Nov 24 2006
Next Up: Christmas
I’ve been busy again. Too busy to write… again. Here are some of the things that have been going on in the last few weeks.
NEW BODY OF WORK
I’ve been behind on my photography. I decided, as an exercise to review and edit all of my photos from the last two years, to build a new body of work and try to find a gallery to host the framed photographs. I reviewed nearly 10,000 images over the last few weeks and have trimmed down the number of candidates for the new body to about 150. My goal is to have 15-25 fine-art prints ready to frame by the end of January.
NEW JOB
The new job is good. It’s still a lot of ColdFusion, but I’m working on some XML and XSLT that is new to me. I’m hoping to get my feet wet with a .NET project one of these days. I like the company because it is small and agile, much like CRS was the first two years of my employment there. I would like to see some additional formality in the workflow and the development processes, but I think that will come in time.
TRIP TO OREGON
Dorrie, her sister, our brother-in-law, our nephew and I traveled to Oregon a few weeks ago to visit her grandfather, who isn’t doing so hot right now. We spent some time with him and also spent some time with other family members. We were only in town for a long weekend, but managed to take a half-day trip to the coast. Oregon is a beautiful state. I hope to make it back soon to photograph a bit.
HOME UPGRADES
When we moved into this house over the summer, we unpacked but never really made the house a home–we installed temporary paper blinds, left the artwork piled up on the floor, stored some items in rooms that we didn’t go into and never really finished organizing the garage or the basement. The last few weeks we’ve been getting our act together. We finally bought and installed blinds in the kitchen, living room and master bedroom. We bought an entertainment stand for the TV and stereo, a buffet to put in the entrance in the front hallway, a decorative table for the living room for family photos and stuff and a trundle bed for the guest bedroom. I cleaned up the garage and got started on the basement, and we hung some artwork downstairs in the living room and hallway. We still have some work to do, but we’re getting there.
TENNIS
Last summer I began learning and playing tennis with buddy Ron. This summer we joined a doubles league. Ron ended up taking a job where he travels so I’m playing in the league with another friend. We’ve been getting smoked in every game, but I suppose that’s to be expected of two guys that had never played tennis until their 30’s. However, my serve is getting more and more consistent and I’m much more confident on the court right now. I think that next season I’ll be winning matches.
LIGHT RAIL
The RTD light rail lines opened up last week. Big feckin’ deal, right? Well, it is to me. I’m a huge fan of public transportation. I rode the line from Lincoln to Union Station. The drive to the station was about five minute shorter than to the Mineral station, but the trip on the train was about 15 minutes longer. I’ll stick with my usual trip from Mineral to save time, but since Dorrie’s office is within walking distance of one of the stops on the new line, we’ll be carpooling occasionally.
SCHOOL
My calculus class ends soon. I should be getting an A. I like math.
THANKSGIVING
Dorrie and I hosted Thanksgiving this year, since it was our first year in the house and we had not had an opportunity to entertain while living in the condo. (This was also one of the reasons we got the housework done that I mentioned earlier.) Dorrie’s parents, aunt Diane and her brother Bill spent the holiday with us. Rhiannon, Patrick and Brendan spent the holiday with Patrick’s family and uncle Ted was in Oregon visiting his dad. My parents stayed in Dallas (but will be here for Christmas). So, it was a small group but we had a good time watching football all day (except for the fact that the feckin’ Broncos lost again) and our Thanksgiving meal was absolutely fantastic.
CHRISTMAS
Next up: Christmas. My parents will be here for a week. I hate shopping. Dorrie and I are going to spend many hours online in the next few days, avoiding anywhere where there are hordes of people.