I attended my first user group meeting tonight.  It was the Minneapolis ALT.NET User Group.  It was a good experience. I went in not expecting much as it was the inaugural group meeting in the Twin Cities.   I was accompanied by my fellow geek, Jason.  The ALT.NET group is something I’ve recently started following after a few posts that I ran across in my searches for professional development and to find different and potentially better ways of doing things.

Since finding the group, reading some blogs, and listening to the podcasts, I’ve become more of an advocate of finding the right tools and methods to gain efficiency and provide appropriate methods to provide appropriate client solutions.  I like and respect the passion in the community, hope it continues on, and hope that I can appropriately contribute my successes and stories back.

At my current job we are currently “rewriting” our main application, converting it from a VFP windows fat client to a .NET web based solution.  We decided to go with NHibernate vs other ORM’s or self-baked DAL’s.  Since we are starting from scratch (at least from a system/application perspective), I am very interested in promoting some of the ideas from the ALT.NET community.  Having been with the company for only a year and seeing some of the struggles with the current implementation,  I feel that in our particular problem domain I think DDD is something that would be extremely benificial.  The same goes for Continuous Integration, and unit tests…. (any unit tests). I’d even prefer a new method of source control.  That leads me to one of my motivations for the ALT.NET community…how do you sell some of this new stuff to your development manager and your company president?  Obviously I can initiate discussions and float my ideas, but how do I grab traction and have a concrete example of how this is better than it is today? What are other success stories out there?

I’m open for comments and I hope to pick some brains about some of this.

It’s been a while, but I’ve been busy so back off!

After a whirlwind July being and being out of town every darn weekend, I finally got a chance to settle in at home for the weekend, do a little work around the house, and catch some good Olympic games coverage.

I finally was able to find decent 5/4″ x 6″ x 12 PT deck boards.  And I’ll be darned but the Endeavor can damn near swallow em.  I only needed 7.  A large number have been a trickier transport home, but it was all good.  They are drying out as we speak and will get put on this week.  Then it’s time to stain them and seal the new fence.  I need a new garage door, service door, and garage door opener too… I could go on, but it’ll get depressing.

I’ve been obsessed with the Olympics.  Let’s just say I got my fair share of coverage this weekend.  I watched plenty of swimming, USA vs China in basketball and water polo.  I’ve seen plenty of beach and indoor volleyball and as I mentioned both are absolutely outrageous.  I can’t imagine being on the receiving end of some of those kills.  A couple of highlights stick out in my head — Dalhausser/Rodgers losing to Latvia, the US Men’s Indoor Volleyball team pulling out a tough match against Venezuela, May-Treanor/Walsh continuing their sport’s dominance, Michael Phelps’ quest to become the most successful Olympic athlete of all time, and of course the rousing upset of the Frenchies in the Men’s 4×100 Freestyle.  Awesome race!  I can’t wait to see what else the games bring us.  You can bet that I’ll be watching both the men’s and women’s triathlon as well.  I don’t care if it’s streamed at 3AM.

Aaron Rodgers gets his first start tonight.  Even though it’s only their first preseason game, it’ll be interesting to see how he comes out and how fans react to his success or failures on the field.  I feel it might get ugly if he doesn’t perform.

It’s been a while since my last post… no excuses, no apolgizes, that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

Tina and I recently celebrated our 1 year anniversary.

What will probably be the last Country Jam… at least for the foreseeable future is coming up.  We’ll have to make the best of.

We’ve got 3 consecutive weekends of camping coming up.  It’ll be tough.  The 2.5 days of sun and such really wear a guy down.  Once we get through it, I’ll definitely need some down time to recover.

Tina and I are now triathletes.  We completed our first triathlon yesterday.  It was a tough race (not that I thought it would be easy).  When I first saw the swim course I was a bit overwhelmed.  I can’t imagine swimming the olympic distance.  We were able to watch a fair portion of the Pro race as our waves didn’t kick off until they were basically done.  Some amazing athletes in that group.  And I gotta say watching their transitions was a thing of beauty.  Tina went off first.   Once I got into the shoot I was feeling OK, no real nerves.  I took a quick walk into the water and waded into a swim.  I was both passed and did some passing.  The open water was tougher than I had expected.  I had to use the breast stroke several times.  My rhythm was a bit off and I always felt I was dodging other swimmers.  Half way to the first buoy, I thought to myself.. how in hell am I gonna make it.  Turns out it wasn’t so bad.  I swam much faster pace than I been training.  I finished in just over 15 minutes. I was thinking more like 20 - 22 (which would have been very slow comparitively).  The transition to the bike went well and I was off and pedaling.  I knew I was pacing slow for the bike, but didn’t know how slow.  I finally hit the halfway point and was 6 minutes behind.  I finished 12 minutes off my pace.  Parts of it were a tough ride and I felt like I could have moved a little faster in some areas.  The final transition to the run took a few hundred meters to get my legs back under me and my running muscles in tune.  I ran an OK 3 miles.  I feel like could have run a little faster and cut off a few more minutes of my time.  But I am happy I finished and met my goal of under 2 hours.  Yesterday afternoon I was exhausted, but feel pretty good now.

All in all it was a great experience and I am glad I participated.  Will I do another? Maybe, maybe not.  For whatever reason the Olympic course somewhat fascinates me… but like an earlier post mentioned, I better get swimming!

Special thanks to Jason , Carl and Michelle, and Beth and Ryan for navigating the busy, full streets of the Lake Nokomis area to come down and cheer us on.  And thanks to all of the provided words of encouragement from family and friends.

I finally got in the pool today for my first triathlon swimming session. I knew it wouldn’t be easy but it was quite different than I had imagined.

To preface, I feel like I am in pretty darn good shape. I have been doing a fair amount of running, biking, and biking then running to get the feel for transitioning. In fact last week, I biked 15mi and ran 3mi right afterward. You may be thinking 2/3 legs, not bad. That’s what I thought.

Well I got into the pool today and started swimming, I really have no guide or pace since this is my first training/workout swim in a very long time [read 6th grade]. I had to limit myself to 100m iterations and then a short rest. It was quite a workout, but I think the breathing really got me. It’s a different workout when you have to hold your breath and try to establish a breathing rythym that is determined fully by your ability to get your head out of the water long enough to take a breath and not suck in any water.

I’m glad I didn’t wait longer because I’ve got some work to do to get back into a swimming mode… I suppose I could always resort to the Elementary Backstroke.

Well it’s now been 90 days (92 to be exact) since Tina and I quite smoking. So far so good. And it feels good. w00t!

As an added bonus, I bought myself a new car. I’ve been looking on and off for about a year and stepped up the search this spring. In particular when my key broke off in my door and I found a leak which turned out to be a loose oil filter (I think). It needed an oil change anyway. It was getting old and I knew at some point there would be a day when it just wouldn’t run anymore. For those of you that have known me, I have always driven around the sub-compact (save for a few months when I drove a Buick Lesabre in high school and college). First it was the Saturn that lasted a mere 115K miles, then it was the Mitsubishi Mirage. So I decided I wanted to go with something nicer and more sporty before we start having kinds. I went with a 2005 BMW 325xi, black. So far it’s been awesome. Very smooth ride and nice handling. I guess time will tell me if it’s the Ultimate Driving Machine. It’s off to a good start and from what I have to compare it to, it won’t take much :).

Since it is April 1st this would be an opportune time for a prank (*cough, rick-rolled), but I’ll skip it this time around.

Just this past weekend it felt like spring was finally upon us. Not so much come yesterday and this morning. After a wicked snowstorm I feel back in the doldrum of winter. Although it appears it won’t stick around for long. I am refusing to shovel or snowblow the driveway. Seems like wasted energy.

On another spring note, baseball opened up this weekend. I’ll label yesterday as opening day since that’s the way it always should be… a Monday afternoon. The Cubbies started off with a rousing 9th inning comeback and lost in the 10th. But the Twins won an exciting one. While yesterday would have been a terrible day for an outdoor baseball game, they really need that new stadium up and running.

Also a little news from the NFL yesterday. Minnesota will open up the 2008 NFL season against Green Bay at Lambeau on Monday Sept. 8. Both Dan and I reserved hotel rooms at the Fairfield in GB. Hopefully we don’t get bounced to a hotel in Appleton like we did for the re-opening of Lambeau in 2003. Now we just need to find some tickets.

… not really. But I gotta figure out a way to find the missing SpiderMan 3 DVD in my house. I think we’ve had our current netflix discs for like 2 months. We have all three envelopes and two out of three DVD’s but no SpiderMan, go figure. It’s really irking me. How long do I hold out? There are no late fees… :-/ I might just need to buck up and pay. Maybe they’ll even give me a free pass on one! Perhaps calling an exterminator would surface the disc somewhere.

Last night I received a pleasant surprise in the mail, after recently exchanging my GH3 mono disc for a properly manufactured stereo disc, Activision sent me a brand NEW Guitar Face Plate for being patient. Hell it only took about 10 business days, 5 of which I was on vacation. I can’t argue with that. I’m glad I didn’t waste my stickers now.

Tina came home one day proclaiming that she wanted a bike and that she was going to compete in the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon. I brushed it off and thought good for you. Sounds like a good fitness goal. Well, I think I’ve caught the bug and frankly I needed a little extra motivation to get back to the gym and work towards something. I decided I should train and “compete” as well.

We’ll be doing the mini course which is a .4mi swim, 15mi bike, and 3 mi run. I think the swimming will be toughest part for me. I was a strong swimmer in my younger years, but haven’t really done much of it for a long time. I’ll be sure to spend plenty of time in the pool over the next 4 months.

Yesterday was my first real training day. I don’t have a training guide so I am going to wing it. I biked for 10mi and then ran for 2mi. It was a darn good workout and I feel like I could have had the endurance to bike all 15 and run all 3, but that’s easy to say now. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got work to do but it was refreshing to know I wasn’t starting at square 1.

Next on my list, a new bike, running shoes, and swim googles…. who knows maybe this will become a hobby and someday I’ll make it up to the Olympic course or even (gasp) the famed Ironman (It’s at least an excuse to go to Hawaii :))

Update:

Shoes… Check

Googles… Check

No doubt we’ve all heard the news already.

Brett Favre is calling it quits. To me it was unexpected. I, like a lot of others thought that with the season the Packers had, he would be back for one more shot. Apparently he caught us all off guard. Although somewhat fitting he both began and ended his career with an interception. Am I disappointed? I don’t think so. Don’t get me wrong, I think he still gives Green Bay the best chance to win and I’d certainly welcome him back if he changed his mind. But I guess it’s about time the torch get passed. It would seem to be at an opportune time with Green Bay’s young team, their quality defense and offensive playmakers (and here and here).

Naturally with a legend leaving the game, the media is milking it for all they can. Which means I got to catch some Brett Favre moments on the NFL Network. It was a nice reminder of his durability and his accomplishments for the city of Green Bay, the Packer organization, and the NFL as a whole. I can’t lie, it was a bit emotional. Mostly from the segments about the passing of his father, his personal problem with addiction, and his wife’s battle with cancer, all things the average Joe can relate to. I think I’ll be keeping them on the DVR for awhile.

Lastly, I wanted to take this moment to say Thank You Brett, enjoy your retirement, and best wishes to you and your family.

We made it out of Cancun successfully.  Overall it was a great trip.  The sun got to be a bit much for us Minnesotans, but I can’t argue with the weather.  It was all-inclusive and naturally the food got old, so we got adventerous and hit a good local restaurant and then a couple of popular ones.

One day we hit up the “power boat” and snorkeling tour.  The power boats were fun to drive through the choppy lagoon.  Once we got to the snorkeling our guide had fish food and of course he dropped all over the place early on.  I’m not one to be swimming through a school of fish.  Once we got through that we saw a turtle and a stingray.  The water was a bit cloudy and the underwater scenery wasn’t great.  I think it’ll be tough to beat Hawaii’s snorkeling… even though that area is supposed to have great diving and I would assume snorkeling.  We never did get to one of the clubs.  I think our serious attempt was kaboshed by a day at the activities pool with vodka and sprites.

I believe I’d go back, but there would probably be other places I’d visit first.