Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

I just wanted to make a quick entry.

I recently wrapped up a project that has taken longer in the real-time world than I had wanted. The delay in completion came from interruptions and a couple of gotchas.

It was one of those things where the primary task is simple and easy (it really was, done in like 45 minutes). However, to properly support that primary task you need other interfaces, more logic on managing it, etc.

So it snowballed a little bit, but I tried to keep things within a small scope. I don't think I should talk too much about what the project was. But in short I put together a simplistic PHP middle-layer to accept HTTP_POST information from a client, so that they wouldn't have to send stuff directly to the SOAP based API.

To anyone that isn't from work, or Jeremy that was probably pretty confusing. Let's just say I built something that "Made it easier to do business."

I only play programmer when I have to for work, and typically for protoypes. Which is honestly fine with me. I like to dabble, my skillset however keeps me involved with multiple disciplines of business, programming is probably the smallest. My company has plenty of professional programmers, most of them good, some of them are new and still learning. However, there are time when you just need to get it done quickly, just to try something out, to "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks."

That is when I usually find myself sitting in front of the monitor doing some "coding", instead of doing some "writing".

Gina wrote a good entry last night.

Well it is 9:00 am, time to start work.

More at lunch.

First there was Jeremy.

Then came Ben.

Then Gina.

And now, Amanda.


Like I said blogging is spreading. (entry)

Amanda is now telling me she has some more friends that want to have nice, simple blog sites.

"Film at 11, we will keep informed as this story unfolds..."

That would be due to our four-legged friends, the wife calls them our children. I guess I can agree with that. They meet me at the door when I come home, happy to see me. I miss them when I am away on travel. I sit with them on the couch on the weekends. I guess they are like children.

My little Emma Lou, she sits like people on the couch sometimes. If not for her lack of thumbs I would think she is a toddler.

Well they are the reason we don't fly.

1. They would only let us have them down in the hold, which is not properly heated or cooled for any living thigns comfort.
2. They charge like $150 per dog.

So we drive. We drive through Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and finally Michigan. All the way saying "Get in the back."

Pushing a tiny terror back into the backseat from whence they came. All the while they are trying their hardest to get up into the front. Why you might ask?

I would like to think it is because they love us. But I think more so it is because when I am not in the car with Gina and the dogs are, they sit in the passenger seat. Which means, I am in their spot.

Luckily there are hotel chains out there like La Quinta that are extremely dog friendly. These hotels allow us to keep our tiny terrors with us while we travel.

Well the wife just shot me the look. I did say that I was coming to bed about 15 minutes ago. Time to get cracka-lackin.

More about the trip later.

The following may not be our exact route, but this likely to be pretty darn close. (Map Details)



1,473 miles the distance they say it will take. 26 hours is how long they say we will be on the road.

I believe we have driven this about 7 times. I will have to confirm that with the wife. But I think it is 7 times. When we finally get back to Austin, that will bring the total to 9.

Historically we have been able to make the trip in approx 24 hours.

Avg speed of:
70 mph = 21.00 hours
65 mph = 22.66 hours
60 mph = 24.55 hours

Due to the fact that I can't sleep while Gina is driving, I force her to stop for the night along the way. Not to mention the fact that spending 24 hours in a car (with 4 dogs) is not at all my idea of fun.

This time around I hope to get her to let me stop and take photos at scenic points along the way. You know to say that we at least stopped for 5 minutes here and there along the way to take into perspective the cities and states that we go through. From my point of view stopping once in a while (for more than gas) on a trip that takes 24 hours of straight driving, doesn't hurt. Now if the trip was like 3-6 hours. Sure, stop for gas and that is it. But more than that and you need to try to enjoy the trip itself, cuz it isn't going to be over anytime soon.

Now who wants to take bets on how often we will have to stop.

Oldsmobile Achieva (specs)
15.2 Gallon fuel capacity
28 MPG (spec)

1,473 miles @ 28mpg = 52.6 gallons
52.6 gallons @ 15.2 = 3.46 times.

It has been too long for me to remember what the Achieva's LONG distance mpg is. But recent trips to Dallas definitely have it between 26 and 28.

The avg gas price right now is between $2.75 & $2.85. However, I fully expect that the avg price is to be about $2.99.

This means that it is going to cost between $144.65 to 157.27. (approx $300 round-trip).

If we had been able to take the Corolla (spec) we would get about 32 mpg.

Meaning:
1,473 @ 32 = 46.03 gallons
46.03 @ 10 = 4.63 stops

$126 to $137, approx $263. So only about $40 in savings. But in the summer that is some decent beer money.

Time to hit the sack. Got a long day tomorrow too.