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Yesterday was the day of the College Hill Corridor Soap Box Derby, part of their annual Bike Week.  We worked on our car for about three weeks.  I personally put in about 4 hours of construction and 13 hours of painting/decoration and another hour or so of transport. 

You’ll have to watch the video to see how the car did on the track, but I will tell you we won Peoples Choice, which was a $100 gift card to Ingleside Village Pizza!

I’m not quite sure what happened today, but after enjoying a nice 70 degree day yesterday, we woke up to rain, sleet, and snow this morning . . . in Macon, Georgia of all places!  It has been years since we have seen this much snowfall.  The kids had a blast!  

Of course, the white blanket makes everything beautiful.  Here are some pictures:

Let’s hope it all freezes tonight and makes things hazard enough to cancel classes at Mercer tomorrow.  I sure could use another 3 day weekend.  I haven’t been to work on a Monday in over a month!

This week at work, we had a chili-cook-off.  Basically the faculty and staff all cook pots of chili and the students go around and taste and vote on their favorites.  We even got t-shirts for the occasion.

My boss Chris and I both cooked for it.  He develops software on the side and I do occasional web development on the side, so we named our chili appropriately.  His was called Chili(beta) and mine was called Chili 2.0.

Now I do 99% of the cooking at my house, but I am by no means what you would consider a cook.  Yet somehow, I managed to get 5th place in the contest and picked up a whopping $5.00 gift card to Wal-Mart!  That just goes to prove that the majority of our law students are indeed . . . on crack.

This will end this blog’s fascination with 2.0 analogies.

701 days — that’s how long it’s been since my last haircut.  One month shy of two years.  Yesterday, it all came out. 

I wish I had a more interesting story.  No, the kids didn’t make me pull it out and no I didn’t get gum in my hair.  It didn’t get singed making smores or caught in the doors of an elevator.

I just got tired of it.  Sick and tired of it.

Mackenzie was just over 6 months old 701 days ago.  She wasn’t sure what happened to me yesterday.  She doesn’t understand why Daddy doesn’t need bows (ponytails) like her anymore.  There were folks at church that didn’t recognize me this morning.  And this afternoon, when I ran up to work to make some DNS changes, there were people who didn’t recognize me there either.

I’ve told people at work that I wasn’t getting it cut again until I had a job interview lined up somewhere else.  I wonder what they will think tomorrow. (No, I don’t have a job interview.)

I can shower and get ready to go in half the amount of time now.  I love being low-maintenance again.  I’m almost 30 — it’s time to grow up.

Before and After

What’s up with all of this talk about a bad economy?  Seriously, I have no idea what these folks are talking about.  Maybe it was just all a ploy to put Democrats into office.  As for us, Kimberlie and I are at the top of our game.

In 2008, we contributed more towards retirement than ever before.  We were able to contribute more to non-profit organizations (church/charities) than ever before.  We dined out more than ever before.  We are even still saving more than ever.  We certainly aren’t hurting.

As for spending, we are spending more than ever.  In the last six months, I’ve bought a Nintendo Wii, and iPhone, annual passes to the happiest place on earth, and pretty much anything else we’ve wanted.  Usually, I NEVER splurge like that.  We are always doing some sort of entertainment.  We’re travelling more as well.  In 2007, we spent 14 nights in hotels.  In 2008, we spent 16 nights away.  This year, we may hit 20 nights. 

My salary and benefits are currently higher than they have ever been, but of course that’s usually the case.  (I’ve only stepped down into a lower paying job twice, but I proved myself both times and it payed off.)  The president of the University has also said that employee compensation is the top priority in next year’s budget.

Kimberlie was planning to negotiate a 5% raise for 2009, but she missed her regional manager because of our holiday trip.  That’s probably a good thing, because she ended up with a 20% raise!  She doesn’t really use any of her benefits because mine are so generous.

I guess we ARE employed in some pretty solid industries: health care and education.  Those are two areas that continue to boom, even when the economy tanks.  Information technology generally flourishes as folks tend to replace overpaid workers with computers and occupational therapy is growing fast thanks to the demise of the baby boomers.

Now sure, in the last 6 months my retirement savings has taken a nice hit, but at my age I expect volatility.  I don’t need those funds for at least 35 more years.  With that much time left, I’m supposed to be into those riskier investments.  And there are stores dropping like flies, but then again I HATED Linens and Things, Circuit City and KB Toys.  I am glad to see them go.  Car salesmen and the entire American automobile industry?  Good riddance!  They suck anyway. 

I’ll take UPS over DHL, Lowe’s over Home Depot, and John Deere over Caterpillar.  Last night, we were trying to predict what major chains would be next.  I say Quiznos.  They suck and they are overpriced and there are way too many sandwich chains.  Let’s see if I’m right. 

What about all of these job losses?  I doubt the people chosen to be laid off were the good, productive employees who pull their own wait.  If I was an employer and had to pick people to can, it would be the ones who take 800 smoke breaks a day and drive up my health insurance costs.  I know of several nice technology jobs at Mercer (one in my department) that need to be filled.  Don’t send those laid off folks our way though.  If Microsoft doesn’t want them, neither do we.

This stuff isn’t all bad though.  This the way a free market trims the fat.  Down with the oversized banks who have their computers answer the phones!  Down with companies that have bad service!  Down with sandwich shops that charge extra for cheese!  (I would love to put Down with Wal-Mart! here, but that’s not going to happen.)

Of course, if the economy has nowhere to go but up, I’m ready for the climb!

1 — Out of the last 25 calendar days, I’ve actually been at work for a whopping three (3) of them.  I need to refocus on that for now.  Backups need to be made, emails need to be acknowledged, voice mails need to be ignored, and servers need to be updated.  This blog will have to wait another day or so until I catch up on things at home.

2 — I didn’t just run the Walt Disney World Marathon this weekend, I ran “Goofy’s Race & a Half Challenge”, which includes the Sunday marathon AND the Saturday half-marathon.  Even though I registered for it in February, nobody knew I was running both until this week — not even Kimberlie.  Yes — I finished 39.3 miles and have some nice hardware to show for it.  I also have sore muscles, torn ligaments, blisters and sunburn.  The half-marathon was the most fun race of my life.  The marathon was the most painful and probably the stupidest thing that I’ve ever done . . . but I’ve registered for next year’s already!  Anyone wanna join me?  Anyway, more marathon weekend details and photos are certainly forthcoming.  Stay tuned.

3 — Please don’t send me any more emails about the last post.  I was not knocking the disabled or handicapped.  I was only knocking people who pretend to be in order to get things, hence the title.  Actually, the emails showed me that I do have more than 2 readers, but the rest of you should use the comment feature sometime.  Thanks.

Hypothetical situation:

If I decided to dress up in all black — ski mask included — and go jogging around my neighborhood for a good workout at night, would that be a crime?  It might be cold so I should be completely insulated. Maybe I should take some free weights or something to help boost the cardio. Oh yeah, I don’t have any free weights though so I’ll have to take some DVD players or something. That wouldn’t be a crime would it?

Maybe not, but I guarantee you some cop would come up and start questioning me. What would give them the right? I’m not committing a crime and I’m sure I don’t have any warrants out for my arrest. Since cops don’t harass normal citizens exercising in their own neighborhoods, maybe he’s really a criminal who has shot the real cop and is impersonating him. I should run. Fast.

Yeah I have worked at a law school too long.  Or maybe it’s just this cold is causing me to have more snot than since.

Seven more workdays this year.

I am burned out.  These exam weeks aren’t helping.

Every single day I’ve had away from work this calendar year has been for sick family members, work-related travel, and getting other chores done.  I need some “ME” time.  Two weeks away from work with the family isn’t really “ME” time, but it will still be great to get away from everything else.

The best part (I think) . . . No internet access for 8 days.  That’s the longest I’ve been without it in over 10 years.  Not good for the blogging, but maybe it will be good for me.

No work.  No information overload.  No news.  Just me, the family, Christmas, and Walt Disney World.

Just seven more work days . . .

My colleague, Labrina, along with her husband and son, are in New York City today to ring the NASDAQ stock market opening bell. Her son Joshua, who has a brain tumor, is a patient at St. Jude’s hospital. Below is a clip of the bell ringing: