It’s Sunday night in rural Douglas County, and I am stuffed. The whole family went over to Kobe Steakhouse for a teppenyaki dinner, and we all ate our fill. At this point, we’re just riding out the evening until bedtime.

It’s Lisa’s and my 23rd wedding anniversary. It’s been a wonderful day. Lot’s of time with family, too much time with Gracie’s dog (which is currently performing a non-stop, max volume barking display directed towards Lucy and Freya… he’s a nice dog, but damn, he can be loud), and the occasional check of the email to see if there are any new messages.

Tomorrow I’ll head into work to get some work done, and face some of the music that I ducked out on last Friday. I need to write a letter to some folks and submit that, but what’s done is done.

I love my wife and family. I wouldn’t be in a position for the next step if it wasn’t for them. In 2001, we made a collective decision to focus on Lisa’a career, and there are absolutely no regrets on that side. Now, we’re in a good place, and there are decisions that have been made, and many more that will have to be made moving forward.

Thanks for joining me on this little excursion. I may very well start a new blog and continue my writing in that direction.

Time will tell.

Peace y’all.

Saturday in the country. Gracie’s dog is now sleeping on the couch, the floor of the living room littered with the debris left behind in his latest spree of dog bed destruction.

It could be worse. Fluff is easier to pick up than dog poop.

Lisa had a talk this morning on campus, so I ran her over then snuck over to First Watch for an omelet and a cup of coffee. When Lisa was done, I picked her up, and then we went to the grocery store to stuck up a little on stuff. Quite the sale on 7-Up, so I think we are now set on that until the next decade.

We got home and unpacked, then Dane & I ran back into town to pick up a bookshelf Gracie had purchased, as well as a couple of items I wanted to snag for Lisa’s and my anniversary tomorrow. Twenty three years she has put up with my nonsense.

Lots of changes going on right now. Sometimes it’s a little hard to fathom.

Kansas hosts West Virginia in another hour and a half. I hope the ‘hawks can pull off a win at home, a little revenge game for losing on the road at Morgantown a couple weeks back. I think the team will be primed for that.

Other than that, not much to talk about.

Peace y’all.

It has been an interesting day for the old man living in rural Douglas County. The snow has been falling most of the day, and the temperatures outside never got over twenty degrees.

We have a nice little fire going in the woodburning stove. I had a wonderful dinner with Gracie over a Fuzz’s Tacos downtown, and we laughed a lot.

Lunch was fantastic as well. Lisa made chili, and it went so well with the snow falling outside.

Of course, Colby the idiot dog went to a longer than comfortable run about the properties here, and eventually came back to the house after he got cold enough. That dog has all of the sense of me when I was 15. None.

The morning was the most interesting part of my day. I delivered some information to the office, and it was received far better than I expected by all parties involved. One party was missing, and that was the only negative.

After that, I drove home slowly in the snow. Counting cars in the ditch. Then, I answered some emails.

I sometimes think that I’m a pretty static beast. I have my routine. I don’t like the change in my routine.

Maybe a change of routine is called for.

Peace y’all.

After a high in the 50’s, the temperatures are dropping in rural Douglas County, and snow is expected tomorrow and likely over the weekend as well. I might need to get out to pick up a few groceries tomorrow in anticipation of the weather.

I’m not sleeping very well at the moment. Too many things on my mind, a whole lot of changes to assimilate. New digs at work. Bonnie getting ready to graduate college and head off to grad school. Dane graduates from high school the same time Bon graduates, then he heads up to KU in the fall to pursue a degree in Computer Engineering. Gracie is off on her own, a junior in Architecture and Design. Lisa is now a full Professor at the university.

And then there’s me.

I’ve been at my training center since 2003. When we moved to Lawrence, Lisa was a tenure track Assistant Professor back then, and I took a full-time position with a training center. Since then, our children have grown, and maybe it’s time for me to think about my goals in a littler more depth.

I love what I do. I’m a technical trainer. And I am grateful for all of the opportunities the my current employer has afforded me. Maybe I’ll retire there. Maybe some opportunity will come up that gives me a chance to switch ladders and start climbing again.

I just want to be the best version of me that I can be. I might be able to achieve that where I’m at. Time will tell.

Peace y’all.

It’s a Wednesday night, and we’re back from Dane’s band concert, relaxing in the living room watching my favorite bladesmithing competition, “Forged in Fire” on the History Channel.

They’re making some wild-looking ridged Indian blade with a ridge on either side of the blade.

It’s been busy for me around the house, lots of reading and time with my product set, and running an errand for Lisa, returning a bicycle that’s the property of a doctor in Kansas City. He had a component snap while he was riding it, and was pretty seriously injured.

I took care of a few other things that needed to be addressed with a run over to the office supply store, which is also right next door to my gym. Yes, I have a gym membership. No, I don’t use it like I should, but it’s time to get back on that horse. When I was using it, I used the treadmill and the bicycle, but maybe I should get back on the muscle toning machines. I could stand a little de-flabbing.

Not much else to share right now. I know the coming weeks are going to be very busy, very hectic, and they’ll demand that I stay very focused.

In the meantime, stay on that horse, and hang on for dear life.

Peace y’all.

It’s a pretty balmy, near-50-degree day in rural Douglas County, and I’m think we might celebrate Taco Tuesday in the traditional fashion.

Spent the majority of the day with my nose focused on the computer screen. Items to read, exercises to go through, fields to fill out. Fairly typical for an IT guy, I guess. I need to think about getting some other things done as well. The class I’m teaching next week has run pretty well for me the last couple of times, but we’re switching from one virtualized lab solution to another.

I still feel like there is so much ahead of me to read and absorb with the primary products in front of me, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure. The day to day SaaS solution, I’m pretty comfortable with. That Azure, though, sure has a lot going on, but that’s what it needs to be based on the problem it is intended to solve. I often compare it to Legos, but the truth is that it is so much more sophisticated and flexible than any other solution I’ve come across, and that gets reinforced once you compare the Azure solution/feature set to the other offerings out there.

It’s the future. I’ve got to wrap my brain around it and kick a few more penguins off the iceberg.

Peace y’all.

It’s a brisk Monday night in rural Douglas County, and the rain has been coming down most of the day, which leads to frozen sidewalks and streets overnight. We all need to be very careful traveling tomorrow, and double check every step. Some folks are going to slip and get hurt, and all I can do is hope that none of my loved ones are among the injured.

The world changed a little bit today. Kind of an odd thought, I know, but doesn’t it change a little bit every day? Whether it’s the choice of a person with some power or very little, those butterfly wings keep making a difference.

Watching the KU-TCU game… wondering where the butterfly wings are now. Seems a moment ago KU was up by ten, and now it’s down to a one point lead. My anxiety starts getting worked up again.

Maybe I found those butterflies, eh?

Now TCU is up by two. Geez… c’mon Jayhawks!

Ugh.

Oh well. Maybe its just not our year. KU has won the conference or taken home a share of the conference title for fourteen years. We’re due to lose.

My life is good. I need to let this go. I need to detach.

Better go before KU loses and I type something I regret later.

Peace y’all.

It’s another cold winter night in rural Douglas County, and I find myself struggling with a little writer’s block.

It’s nothing to serious. It happens to everybody. We experience life, we think about this, that, and the other thing, and often ponder to ourselves, “Hey! That would be a great topic for my next blog entry!”.

And then, when you go to write that entry, the whole idea you thought was so great evaporates like a fart in gale force winds.

So, I had a brain fart.

We had a great breakfast. Lunch was catch as cats can. Dinner was KFC. I need to do a load of laundry and book a certification exam for later in the week. I have two exams that are a high priority, and a couple of others that I ought to add to list of certs I need to earn.

That’s the life. I’m a trainer. I spent years as a contractor, and one of the truths about success as a contract technical trainer is that you always had to be on the leading edge. I may not be the first guy to certify on a new technology today, but you have to maintain your certs in this industry. Some places may not be quite as aggressive a others, but, at the most basic level, it’s up to the trainer to get out ahead and stay ahead.

Meanwhile, I’m gagging over a “Farmer’s Only” dating commercial.

Glad I don’t have to worry about that. Love my wife, love my life.

Time for me to wrap things up.

Peace y’all.

Hey gang! It’s another Saturday night out in the county, and I’m waiting on Lisa and Dane to return from their sojourn into Gracie’s apartment, and then I’ll take a look at movies that we can enjoy together.

I had hoped to get together with my cousin Julie today, but things just didn’t get aligned so we could get together. Timing, traffic, and schedules all reared their ugly heads. Hopefully, another opportunity will present itself.

I’m getting focused on all things Azure. Curriculum, ebooks, online courses, and, of course, plenty of time working in my lab space in the cloud. There is so much to look at, so much studying to do, but this information isn’t just going to magically pop into my head just because I listened to a book while I slept.

Although some of the Azure podcasts can definitely put a guy to sleep.

I’ve posted some inquiries about study materials to my social networks, and see what all shakes out.

Oh! I need to check talks on Microsoft’s Channel 9 as well.

Complete immersion into the subject. That’s what I need to do because that’s where things are going. Folks are getting rid of their on-premises maintenance and backups and letting somebody else deal with those day to day problems.

Back to my little corner of the universe.

Peace y’all.

It’s a very cold night in rural Douglas County, and Lucy is perched on my leg, growling at Lisa, because Freya is sitting in Lisa’s lap, and Lucy wants that spot instead.

Dog jealousy.

Dane had a snow day today, so he and I went to Sushi Ko for lunch, getting a Heartattack appetizer, and three rolls to share, the Burrito (very good, with it’s unique pink wrapper), one of the modified Philadelphia rolls, and a third one that I can’t recall right off the top of my head. Anyway, we ate our fill. This place isn’t doing as much business as they deserve, and they’re running a 30% discount on almost all of their rolls, so I don’t understand why they aren’t drawing a bigger lunch crowd on Friday. That said, Lent is just around the corner, and I have no doubt they’ll be seeing a bump in business once every practicing Catholic in town starts looking for seafood options on Fridays.

Found out my cousin is in town. She’s here at a swim meet with her daughter. I’ll head off to the Nautitorium tomorrow morning to see her and check out this whole swim thing. Julie was quite the swimmer in high school, so I shouldn’t be surprised that her daughter takes after her.

That’s all that is moving and shaking in my world. More tomorrow.

Peace y’all.