Wednesday morning began with more of my wife’s delicious microwave scrambled eggs!  While the adults cleaned up (everyone clears at home), the kids spent some time playing on the deck, trying out the hammock and the porch swing, but their favorite thing about the deck was . . . the BELL!

They had a ball with that bell, ringing it till I thought it might crack.  So much for quiet, peaceful cabin life!  :)

Day 3 was the day we planned . . . Continue Reading

One thing I neglected to mention about Day 2 was Satellite Television.

We made the choice to be TV free in our home more than 10 years ago (really) and have never regretted it.  However, the cabin rental came with satellite TV, so on Tuesday night I snapped on the TV after the kids were in bed to see how much things had changed in TV land over the last decade.

So with the volume down very low, . . . Continue Reading

Tuesday morning started nicely with hot baths then a tasty breakfast of biscuits and microwave (no skillet, remember?) scrambled eggs!  However, we decided after this meal to abandon eating at the dining table.  While it was a beautiful piece of handmade furniture, it was clearly built for Half-Giants!  Instead of the table top being rib-high, the average height for most dining room tables, this one was chest-high.  My 6YO had to sit on her knees and my 4YO actually needed two pillows under her just to reach her plate.  Even my wife and I felt like little kids again!

Breakfast was followed by . . . Continue Reading

My family and I were very excited about our recent family vacation trip to Nashville, Indiana in Brown County. We were one 4YO, one 6YO and one geriatric poodle lighter the last time we’d been on a family vacation. For that trip we stayed at Songbird Cottage – a trip my 10YO and 12YO still talk about, so needless to say, the idea of another family cabin was quite appealing to everyone.

After reviewing size, pricing, amenities and optimally one where we could bring our dog, we settled on Moonstraka managed by Hills O’ Brown Real Estate. We made our lists, determined what few groceries to take, packed our many bags, double-checked the carsickness kit (a barf bowl, a box of Queasy Pops, a spray bottle of Fabreeze, etc.), borrowed a luggage carrier and we were off! We made it all the way to Nashville with no carsickness and so our hopes for a trouble-free vacation were very high!

Unfortunately, that was all about to change. . . . Continue Reading

So I’ve spent some more time using BlogEngine.Net.  While I STILL wish I had a simpler front-end experience now that I’ve broken down and cracked open the source code, I’m able to make some of the changes I wanted.  Unfortunately, I also realized today that my Web Hosting provider (Network Solutions) has only maed BlogEngine.Net ver. 1.1 available for my site while the BlogEngine.Net team is on release 1.5.  So some of the frustration I’m dealing with may simply be result of using an initial software release.

Nevertheless, I recognize that all the time I’m spending updating code and stylesheets could be spent doing something else . . . like working on my book!

More on that in future posts.  (MUCH more!)

I also confirmed that the blog post editor (ast least ver. 1.1), does not work on the iPhone/iPod Touch.  When I click into the editor pane using Safari, the keyboard disappears.  I suppose I could draft my posts and paste them in, but them I’m back to wasting time trying to "work the tools" instead of actually working with them.

Ugh!

I’m in the process of trying out new blogware for my site. 

This is BlogEngine.Net!

So far, not impressed.  I’ve worked with many site development tools over the years, written my own code, etc. For this site, I need administration tools which are very point-and-click, drop-and-drag. We use SharePoint at work for the blogs and collaboration spaces I manage there.  And while SharePoint has its disadvantages, once you know what they are and come up the learning curve, you can create some powerful, user-friendly sites.

So far, I don’t see any way to add controls (widgets) from the Admin console.  The various controls I DO want are spread across different stylesheets that only show up when I change themes.  Oh yeah, and I use Firefox (A LOT) and right now this post is being entered into an edit panel which is forcing me to scroll left and write to see my text because it’s running off the screen in both directions!  (I’ve confirmed this behavior using Internet Explorer and Safari using my iPod Touch as well.)

Nice! {not}

I also appear to be stuck with the original Admin ID I chose when I installed the software and see no way to edit or add new admins.  Oh and BlogEngine, this is 2009.  I know I’m not the only person in the world with a hyphenated last name.  Please update your software to allow "-" in the Admin name!

I’ll quit here for now.  I think I may have already seen enough.