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« Previous Entries Next Entries »Dreaming of a sick Christmas
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007So here I sit at work, 8:30am on Boxing Day, feeling rather crap. Yesterday’s holiday festivities (a wonderful 12 hour HD-DVD marathon of the first 5 years of Harry Potter) were tempered by the fact that both Brien and I seem to have come down with a flu of some sort. Because Brien is already on massive antibiotics for a case of strep we are pretty sure that it’s viral so there is little that can be done about it short of drinking plenty of fluids and taking it easy.
Taking it easy I said? Not likely with being the only PM in over the holidays and some massive amounts of work to do! Hopefully I can make today short and get home to rest and recuperate.
Home at last
Sunday, December 23rd, 2007I just got home from quite the whirlwind weekend. It all started when Skype split one of his nails open to the wick Thursday night which necessitated a trip to the vet and a little anesthesia on Friday. After putting Skype under (pic below) the vet cut off the nail above where it broke and got him all bandaged up.
With a little help from the veterinary technician we poured the still woozy Skype into the back seat of my car and drove down to Walla Walla where the rest of the family awaited. It was good to see them – it’s been a while since all 5 of us (mom, dad, my sister, and her husband) had been together.
Between his paw, the stress of being away from home, and the slight humiliation of having to wear a bootie Skype has been very high maintenance all weekend. Due to that and the fact that I have a ton of stuff to do at work and really should do some work tomorrow I came home today rather than on Christmas day.
The pass was kind of dicey on the way home but thanks to my A6’s Quattro 4WD we made it back safe and sound. Now I’m kicking back on the couch relaxing a little so as to be ready for being productive tomorrow.
Renewed and renowned
Thursday, December 20th, 2007Funny how getting my car detailed can kick my auto-passion into high gear. Tuesday evening I picked up my A6 from Mirrorworks from having a full detail and some paint work done. It’s shiny and like-new again – I’m swooning all over my precious car again!
Aside from the car life has been good. Traskpro has his a solid and stable 0.9 (and graduated from alpha to beta) and is rocking my task list right and left. I even have acquired a few other heavy users which is oddly gratifying. I’ve still got 31 remaining features/tweaks to make, but those can happen gradually over the next few weeks as I continue to ramp up on JavaScript.
Also in the world of good things Scott came over last night. He hadn’t experienced a proper viewing of Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End so we did dinner and a showing of that. As silly and overly-Disney as the film is I really do enjoy watching it. I really do hope that big budget swashbucklers never die – they are just so much fun to experience.
Right – back to work now. I have to finish up a ton of stuff today and tomorrow to be ready to take off a few days to be home for Christmas!
Productive and exciting
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
This has been quite the productive and exciting weekend: I’ve seen Alissa’s play again (this time with Jesse and Brenda), taken interesting makeup photos with Jessie (see above), learned bucket loads about SQL, and released an early alpha of Traskpro.
I’m feeling surprisingly good given that I didn’t have much downtime this weekend. Having a personal project like Traskpro has re-energized me. I’d forgotten how fun coding can be – particularly with tons of small rewarding features to work on. I feel like I’m using agile with a 2 hour sprint!
Traskpro is finally feature-complete enough to stand up to day to day use. I still have a TON of work left to do on it, but that can happen over the next few weeks. Go in and check it out – updates from now on will be pretty much transparent to the users. The temporary production location is at Traskpro.com – I’ll be getting a more official URL for it shortly.
Update: Changed the URL above to the actual production URL. No more temporary URL’s for me baby!
Congrats Scott!
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007My friend Scott just welcomed his son into the world. The little tyke is 5lbs 3oz, and perfectly healthy. More info to come.
Falling back into the sun
Monday, November 5th, 2007Today is a great day – thanks to daylight savings time I woke up to sunshine for the first time in a month and I feel great for it. I really think I do get SAD like my father and having sunlight streaming in my bedroom window when I first wake up makes all the difference in my day. I really should look at getting one of those full spectrum lights to put in my shower or something to kick start these cold dark winter mornings.
I’m willing to bet another factor in my bright-eyed outlook on the day comes from a relaxing (and productive) weekend. My dad passed through town and I got to hang out with a few friends I haven’t seen in a while. This combined with a good deal of time spent on my couch with Puzzlequest and iTunes content left me feeling relaxed, energized, and ready to tackle my week at work.
Funeral for an aunt I never knew
Saturday, October 20th, 2007Sitting in the crisp cold of an open-air stone mausoleum in Walla Walla lays the ashes of Tami Anderson, the estranged aunt I never knew. I’m a little confused as to how I should feel about the whole experience – I never knew her, talked to her on the phone, or really knew of her aside from knowing that my mother had a sister.
After getting the call nearly a month ago informing me that ‘Tami has died’ I’ve gone through a strange progression from barely knowing of her existence to slowly lifting the shroud of mystery that has long covered my mothers side of the family. I’ve reached to my mothers half-brother (trailer-park loser), searched the internet for her abusive and estranged father (rotting in a California Veterans Center, broke, drunken, and worthless), and sifted through death records looking for other half-siblings and blood relatives.
The more I learn the more I realize how my mother is a shining star – an amazing person who has made a name for herself, becoming a loving wife, mother, and friend. She has propelled her career to lofty heights, is a well-respected pillar of society here in Walla Walla, and has a network of friends that care for her. When I look at the rest of my mothers estranged family and compare it to the family I know and love it’s obvious that the two are night and day.
After attending the funeral today I feel strange about the experience. It’s weird sifting through all the photos of Tami and looking at her lives leftovers I feel like I should feel something, but I still not a spark of emotion or connection stirs.
I know my sister has some desire to reach out to the side of the family we never knew, but my brief brush with them has left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I have no desire to dig deeper into the depths of that particular branch of my family tree, preferring to leave it to slowly age from this earth, myself and my sister it’s only real legacy.
72 hours
Monday, October 8th, 2007
A lot can happen in 72 hours. Since Friday night I’ve:
- Attended HUMP, the local amateur porn festival
- Cleaned my condo (with some help from the dynamic duo)
- Wished my friend Elliot a Happy Birthday at Tutta Bella (v. delicious Pizza btw)
- Continued the process of falling in love with Google all over again – playing a lot with Gmail and Google Applications for Domains
- Watched the Matrix trilogy on HD-DVD
- Quit smoking (again)
- Discovered $2,500+ in damage to my A6 done by some asshat trying to park an SUV, apparently on my front bumper
Busy weekend – I need a few more days to finish it up!
Akiva and Shae get hitched!
Monday, September 24th, 2007
Yesterday brought the marriage of Akiva and Shae in a beautiful ceremony. Attending was an interesting experience for me as this is the first Jewish wedding I’ve ever attended. While I didn’t directly understand any of the Hebrew prayers or blessings it was still fun to observe. I was very touched by how emotional Akiva got – he was shaking during the ceremony, and you could tell it really was a bit overwhelming for him.
The photo above is my favorite couples shot. I also really liked this shot of Eric, my capture of Shawna’s back, and this trippy twin-like shot of Troy. For all photos from the wedding check out my Flickr set of their wedding, or check out their Flickr wedding pool where hopefully other guests will also post some of their photos.
Congrats guys – myself and all your friends are wishing you the brightest of futures and the best of lives together!
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