I'm at Tech-Ed - Yippee!

Well, here I am at Microsoft's big deal of the year. me and 30,000 of my closest friends (I actually have no idea how many people are here but it sure seems like that many). It all started yesterday with some hands-on sessions covering Visual Studio .Net and Biztalk 2000. Unfortunately the Biztalk session was cancelled so I wandered the exhibitor's hall collecting swag. I got enough to fill the extra suitcase I brought just for swag. Since I got up at 4 am to catch an early flight I was pretty beat by the end of the day. But that didn't stop me from going to the NetIQ party where they were going to give away a DVD kareoke system and a portable sound system. You can already tell I didn't win because that would probably have been my headline if I had. Before the club I went and had some Indian food. Tamara doesn't like Indian food so I thought I'd take the opportunity to get some since she's not with me on this trip. It doesn't bother me that we don't eat Indian food but walking around the hotel neighborhood I saw a resturante and said to myself, "Hey, what the heck." The place is called Haveli and I had Lamb Vindaloo (lamb w/ potatoes and hot sauce), Peas Pulao (rice w/ peas), Garlic Naan (garlic bread - kind of like a pita but not really), and Lassi (a mango yogurt shake).

Today I've seen one session and I'm on a break until the next one starts. It's on the Microsoft Content Management Server (they bought the company "NCompass Labs" and their main product is now the MS CMS).

My New Palm Keyboard

I am now a totally cool geek. My wife and mother-in-law bought me the ultra-cool portable keyboard for my Palm 7. So now, not only can I post to my web log from anywhere (where there's signal strength). But I can also type the entry in. I feel so complete. I'm going to give the keyboard a good workout when I go to Microsoft's Tech Ed this next week in Atlanta. Let's hope it's up to the task.

The Pool Is Finally Up

Yes, this last weekend I finally got off of my butt long enough to put up Duncan's 12 foot diameter pool. It's a little more involved than the "blow-it-up-and-add-water" types. To help give us a softer pool experience I first went out and bought 750 pounds of sand. After spreading this around and leveling it out, I had to drag all of the pool stuff out of the storage shed we had it in over the winter. Most stuff was a little dusty but intact. It wasn't long before the frame was put together and the pool was filling with water. This last part would take about 8 to 10 hours to finish.

After that I went and moved a dog cage for my brother and took a rest from the near heat stroke from working in the heat of the day.

Duncan finally got to swim for an hour or so near sundown.

Duncan has another teeball game today, but if you read my last post about Duncan's teeball you'll know pretty much what's going to happen at this one too.

Sixteen Candles for our marriage

Yes, it's true. Tamara and I have kept from killing each other for a whole 16 years.




Here's a picture of us on our wedding day (Friday, June 7, 1985).

We were married at the Will Roger's Park Rose Garden. It was a fairly inexpensive wedding but it had all the parts of a wedding we wanted. We were married by a friend that was also a Methodist minister. Our reception was at a nearby hotel and involved much partying but no sit-down meal. Afterwards we went to a trailer in Norman, Oklahoma and on the next Monday I started a new job (that I didn't keep for very long).

We were both in college at the University of Oklahoma and through thick and thin we both managed to graduate. After college there were 2 1/2 years in New York City and 4 1/2 years in Las Cruces, New Mexico before returning to Oklahoma. We've spent the last 5 years in Oklahoma raising our son Duncan and building the next stage in our lives.

Duncan's teeball team wins

But so did the other team. The teeball team Duncan is on is run through the YMCA and for the 4-6 age group they don't keep score, they don't count outs, everyone gets to bat each inning and everyone gets to play in the field. This means that you tend to have about 3 shortstops between 2nd and 3rd and also 3 shortstops between 1st and 2nd. Our team did get some of their players out at 1st base but they still let them stay on base and continue running when the ball was hit. I mean hey, these are just little kids who only have a limited understanding of the game as it is. The focus is to learn some basic skills and to have fun. So far Duncan is having fun. After the game we went to eat at a BBQ place near the ballpark. I can't remember it's name but they had some OK food.

Five Weeks of Nothing... And Now This

See, It's June already and I've blown off the blog for a whole month (5 weeks really). I just can't seem to strike a balance between filling daily posts with dronings about my life or blowing the whole thing off waiting for something to happen. For the most part my life is in such a rut that not very many interesting things happen to me personally. I don't race cars. I don't go out drinking and get into bar fights. I'm not an international supermodel that's actually a secret operative for a super secret government intelligence agency. I'm just a guy with a family, a house, a job and 168 hours a week -- like everyone else. Well almost everyone else. I'm doing better than either of my brothers. I'm not going to go into a lengthy rag on them (but boy could I) -- it would server no real purpose and not even make me feel better for venting.

Well a few things have happened that I should have taken the time to chronicle here. The descriptions would probably have been much better.

1. I'm going to Microsoft's Tech-Ed in Atlanta from June 17th through the 21st. I have my airline and hotel reservations and I'm signed up for the conference. So now I can be one of 30,000 tech cattle hearded through the Microsoft experience. I actually have real business reasons for wanting to go. If I can get certain questions answered I will hopefully spend my small budget more wisely.
   


2. After that I'll be going to Texas with the family. We're planning to go to Houston and take Duncan to the Space Flight Center. We'll probably go to the Gulf Coast too but the whole schedule is pretty up in the air at this point.
   


3. We bought the IRON CHEF book and have been reading all about the main show we watch on the Food Channel. (That and Tamara like "The Naked Chef".) They just had Three days of new Iron Chef battles including the rematch between the Food Channel's Bobby Flay and Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto. Morimoto won the first battle but Flay complained about several aspects of the match. The rematch featured Japanese Lobster as the secret ingredient. One of the things Flay made for the panel was a fresh corn tamale with slices of boiled lobster. The panel seemed to be puzzed by this and didn't seem to be giving Flay's food as good of comments as they were Morimoto's Neo-Japanese food. But in the end Flay won the battle and recieved the people's ovation. I think Morimoto's downfall was the Tempura Lobster Sushi Roll with Lobster Liver sauce.
   


4. Duncan's teeball team has finally formed. He's playing on a six and under team for the YMCA. The team is called "Wild Storm." He's having fun and can really knock that ball of off the tee. So far he likes batting and running the bases better than catching or throwing the ball. He's got a really good coach that works with all the kids and gets the parents involved too. Duncan has a game today at 5:00 pm so I gotta get out of work on time.