My daughter and two of her cousins helping watch after a friend’s child.

My son showing the next door neighbor’s boy how to correctly fly a paper airplane.

I took photos of a child baptism for some friends.

I shot some photos at a friend’s outdoor wedding.

The kids (and a friend’s daughter) take our halloweeners on a trick or treating extravaganza!

So there you have it, proof that the weasels did do something even if we didn’t report on it.

Pictured: Troy Augustine, iNET’s President and CEO, George Roberts, the CEO of Interjucture, and Frank Spaulding, Interjucture’s COO.

iNet Interactive is the owner of Web Hosting Talk, the largest online gathering of hosting services professionals, making the acquisition of HostingCon a natural addition.  I had the opportunity to meet iNet’s President Troy Augustine as well as a number of his iNET team and was impressed by the entire group.  I expect HostingCon to thrive under iNET Interactive’s leadership a sentiment shared by Interjuncture’s CEO George Roberts.

“Although Frank (Frank Spaulding, Interjucture’s COO) and I will remain involved as advisors, we are very excited to hand over the reins to iNET Interactive”, George Roberts stated. “We have complete confidence that iNET Interactive will continue to grow and develop HostingCon with the same passion and commitment that Frank and I have applied.”

Finally, just to give you an idea what an amazing stage the contract signing had here is a picture I snapped moments before the proceedings.

Pictured: Chicago skyline from the rooftop of Navy Pier.

I love going to new technology/internet conferences and seeing what type of attendee they attract.  Not surprisingly HostingCon brings together a wide varielty of people involved in the hosting industry, people selling dedicated and shared hosting, reselling hosting, server manufacturers, spam control companies, etc…

I really was surprised how very “focused” many people at the conference were on just their business niche.  A great percentage of the attendees I spoke to didn’t seem familiar with resources that I take for granted such as WebmasterWorld Forums, WebmasterRadio, PubCon and SMX conferences.  I saw the same thing when I attended TRAFFIC in Las Vegas last year where it seemed evident that quite a number of the domainers present thought only of type in traffic to one page domains with advertistements rather than the potential of a developed website optimized for search engines.

Still, in talking with people on the expo hall floor I was impressed with both the business and technical savvy of the average attendee.  I walked away with a greater understanding of current trends in the hosting industry, reminded of how many subsections of the Internet business world there is and how important it is to keep up to date in all areas that impact an internet marketer and/or website developer. 

Unfortunately, the next two years we got busy playing soccer in the Spring (local recreational co-ed league) and didn’t start training in time to do the ride.  We played soccer this year too but we were committed to riding as we had agreed to meet our friend John Marshall and his wife and do some of the ride with them.

We planned on beginning to train about 8 weeks out from STP but our soccer season ran a little longer this year (We won the championship!) and then my wife’s mother became very ill and sadly passed away.  Combine those things with a vacation to the Oregon Coast that had been planned months in advance and I realized we were in big touble when it was July 1 with no training started.

Amanda wisely bowed out saying she was too emotionally and physically drained to train hard at that time and she would drive our “support car”.  Luckily I was able to talk her boss into doing the ride with me so I’d have someone with experience to help me train and to advise me on the actual event.  We started doing roughly 15 miles a day for the first week and then did 40 mile and 35 mile rides on the weekend.  The next week we did 15-18 miles each morning except for Friday which we cut down to about 10.  (Just getting our butts in the saddle and burning off the lactic acids).

It was just 12 days from not being on the bike at all to heading to STP, I admit it I was a bit nervous.  I knew I was stretching things to finish the entire ride so the minimum goal was 100 miles.  I’d never ridden more than 42 miles at a time so that seemed a reasonable goal.  I secretly hoped to get a full 100 miles in on day one and do another 30-50 miles the next day but it would depend on how I felt.

We decided to join the race “in progress” rather than going to the official start as this would save us time and we would ride an equal number of miles anyway.  The big bonus was that our drivers would get to sleep in rather than getting up and driving us to the launch point.  Unfortunately we woke up a bit late and didn’t get on the bikes until 7am but at least it was already warm by that time.

Here is a rough sketch of how things went:

Day 1

• The first 20+ miles of the ride was a hoot!  Riding by Lake Washington and watching the locals and other riders was a lot of fun.  Plus, the ride around the lake is just beautiful – I’d love to be able to ride that stretch of road everyday.
• At about 30 miles It wasn’t as much fun as the first part had been - but I was still enjoying myself.
• At 50 miles I was getting tired and hungry – we made a food and bathroom stop and got back on the bikes.
• Between 50 to 70 miles the ride started to become work.  A big part of that was the heat and sun (I heard it got to 85-90 F but don’t know sure) and to make matters worse we had forgotten sunscreen!
• At mile 86 we stopped at a water station and finally had the bright idea to ask the first aid tent if they had sunscreen, they did!  It seem likely the damage was already done but I suppose it kept our sunburns from getting too much worse.  We were also having a rough time with sore feet and butts by then which meant a few minutes off of the bikes was a welcome thing.  (Think about it, you have most of your body weight on just a few small places (pedals and seat) so eventually they will hurt.)
• By the time I got to the century mark at about 2:45 pm I thought I might die.  I hadn’t kept enough food in me over the past 50 miles, I was sunburned and I was feeling the effects of being dehydrated.  (The interesting thing is you don’t realize how weak you are becoming while you are on the bike but when you try to get off the bike and walk it becomes very clear, very quick.)  I downed a bunch of water, drank some gatorade and slammed a GU pack (Think of drinking really thick syrup) before getting back on the bike.  This time the wife joined us as we had a spare bike and another person who could drive allowing her to do a few miles with us.

• We did another 20-25 miles and I felt much better during that time period than I had during the 15 miles prior to the century mark.  The only real painful part was a serious hill (to me) that we hit at about mile 113.  I’m guessing it was 5-6% grade and 3/4 of a mile long.  At that point in the day it felt like a category 1 hill from the Pyranese ala the Tour de France.  In truth the Tour riders wouldn’t even slow down for a small hill like that but I’m trying not to think about that.
• Somewhere after 120 miles we decided to call it a day and drove down to Portland to spend the night since there weren’t any hotel rooms available nearby.

Back in Porland I was feeling very sunburned and dehydrated, in other words my evening wasn’t much fun.  After I downed a lot of water we went to a steak house for dinner and I slowly began to feel better.  By the time we got done eating and talking it was about 10 pm and I was ready to head for bed.  We went back to the hotel and crashed about 11:00 or so.  I fell asleep wondering if I’d feel up to riding at all the next day.

Day 2

• We slept so hard that night that we didn’t wake up until 9:30 am – aparently having a wake up call would have been a good idea.  The good news was we felt good – yes, even me.   I was nervous about how my butt and feet would feel on the bike but I was sure I could do another 20-30 anyway.  The bad news was we had a mixup with our support driver who had gone to visit a friend the night before.  (We needed someone else to drive as Amanda was hoping to ride into Portland with us.)  Long story short by the time we were heading out of town to get back on the route it was 11:30 am and getting hot again.  We ended up stopping about 15-20 miles out and riding into Portland from there.
• Once we got on the bike I was amazed at how good I felt – I was ready to ride another 50-80!  Unfortunately it was already late and we had a 4 hour drive after we finished riding so that wasn’t an option.

• We rode into the Finish area by Lloyd Center with Amanda leading the way followed by Lonnie and then me.  We had a great time relaxing, listening to the musicical group playing and just looking around at the booths.  It’s a bit of a pary that they have set up and everyone was having a good time.

The end result was that we rode 140ish miles which I suppose wasn’t too bad.  I felt good about the 120 in a day and that I didn’t die of heat stroke.  The plan is to start training earlier next year so that we can finish the entire 200 mile ride.

Now that I’m back home I have decided to keep riding (15 miles this morning) since it’s good exercise.  To keep up my motivation I’m going to look around for a Century Ride (100 miles) that is in the Northwest I can fit into my schedule.

Petra was only 60 when she passed away and we feel that life took her much too quickly from us.

I guess I could be accused of being biased but believe me when I say Petra was a remarkable woman.  She had a great regard for the comfort of others and took special joy in making people feel welcome when they were near her.  She could let a family member know when she disagreed with something they had done while making it clear that they were loved no matter what.  Petra even kept close to the family of her first husband after their divorce, continuing relationships that had become important to her three girls and to herself.

Petra left us this week and now we are left to wonder.  Wonder how we will make it through each day without her smile, her hug, and her willingness to listen when we need it?

Goodbye Mom.

There are several shots in the movie of the three riding up an escalator.  That shot was actually taken as they were on the way to the second floor of the North Hall where PubCon was taking place.  Too bad that they cut the shot seconds before you would have seen PubCon signs and attendees.  There is actually a “Production Still” shot where you can see the WebmasterWorld and SearchEngineWorld signs of the PubCon Registration area in a reflection.  I’m posting it here for now and we’ll see if Lexicon gets after me for stealing their photo.

For more information about what Lexicon is you can check out this articl by StreamingMedia.com.

Microsoft is not the first company to try and incentivise search in fact this isn’t even the first time Microsoft has tried as they used prizes from puzzles and games through Live Search Club previously.  However, they are connected to some large retailers, eBay for example, and it will be interesting to see the public’s reaction to the program.

Unortunately, when I wandered by Live Search and tried looking up some computer hardware I found that clicking on the LiveSearch Cashback logo in the top right of the page or clicking on a cashback advertiser took me to the famous, “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” page.  Whether that means they overloaded their server(s) with so many excited visitors or they launched prior to having the system bug free I guess we’ll have to wait to see.

That quote (from the movie True Colors starring John Cusack and James Spader) has always amused me. A friend of mine and I used to quote it to each other when one or the other was frustrated about not having something we felt we “had to have” and it usually brought a grin and bit of a reality check. Yesterday was my birthday and not only did I not get what I deserve I got something I truly don’t deserve – a Canon 40D.

My wife and kids spent way too much money on me and got me this truly beautiful camera. I had been using an old Olympus E-10 as my camera and while it was great in it’s day it is limited by being only a 4 megapixel camera. (When I bought it that seemed quite impressive of course!) The E-10 was a replacement to my first ever SLR camera a Canon EOS 10s which shot regular film. Since I still have both previous cameras I took a shot of them also, I used my wifes point and shoot Canon Digital Elph SD750 for the photos.

I bought the original Canon right after my daughter was born. It was not the latest model then but it was a very solid camera for the money and it served me well. A number of years later I bought the Olympus when friends of mine were getting married and asked me to shoot the wedding for them. They didn’t have the money to hire someone and if I hadn’t done it they would probably have had disposable camera photos and that’s it. The Olympus was not brand new either but it offered a good picture for the price and was really all I could afford at the time. Generally speaking the pictures turned out good and the newlyweds were thrilled with what I was able to give them.

I have a job for this new camera as well. My nephew is getting married this summer and has asked me to take the pictures for him. (Did I mention my brother is a lot older than I am?) I had been planning on getting a new digital slr in the next year anyway but this request gave my wife the excuse to spoil me. (Again – way more than I deserve)

So now I’m off to the store to buy a couple of compact flash cards for the camera. Good thing a couple of my birthday cards had checks in them because I’m sure my checking account is pretty low.

Why didn’t I think of that?  I can get my valentine’s back hair removed for a V-day present!

It’s always a good idea to run your latest marketing idea past a few other people before you run with it.  That’s the message I take from the ad above.  This is an ad that ran in my local paper and in my personal opinion it shouldn’t have.  Granted, everyone wants to take advantage of special occasions to boost their business but really, there are some combinations that should be avoided.  Whatever poor schmuck gives laser hair removal to his significant other as a V-day gift won’t have to worry about what to get her next year.

To the guy who created this idea I have this advice, “Reminding your girlfriend/wife that she has back hair isn’t romantic and it isn’t very smart either.  Next year run this ad as a February special instead.

“I stopped drinking, cause I drink too much.  Plus, I’m 40 and I have gray hair.  You’re 40, you have gray hair, you drink too much…you’re no longer a WILD MAN…you’re a DRUNK!”

“Young people drink cause they think life is AWESOME!  Older people drink cause they know…IT’s NOT!  And because we hate young people!”

I was listening Bob and Tom in the morning a while ago and was amused by Nick Griffin who was a guest.  I checked out his website NickGriffn.net and ran across a video of him where I grabbed the above quotes from.  If you want to hear it from the horses mouth look for the video titled, “Nick Griffin on The Late Show with David Letterman 2007″.