1/17/1999
Sunday

HTML Newbie

Almost midnight. I managed to put in about three hours on the file translation project, but I spent most of the rest of the day goofing off, playing with HTML, searching the 'net for GIFs to use as backgrounds, looking at other pages for design ideas. I'm such a newbie when it comes to this stuff. I don't have a prayer of coming up with something as beautifully designed as some of the journals I've seen. I'll be better off sticking with something simple. No frames, no java. My first browser was Lynx, and I'd like to think my site could be read by any browser.

The worst thing about all this is that it can become such an addiction, keeping me from my paying work, from my own writing, and, worst of all, from spending time with the boys. I did make an effort to play with them, today. We colored for awhile, which they really enjoyed. The problem with my coloring with them is that as soon as I start to draw with their crayons, they stop what they are doing and beg me to draw for them. "Draw me," Stephen requests. I comply, sketching a rough outline of a boy-figure, filling it in with yellow for the hair, blue eyes, and a blue striped shirt and grey pants to match Stephen's outfit. "Now draw a ladybug on my hand," he orders. (He had just reminded me a few minutes before of the time last summer when a ladybug walked on his hand.) "Draw me with a flower," Matthew clamors. I suggest they draw their own pictures, but they refuse as long as I am sitting there with them. Maybe its just a stage. I remember Daniel used to do the same thing, but he outgrew it.

Daniel went to a birthday party for Patrick, one of his classmates, at DZ today. It was his first time there as we generally go to Romp Around since it is closer. Tab took him and was, as he said, "one of the mothers." I like that he is so comfortable around women. At his family gatherings when his uncles and male cousins would be watching sports on TV, Tab would be in the kitchen with the aunts. It was a small party; besides Daniel the guests consisted of Danny, also from their kindergarten class and another boy. I was glad to hear that Danny was there. He and Patrick are Daniel's best friends at school. Tab said they mostly hung together at DZ. Patrick is an only child. His parents are divorced, and he and his mother live with her parents. His mother says he is very attached to her and somewhat fearful of new situations. Danny, on the other hand, is very outgoing, quick to smile and make friends. What I find funny is that Daniel's two friends remind me of his brothers: Matthew is high-strung and sensitive like Patrick, while Stephen is as much as a charmer as Danny.

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