Christmas Memories

Well... There it goes... Another Christmas in the history books of life.

I really enjoyed the lead up to Christmas this year. I bombarded myself with Christmas music, was busy at church with activity and patiently waited for my Nintendo Wii that sat in a closet for the past month.

Christmas day was great too. We spent the entire day playing the Wii as a family. We ate Mexican food for dinner. We helped Pacey put his Lego airport and jet together. We enjoyed the sun being out (Even though it was a very windy day). At the end of the day, we were happy and tired.

The rememberance of Christ's birth was particularly strong this year. I really tried to concentrate on it personally and remember His birth and what it means to me. God became a man to live like a man and die like a man. God chose to become like me so He could wash away my sins and have eternal fellowship with me... Wow...

Windows Server 2008

My company purchased a very nice computer for some testing I am doing. Right now, the computer is running Vista Ultimate on 4GB of RAM and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ (Roughly 2.30 GHz). I have Virtual Server 2005 R2 running a few virtual machines. The first virtual machine is Windows Server 2003 Enterprise. The second virtual machine is Windows XP Media Center Edition. Today, I am adding a third machine to the mix: Windows Server 2008 RC! I purchased an Intel Quad Ethernet card for the computer. With the card, I am able to assign an individual ethernet cable to each virtual machine (I had to mess around with settings of each port to be able to assign them to an individual VM).

Man... I am such a geek! I love technology!

When I am done, I will have 4 computers running in one box... How cool is that?!

Vegas Vacation

This past weekend was my 27th birthday. Tiffany and I took off Friday and spent the weekend in Las Vegas, NV. We are part of the Bluegreen Vacation Club and were able to stay in Vegas for CHEAP! The drive was nice and included a trip accross the Hoover Dam.

Most of our time was spent walking around to see everything- Trust me, we walked a lot! We also visited the Stratosphere and saw a great view of the city. On the way home, we visited the Hoover Dam for a while (Amazing!).

We had a great time and hope to visit again (We may actually have a couple opportunities in 2008 due to conferences).

Christmas Gift from Blockbuster

Tiffany and I have been fans of Blockbuster Total Access for a while now. We originally used Netflix until Blockbuster came out with a deal that blew Netflix away... We were paying 17.99/month, got 3 movies at a time, could exchange them in the store for a few movie, plus, we got one free GAME or movie per month. It was a steal. A few months ago, Blockbuster decided to change the plan on everybody. OK. So now we could only exchange 5 movies per month and we no longer got the free game. Well, Blockbuster, who is failing miserably, has given us a Christmas gift. Now, we get to pay $2 more per month for the same service. Some people are paying even more! On top of that, half the movies that we have in the queue have had "long wait" listed next to them for months now....

Sorry Blockbuster, but I think Netflix has won back my business. Netflix has the leg up now. We can get 3 movies at a time for $3 less than Blockbuster. On top of that, we can watch movies over the internet. Since we have a great internet connection and decent monitors, this will be good. Sure, we do not get to go into Blockbuster now to trade DVD's, but that's ok... It will save on gas! =)

November Happenings

Well, there goes November... Right out the door...

Thanksgiving was very nice this year. Not just because I got two days off of work (Although it was very nice), but because it is always a great time to stop and give thanks. Although the story of the first Thanksgiving is always questioned, the truth remains that we are a very blessed nation and people and should always thank or Lord and Creator for what He has done for us.

November was also the beginning of long practices for the annual Dinner Theater at our new church. Most of the family is involved in one fashion or another this year. We have spent many hours at church lately preparing for the event. Tiffany is singing in the choir for the event and I am running a spot light. The drama portion of the event is great. We are praying that people will come to know the Lord as a result of this event and Christmas season.

Finally, I spent a few days in Virginia earlier this week. I have been working on a large project for some time now and this trip to Virginia helped move the project forward. I am very excited to be in my present role and the opportunities that are being presented. I pray that the Lord will continue to help me grow in my technical skills and professional skills.

December is going to be crazy.... Dinner Theater... Birthday trip to Las Vegas... Christmas.... Plans for a new year... Here we go!

RAIN!!!

AHHHHH!!!! It has been a scary sight to see the past two days. We have received a TON of rain. Since moving to Phoenix, Arizona, we have not see it rain yet. I was beginning to think that rain did not exist in this part of the US. Boy was I wrong! Aparently, this has been the single largest precipitation event in 10 years for the valley. Yesterday, it practically rained non stop for the entire day. Today, we had some strong busts of rain and wind during the day.

We are not allowed to talk about the frozen form of rain, but I heard that there is some on the ground just a couple hours North of here... =) I cannot wait to see the Grand Canyon with white on it!

At any rate, I figured rain in Phoenix was a blog worth event... The cold front pushing it was something too since it is about 50 degrees outside right now... Brrrr... Cold and rain... Yuck!

Orlando Vacation

Tiffany and I just got back from a wonderful vacation to Orlando, Florida. Tiffany has been a couple times, but this was my first time going. I was very excited to "be a kid again" and visit Universal Studio's and Disney World. At the end of each day, we spent a few minutes writing down thoughts from the day so we could blog about it and also for our own memory sake. Tiffany is sorting through the pictures presently and we hope to get some up on Flickr shortly (We took nearly 3,000 pictures - Tiffany took most of them on this trip). Below is a day by day breakdown of what we remember most!

Saturday, November 3
Today, we began our journey to Orlando, Florida. We left Phoenix early in the morning and arrived in Florida in the late afternoon. Our rental car was a 2008 Pontiac G6 and we stayed at the Orlando Sunshine Resort. Today, we just relaxed at the resort and tried to get a good night sleep. We were very thankful for the time change being this weekend so we would only have to adjust 2 hours instead of 3 (Arizona doesn't change time).

Sunday, November 4
Today, we visited Disney's Animal Kingdom! Since this year is the "Year of a Million Dreams," Tiffany and I won front row parking at the Animal Kingdom. A small prize to win, but a prize nonetheless. The weather was beautiful and we had time to make our way around the park to everything we wanted to ride and see. They had a new "Finding Nemo" show and we loved it! We went on a Safari in the park and saw animals up close. For dinner, we ate at the Rainforest Cafe. I received a "First Visit" pin today that I plan to wear at each park.

Monday, November 5
Disney's Epcot Center was the park of the day. By far, the best ride of all was "Test Track." By the end of the day, we had been on it 4 times. We also road on Soarin'. Not only did you feel like you were flying, but they even added scent to the experience. The countries of Epcot are very well done. Everything feels very authentic and fun. There was a food tasting festival while we were there and we took advantage of that. We also took advantage of the Fast Pass program that Disney offers. It was great getting an assigned time to be on a ride instead of standing in line! The rides are amazing at Disney. They go out of there way to add incredible detail to each ride and line. The atmosphere was very energetic and fun at this park. At the end of the day, we enjoyed a spectacular fireworks show. Of all the parks, Epcot had the best fireworks.

Tuesday, November 6
Day 4 of our adventure took us to Universal's Islands of Adventures. The park seemed like a ghost town most of the day. Consequently, we practically walked on and off every ride with little to no wait. We ate lunch at the famous Mythos restaurant at Islands of Adventures. This was the first time either of us had been to this park, so it was new for both of us. We conquered Islands so fast that we went next door to Universal Studio's for a few hours. It was nice to have an early evening and attempt to get some rest.

Wednesday, November 7
This morning, we decided to grab breakfast at Ponderosa. It wasn't too bad for a low priced buffet. After breakfast, we headed to Universal Studio's to enjoy more short lines and fun rides. Today, we actually purchased Dippin Dots (They are terribly high priced, so we never buy them). We enjoyed all of the rides at Universal. They had free lockers to place our belongings in so we didn't have to sit our stuff on the other side of the ride (Great idea Universal!). After we were done enjoying the park, we took pictures at the worlds largest Hard Rock cafe and then went to Downtown Disney for dinner. We ate at Planet Hollywood. Our feet were dead at the end of the day.

Thursday, November 8
Today was spent at Disney's MGM Studio's. Like we did most days, we arrived just as the park opened and rushed over the the Aerosmith Rockin' Rollercoaster. It was a pretty good ride. We took a "backlot" tour also and were able sit in on a special effects demonstration- WOW! For lunch, we ate at a 50's restaurant. Everything was authentic inlcuding the wait staff ("No elbows on the tables," "Take off your hat inside mister."). We saw two amazing stunt shows and "learned" how they do some of the effects and stunts. The first show was Indiana Jones and the second one was a car stunt show. We also went to a "learn how to draw" session and both drew Goofy- It was a lot of fun. At the end of the night we watch the fireworks show called Fantasmic- It was pretty good too.

Friday, November 9
Today was all about Disney's Magic Kingdom. We were finally able to ride in on the famous monorail (Only because the parking lot is so far away from the Magic Kingdom). Our first ride was Space Mountain closely followed by the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor (A very funny show!). During the day, we made it around to all of the major rides and attractions at Magic Kingdom. The lines were not too bad, even though there were a lot of people at the park. The first time we rode Splash Mountain, we did not get wet. Somebody gave us a Fast Pass, so we decided to ride it a second time. On the second trip through, we got soaked. Thankfully, the weather was warm and we were able to dry off comfortably. Speaking of the Fast Pass, for some reason, the Peter Pan ride had 60 minute wait times while we were there. We grabbed a Fast Pass and came back later in the day. When we returned, our Fast Pass got us in and out of the ride in 8 minutes, but the line was still 60 minutes long. The Fast Pass is a must at Disney! For lunch, we had a delicious Philly Cheese Steak (Yummmm!). In the evening, I went back out to the car to get our sweatshirts and Mickey Mouse ears (Yeah- I got the lightup ones so I could be a big kid). On the way back from the car, I rode the ferry instead of the monorail, it was pretty nice. We had our names sewn into the back of our Mickey Mouse ears. We also bought a pair for our niece and nephew back in Arizona. The fireworks show was pretty good this evening. I still think that Epcot has the better show. After fireworks, we watched the Spectromagic evening parade with electric lights - It was pretty neat. Today was a very long day and we took a ton of pictures. We also took advantage of short lines in the evening and had our pictures taken with a bunch of characters (Mikey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Princesses).

Saturday, November 10
Today was the longest day of our vacation. We arrived at Magic Kingdom around 8:30am and did not leave until 12:15am the next morning. We did not make it back to the hotel until 1:00am on Sunday. When we arrived at the park, we rode in a horse drawn carriage up to Cinderella's Castle. It was a lot of fun. We even had some guys singing on the back of the carriage. We were also able to ride on the large show boat. We went to the Monster's show again and I had to dance while on screen (I am sure my dancing was enough to make people laugh to death). We watched a different parade today and saw the fireworks again. During the President's show, one of the projectors melted the film, so we had to leave and come back later. At midnight, Tiffany and I kissed in front of the castle while having our picture taken, it was fun. We had a fantasic day and a wonderful vacation!

Sunday, November 11
Today started well and ended well, unfortunately, the middle of the day wasn't the greatest. We made great time getting the the airport and taking care of the car and security. When we got on the airplane though, we had to sit for about 2 hours waiting for a maintenance issue to be fixed. Unfortunately, that made us miss our connecting flight. Forunately, we were able to catch a later flight back to Phoenix. As a special treat, we actually received a sandwich on the airplane! It was a nice little touch from Continental (I guess they actually server food on some flights still- It felt like winning the lottery). We made it home safely with all of our belongings and memories. We had a fantastic time on this vacation and thank the Lord for providing time and money to take the vacation.

Final facts
Miles walked: 40 (Estimate using Google Earth)
Pictures taken: 2,733
Memories created: Thousands

Hacking the MyBook World Edition II

I recently purchased a 1Tb Western Digital MyBook World Edition II NAS (Wow, that is a mouth full). For some odd reason, I was not immediately content with the drive and wanted to play around with it. I began searching and stumbed upon http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/. As a result of this webpage, and some poking, my Linux skills have been rekindled. It has been so long since I did anything with Linux.

I am finalizing my setup of the drive and plan to use it as the central storage device for my network (So I do not need to run from computer to computer trying to find a file). One of the neat features is that I can connect a non-network external hard drive to this device using USB. I plan to set up my network so all computers backup to the NAS and then the NAS can backup to my external hard drive. After running the backup (At some specified interval), I can take the external drive and put it in my fire proof safe!

Protecting data is very important... If you do not regularly backup your data, you should consider doing it. It is a terrible feeling when you lose important work or digital pictures.

Upcoming Vacation to Orlando

Finally, after 27 years (Minus a month), I am going to Disney World and Universal Studios!

On Saturday (November 3), Tiffany and I will fly from Phoenix to Orlando. Our lodging and flights were virtually free, leaving us to pay for a car, food and park tickets (Which I just bought online).

We will return to Phoenix on November 11.

A Year Ago Today

I have been trying to "Get Things Done" for a long time now. At work lately, I have had to get things done at a rapid pace and lead a team on "the impossible project." As a result of the increased productivity, I have decided to try and apply what I have been learning to my personal life. This evening, I began working on my personal tracking log and building my system. I decided to write a blog article about it to begin journalling my progress.

When I logged into blogger this evening, I decided to look back at an article I wrote sometime back. What I found was neat. I discovered that I wrote the article exactly one year ago today. God was working in weird and silent ways during that time. My mind was racing with thoughts and ideas. It is interesting that I am in the same place today.

God is working in my life. I do not know what he is doing right now, but I know he is working. I have learned an incredible amount over the past year. I thank Him for how he works in our lives.

I look forward to each day and what He has in store! I look forward to getting things done for Him!

I pray that He will help me work on this system and make it a tool that I can use for His glory.

Of Skeet and Fair

Today is the end of a very nice weekend for Tiffany and I.

On Friday afternoon, Tiffany and I went to the Arizona State Fair. I wouldn't rate it as the best State Fair that I have been to, but it was worth the 5 bucks. We saw some live entertainment, ate some great food and enjoyed being together.

On Saturday, Tiffany went on a 7 mile hike with her mom, sister and another lady from our church. While they were hiking, I went skeet shooting with some of the men from the church. I have a nice bruise from the event, but not much else to brag about.

Today is Tiffany's 27th birthday. We had a little surprise party with some new friends at church. It is nice that we are integrating quickly because we miss Richmond people!!

The American Dream

I should have titled this "The NEW American Dream."

As of 8:50 PM (Arizona Time) on Monday, October 15, 2007, Tiffany and I are now completely debt free! We were very happy when we realized we were there. It was a great feeling pressing the transfer button one last time!

We can only praise the Lord for how he is blessing us. Where we are today is only by his grace and his wonderful gifts to us. Praise Him!!

The Move

I have wanted to sit down and write in my blog for a while. We have had so much happen over the past month or so and I want to document it.



Tuesday, August 28, 2007

I woke up early and met our moving truck at a truck stop. I observed the empty weight of the truck and headed home with the enormous truck behind me. When we got to our road, the driver could not make the turn (I knew right then that the day was going to be long).



The moving company, at our expense, sent a smaller truck to pick up our belongings. After the small truck loaded up, I followed them back to the big truck. The two trucks pulled up next to each other, setup a ramp and began moving the goods from one to another. During the process, they realized that they had forgotten to take an inventory (A point from which we intend to leverage an apology). So, they had to unload the little truck onto the pavement at a truck stop! Let me repeat that: All of our belongings were unloaded at a truck stop onto the GROUND!



After many hours, the big truck was packed and ready to go. I followed the driver to the scales again to check the "full" weight. Ooops! We were quoted that the weight would be 3,000 pounds. It wound up being 4,900 pounds... OUCH! More weight=More $$



I signed a few papers and watched everything drive off into the distance.



Saturday, September 1

After having a great final week in Richmond and saying way too many goodbye's, Tiffany and I departed for Arizona. We left that morning from her Grandparents in our green, 1995 Chrysler Concorde, with almost 200,000 miles on it and a fresh oil change. We drove to Winston-Salem, NC on the first day.



In Winston-Salem, we saw a few old friends and stayed with my former Pastor from New York. We had a great time catching up.



Sunday, September 2

We drove to Pigeon Forge, TN. We made great time all day, until we hit Pigeon Forge. Traffic is TERRIBLE in Pigeon Forge.



Monday, September 3

Dollywood... Good times!



Tuesday, September 4

Left Pigeon Forge early in the morning to visit some friends at Bryan College (Bryan College is about 2.61 miles from the middle of nowhere). The rest of the day was spent driving across the massive state of Tennessee. In the evening, we stopped in Memphis for some good ole BBQ. It was finger licking good!



The rest of the day was spent driving in the rain to Little Rock, AR. We were very tired by the end of this day.



Wednesday, September 5

Drove to Oklahoma City, OK. It stopped raining just as we entered Oklahoma... Sorry Arkansa, but you left a bad impression on us. Does it always rain there? =)



We visited the Oklahoma City memorial for the Federal Building that was attacked in 1995. It was an honor to be able to visit the site and remember those who lost there lives that day.



From OKC we drove to Amarillo, TX for a nice rest.



Somewhere in all of this, our airconditioning stopped working... Let's see... Moving to Phoenix, Arizona... Doesn't it get hot there?



Thursday, September 6

We only had one goal today- Get to Truth or Consequences, NM. We had a great evening soaking in the natural hot springs that this town has to offer. We were right at the Rio Grande and had a perfect view of the stars and mountians!



Friday, September 7

Ate breakfast at "BBQ on Broadway," in T or C. Ironic, but true. At about Noon, we crossed the Continental Divide (Not much to see in the middle of New Mexico). At about 6:40PM, Tiffany and I pulled up to our new home in Avondale, Arizona. All Praise to God for a safe journey, a smooth ride and the same car we left home in!



During our travels, the truck had already arrived in Arizona and unloaded. A few items were broken, but nothing major. The best part is that all of our stuff made it, plus some... Yup, we received other people's stuff, in addition to our stuff.



Friday, October 8

(One month has gone by and we still have the other people's stuff... I hate moving companies!)



As I sit here today, watching dust storms blow by, I cannot help but praise God for what he is doing in our lives. We have settled into the house well and are getting along with the family. My home office is setup and I have finished the first month at my new job. Church is also busy already. I am doing sound and lighting while Tiffany is singing in the choir and preparing for a major dinner theater in December. God is so good to us and is blessing us in ways that always keep us amazed!



We hope to put up pictures of the trip on Flickr soon. It has been a long road getting through all of the "To Do List's" related to this cross country move.



Well, I better finish this post now... I need to eat dinner now and start writting my complaints to the moving company.. Looks like they messed up our billing too.

Flying!!

Finally... I was able to fly this weekend! My friend met me at the Hanover Airport on Friday evening for an hour flight around the area. It was great getting back into an airplane and flying. I got to taxi, takeoff, fly and land the airplane (For the most part)!! We flew over my house and places of work. We also flew up the James River for a while. We had been planning this flight for a month or so. Due to the violent thunderstorms lately, we have had to cancel a few times.

Tiffany and I also spent time at Busch Gardens and Smithfield, VA this weekend. We had a great time with friends on both trips. It was HOT HOT HOT at Busch Gardens. The good thing about HOT HOT days at BG is that everybody stays home or leaves early!

Smithfield was also neat. It has a great small town Virginia feel to it!

It was nice having one last weekend to enjoy Virginia. This is our last week living in this great state (edit: Commonwealth instead of state...)!

Satirical Look at Craigslist

My wife and I have been using craigslist.com for a while now. With our move to Phoenix looming, I thought it would be fun to create a "tips and tricks" list for navigating craigslist. At first, I wanted to create a serious list that people would find on Google and praise me for.. But then I thought that it would be even better to create a satirical view of this topic in the form of a top ten list. You need to have a sense of humor when using this site. If you do not have a sense of humor, stay away...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present the top ten tips to buying and selling craigslist.com:

10) Always post your items for sale and then leave on vacation for a week...
9) Delete your item every morning and repost it to stay at the top of the list...
8) Line up 3 appointments for the same item... Somebody is bound to buy it!
7) Do not notify the other 2 people that the item sold...
6) Pay for your item on PayPal and then never show up to pick it up...
5) Post your email, phone number, address and social security number on the ad...
4) Never delete your ads, even after an item has sold...
3) Send an email to every poster asking "Has this item sold?" Then, when they reply saying, "No, are you interested," do not ever reply...
2) Always assume that people are honest, nice and helpful...

Drum Roll...

1) Send 48 emails telling how interested you are in an item and then never show up for your appointment(s)!

Long Night

So... I was supposed to go flying last night with a friend from Richmond. I was very excited about the flight. We planned to fly around the Richmond area and I was going to take a bunch of pictures.

About the time I was supposed to head to the airport, a storm started rolling in... So much for flying...

For at least 8 hours, that storm pelted Richmond with rain, lightning and thunder. It was an AMAZING act of God. I do not think I have ever seen so much lightning in my life. It was constant for hours and hours. We stepped outside during parts of it to watch the bolts flying.

I didn't sleep a wink last night as a result of this storm. Just about the time I fell asleep, another bolt would hit nearby and... BABOOM... I would be awake again.

Just after the storm started, we drove by a local Target. They are in the middle of adding onto the store. The fenses around the store and scaffolding had fallen... That must have been some wind!

I will never forget standing outside watching the lightning... What an amazing Creator we serve!

Who says you can't go home?

Whew... Another quick trip is in the history books. This past weekend, Tiffany and I drove up to the GORGES Ithaca, NY to visit family. On the way up, we picked up my mother. Friday evening, we went over to my dad's house for a yummy roast and to catch up. On Saturday, Chad, Matthew, Dad and I went down to the lake to go Kayaking. We had a great time! At the same time, Tiffany and the ladies had a baby shower for April. Later that evening, we all enjoyed summer with a little cookout. On Sunday, we made the long trek home.

Tiffany and I opted to camp at Buttermilk Falls this time. We set the tent up in record time (Thanks for the help Chad) while it was RAINING. The evenings were cool, so it was great sleeping weather. The rain was easy to clean out of the tent...

Ding... On to the next trip...

The BIG news...

I realized that I alluded to some news in an earlier post, but I never gave the news...

**Drum Roll**

Tiffany and I are moving to Phoenix, Arizona on September 1!! We are very excited about the move. We will miss our Richmond friends dearly, but this is a great opportunity for us. I will continue working for my present company, but with a new role. It is nice having a job when making a cross-country move!!

Random Call

On Saturday, we went to 6 Flags in Maryland with a couple friends... First of all, 6 Flags America hires the slowest employee's in the world. The lines were short, but the wait's were long.

On the way home, I decided to call my good friend Bekah. It had been a number of months since we talked. She answered the phone and announced that she had just had a baby about 5 hours earlier... She said that she was just about to call me to give the news. How cool it is when this happens. Two people happen to be thinking about each other at the same time! At any rate, congratulations Bekah. See you next weekend!

Facebook

I have fallen prey to the internet rave that is Facebook.com... The neatest thing about it is finding people that I haven't talked to in MANY years. Cool!

**ZOOM** (The sound of time flying by)

Wow... It's been a long time since this blog was updated. Busy doesn't describe how crazy the past few months have been. Here's the quick update:

1)In April, after going to Dallas, Jim flew up to Toronto for a few meetings. It was rainy, snowy and cold!

2) At the end of April, we both went up to New York City for a mini-vacation. We had a great time! Broadway and fancy meals are always great! We took a 3 hour tour around the city and flew up on JetBlue (GREAT DEAL!)

3) A couple weeks later, Jim flew back up to New York City for work. Other than hours of delays on the ground, the trip was great. Jim visited a restaurant called Maremma and enjoyed a wonderful meal!

4) We have been on three camping trips this summer with at least one more planned in August. Two of the camping trips were on the John H. Kerr Dam and Reservoir in Virginia and one of the camping trips was at James River State Park. All of the trips were highly relaxing and fun.

5) On April 25, Jim celebrated his second anniversary with his company. By most statistics, he is an old timer at his job!

6) The beginning of May was spent in Jamestown, Virginia, celebrating America's 400th Anniversary. We both participated with the DDXG special event station. A great time was had by all!

7) The end of May had Jim traveling again. This time, Jim spent a few days in Boston for work.

8) In the middle of June, Jim flew to Anaheim, California for InfoComm. He had a gerat time meeting the "who's Who" of the A/V industry.

During all of this, we have been working on some new plans for the near future... More about that in the next post...

Stay tuned!

Again?

Yeah... So, it's official.. I only blog when I travel. Guess what that means? I am traveling right now. Where am I now??

Well, I am in a part of the country that is having severe thunderstorms, amazing lightning and possible tornado's in the area... Dallas, TX...

This is my third trip to Dallas in the past few months. I enjoy the travel, but it is increasingly difficult as of late. What makes it particularly difficult is that the rest of my work does not go away when I travel (Remember, I am doing two people's jobs right now). Add in a couple of high priority issues we have had this week and you get a recipe for a mess.... I am tired and beat lately. I am really praying for some relief soon. It's hard to face each day...

The best part about all of this though is that no matter how hard the stress may be, I can find REST in my Lord! It is so wonderful to read the Word right now and talk to God right now and sing... It doesn't mask the stress or even get rid of it all, but it helps to know where my faith is. It helps to know that this is all temporary!

Toto and Dorthy

Toto and Dorthy did not have problems getting out of Kansas, but I did... Well, I am having problems getting out. The flight coming from Charlotte yesterday was delayed due to a small pox scare (see links below). So, I got a free meal and an extra night stay from US Air... Let's see if I can make it home today...

Small Pox 1
Small Pox 2

Ummm... Toto?

So... For some reason, the only time I think to blog now is when I am traveling... So, here I am again.

Tiffany is presently in Arizona visiting her family. She is having a great time and I am jealous to say the least. So, I managed to score a couple more trips out of town to stay busy (Not that I need any help- I am presently doing the job of two people).

Today, I took the 6am flight out of Richmond and flew to Charlotte, NC. Once in Charlotte, I quickly made my way to the other end of the airport (Picking up a Jamba Juice on the way) only to find out that my plane to Kansas City had been delayed. Well, we eventually got on the airplane only to find out that there were 20 other planes in front of us (Which is not normal for Charlotte). Well, we eventually pulled out on the runway only to find out that there was a mechanical problem with the plane. So, they took us back to the gate (But didn't let us off the plane) and fixed the problem. OK... Eventually, I wound up in Kansas City. But, they did not have a car in my class... But, they did have a Jeep Wrangler to upgrade me to!

See, if I had arrived earlier, I would have wound up with something less wonderful than the Jeep... Of course, if I had gone to Arizona instead, I would have a tan right now... =)

This trip is actually going to be a quick one. I will be back home by tomorrow night. The good news is that we are finally getting the proper processes and procedures in place to install and certify these systems quickly. As a reward for this new found success, I get to go to Boston and Dallas again within the next two weeks.

Whew... Talk about a crash course education. My head feels like its full. I think stuff is starting to spill out the back. No, really... Does somebody have a plug?

Change for dollar?

Hmmm... It looks like it has been a while since I last posted... Let's see, has anything changed since Dallas? Yup! February 2007 will go down in history as being one of the fastest and most crazy months of my life!

I spent two weeks of February in training. The training took place in Reston, Virginia. As a result of this training, I now have two more certifications to tack on my name- TCTA and TCTE. What do they mean? TCTA is Tandberg Certified Technical Associate and TCTE is Tandberg Certified Technical Expert... A mouthful for sure and a ton of fun!

In the process of enjoying the two classes, I got food poisoning- Yeah! At the same time, my co-worker/mentor decided to move on to another company. What does that mean for me? MORE WORK and a ton of change! The range of emotions from this change have been varied. Sometimes, I think I can conquer the world and do both my job and his job. Other times, I feel overwhelmed and beat down.

I have been trying to focus though on something that does not change... Life can change fast and it can be seriously uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I want to remain optimistic and hopeful. But my hope and optimism is not some false feel good move to make it through the day or cope. I have hope in Lord! My hope in the Lord is sure and firm. It's not false or fickle. He doesn't promise that life will be easy, but He does promise to be with us. I am choosing to be faithful at work and work as hard as I can and leave the rest up to Him. I could choose to give up and walk away, but that is not the choice that I want to make. I have more to learn in this position and I am learning it for a larger purpose.

Change is part of growth and growth requires change. God is preparing Tiffany and I for something. We do not know what it is, but we know that changes like this and difficult times are part of the process.

I have been teaching Sunday School lately and we have been talking about growing and changing. It is fun to teach 7th, 8th, 9th graders some of the very lessons that I am trying to apply to my own life. It makes it so much more real.

Another area of change was noticed this past weekend. We drove down to Winston-Salem to visit friends from college. During this one weekend, we found out that two of our friends are pregnant now, another couple has choosen a mission field to serve on and yet another couple is leaving for the mission field next month. Seeing life changes in our friends causes us to ask questions and wonder what is next in our lives...

Change comes quickly. We are choosing to find our rest in the One that does not change....

Professional Traveler

I think I am officially a pro at traveling...

I am sitting in Dallas right now installing and certifying yet another video conferencing system. This installation has gone fairly well and has been fun to work on.

Tiffany also came to Dallas with me for the week. She has been learning the DART system well and has been able to get around and see some of Dallas.

It seems odd to me, but it is presently snowing here. I though Texas was supposed to be warm? Of course, I am not surprised now, especially knowing the fact that Phoenix, AZ had ice last week... Wow....

Flying to Dallas, I was able to experience something new, I flew direct from Richmond to DFW. That was my first time on a direct flight! It was nice to not have a connection.

My rental car has the NeverLost system in it.... Guess what? It got me lost... Not once, but twice so far. Normally, I print of directions to everything and have lots of maps, but it has been nice telling my GPS what to do and where to go. The voice is a little annoying at times... We call her "Betty."

Well, it is time for some lunch now and I am hungry!

Out of BETA?!

Wow... This is new.. Google has moved Blogger out of BETA. Google likes to cook its beta projects for a long time (An excellent idea I might add). I decided to upgrade this particular blog to see how smooth the process was and I must say I am very happy!

The biggest improvement is the flexibility of the templates (A needed improvement).

Thanks Google!!

Ahhh... Flying Again

The past couple months have been busy... Ok. No realy surprise there, so I am not going to belabor that point.

At the end of December, Tiffany and I flew to Arizona for Christmas. We had a great time visiting family and relaxing for a while. I few back earlier than Tiff since I was out of vacation time. Tiff was able to stay for a few extra days.

Arizona was actually on the cool side while we were there. In fact, it was warmer back home than it was in Phoenix... Go figure.

Speaking of warm.. Yesterday, January 6, 2007 it almost hit 80 degrees in RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.... That's right.. Our little old Richmond was gorgeous. We took advantage of the day and walked on the flood wall. BTW, the flood wall is a must see in Richmond. I cannot believe we have missed it all of these years.

Right now, I am sitting in the Richmond airport. I am flying to San Fransisco today for business. It's nice to fly when the tab is on somebody else! This increased travel comes with the increasing responsibility I am coming into at work. Everyday is a different day and I am loving it. I have learned so much over the past year and I am glad that it is paying off.