Dishwasher Blues...

It has been crazy the last couple of days with our dishwasher. There was a pool of water at the bottom of the unit right below the heating element as if the pump wasn't draining all of he water out. After everything I had read online, we had determined that the pump in question was at least $150.00. My thought was that it would be easier to go ahead and purchase a brand new dishwasher. This one is nearly 10 years old, and it has served us well.

So I started taking the thing apart - flipped the breaker, popped the kick plate, unscrewed the brackets and slid it out as far as I could. I unscrewed the power box, removed the wire nuts and the ground screw. I loosened the drain tube and got ready to remove the water source. I went through every tool I have in my storage containers - not the first adjustable wrench in the entire house...

I got really frustrated and got what dishes were in the sink ready to wash by hand. At this point I figured out that the drain was clogged. I read somewhere that this could be an issue, even if the tube from the dishwasher to the drain isn't clogged. I took a plunger to the sink and cleared out the mess. I put everything back together and tested the unit - it drained just like it was supposed to this time! So I have put everything back and we are good.to.go. Hopefully this resolved the issue and we won't have to spend ANY money for a while on a major appliance.

Letter shock for grieving parents...

Letter shock for grieving parents - News - Manchester Evening News

The parents of a British teen, who died suddenly two months ago, received a disturbing letter from the girl's high school saying she needs to improve her attendance or can't go to the prom, the Manchester Evening News reported.

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FOR and NET FILE

I was presented with the task of figuring out how to kick users off of a server who did not properly log off at the end of their work day. These folks would unknowingly hang on to a file that pretty well kinked up the entire schedule. The solution to this seems easy enough, right? Problem is, most of the scripts that are out there are an all-or-nothing solution. Most of our users utilize a terminal server to get to the app that we want to disable when our nightly processes are to begin. Those users that are directly connecting through a mapped drive would not be included in a NET SESSION /DELETE command. Also, that could potentially knock off someone that may be connected to that server for another purpose that didn't include the application in question.

In my search for other possibilities in the NET suite of commands, I found NET FILE. This lists all of the open files on the machine the command is executed on with the ID, File path and name, user id and 1 or 0 for locked file indicator. Since I didn't want to knock out the main user id that connects up the middle-ware, I had to find a way to tell it to kick out all users except for one and only those that have locked files. This is where I found that the FOR command was helpful. I was able to get it to pull the three fields I needed into variable, use IF condition to test for the values I wanted and, if it found them, it passed the ID into the NET FILE ID /CLOSE command.

We tested it last night as a batch file in a scheduled task and it worked great! I am excited that I have discovered this (although it has been around forever) and the potential that it has to make a lot of tasks run more smoothly or even be completely automated!

Georgians help needed...

To find a spell checker...

Schönes Jubiläum!

8 years ago today my wife and I began our life together as one. It has not been the smoothest of roads, but I wouldn't give anything for it! Just like anyone else, we've had our ups and downs, but we got throught it... together. There have been many mileposts along the way - home ownership, vehicle ownership, many churches, many jobs, but I would say the best thing that has happened to us has been our boys. Our two little men are growing up fast. I can't thank my wife enough for giving me such magnificent gifts - her hand in marriage, her trust and belief in me and those two little miracles that sleep in the next room every night. I hope to one day be able to show her how much the three of them mean to me, but I don't know if words will ever be able to express the depth, height, width and length of its measure. All I can offer is I Love You!!!

I'm Baaaaaaaack...

Don't know why I have not posted in so long. I promise I will try to do better.

We had a rough night with the boys last night. With the addition of the bunk beds I think the baby is out of his comfort zone. Needless to say, big brother has a hard time sleeping with full on crying going on in the bed below. So the little one came and slept with us last night. He moves constantly - I don't know that any of us slept much at all. It will be interesting to see what happens this evening...