Dear Hod, it's an update!
For all my thoughts of "I should update this thing more!", I don't seem to have much in the way of follow-through. Better late than never, I suppose!

First off, current events: My grandparents and aunt who live in Louisiana managed to evacuate safely. This was the town they lived in. I use the past tense here because while they did all manage to get out, none of us really expect there to be much of a town for them to go back to. It's very likely that they lost everything they couldn't bring with them, but at least they have their lives; that's what really matters. Possessions pale in comparison, of course, but family heirlooms and photographs have quite a bit of sentimental value - their loss would truly be upsetting. I will keep up hope that they haven't lost everything, but at the moment it doesn't seem likely.

Politics aside, reading the news over the past week has been a strange experience - stories this big don't usually hit quite so close to home.

Secondly, life has been quite busy lately, between travel and weekends and deadlines at work. Last weekend Tiff (misscheetah) and I took a roadtrip to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, which was quite fun. I've never been to a "faire" before, and it was quite an interesting experience. Mostly I just alternately marveled and cringed at the quality of the garb there. This weekend we went to Annapolis and visited Maryland's Renaissance Faire, which was quite an eye-opener compared to PA - the quality of outfits and general feel of the place was much better than PA, and the music was better, to boot. I had much fun at both faires, though, and fully intend to see more of them in the future. We also went with Tiff's sister Heidi and Heidi's husband Brian to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. yesterday, which was also quite a lot of fun. It was pretty crowded, though, and difficult to elbow one's way to decent photo spots. I've got a few pictures that did turn out OK here. That page is based on a PHP script I just threw together, so if there are bugs, let me know.

Sample:


Thirdly, I'm being sent to Texas for a business trip from the 11th to the 16th. The software project that has been my main task at work since February is finally being shown to the end users, and I'm a bit apprehensive about it. I will live, though. Hopefully!

Anyway... that's about all I can think of, for now.

[EDIT: That first hurricane link I posted seems a bit flaky about registration. If you can't read it, I've mirrored the text-only version here.]