The other night I was outside on the hill next to my apartment taking pictures (they didn’t come out very well, I’ll have to take more – patience my friends!), and every so often I heard the faint “gobble gobble” of the wild turkeys that I’ve seen walking around. Very odd and very funny to hear that in the distance!

I’m working on converting a web site from tables and old fashioned tags to CSS and semantic page structure. And I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if I could easily do a ‘Find and Replace’ in Dreamweaver or Homesite, where I can determine the starting tag and ending tag, with the text in the middle acting like a variable.

So I asked my friend if he knew of a way to do that, and with his help we figured it out using regular expressions. Here’s the breakdown…

In the dialog box, this text goes in the ‘Find’ field:
<span class=subtitle>([^<]*)</span>

And this in the ‘Replace’ field:
<h4>1</h4>

You need to make sure that the ‘Regular Expressions’ checkbox is CHECKED. The text between the tags in the examples above are the regular expressions.

If you want to have more than one “variable”, then you’ll need to add on numbers in the replace field, like this…

Find field:
<div style="padding-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 30px;" class=subtitle><a
href="([^<]*)">([^<]*)</a></div>

Replace field (number each variable):
<h2><a href="1">2</a></h2>

Wow, this is absolutely crazy – Journey, the miniature zebu heifer. And real believe it or not.

One of the many awesome things about living in the Bay Area, is that every little city here has a lot of nice restaurants. Not just chains either, mom-and-pops. And there’s so much variety among them. It’s easy to find Sushi, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Italian… Now, the food isn’t always excellent, but hey, go a little farther down the road and you’ll find another place that might be the best meal you’ve ever had.

I could eat lunch at a different type of restaurant everyday for at least a couple weeks before I have to start over again. I could go even longer trying new places, there are so many here where I work and in the surrounding cities.

For lunch today I had sushi, which was very yummy. And for desert I had green tea cheese cake. I had never even heard of that before. It was pretty good, definitely not too sweet.

I got all of my belongings last Monday and was unpacked by Wed. I was going to take it slow, but i was in the mood and it just went really quickly. Which is good I suppose On a bad note, I STILL don’t have my car. The carrier I hired (Town and Country, don’t EVER use them) has not picked it up yet and they keep giving me some BS excuse. I think I’m going to go with another company. Needless to say, I am very ticked off. I’m starting to get into the groove at home and at work, but the car is really distracting me – won’t feel really settled until it arrives.

I also had the internet hooked up last Wed., but there was no jack in the computer room, so they had to run it from the bedroom. Well see, Joe stays in the bedroom while I’m at work, and the very next day he had chewed through the cable. I don’t think he hurt himself, but I was pretty upset that i lost the internet again. I ended up getting wireless (needed it anyway, since work has given me an Apple PowerBook and a PC laptop is on the way – yes, I’m bragging).

I’ve decided to make a container garden on my patio. My green thumb is acting up and I’m just itching to plant some things. I bought a couple plants the other night and have a few ideas on how to fill it up. I put my papason chair out there, so now I need to enhance my view. I still need to take some pictures of my place and my views, maybe I’ll get around to it this weekend.

On the funner side of life, I went to Napa this last weekend with some friends. We had lunch and went to a couple of wineries. my new co-artist / co-worker, ryan, is a big wine buff and he has a web site for the average, everyday wine drinker – www.vinesugar.com – made it much less intimidating to go wine tasting.

Apartment living is a bit of an adjustment. Every so often it sounds like there are parties going on. And I think Joe is gradually getting used to all the people coming and going. Seems like he’s barking less anyway. Twice now I have seen these huge wild turkeys walking around in the parking lot. The come up to my waist and their bodies are bigger than Joe. I also found a really cool spot within walking distance for a nice night view of the Bay area – absolutely gorgeous.

Two weekends ago i saw some people out on the bay kite surfing, or kite boarding. It looked like a lot of fun. They use these small surf boards and are harnessed to these huge parachute kites, which they steer around and can jump and do tricks. I think I’m going to try it sometime in the near future. Check it out.

Cross your fingers and hope that I’ll get my car one day…

I got an email from a woman who also found her father, and she allowed me to share it with you:

I read your touching story on your web site. Thanks for sharing such a private moment with the public. I found it in a search.

I am 36 and decided last year (when I turned 35) to venture out and finally contact my biological father. He has turned out to be a wonderful friend. We really hit it off– I felt the same way you did— never realizing I had a void in my life, until I actually contacted him. It definitely changed me.

I too was absolutely excited when he responded back to my initial letter. It has now been a year since we first met. My story is a little more complicated than yours. I was curious, did your Dad tell his other children that he had another daughter out there before you contacted him? That is where my story gets complicated. My Dad did not…(Although his wife knew about the secret.) I have two sisters— 22 and 24 that have no idea they have a 36 year old sister… I was born out of wedlock— my Mom did not want to marry him— they went their separate ways. About 6 years after I was born he married his current wife (still married)— years later they had children together, my two sisters. He always wanted to tell them… but since we were not in contact, and I was later adopted (with his consent) by my Mom’s husband, my adoptive Father— he felt it was best to live the subject alone. Now he has this big skeleton in the closet. He really wants to tell them but is so afraid of what they will think of him. His wife is nice, but a little reserved with the situation. She really offers no opinion on the subject. She is probably more of a negative force in the situation. I have reassured him that we are in the 21st Century— they will be more upset with him if he continues to have a relationship with me in secret— continuing his lie. He needs to tell them. I am a true believer in the old phrase, “The truth will set you free.” Anyway, I was just wondering if you had any insight on my little situation.

Again, I love him— he has been wonderful to me. I just hate being a secret. I have extended family that I cannot meet until he comes clean. My Uncles. One thing is certain, he realizes what a big mistake he made leaving his daughter— he made no excuses. We both look at our situation as we cannot change the past, let’s embrace the future. To me embracing the future includes being honest with everyone.

Thanks for reading.

Laura in Phoenix, AZ

Congrats to Gretchen, the March winner of the logo contest. Give it a try this month!

And here’s how my move to San Francisco is going…

Joe and I arrived safely last Wednesday. We ended up flying out instead of driving. He definitely didn’t like
being in a cage (my spoiled dog isn’t used to it), but he survived. I
think he is mostly wondering when we’re going home.

I had a few days to kill last week, so I drove around with Joe and
explored my new neighborhood. Got the keys to my new apartment,
although my stuff won’t be arriving until the 13th. My car still
hasn’t been picked up, which is REALLY ticking me off. I have to
drive a crappy rental car around, makes me appreciate my car more than
you can imagine

There is a hill right next to my apartment and when you climb to the
top there is a wonderful view of the bay and all the surrounding
hills, so gorgeous. It’ll be a great spot for picnicking. I’ll take
pictures later when I get my things.

I also drove around San Francisco, just went which ever way the car
took me. Went down Lombard street (the “crookedest road in the
world”), which was very neat I must say. Some of those hills are
sooooooooo steep. It certainly is a very different place. And
everything is so beautiful.

Over the weekend I went to Golden Gate park. Walked around,
took in all of it’s beauty. It’s a huge park, you could easily kill a
whole day there. And as I drove out I ran into the buffalo paddock
- yes, real buffalo in the middle of the park in the middle of the
city. Crazy! One of them was rolling around in the dirt, very cute.

I also saw Sin City, which I have to say is a GREAT movie. All
around good. I enjoyed everything about it – plot, direction, acting,
all of it!

Started the new job Monday, which was a pretty boring day. Had
orientation, then all the usual set up problems (computer logins and
what not). So it wasn’t a productive day. The rest of the week has been much better.
I worked on t-shirt designs and a magazine ad. It feels good to be a part of something
so big. I’ve never worked for such a big company before (900 people).
The founder of the company has made great changes in the lending
industry and is very passionate about customer privacy. I’m so
excited to be a part of it all!

Oh yeah, enjoying this weather
tremendously. I’m glad I got to escape at least one Ohio snow storm, even
though the snow didn’t last for very long. Ha ha :-p

Ok, later cats!