04/15/07

It has been a very long time since I updated this page. As you might have guessed, I have sort of lost interest in this, or perhaps I feel that everyone else lost interest in it.  Of course that is assuming anyone had any interest in it to begin with.  So anyway, I am here to make an update.  Lots has happened...

I am now employed at US Cellular as an ETL developer. I started out as a contractor in April of 2006, then I was hired as a full time associate (they don't call us employees) in January 2007. I am happy in my job. The technology is a mix of what I already knew plus some different stuff. I am an Informatica developer now! I need them and they need me. I hope to be working at US Cellular for a long time.

When I do work on my web pages, it is usually on the Native Suburbia side of things. If you are interested in what I am up to, that is a better way to get an idea. Benia and I are still deeply involved with converting our yard to a more native landscape. We are actively involved with our Wild Ones chapter as well. As you may know we like to take a lot of pictures of what is going on in our yard. This led to the purchase of a new digital SLR camera and the subsequent revelation that we didn't know how to use it. Benia and I are now taking a beginner's photography class at Elgin Community College on Saturday mornings. Perhaps this will improve the quality of the photos we post online.

We still like to travel. The latest trip was our annual Tiny Towns adventure. This year we ventured out of Illinois into Indiana to the town of Wakarusa, by way of South Bend. Check out the pictures of Wakarusa and our associated activities. At the end of May we are returning to Grand Lido Braco in Jamaica for our 4th wedding anniversary.

So I guess that is everything in a nutshell. Let's all meet back here next year at this time for another one of these love fests!

I am currently looking for employment.  After 7 years of working at Information Resources, Inc. I was laid off so they could save some money.  I honestly did not see it coming.   I was working on the new system that was going to be the future of the company.  I had just received an Extraordinary Performance award in the beginning of 2005.  Then one day about 20 of us were invited to a meeting in which we were told that we would need to seek other employment opportunities.   Unfortunately I had watched as many of my coworkers were laid off over the past couple of years, but you always hope that it won't happen to you.  I guess I should be thankful that I was one of the last people to be let go. 

Do you have a job for me?  I am open to a wide variety of positions in information technology.  I have been a team lead for the last few years, but I also enjoy the hands on stuff.  If you have any leads for me, I would appreciate the help.  Curious about the details?  Check out my resume.

09/09/05

I have been working on a new site as part of the ICODE6.net family.  Benia and I have developed a new hobby from our interest in helping the environment.  We have decided to transform our yard into Native Suburbia.  Check it out and learn what has been keeping us busy lately.

While working on the Native Suburbia site I decided to learn about Cascading Style Sheets.  I am now taking that lesson and applying it to the Don's World pages as well.  So there is no new content, but they have a slightly different look. 

03/05/05

I cannot believe it is already March 2005.  I decided to poke around with my site during my train ride.  Once again, the primary changes are to the Gallery area.  I generated some of the pages using a very handy utility called JAlbum.  It really makes it easy to create professional looking picture pages.

Unfortunately, I am not able to add any small town adventure pictures at this time.  Valentine's Day came and went during a very busy period in our lives.  Benia and I have postponed the trip.  Maybe it would be nice to go during warmer weather... although that goes against the tradition.  I guess we will have to wait and see.

Benia and I are pretty much settled in the new house.  As usual it seems like there is always something that you want to fix or change, but for now a lot of those are in the "someday" category for us. The one big project that we have been working on is the creation of our suburban nature preserve.  We decided that we would enjoy a nontraditional landscape around our home.  It will be a long process that is going to take several years to reach maturity, but the journey is part of the fun.  I will be documenting the transformation on this site of course.  Check out the story at Nature Preserve in the Gallery.

It's been a while since I made any updates. Things have been busy. We recently purchased a new house and moved to Bartlett, IL. That is the reason this site has been down. The server was sitting in a box.
We also went on vacation in May. A return trip to Grand Lido Braco in Jamaica was just what we needed.

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone.  Benia and I continued the tradition of visiting a small town.  This year we toured Tiskilwa, IL.  Check out the page I created to commemorate the trip.

It has been a long time since I updated this site.  Things have been busy as usual.  Work becomes more challenging as more and more people are laid off.  The continuing trend of offshore outsourcing is forcing me to reconsider my career path.  If anyone has a job for a hardworking UNIX/C/ksh programmer, let me know.

I try not to let the job stuff get me down too much.  For Thanksgiving, Benia and I went to New Orleans.  We had a great time sampling the food, drink and music!

In the interest of reducing stress, we decided to avoid as much of the Giftmas tradition as possible.  There were no gifts, no tree, no decorations, no cards... nothing.  This really worked for us and I enjoyed the time off immensely.  If you were one of the people who felt snubbed by us, please do not take it personally.  It was about taking care of ourselves, not hurting you.  Catch us during any other time of the year and we will be much more hospitable.

I'm married!  Benia and I made it official on May 26, 2003.  There are a few pictures on my Love Story page.  We had a great time in Jamaica and we want to go back as soon as possible.  I highly recommend Grand Lido Braco.  It was the best vacation of my life and it included a wedding as well.  It is going to be pretty hard to top that.

Check out the Gallery.  I have added a slideshow button to view all the pictures on a gallery page.  You don't get the captions, but it is a cool effect.  Email me with any comments.

I decided that I wanted my own domain, so I finally registered one.  Of course, if you are here, then you know that I am now the proud owner of icode6.net.  This also marks the official debut of my site to the general public.  I am hosting this on a Mac.  MacOS X is awesome.

More new pictures in the gallery.  Now you can see pictures from our latest trip to a randomly picked small town.

I added some new pictures to the gallery.  The pictures tell the story of how Benia and I fell in love.

As Benia and I were looking around at places to go in the Carribean for our honeymoon, we came to the conclusion that we were going to do a destination wedding.  So the tickets have been purchased and we are going to Jamaica's Grand Lido Braco to get married.  We have the rings and she has her dress.  The big day is going to be May 26, 2003.  It will just be the two of us, but we are going to throw a big party for friends and family in July.

I have made major renovations to my site. Some of the content is the same as before, but there is plenty of new stuff also. The biggest change is to the layout. I wanted to make it more consistent between pages. Take a look around and let me know what you think.

I asked Benia to marry me today. She said yes! We don't know when the big day will be. We cannot even decide what direction to go in. I thought the proposal was a big step. The real hurdle will be actually getting married.