It seems every 2 years I forget to turn the key off on the motorcycle and i drain the battery until it’s dust. I don’t know why it’s every 2 years, but I’ve been doing this for about 8 years.

This time I returned home from a frickin’ hot very warm ride on the local highway. When I pulled into my driveway, the fan on the motorcycle was trying to cool the engine. This usually only happens when the engine gets really hot. So I figured I should let the fan run and cool down the engine before I turn it off.

There in lies my error. I left the key on to run the fan and then stupidly accidentally forgot to turn it off. So today the replacement arrived and I’ll be back on the road shortly.

Last Friday I was taking care of some lawn issues. I’m still trying to get grass to grow and I think I found a good combination:

• water the lawn regularly
• seed the lawn once a week
• walk around the yard wondering what I’m doing wrong what else I can do

Well, while placing new sprinklers on the lawn, a guy drove up and stopped in front of the house. I thought he was going to ask for directions, but asked if I wanted a new driveway instead. I had thought about a new driveway a couple years ago, but prices were a bit high and I decided against it. So my reply was, “How much?”

He got out a measure the driveway. I told him I wanted something for two vehicles and that what price I got last time. He said he’d be willing to do it for the same price. This was good because the previous price was for a single lane of driveway while this was going to be double that.

I told him I needed a day to think about it. I wanted to compare prices and check his credentials. However, he turned and said I had to answer now. See, he had the guys around the corner finishing a job and they could start and finish that day. I said, “10 minutes and I’ll have your answer.” He agreed and off he went and online I went.

I made some calls to people I knew that recently had driveways put in. I got one friend who confirmed for me that the price I was getting was pretty good. I looked the guy up on Google and found nothing bad about him. I also asked a local neighbor that he claimed to have done work for them and they were happy.

There you have it… the guy came back for my answer and I told him I’d do it. Later that night I had a new driveway and today I got to use it for the first time.

I still feel a little like I just bought something from the street vendor on some corner in New York (which means I feel like I got something that isn’t as valuable as I thought it was). But I think that’s just my response to being spontaneous. I usually plan things out and do my research before making such big decisions. But, so far so good.

I do a lot of note taking for MODSonair, a podcast for MODSonline. I also use FireFox as my primary web browser. This means I have the ability to use add-ons (aka extensions) to add features to the browser to make life easier.

In taking notes for MODSonair, I regularly copy come text from a web page that has an interesting topic for discussion during our show. I copy this text along with the link of that page. I copy it in plain text format so that it doesn’t take on the color or size attributes of what I am copying. Then I paste it into my notes. Here’s an example of what I do about 25 times a week for the last 84 weeks:

- site update - harumph
http://www.foyleman.com/archives/107

Well, I decided to try and make things a little easier for myself by creating an add-on that would do this for me. Basically, the add-on will copy any selected text as the title of the notes and also copy the URL of the current page. The content will be formatted as you see above. All that’s left for me to do is paste it into the actual show notes and perhaps hyper-link (so it goes to the link when you click it). I am calling this new add-on ‘Copy for Notes’ since that’s the whole purpose.

* Update version 1.7 allows you to select any text on the page. Then right click the page not on any link on the page and ‘Copy for Notes’ to copy the text with the current page URL. OR right click the page on a link found on the page and ‘Copy for Notes’ to copy the selected text with the right clicked URL instead of the current page URL.

Note that Ctrl+Shift+M is the shortcut associate with this add-on.

You’re welcome to play with my new add-on. You can grab version 1.2 1.5 1.7 right here:

Copy for Notes 1.7

Yesterday was the big day for updating the MODSonline.com website. I wanted to implement new code to make the site run faster. I planned for the update for two weeks running tests and practicing the conversion process. I was hoping to make the transition quick and smooth.

Well, I can hope all I want. It’s not going to make it happen.

The site update didn’t go all that well. What I thought would take one hour ended up taking nearly three hours. The reason was that I screwed up made a few miscalculations. I then had to re-establish the entire server account system to resolve the errors.

The good news is that I was able to resolve all the errors and fix the problem. One thing that helps tremendously is the many backups of the site that I have. I have three backups online, two at home and one more elsewhere. If something goes down, it’s never a total loss.

This morning a few more errors issues were brought to my attention and I quickly fixed those. I think the site is now ready for action. Perhaps a little tuning here and there.. but it’s done.

I’m tired today. Not sure why, just feeling tired.

Anyway, went to the dealership with my wife to have her car fixed. It’s fairly new so it was under warranty. See, the gas cap light kept coming on and we didn’t know why.

A few hours after dropping it off, the dealer called with the prognosis and it wasn’t good. Seems that squirrels or chipmunks or something chewed through the gas tank’s vapor line. Lucky for us, it’s not covered under warranty. yeah!

Now I thought the vapor line was a rubber hose that ran from the top of the gas tank. Apparently it’s more involved than that and it will cost about $600. Geesh.

I’m tired.

*UPDATE: Damn rodents ate the fuel line on my gas grill. Had to buy a new grill this weekend. Does anyone know how to get rid of these buggers?