UPDATES UPDATES UPDATES
More updates and less than a month has gone by this time. Here's the list of things I need to update:
1) My trip out to Virginia to see my son and how it went
2) My impending trip to Florida with my entire family
3) Hockey
4) Freelance work
5) Some politics
6) Man United back on top
MY TRIP TO VIRGINIA
I went out for the weekend to see my son for his birthday and I must admit I really didn't want to go, but I guess hindsight is always 20/20 right? I flew out on Friday (I took a half day) and then had a long drive from the airport in Raleigh NC to Chatham VA. I picked up Kody at 9:30am and drove back to Greensboro and we got settled in and watched some TV till both of us crashed.
We got to sleep in on Saturday and then got up, went to the local mall and got some lunch and then walked around for a while. Kody picked up some new headphones for his i-pod, and then tool in a movie (Defiance). He wanted to go see Valkrye with TomCruise, but I quickly shot the idea down since I just saw a two hour program about the entire conspiracy on the History channel.
We had planned to go a a Chuck-e-Cheese type place called the Celebration Station for dinner and then we could play some putt putt golf and video games. This is where some pretty funny things happened. First we found out the putt putt course was OUTSIDE not inside like we thought. It was about 30 and we were both just wearing our hoodies. We still went outside and I think we played the fastest 18 holes of putt putt ever played. We completely blazed through the course and then went back inside to see if our pizza was ready.
Sure enough Kody heard them call #23,but our table tent was actually #43. We started arguing and I jsut said we need ot give it some time. We went back upstairs to play some more video games and then we went back downstairs to see if the pizza was ready. I showed the guy my table tent and then he went in the back and come out with that, "I have no idea." look on his face. He went back and forth a fewmore times before he asked me what I ordered. After I told him, he was like, "Oh sorry man, it's been sitting here for a while." At this point I could have made a scene, but was too hungry to bother. The pizza wasn't too cold so it wasn't a total loss. After we ate, we played some more video games and then bailed a short time later. We got back to the hotel and hung out for while before we crashed for the night.
The drrive back to the campus was nice. On Friday night we had some cool conversations, and now the drive back to Chatham was nice and we talked almost the entire way. Kody gave me a short touor of the campus and then I hit road so I could the car back and make my plane to get home on time. Needless to say, I flew home and slept like a baby that night. It was nice to have the day off after a trip with so much driving.
All in all, I didn't want to go, but am glad I did. We got along great and had some fun. I was thinking in future years to go to different cities and hang out in each city like we did in Greensboro. I'm hoping it won't be the same thing every year and then it will seem like we're just doing the same thing every year. In any case, I was happy I went and am looking forward to future trips.
MY IMPENDING TRIP TO FLORIDA WITH MY FAMILY
We leave Monday and I'm having the same feelings I had before I left to go out to Virginia. I'm starting to come around and this is making Bren fairly happy. Maybe it's just because my entire family is going and we're going to have small kids and its not like the usual vacation I take where the goal of the vacation is to do nothing. Sit on the beach, sit by the pool, have some drinks, nap and eat. I'm feeling like we're going to be going from sun up to sun down, which is not my idea of fun by any stretch.
I'm hoping ti will be like ouot trip out to Wisconsin last year which turned out really well. We had some time to ourselves as well as our "family time" with my parents.
Stay tuned for how this will turn out. . .
HOCKEY
Got some new Easton Synergy pants and it's took some equipment tweaks to get them to fit properly. I have two pairs of shin guards. One is longer and one is shorter. The shorter pair would flop over the top of the pants and drove me nuts when I was skating so I switched to the longer pair, went back to my slightly tighter sweats, and am wearing the pants a little lower than I normally do. Bada bing, it feels awesome now.
Saturday hockey has started now and I love the fact I can skate twice a week and get some decent cardio. It's similar to why I useed to play soccer - good cardio, sweat alot and feel great afterwards.
In any case, this is still a good thing.
FREELANCE WORK
We're making some huge changes at work and my next challenge is to learn CSS and learn how to cut and code sites. In March we're also starting on a brand new platform for all of our sites, and this is when the two roles of integration and front end development are to merge. How does this affect my freelance work? Well, it really hasn't. I've only had to two projects, both of them for my family members and both were for free. I also have another project I'm working on for a friend and I might just start looking for a viable template for her site.
I just had a stroke of luck and landed a fairly large project (20 pages, several templates, a lightbox gallery, and full on SEO) with my co-worker. This is going to be my first taste of a legimate project and a good ruler to see how well my SEO techniques are going to work.
All in all, this one has to be done by March 1st. With a short time frame and being out of town for ten days (yeah, I'll be doing some things on vacation, like I always do) and then having a compressed time frame, this is going to be fun!! Not to mention worth some serious $$$$.
Once this project is done, we'll see about future projects.
POLITICS
OMG, where do I start? The latest thing is Obama's stimulus plan. This is the biggest joke ever. He sais he would combat pork spending and his bill is full of it. He said he wants to stimulate the economy quickly which this stimulus bill won't (government construction jobs?? C'mon!) and then telling us we need to do something this year when the majority of the moeny won't be spent until next year.
Some proof. . .
Why it will fail. http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1232450084.php
Is it socialism in disguise? http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1232450084.php
I have more, but I think these two prettymuch lay bare the plan and how horrible it is.
Anyways, at least I'm gainfully employed and have been fortunate not to be working for any of the companies who are laying people off like a kool-aid stand. In the last week over 75,000 people have been laid of and plants and stores are closing all over the counutry. Good thing I bought my TV at Circuit City. Oh wait, they just closed down a few months ago. Whoops.
MAN UNITED BACK ON TOP AGAIN
Well after my Scouser and Blues co-workers taunted me about being 7 points a drift of the lead a few weeks before the FIFA Championship (which we won btw) the joke is now on them as both Liverpool and Chelsea have stalled out and have opened the door for the Red Devils to jump over both and take back the #1 spot in the premiership.
I'm thinking it could be another treble season the why they're playing right now.
Only good things ahead my friends. . .
Oh yeah, andBEcks is over at AC Milan on loan and now that Landon Donovan has left for Bayern Munchen, its been speculated that he won't return to the MLS. Either way, I don't care much.
Till then,
LATE
I NEVER KNOW WHY
My son goes home in a few days and I've been coming down on him pretty hard the last two days. I've spent some time trying to figure out if it's me or if it's him, or a combination of both. It just seems as it gets closer to time for him to leave, he starts doing things which really piss me off.
Yesterday I just got to the point where I just kept telling myself, "I really don't give a fuck. I've never felt close to my son and now I don't care. Let him do whatever he wants, it doesn't matter to me."
Then I starting thinking it might just be me acting out like he does when it gets close to the time for him to go home. I get pretty frustrated since now is the time when we could be spending a lot of quality time together, and instead with his numerous foot surgeries and his unwillingness to do anything I suggest (unless its a movie or dinner some where) has just pushed me to the edge.
The new thing is we met with his mother when he first got into town and he wants to change his visitation so he can skip Thanksgiving (I knew after this year it would happen, along with his mother's coaching of course) and then take away a week in the summer - which didn't surprise me either. His mother spoke of him starting to work this next summer (weird, since he has ANOTHER foot surgery during the summer) and this would cause him to need to be home to work.
My friends have always told me he will get to an age and then you just have to let him go and when he's ready, he'll come back.
I guess I'll just have to be patient - something I'm not very good at.
For now. . .
SEACREST EWT.
