It is a Sunday night, the 21st day of February, in the year 2021. I am relaxing, enjoying a cocktail before I call it a night and head off to bed, but first, a reflection on the last day or two.

I did pause to check out the iamrobmartin.com website to verify the number of days I have been alive on Earth, so the current number should be accurate. I’m doing a better job of late keeping track of that.

College basketball is doing OK… KU won their fifth straight game the other day, and I hope that trend provides momentum going into the last part of the season. Some things definitely seem to be going their way.

I’m shadowing a class this week. I have passed the requisite classes to call myself an Azure Cloud Solutions Architect, but, ironically, I have yet to take one of the classes associated with that certification. This week I shadow the design course, and I am looking forward to taking the class with a couple of my more experienced teammates.

I have completed my High Performance MindSet course, and I am about eight straight days into my HeadSpace meditation training. Mindfulness is important, and I’m making a commitment to that moment on a daily basis, focusing on my mental health. I’ve done OK over the years… I always wonder if my heart condition diagnosis as a young man helped me focus on managing my stress level.

I’m a work in progress, but you know, some days I feel like I’m making a little more progress than others.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It is Thursday night, the 18th of February, and we have puppies on the floor. Lilly and Rosy are running around, angering Lucy, and being rounded up by their mom, Freya. Odin is not enjoying his third day in the cone, and he has another 10 days of it while his body recovers from his radical orchiectomy.

I didn’t write last night. I was focused on celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, which means we had a great meal, a couple of great bottles of wine, a college basketball team with our guys coming out on top of the scoreboard, and somewhere along the line, I fell asleep in my chair, Lisa fell asleep in hers, and it was almost midnight before we realized we had both fallen asleep.

Yeah, it was a really good dinner. And that dessert might have tried to induce a diabetic coma.

I’m back laughing at Lilly as she runs back and forth underneath the couch. All of seven and a half weeks of puppy. Rosy is a round fluffball.

Tomorrow I’ll have my last prep day for the week, and I’m shadowing a Azure Design class next week in anticipation of teaching it.

I probably ought to be paying closer attention to the little girls. Lilly and Rosy are cracking both of us up. We need a nice chuckle before we call it a night.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It is Tuesday night, the 16th of February, and there are puppies crying to get over to their momma, trying to get a little more of the good stuff before they get completely weaned off.

Lisa and I are sitting here listening to the town hall meeting on CNN with President Biden. There are times that he came across as a bit rambling, and other times he made complete sense, far more sense and honesty than what I ever expected.

He’s signing off now, and there will be copious amounts of criticism and over-speculation on “he said this, but what he really meant was this…”. Certainly, lots of food for speculation by the QAnon crowd.

He had some opportunities to throw the previous administration under the bus, and I’ll just say he didn’t do them any favors.

I’m going to get this wrapped up. I suspect there will be more to talk about in the morning.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It is Monday night, February 15, in the year 2021. Today has been an interesting day. Had to start off the day taking Odin into the vet…the time has come, and today he lost two of his closest friends, but that’s what we do with male dogs to make sure their behavior is a little more manageable and they don’t feel the need to pee on everything in the house.

We picked him up late in the afternoon, and that look of defeat coming from within the cone of shame is a sad sight. Two weeks with the cone, then the stitches come out.

I don’t think Freya minds this abrupt change in the boy’s attitude.

The two little girls spent a little time outside their crate earlier today, but the time is coming to play with them so they can go back to sleep later. Gotta get ’em worn out a little bit.

Took Lisa’s car in as well today for new tires. We were going to pick it up this afternoon as well, but she didn’t feel comfortable driving. The snow has been coming down most of the day. I might even have to fire up the snow blower… well, not so much “fire it up” as “plug it in and keep more slack in the extension cord”. Kansas doesn’t normally require the sort of snow blower than folks require in the UP or International Falls, Minnesota. An electric snow blower with a decent width is normally enough.

OK, time to call it and ply with the little ones before bed.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

Yeah I might’ve skipped an entry this month. Sorry.

It is Valentine’s Day, 2021.

My wife has gone to bed.

I am going to join here.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

And that’s just about all I have been finding myself obliged in a post for a while, now.

I will endeavor to do more. But right now… it’s Valentine’s Day and I have something better to do .

Peace y’all.

It is Friday night, the 12 day of February, 2021. I double-checked a few things tonight, went back and re-tallied the number of days I’ve been alive for accuracy, and I’m going to check to make sure this post registers on my site before I call it a night tonight.

After all what’s the point of spewing my thoughts at the world if no one is going to be able to read it.

Especially a few dear friends that I know do come around to see what the Bobster has cooking tonight.

Not much really.

But that’s not to say that I won’t lay something down in the near future won’t be worth reading.

OK… it is Friday night, and I’ve had a week. Looking forward to no alarm clocks in the morning. I’ve got some work to stay focused on this weekend and next week, so that’s what I’m going to focus on.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It is Wednesday night, February 10, 2021. I didn’t feel like writing yesterday, so I didn’t, and I’m not going to beat myself up about it.

I hope I can stop beating myself up over a lot of stuff… right?

There are a lot of areas in my life that I could stand to improve. I should be more considerate. I’m better than I used to be, but I can do better tomorrow. I should use my self-talk in a more constructive way. I’m better than I used to be, but I can do better tomorrow. I sometimes lose my temper and say or write things that I come to regret later. I’m better than I used to be, but I can do better tomorrow.

I can’t live in the past. I’ve been a jerk to some folks while I’ve been on this journey called life, and I probably didn’t thank enough people like I should. There are times I wish I could go back in time and undo little hurts I’ve inflicted.

Big hurts, too.

OK, enough on that.

I’m thinking about setting up another blog to write about my SF&F interests. I own the domain, and the price of setting up a blog is minimal.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It is the day after the disaster that I call Superbowl LV (or as my spell check wants to call it, Superb Owl LV). It’s Monday, February 8, 2021, and the Kansas Jayhawks are no longer in the top 25.

It’s been a rough 24 hours for this sportsfan.

Had a good day today other than that. Worked our way through three modules in my Azure Admin course. Tomorrow, I’ll get the lion’s share of the lecture, covering the networking components.

I’ve got to spend a little more time on setting some goals for the next couple of years on the professional side. I earned some certifications in the last six months that put me ahead of pace, but at the same time, preparing for an exam and preparing to teach a course are two different things. I need to crank out all of the fundamentals courses and certs, just because I ought to be able to get that done. My job is to learn stuff, and the reality is, I think I ought to be able to learn the fundamentals f just about every course.

We decided on names for the girls… Lisa had to sign off on some names for their first appointment with the veterinarian, so we have Lilly and Rosy. Rosy is a baby chonk, and that’s mostly fur. I think the mystery of paternity has been solved as well, as their fur grows out and their lineage becomes a little more apparent.

I need to read more.

OK, that’s enough for now.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It’s Sunday night, the 7th of February 2021. The Chiefs just got done stinking up the Superbowl, setting a season record for the most flags thrown against one team in the first half of the 2021 season. This game was over before it ever started with the setbacks and distractions the team faced.

Time to heal up and see what we’ve got in the tank for next season.

Tomorrow I go back to my virtual classroom, teaching an Azure administration course with a teammate from Kentucky. I’m confident that we’ll have a great delivery.

Ugh. It’s going to take a while for me to get over this Chiefs loss. We just didn’t have it tonight.

I’m going to call it good. I just don’t have a great deal of motivation to write tonight.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.

It’s Saturday night, the 6th day of February, in the year 2021. I’m a little bit down about the probability/possibility that Kansas will drop out of the top 25 in college basketball come Monday following the loss today to West Virginia, but that’s to be expected.

Tomorrow is the day, the Superbowl, with the Kansas City Chiefs squaring off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. My prediction is that the Chiefs’ defense will suprise a couple of folks, get a couple of key 3rd down stops, a couple of key turnovers, and the Chiefs will win, 38-33.

Hey, a guy can hope. Last year I was a nervous wreck. I left a watch party to watch the game in my hotel room in Seattle, then walked back to the watch party after the Chiefs’ pulled out the win.

Lisa has fallen asleep in her chair, and I’m watching people making scones on “The Great British Baking Show”. Yeah, my life is average.

And the carbs!

The menu tomorrow will be barbeque, veggies, and cheese. I’ve got a brisket in the sous vide, and the ribs will get their start in the Instant Pot, followed by a bark-broil in the oven to get a little exterior bite.

OK, that’s about enough.

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.