I'm in the process of adding PayPal Instant Payment Notification functionality to a site. Following are my observations about the whole process, starting with the biggest one:

Paypal makes it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to use their sites.

I'm kicked out of my session every 5 minutes. 5 minutes! I take that long to read a page sometimes, and I'm a quick reader.

I have to type in my password to access anything on their developer network. That means, for each new tab I click at the top of the page, I have to type in my password.

Bloody hell, people, make it easy for us to develop on your platform! Sure, make it hard to steal money from other people, but make it easy to get to your documentation, your toolkits, your examples. You want us to use it, not think, "This is the worst possible system I've ever encountered ... there has to be a better product out there ... let me look."

... that strawberry might last longer if you chewed it.

Last night, I went out to dinner with Heather. We ate at the New Krung Thai restaurant in San Jose, very close to Santana Row, actually. The food there is excellent and highly recommended.

The dinner was great. I love hanging out with Heather. We talked about ultimate (of course!), work (going well), life (also going well), cars (not ours!), food (yummy!) and the like.

At the end of dinner, while we were waiting for Kris' meal as takeout, I signed the bill, grabbed an after-dinner mint, popped into my mouth, and started talking about my dream to have a company large enough to support an ultimate team, most likely a women's team.

Basically, the idea is the employees would work 5-6 hours a day, then play ultimate (as part of their job) 2-3 hours a day. How good would that team become? Could you take a group of strong athletes but inexperienced players and make them rock stars? Conversely, could you take good players and make them amazing athletes? How far would this team go? Would the external pressures on such a team become too great, or would they fail under their own internal pressures? Or would they become so good, that the rest of the players would call for their disbanding, on the grounds they're professional athletes with an unfair advantage?

And so on.

It would be a great experience and a great experiment. Just how far could you get?

Near the end of the conversation, I looked down at the wrapper from the mint. I had been playing with it for a while. When I looked down, I stopped, and nearly groaned out loud.

Shit.

Heather looked startled. What?

The mint was a tic-tac. A tic-tac.

As in sugar-free.

As in aspartame-ful.

Crap.

I've long avoided aspartame. I started avoiding it religiously when I realized it triggers my migraines. I haven't chewed gum in years because I get sick from the aspartame that is in even sugarful gum like Juicy Fruit or Double Mint. The first thing I look for in any new, packaged food is the warning Phenylketonurics Contains Phenylalanine, because that's the biggest, clearest indication of apartame, and guaranteed misery.

Well, we agreed, nothing to be done about it now, except for vomit up the meal I just ate, and even that wouldn't be guaranteed to solve the potential issue. I avoid aspartame, but had I really done a thorough investigation? Was this my chance to confirm my aspartame-migraine link?

3 hours later, I was blind, half numb, slobbering on myself, unable to speak clearly, in considerable pain and desperate to escape this world into blissful sleep.

Did that tic-tac's aspartame cause it? Yeah, it did. This experiment is complete. Migraines suck.

I went to the Bay Area Women's Ultimate Mixer. Organized by women from Fury, Homebrood and Skyline, the team formerly known as Heroine. Pretty much, the top three women's teams in the Bay Area.

The idea of the gathering was to play women's ultimate and receive introductions to the organizers of the three teams. Information on tryouts for the three teams was also provided.

It wasn't really a clinic per se, but rather a gathering of women to play ultimate. The disctinction is important when setting expectations. The first part of the gathering was drills, which originally made me think this was going to be a clinic of sorts. No instruction or information was given, no experienced players giving non-experienced players help.

The first drills we did were actually poorly explained, which lowered my expectations. We did have one drill that was a lot of fun: 2 on 3 on 4. Three offensive players start the disc on the goalline of a small ~40 yard field, against 2 defenders who start about 3 yards downfield. 2 other defenders start about 3 yards behind the offensive line. These two defenders need to do 7 situps or 5 pushups before they can actually play defense. So, the disc comes in, the two defenders play against 3 offensive players until the other 2 defenders can come in and help out. It simulates a break away situation where the calvary comes in late.

The rest of the mixer was three games of pickup. My team was very bad when we first started. We played "Me! Me! Me!" pickup. Everyone was cutting very very close to the disc. Since all I was doing was clogging, I thought about the playing styles of the other players and decided to cut deep and come back in for the disc. Worked like charm! I was available for many, many continue throws. I'm very excited I played intelligently and figured out how to play with the other players on the team. We played much better for the third game.

I've been thinking of starting a periodic column entitled, "Ultimate for the Non-Gifted Athlete." Training tips, drills, mental game help and the like. Information I've learned over the last 10 years. Might be worth it. Especially if I can get Kris to help me with the column.

For years, I had been talking about hiring a recent high school graduate to work for me, doing all the chores around the house I needed done. I'm not talking laundry, dishes and windows, I'm talking painting, digging, building, smashing, carting, gardening and the other project that I've been meaning to do for the longest time. If said person could program, too, well, then, so much the better.

This past summer, I was fortunate to hire Kyle Smith for the whole summer. He was returning from France, where he had spent the previous 6 months teaching English in a French school, maybe high school. Because of the timing, he was unable to find a "real" job in his chosen profession (aerospace engineering), so my summer job offer was sufficient.

I have to say, the summer was quite enjoyable having Kyle around. There were certainly the many jokes about my cabana boy, including some about how I made Kyle prance around in a leather thong, fanning me all day. It wasn't quite like that, though (darn it).

Kyle helped me with the garden. I returned the favor by poisoning his family. He built a walkway for my side garden, and a fence around the main garden. He knocked up concrete, painted the ceiling and living room trim, dug up the front yard fence, planted a few trees, walked the dogs, learned to program, researched open source e-commerce packages, developed a stock market watcher, and listened to me rant about things.

He also made me laugh on quite a few occasions. At one point, Mike, Kyle and I went to some restaurant in Willow Glen in San Jose, where Kyle decided to eat the 2 pound sandwich. Mike was excited to see him try.

Kyle was unsuccessful in his conquest.