Me and shiny new things. I tell you what. Each day I find one more piece of this new computer to tweak, manipulate or otherwise feed my endless technological curiosity. Today it was the webcam. I was finalizing some new settings in Skype (yes, I now have a business phone number) and wanted to make sure that Skype was working with the new webcam. What came of this was 2 test videos, the second of which I decided to upload to YouTube. Enjoy…

…and you know the rest of the song. Been a crazy day, week, month, 6 months. Lots of changes, lots of ups and downs. But I think it is safe to say that things are settling down and I’m into a comfortable rhythm. Work is going well on all fronts. Been finding success with the classes I’ve been teaching. And here in the last week or so – I’ve really been digging the new computer set up.  Aw yeah! Core i7 processor (fastest consumer processor as of this week at least). New 23 inch monitor just came in today. HOLY CRAP. It’s huge. And HD 1080p. Now I’m wishing...

This is going to be a short post. But hello to all blog reading friends! Just wanted to share some cute photos of the weiner-beaner… I mean Abby from this fall. Enjoy!

Boston day 2. I got a little more adventurous last night after work. After my daily check-in with Becca and Abigail, I headed out and got on Massachusetts Ave and started walking. My ultimate goal was to find something for dinner. There’s a P.F. Chang’s right next to my hotel, but I wanted to enjoy something uniquely local – hopefully. Monday I had Greek. Tuesday? Well, eventually I found an Irish pub… Before I ate, though, I walked down to the Charles and walked out about half-way over the bridge. Pretty cool view of Cambridge and even looking back into Back Bay. But it...

So, yesterday (that being Monday) I woke up at the butt crack of dawn, drove an hour plus to the Indy airport, hopped on a jet-plane and flew to Boston, MA. By 10 am I had traveled halfway across the country, checked into a hotel and was settled into the office at WordStream – my employer and benevolent host. Everyone in the office is super nice, the office itself is super nice and I was able to plug in and start working without a fuss.  WordStream’s office is on the 16th floor of a tower owned by the Christian Scientists, right next to the rather large Prudential Tower and about 1.5...

Still can’t quite believe it, but yesterday Abigail turned 3 years old.  This event has caused one thought to plague me: Surely time becomes distorted and somehow misaligned the older we all become.  I know it’s cliche, but it literally “seems like yesterday” that Abigail was born. When did our precious infant become this talking, dancing and potentially crazy toddler? As I try to focus in on these 3 years, I can only smile. First it was crying. Then it was crawling. Then it was walking. Then it was talking. Ok, maybe that smile can turn into tears, too. Maybe it’s...

After 2 days of failing to update the blog with our vacation details, I am catching up today.  Honestly, Monday and Tuesday were pretty low-key.  We played some baseball at a park.  Watched the movie Coraline (creepy!).  And Phil and I began playing the game Prototype on the PS3.  Talk about gore!  Sweet game, though. On Tuesday we hit the Ripley’s mini-golf course again.  It was in the mid-nineties and all of us were soaked in sweat.  Mmmm…  After packing up all of our crap and saying the inevitable good-byes to Phil and Jess, we hit the road – bound for good ole Indiana. What...

Sundays are supposed to be a day of rest, right?  Well, we took that to heart.  After a lazy morning, all 3 of us and the Seatons headed out for a glutenous lunch of Mexican food (for which we all paid the price later…).  After roaming a West-Town mall for a few hours, we paid *WAY TOO MUCH* for matinee tickets to see the new Pixar flick, UP. Part of the exorbitant ticket prices was due to the fact that the movie was being shown in digital 3-D.  Sort of made up for the prices.  But I will say that the movie was fantastic!  Pixar continues to amaze me with their improvements in animation...

Saturday was the day of outdoor activities.  And in Knoxville, that means the Great Smokey Mountains!  On the original docket was Clingman’s Dome, Metcalf Bottoms and Cade’s Cove.  We only made it to the Dome and Cove.  But it was a fantastic day! Clingman’s Dome is amazing.  For many reasons – 1) it’s beautiful and 2) it’s a physical challenge to make it to the top!  Our crew (Me, Becca, Abigail, Phil and Jess) made it all the way with only 5 stops along the way.  Phil had the best endurance with me bringing up the rear.  But getting to the observation...