Sometime in October 2000...
I decide that it would be a good thing for me to create my own website, especially since my old job in the tech support department of a consulting firm had just been eliminated. I know HTML, kind of; I had gone to a day-long class a few months ago, after all. I certainly am not the type to let a near-complete lack of knowledge stop me!

A Few Days Later, same month:
I find out my cats are sick. It looks like three of the four have ringworm fungus, brought into the house by accident from a friend's cat. This would not be so bad except for the fact that Kiri is on prednisone for his asthma, and prednisone is an immunosupressant. End result: Kiri's face and neck light up like a christmas tree under black light. I have a LOT of work to do...besides all the shots and medecines, I have to create a quarantine room for the kitties AND dip the house in bleach to get rid of the spores. And cope with the urge to scratch every two seconds. Eeeew.

Early November 2000:
Okay, kitties are under control. House is livable, although the cleanup is ongoing. Kiri is looking slightly less decorative under the black light, so the pills are doing their job. So what do I want to do with this website anyway? I start to sketch on paper (my first step in creating almost anything).

November 13, 2000:
I start to write code. How did this go, anyway?

November 14, 2000:
I put the first page up on Tripod. A friend who uses Netscape tells me she can't see the images, but IE picks them up just fine. What gives?

November 17, 2000:
The main page gets a link to my Den, an "about me" page, and the den links to an "oops" page, since I don't have a gallery up yet. I start scanning some of my artwork, using my PaperPort scanner...which does not love my computer. At this point I WISH "ReBoot" was just a cartoon. And for that matter, I wish I had a digital camera! And Netscape is still being a bear. I can't figure this one out, yet; I don't have Netscape myself.

November 23-26, 2000:
Thanksgiving and the art show at the Darkover Grand Council meeting / science fiction convention in Maryland. I board the cats at the Borderbrook Veterinary Clinic (thank you, Ruth). My friend Renata O'Connor-Rose comes to visit from Chicago and brings her digital camera! Oh boy, is she in trouble now!

November 28, 2000:
Renata and I have lunch with Aaron Woolerton. Aaron, who has Netscape, points out to me that if I use backslashes in my HTML for the location of my art, Netscape won't find the images. Apparently backslashes are not used in HTML. One class and four different books neglected to mention this!

November 29, 2000:
Renata starts the drive home after checking to make sure that her camera did not disappear into my slightly bleach-scented house. The kitties come home. Only Kiri has any traces of ringworm left, and those are fading fast. Thank goodness. I have LOTS of wonderful new images to play with. The Gallery is taking shape at home.

November 30 - December 7, 2000:
A serious medical scare puts everything on hold for a week. Thank the Maker that it's no more than a scare. I'm back now!

December 8, 2000:
I finish the last few pages for this iteration of the Gallery. The Color Room is the most fleshed out of the six rooms, but I have the art I need for the others...and more. Currently the art is displayed with one piece featured on a page. I am considering grouping the art, several pieces to a page to cut down on load time frustrations; a visitor could look at the first piece of art on a page while the others loaded. I decide to try that in the amber room and see how it comes out. In the meantime, I upload the new gallery and diary pages to Tripod. Yay!

December 13, 2000:
I'm getting the Game Room done. Really! That's the one I thought I'd have up on Monday the 11th. (sigh)

December 15, 2000:
The Game Room is complete. I really have to get some of the animations converted...if there are still programs that will see these old things. Progress marches on, and that's really tough on someone who marches to the beat of a different marimba.