I figured since I had some time, I would go over the predictions that I gave last year. I just remembered about this. It looks like I wrote these on January 6th, so let's see if any came true for the year of 2011. I'm not sure how to measure these, actually, and I don't really want to do much research and stuff.

1. 3D will not be anywhere near as big as they tout it to be this year, both in the consumer TV market and the movie market. They just can't 3D-ify everything and expect it to be money-makers. I think the 3D sales will steadily go up until about mid-year and then start to decline.
   
   So, after reading an article on Slate, it looks like different studies are showing different outlooks, but the general consensus is that 3D movies and 3D TVs are still on the rise, but there is some uncertainty about sales numbers. One source said sales are down, but Slate says that there wasn't enough information such as sales per screen to determine if it really was down from 2010 or not. It does seem like the movie industry is still learning 3D and it's getting better. I guess it's too soon to tell if it's going to continue to get better or worse. We'll have to see in 2012.
   
   
2. TV/entertainment content via the internet will be huge this year. With all the new-ish competitors starting to jump to this trend, I think it will be a nice win for the non-cable providers.
   
   I'm not quite sure on this either. I certainly think that internet TV content is still on the rise with major players like Netflix and Hulu picking up licenses and content providers for the many types of internet TV gadgets that are out there, as well as other players like Amazon Prime on-demand trying to get a market share. I don't I can say personally that it was "hugely" popular vs. last year.
   
   
3. I think Netflix will, at some point in the year, just add Blu-Ray renting for free alongside their normal DVD option, instead of the $2.99 they charge now. 
   
   Well this was totally wrong. Even more so because they split up DVD and instant and increased the prices.
   
   
4. I don't think the tablet format is going to be a hit. Yes, the iPad and other tablets do look good, but I think in the end, netbooks or super light notebooks will begin to climb back up in sales again. Not sure how to explain it. I guess an analogy could be e-readers vs. books. There's just something about books that e-readers can't mimic. In the same way, I think people will just want to be typing on a keyboard, having DVD-ROM drives, etc. Besides, everyone's going to have a mini tablet via their fancy Android/iPhone phones anyway. :P
   
   I think I was wrong on this too, but then again, it could be too soon to see how the tablet market is going to do. There were A LOT of new tablets that came out this year. We will have to see if the trend keeps up in 2012.
   
   
5. Android will totally dominate the iPhone. :)
   
   In the last 2 years, Android has definitely taken the lead in market share of phones that use the Android OS vs. iOS. Apple seems to have held its levels consistently, but Android has been on the rise, taking market share from other companies. Android is doing great in app sales as well, I think.
   
   
6. I think Groupon is going to tank...relatively speaking. I just don't think it can keep growing like it did the last 2 years.
   
   It looks like they didn't "tank" like I said they would, as they're still making good profits and profits are increasing. However, it's clear from what I just read that the growth of profits are significantly down from first quarter of 2011 and also read that next year, it might even level out at this rate. It makes sense to me, since as the  year went on, I began to notice a lot more "deals" sites popping up, such as Living Social, Ever Save, and many more.
   
   
7. I hate to say this, but I think Facebook.com may overtake Google.com as the #1 visited site on the internet.
   
   Phew, glad I was wrong on this one. Google is still the #1 visited site on the net with Facebook in a close second. Google was 49% on the estimated percentage of global users that visit Google daily. Facebook was 43%.
   
   
8. Although I love Google's innovation of the Chrome OS, working with everything via the cloud is, at least for this year, something that people won't be able to get used to. It's such a radical change. The mainstream couldn't handle that. Plus the inconvenience of needing an internet connection to sync and stuff like that is sort of burdensome. 
   
   I'll say I was right on this one. The Chrome notebook, while it is now selling at a few online retailers, hasn't really caught on. I think it's being overshadowed by the tablet craze.
   
   
9. Car companies will be touting only slightly higher mpg...maybe just hitting 40 mpg...seriously, my turbo civic gets between 35-40 mpg on the highway and it's a '96! We should be at at least 50-60 for affordable (under $20k) , consumer cars by now.
   
   Correct again! I see commercials still making a big deal about low 30s MPG...pathetic.
   
   
10. Yahoo! is just going to be even more horrible...
    
    I couldn't find any definitive answers, but I think they're still struggling to find their place on the internet. They're still the 4th most visited site, but it's a wonder why that is. There just doesn't seem to be a reason to go to Yahoo anymore, at least for me. 

So, overall, I didn't do too well...maybe predictions aren't my thing.

I was going to edit and work more on my autobiography, but I got wrapped up in trying out the new template and customizing it...damn tangents!

Sigh, so I just went to Target to buy the Logitech K750 solar keyboard that I found when I was in Portland...I'm pretty sure that I didn't need it, but like Laura says, I think I have an issue when it comes to keyboards. Hey, you'd want to get some cool/comfortable if it's something you're constantly using right? Much like a bed or car. That's my excuse anyway.

So I've been working on my autobiography a bit the last couple of weeks. Nearly about halfway done I think...it's long, though. I'm surprised at how much I've written. Maybe I'm not a boring guy like I thought?


I suppose it's about time to explain my work, since I haven't really. So far it's going good. Not the most exciting by any means and most days are boring, but the last few days have been busy and time is flying by each day quick, which is nice. Most days I usually TRY to find something to do and I can't. I literally just sit there switching screens back and forth pretending to read what I've read many times already. Oh well. 


Luckily, I'm starting to get the hang of it and asking less questions and asking why things are the way they are. The thing is, in this line of work, there doesn't seem to be a "normal day", at least so far. I process gift donations to the university and enter them into the database and print out thank you letters and what not. There are so many rules on how to enter the different kinds of gifts, exceptions to entering them depending on who wrote them, etc. that it's pretty hard to keep track, especially when you're starting out. I pick it up quick, though. There are some things sometimes that I just don't get or don't get why they do it like that and the usual answer is "I don't know either." or "They've been doing it that way since I've been here." and so forth. 


I eat lunch at noon each day and since I don't come home usually and don't really want to eat at the office, I drive around, get something, and eat in the car. Laura says it's sad and shouldn't do it, but I don't care or mind. It's nice to get out anyway. At Portland it was different because I had my own office and I could eat at the desk. I'm sitting in a pretty high traffic area so, I dunno. I wouldn't like it, is the bottom line. 


Next week we're having a staff luncheon and I mentioned that I would make some kind of dessert for folks. People are hyping it up now, so I gotta do good. I've decided on the Pot de Creme, but I want to give it a twist, so I got some orange flavored chocolate this time to test it out over the weekend. I'll probably do half and half. I have to go buy some bigger cups to serve them in and there are absolutely NO mini tasting spoons in retail stores. They have forks...but no spoons. 


Lately, and I'm not sure why, I've been spending a little too much. It could be that the Christmas season is here and that I've been finding good deals, but that doesn't really explain  it either since I'm not really getting anything for anyone...just buying things to have because they were cheap. It could also be that since I'm working and actually making money again, I want to spend it or something. I need to stop, though. 


Next week I'm only working two days, then off until January 3rd. Woohoo. Couldn't come soon enough. I'd like to relax, but we'll see how that goes with being in Tulsa. 


I'm contemplating going to Colorado from the 28th to the 31st...I'm not sure yet though. It'll probably happen, but I want to drive, so that's 11 hours-ish each way. It's not that bad, I guess. I would leave around 4 or 5 in the morning I'd say to get there around evening. Dunno what I'd do there, though...


We'll see what happen. I need to start thinking about the yearly summary for this year...man it seems like I've been blogging a long time, and I have! I guess this year will be my 10th year of writing. I just realized that. I'm glad that I've kept with it, somewhat, to catalog my life. It's fun once in a while to read back and see what kind of person I was. I was pretty cocky and uneducated, I think, around 2002-3-ish. At least, that's how I sound when I was writing. I know for a fact that my writing style and attitude has changed. 


And I almost forgot. I can't believe Laura and I have been together for 10 years now. We've gone through so much together and I can't thank her enough for putting up with my stupidities. I hope that we will be together for many more years to come. I know I have stuff to work on and I will try hard to fix it! I can't wait to have our little baby and watch it grow. Some days, like when I got that maternity pillow for her for Christmas, I just couldn't wait to get home and give it to her. From like noon, I was like, watching the clock constantly because I just wanted to go home. Anyway, happy 10 years. I love you!

Laura is over in Tulsa this weekend, so I thought I'd work on my autobiography a little more that I started in February-ish of 2010. I got pretty far, but still a lot to go and I can't believe it's almost been a year! It'll probably be done in a few months of on and off writing, I'd imagine.

Making some chex mix right now and once that's done, gonna head to the store to get some cooking oil, olive oil and I think another dish brush. I bought one yesterday, but turns out that I don't like it as much as the one with handles. I do like that it has a soap dispenser built in, but, going to go see what else I can find. I'm so picky, but I wash dishes enough that I think I can be picky.

Work is going good so far. I've been in a Banner consultation meeting for the last 2 days and also for tomorrow, so I haven't really gotten to "work" at what I'll be doing. I think Friday will be some training and half of next week is HR orientation...fun.

Got my work UCO ID and parking permit. I start next Tuesday!

Yikes, it's been a couple months. I'll try to sum up what's been happening.


Pre-move


So, I can't remember much the first couple weeks of August, but I know we were still scrambling to get all the stuff packed before the move date of the 17th. Laura's parents came out to help us a few days before the pack date, which I think was the 15th. Anywho, after the truck came, which was much smaller than I thought it would (it was only a couple of feet longer than the truck I drove out to Portland), it parked in front, we started working on the packing. We got a handtruck and laid out some plywood over the gravel to make it a bit easier for us. First up was the armoire...the dreaded armoire. At least we were getting the worst part done first. And actually, it wasn't all that bad. Not sure why it wasn't this time, maybe because the handtruck helped a little bit. Either way, after that the couch went and some of the other big items. All in all, we were 90% done at the end of the day, probably after 7-8 hours of loading. We finished up the next morning and the truck actually came earlier than expected that afternoon. Good thing we were done. 


The move


I knew the worst was still ahead of us...well, at least me. My car was the big issue. No A/C was the killer and it was over 100 through Kansas and Oklahoma. We leave the next day early in the morning, around 7 I think. The first day wasn't bad at all. It was cool throughout the day and opening the windows at times did the trick. We got to somewhere in Idaho, I forget what city. We got there around 8 or 9 I believe. 


The next day, we leave early again and head for Laramie. We get there around lunch time, and we ate. Well, I actually stayed at the Walmart parking lot to cool the car down. Just before I got to Laramie, the car started to overheat a little bit. The temperatures outside were getting up there, in the 80s/90s. After we leave Laramie, we were heading to Chris' house. We were also meeting up with my Mom and Ellen too for dinner. About an hour or so before we get to his house, the temps were in the high 90s and I think it even hit 100 or so. My car was hurting. I didn't know whether I should go fast so the radiator is cooled or slower so the engine didn't get too hot. During this time, I was making stops here and there to fill the coolant reservoir up. Finally, we got there and my temp gauge was pretty much at the red "H". Day was done for my car for now.


We grilled dinner and we told my Mom and Ellen about Laura being pregnant. They were happy. Unfortunately, Alicia wasn't there, so we texted her the news and she actually called to congratulate Laura.


Next day rolls around. I already know this day was going to suck, but I underestimated! We leave early and start heading through Denver and Kansas. It was getting warmer but right around the time we cross the border, the heat just shot up and I was uncomfortable. Even the windows open wasn't helping. We stop halfway to Salina to take a break since my car was already overheating. Laura's Mom was nice enough to head to Walmart and get me a water spray bottle with a fan. I didn't use the fan, but after we started off again, the water helped a lot. Probably for an hour or so. But then, I got used to that and it wasn't enough. But, it was weird since now, if i didn't spray myself, it was just too much, even though the spray was warm in itself. 


We finally take the road south into Oklahoma. I was miserable. We stopped at a Braum's to cool off. We had like 2-3 hours left I think at this point. Laura continued on, but I had to stop like every hour to fill up on coolant and cool down. 


(In hindsight, I think my car would have been fine if I had just replaced my radiator cap. After I got to Oklahoma, I was checking around and saw that my radiator cap was pretty much busted, so it was just leaking/evaporating every time I drove...simple $10 fix...oh well. I'm not sure at what point it busted, but I think it was sometime before I got to Chris' house and before crossing the Kansas border)


At any rate, we all got to our house at like 9 at night. It was dark, but the temps weren't getting any cooler...strange thing. We checked out the house real quick and promptly went to bed. NOW, the worst was over.


Unloading


We had the weekend to relax since the truck was coming Monday morning and if I remember correctly, Laura's Dad was going to come over to help unload on Tuesday. Monday rolls around and the truck comes with the trailer, parks outside and leaves. It was already in the high 90s/100s then, so I only got a few things out. As night fell, I was able to get a few more things out and into the house. Couldn't do much more by myself. I believe Ryan came over that night to help us at least get the mattress and box springs so we could get a good night's sleep. That went easier than we thought since the mattress was on top of everything. 


Next day, Laura's Dad arrives and we get started around 8 or 9 or so. Nothing out of the ordinary. I think we were pretty much finished around 3 or 4. Goes a lot quicker when unloading.


Unpacking


Now we had to unpack and organize. Probably the worst part after you move. All in all, it took several weeks to finally be finished with this. There's a bunch of empty boxes in the attic and overall it seems that we have more room to store stuff here than at Portland.


Labor Day Party


A couple of weeks after we moved, Laura's family had a labor day party at their house with friends/family over. It was fun to relax. It was also then we told everyone about the new baby. Now that the fun was over, the fun of job searching began.


The Job Search


Long story short, nothing yet, unfortunately. I've applied to quite a few places now, but they've either filled it or haven't even moved on to the sorting process yet....that or they're ignoring me. I started the week after the Labor Day party, so it's effectively been about 1.5 months after I started. I'm starting to get discouraged, naturally. There aren't many around and the more time that passes, the less time that I will have to work there. If I start November, I'm at around 7 months of work time, factoring in Laura's maternity leave. I still have a couple of promising apps out...we'll see if they even call back.


We've now bought a crib and it's up in the baby room. We need to get a mattress soon. Laura has been filling up the baby registry as well. There's a bunch of stuff to get. I think we signed up for a couple of classes for January or something since it was full already for November. Laura mentioned that it's about halfway through the pregnancy. We still have to decide whether or not to find out the gender!

2 short weeks until we move. We're dreading it, but I think deep inside, it's sort of fun to always be on the move. I think I'd enjoy it more if it were all done by someone else. Oh well. 


Laura and I are heading to the coast tomorrow for a couple of days of relaxation at a place right near the beach. We were going to check out whale watching, but I don't think Laura secured a spot on the boat. I'm not a big whale fan, anyway, but maybe we'll do one anyway.


My car has been the biggest issue lately. Since that time I left the sunroof open, it's been about, oh, 3-4 months. Turns out all this time, there's been mold growing in between the papers I had under my passenger seat...and I've been inhaling all that. It all makes sense now (or, at least we think, anyway). My chest/breathing/headache issues started around then and it was getting worse until a week or so ago when I discovered that tried to clean out all the mold in the car. I think there is still some somewhere, but I can't find where. I scrubbed and vacuumed the main area, but the smell still exists. I'm really not sure where it could be. Took all the mats out and will probably throw it away soon. Not worth cleaning. Anyway, this whole ordeal was just dumb. Now my car smells like smoke. Maybe I'll donate it.


In other news, tomorrow is my last day at work here. That 1 year and 2 months went by quick! Trying to tie up last minute loose ends here, but yeah, just clearing out my queue of work. I'm about out of things to do.


The house is probably 85% packed up. The big furniture, dressers, beds, kitchen stuff and some garage stuff is all that's left. Oh, and that stupid armoire.  Current plan is to leave the 17th, stay somewhere in Idaho the first night, get to Denver-ish on the 18th, hang out with family/friends, and take off the 19th to arrive at the new house. Can't wait for it to be over. At least there will be no moving truck that just turns off on the highway this time. 


Next blog will probably be from the new house and internet, granted I can get it in a timely manner. Hopefully it's fast and stuff. Comcast has been pretty nice this past year. No major hiccups. Just a few times last fall where the connection kept disappearing, but I'm not sure if that was a modem thing or a problem with the splitter I was using to split the internet/cable line. Overall, speeds were fast. We'll see how Cox internet is. They get fairly good ratings, so that's good.

Love ya, pud!

Well, the 4th came and went. I'm not much of a fireworks person, unless you know, the fireworks are close to our house like it was in Laramie. Oh well!

We're doing well on packing I think. We've got a lot of the house packed and we did a lot in the garage yesterday. The weird thing is, we still have a lot of the boxes that we moved here with broken down, so either we still have a lot to go or we threw away a lot of stuff. I'm afraid it's the former.

Laura is flying out Thursday to go find houses for us. We have found one house that we kinda like, so hopefully we get it. The guy was a picky rentee or something, but we have a great reference and it's not like we're going to trash it, so.

That's it for now.

Wow, almost a month after I said I'll write a blog soon...bad me.

At work right now, but I finally found some time to try and write a little something.

What happened in April...hm...I really can't remember anything exciting happening in April.

In May, we traveled to Wyoming for Laura's walking and graduation for her Ph.D. Woohoo. She's not quite done yet, but basically. She defended her dissertation as well, like I knew she would. It was fun to visit Laramie again. I do miss that place. We ate a Prairie Rose for breakfast, it was windy, relatively crowded because it was graduation weekend, drove by our house which seemed like it wasn't "taken care of" all that well (from what we could see), and finally we hit up Vee Bar Ranch for dinner. It was good. Funny story incoming:

So, there was a big party of like 25 or something there we were sharing the grounds with...a couple of loud and annoying folk, but whatever. After the dinner we had a little music and hang out time in the saloon. We started playing Polish Poker and the 2-man band was playing music.

Since we got there after dinner, I thought it would be a good idea to ask Laura for a dance. I was waiting for the right moment (she was sitting across the table, so it was kinda hard to ask) and a few songs went by where nobody was dancing. A couple got up and danced to a slow song, so they took my "first dance" opportunity from me...whatever. Then a few more people with whom seemed like their grand kids got up and started dancing. After a couple of more songs and some break with dancing, the band said "This might be a good one to dance with your significant other." I didn't want to miss this one so I quietly asked Laura across the table and she snubbed me at first! I know we were both embarrassed but anyway. So after a couple exchanges of talk between her parents and such, we got up and after we did, a few more couples got up. Woot.

Anyway, onto late May and June. We've started packing slowly and we're moving along. Not the most favorite thing to do. Laura's been doing much of the packing, so. I'll be doing most of the packing into the truck, I reckon. :P

Well, short but sweet update. Gonna have to start looking for a job soon.......

Will have a post soon. It's been too long!

As it has already been 2 months, I'll give a quick update. 

We are moving to Oklahoma City! In mid-August, that is. The couple of weeks leading up to decision day was stressful for Laura. The offers that she got at the most opportune times didn't help out, either. In the end, we decided we are going to try OKC out for a year and see how we like it. We both really like Portland, so, if fate has its way, I'm sure we'll find our way back here sometime. 

We'll be moving in right at the height of Summer. Hopefully the house we rent will have ample cooling. There were a few days in Portland that were quite hot and muggy and we couldn't do anything about it, really.

What else. During this time, both the Motorola Xoom and iPad 2 was announced and already out. Despite my prediction in my last blog regarding tablets, I actually want one now...either of them, really. We had a chance to play with them at Crap Buy and they are appealing. It can easily replace a netbook, I think. I may try and find what I can sell of mine to get to buying it for essentially free. The Xoom, which I prefer, is $200 more than the iPad 2..ridiculous. And the iPad 2 is, well, an Apple product. 

Tonight, we're going to try and head to a vigil at the Japanese Gardens. They asked me to lend/donate crane bouquets for this event and through March, so Laura and I  scrambled to make a couple in such short notice. I delivered it yesterday and they will have it displayed during the vigil and next to the wish arbor they set up for visitors. Hopefully, I can snap a few pics when we go and hope it doesn't rain!

I've been talking about tech predictions for this year. Here goes my picks:

1. 3D will not be anywhere near as big as they tout it to be this year, both in the consumer TV market and the movie market. They just can't 3D-ify everything and expect it to be money-makers. I think the 3D sales will steadily go up until about mid-year and then start to decline.
2. TV/entertainment content via the internet will be huge this year. With all the new-ish competitors starting to jump to this trend, I think it will be a nice win for the non-cable providers.
3. I think Netflix will, at some point in the year, just add Blu-Ray renting for free alongside their normal DVD option, instead of the $2.99 they charge now. 
4. I don't think the tablet format is going to be a hit. Yes, the iPad and other tablets do look good, but I think in the end, netbooks or super light notebooks will begin to climb back up in sales again. Not sure how to explain it. I guess an analogy could be e-readers vs. books. There's just something about books that e-readers can't mimic. In the same way, I think people will just want to be typing on a keyboard, having DVD-ROM drives, etc. Besides, everyone's going to have a mini tablet via their fancy Android/iPhone phones anyway. :P
5. Android will totally dominate the iPhone. :)
6. I think Groupon is going to tank...relatively speaking. I just don't think it can keep growing like it did the last 2 years.
7. I hate to say this, but I think Facebook.com may overtake Google.com as the #1 visited site on the internet.
8. Although I love Google's innovation of the Chrome OS, working with everything via the cloud is, at least for this year, something that people won't be able to get used to. It's such a radical change. The mainstream couldn't handle that. Plus the inconvenience of needing an internet connection to sync and stuff like that is sort of burdensome. 
9. Car companies will be touting only slightly higher mpg...maybe just hitting 40 mpg...seriously, my turbo civic gets between 35-40 mpg on the highway and it's a '96! We should be at at least 50-60 for affordable (under $20k) , consumer cars by now.
10. Yahoo! is just going to be even more horrible...

I'll stop with 10, I guess.

I just realized that I have an autobiography that I've yet to finish that I started here on Blogger.com WAY back in February...it's almost been a year! I think I will finish it soon and publish it. :)

What a year 2010 has been. And another year that's passed by quicker than the previous years. I'm in Tulsa, OK per usual holiday fanfare. Let's take a quick look at the 2010, shall we?


(So I started this in Tulsa, but am finishing it up at our home in Portland. I just didn't have the time to finish it while on vacation)


Winter/Spring


Yikes. I'm still at TEM. We're still in Laramie, WY. I do miss Laramie, by the way. I'm not sure why, since the amenities here are SO much more. It kind of makes you think about the fact that it's not about the amenities or the material stuff that makes you like some place. It's those intangible things that you get attached to. Traffic? Psh. 5 cars at a light was traffic for us in Laramie. Now, it's tens and tens of cars per intersection and missing the friggin' light like 2-3, sometimes 4 times. The commute? It's multiplied by 10-15 times...used to be about 1.5 min, now it's 17 or so minutes, sometimes longer depending on construction, etc. I still remember when we found out we were going to be moving to Portland. It was very early morning and it took a bit for the news to sink in to both of us. All and all, I think it was a fine move. We just sort of miss Laramie is all. Laura not as much. I do think, though, that the big reason why I like it here is probably due to something that doesn't even have to do with Portland. The fact that we are renting a house with no shared walls with neighbors. I think that issue lifted off my shoulders would make me like wherever we ended up with, honestly.


Spring/Summer


My last day at TEM was 5/7/10. I remember writing out the letter I sent to everyone that worked there and got some nice responses back. Besides, back then, I was probably in the top 10 people who were there the longest. That's hard to say in that company. After I left, MANY of the old-timers had also left, including 2 others in fulfillment, giving Sven a hard time in the following 2-3 months, and a few others in sales and such...not to be the bragging type, but I wonder if their leaving had anything to do with me leaving? Who knows, but I can be optimistic on my end. So, the drive out to Portland was horrible, we all knew that from my blog post back in May. Not doing that again. or renting from Budget. Ever. The first week or two here was kind of rough. The next month was very boring while I tried to find work. I must say I played A LOT of World of Warcraft. Thankfully the job search went pretty fast considering the economy, which seems to be doing the same or worse at the moment. I am still regretting not going to the interview for the web design job for the technology non-profit, but man, what can I do now, right?


Summer/Fall


So, I've been working during this time while Laura had a nice little break from her work during July and half of August. There wasn't really much going on during this time. We had a lot of visitors, however. During the latter part of Summer, we probably had more visitors than we had during all of our time in Laramie...COINCIDENCE? I think not. The weather had been great all Summer, too. The rain and overcast hadn't really started to come until about October and even until November. It was an overall great first experience for us, which is probably why we started to like it so much. There were a couple of really hot days during which I really wished we had an air conditioner or at least a swamp cooler (and we sort of almost bought one), but it just didn't make sense to get one for 2-3 days of the year.


Fall/Winter


And bam, back to reality already. Mostly overcast, we do get a bit excited when the sun starts to shine, even for a couple of hours. We had a good Christmas holiday break, as well. Although, for some reason this year, I felt that we traveled "more" (despite taking the plane and kenneling the dogs) and accomplished a lot less during the vacation. Not sure why. It may have just been the combination of waking up early each day, having the days filled with "stuff" to do and the fact that we were only there like 5 days really if you consider the 2 days of travelling time at either end. We did get some cool gifts though, most notably my webcam that I hope to use for some projects in 2011.


So, what can you expect from me in 2011? I dunno. This upcoming year will be a bigger year than 2010 I know. There will be some exciting things happening, one of which MAY be another cross-country move...sigh. I HATE moving, but whatever. Still, we have well over half a year left in Portland to do more stuff. We really gotta get outdoor in 2011 more. It's been hard to do because we've both been "busy", in the sense that the day is consumed with work and when you get back, you just don't want to do anything and just relax and go to bed. I felt like we did do more outdoor stuff on the weekends in Laramie, but that's probably because the outdoor stuff was much closer. We still need to head up to the mountains to the east of us and we'll need to visit some coastal areas as well. The thing is, it just takes so long to get to the southern coast area that we need to spend a weekend doing it and that means usually kenneling the dogs. Now that we've found a good kennel, maybe we'll start planning more. We need to take Deni's parents' cabin offer, as well.


To finish this off, I enjoyed 2010 and all that it had to offer. Let's hope for some surprises in 2011!

Going to be busy, but it looks like I'll hopefully have some time tomorrow to do my end-of-the-year recap!

We arrived safely in Tulsa today after a bit of travelling and waking up at 3am...ugh. Tired. Very tired.

I couldn't resist...I purchased StarCraft II and am installing it now...

To make myself feel a little better, I got Laura a Sims 3 expansion pack.

Time for an update.

Recently, I was pulling on my collar bone for fun...yes, for fun, and now I'm paying for it. Apparently the joint that connects the collarbone to the ribcage, though pretty strong, isn't as strong as I thought. It's been hurting there for a couple of weeks now, finally getting better. Well, I won't do that again!

Autumn is definitely here in Portland. Overcast, cold and damp. That is all.

We are going to eat at De-shits tonight with Laura's graduate friends. I'll probably get the fish and chips. Hopefully it's not crowded, though I'm sure it will be considering it's Halloween Friday. I hope we have/get a reservation.

Been working on a website very recently for a director doing her first directorial debut. I think it'll be fun. I'm currently just waiting for some content like photos/videos to put on to the site.

Nothing else really new. Just chugging along. I can't believe it's almost November. Time has flown by since we've moved here.