Happy New Year to all of you!

It has been an interesting year. Needless to say, my life has changed so much over the past 12 months and in such ways I never would have imagined. Setting that all aside for a moment, I wish to take just a moment to thank my friends for sticking by me. You’ve been great.

I have taken a little bit of time off from blogging to take care of some business matters. Trying to start up a new business is rather time consuming. And things have been going very well, but have also required a significant amount of attention. I apologize for seeming a bit disconnected lately and ask that you continue to bear with me.

For 2007 I am planning a few things new. I need to get my company website up and running and this will take a bit of time. But it’s the fun sort of time for me. I don’t expect it to be overwhelming in nature. I’ve got some additional people coming on board to help me and I’m grateful for that. I’m looking forward to getting back in the practice of producing a product. As I get further along, I’ll be sure to fill you in more. Right now, the only way I can explain things will be in such a way that is way too technical. But I will definitely fill you in because I believe in word of mouth advertising. I’ve done it in the past and I will continue to do it.

As far as my personal blog is concerned, I mentioned several months ago that I was going to be changing my style. I’ve done a lot over these past few months to separate myself from things, which tethered me. And over the past few months I’ve been keeping my writing relegated to simple memes. I believe that will change in 2007. I’d like to get back to doing more meaningful writing. But I’d like to target my current audience with it. I’m pretty much through with writing for a predominantly Christian audience. As I’ve discussed with numerous friends, there is a tremendous amount of re-hashing that occurs. And it’s condescending in nature towards those who are not of the same faith and belief.

But I like my current audience. It’s diverse in nature. There are folks from different backgrounds and from different beliefs who visit my site. I’d like to continue to get your input on those things that invade my thought space. After all, it’s in sharing of ideas that we continue to grow in our friendships.

Anyway, it has been a difficult year for several reasons. I’m glad it’s coming to a close and I’m looking forward to what’s ahead.

Happy New Year to you all! And thanks for coming by.

-Mike

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For those interested, my trip back to Cali went pretty well this past weekend, despite numerous fiascos with flying. As bad as it seemed, it could have been so much worse. At one point I was looking to stay out there for Brendan’s school play and then return on Wednesday. But I had some important meetings on Tuesday to attend to and I simply couldn’t cancel them. If I had had it my way, I would be sleeping at Denver International, best case, or still stuck in San Jose due to the blizzard. I may talk more on this later. For now, I’d like to share some Christmas wishes with ya’ll.

1. A good year of bike riding coming ahead, including the possibility of some friends to ride with. I really don’t care if this is road or mountain. I’m pretty open at this point.
2. My consulting has taken off so well, that I’ve officially formed a company to be able to grow things better. My area is in Networked Storage and I’m hoping that we can continue to offer a product and service that others cannot. But isn’t that the desire of most businesses? Anyway, I really am hoping that things will continue to move forward and that I’ll have the insight to avoid major pitfalls.
3. I am hoping the bulk of the snow is gone by the time the weekend comes and certainly by Christmas. But at the same time, it’d be nice to have some white around the field areas. I’ve never had a white Christmas. Right now, it’s too white for me. I was up to my waist in snow this morning as I was clearing the Satellite dish. And poor Barkley. He didn’t sign up for all this. Poor little guy was hopping through it to do his little relief duties. It was a good case of “where’s Barkley?”… “There he is!” It was actually pretty cute and he didn’t mind too much. I at least shoveled some pathway to get him started.
4. I really would like for my loved ones to enjoy the gifts I’ve picked out for them. I try to put a good bit of thought into gift buying. I enjoy it a lot and hope to be able to continue to do so in the coming years.
5. I would like for Haley to fall in love with school. He starts pre-school right after the new year and I think it will be good for him to start developing more social skills and some childhood friendships.
6. Like to be able to get the new home this year, and preferably before Spring. Don’t get me wrong. I really love where we currently live and I don’t plan to get rid of the place. We have 16 acres in the foothills above Carter Lake and the view is beautiful. Plus, I have a great bit of lab space with the studio and when it’s filled, I’ll create more. I also plan to level the current house and have a new one put up. But the kids do need a place where they can be closer to other kids. So, we’ve found a place we really like down in Loveland. It’s only 5 minutes away from Calista’s school and there is also a park right behind it. Even though the 3 acres will allow us to bring the horses and other animals down, I’m not sure how crazy I am about doing that. The nice thing about where we currently live is that we can take them down to the lake and to the trails. If we move them down, they’ll be with us, but there won’t be nearly as much area to ride them. But perhaps that’s okay too.
7. In conjunction with #6, I probably should get a horse trailer to haul the horses. Just a two horse trailer is good for me. Well… not really for me. I mean for the horses
8. I’m finally ready to get rid of my 2003 Element. I have really loved my pseudo-SUV. It has been great for mountain biking. But I need a new one; something that can handle the snow and ice better. Yesterday, I managed to slide off the road again. Previously, it was just in our driveway and was fairly easy to deal with once we could get the tow truck up the driveway. It took around 25 minutes or so. But yesterday, we had to run down to the school to pick up Calista because the school was shutting down for the blizzard. As I was creeping down 8E, there’s a really tight decreasing radius turn. I’m pretty sure I was doing around 10mph as I was going down it. But it doesn’t matter. As soon as I hit the apex, the Element started to slide. ABS kicked in, which really sucks on ice. Despite all sorts of techniques of using my breaks, I kept picking up speed down the hill, oscillating left to right. I should have just let it go to the right and into the ditch against the hillside. But I was stupid and kept trying to gain control. Then it was over. I started to slide over to the embankment. It was by the grace of God that I didn’t roll. But somehow I managed to stay on all fours. Well, all the neighbors checked in on me and so did the fire department and rangers. After being stuck waiting for AAA to send the tow, I got a little ballsy. The ranger went on to the lower road as I tried to spin the Element around. I did so and then pointed it downhill. Holy cow!!! I’m glad I had put all those brush guards and bumper treatments on it as I hit small trees, large shrubs and moderate sized rocks. But eventually, I got to a small service road and was able to drive again. I think I’d like to get the new Toyota FJ Cruiser. I like the idea of having a true utility vehicle that can get muddy and be hosed out. Plus, this has a good sized V6 and plenty of ground clearance, which will be quite a bit nicer. I’m getting a bit tired of bottoming out, which is my #1 complaint with the Element, along with too little power to get out of tough situations.
9. Considering the 17″ MacBook Pro. I currently have the 15″, which has been my best laptop ever. But I would like the bigger screen so I can open up more windows for coding Overkill? Probably. But since I make a living on this type of equipment, I’ve had no problem justifying new HW.
10. I’d really like to take the kids to Disney World this summer. It’s been a few years since I was last there. But I do think the kids would like it. But arranging to take 3 kids from CO to FL isn’t all that easy. I still can’t decide whether I wish to drive or fly. I think I’m leaning towards flying. I could get the kids seated together and then book myself a seat in 1st class so I can pretend I don’t know who the kids are
11. I would really like to find a new church to call home. I know there are a ton of churches in CO. Believe me, I know. And I don’t wish to knock any in the process of finding one. But there are so many in our area that I would consider to be seeker friendly. There’s one in particular that caters to those who have been burned by other churches. Hmmm… they are non-confrontational and don’t push people’s buttons. While I admire the goal of being inoffensive, this is the wrong way to go about it. I too try to be inoffensive to those around me. It’s called mutual respect. Mutual respect allows me to get along at some level with someone who has nothing in common with me. The gospel I hold to and the scriptures that support it might be offensive. But that’s okay. I don’t need to be forceful with what I believe. I am happy to go into as much detail as one might allow me. But I can also be content to say nothing if that’s what they choose too.
12. Is it possible to fix a dog’s snoring problem? If so, please add this to the list. At some point, I may be inclined to make a recording of Barkley’s snore. I’m not sure how many decibels it registers, but it’s quite loud.
13. I’d really like to build some more friendships around here. We have a couple of friends here, but it’d be nice to have a few more. Perhaps this will come out of finding a church home. I’m really not sure. I guess we’ll see.

I hope ya’ll have a very Merry Christmas! You have been a huge blessing to me this past year.

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This is one of those rather difficult posts for me and it can be blamed on EE for making me encouraging me to do it. It’s tough because of all the emotions that do come into play. But at the same time, it’s life.

1. Doing the whole airport security’s body-cavity search. I’m not even going to wear shoes for this. Flip-flops are good enough. But I don’t have much answer for having to remove my belt. I love that sensation of trying to get through with all my stuff in my hands and my pants falling down. Exhilarating!
2. I always enjoy [sarcasm] the thought of my flight, rental and hotel arrangements being in order and going through without a hiccup.
3. Looking forward to picking up Brendan and taking him to Build-a-Bear on Saturday. I’ve never been there, but he has gone plenty of times with Chelle. He loves the place.
4. Afterward, Brendan wants me to take him to Dave and Busters. I don’t think he really likes the food. But he sure loves the games. I think we’ll have a lot of fun together.
5. I get to see my puppy, Barkley, again. I love that dog.
6. Not looking forward to Brendan’s reaction to learn that Barkley will be coming back to CO with me.
7. My dad’s having Christmas dinner this Sunday. My sister’s family will be there too. It could be a little awkward. I’m sure Chelle and I will have a few moments trying to figure out how we’re to treat one another. And I’m sure others will try to follow our lead. I’m sure it will be fine. She and I don’t have a problem getting along these days. It’s just the emotions of 14 years together. Ya know?
8. Chelle, Brendan and I will be doing our gift exchange on Sunday night after the dinner. I always worry about whether folks will enjoy my gifts. I hope so.
9. Worried about EE. I hate the thought of leaving her for even a day. She has been SO great to me and I’m very thankful for her. I don’t know what I would do without her
10. I’m hoping she’ll like the gifts I got for her. She doesn’t seem to ever want much of anything, other than another Starbucks.
11. Not sure how successful I’ll be sneaking Barkley into the hotel with me on Sunday night so I can go straight to the airport on Monday morning. Oh… and then there’s the snoring.
12. My flight on Monday is at 6am. That means I have to leave around 4am to get there. But the good news is that it should feel like 5am to me. Yeah… it doesn’t work for me either
13. I’ve never tried to fly with a pet. And I can just picture everything going wrong with getting him on board, with getting to the airport on time, with there being zero delays, with getting back to EE as quickly as I can. I’m sure I’ll pretty much be dying from missing her.

Bonus: I’m extremely anxious about saying goodbye again. It wasn’t easy in October after I had only been away for a couple weeks. But now I’ve been away for a couple of months and I’m sure my heart will be breaking as I pull out of the driveway.  …the consequences of my actions.

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This is my very, very late T13. I had completely forgotten to do one and then it got so late I almost decided to skip it for the the week. You can blame the subject on EE. It was her idea as I have been having a tough time coming up with new ones.

1. My mom and dad coming to my little league baseball games.
2. The time I threw up all over my grandma when we had a family reunion/Christmas dinner in Oakland.
3. My first kiss in kindergarten.
4. My 2nd, 3rd and others in 1st grade
5. Having a crush on Debbie Kelner.
6. Being sent to my first baseball tryouts. My mom dressed me up in this awful brown sweater and Hush Puppies and then meticulously pinned my number to me. I was so embarrassed that when it came time to field my first fly ball, I caught it in the eye. OUCH!
7. I can remember my sister stabbing me in the back with a fork. But I can’t remember what I did to provoke her.
8. I can remember the time we went to Marine World and my sister was picking on me the whole day. Well I enough was enough and I got her in a head lock and began knocking her head into the stucco on the side of the house. My dad came out, thinking someone was knocking on the door. I thought I was going to get killed. Instead, he sort of chuckled as he made me let go and proceeded to tell me how wrong I was. I knew he had seen everything and that he possibly even felt bad for me.
9. I remember the time I stung by a bee on my hand. I meant to grab something to clean the sting, but grabbed Heat instead. My hand got so infected they had to actually peel the skin off to expose live flesh. It was pretty awful.
10. I remember getting into a fight with Frankie Barker. It was 7th grade and I was a bit of a bully. Anyway, we were in this fight on some dude’s grass when the owner came out and pulled me off of him. When I turned back to Frankie, he popped me in the nose and broke my nose. It was a real turning point for me as I stopped picking on people and started defending those picked on.
11. I remember the time I discovered electricity. Or at least what it felt like. I had taken one of my sister’s bobby pins and stuck it in the outlet. After doing the 60 cycle shuffle, I looked down at my hand to see that it was a very nice shade of brown. I tried covering it in a napkin, hoping my mom wouldn’t notice. Fat chance. She did!
12. I remember my first dog. He was a beagle I had named Kevin, after my best friend. Can you imagine having a dog named Kevin. He miraculously disappeared after a couple months. My parents told me he died, having been hit by a car. I’m pretty sure they were trying to soften the blow of him running away in shame due to his name.
13. I remember the constant fights in my home from late Jr. High onward. I remember when my mother cut my dad’s fingers off and I had to go with him to the hospital to get them reattached. I was all covered in his blood as was our family room wall and furniture. Depression can be a serious beast and while I didn’t understand it then, I have an appreciation for it now and for the need to treat it vs. hide from it.