The Christmas holidays have just passed, and New Year’s is closing in quickly. The holidays have been great, with lots of wonderful visits with family and friends. The kids scored out like bandits wherever they went, getting a ton of presents. I took some extra time off from work, and don’t head back to the office until the first week of January. We’ve spent the time playing with our new toys, going skating, sledding, building snowmen, and making over Luke’s room. So it’s been a busy set of days off, but very enjoyable.

One of the things we got for Christmas was a Kinect for the Xbox360. It’s pretty neat, and we’ve been messing around with Dance Central 2, Disneyland Adventures, and Kinect Adventures. Samantha really likes the Disney game, and Tammie seems to be really into Dance Central 2. I like the motion and voice control aspects for the new Xbox360 dashboard. The console is definitely becoming a central media platform for us, bringing in content from our Windows Media Centre, Netflix, YouTube, etc. I am looking forward to Microsoft expanding the overall functionality in the coming year.

As of right now, I need to slip in one more run to end the year at 800k. It’s been bitterly cold the last few days (like -15C cold), so the motivation to get the last few runs in have been low. But I’ll get my ass out tomorrow, rain, snow, or shine, and get those last few kilometres in. I didn’t do very much racing this year, so I’ll hopefully get back into that groove in 2012. I’d like to at least maintain my overall mileage as well, if not increase it. Next year 1000k!

I have developed a bit of a love affair with markers for my sketching this year. You can see a bunch of marking drawings in my artwork postings. I had a set of cool gray Prismacolor markers that I have been using, and I really like them. I have used them so much that my 30% and 40% grays are drying out. So in preparation for replacing my Prismacolor markers, I have picked up a few Copic markers. Copics are a higher grade marker and a bit more broadly used by professionals. I have only worked with them a little bit, but I think I like them even more than I liked my Prismacolor ones! Now I just need to get a full set of cool gray and warm gray markers so that I can get all the tonals that I would like in each picture. It’s funny because for a while I almost completely abandoned doing work on paper for working digitally, and now I am starting to swing back the other way!

Well, it’s getting late and tomorrow is looking to be another busy day. So I best be off to get some rest before the kids begin the nighttime routine. Happy New Year!

Randy

We are on the cusp of December, which means that Christmas planning is in full gear at my place. Tammie has the tree up and decorated already, just in case Santa decides to surprise everyone with Christmas in November. One can never be too prepared. The kids have their lists all done up, and the shopping for family and friends is underway. I plan to take a week and a half off at Christmas, which is the first break I’ve taken since early summer. We’ve been too busy at work to be scouting for much time otherwise. So far the winter weather hasn’t hit us too hard, although we know that can change at any moment!

I have tried to keep up my running, and am nearing my 800k goal for this year. Over the weekend I had a rough 10k that seems to have hurt my hip and foot somehow. I must been running in a way that really favoured one leg over the other, hence the stress on my left hip and foot. Anyways, I shall take a few days off and then get back to it. Need to keep fit and trim, even over the winter!

We got a new bed and stuff for Luke’s room, so he is officially out of the baby stuff. His crib has been disassembled and much of his other furniture has been moved out in favour of some car-themed stuff. Next up will be the paint for the walls and some other decorating, which I hope to get done before too much longer. Our weekends seem to fill up fast, so I may just have to schedule it and stick to the plan!

I went skating recently for the first time in around 20 years. It wasn’t quite as bad as I imagined it would be, but I was certainly no dynamo. I would say that Samantha (who is four) and I are just about the same speed right now. I wore Tammie’s roller derby helmet just in case… one should never tempt the head-injury gods unless one needs to. I’m sure we’ll be out again many more times over the winter, and maybe by April I can actually skate more than one lap of a rink in 30 minutes!

Well, it is getting late, so I best be off.

Randy

Last night was a really stormy night, with powerful winds and pounding rain. I lost a blue tarp outside somewhere along the way; goodness knows where it ended up. Wind is one of those things we are never short of here in the Maritimes. I recently ran the half-marathon I was getting ready for, and had a pretty good race. The headwind on race day was pretty tough, and it definitely slowed me down a little bit. I think that if it had been a perfect weather day, I might have had a shot at a personal best time. Alas, we shall never know. I am feeling more positive about my running this year, especially as my mileage approaches 700km year-to-date. I’d like to get to 800km before the year is out, but as the days get shorter, it gets harder and harder to slip outside for a run. I love running outside, but am not a fan of running in the dark. I find that it is hard to see where your footfalls are going to strike, and that makes it unnecessarily treacherous at times. I could probably move my runs indoors, but that means making a special trip somewhere just to run, and that’s not just me.

We just wrapped up Halloween tonight as well, and didn’t get that many trick-or-treaters. I took Samantha and Luke out for about an hour around the block. They ended up getting a nice little stash of goodies. We let them gorge a bit on their spoils, although that made it hard to get them to bed. Luke took about an hour a half to settle down after lights out, which is long even for him. I think he has inherited my sleep habits, heaven help us all. Their costumes were pretty cute this year. Samantha was a fairy and Luke was a prince. We had a dragon costume for Luke as well, but he seemed to prefer the prince costume. I think it was just easier for him to move around in, and Luke is all about mobility. He was extra good walking around from house-to-house though, as Samantha lead the way through the neighborhood.

We went swimming at a local pool recently, and Samantha was able to go down the waterslide by herself for the first time ever. I was very proud of her, but it is also another step that takes her away from being my little girl. You have this great sense of pride and a little twinge of sadness at the same time. I suspect being a parent is filled with such moments, as your children learn and grow into independent people. Luke is a rockstar in the water; he loves it so much. He gravitates towards it whether it is at the pool or the beach, and you have to drag him out of it at the end.

Work is busy, as always. Working in the private sector, the moment you are not busy is the moment you need to start worrying, so I like having lots to do. We are lining up projects for the new year already, and it’s nice to see things flowing through the planning stages into something we can work on. It has been an extremely packed year for us, so it’s time to set some goals for next year and dig into them with abandon. And maybe take a little bit of extra time off around Christmas just to recharge the old batteries.

Still mucking around with World of Warcraft in my spare time, although I’ve been thinking I should ditch it for a little bit and get back into doing some artwork. I started another canvas painting not too long ago, but only got about halfway finished of it. I have a few other visual ideas clattering around in my skull as well that would be nice to get out onto paper. Never seems to be enough time in the day, or perhaps I just don’t have enough energy. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Randy

So here we are in September, and the weather has turned out to be nicer than it was all summer! I don’t claim to understand it, nor do I care to. As long as we have warm temperatures and bright sunshine, I’m good to go. I have been pretty diligent about keeping my running schedule into the fall, and am really starting to get my legs back. I’ve done several runs in the 15k+ territory, so have decided to sign up for the half-marathon later this fall. I am not running with any particular time in mind; just running for the satisfaction of it all. I gotten accustomed to running at less than ideal times, like right after eating or at night, but you do what you have to do when the schedule is tight.

I have been sucked back into World of Warcraft recently, and am having fun with the old Orc Hunter. I am an achievement hunter by design, so there is always some obscure part of the world calling my name with some ridiculous task to be performed. Tammie has been playing as well, and she is getting her Blood Elf Warlock closer and closer to the highest level. It’s fun for the two of us to run dungeons together after the kids have gone to bed. My geekness has finally overtaken her!

We took the kids on our annual trip to the zoo not too long ago. Samantha really enjoyed it, but Luke is at the age where he is hard to contain. I hate just dragging him around in the stroller, but you can’t have him running around like a wild child in public places either. Tammie is more patient when it comes to such things, whereas I tend to get more anxious. But it was still a fun trip and I think everyone had a good time. Tammie and I also ventured over to Moncton to see our first live roller derby match. Tammie plays roller derby, but has yet to actually play a real game, so it was interesting to see the whole thing live. There were some hard hits, big spills, and fast plays. All-in-all I was surprised at how entertaining it was.

My younger sister is home for her annual visit, and it’s been fun to hang out with her. We’re head to Red Rock Wrestling tomorrow night, and that should be pretty fun. I can remember her and I watching the old WWF Wrestling back when we were kids. We’d sit in front of the TV and scream at Brett Hart to beat up the bad guys. Ahh, those were the days.

Well, off to get a little questing done in the Azeroth, and then off to bed. Busy day at work tomorrow as we try to get a few projects tied off before week’s end.

Randy

Rumor has it that we’ve had 40 days of rain over the last 60 days here on the east coast, so that should tell you what kind of summer it has been. Feels more like the spring or fall them the summer, for sure. We’ve had a few nice stretches here and there, but certainly not more than a cluster of days at a time. Weather aside, I have been better at getting out for runs this summer than last summer, and am getting my monthly mileage back to 100 km give or take. I still haven’t been in a race this year so far, but that bothers me less and less as the season ticks forward. I can feel myself getting back in shape, which is my primary goal.

Work continues to be very busy, although at least we have been back on a regular schedule for a while now. Those months of overtime through the winter and spring were very tiring. We’re working on some neat stuff with our new development framework, and it’s neat to see how powerful it is when extended to different projects. There was some internal debate on whether or not we should have used something like Zend or CakePHP, but I really like the system we’ve developed. But hey, I am probably biased.

I got out to see Captain America: The First Avenger. I really enjoyed it and I am glad that the creators stayed true to the Captain America character. It was great to see it framed in the 1940′s era, and they made a great transition to modern day. The whole movie had a nostalgic sensation to it, even though they kept the action and dialogue crisp and fluid. Don’t get me wrong, it won’t win any Oscars, but it was a solid summer action flick. The sneak peek of the Avengers movie was also very neat. I am very excited to see the whole team get together on-screen.

I have been playing Dragon Age: Origins in my spare time, trying to finally get to the end of it. I am very slow at finishing games nowadays. I am constantly amazed at how many options and story paths that game has. It must be strange being the developer of a game where you know that much of your game content is hidden away in dialogue choices that many players may never make. I have also spent a little more time with Starcraft 2. Hard to believe it’s been out a whole year and I still suck at it!

Well, Tammie is feeling sick tonight and I have to go send her to bed early, so I best be off.

Randy

I’m in the middle of my summer vacation, as I’ve taken a week and a half off work. I don’t usually take so much time at once, but we slipped in a trip to Winnipeg this year for a wedding. Just Tammie and I went, leaving the kids with the grandparents. It was a pretty nice trip, and we got to explore some of Winnipeg while we were there. In the short three days we had, we visited the Assiniboine Park Zoo, the beautiful Assiniboine Park, the environmental education center Fort Whyte Alive, the partially flooded Forks, and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for a CFL game. We also travelled north of Winnipeg for the wedding ceremony, seeing some of the countryside. Being an east-coaster, I am not used to seeing terrain that is so flat. In all directions outside of Winnipeg, the land is flat, the roads are straight, and the sky is big. Overall it was a pretty fun trip, and it reminded me how much I like seeing new places. I get kind of nervous driving around in cities I don’t know, but it all seems worth it when you stumble across those really cool locales.

So with no work for the rest of the week, I’ll be mixing in some errands around the house with some downtime to play. I have some art projects I’d like to catch up on, and just play some computer games that I haven’t binged on in a while. If the weather is nice, we’ll try and squeeze in some local activities with the kids (Tammie is still babysitting this week, so our numbers are up by two). I’ll probably hunt up some more horrible movies to watch in Netflix, as is my custom late at night. And of course, try to sneak in a few runs here and there, when time and interest dictate.

Samantha just turned four the other day. It is a total cliche, but it really is hard to believe that she has been with us for four years (five if you include the pregnancy). She is definitely becoming her own little person, with her own take on the world. I believe that one of the most rewarding parts of being a parent is just seeing your kids develop and grow as individuals. Little kids are fun because they play and act silly, and it gives the parent a chance to have a second childhood while playing along. I loved being a kid, so maybe that’s why I like this part. Luke is also getting out of the baby phase and developing in the little trouble-maker that he is destined to become. He is constantly in motion and so curious about the world. On the downside, he hates sleeping because he sees it as a waste of time. I am also not a very good sleeper, so I suppose I can take the blame for that gene.

Well, may grab a snack and head out for a run.

Randy

So here we are in mid-July and the summer weather has finally come around. It has been super-cold and wet up until now, so it feels like summer is going to be an even shorter season this year. We’ve had a busy weekend with the kids, attending Canada Day festivities, touring Orwell Corner, and just bumming around outside. Tammie and I leave soon for Winnipeg, where we will be attending a friend’s wedding. It will be the first time since we met 5 years ago that we will be flying together. I have never been to Winnipeg before, so I am curious to see what the city is like. We’ll also get a chance to spend some time outside of the city as well, hopefully without meeting too many of the legendary Manitoba mosquitoes!

Not much running going on lately. This year is the first in the last eight years that I have not yet run a single race. I suspect I’ll sneak in some event before the year is out, but I have found it tough to get back into running since I was sick. Work has been so busy that I don’t seem to have a lot of extra energy. I know that exercise is supposed to help elevate your energy levels, but it doesn’t feel that way most days. I have been walking to and from work every day recently, which has to count for something. I’d like to squeeze in some more hikes this summer and fall. Not multi-day affairs, but stuff that takes a few hours to complete.

Speaking of work, we finally released our major software revision in late May. The rollover went not too badly, although there were a few bumps right out of the gate. It feels like we have a handle on things now, and we’re staring to get back to a regular work schedule. There were lots of extra hours and weekends put in over the last several months, and it’s nice to finally see the product live. I did a presentation at a tech conference recently on creating an e-commerce solution. I don’t often get to do presentations anymore, so it was neat to get out a business function like that. I am not one to do the mixer-style thing, but I don’t mind seeing some presentations. I think my own presentation was well-received, but how can you really know? Nobody walked out and there were some question during and after… so I take that as a win.

Netflix has been a huge success at the old homestead. We are really enjoying it. Tammie is churning through seasons of different TV series, and I just like the variety of crazy movies I can watch. We watched “Barbarella” last night, which is a classic to be sure. I’ve watched stuff from all over the map: “Mongul”, “Resident Evil”, “Superbad”, “Moby Dick 2010″… the list goes on-and-on. I can honestly say I don’t miss cable one bit.

Well, I feel like getting a little bit of sketching in this afternoon before Luke awakens from his nap, so I’ll get started on that. Gotta sneak your spots when you have kids!

Randy

So here we are in mid-May, and it is just above zero this evening. So much for spring weather! Oh well, at least we have no more snow. So in mid-April I got really sick with a bad flu, which I think developed in pneumonia. I was down and out for the better part of three weeks, and it really disrupted my half-marathon training. So in the end I had to abort the half-marathon, which I was very disappointed about. I went for my first run in a month tonight, and it felt like I lost pretty much all the conditioning I had built up over the last few months. Hopefully it will come back quickly, but my racing year has definitely been set back.

Work has continued to be extremely busy, but we finally have a solid release date for the major software revision we have been working on. The release will be the result of almost a year’s hard work, with countless hours of overtime. Fingers crossed that things will go well when we changeover the systems! I’d like to say that we are going to have a lull after the big release, but we’ve already gotten several months worth of work queued up, so the summer is going to be as busy as ever. Better busy than not!

In entertainment news, we recently decided to drop our cable and try Netflix instead. So far I am really liking it, and it saves us several hundred dollars a year. Since neither Tammie or I watch any TV programs regularly, having a giant archive of older on-demand media works just fine.  We stream it through our XBox360 to the TV, and it works really well. The kids love it too, since Netflix has a huge catalogue of kids stuff. You can never get enough Dora and Backyardigans!  Right now I am watching the soon-to-be-classic “Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus”. Fantastic!

Well, just a short update this month. Time for a little snack before bed.

Randy

I figured I should slip in an update before the end of March. Seems harder to get around to the old blog nowadays. The weather has improved after a winter with lots of snow, but strangely enough the forecast is for more snow tomorrow. I’m hoping it’s an April Fool’s joke! I have been training for a half marathon that will take place in early May, so my running is definitely back in gear. Just ran a 14k training run last weekend, with a 16k to look forward to this weekend. I’m liking getting back into the longer runs, and hope I can keep them up after the half-marathon. I am not sure how much racing I’ll get in this year, but I’d be great to get 10-15 races in before the fall.

Work has been super-crazy trying to meet a mid-April deadline. As I’ve mentioned before, we are working on a new version of our core software, and it has been a major undertaking. Everything is new, right from the database schema all the way up to the display layers. We’ve built a pretty robust system that we believe is very forward thinking, now we just need to get the bugs hammered out of it so we can get it launched. It’s been several months of work, more late nights than I’d care to admit. But that’s what happens sometimes in the custom software business, especially when you’ve got deadlines. But we’re nearing the end of this development cycle, so that’s the upside. Most of the heavy lifting is behind us.

I’ve been doing some more artwork recently, which has been really fun. I got a set of cool gray markers for Christmas that I have been wearing out on different stuff. I really like the way the markers blend, and it’s a nice change of pace from the digital work that I’ve gotten into over the last few years. Even though I can probably do much more refined stuff by painting and drawing digitally, there is something about working with pencils, pens, and paper that is so much fun. I have been doing a larger acrylic painting for Tammie that I am nearly finished with. I might actually make a point to finish it this weekend while she is out at book club. I have played with acrylics before, but never to this level, so it’s been quite a learning experience. I am definitely not a pro yet, but what I’m quite happy with this particular piece.

With the work schedule and just daily family life, I haven’t been doing a lot of movie-going or game -playing recently. I fire up Starcraft 2 every now and again to get some aggression out in a match or two. I let my World of Warcraft account expire without playing much of the Cataclysm expansion, which is the first time I have done that. All of the other expansions I at least played through the majority of the main content. Oh well, maybe sometime when things are less busy.

Here’s hoping for no snow tomorrow!

Randy

So we’re still in January of 2011, so I guess it kind of counts as the new year, right? It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything. It’s been so busy with the holidays and work that I guess I haven’t really considered the old blog space too much. Today was the coldest day of the year, with a windchill that pushed below -30C. That’s pretty cold. I went for my first run of the new year yesterday, and it was just a hair above -20C. So needless to say we’ve hit a cold patch. I am toying with the idea of doing a half marathon in May, but we’ll see how things go. Last year was not a good running year, with my lowest mileage in five years. Family and work certainly have made it harder to get out. I am not a morning person, so the run-before-everyone-gets-up thing just hasn’t worked for me, even though I have tried several times. Oh well, I may have to train myself to drag my sorry butt outta bed!

I finally finished the single player missions of Starcraft 2. Absolutely fantastic game. I am very eager for the next part of the missions, but suspect there will at least another year’s wait for those. I picked up the latest World of Warcraft expansion, but honestly have not played it very much. Blizzard did a really good job with it, I just can’t seem to carve out the time to log in and hammer through the content. I have been doing a lot more drawing lately, both digitally and on paper. I got these really nice markers for Christmas that I am having lots of fun with. They are a whole bunch of shades of cool gray and can be blended and overlaid in all sorts of neat ways. I’m in one of those periods where I wish I could just sit home and draw or paint all day!

Work has been really busy, with lots of changing gears since the Christmas break ended. We are working on a re-write of our core software as well as doing work for many of our regular clients. Lots of juggling and some days it is a challenge to get in and out of the really technical stuff. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to wade through the ancillary work by the end of January and then really re-focus back onto our core software revision. That’s where the real magic is happening.

Well, I have some contract work to get caught up on, so I best get to it. I’m all fueled up on Pepsi and Reeces Pieces, so I gotta work while the juice is flowing!

Randy