Sorry Ladies, I'm engaged.

Ok, so I just got engaged to Holly after a rather long time dating on and off (mostly on). Hot diggity. I’ll try calling everyone, but if I miss calling YOU, don’t take offense, I’m still rebuilding my address book so I’m missing a lot of contact info, and I have a killer headache at the moment (from travels this weekend, I’m getting over an altitude spurred migraine).

Anyway, I’ll call you when I can (or when I remember!). If you call me first, thats ok, you have my info.

Ok ok, some of you have been bugging me about the ring already (diamond-porn?)…here it is:

That isn’t the greatest picture. I’ll try to replace with something better later.   1.09 carat (bought from private dealer in the family, I’ll post stats for you later)

(yes, I let Holly pick it out)

More soon, I promise.

Ok, ok. I haven’t posted much lately, and for good reason. There is so much going on, I am just not finding the time to write anything worth posting. On the other hand, I keep thinking of great blog posts and commentaries…writing them out in my head even, but I’m no where near a computer when this happens. Go figure.

Anyway, more soon. I promise. Blame it on the headaches and the vision problems. Sigh.

Aside from that, many good things are in progress. I can’t wait to tell you about them all.

Descent from the heavens...

I was standing out on the deck at the beachhouse smoking my pipe a few minutes ago when I saw a massive white object fall from the sky, almost straight down into the ocean. It was moving very fast, definitely not a flare or anything. If I stretch my arm out and make my thumb parallel to the horizon with my fingers pointed straight up, I would say it started about an inch or so above my middle finger (at least when I noticed it). It was very bright, easily brighter than the lights on the nearby pier, and a little smaller than my pinky fingernail. It may have had a tail, either that or it was just so bright and moving so fast it looked like it had a short one. It was bright white, no other colors that you would expect from something on fire.

I wish I could have seen where it landed, or at least on land. My curiosity is killing me. As it is, it would have to be really large to even consider finding on the ocean floor (assuming it wasn’t destroyed from impact).

Oh well, another of life’s mysteries. If anyone is aware of anything being tracked or expected to fall out of orbit, I’d be interested in knowing.

Topsail Island 08

Once a year, for about a week, always at the end of August, I go to Topsail Island for a “working vacation”. I go with my girlfriend Holly, her mom, and the two dogs…Phoebe (our dog) and Sadie (mom’s dog). I have pictures of both in the photography section of this blog.

It is a working vacation because I end up working the entire week every year. Sure, I have a lot of work to do and taking a week off is a very good thing, but I can’t sit still, so I end up working. I have noticed though, that when I am working at the beach, I tend to get a lot of high-level thinking done and my creativity level, particularly in writing, jumps through the roof. A week at the beach usually turns out into a very relaxing, energizing, and productive period of time. So much so, that I think it would be worth my time to make this sort of thing a company policy for each of the teams…one week a year, in a relatively secluded spot for team building, planning, idea generation, problem solving, etc.

I was expecting to suffer with dial-up access this year, but it seems that one of the neighbors has a wide open wifi connection, so I am good to go for now. I just hope it goes with the house, and isn’t just an open router that a renter brought with them…only to go offline in a few days when they return home. Keep your fingers crossed for me eh?

I will still be answering emails and doing phone calls as usual, so while I may be out of the office, I am still working.

Wish you were here : )

Robert

Fixed the RSS feed...

Apparently, the RSS feed for my blog was connected to my personal journal entries only, not the main area where it was supposed to. Hopefully everyone that subscribed to the feed already won’t have to do anything, but if you aren’t getting new updates as I blog stuff in the main area, please delete the feed you have and resubscribe. Thanks!