Tomorrow Shall Be Our Sledding Day...

Actually, we decided to go today instead, and it was a blast! Jess H. showed up for a pancake breakfast (Cami made yummy chocolate chip ones...), after which we took the kids out to the little hill beside our building -- perfect for the little ones. John and Grace were out too. We had a few saucer sleds out -- which makes avoiding trees an interesting proposition as you're going down the hill backwards, but otherwise works rather well. I'll try to post some pictures this weekend. We have another snowstorm coming in this weekend... :)

White Out

The first significant snowfall of this winter season has arrived in New England! Some will look at that first statement and say, hmm... he almost seems excited about it... And you wouldn't be wrong. I love snowy days. When the snow becomes slush and freezing rain is when I say no thanks. But snow? I love it. It's beautiful, it's fun to play in, it's peaceful. Yeah, you have to shovel it out but again, it's that slushy wet stuff that's the nasty stuff to shovel. The light powdery stuff we had today is wonderful. It's good for sledding, though not so much for snowballs and snowmen. And if you're looking for the picturesque, photogenic New England winter, this is the stuff you want. That said, it did take me about an hour and a half to drive home from work today -- a drive that normally takes me about 35 minutes. But at least folks were driving mostly sane, which is saying something around here. Hopefully we'll be able to get the kids out to play in it before it all melts...

Habits

Well, old habits die hard... Or rather, new habits aren't always easy to start. We haven't posted an update for quite a while now. The last couple weeks of August and into early September are admittedly a crazy time for us as a family. Cami picks up her college schedule again with the beginning of RD training in early August, followed by Darienne starting school again near the end of August, followed by Micah starting preschool again after Labor Day. My life meanwhile remains mostly routine -- except where I interact with the rest of my family... However I was out in Oakland, CA on business for a week in the middle of September, and have been dealing with changes in the contract I'm working on, so I guess my life's been somewhat hectic as well. In any case, we're still alive, and actually doing pretty well. I'm going to try and pull some more pictures of our cute kids (yes, I'm biased!) and hopefully be able to fill in some more about what's been going on with them soon. I deeply and sincerely apologize to the many of you who we haven't seen or talked to in quite some time... Know that you all are in our thoughts and prayers!

Perseid Meteor Showers

Well, we weren’t planning on being up until 2 am to see the peak of the Perseid Meteor Showers last night, but we were... Cami and I have the rare opportunity this week to do things like that while the kiddos are visiting Grandma Cherie and Grandpa Phil at their house. So, we were walking to go see the meteor shower around midnight when we noticed another RD in the process of moving his office… Of course, nobody expects help moving at midnight, so we figured "hey, why not?" and lent a hand for an hour or so -- so, by the time we made it to where we were going to watch the Perseids from, it was after 1, and we hung out until sometime around 2. While we didn’t see as many as I’ve seen in the past, there was a pretty steady series, including an amazing one that left a ghostly trail across the sky for a few seconds as it streaked through. Pretty amazing stuff...

Blogger vs. Webmaster

Found this article while searching for some WordPress tips and tricks... It's all beginning to make sense now...

Webmasters do a lot of things, in fact webmasters are jacks of all trades, programmers, designers, customer service representatives, they are not bloggers. Who can blame them really, they are so busy dealing with all the other stuff they simply don’t have time to sit and write content for a weblog. When webmasters do sit down and write content for a blog, it is often in the form of a tutorial on their favourite script, html or css.

I applaud all of you bloggers out there. To consistently be able to write good content for a blog takes a lot of hard work, time and creativity.

From: Bloggers Are Not Webmasters and Webmasters Are Not Bloggers While I'm not a full-time webmaster, I play one for a couple different sites; and I am a full-time software developer. No wonder maintaining my own site is a constant struggle...

Back Home

Well, after a wonderful, yet very fast vacation, I'm back home and back to work. (Why is it vacations always seem so long in coming, and always go so quickly?) Cami and the kids will stay out in sunny (and hot! -- I got out just in time!) California for another week before returning home. All-in-all, it was a very nice vacation. It's always a wonderful trip -- and this one even more so as sister Sarah got married! We got to visit with our friends, the Halls, while visiting Sarah, Jeff, and our niece Kristin at their new home; I played -- or attempted -- a couple rounds of golf with Bud & company; went swimming with Darienne and Micah; saw Harry Potter with Cami; and, oh -- did I mention the wedding? So, back in Massachusetts, we're looking at the triple-H's for the next few days -- hazy, hot, and humid. But, it should also be quiet, which is a good thing, but it also reminds me how much I'm going to miss Cami and the kiddos. (Love you guys!)

Introducing Mr. and Mrs...

Congratulations Sarah and Jeff! It could not have been a nicer day -- the weather was perfect, the setting was wonderful, and the wedding was beautiful! Sarah was radiant, as were Cami (matron of honor) and Darienne (flower girl)... Micah was the "ring burier" (his words, not mine), and I read 1 Corinthians 13 -- the Love chapter. Kristin was an integral part throughout the wedding, as this wedding creates a new family for her as well; she joined Sarah and Jeff during the lighting of the unity candle and as they recessed down the aisle as a family. It was very sweet. The reception followed, at the same location -- a gorgeous estate up the hill a bit from the Smiths. The food was delicious (thanks to Janie -- who did our wedding too! -- and the Pigmeister), and the party continued into the night with good friends and family all around. Welcome to the family Jeff! [Update: well, I had hoped to have photos up by now -- we have all 700+ of them -- but I thought we should probably pick out the top ones rather than trying to post them all...)

Sunny in SLO

We made it! After a mostly-uneventful 11 hour trip (with connections, and our trip from San Francisco to Chico was delayed by about an hour and a half due to fog), we landed at Cami's parents Tuesday afternoon a bit tired, but otherwise no worse for wear. We went by Grandpa's store on the way to the house and let everyone say hi. It's so good to be here! Everybody's so excited! The kids were up until around 9:30 local time -- well after midnight by their internal clocks, having been up since around 4:30 am Eastern. They're troopers... Wednesday was pretty kick-back -- a chance to recoup a bit. Cami and the kids went out shopping for stuff for Sarah's wedding before going to see Ratatouille -- which gained rave reviews from our 4- and 7-year old critics. Meanwhile, I got in my 3rd-ever round of golf -- a.k.a. "wack-a-ball". (I won't divulge my score so as not to embarass those I played with -- or mostly myself... I think I was 10 when I played my first round; my second, a couple years ago with Bud.)

Darienne has (re-)discovered the piano at Grandma and Grandpa's. Whenever she's not playing video games or check out the momma and baby deer out in the back yard, she's been playing. Might be time for piano lessons... So then yesterday we rented a car (a new Dodge Charger -- Darienne liked that it is a "jazzy blue") and drove about 7+ hours down to Sarah & Kristin's new house in SLO. The beautiful coastal weather immediately had Cami and I sitting back saying "um, so why aren't we living down here?" It's just wonderful... Tonight, we get to go visit with Jill and Patrick and their kids Connor and Katherine. (They were a fellow RD family before moving out here, and good friends whom we miss dearly...) We can't wait to catch up a bit with them!

And We're Off!

Not so bright, but very early, tomorrow morning we're off to California for some much needed vacation. Our flight leaves at 6:30 -- AM. Anyone who knows us probably knows that we are not exactly an early morning family. But, for special occasions like going to see Grandma and Grandpa and -- oh, did I mention Cami's sister Sarah is getting married? -- we'll make the sacrifice. :b Assuming our flights are on time, we'll be in hot, sunny California around noon. We're coming guys! See you soon!

High School Musical

Darienne and Micah got their first taste of (live) musical theater tonight, seeing Disney's High School Musical at North Shore Music Theater.

I picked up a couple pair of tickets right behind each other (most shows were sold out) and surprised the kids with them tonight. We got to the theater and Darienne started to see the High School Musical memorabilia, but still didn't really know what we were doing. She pretty much figured it out when we handed our tickets over as we were walking into the "the-t-er". I sat with Darienne through the first half while Micah sat with Cami. They both loved it, and although Micah fell asleep near the end of Act II (the show started at 7:30 pm), Darienne's eyes were glued to the stage the entire time. I looked over a few times and I'm not sure she even blinked... (NSMT is our local regional theater -- if you are in the area and haven't been, go! The place is nothing short of phenomenal. It's theater in-the-round, and they bring in Broadway quality talent -- literally. I think every show we've been to has had actors who have gone on to act on Broadway, as well as actors who are taking a break from Broadway to come back. Quite a legacy.) I'll try to get a picture of the kids with Darienne in her HSM shirt and Micah in his hat posted soon. They're darn cute.