Steven Reimer

Good news! I was able to fix the Corolla's problem without any new parts. It turned out that the problem was that one of the control arm mount points was loose. After a bit of working the bolt back and forth I was able to get it good and tight. The Corolla drives great now with no suspension noises!

woohoo!

I have been on my own for the past week. Julene and Abby are at my inlaws. It feels weird being on my own. I like coming home to a wife and child and it feels weird to open the door and be greeted by silence.

On the vehicle front:
The Corolla is needing some maintenance. I replaced the rotors this week because they were warped. Tonight is the passenger side ball joint. This is a new procedure for me. I haven't replaced a ball joint before. From the looks of it though, it appears to be relatively straight forward. Christopher volunteered to come down and lend a hand if I need it - which will be nice. Sometimes all you need is one more hand or set of eyes.

I am once again very thankful for having my own garage to do these repairs on my own. I can imagine the labour cost would be somewhere around $250.

The !PHP project has passed the pilot stage. We are now waiting for confirmation that the quote we gave them will fit in their 2008 budget. I have been working on it during "down time" at work and I'm enjoying it. I have completed a device discovery web utility which is something the open source solution didn't have. The next step is to finish the monitoring daemon.

That said, it's time to get to work.

I had enough time budgeted so I could start writing a C++ monitoring daemon. I need another couple weeks to get where I'd like to be. If the project stalls, or they go with the open source, I plan to finish it on my own - it would look good on my resume.

In other news, a friend of mine has been chosen for jury duty. As much as I know there is a need for juries made up of members of the public, I'm glad I haven't had to be involved in any trials (as of yet). It does peak my curiosity a bit though. I'll have to bug him about once he's done.

Abby is still a super happy baby. She gets into these hyper moods sometimes and can be quite hilarious. I'm quietly hoping that the hyperactivity slows and doesn't increase as she gets older. She can sit mostly on her own now, we just have to tip her back up occasionally. Her favorite thing to do seems to be to sit on the (or Mark and Esther's couch) and play with a toy while "talking" as loud as possible - drowning out or at least distracting from any nearby conversations.

I was browsing ebay for old Porsches and came across what will now be my dream car.
A 1969 Porsche 911.

The prices don't seem to be way out of reach and I have always wanted a Porsche. Plus, I'd rather have a classic than something new anyway. So it meets all my desires. That said, I probably am nowhere near being a place to justify such a purchase. But it's nice to dream - albeit a bit frustrating.