A Tech’s Life

In more than one way. I shouldn’t have to put on a jacket and warm up the car in July. The weather has been ridiculous this year. The fact that it is July is also quite nauseating. Someone pointed out that faculty will be back in six weeks, and I felt like crying. Last summer came and went without having many chances to actually enjoy it, and I fear the same is happening again. There is a good chance I will be working 7 days a week from now until the end of August, which sure doesn’t lend towards much relaxation.

To help combat this, I spent the last day of my 5 day vacation adding on to the deck. Add in some awesome furniture, a new grill, and a picnic table, and I have a legitimate reason to find a way to work from home! Really hoping that any of the after-hours work I have to do can be done from the comfort of our new outdoor area. Then again, if I have to wear a coat, I might as well sit in my warm office.

[update - 7-22]
It’s been much better lately. Actually feels like summer now!

Lacey has her first ultrasound this afternoon for baby number 3. She was measuring ‘big’ when she went in for her appointment last week, so they scheduled the ultrasound a few weeks earlier than normal. Hoping to see a healthy baby (and hopefully only one of them) and to get an accurate due date, though I’m fairly certain I already know.

Another possibility is finding out the sex of this baby. We both really want to know, so hopefully he/she will cooperate. There is also a chance that they won’t be able to tell because she isn’t far enough along yet, but I’m really hoping that isn’t the case. I truly believe I’m going to be happy either way, and it will sure be nice to reference the baby using the proper pronoun. It will also be nice to cut the arguing in half for agreeable baby names!

[update - July 1]
I guess 2 months is a long time to keep my reader hanging! They think it’s a girl, so that’s what we are planning for. Still due end of September, which I’m sure will be here before I know it.

This is the last week of the semester, and I’m SO thankful for that. I’m just finishing up my semester paper, which had to be formatted like our professor’s doctoral dissertation. The only things we had to do really was the paper proposal (which was about 25 pages) and the research paper, which was unlike any paper I’ve ever written before. At least it was good practice for my graduate thesis that will be coming up in a few semesters.

The eyes are doing alright. My left eye is still pretty much perfect, while my right eye is giving me some trouble. It’s fine in the morning, but seems to get tired and more blurry as the day goes on. I was assured that this is not uncommon, but we shall see at my 3 week appointment next week. I’m not too terribly worried, however. Still awesome not wearing glasses or putting in contacts.

Running has taken a back seat to being sick, having a hurt back, and having the eye surgery. I’ve ran only a few times in the last few weeks, and it definitely feels that way. I ran 5K this weekend, but it took me longer than usual, and I only made it 2 miles on Monday attempting to keep a faster than normal pace. No way I’d be ready for the Loons 6K this weekend. Oh well, maybe next year. Need to get back in the habit of waking up early and getting to the center by 6am. Hopefully next semester isn’t so busy.

Well, that’s all for now.

Since our roommate is compulsive, I get to have cool new toys to play with at home. This time, its an iPad. This is my first attempt at using the keyboard, and its surprisingly fun and accurate. The video apps are pretty awesome, such as the Netflix and CBS apps. I can see how this would be pretty usable for taking notes where carrying around a full sized laptop just isn’t practical.

Well, time to play some more. Happy Easter, everyone!

If you didn’t notice the tweets or the rare Facebook post, I had Lasik correction done on both my eyes yesterday in Grand Rapids. I’m officially free of glasses and contacts!

The procedure was nowhere near as bad as I made it out to be in my head. Start to finish, I believe it was over in under 5 minutes. I could feel the pressure during the flap creation, but no pain whatsoever. Now, when I got back to the hotel and the numbing drops wore off, I burned for about 4 hours. I finally managed to fall asleep, and when I woke up, the pain was gone, and I could read the Sleep Inn sign across the room. It was quite exciting.

I’m getting ready to head back in for my 1 day checkup. I’ll have to go back at 3 weeks, and then again at 3 months to make sure everything is healing correctly. I have 3 sets of drops I have to put in my eyes 4 times a day for the next week, and then just rewetting drops for a few weeks after that.

So far, worth ever penny. My eyes should get even better over the next few months. I’m hoping to end up with 20/15 vision when it’s all said and done, though 20/20 will be more than excellent

So much to do this week and so little time. I haven’t started writing my paper proposal yet, which is due this Sunday. I’m having difficulties finding enough resources I need, but it’s way too late to switch topics now.

I have an eye appointment in Grand Rapids tomorrow afternoon, then the early morning maintenance window on Wednesday to install SP3 in our staging environment, assuming we finishing testing today as planned. Jillian has conferences on Thursday evening, and we have tickets to An Evening with Kevin Smith on Friday. I’m not quite sure where I’m going to fit in research and writing in all of this, but it has to be done.

Add in the whole feeling like garbage thing, and it’s going to be one long, rough week. One day at a time…

Despite the sinus infection and pulled back muscles, I’m here in Bay City getting ready for the 37th annual St. Pattys Day 5k. My goal is simply to finish, with little regard for the time. Between the hurt back, the freezing weather and inability to breathe due to the sinus infection, I’m guessing around 40 minutes. Wish me luck!

[-Update-]
I finished in 35:00 flat. Super happy with that time, all things considered!

Yes, it is quite amazing. On another note, for those who don’t follow me on Twitter, I’ve signed up for the St. Paddy’s day race in Bay City this upcoming Sunday. I’m quite excited about it. What I’m not excited about, however, is the weather forecast for this weekend. Low 40’s with rain/snow mix. That should suck to run in. As long as my back heals by then, I’m sure I can suffer through it.

I was able to finish 5k this morning before work, though my back felt pretty bad by the time I was done. A nice happy 36 minute time, so it wasn’t too terrible, but sitting here at my desk all day isn’t helping much. I did take a nice 30 minute stroll around campus. Didn’t help my back much, but the weather was great!

Let’s hope the bad weather holds off until next week so the run isn’t so bad. I’ll be sure to let everyone know if I successfully complete it!

One thing I love about microblogging is that I don’t have to spend time coming up with an appropriate or witty title. I’d like to say that is the reason I don’t post here on ATL very often, but everyone already knows it’s because I’m lazy and never think about it.

To help compensate, and to give those of you not on Twitter something new to read when you show up, I’ve added a widget in the right sidebar of my last 5 tweets. If you click on the ‘more updates’ link and you are not already following me, it will tell you that my account is protected. If you’d like to follow all my tweets, simply shoot me a request and I’ll add you to my list.

I’m doing so well as some of my other goals this year, it’s a pity I didn’t include posting more like I do every other year. Perhaps I’ll try to work it in anyway

I decided not to write my normal end-of-year post, reflecting back on the happenings of the previous year. 2009 was actually much better than 2008, which didn’t take much, but still wasn’t what I was hoping. Instead, I’m going to focus on 2010, which looks to be a very promising and exciting year.

To start with, I just celebrated my 30th birthday this past weekend. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. In fact, I think my father took it harder than I did. It still amazes me on how fast my 20’s flew by, but in all honestly, despite the many joys they contained, I’m glad to be past them. I’ll never forget the wonderful memories created in that 10 year span, nor the lessons I felt I needed to learn the hard way.

Lacey and I found out back in January that we are expecting baby number three. To be completely honest, all the times that we discussed having another baby, I was never totally comfortable with the idea. I find it strange that now that we know it’s coming, I’m more excited about it than I thought I would ever be. Perhaps it’s because I can’t imagine life without my other children, and I know that I now have one more chance to enjoy and cherish all the ‘firsts’.

On July 29th, Lacey and I will get to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Who’d have thought anyone could put up with me for this long? I’m certainly glad she has, and I love her more and more each passing day. I sure hope I tell her that often enough.

I’ve also decided to try and get back to a healthy weight this year, and for the first time, I’ve been able to stick with it for longer than a week. I just finished week 8 of the couch to 5K program, and I must say that I’m quite impressed with myself. Even in my high school prime, I was never able to run long distances (even a single mile was very tough). I’m now able to, albeit very slowly, complete 3.1 miles without stopping. The motivation has been higher than ever, and the reason I believe I’ve made it through 8 weeks. Having a running partner (thank you, Brandon) and the friendly ‘biggest loser’ competition running from Feb 1 to July 31 has provided the necessary motivation to keep at it. I’m already down 15 pounds from my heaviest weight, with 10 of those coming after the start of the competition. This past weekend made last night’s run very rough, and I put a few of those pounds back on, but I’m really not worried about it. They’ll be back off by this weekend, I’m sure of it.

Until next time…