Yes folks, I made it.

I made it another year. I have successfully completed thirty years on this earth. I know, it seems like a long time, but really, the last thirty have the feeling like they are going to be prelude to the next thirty. So many things on the cusp of coming to fruition.

I made some great strides in getting into decent shape this past year, and although the last two months or so have not seen any progress, it's definitely time to start working again. I lost 20 lbs in a few months. It's time to attack the next twenty. And then the next 15 or so. That would put me in the kind of shape I want to be in. The next twenty are going to be rough, but stick with me. I'll get it done.

I have a good job and I managed to make it through the latest round of layoffs this past week. It seems they actually see some value in keeping me around. The thought of a nice severance package and a few months off from work was very appealing, but it was not to be. The job I have now is keeping the bills paid, and kicking in a little extra to hit the savings account. Not bad at all. I'm still not making "six-figures" but I'm on track to get closer this year than any year prior.

I'm back in school. Yup. Again. Hopefully this time, I will stay motivated because I am finally taking my "serious" courses for my major. I know I've put this off for far too long, but it is time to get it over with. I still have grad school to deal with after this! Wish me luck in this endeavor. It's going to be a rough ride.

Love life? That's a complicated issue. I don't want to deal with it at the moment. Suffice it to say that what I have going on now is great and I am happy and appreciative of what I have; whatever that might be.

So. It's my birthday. I'm thirty. My body didn't suddenly break down (although I hear it starts to around 33-34 or so). I didn't die at the stroke of midnight. I actually feel rather refreshed. This moment of introspection has done wonders.

Thanks for listening!

I knew there was a reason I liked Absolut Vodka. And here's the reason.

Any company that can pull this off and market it to guys. This is a wonderful piece eye catching advertisement. I bet it got your attention, no?

So what's your favorite Absolut Vodka drink? Here's mine:

• Forbidden Fruit
• 1oz Absolut Pears Vodka
• .25oz X-Rated Fusion Liquer
• 2oz pineapple juice
• splash of 7-up
• A fairly straightforward cocktail. Combine and stir. It takes just like you would think. Like a pear. The only downside? It's a slightly pinkish color. If you're comfortable enough with your masculinity and like pears, this is the drink for you. VERY good and doesn't taste like alcohol, but it will hit you after a few.

So in case you hadn't noticed, there's color now. I got tired of white.

So enjoy the new color. Mike's redoing the floors in the house, so I decided to go with a little wood floor action up there. Cheesy? Maybe. Fun? Sure!

I didn't realize just how difficult it was going to be running a tournament, but I volunteered to be this year's co-tournament director w/ Mike. There was SO much going on and I thought I was going to be overwhelmed, but with all of the great people helping out this weekend, everything turned out wonderfully!

We were very lucky that the weather cooperated with us this year! The last two years were plagued by rain, so we were incredibly nervous about what was going to happen that weekend. Everything worked out and everyone had a great time. I'm almost looking forward to next year's tournament!

There's a couple of pics up in the gallery if you want to see them. This is the A Doubles Finals winners with me standing in as well. Mike's in the sleeveless blue shirt. Couldn't have done this without him!

So I stumbled on a new little Firefox plug in called PicLens. It's a basically a cool way to present images from places like Google Image search, Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, MySpace and other such sites. The presentation is very cool with a virtual wall of photos that you can scroll through to your heart's content.

Take a look at the image for a general idea of how the photos are presented. A still photo doesn't do this plug in justice though. Click on over and take a look at the demonstration.

Is this going to help me get any work done? No. Does that make it any less cool? Nope.

Once you install it and try it out, let me know what you think!

Ok, so it's the day after my long awaited Lasik procedure. I really don't have much to say, other than WOW! It's an amazing feeling waking up and not fumbling for glasses.

Once I made it into the operating room, the whole thing only took about 10 minutes. Ten very uncomfortable minutes, but that's another story. I dread going to any kind of doctor. Especially one that is going to be slicing up my eye.

All in all, I'm really glad I did it. Now comes the fun part of adjusting to the new vision (and a little sensitivity to light, but that is supposed to go away).

Click the Read More link for the full, ugly details!

I refuse to talk about the game. I don't want to have to relive that last touchdown.

So moving on to the OTHER reason to watch the Super Bowl. The commercials. Click "Read More" for some of my favorites and drop a comment with YOUR favorite commercials.

I don't know who comes up the names for some of these tournaments, but the "Polar Brrr Doubles Tournament"? Really? That's the name of it. They even gave us a long-sleeve T-shirt with a picture of a polar bear playing tennis. Of course.

It was a ton of fun, but not exactly what I would call a "brrr" of a time. It was about 55 - 60 degrees both days. PERFECT tennis weather.

I just wish Kevin and I had played a little more solidly. Not a big deal. We'll get better and better as the weeks go on. We lost the first match 6-3, 6-2. We should have done better, but the tournament was behind and we had abbreviated sets. I wasn't even "warmed up" by the end of the match. The second match was a tad better. We still lost 6-0, 6-1, but we played SO much better than the previous day. We just got completely outmatched. Third time's a charm, they say. We narrowly lost this one 6-4, 2-6, 10-5 (tiebreak). Neither of us could really be upset the way we played. It was a great match. We just have to get better at playing tiebreakers. Every point's a big point in a breaker.

Can't wait for the next tournament! (By the way, the HOT tournament is coming up quickly. That's going to be fun!)

Check out some pics:

So I wrapped up a new site design for the ATC website.  I think this it looks great.  It's given me a lot more real estate to play with on the home page.  Lots of places to put information and notices.  The main news section on the front page now just gives you a little snippet of the full article with some java script to rotate the top 5 articles out.  That's a great way to save some space.

Unfortunately, Internet Explorer SUCKS monkey balls and the java rotator doesn't automatically start scrolling through the items.  Oh well.  I decided to put it out there even with that little bug.  The site as a whole still is great, plus there's a nice, not so subtle link to download Firefox.  PLEASE, if you are using Internet Explorer, download Firefox immediately.  It will make web people SO happy if you do.  As any web developer how much they like IE.  I dare you.

Other than that, not much going on around here.  Still losing weight (down to 211, from 227).  Still playing tennis (when it's not ass-cold outside).  Still watching the Australian Open.  The AO really needs to wrap up soon so I can stop staying up all hours of the night watching!  I need my sleep!

What's going on in your world?

Ok.  So I've been slacking off on updating this.  I know.  I suck. 

So here's the committment:  I'll update just as often as I possibly can.  2008 promises to be a big year, so I'll try to keep you guys in the loop.  I've got an extra week of vacation this year, so hopefully that means a little more traveling.

I always wonder who reads this, and I assume that I'm really just writing for myself, but if you're out there, drop a comment or two.