Wow! It's been 117 days since my last blog entry. I knew that it had been a while. I guess it was just too easy to keep telling myself I'll catch up on the blog next week. Oh well, here is what I've been up to for the past 4 months.
In April I resigned from CCS (Complete Computer Service, Ltd.) and took a position at White Light Computing. CCS is a small software company that sells vertical market applications to the Healthcare Staffing, Security Guard, and Temporary Help industries. With almost 13 years of service it was not an easy decision for me to leave, but I still think it is what will be best for me and my family in the long term. I hope to remain in contact and friends with the people I worked with there for many years to come.
May 1st was my first day at White Light Computing. So far I am really enjoying the challenges and the type of work I am doing. After working on a vertical market application for so many years it came to the point where I knew the code like the back of my hand and the frequency in which I was technically challenged was less and less. One of the things I like about software development is that I can constantly test myself and learn new things. And the work I am doing at White Light Computing lets me do just that.
On June 14th I took a little trip over to Grand Rapids Michigan to catch the GRAFUG (Grand Rapids Area FoxPro User Group) special event, The Andy & Marcia Show. Andy Kramek and Marcia Akins presented five topics: Implementing Design Patterns in Visual FoxPro - Part 1 & 2, The 26 Hour Day, Using ActiveX Controls, and Event Handling in Visual FoxPro. In addition, TechSmith donated copies of SnagIt and Camtasia Studio Bundle which were given away during the event. All of the above plus lunch and snacks for the low price of forty dollars. Definitely worth every penny and giving up a Saturday to attend.
The month of June was another big month for me personally. My wife and I celebrated our 10th anniversary with a ten day trip to the west coast. We started with three nights in Las Vegas at New York New York Hotel and Casino. One of my favorite places in Las Vegas is The Bar at Times Square and the dueling pianos. Another highlight was seeing "Phantom" at The Venetian. Although I have seen The Phantom of the Opera a couple of times before, I have to say that this production was by far the best, and the custom built theatre was amazing.
From Las Vegas we flew over to San Francisco and stayed at the Marriott Fisherman's Wharf for three nights. San Francisco is a really cool city with a lot of culture and unique bars, restaurants, and shops. I especially liked that most places we wanted to go were in walking distance. For the things that were not, the mass transit system is out of this world compared to what we have back home.
For the last segment of our trip we rented a convertible and drove to Napa Valley. Along the way we stopped and did some brief hiking at Muir Woods National Monument. This time we stayed three nights at a bed breakfast two blocks from downtown Napa, visited several wineries, and finished with a trip to a spa in Calistoga. The whole trip ended with a Friday night red-eye flight back home so that we would have at least two days to recoup before going back to work.
Vacation is always nice, but eventually you have to come back home and deal with all of the things that got left behind. That was July. I don't know where time went, no special events come to mind, but the days flew by none the less.
On second thought, I did start a half marathon training program in July. On October 5th I'll be running the Brooksie Way Half Marathon in Oakland County, Michigan. This is my first ever half marathon so I'm not expecting to break any records, finishing the event will be victory enough.
Links:
White Light Computing, Inc.
http://www.whitelightcomputing.com
GRAFUG
http://www.grafug.com
New York New York Hotel & Casino
http://www.nynyhotelcasino.com
San Francisco Marriott Fisherman's Wharf
http://www.marriottfishermanswharf.com
Muir Woods National Monument
http://www.visitmuirwoods.com
Brooksie Way Half Marathon
http://www.thebrooksieway.com