And just to prove that I’m not making this up, I want to point out something. You’ll notice that you can see my white board in this picture of Uncle Robert and me in my cube.

You can, in fact, see my actual White Board Quip of the Week! See! I TOLD you so. And you thought I was just being silly. Well… yes, I am. But still.

Uncle Robert made a day trip from Atlanta to come out and visit for my birthday. What a treat. There was an ulterior motive, though. He’s taking some college courses on web development and wanted to see how we run our shop.

It was a great visit. I got to turn the tables on the old Lieutenant and teach him some things about web programming, CSS, and project planning. He even got to sit in on a weekly project meeting, thanks to the good graces of my bosses. He also got a nice tour of our server room and an explanation of all the cool equipment. (Thanks Bryce!) Of course the old soldier still taught me quite a bit during his visit. (“Get your hands out of your d@#n pockets!”)

We managed to catch Tammy for lunch and had a good time at Chili’s. Robert took care of some important business. That is to say, he got an update on how Tammy is doing so he could relay it to is wife, Linda. And, of course, he entertained us with all sorts of war stories over some good chow. All in all, the trip was a success for all involved. I look forward to his next visit, whenever that may be.

Happy Birthday To ME!

Yes, today, November 10th, marks the anniversary of my “big coming out party”. My uncle Robert always reminds me that I was born on the same day as the Marines, only 199 years later. So happy birthday Marines! (Hooah! Is that right?)

If you’d like to send me some undeserved birthday booty, you can send me some rare root beer or something nicer. Just have the dealership deliver the goods my place:

2671 Verandah Lane #2332
Arlington, TX 76006

By the way, I’ve got about a hundred pictures on my digital camera, some of which need to be added to the previous personal update post.

It’s been far too long (again) since I gave an update on “the fam”. So here goes.

Tammy and I are busy busy busy. We’re teaching Sunday school. She’s taking her 9th grade girls through “Girls of Grace” and I’m teaching my 10th grade guys comparative religion. She’s still working with the Master’s Players, 5th-7th grade kids doing sign language, music interp, and praise dance. We still co-lead The Bottom Line, the church’s high school drama group. With all these groups, we have lots of kids and thus spend a good deal of time building those relationships; birthday parties, football games, school plays, etc.

We’re involved in the adult drama group. I was “helping out” with the Christmas musical (meaning I re-wrote the script and was helping the director with casting and scheduling), but he dropped out and I was elected to replace him. So now, I’m directing that too (and we’re way behind schedule already).

Last month, we finally had had enough of our old climbing gym. The bratty kids, dangerous equipment, and non-existent management were just too much. We canceled our membership and moved to a new gym, Dyno-Rock. It’s cheaper, closer, and the management actually cares about their clientele. The facility is not quite as nice, but they have lots of good wall to climb and their equipment is top rate.

Tammy’s been healthy for several months now. (Yaay!) Her ankle still hurts a little when she stresses it, like climbing or dancing with the Master’s Players, but it’s holding up fine.

I, on the other hand, have been fighting off some bugs. I’ve had a phlegmy cough for weeks now. I was on the verge of going to a doctor when something else happened. I got a couple of spider bits on my left arm. They swelled and itched, but nothing to worry about. About three days later, I noticed rashy red lines going up and down my arm from the bite. That was scary. I went in to the ER, and the doc said the lymph node in my arm pit was swollen and that I had a nasty infection. I was glad it wasn’t venom related, but still concerned. I’ve been on penicillin for about a week (500 mg horse pills 4 times a day) and have about a week to go. The redness and pain are gone, so I think that did the trick. Now, I’m waiting to finish the prescription before I go in to check on the cough. Either the medication or the infection itself has left me tired and a little lethargic, but I’m learning to cope.

Tammy is working full time now (no more temp-to-hire) at Accessory Design Group. She is in charge of tracking huge orders of belts, gloves, purses, etc., from overseas to their warehouse, and from their warehouse to their customers, like Walmart, Target, and JCPennys. She’s been on long enough that her company health insurance kicks in this week. Hurray!! No more COBRA payments.

My job at GIS2 is going well. We have been through some project management changes, all for the better, and the company is looking ahead to some big growth. It looks like when the company makes the next big turn (getting a second software author) I will be in a team-lead position, which translates into lower/middle management. That scares me a little, but it is exciting too.

Plans are moving ahead for my big expedition to the Grand Teton next summer. We found a great backpack on sale at Galyan’s and bought it. Still keeping my eyes open for sales on climbing gear and some good hiking shoes.

And, last but not least, my 31st birthday is tomorrow. Tammy’s still trying to make me feel old, but it’s not working. Uncle Robert may be flying in for a one-day visit, which will be a real treat. He’s taking a course on web programming and has been calling me for pointers once in a while. I think he’s looking forward to getting a tour of the office and seeing how we do what we do.

We’ll, that’s about all I can think of, and I’m 15 minutes late. Got to get home. Tammy and I are going climbing tonight and she hates to be late.

What a weekend.

Friday, after work, Tammy and I spent a great evening with Galyn and Kristin Black playing board games and eating some warm-from-the-oven cookies. Regrettably, we were having such a good time, we completely missed the presidential debate.

On Saturday, we did a little shopping in celebration of a surprise windfall. (I got my first profit sharing check from GIS2 last week. Let’s just say the economy around here is better than Mr. Kerry wants you to think.)

Later we picked up Sarah, one of our many “kids”. She is in our youth drama group and it was her 17th birthday. We went to Six Flags and enjoyed four hours of riding rollercoasters in the rain. It was a complete blast and ruined my singing voice for Sunday morning.

Sunday, we put on our first adult drama sketch (not skit, long story) for the church in both services. It was a real tear jerker about divorce and had just that effect in both services. (It seems weird to gage the success of your script by how many people you make cry.) The youth drama group, The Bottom Line, also performed two sketches in high school Sunday school, both comedies. Because God is so awesome and omnipotent, I was able to attend all four performances, even when a couple of them should have been performed simultaneously.

Right after church, we had a two hour session with the Master’s Players, a 5th, 6th, and 7th grade group that Tammy co-leads. They do sign-language, dance and mime to music. This workshop was a first in that we had one adult, and several high schoolers involved in miming the story of one of the songs (“If We Are the Body”, by Casting Crowns).

Then, an hour after that, we had the final audition for the church Christmas play. (Actually, the “play” is a set of scenes that appear between songs in the musical that the choir is doing. If you’ve gone to church much in your life, you know what I’m talking about.) I’m not the director of the play, but I am a co-director of the burgeoning adult drama group, so I had to be involved in the auditions. I’ve also been tasked with rewriting the script, since most dramas that come with published church musicals tend to be… well… not very interesting.

The auditions wrapped up just in time for evening church. Glenview only does evening services once a month and they usually involve communion and baptisms. Another of our “kids”, Shereen, was baptized. It was very emotional.

Tammy and I made it back home, Burger King in hand, at 8:15. We were both completely exhausted. Nothing like a good restful weekend to get you charged up for another week at the grind.

Tammy and I made a trip to Amarillo this weekend to attend my grandma’s 80th birthday. It was a great time to catch up with the fam and eat lots and lots of food. Of course, the question was posed several times, “So what are you up to?” So, of course, I talked about getting back into biking and climbing, working with the kids at church, and working on my personal web site and blog.

Blog… this was met each time with a confused look and “What’s a blog?” Hmm. How do you explain without sounding like you have no life? It’s a diary on the internet. Yyyeah. That sounds like something a real loser would do. It’s a journal, where I can talk about my personal and professional life, politics, religion, or whatever, and anyone can come read it and post comments. Well, that sounds a little better, but not much. Who would want to come and read that on a regular basis.

Next, I would try to explain that there are many blogs that I read every day from people in my industry or related fields; web design, web programming, graphic design, etc. It’s a great way to stay on the bleeding edge of technology and design trends. But invariably, I would get off on a tangent about the fun stuff, like Rob Cockerham’s “How much is inside”, or Steve’s “Steve, don’t eat it!”

I guess what it comes down to is this: Yes, I have a diary on the web, and yes, I am a serious geek. Loser? No. Not a loser. Just misunderstood by the main stream. (Okay, that does sound like something a loser would say. I give up.)

My adoring readers (all two of them) have been clamoring for an update on the “fam”. I apologize for the delay. I could say something like I’ve been buried at work, but it would be a lie. I’ve just been lazy. At least I’m honest.

Tammy has finished rehab and has been cleared by the doctor to put her new and improved ankle to use. We’ve been to the climbing gym twice and taken one short bike ride. She’s doing well, but still taking it slow. She had a little “discomfort” climbing, but nothing that can’t be avoided by doing easier routes while she rebuilds her strength.

My explorer had water pump issues last month and I couldn’t seem to find a full day to tear it apart (nor the money to buy replacement parts) so I decided to take advantage of the unusually cool weather and ride my mountain bike to work. I rode to work for almost a full month. Weekend before last, I finally managed the time and money to tear down the truck and replace the water pump. BamBam is running fine now.

My old buddy Galyn has taken me out on several death-defying mountain bike rides in the last couple of months. I am very surprised at how much I enjoy it. It’s not the same as riding a motorcycle in the mountains, but it’s close. Plus it’s getting me back in shape. I still can’t keep up with Galyn on the hill climbs and have to stop to catch my breath once in a while, but it’s getting better.

An unfortunate side-effect to this new hobby is that I tend to fall… hard. On our first difficult trail (Cedar Hill), I did a full-fledged “endo”, landing squarely on my helmet. Yaaay helmet!

A couple of weeks ago riding in the Hwy 360 area, I lost it going down a rocky ravine and bashed my shin in a big way. My knee is still a tad swollen from that fall, which put an end to my daily ride to work. The knee is not bad enough to keep me off the bike entirely; just enough that I decided to rest it.

In other news, I have been drafted as the “climbing expert” on an exhibition to summit Grand Teton next summer. Again, this can be entirely blamed on Galyn. His brother-in-law, for some as yet undetermined reason, has made up his mind he needs to climb the Grand. He enlisted Galyn to head the team and Galyn tapped me to be the rope-man. We are planning on taking the Owen-Spaulding route in August of 2005. That route is the easiest way to summit, but still has a couple of spots that will require some easy rock climbing. All the guides say the route is easy but “exposed”, meaning you probably won’t fall, but if you did (without protection) you would make a nice meal for the carrion birds three thousand feet below. On the way down from the summit, we’ll be doing at least two rappels over 100 feet. This means toting two climbing ropes (approx. 9 pounds each) to the 13,770 foot summit along with the necessary hardware. I’m going to have be me in MUCH better shape by then.

Tammy and I are starting our second season directing the youth drama group, The Bottom Line, at our church. This year is going great. The kids are excited and we have many more chances to perform. We are also both teaching Sunday school; I’m with 10th grade boys, Tammy’s got 9th grade girls. Just last night we have a meeting at the church to discuss a new adult drama ministry. We won’t likely have directorial roles in that group, but will certainly be involved.

Okay, I’m spent. I can’t think of any other information to share. I hope you all (both of you) enjoy this update. Good day!

My favorite web cartoon, PvP, was nearly ruined when the author’s PC was striken with Windows XP Service Pack 2. Scott Kurtz writes:

So, despite my actively avoiding it, my Windows auto-update installed service pack 2 on my computer this morning. Then it didn’t want to reboot because of the stupid security center not being able to confirm the status of my anti-virus software.

I’m still afraid to reboot a second time, but I guess I have to try. I’ll go ahead and try now. If you don’t hear back from me in a couple of days, please send a certified microsfot technician to my house.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you! If it’s not too late, reset your Windows Automatic Update to warn you about updates BEFORE it downloads them!

<RANT>
I love the Olympics. My wife fills half a dozen video tapes every four years so she can weather the down time until the next Olympics roll around. (No, I’m serious.) The athleticism, the drive, the indelible human spirit; it’s all so inspiring. Every four years, the bar is raised, records are broken, and unimaginable feats become reality.

You know what else is inspiring? NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. It inspires me to watch re-runs of Cheers on TBS! Every two years (Let’s not forget that they butch the Winter Games too!) NBC achieves new heights in idiocy, provides record breaking annoyance and makes unimaginable suckage a reality. To quote Greg Storey over at Airbag, the coverage is “sucktacular”!

Seriously! Who can I pay to get the Olympics on another network?! ANY other network. Heck, the Cartoon Network could do better than those yahoo’s with the Peacock. I’d take Sponge Bob and Patrick any day over Tim Daggett and Elfie Schlegel. (Yeah, yeah. Tammy watches Gymnastics, so I do too. It takes a real man… oh never mind.)

Now, I know they’re not all bad. Bob Costas is a cordial enough guy, but is there any way we can get Katie Couric assigned to cover deepest darkest Congo? I’m sure her witless banter and mind numbing trivia would sound better with rocket propelled grenades whizzing overhead.

Who is the guy who handles scheduling over at NBC? Is there a minute hand on his watch? I’m thinking to myself, “Hey Self, how’s it hanging? Let’s see what time the 200M Freestyle is on tonight. Gee. The schedule says, ‘8:00 PM – 12:00 AM: Olympic Summer Games’. That is SO helpful. Maybe I’ll just scrape my thighs with a cheese grater instead of listening to Katie for four hours just so I can see a 60 second race.” I’m not making this up. See for yourself!

*Sigh* Okay. I feel better now. Does anyone know how I can get BBC-Canada on my TV?
</RANT>

Well, now that all my web sites are on a new server, I guess it’s time for me to chain myself to my desk and get them all redesigned.  The new server has some nice blog software that I plan to put to use, so at some point, SYNS will be moving in-house.

In the mean time, my folk’s site, LaddsDarkHorses.com needs a serious face lift.  It was written long before I learned about standards compliance and CSS layouts (ala CSSZenGarden). It also needs a good deal of programming and database work since new features were added with duct-tape programming.

Also, Light-Spark needs to be converted into a more professional looking site for contract work, etc., especially since all the branding marks on sites I’ve done point to what is now my personal site. Not very attractive to folks who might actually want to pay me to do a site.

So *sigh* I guess I have to give up some gaming time and get some real work done.

BAH!