Elizabeth's Blog

I’ve returned from the Zend Conference and am finally getting over my jet lag. Despite feeling completely intimidated and self-conscious the entire time, I was able to meet some very nice people. It’s hard not to be intimidated when you, as a peon, are talking to some of the greatest minds in PHP core development, especially when you’ve been awake since 3:30 in the morning because you’re still on eastern time. (At least there was no one else in the workout room then). Thank goodness everyone I met was very down to earth. I wonder if those guys realize how smart they really are.
It was a great experience and I did enjoy talking about things other than “Spongebob” although I did miss my kids terribly. My 5 year old daughter wrote me a letter when I got back, which naturally made me all teary as usual:

DEAR MOMMY
THEANC YOO FOR THE PRESSINS
YOO AR CIND
YOO AR BYOODYFOL
I LOVE YOU VARY MUTC
I LOVE YOO LIC GOD DUS
THANC YOO FOR THE PRESDINS
I LOVE VEM
I IM GLAD YOO AR BAC
I GOT TOO GO NOW
BI LOVE EMILY
XOXOXOX

Come on now. “I love you like God does?” What could be more wonderful than that?

San Francisco was beautiful… at least the parts I got to see (i.e., the airport and the hotel). I did manage to walk across the street to check out the bay and watch the planes land for a bit, which was cool. And I finally got to watch “Dodgeball” from my hotel room.

I sent my “wrap-up” article to my editor yesterday, so it should be posted sometime in the next few days. I guess we’ll see if they let me out of my cage and send me to another one.

As an addendum to my previous blog post about Michelle Kelly, apparently another Michelle Kelly has crept into my life yet again. When responding to an evite to a Halloween party, I see she is invading one of my circle of friends, as her name was on the invite list. I’m really starting to get paranoid.

For my birthday, my husband had remote start installed on my Kia Sedona, and now I feel just like Knight Rider… or at least as much as you can in a mini-van. Instead of that creepy asexual voice Hasselhoff had in his car, I wonder if I could get Oded, Jason or Johnny. Perhaps I’ll look into that for next year.

Usually I get my mp3 downloads from Wal-Mart since they cost a whopping $0.88 each and they have an awesome selection. I remember the first time I downloaded; it was from my laptop, which is where I usually access it from - you had to install this little wal-mart interface; no biggie. And now I try and access the download area at walmart.com and I see this:



I’m so pissed off I think I’m going to find someplace else. Any suggestions?

Internally we use the abbreviation “GFE” for “Giftsforengineers.com” - we have for a while now, and I believe it has crept into our site. So I’m checking the stats and I see a weird referral… I go check it out and apparently, unbeknownst to us, GFE also stands for “Girlfriend Experience” in prostitute-speak. Prostitutes use that term when they “romance” a “client” in order to get more business.

Wow. I hope this isn’t indicative of future business ventures.

Well it’s officially official… I’ve registered for the Jingle Bell Run - 5K for arthritis on December 10th. I guess there’s no getting out of it now. Incidentally, if you want to sponsor me, you can, by going here. I’ll be the one coming in dead last.