I have always wanted kids, but I never wanted to be the mom that was completely obsessed with her kids that nothing else mattered. The mini van. The crowded living room full of toys. The late appearances because “we could not get the kids ready”. Yikes. Of course Evan is very important to me, but he will not cause me to completely shut down to the outside world. With all of this in mind, I had a bizarre moment yesterday as I was getting ready to go out to lunch. I went to reach in my jacket pocket to see how much cash I had and whoa…I pulled out a burp cloth. Apparently regardless of how hard you try to keep work/home, family/professional separate it sometimes just leaks in. I got a good laugh out of it and I am now, to one of my younger/single friends officially “the mom” and now slightly not as cool as I once was. Fun times.

I get such a kick out of the south…and this sign is a perfect example. There was such a huge problem with garage sales apparently taking over the bank parking lot that they decided to spend the money to design and produce a sign letting people know that garage sales are not allowed. Wow. Thanks for the laugh…and thanks to my southern friends for capturing this great picture on their trip home over the holidays.

Every day Amy and I get another day closer to meeting our son Evan. We are both so excited about this we can barely stand it. Every day I get a phone call from Amy, I think “this is it!”…but nothing yet. I might not blog for a few days in the next few weeks, so if I go “silent”, time to move on over to Evan’s blog which I will keep up to date for sure.

After working with Ben for almost eight years he had decided to move on. I wanted to wish Ben all the luck in the world. We had a great time working together for many years…as he put up with my on again off again relationship with Mac OS X Server and I put up with his “not as funny as he thought” videos and comics We also had a good time playing Carmageddon 2, Diablo, Diablo II and Quake 3 Arena. We did do some great work in between all the games and great music (I got him out of the “ambient” music mode and opened the door to electronica, DJs, etc). We did do a kick ass job of putting together a really sweet Mac OS X/Mac OS X Server server set up using Apache, MySQL, PHP, WebObjects complete with failover. Best of luck and thanks for the good times.

Even though I disapprove of our current administration, I still love being an American…and on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, I love being an American even more. Voting is very important to me. Voting not only let’s me voice my opinion about the future direction of the government officially, it also gives me the right to then complain. Does one vote make a difference? Of course. Most of us have seen close elections in the decade and yesterday was no different (at least in IL). Not everyone I voted for won, but none the less, I am happy I went out and voted. I have no time or patience for people who did not vote. For you…I give you the status quo. You are obviously happy with how things are now and really do not care about anything in the future. Good for you. You are one of the major reasons change is so hard in our country. If more people cared, stood up, voted, voiced their opinion, things would change. End of rant. For me, yesterday was a great day and I … [more]

There are few people that I admire more than Joe Paterno (Penn State’s head football coach). He inspired me when I went to my first Penn State football game when I was three years old, and he still inspires me today. During our last game in Wisconsin, one of the plays ended up on the sideline, coaches and players were knocked over, but nothing out of the ordinary…until I heard and saw Joe Paterno was among the people who got knocked down. Joe, the tough guy he is, stood up, and as soon as he did, his leg unnaturally hyper extended and I almost got sick to my stomach. I yelled “his leg is broken, his leg is broken” to Amy and I watched him try to keep standing. Finally the trainers and other coaches got him to go over to the bench where they could look at his leg/knee.

What I love about Joe is he is such a strong and positive role model. He wanted to stay strong for the team by trying to stand. He did show his fear or his pain, or even want to sit down. … [more]

I have been a faithful Rocketboom video blog watcher for almost a year now. I was very disappointed when Amanda Congdon left the scene as the host, but I thought I would give the new host a chance. After a few months of watching Rocketboom post Amanda I have finally decided to stop watching it...I am not a joanne fan (the new host). On a more positive note, I have enjoyed Amanda's latest video blog: Amanda Across America which has focused on interviewing truly interesting people who look to improve our country and world. If you have some time, or are bored, or have an interest for alternative energy sources, like hybrids, or want to watch something refreshing by a great and upbeat interviewer, check out Amanda Across America.

[tags]Rocketboom, Amanda Congdon, Amanda Across America[/tags]