Happy Anniversary To My Wonderful Wife

B, Family, Life, Marriage, Photos

[thumb id=1137]Eight years ago today, I got married to the most wonderful woman in the world. From the first moment that I met her in a Yahoo chat room, I knew that there was something special about her. I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but as I got to know her online, I knew for sure that I wanted to spend more time with her. (And we did, often talking online or on the phone late into the night.) The first day that we met in person was wonderful. Unlike with other women I had crushes on before, I wasn’t nervous around B. It was the strangest feeling. I was completely at ease. Everything I said or did felt completely natural.

[thumb id=1122]As we dated, I quickly realized that I was falling head over heels in love with this wonderful woman. Every time I thought that I was the most in love that I could possibly be, B would say or do something (or simply look stunning like she usually does) and I’d find new levels of love to explore. I soon knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with B. I proposed to her one hot July evening after going for a walk around the block with her and we were married the following June.

[thumb id=1134]Since then we’ve been through highs (the births of NHL & JSL), lows (NHL & JSL’s seizures and hospital trips), gone on wonderful vacations (Vegas, Disney World) and had some very stressful situations (first home purchase). Through it all, there has been no one that I’d rather have by my side than B. She is the most wonderful, amazing, and sexy (yes you are, B!) woman that a guy could ask for. She’s also an incredible mother I love her with all of my heart and still, to this day, am constantly finding new levels of love with her.

More Roar or How Walking With Dinosaurs Affected JSL

Animals, Dinosaurs, JSL, NHL, Shows

On Saturday, we had the pleasure of seeing Walking With Dinosaurs: The Live Experience.  For those of you who don’t know what this is, you travel back in time and see some real, live dinosaurs.  Ok, they’re people in costumes and animatronics controlled by people, but the production values are so good, you’d swear the dinosaurs are real.  The scale is fully kept too, so when the Brachiosaur stomps onto the stage, it is nearly 33 feet (10 meters) tall.  And when the mother T-Rex comes charging in, she is over 26 feet (8 meters) of flesh tearing, loud roaring dinosaur.  (Reminder: Do *NOT* mess with this momma’s kid.  The kid may seem small and weak but the mother can eat 144 pounds in a single bite.  The average adult wouldn’t be more than a mozzarella stick is to us.)  The whole production mixes science and entertainment perfectly.

NHL, of course, loved it.  His favorite dinosaur kept shifting depending on which dino was on stage last.  We took JSL along, hoping he wouldn’t be scared by the loud noises.  Towards the end, he was a little jittery, but not completely freaked out.  A little reassurance that daddy was there and he was fine.  We figured the long-term affects of the show would be more evident with NHL than with JSL.  (We signed him up for an archeology summer program at the local community college.)  However, tonight JSL showed that he too liked the dinosaur show.  At least, he liked the roaring and charging parts of it.  Don’t just take my word for it, though, see for yourself.

[flv]2009/06/P1180805.flv|424|240[/flv]

My little JSL-a-saurus!

This week in Tweets

This Week in Tweets
  • Got one for @donttrythis and the Mythbusters. While out on the lake in @TheAngelForever’s aunt’s pontoon boat, the boat tipped forward… #
  • So the myth for @donttrythis and #Mythbusters: Can a pontoon boat flip over by too many people being on one side (front/back/left/right)? #
  • If a person is rude to my co-workers and rude to me on the phone, it doesn’t make me want to call them back quickly. #
  • Computer locked up again. Cleaned out fan to reduce CPU temp & rebooted. Dropped Seesmic’s querying of Twitter API to reduce network calls. #
  • Next up to help PC run faster: Deleting FireFox extensions that I don’t use/need. #
  • Unfortunately, my preferred method of speeding up this laptop, removing McAfee (& replacing it with another anti-virus prog), isn’t allowed. #
  • FireFox needs to be reigned in. Ten open tabs shouldn’t equal 500MB of memory! #
  • Disabled a bunch of extensions that I never/rarely use. Wonder how I can delete them entirely. #
  • Ah. Quite easy. Just click on the FireFox extension and select Uninstall. All unused extensions deleted except for two. #
  • Those two (a Java Quickstart and the Microsoft one)wouldn’t let me delete them so I’ll leave them disabled. #
  • FireFox already seems snappier. Let’s see if the memory footprint stays lower. 5 tabs and 112MB now. #
  • After hibernating, waking up & opening more tabs (total of 9 now), FireFox taking up only 167MB. Much better than 10 tabs at 500MB before. #
  • Off to work out with #EASActive. #
  • Think I found a bug in #EASActive. During pitching hard, w/ 2 stacks of bottles, I toss the ball at 1 stack & a whole stack vanishes! #
  • Ok, something is seriously wrong with #EASActive. 1st phantom bottles, then the batting cage tossed me phantom balls & put me in a shadow… #
  • Now #EASActive tossed me a phantom ball to catch. My guy reached for it & got stuck! What should I do? #
  • Had to restart the #EASActive workout to recover from the bug. Weird. Anyone else encounter EA SPORTS Active bugs? #
  • 1 feature I wish #EASActive had: a way to track how close you are to getting each trophy. e.g. for boxing, show how many targets you’ve hit. #
  • Arm killing me after doing all of the #EASActive baseball workouts on hard! I did it all for the trophy. #
  • RT @mike_elgan: Amazing pictures from the unrest in Iran: http://bit.ly/xwcZY <= Num 38 is amazing. So many people protesting at once! #
  • Now comes the real test of my FireFox changes. I’ve just opened up 27 more tabs for a total 33. FireFox’s memory usage has gone up to 203MB. #
  • That’s much better than yesterday’s 500MB+ for only 10 tabs. Looks like the changes worked. #
  • While waiting for my car to be fixed this morn, their TV had FOX News on. Don’t normally watch it. Boy is it slanted coverage! #
  • Teaser for a Gitmo detainees story: “Did Obama make a mistake sending Gitmo detainees to the beaches of Bermuda?” #
  • Those guys were released from custody (picked up wrongly it seems). FOX made it sound like we’re sending terrorists to Bermuda now. #
  • Also: “Obama’s sending Gitmo detainees someplace you might go on vacation!” (Italy) FOX made it seem like we’re putting terrorists in villas #
  • Some days I swim against the stream of incoming work & some days the Universe ties me up & drags me kicking & screaming further downstream. #
  • Today is a kicking and screaming kind of day. #
  • Is it lunchtime yet? Oh wait. It is! YAY! #
  • Put some of these FireFox memory reducing tips into effect. Hopefully, they work: http://bit.ly/vdt5A #
  • Last night I gave my boys a treat. They didn’t like it, but I loved it. Frozen bananas w/ dark chocolate peanut butter! #
  • Take banana, split in half, put dark choc PB inside & put back together. Cut into bite size portions, wrap each in wax paper & freeze. YUM! #
  • It’s like a peanut butter, chocolate, banana ice cream, only less calories! Used this Dark Choc PB: http://bit.ly/jbBL6 #
  • Only need to collect 10 more trophies in #EASActive & I’ll have them all. How close is everyone else to getting all of the trophies? #
  • 9 #EASActive trophies left to collect: Fitness Superstar, 30 Day Champion, Checking In, Volleyball Champ, Fists of Fitness… #
  • … Goal Achiever, Fuel for the Fire, 50 Strong & Ten out of Ten. #EASActive #
  • Did a very long run on Hard. 5 times around the track? Insanity! #EASActive #
  • People give their kids Lupron to “treat” Autism? Really? It’s a nasty drug meant for advanced prostrate cancer. Kids shouldn’t be taking it! #
  • So tired. Why can’t adults have nap time too? #
  • RT @mike_elgan: Iran gov. uses photoshop to boost pro-gov crowds http://bit.ly/E09Vv (like they did before w/ missiles http://bit.ly/pIymw). #
  • Called tailor about suit alterations. Seamstress there M-F to 2:30pm. How can I get my suits altered (so I can go to work) when I work 8-5?! #
  • #helpiranelection – show support for democracy in Iran add green overlay to your Twitter avatar with 1-click – http://helpiranelection.com/ #
  • Got 3 more trophies last night on #EASActive. 1 for completing 3 goals, 1 for boxing, & 1 for volleyball. Only have 6 trophies left. #
  • RT @RustyJay: I would have never guessed! Firefox 3 will become the most popular web browser in a few days. http://is.gd/15pm3 #
  • Sometimes I’m amazed by people’s follower choices. I mention #EASActive volleyball & a volleyball fan follows me. Not complaining, mind you. #
  • For the record, though I rarely play it nowadays, I like playing actual volleyball. Was one of the only sports I had actual skills in. #
  • Don’t know why or how, but I was always able to serve that ball exactly where I wanted it to go. #
  • Really? A Montana city wants job applicants to give “all current personal or business websites” w/ usernames & passwords? http://is.gd/15ytP #
  • Exhausted, feel like I’m going to pass out, but going to do my #EASActive workout. Need to get rid of some stress anyway. #
  • Ok, #EASActive workout done. Now I just need to empty the dishwasher, clean up the dishes in the sink & get to bed sometime before midnight. #
  • Dishwasher cleaned & refilled. Even cleaned off the stovetop. Now it’s time to *thud* *zzzzzzzzzz* #
  • What’s up with @twitterparents retweeting so many anti-circumcision posts? #twitterparents #
  • Anyone know of any good dad forums/message boards? #
  • Trying to think of good places to go out for Father’s Day lunch. We’re going to do pizza & wings w/ B’s parents for dinner. #
  • I wanted something a little more special for dad’s day so we’re going out to lunch. Need to figure out a good place that’s kid friendly. #
  • Parenting.com has tabs for fertility, pregnancy, baby, toddler, child, mom, recipes, activities, gear & community. Where’s the Dad tab? WTH? #
  • Pixar grants dying 10 yr old girl’s wish to see “Up.” She was too sick to go to a theater & died 7hrs later. http://is.gd/16oOt #
  • Thinking of unfollowing #TwitterParents if this anti-circumcision BS continues. #
  • I think the week has drained me. Feeling no motivation right now. Got to try to force myself to finish up some stuff. #
  • 30 circ deaths listed by anti-circ folks. Of those 3 were before 1980 (1910? Really?). 2 died of non-circ injuries (suicide/beaten)… #
  • …Make that 3 from non-circ, 10 from possible illegal initiation schools and 1 by herpes contracted by the mohel. That leaves 13. #
  • Ok, did a proper recount: 3 before 1980, 11 from South Africa (possible “initiation school”), 3 non-circ deaths…. #
  • …1 from herpes tangentially related to circ (contracted from mohel). That leaves 12 deaths over a 26 year span. Not exactly an epidemic. #
  • Trying to focus on work since I’m really angry about a few things right now. #
  • To anti-circ tweeters: It’s obvious neither of us will sway the other & it’s fri afternoon. I’m not replying to any more anti-circ tweets. #
  • Walking with Dinosaurs Live was amazing. Dinosaurs were so lifelike! Any more lifelike and audience members would have been gobbled up! #

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The Isolation of being a Techy Dad

Life

I’ll admit it. I’m a bit of a nerd. (Ok, a huge nerd.) I grew up with not much in the way of social contact between myself and other people. In fact, my social contacts were just as likely to be a source of stress (kids making fun of me, awkwardness around girls, etc) as a source of serenity.  Recently, though, I’ve noticed that I’ve been feeling isolated and craving human interaction. 

When B and I got engaged, we lived pretty far apart.  We talked it over and decided that I should move to be closer to her.  So I left my life in my home town, with my then-job/then-co-workers, my friends, my parents, etc and moved to be closer to her.  I don’t regret that decision. B’s family is great and I like it here, but there are times when I miss having my own friends and family nearby. 

It doesn’t help that my work involves me sitting behind a computer for 8 hours a day, in an office with little to no human contact.  My office has no windows, so I just look at four walls all day (when I’m not looking at my computer screen).  In addition, my office is in the back of the server room, so I need to close my door lest the air conditioning freeze me out.  There are many days whenI don’t say more than "hi" to people face-to-face.  (Instant messaging or phone conversations don’t really count.)   When I come home, I need to instantly transition from Work-TechyDad to Dad-And-Father-TechyDad.  There honestly doesn’t seem like I have any time to just be TechyDad.

Recently, Discovering Dad wrote an article called Making Friends Like a Man.  In it, he laments not being able to make more guy friends.  I can completely sympathize.  Where we live, my wife is near to at least two of her friends.  She can decide that she wants to go out with one of them to see a movie, have dinner, or just vent about something.  I can go out with… well, nobody really.  I’ve lived here for seven and a half years now and I still don’t have a single friend that I can just go catch a flick with or talk with.  My life revolves around going to work and being a dad/husband.  As much as I like my job and as much as I like being a dad/husband, there are times when I wish I could take a short break from it all and just be myself with a friend or two.

B recently told me that she’ll be heading out one night with a friend of hers to catch an upcoming movie that they wanted to see.  I lamented that I couldn’t do the same to see, say Star Trek.  B told me that I could go with her father or her friend (who likes Star Trek also), but I said no.  I don’t want to go out with her family or her friends.  I want friends of my own.  However, I’m completely clueless how to remedy the situation.

Do you have many friends outside of work/family?  If so, where do you go to socialize/make friends?  If not, do you ever feel isolated?

This week in Tweets

This Week in Tweets
  • Last night did the medium level workout in EA Sports Active 30 Day Challenge. Squats were killer, but the rest wasn’t too bad. #easactive #
  • Not a good sign. Trying to free up laptop disk space by copying files to upstairs computer which errors out. Hope drive isn’t dying. #
  • Not good. The hard drive’s saying Delayed Write Failed. Think I’ll go upstairs, unplug the drive, plug it back in & pray that fixes it. #
  • Oddly enough the root file/folder listing shows up. The drive has some videos & MP3s which could be recreated/replaced. #
  • Biggest issue is that there are old NHL videos on there. I still have the original tapes, but I’d rather not have to locate/re-rip them. #
  • Bad news on that hard drive. Tried to do a chkdsk & it said “cannot access volume”. Need to see if its the cable or drive that’s died. #
  • #crapsuperpowers The ability to fly at speeds of 5mph coupled with an intense fear of heights that keeps you below 6 feet off the ground. #
  • Looks like it’s going to be a “productive” day. My laptop’s already freezing up instead of letting me do any work. *sigh* #
  • Just realized we’re going to be out of town for one of our EA Sports ACTIVE workouts. Not sure what we should do. #easactive #
  • They have a Wii where we’re going, but it wouldn’t have our profiles. Could bring our Wii also but that seems like overkill. #easactive #
  • With the hard drive failure, the major thing we’d lose would be our MP3s. Have some on my laptop. Could re-rip CDs to get the rest back. #
  • The irony is that I told my sister just a few wks ago that HDs don’t “wear out & need replacement” every 5yrs like a computer tech told her. #
  • Still don’t think they do. They fail unexpectedly, not at 5yrs, but it’s ironic how I was touting HD long life & now this drive goes funky. #
  • Must be the end of a long day. My computer doesn’t want to respond quickly. #
  • Trying to restore my malfunctioning hard drive. Would rather be working out on EA Sports ACTIVE. #easactive #
  • Trying Zero Assumption Recovery. Hoping that will fix my funky hard drive & recover the data. #
  • Rats. Clicked the wrong thing and now Zero Assumption Recovery is locked up. Might need to kill the task and try again. #
  • Ok, this hard drive repair is driving me batty. Think I need to de-stress by doing my EA Sports ACTIVE30 Day Challenge workout. #easactive #
  • Time to get ready for bed. Make that way past time to go to bed. I’ve *GOT* to start going to bed earlier. #
  • Am I awake yet? Got to bed late last night trying to fix malfunctioning hard drive. Then couldn’t fall asleep. Working on only 4hrs sleep. #
  • *thud* *zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz* #
  • Trying to find the motivation to do work is tough when you’re operating on very little sleep. #
  • Think I’ll go ask our computer techs here about my malfunctioning hard drive & if there’s any chance of data recovery. #
  • Also should check my external hard drive that has the backed up NHL videos. Make sure those videos are good copies. #
  • If they are, then the only thing I’d lose is our MP3 collection. That could be “recovered” by re-ripping CDs. #
  • Found a lot of MP3s backed up on our external hard drive. Consolidating them into one location. Should reduce sting if HD is indeed dead. #
  • Testing movies of NHL. They work. It’s odd watching baby NHL on-screen knowing that he’s my 5 year old big boy now. #
  • Might need to replace dying hard drive. Complication: I need a new scanner for photo scanning project. Not sure we can afford both now. #
  • Scanner costs ~$130. New hard drive costs ~$55. I could spend more & get a network HD so our desktop computer doesn’t need to be on 24/7. #
  • That would be more money short-term, but could save us on the power bill. #
  • Thinking of buying a new wireless router w/ USB ports ($45). Can then plug in a USB HD & our printer & share them w/o having a computer on. #
  • Cost: Router $45, USB HD Enclosure $16, HD $58. Total: $119. Add in the scanner I want ($130) & we’d be buying ~$250 in computer gear. #
  • Could save $8 by going with a Hitachi drive instead of a Western Digital drive. #
  • Apparently, the enclosure I was looking at costs $7 to ship. That might make a pre-built USB hard drive cheaper. Wonder what BJ’s has. #
  • NHL celebrating his B-Day in school tomorrow. Teacher says if he has more than 1 warning he doesn’t get to have 1 of his own cupcakes. WTF?! #
  • My mistake. It’s if he has 3 warnings. Not 2 or more. #
  • HuffingtonPost doesn’t clearly separate James Von Brunn’s quoted views from their own article. Least not on my screen. http://bit.ly/4zqVs #
  • Reports coming in that security guard shot at Holocaust Museum has died. I hope that von Brunn survives only so he can pay for his crimes. #
  • Plus, a quick death seems too good for him. Need to find a good Yiddish curse to apply to von Brunn #
  • Regarding James von Brunn, Vifil yor er iz gegangn oyf di fis zol er geyn af di hent un di iberike zol er zikh sharn oyf di hintn. #
  • “As many years as he’s walked on his feet, let him walk on his hands, and for the rest of the time he should crawl along on his ass.” #
  • Or how about “Gut zol oyf im onshikn fin di tsen makes di beste.” (God should visit upon him the best of the Ten Plagues.) #
  • I’m not usually the type to wish suffering on others, but for people like James von Brunn, I make exceptions. #
  • This page is my source of Yiddish curses. http://bit.ly/nM2qp May each one happen to James von Brunn. #
  • My favorite Yiddish curse: “Migulgl zol er vern in a henglayhter, by tog zol er hengen, un bay nakht zol er brenen.” #
  • Translation: “He should be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by night.” #
  • Just made some hard boiled eggs for tomorrow’s breakfast. Going to do my 30 day challenge soon then it’s off to sleep. #easactive #
  • Just learned that Novell doesn’t support iChain anymore. Used it as a passthrough/eDirectory auth. Anyone know any good iChain replacements? #
  • Tech just hooked up malfunctioning HD. Folders/Files visible. Tried to copy some. Drive went *click* *click* *click*. Not good at all. #
  • That would be the sound of physical damage to the hard drive. This drive is kaput. #
  • Firefox keeps crashing on me. Think it’s an extension. Going to try to disable it before it crashes again. Hoping to save all my open tabs. #
  • This woman needs a reality dose: http://bit.ly/w5X8j “Did these scientists talk to the moon? … Ask her permission?” The moon’s not alive! #
  • Grabbed wooden pallets to use at home (keep stuff in basement dry). For now they’re crowding my office. Think I’ll build a TechyDad-fort! #
  • My wife (@TheAngelForever) is an EA Sports ACTIVE dancing machine! #EASActive #
  • Attempts to go to sleep early last night & get a good night’s sleep were thwarted. #
  • 1st, couldn’t fall asleep. Then, NHL woke up in the middle of the night needing to go potty. After that we got a 5yr old visitor in our bed. #
  • Driving in, a mystery light on my dashboard lit up. I looked it up in my owner’s manual. Was a tire pressure sensor saying my tires were low #
  • Really bad headache today. Not sure if it’s allergies, lack of sleep, or what. Going to find some advil to take. #
  • Wondering if you do a 30 Day Challenge workout on a rest day, do you get ahead 1 day? Would be useful for when we’re out of town. #EASActive #
  • Wondering if anyone would miss me if I shut my door and took a 2 hour nap. *thud* *zzzzzzzzzzzz* #
  • Any web developers out there? How do you have a menu so long it flows off the page? Any #JQuery plugins for this? (Using jd_menu right now.) #

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