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Wow. It's 2005 already. Not only is it hard to believe it's a new year, it's hard to believe that it's been over a month since I posted anything of substance here. It certainly isn't because nothing interesting has happened....
Overall December was a very good month. Around the middle of the month Kris had two days off from work, so I took those days off as well. It was nice to spend a couple of days, just the two of us without having to worry about Ben. On one of the days we went over to Universal and checked out the Macy's Parade and Grinchmas. Many rides were ridden, and I even got to ride in the front row of The Incredible Hulk. Now *that* was an amazing ride, with nothing in front of me but open track. Whee! Mostly, though, it was just a hell of a lot of fun to hang out with Kris and see the sights.
Work-wise, December was a busy month. I was buried in trying to wrap of the details of a project I have been working on since October, and it has turned out well overall. I built it from the ground up by properly designing the business logic layer and writing unit tests for all of the code libraries as I went. There were a few bumps along the way for the UI, but one of our new developers is a real black belt and has created some pretty amazing controls that I was able to consume and which improved the application dramatically.
Christmas was very nice, much better than last year. It was actually the first Christmas that Kris and I have spent together, despite the fact that we have been a couple for over two years now. We even went out and got one of those "our first Christmas" ornaments. Kris did a bang-up job decorating the house. Sure, I helped put things up here and there, but it really was all her. The tree was beautiful, there were garlands, there were christmas figurines, there were pictures on the wall wrapped in christmas wrapping paper... it just made the home feel very nice. It was also good having my mom here, and we had a good time on Christmas Eve with Ben here opening presents and all. Kris got me any number of cool things, too many to list. At the moment I am about halfway through reading the english translation of the original Japanese novel "Ring", and as soon as I finish that I will move on to "Spiral". Apparently the translation for "Loop" will be out later this year, and I am very much looking forward to it.
Kris went back to Seattle for a few days to surprise her best friend for her friend's birthday. While she was gone we celebrated Ben's birthday, which almost turned out to be a fiasco. I had made dinner reservations a month in advance for his birthday at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. Our reservations were at 4:30, and my mom and I would be meeting Sara, Ben, and Sara's mom, dad and sister who were in town visiting. I drove up to the park entrance at 3pm only to be told that the park was closed for capacity, and that they were absolutely not letting anyone else in. I explained my situation, that it was my son's birthday, we had dinner reservations, and the rest of the family was already in the park, but the front line cast member couldn't help. He did let me drive on through and talk to security, though. Security was very nice, and said I was welcome to proceed up to the Ticket and Transportation Center and speak to Guest Services, but said that there was no way they were going to let us on the monorail. While everyone else was being directed over to Epcot or MGM, I was actually allowed to park. I proceeded up to the TTC, getting ready to plead my case, but when we got up there we found that nobody was blocking off the monorail. We just walked right up the ramp and got on board, and when we arrived at the Magic Kingdom gates they let us right through the turnstiles without a question. So anyway, the dinner went as well as could be expected (Ben has a pretty low threshhold for patience, but he did admirably well). He seemed to like the gifts he got, and although the park was packed to the gills he still managed to squeeze in five rides on Snow White's Scary Adventures and one on Winnie the Pooh. Overall a pretty good day.
Last night Kris and I went out to Epcot for New Year's Eve while my mom stayed here and watched Ben. We had a great time, and the fireworks were amazing. There were probably 60,000 people there, but Epcot is particularly well-suited to absorbing huge crowds. During the course of the evening we spent some time in the Wonders of Life pavillion, which is usually closed, and among other things we went on Cranium Command. I had never done that one before, I didn't even know what it was. As it turns out, it's a pretty dang cute little attraction that features Charles Grodin, John Lovitz, Bobcat Goldthwait, Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, and a few others I am sure I am forgetting.
It's getting late, so I think I will go try to get my son to go to bed now. I'll try not to go so long between posts.
Overall December was a very good month. Around the middle of the month Kris had two days off from work, so I took those days off as well. It was nice to spend a couple of days, just the two of us without having to worry about Ben. On one of the days we went over to Universal and checked out the Macy's Parade and Grinchmas. Many rides were ridden, and I even got to ride in the front row of The Incredible Hulk. Now *that* was an amazing ride, with nothing in front of me but open track. Whee! Mostly, though, it was just a hell of a lot of fun to hang out with Kris and see the sights.
Work-wise, December was a busy month. I was buried in trying to wrap of the details of a project I have been working on since October, and it has turned out well overall. I built it from the ground up by properly designing the business logic layer and writing unit tests for all of the code libraries as I went. There were a few bumps along the way for the UI, but one of our new developers is a real black belt and has created some pretty amazing controls that I was able to consume and which improved the application dramatically.
Christmas was very nice, much better than last year. It was actually the first Christmas that Kris and I have spent together, despite the fact that we have been a couple for over two years now. We even went out and got one of those "our first Christmas" ornaments. Kris did a bang-up job decorating the house. Sure, I helped put things up here and there, but it really was all her. The tree was beautiful, there were garlands, there were christmas figurines, there were pictures on the wall wrapped in christmas wrapping paper... it just made the home feel very nice. It was also good having my mom here, and we had a good time on Christmas Eve with Ben here opening presents and all. Kris got me any number of cool things, too many to list. At the moment I am about halfway through reading the english translation of the original Japanese novel "Ring", and as soon as I finish that I will move on to "Spiral". Apparently the translation for "Loop" will be out later this year, and I am very much looking forward to it.
Kris went back to Seattle for a few days to surprise her best friend for her friend's birthday. While she was gone we celebrated Ben's birthday, which almost turned out to be a fiasco. I had made dinner reservations a month in advance for his birthday at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. Our reservations were at 4:30, and my mom and I would be meeting Sara, Ben, and Sara's mom, dad and sister who were in town visiting. I drove up to the park entrance at 3pm only to be told that the park was closed for capacity, and that they were absolutely not letting anyone else in. I explained my situation, that it was my son's birthday, we had dinner reservations, and the rest of the family was already in the park, but the front line cast member couldn't help. He did let me drive on through and talk to security, though. Security was very nice, and said I was welcome to proceed up to the Ticket and Transportation Center and speak to Guest Services, but said that there was no way they were going to let us on the monorail. While everyone else was being directed over to Epcot or MGM, I was actually allowed to park. I proceeded up to the TTC, getting ready to plead my case, but when we got up there we found that nobody was blocking off the monorail. We just walked right up the ramp and got on board, and when we arrived at the Magic Kingdom gates they let us right through the turnstiles without a question. So anyway, the dinner went as well as could be expected (Ben has a pretty low threshhold for patience, but he did admirably well). He seemed to like the gifts he got, and although the park was packed to the gills he still managed to squeeze in five rides on Snow White's Scary Adventures and one on Winnie the Pooh. Overall a pretty good day.
Last night Kris and I went out to Epcot for New Year's Eve while my mom stayed here and watched Ben. We had a great time, and the fireworks were amazing. There were probably 60,000 people there, but Epcot is particularly well-suited to absorbing huge crowds. During the course of the evening we spent some time in the Wonders of Life pavillion, which is usually closed, and among other things we went on Cranium Command. I had never done that one before, I didn't even know what it was. As it turns out, it's a pretty dang cute little attraction that features Charles Grodin, John Lovitz, Bobcat Goldthwait, Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, and a few others I am sure I am forgetting.
It's getting late, so I think I will go try to get my son to go to bed now. I'll try not to go so long between posts.