Outlook Reminders - Can’t Live With ‘Em…
Wow. I didn’t realize how completely I rely on my Outlook task and calendar reminders until they stopped working. Yes, that’s right, and apparently it’s not that uncommon! I don’t know if I’m just stricken with bad Outlook luck, or what the deal is. There are a number of potential solutions to this problem, but unfortunately actual users report varying levels of success.
My problem started when I installed yet another “productivity” application, this one called Omea. For some reason, immediately after installing this application, about 35 of my contacts started popping up reminders in Outlook for no good reason. And there is nothing common amongst them; I have no idea why these 35 or so were selected out of my more than 300 contacts.
So, in an attempt to stop the torture, I ran Outlook using the /cleanreminders command line switch, which is supposed to help with matters like this. Well, it worked - I stopped getting reminders. Entirely.
Wow, that’s even worse than it was before!
So, I now bit the bullet, and tried using the /cleanfolders command line switch, which is much more comprehensive.. and scary! Well, again, it worked. My reminders came back - ALL of them. Including the contact reminders. Argh!!!
I guess for now dealing with a polluted reminders list is better than none whatsoever, but only marginally so. I really have to take responsibility for this though, since I know that installing that 3rd party application is what lead to the original problem. But, still… GRR!
South Park Self Portrait
Here’s me, as a South Park character:
Accomplished with the very cool South Park Studio 2. Beware of popups.
Of Taxes, Appliances and Sleep
I’m exhausted - it’s funny how having a 2 month-old in the house can do that to you. But I’m really happy to have accomplished a few things over the weekend. Last weekend we managed to move two desks and related computer gadgetry into the master bedroom so that the office could officially become Milo’s room. The reshuffle in our bedroom worked out well, but rearranging Milo’s room had to wait until this weekend.
We also rearranged Josh’s room this weekend, making it much more appropriate for a boy of his age. All of the toys that had previously lived in the living room have been relocated to appropriate places in his bedroom, and there is a large open space on his floor for him to play. This morning when he woke up, he ran to the living room, and promptly said, “Mommy, where are the toys?” Before she could respond, he said “Oh, Joshua’s bedroom!” and ran back to his room. I think we’re going to like having our living room back, at least until Milo’s stuff overruns it.
I did my first electrical installation in a long time yesterday - I installed a new (to us) dryer to replace the faltering one we’ve been using for the past 2 years. The old dryer just doesn’t want to tumble, and it’s so old that it’s probably not worth repairing. We acquired a much newer model for free from freecycle.org, so I went about installing it over the weekend. Our breaker panel isn’t labeled, so I had to make an educated guess as to the right one - I got it on the second try. It also turned out that we did not have a 220V socket, but instead a cable coming out of the wall that is wired directly into the dryer.
I had some fun getting the very tightly-fitting ducting apart without damaging it, then unhooking and re-hooking up the very stiff wires in the 220V cable. 20 minutes and a couple nicks and scratches later, it was all hooked up and working properly. I’m such a handyman… 
Anyhow, we received an unfriendly notice this morning that we must pay $900 in outstanding taxes today, or risk it going to collections. That’ll put a damper on your week! Oh well, when Revenue Canada calls, it can always be worse, right?
Exciting New Gig
Tomorrow morning my first post at The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog will go live. This is really exciting as it’s my second Weblogs Inc. blog, but even more because I’ll be working on it with Marc Orchant, whom I’ve posted about here numerous times before. Marc is a true professional, and an incredibly bright, witty and wise guy. (I mean that in the nice way!) I’m truly honoured to get this amazing opportunity to work with him.
Google Earth User Discovers Ancient Roman Ruins
This story is amazing. Some guy was looking at satellite photography with the amazing Google Earth program. He saw some patterns that he figured must be man-made, and decided to ask some archaeologists about them. It turns out that they are Roman ruins that had not yet been discovered!
