Getting back to normal, and other stuff...

The system at work that was driving me so crazy is getting back to normal, slowly but surely.  I'm still bummed, accepting, but bummed, over the loss of data that I'm in any way responsible for.  I strive to keep that sort of stuff from happening, plan for the eventuality and hope like crazy that my planning was good and that I have things covered and can handle anything that might get tossed at my systems, but the gremlins always find the holes.  Ugh.

We have since improved processes and should have things covered much more completely now.  If there is a next time, we should be ready, and should have much more complete backups.  Still not "zero" downtime type but much, much closer (less than 24 hours).  We might be able to get to a little closer if we added some modules to our backup solution, but we'd still only really be able to make backups once per day if we stick with a tape backup system (we could schedule more backups if we don't mind using the tapes to do so) and that means we pretty much have aged backups no matter what we do.

On other fronts, it was yet another concert weekend.  Joe Nichols, Joey + Rory, and opening act Margaret Durante.  Decent show at a tiny little club.  Until the headliner went on my daughter and I had very nice seats, not far from the stage.  Once the headliner went on stage (or just before) the emcee/host welcomed everyone down to the stage front area (to stand) and that gave a more obstructed view if I didn't want to stand.  I'd seen the headliner before, still enjoyed the show, but yeah, wound up standing for the rest of the show, or most of it.  Got some decent video captured with my camera, but since it's pretty much the same artists I've highlighted before, I'll save the space here for other things.

In other news, over this past week we also added a new member of our household.  See the pictures below for more info on that...

Patches the cat comes home in the cardboard box

Here's a better picture of Patches:

Hard to see her head coloring, but a bit easier to see most of her

One more picture:

The flashed was a bit bright here, but this shows the head colors a bit better.

For those that are following along, we still have the Pom puppy.  Puppy is apparently pretty jealous of the cat and/or really wants the kitty to come out and play with her.  The kitty has been taking refuge in my bedroom (has everything it needs there and has been good about using it's items for what it is supposed to), and is easily spooked by the puppy's yipping barks.

Puppy has regressed a bit with her potty training and has been incredibly bad about tearing up the pee pads that we've put down for her.  Again, apparently the jealousy is affecting things there quite a bit.  She's also fighting the pads a bit anyway.  She uses one to do some of her business, but then seems to want a clean (new) pad before she'll do a number two on it.  Once she does her business she'll still go running through the pad and anything that is on it and is still very hyper and wants attention whenever possible.

The puppy also has been packing on weight.  Much weight.  Seriously, she's gone from a tiny little thing (she weighed less than the cat does now when she came home with us originally.  The cat currently weighs about 2.5 pounds as she's just a kitten still) to being pretty far along on the growth scale.  Especially around the middle.  She's gotten downright "fat" in the mid-section and has us cutting back on her meal portions and/or number of times she get meals.  She's due to go to the vet this coming weekend for her "fixing", and I don't want the vets to give us a hard time about over feeding and/or not giving her enough exercise.  No, we're not starving her, but we are definitely getting her into a regular pattern for feedings and such.

If we can get her over the hump on the potty training side things will be pretty nice.  I really wish she'd follow the cat's example, but oh well.  All I can say is the old line from the Homeward Bound flick: Cats rule, Dogs drool -- at least when it comes to potty training and such.

The kitty cat is seemingly going to be "my" pet as she has become attached to me from the beginning.  She's living in my bedroom, on my bed, and sleeps there with me at night -- when she's not busy playing and exploring around in the room.  She really is a little sweety.  "Turtle" colored, mostly black with the tan splotches/patches (hence her name).  I figured the name could be shorted to "Pat" (Pat the cat) and that name would work for either a male or female cat.  Originally the people we got her from told us it was a male, but that was cleared up quickly enough, though my daughter snickered a bit about the collar I had purchased for the cat before knowing for sure it was a female: pink with white skull and crossbones on it.  Now that we know Patches is a she, well the pink isn't as bad.  Soon enough she will be fixed and may as well be the unidentifiable Pat from the old Saturday Night Live bits.