• All my girls
• Parents, sister, parents-in-law, sister-in-law, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and other relations
• Old friends, new friends, work friends, Facebook friends, friends of friends
• To live in a country that’s not perfect, but is more good than bad, and made me proud this year
• To have a job that I love to do in an honest business
• The Gentlemen's Outing and Social Club
• The 2008 Cubs
• Star Wars generally, and R2-D2 specifically
• Chinese food, wine, Chicago hot dogs, chocolate, Pizza Express breadsticks, coffee, spicy things
• iPod and Wii, two combinations of hardware and software that still make me giggle
• Tricia
• Our health, our planet, the nice things that ordinary people do, and the great things that extraordinary people do

And everything else on our turkey…

Before (Unfortunately, we don’t have an “After” shot, but I think we were in pretty good shape.)

Inspecting a tree

With their trekking poles

Into the cave

Out of the cave

Explorer (Thanks to Andy for the great picture! He actually knows how to use a camera.)

Waiting for the breakfast campfire

Visiting a playground

Hanging out in the log cabin

I’ve also added these pictures to a set on Flickr.

• Create a fresh new look
• Implement the site with valid XHTML and CSS
• Convert some of the repetitive, static elements of the site to PHP
• Redesign all MovableType templates to match the site's look
• Clean up the content, mostly removing "dead" files
• Update the tools I used to manage and edit the site

Now, I just need to figure out what to blog about.

PS - Someday I will return to maintaining mooville.com. You can see the new look I'm going for at http://beta.mooville.com/.

I got to Level 11 with a final score of 452,479. I missed being able to advance to level 12 by 16,000. Anybody do better?

Dear Mr. Architect:

Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion.
My house should have between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdowns for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one at a later time.

Keep in mind that the house I ultimately choose must cost less than the one I am currently living in. Make sure, however, that you correct all the deficiencies that exist in my current house (the floor of my kitchen vibrates when I walk across it, and the walls don't have nearly enough insulation in them). As you design, also keep in mind that I want to keep yearly maintenance costs as low as possible. This should mean the incorporation of extra-cost features like aluminum, vinyl, or composite siding. (If you choose not to specify aluminum, be prepared to explain your decision in detail.)

Please take care that modern design practices and the latest materials are used in construction of the house, as I want it to be a showplace for the most up-to-date ideas and methods. Be alerted, however, that kitchen should be designed to accommodate (among other things) my 1952 Gibson refrigerator. To assure that you are building the correct house for our entire family, you will need to contact each of my children, and also our in-laws. My mother-in-law will have very strong feelings about how the house should be designed, since she visits us at least once a year.

Make sure that you weigh all of these options carefully and come to the right decision. I, however, retain the right to overrule any decisions that you make. Please don't bother me with small details right now. Your job is to develop the overall plans for the house and get the big picture. At this time, for example, it is not appropriate to be choosing the color of the carpeting. However, keep in mind that my wife likes blue.

Also, do not worry at this time about acquiring the resources to build the house itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the house to be under roof within 48 hours.

While you are designing this house specifically for me, keep in mind that sooner or later I will have to sell it to someone else. It therefore should have appeal to a wide variety of potential buyers. Please make sure before you finalize the plans that there is a consensus of the potential homebuyers in my area that they like the features this house has.

I advise you to run up and look at the house my neighbor built last year, as we like it a great deal. It has many things that we feel we also need in our new home, particularly the 75-foot swimming pool. With careful engineering, I believe that you can design this into our new house without impacting the construction cost.

Please prepare a complete set of blueprints. It is not necessary at this time to do the real design, since they will be used only for construction bids. Be advised, however, that you will be held accountable for any increase of construction costs as a result of later design changes.

You must be thrilled to be working on as interesting a project as this! To be able to use the latest techniques and materials and to be given such freedom in your designs is something that can't happen very often. Contact me as soon as possible with your ideas and completed plans.

PS: My wife has just told me that she disagrees with many of the instructions I've given you in this letter. As architect, it is your responsibility to resolve these differences. I have tried in the past and have been unable to accomplish this. If you can't handle this responsibility, I will have to find another architect.

PPS: Perhaps what I need is not a house at all, but a travel trailer. Please advise me as soon as possible if this is the case.

Three Generations, originally uploaded by rdeetz.

Despite a miserable performance from the Cubs, it was a blast going to Wrigley Field for my first playoff game ever. Better still, I got to with my dad, grandpa, and uncle (who took the picture).

None of the generations pictured here have seen a Cubs world championship, and only one has seen the Cubs win the pennant. Let's try to fix that next year, okay?

Mmm... touchy, originally uploaded by rdeetz.

Nadine rolled out a wonderful birthday celebration for me. I didn't get the Cubs win I was hoping for, but they can make it up to me by winning the next three.

Also, check out the sexy that was my present! I haven't actually listend to any music yet, because I have been too busy running my fingers over the screen.

We've had five wonderful years of marriage, despite:

• Spending a cold (like 14 degrees) December night together on the shoulder of I-80/90 in a broken Volkswagen


• Wandering around Bangkok's claustrophobic Chinatown on a massively hot and humid day, looking for a restaurant that didn't exist


• The time I got up in the middle of the night for a drink and inexplicably poured the glass of water onto the bed between us


• Thursday, July 26 2007


• My idea of interior decoration

I love you, baby!

I fondly remember getting my copy at midnight, and rushing back to my dorm room to install--via a huge stack of 3.5" floppy disks--the new OS onto my Toshiba laptop. (The monitor on that puppy could display 256 shades of gray. How hot is that?)

Though Windows 95 was far from a perfect product (especially by modern standards), it was a really big deal then, probably more for its marketing blitz than its technical prowess. For me, it was a product that made me feel cool (relatively): it was the latest thing, it looked cooler than anything at the time (Macs included, though some may disagree), and it inspired me to learn everything about it (how to use it, how to configure it, how to program it, etc.) That's the kind of emotional response all products (should) strive for; it's what would make the iPod a universal sensation 6 years later. I even bought a Windows 95 t-shirt, for goodness sake, before a nearly endless stream of free software-related t-shirts would become a perk of my career.

I poured over the Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design, I bought student copies of Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 and Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0, I read and re-read Programming Windows 95 for Dummies, and spent countless overnight hours on the "world wide web" and converting old Visual Basic 3.0 programs to 32-bit versions (and of course naming every executable <whatever>32.exe as was the fashion at the time).

It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops. There were some things you could do in File Manager (in Windows 3.1) that you couldn't do with the new Windows Explorer. (I don't remember them now, but I remember occasionally replacing the Windows 95 shell with the old Progam Manager shell do I could do things "the old way.") And you still had to boot into MS-DOS for a thing or two. And the multitasking was better, but let's not kid ourselves.

I am always excited at the release of a new platform, but none since have matched the breathlessness of those early days with Windows 95. And there may never be again, but that's okay, we'll always have The Microsoft Sound. (Remember? Waaa-oowww-ooshh-DING-Dingt-din-din-din)

Charmr Project (Adaptive Path Blog)

There is a ton of content in this post, much of which is probably only of interest to design geeks. But, when you see some of the concepts and style they applied to the project, you'll think, "why isn't every piece of life-saving equipment so lovingly designed and ulimately beautiful?"

Anyway, I just didn't want you to think that I planned to keep it this way. :)

Statetris

It's just like Tetris, except you are dropping the US states into their proper position. Fun. (Maybe?)

(via Boing Boing)

Stirring with Sister, originally uploaded by rdeetz.

Lucy has a Galactic Heroes Darth Vader that she plays with in the car. On this morning's drive to daycare, she put Darth Vader "night-night" with a variation on the song we used to put her to bed:

Goood-night, Darf Vader,
Goood-night, Darf Vader,
Goood-night, Darf Vader,
Ah'll see you in da mooor-neeng

If Anakin would have gotten more love like that, the whole thing might have turned out differently.

Also: Don't miss all the wonderful pictures over at Brainy Girl.

Umbrella Fun, originally uploaded by rdeetz.

On the drive this morning, Lainey was doing a little squawking. I don't think she was upset, just providing emphatic baby-speak.

Anyway, Lucy apparently interpreted this as unhappiness, because she said to Lainey:

"No, Lainey. Be happy today. Please."

Can't argue with that. Though it's probably easier said than done.