So the Allan #5 family enjoyed another wonderful week down in the Outer Banks with sun and sand.  The weather man predicted storms and thunderstorms, but each day brought beautiful sunshine, hot sand and a great surf. For the first time, the kids have started to move from the pool to the ocean – and playing in the waves. Given that the surf was pounding in with 5 foot surf most days, it was fun to see them begin to venture in further and further. The only downer of the week was when Ellie gave herself bangs with a pair of sissors and a smile, and Jake throwing up 7X on the way home. It seems he still can’t shake his fever and sickness. Still, it was great to have the break. Smile!

OK … so I was really only out of work for the weekend, but it sounded good at the time.  The boys keep telling me that they like IBM better (I’m pretty sure it has to do with me leaving for work after breakfast every day), but I have to say that I love the challenge and pace of the new world.  Stay tuned …

So after a little more than 10 years in the Watchfire/IBM worlds, I am today … officially unemployed.  I suppose the fun thing to do would be to blame the current government administration, but I confess to the “employee initiated separation”.  From 3:30 – 4:00pm yesterday, I conducted my exit interview and at precisely 4:30pm on Friday, December 3rd, 2010, I sent my last and final email.

I am unemployed!

PS – perhaps this means I will be a little more regular on my updates. 🙂

Eight years later … and summer vacations have changed.  No more sleeping in and relaxing on hot summer days – you can be sure that our three little tikes keep us more than a little busy.  On our anniversary date last month, we did enjoy putting the kids to bed early and enjoying a nice dinner for two with “5 minutes peace and quiet.”  Yay …

Of course the peace and quiet disappeared when we piled the kids and luggage in a van and headed for my little sister’s wedding.  July 23 was truly a spectacular day (an answer to prayer), and the location the perfect Nova Scotia setting.  The flowers for Grandma were in abundance and, typical with all Allan weddings, the tears were equally abundant.  🙂  (Apparently Kylie shed nary a tear under those clear blue skies …)  From Stellarton, water slides and Melmurby fun, we spent another week up in Pennant.  It wasn’t quite a full vacation for me as I worked during the days, but the kids loved the beach, the rock and the visit to the Zoo to visit their relatives.  Ten days on the road brought us back to our Hudson home where it felt good to sleep through the night once more …

No more vacations until 2012 – they’re too exhausting!  🙂

The mercury topped 100 degrees here in Hudson today and I finally had enough  … I was steamed with the hosting company.  It’s been close to 8 years that I’ve been hosting the site with the same company and I’ve been very happy with them.  Fortunately (?) for them, they were acquired this past fall by another company and the acquisition plans called for the migration of all the legacy accounts onto a new and updated hosting platform.

New and updated?

It was misery from day one … a textbook example of how to ruin a business.  Doing some quick searches on the web show the disappointment to outright hostility towards the new support plans and platform speed.  I can certainly sympathize.  While I didn’t lose $1000s of dollars as others did during downtime and slow server response, the 1 or 2 people who read this blog every 6 months were no doubt frantic to learn that not only was there no new update, but the site was entirely down.  Being danberall, and always one to stand on principle, the heat did me in.  After 8 long years with WebHost4Life, I’ve moved on.

Eight years?  Something else is coming up eight years next week.  🙂