2008 in a Nutshell

As expected, my goal in 2007 to blog fell completely flat. As Bay pointed out, I lasted 3 days. So I will attempt to do this again in 2009. I've already posted one thing, so I'm doing something right.

Let's renew the blog with a recap of 2008. Hopefully I'll remember all of the good stuff.

In January, I was working long hours at MEDSEEK to meet what seemed to be weekly deadlines, while Liz was working weekends for various events at WORKPLAY. Yes, both companies capitalize every letter in their names.

In February, I was able to get away for a couple of days to Gulf Games 21 in Huntsville, AL. I was only able to make it up Friday night, but the trip is only an hour and a half, so it was well worth it.

In March, Liz changed jobs. She left event planning and sales to begin working for our church, Brook Hills. She's the ministry assistant for the Worship staff. That means she keeps all of the creative people organized. Not easy. She loves her job, especially due to the great people. Plus it's strictly 40 hours a week. She doesn't even have to work most Sundays.

April had 3 weekends of fun in a row. Our nephew Bryson turned 2 (where we took too many pics). He looks just like my dad did at that age. I don't think it's a coincidence since Dad died a few months after Bryson was born. The next weekend Liz's cousin Millie got married. Her husband's name is Josh, same as her sister's husband's name. Weird. The next weekend was the annual Magic City Art Connection. This is an outdoor art show that we attended on our second date. In addition to being nostalgic, they have some great art there. We bought a photograph and some pottery and always see stuff we like.

May was a low-key month. Besides getting sick, I got to reconnect with one of my best friends from high school, Mike Murphy.

June started off with a bang - a nine day mission trip to Ecuador. This was similar to the trip we took to Venezuela the year before. We lead a worship conference for native Ecuadorian church leaders, but we also conducted vacation bible school-like sessions for local inner-city kids. The trip was an amazing experience and the country and its people were beautiful. We have photos to prove it. Click on in front of an active volcano to see the entire album.

Ecuador

Also in June, I was able to return to the Oasis of Fun for more gaming with friends both old and new from around the country. I had missed the last 2 or 3 years, so I was glad to reconnect with gamers I hadn't seen in too long.

July was pretty uneventful, but I was able to make it to Gulf Games as I try to do every 6 months.

At the end of August, I changed positions within my company. No longer would be an engineer/developer/code monkey; now I was an architect. Nay, a Senior Technical Design Architect. So instead of writing software, I talk about writing software. The jury's still out whether this is my forte or not.

September again brought a new football season. Liz and I go to essentially every Auburn home game. Since Auburn was ranked #10 to begin the season, we were looking forward to a great year. Alas, it was not meant to be. We still always enjoy visiting Liz's parents who live in Auburn. That includes a weekend in October when we celebrate both Liz and her dad's birthday.

Every November my mom's family rent a few house and condos near Gatlinburg, TN. This year was our biggest turnout yet with 60 people on Thanksgiving day. I got to meet my first cousin for the first time ever. If this sounds strange, know that I have 15 of them on my mom's side spread out close to 35 years.

December was even busier than anticipated with Christmas parties, game nights, and all the other holiday trappings. I came close to my goal of averaging playing a game a day, ending up with 353. Maybe I can get there next year,

So 2008 is in the books. Maybe I'll be more regular with updates here in 2009. I've got nowhere to go but up!

Chalk one up to procrastination

So I've been meaning to get a guy to clean the gutters since spring. I really have. I even called somebody right before the leaves fell to line them up. They said to call back when I was ready. Didn't they realize that would cause problems for a procrastinator? Well, they haven't caused a problem yet, so why bother?

Today the rains came. Actually it's been drizzling a little for the past few days, but today it rained much longer and harder than it has in a while. Before dinner, it sounded as if it was really coming down, so I looked out the back door from the dining room to see just how hard it was falling. That's when I noticed the gutter had pulled away from the house and water was heavily pouring out of the side. Alright, that will get me going, I'll call the gutter guy tomorrow.

Liz took a look for herself...and came away with wet socks. Hmm. Seems the water must be seeping in under the door. Like an entire foot into the house. Yikes. I put a  bucket under the biggest drip to prevent it from hitting the house - that should do it. I went to the basement to see if this manifested itself in the ceiling. That's when I found this...

Not good. Going back upstairs, I passed by the TV and heard the weather man say we were in for heavy showers all night long. Really not good.

So I gritted my teeth, and went outside to fix the problem. Armed with a hammer, flashlight, and bucket I went to work. I found the the gutter was almost completely full of muck and leaves from stem to stern. That had pulls two nails that used to hold the gutter out of the house. I spent the next 15 minutes in the pouring rain scooping mud and leaves into a bucket, and every 2 minutes, climbing down the ladder to empty the bucket.

I'm pleased to say the gutter is flowing freely (at least the part I could reach from the deck), and it's reattached to the house. Liz put towels on the wet floor to soak up most of the water. I even pulled up the carpet. It appears as if this is new, since the floorboard seemed to be in good shape. Liz is out buying a fan now to dry out the floor faster. Here's hoping the gutter was the only thing causing the problem.

UPDATE: Appearantly, they don't sell fans around here in January. By "they" I mean Lowe's, Wal-mart, and Walgreens.