Purple Blob and the Snowman - by Nona Oldner

Purple Blob and Cupid by Nona Oldner

Purple Blob in Hawaii by Nona Oldner

New Year Chess Tourney

The 2009 New Years tourney is almost finished but the winner with 3 points will be Jimmy!
What a comeback. Last year (2008), Nona won with 6 points, and Jimmy was last with 0.

This year's tourney was different. Half the games are correspondence and half are OTB. Jim beat Dad and Nona in OTB, and Dad in correspondence (I really messed up that game). Dad beat Nona in correspondence and Nona is still playing Jim in correspondence. Dad vs Nona in OTB will be forthcoming.

Calculating the points, Jim with 3 makes him the winner, Nona came in second with Dad third.

Congratulations to Jim, the 2009 winner!

Database or File?

Decision is to use a database or just plain files. The menu won't be very big. I'm thinking about a table with the meal time as key -breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the name of it as the data record. Examples:

• Dinner: Hamburgers & Fries
• Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches
• Breakfast: Grits & Eggs

The other table will be the ingredients for each. Example:

• Hamburgers & Fries: 2 ground sausage, 1 ground meat, 1 pack buns, 1 bag fries, catsup, mayo, mustard, 2 pickles, 1 head lettuce, 3 tomatoes, granola oil, creole seasoning.
• Egg Salad Sandwiches: 1 loaf bread, 8 hard boiled eggs, 1 jar mayo, 1 onion, 1 pickle, 1/2 head lettuce, 1 tomato. 1 can Pringles.

The ingredients will provide the shopping list items for the menu.

So database or file? Or start with file and then build database?
Database needs to be free or already installed as part of the computer's programs.

Currently I'm evaluating buzhug, SnakeSQL, and GadFly

Menu program

Some design analysis/thoughts for what I want it to accomplish:

1. Screen to select meals. On the screen I want to see:

• How many times this was selected in the last week. We eat lots of pastas, so 2 - 3 times a week is good. We eat Dirty Rice, but once a week is the best.
• Estimated cost of meal. Don't want a week of $20 meals.
• Start date and end date of the menu.
• Some indicator that we have the ingredients on-hand - Keeps stuff fresh
• Ought to show ingredents on hand for menu item - such as different types of pasta on the shelf, or types of Waffles, or types of toaster strudel.
• Need to select which day the menu is for - M to S.

2. Screen to input new menu items. It'll need plenty of places for ingredents.

3. Output is 2 lists, one for the fridge that shows the day and meals for the day, and a shopping list of stuff I need to either get or check to see if I need to get from the store.

Looks like a lot of this will be database work. So where's Python's db?

Awards

I have been given an award by J Kaye's Book Blog.  It is called the Well Worth Watching Blog Award.  This is my first!  Thanks All!