Zach Dotsey

Today was busy, busy, busy.  I’ve got several voice messages to check because I just couldn’t answer all the calls with everything else I was trying to get done.  Scott and I both were feeling the stress I think.  I mean, it’s not like either of us were rude or snippy or anything to each other at all, nothing like that.  We both just made some comments about how stressful the day was.

One of the really fun things I worked on today was a newsletter.  When we send newsletters we will, if a client requests it, send a test to the client for approval.  I sent one to one client and they said an image wasn’t showing up.  I sent myself a test and it was fine, so I checked the code.  The code was fine.  I had them send me a copy of the one they got and sure enough, the image was missing.  I checked the code on theirs and for some reason, %20, which is code for a space, was inserted in the middle of the image’s URL.

So I sent Scott a test copy and I sent one to every e-mail address I had; Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail.  It was fine in all of those, but the client’s AOL e-mail kept adding in the extra space.  So I messed around with it a bit and nothing worked.  I even uploaded the image to a new location and linked to it from there.  Nada.  Finally I counted over how many spaces the extra space was added in, added fifty blank spaces in the code, and it worked.

That was really fun.

Konrad Demers came by today.  He called yesterday and we chatted a bit.  I had told him months ago that I’d look at a broken computer for him but he and his family moved to Hampstead before I got it back to him and I hadn’t seen him or them until today.  I haven’t talked to him since late February I think.  Anyway he stopped by and got the computer and we chatted a little more.  Sounds like things are going okay for them.  Still a little tough, but good.

After work I met Amanda at the Volkswagen dealership where she was dropping off the car then we went to Target.  I forgot to mention that Harvey chewed up the bottoms to Amanda’s favorite bikini so she was getting a new bathing suit.  Not that she needs another one, but her birthday was recently and even though I beat Harvey with the scrap of cloth that was left I felt bad that he’d been able to do that on my watch.  She also picked up some lotion for her belly scar.  After that we headed over to McAllister’s for small group.

It was a small small group tonight; just us, Mike and Kaitlyn Boscaljon and Ron Peterson and Kristen Barriner.  Lorin was invited to a dance recital for a dance company she may do some work for.  Justin was out of town and apparently Lisa has had a temperature of 102 for the past couple days.  I’m not sure what happened to Elliot and Melissa.

It wasn’t an overly lengthy study tonight, but there were a lot of prayer requests:

• John Quinn, who isn’t doing well with his brain tumor.
• Mike’s sister-in-law had labor induced, so they’ll have a niece or nephew soon.
• Jan, the secretary at Amanda’s work, has a son-in-law with a lot of inoperable cancer.
• A couple sibling issues.  Not with me or Amanda, but I don’t want to be too specific for their own privacy.
• For Lisa, who is obviously sick.
• For Lorin, who has a lot of decisions to make.
• For everyone who will be doing a bit of traveling in the coming weeks.

When we got home Amanda and I watched House and Big Bang Theory.  I had just finished talking about how most episodes of House are all the same when this one comes along and throws me off.  In it, Dr. House was in an accident but remembered that he saw something before the accident that made him think that someone’s life was in danger, so he spent the episode piecing together his memories.

American Idol came on after all that.  Technically it came on while we were watching Big Bang Theory (a birthday party for Leonard), but we timed it so that we were able to skip all the commercials and catch up at the very end.  The episode showcased a trip home for all of the Idols, and May 9th, Amanda’s birthday and the day they all went for their visits, was named David Archuleta day.  I laughed vigorously at that and will do my best to remind Amanda of that every year on her birthday, as much as she loves him.  (Okay, so the other contestants were given their own days in their hometowns too, but it’s more fun to focus on David Archuleta Day.)

The finale next week will be David versus David, a contrast of styles.  No big surprise there.  I figure Archuleta will win because he has the support of little girls and old women.  David Cook looked worried the whole time, even after the results.  maybe he didn’t want to be in the final two.

Zach Dotsey

The Old 97’s new CD, Blame it on Gravity, came out today.  I made sure to pick it up while I was out.

Work was pretty busy.  Scott and I had a conference call with a prospective client who wants quite a bit done.  Scott said afterwards that it sounded like a fun project, and the client had a good idea of what he wanted too, which always helps.  I had an afternoon meeting too, with another big client, although this was an existing one.  We had redesigned their site and completely redone the code.  It’s sort of in beta mode right now, but it’s really close to finished.  Scott wanted me to go there and show them some things personally because it would be easier than doing it over the phone.

The funny thing about this meeting is that they’re one of, if not the, oldest clients we have but as much as I’ve talked to them I’d never met them.  My brother, Adam, had in fact met them because a few months ago they asked if we had someone we could suggest for doing some tech support.  Anyway, it was cool to finally have a face-to-face.  I was told that it was thought I’d have bleached blonde hair, and not curly, because of two things.  One was that I’d apparently mentioned surfing one time and the other is that everyone else they’d met who worked with us had blonde hair.

As a bonus I got to walk around downtown on a nice day for a little bit.  I always say this, but I love downtown Wilmington.

In between all that I had lunch at J. Michael’s Deli with Amanda and Allison and Billy, two of her co-workers.

Michael came by right around 5:00 and we played some basketball.  I think we both won a game of HORSE then he beat me at 21.  More than once I think.  After that he and I walked to the grocery store to pick up some milk because Amanda wanted cereal for dinner.  She’s not able to lift heavy things yet, or at least it’s been suggested that she does not.  She did stop by PetSmart on the way home to get some dog food, but she had someone carry the food out to the car for her.

She also stopped by the Volkswagen place to discuss tires with them.  We’re getting four new tires plus all that goes with that, which will take up more than half of our economic stimulus thing.  So much for getting a (PlayStation3) Blu-Ray player for our anniversary, or getting the lens I wanted for my camera for my birthday.  Or getting our lawn fixed up all nice.  Or any number of other things we could have done with all that.

I was all sweaty so after Michael left we took a shower then watched American Idol.  I think David Cook was the only one who was consistently good out of the three finalists, so I expect it will be the two Davids.  Not really going out on a limb with that prediction.

After Idol we watched this past week’s Saturday Night Live, which was decent.  After that Amanda went to bed and I played some Grand Theft Auto IV.

Zach Dotsey r