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If you haven’t heard the news already, either a) you live under a rock b) you are not my Facebook friend or c) you have nothing better to do and are reading this antiquated blog. Allison and I got engaged a couple weeks ago.

After much planning and trying to throw her off, I went ahead and bought a ring and surprised her down in New Orleans. It was as a wonderful, warm evening, and we were waiting around in Jackson Square before dinner. as a wedding was letting out of St. Louis Cathedral, I reached in my pocket and put the ring on her finger. surprised only begins to describe her reaction. She then pointed out i had not actually asked her, but only put the ring on her finger- minor details.

At any rate, both families are thrilled, as are we, and have a date set in November. none of these long drawn out things. All the details seem to be falling in place with great ease. we’re planning a classy, small, intimate ceremony.

You can check out the photos in my gallery from the weekend…

For several years now I have been experiencing hip pain on my right side. Most of the time the pain was a dull pain that could be eased with advil and rest. However, any time I had to do any significant walking, I would develop a sharp, shooting pain in my right hip. I always dismissed it, took advil and assumed I was out of shape or pulled a muscle. I recall walking the strip in Las Vegas being very uncomfortable, and one vacation at Disney World also. I remember laying flat on the bed in the hotel room thinking I was really old. Navigating the French Quarter in New Orleans was getting rough, too. Eventually cutting the grass became uncomfortable; the back yard had a slight grade to it, and the mower did not propel itself very well. I then opted to get the riding mower to help. Most recently, back in November I went to San Francisco for a week. This was the last straw for me. After an afternoon of walking, I found myself down at Pier 39 in borderline agony with a sharp shooting pain in my hip. There was no way I would have been able to walk back to the hotel, almost 5 miles away. So I stood there on one foot and waited for a cable car to ride back. Once again, I found myself stretched out on the hotel bed with lots of advil. I realized at that point, the pain was starting to affect my quality of life, and I had been avoiding travel and walking long distances to avoid pain. Even walking around Ikea and the mall isn’t fun.

I decided to go to my doctor about it, and he ordered some x-rays, which came back fine. Since I have had the pain for 4+ years, and it was getting increasingly worse, he referred me to Beacon Orthopaedics, where they first ordered a Hip Arthrogram MRI. In layman’s terms, they stick a port into your hip joint and inject a dye. Not too bad, but a little uncomfortable. Unfortunately when I got in the MRI, they couldn’t see anything, so I had to go back and get 3 more injections (ouch). I walked a little funny for a day or so.

Yesterday, I went back for the follow up, and learned I have a tear in my labrum, most likely caused by a structural abnormality in my hip ball, but possibly by injury at some point. People who play racquet sports, golf or any other that involve pivoting are prone to this. The arrow to the left is pointing to a tear.

So, in the short term, I will be getting cortisone injections into my hip joint, and 4-6 weeks of physical therapy. Apparently the therapy will help maximize hip range of motion, strength, and stability. If that doesn’t work, arthroscopic surgury may be needed, which I’m trying to avoid. It would involve trimming or possibly mending the torn labrum and shaving off the abnormality in my hip ball. That would be a 6-12 week recovery and 4 weeks on crutches. Lets hope therapy works .

Other than that, not much else new… working, playing in the garden, and livin’ life.

Last Sunday morning, while still in bed, I got a call from the boss asking me to go to the Dreamforce 2009 conference in San Francisco… on Monday. Still a little sleepy, I thought about it for a minute, and jumped on the opportunity. I quickly booked my flight got my laundry together, shirts ironed, and before I knew it I was on the west coast! I had a great week at the conference, and of course, out on the town.

I got into San Francisco Monday morning about 10:30 am, and checked into the InterContinential San Francisco. What a fabulous hotel. It was in a great location, with a great view and very modern in decor. Each room had a 40 inch flat screen on the wall, and a gorgeous tiled bathroom.

After checking into the hotel, I headed up to Chinatown and found a hole-in-the wall place where the locals eat. The food was pretty good. After that I went in and out the various shops, and markets, which I found particularly interesting. I truly felt like I was in a different country with the food out on the streets, fresh seafood, and foods I had never seen before.

After Chinatown, I hiked and hiked up to Coit Tower. The view was spectacular. You could see the entire city, the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz. I then proceeded down to Pier 39 and saw the shops, and of course, the stinky, noisy sea lions. I then walked the rest of Fisherman’s Wharf, got some good shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, and took in the scenery. I then headed to Ghiradelli Square and visited the original Ghiradelli shop, and of course, bought some chocolates there.

By this time it was getting late and caught the cable car back over to the Market Street area where I was staying. This area was really cool- it includes a lot of shopping and Union Square. They were putting all the Christmas decorations up while I was there, and by the end of the trip had a lit Christmas tree with ice skating. I then had dinner at an old drive-in type restaurant called Mel’s. I ended up having several meals there; it was reasonably priced and good.

Tuesday the conference began with special meetings for Higher Education institutions at the Salesforce.com headquarters. It was very interesting to hear what other schools are doing with cloud computing, specifically the cost savings and functionality available. One thing thing in particular that struck me was how confident, excited and dedicated salesforce.com employees are. They seemed to genuinely love their product, and more importantly the good their foundation does and what they offer to higher education and non-profit organizations. That evening, I met up with my good friend Andy (friend from high school for those of you who don’t know) and went to dinner at the Cheesecake factory on the 8th floor of the Macy’s building overlooking Union Square. It was good to catch up with him on such short notice. He is living out there doing his residency at the UCSF Medical Center. Incidentally, salesforce.com donated $2 million during one of the sessions to the new Children’s Hospital they are building.

Wednesday consisted of break-out sessions, networking and information gathering. There was so much information at this conference I felt like I was drinking out of a fire hose. That morning was one of two keynote addresses from the CEO of salesforce.com. This session included many notable CEO’s including, Google’s, Eric Schmidt. Later that evening was the Gala, which was a lot of fun. The drinks and food were plentiful, as was the music. They turned the conference hall into essentially a huge club scene. There 4 huge screens from floor to ceiling playing mixed videos before the entertainment of the evening, The Black Crowes!

Thursday was pretty much a copy of Wednesday, with the exception of getting to hear Colin Powell speak. I was glad I was able to hear him; he is an exceptional person and public speaker. That evening there was a reception for non-profit and higher education institutions over at the Ferry Building. Later, Andy picked me up, and had a spectacular dinner at an Italian restaurant called North Beach Restaurant. We then drove down Lombard St. and headed back towards the hotel, the sessions on Friday morning started at 7:30 am.

Friday morning proved to be useful; I got to attend some hands-on training and get a better grasp on the force platform. Once again, there is so much to learn, and so many opportunities, it was quite overwhelming at times. From the networking with other schools such, I determined the best way to integrate cloud computing into Miami’s environment is to start small, perhaps with one office or one application, and learn from that experience and add and move to the cloud as time permits and necessary. The conference ended at 12:45, so once again I pretty much covered the same ground as I did Monday, with the exception of heading over to Lombard street and watching the cars during daylight, and hiking up to a park to get some good views of the Golden Gate Bridge. I then headed back to Mel’s for one farewell dinner and prepared for my flight home Saturday morning.

I can honestly say San Francisco is one of the coolest cities I have ever visited. It has such a young, vibrant, positive, upbeat feel to it. I definitely could see myself living there sometime. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to make it back next year for the Banner conference, or just to visit Andy.

Anyways, its getting late, my internal clock is all screwed up, and am off to work bright and early tomorrow. Check out the photos here!

Hi there. I’m still here, just have not gotten around to posting anything lately. Work has been going well, yet busier than ever. As with any organization or household, we are being forced to do more with less. I’m in the midst of upgrading our timekeeping system, Kronos, and implementing a few other systems as well. I find myself doing more client/desktop support than before, so keeping projects on track is more difficult than ever.

Our garden in Oxford is bigger and better than ever. This year we have Zucchini, Peppers, Tomatoes, Carrots, Lettuce, and some Pumpkins. I’m attempting to grow the largest pumpkin in Butler County. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve taken up fishing this summer. I picked up a decent rod at walmart and found it to be quite therapeutic. Still learning the ins and outs of bait and tackle.

I’m getting ready to replace the brakes and rotors on my car; they are due for replacement and I figure it will be fun to do on my own. I have my brother’s floor jack and stands, so access to the brakes should be easy.

No vacation plans yet for the summer, but I’m sure I’ll end up in New Orleans and Florida at least once, and maybe somewhere else. I’m thinking a short Caribbean cruise sounds nice. Last minute fares are insanely cheap right now, and would be crazy not to take advantage of them. Ideally I could find a cruise out of New Orleans and hang out there before and after. We’ll see how that works out.

Well, I’m beat. That’s all for tonight. Looking forward to the Fourth of July this week, my favorite holiday. Plan to blow some stuff up and watch the Patriot. Starting the week off by watching the History of our Founding Fathers on the History Channel .

Last Saturday Josh and I caught a flight down to New Orleans to vacation and visit my brother. Our flight got into New Orleans around 10am, so we had almost a full day to enjoy. We started off by grabbing a bite to eat at La Madeline French Cafe.

After lunch, we headed down to Jean Lafitte, LA to the Jean Lafitte Airboat Tours. These boats were a lot of fun, but we didn’t get to go as fast as I hoped. They mount Chevy 454 engines on the back of the boats and put a propeller on them, with essentially no muffler. These things were loud. We got to see remote swamp areas, and saw a few small alligators and one large 9 foot one, approximately 35 years old. I was able to hold one of the small alligators!

Later that night we went to dinner in the Garden District at a place called Cannon’s. We then caught a trolley down to the French Quarter and took in the scenery. We ended up at Pat O’Brien’s and tried one of their famous Hurricanes. By that point we were pretty worn out, and headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately, all 3 of us got sick during the night. We think it was the spinach and artichoke dip we shared. Luckily our symptoms were gone in the morning.

On Sunday we went to Petunia’s for breakfast, a restraunt featuered on “Weekend Getaways” with Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel. While famous for their crepes, i enjoyed my favorite breakfast dish, eggs benedict. The restaurant was small, and very pink inside. It was quintessential New Orleans dining. After that we walked around the different shops and antique stores. We then headed back to Greg’s apartment for a power nap before dinner.

Dinner was at Muriel’s on Jackson Square, followed by jazz at Preservation Hall. Everyone enjoyed their dinner, but didn’t hear much from Josh about his alligator appetizer. We then walked up a block to visit my brother’s friend who lives in the quarter. We were able to get up on a private balcony and do some people watching- was very cool. As we looked up St Peter street, we saw the line for Preservation hall was growing, so we decided to get in line.

While in line we made friends with a mother and daughter visiting for the weekend. We exchanged information and now I have two new preservation hall facebook friends . People are always in a good mood and happy in New Orleans; I love meeting and talking to people there. Aside from the socializing, the music was spectacular. We sat in the front row, and were able to stay for 2 sets.

On Monday, Greg had class so Josh and I hopped on a trolley and had breakfast at a place called the trolley stop. We then got back on the trolley and walked around the Audubon park. Josh decided to climb one of the huge live oak trees in the park. We then had to get to the airport for our flight home. The weekend went too fast, and I’m ready to go back again! Check out photos from the weekend here!