Lately

So things have been a bit quiet around here lately, and for that I apologize. Between various trips, both work and pleasure related, and work in general I haven't had much time for anything on the internets. In fact, last week I spent an average of about 13 hours a day at work. And since I work on computers all day, the last thing I want to do is hope back on the internet and type some more.

Let's see, so what's been going on other than business.

Back in June-July the wife and I went on our first big vacation and visited the Seattle and Vancouver areas. I would love to do a big write-up, but the best I can give you at the moment is our pictures from the trip (link). While not all of the pictures are labeled, I did Geo tag them, so you can at least see where they were taken. Quick synopsis before I leave the trip. We went to Seattle, visited our first winery together, then went camping in North Cascades National Park, hiked a really isolated/gorgeous/strenuous trail, visited Vancouver, went kayaking, almost touched a seal, celebrated Canada Day in the Provincial Capital Victoria, went to Olympic National Park, spent the night in a rain forest, drove/hiked to the top of a mountain, went to Seattle, and then came home.

Once I got back, I went pretty much straight to San Diego for a business trip. While I was there one of my students helped me learn how to surf (still not good), and I got to swing up to visit my mom and sister before I left.

Then I had to go to Cali again, this time Santa Ana for a business trip. Got in some more surfing in (traded 3 days surfing for a 12 pack of Coors Light), saw my mom and sister every evening, ot to see my older sister and my new niece, played on the beach with the baby for her first time ever (super cute), and promptly raced back to Austin.

Since then it's mostly been work for me. I have a product that's going to be released soon, so the work schedule has been crazy and the main thing I'm learning is that there's always more to be done and what you thought wouldn't take long always takes too long.

On fun notes though, I managed to save up this summer and got the wife and I a really cool camera! I've been wanting a more professional camera for a long time after getting frustrated with missing great photos because the camera I'm using took too long to take the shot, or it did take the shot, but messed up the lighting or blurred the image. We ended up choosing an Olympus E-510 because it had the best lenses and features for the price point. So far we've had a ton of fun and can finally take the cool shots we missed before. Like water coming down a waterfall, musicians at a concert, action shots of the dog, intentionally out of focus shots, and just better clarity on even the most normal of shots.

Since taking pictures of things and working on finding things to take more pictures of has really been my greatest joy lately I'll leave you with a few of my favorites.