MichaelandChrissy.com

When WordPress released version 2.6.0, I decided to wait until the next major patch before I updated our web site.  I never trust the big releases; better to wait until the inevitable bugs and security flaws are patched up first.  The process was relatively easy: back up your database (got a plugin that does that with one click), turn off your plugins (again, one click since 2.5.0), copy over the new files via Filezilla, update database schema (one more click), then restart the plugins.  However, the upgrade was not entirely without problems.

We have been using Gallery2 to store photos on our web site for years.  WPG2, the WordPress plugin that allows us to embed Gallery2 on our site, never wants to work properly after an upgrade.  The “Gallery” link always moves when upgrading WordPress, but that is easily fixed.  The big problem is that image thumbnails won’t build properly now (it’s hit or miss).  I probably should have waited to update WPG2 from 3.0.5 to 3.0.7 until I was happy with the WordPress update.

Thankfully, that’s the only plugin that gave me trouble.  I was worried about my many WordPress extensions not working after the update, but they all started right up, one after another.  A lot of people who jumped on version 2.6.0 as soon as it came out were disappointed when their plugins didn’t work right away.  Plugin authors, not WordPress developers, are responsible for testing the plugins against the latest version of WordPress.  I guess I got lucky, for the most part.

Now that I’ve started using the new version of WordPress, I’m seeing all sorts of new features.  For example, WordPress now saves previous edits of posts, like a built-in concurrent versioning system.  You can return to older versions easily.  Images in posts are now handled differently too, allowing for captions and image boxes.  Unfortunately, my WordPress theme can’t display these properly yet.  I’m going to have to learn how to use these new features to take full advantage of the new update.

I finally got caught up on all the photo galleries that I haven’t bothered to make in the last month or so.  In all, eight new galleries were added to our album tonight.  Lots of Aiden photos in the mix, including galleries of Aiden in his toy box, Aiden with a mohawk, Aiden eating whipped cream straight from the can, and Aiden playing with balloons.  There’s more baby cuteness here than one person can handle in one sitting, so please act responsibly.

I also posted Aiden’s 18 month photos. We try to get professional photos taken of Aiden every six months. We’ve tried a bunch of different photographers (Sears, Olan Mills, etc.), but this time Chrissy decided to try Wal-Mart. Too low brow, you say? Well, they were very professional and took some very good pictures. Aiden was very cooperative and smiled a lot. We bought the CD package with reproduction privileges, so the lower resolution samples are now in our photo gallery.
   

I’m still in the process of moving our web site to a new hosting provider.  I wanted to keep my photo gallery pages intact, but to do so I need to migrate the database and all of the image files to their new home.  Getting the Gallery2 software updated on the old site was like pulling teeth, however, thanks to the world’s least supportive technical support team. 

For some reason, it took them a whole week to run a single “chmod -r” command.  A whole week to do something that should have taken five minutes!  The Gallery practically updates itself, all you have to do is ensure that the data directory is writable by the update script.  Well, mine wasn’t.  All permissions were 644 — safe and secure, but the script wanted 777 across the board.  The technical support people first refused to do it, then escalated the task to their admins, then ran the code non-recursively, and finally got it right on the fourth try.

The fun part came once the permissions issue was resolved: I had to update the version of Gallery2 on both sites, clear out the caches on both sites, then back up the MySQL database in the old instance and reload it into the new instance.  Several bits of trial and error later, the new site had a working database that properly linked all of the files.  Once it was running, I was amazed with myself.  I was afraid that I would have to go back and reload each photo gallery manually, which would have messed up all of the image ID numbers.  

To finish things up, I then set up a redirect on the new server that would send all of the old gallery links to the new gallery instead.  This would keep me from having to update every image link that I’ve ever set.  Now that the photo galleries are done, I just need to add some photos to the static web pages and then we’ll be done.

Welcome to MichaelandChrissy.com, the web site for the Wilson Family.  Michael and Chrissy live in Indiana, within commuting distance of Chicago, with their two sons and three cats.  This is where they keep their blog (”Blog”) and their family photos (”Gallery”).  Information about each family member can be found on the “Family” page, and details about their three cats can be found on the “Cats” page.

About Us

Chrissy and Michael met online about nine years ago.  We started chatting on ICQ, but found out that we lived close by each other.  We started dating in the fall of 1999 and moved in together after Chrissy finished college.  We got married in the summer of 2004 and bought a house together shortly after that.

We spent several years remodeling the house, but eventually decided that it was time to start a family.  Aiden Michael was born in July of 2006.  His little brother, Gavin James, was born in August of 2008.  Family complete, now we need to get our house in order.

Web Site

Michael used to design web sites for a living, but that was a long time ago.  Now it’s easier to apply a pre-fabricated design to a content management site.  We use WordPress because it’s easy to administrate.  We also use Gallery2 on our site to display our photo albums.  It integrates well with WordPress.  The current design is called “SeaShore” and was done by Sadish Bala, a talented WordPress theme designer.  Michael made some changes to the theme, but it’s mostly Sadish.

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