my birthday is coming up in a few weeks… and this year it’s going to be special because i’m going to pig out like never before! btw, Benny & I have the same birth DAY… (i think i’m a year or two younger tho :D). anyhow… many of you know that i started the Atkins diet back on February 1st… some of you know that it’s been a great diet for me… some of you can imagine (if you know anything about the Atkins diet) that i haven’t been eating many breads, potatoes & sugars. i’m sure you might be thinking… “how can you survive”… but it’s actually not too bad. however don’t think that my love for non-Atkins approved foods has diminished:
cookies
ice cream
cake
pie
candy bars
donuts (Krispy Kreme)
chips
french fries
mash potatoes with gravy
chips
lasagna
spaghetti
fetticini
PIZZA
macaroni & cheese
dinner rolls
garlic bread

so here’s the deal… i’m preparing to fall off the Atkins wagon for a week beginning the weekend of my birthday. i figure even if i gain 10lbs i can drop it off in no time once i get back into my diet (and i doubt i could possibly gain that much weight in a week… but we’ll see :D). anyhow i don’t want to forget anything that i might want to sample during this week long binge… so if there is anything you don’t see in the list that you think you i should splurge on then let me know… just remember it’s gotta contain bread/pastas, potatoes or SUGAR.

thanks for helping me out on this one… haha… the world(ok, my tummy) will be a better(um bigger) place with your participation!!

this weekend i flew out to Sant Fe, New Mexico to celebrate my grandparents (Mammaw & Hampaw) 50th wedding anniversary. it was a lot of fun… although it was a short trip. we dined in the wine room at the bottom of a very nice restaurant (didn’t catch the name). i supped the aged wine (again didn’t catch the name) had a pale ale or 2 with some quail, duck and i broke my diet for some creme brule (very much worth it 😀 ). we learned/re-learned how my grandparents met… on a blind date. there was a lot of laughter and a lot of love. my dad’s side of the family gets together much to0 infrequently so the gatherings are always dear… but this was truly a treasured time… i wish we could’ve all stayed for a week.

btw my dad, who owns a Colorado Springs Janitorial Services businees, scored some AWESOME resort & spa rooms from Priceline.com for $70 per night (listed everywhere else for $200… the rooms were p.i.m.p.

Santa Fe itself was kinda neat… definitely more for somebody who wants to shop (with some serious shopping money) and u have to enjoy southwestern art (or you’ll hate it fast). this time of year (Late April/Early May) is a great time to visit and ride horses on the trails… the air is brisk but not cold and the sun is shining and the mountains make a beautiful backdrop.

anyhow… it was fun and its cool to see your grandparents love each other more and more throughout the years… truly perfect for each other!

>> James & Mashala are on their way too

thought i would drop a quick not to update friends and family… since i haven’t been making the rounds to other blogs and haven’t got to talk to some of you.

good news first:

— looks like my bro is headed to San Diego for a month or 2 to do some contract work with a company that he’s stoked about. i hope they offer him a full time position so he can move from the cold Denver Colorado to the warm sunny southern cal… cause u know i’ll be visiting him much more often 😀

— my job is still going good and keeping me busy… i’ve started designing the content managment system and about to finish up with backend programming conversion to C# .Net 2.0 (geek speak for GOOD STUFF)

— i was getting very fat (well i’d say i’ve been fat for a long time) after researching the Atkins diet for 2 years i finally decided that my exercise patterns were not going to change soon or easily so the only alternative would be my diet. i started on Feb 1st 2006 and I lost 20 lbs so far without any additional exercise. i don’t really care how much weight i lose… i just couldn’t stand how big my gut was getting. well… it’s shrunk down a bit and hopefully will got a little bit more. this summer i plan to be active on the lake so my exercise should pick up as well as my carb (sugar) intake :D… in the meantime i’m cool with Atkins… i eat lots of meat anyhow and now i don’t really even worry about fattening stuff… just bread, potatoes and sugar (like that’s easy…. just think about those 3 little words and how much you eat in a day!)

now some bad news:

— i got back yesterday from my Uncle’s funeral. he died from Cancer. it started as lung cancer and spread to his kidney and bones… CIGARETTES DO KILL!! don’t give me that line about how your great aunt chain smoked for 100 years and was healthy as an ox… i’ve got people like that in my family too… but the reality is that those people are the exception… not the rule… for most of us if we eat too much we get fat… if we smoke we get cancer… do yourself and your loved ones a favor and put down the cigarettes!!

— taxes are around the corner and i’ll be so glad when i get my business and personal taxes filed… by next year my business taxes should be a breeze… they were supposed to be a breeze this year… but we’re not quite there yet… next year we will be for sure!!

— Iran is bad news for us Americans… heck maybe for the world… I’ve said it for a long long long time (long for me… maybe 10 years :D) that Iran is the country we need to keep an eye on… now this whole Irag invasion is seriously looking like the beginning to and un-ending… but that’s what we signed on for remember… “War on Terror”

Final Bit of Good News:

— there is no more bad news to report 😀

have great day… perhaps several… as it may take me a while to get back on here…. (maybe this weekend)

just before the Christmas hustle and bustle i started a new job. i left my job at sitestreet.com (still the best austin web design company out there) to accept a position with TicketCity.com

my time with sitestreet.com was a blast. jimmy, the founder and owner is a great guy and it was hard to break the news to him. in my short time with him we cranked out some great sites and helped bring sitestreet’s search engine optimization abilities up to par with the best of the best. jimmy really had things ramping up nicely just before i left and i expect that sitestreet will continue to see revenue growth and profit$

so, u might be asking… why did u leave if it was so good. well… in the most random of ways i just happened to come across TicketCity.com and see a posting for a position that looked really attractive to my nature and skills. so, i figured, “i’ll send my resume and that will be the end of that.” and for a month that was the end of that and then out of the blue i get a phone call from Zach and he hits me up for a phone interview on the spot. the chat was good and he asked me to come into the TicketCity.com office. a few interviews and conversations later i’m being offered a position.

with some serious deliberation i gave up working from home, for sitestreet, only to have to get dressed everyday and drive to work… i know i’m pretty sad huh. well… of course the pay isn’t anything to sneeze at and the benefits will be nice (after my 90 days when they kick in) and i’m looking forward to partaking of the quarterly and annual bonuses but truly most of all is the oppurtunity. i mean all things being stated the potential at TC is extremely broad and deep. this is/was true at sitestreet, however, sitestreet didn’t get to take advantage of the best of me the way TC i believe will.

so there u go, i’m stoked to be starting the new year in a new job with a lot of possibilities. over the months i hope u guys will check out the site from time to time (but don’t ask me for discounts hehe… family is already hitting me up :D) but we’ll see… maybe we can put something together.

for my proggy friends out there… i’m about to embark on creating a new API with .Net, and new content management system/user interface for the public site(s) so i’ll be up to my nose in code for the next several months. as a few of us know nothing makes life better than building your house on a solid foundation rather than sand. from there we’re going to shake things up in the online event ticketing industry. (be on the lookout for some .Net questions coming your way via email u .Net’ers).

and there you go 😀

this is likely my last post for a while, since i’ll be traveling to visit family for Christmas. i’ve got a lot of news and goodies to share with everyone once i get back so stay tuned in :D.

in the meantime has anybody else noticed the Google Doodle going on with their logo?

be safe and have a great Christmas! for those of you who do not celebrate Christmas I hope you celebrate in some other way with your family and friends and have a great time as well.

in case I’m not back to posting before New Year’s… have fun, be safe and i’ll see you in 2006