Month of August, 2007

Cuteness at the Dog Park

Neither of these dogs are mine, but they were cute enough to warrant a picture at the dog park.

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Kristen is Blogging!

I never thought the day would come when my younger sister, Kristen, would start blogging. But she surprised me and started one! It's all about her son, Braydon. I'm thrilled that she's keeping us all up to date on his growth and development. I wish we lived closer so I could see it for myself, but I'll take what I can get.

Phoenix Sky

I was reading a friend's blog today about how much she loves San Diego. She moved there from Texas about a year ago. It made me think about how much I love Phoenix. This is a great place (even if it's the most insane place to live in the summer). One of the things I love most about the desert is the sky. We've got incredible sky. These are just a few pictures I found on my camera recently.

(I thought it was extra cool that my friend, Jon, took pictures of this cloud formation too.)

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The Weekend

Chris and I had a relaxing and fun weekend. I love having him around all the time. I don't know how we survived dating long distance for so long. It's so awesome to have him here.

Friday night we took the dogs to the dog park. It was the first time since Mac's fight. A few weeks ago, Chris's black lab, Mac, got in a fight at the dog park. Of course, he didn't start the fight (I feel like a parent whose child can do no wrong), but he did get roughed up a bit. Luckily nothing serious and he healed just fine. His return to the dog park was completely normal as if he never remembered it.

After the park, we cooked a dinner of steak and veggies. (Chris is such an excellent grill cook!) Then we watched 25th Hour. While 25th Hour was a pretty good movie, (who doesn't like Edward Norton?) I've decided that I really don't like Spike Lee films. A few weeks ago we watched Summer of Sam, another Spike Lee film that was completely horrible. I anticipated a spooky movie set in the time of a serial killer in New York City. Instead, I got gross sex scene after sex scene with John Leguizamo. It was bad. Now that I've watched a couple Spike Lee films, I've realized there's always something weird sexually and there's always a big rant about people which somehow brings in race. He's definitely not my favorite director.

In fact, I just remembered that while I was in college, I saw Spike Lee speak at Texas Tech University. I don't remember too much what he spoke about, but I do remember feeling like he hated (or at least strongly resented) white people. An instructor of mine, a 30-something PhD student, asked a question about teaching about race and Spike Lee basically told him he couldn't do it justice because he is white. I can remember being completely turned off.

Anyway, Chris and I have vowed to stop seeing Spike Lee films. In order to redeem our belief in Edward Norton, we watched Fight Club and all was well.

Saturday we spent the day around the house. I did some cooking for the week and Chris worked in the wood shop. Saturday night we went to an informal car show that happens every Saturday night in Scottsdale. We had a lot of fun taking the convertible out (since it had cooled off to a comfortable 99 degrees) and looking at other cars. We ran into Karl, a co-worker from my previous company. It was fun to finally get to introduce him to Chris and catch up on things that are going on at that company. While there are a few things that I miss, I can honestly say that I'm very happy with my decision to move on.

After the show, we cooked some dinner (sweet and spicy shrimp) and spent the rest of the night at the dinner table drinking wine and talking. It was the simplest yet the best night I've had in a very long time. I'm so happy just sitting around with Chris. I never imagined I would be this happy but am so thankful for it.

Sunday we cleaned house, worked on Jennifer's computer, and played video games. Correction, I played video games while Chris worked on Jennifer's computer. (He's so handy with a soldering iron!) And Paper Mario for the GameCube is a ton of fun! In the evening we watched Apocalypto, which was pretty much a waste of time. Mel, what were you thinking? Did you really need to spend $40 million on a storyline that is essentially one long chase through a jungle? I should have kept playing Paper Mario.

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New York City Pictures

I went through my pictures from the trip to New York City. I was surprised at how many I actually took. Jennifer's camera broke, so I loaned her my point and shoot. I carried around my SLR the entire time. I'm getting far better at using it and am pleased at the outcome. Here's quick rundown of the trip. See all the pictures on Flickr.

Saturday: PS1 for art and dancing

I really needed a wide angle lens so you could get a sense of how many people were there. It was awe inspiring. The art was a bit disappointing though I loved the piece that opened at dusk.

Sunday: Hang out with Adam

Adam is a friend from Texas who I haven't seen in maybe 6 years. My how time flies! It was fabulous catching up and remembering why Adam and I became fast friends years ago.

Sunday night: Wandering around the city sightseeing and sushi at Blue Fin

Monday: Went to the ASA conference & wandered around the city a bit

Monday night: Dinner with Cameron & Amanda

Cameron and I have been friends for years, but it was my first time to meet Amanda. She was absolutely wonderful and one of those women I wish I could spend a lot more time with. (They're too few and far between.) I'm so glad I got to hang out with them. Conversation had all the right things - geekery, social theory, and flow. It was a great night.

Tuesday: Jennifer's presentation at ASA, Staten Island ferry, & dinner at August, the restaurant where Aaron works.

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Chocolate Sauce Vandalism

OK, Universe, I've got the message. I understand that I've done something that I shouldn't have done. You've made the message quite clear. At first, when it was just the two year old refrigerator that wasn't staying cool, I didn't know. But now that my car was vandalized, it's clear. I've done something to anger you, The Universe.

Was it the nasty thoughts I had about the people with the screaming child on the airline? Was it that I lost my patience at work on Friday? Or was it something else? Whatever it was, I'm sorry. I promise to be a better person. I'll even floss my teeth tonight before bed. I promise.

This morning, I got a call from the neighbors who were on their way to church. They wanted to let me know that my car had been vandalized the night before. It had been covered in chocolate sauce and mustard. Luckily a quick wash got it all off and there wasn't any permanent damage. I talked to the police who said they can patrol more in this area (apparently anyone can call and request more patrol) but since there wasn't any permanent damage there's not much else for them to do.

I suspect it was just some neighborhood kids with nothing better to do. Though I can't image why they don't have anything better to do...with all the video games in the world, why aren't they making themselves zombies in front of the TV? The really frustrating part is I woke up in the middle of the night because I heard something outside. I brushed it off since the dogs were fast asleep and I went back to sleep myself. Next time I won't be so quick to roll over. However, in the scheme of things, I'm quite lucky. A little sauce is far easier to deal with than a broken window or slashed tires.

And Chris and I are already able to laugh about it. Today when we saw a kid ride down the street on a skateboard Chris offered to chase him down and interrogate him. "What do you know about chocolate and mustard?!"

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Back Home

Jennifer and I came back from New York City on Wednesday. It was a good trip, though maybe one day too long. I missed Chris more than I imagined possible. Since I've been back, it's been all about work and spending time with Chris. Glad to have a weekend just to hang out at home with him. We're planning on spending some time working with wood today. Maybe later I'll get to sorting all the pictures I took on my trip.

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Heading to NYC

Jennifer and I are about to get on a plane to NYC. She's speaking at the ASA conference and I'm tagging along. Wish us happy travels!

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Women in Development

I work at a Ruby on Rails consulting company, Integrum Technologies. While I'm not a RoR coder, I love technology. I love being around software everyday. Naturally, I'm fascinated by the community around technology as well.

Today I listened to a couple episodes of the Ruby on Rails Podcast, specifically the Women in Technology round table discussion from RailsConf (Part 1 and Part 2). The women involved in this discussion were very enjoyable to listen to. I appreciate how few women there are in technical positions and can certainly understand how they feel. They want to be more included, more comfortable, more equal. And they want to pave the way for other women to be too. (See DevChix, which is a group specifically for women who are developers. Which is also hard to find since I had no idea it wasn't spelled Dev Chicks...Google, why aren't you more helpful when I can't spell something correctly?)

Two things struck me while I was listening to the podcast.

1. Why are women still fighting the equality fight? Isn't it time for this fight to be over? What these women were saying is exactly what feminists have been saying for years. Equality and inclusion for women is still an elusive thing. This country has made leaps and bounds, but we're still not there.

When the women in the podcast estimated that only 20% of the attendees at RailsConf were women, it made me think of grad school. In my MBA program, like most around the country, there were only 20% women attending. Where are all the women? Are there note enough of us participating? Or not wanting to participate because of the work it takes?

2. About four years ago, I was faced with a choice about my career. At the time I was far more technical than I am today and considered pursuing programming. I was getting proficient with pseudo-code and Visual Basic so I believe I had the potential. All of my friends and family advised that I would be far happier going into management than going into programming. Programming jobs were lonely and isolating, which was exactly the opposite of what motivates me. So I chose management and got my MBA. However, if I had known that Agile practices make software development humane and even social, my decision could have been a lot different.

The podcasts were good as they made me think. I appreciate that these discussions are still happening to bring us all a little closer to equality.

Though, I would recommend that women pick their "battles" carefully. Or in the case of the podcast, choose your examples carefully (especially when they're recorded.) It seemed awfully silly to me that when asked about inclusion at the conference the example of women-sized t-shirts was given. Shouldn't you first and foremost be talking about the number of women presenting?! I could care less about whether or not the free swag fits me, but I'm darn concerned about whether or not women have a voice in my industry. Choose your examples carefully. (To these ladies' credit, it did come up. It just wasn't the first example.)

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Vegas

A couple weekends ago, Chris and I went to Las Vegas. We went to meet Katy and Jimmy, friends from Texas. Plus, Chris had never been to Vegas. (I know, I was shocked too. He's so deprived.) So Saturday morning we drove through the desert where we were lucky enough to get cool enough weather to have the windows down most of the trip. Around lunch time, we took a tour of the Hoover Dam. It's impressive. The dam is impressive, not the tour. I felt like there were too many people, not enough space, and not enough details. The best part of the tour was definitely the small museum at the end. Though, that's where you should start if you go.

A few hours later, we headed into Vegas. We stayed at the Renaissance, which is a non-gaming hotel next to the convention center and close to a very convenient monorail stop. After a quick nap, we met up with Jimmy and Katy for a very busy night on the town.

We went to Shark Reef, an aquarium exhibit in Mandalay Bay. We cruised through numerous casinos. We drank with Katy's brother and his friends. We cruised the strip. Then Chris gambled. His multi-hour stint at craps was so successful that it paid for the trip. At 3:30am, I had to pull him away from the table so I could go to bed.

On Sunday, we had wings at the Hooters Casino. Then we cruised the strip some more. We saw the lions at the MGM. I really enjoyed going up the Eiffel Tower at the Paris casino and getting spectacular views of the strip. In the late afternoon, we said our goodbyes to Jimmy and Katy then headed back to Phoenix. It was a super quick trip, but in my opinion 24 hours in Vegas is the perfect amount of time. Though anytime you can leave Vegas with more money than you arrived with, it's a perfect trip.

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Living with Chris

So Chris and I have been living together just short of one month and I am so happy. I can honestly say that I'm far happier than I expected to be. It's just so, so, so wonderful having him around all the time. Why didn't we do this a lot sooner?

I've missed having my best friends around. When I was living in Arlington, I had my sisters. When I was in college, I had Autumn. Since I've lived in Arizona, I've been lonelier than I was willing to admit to myself. Now that I have Chris with me, I realize how lonely I was. It's so fantastic to have a best friend to do everything. It makes the least appealing tasks (like housecleaning) enjoyable. Plus, I had no idea the impact of being told (and shown) daily that I am loved. It's incredible. I'm overflowing with happiness.

Chris isn't working yet which means I've been spoiled. Horribly, horribly spoiled. He makes dinner almost every night. He gets up with me in the morning and makes breakfast while I'm getting ready for work. He gets the mail and does laundry. He walks the dogs. He goes grocery shopping. He plans meals. I am so, so spoiled. Chris starts work on Monday (August 6th) so I anticipate all of his hard work will be transfered to work. But this sure has been nice.

In addition to taking care of me, Chris has been busy getting settled. The house and garage are all set. We're living comfortably and Chris is able to be productive in the garage. He recently finished up a shelf he was building for David and Arianne. It's fantastic. He's even started blogging at ChrisMadeThis.com! You can see what he's been doing in his wood shop.

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38th Wedding Anniversary

Congratulations, Mom and Dad! You've been married a really long time. It's wonderful that you still love each other, respect each other, and enjoy spending so much time together. I know that relationships take work. I know that you two have been extremely committed to keeping your relationship healthy.

Thank you for staying together all this time. Thank you for setting a great example. Through your lives, I've learned that relationships have up and downs but it's OK. Love is something that grows when it is nurtured and not something to fall into. It's wonderful to be part of such a loving family. And I know that my life has been benefited greatly by your love of each other.

I love you two!

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