You ever feel a bad day welling up inside you?

Looking for a way to explode into a pounding headache and an overwhelming desire to break something?

Today is such a day.

Note sure why either. I got up ok… made it into work just fine.

But I have a sore throat…

And my access to MY PRODUCT GALLERY isn’t working today?! (and I NEED it to work)

And I’m swamped with crap that I wasn’t brought into the loop on until it became “urgent”

And…

oh man I don’t even want to Blog.

I’m fighting it as hard as I can but listing all things that are desperately trying to ruin today is making it hard not to give in.

Somebody tell me something funny…

Where’s my TUMS^™ ??

So Jana and I had a really good time this weekend hanging out with the Hicks clan.

We talked of our plans to get rich and rule the world, smoked some quality cigars, and generally had a really nice time.

Jana and I even got a chance to baby sit for Avery and Carson.

I slept for the first two hours of baby sitting and let Jana handle everything.

When I woke up Avery and Carson had eaten, been cleaned up, were in Pajamas, and everyone was sitting on the couch watching some cutesy movie.

Wow Jana had done pretty well.

Since I slept through dinner I started snacking a bit.

The lights were low and the kids were finishing up the movie in preparation for bed time.

Jana ran next door for a bit since I was awake and all the big things had been taken care of.

Everything at this point should have been “Babysitting for Dummies”.

All I had to do was let the movie end and then it was bed time. Jana had already done all the real work.

But about 2 minutes after Jana left the kids realized they were alone with me.

And the games were afoot.

Let me set the stage.

Carson and Avery were supposed be winding down for bed.

They were on the couch watching Toy story.

They were in their Pajamas and the lights were low.

Hell I was getting sleepy and I had just woken up!

I was at the kitchen table eating tortilla chips and drinking a diet Dr. Pepper.

Jana left.

Five minutes later the lights were on, we’d changed movies three times, and the kids were at the table eating my chips.

A total loss of control.

At one point I was just walking in circles mumbling “Jana…jana… jana… jana..”

Here’s a timeline of how it went down…

00:00:00 - I wake up and all is well.

00:01:15 - I’ve said my hellos to everyone and started to get myself some snack food.

00:05:00 - I’ve sat down at the kitchen table and Jana informs me she’ll “be right back”

00:07:00 - The kids realize Jana’s left me all alone at their mercy.

00:07:25 - Avery asks if we can change the movie.

00:07:26 - Carson screams “NOOOOooo I van oo blah oy sory!”

00:08:00 - I decode that to mean “No I want to watch toy story” and decide to leave the movie alone.

00:08:10 - Avery, obviously bored with Toy story asks for her “letter book”.

00:08:15 - I decide that a reader is an educational item and if she’s bored with the movie then SURE.. Learn to read!

00:08:57 - Avery says “I need some light to read this”

00:08:59 - The lights are on.

00:09:05 - Carson is looking around now. Avery isn’t reading.

00:09:06 - Avery asks to change the movie again since Carson wasn’t paying attention.

00:09:10 - After much debate with the two of them “Santa Clause” is the new preferred movie.

00:09:15 - I’m messing with the DVD player when I realize the kids aren’t on the couch anymore.

00:09:30 - I coral the kids on the couch to watch the new movie “Santa Clause”

00:09:35 - I turn the lights back off.

00:09:36 - Both kids scream “NO NO NO we need the light on”

00:09:37 - The lights are back on.

00:09:45 - Neither kid is interested in the movie so I move to the couch to sit with them.

00:10:00 - Avery asks for a drink of my Dr. Pepper.

00:10:00 - I say no, and offer water.

00:10:02 - Avery spills water all over the couch.

00:10:03 - The kids are up again while I wipe up the spill.

00:10:15 - Carson has gotten out the poker chips and is dispersing them about the room.

00:10:16 - Avery is at the table eating chips.

00:10:20 - I get the poker chips away from the boy and start to put them away.

00:10:25 - My chips are almost gone and both children are eating them.

00:10:30 - I assume the fetal position and rock myself to my happy place.

Jana eventually came home.

Jana: “What’s going on here?!”

Doug: “I don’t know… I’ve lost control… I think they can smell fear.”

Here’s the timeline of events when Jana got home.

00:00:01 - The lights go out.

00:00:02 - The kids protest “hey we need the lights..”

00:00:02.5 - Jana: “No you don’t we’re going to bed anyway. Come on back to the couch”

00:00:03 - the lights are out and the kids are on the couch.

00:00:04 - the kids want a different movie.

00:00:05 - Jana: “You don’t need a different movie because we’re going to bed in ten minutes anyway”

00:00 06 - The kids: “No…”

00:00:06.5 - Jana: “Yep ten minutes so you better get to watching”

00:00 07 - The kids: “But we don’t want to see Santa Clause.”

00:00:08 - Jana: “Well you can watch this one for ten minutes or we can go to bed now.”

00:00:09 - The Kids mumble “watch the movie.”

00:10:00 - The movie get’s shut off and the kids are put to bed.

So there you have it.

I got played by a fiver year old.

Boy what a week…

Sorry I didn’t Blog at all.

And this isn’t going to be any more of a Blog than me saying sorry I didn’t Blog.

Hopefully the pretty new theme was enough to make you smile once or twice.

(Because I live only for your smile)

Hicks Family OFF line will be at my place tonight!

Hahaha you see that? See what I did there? I took Kevin’s URL HicksFamilyOnline and twisted it around to make a joke! Hahahah I am funny!

Kevin, Corrie, Avery, and Carson are coming over this weekend to hang out.

Hopefully something Blog worthy will come of it.

Hang in there until then!

… and now for a gratuitous and arbitrary smiley…

Well obviously I launched a new Theme today.

(for those of you who are reading this at some point further in the future… trust me today there was a change in the site design)

If you want a big long explanation of how and why I did this, and the cool techno-geek work behind it please read this news story.

But in the meantime I wanted to get all of your opinions on the new design.

I can change themes on the fly so if this one royally sucks we can roll back to the previous one.

Personally I think it’s a nice change.

I was ready for a little something different.

As I get more and more themes created I’ll probably switch them out pretty often. (gotta keep things fresh here)

Fear not though just because we changed themes doesn’t mean we won’t see the other again.

It’s in the theme library and can be called upon at any time.

Let me know what you think seriously.

Is it easy enough to read the font colors?

What do you think about the logo, images, and color distribution?

Better or worse than the last one?

Today I launched the first “New” theme since the site was rebuilt using my Wiba application.

I hope you all enjoy it.

The real news here though is that the Wiba platform makes it ridiculously easy to change the site’s theme (look and feel) so you can expect more theme changes in the future.

Best of all launching a new theme doesn’t get rid of the old one at all.

I can activate any of the themes I have created at any time.

So hopefully I’ll soon have a number of “standard” themes I can cycle through, as well as themes specific to certain Holidays or events.

The theme functionality also allows me to change the layout of the site along with the Style, logos, and backgrounds. So at the push of a button the site can be completely different.

Cool huh?!

Well that’s all I have for you at the moment.

Hope you enjoy the new theme.

Well it’s Friday.

It’s been a full week since my last blog. Sorry about that.

It’s been a very busy work week here and on top of it all I’m trying to keep a presence on HFO this week as well.

Apparently my efforts on HFO have been working because I can’t even get the site to load today due to a “Bandwidth Limitations Exceeded” error.

Anyway I’d like to take a moment to tell you all about an exciting new discovery that simply isn’t getting the media attention it deserves.

The scientists at Great Clips have done it again. That’s right Great Clips… the haircut place.

Now I know what you’re thinking.

“Doug, YOU go to Great Clips?”

Well yes. Yes I do.

I was surprised to see things end up that way myself. But there are 2-3 really good stylists at this one particular Great Clips near me

(honestly their talents are wasted there)

and you can’t beat the price. As long as the staff I like is there I’m taking advantage of it.

Anyway somewhere in the bowels of the Great Clips HQ the R&D department has scored a big win.

They have designed a wonderful new styling product that simply defies conventional thinking about hair care technology.

It’s called “Styling Taffy”.

It’s a wonder of science and is surely a by-product of the space program to some degree.

Styling Taffy holds better than gel, but isn’t as “Heavy” as the pomade type products that have been taking market share from gels and mouses lately.

Truly a wonderful compromise that is made only better by it’s “Ginger Vanilla” scent.

My hair looks cool, is in place, soft to the touch, and smells like a high quality strip tease.

I LOVE IT.

Hmmm.. nobody liked the castle game huh?

Ok fair enough.

Anyway it’s Monday. And despite that fact I’m REALLY trying to have an ok day today.

(I’m soooo looking forward to taking a nap in my car over my lunch break)

So in an attempt to keep things upbeat here lets talk about some of the cool things going on.

Some of you may have noticed the quiet return of the Quoteboard. I added the news blurb about a day after it came back online, and I’ve already started to add some quotes. It’s a big big thing to get that scratched off the list. For a more complete run down of why check out the news story. For a real quick look at the continuing work here at DougMeade.com check out the development page.

Also I’m running HFO this week.

Kevin is going to try and check in via his vacation at least once for a “wish you were here” blog, but other than that I’m at the helm.

Go check it out when you get a chance. (comment on something so Kevin knows what an excellent job I’m doing)

What else…

My parents are coming up tonight. So after the personal trainer kicks Jana and I a little close toward fitness we’ll unwind with dinner with the folks.

I’m really going to try and eat well this week. (and hopefully from now on).

I’ve seriously been eating like Chunk from “The Goonies” for the past month. This gym/trainer cost way too much money to be killing that effort with such gluttony.

And for the record…

I tried THREE times this weekend to get a new feature built here on DougMeade.com for your viewing enjoyment.

Each time Internet gremlins destroyed my work. Little bastards always waited until I got most of it down and typed out before disappearing it too.

I hope the bothersome little trolls are happy. Now you’ll all have to wait.

But I digress.. we’re having a happy Monday I forgot.

Well at least there’s that lunch time nap to look forward to.

This week I will be taking the reins at HFO.

Kevin and his lovely family are enjoying a well deserved break from the rat race and I will overseeing the day to day operations until his return.

Be sure to stop by HFO this week and post your thoughts about the blogs, moods, and JAWs that are posted. Hopefully HFO will be proven to have been left in good hands.

I will make every effort not to let things slip around here while I am working on HFO. But in all honesty the site here has been limping along ever since the hacking bastards forced our move/rebuild… so I don’t think we’ll have any problem keeping up with the current pace.

Well Ted really made my Friday difficult.

Besides being a work day, I have to go work out tonight with the trainer and thus won’t be able to go home and crash right after work.

So sleep would have been a good thing last night.

But OOOOOOH No!

No, Ted had to show me a little flash game that kept me up until 2:30 AM.

It’s a little game where you defend your castle against the Godless barbarian stick figure attackers that storm the walls with ever increasing numbers, speed, and power.

As they run at your castle you must throw them into the air and watch them splat onto the ground.

If you do well enough you will eventually get enough money for a temple, which will allow you to drop an attacker into your castle courtyard and convert him to your side.

The more of these converts the better because your next purchase may be an archery range to start training them into archers.

Or maybe you train them into wizards. The more wizards you have the more mana you have, which means the more spells you can cast, and the faster you can cast them.

Be careful though, the more people you train the higher your upkeep costs get.

I had almost 1000 archers,850 wizards, 25 repairmen, and a bunch of untrained men incase something horrible happened.

The attackers couldn’t get anywhere NEAR my castle.

Which was cool… until 2:20 AM rolled around.

I decided to stop casting any spells and see how I fared with only the archers working to defend me.

Level 37 and I could leave my computer without fear.

They kicked stick figure ass.

Apparently level 500 is about as high as anyone has been able to take the game.

My game is saved and I plan on breaking that record.

I’ll post the link by the comments… but don’t do this at work.

It will take your entire day and I don’t want to get anyone fired.

Some of you may have noticed the quiet return of the Quoteboard.

Don’t expect it to be quite any longer!!

The Quoteboard front end, and administration tools have been completed and we’re back in business.

Also the old Quoteboard data has been restored as best it could be, and in the end we didn’t lose as much as we could have.

(maybe a month or two at most)

But that’s not all that got finished.

The capsguide is back up. The features page is ready to go, and the admin tool has been upgraded to allow for system alerts.

Trust me it’s a good thing.

This is an exciting time here at DougMeade.com because that leaves only one MAIN piece of the site left to rebuild.

The photo album.

The photo album may not be the next thing to be scratched off the to-do list though as getting other features done first may help facilitate the new and improved photo section.

Stay tuned for more news.

In the meantime start submitting those quotes again!