Resolutions - an update

I think it was last year (or the year before?), that I noted some New Year's resolutions. Not being big on resolutions in general, I tried to keep it simple.

I think I did fairly well, if I recall. But I wanted to let you know that I'm still truckin'.

I'm still trying to read more, but I think I've broken my own personal record already this year. It's the end of March and I already have several titles under my belt.

Note: we have a LOT of books. So rather than going out and buying more stuff that looks interesting, I'm shopping our own bookshelves.

Here's what I've finished so far this year:

1) The last half of The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis
I started this (again) last year, and for some reason, came to a stop mid-way through Prince Caspian. So I picked it up in January and polished off not only Prince Caspian, but Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair and The Last Battle.

If you have not read this, then you seriously need to ask yourself what you are doing with your life. And please, don't consider the movies as substitutes. There is SO much richness to the way that Lewis writes about his characters, their adventures, and timeless truths. Oy!

2) Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
This was a personal challenge for me, being someone who just about faints when driving by a hospital, much less when reading stories from inside the operating room. But I was immediately taken in by a "behind the scenes" look at the medical world.

I'm looking forward to reading some of Gawande's other works, also about practicing medicine: The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, and Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance. But since we don't own them, I'll be saving those for later.

3) The Last Templar, by Raymond Khoury
Very "DaVinci Code" like in it's plot, but a page-turner nonetheless. Though I will say that I identified the "bad guy" the moment he was introduced. It was still a quick read and better than wasting time in front of the TV, which I have a strong tendency to do.

4) Deception Point, by Dan Brown
And speaking of DaVinci Code....

Yes, this is by the same guy. Totally different plot context, as in, it has nothing to do with Italy or the Holy Grail. But it's still an action/adventure story, with more twists and turns than are necessary. A quick read, and fairly entertaining. Though it's just a bit far-fetched...though I'm not sure he knows how to do anything other than far-fetched....

5) The Preservationist, by David Maine
Very interesting indeed. Amar hadn't read this one yet, so I gave it a try. It's a completely different look at a story most of us grew up singing songs about: Noah's ark.

But Maine writes it as a compilation of several first-person accounts, with a lot of artistic liberty to elaborate on what daily life must have been like at that time, what it took to pull this massive project off, and how this family unit survived and interacted with each other.

Also, not a book for kiddos. It's not that kind of Noah's ark story. But, if you're looking to challenge the way that you read some of the "classic" stories in the Bible, this will definitely do it. If you do happen to pick it up, let me know what you think about it. I'd be curious to know.



So that, my friends, is my progress to date. I'm off to shop another bookshelf...if you have any suggestions, let me know!

28 weeks and counting

Here's a new picture: 28 weeks today...so I'm officially in the 3rd trimester. Yippee!

I know, I know...

Several of you have been asking for some updated pictures, so here you go:


This is me last Sunday, at 26 weeks (almost 6 months).

I'm going to try to post a picture every 2 weeks, since at this pace, my circumference is rapidly increasing ;)

The official due date is June 20, so starting next week, I'll be in the third trimester. It's gone by so fast, and has generally been pretty easy so far. Here's hoping that trend continues!

Innovation

I'm not one to take politics too seriously, so when candidates (or someone on their behalf) come up with something slightly interesting or amusing, I'm generally a fan.

For your consideration: Farouk Shami Rap

Mr. Shami is a very successful businessman, running in the Democratic primary for governor of Tx against current Houston Mayor Bill White. Too bad this rap didn't come out last week...could have gotten more folks to the polls.

Here's a teaser of the chorus:
Farouk, Farouk, Farouk is on fire
Servin' the community, his number 1 desire!

It's the little things...

I did something today that wound up making a huge difference with respect to my ability to enjoy our house.

Since we moved in (about 2 1/2 years ago), there has been 1 window in our bedroom that just didn't quite shut correctly. I never spent a lot of time looking into it and just figured that it was one of the quirks of having an older house.

But this morning, as I was working from home, it started bugging me. Mainly because I could hear the kids at the nursery a few houses down and I couldn't concentrate...but also because I just knew that I hadn't figured out the mystery window yet. And solving that mystery could result in lowering the noise level...

So I went over to the window and started poking around. The bottom pane was all the way down, but wouldn't line up with the top pane which meant that it wouldn't close and lock. Why wouldn't this shut!? I opened the bottom pane to see if there was anything obstructing it....nope.

I kept looking around the casing of the window and then voila - perhaps the easiest home fix that I've ever done: I realized that the top pane of the window was open about an inch. What!?!?!

To be completely honest, I didn't even know that the top panes of the windows opened in that room. So I pushed up on the top pane and was able to finally close the window.

That freakin' window has been open an inch for the past 2 1/2 years. Letting in noise and air and who knows what.

But the moment I closed that window - immediate relief. No more noise. No more drafts. Amazing.

Yes, I am bragging about my own stupidity. It's great.

Insight into Iraq

There are a lot of stories from the war in Iraq that get glossed over, since mainstream media tends to focus on what goes wrong vs. what goes right.

I saw this article on Slate today, a 5 part series on "Searching for Saddam". After reading the first installment today, I'll be tuning in to see what comes next.

Some interesting "behind the scenes" type info on how out military gathered intelligence, sorted through tribal social networks, and eventually came to find one of the most-wanted men in the world at the time.

Searching for Saddam: A five-part series on how the U.S. military used social networking to capture the Iraqi dictator

Enjoy!

Go Scotties!

We have 2 Scottish Terriers, so you can imagine how they were each beaming with pride as I told them today that their long lost relative Sadie just won Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club. They were overjoyed...and slightly envious of Sadie's dashing haircut.

The details, provdied by Good Morning America: Sadie Scores! Scottish Terrier Takes Best in Show at Westminster

Out of hibernation

I know it's been forever since I've posted anything, but I saw this on the news today and thought it was worth getting the word out:

Courtesy of USA Today:

Snowboarders have a reputation of being a bit flaky, so when U.S. snowboard cross racer Graham Watanabe told reporters Wednesday that his second Olympic appearance was like "Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth I somehow tame it and ride it to the sky and clouds and sunshine and rainbows," the quote seemed almost too good to be spontaneous.

Not so, Watanabe said later, "It came from my heart." -- Sal Ruibal

That is one excited snowboarder.

Conan

This article is just one more reason that I love Conan O'Brien....except that I'm not a huge fan of the Tonight Show...but other than that, awesomeness.

Glory Days

I have never been a fitness buff (right, I'm sure ALL of you are surprised by that).

Back in the days of high school sports, two-a-days, sports camps and the like, I could hold my own, to a certain extent....though there was that time that I almost died in the weight room from trying to lift just the bar (I blame that more on my spotter than on my chicken-wing arms, but I've moved on).

And sure, when I was living with a personal trainer, I took advantage of that as much as possible (by joining her gym and willingly giving her lots of my money). She got me in great shape (just in time for my wedding), and while I tried to maintain that routine....let's just say I fell short.

Most recently, we canceled our gym membership. It dawned on me that I hadn't been in about 60+ days, and that I wasn't likely to get any value out of continuing to pay them. It just wasn't fitting into my schedule, nor did I make any effort for it to. So we bit the bullet and dropped out.

I now find myself winded after climbing 3 flights of stairs to get to my desk every morning (cardio has never been my strong suit). But I know that it hasn't always been that way, and I am getting sick of my chicken wing arms (though I will admit, the other night at Bible study, the 9th grade girls were comparing muscles, and they were impressed with mine...ha!).

So, the plan of action:
Amar has tried the 100 push-ups program before and liked it. I just realized that they also have plans for squats and sit-ups. Yippee!!

100 Push ups
I will admit that this is THE MOST DAUNTING thing that I've ever tried to do. I hate push-ups. Can't stand 'em. Am repulsed by the idea of them. But what's more off-putting to me is the idea of being hit in the face with my own flabby triceps when waving to a friend. So onward we go.

200 Squats
Now this is more in my comfort zone. We did tons of these in volleyball. So this will be a bit of a reprieve from the torture of the push-ups that I have to endure.

200 Sit-ups
Ah, the sit-up. Abs of steel, right? I don't necessarily have a lot of belly flab that I'm trying to cut through, but it could be better. So, if this is what has to be done, then I must do it.

Want to join me? These are all 6 week programs. I'm going to try to do them simultaneously, but we'll see how far we get.

Television

As Amar and I were catching up on work email this afternoon, we were watching the 25 anniversary of the Cosby Show on WGN. After about an hour of the Cosby Show, they started running another old sitcom.

Kim: Aww, Family Ties!

Amar: What is this? The white Cosby Show?




Yes, yes of course it is.

Wow

Please tell me that these people have something better to do.

Politico is reporting that the House of Representatives is now outlining how exactly members can and cannot insult the President:

House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has released a helpful, updated primer for members regarding their conduct on the floor and in committees.

Especially useful: The section on how to properly insult the executive branch in the in the chamber.

"Disgrace" and "nitwits" -- okay.

"Liar" or "sexual misconduct" -- ixnay.

Under section 370 of the House Rules and Manual it has been held that a Member could:

• refer to the government as “something hated, something oppressive.”
• refer to the President as “using legislative or judicial pork.”
• refer to a Presidential message as a “disgrace to the country.”
• refer to unnamed officials as “our half-baked nitwits handling foreign affairs.”

Likewise, it has been held that a member could not:

• call the President a “liar.”
• call the President a “hypocrite.”
• describe the President’s veto of a bill as “cowardly.”
• charge that the President has been “intellectually dishonest.”
• refer to the President as “giving aid and comfort to the enemy.”
• refer to alleged “sexual misconduct on the President’s part.”

Geez.

New Favorite Website

I've added a few sites to my Google Reader lately, but by far my favorite has been My Life Is Average.

(If you're familiar with the (sometimes NSFW) site FML, it's much the same, but a TON cleaner and funnier in most instances).

Readers post in with interesting observations, funny happenings, and general commentaries on how humor and irony play out in their day to day lives.

Here are some of my recent favorites, many of which brought smiles to my face over the last few dreary, Seattle-ish days (titles are of my own making:

Harry Potter in Real Life
Last night, I was at a high school football game. My friend paid the announcer in the booth fifteen bucks to say, "Ten points for Gryffindor!" every time our team scored. He did. It was the best night ever.

Shout out to Justin Timberlake
Today at work, I found a sign up sheet for a company barbecue. We were supposed to write what we were bringing. I wrote "sexy back". Everyone is looking forward to my dish. MLIA

An Epic Battle
Today I wore a shirt that has the "Hello my name is:" sticker filled in with "Ninja." I saw a guy with the same shirt, but instead it said "Jedi." Although I intended to have a staredown, he nodded at me; causing me to nod back. I think he just used the force on me. Well played, Jedi. This battle is not over. MLIA

Necessity: The Mother of Invention
Today, while driving to school, I saw a man driving a motorized scooter down the sidewalk. I didn't think much of it, until I noticed he was pulling behind him a man on a rolling office chair. Best. Idea. Ever. MLIA.

Again with the Harry Potter Awesomeness...
Today at school there were army recruiters. I jokingly said to my friend "the only army I'll be joining is Dumbledores". One of the recruiters overheard me and walked over. I thought he was going to give me a huge speech about how important the army is and we need to respect it. Instead, he high fived me. I think Im in love. MLIA


And now for a random picture of a donkey:




P.S. It is officially pouring.

September Flood

It's no secret that we've been very much lacking in the rain department lately. It is so dry, in fact, that not only does Lake Travis have islands...but those islands now have weeds growing on them.

Yes, they are now inhabited by wildlife.

Anyhow, the exceptional drought means that we wildly welcome any precipitation, no matter how much or how little.

But what is it they always say? When it rains, it pours.

About a week ago, it most definitely poured.

We live in an area that is near two creeks, one of which is known for flooding*. While we were in no danger of having water rush through our house, it was still pretty impressive. About 20 minutes after it stopped raining, I went out to take pictures (I'm a bit of a weather nerd...).

This was the scene in our neighborhood:


This is at the end of our street - waters were moving pretty quickly:



A few blocks North, Shoal Creek was definitely a river:


A few South away, the water was even closer to street level:



Sunrise the next day...beautiful!





*No - we are most definitely not in the flood plain. We made sure of that before we bought the house.

8 Years

I was having lunch at my desk as it poured down (much welcome) rain outside. I noticed a few friends posting Facebook statuses about where they were 8 years ago today. I don't have a great story, but it's my story, so I thought I'd share it with you.

September 11, 2001
I was a Senior at Texas A&M University, and I had an 8 o'clock class that morning. It was an Anthropology class, and we were watching a video about a tribe in South America. While not exactly compelling, it wasn't a bad start to the morning.

After class, I rode my bike across campus to the Business school where I had my next class. As I would typically do in between classes, I ducked into the library to check my email in the computer lab.

It was typically busy at that time of the day, so I didn't notice anything different that morning. I checked my email - again, nothing out of the ordinary. Then I tried to access CNN, and the page was taking forever to load. I asked the guy next to me if he was having computer problems, but his English wasn't the greatest.

I gave up, and started making my way into my next class. That's when things started falling apart a bit.

There were t.v. sets in the hallway of the building that my class was in, and as soon as I walked in, I could barely move for all the people who were just standing in the hall watching the news.

I looked up and froze: iconic buildings in New York were on fire. People were jumping out of buildings. We were clearly under attack and no one knew what to do.

We all just stood there: mouths hanging open, some people crying, others in disbelief.




I think I remember us seeing the first tower fall.




Do I go to class?
What happens next?
Do I know anyone in New York?
Will there be more attacks?





What does life look like now?








After watching for what seemed like an eternity, I decided to go to my next class. I couldn't even tell you what we discussed.

Once that class was over, probably about 20 minutes after it began, we all found ourselves once again staring at the news in the hall. Another building had fallen. I didn't even know that was possible. We were all in a state of shock.

I went to my next class, where I knew the professor was a Christian. I think we decided to pray in class.

After about 15 minutes, I went back into the hallway.

It's all a blur after that, but it was one of those days you don't forget.

Where were you?

This Old House: Episode 1

Warning: I get a bit nerdy about home repairs in this post...

Our house is about 60 years old, and while I love it, there are some things about it that occasionally need tweaking. The good thing is, I love tweaking things around the house*.

Most recently, I basically took apart the inside of the toilet. I've done some minor plumbing stuff in the past (replacing nobs, handles, flapper valves, etc.), and I thought this would be another routine replacement to fix a drip.

I initially replaced the old flapper valve, but upon testing my fix, I realized that while I had fixed the drip. I had apparently created another issue: the water wouldn't shut off all the way. This was no bueno, and I had definitely not fixed the problem.

I proceeded to do some googling, and found that I should probably also replace the whole valve. However, we've been a bit busy lately, so I didn't get around to fixing things in a super-timely manner (Amar had to bug me a bit...but the delay gave us a clear signal that we would not do to well in a 1 bathroom living establishment for too long).

Today, I (finally) stopped by the hardware store on my way home today and got the necessary parts (keeping my fingers crossed that this was the root cause...). After a few minutes of wrestling with the existing fixtures, I was able to replace the valve and tada - no more dripping toilet!

On the next episode, I'll finish painting the baseboards!

*Note: I do have a tendency to get in over my head at times, but never to the point where we need to call emergency services...at least not yet ;)

Problem Child

For those of you who have met our dogs, you know that they have very different personalities.

Zoey, for instance, is shy but dominant. She is devoted, loyal, and she smiles. She also tends to be the more obedient of the two.

Bella, on the other hand, is a bit of a ditz. She has very expressive eyes, but there's not much going on behind them, if you know what I mean. She is very stubborn, very curious, and very food motivated.

At night, after they play in the yard for a bit, we call them into the house. Nine times out of ten, Zoey is the first one in. Prompt and willing to please her owners, she comes running around the corner and into the house without much delay.

Bella, however, is a different story. Sometimes she comes right away...other times she sees a shiny object and totally forgets what she was doing.

Being the curious one, Bella also tends to hop after things that hop. If she sees an interesting bug, she follows it around. The same goes for frogs. They hop, she hops right behind them.

And we have learned the hard way that dogs have a strong reaction after they come into contact with frogs: they foam at the mouth. Apparently the frogs have a very bad taste, which causes dogs to salivate uncontrollably and then the foaming commences.

The idea behind this, I'm sure, is to discourage dogs from licking frogs.

But Bella doesn't quite see it that way. She sees a frog, and is thus compelled to lick it.

This happened again tonight.

I noticed that she was taking her sweet time getting back into the house. So after a few minutes, I went out to check on her and reprimand her, only to find that yep, she had been licking frogs again tonight.

This happens about once a week at this point.

Cute? Yes. Smart? The jury is still out...

Here's to you, Bella puppy!

An anniversary, of sorts

I stumbled upon this article, alebit a day or two late, and thought it was an appropriate anniversary to celebrate.

The article is about COBOL, a pretty ancient coding language by technology standards. It recently celebrated it's 50th anniversary.

The author states that though most people have never heard of COBOL, it accounts for about 80% of of the world's active code. To put that into context, you need a lot more lines of COBOL code to do the same thing that Java or C could do in about 2 lines.

The author also states that he has never met an active COBOL programmer in his life.

So why did I take note of this anniversary?

Because I was once a professional COBOL programmer. Yes, I was a pitifully awful COBOL programmer, but nonetheless, it was my job for the first 2 years of my professional experience.

Amar actually hates it when I mention that I was a programmer, because he doesn't really think that my "experience" counted. But I beg to differ.

I was a business major in college, and for some reason, my employer thought it best to put me into a very technical role. I floundered for quite awhile and asked pretty much anyone I could find if they could assist me. I wrote my first algorithm in COBOL. I ran my first batch job in COBOL. I performed my first 20 installs for COBOL projects.

And I hated it for the most part.

But looking back, I can see how has contributed to my current job as a Project Manager. In short, it has helped me be a better Project Manager.

Anyhow, sometimes you have to go through some messy stuff to get to the good stuff. It was just funny to realize that it's a 50 year old programming language that gave me my first foot in the door to corporate America.

Camp Braveheart Pictures

Hey folks,
Here are some pictures I took at Camp Braveheart (see my last post for details).

I'm still getting used to my new DSLR (a fantastic Nikon D90!). And as usual, I had some fun in Picasa with the originals.

I uploaded some of my favorites to the link above, rather than post all 2,400+ of the original shots.

Enjoy!


P.S. Upon posting, I'm realizing that Blogger is not a fan of publishing my pictures in any way that looks good on this entry. So, just go to the gallery link above :)

Back from "vacation"

Amar and I have been volunteering with the Youth Group at our church since about February. Most recently, we got to go to Summer Camp (aka Camp Braveheart) over the last week, and we had a blast.

The theme was Saul and David, and subsequently, we were asked to be characters that represented each of those figures (I was Saul, General McKinsie; Amar was David - General Callahan). Our roles mainly consisted of leading groups of students during game time. We each led our team like Saul or David would have led their army.

Amar was victorious occasionally, followed the rules, sought guidance from God and was generally pleasant to be around.

I, on the other hand, apparently scared the 8th grade boys.

I won most of our face-offs, not due to the talent of my team so much as due to my ability to cheat, be ultra-competitive, refuse to accept defeat, and focus on giving playing time to the known athletes. Also, I did a lot of screaming.

All in all, it was a ton of fun. But I was quickly reminded by about day 3 that I'm now an "old person" and thus, can't play 3 hours of volleyball in 100 degree heat like I used to.

I'll post some pictures soon, but wanted to blog because it's been, well, eons since I last posted.

Much love to you all. And if you have a rag-tag group of teens that you need motivated, don't hesitate to call!