by ·0 Comments

We decided to use our new addition this weekend.  It turned out, REALLY use our new addition this weekend.  In past years, we’ve hosted a gingerbread party, where the kids decorate gingerbread cookies.  The kids get to invite their friends, we have a bunch of fun with them, and we’re happy to have a mess made in our house.  We clean up the house beforehand, so it sort of all nets out to where it was before we had a horde of kids.

This year, we upped the ante.  We did crafts with a ton of kids.  We’re so crazy, we gave the kids glitter.  We imported two teenagers to help, we fed ’em stuff we picked up at BJ’s, and just generally let them play when they got bored of crafts.  I’m a big fan of just letting kids play when they’re done with whatever stuff’s at hand.  Note that we’d have been in a world of hurt had we had a fire, as I’m not sure exactly how many kids we had.  I know it was more than 15, probably less than 25.  But we were just having a great time with these kids.   And the kids went home with crafts that they had made, and ran around playing with my kids, with other kids.  It was a blast!

And then we had the teenagers from church over.  Teenagers, it turns out, bring lots of teenagers.  And they take up a lot more space than do first graders.  We had more than 30  (!!!!) teenagers in our home.  We munched on food with them, did a white elephant gift exchange, went caroling around the neighborhood…  my kids, my husband, and I had a WONDERFUL time hanging out with these high schoolers.   I had talked my husband into letting us host the high school youth group, figuring we were already set up for a party, teenager parties are low key, and heck, what’s a new addition for if not for making it available for gatherings like this.  As teenagers kept pouring in, I really started to wonder if I had done the right thing.  Folks were stepping over and around each other.  All I can say is, I’ll do it again next year if they’ll let me.  One daughter picked one teenager to hang out with.  The other daughter picked another teenager.  All three kids were delighted to get to go caroling with the big kids.  And it’s a wonderful juxtoposition to see these kids, some of whom I’ve seen grow up in the church, in the same house as my kids.

So weekend’s over, tomorrow’s a back to work day.  But I really enjoyed our tremendously busy weekend, and all of the folks who flowed into and out of our house.  If you were one of them, thank you for coming!  We really enjoyed having you!

by ·1 Comment

So, I mentioned that I was considering submitting an abstract to EclipseCon.  Just following up to mention that I indeed did…  I’m waiting to hear if the talk’s accepted – should hear later this week.

This was one of those ‘what do I have to lose’ kinds of things.  It’s a topic I need to figure out, it’s a topic for which there isn’t a lot of material already out there for, and it’s also a topic which impacts lots of projects.  If we (I talked my tech lead into working on it, too: gives me cover for doing it as a chargeable item for my project) get shot down, hopefully someone will at least point us in a useful direction.   I’ll let you know later whether we got accepted…

In the meantime, the submission model they’ve used for the conference really intrigues me.  I’ve learned a lot just by looking over the abstracts other folks have proposed.  I’d like to consider a similar model for a geek user group in the area: the topic(s) for the month are based on a sort of digg-like voting model.  Votes would have to be counted some amount of time before the user group, to give the presenter adequate time to prepare.  Frankly, you could use that model for any kind of presentation group: votes determine the presenter.  After the presentation, folks could give anonymous feedback, which helps drive the voting process next time.  Oh, that guy was an awful presenter.  Or, the presenter was great, but the material was a bit over my head.  Or…  whatever.  The group learns from itself what works best for it.  As new members join, they’d influence the votes for upcoming meetings, so the group would theoretically not automatically only serve the needs of the original members.

Thoughts?  Influence the idea a bit??

by ·0 Comments

Our company is organizing one of those grab-a-gift-from-the-table gift exchanges.  My client’s office is arranging one, too.  I’m not allowed, for ethics reasons, to give anyone a gift at my client’s office.  But somehow swapping $20-limit goodies works, since I don’t know who specifically will get it?  (Yep, I looked it up in my client’s online ethics manual: if I don’t know who I’m giving it to, it’s completely ethical.)

Seems like then I’m not giving to make someone’s day brighter, since I have no real idea who I’m gifting to or what they’d like.  Forgive my Scrooge-i-ness, but it seems like then I’m giving so I can get something from the table.  Something which someone else has no idea whether I’d like.

I can’t help but thinking we’d be a little more in the Christmas spirit if we all just put cards on the table that said “I put a coat on someone for you today”, or “I gave someone dinner in your (non-specific, ethically pardonable) name today”.

by ·0 Comments

Ohhhhh…  just randomly ran across this article on the Onion and HAD to post a link.   Just HAD to…

I won’t even spoil it by giving you anymore info about it.  Just go read it.  Go ahead.  I’ll wait. (If you need a clue before jumping over there, this post is tagged in my ‘Christianity’ category, and I did tell you the article’s on the Onion… )

OK, you’re back.  Loved it, I hope!  Think about that whole ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ bit as the economy tanks and your neighbor’s worried about their job and thus their house and their credit and their ability to support their kids.  Think about the ‘love thy neighbor as yourself’ part as you go past an Angel Tree on your way to hunt down the latest toy for you or your kids.  Think about the ‘love thy neighbor as yourself’ part as you dream of Christmas bonuses and hear on the news of food pantries running low.  And if you need any other ideas, feel free to let me know.  And then hold me accountable, too, because that’s also loving your neighbor as yourself.

by ·1 Comment

In March, there’ll be a geek conference out in Santa Clara, CA called ‘EclipseCon’.  I wanna go.  Trying to figure out a sure-fire presentation that’ll get me at least the cost of the conference registration, as well as a bit of leverage with my employer to make it a slam-dunk.  Thinking, thinking, thinking.  If you have any ideas for an OSGi or Eclipse presentation you’d like to see, drop me a line.  Right now I’m thinking of things like walk-throughs on some of the R4.1 spec items like configuration administration, with demonstrations of their usefulness as well as working code.  Also thinking of analyzing the distribution and update problem: does P2 handle things or do you need to go beyond?  What other options exist?  How does one update software running in the field?  (Note that I don’t have an answer to the above yet, but am brashly confident I’d have one by the time of the conference.)  But more inspirations and ideas would be useful. 

by ·2 Comments

Two weekends ago, I had the privilege of being asked to give my Christian testimony to the high school youth group at our church.  I started hanging out with them last spring, when the youth director said they needed folks to come listen/talk/just basically be there for the kids.  I’ve known some of these kids since they were 4, so it’s really a lot of fun to get to hang out with the now.  Now, I’m the old lady they’re polite to, rather than the Sunday school or Pioneer Girl leader with all of the answers, but, hey, that’s life.  They’re at least polite.  🙂

So, in 10+ years of being a member of our church and of being a Christian, I’d never been asked to give my testimony before.  Our church does require that you speak with a deacon and an elder as part of the membership process and explain your faith, but I consider that a pretty friendly audience.  Giving these young adults something was going to be something entirely different.

I’ll talk more about how it went and how I prepared for it in later posts (yes, that does mean I have the intention of posting more frequently than I’ve done of late), but this is just a post to talk about why I think it was important for me to prepare to give a testimony.  Just to make clear how I’m using the word “testimony”, what I told the kids was how God called me to faith, where I had been, and how I knew that it was Him who called me.  There are other kinds of testimonies, having to do with what God’s doing in your life, and probably other things, as well, but the “come to faith” kind was what I gave.

My path to faith wasn’t the same as most of these kids.  For one, I never was in a Sunday school or youth group.  I became a Christian as an adult.  And mine wasn’t a lightning bolt experience, or a Paul on the road to Emmaus experience.  God used people and circumstances to bring me to Him, but there was nothing I’ve ever recognized as a pivotal moment.  Just a buildup to what became to me a natural acceptance of His plan and His glory.  Sometimes I wish I had had the Emmaus moment.  Instead, I got to wrestle with whether I was just going with the flow, or whether I was going with God’s flow.   I’ve wrestled with that before, but in prepping my testimony, I got to revisit it, and see if the evidence I looked to was sufficient to be convincing to others, and/or if there was something in my path whose description might help one of the kids.

I was very glad to give my testimony, and very glad when the giving it was over.  Turned out conveying it was useful to me, in terms of structuring my own thinking, and bringing to mind some things I hadn’t considered in a while.  One of the layman leaders in our church occasionally gives sessions on how to structure and present your testimony.  I’m planning on catching the next one that I can.  Doing it was a real gift to me; I’m hoping being able to do it again will somehow help someone else.  If NOTHING else, seeing other folks do it might give someone else the idea to think through their own, and have an answer ready if someone asks why they’re a Christian, and how it impacts their life.

by ·0 Comments

I popped my knee last Friday, playing softball at the office’s “team-building” picnic.  Went to scoop a ball, knelt down, felt it pop.  Ow.  Kept playing, seemed to be reasonably OK.

It hasn’t felt right since, though.  For a bit, it hurt.  Now it just doesn’t feel like it’s quite the way it was.  And no, I haven’t seen a doctor.  No real pain now, no way to describe the motion that caused the pop – what would I tell him?

The challenge: Saturday’s the half-marathon.  I’m debating.  Right now, I’m leaning towards yes.  I ran on the treadmill tonight with a knee brace on, and feel no worse/weirder than I did before.  I’m thinking that if I’m careful about planting my feet and don’t lead with the suspect knee when stepping off any curbs, I’ll probably be OK.  Will see how it feels tomorrow, after sleeping after my run.

by ·0 Comments

I’m three weeks out from the Baltimore half-marathon, and feeling very excited.  I ran this race 4 years ago, in 2004, and discovered that Baltimore has hills!  This is not the thing you want to discover in the middle of a very long race.  I slogged through the race, coming in at 2:37:19.  That works out to be just slightly over 12 minute miles – bleah.  Or, more positively put, a time which gives me a lot of room to improve.  I’d like to come in at sub 2:15, which gives me 10:17 miles to work with.  (Confession time: I’m slow!)  On a treadmill, I’ve done 12+ in less than 2 hours, so this should be doable.  And this time I’ve added hill intervals to that treadmill workout.  Race day will prove whether I’ve done enough training and whether I’m smart about using these last few weeks.

So think about me October 11.  The race starts at 9:45, and I should theoretically be done sometime right around noon.  I’ll have a few minute delay to cross the starting line, since I’ll hang back with the slower runners for the starting lineup.  After that, though, the race is mine!  My daughters ask me if I race to win…  my answer is I race to beat myself.  I want to get faster and stronger.  I’m already thinking about my goals for after the half (marathon in the spring – not sure which one yet).  There’s just something about shaving time off, and pushing to longer distances, that really feeds the striving ambitious side of me.  If you know of a local race that sounds interesting, tell me about it: Saturday races work better than Sunday races, since I don’t run fast enough to let me run and then get showered up and ready for church.

by ·0 Comments

Cora’s started to read.  Actually, she started to read last year in kindergarten, and is now going gangbusters.  So things that I didn’t have to worry about her noticing before are now more of an issue.  We were at the mall yesterday, and she saw a release notice for ‘Sex and the City’.  She asks me ‘what’s S-E-X spell?’  Minor gulp.  ‘Sex’, I tell her.  ‘What’s that?’.  More major gulp.  ‘Um, good question – let me think of a good way to explain it to you’.  After some spurts and fumbling (and several more questions on her part), we get to the mechanical question – how’s it work?  So I say, well, you know that Daddy and Cameron have something that you and I don’t, right?  She answers: curly hair?  Nearly shot soda out of my nose…

For those of our friends who have younger kids than us, remember, Cora’s 6 (!).  Your time is quickly approaching.  So start considering answers soon to the most interesting questions you can think of.  The ones that have an odd hand grenade quality – dropped unexpectedly, they tend to make you want to scatter.  And malls just don’t have nearly enough cover.