Updated
March 3, 2002
How long has
it been? A good two months, to say the least . . . Well, I won't try
to dump 60 + days worth of stuff here, but I'll try to cover the highlights
over the past two months.
The year kicked
off pretty strong in terms of work and family life. Since I was focused
on a project in town, I didn't have to travel much, and I felt pretty
good in January about work -- that is until the client we were working
for decided to sell that division of the business! Oh, well -- back
to looking for the next gig!
In late January
I went to Tulsa for a few days (and a weekend) to dig into the world
of business process management / automation / reingineering work.
I learned alot from that and really feel good about being able to
add that skill to my toolbox. We didn't end up getting a project directly
from that work at the time, but it has come into play since then,
and I'm glad I did the work then, so I can use it now.
And since that
effort didn't turn immediately into a solid project, I ended up at
the end of January starting work on a HUGE engagement at Dynegy --
basically taking all their existing applications in this division,
rearchitecting them to a stable standard, delivering them in a custom
portal, with wireless, video conferencing, etc.
Pretty good stuff,
in my mind. It should take us at a minimum through the end of the
year. Ian is back working with me on this project, so it's a really
good gig. The work will be challenging, but that's what this line
of business is all about.
Also at the end
of January, we celebrated Porter's first birthday! It ended up falling
right around the time of Mardi Gras, since Easter is early this year
-- so we had a Mardi Gras party for little King Porter. Everyone had
a really good time and, although we didn't have a full parade, we
decorated his wagon with purple, yellow and green, tossed beads and
coins. He also had a special Mardi Gras cake which was really tasty.
In February,
we entered (but didn't win) a gumbo contest at Central Market -- I
thought the gumbo was really good, though, and we had plenty to eat
several nights and to share with friends.
I also started
taking real harmonica lessons last month -- I figure that since I
don't really have any hobbies that don't involve sitting in front
of the computer, I ought to pick up something fun. I love music, enjoy
dinking around with the harmonica anyway, and it's a pretty cheap
hobby -- So on Tuesday afternoons, I skip out of work early and go
over to Rockin Robin guitars for my weekly lesson. I'm getting better,
but Katie still wants me to go somewhere else to practice so I don't
annoy her!
Early in February,
Myra called us one night and told us Kenneth had asked her to marry
him -- we knew it was coming before she did! Actually, I had gone
with Kenneth the day of Porter's party to pick up the ring he had
made -- it's nice. Anyway, they're planning on gettin married in October.
She wants the boys to be in the wedding, so that should be fun for
them, too. We took out our wedding album yesterday to show Jackson
and start talking to him about being in their wedding.
Just a week ago,
we went to Austin to see them -- and to let the kids have a weekend
away from us with Mimi and Papaw! It was tons of fun -- we left out
on Thursday night, hung out in Austin Friday, went to Gruene Hall
near New Braunfeuls that night to see Jerry Jeff Walker play; then
to Fredricksburg shopping on Saturday and just hung out the rest of
the weekend in Austin.
That about covers
the past couple of months. Nothing really earth-shattering, just normal
life, with a few random moments tossed in. I guess today could be
an example of a typical time around our house the past few months,
too: boys are both a little sick, Porter has a double ear-infection
that will mean tubes in the ears next Thursday; Jackson and I went
to get donuts this morning, and now, at 9am-ish, Katie is napping,
Porter is napping, Jackson is watching the Disney channel and I'm
hanging out.
C'est la vie!!
