the kitchen, it was completely empty. While I was in there, I also checked the chicken breasts in the crockpot. As soon as they're done enough to shred, I'll shred them, then dump some alfredo sauce on top of them, we'll have that over noodles for dinner.

I did print out all the stuff from the bank online from September until the most recent transaction.And I also printed out a list of all the files in the WayBack download. The list is sixty-eight pages long.

I'm sure there's something else I need to be doing.

Oh. Yeah. Paperwork.


otherstuff
05:16 PM - 12/22/2013

The topic: You know what really needed to be done?
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I really needed to wash my keyboard condom, it was pretty nasty, I couldn't even see the keys. It was imperative that it be cleaned. I used Dawn and hot water, rinsed it well, the soaked it in a little bleach and water. Dried it in the dryer with some towels. Much nicer.

Oh, I've set up about five new accounts (takes a whopping five minutes, max, each). Plodding along.

      Monday, December 23, 2013


otherstuff
01:56 PM - 12/23/2013

The topic: Deeply into paperwork
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First I match the payment sheets (paypal or credit card) with the quote page, then match up the shipping paperwork.

In the couple of years we've been doing this, we've had one cancellation, back in October. The guy couldn't wait any longer. Brian took his name off of the board and I refunded his money.

So, I'm matching up the shipping paperwork, right? Brian shipped out the cancelled order the following week. 

I call the guy. "Hey, this is Dianne and I refunded your money at the end of October. But the work order never got pulled, so your unit was shipped out the following week."

He said he'd pay, he's been using it. Probably has to double check to make sure I'm not lying. I sent him another quote.

*sigh*

      Tuesday, December 24, 2013


otherstuff
06:47 PM - 12/24/2013

The topic: I’m catching up…
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I was up at 5:30. I couldn't sleep so I figured I'd get a jump on the paperwork. I hate it when the reconciliations don't go smoothly and this was one of those times. Neither October or November. October wasn't as bad as November. One of the problems is when I input the payments, I didn't change the month. And in the case of Paypal, I didn't input the payment and I didn't deduct the fees. (I make two entries for Paypal.) Then in November, I had the same month problem, but added to that there were credits, both for Paypal and the credit card. And where I have them broken out in my check journal, they aren't broken out in the deposits. Say someone pays $150 on the same day I credit $25. The bank statement reflects a deposit of $125. Then add in my misdating things. I did November at least three times.


While I was busy doing this, a cat fight began in a different part of the house. Sometimes they resolve quickly, it was obvious this wouldn't be one of those times. I got up and ran into the living room where I heard the cats under the futon. From the path of fur, it looked to have started in the dining room. It was Charlie and a black cat. I kept shouting at Charlie to stop, but he wouldn't. Finally, the black cat ran from under the futon and Charlie followed. Brian followed Charlie into the garage and I was right behind. I went after Charlie, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and took him outside. My heart was pumping like crazy.


It took a while to get my adrenaline level under control, to help it I took a quarter of a xanax (better living through chemistry) and came back to the office. I finally finished the November reconciliation, then added payments and set up new accounts for December. I've finally got that part of the paperwork caught up.Yay!


Onto the filing. That didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would, so I'm pretty happy with the progress I made today.


We're not doing anything tomorrow. We talked about that a little and it's just not a big deal. If there were kids, maybe it would be. And like I told Brian, it kind of started when his mother announced that she was no longer going to get gifts for us all, it was just too much money. (Which would have been fine with all of us, but it was discovered she was sending stuff to the rest of the family, just the locals got stiffed.)


So, tomorrow I will get all the invoicing done for the shipments that have gone out since October. Should keep me busy for a while.


Brian told me not to worry about dinner, so we went out for fast food a little before six. Guess what? Wendy's was closed, Del Taco was closed so we went to Jack in the Box. They had an adorable Jack antenna ball for sale, Jack with an ear flap hat, I asked Brian to get one for me. She handed it to him and he handed it to me. No flaps! It was a regular antenna ball. She said they'd be getting the flap Jacks in again, so maybe I'll get another one. It was only a buck.


And the only Christmas present I'll be getting from Brian.


I do have two packages to open from my bestie. She said I couldn't open them until tomorrow. But it's tomorrow somewhere, right?


geekstuff
08:13 PM - 12/24/2013

The topic: Woohoo! Merry Christmas!
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Having the same thing happen to an entry for today that started the problems last week (this software is choking on the word x*anax when it's spelled properly and I can't submit the post), doing a search for that word in the directory I'd downloaded last week, my system's search function found that very same word in an old sql file. One that I'd saved and downloaded on March 1st of this year. 

And comparing it to the file I downloaded last week, it's 9Mb bigger!  All of the entries from before March 1st have been saved!  I'll only have to do the rest of this year, which shouldn't really take all that long.

And to help me get those files back in, Ellislab is letting me take advantage of the three month free help trial, even though I bought and paid for this software back in 2009. (I first installed it back in March, which is when I saved that old sql file.)

Yay!

It is a good Christmas after all!

      Friday, December 27, 2013


otherstuff
08:47 AM - 12/27/2013

The topic: Gah!
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I spent over an hour on an entry this morning, then accidentally closed my browser window! Lost the whole damned thing.

ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!


geekstuff
12:33 PM - 12/27/2013

The topic: About my blog problems.
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Last night, when we went to bed, I told Brian I was all done, all caught up. All of my old entries were back in place. I wouldn't be working for the next six months, reconstructing old entries.

It started with this post. Everytime I tried to submit it, I was redirected to the main journal page. I saved it to a text file, because it was long and I didn't want to lose it. I tried to post it paragraph by paragraph. But a little over halfway done, it wouldn't submit. Confused, my first thought was a problem with the third party software. I deleted it. And when I deleted it, everything in the database was overwritten. With nothing.

A little clarification. This weblog is run on PHP. There are different types of software engines out there. Javascript, java, flash, CGI, perl, just to name a few. Back in the late nineties, when I first started on the internet, anything done was hand coded with HTML. My blog entries from 1997 to the end of 2002, were all hand coded. I'd get them ready on my computer, then upload them to the internet. Then at the end of 2002, I found a free weblog script in my cPanel at my website host. The name of it was PMachine. I tried it and I like it. Then it was upgraded and fancified with new stuff and new codes and I upgraded with it. That was Expression Engine V.1. It was fun to play with because people made plugins, that you installed with this software and it added to what it could do. Back in 2009, a rewrite was done and that became Expression Engine V.2. I bought it, but never got around to installing it. Version 1 worked nicely. (When I started, new installs had to be done manually; I sure appreciated it when "wizards" came along that did all the hard stuff for you.)

Well, back in March I decided to do the install. And I did. And one of the things I did was to export the database (the tables were all of the information was kept - each part of the weblog had it's own line (channel) and each channel had its own ID; the title had a line, the category had a line, the weather had a line, the earworm had a line, the main entry had a line, the extended entry had a line, the comments had a line, each with their own individual ID number). I did the same thing last week when I tried to fix the weblog. You know, where that post wouldn't submit. My first thought was the problem was the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. It was a third party install. It was the only thing I could figure was causing the problem. So, I uninstalled it.

And when I did that, everything in the database table for this channel, the data entry channel, ID 2, was overwritten. With nothing. Every. Single. Entry. In that table. Oh, all the titles were still there. All the categories were still there. All the comments were still there. The appetizers were there, the sides were there, the desserts were there, but the main entree? Gone. 

I contacted my webhost, hoping they had a backup of that database. They did, dated two days prior. Okay, that should work. After all, it was just the day before that I'd overwritten it. But, alas, somehow what they had was the same thing that had been overwritten. All those entries. Gone. Forever. Or so I thought.

I did a little checking and some websites archive  websites. Like the WayBack Machine. Google also saves websites (called a cache). If you search for something on Google, under the main link for what you're searching for, there's a tiny arrow next to the URL. Click on that and you'll have a choice of "cache" or "share". So, I figured I can save the entries, it's just going to take some time to do. 

I went ahead and set up a new field for the entries and started posting again.

I'd resigned myself to what needed to be done.

I had gone over to the Expression Engine forums, hoping someone could help, but, alas, no one could. The best advice I got was to put in a support ticket. But EE support cost money. It's not something I could justify spending, when money is so tight and I told them that. Well, I was told, sign up and you get a three month free trial for support. Yeah, okay. I signed up for it, but never put in a ticket. After all, the information was gone. Support wouldn't be able to get it back, it was gone. Forever, right?

Well, on Tuesday, the day when I was catching up on paperwork and posted this in the evening, the same darned thing happened that had happened the previous week. Okay, now I had a recurring problem. Now I could try to narrow down what was causing this behavior. 

Comparing the two files, the one commonality was the word "xanax". I went into edit and tried posting the entry with the word. Wouldn't submit. I removed the word. Submitted. I changed the word to x@ nax. It posted. Somewhere, something was choking on that word.

Since I'd downloaded my complete journal directory to my computer last week (my journal stuff has it's own directory here, upgrades, photos, etc) I thought maybe doing a search of the directory for that word would help me get to the root of the problem. The search did not, but it did turn up something interesting. When I upgraded the site last March, I'd downloaded a copy of the current SQL database! So, all of my work would be in there. Sure, I'd be missing some months in the middle, but I should be able to reconstruct those between the Way Back Machine and caches pages in Google. 

But how to get the old data (with an ID of 2) to merge with the new data (with an ID of 35). I'm not familiar with PHP or databases. And the censoring? How to stop that? 

Now I had something to ask of EE support. And I did. On Christmas Eve. 

And yesterday, Robin answered me. I was advised that it was most likely doable to merge the old data with the new. Just send us a copy of the latest database table for the data entry channel (I'd already included a copy of that March file I'd found). As for the censoring, that wasn't Expression Engine, most likely something the webhost had done. Most likely a program by the name of mod_security. Contact them.

And I did. And support didn't quite believe that it would cause the problems I'd been having with that program, after all, it was there to protect me from hackers. If I really wanted it disabled, he'd disable it. I did. He did. And I could post xanax a bazillion times and it wouldn't kick it out. I could post levitra or viagra, too (they also were blocked, although cialis had no problem). And within hours, I'd gotten email from Robin that the merge was done, all I had to do was import it into the database. Drop the old, in with the new. I did. It worked. My weblog was intact up until March 2013.

Now to reconstruct. I started late yesterday afternoon and was done by ten last night. That included a couple of hours spent shopping at CostCo. It was a little stinky on some of the entries, unfortunately the archive wasn't complete. That's when I turned to Google. And Google was a little tricky. What I was doing was clicking on the permalink in a missing entry. I'd copy the URL of that page, and plug it into Google and do a search, then choose the cache from the little drop down menu. I'd view the source, copy the pertinent code, then paste it into that entry in my weblog (in the edit posts section). Sometimes I'd get a 404 page not found message. Then I'd search using the month link (if you go down to the calendar and click on a month, it will take you to a page with every entry made that month). And if that brought up another 404 message, I'd try it with the date of the missing entry (if you go down to that calendar and click on a day, every post made that day will show on one page). 

I got them all. Every single one. My weblog is back.

Yay! 

      Saturday, December 28, 2013


otherstuff
06:06 PM - 12/28/2013

The topic: Trying to get back into paperwork mode
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It ain't workin'. 

      Sunday, December 29, 2013


otherstuff
01:58 PM - 12/29/2013

The topic: Yay!
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I'm caught up with company paperwork! Feels good. Feels really good. Having this done is a huge relief and now when Brian's looking for something, he won't have to bug me when I'm facebooking. SH1A

Now, I need to make Christmas cookies. *lol*

And clean the house. And take a nap. 

It's a very, very nice feeling.

      Monday, December 30, 2013


catstuff
06:11 PM - 12/30/2013

The topic: Some recent photos
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I've been taking pictures. Here are a few from earlier this month.

The first one is of Mario, who has finally started to venture out of the office more often. He'll go outside during the day and into the tv room at night when we're watching television at night. This after months in the office, the garage (both the rafters and by the water heater) and under the sofa.

 

Then there's little Georgie, still plugging along, months away from his third decade (he's really close to twenty years old). He's getting thinner, but has a great appetite. He gets fluids twice a week. Still very affectionate. 

I got a package in the mail from my bestie and she told me not to open it before Christmas. I couldn't wait, I opened it on Christmas Eve. I got a pair of slippers (haven't taken them off) and a really nice quilt, she called it a picnic quilt. Brian got some treats. And we got an extra pair of scissors (unwrapped, a mistake). And the cats got the box.

He was fast asleep in that last one. He's such a sweet cat.

 

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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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