the screaming pages

As you know, I’ve been struggling with rebuilding my blog from the .frm, .MYD and .MYI files for the past few days (since I moved my hosting services). I managed to get the posts recovered up until Jan 2007 but then I hit a brick wall. Every time I attempted to recover more, the system boo’d and hissed at me and barfed back a series of error messages. My new host wouldn’t let me drop the original files into the data folder – where the SQL dbase is installed – so I desperately needed help to recover the last 5 months of posts.

Enter the best friend a strung out blogger can have – Clayton. I’ve know Clayton since we took a class together at college in 1998 and shortly after graduation he started working for the same company I was collecting a paycheque with. We’ve worked on many of the same projects and teams and he’s one of the most knowledgable technical guys I’ve met. Add to that his sweet disposition and it makes for a hell of a great guy (are you listening ladies?)

Fed up with struggling with recovering my blog, I found Clayton on-line tonight and explained what I was trying to do. I shipped the files to him et voila, he was able to recover all of my previous posts from the database. He hung around long enough (over 3 hours in total) until we were sure everything was appearing on the site. I don’t know many people who’d give up a big chunk of their Friday night to help a friend recover their blog, but I’m really glad that I do know Clayton.

Clayton, as always – you rock!

End result:

• Lost posts = 0
• Lost comments = 3 (the ones people made while I was attempting to recover my blog)
• Crappy former host = -10.0 (not only did they refuse to help, take days to respond to my email requests for assistance, but they have yet to release my domain to the new host). I can’t cancel my service with them until I’m sure my domain transfer is complete, so I’m stuck paying for an extra month’s service due to their slow response.
• New host = 0.5 (they had no idea what I was talking about when I approached them for help – Clayton understood what I was trying to do in less than a minute.)
• Clayton = 10.0

We can start the celebration immediately.

Note: I’m leaving this post up as a sticky post for a few days because Clayton deserves to be recognized. Scroll down for posts dated after Friday, June 15 2007.

Technorati Tags: friends, domain, host, sql, database

This weekend it was noted that I hadn’t been blogging for a few days. It’s all Darcey’s fault.

He invited me to join Facebook (miles superior to myspace) on Thursday and I’ve been connecting with old friends from pre-school – it’s not as bad as it sounds, we lived in a smallish city and followed each other through til high school in many cases – my in-laws, ex-highland dancers, and the guy who introduced me to my hubby. I’m spending way too much time playing “remember when” and not enough time working on the Web sites’ I’ve promised to friends/clients or blogging. I’m hoping the novelty will wear off in a day or two and I’ll be back to devoting my on-line time to blogging like a good girl.

Today was a holiday so I spent the bulk of it playing golf. I was really lucky that the guys we were playing with were supremely patient – since I’d never held a golf club before, let alone played the game. I did eventually improve, but those 23 shots on a par 5 first hole nearly had me running back to the club house for beer.

Technorati Tags: facebook, myspace, golf

There’s a reason I’m not a contractor. What I thought was flooding is apparently “minor seepage”. The contractor noticed that the float had somehow become disconnected from the sump pump and it wasn’t turning on to shift the water outside to the water main, which caused the water to flow into the basement through the boring hole. What I thought were leaks in the foundation turned out to be the lowest points in the basement and thus where the water was pooling. First thing he did was fix the sump pump and less than 30 minutes later almost all of the water was gone from the basement. I got the “it doesn’t matter what time of the night it is, you should have called immediately” lecture – so I’ve warned him I’ll be calling in the middle of the night should it happen again – and then the basement was loaded with industrial heating fans to dry it out.

The walls have been inspected for water damage and the baseboards and vents removed to check for any sign of water in the walls. So far, it’s looking good. The list of repairs turned out to be pretty minor (and affordable) and began yesterday. By the sounds of things, they should be finished up today.

We’ve got a to do list for outside when the ground dries enough to do some digging, but he thinks that can hold off until the hubby gets home to lend his arms and back to the digging process. Being your own manual labour helps keep the costs of repairs down 😉

There’s no sign of mold in the basement and the last flood was many, many years ago (the previous owner’s son lives in the house next door and grew up in this house) so it doesn’t appear that this is a common problem with the house. The sump pump was added to the house after that watery experience. The end verdict appears to be that had the sump pump been working properly at the time, the water wouldn’t have been all over my basement floor.

As for my poor neighbour, he had one of the few basements on the street that didn’t have any water seepage and was kept busy running from house to house inspecting the damage. Guess there’s no such thing as a weekend off when you’re a contractor living in Edmonton.

There’s a tonne of clouds in the sky and it looks like it may soon rain again so I’ll soon know the quality of the repairs…

Technorati Tags: water damage, flood, sump pump, contractor, neighbours

It’s been raining here for over 24 hours and for the first time since we’ve owned our home (2 years this month) the basement has flooded. I’ve spent the last 4 hours (since the discovery) with a wet/dry vac and a tonne of blankets and towels trying to get a handle on the mess. Of course, the hubby is off on exercises for at least another 15 days and I have no way to contact him to even let him know what’s going on.

See, I thought I knew what I was doing when I quit my job – I put enough money aside to ensure that we could pay our bills until I could find a job that I liked and a company I wanted to work for (well, until the end of July at least). I have a feeling all those plans will be quickly laid to waste considering the amount of water that’s floating around here and the fact that I can’t trace it’s origin. The ceiling is dry, the walls are dry, and the windows aren’t leaking. I have a feeling it’s a problem with the foundation – which means that repairs are going to cost a small fortune.

I’ll be up all night trying to keep this mess under control and first thing tomorrow morning (well – a reasonable hour at least) I’ll be banging on the neighbours door asking for help. Thank goodness he’s a respectable and honest contractor. If he can’t find/fix the problem, he’ll at least know who I should contact for additional help.

Someone send me good luck vibes quick – I’m in desperate need of them!

Update: It’s just shy of 8am and I’ve been up all night trying to keep the water levels down. I’ve identified four leaky areas and as I suspected, they’re all foundation issues. From the looks of things, we’ll need to pull down two walls, fix the leaks, and get new walls put up. Going to give the neighbour at least another hour to sleep in before I go begging at his door for help. And yes, it’s still raining outside. *sigh*

Technorati Tags: water, flood, basement, repairs, contractor

Blogs are all about confession and opening ourselves to ridicule – or at least this entry is. Tonight I lost the inner battle and watched a Dukes of Hazzard movie – no, not the one with Jessica Simpson – and man, John Schneider aged well. There’s nothing quite like reliving childhood memories and watching the General Lee run around Hollywood!