PDF.Dreamweaver.html.oi`

Last week I embarked on a quest to learn something new- HTML via Dreamweaver. A while back Karen, office manager of Big Lake at the Conference, came to Gary and asked if there was a way to make an online form, you know name: email: address: etc..., spit out its contents looking the same way the form does. You see, when you hit submit the Wonderful Wide Web takes your information out of the form and zips it off in a line item to the server. Then the person who created the form has to decipher the: namegeorgesimon emaililovepie@gmail.com address1234emmersonparkwaydrive#4, or something to that effect. Karen wondered why it couldn't come out in the nice form she spend hours making beautiful. Since Gary really hasn't had time to tinker with such things he added it to my list. (It's over 12 jobs long, yay!)

So along comes dear old me, not knowing what the heck I am getting myself into. Since I knew Karen worked for Big Lake, I figured it would be a good place to start for a form so I downloaded a reference form that hapless Academy students have to fill out to work there. Gary had also mentioned that Karen made some comment about Acrobat Professional doing the trick or possibly doing the trick. Presto chango Acrobat Professional care of CS3 Design Premium.

Last Wednesday I worked all day on making the PDF into a form that can be completed and saved. I used the handy dandy form tool bar and created a lovely form that is even capable of giving a 5-0 scoring on attributes. Yay for me!! Or not so yay for me. *Que dramatic music* *Evil villian enter stage left* THE SUBMIT BUTTON!!!! Okay so it isn't exactly evil, more of a pain in the butt. Buttons can be great and wonderful thing. They can reset forms for you, my PDF has one, they can take you to links, they can even play sounds or video clips. Most importantly though, they submit things. The only problem is when you can't test a submit button because you don't have access to the server that would be the final destination of the information from the submit button. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

So now my PDF sits there with a Reset button and a Submit button that really doesn't do anything cause I can't test it. Blah. Fast forward to today and in come the Hero- Dreamweaver!! Dreamweaver is a wonderful program and at the same time it let me down. Here all I wanted was to take my lovely PDF form and drag it into Dreamweaver and TA DA!!!! A web page that look exactly like the PDF with corresponding places to enter data!!! NOPE doesn't work that way. *sigh* *another sigh* Oh what to do? Oh I know, I'll teach myself Dreamweaver and Html with out a book or tutorial. I'm a smart one! Yay for me. No yay for me.

So to make a long story shorter, I spent the entire afternoon making the template all over again except this time in Dreamweaver and HTML. Once again the only problem is the lovely submit button that even has Big Lake's logo on it. It does nothing because I don't know how to program the button to do what I want it to and I have no access to the server. Oh well I tried and learned alot. I now have a deep respect for people that make web pages and forms and manage servers. Also I am really wishing I was near my nerdly CIS student/near graduate brother of mine. Hey Ben, now our wifes have one more things to roll their eyes at when we get together, besides guitar, investing, Mac vs. PC vs. Linux vs. The World. Yay for family. Yay for end of work day. Yay for supper. Which I am going to go eat.

Thanksgiving Oddity

On Thanksgiving, Krissy and I went up to Cressaya's house to meet her boyfriend, cousin and aunt. Well actually we were invited up there for Thanksgiving dinner but ended up meeting the so named people. The lovely meal consisted of loaf, mashed potatoes, yam casserole, rolls, salad, very good cranberry sauce, and a relish tray. This is the first Thanksgiving that I have spent away from home and also the first that I haven't had turkey. Even though there was not any turkey, they meal was fantastic and in Thanksgiving tradition, pie was eaten with the evening leftovers/snack. Thanksgiving meal is not, however, why this blog is named an oddity.

Cressaya's cousin Ben and his mom were spending Thanksgiving with Cressaya's family. Ben is at Walla Walla and I'm not sure what year or major he is but I know he likes video editing and has taken a video editing class. He and I seemed to hit it off right away because he is a fun loving person. After the meal we stated talking about my volunteering at the Conference office and the new stuff I'm learning from Gary. While we were talking Jerry (Cressaya's dad) called us over to dry dishes. This is where the oddity of Thanksgiving began.

Over drying dishes, Ben and I began to talk about getting picked on and towel snapping and all such manner of guy things. Some where along the line I mentioned by brother Ben and how he always picked on me and my freshman year in Academy I seemed to end up wrestling Seniors. Ben (not my brother) gave me a quizzical look during that story but didn't say anything. We continued to swap stories and some where along the line it came out that I was a goalie for floor hockey. Once again I got a very quizzical look from him. To make a long story as short as I can, here are the freaky things that make up this oddity:

His brother's name is Jeremy
He is 22 years old and graduated High School in 2003
His brother (Jeremy) is 2 years 10 months and 1 day older than him
My brother (Ben) is 2 years 10 months and 10 days older than me
Our brothers (Ben and Jeremy) graduated High School in 2000
He was born April 1985 and his brother June 1982
I was born March 1985 and MY brother May 1982
We both play goalie in floor hockey and are roughly the same height and build
Though he is a little skinnier than me

So if those weren't enough freakishly similar things, here is one more: his brother Jeremy is married to Heather. I know, you're wondering "Why is this weird?". Ben and his older brother Jeremy have brown hair. Heather has red hair, which is the exact opposite of what MY brother and I are. I am more red haired than my brother but both of us married brunets! Ben (not my brother) said to heck with it all and call each other family. If I didn't know better I would say Ben and his brother Jeremy are a copy of me and my brother in a different dimension.

Oh, and one last thing- the only person he knows from North Dakota, Nathan W, is someone I know and went to school with and performed gymnastics with. *Maestro, queue^ It's a Small World*

^Thanks Joe for the correction. I was lost when trying to figure out that spelling.

The Secrets of Panera Bread

One of our lovely wedding presents (from Cassi, thanks Cassi!) was/is The Panera Bread Cookbook. It has all the secret recipes for the yummy soups, breads, salads, and desserts from your friendly neighborhood Panera Bread. Last night Krissy and I sat down and flipped through the pages. One dessert caught my eye, Pear Brown Betty. It mainly caught my eye because we had pears that were ripening faster than we could eat them. So tonight Krissy and I made what turns out to basically be pear crisp. We made it in an 8x8 Pyrex dish instead of a 9in deep-dish pie pan but it looks like it will taste good. I'll update on how it tastes with Cool Whip or maybe Peppermint Ice cream. Til then enjoy our masterpiece.

Ps.
We are working on getting thank-yous out. Really we are.

A New Stage in Life

Today I became a full time volunteer... well sort of. Last week Krissy and I were talking about her work and all the projects that are piling up on her and Gary. Me, being the ever willing (some times stupid) person that I am asked if there was anything I could do to help. So Friday I went to work with Krissy and talked to Gary about the projects I could accomplish to help them catch up. So now after my first full day of helping out it seems I have created perpetual work for myself at the Office. Besides helping out in Krissy's department, I might be helping out in I.T. Ideally I would get paid as a part-time employee and be at the office full time. The IT guys can't exactly say no when computers are down like Gary and Krissy can defer projects. After all this time not working it seems as though I have created more than enough work for myself. The only question is whether or not I will be getting paid. I told Gary that if I helped out in other areas, no one would have to fit the entire half-time pay. Budgets are always tight and heck if I'm going to be there full time wouldn't it be nice to get paid some money? Here's hoping the budget has enough money to pay me part-time but I'll work full time. Yeah I know I'm strange for volunteering to work full time for part time pay. It's money though and I get to commute with a beautiful woman every day!!! yay for me!!!

Wedding Nonsense

Yes yes yes... I know that many of you are waiting for pictures from our wedding. We are also waiting for pictures from our wedding. Our photographers have not sent us their pictures yet but that is okay. Some people have sent us pictures but they are very few. If you happened to take pictures at our wedding and would like to share with us, please share away. Until we get pictures from our wedding you will have to be content with the pictures we have. Which I will try to post later today or this week. Til then audios.