Hi all -

Currently deeply ensconced in explaining to XML and PHP how they will behave as I ask. XML unimpressed, PHP merely amused. Rumors galloping about of XML squiring cheap tart PHP to New Orleans for a weekend of serious debauchery, leaving the stolid marrieds here in Huntsvega$ alone to find ways to make new code work.

Have tried to explain to the cheap tart, with little avail, that I simply cannot release the next version of wonderPortal until she and her bawdy compatriot decide to cooperate with me, and that their noncompliance is leading to much frustration on my part.

Greetings from Huntsville, your latest source of American workplace shootings.

Pass the chicken.

There's nothing quite like waking up one morning to learn that your adopted hometown is the news event of the day. "Four men dead in workplace shooting; police say that the gunman is holed up in some..." ... unnamed apartment building that's apparently over on my side of town.

Those who want to see firsthand evidence of the American love for alternately-spelled words have to look no further than the myriad Southern spellings of the word "barbecue," or the vast creativity that goes into Southern church names.

(What is the game of 'seven words'? See this entry for explanations, or to contribute potential words.)

They resist sticks, stones, brandished bones, and - in the earliest of hours when no one is looking - abject pleading and begging. They, the disenchanted teenage brood, resent that it was I - silly, bumbling fool, I - who brought them into existence, and blame me for all their problems.They hurl insults when angered. Technical terms are spat like curse words through the browser, because they know I feel the sting.

It has been seven days since the Battle For Manage-Pings began in northeast Alabama, and I must report that the carnage has been intense. Burned dinners. Insomnia. Ignored cats. Friends who resort to emails in the hopes of actually making contact with my brain.

There are two possibilities for this vehicle.

Possibility #1: Professional job.
Implication #1: Money was spent.
Implication #2: Someone actually gets paid to do this sort of thing.

Possibility #2: Homegrown.
Implication #1: Too cheap to pay for real paintjob (come to think of it, this falls under Possibility #1 as well)
Implication #2: Friends stood by and let this happen.

I gave up on the Dallas concert for financial reasons. I regretted the decision from the moment I made it, even though I knew that I'd made the right fiscal choice.

From the first time I read the show announcement, I was just flabbergasted with shock—Jackopierce actually playing together again?—wasn't I there for one of the concerts on the farewell tour five years ago?

I had been introduced to Jackopierce my freshman year of college, but never got to see them perform in Juanita's, their customary Little Rock venue, because the concerts were for ages 21 and up.