Just An Update

Hello there. Unfortunately tonight I won't be able to dive into any topics too deeply. This will just be an update.

Over the past couple of days my web design has been brought back to the front burner. I have been working with a new program, Microsoft's Expression Web. I like it. It is pretty comprehensive and automates a lot of the process. I haven't found it to be terribly clunky either. Of course, very little software is as intuitive as I would like to see, but overall I am happy with what I am seeing so far. It allows you to handle styles in a variety of ways, but the coolest feature that I have found so far is that it makes it easy to preview your work in any web browser that you have installed on your computer.

All this has come about because I am the acting webmaster for a friend's company. He has an interesting product - home automation. Right now I am in the process of tweaking a couple things on the website. Next my job will to be to find some ways to make the site even cooler. If you are interested in finding out what home automation is you can check out his site at http://shautomation.com. So far none of my changes are public, but I hope that I will have several changes available by the weekend.

I am also hopeful that as I learn more about Microsoft Expression Web that it will help me to expedite the go-live of a couple other sites I am working on... including a redesign of RealSalisbury.com.

Things have been kind of quiet with the StillWaters Jazz Band. We had a gig two weeks ago that went fine. The only problem was that we only got to play to a handful of people. We played for the fundraiser for the JC Carson Bible Teaching Association. They are trying to raise the money to hire a Bible teacher at Carson High School here in China Grove. I thought that we played pretty well, it was just that the audience was sparse. We have a much bigger gig coming up on July 19, 2008 at Dixie's in China Grove. July 19 is Farmers' Day here and I expect that we will have a pretty good crowd. I don't know what time we are officially playing, but I'll get back to you as soon as I know.

The garden is doing well, but feeling a little neglected. I haven't been able to work in it since last Saturday. Now there is a ton that needs to be done. Everything needs to be sprayed again, and the tomatoes need to be tied, and the rocks need to be removed, and fertilizer needs to be put out. Dad told me tonight that the green peas have begun to bloom.

There are lots of other things going on right now that I'd like to comment on, but I am trying to think them through before I write and besides that it is late and my bed is calling me. Hopefully I will have some time between here and the weekend to do a little more posting. I'll talk to you then!