As the class warfare struggles continue to come to a head in the US, I keep solidifying my stance of where I stand on the issues. One issue in particular that I am dead-set against is taxing the rich to feed the poor. This “spread the wealth” mentality is so laughable it isn’t even funny.
Wedding Bells
So my fiance and I went ahead and “eloped” yesterday. We just ran down to the courthouse and within minutes we were legally married. The State of Colorado apparently makes it extremely easy to get married. You could almost call it a “quickie” wedding. First of all couples can “self-officiate,” meaning you don’t need a
Yahoo! Sucks
There was a time when Yahoo! was very beloved by all, but me – I was a fan of InfoSeek for my searches. Unfortunately InfoSeek succumbed to the tech crash and was auctioned off piece-meal to the highest bidders. So I gave in and began using Yahoo! I found it adequate (although to this day
Cuteness Squared
Ok I caught my cats in a really cute pose and I felt like sharing. What can I say – I’m a sucker for cute!
Final Round
I can’t believe it, but I’ve made it to the final round of interviews! I got the call today from the “dotted-line” director who I would be working part-time with if I get the position at Sun. He sounded like a cool guy and the interview is scheduled for tomorrow via a conference call (between himself
Feeling Fortunate
I recently had a meeting with a new 3rd party client (meaning that they are actually a client of one of my clients). For some reason I was nervous about the meeting as I didn’t feel I was as well versed as I could be in the area we would be discussing.
However, the meeting went much better than I feared, and it has made me want to take stock of my accomplishments in my business over the past 4.5 years.
What I came to realize last night is that I have now provided analytics services to nearly a dozen Fortune 500 companies. When looking at it another way I have also provided those same services to over a dozen Fortune 1000 companies. Either way you slice it, I hadn’t realized until now how many companies I’ve worked with that up in the “Fortune” range.
I honestly am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that little old me has worked with so many large, successful corporations. It’s truly humbling that so many have entrusted me to provide this type of service to them, especially when it’s so critical to making online business decisions. To that end I feel I need to send out a few “thank yous”
- Thank you to my previous manager, Laura Roselli. Back when I was still working at LSI Corporation, she made the call to use Omniture for our Web Analytics tool. It’s my hands-on experience with that tool that allowed me to launch my independent career.
- Thank you to my other previous manager, Paula Silveri. She didn’t realize it at the time, but laying me off from my job gave me the kick-in-the-pants I needed to start my own business.
- Thank you to my first client, CP+B for taking a chance on me. The 8 months I worked with you and your client was a great learning experience, and helped me land all the other clients I’ve had since.
- Finally, thank you to all my other clients over the past 4.5 years – both past and present. Without you, Endress|Analytics LLC would not exist.
Moving House
Our new house!
Well we’ve finally done it! Dave and I have bought a new house! Contracts are signed, appraisal is scheduled. In fact the appraisal is the last piece that we’re worried about now – if the home doesn’t appraise to what we offered on it, we still get the option to back out of the deal. I’m hoping that won’t happen, since the builders already made the one big modification we requested in the house (it had a *huge* upstairs loft, and we asked them to wall it in and make a 4th bedroom, which I will use as my home office).
Yes I said builders – when we viewed the home, it was only partially finished (ok mostly, but still needed plumbing fixtures, flooring, etc.). So this is a *brand new* house (squee!). I love the colors they chose for this house and it’s a nice contemporary/modern look on the interior. It had almost everything we wanted too (and our list of wants was pretty extensive).
Our new kitchen! :)
When we move in, the landscaping won’t even be quite done yet, but there are lots of great areas to walk the dogs in, so Dave and I will get our share of exercise doing that until the landscaping gets put in (which may not be until late May or early June).
Be that as it may, we’re pretty excited (ok, I’m really excited, Dave is slightly excited but mostly stressed because of all the stupid hoops the government has put into place for securing a mortgage these days.). Look for more updates and a full set of photos once we’ve closed on the house! :)
The Perfect Guilt-Free Almond Cookies
This recipe is one that I got from my grandmother, and modified to be even more guilt-free than the original version. I’ve tested them out on my friends and considering there are none left attests to their tastiness. :)
Ingredients:
- 3 Egg Whites
- Pinch of Cream of Tartar (approx 1/16 – 1/8th teaspoon)
- 3 Tblsp Z-Sweet (Erythritol). Splenda or TruVia may also be used. I wouldn’t recommend any other sweetener unless you don’t mind the aftertaste.
- 1/8th tsp of almond extract
- 1 cup ground almonds
- 12 whole almonds (optional)
Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Separate your eggs to get the 3 egg whites (or just buy pure egg whites and use the measurement on the carton for 3 eggs). Add in the cream of tartar, sweetener and almond extract. Turn your mixer up to full speed (or egg white setting) and mix until the egg whites can form stiff peaks.
Fold in the ground almonds, about 1/3rd cup at a time, until fully blended with the whipped egg mixture. With a tablespoon, scoop out 12 cookies onto a pre-greased, non-stick cookie sheet. Place a whole almond on top each cookie (optional). Bake for 15 minutes at 350F, or until they begin to start turning brown.
After removing from the oven, immediately take a spatula and remove from the cookie sheet and place on a cooling rack or plate. This will prevent them from sticking as they cool.
This recipe can be made with any sort of nut, replacing the almond extract with the matching nut extract (if available), or vanilla extract.
Nutrition Info Per Cookie:
Cal: 50
Fat: 4.1g
Sodium: 14mg
Potassium: 71mg
Carbs: 4.6g
Protein: 2.5g
Midlife Crisis?!
I’ve come to a realization that my primary motivation behind all the changes I’ve been doing this year are possibly attributable to the fact I turned 40 a year ago. Since then I’ve been having all sorts of medical tests and procedures done that I’ve been putting off. I’ve been going back to the gym and working out (and as of this post have lost 9lbs, yay!). I’m doing more with my hair and makeup than I have in the past, along with my wardrobe – trying to improve my overall appearance.
Last but not least, I’ve also finally gone ahead and gotten braces to straighten my teeth. Now I definitely have a medical reason behind getting them, but a part of me is also kind of excited to finally get straight teeth after all these years.
So I’m pretty sure I’m doing all this because I turned 40 and I came to realize I’m not getting any younger and I better start taking care of myself before I regret it – that’s the primary motivator. The secondary, and more vanity driven one, is the fact I’ll also start looking better too (at least that’s the hope!).
So stay tuned – in another year or so I may post a photo of the new, improved me!
Honeymoonin’
Chabil Mar Resort in the Morning
Last week we got back from our honeymoon in Belize. We had a really lovely time and took tons of photos and video footage of our trip.
This was by far our most expensive trip we’ve ever taken, mostly in part because we decided to stay at a resort, instead of just rent a little house somewhere, which is what we usually do.
It was a lovely treat to go to a mostly inclusive resort. We did opt for a local boutique resort named Chabil Mar Villas (they only have 22 villas on the property), instead of a large well known resort like Sandals. They took really good care of us, and we met many other honeymooners during our stay there. They also arranged all of our excursions during our stay. We ended up going on 3 of the 4 excursions we had originally planned:
- A visit to some local Mayan ruins at Labaantun and Nim Li Punit, along with a stop at a local cafe for some traditional Belizean cuisine (chicken, rice and beans, collard greens).
- A boat trip out to Laughing Bird Caye, an island about 11 miles off the coast of where we were staying. We went snorkeling off the island. That was a lot of fun!
- A tour of the Monkey River, including a jungle hike to seek out howler monkeys, followed by lunch in Monkey River Village.
I think I might like to go back again, but next time we’ll skip the resort (as lovely as Chabil Mar was, they were very expensive). I’ve checked and there are plenty of rental homes in that area so we could easily go back and spend only 1/5th of what we spent on our honeymoon.
I am hoping this will be my one and only honeymoon, so I wanted it to be memorable, and it sure was!! :)
Life and stuff …
It’s been ages since I’ve posted an update. I have nothing earth shattering to blog about today but I figured I’d just write a little update about life in general.
I’ve been pretty busy with work lately – my hours have really picked up with my clients and I’m consistently working 25 – 40 hours/week now. My YouTube channel is going along nicely. I’ve topped 400 subscribers recently and hope to hit 500 before my 1 year anniversary on October 6.
Dave and I are still enjoying wedded bliss, although life after marriage really isn’t *that* different than life before, other than dealing with joint taxes and crap like that.
We finally have all our remodeling done in our kitchen and downstairs bath/laundry room, so once we get past dealing with taxes, we can start house shopping (yay!). :)
I started an 8 week healthy weight program at a local gym here. So far lost 3.5lbs. Still have a *lot* more to lose but I’ve been sticking with it so far (finished 4 weeks so far). After the program is done, I’ll join the gym and keep going.
Naturally I had to go sprain my ankle yesterday, so that’s going to challenge me, but I’ll talk to my personal trainer and figure out a workaround until I heal up! In the mean time I’ll keep being good on my diet! :)
We’re planning on a short trip to Chicago for my aunt’s 60th surprise birthday party, and I’ll also get a chance to visit with my niece and nephew while I’m there. Then in November it will be off to Belize for our honeymoon and in December to Montana for Christmas with Dave’s family.
I love to travel, but I am also looking forward to just being home for awhile after all that. I’ve traveled a lot this year and I think I need a break!
Wedding Bells
So my fiance and I went ahead and “eloped” yesterday. We just ran down to the courthouse and within minutes we were legally married.
The State of Colorado apparently makes it extremely easy to get married. You could almost call it a “quickie” wedding. First of all couples can “self-officiate,” meaning you don’t need a priest, rabbi, minister or justice of the peace to marry you. You can just do it yourselves. However one interesting exception is you can’t just have anyone else do it for you either – if you don’t do it yourselves, then the person must be ordained or in some other capacity allowed to marry people.
Also they didn’t require witnesses either – so all we did was take the marriage license to a table, filled it out and signed it. Once we brought it back, all we had to do was pay about $35 (processing fee plus 2 certified copies), and we were married!
I know this probably sounds very un-romantic, but it suited who we are as a couple. We are planning a more romantic, formal wedding reception for close friends and family. That will happen in less than a month and should be a lot of fun. I’ll add a photo gallery for wedding photos and reception photos in my photo page so come back and check them out!
UPDATE: Here are all the wedding photos!
Slivers and Colds and Fires, Oh My!
They say bad things come in threes and over the past few days that certainly seems true.
Stoned Out Joey After Vet Visit
Slivers
So, our dog Joey has been trying to chew through part of our fence in the back yard to get at some other dogs. Through these efforts he got some wood splinters between 2 toes and they became infected and abscessed. I took him to the vet on Friday and they had to sedate him so they could get the splinters out, drain the abscess and overall clean the area before bandaging. He’s now on anti-biotics and painkillers for about a week.
Colds
I’ve suffered from a summer cold for about 3 weeks now. Every time I think I’m getting better, it flares up again (blech). As I’m writing this I’m dealing with a hacking cough, runny nose and sneezing. It’s not helping that I’m also going through a rather bad cycle as well so I’m taking painkillers on top of decongestants. I’m just feeling like a big ball of misery.
High Park Fire, Taken on June 9, 2012
Fires
Starting at only 2 acres yesterday, we’ve had a huge wildfire blow up 15 miles northwest of where we live. Within 24 hours it grew to over 14,000+ acres, over 1,000 people have been evacuated and at least 18 structures have been confirmed destroyed. The High Park Fire is the biggest one in Larimer County history and the 2nd largest in Colorado history.
So suffice it to say, this has not been the best weekend.
Random Thoughts on Thursdays
I’m introducing a new format for my vlogs (video blogs). I’m going to be sharing “random thoughts on Thursdays,” which is basically the same kind of vlog I’ve always done. However I am now going to adhere to a regular schedule and post a new vlog every other Thursday. Here is the fist of my “Random” vlogs:
As you can see from what I said in the vlog, I’ll be vlogging about all sorts of random events and things going on in my life. I plan to shoot footage during the 2 weeks between vlogs, and compile it all for posting every other Thursday.
I have a lot going on this year, with our wedding coming up, our honeymoon, remodeling going on in our house, and plans to sell and buy a new house, plus lots of other things. So I think I won’t run out of material for my vlogs anytime soon. Come with me on all my adventures this year, and enjoy the ride!
A Forgotten Legacy
Cover Art by Frank Frazetta for "A Princess of Mars"
A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, was the very first full-length non-children’s book I ever read as a child – I was 8 years old. The story drew me in from the introduction, and kept me enthralled until the last page. I was so happy that there was a series of sequels because I kept wanting to revisit the world of Barsoom* that ERB wove so masterfully in those pages.
To me it’s such a tragedy that this literary work is all but forgotten. Even with the John Carter movie, most people I talk to didn’t even know that it was based on a book. Over the years I always ask people when the subject of books and literature come up, if they’d ever read any of the books about Barsoom, and I’ve always gotten blank stares. I patiently explain that it’s the Martian series, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. More blank stares. I explain that he was famous for writing Tarzan. Finally a glimmer of recognition!
It’s amazing that as famous as the story of Tarzan is, most people don’t even know the author’s name of even that series of literary fiction. In his lifetime, ERB published over 85 fiction novels (most were science-fiction, with the exception of Tarzan and some other works). With that large body of work, you’d think more people would know who he was.
I had high hopes that with this new movie, there would be a resurgence in the interest in these marvelous tales. Unfortunately I fear the name Edgar Rice Burroughs and Barsoom may remain an obscure footnote in the history of great science-fiction.
Which is truly a shame. Personally I thought the movie was really good. *sigh*
*Barsoom is the Martian name for Mars. :)
