Greeting each arrival at the door with a firm hand on the forearm, local woman Dana Whitlock, 41, warned dinner guests Saturday not to ask her husband about his apps.
“Don’t say ‘What have you been up to,’” Whitlock whispered to a couple holding a bottle of pinot noir. “Don’t say ‘work.’ Don’t say ‘phone.’ If he opens his laptop, look at the dog.”
According to sources, Greg Whitlock, a 44-year-old regional insurance adjuster, has built 63 apps since March, including three that track the dog, one that tracks the other three, and a meal planner he once explained to a neighbor for 25 minutes in a Costco parking lot.
Whitlock said the situation had been manageable until her husband began referring to Fridays as “demo night.”
“Before this it was the smoker, and before that the espresso machine,” she said. “At least you could eat the brisket.”
Despite the precautions, the evening reportedly collapsed at 8:12 p.m., when a guest mentioned she had been forgetting to water her plants.
“Oh, funny you should say that,” Greg said, already standing.
At press time, guests had been walked through the plant app’s onboarding flow twice, and Whitlock was in the kitchen staring at the microwave clock.
