Rollout Part Deux

I did not end up rolling out my big project as most of the staff were not even in their office today.
That is okay. I had time to tweak some more things on the system and we will be even more ready for Monday. Specifically, I was able to get a good securities model in place into the system so we can have some control over users and their access. That is a great thing.

After we rollout this database on Monday, I will need to focus on their website and get their payment portal into the works. The SSL Certificate is now installed and we just need to wait for the developers in British Columbia to install the Moneris Payment portal part of the puzzle. After that, Moneris can verify that our website is secure and ready for payments… Yeeha!

I think it will be a nice weekend. I have a couple of hours worth or work that I can do if I desire, but I am not sure how much I will do. We are heading to Kitchener tomorrow to visit with friends for the morning and into the afternoon and then visiting Clara and Aunt Heather for a bit too.

Sunday is a potluck after church and then hopefully some downtime before we ramp up for next week again.

Have a good weekend.

Do it, please just do it.

How many times does one have to ask his son to do something before blowing a gasket or being very frustrated?

I’m thinking seventy times seven at least.
At least

And the winner is….

Tonight was the AWANA Grand Prix. An evening where the AWANA participants get to race slot cars and see who is the fastest and the who has the best design.

Will and Jacks both decided to do cars this year. Jackson decided to bow out a week or so ago citing that he was not interested. (too much sanding to be done I think…)

William and his best friend Justin decided to make a slot car shaped like a rocket.
William and I and my dad shaped the body of the car and Will did a good amount of sanding.
He then handed it off to Justin for painting and bling.
To our wonderful surprise, they won 1st place in the design category!

I made sure that I congratulated Justin’s dad John for his hard work too

Riding again.

I picked the bike up yesterday from the shop. It wasn’t too too bad in terms of cost.
I am having so much fun on this thing it is crazy….

Come to think of it, so is my wife. Last night was a family night for us so after dinner, we went to the driving range with the boys and had ice cream. On the way home, Nan suggested that we go out for a little rip on the bike. So we dropped the boys at home, told Jacksy to have his shower and asked Will to watch Jack for a few minutes and off we went.

We just sort of toured about the subdivision a bit and had some fun. When we get home, Nan says to me with a big grin on her face…

That was fun!!! Next time, can we go somewhere where we can go faster?!

Oi vey! She is a crazy gal that one. But that is why I love her so much.

A Good Weekend

This weekend was busy as usual, but very fun.

Friday I was able to go golfing with a friend from our church. Good time, bad score…
Friday night Nan and I went to the Annual Business Meeting at the church. It went very well and there was a good collegial spirit there.

Saturday morning we did yard work all of the morning. In fact about 3-4 hours of it. And after our rain the last couple of days, the lawns and gardens are looking good.

Saturday afternoon Nan baked some cookies, then she and I went to a youth event at the church. It was Random Acts of Kindness night. We were able to choose 6 families from the church to drop baskets of cookies, teas, hot chocolate that sort of thing off to. 4 out of the 6 families, we had to sneak up on Ninja style and deliver the goods, verify the delivery, and try to get away without being seen. You can see a couple of photos here if you wish here.

Sunday we stayed home from church. Our friends Mike and Heidi were running a half and full marathon respectively and we took 3 of their 4 kids and drove around the route to cheer them on. There is a picture of the kids here.
Heidi qualified for the Boston Marathon! Way to go Heidi!!! She wanted to run better, but she did very well considering the day.

Then we had lunch with Mike, Heidi and family, came home and chilled out. And I called my mom. She’s awesome. All in all, a great weekend.

quick updates

I have been remiss in not blogging much lately.
Here are a few highlights.
I will try better…. honest.

Will’s is making progress with walking better. The chiropractor is only seeing him every 2 weeks now and wants Nan and I to let him go and be a kid.. thank goodness.

My bike is in the shop having the front fork seals redone. I did not particularly want to do this until next year, but oh well. Such is life. Once it is done, I should be good to ride for the rest of the season I think.

We were able to get some new furniture this last week on trade. Lovely new black leather set for the family room. very nice.

Taffy the dog continues to grow into our family more and more. She is adorable and loves nothing more than to just be with the family.

I installed with the help of my good friend Rich, a Small Business Server with Blackberry Enterprise Server on it last week. For those of you who know what that is, rejoice with me…. I have shared calendars and am consistently getting my mail!

Nan and I are going away for our 15th anniversary for a weekend to Stratford in a couple of weeks.

My wife is the best.

Work has been crazy with thinking of new code and trying to drive more business through the door.

My dad is now retired! Actually, he is on vacation for the next 4 weeks technically and then he is retired, but he is lovin’ it.. I can’t say I blame him.

I am fighting a sinus infection. Most of the infection is gone I think but my left ear is still blocked and I have a hard time hearing out of it. So, if I twist around when I am talking to you, it is because I am just trying to hear you better.

Our annual meeting at the church is tonight.

I think that is it. It’s enough though.

Still Concerned…

Will went to the doctor the other day to see about what is going on with his heel.
The doctor was not really pleased with the progress that has been made and is referring Will to a Pediatric Orthopedist? I think that’s who it is. We are also going to look into having Will see a chiropractor.

I will post more as we hear.

Concerned.

Will has been having a hard time with his foot. For about 2 months now, he has had a bad limp. Nan had him to the doctor and we were told that he had some “trauma to his heel”. I am not sure what that means.

Now we have the issue that Will has been walking on the side of his foot to favour his heel. He has gotten to the point where it is almost like he has forgotten how to walk correctly. It is really bizarre….

It tends to get a bit better and the regress very quickly. We are going to try to get him into the doctor again this week. I am not convinced that all is right with his foot. Who knows?
I am no doctor, I am just a concerned dad with a boy that is in pain. That sucks.

If you think of him, pray that we can get it sorted out. He is missing a lot of fun things that he cannot do right now like jump on the trampoline in the backyard and run around with his friends.

Birthday party

Will is having his birthday party tonight.
Man, I remember doing the big party at the church a few years back.
This is nothing like that at all.

He is having a couple of friends over to have pizza pockets and watch a movie.
The friends will stay overnight, then they will probably have French Toast for breakfast and play X-Box in the morning…

This is way too easy..
He is at that awkward age of 11. Not really a little boy any more and not a teenager yet.
Nan and I were talking about how just yesterday he came home with his sheet for Pizza Day at school and informed Nan that

“It’s all filled out Mom, I just need 5 bucks…”

Boy, we are soon gonna hit that age of

We’re goin’ to McDonald’s after church tonight, can I have $20?”

I do not feel old enough for this…. I know, I know.. I am old enough. I just don’t FEEL old enough to have an almost teenager in the house. Yikes.

Changes to how we live

Nan and I have been doing some very serious thinking about the priorities in our lives lately.
Somedays it seems simply overwhelming what we are involved in.

I am getting tired of the learning curve that my profession keeps me on. Sometimes, I think it would be really nice to be able to use what I have for a while without having to worry about what is the newest and greatest thing coming down the pipe that I will have to incorporate into my code.
To some, my sitting on the couch with my laptop in the evenings might not seem like work. It is.

Nan teaches piano and loves it. But it keeps us hopping. She is also a full-time mom. It simply amazes me how she keeps the Britton ship running so smoothly.

My boys.
Wow, my boys. They are growing so fast. I simply cannot fathom that Will is going to be 11 next month. This is frightening. Nan and I were talking about it just last week and we believe that we are fast approaching the time when my boys will want to spend more time with me developing than with their mom. That was difficult for Nan. She has been the ONE for the last 10 years and that is starting to change.
That is not a bad thing. It is good. Everyone goes through this and I am looking forward (with a little bit of healthy fear) to seeing my boys grow into young men.

So, I think we are going to make some changes in the decisions we make about how we spend our time. We had a wonderful weekend away this weekend and just had an absolute blast hanging out together. My boys are such fun to be with. Their senses of humour are quickly developing to the point that anyone is fair game now with sarcasm. Sweet.

The boys learned to swim in deep water this weekend. I am so thankful that this finally happened. It is something that I learned fairly early in life as did Nan and we wanted the boys to feel confident near water. They are all over it now.
Good days