To get back into the swim of things, here is a quick link to an interview I did with Kevin Ost Vollmers for his web site Land Of Gazillion Adoptees.  (and as a follow up here is a post he made that had a few pictures of the kids in it (here).

Sorry this was so brief!  I’ll be back soon with legitimate updates

During this period of time I really have a lot of friends, former co-workers, vendors, contacts, etc to thank.  It was an amazing feeling to have my friends step up and provide references, referrals, suggestions, and most importantly support and kind words.  I really appreciate all of you.  I’ll be writing many linked in recommendations, as well as helping as many people find jobs in the future as I possibly can to repay all of the great karma that was bestowed on me.

I can’t disclose where the job is at this time due to some confidentiality things and major staff changes happening at the new company, but know that I’m excited to return to full time employment and very thankful for the opportunity.

Yay!

Alec got his green ribbon tonight! Very proud of him, it was a lot to memorize!

It started with the rain and the mud.  When we arrived on the shuttle bus we were dropped off into a large mud puddle that covered the entire field.  The pass list wasn’t done so we had to stand in the rain for about 40 minutes while they re-typed it and sorted it out.  After that we got in line to get in the fence, then we got in line to get in the area where the festival was.  <Skipping the other bands and thoughts on the crowd, those are stories in themselves>

Queensryche was scheduled to go on at 6:00, we had some really good spots near the front yet not in the mud pit and were ready to go.  The crew setup the equipment, did the sound check and at 6:05 they announced that the band did not make it to the venue due to an airplane problem.  Apparently they arrived 5 minutes late and LaserFest pulled their equipment and canceled the set.  Bummed we roamed around and decided to leave.

Fortunately via text messages from fozzy and social media postings the band was able to schedule an ad-hoc show at some little Ballroom in Des Moines for 11:00 that night.  Tickets were only $10.00 so basically a great chance to see Queensryche for $10 in a very small and intimate setting.  Plus they were going to do a full set instead of the 35 minutes that Laserfest had allocated previously.

We ate dinner at Fudruckers and headed to the ballroom to hang out with other fans.  They finally took the stage around midnight and played for an hour and a half (had to shut down at 1:30 due to the city ordinances).  It was a little rough being the first show on the tour, but it was really nice to be able to see the band play for such a small crowd (maybe 120 people) in a more relaxed atmosphere than the festival.  We stayed in the front row and hung out after to talk to the band (our passes still worked).  So basically what could have been a 15 minute set played in a mud pit turned into an 1.5 hour set played in a ballroom for a small intimate crowd.  It was an amazing experience.

Setlist:

• Get Started
• Breaking the Silence
• I Don’t Believe in Love
• Dead Man’s Words
• Hit The Black
• Sacred Ground
• Hands
• Real World
• Rhythm of Hope
• Walk In The Shadows
• Jet City Woman
• Empire
• (they Skipped Another Rainy Night and Silent Lucidity due to the curfew)

It was well worth being up for 27 hours and driving to Iowa and back in one day.  Looking forward to 5/28 to seeing them again.

I had written a nice long post about the first month of being unemployed but it turned out to be kind of depressing and angry so I sat on it long enough to decide to not publish it.  So what have I been doing?  Well a lot of stuff, but that’s not what I’m here to write about…

Let’s talk about my return to the gym.  As many of you know my former office had a gym literally 100 feet from my desk, I was in there at least 3-4 times a week, usually every day.  After being laid off, I also took some forced time away form the gym and working out in general.

I found that this time off was horrible for me.  I was used to getting up early and working out to clear my mind and get ready to start my workday.  Not having that I found I had significantly reduced energy and was generally in a grumpy mood.  I even relied on caffeine more than I had in the past and felt I needed that morning mug of tea to get going.

After two weeks of this I started slowly by walking (fast) on the treadmill in the basement.  I could go for about an hour and work up a good sweat but I was doing it in the evenings and it wasn’t really satisfying for me.  I did drop a few pounds, but that was almost all muscle mass.

A few weeks into that I joined Anytime Fitness here in Cottage Grove and I’ve been slowly working my way back into feeling fit.  The place is nice, always has a lot of friendly people including some really huge lifters.  I am also struggling with getting there on a consistent basis because sometimes I just don’t want to drive the 3 miles.  I have lost a lot of strength in my month off from weight training, in fact I would say I can lift about 1/3 less than I could before being laid off. 

Enough rambling, as this whole post was really just my latest form of procrastinating before heading to the gym.

Books finished:

1. A Lion Among Men – the third (or fourth) book in Gregory McGuire’s retelling of the OZ stories.
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – has been on my list for a long time.  Good read, somewhat graphic but good read.  Now I have to watch the movie and see how bad they cut up the story.  Since the movie is in Swedish I guess I get to keep reading this story.
3. Areas of my Expertise – Did the audio book here, it’s great.  I’m halfway through his second one “More Information Than You Require”.

Some of the things I’ve cooked (not really well but cooked none the less)

1. Meatloaf
2. Homemade Pizza
3. Chili
4. Pot Roast
5. Fajitas

Other Random Stuff:

1. Cleaned and re-organized the garage
2. Started writing an online database (random idea I had one day)
3. Feeding birds, yes in a bird feeder.  I have always had one, but never kept it full…
4. Went to Lunch with Alec and his First Grade Class (today actually).  Of course I picked Mac and Cheese day, but they made up for it by having Cookie Day at the same time.
5. Took Sam to the Mall for a half day of fun just the two of us.
6. Re-started this blog

Oh and lots and lots of job searching, putting in applications, interviewing, and networking…

In setting up his blog I was reminded of the many blogs I have started, abandoned, re-started, changed, and un-published.  Including this one I’ve been blogging off and on for about 15 years, but eventually I would change direction with work, family, or both and my writing would take a back seat.  Little known secret is I have still kept a private log every day for over 10 years and archived everything I had done during my online life (roughly since 1992/1993).  Regardless I have decided to start blogging again…

Now the hard part, what to write about… As I was laid off at the end of last month (3/31 to be exact) I started a blog series on my job search, what I was doing, how I was feeling, etc and have saved them all in draft form.  I also started writing about family and kids as well as things about being adopted and being part of the adoptee community.  I have written about technology that interests me, books and movies I like, sports, music, etc… in short I decided that I won’t have a topic and will just write when I feel like it and write what I want to write about at the time. 

This will probably be the longest blog post I ever write unless I start writing obligatory lists of stuff.

Adam

Testing the google maps widget

My work – About 2 years ago when it was under construction