Weavolution it is!

Claudia and I spent some time talking this morning and agreed that “Weavolution” is the best name for the site.  It has elements of “revolution” and “evolution” – which is what we’re trying to do, combining weaving with Web 2.0.  Perhaps just as important, it’s an unusual, memorable name that isn’t already used for something else, making it strongly trademarkable.  WeavingVillage would likely run us into difficulties with existing shops or guilds, and be difficult to defend if we want to trademark it later.

So “Weavolution” it is!

Spent almost three hours this morning going through lists and lists of modules in Drupal, getting ideas for possible features and a better understanding of how the system works.  It’s, um, complicated.  But I’m starting to understand how the system thinks.  It’s clearly going to be a steep learning curve, though, and I have a phone call scheduled with a Drupal consultant on Tuesday morning.  I’m going to propose that he analyze our requirements (after they’ve been written) and tell me what can be done, what will have to be custom, and which modules I’ll need to install.  There are a couple of areas where I’m really not sure what I’m proposing is possible, and having an expert answer will save me a lot of time and effort.

After three hours immersed in Drupal, I spent another two hours on the phone with Claudia and other people about the website, then took the rest of the day “off”.  Or semi-off.  I wound up spending a good chunk of it taking  one of my cats to the vet for what I devoutly hope is a minor medical problem.  Her bloodwork came back normal, so I’m hoping she just ate a bug or something.  She’s been throwing up off and on for the last few days, and has had reduced appetite – so they gave her an injection of Pepcid and an IV drip for her dehydration, and sent her home.

Tomorrow Mike and I are going for another longish bike ride, about 55 miles, to Los Gatos and back.  It’s our usual route (with the usual stop at Fleur de Cocoa for a cup of the world’s best hot chocolate and some award-winning (incredibly yummy) pastries).  However, we’re taking a tough, very hilly route back, so it’ll be harder than usual.  Mike is signed up to do his first cycling century (100+ mile) ride on October 18, so it’s time to start doing longer rides.  I’ll be riding Foxy’s Fall Century along with him, but since he rides so much faster than me I’m going to do the metric (100 km, ~60 mile) century.  I figure if I do 60 miles and he does 100, we should finish around the same time.  (He’s not actually twice as fast as me, but I like to linger in rest stops and he doesn’t.)

I haven’t decided whether to ride AIDS Lifecycle again next year or not.  All the possible forces of reason suggest that it would be REALLY REALLY STUPID to try training for a 545-mile, 7-day bicycle ride while working full time and trying to get this website out the door (not to mention designing and sewing 7 different tutu-outfits to ride in) – but it’s such FUN that I’m still thinking about it.  I think I will probably register later this month and then decide later whether I really want to/have time to ride.  I don’t really need to sleep, do I?

I have now tasted my way through virtually all the chocolate bars I got from Chocolate Covered.  While some of the flavors were uninteresting and some were just plain weird,  “Nectar of the Gods” (red wine + raisins), “chamomile & hibiscus”, and “mango brazilnut” got moderate to good marks from me.  I think that for this year’s chocolates, my “oddball flavor” is going to be chrysanthemum tea with licorice root, and I will probably try “port wine + raisins” to see if that works better than port alone.  I may also try chocolate covered mango, but that may be a little too radical.  I might try making a truffle with dried mango.

I may also try passionfruit + white chocolate.  I have to make 60+ pounds of chocolate this year to send to all my AIDS Lifecycle sponsors – I had 67 sponsors this year (and raised over $6800 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, hurray!) – so I think I will have room to try more unusual flavors.  Not everyone will get everything, but I think that will be OK.