Elizabeth's Blog

A few weeks ago, I’m teaching my e-commerce class when I get sharp stabbing pains in my abdomen. Being the consummate professional I sucked it up until the pains subsided… also, I didn’t want to make an idiot of myself on the first class. Since then, I’ve felt like total crap from time to time, but mostly the pains and discomfort went away.

So the pains and cramping came back on Sunday morning, but this time they didn’t go away. The verdict- appendicitis and now I have to have my appendix out. Fun. This, after several exams and a CAT scan, it’s confirmed that they have to rip that puppy out. Not too bad except for the exam and surgery “preps” you have to go through with drinking all that icky stuff. My pre-surgery “all liquid” diet isn’t really that hard either because I’ve not been hungry since Sunday morning before this all began. So I guess the good news is I’ve lost a couple of pounds. Take that, weight watchers.

6:00 am tomorrow morning, I’m supposed to be at the hospital ready to go. I’ll probably still be asleep but I guess we’ll see how it goes. If everything goes as planned, they can rip that sucker out laproscopically and it’s actually an “outpatient” thing. Imagine.

Guess we’ll see how it goes - I’ll just be glad to feel better and get this over and done with already!

It’s now been 2 days since my appendectomy, and I’m feeling better. Funny that my surgery was at 7:45 am on Thursday morning and by noon I was on my way home. What’s up with that? Who knew appendectomies were now outpatient surgeries. Just as well for me though as I’d rather be home with my family. I remember dreaming about Dora the Explorer while I was under the knife… is that wrong? Mad props to my husband who really stepped up to the plate and took care of everybody while I’ve been laid up. I’m still in a Percoset-induced fog but I do feel better today than I have in a while.

Although the leprechaun has eluded capture since time began, I believe we may have developed the first escape proof plan. Well, I guess I should say my daughter has. For her kindergarten class they had to design, sketch, build and present a leprechaun trap (yes, kindergarten). So here’s her contribution. We do know a few things about leprechauns. (1) They never do what they’re told (so a “do not climb” sign assures they will climb). (2) They love shiny things (like cans and bits of gold). (3) They’re pretty tiny (so they probably won’t be able to climb out of things they’ve fallen into.)

Here’s The plan.

And here’s the final result.

And here they are waiting for said leprechaun to fall in said trap.

And what happens if we finally catch one? Apparenly we’ll be “rich” and have lots of Barbies.

I can’t wait!

International PHP Magazine’s latest edition has been released, and can be found here. In this edition I wrote about PHP’s use in Beeradvocate.com and the International Federation of Competitive Eating websites. PHP, Beer, and Food. My 3 favorite things… doesn’t get much better than that.

My thanks go out to Todd Alstrom and Matt Rowe, two talented developers who were great about providing me the information I needed to write the article. Thanks guys!

So I’m surfing the net and I came across a SysAdmin Appreciation Day (July 25). This got me thinking - what other self-appointed weird days are out there?

These have been decreed “Official” by somebody:
- Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day
- Elephant Appreciation Day
- Beer Can Appreciation Day

… oh and now I see that egreetings.com and 123greetings.com have their own lists of these kind of “holidays” such as “Peanut Butter and Jelly Day” and “Tomb Sweeping Day". WTF? Apparently today is “Cuddly Kitten Day". So go pet a Cuddly Kitten.

I think I’m going to make an Engineer Appreciation Day- if they can make a Go Commando Day, and a Don’t Step in Dog Poop Day, I think there should certainly be an Engineer Appreciation Day.

I’ve had to temporarily disable comments because of the massive amounts of spam that sit in my “to be moderated” box. Being the big nerd that I am, I tried to write my own code that would block the spam and it works when I human-test it, but those nasty spambots are bypassing the system somehow. I’ll get you my pretties… argh!