Okay, I'm too hungry to go on any more.

Has it been easy?  Nope.  Have we had good times and bad?  You bet.

But this exceptional woman has grown and changed and struggled and celebrated with me for a while now and I just want everyone to know that she's the best.

And, it's her birthday today  Happy Birthday baby.

Very excited, nervous, sad, happy all at the same time.  I've been with the company I work for since March of 2006, so it's been just over 6 years.  In IT, that's FOREVER!  When I interviewed, the first guy I talked to had been there 6 years, his manager 17 years, and his manager 28 years.  The CIO has been with the company for 41 years!  Stability?  Yeah, I'd say so!

The work will be similar in that I'll be meeting with internal users, determining what they need, and building a plan of action.  Then after figuring the return on investment and budget, if it's feasible, I'll build it.  The IT dept is 10x the size of the one I work with now.

It's been a rollercoaster ride and I have learned a lot and met and worked with some excellent folx.  I'm sad and sorry to go, but it's definitely time for me to make a change and do something different.

The funniest part is, it's in NYC, and I'm SO not a city boy.  I grew up on Long Island but I never liked going into the city.  Now I'm going to commute 5 days on the train, wear a suit 5 days a week.  Weird!!!

Here's to new beginnings.

One of the things I use on an hourly basis for help in programming is Twitter.  I ask and answer questions all day long and it's wonderfully helpful.  I tweeted something the other day about getting in shape without running a marathon day 1.  A friend of mine posted http://www.c25k.com/podcasts.htm back and said it was instrumental in getting him out there and keeping him going.

They're podcasts dictated by a guy named Robert Ullrey - just  a NOCal guy getting off his ...well, you know ... and sharing his experience with the masses.

They....Are...EXCELLENT!  I have always had problems pushing myself, but when I'm with someone I feel like I have to go their pace, and I don't know what mine is....  This is cool because you do a 5 minute warm up, then intervals of 60 second runs with 90 second brisk walks for about 20-25 minutes.  Just having him in my ear saying "Here comes your next run, ready?  GO!" and the music jumps up and a faster song comes on.

Me?  I'm part sloth, but when I do get into something, I tend to do pretty well.  I think this is the thing I've been looking for to get me moving.  It also didn't hurt that it was BEAUTIFUL outside today.  Going out during lunch on Thursday, keep me honest!!!

I need to get back into writing, but I'm about to start a 3 day training class.  Oye.

One of the things we did when we moved in was repaint the whole thing, and have since repainted the whole downstairs and upstairs hallway since it's all the same color about 6-7 years ago.  Our place is about 25 years old at this point, and so while we've been living here, some settling has taken place which is pretty normal.

So we've been thinking of doing another repaint to get the vibrant yellow back that we had, it's kinda washed out in two places that get a lot of direct sunlight.  One of the things we've noticed has been on the corners, there is a metal strip that is on both sides, and there's a crack that runs up one side, and some corners are worn down to the metal because of being hit or wear, and there are a LOT of holes in the walls.  One of the things that happened over the last two years is Fae has lost both of her grandmothers and has inherited a lot of pictures, so the pics in the upstairs hallway have been needed to be shuffled and moved, and this actually affords us an opportunity to rethink the whole picture plan.  It's nice, it's like a whole family wall up there.

The problem is, I am not that great at the repairs to begin with and after talking to a few friends and family, we decided to bring someone in to do the repairs.  We've got some molding that we tried to caulk and it looks like crap, lots of holes (like I mentioned), the corners, and some other stuff that just needs someone who knows drywall.

So I'm sitting here while he's scraping and repairing things and so totally excited that it'll get done right instead of me having to do it 3 times because it's 'just about there'.  Plus, if it's messed up, we can call him to come fix it  YAY

Nice thing about it is he's gonna clean up one of my other semi-failures - the bathroom showers.  I've recaulked those things like 10 times over the years and they still look like crap and leak.  My wife is so good, she finds someone who can do it all

I just peeked at some of the stuff he's already done.  He's good  After prime and a coat of paint, you won't be able to tell diddley.  YAY x2

Bridgewater, NJ to White Plains, NY is about 86 miles.  Takes me roughly 1.5 hours each way.  Yeah, I did that commute 5 days a week for about 4.5 years.  Oye  Honestly getting into the car, I usually go into autopilot and just listen to my audiobooks.

Today it took about 2 hours, but it wasn't super bad on the way home thankfully.  I just forget how long it takes sometimes.

I have to admit tho, I do miss being in the office sometimes.  Just being in that atmosphere is invigorating, mostly because I get my best work done when I'm bouncing ideas off my co-workers and just get a better feel for the flow of things.  Today was no different - couple of meetings, a nice long tech-chat session with the guy who works for me, and lots of tying up of loose ends on a few projects that kept getting pre-empted by more priority stuff.

The other thing that happened yesterday that was great today was my understanding level of some of the stuff I work with.  I was really baffled by this one issue (I won't bore you with what or the details), but I ended up banging my head against a wall for a long time and felt down about my level of understanding.  Turns out it was just a stupid user error on my part and once I figured it out, I felt great.  Not only that I had finally solved my issue, but with the fact that my understanding of how it worked was right, I just had something I left out and it made it not work for me.

I had been posting some stuff on a tech forum that I use from time to time, and after several back and forths with someone on the forum, I mentioned that I felt dorky for making such a basic mistake.  I got two responses that made my day:

It just made day to hear something supportive like that.  Anyway, I feel a lot better about reformatting and updating some stuff I've wanted to play with for a while now, so I'm excited again

Nope, I suck.  I forgot most of my forms except the first basic 4, and only remembered some of the short and long staff strikes, and one of the long staff forms.  Am I discouraged?

Surprisingly, no.  It was nice to tie on a belt, put my sword through it and pretend I was still in prime form, but in truth, after a few minutes of being down on myself, I felt "it" again.  I can't really describe it fully, but I think if I had to, I would say it's almost a 'settling' on my shoulders of some mantle or weight.  No, I'm not thinking I'm channeling some past life, my body feels like it shrugs off everything unnecessary for the moment and allows me to be still, and concentrate on sword, body, and target to the exclusion of everything else.  When I am in good shape, and everything is not painful, I can go away so far that I only hear my Sensei in my head, (or if I'm at his house, in my ears:)), but I feel things finer, in more detail, more separated.  I feel like I can almost separate muscle groups to make changes with each repetition.

Yeah, it felt good, and yeah, it was only 15-20 minutes, but it gave me hope.

AgaBoom is a performance we went to see at the local community college.  It's three REALLY good clowns doing a lot of funny stuff I have to admit.  It was definitely an audience full of kiddies, but I did enjoy it a lot.

So what's up with me?

I'm in a bad freakin mood.  Why?  Haven't figured it out yet.  Little crap is setting me off.  I'm feeling crowded, anxious, full of too much frenetic energy.

Duh, I need to work out.  I'm eating healthy (well, more than before), and I'm not sitting in front of my desk for extended periods of time, getting up and doing stuff.  I think maybe it's the fact that I am going to physical therapy and doing SOMETHING.  I've always had a bit of an addictive personality, and I do like that burn I get when I'm lifting sometimes.

Wait, I've had this conversation before.  "I'm going to go do something right now"  "Oh wait, my father in law is coming over, I'll do it after" and it never happens.  The other thing is, it's FREAKIN COLD outside right now.  Wish I had more room

*poor me*

Yep, that's what the title should be today.  Just having a funk, it'll pass.

I haven't been able to do that...well, I have to an extent, I've just used my elbow pain and surgery more as an excuse than anything else.

Now that I'm doing physical therapy, I'm getting a little taste of it, and the burn isn't so bad.  The plan today is to go to my orthopedist checkup, come back and finish up work for the day and go outside with my sword and just swing it for a while.  Just the physical effort necessary should help me work up a little sweat, move muscles I haven't in a while, and get outside and take some deep breaths.

I might even go for a walk to the pond in the front of our complex after.  *GASP*