Decompressing

It was a great service, wonderful to see friends there, but sad for me. I choked up a lot, cried, tears in my eyes and down my face quite often. I found myself struggling to even talk to friends about Dave. It's hard. Some great stories from friends, scouts, family, and a nice retirement of a flag to his widow. He was an amazing man, so full of life, so giving, and an inspiration to me.

I'll miss him, but I won't forget. One of his friends said it best, we can learn from his life, try things, help others, give and enjoy ourselves. But we shouldn't learn from his death and be afraid to do things. When you find the road less traveled, take it.

After the service I was wound up. Supposed to go out, but needed to decompress. After laying in bed for an hour or two, I got up to run. A good stress reliever.

The Capital

Today was a Girl Scout trip to the Capital in downtown. It's a day off from school and Kendall really wanted me to go. I wasn't thrilled, and I have work, but earlier in the week they needed another parent and I said I'd be the backup. Tey found someone else, but Kendall wanted me to go.

So up early, the same time as we normally are for school. Drive to the scout leader's house, then the light rail. Amazing that a few people hadn't ridden the light rail, but I guess I haven't ridden it in a long time and for many of us out in the country, no need to go downtown.

 

The girls were definitely silly as we waited for the train, running around in circles. The ride downtown was uneventful, though a little long for the girls. They were glad to get off downtown and walk down to the Capital.

It was a beautiful day downtown, sun shining, and the girls were smiling.

 

Our first stop on a tour was the House, where we saw the some debate and discussion of a Holocaust Awareness Week resolution. Not terribly exciting, but some letters being read from survivor's children and the girls sat quietly and listened.

Next was the Senate for a bit of the same, which was hard. 10 year old girls aren't that interested in politics. Neither am I to a large extent. I did learn that the reps spend 4 months in Denver, working full time for around $30k, so not a great job. Not horrible, but not great.

We did head up to the Attic for a short history lesson and then the girls were allowed to go up in the dome. As you can see, it's a long climb and around 12, Kendall was tired.

 

 I enjoyed it as it's a great view, walking around the outside and looking at the sights in Denver. When we were done, we went down for lunch.

The girls setup in City Center Park for lunch before they were going to the Denver mint. I've been to the mint and had work to do, so once they set up for a picnic, I said good bye to Kendall, and headed back.

 A short lunch downtown and then a long light rail ride while I read and answered some email.

A good day with my little girl, or half day at least.

Good Internet privacy

A nice basic blog on privacy and a few things you can do to protect yourself


http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nzgovtech/archive/2011/04/29/take-control-of-your-privacy.aspx


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The End of the Nuggets Season

Last night Delaney and I were watching the end of the Nuggets game, watching them lose a 9 point lead and then eventually lose the game when Oklahoma City went up in the last minute.

As much as I was hoping the Nuggets would pull this one out, I didn’t have hope that they’d advance in this series. The Thunder are the better team and Durant is amazing. Some of the shots he hit at the end, reminiscent of Jordan or Kobe in awkward situations, but almost willing the ball to go in the basket. Admirable work, even though I was rooting against him. The Thunder definitely earned the win.

And it was cool to see Delaney enjoy a few minutes of basketball. He plays a little at lunch and I want to get a hoop set up here somewhere when we pour some cement.

Snow

It started hailing today, and then it turned to snow as I went to pick up Kendall from Girl Scouts this afternoon.

A crazy weather year, but we need the moisture. I'm glad I didn't scrape the driveway this past weekend as I think I need to do it tomorrow or Thur.

Delaney does sign language

From dinner last night

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Enjoy Your Life

A sad weekend, and shocking news Sunday morning. I was out running errands when I checked email and found out a friend had been killed in a plane crash on Saturday afternoon. He was a Boy Scout and Girl Scout leader, someone who I have gotten to know quite well, our kids have played together, and we’ve camped at various events together, sharing lots of cooking duties and conversations. He was one of the people I know very well from Scouts. My heart goes out to his family, who were present at the airfield when the plane crashed. I couldn’t imagine being there to see my spouse die.

I was in a bit of a daze yesterday morning, and tired to work through the day, helping them to enjoy an Easter holiday, but it was hard. Tia and I talked about it quite a bit, and were both grateful and thankful for all we have.

A few days earlier, I had watched this short piece from a man that survived the Hudson River crash last year. It’s worth 5 minutes of your life, and it resonates with me, more so than it did last week.

Three things I learned while my plane crashed

 

My wife and I have talked bout dying a few times, and being prepared. I have lived a great life, and I’m comfortable with experiencing and achieving so much in my 43 years on Earth. I don’t want to die, and I’d like to see my kids grow up and have families, but I think I’ve had a great life so far with few regrets.

I’d like to do more things in my life, and I’d like to go places and experience new things. I invest for the future, in different parts of my life, but I seek to enjoy myself as much as I can each day. I strive for a balance.

My editorial today talked about my loss, and tried to remind people that life is short. We should look for that balance, and enjoy our lives as much as we can. As mentioned in the video, don’t try to be right as often as you try to be happy. If you want to improve a part of your life, whether that’s family, career, or something else, start taking the steps to make that improvement. It might take time, but today is the first day of the rest of your life, and it’s a good time to start going in the direction you want to go.

Family Dinner

We all went out last night to a family dinner night. It was really movie and dinner night, with the girls seeing “African Cats” and the boys seeing “Rio”. Rio was OK for adults, not great, and only mildly humorous. The 3D thing was annoying to me, but that was the time when we had to see it.

Afterwards we had a nice Easter dinner at Olive Garden, laughing and joking. Good to have the whole family together.

Big Man on the Road

I went out this morning for a doctor’s appointment and took the new Suburban. Actually I didn’t have much of a choice as the puppy had an accident in the Prius and neither Tia nor I had time to clean it.

The truck needed a new battery, not wanting to start yesterday, so I used the portable battery to jump it and then headed to Car Quest. Smartly I didn’t turn off the truck until I had verified they had a battery in stock. From there I had fun trying to get it loosened with side posts that are an inch from the electrical box (which won’t move).

I got it replaced, and things worked fine from there for my trip to the doctor and a few errands. However I noticed something while I was driving around.

I enjoyed it. Being back in a big SUV, and a Surburban, is cool. I had a 1991 or 1992 Suburban at one point that I really liked, and Tia had a Yukon XL for about a year. All that space, that nice ride, the easy to get into car (it’s low compared to Tia’s truck), all are nice. I really like driving that truck around, and it makes me miss having an SUV. As nice as the Prius is on our pocketbooks, the Suburban is just fun.

And there were quite a few other Chevy’s or GMCs on the road today as well. Now just have to remember that it’s a gas hog and not use it too often.

The "Alice" Mavericks

he he. I heard John Clayton call the Dallas Mavericks that when the Trailblazers tied the game in the fourth quarter this afternoon. Apparently it was fitting as Dallas lost.

Now here's hoping the Nuggets play tough and don't bow out in a sweep. Fingers crossed they play well tonight.

Car #26

We added another vehicle to the ranch today. We have been talking about something else that would carry 5+ of us and give us a spare 4WD truck for the winter. Tia found a 2000 Suburban for $7k. I drove it last week, enjoyed it, had a mechanic check it and negotiated it down to $6600

A good deal, I think, for a nice truck, leather, in good condition.


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Final day of the season

My last day snowboarding of the season. I have work to do, the body is a little beat up, eye infection, but this was my last chance to go so I took it.

Cold, windy, goggles hurt my nose with glasses on. Snow was crusty and icy. Tough conditions for late April but still a very enjoyable day for me.

Top of the last run of the season

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Upgrade or Downgrade

Is this an upgrade or downgrade to our house?




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Earning and Learning

Delaney really wants the new portal 2 game for his Xbox. He's been asking and begging and trying to secure a loan from either Tia or me.

However I think he should wait and earn the money. It's what we have done in the past. We decided tonight that we would help him find some chores.

After Kendall's play tonight, I saw him walk outside. He had a rake and was starting to work, shoveling up manure from the yard. Very cool to see him motivated enough to work.

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What Don’t I Know?

Apparently a lot, at least according to the blooper reel today

Better

A little better every day. The eye looks, and feels better, only a slight irritation. Still taking medicine, back to the doctor tomorrow.

Kendall and the wolf

Tia took Kendall to the wolf sanctuary Sunday. Kendall got this picture with a real, live, 1 year old wolf.

Very cool

Better

It still feels like there's something in my eye, some irritation, but the light doesn't bother it as much. We'll see what the doctor says when I got back at noon.

Knocked Down

My eye was still bothering me this morning, and I couldn't really work. Tia took me to the eye doctor, who confirmed an infection and gave me two types of drops to combat it. Putting drops in every half hour and laying in bed. Not a fun day, but doing a little better now.

Helicopter Boy

We finally gave Delaney his birthday present yesterday: a helicopter ride. There was a special deal, so Kendall and Tia got to go as well












I am a bit of a chicken so I stayed on the ground.

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Tired

After Kendall's volleyball game we came home and started on chores. First I painted the railing out back, getting one coat of the proper color on there. Next it was some trailer work, putting new screws into the rubber mats to hold them up.

After that it was fencing. We secured some wire along the runs to keep the dogs out of the pasture. We had to twist wire to hold that against the panels. Not hard work, but bending up and down. We were about to go fix wire fence, but Tia was too tired. Actually I was tired, but I'd have gone out there since it's a good day to get some chores done. We finished by replacing the overhead display in her truck on the way back to the house. That made her smile since she's been wanting that fixed for awhile.

All that work made me tired, and after laying down for 15 minutes, I went for a run to get that done. It feels like it's been a long day.

Volleyball girl

2-1 in games today. A good match for Kendall's team

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The Mentoring Experiment

Another idea, no money involved, but a little exciting.

http://thementoringexperiment.org/

A Mental Health Day

I was hoping to get one or two more ski days in this season.





The forecast for Copper was windy, but when I checked weather for Kendall this morning, it had changed to partially cloudy, 10-20 mph.



Tia also had an errand canceled so the puppy wouldn't be home alone.




So I took a mental health and came up


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Astronaut Delaney

Yesterday Delaney got to go to a given by an astronaut down in Colorado Springs with other technology interested kids at the middle school. He had to dress up, so he wore his orchestra outfit of khakis, polo, and dress shoes down there. It was a former shuttle astronaut that had been on three missions.

He said it was interesting and he liked the presentation, though I had to drag information out of him. However all night he’d mention some little tidbit of information from the talk. He also said that we could potentially see the International Space Station this morning at dawn.

At 5:45am.

He wanted to get up and see it, and actually convinced Kendall to do it as well. So they both set their alarms for 5:30 to get up and check things out. This being Thursday-pa-looza, I wasn’t very interested in getting up early, but I did wake up and hear the kids get up at 5;30 and go outside. Unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy, so they couldn’t see anything. Delaney came into our room to see if we were awake and I have a vague memory of him standing next to the bed, cold air sliding off his jacket.

He decided to stay up, opting for some XBOX time in his room. Kendall did the same, going downstairs to play her wolf game on the iMac. They both made enough noise to keep disturbing my sleep and I think I woke up a dozen times between 5:30 and 7:15 when I got up.

Grrrr.

New Shoes

Last night Kendall and I went to look at a truck, and afterwards had a little dinner. I mentioned to Kendall that I also wanted to replace my shoes. I’d been walking out to the barn yesterday and it seemed that something had torn or broken in my Merrills and one was very uncomfortable. As we were leaving dinner, I started home and Kendall reminded me about shoes. I made a quick u-turn, which had her laughing about my forgetfulness.

We headed to Off Broadway shoes after the place I had gone a few years ago was out of business. We walked in and I started looking at some loafers. Kendall informed me quite of few of my choices “weren’t me” and helped me find some different choices that she liked.

I ended up with some boots, which I’ve been wanting. I have plenty of shoes, but most of them are a little beat up. I told Kendall I am very picky about shoes, but I wear them forever. She agreed completely.

We tried on 5 or 6 different kinds, before I settled on some Ariats. Now I match my wife. They look good, and give me a pair of shoes that are a little better for work where I don’t want to wear tennis shoes or my gorilla shoes.

I think they look pretty good.

A new look

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Basketball Jones

Delaney didn't want to swim yesterday but I did convince him to come to the Rex center with us. He spent an hour working on his basketball skills as you can see here.





Eventually he joined Kendall and me in the pool for a short swim

Opening Day

Our first baseball game today. Tia wanted to ride, and we conflicted, so I took the kids to the pool first to get them out of the house and moving. We had fun for 90 minutes and then I raced home to grab my stuff, switch cars, and head to the game.

We played at Dakota Ridge today, on the foothills west of Denver and it was cold and windy, a miserable day. I was chilly, and wasn't going to bat, but they talked me into it. A few innings at third, with nothing hit my way, then switching to first where I caught a couple balls, missed a couple bad throws, made a play on a grounder and caught a foul popup. That was the good part.

The bad part was swinging at bat. The first pitcher threw hard, really hard, and I couldn't get around. The second time I was against Charlie, the big left hander and he threw me two nice curves that I couldn't swing on. I was leaning back on the swings, not leaning into them. I let a third strike go on the outside corner that I couldn't reach anyway. The cold affected me, as had the lack of practice. If I don't get any swings in this week, I'll skip swinging next week.

Ski Day

I've been meaning to go skiing and I told Kyle I'd take him at least once more before the slopes close, and today was a good day. When I told Tia, she wanted to go, and then the little ones wanted to go as well. So we were thinking it might be a whole family day, but this morning Tia said she was worried about missing work, and worried about leaving Junior alone, so I packed up the kids and headed out alone.

We had an easy drive up, kids taking turns with the iPad to pass the drive. It was smooth, and we got to Copper around 10:30. We dressed, got Kendall's feet padded up with moleskin, and then bussed over. Our first glitch occurred when I put her ski boots next to her feet and her feet were as large as the boots. No way those were going on.

So I rented her a set of skis and boots, and while she was nervous about not having "her skis", the boots fit great and we headed up. The day was a little windy, but warm, sunny, and nice. We goofed off, skiing down the mountain together for the most part, and throwing snowballs at each other as we passed on the slopes.

A quick lunch and everyone was ready to go back out for a few more hours, finally knocking off at 3:30. We were on the far right slope, about halfway up and Delaney wanted one more run, so we let him go alone and headed down to change and return skis. Delaney arrived a few minutes after we were done, happy to get one more run, and we headed home.

A little meltdown from Kendall that had me "barking" at her (her words), but we made up and had a fun day. Makes me want to try one more day with the kids before the season ends in two weeks.

Spring skiing at Copper

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Tia and Gemini

Misc pictures from tonight












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Nuggets / Thunder

The Nuggets have been playing well since the Carmelo trade. I thought they got a nice set of players, and while I never liked Felton/Lawson at NC, I do think they are great players. Add in Afflalo and Gallinari with Nene and I think it’s a better looking team.

They lost last night to the Thunder, but it was close. Yesterday I was hoping that they’d win that game and possibly move up into 4th place, but the radio guys made me rethink it yesterday. No matter if Denver is 4th or 5th, they’ll play the Thunder, and so these two teams will play once more in the regular season and then a best of 7 in the playoffs. Possibly the Nuggets could slip to 6th and play Dallas, but I think they have a better chance with the Thunder. Despite Durant, I think the young Nuggets can run with the Thunder.

We’ll see how it shakes out. I still think the Lakers are the best team in the west, but it’s close. They could stumble easily against the Spurs, the Mavs, or even the Thunder or Nuggets.

Another Missed Bus

I had to drive Delaney again today, though this time it was my PC that acted up. He had a paper to print and I told him we’d do it this morning, hit print, and walked away. I came back to find out it hadn’t work. For some reason my print job went to never land. It wasn’t in the queue and the printer looked fine.

So I did it again, checked the printer, seemed like everything was OK.  I restarted the print spooler, but by that time it was too late. Tia came down and printed it from her PC and I need to debug mine since I’m sure I’ll need to print something sooner or later in a hurry.

Another trip down to Elizabeth, not my favorite way to start the day. At least it wasn’t icy today.

Vacation with my little girl

I have to go back to Pensacola this year for SQL Saturday #77 in June. This is my third year going, and I like the town on the gulf coast. When I was talking about it, Kendall asked if she could go back. I took her two years ago, but she missed last year because I was going from Pensacola to New Orleans.

This year she asked if she could go back, so I agreed. I have the flexible schedule and since a good portion of the cost is covered, it’s a flight and one night of a hotel. Some food as well, but with me working a flexible schedule, I can work on Friday and Monday while we’re there.

Today I booked the flight for us since I found some decent prices and I have seen seats disappearing from some flights. In fact, the first two flights I tried to book were gone by the time I got through the process, so the trip ended up a little longer than I expected, but should be fun. We leave Thur at lunch and come back Monday night. We’ll have a day or two at the beach, and I’ll work around the other time.

Back to Normal

After two nights back in my own bed, I almost feel like things are getting back to normal. I was tired last night around 8, struggling to get through a shopping trip and then back home. I’m hoping that I’m back on CO time tonight, though with a long run and karate, I might be exhausted again.

Maybe then I’ll sleep through the night and not wake up at 5am.

Glad to be home

I am so happy to be home. The last week, 2 cities, issues with return flights both times, being gone, long days, has made it a hard day. I had thought about attending some events in late April or doing a class in May, but I’ve decided to shut it down. Too much travel wears on me, and the family, so I’m done traveling until the first week of June.

Slippery and Scary

Delaney was running late this morning, needed to get a few things done and asked if I would drive him. Since I’ve been gone for nearly a week I agreed, and we headed out at 7:30 in the Porsche to get him to school.

I’m glad we left early, since we normally might leave at 8:40. It snowed yesterday and last night and it was icy. I worried about there being some snow on the gravel, so I turned onto the pave road out of the neighborhood, but it was a mistake. We drifted coming out of a big turn near the entrance, and then on the main road, we slid sideways and turned around. I am glad no one was coming, and it was my fault starting a turn and tapping the brakes at the same time. It was a scary 5 sec until I got the car stopped.

We cruised to school slowly, going about 5-10 mph below the limit, and I’m glad we were against traffic because so many people  were racing down the other side of the road. After I dropped Delaney off, I decided to go get a cup of coffee, let the sun do some work on the roads, and also let traffic thin out. Glad I did as I had a quiet drive home.

Better Choices

I am trying to do better bad I run every day, and feel good, I realize that I could be better about my health. My weight is fairly stable, I feel strong and I think I am healthy.

But my diet sucks. Or at least it's not great. Too much cheese, probably too much fat, and I dread going to the doctor for a checkup (which I need to schedule)

I have tended to let myself go while traveling, saying that I'm busy, tired, and I can make it up a home. But I'm not necessarily better there.

So...

During this week's trip I decided to try to be better. I had a salad last night instead of a burger I avoided too many of the appetizer snacks, though I did have some tortilla chips. I had less diet coke, skipping them during the events and drinking water. Despite being upset that I didn't get on an earlier flight I walked past Taco Bell and grabbed a smoothies instead.

Better? I am not sure since there's will calories and sugar but I think there is less fat. It feels healthier, even if it isn't great.

It has sucked a little and i've missed having diet coke but it hasn't been horrible. I did miss enjoying some meals but I enjoyed others.

I don't know if these small changes will make much of a difference but I think they will make a little difference

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Travel woes

I am trying to get better at this travel thing, I really am.

I should have known there would be a problem when I missed the turn of the George Bush expressway for DFW. I took the next exit and my phone was showing a short side street back to my route. When I stumbled on a gas station at the corner I thought things were looking up.

On the first try I had the rental on the wrong side of the pumps so I moved it. Then I it out of my GMC Terrain, looking for a fuel release. None there so I walked around the car to the fuel door. I pushed and pulled but it didn't open. OK, I didn't see the release, so back around to find it.

Can't find it.

I check both sides of the car, the trunk, even inside the back door on that side. Finally I Google the car and find it's a press one side hard and release. I try that, feeling like an idiot, get it open and fuel. As I get back to my route there's nothing by the DFW entrance, so again I think that I got lucky finding the gas station.

Turn in the rental ad ride to the terminal. I've prepped well, no checked bags, everything ready to carry on, checked in the night before with my mobile boarding pass. Walk right to security, try to scan my pass

Annoying beep

Look at the phone and it's trying to connect to TMobile on wifi. Turn that off, try to rescan, same result. Turn it a few times to be sure the bar code is right and same result. The security guy is nice but kicks me out of line.

The kiosk tells me to find an agent, so I do. I give her my ID and flight and she goes, oh yeah, that's a new flight starting today.

From Love field.

30-45 minutes away and I am at DFW. As Mentally curse the web programmers that gave me to selection to return from Love (DAL) after I has selected an inbound flight to DFW, I get the "I can put you on the 3:30pm to Denver and you can standby on the 11:30" speech. I can't make love field with about 50 minutes until my flight leaves so I take it.

At least there's a Starbucks here and I can sit in the Samsung traveler lounge and plug in my computer and phone.



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Testing

After getting the Wordpress blogging app for the iPad, I decided to try one for the iPhone. Grabbed BloggPress for the iPhone. Giving it a test


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