Real cheese

My two-year-old daughter wanted something to eat, so she asked me for a "real cheese sandwich."

I said, "a what?"

She said, "I want a real cheese sandwich."

I said, "I'm not sure what you're asking for. You want a real cheese sandwich?"

Now she's getting impatient. "Yes," she says, "a real cheese sandwich!"

"Oh! A grilled cheese sandwich?" I ask.

"Yes!" she yells back.

Problem solved. Except now she's looking at me like she's thinking of putting me in a home for the mentally incapacitated.

Next time this happens, I'm asking the five-year-old to translate for me.

(Humour)

Developer tools

Shamelessly piling on a post by Scott Hanselman, who presents his "ultimate developer and power users tool list".

Some great stuff in there.

(Software development)

Idea of the day

This just jumped into my head - you know how Google has a "Safe search" option, which limits the "adult" results you might find in a search? What if they also had a "Totally unsafe search" option, which would show only adult results?

That would make a fortune. Google, you can send me the cheque.

(Humour)

What's curling?

One of our UI designers was over at my desk the other day, changing the UI requirements on me, minutes before we release for testing, and he sees "5 weeks to curling season!" on my whiteboard. He says to me, "what's curling?"

I say, "get the fuck out!"

He says, "no, really, what's curling?"

So I explain it to him, and he says, "I'm from Toronto, would they have curling in Toronto?"

I say, "Yes, I'm sure they do."

He shrugs and says, "who knew?"

I realize the world ends just outside the Toronto city limits, but come on, this IS Canada...

(Curling)

Schoolhouse

The evening show at the Blyth Festival last night was Schoolhouse. It's billed as a tribute to the life of the one-room schoolteacher, and tells the story of an eighteen-year-old teacher in a small town school.

Overall, I'd say this was well done. The script could use a bit of tightening up in places, and in a casting move I can only charitably call "retarded", the 60-ish Anne Anglin played a young girl, and Michelle Polak played a seven-year-old boy. I realize it's hard to find talented youngsters in Huron County, but this mistaken casting only served to distract from the excellent performances of the leads.

(Blyth Festival)

Another Season's Harvest

I caught the last two shows of the Blyth Festival's season yesterday. The afternoon show was Another Season's Harvest, by Anne Chislett and Keith Roulston. It's billed as a sequel to Another Season's Promise, from 1986, but it certainly stands on its own quite well.

Blyth works best when the stories being told are our stories, and this one hits straight home to Huron County. I'm not a farmer, and I grew up in Montreal, but this story still appeals to me. From the mad cow crisis to the pressures of dealing with government and factory farms, to the innovative "tourist farms", this show balances humour and serious issues quite well.

(Blyth Festival)

Killbear Provincial Park

Just back from a week at Killbear Provincial Park, near Parry Sound.



It's a huge park, with several hiking trails of varying difficulty, although my five-year-old daughter scampered around all of them. The best trail is the longest, and features a spectacular lookout at the top.



We saw tons of deer and some raccoons, and heard owls at night. The water was shallow and warm, and the beach was very sandy. The new Visitor Centre opened the week before we arrived, and it's got some fun things for the kids, especially the interactive "match the poop to the animal" exhibit. I never knew raccoon poop would be so interesting to my kids.

On Saturday night we were lucky enough to catch David Archibald in a rain-shortened concert. His songs are wonderful stories about the Great Lakes. I found out today that I've seen his work before, in Blyth. Who knew?

The last trip of the summer is the Labour Day weekend, to the Pinery. Sigh. But, then curling picks up!

(Killbear Provincial Park)
(Camping)
(David Archibald)

Friday funnies

1) For the C# fans in the crowd. This code looks good - if only it did something...

private string removeLineBreaks(string str)
{
 str.Replace("\n\r", "");
 str.Replace("\r\n", "");
 str.Replace("\n", "");
 str.Replace("\r", "");
   
 return str;
}

2) But what do you really mean?

d.MetaDataEntity.MetaDataData.MetaData[0].Caption = "Guids blow";

3) I knew there was a reason I avoid C++ like the plague.

// Cast up for the tree
// which is too innocent to know about the controller version
//
ChangeMaker = (undo_redo_base_class *) (&(*ChangeMakerController));

4) Make that two reasons.

// Insert check to see if enumerated types are
// screwed with this compiler or version of module
// 
if ( (int) GENERAL_REPLICATION != 0 )
{
   Log->error << fn << ":snooker'd cause we assume enums & integers are interchangable" << eol;
   ASSERT(0);
}

5) From the "give your variables meaningful names" file.

if (add_if_true_remove_if_false)
{
 ... snip
}

(Humour)
(Software development)

Support breast cancer research

BalancePlus has decided to help support breast cancer research by giving $100 for every pink handled carbon fibre brush they sell. Glenn Howard's team will be using these brushes this fall.

I've got one of the old-fashioned yellow and black BalancePlus carbon fibre brushes, and they're fantastic. If you've been thinking of picking one of these up, now's a great time to do it, and help support a good cause.

(Curling)

Another underwear story

I mentioned a while ago that the secret to a long happy life is to wear comfortable underwear.

Scott Adams backs me up on this one.

(Humour)

Charleston Lake Provincial Park

Just back from a week at Charleston Lake Provincial Park, near Kingston.

The weather was great - we were at the beach every day. We took a cruise through some of the Thousand Islands from Gananoque, which is only about 15 minutes from the park.

My five year old spent most days at the bottom of the lake, scrounging for shells and rocks. She's very excited about being able to dive down to the bottom, swim underwater, and do somersaults.

We all stayed up way too late every night around the campfire. There were four families from the curling club on this trip, and one night we had 18 people together for a campfire dinner.

Next trip is to Killbear in two weeks - can't wait to go!

(Charleston Lake Provincial Park)
(Camping)

Hottest day of the year

If the Weather Network service isn't buggered up, you'll see a little "weather of the day" graphic near the top left of the page. As I write this, it says 34 degrees (feels like 46). 46!?! Yeowch.

In the spirit of thinking cool, let me just say that curling season starts in 9 weeks.

Note to self: start taking that testosterone now...

(Curling)