Mark Groves' Weblog: Life

220, 221 what ever it takes

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:40:11 GMT

Today is my first day home being Mr. Mom. Yeah, that is right, Val is back to work I am home with Evelyn for the next 6 weeks. So far so good, 9:40 and the baby is still alive. I do have a some help the next two weeks, my Mom is out from Pittsburgh, so there is little chance I will even get to hold my daughter.

Technorati Tags: Family

Big News

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:48:41 GMT

Well I have been holding off creating this post since I was not sure how I wanted to approach this topic on my blog. But as many of you already know, Val and I are expecting another child. Not that Hayden was not good enough for us, but we thought it would be good to try for kid 2.0.

Hayden is actually very excited, he has always wanted to be a "big sister". In our many conversations with him on this topic he is very convinced that the new baby will be a little girl, and that he is going to be a big sister. I know he is just a little confused, but since we don't actually know if it will be a little boy or a little girl yet, the conversation has yet to make progress. Needless to say he is very excited, although I am not sure how excited he will be to have a little brother (if that is the case) since he seems very stuck on have a little sister.

Since Hayden blessed us by coming 2 months early we are considered high risk on this one, so that means we will be getting plenty of ultrasounds between now and when the baby arrives, hopefully somewhere around end of June (~+36 weeks).

Weekend in Sequim

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 04:26:36 GMT

Val had a great idea to take a couple day off an go explore a part of Washington state that neither one of us has ever visited, before summer was over. So we decided to take last Friday off and drive over to Sequim

on the north Olympic Peninsula. We took the ferry, which Hayden loved, not only does he love boats, but to drive our car onto the boat, well he thought that was great.

It was a pretty chill weekend, we got to hang out as a family, get some hiking in and I got to work on my photography. There was some beautiful scenery with some great landscapes. I think my photographs are getting better, but I still have a ton to learn.

We first visited the Spit out on the Dungeness Bay, which basically is this natural sand peninsula. It is 5 miles long, with a lighthouse on the end, and more huge pieces of driftwood then I have ever seen. The waves were a little too much for Hayden, just too loud for him, but he did like the calmer side.

On Saturday we explored part of the Olympic National Park, a very small part, it is a huge national park. We drove up to Hurricane Ridge it was a whopping mile high, I know that is not much for my Denver readers, but it is a big deal around here. Then we went for a hike up to Marymere Falls, which gave me some great photo opportunities.

I was a great weekend, and we got to explore a small part of Washington State that we definitely will be visiting again. Although I think we will try camping next time, that is if I get around to fixing the brakes on my Rover.

[By the way Windows Live Writer is pretty cool. I was using W.Bloggar, but I think I have not found my new blog writing tool.]

Bad Blogger

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 22:51:32 GMT

Well I have been way behind on my blogging lately. During lunch today several of my teammates were discussing our blogging activities, and made me realize I need to get more active again.

I have been having a blast driving my new Mini Cooper S. I keep forgetting to take some pictures, I guess I have been having too much fun driving it. One thing is for sure it gets way better mileage then my Rover, not that that was difficult, right now I am getting 27 mpg vs. 13 mpg on my Rover. I have not been able to really open the car up, since it is still in its break in period (340 miles to go), but the car still moves, even keeping it under 4000 rpms.

I also just got a new Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone, the T-Mobile SDA. I had a Windows Mobile 2003 smartphone, but this phone really take it to a new level. I think the coolest feature is integrated 802.11b. Now it's actually possible to surf the web on my phone. I really like the ability to check my mail and calendar from my phone, keeps me from having to boot my laptop just to check out information on my upcoming meetings.

Merry Christmas

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 23:25:50 GMT

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. It was a pretty nice Christmas here in the Groves' household. We have Val's family over for Christmas Eve dinner last night, it was the first time the whole family had been together for Christmas in over 6 years.

Hayden, seemed to like Christmas, I don't think he really gets it yet, but he definitely liked opening his presents. I'm sure next year he will get it, and be asking us for stuff months ahead of time.

The only sad part was that I was not able to be with my family this year, hopefully my parents will be out to visit soon.

Getting Back into it!

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:58:40 GMT

OK, I know I have been very, very behind on blogging. It is shameful, actually I have had several ideas of things I wanted to talk about, but have just not spent the time to sit down and write it down. I am also way behind on posting (and taking) pictures of Hayden. Things have been pretty busy, we moved into our new house a couple weeks ago, so pretty much each weekend has been full with unpacking. Getting closer, the house is really starting to feel like ours.

Hayden has been doing great, he started in at daycare a few weeks ago, when Val started work at T-Mobile (Cheap phone plans, Yea!) Hayden loves daycare, Val can barely get a kiss in the morning before he runs off to start playing. It makes it much easier knowing he really has fun all day.

As far as techie stuff, I started using w.bloggar again, since now Spaces supports the MetaWeblog API. I have also been using Windows Live Messenger 8.0 beta, one of the benefits of working for the borg, early access to cool betas. Hopefully more to come on some of the cool stuff coming out from live.com

First week at Microsoft

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 18:20:04 GMT

Well I just about finished my first week at Microsoft, and it has been really cool. The first day was new employee orientation, which surprisingly was really fun and interesting, well except the lawyer section, and even that was not that bad. The funny thing is that since my team just shipped, we all had a few days off. So I have been coming in to catch up, but it gave me an opportunity to start looking for some houses.

And yes it has rained several days since I have been here, but I have seen the sun, I know you won't believe me, but it does exist up here.

On the Road

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 14:28:28 GMT

Good bye Colorado, it has been great. I'm starting my drive to the Pacific Northwest, nothing like 20 hours in my truck! Can't wait though, start on Monday at Microsoft, should be exciting. I am going to miss Val and Hayden the next couple weeks, but the good news is that we have a contract on our house so they will be joining me very soon!!!

Officially Unemployed

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 02:00:23 GMT

Today was my last day at CSS, so I guess I am officially unemployed, well for two weeks that is. Then I head up to the Pacific Northwest and start my new position at Microsoft. It was sad leaving CSS today, I've made some great friends there over the last 4 1/2 years. But on to new adventures...

...And back to working on the house, we will be done with the bathroom this weekend. So the house will be ready to go on the market Monday next week, wish us luck, I hope it sells fast!

Selling a house sucks

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 14:24:41 GMT

What a weekend. Since we are getting ready to move, the last two weekends have been nothing but getting our current home ready to put on the market. Since I am terrible procrastinator about big home projects, I'm paying for it now. Last weekend was gutting our master bath, this weekend was full with hanging tile, in the shower, and a new tile floor. I got most of the tiling done, still have to grout, which I hate.

Val's parents came up to help again, it was great, Val got some painting done, and with their help, got the yard cleaned up, and several other projects done. So as soon as we get the house exactly like we want it, it will be time to sell it, but I guess that's the way it goes. I hope our next home in Seattle does not have work for me for awhile, but I am sure it will.

Big News

Tue, 27 Sep 2005 02:23:00 GMT

Well today it is official, I am going to work for Microsoft! I will be a Program Manager on the Visual Studio Team Architect group. Val and I are very excited about this new opportunity, but at the same time, sad to leave our friends behind in Colorado.

It was also sad to resign from my current job at CSS, it has been the place that I have worked the longest and really learned a lot and made some great friends. I wish the best to all of my co-workers at CSS, and of course will stay in touch, since they will be one of my customers

Back from Vacation

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 01:10:52 GMT

All back from vacation, it was a really great trip. First we went to Pittsburgh to Val's cousin's wedding, the best part was the reception was at Heinz Field, turns out it was a really great place to have a wedding, a good time was had by all.

We spent the next couple days in the 'burgh, first we had Hayden Christened by a family friend, it was great to have someone we knew perform the ceremony. On Monday we told Hayden and my parents to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, it was really pretty cool, there was tons of stuff to Hayden to play with, and some of it was interesting to us also. And in case your wondering, yes, we did get a Primanti Brothers Sandwich, no trip to the 'burgh would be complete without one.

Then on Tuesday we headed off to Canada. Val's grandparents have a place up on the 1000 islands region of Ontario. Really relaxing place, right on the St. Laurence river, on this little island. We fished, although, Val was the only one to catch anything. We went out in the river on one person kayak. And I got to work on my photography, definitely won't be quiting my day job, but I think I did get a little better.

I am working on getting some pictures posted, I took over 750 pictures, now just working weeding out the good ones.

Holiday Weekend Update

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 13:53:52 GMT

Well the weekend is over, and I did not get much rest, but did get a ton done. Saturday I decided to put in a drip irrigation system for the flowers and garden Val and I put in a few weeks ago. Since we are going on vacation in a few weeks, and the hand watering was just not cutting it, needed something more automated. Got all the parts from our friendly neighborhood Home Depot, they are made by a company called DIG, and worked pretty well, and seem to be doing the job.

Sunday was busy with doing more work around the house, and buying the kit to revamp our closet in our master bedroom. Got everything we needed, yet again at Home Depot. Rubbermaid makes a pretty cool setup called Configurations, that makes it pretty easy to install a closet organizer, no cutting needed. So Monday was setup to gut the current closet, paint, then install the new system, all told it took about five hours, but turned out to be really worth it. Only cost $300, and gets our closet way more organized. Of course the next step is for each of us to get rid of a bunch of clothing that we don't need anymore.

No 4th of July weekend would be complete without a BBQ, so we headed over to our friends Tina and Jeff's house, for a evening BBQ and Fireworks. It was really pretty funny, how everyone there now has a baby. And for some reason they were all boys, I think we broke some type of statistical model with yesterday's BBQ. All told it was a great time, got to catch up with some friends that we have not seen in a while.

So back to work, more tired then I was when I left of Friday, but I guess that has been a normal weekend lately. Need to find a weekend, to just veg out, but that might have to wait till vacation in August.

Happy Birthday Pat

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:11:28 GMT

I wanted to wish a Happy Birthday to my cousin Pat. Pat is celebrating his 32nd birthday in Cameron, Africa with the Peace Corps. Pat is pretty much a brother to me, him and his sister Kim and I grew up together. It sucks that we don't get to see each other very often, with Pat in Africa now, and Kim back in Pittsburgh. I will get to see Kim and the rest of the family this summer back in Pittsburgh, but Pat won't be back yet.

Hope you have a great Birthday Pat, I know you have made some great friends in Cameron, so I'm sure you will have a great time.

Been too long

Mon, 06 Jun 2005 17:29:36 GMT

Ok, it's been way too long since I last updated my blog. I'm not really sure why, been going in too many directions I guess. This past weekend went way too fast. We went up to Breckenridge on Saturday to surprise Val's mom. Val's dad had a special weekend all planned out for her birthday. It was a good time even though the weather was not very nice. You have to love Colorado in the spring, 38 and snow. Then on Sunday I pretty much spent the later part of the day getting new tires on my truck. Got a great deal from another local Land Rover enthusiast with some extra tires, so now I am running 33" tires again. I'll have to post some pictures when I get some time.

We also started working on doing some landscaping in our yard. Which if you have ever seen our yard, you know is no easy task. Val did a great job planting flowers and I got an area all setup for a small garden. We will have to see what the Elk end up eating, hopefully the dogs can keep them away.

Hayden has been doing great, he has started to talk (babble) more again. He was not focused on that for the last month, mostly focused on learning how to move, but now that has got that down, back to talking. He started saying d's the other day, so who knows, maybe dad-da is in there somewhere. I also need to post some more pictures of Hayden, I'm sure the family is getting impatient.

I'm also getting ready to start the 4-wheeling season. Got the tires this past Sunday like I mentioned, now I just have a few odds and ends to do on the truck to get ready. I think we are going to do Jenny Creek this Sunday, should be fun, it's a Solihull Society event, it's always great getting together with a large group of Rover guys. It will also be Hayden's first off-roading trip. I'm sure he is going to love it.

Happy Birthday Val!!!

Thu, 05 May 2005 14:23:23 GMT

Today it Valarie's (my wife) Birthday!!! Happy Birthday babe, I won't tell everyone how old you are, but lets just say that next year is the big Three O. Since it's Birthday time, we get to go to one of our favorite restaurants Cafe Brazil in Denver. Can't wait, Cafe Brazil, has great food, great wine, and just a really fun place to be. I remember our first few times going there, when they were in their original location. Small place, did not look much like a restaurant, plastic tables and chairs with table cloths over the table. But some of the best food in Denver. They have upgraded their location, but have not lost where they came from, and definitely have not forgotten how to make great food.

Fast Weekend

Mon, 02 May 2005 15:18:48 GMT

Boy this weekend went too fast. The big project this weekend was swapping out my current reef aquarium for a new tank. I setup my 120 gallon reef tank about a year and half ago, and I got a used tank from a friend. Things worked out very well for a long time, but while I was away on business a couple weeks ago, the tank started to split on the top seam. Luckily it was acrylic so it just started to bow slightly. So it was time for a new tank. I ended up getting a new 120 gallon glass tank, which is pretty nice, since it is won't scratch like acrylic and has two very nice overflows that are very quite. Of course this meant I needed to take everything out of my current tank, move it out of the way, and get everything into the new tank. This took about 5 hours on Saturday. But it was worth it, plus it gave me a chance to remove a couple of fish that were too aggressive and would kill any smaller fish I put into the tank.

So that completely used up Saturday. Sunday, Val got to go to a half day spa day. This is one of her Birthday gifts that she wanted. So Hayden and I got to hang out for a few hours. Since he is now crawling everywhere, it is pretty funny. The kid can really move now.

I only got to work out once this weekend, and I skipped my Friday workout, but still not doing bad on my new workout / diet plan. I have lost 8 pounds in the last 5 weeks, not bad, and feeling pretty good.

We did get to watch one of our movies from Blockbuster this weekend, Sideways, It was a pretty funny movie, very well written. On a side note, I always have to laugh about people that take wine too seriously. Believe me Val and I love wine, when we redid our kitchen one of the additions was a 57 bottle wine refrigerator. but I can't see us getting weird about wine, drink it have fun, and enjoy it. I would give Sideways 4.5 / 5.

Busy Week

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 17:54:42 GMT

Can't believe it is already Friday. It has really been a busy week. Left Sunday night to head to Tampa to visit one of our clients for a technology meeting, overall the meeting went pretty well. Then Tuesday had to leave Tampa and head up to Newark, NJ to visit a new client to start architecting out a solution for them. Luckily we got done what we needed in one day and back I was on an airplane headed for Denver Wednesday night. Unfortunately due to weather in Denver it was not a direct flight, we end up having to be diverted to Pueblo Colorado to refuel and wait out the storm. So a 4 hour flight turned into almost an 8 hour flight.

So needless to say I am happy to be home to see Hayden, it's funny how quickly I missed him.

One Less Rover :(

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:40:10 GMT

Well we are down one Land Rover. Val decided that she wanted to trade in her 2004
Discovery for a '05 Honda Accord. It was a sad day for me, since that was
our 5th Land Rover. I do still have my '01 Discovery, and have no plans to
get rid of that. The good news is Val is very happy with her new car, and
it is a pretty nice car, V6, Navigation, XM, etc. I just can't get too
excited about a Honda, but I guess that's why it is not my car.

Over all the experience at the dealership was a pain in the ass. Why can't car
dealers make the process simpler, took for ever, and on several occasions
insulted my intelligence. I never had this issue dealing with Land Rover,
people were straight up, and honest. Oh well, I guess that's why most car
sales people are considered a lower form of life.
:)

If video games kill, what about the Bible?

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:12:09 GMT

I just got done reading Charles Cooper's article on how ridiculous it is to blame the video game industry for violent actions. I could not agree more, to me this is just a continuing example of our society does not want to believe people are responsible for their own actions.

A recent piece on CBS' "60 Minutes" explained how the video game "Grand Theft Auto" supposedly inspired an Alabama teen to murder three police officers. Interesting hypothesis, but how about this alternative: Sometimes stupidity is the best explanation. Instead of blaming the tragedy on the video game publisher, the CBS producer might have done well to examine whether this kid was simply a sociopath in the making.

Now I definitely agree that there are no use for some of the games out there, but that truly is for the consumer to decide if it something that they want to own or not. There is just as much violence within the Bible and enough nuts that attribute their actions to what they got out of that work to have legislators all over the Bible, but of course that would never happen.

Maybe it's coincidence, but religion figured prominently in recent national news stories about shooting incidents. Terry Ratzmann, the Wisconsin gunman who last month went on a shooting rampage, regularly attended services at the Living Church of God in Brookfield, Wis. "We believe that the motive has something to do with the church and the church services more so than any other possible motive," the Associated Press quoted a Brookfield police captain as saying.

Now I understand that the FCC wants to get laws passed to allow them to regulate the Cable Industry. When did we become a country of people that can not regulate ourselves and our children?

Birthday pictures

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 03:07:23 GMT

I finally got to post pictures from Hayden's 1st Birthday party, they are HERE

Happy Birthday Hayden

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 17:55:09 GMT

Happy Birthday Hayden. I really can't believe it has already been a year since he was born, albeit two months earlier then expected. We had a great Birthday party for him on Saturday, got really lucky with the weather. Hayden did not end up digging into the cake like we had hoped, but he definitely did some damage. I really got to break in my new camera, took over 215 pictures, you really have to love digital. I will post pictures soon, need to go through them to figure out which ones we really like.

Traffic Jam

Fri, 04 Mar 2005 15:19:25 GMT

I live in this little town south west of Denver in the foothills of the Rockies called Evergreen. If you have not ever been to Colorado, Evergreen is pretty much exactly what you would think a little Colorado town should look like. So on the way to work today, traffic got backed up, now that does not happen too often, but when it does you can pretty much guess the cause. Yep, Elk. You see we have a pretty large population of Elk in Evergreen, and they don't seem to want to use the cross walks, and believe me they are definitely not going to lower themselves to crossing at those deer crossing signs. Oh well, another beautiful day in Colorado, and I was delayed on my day to work by Elk, could be worse.

Where have I been?

Mon, 28 Feb 2005 01:23:47 GMT

I have been severely neglecting my blog. Not sure exactly what it has been, if I have not had any thing to say (most people that know me, would strongly disagree) or just have not felt like taking the time to post. I am definitely doing a poor job convincing my cousin Pat to move over to the blogging world.

You see Pat is a really great writer, not in the professional sense, but in the entertaining sense. Pat started creating these update emails that he would send out to friends and family several years ago. His ability to entertain and inform really made the updates very fun. Everything from, how he was able to get paid to work at a large bank without doing any work for over 6 months, or how he somehow was able to convince every one his employers that he did not "need" a cell phone. Which, now I have to love that he was unable to escape the shackles (his term not mine) of a cell phone when he went to the Peace Corps. Pat is stationed in Cameroon, Africa for the next couple years, helping small businesses be more efficient, trying to learn French well enough to know what he is eating, and looking for a wife. Well that last one is just my speculation.

What else is going on, well Hayden is almost one year old already, a few more weeks to go. Val and I can't really believe it has already been a year. He is somewhat cheating, since he decided to be born two months early, but that has not seem to effect him at all. It's going to be a great birthday, my parents are coming out to visit, and we are having a party for a small group of friends. Should get some good pictures of Hayden with cake all over his face. So far my only suggestion to Val, about what type of cake to have, has been to make sure it is messy, makes better pictures.

Its been pretty interesting at work lately, we have been restructuring the company over the last few months. Overall it has been a really good transition, unfortunately when ever a company goes through a transition like this, you tend to lose some people you had not intention of losing, but that happens. We have restructured our teams into the MSF (Microsoft Solution Framework) methodology, which for me, has been a great change. I am currently working on a pretty huge project right now, to re-write / re-architect our whole application. I am PM (Program Manager) over the core team that is coming up with the architecture. Since our current application is over 1500 executables, the re-write is not being taken lightly.

Well I guess that's all for now, I hope not to be as negligent in the future.

American Red Cross Disaster Relief for Tsunami on Amazon

Wed, 29 Dec 2004 01:16:18 GMT

This is a very quick and easy way to give something to those in need from this disaster. Estimates put the death toll at 60,000.

Quote

Donate

Christmas Day

Sat, 25 Dec 2004 16:36:42 GMT

Well it's here Christmas day. Has not really felt like Christmas, but I guess that is pretty normal. Hayden is only 9 months old so we did not make a big deal about Xmas this year. Hell he really only likes the wrapping paper anyways.

Last night we had Val's mother and father over for their traditional Christmas Eve dinner, Lobster. It was somewhat of a close call getting the lobsters, since I guess when you call as store and ask if they have lobsters, you need to specify 'Live' lobsters. Long story short we got the lobsters we needed, and Val steamed them like we learned from the man Alton Brown on Good Eats.

Today, should be pretty slow, may go see a movie with Val's parents. That is another one of their traditions, which works for me.

Val promised to make me put up all kinds of decorations and such next year, since Hayden would be more understanding of what Christmas is. Should be fun, I have not gotten into Christmas for several years, and now that we have a son, it will make me get back into it. And really Christmas is all about the kids anyways, the whole gift giving between adults is getting old. With today's instant society, if you want it you can get it in 3-5 days shipping. I can honestly say there is not one thing I wanted for Christmas, of course that I did not already get myself.

Have a great Christmas!

Back from Vegas

Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:16:52 GMT

Vegas was great as always. Was doing pretty good on the Craps table until Val and I played for about 1 hour and lost everything we took to bet. Man that table was really bad. Oh well, there is a reason that they can build those huge casinos.

Vegas Baby!

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 03:43:16 GMT

Heading off to Vegas for a few days, for my wife's sister's wedding. Should be a blast. Then back home to do some snowboarding for a few days. Definitely can use the break.