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Congrats and best wishes go to Mike and Jennie who welcomed their Daughter, Kaylee, into the world this weekend! The fun is only beginning…

I attended the Minnesota Developers Conference 2007 yesterday, a nerdfest for .Net developers. All in all it was awesome. I’ve attended very few conferences in my life. It’s nice to get out and mingle with nerds. I could talk ad nauseum about some things. It was also a great way to come up to speed fast with the new stuff coming in .Net 3.5.

I was most surprised, though, by the amount of old and new friends I ran into at the conference. I bumped into at least one person from just about every job I’ve worked since 1998. It was awesome. I forgot what a large network of cool people I have. It made my day.

Chad forgot to mention it before he left on the honeymoon with Tina that you can follow his escapades through Hawaii via Twitter.

Saturday night I had a late night shift to cover at work. We have a big “All-Stars” event going on all week and being the new guy I drew the sweet shift of covering from 9pm to midnight on Saturday. Courtney was out on the town with Tina and Elizabeth for T’s bachelorette party. Seeing as the ladies better-halves had congregated around a fire as well I figured I would swing up to see what the crew was up to.

Just before the end of my shift I received a phone call from Courtney. She was cookin’ up a plan and needed my assistance. Since I had the luxury of working Saturday night while all my friends whooped it up, I was the soberest one of the bunch (My soberity was relative. I had drank 4 cups of coffee in 3 hours and was having a hard time keeping my eyes straight). She called for a ride home…just not yet. She wanted to wait until bar close.

So, after work I moseyed up to Aaron’s. About an hour later I received the “cabbie” call and I went to pick up my wife and Elizabeth. We played a game of clown car seeing as my passenger list had grown from 2 gals to 4 gals. Luckily for all of us, the Mazda had room in the hatch for the car seat. Trying to do the rider math at 1am with 4 drunk ladies was a challenge, but quite amusing. We got back to Aaron’s where we continued the fun.

Court and I strolled into the house at 3am. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the lighter half of 3am. My 3am’s have typically consisted of late night stumblings trying to soothe a crying child. It was so late that even our local Taco Bell was closed, much to our dismay. We crashed and tried not to think of having to get up in the morning.

3 1/2 Hours later I was wide awake and trying to figure out how to get back to sleep. I had nothing going for me so I just got up and headed for the kitchen. Crazily, we got our act together and were out the door to get our son by 11:30am.

I write this to let you know a few things:

1. Even given a crazed 20-somethings evening, we still are responsible parents and were quite excited to get to see our son in the morning

2. 3am is not a good time for me. I don’t like that time of day

3. 4 cups of coffee in the evening is a very bad idea

4. If you want me to haul you someplace, just let me know so I can remove the child seat. Preferably let me know before 1am.

Last night Court and I went to watch our friends play in Minneapolis. It’s the second time we’ve seen them own the stage at Lee’s Liqour Lounge. Every time I see them I am in awe of their raw talent. I’ve tried so hard over the years to figure out how to play music. I understand rhythm, I can read sheet music, and I know the fingerings, but I have always lacked something. Watching them play as if it were a simple extention of their being was simply amazing.

A few friends at work bet their hair on the Rose Bowl. Check out Murphy’s site for the results.

In October Courtney and I went to Green Bay for Maggie and Nick’s wedding. When we arrived home I discovered two dead computers. I accidently found Lambaeu that weekend.

Ah, the flame war once again rages here at the office. Will robots be able to one day automously determine whether to conquer man or will man have to program them to do so? So many questions to answer….

In the last week I’ve coincidently run across two pictures of a girlfriend of mine from high school. They’ve popped up in the oddest of places, too. I’ve already lost one of them again but this one is still around. Ok, ok, it’s probably not nice of me to go around posting random photos I find of people so I’ll throw this one up of me circa the same time period. The last time I ran into Sara was sometime around 1998 on the River Falls campus when she told me a story about a prior weekend polishing off a bottle of Creme de Mint. I believe she went on to become a school teacher and marry. I ran into her father at my brother’s grooms men golf outing but didn’t exchange words.

Update : – By the way, notice my long, flowing, beautiful hair. Oh how I miss it! ~groan~

Last week Dave’s mother, Eileen, passed on after many years battling cancer. She was the toughest fighter I have met. She fought cancer for most of the years I knew her.

If I had to describe Eileen I would say she was Carol Brady spiked with vodka. She never remebered my name (not that I’m very rememberable) but that didn’t stop her from welcoming me into her home. They had a screened-in front porch on their house and I hated walking in without notice. But knocking on the screened porch door yielded very little results. One had to walk into the porch and knock on the house door. Many times Eileen would find me outside waiting for someone to notice me standing at the porch. “Com’on in, Hon! Don’t stand out there!” she would say. And I would thank her graciously by taking off my shoes before entering the house.

We used her basement to learn to play music. She tolerated many hours of poorly played guitars, screaming nonsense, and general foolery. And even through all of that she would come down and offer us snacks. “Do you boys want Twinkies? How about ice cream? What about Twinkies IN ice cream?” You couldn’t get by her without taking a snack.

Eileen was unique. I will always have a place in my heart for her. She made such an impression on me as a teenager. I will never forget her. Good-bye, Eileen.