Happy Anniversary, Lady!

Kevin Lawver making a heart with his hands in a very cheesy self-portrait photo.

Jen already posted her list, but since I’m in California, I’m not late with mine. I honestly can’t believe it’s been ten years. It certainly doesn’t feel like it. She said all the important stuff – that it’s been way easier than we thought it would be, and while we’ve had “issues” over the years, we’ve figured them all out together and come out the other side stronger and happier for it. Jen puts up with a lot. I travel too much, work long hours, am distracted when I’m at home sometimes (part of my New Year’s resolution, and I’m getting better, but it’s still hard to switch gears) and other stuff that’s not as important, but probably just as annoying.\
Jen already gave a partial list of stuff that sticks out to me, but I was thinking about it last night, and here are some other things that have made the last ten years fly by:

  • Jen’s verbal dyslexia. I wrote a blog entry about it a long time ago (thanks for finding it, Dave!), but she sometimes mixes up the first syllable of two words (like “toin coss” instead of “coin toss”), and then gets this look on her face like she knows she just said something funny but can’t figure out what. My all-time favorite is “Moodist Bunks”.
  • It’s that we’re pretty much always making things fun, no matter how stupid, icky or menial they are.
  • She makes me want to be a better man.
  • She’s understanding and never makes me feel bad about things I can’t control.\
    Like I said five years ago, I’d do it all again in an instant. The sun definitely still shines out your ass, sweetie, and you’re gorgeous (if you haven’t seen Juno, you really should). Actually, since both of our asses have “settled” a little over the years, it shines even brighter.\
    I love you.

10 Years, Baby!

Today is Kevin and my 10 year anniversary. Woot. I’m not surprised that we are this happy but I am surprised how easy marriage has been. The media gives marriage a bad name, I think.\
Sunshine still flies out of our asses even though we’ve gained weight, have hair growing out of new places, and started snoring. Of the past ten years, I remember: trying to fool around in our hotel room the night before Kevin’s brother’s wedding and being interrupted every ten minutes by various family members; getting in over my head while painting the guest room and sheepishly asking him to finish the room; and being grateful that he doesn’t fuss when the house is a mess and dinner hasn’t been made. Kevin remembers our cross-country move a year after we were married; and learning about our first child by walking in the front door and immediately being greeted by me asking, “Do you want to take your pregnant wife out to dinner?” We’ve also had fun vacations and holidays and big moments like the birth of our children, broken legs, world travel, postpartum depression, and huge promotions. Mostly, though, it is the small things that stand out. It’s been a great and fun ten years. We think the next ten years will be even better. Hurray!\
Kevin is out of town today, which is totally ok with me. In fact, it was my idea so that he could come home for a few days and rest up before going on another trip. That’s more important in the long run and that’s how awesome I am. 🙂 We celebrated our anniversary early and it was fab. To be honest, I am more sad that Kevin will be missing the Super Bowl than our anniversary or Valentine’s Day. Those last two occasions can be “moved” to other days, but I don’t think the Super Bowl can be postponed just for us. Too bad.

Me me me me me!!

Kevin is gone for almost a month and my friends think I should use this extra alone time to explore new hobbies. Doesn’t that sound awesome? Now that Brian is becoming more independent during playtime and is in school I actually have time for a new hobby or two. Except, I don’t have a clue what hobbies I want to explore. Anyone have ideas for me?

Brian, Snow Explorer

I Found You, Mommy

Jen took a bunch of pictures of the boys on Thursday playing in the snow. Enjoy!

I Got Interviewed!

Frank Gruber interviewed me about Adapting to Web Standards the other day, and has posted it to his blog. Go check it out. I almost sound like I know what I’m talking about!\
And if you don’t want to go all the way over there, you can watch it right here!

Upgraded

I finally got around to upgrading everything to Movable Type 4.0 (a, the security edition).\
It’s late, and I don’t feel well, so if things are broken, I’ll get to them later. Really.

He’p Me! He’p Me!

Kevin is torturing me by watching Jackass 2, though he did actually ask if I minded. Why did I say no?? OMG, the movie is sooo stupid. The worst part? I can’t stop laughing.

Taking Surveys

I know you all use the internet at least a little (because you’re here). I’m working on something new and threw together this little survey to see what folks use most often on the web. It won’t take you too long (only six questions), and would help me out a lot. So, if you’ve got five minutes to spare, please go take my survey.\
There’s no agenda here, I just want to validate (or disprove, either way) some of my assumptions about what people use most often. There are no wrong answers.\
The survey closes Friday night, and really, it only takes a couple minutes.

Are you there Mom? It’s me, Jen.

I need my mom to come mother my youngest because he’s doing things that are annoying (like asking for a specific food to eat and then changing his mind after he gets it) and things that are sad (like crying about going to school). Eeep.

Reducing the Guilt Bucket

After I posted my New Year’s Resolutions, I started thinking about taking control of my time, and what I was really trying to do, and it’s come down to a single goal: reducing my guilt. I have goals and ambitions, things I want to accomplish, help with, and see get done. These things keep getting put in a bucket, and it’s now full to overflowing. It’s a massive burden of guilt (self-inflicted, of course) that’s not helping me get my time under control, or more importantly, my health.\
So I’m doing something about it… Instead of fooling myself into thinking that I’ll have some great meadow of free time open up, I’m admitting defeat and removing goals. It’s not easy. Here’s what I’m doing about it:

  • I sent my farewell post to the CSS Working Group listserv this morning. I’ve been a member of the CSS Working Group for about four years, and in that time, I’ve never really been able to dedicate the time I want to it, and don’t see how I ever will. It hurts to leave. CSS is vitally important to the future of the web, and I want to be a part of it, but I’ll have to do it outside of the working group.
  • As soon as I find a replacement for me, I’ll be leaving the HTML Working Group as well. I’m just a placeholder anyway since Arun left, but again, it’s important and I want to be a part of it, but I just don’t have time.
  • And one more decision I’m not ready to announce yet that’s more painful than the other two combined. I still need to talk to some people before I can blog about it. But, just to set expectations: I’m not leaving AOL, and it has nothing to do with my family.\
    I’m also making great progress on the feeds and twitter front too. I’m down to 194 folks I’m following, and only have twenty-seven feeds to dump in the next week to get to 500 feeds.\
    Update: I heard from a couple worried friends who said this sounds “ominous”. That’s not my intention. I’m happy to finally be making hard decisions and to stop worrying about things I don’t have time to worry about anyway. This is all good stuff. I’m sad about leaving the CSS Working Group, but I honestly haven’t really been a true part of it for a while. It’s about accepting things I have no control over and prioritizing my health and family over work and everything else.