Sorry I've been away ....

Hi everyone - It's me again.

I hadn't realised how long it's actually been since I last posted anything online - although I have been keeping track of some of those bloggers that I particularly like.

I've (or should I say WE) have been carrying on with life and, as usual, haven't had that much time to worry about (if that's the right way to put it) "putting Pen to Paper" .

Work, Family life - whatever!

The last few weeks have been full of the "normal" things to do. We have had work and School. We have had shopping, household accounts - the whole kit and caboodle.

The British pre-occupation with the weather has been given full fill in the last few weeks. What should now be the build up to the warmth of summer, has been replaced by Rain, Rain, Rain. Even as I type this in the early morning sun light of a Spring Bank holiday Monday Morning - the sun maybe be out (for now!!!) but it's cold for this time of year. I have just taken Cathy to work - and I don't remember being this cold, at this time of year, for a very long time.

I have been under supervision of the Doctor for the previously reported Hypertension issues (and I still haven't heard from the local hospital when my replacement appointment will be?).

What I have had in the last few weeks that you could class as "not in the normal run of things" are:

1. Laura's continuing Archery development
   
2. Website development - or rather my website development
   
3. Microsoft Office
   
4. Washing Machines

Now we will start with the good things first.

1: Laura's Archery

As you can see from the image on the left, Laura is going from strength to strength - finishing her last competition with six arrows fired, and six arrows in the gold of the target. To top all that off it has now been confirmed by the local county authorities that she is the proud owner of three county records - pretty good eh!

2: SmudgersWorld

SmudgersWorld is again being "fiddled" with. Although the main site needs some updating, I have been trying to create a hobby site for our development in Archery. I have been to have a look at a few other sites to see how fellow archers have structured their personal homage to their favourite hobby. I have also considered several alternative website concepts and systems to build this particular function with. What have I decided? After a short "consultation" period - that is to say I tried a few different methods before deciding that I would give the Content management System available via the Drupal Site. It is a little more complicated than I'm used to - but I suspect that that is just because it is a system I have to get used to. If you are interested in seeing how we get on please feel free to have a look at SmudgersWorld Archery Page. Please be a little patient with me though. The site is in the "under construction" phase and, subject to having the old elbow done, the whole thing may take a wee while to evolve as I also have a couple of hundred family images to sort out at the same time.

3: Microsoft Office

I have been struggling with my copy of Office for several weeks now.

Initially I have Office 2003 loaded on the computer, but I have been unable to update with the latest patches for some weeks now I keep getting an "error 1402" warning.

Having trawled the internet, The Microsoft main site and, seemingly, hundreds of forum groups and newsgroups'. Having tried this and that, as suggested - all went without success. Yesterday, following an "invite" I downloaded the public beta of Office 2007 (which I'm using to type this - but more of that later). It was a good job too. I went to use Office yesterday to find that the stupid thing had failed altogether. I'm sure, from what has already been said, you can possibly work out what happened next (eventually). I spent nearly two hours trying to get the original to work, using the downloaded beta as the last option (I'm a great believer that you shouldn't upgrade software before you fixed the first set). As you can see from the image on the left, the install of the beta seems to have been more effective than trying to re-install the original.

There are, however, two provisos:

1: What happens when the beta phase finishes?

2: Some of the functions on the beta don't seem to work to well - the blog page function being one of them! I can type and type, but I still have to post this "by other means". Maybe I need some more research.

4: Washing Machines Just as a means to end the "report" I'll make a quick comment on Washing Machines. Why do they not last very long anymore? We have had just had to buy a new Machine after our, not very old, one has finally failed - again. For once, the extended warranty was worth the money, but, even though an extension of that warranty was offered, we decided the cost would be better put towards a new machine. So there quickly followed a hasty visit to the local White Goods Supplier (Currys) and, after a short delivery delay, we now have a shiny new washing machine sitting under the counter top. And even I can use it -