EngelFish.Net

I did not realize that it has been almost three weeks since my last post.  I have been super busy both professionally and personally, which makes for bad blogging habits.  I promise, scout’s honor, to try to be more regular. ;)  There are lots of things going on for us right now. 

Today is Halloween, and I have a project in mind for tonight.  We have emptied our dining room, which overlooks the front street, and converted it into a mini portrait studio.  When our trick-or-treaters come by for their candy tonight, we are going to ask them to pose for a picture.  I’m going to collect emails, and then post them to my website for the parents.  Once the whole thing is done, I am considering making a neighborhood book with all the kids featured in it.  We’ll see how it goes tonight.

I’m leaving on Friday for a trip to NYC for the weekend.  It is time for the marathon, and I’m going up with David & Kim to support David’s attempt at a sub-6 hour marathon.  He thinks he can run as slowly as I do, but he’ll soon see that it it tougher than you think.  When someone using a walker passes you, you have to really stick to your guns to maintain pace.

IMAGE:  After getting everything setup, we had a bit of fun while I tweaked and adjusted the lighting.

After a long long night of driving and working on the computer, we made it to North Dakota. Taryn has a friend from South African, Wayne Casey, who’s over here for a few months learning how American’s farm. He’s been great to visit with, and has provided us with a place to get some real sleep and a hot shower. It has been really great. They’re catching up and enjoying the conversation.

Well, we’ve passed the 24 hour mark.  We’re in Madison, WI and still doing alright.  I’m working from a TGI Friday’s while Taryn sleeps in the truck.  We made good time, and are actually enjoying ourselves.  I’ve got a few good pictures, which you can see in my flickr stream.  I’ve had a red bull and a coffee, so I’m ready for my shift.  I think we’l be online throughout the day, and twittering as well. We’ll stop tonight to visit one of Taryn’s SA friends who’s over hear working in North Dakota, then carry on.  Wooo Hooo.

Most of this past week and weekend were spent working.  Lots to do at the office, and we’re running out of time for this year.  I don’t mind working so much, especially when I’m making such good progress.  I have to admit, however, that I’m looking forward to taking some vacation time during the holidays.  I see some painting, yardwork, and home repairs in my future!

I got to spend some time last week hanging out with Cupcake & Solace.  I haven’t seen Solace since Taryn & I dropped Cupcake off at the trailhead a few years back.  He’s working for Jet Blue, and was in town for a couple of days.  We got together at the Rockford, and had dinner and a few drinks.  It was fun.

Taryn also went up into Mom’s attic and pulled down a bunch of Christmas decorations.  I imagine we’ll be putting them up this week.  Such fun! ;)  She’s looking for a tree for us today, so we’ll probably decorate it this Friday night.  Have a fire in the fireplace and spend a few hours untangling lights.

A new addition to the website is the chat feature (via meebo.com).  I think it’s pretty freakin’ neat.  I hope you guys use it to drop me a quick hello when you visit this site.  If I’m logged in to meebo when you visit the site, you’ll be able to tell, so don’t be a stranger.

The past few weeks have been pretty busy, so I’ll try to hit the highlights. Mom has retired, is selling her house, and is moving out to live near Robin on the west coast. It’s not the way I’d have liked things to work out, but I think it’ll be great for Robin and the kids. 

More “home front” news, we bought that house. We closed on the 20th, so now my bank owns a really nice house. :)  It’s much quieter out there than it was downtown, but that’s not a bad thing!  While we did celebrate Thanksgiving with dinner at Brasa, we spent Thanksgiving week moving into the new place.  I didn’t have it in me to move all the heavy stuff, so I called Aperitive, and he and his guys took care of it.  If you ever need movers, I recommend him. It was one of the easiest moves I’ve had. 

The down side of this move, outside of the “work”, was that both of us have been sick for the past two weeks. It culminated in a trip to the Urgent Care center Saturday morning, and the PA looking down my throat and saying, “Yuck. That can’t feel good.” After two days, a great deal of Tylenol, and starting on antibiotics, I feel much better. Taryn, unfortunately, still can’t stop her coughing. We’re hoping to fix that today with her own trip to Urgent Care.

This past Friday had us hosting a housewarming / going-away party.  Our Flickr gang came over to have a send off for Deep. He boarded a plane today to return to India. He’s a great guy, and we were all sorry to see him go. I’m sure that he’ll keep posting to our group, and if any of us make it to the subcontinent, we’ll be sure to visit.  Overally, the party was fun, and I ended the night with Beebo giving me a mohawk haircut that looked more like a pompadour.   In addition to the styling services, we had a fire in the fireplace (a first), a fire in the kitchen (the last time we take cooking tips from an ex-Marine), and a fire on the grill (with Beebo and Grant playing caveman). 

Feeling sickly and cranky, we decided to go see a movie Saturday night.  The Buck-Fifty theater is always an adventure, so we caught the movie Invincible.  If you haven’t seen this Mark Wahlburg vehicle, you should. It’s a grown up version of Rudy, and even had Taryn saying that she enjoyed it and that it was a good movie.  It helps, however, to not have a group of annoying teenagers sitting behind you.

Before I sign off, I’d like to thank Maria for sending me over to Line Rider.  Yet another simple game that is a great way to waste time! (for extreme examples, check this out).