It sure has been a while since I've been writing a JE. I am still lurking here and there, though not as much lately.

I will be presenting in Toledo at the Northwest Ohio .NET User Group (http://www.nwnug.com) on Tues, Sept 27. The topic will cover writing .NET applications using XML. I'm going to be talking about the differences of using some of the more popular .NET XML classes including XmlDocument, XpathNavigator, and XmlReader. After that I'll introduce a shared source framework and the Microsoft shared source co

Just thought I'd post an update as it's been a few weeks. There has been quite a bit going on lately, especially at work. Being a new manager has been keeping me busy. This week it sort of hit me- especially after I had a few meetings with my new boss. I like it but I admit I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed with all the potential projects looming and having to meet with executive level managers. Being a global company means a lot more paperwork, too.. Lately I've been wishing our team could

I was at Kroger yesterday, picking up my perscription (I've got my yearly sinus infection) and I saw "5/$5 for all pepsi 12 packs"! I thought that was a great deal, so I picked up two packs. A few minutes later I saw another display that said "$1 per pack after mail in rebate! Sale price $2.50".

So we're finally getting settled in our house, and the bills are rolling in! I had an interest only construction loan that is supposed to be converting to a conventional mortgage. This is fine and dandy, except for the sad fact that the bank only goes by the "appraised" value of the prints on the house back before it was even constructed. This just so happens to = the contract price of the house + the cost of the lot. They won't take it to consideration the 10,000 + additional we put in

I was reading the front page article today on XBox 360 interview. Dare I say it, but I am honestly starting to have second thoughts about it. I think MS is making a few strategic errors.

I am thinking about getting into paintball. I have some friends from church that play (same ones I play Halo 2 w/ online). I have played in the past, but it was quite some time ago (high school age). "Back then" it was pretty expensive, I remember paying like $20 for 200 balls and I had to rent the gun. Now days it seems like things can be a bit cheaper.

Today they announced my new position at our staff meeting: "Manager of Interactive and Operations Business Systems". Which basically means I am a day-to-day manager of software development for business units in those categories. I have 5 people that report to me (same team I was working with as a Lead Developer). I've known about the change for several months now.. Glad it is finally out of the bag.

The weekend was pretty busy. My parents came up to see the granddaughter and help me install the garage door openers. It took my dad and I about 6 hours total- which included a trip to Anderson's to get some angle brackets to hang them. There wasn't anything overly difficult about doing it- but it took a while. I did most of the wiring while my Dad assembled them. Worked out pretty well.. We got them both up without screwing up anything major.

Here are the snake pics as promised (see my last JE if you missed the story).

Welcome to the jungle... err, maybe the country...

Amazing how we are only 5 months away from the end of 2005. Looking back on this year so far and I can say time has flown by, and I'm about where I was hoping to be (house, family, church, career). I'll probably post another JE about that in the near future.

I have a credit card with a 0% interest rate until March. I generally don't like using credit cards (especially when carrying a balance), but if you're responsible they can be pretty useful- especially when you're building and money is flying out the window :).

Had a pretty good weekend. Got to go to the Ann Arbor Art Fair. We looked around at a lot of booths but didn't find anything that we wanted to get for the house (well, at least nothing we could afford!). It was a pretty hot day. In my least favorite section (where all the non-profit groups are) of particular interest were some JW's (wearing ties and white shirts in 100 ' weather) and a guy at the nudist booth was overly friendly (while I was walking by, he piped up with an emphatic "HI!")

Pics from the last week of building have been posted in case you are interested. Check here.

Cable co came out a little late tonight, but I am now up and running. Things are running quite well, and the upload speed is now 368K so it's a bit kicked up from what I had before.