Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Nursing a Sick Friend

You may have already noticed from one of the recent picture captions that Sukkie has been very ill. At one point, just a bit over a week ago, we thought we were going to lose her, but with some intense care from the veterinarian and the family, she has made terrific progress. We're not sure of her long-term prognosis, because she still isn't eating and drinking on her own, but we are trying to be optimistic.

Although the hydration and force-feeding annoy Sukkie a lot, she is not suffering most of the time. She sleeps a lot, of course, but she has also been spending a lot of time cuddling with us and watching the world from her window.

Naturally, this has taken up a lot of our time and energy, but we still find time for other things. We went out bowling with Thomas' girlfriend Erin, our first chance to meet her, and everyone had a great time. The boys are wrapping up the last month of school, with Danny's spring camping trip coming up in just a couple of weeks.

And of course there is work and, now that the weather has finally gotten warmer, house projects. We keep plugging along, having fun where we can and getting work done, when we can. And keeping you up to date here.

Saturday, May 14, 2016

New Site, Phase One

Here it is, the first iteration of the new version of the site. I've wanted this for a long time, a way to display pictures after they've gone past their "daily picture" date, so that you, my viewers, can catch up on things you've missed or show someone a picture you saw the other day, but didn't get the chance to show off.

Behind the scenes, there's a couple of new tricks already in place, the first is the enlarged picture feature. Click most of the pictures under the navigation bar (doesn't quite work for the big picture at the top yet), and you will see an enlarged version, with the familiar navigation bar so you can easily get back to the main page (or anywhere else on the site). The caption is not included on this enlarged picture; that's coming soon.

Some pictures will link to outside pages. This will be for interesting current or recent events; I'll be setting up a links page for things I'd like you to be able to click on all the time. This will also give me a quick way to add a new link until I have the chance to make it permanent.

The page can hold up to (I think) 45 pictures before they "drop off" the end of the queue. Some will drop off before that: I've given myself a tool for setting an expiration date for individual items.

The display can also accommodate text, with or without links, with little bits of news that I don't have a picture for. I can also embed videos, maybe sound files, maybe even Pinterest pins and Twitter content for those who don't follow us on those sites.

A lot of this is experimental, and may not stay on the site if it doesn't work smoothly. Whatever may come and go on the site, however, there's one thing I am sure of: what you'll be able to see from the site is going to get much broader, very quickly.

I hope you'll have fun exploring. Drop me a line if something doesn't make sense, or if something is missing that you'd like to see me try to add.