Missing her…

I love my wife, and I’m not afraid to admit it. Unfortunately, sometimes I forget just how much I need and depend on her. She left me today…to go to Oklahoma to see her family for the weekend. 😦 Well, as soon as I got home from taking her to the airport, I had this depressing, dark cloud of despair fall on me. Sounds pretty bad, I know, but that’s pretty much what it felt like.

It seems like that is always how I feel whenever we’re apart like this, where I don’t have immediate access to her. I know there are some in the world that would say that its not healthy to be dependent on someone other than yourself, but I think it is an indication of the deepness of our relationship and that it (our relationship) is something that is meant to last.

Don’t get me wrong, its not like I’m actually depressed (because I know she’ll come back! :)), but I think it interesting that I feel this way. She is my everything and I feel so blessed to have her as my companion. Jessica, I love you so much. I need you so much. I think it is a good thing!

Soccer mania

Jessica and I went to a Real Salt Lake soccer game tonight. For those of you who weren’t aware, Real is one of 12 teams in the MLS (Major League Soccer). Anyway, Jessica was kind enough to come with me as many people think that watching soccer is akin to watching grass grow.

Well, she’ll tell you different after tonight. What a difference the atmosphere makes. I really felt like the game never lulled and that it was completely interesting for the full 90 minutes. She was pleasantly surprised (as was I), and I’m all ready wanting to go back.

They ended up losing 1-0 to the Columbus Crew, and that was kind of a bummer, but our team had control for probably 80% of the game. Oh well. A guy a few seats down from us got thrown out because he threw his Coke onto the field after they scored on us. I think he had season tickets, too (well, there’s $200 out the window).

Unfortunately, the team is having problems securing funding from the county to help fund their new stadium in Sandy. It really is quite unfortunate as this is SLC’s only professional team besides the Jazz, and we all know that’s probably going nowhere. Anyway, here’s a good link with all the latest news. Also, here’s a quality article on why soccer is more American than baseball

Wootered

“Wootered”?  Yeah, it means “woot-entered” or “I put in a submission for this week’s woot photoshopping competition”.  Anyway, at Woot, they have a weekly competition where they give a prompt (usually involving one of the week’s sales) asking for people to submit photos or illustrations altered to some crazy theme.  Anyway, this week’s prompt was “Show someone using the Gyration Ultra keyboard and/or mouse to control something other than a computer.” 

Well, I gave it a shot (my first time entering), and after much too much time later, this is what I entered.  I know not everything looks completely natural in the pic, but hey, I thought it was at least a pretty good idea.  Go here to check out all the other entries and check back tomorrow afternoon for the results on the winners. 

Edit: I got an honorable mention!  Yay!  Not too shabby for a first time.  I’ll probably try again next week.

Pictures!!!

After much work and sleepiness, the we finally have some pictures up of Lucy (our miniature Schnauzer) and our Vegas ’06 vacation!  This blog is only a temporary holding place for them, however, until our web site is up and running. 

For those of you who are new (basically everybody because we just sent out an email inviting you), you can feel free to browse the rest of this blog, comment on any of the posts, and come back every now and then to see what’s new.  Thanks!

Microsoft Vista

Here are some personal Vista updates:

1. Office 2007:  Well, I saw a new video on Microsoft Office 2007.  It showed a whole new menu structure that doesn’t involve drop-down menus as we know them now.  It makes all the functionality more accessible and viewable.  The only way to really understand is to go see it for yourself here.

2. IE7 Beta Update:  I installed this beta a few weeks ago, and I’ve really loved the features of it (tabbed browsing, rss feeds, multiple home pages, etc.), especially the fact that it is SO much faster than Firefox.  I have recently discovered a major flaw (in my opinion), however.  I’ve found that when placing web orders in certain places (Chronopay, Woot), IE7 causes some fluky behavior that either breaks the server’s order process or causes it to halt completely.  So, if you are using IE7, be sure to watch out for that.  I keep Firefox on hand to place my web orders now.

Incorporated?

What do these three things have in common:  1099, TEKsystems, convenience?  Absolutely nothing.  Here’s the story:  My business is needing some extra revenue for the next couple of months to fill in some gaps.  So what do we do?  We go out to some recruiting agencies to get some short temp work.  We wanted to do it on just a 1099 basis (1099 is IRS-speak for independent contracting) so we don’t have to mess with getting our employees on a W-2 basis with the company (TEKsystems).  That would make it a nightmare to transfer that money to the business then.

Ok, bear with me.  TEKsystems says they have two options: W-2 or Corp-to-Corp.  What, no 1099?  Who doesn’t do 1099’s?!?  Its the easiest thing in the world to do; no taxes, no hassle.  Well, apparently they don’t.  They would require each of our employees to set up their own corporation in order to be paid on a 1099 basis.  Can you say Jeppys, Inc.?  I can’t, and I won’t. 

Bottom line:  They would be great to work for if I just wanted some money for myself (good money at that), but they won’t work with businesses.  It really makes no sense that a company that provides employees for needing companies won’t provide employment opportunities to needing companies.  Geesh…

Tabs and Giants

Hi everyone.  Its been a couple of days, and I’ve been meaning to post this:  IE7 Beta 2.  I was pretty excited to see this.  I know its not really all that new as far as the world is concerned, but its new to me and maybe anybody else reading this.  It features tabbed browsing, rss feeds, more viewing area, etc.  It will only be available on Vista, but the beta will work for XP right now.

Also, I posted a semi-permanent link to They Might Be Giants Podcasts.  30 minutes of so of new music by TMBG for your listening pleasure.  They’ve got a goal to reach 1 million subscribers (they currently have over half-million), so lets help out the cause, eh? 

That’s it for now, but I might come up with something good before the weekend hits.

FireFox Myths

I was working a little today in the admin section managing this blog, and I noticed a link to browsehappy.com.  It is a site that tries to influence people to stop using Internet Explorer and switch to any of 4 different browsers (FireFox being at the top of the list).  I read on, and they feel that Internet Explorer (IE) is 1. Unsafe and 2. Not as efficient.

I’ve used FireFox, and I don’t agree with them, but I wanted something substantial to validate my opinion.  Enter FireFox Myths, a site that debunks a lot of the fanhype that surrounds this browser.  It also shows that IE really isn’t all that bad and isn’t lacking in anything FireFox has.  I feel so strongly about it, I’ve put up a semi-permanent link on the sidebar. 

Quotes and Mars

This is just to inform everyone that I added a “Quotes” page (under “Pages” on the right) where Jessica and I will be putting any cool quotes we run across.  I’m hoping that over time, you’ll be able to read through them and get a good feeling for who we are and how we feel about things. 

On a different note, check out http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov for an interesting look at the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a new research vessel that will give us an unparalleled look at Mars’ water history, terrain, mineral traces, etc.

Quotes

Memorable quotes:

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” -Oscar Wilde

“If home is where the heart is, then my home is where you are.” – Relient K

“Be careful what you hope and you pray for. You know you only get what you pay for.” – Aqualung (“Cinderella”)