Updates

I apologize to anyone who follows my blog. I have kept meaning to update it, but never really wanted to when I got home from work. I tended to write most of the text during down times at work before, but since the summer I've been busier.

Anyway, I'll try to be more regular in the future. For now, thought, here are a few highlights that I missed.


Early in the summer, 2nd and I participated in our church's Savior of the World musical production. We sang in the choir -- which is all I was interested in, but they also persuaded me to have a couple speaking roles. I played both Malachi and the "angel to the shepherds." (He's unnamed, so I referred to him as Linus, because of Linus' monologue in A Charlie Brown Christmas.) It was a lot of rehearsals with not too much for 2nd and I to rehearse, but in the end I think I enjoyed it. Though I was a little glad to have some evenings back.


In July, I took a business trip to Las Vegas for Black Hat. It was the first time 2nd and I were apart since March, so it was a little sad. I made sure to hurry back home to her. The conference was in Caesar's Palace, which is rather extravagant. I particularly enjoyed the mall attached to the casino. Unfortunately, the training sessions ran until 6 each day, and left me rather drained, but I did try to get out and see the strip anyway.


During the summer, my poor car was involved in two minor accidents at the exact same intersection near work. Both were the other drivers' faults (no, really!), but thankfully neither was serious enough to require professional repair to my car. In the first, the other car stripped my front license plate off. In the second, I was rear-ended hard enough to worry me at the moment, but I just can't see any damage.


In October, our functional group at work had a team-building exercise, consisting of a little every-man-for-himself competition (some team-building exercise, huh?) at go-karts. Mind you, this wasn't kiddy go-karts. We raced in heats, awarding points via finishing position. I took second, but I "let" my boss beat me, of course -- I wouldn't want to get him upset! No, he was actually a very good racer, and in the last heat the two of us pulled away from the pack for most of the race. He started ahead of me, and, try as I might, I couldn't manage to pass. The track was actually fairly narrow, and mostly turns, making passing quite difficult unless the leading driver made a mistake. We both set lap records for our group in that little showdown, so I'm still quite pleased with myself, even though I couldn't take the lead.

We've had several other things on our plate here, like planning and executing ward activities, but I'll leave well enough alone right now. We are having fun getting ready for our first Christmas, and we hope everyone else is having as much fun as we are.