Mike Munhall

If I were writing on a regular basis (something I will get back to doing), this post would actually be many separate posts. But, since I haven’t written in a long time, I’m just going to puke it all out right now into one bucket. It would be silly to try to make all these separate posts all with the same date. Anyway, here you go Ellebee (you asked me to write more often, and I will, starting with this).

UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTION

I went to the doctor about a week ago to have him look at what I thought was about to be an ear infection. I had just gotten over a cold and I was experiencing mild pain and more-than-mild congestion in my ear.

Doc told me, “The upper respiratory infection you have has going around and it includes a lot of congestion. Your ear isn’t infected and it will eventually be just fine.”

“I didn’t have a respiratory infection,” I told him, “It was just a cold.”

“Upper respiratory infection is the technical term for a cold,” he replied.

Oh. Well, shit. Way to make me feel dumb, Doc. In any event, I didn’t have an ear infection and I wasn’t actually getting over my cold yet either; it had actually just begun its second stage. Long story short, it’s been exactly three weeks now since I first got sick. My head is still congested, I just got over a terrible hacking cough, and I’m just now able to hear again in my left ear. I think I’m going to make it, but I hope I haven’t spread my cold around to any friends or family.

SNOW STORM

I’m writing this post during the end of the second major snow storm in one week. Apparently, this is the first time the Denver area has ever experienced two storms of this magnitude in the same year, much less the same week.

The first one was a doozy and shut down the city for a couple of days. My parents were supposed to arrive from Dallas on Frontier Airlines, but DIA was shut down and the flight was canceled (they made it in a few days later). We must have gotten about 2.5 feet of snow in our neighborhood. My drive home from work the first afternoon of the storm took nearly three hours. Visibility was limited to about five feet much of time. Once I made it into my driveway, Dorrie and I were pretty much stuck in the house for two days. Other than shoveling and snowblowing the sidewalk and driveway, we didn’t get out. Being outside in the cold and getting worked up shoveling did not make my upper respiratory infection any better.

This second storm was supposed to bring more snow than the first, but it fizzled out. We still got about 10 inches of new snow, but this was nothing like the first storm.

THE NEW JOB

The new job with CST is going very well. I’ve learned quite a few new things with my primary web application development language, ColdFusion. But, most importantly, I’ve been doing some C#.NET development, which is my primary reason for working there. Well, not C#.NET specifically, but just the opportunity to work with any new technology. Since I started (How long has it been? Six weeks? Eight?), I’ve written a small ColdFusion application using CFCs, done some new things with XML that I had not done before, picked up some XSLT, and have been doing some .NET development.

The people I work with are good people. Every person I’ve met I think I will get along with and it’s a fun, loose work environment. So far, so good. Keep your fingers crossed.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas just passed. Santa was very good to me. The Jones family (the in-laws) are the most generous people I know. I was lavished with gifts, including some man-items like an air compressor and tools, a new duffle bag for the gym, some cool toys, books, a ticket to the Broncos game this Sunday and more. My parents came through, too, gifting me with a big gift certificate to Home Depot.

We spent Christmas eve at our house with my parents (who had just arrived from Dallas) and Dorrie’s parents. The usual Christmas eve tradition in the Jones family is to watch Christmas movies and have a light buffet dinner. With my parents just arriving though, we really never got settled in. Plus, I was coughing and hacking all over the place and that probably made people uncomfortable. Sorry, everyone. Couldn’t help it.

PHOTOGRAPHY

I haven’t photographed in a while. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to, I just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve been focused (as much as possible) on getting a second body of work together. I’m still editing 160 photos, I still have to print the photos, and I have yet to settle on a style of frame and matte.

I’ve been playing around with a few photo management and editing tools, including Adobe Lightroom (too much of a beast to run on my current machine), Apple Aperture (won’t even launch on my current machine), and Nikon Capture. So far, Nikon Capture is fun. It doesn’t have the control I need for editing and printing, but it’s a great “lightroom” tool and will do great for quick prints.

My D70 seems old and weak compared to the new cameras out now. With just 6.1 megapixels, I am able to print just barely larger than 8×10. That’s not bad, but the D80 has 10.2 megapixels and the body costs as much as my D70 did when I bought it. So, I have my eye on the D80 right now. Anyone want to buy a D70 body?

PARENTAL UNITS

As I mentioned earlier (Were you paying attention?), my parents are visiting. We haven’t seen Dorrie since my parents arrived. She’s hiding in the loft reading. The parental units leave in two days.

SCHOOL

I took just one class this semester, Calculus I. I finished the class with an A, maintaining my 4.0 average at Metro State. It’s not too hard maintaining a 4.0 when you’re only taking one or two classes a semester. Next semester I’ll be taking Computation Matrix Algebra and a computer science course yet to be determined.

GRANDPA JONES

Sad news in the Jones family this month. Les Jones passed away after suffering three strokes in the last several months. I had the opportunity to get to know Les on the last fishing trip in B.C. Les was a great person and will be missed.

CHESS

Still playing chess. I will always be playing chess. I don’t think I’ve improved much in the last year, but I haven’t studied much either.

TENNIS

I just finished playing in my first tennis league. I registered in the league to play with buddy Ron, but Ron ended up leaving the country for work and I played most of the season with other buddy Jason. I played well in most games, but never one a single match. I’m not used to losing so consistently when it comes to sports. I suppose I shouldn’t have such high expectations when picking up a new sport from scratch at age 33, but still.

I met some cool people in the league and now have some new tennis friends. The next league starts up in a couple of weeks. I will win.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS