A month ago, when I left California to move to Texas, all codesmithing on my application (code project) came to a complete halt.  But that is not to say "work" on it stopped.  I have been pondering the UI (user interface).

Since I am using a MVC (model/view/controller) framework for Electron, much of the back end has been already written; the database calls for displaying data, generating the menus from the database, routing menu clicks to the appropriate page and more.  

During this path month, I have come to the conclusion that many of the pages where the user would see data, are not actual menu items. They are the detail pages of a main page and that the best way to display them was via a tabbed interface.  The menu, at this point should only have 3 items: People, Workshops, Setup. For example, when People are selected from the menu, a list of their names will be visible and when the person is selected, then that person's details will appear with four tabs - Person Info, Address, Emails, and Phones.  

Now I have to go back and re-code many of the screens I have already done.  Initially I was not please with that thought and wondered if there was another way to build my application that would be easier for me - such as using Visual Studio and C#; but that would not give me ability to run it on my Mac. Then I looked into Visual Studio for the Mac (yes, it does exist!); I could code in c# but many of the objects I am use to are different and that means an entirely different learning curve.  Now, having slept on this, I am ready to tackle it, in Electron.

To accomplish this, I have to upgrade my skills in Bootstrap and Angular and dive deeper into the framework so that I can load tabs that are not menu items.  

But hey, wasn't this projects supposed to be about upgrading my skills. 

Here is a sample of a tabbed interface in a test project, that I am using to figure it all out.  
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30 days ago I arrived in Texas to live and work. I am now settling into a routine.

Weekdays, I am up a 6:30 am, get ready for work, make my lunch, and head off to work around 7:30 am. The drive is about 21 miles and it takes me thirty some odd minutes to come out of the hills, on local roads, into New Braunfels and to arrive at the office.   

At work I am working directly with Marty, and we maintain the current production environment and code for a large number of applications, databases, services, and reports. The entire IT team that I am on consists of 8 people and they are a nice bunch of guys (yes, I am the only woman, as usual).  I start the day looking at error logs and tickets that have come in over night and address them. Then I move on to fixing any code. In my first two weeks, I found code that had been "lost" (not checked into source control) and then rewrote it since it was last touched in 2007, so we can deploy it to a new server next month. Along the way I also removed swaths of dead and obsolete code which saved at least another week of work. This application is now on the testing server. 

After work, which is 5:00 pm (yippee, no long hours!) I usually head back up the hill to the house; but at least one day in the middle of the week, I do my grocery shopping and get gas.  Friday nights, I am going to a knitting shop for a 2 hours "knit and bitch" get together. 

Speaking of gas, right now it is anywhere from $2.09 to $1.88 depending where you are around town. I am also only filling up once per week since my drive is so short - time and mileage.   

After dinner, I sit, watch some TV and do a bit of knitting, chat with Erich and head off to bed by 10:00 pm.

On the weekends, I am still unpacking, putting things away, running other errands, and more.   Three weekends ago, I drove up to Austin to go to the IKEA to get some stuff for the house and went to a knitting shop. Two weekends ago I cleaned up the property as there was lots of construction garbage everywhere; that took 4 hours. Then last weekend I met up with a Facebook friend and we went to two knitting and weaving shops in the area and I also found a great place to go swimming in the Guadalupe river such that I am not paying for parking or river access AND it is only a 15 drive from the house.  This weekend, well just more stuff that has to be done in the house. 

Here are some pictures of the wild life - Deer and Gray Fox plus some of the river.

As of today, I have been living in the new house for one full week and left California almost 2 weeks ago and what a jam packed 2 weeks it has been.

I loaded up my car and Erich loaded up his two Sundays ago and on Monday, May 22 we both set off for Texas.
We decided to both drive as I needed my car (of course) and there were large items that would not fit in my car that Erich would put into his mini-truck.  We planned on following each other and using our flashing lights we would signal when to get off the highway for gas, rest stops or food.  And when ever one of cars needed filling, we would fill both as that would mean less leapfrogging of getting gas. 

The first day we made it Tucson after over 12 hours of being in the car. The drive is normally about 7 but there as a double big-rig accident outside of Tucson that shut down the highway and brought everything to a stop and crawl but we finally made it to our hotel.

Tuesday, after breakfast, we stopped into see Kevin and Danielle of Potter USA.   It was a great but short visit before we got back into our cars and headed further east. Our goal was Fort Stockton, Texas and this was to be the "longest" part of the trip. Again it was uneventful - no rain storms, no car trouble, just lots of stops for food, gas and bathroom breaks. 

Wednesday was the last leg of the drive and the shortest. We left Fort Stockton before 9:00 am and made it to the house by 3:00 pm.  Our contractor and his family was there when we arrived so it was nice to see them and say hello and go over a few things. After that we headed into New Braunfels where we had a hotel reservation because we were not going to spend the first few nights in the house as it would take a few days to settle in. 

Thursday it was back to the house where the mover were waiting for us so they could unload. It was a few hours of directing them as to where to place things and running around staying on top of it all.  By the time it was all done, it was late afternoon and we tired, hot, and sweaty.  We went back to our hotel to clean up and have some dinner.  

Friday the unpacking started despite being bone tired.  Along the way I started another punch list of the little things that need fixing.

Saturday we checked out of the hotel and went to the house and MOVED IN. The unpacking continued along with a side trip to Home Depot for things we need around the house and to the grocery store.

Sunday we were beat so we did minor things around the house and knocked off early to watch TV and rest.

Monday we finished a few more tasks around the house, did a shopping trip to another grocery store and I prepared to go to work on Tuesday.   

Here is a short video of a family of deer that was taking a walk through the neighborhood. Open it up so you can hear the sound.