This year the season is hitting us particularly hard with pollen counts that are killing me. I am even giving up having more than a single beer—gasp—in an effort to keep myself from becoming a slobbery mess.

The problem is that I have absolutely no desire to stop getting outside and enjoying the weather despite the dusty yellow film that seems to coat everything—the car, the sidewalks, the dog (as if she wasn’t allergenic enough).

So in honor of spring, and Earth Day, I’d like to list a few recent outdoor conquests:

• Biked the kids to school… check
• Biked to work… lovin’ the Xtracycle still
• Walked into town for a nice lunch with the wife… check (excellent recuperation for her recent concussion)
• Walked the dog… not as often as I should
• Built garden beds… all done but the final layer of dirt and planting, which is planned for this weekend
• Helped out at a baseball practice… check
• Took my daughter on her first “park ride”… check

In honor of that last accomplishment, here are a couple of photos.

I want an iPhone just so that I can play with this. Nice.

Food worth writing about would come later when we finally arrived at my parents’ house in Smyrna, just outside of Nashville. Mom is a great cook and had a full meal of German noodles with pesto (fusion cooking at its best), oven-roasted vegetables, fried okra (damn, I love that stuff), and baked chicken. It is great to see my family after such a long time. We only get together a couple times a year at most. This is the first time in nearly four years that I have traveled here.

Day two, we rolled into in Jackson, Tennessee—the place of my birth. We are staying at a Holiday Inn where my dad’s side of the family has joined us.

Holiday Inns in the South don’t have the same amenities I have come to expect. Where the heck is the WiFi? And Diana and I are suffering through the lack of good coffee. We are kicking ourselves for not packing some Stumptown Hairbender.

Last night’s dinner was at a Ryan’s in Jackson. Nothing like a buffet restaurant to remind you of the weight problem that plagues the United States in general and the South in particular. All-you-can-eat is not a good idea people! I was also a little disturbed by the dental health of our waitresses—almost comically crooked and gold teeth abound. Really, it was weird. I’m not being mean; I was just freaked out by it.

Day three, we are going to my great-aunts 90th birthday party. This will give us a little more time with my aunts, uncles and cousins. It has been a little confusing and overwhelming for the kids. There are a lot of faces that they’ve never seen before. Not too mention the fact that some of my relatives talk a little “differently” than what my kids are accustomed to hearing.

Below is an example. Please note, this is not an actual relative. This guy works in the warehouse at the company where my dad works. I’m sure I have an uncle that has attempted something similar at sometime—it just hasn’t made it to YouTube yet. Enjoy!

YouTube – Grasshopper vs Redneck

It has been a crazy first month at a company that is in the midst of some interesting changes and rapid growth. I’m really looking forward to the ride, though I can’t say I felt that way two weeks ago.

For those of you in the midst of change, give it a few weeks. It is amazing what you will learn if you allow yourself to go through at least one month worth of change with a group of people. I am really impressed with the team I am going to be working with. I can’t wait to see what we create.

Now who’s going to import it? Clever Cylces? This seems right up their alley.

Flock bills itself as the browser for people who like to be connected. Really, I just wanted a browser that I could run the Web Developer Toolbar in now that Firefox Beta 3 has disabled that valuable add-on.

First there was the startled cry from Diana to inform me that the wall in our daughters bedroom was leaking. We had some pretty hard rains over the last few days leading up to the weekend. Saturday was the culmination of that storm, but the weakening of the wall started a long time ago.

The previous owners thought it would be nice to replace the aluminum windows in the back of the house with vinyl. A wise decision, but their method left me with a mess. They never removed the old aluminum frames. The just took out the glass, cut a couple of pieces of the frame off, and installed the vinyl up against the aluminum. The vinyl window frame was actually sitting against plaster on the top and sides. Plaster is not a material that can be sealed so there was some mold growth in those areas.

I am sure this installation method saved the previous owners money.

The result of this shoddy installation was a small lip where water could collect between the aluminum and vinyl frames. Water has some amazing physical properties—it will find weakness and penetrate it.

Over time water was slowly seeping into the cracks between the two frames and down into the outer wall. It was also finding its way into the inner wall through lathe and plaster about two inches to the right and four inches down from the right corner of the window. The result was a patch of mushy plaster that we had noticed last winter—though at the time we thought it was being caused from condensation and a small leak that some silicon in the spring was to have fixed.

So what’s the damage? Well, I managed to put up a tarp to stop the rain from continuing to soak the frame around the window. I then proceeded to remove the window and inspect the damage. The studs and bottom frame are in surprisingly good shape. The plywood exterior behind my aluminum siding is not. It was completely rotted out in a two foot patch. I only know this because I removed enough of the drywall to inspect from the inside. (Yes, I can see the back of my siding from inside my house right now.) I was able to remove enough plaster to rebuild the frame with some filler 3/4″ stock and reinstall the window.So I don’t have a whole in my house–for now. The next step is going to involve removing the siding from the back corner of the house and replacing the plywood exterior and rewrapping it in Tyvek.

So do you think this was all I did this weekend? Nope, it is not even close. We also fit in pumpkin carving, buying my wife a new phone (the Samsung Juke, more to follow on that), getting some desperately needed new shoes (Keens of course), a frantic call from a client (freelance gig) to set me off onto a search for why my host decided to change DNS for a mirror domain, and my first ever complete installation of Drupal.

Yeah, what did you do this weekend?

Note to anyone concerned for my health: I weigh considerably less than when I was a offensive lineman on my high school football team when I weighed in excess of 260 pounds. My svelter self is in large part due to cycling and the calories I burn commuting to work and riding on the weekends. With my 6′ 3″ frame, I doubt I could ever weigh less than 200 pounds. That said, I could stand to lose about 10 pounds right now as my commute-by-bike options have been hampered by the kids’ new school schedule.

A couple clydesdale races might be just the ticket for burning off some calories and raising the endorphine levels a bit.

These are all vegetarian, wheat free, dairy free, soy free (all oil will specifically be canola to avoid soy), free of artificial flavors, synthetic colors, BHA, BHT, TBHQ, and as far as I can tell, free of citric acid (I’m not sure what all is in this category–citrus fruits, berries, pineapple, tamarind, cherries, tomatoes, cayenne, artichokes, lettuce, cheese (ruled out by dairy anyway), and sourdough).

So what CAN they eat? I was surprised to see a list of five options:

• Frozen grapes & pistachios
• Banana bread with peanut butter
• Pumpkin muffins with almond butter
• Greek lentil soup with cornbread muffins made with rice milk
• Steel cut oats with vanilla, maple syrup and toasted pecan

…so apparently we don’t have any nut allergies. Does anyone else find this list of allergies peculiar?

Someday I really will post pictures of our biking arrangement.