When I said I checked all my site links, I was wrong. I forgot about Tartan's site, which although it hasn't changed hardly since I got it is still not up to code. It is especially not HTML 4.01 Strict compliant, and even by lowering the standard down to HTML 4 Frameset (the loosest standard) there are still quite a few errors and plenty of warnings generated by iCab. So I spent a couple of days cleaning up the code and am now checking the links. It's amazing how tiring this can all be...

I also saw the last episode of Witchblade's first season. Up until then it had been building up to a crescendo as the various plot lines converge into one. There were two disappointments. One was that just about everybody died in the final episode. I can live with that. But they topped it by having Sara Pezzini exercise a "one-time-use-only" power to turn back time and reset the whole season. Shades of Bobby Ewing! It makes the whole season a waste and left a bitter taste. Maybe next season they'll do something interesting to reflect the reset -- lots of deja vu's or what-ifs. For if they don't I may stop watching the show...

Looks like Dave is going to be gone a few more weeks in Boston as his contract was extended yet again. Shannon and I were talking about it and he expressed that it'd be nice to have that kind of job -- for about six months. In that time if he was sent to a few nice places and could travel a bit that would be great, but after that it'd be downright annoying. I know I could never do it for the simple fact that I like to see my friends at least occassionally. It's a basic choice between work life and private life, and I choose my private life. Dave chose work life and it's always amusing when he complains about not being able to go gaming. In this case you really can't have it both ways. And even with the voice conferencing that he's thinking about I believe it'll still be quite unsatisfying for him...

The final tally of expenses for the recent Gen Con trip is something on the order of $2300. Dave paid $350 and some meals. Woo paid for some expensive meals. Van Horn game me like $100. Not that I really care whether I'm paid back or not. It is a lot of money though and my finances will be tight for the next few months as I try to rebuild the reserve funds. It was a fun trip though...

I was looking through new homes again. It's kind of depressing how much work goes into buying a home, unless you can just pay it all immediately. Anyway, there are some new homes that will be ready in Alameda by the end of this year. Probably going to be very expensive, though no real information until September on the Kauffman and Broad site. The other option I was looking at was getting a condominium in Concord or Walnut Creek. Actually there are a bunch in this one area of Walnut Creek -- that could either be a bad sign or all those owners used the same listing service. A condo is like $150k which compared to home prices around here is quite low, but it is just a glorified apartment. The problem being that you share ownership with the other tenants which can be problematic later on...