Hacked by Trenggalek6etar

it begins, again.

just in case anyone was concerned that i would have extra time on my hands, we’ve taken care of that.

this week i enrolled in and began taking college courses again, after having worked exclusively since 1996. boy things are different now, especially taking classes online!

as carrie pointed out, it’s come full circle: i left college to do work online. now i’m going online to return to college. read on to get the details of the program & classes.

the degree i’m pursuing is a joint program between Edmonds Community College and Washington State University. the joint BA degree program will start me off towards an Associates Degree in Business Administration from Edmonds, and upon successful completion of that, automatically enrolls me into an online Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration: Management of Information Systems program at WSU.

if all goes well, i should be able to complete the AA degree by the end of Winter quarter 2008 (that’s March, 2008) and then i’m hoping to complete the online BA program by the following summer (June 2009).

yes, this is daunting. but as has been pointed out to me – if i had started this 2-1/2 years ago, i’d be done now.

enough blogging, i have to go back to studying!

look different? new host + new software!

yes, things look quite different. let me explain.

i’ve switched web hosting companies, which in itself should not make a marked difference in the site. but while i did this, i upgraded my site to the latest release candidate of Drupal, an Open Source website management system (they call it “community plumbing” and i think that suits it well).

wacky northwest weather, part II

yes, it’s been weird. again.

over the weekend, we got snow. starting about mid-afternoon sunday. don’t believe me?

that was only the beginning.

Thanksgiving 2006 trip, part 1

yes, we’re back in the Pacific Northwest, after a week in the Northeast for Thanksgiving, 2006.

it was a good trip, although it started out on a sad note. read on for details about driving, hotels, nostalgia, and mundane details that only i’m really interested in. part 1 of 2, or 3, depending on how chatty i get.

chilly northwest

so, here in the Pacific Northwest (or “PNW”), at least on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, we’re used to moderate temperatures. this is all thanks to the enormous body of water that most of our weather travels over before arriving here.

this weekend shifted to a pattern from the north/northwest instead of the west/southwest — which means the air comes from a much colder place. last night we dipped into the 20’s, and are looking at the same for tonight. our average lows for this time of year are around 40 degrees. (yes, this is all fahrenheit).

so, we’re bundling up and keeping the woodstove going at night. and wishing (at least i am) that i’d gotten more done outside when the weather was nicer. oh well.

parents: dress the kids up as something warm — an eskimo, perhaps, or even the michelin man? otherwise they might come back from trick-or-treating tomorrow looking like popsicles.

new building, new desk. awesome!

so, as i sit here at work, supporting a software deploy, i’m compelled to blog about my new office space. my team just moved to a new building (and by new, i mean brand new). 39th floor. it’s absolutely amazing.

read on for more details and pictures, but here’s a teaser — this is the view as i approach my cube.

Buffalo gets hammered

and not in a good way, like when we were there for the Buffalo Brew Festival. several feet of snow have fallen (in mid october!)

my brother is hooking up a generator for my parents right now, as they’ve been without electricity for 2 days.

here’s the story at the buffalo news: http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061014/1042271.asp

the dahlias continue to bloom.

yes, it’s the middle of october. but some of our late Dahlias are just getting started! let’s hope they all bloom before we get out first frost.

sadly, some of them succumbed to their own success — we had some heavy rain, and the blooms were so big, and collected so much water, that it toppled the stems. but most of them did well. next year, we hope to make them bloom a little earlier, so we’re not going so late into the season and risking bad weather at the end of the season.

all hands on deck!

yep, that was our weekend. work on the deck.

i have to say, fixing a deck, restoring, refinishing, replacing bad parts, etc. takes a heck of a lot longer than actually building one.

about halfway through this project, i stopped and thought to myself…. wouldn’t a nice patio look better in this place? heh.

but today we got major carpentry and staining/preserving done. all we have left is installing the lattice, and making the “gate” for the “loading dock” end. but i can build that in the shop, so good weather isn’t particularly necessary.

also, last weekend – we moved a ton of gravel. yeah, literally. (why did the stone yard load 2600lbs of gravel into a 1/2 ton truck?) but the front walkway was re-set into gravel (instead of sand) and now it feels rock-solid.

of course, all of this is useless without pictures. will try and get some this week after work. and we still have dahlias blooming, which is crazy. i hope they flower before the first frost hits.

back in town

no posts in a while, but we’ve got good reason. we were out of town for a week, went back to Buffalo, NY to celebrate my stepfather’s birthday, and attend the Buffalo Brew Fest.

it was awesome. read on for details and wistful yadda yadda. gosh i miss the east coast. and did i mention, nobody knew we were coming?