Freaky Wasp Thing

I went out to mow the bindweed that is my lawn today. Thrilling, yes? While I was getting the mower out, this flying fortress of an insect buzzed by, butted up against the shed, and eventually landed on the woodpile long enough for me to get a picture. Click on the picture to get a better look at it.

To my knowledge this type of wasp, as terrifying as it looks, is harmless to people. The long dealio on its butt is an ovipositor for laying eggs in trees (actually for laying eggs in larva in trees). My brother said the forest fire fighters called them stumpf***ers. Regardless, if this thing came anywhere near me with intent, I would not stop running until I hit Wyoming, I think. The body is at least 2 inches long, and the ovipositor is easily more than twice that.

I did a little research, and I believe that this is a female Giant ichneumon, probably Megarhyssa macrurus or Megarhyssa greenei. It is by far the freakiest living thing I have seen in a while, which is saying something considering how recently I was in New York City.

Pictures and Fries, But Not Pictures of Fries

Last night Jen and I went to a birthday party for our friend Amanda. We got together downtown at Big Game to celebrate, and they put out a veritable french fry buffet. They had chili fries, bleu cheese fries, and sweet potato fries (as well as fried pickles). These have to be the best sweet potato fries I have ever had. They were topped with melted marshmallow and sweetened nuts, but they were still salty and crisp. So good.

I'm up early this morning because my body won't let me sleep in. I got up a whole hour later than normal, and that's after tossing and turning for a while. So I took this time to finish up the pictures from the Cool River campout. You can see them in my gallery.

Axe Databases

In order to try and get my legacy project running, I have been trying to transfer my Access database into a MySQL database. I enlisted Open Office Base to try to do it. Other than the fact I was able to open the Access database with it, Base has been a complete failure. It can't export the data from the tables. The Export option is there in the File menu, but you can't click it. There is apparently no way to export a CSV or a spreadsheet or some similar file. What I did discover by trial and error is that you can drag a table from Base into Open Office Calc and it will bring it in. Heaven forfend that you not make this a menu option. Good grief.

Once I had my Calc files, I could save them as CSVs. Thank goodness something works. I then tried to use MySQL to create a new database. No dice. I couldn't find how to do it. By this point, my blood was boiling and I probably couldn't do anything anyway. I did come back and found that if you make a model, then you can make a database. I didn't see this in the documentation; I just guessed. However, I could find no way to import a CSV. I could export as a CSV, but not import. Lame. At John's recommendation I finally resorted to using phpMyAdmin, a program that has scarred me previously with its unfriendly and intimidating interface. I got a database request put in last night with GoDaddy, and finally today I was able find out what you had to do to import a CSV into a table. Blech. Seems to me someone could make a lot of money making a usable database program for a decent database.

On a much different note, I am in awe of Axe Cop. Axe Cop is an online comic made by two brothers. One is a 29-year-old professional comic artist. He supplies the visuals. The other is a 5-year-old boy. He supplies the stories. It is fine absurdist storytelling as only a 5-year-old boy can do. I highly recommend it.

Into the Woods

If you were breathlessly awaiting word of how my new web host is working out for me ... well, you've probably passed out by now ... and that's probably for the best. Nonetheless, I will regale you with a tale snippet of what's going on. GoDaddy supports ColdFusion. It also supports Microsoft Access databases. In order to support a legacy project of mine from my student days, I need those. Unfortunately it is apparently impossible with GoDaddy to have both at the same time. So now I'm trying to figure out how to port my Access database over to My SQL or something. I'll be giving Open Office Base a try to see if it can open Access and save as My SQL. It's not a big database, so if nothing else I can copy and paste the data out. Blech.

Distracting me from my web host travails, Jen and I went on a camp out with our church. We camped up by Beaver Reservoir near Ward, CO. It was a fun time, though with many more people than I am accustomed to while camping. There were lots of kids and dogs, but we had a great spot for all of them. Jen and I broke in some of our gear, discovering too late that our mess kit had no silverware included. But despite spreading peanut butter on bagels using my Leatherman, there weren't any mishaps. It was good to get to know people better and start to match kids to parents and see these cute little people who are usually tucked away in child care. But next time we go camping, I'm hoping for a kid-free trip so we can have a little more peace and fewer skinned knees. That's a bit more in line with my ideal camping right now.

Sushi and Hosts

This weekend Jen and I got sooooooooooo many chores done. We did yard work on the hottest day of the year so far AND cleaned the house. Then, because we can work AND play, we went with our friends from church Brian and Angela down to Denver for a night on the town. We went to Sushi Den for dinner and then followed it up with some drinks at Beatrice & Woodsley.

Now Sushi Den is a bit of a landmark for me, for a couple of reasons. One, is that I am not a big fan of seafood, despite having grown up on the coast. Secondly, I used to live near Sushi Den and would walk by it, but never enter, for I was a poor college student then and I had heard tales of monumental bills in that place. Now, after having slowly opened up to seafood and sushi, I not only was game for sushi, but excited for it. My excitement was justified. If I had sushi like this when I was younger, it would have probably turned my life upside down, because it was so good, so amazing, and so wonderful, I could not deny the deliciousness of fish. Of course, some of what we had was so good, it didn't even taste like fish. It was just an explosion of flavors mixed with pleasing textures and served with style. Even the sashimi (and that's the raw stuff) was excellent, and well worth the price of ingestion. The cocktail I had later at Beatrice & Woodsley? Not so much. One out of two ain't bad.

Another task this weekend was switching my web hosting company. My current provider, Uplink Earth, used to be both good and cheap. Then they got hacked badly, and became progressively worse, unreliable and difficult to use. I couldn't even access my own account information without getting access from their customer support. Recently I've discovered that two of the three domains that I was pointing there weren't working. That was enough. I set out to find a new host.

The burden I bear in my host search, is ColdFusion. It is not a standard offering from web hosts, and is usually an extra charge if they have it all. I need ColdFusion to support a project of mine from school. I found Host Excellence, which seemed good and included ColdFusion in their standard packages. Or so I thought. After signing up, I tried to turn on things for ColdFusion, only to find that ColdFusion was a $5 extra. Screw that. I canceled with them and moved over to Go Daddy, which was the other host that I saw offers a fair shake with regards to ColdFusion. I'm actually transferring things to them as I type this. So my websites, if anyone is interested, will be up once the Domain Name Servers get updated.

Photographic Evidence of Matrimony!!!

Okay, you've read the story, now see the pictures! They're all here in my Picasa gallery. That was a lot quicker than the last batch.

Pictures from the Fourth

I'm finally getting around to doing pictures from the Fourth of July, when Jen and I did our anniversary stay in Empire and we went to John and Sarah's for fireworks and food. So, uh, here are some pictures in my gallery.

Sweating Wedding

Again I've let a lot of stories pass before trying to recount them. So here's the quick synopsis. On Thursday Jen and I flew out to New York for her sister's wedding. We flew into Laguardia and took a shuttle out to Long Island and then a ferry out to Fire Island where we had a pricey dinner (a pint of Guinness for $8) with Christi, Joe, and other assembled guests. It was fun to take the ferry and meet some of Christi's friends.

The next day I got up and went skeet shooting with Joe, Jen's dad, Joe's brothers, and one of Christi's friends. I'd never shot skeet before, nor a shotgun, so this was a blast (literally). Fortunately the guys showed me how to fire and over-and-under and a pump without blowing my feet off, bruising my shoulder, or killing anyone. I actually hit 6 out of the 20, which was better than I expected. While we were on the range, we saw a deer wander onto the range. That one must have been suicidal or crazy or both.

That afternoon we did the rehearsal at the gorgeous St. Patrick's church in Bay Shore. The wedding coordinator was a bit of a terror, but otherwise entertaining. We followed it up with a sweltering rehearsal dinner at a country club where I sweat profusely under my jacket.

Saturday was the wedding, and it went quite well, despite the heat of the church and the torrential rain outside. I ushered and walked Jen's mom down the aisle. We then went to Joe's family's house for the reception. The ceremony was at 2:30 and we didn't leave the reception until after 11. Jen and I were dead on our feet. Still we had to pack for the next day. That was when we took the Long Island Railroad into Brooklyn and met up with my friend Chris and his son Nat. He took us and our luggage for a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan where we met up with his wife Mulzer and ate at a Shake Shack. We then chatted in the park before we headed up to Jen's friend Jason's place where we caught the end of the World Cup and then went to dinner with him and his girlfriend Kristen.

Tired and ready to leave the humidity, we took a cab to the airport. While we were going through security, an older woman slipped in between Jen and myself. While I was putting my stuff back together, the TSA official came and grabbed her bag, asking if it was hers. She said yes. He then opened it up and said "1" and pulled out a container of jam. He said "2" and pulled out a full bottle of water. He said "3", and pulled out a full half liter of Pepsi. He picked up the jam and said, "this is a gel". She said, "No, it's strawberry." Seriously? Have you not flown since 9/11? How freaking stupid are you?

We proceeded to fly home on a flight with a screaming baby and a seat-kicking child behind us. We were so freaking exhausted when we got home, but so freaking glad to be out of the grimy-feeling, sweat-inducing humidity. It was great to meet Joe's family and to be there for the wedding, though. I'll try to have pictures up soon!

One Down

Jen and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary yesterday. We made it! We went up and stayed at a bed and breakfast in Empire. It was super relaxing. I hadn't stayed at a B&B before, and I was glad that we were not smothered in rules or afraid to touch anything because we might break it. We made good use of the hot tub and watched hummingbirds battle for feeder time on the front porch. We walked around town and had some good eats at Jenny's Restaurant. The next morning we had a good breakfast and chat with the friendly proprietor before heading back down the mountain to avoid traffic. I'm so glad I get to spend the rest of my life with Jen. She is such an amazing treasure!

We went to John and Sarah's for a Fourth of July barbecue, and to celebrate their engagement and some birthdays. The food was, not surprisingly, fantastic and despite the rain, fireworks were shot off and money was converted nearly directly into smoke.

In looking ahead a year from now, I'm not thinking about wedding anniversaries, but rather what things I should remember for the month of June. Here are some notes I should pay attention to about 10 months from now:

• The cottonwood trees will make your life challenging by dumping drifts of cotton all over your lawn. You will consider something drastic; maybe giant tree condoms to keep the seeds contained. Figure out how to deal with it.
• Things will be growing like crazy. Do not underestimate the bindweed. It will find a way to get through your lawn. It may be twining itself through your shoelaces as you read this. Don't let it win.
• Be prepared for hail to shred your plants and do not get so dejected about it.
• Really, you shouldn't plan any travel during June, because you'll be doing all you can just to keep the lawn in check and the weeds down to a minimum.
• Don't start watering early. The lawn does not need it. You need the time you'd otherwise spend mowing.
• Plant the peas earlier. They don't like the heat.
• Consider letting parts of the yard go "back to Nature."