Archive for category Blogging
It’s March already?
My last blog post was your typical apology for not blogging more often. And I followed that up with a three month silence. Oh well.
2010 has had no small share of excitement, for lack of a better term. December was very busy at work with the typical end-of-the-year rush as everyone attempted to get their slates clean for the Christmas break. Then we had Christmas in Columbia, followed by New Year’s in Chicago.
Sadly, while we were in Chicago, my grandmother passed away. It wasn’t a huge shock, as when we saw her on Christmas Eve it was obvious she wasn’t doing very well. But it was still very sad, and we’ll miss her greatly. Emily lost her last surviving grandparent in 2006, and now I’ve lost mine.
The next week, the earthquake in Haiti struck. While natural disasters have always meant “all hands on deck” at my job, this one was particularly exhausting. There were UMC executives caught in the quake, and this marked the first “big” event since a staff restructuring that was supposed to facilitate faster and more numerous updates to our website (but with fewer staff members to share the load). It was stressful to say the least.
Colleen is doing great – just growing and learning every day. She’s sitting up on her own, her first tooth is coming through, and she’s starting to talk – in a manner of speaking… she’ll say “dada” without much prompting, but she doesn’t associate it with me – yet! Her personality is really coming through, and every day is a new adventure with her. She’s now seven months old – hard to believe she’s closer to being a year old than she is to her birth date. Where does the time go?
Halfway House
We’ve got walls and everything! About a month to a month and a half left until we can move in.
My sister and I checking out the construction.
New Home Construction
Doesn't look like much yet. Just a square of cement at this point.
After a frantic month of putting our home on the market, selling it, packing, and moving out – all in the midst of Thanksgiving/Christmas, Emily and I are now homeless. We’re currently living in my mom’s basement (insert joke here) and having to make a much longer drive to work, but I’ve gotten used to it pretty quickly. Having an abundance of podcasts to listen to helps quite a bit.
The good news is, the construction on our new house in Spring Hill started last week. According to the builder, it should be done in 60 to 70 days, which is pretty incredible. I like not having a mortgage payment, but it will be nice to have the home done so quickly.
New WordPress
Hmm… looks like the new version of WordPress has borked a few things. Tags == good. Converting categories into tags then deleting the categories == bad.
Tweaking the blog
Emily’s in Chicago until Sunday, so I’m having to entertain myself. I’ve made a few changes to the site today, namely a new template for the blog. Hit refresh on your browser a few times, and the banner image up top will change.
Testing another blogging app
This time it’s MarsEdit for OSX.
Trying out Windows Live Writer
This is a test. Will Windows Live Writer successfully publish this post on my blog? Only one way to find out…
Updating the blog
No, not with new posts, but the backend software… I’ve been getting a ridiculous amount of spam via the comments feature, and finally had enough. So I’ve updated to WordPress 2.12 and added the akismet plug-in in the hopes of eliminating all of the gibberish coming through. So if anyone would leave real comments (hint hint), I may actually see them now!
BTW, the return of the baby countdown (and the obligatory explanation post) is coming shortly.
Link dump
A collection of interesting links I’ve found over the past few months, but either didn’t have the time or inclination to write a full post about. Enjoy -
- Why does orange juice taste so bad after brushing your teeth?
- 10 most dangerous playthings of all time
- Scorpion venom could help treat brain cancer patients
- Worst-case scenarios
- US presidential speeches tag cloud
- How to survive a party when you don’t know anybody
- Thinking like a genius
- Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America
- Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity
- A collection of the worst personal websites I’ve seen, all on one server
Hummm
I’ve been meaning to write more often than I have, but I never can seem to get around to it… every couple of days (usually on the drive to and from work) I’ll think of something I want to write about, but by the time I get home, I don’t want to sit down and flesh it out.
Anyway, this one is about my adventures in weight gain and loss. For the first month of marriage, I was holding steady at 191 – which is pretty good for me these days. But by the time summer rolled around, I was up over 20 pounds (!!!) – Emily might be too good of a cook 
Since I had such good results with Body for Life a few years ago, we decided to try that approach. The plan is to finish the 12 week program the week of Thanksgiving – so far it’s going pretty good. We’re eating much better, and getting up nearly every morning to go to the Y before work. I’ve lost about 10 pounds so far, and feel much better. It’s always fun to see muscles showing up in places where there were none before. I actually have hamstrings and delts now!
It’s much easier to stick with the diet and exercise when you have someone else to do it with. And the free days are always fun – I’m at the end of my free day for this week, so I’m feeling pretty sick (Pizza, shakes, Dunkin’ Donuts, etc.) But it really does help keep you on track the rest of the week, when you know you can have all the stuff you’ve been craving. Like birthday cake…
’cause my birthday is coming up in a few days… I officially enter the mid-30s next Sunday. That’s right – the big 3-4. I guess there’s nothing particularly big about 34, other than the number itself.
And the day after that marks two years since I met my wife… our first date was October 23, 2004. Amerigo’s and “Cellular” – not the most romantic date, but you gotta start somewhere Hard to believe that this time two years ago we hadn’t even met, and a year ago we just got engaged. Emily is up in Chicago looking at wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses again this year – but this time for her sister who is getting married next year.
As far as other anniversaries to celebrate – last month I crossed the three year point from my last round of chemo… everything’s still looking good. Actually after two years the chance of recurrence is less than 5% for my particular kind, so each year out the odds get better and better. I’ve got a whole ‘nother post to write about what I’ve learned in the past year, but I’ll save that one for later.