So, Marissa wants to win this super cute bike.  It's even in her favorite color.  Somehow, if I past a link to the website here, we're eligible to win.

So, Incubus is coming out with a new album next month, June 16 to be exact.  You can hear one of the new songs at enjoyincubus.com.  Cambry seems to enjoy Incubus, also.  She's smiling and dancing to it right now.

I'd get the new album, but it says that it's, "26 Songs (13 Hits w/2 New Tracks and 11 Rarities."  I don't know if it's buying an album for just 2 new songs.  Probably not.  Hopefully I can just buy the new tracks off of Amazon's MP3 store (I'm done buying from iTunes for a while).

Marissa and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary last week. We actually got a baby sitter so we could spend some time together alone. That's rare. It was fun.

Maybe I'm getting hungrier, but PF Chang's portions seemed smaller this time. Marissa and I both found it odd that we were able to finish our entire meal.

Anyway, time goes by fast. It's always good to take time to look back and reevaluate things and make sure you're living the way you want instead of just living the way that's comfortable.

I finished the Rodeo Run 10k in 51:42.  That works out to an 8:20 pace per mile.  I came in 1089th place in a field of about 5000.  I think that's respectible for somebody whose previous race experience consisted of 1 lap around the track in a high school track meet.  I was happy with 1089th.  When we ran our first 1.5 mile training run in January, I thought I'd be happy just to finished the 10k. You can see my results and watch a video of me crossing the line.

I'm glad I did the race.  A 10k is more of a fun run than a life goal, but it gave me something to train for.  Now, I have to decide if I'm going to continue running.  I still don't think running is any fun, but it's probably the best way to the most exercising in the least time.

A few nights ago, my home security system started beeping at 12:30AM.  After a few seconds, I figured that nobody was breaking in because it would just beep once every 5 seconds.  You might think that was obvious that nobody was breaking in, but nothing like this had ever happened and I'd just been woken up so my brain was nowhere near full thinking capacity.  The security panel had a message that said, "CH Trouble - Call 800-.....".  So, I called the number to figure out what was going on.  Here are some exerpts from the conversation I had with the not-so-helpful night shift worker.

Me: What does the code "CH Trouble" mean?

Brinks: I can't tell you.

Me: Are you serious?  My alarm system is beeping at me, and it's saying "CH Trouble" and you can't even tell me what that means?

Brinks: I can't tell you.

Me: Well, how can I fix it?

Brinks: I'm not allowed to give that information over the phone.

The conversation continued along a similar vein for about 20 minutes.  I was at a loss for words.  Eventually, he did offer me a solution.  Step one involved climbing into my attic to unplug the system and disable the entire thing.  Then, I would just have a few empty and worthless security panels on my walls.  Even without a monitored service, it was nice to be able to know when the doors and windows were being opened.  If somebody opened our daughter's window, we'd know immediately.  So, the guy from Brinks was basically telling us that instead of fixing the problem, we just throw the whole system away.  Awesome.

The next day, I reset the system (I had to go in the attic several times), and the error went away.  Unfortunately, our power went out over the weekend, and the error, with the associated beeping, came back.  I'm preparing for round 2 of argument with Brinks to get them to fix the problem.  Apparently, they own the equipment in my home.  I thought that was a little odd, but since they own the equipment, I figure they have some responsibility to make sure it doesn't start beeping at me for no good reason in the middle of the night.

Anyway, before you decide to get a home security system from Brinks, remember how helpful they can be.

It's not often that I discover something that is truly life changing, but today was one of those days. Apparently, it is now standard practice to put only one space after a period when writing.  I'm not sure when this became the standard.  In school, I was taught to always put two spaces after a period.  But now, according to the experts, including the Chicago Manual of Style and the all-powerful Modern Language Association, one space is all that's required.  I'm not sure when this changed, and why I didn't get the memo, but I thought I'd help spread the message.

Marissa and I created a blog for Cambry at cambry.blogspot.com.  We just put up some new Christmas pictures there.

In my mind, there are two ways to pick the college football bowl games:

1. pick who you think will win, or
2. pick who you want to win.

I haven't decided which strategy to use this year.  Strategy #1 gives me a better chance of winning any pools I enter, but #2 would make me happier if the teams I chose ended up winning.

I'll post my predictions once I decide what to do.

So, we got a new camera a few days ago.  We're still learning how to use it correctly, so some of these shots didn't turn out as great as we wanted.

 

  The drooler:

The cutie:


We started giving Cambry solid foods.  She does not like rice cereal or peas, but she seems to eat pears pretty well.


My original pretty girl:

 

Here's us at the zoo.  The Houston zoo is free on the day after Thanksgiving.  So, we're planning to make this a new family tradition.  The photos turn out a lot better in natural light.

 

  We went to the petting zoo.  Cambry was not a huge fan of the goats.  Tears were shed.

Cambry loves remotes, computers, and cords.  So, we sacrified an old remote and gave it to her as a toy.  We try to make it more exciting for her by telling her that it's not allowed.


That's it for now.  Hopefully we'll figure out a way to take good pictures at home.

At BYU, I think I only checked out books once, and that was because my sister had to do some research for her thesis.  I found everything I needed in their electronic catalogs or through other resources online. Marissa basically re-introduced me to the library after we got married.  She's an incredible reader.  She can read at least 4 times as fast as I can.  So, we go through a lot of books.  Our local library system has a fairly large selection of books, and until recently I've been able to find what I was looking for, or at least a suitable alternative.  But as I've learned more about my profession and have better judgment about what books are useless trash and what books are invaluable, I find that the people at the library who order the books don't always share my opinion.

A few months ago, I used an online form to request that the library request a bunch of books.  These are top selling books that are considered classics.  For example, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams is one of the best books about managing technical people.  On Amazon, it gets 4.8 out of 5 stars.  It's also timelss in a sense that it doesn't focus on any one piece of technology, so it won't be out of date in a few years.  I thought it was a good candidate for purchase.  So, I waited.  And nothing happened.  None of the 10 or so books showed up in the library catalog.

So, I went to the library and talked to the librarians about the process of getting new books.  They told me that all requests first go to the people at the local library.  If they think the books is worth buying, they'll send the suggestion to a central committee.  Then, the committee decides whether or not to get the book.

I'm going to go out on a limb (and not a very long limb) and say that when the librarians reviewed the books I suggested, they had no idea what they were about.

I left the library with a different view of our public library in general.  I used to think that the library supported continuing education for everybody.  Unfortunately, for non-fiction books, it looks like it stops at high school or a beginning college level.  I might just have to talk to my supervisor at work and see if he'll give me a book budget so I can get things on Amazon.