Enough cuddling

I keep track of all the books I read. I've done it for a few years now. I just kind of like keeping lists of things like that, and it's nice to have it sometimes when I'm trying to remember the name or author of a book. Also, it's kind of a motivational tool for me. I don't really set goals, but if I haven't reached an acceptable number, I do use it to remind myself to read more.

Last year I read 87 books; I had kind of an informal goal of trying to read 100 books, since I read 98 the year before, but I didn't reach it, and that's okay. This year my informal goal is 50 books, or approximately four a month/one a week. Something like that. I just hit five for January, and I picked up several that I had on request at the library the other night, so I'm set for awhile. I've also got Black House ready to start once I finish listening to The Talisman.

That might be tonight: driving to work this morning, I think I finished about half of the 23rd CD, and there's one left after that. If it's not finished by the time I get home, I'll probably just drive around for awhile.

Actually, I wouldn't be so close to the end except that the 21st CD wouldn't play. I was driving home whatever night it was that we got all the snow, and I was stuck in traffic, and No. 21 was the last one in the changer, and it skipped over it and started over on number 1. I tried and tried to get it to play, but it wouldn't. So I listened to All Things Considered, and it was the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, so the show was interesting, but there was a Bush quote that made me so angry I shouted at the radio. Something like, "I don't see why they don't get it. All they have to do is abstain."

Yeah, right.

So when I got home that night I reloaded the CD changer with the remaining four CDs, starting with the one that wouldn't play, and it still wouldn't play. So I listened to the next one, thinking that if it seemed like I missed too much, I'd stop and see if I could get another copy. But although there were a few gaps, it still mostly made sense, and I figured I'd just soldier on, since although I'm really enjoying the book, I'm getting just a little bit tired of it. Frank Muller's performance is really amazing, though, probably the best one I've ever heard. Next up is a recording of John Grisham's The Partner, which I've never read, also narrated by Muller.

I think being able to search a website is a pretty important feature, particularly if they include a large amount of text, so I try to add search functions to most of my personal sites. The problem becomes that when you have such a large amount of text--this site has been online since 1995, with an entry for most days for most of that time--you reach the limits of the free search applications and have to go to a pay service.

I'm not willing to do that for my personal sites--I pay enough to host them as it is. So my compromise is to start with the current entries and search backwards until the page limit is reached, thus (at this time) nothing created in 1995, 1996 or 1997 is included in the search.

This morning I was looking for something that I knew existed on this site, but when I searched for it, it didn't come up. So I went to Pico Search, which is what I'm currently using on this site, and found that I hadn't reindexed the site since June. Oops. I use Atomz for my other sites, and you can set an indexing schedule there, so that it automatically reindexes at whatever timeframe you choose (I think I have mine set to reindex once a week), but they have a very low page limit, so it won't work for this site.

Pico Search has a larger page limit, but there are obviously some trade-offs. So it's reindexing as we speak, and once it's finished, I guess I'll see if I have to go cut off another year.

I wasn't reduced to eating chili out of the can last night, not yet. I boiled some pasta and heated up some tomato sauce, and sat down at the table and read. And then moved over to my chair and read some more, with the cats on my lap, serially. Meaning, only one at a time. Pye mostly, in her despair and grief over Bob not being around to serve as cat furniture. Dinah really wanted to be there, too, but she was hesitant, and I didn't want to put Pyewacket off. Dinah gets me in the mornings. She settles in on my lap while I sit at the computer and read email, and stays there until I go back upstairs to get dressed and go to work, so I figure they get about the same amount of cuddling.

I don't know what I'm going to do tonight. Maybe get Chinese at the grocery store, since that has seemed to be our regular Friday night habit lately. Tomorrow I'm getting my hair cut and colored, then I'll probably come home and do laundry and clean the house a little. Bob will be home on Sunday.