Well hello there

So the dear little miss Brittany is getting ready to graduate. She has been accepted to college and is getting all of her paperwork squared away. Wait. Did you hear me? Brittany is getting ready to graduate! Holy crap.

I teased her the other day that I still have her “letters” to me from when she was a wee youngin. They usually involved stick figures or hand traces. I saved them and will probably give them to her when she gets older. I have her sister’s too. Her brother wasn’t really into writing but I have some great videos of him as a baby.

When was the last time you looked at photos from over 15 years ago? It is good to remember those days. Good and bad, they are what made you.

Fall

Ahh, Fall. You have arrived. OK, so our highs are still in the mid to upper 80s, but it isn’t a bad thing, right? I miss seasons or at least the appearance of them. I like visiting places that have snowy winters but I think I am done living there. I’m 33 and I have already become a snowbird. Actually I suppose I have to be retired first. Well that’s not happening any time soon.

Yes. I had a birthday. No big to do. I guess I am past that point. No, to be honest. I was never big on the large celebrations. I suppose I take after my grandfather in that respect. He is very anti “todo.” Speaking of my grandfather. He is very ill. Things are getting worse but we are mostly at the acceptance stage. We know it is happening and all we want to do now is make sure he is comfortable. Yes, I am sad, but I know it is his time.

What else is going on? Let me think. Work is work. Of course I wish I was independently wealthy and driving test cars for Aston Martin and Bugatti. You know, every girls dream. Right? A new car is in my future, but somehow I don’t see either of those as possible selections. I’d buy four parking spaces to make sure nothing happened to my car.

I’ve been thinking about my site a bit more. I want to redo it. I’m just deciding what I want to do.

Wow, if that wasn’t an old school ramble fest, I don’t know what is. Thinking back, I’ve been posting my ramblings online for 15 years. Holy carp. I feel old.

Decline of the Weblog

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Has the popularity and ease of use of microblogging sites such as twitter or communities such as Facebook led to the decline of the weblog? The intent of this site some 13 years ago was to let my family know what was going on in my life. Now I find that I post more on facebook and twitter because they are all hanging out there. At the same time, I don’t want to stop my posts here. I have a large portion of my life in these 1’s and 0’s and I don’t think I’m ready to give it up.

I try to post but more often than not, the convenience of 140 characters is enabling. I think having my tweets fed to the site is enabling as well. I might just make it a side bar thing so that it doesn’t post to the main site or RSS feed. I’ve been tinkering with designs but so far I haven’t hit something that I feel will last. The I Heart Geeks look suits me. Maybe I’ll do something simple for the body of the site and something that can change for the masthead.

Decisions. Time to make some.

Growing Up

Growing up sucks. I went to school, graduated and grew up. Now I don’t have the time to do the things that I want. Well, I say that but I’m pretty sure if I tried, I could do what I want. I think the responsible side of me out weighs the rest of me.

I’m thinking of getting a mac. I have issues with their business model, but I have issues with Microsoft’s as well. My biggest issue with a mac is the cost associated with them. I’m just finding that I need to have both OSes (and some *nix) to run OS specific applications that are applicable to my career field. I think I’ve decided that I will get one, but I have to “save” for it. I can’t justify just spending it outright. I want a new kitchen more than I want a mac. So, I’ll work on some freelance projects or I’ll just put a small portion of each paycheck away. Maybe then it won’t hurt so much to fork over that much for the machine and software. Right?

I’ve also been thinking of buying a new domain. Then I thought a little more and said, heck now. I’ve got 13 years worth of content on this site. Though some years are thinner than others, it’s been a good domain and it is still good. So, if I get a new domain, it’ll be for something not related to my every day life.

My evil princess is getting old. I know she’s not on her death bed, but she isn’t her young self. She jumped from the floor to the desk and Josh and I nearly had a heart attack. She hasn’t done that in at least a year. She usually needs to jump into a chair or on a window sill first. Maybe the cream cheese I gave her this morning has given her a bit of her youth back. She’s suffering from allergies. But she works herself into such a terrible frenzy at the vet’s office that we have been avoiding taking her. Instead it looks like I’m going to have to trim her nails and give her a bath. Oh that will be fun. That’s one of the not fun parts of being a grown up. Bathing elderly cats.

Hollaback

Happy day to celebrate the spring equinox.

We made the trek over to my parents’ house this morning. After discovering it far too quiet, I got to work dyeing eggs for my cousins’ children and my nieces and nephews. When did they stop packaging the way crayon in the boxes? I found a few birthday candles that worked but they were so thin they kept breaking. I forgot to take photos of the eggs but I was quite impressed with my skills. One looked like a superhero (face and mask).  I marbleized quite a few and they looked beyond cool.

I managed to video the egg hunt. It took exactly six minutes for five kids to find four dozen eggs. We did have to guide a few kids to some but I think that was due to our egg hiding abilities. I hid one in a tree branch. I made it a little obvious but a little difficult to get to. Shalyn got it after climbing in a chair. We were good and didn’t put any near my parents’ rose bushes. The thorns on that thing look like something from a horror movie.

Our shed is nearly complete on the outside. It just needs trim. Next week we will be painting the inside of the shed. That should hopefully brighten it up. We have contemplated getting solar panels to power lighting but the expense isn’t quite justified for a shed. I have an on-running joke with Josh about tap-lights. I bought a box of little magnet lights for our cabinets and it came with two tap-lights.  Now when we reach a situation that could use more lights, I recommend a tap-light. It’s the little things that amuse me.

Well, I’m off to see why my washing machine is pulling a Mr. Mom and walking away from the wall. Like I really need this expense. I’m hoping it is something I can repair. How hard is it to repair a spring? That seems to be a major culprit in washing machines.

Hugo Plays Fetch

OK. I uploaded a video of Hugo towards the end of his playing fetch. This was taken in the living room with only the overhead ceiling fan lights on. The curtains were closed so no natural light came in. Recorded at 720p, 60 fps on a Kodak Zi8 with on board mic. Oh and yes that’s me talking. Surprise!

Boring

So things have been boring enough to not write about. I try not to talk about work or where I work so it makes for boring posts. Sorry. After work I have been doing freelance work and having weird reactions to antibiotics. Fun.

Today is my 10th anniversary. This afternoon Josh and I will have been married for 10 years. Wow. It doesn’t seem like it. It has been a crazy ten years. Sickness and health is right! We both took today off. We don’t have any plans, but we have the day to do whatever we want. So far it has just been loafing around the house. I’m not complaining about that!

Going back to work tomorrow will suck. I have a few projects that people want done tomorrow. I may have to sequester myself and turn on the tunes.

Wish me luck…

Pardon

Pardon my radio silence. I have been keeping myself quite busy as of late. Of course there is work, but there is also the family visiting and general household/end of the year stuff. I’ve neglected balancing the check book and while I knew how much I had, my books weren’t balanced. That is not right. I’ve spent a good two hours and that was just getting receipts straight. Yes, it is that bad.

Spot, the kitten, is meowing up a storm right now. He is trying to persuade Josh that he needs to be fed four hours early. Oh great, now he is pestering me. At least my desk is so full of stuff that he can’t sit on it. Poor Josh is trying to actually work, but Spot keeps climbing all over his desk and chair. I told him this is what he gets for responding to him in the first place. Kittens.

Let’s Go Through The Motions

Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion I don’t know why, but I find this avatar/icon/image extremely amusing. I found it on a wiki Kris had linked to. Donnie Darko has some of the best quotes ever, so this just forced me to link. Sorry.

I’m presently baking a cake. It would seem that this year everyone coordinated on side dishes, but not desserts. My mom had bought pies, but left them at the store, so there is no dessert. I had cake mix here, so I am making a cake for tomorrow. While we “celebrate” Christmas, we are really only going through the motions. I’m not exactly sure why though.

I just received a phone call. My cousin’s daughter was trying to annoy me into telling her what we got her. She’s ten. I told her it was a big ole bag of nunya [business].

Missing

I am feeling tons better. The nasal congestion is probably nearly 90% gone. I do feel mildly feverish. However, my voice is going and will soon be missing. This should make for an interesting time at work. Perhaps I should get a little whiteboard and create thought bubbles. It’s an idea, I suppose.

I’ve been emailing one of my younger cousins. She is reading the Twilight series and needs someone to talk to it about as Brittany was out of town. She’s managing a book every three days. It should slow down now that school is back in session. I’m guessing she will be reading book four by next week. She couldn’t give me a better explanation as to why she liked the book other than she liked Edward and Bella together. I suppose that will suffice for now.