So, where have I been? Just doin the same ol same ol. Work has been a bit busy. It has been necessary to work at the call centers this week and last, and that burns me out pretty quick. I like my nice office! Today I get a repreive from the call center smells, sounds, and situations and get to work from my office so this is a nice change of pace.

I’m still plugging away at my studies every chance I get. Trying to breathe new life into my home schedule so I can get many of my side projects goin proper again. One site I’m working on right now was so near completion, and in the same spirit of the apprentice painter always putting that “last stroke” on the painting, I’ve had to tear it completely down and redesign it! Ahhh learning… :-D

Rhys’ big thing lately is fear. He’s scared of everything.  Like EVERYTHING: bugs, shadows, birds, shadows of bugs, being alone, his basketball hoop, the dolphin mobile in his room. You name it, and this kid will jump 20 feet in the blink of an eye! I guess it’s a phase. We are working with him, of course, but it’s slow goin.

He has found his new favorite game. His first real computer game that he fully understands! As a gamer dad, I’m so proud. We’ve been playing Peggle. It’s a PopCap game. If you like puzzle games, I’d recommend checking it out. It’s a good one.

Both Heidi and I have readjusted our outlook on things. Kinda stepped back to look at what is truly important in our lives, where we want to be, etc… So, we’ve redoubled our efforts to get back on track, as we both feel like we may have lost our way a bit. Things are goin good in that area, and we feel like we’ve got some good direction for once in a long time.

So, Heidi and I decided to get some R&R up in Show Low. It’s been way too long since we’ve been back up here. We’ve vowed to try and get up here every other month or so at least. It’s cheap, it’s beautiful, and it’s not where we live now. ;)

We’re staying at some Mom and Pop roadside motel here, and I must confess I was a bit worried it would be your typical roadside Mom and Pop motel. I haven’t had the best experiences at these places, but I suppose that should be expected down in Studio City.. I suppose… !? Maybe I just made poor choices. Hey, Stu, remember that damn joint in Studio City when we went to LA!? OMG!

Anyway, so we got here and must say we were very surprised with the quality of this place for the price! Very nice room. Very clean. Very cheap. ;) I have WiFi and a desk, so I’m happy. :) Heidi has cable, a bed, and a remote control, she’s happy. Rhys has his own bed that he can jump on, and nobody is yelling at him for putting toys in the refridgerator so he’s happy. LOL

Life is good. Now, to kick it into high gear to get moved out here. :-D We tried once, and that plan was quickly derailed. Let’s see how Move to Show Low v2.0 goes. ;)

Life has been pretty busy lately, and I haven’t had as much of a chance to write as I would have liked. So, I will give a quick update to things goin on in my life.

Happy Dad’s day to all the dads out there. I had a pretty good day — hung out with family and just tried to relax. Heidi and Rhys got me a really nice Fossil watch, so that was freakin awesome! Rhys did a very good job keeping the secret from me, much to our surprise. He mentioned that he had a “surprise” to give me on “Mother’s Day” a few times, but never gave away the secret. :)

I’m still not smoking! WOO HOO! I have a few patches left to go if I want to finish out the program, but honestly, I’m pretty much done with it. I tried to put a patch on today and it didn’t stick very well, so I just tossed it. I think I’m truly done with the whole smoking thing! Feels good to be done with that shit. OMG. I still get cravings, but I have enough will power to fend off the cravings this time. I just gotta keep my exposure to smokers limited for a time, else I know I will fall.

I have been thinking of taking up online poker again. It’s an online game that 1) I like to play, 2) takes little time, 3) doesn’t have a monthly cost, 4) can actually win money! So, we’ll see. I noticed that Poker.com seems to have turned into a portal of sorts. I used to play there when it was a gaming site. I know the US Govt has frowned on online gaming, so I will have to check into the current laws, etc… BOOO

That’s about it for now. I’m gonna get to work, and try and enjoy the day! Chat at you guys later!

Ok… Well, two out of three ain’t bad. I’m hanging at Drew’s place. We’re geeking out, pretending we are accomplishing something, when actually all we are accomplishing is killing off his Private Stock Captain Morgan’s rum, which, by the way, is quite tasty! ARRR! And, it’s not even Talk Like A Pirate Day!

We just installed Windows Core, and found that we don’t have credentials to login… Yep, that’s right, it didn’t give us a place to set up our Admin account… DOH! More likely, we missed it in our drunken stupor… YAY for drunken stupors! :) Boo for work in the morning!

Hello there my faithful readers! It’s been forever and a day, and I wanted to just drop a line to say we’re still alive and kicking… The running theme these days seems to be sickness. Rhys has a cough right now, but he just got over (or is getting over) a real nasty stomach bug. It turned him into a human lawn sprinkler if you catch my drift. Poor kid just can’t seem to catch a break! On top of that, Heidi was diagnosed with Bronchitis! YAY! So much for riding this out until we get back on insurance. Chalk that up to another one of my brilliant foresights… I have remained sickness free, which is important when you have a new job.

I’m still working on websites on the side, and have been working with a local politician. A friend of mine and I are thinking of marketing to the local political scene to see if we can drum up some beer money. The market is ripe, and we have the skills. Might as well try capitalizing on it. At the worst it’s a learning experience — such is life.

Not too long ago, Rhys when #2 on the big boy potty for the very first time! So, he got himself a brand new red bicycle! He’s so excited about it. Even in his weakened condition, he insists on riding his bike outside a little bit each day. He gets about two good pedals in and then has to rest to catch his breath and drink some Gatorade! LOL  He’s a trooper! Of course, we don’t let him take it too far! What’s more, with me concentrating on studies, mom seems to be the one taking him out most of the time. I swear I will do more here soon, but studies take priority right now.

Speaking of studies, I’m studying up on .NET programming. Both the Win32 side and the Web App side. It’s so good to be back in Visual Studio, even for my Open Source projects. I have to hand it to Microsoft with Visual Studio, it’s just some bad ass shit. I gave my old copy of Studio to the neighbor kid who has shown an interest in programming — my good deed for the month. Hopefully he doesn’t squander the opportunity to take the free time in his life right now, and get a leg up on the working world.

That’s about it. Nothing too interesting, and I’m sure I am forgetting quite a bit of shit, but I’ll write more in here, I promise. Even if it is fluff, like this. :)

So, where am I at these days? We’ll let’s see where to begin.

Monday I lost my job. It can honestly be argued that I quit or that I fired. I prefer the terminology “laid off”. How does that make me feel? Well, I liken it to getting released from a long prison term. So glad to be out, but now facing reality of getting something else going. We’ll see where this latest turn of career directions takes me.

To compound the fun, Rhys’ ear infections are back. He has to go into surgery to get tubes put in. YAY! I can’t tell you how excited we both are about this prospect. Especially the general anaesthesia part. Honestly, hasn’t this kid been through enough? That’s slated for the 27th. We’ll see if the insurance cards still work around then, but I’m not holding my breath. My ex-boss is just that way.

What else? Heidi is now sick too. It looks like an ear infection for her too! How does that happen!! It’s not like her son has two infections, and she works at a preschool. !? Of course, the recent change of events has increased the stress on my wonderful wife, but she is handling it quite well. I’m so thankful to have such a supportive wife. Truly.

I’ve sold my motorcycle… It’s gone. Done like dinner. The extra cash should help us float a bit longer if we have to. Let’s hope we don’t. I’ve applied to about 100 jobs (well, almost 100) and am not waiting for bites. Whilst waiting I’m gonna head up to Show Low to talk biz with my old biz partner, Greg. He’s talkin about starting up a web dev company. HEY! Guess what! I happen to love web development work! ;) Heading up there this Thursday.

I’ll keep all you cats posted, and if you have any ideas for me about what to do when I grow up, please don’t hesitate to email me! ;)