Best in ShowTo win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill. Thursday, October 19, 2000 At work we are pulling our hair out, trying to get a major redesign posted. Kellie did 99 percent of the implementation over the past few months, while I propped up the current version of the site, and edited and produced the content we've been posting. She's really eager to get it up! She gets a bonus when it goes live, which she wants to apply to a down payment on a house. I want me some bonus, too! I'll have to make sure I'm involved deeply in the next go-round of site improvements. I suppose our users will notice the changes, but a lot of what the designer came up with has been implemented incrementally (say that three times fast), since there were features that we could put up right away. Things like the "action drop-down" at the top of every page are the "low-hanging fruit" you always hear tell about. So, we are almost there, so close we can taste it. We built a test version of the site and banged on it today, and found a few things. There were a few textual tweaks for me to make. We were delayed until this week because we decided to go ahead and get a local graphic artist to do some images for us. This was worthwhile! It's not easy to find stock art that has to do with financial topics, that isn't cheesy or overused. Now we have new stuff, and a source for more images when we need them.
I decided to go take in a movie rather than fight traffic on my way home. Best in Show is one about which Jack had said "That doesn't interest me," so I didn't feel that we should be seeing it together. He loved Spinal Tap, from some of the same people, but I guess it was the rock-music content that appealed to him there. What I like is the mockumentary format, and the cast. I drove over to Redmond Town Center, with time for a bookstore and candy store stop, before the movie. (Sweets Factory isn't a very healthy dinner, but what the hey...) Borders paid off tonight! I was thrilled to complete my Vorkosigan saga, with The Vor Game and Mirror Dance. I also found the Jean Ross Ewing book I didn't have yet, Flowers Under Ice. I timed it just right, and got seated about thirty seconds before the previews started. Of course, now I'm having trouble remembering what they were! But I do remember laughing. Best in Show was good! Very funny, if you like Christopher Guest's humor, and I do. He plays the owner of the bloodhound. Except for the ventriloquism, he was almost a straight character, and very likable. The rest of the cast was fine, too. Jennifer Coolidge, as a gold digger married to an ancient wealthy man, was scary! I finally got to the new Larry's Market tonight. I'd looked for it on previous visits to Redmond Town Center, but I hadn't quite gone far enough. It wasn't busy at all! An ideal grocery shopping experience for me: cool gourmet foods, and no pesky people around. I stocked up for Jack and his daughter H---'s visit this weekend. I may actually cook something! I felt very efficient and domestic this evening, as I cleaned the bathroom and changed the sheets. I get a lot of pleasure from the nice linens I bought last summer. All are white or various shades of beige or tan, so I can mix them up.
I sent Jack email the other morning, pointing out the gorgeous sunrise, since I knew that he was often up early, checking email before work. But the sunrise up in Bellingham wasn't that great, and he wrote that he'd been thinking about his older daughter, which darkened his thoughts. "But now I have you bringing a bit of light!" he added. Awww, he does know the right things to say.
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