The Grinch

Gifts, believe me, captivate both men and Gods, Jupiter himself was won over and appeased by gifts.
-- Ovid

Tuesday, November 28, 2000
Two years ago: Hot Springs
Three years ago: Bugs, Mr. Rico!

Jack didn't leave his folks' house until mid-morning, so he was able to stop by my office by midafternoon. After a hug and a kiss, almost the first thing he said was, "Show me this XML stuff you've been working on!"

So, after Chip filled him in on all the new stuff in our server room, and other changes around here, I showed him -- this meant digging deep into our build process! I showed him all the include files we use currently, and how they fit together. Then I demonstrated what XSLT stuff I was using to do the equivalent thing.

But this wasn't how he had envisioned the project. (I'd had no idea he was thinking so seriously about it!). Since I actually had some work still to do, he asked me to set him up at another computer, so he could dig in and try an xsl stylesheet of his own. Jonathan, our high-school age Java programmer, wasn't in yet, so I set Jack up there for a while. When Jonathan arrived, about fifteen minutes later, Jack came back to my workstation and started showing me how he would be implementing this stuff.

We worked our way down the page, me talking about what I'd already done, and why I'd done it that way. The structure of what we are working with means that the simple examples in the XSLT books don't do everything we need. This became clear to Jack as we worked. I felt reassured that I was doing the right things, since what he came up with wasn't much different than what I'm doing. So there!

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Jack sat on our couch for a while, reading my favorite XSLT book, Michael Kay's XSLT Programmer's Reference. So far that book has really helped me.

When I was done, we decided to go over to Redmond Town Center and see a movie. Of those playing, the best option was The Grinch. I was willing to see it, in spite of the mixed notices. We got there just in time!

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It's long, and I'm not wild about the backstory of the Grinch's unhappy childhood, but Jim Carrey did make me laugh sometimes. I liked the chemistry between Christine Baranski (wonderful character actress; remember her in Cybill?) and the Grinch. The dog was good, too. I'm not too crazy about Cindy Lou Who wondering about the meaning of Christmas, though. Fascinating that the Christmas holiday in Whoville has no religious meaning at all! Everyone had good outfits.

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After the movie we wandered around the mall, but we stayed away from the bookstore. Jack didn't want to spend money there when he needs to be buying Christmas presents! So we visited Seattle Heat and the video game store. I got to see the Mcfarlane action figures, which are indeed impressive! We also visited the Channel 9 store, which is a branch of our local public televsion station. If there is any old series you've seen on Masterpiece theater, they probably have the video there. The question is, do you want it enough to pay the price? I hinted about how the new Ken Burns series will probably have stuff attached that I'd be interested in having, either CDs, or the book, or on DVD if I get a DVD player.

We were getting hungry, so decide to eat at Jack's favorite, Taco Del Mar. They were almost closed; in fact, the staff was sitting on a bench in front of the place, smoking, when we got there. But it was Taco Tuesday, so we could each get meal deals of rice and beans, two soft tacos, and a drink, all for a good price. I always like getting the soft tacos, and I like the variety of buying one pork and one chicken. I've learned not to get any extra salsa or sauce on these -- all that happens is the sauce drips all over the table and my shirt.

I drove back to my office so Jack could get his car. We sat in my car and talked for about an hour, which was really pleasant! So quiet. I got the full lowdown on his hunting trip. Nobody got a deer, but they saw many of them, all very skittish. Jack's father figured that there'd been poachers in the area this year, to make the deer so shy.

Finally he needed to get on the road after a very nice hug and kiss. One good thing about leaving late -- there's not much traffic, so he could make the drive in an hour and a half, which isn't bad. I was so glad he could stop by!