Ty’s Weblog

Kate and I were elated to hear on the news just after 11pm, that Barack Obama would be our next president.  and also that Virginia had gone for Obama.  We are thrilled.  We’re waiting to hear from our new president-elect now before heading off to bed.

Kate and I celebrated out 13th anniversary today.  As is out tradition, we didn’t do all that much other than enjoy being together.  She and Mira came and met me for lunch today, and all four of us went out for dinner.  After the kids were in bed, we had a nice evening together watching Doctor Who and Torchwood, one of of favorite things to do.  It was a fun day and we’ve had a wonderful 13 years together.

Kate and I got new cell phones today.  We’ve needed to get new ones for a while.  We got the phones we’ve had up to now back in April of 2004.  They were old and only just worked properly anymore (mine did anyway, Kate’s was actually almost completely broken).

I got myself a Palm Centro in a nice black color.  They’d only had the white until recently, which I was going to get because I liked the phone.  But when Kate when to pick the phones up today, they had the black in stock, so she smartly got that one for me instead.

Kate got the LG CU515 since she decided she didn’t need as much fancy stuff on her phone as I wanted on mine.

We’ve got 30 days on the phones to decide if we like them or not.  If we don’t, we can take them back and try something else.  I don’t suspect that’ll be a problem for me.  It’s possible Kate might come across something she doesn’t like about her phone though.

We are pretty excited, since phones do a lot more now than when we last bought them.

I found out today that I’ve been promoted (or as I explained it to Xander, I leveled up).  I’m now a Principle Software Engineer.  It’s something I’ve been working for for a long time and it feels great to finally have all the hard work validated.

I turned 35 years old yesterday.  I had a great day.  I got to sleep in late.  Then I came downstairs and the kids were super excited that it was my birthday.  We opened presents and I got to enjoy all the stuff that they and others had picked out for me.  Then I got to spend most of the day playing video games.  We had Pei Wei for lunch, which I love, and Kate even went out to pick it up for me, so I got to do another of my favorite activities, not leaving the house.  Kate had even picked me up a carrot cake for my birthday cake.

It was a wonderful day spent with my family, which is another of my favorite things to do.   I’m another year older and I can’t think of a better way to have spent the day.

I’ve still got a job. We had big layoffs today at work, but I made it through ok. It was a rough day though, lots of good people were let go. It’ll be rough for a while, getting used to things without them. I’m trying to be happy for myself, but it’s hard to see friends lose their jobs.

It’s officially Summer now! I hope everyone has a great season.

Apparently I have a Southern Accent. Who would have ever guessed.

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Southern People used to hate Southern accents but now everyone wants one.
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My cube really hasn’t been so bad so far.  The biggest thing I was worried about was the noise and, so far at least, it hasn’t been a big problem.  There is a little more noise than when I was in my office, but I’m wearing headphones to listen to my music, so I really don’t notice it that much.  I’ve been able to get my work done just fine so far.  It’s still not my ideal situation, but I think I might be able to adjust to it over time.

No, really.

Over the last few years, I’ve had periodic bouts where I would have very serious headaches, light hurt my eyes, I’d be nauseous.  They’d usually show up around 2 or 3 in the afternoon.  I’d make it home from work and spend the rest of the day on the couch or in the bed.  By the morning they were usually gone.  They didn’t seem to happen too often (though Kate says they were more often than I think they were).
A few weeks ago, I had one of them that lasted a few days and I did some research during that time and decided I most likely have been having migraines all this time.

I woke up this morning with another one and decided it was time to get it dealt with.  So I went into the doctor and got it officially diagnosed as migraines.  So I’ve got meds for it now.  The doctor said they meds working 50% of the time is considered a success, so we’ll see how it goes.  They might not do much good for this particular bout, since I’m taking them so late into it.  Hopefully they’ll be good for stopping them when I feel them coming on in the future though.

I received a title change at work this week. I’m now officially a Senior Software Engineer, which I’m quite happy about. It has been a more accurate description of my job for awhile now, and it’s nice to have my title reflect it.

12 years.  I wouldn’t change a one of them.

Xander’s Birthday is today. We’ve got a soccer party planned for the afternoon, I’ll talk about that tonight or tomorrow. I just wanted to take a quick moment to reflect on the day.

It’s amazing how fast 7 years go by. I’m a very involved Dad, I think most people would agree. Even with that though, it’s hard not to think about all I’ve missed in the last 7 years. All the times I was too tired from work to get up and play a game with him, or read to him, or any number of things that when you are tired, just don’t seem as important as having your eyes closed. At the same time, I try to remember all the times when I did make the extra effort. When I did get up after a long day at work to play Sorry or Uno with him. When I spent time laying in bed with him reading even after I was ready to go sleep myself. Or when I spent time playing outside in the cold when I was ready to go inside and sit down and drink coffee.

I guess all you can do is the best you can at the time. And that is what I always try to do. It’s hard to not have regrets about the things you missed and didn’t do, but you can’t focus on that except as a way to motivate yourself to do better in the future.

Your results:

You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom 49% Riddler 46% The Joker 42% Apocalypse 38% Lex Luthor 38% Poison Ivy 37% Mr. Freeze 34% Magneto 33% Dark Phoenix 31% Green Goblin 24% Juggernaut 24% Catwoman 18% Venom 18% Mystique 16% Two-Face 16% Kingpin 8%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

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I’ve gotten a Wii now! Kate went out this morning to Target and waited in line while I watched the kids and picked one up for me. She did it instead of me so she could use out 10% off card at Target. It’s currently sitting downloading the system update. I’m looking forward to getting it all set up and playing! I’ve got such a great wife.