It's been so long

Wow, almost 4 months have gone by... where do I start?
The past few months flew by all too quickly. So much going on at work that I've been left with pretty much no time to take a break during the week, and the weekends have been getting exhausting as well...but more about that later. To summarize, following my sister's (all too short) visit in February, a week in March was spent driving to Jackson Hole, WY from Seattle, skiing for several days, and then driving to SJ. Yes, driving. Bruce had nothing better to do at the time, so he decided why not spend some time on the road (which I decided to join him on), followed by visiting a few friends during the week.
The rest of March and April went by pretty quickly, with the weekends being so action-packed. Oh yeah, about that... so, I've signed up (along with a few friends) to summit Mt. Reineer this fall. 4 days (including prep), with a 4.5mile long 4600' elevation gain on day two, carrying ~45 lbs, and 4 mile 4400' elevation gain climb on day 3 (though thankfully the weight drops ~20lbs here). So, in preparation, I (or should I say we, since Kathy's happily enthusiastically me) have been doing the local hikes. So far she's managed to keep up, doing one hike per week from mid-march till the weekend before last, when we flew out to Detroit for a friend's wedding. Last weekend I decided that since I was alone (since Kathy went on to visit NY) to push myself harder. No rain or mud was going to stop me, oh no. 7 miles (1200' elevation gain) with 25lbs on Saturday, only to come home, wash the muddy clothes (and dog!) and pass out, and then decide on Sunday morning that since I have nothing better to do, I may as well go again, and do 6 miles (2400' elevation gain) with 15lbs on Sunday. On the walk back up the stairs at the end of this, Bender decided that he wasn't tired enough and ran to say hi to his friend...only to then limp along into the apartment and onto his bed. Obviously, my body was recovering for the next few days...and since the hikes have been in the afternoon, followed by hours of sleep, the whole day's schedule was off for a while (Tuesday's Cino De Mayo festivities didn't help).
Another week went by, and as much as I wanted to go for another hike (feeling well-rested now!) I realized that I'm behind schedule with more non-directly work related stuff. I'm presenting at Cisco Live! 2009 (www.ciscolive2009.com), and much of that content had to be created (in addition to some existing content from past presentations). Also, I've been asked to do content review, as well as some authoring, in an upcoming Cisco Press book, "Deploying and Troubleshooting Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers" (ISBN #1587058146). So, there went the weekend!

So, who's going to visit next?

Promise to be green

I promise to not print hundreds of pages of source code. Do you?
http://www.smashingapps.com/2009/01/20/make-a-promise-to-go-green-and-get-250-gb-free-file-hosting.html

I got surgery

...and I'm not a happy camper. Sure, I don't think I was going to have any kids anyway, but I don't feel "whole" anymore! I mean, look at me!



The only good thing that came of this, like last time, is that I scored some drugs. Only morpheine this time, no opium, but I take what I'm given no questions asked.

First week of married life...

...and what has changed, you ask? Absolutely nothing. Life goes on, work still needs to get done, food cooked, apartment cleaned. Time does not stand still or pass you by, but continues along in one smooth motion, almost letting you forget. Sure, the memories of the day (all 18hrs of them) turn into one big blur sooner or later, but in the grand scheme of things, the only thing that matters is that everyone had a good time.

We thank our guests (friends, relatives, coworkers -- all a part of the 'family' if you may) dearly for being able to share the joyous day with us, and hope to see all of you again soon.