Still Like New

It was eleven years ago today that I asked Sandra to marry me. I'm still amazed at the entire story of our love, how God brought us together from such distant beginnings and how
He prepared us mentally, emotionally, and even physically for one another. In all my dreams I could never have prepared or created a woman more perfect to be my companion for life. I'm humbled and amazed by it all.

I knew when I proposed that I loved her. I knew I had never met another like her. I knew I wanted it to go on forever, and to never have to leave her arm at the end of the day again.

I thought I knew her so well...

Eleven years later, and I'm still getting to know her more, though. Certainly I know her more than I know any other person in the world. I know I can trust and depend on her like no other. Yet daily I find there is more to know, and I'm still excited and intrigued to know her more.

Certainly love has changed and changed us. I thank the LORD who brought us together and keeps us together, for keeping us fresh and "in love" as much as He gives us the ability to love one another.

Sandra, I love you.

Home for the Holidays

I come from a big family, and unlike so many large families of whom I have had the pleasure to know in my life, we are good friends. We enjoy hanging out with one another. We get along well. From early on, we realized that we were together for the long haul and my brothers and sisters are my best friends to this day. They are the ones I think of when I think about "old fashioned Christmas." As long as I can remember, Christmas was celebrated in Mom and Dad's family room, with a large tree and all of the kids sitting around watching anxiously as Dad passed out gifts - one by one - for each of us to watch and enjoy and laugh. Christmas was always a wonderful time with family.

I have my own large family now. I have 5 children of my own, not to mention a son who married my daughter and three grand children. Sandra and I saw several years ago as our "bigs" began getting to the age where they would be moving on with their own lives and having their own families that, if we didn't act quickly our children would not have that same instinct that we have to "go home for the holidays." If we spent our entire Christmas holiday running from one place to the next, resting long enough to tear into gifts and say quick "thank-you's" before running off to the next social engagement, our own children would not be drawn to our home when they had options for Christmas that would include their spouses families as well as ours.

In essence, if we didn't establish some Christmas traditions for our own family, our family would not have any to hold dear in our memories.

So a few years back, we had the difficult conversations with our mothers that we would be hosting Christmas at our home now. They were gracious in passing the holiday host torch to us, and I'm happy to say that my children rally around our house every year, and they bring our grand children. We have all sorts of traditions, like our family talent show and a big wonderful meal together. Our family in St Cloud comes to be with us, and we call our family in Lake Elmo. I love that Christmas is in our home now, and I love that we join together to celebrate God's profound love for us in His Son born a little baby.

But there will always be a small part of me that gets a little weepy when I hear Bing Crosby singing "I'll Be Home for Christmas." I can just hear Mom's voice singing to that old radio in her kitchen as she got the meal ready and the gang hung around waiting for dinner and the gift opening. I know that it drew her back to Wausau, where we would occasionally go to be with Grandma and her family.

So I guess that part of the fun is the memory of loved ones not with us, either by proximity or permanency. It's good to sit and recall what a gift these people are to us, and to miss them a little bit, and even to shed a little tear when one of those old Bing Crosby songs hits the radio. Love covers a long distance, and the love is what makes our home the place to be for the holiday.

MCITP Update

Slow going so far, but we're making progress none the less.

Working on cleaning up my study area. It's going well, the mountain of things in my Inbox is dwindling to a manageable level. It's still a bit overflowing, but every day I cut down a bit more and progress is the key. Most of my trouble here is deciding what to do with all this stuff that's accumulated, so thanks to SimpleNorth and his introduction of the 100 Thing Challenge I find myself really cutting down on the clutter by filling my trash bin. This is surprisingly therapeutic, I recommend it.

My lab is built and updating. I decided to take this opportunity to build a complete lab in VMWare using thin provisioning. I have two Windows 2008 servers and one Vista Business client. I would have built it using Windows 7, but I own a copy of Vista Business and figured I would not have to rebuild if I use a licensed copy.

I still have work to do on my schedule. Alright, I need a schedule...

So begins the MCITP

It's been a great summer full of fun and music. The new guitar makes me want to play again, and I'm glad to say that I've been doing just that. I'm hoping to have some recorded music available soon. Watch the Nobelly Rolling Myspace for updates and samples.

The task ahead is to certify in Microsoft Windows 2008. Right now my plan is to work toward MCITP Enterprise Administrator certification. I've been contemplating it for some time now, and finally about to begin with the encouragement of a co-worker having similar motivational issues. We decided that, if this was ever going to get done we would simply have to get to it.

So this morning I downloaded and installed VMWare Workstation 7.1 which was missing after my recent PC rebuild. I'll be working through the Microsoft Press MCITP Enterprise Administrator kit of materials and beginning with 70-640 exam for Configuring Windows Server 2008 Active Directory.

I haven't taken a Microsoft exam since the days of NT 4.0, so this is all a bit new again. Of course, having recently passed CCNA and GSEC exams I'm not altogether unfamiliar with certification exams in the modern day, either. I'm looking forward to getting on with this, updating my skills and learning a few new things in the process.

The things I need to do to begin:

1. Build the virtual lab. I'll be thin provisioning Windows Servers in VMWare Workstation 7.1, building the recommended lab per the M$ Press books
2. Organize this mess of a workspace - I have a hard time focusing on any given task when I'm sitting in a mess like I am now. Finally finishing my GTD organization needs to head up the list
3. Prepare my study plan - I usually have to map out how much I need to do daily by breaking up the main goal into smaller goals
4. Schedule my study time and be focused - I tend to get side-tracked easily, so I'll need to keep the prize in front of me and keep myself moving forward

So here we go. I'll try to keep up blogging my study notes like I've done in the past for the GSEC and CCNA as a review and reference for test time. I guess if I don't get this going, I'll never get it done.

Oh, nearly forgot to mention - we're not starting too aggressive. I just want to take one exam by 12/31/2010.

Goodbye. Hello.

Tuesday, I said goodbye to an old friend of mine. I affectionately called her "Chocolate Lucy" since the time we met in 1998. I walked out of Willie's American Guitars in St Paul, MN with a 1975 Fender Stratocaster, mocha in color, maple of neck. We made beautiful music together for the past 12 years. I've spent some of the finest musical moments of my life with her, starting with the heavy jam-band "The Phat Sells" and ending with "Green Light Night" here in 2010. She is beautiful, and I know she'll make another player extremely happy. Here we are on our last official gig together.

As you can see, she was not without blemish, but I loved her just the same. But for the last 12 years I've been keeping a secret from her...


When we met I was in love with another, but just couldn't make it work. I walked into Rock Town Music on Monday and found her again, but where she was out of my league and reach in '98, this time she was available. Tuesday, we made the deal and I brought her home:

From the first caress of her oval neck and Pau Ferro fingerboard, I knew this was it. I'd wanted her 12 years ago, and have been waiting all this time for the right moment.

And now she's my #1 axe. She screams. She sobs. She wails. She's smooth as silk and edgy as could be - all within the same solo. She inspires me to play again.

So goodbye, Chocolate Lucy. You've been a great friend and I'm forever grateful for having you. But our time is up, and now it's on to the future.

NoBelly Rolling is back, ladies and gentlemen. Watch for new music here.

Getting Things Done

I've been struggling to stay organized. That is affecting my stress level and my productivity. It seems I just can't keep together all the things I need to do/remember/think/call/email/buy/ignore on a daily basis, and it's becoming more burdensome as I get older and my family gets more involved with activities.

I have subscribed to Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" method of "Quadrant II organizing" for many years. I know that it's important to get the important stuff in the calendar before anything else, and that clear identification of priorities help make decisions in the moment on what to do or not do. The problem I have with this is the sheer number of incoming requests for my time and attention that slip through the cracks of my mind and how to process them. From a philosophical perspective, Q2 organizing is where it's at. I've been looking for methods and means to handle the daily work.

Enter David Allen's "Getting Things Done."

Here is a process for managing tasks, with the focus being on managing activities. The essence is that you have a single system of your choice where you keep all your "stuff" and from where you make decisions on what the next action on each is. You are managing lists of things to do in the context in which they are done. For instance, you have a list for "home" and "work" and any other logical grouping of items.

I'm in the process of identifying and setting up my GTD system. I want to use products that I'm already using to manage my tasks, calendar and reference info. My requirements are that I need to be able to sync task lists with my Windows Mobile phone and have them available offline (I can't justify buying a data plan yet), it needs to be technology-agnostic (at work I use Windows and at home I use Linux), and it has to be easy to get information in and out.

This morning I couldn't get back to sleep after being rousted from sleep by the sound of my work on-call phone going off, so I reviewed Evernote, Remember the Milk, Google and SimpleGTD.

I like the storage of information at Evernote and the simplicity of keeping reference material in one place. Setting up GTD appears to be a bit complex, requiring tags for contexts and searching data. For simplicity, I like SimpleGTD. There are no bells and whistles, just a good online app for keeping your lists. There is no mobile app, though, and no way to sync tasks with my phone. I guess I can't use that.

I have come to rest on Remember the Milk for task management due to the flexibility of their task lists, smart lists (more on this later) and their Windows Mobile sync application that allows me to sync via WiFi and not require a constant data connection. I'm also planning to use Google calendar and most likely Google Docs for reference material, although Evernote is strong in the running for information archival and storage. I'm leaning toward Google Docs at the moment because I already use it and the interface is simple and elegant. Besides, I like what I know, I don't always know what I like.

The beauty of GTD is that the tools are not specific to the process, and you can use anything you are already using. I'm planning to blog as I set up my system and hopefully it will clarify my thoughts as well as assist future users of GTD. I'm planning to be dedicated over the next 90 days to implementing GTD in full and making it my habit, at which point we'll see if it makes a difference.

Summer arrives

Glad to see the sun
Warmth surrounds my attitude
Relieves the weary

Just a quick update, really.

Sandra is on her way to Ohio with a van-full of baby items for Amber. Amber and Nick are doing well and expecting my grandson's arrival mid- to late-July. We'll be taking the whole gang out there to greet the new family member, and I can't wait to see them all.

Spring skating lessons are finished. Grace tested into level two of the skating club and was very pleased. Jeremiah "just didn't feel like testing" this year.

Gracie is showing some real talent on the piano. The most amazing thing to me is the way she associates sounds with emotions or other visual items. For instance, she plays a C major chord and says "Daddy, doesn't that sound like happy sunshine?" Then a C minor chord and says "And doesn't that sound like rain?" I don't recall her teacher having that conversation before she made the comments, and based on his enthusiasm and interest when she brought it up to him I'd say it is an association she's made on her own. I'm waiting for her to say "This is a piece in D minor, which is the saddest of all keys..."

Jeremiah is thrilled that his violin teacher promised to teach him the Star Wars theme once he progresses past exercise #64. He's on #56 and this would just be too much. To combine his two favorite things would just be too much. He is constantly playing with Star Wars Legos Wii, Star Wars Legos (which, in reality, are his two favorite things) and when he can play that theme song it could send him into hysterics. I should record his laughter and post it for you all, because I'm certain it would make your day as much as it makes mine.

Jadyn is picking up some games that I think are a bit amazing. She likes to play "Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock" with us and can make all the symbols except Spock. She's picking up on the "20 Questions" game, and could sit and go back and forth with me counting each others' fingers for hours. She is a joy.

Adrian is heading to Ohio with Sandra and doing well. I'm hoping to post pictures of his new hobby this year - Musky fishing. Based on his track record, we'll be seeing some monsters soon.

Sandra is doing well, president of Home Educated Youth and on the board of UPLIFT. She is immersed in and such an advocate for home education, it's inspiring. We serve HEY together, and I'm finding myself blessed by it in many ways I never expected.

I finally finished my first two electronic projects. A Fuzz Face clone and a Dallas-Arbiter Rangemaster clone. I've decided once again that *playing* the guitar is my real gift and passion, more so than building them or gadgets for them. I plan to do much more playing and much less tinkering over the summer months, hoping to start recording what will become my first self-released album of original music. You can listen to previews on my MySpace Music site if you would like.

Other than that, we're glad to see the warmth and sunshine. Drop me a note and let me know what you're up to this summer.

Oh...almost forgot the telescope! More on that later...