Living in the city took quite an adjustment period. I don't know if I should even say that I'm fully adjusted as I tend to look for opportunities for my children to have many of the same experiences that I had growing up. Case in point...the pumping of water into a basin in Overland Park's Deana Rose Homestead ( http://www.opkansas.org/_Vis/Farmstead/index.cfm ).

I should admit that I didn't *really* have to pump water from a well growing up!

This photograph was taken on a Canon EOs 10D, more stats below.

• Shutter Speed: 1/1000
• Lens Aperture: F/4.5
• Focal Length: 135mm
• ISO Speed : ISO-100

Along the main drag in Estes Park, Colorado is a small stream, the locals call it a river.  It runs behind most of the restaurants and always seems to be the favorite stomping grounds of the kids.  In fact I remember back in 2006 when my 3 year old son decided to get too close the rivers edge.  Fortunately, I was close by and fished him out.  I can't believe how wet I got carrying him the three blocks to the car.  At least I managed to snap a few rounds off and got this one decent pic. 

My Canon 10D is one of my best memory makers.  It's snapped 10's of thousands of photographs and filled more than 1 hard drive up with the glimpses I've captured.  The issue I have is that I haven't always tagged the images with very good meta data.  In fact most of my images have almost no data associated with them, just some random file name that has no meaning.  Here's one of those images that needs some more info.  I took this picture in the park across from the Johnson County Courthouse in Olathe, KS, but I have no idea who the artist/sculptor is and I sure wish I did.  If you know, please, post in the comments.

Now, it's not that I'm against tagging or anything, but I just haven't found a really good methodology to do so on Windows XP for free.  I tried a flavor of Microsoft Expression that did a fabulous job of tagging and made it super easy to keep tagging my photos, but the $200 price tag just doesn't fit my budget.

Chris got me a wonderful gift for our 9th anniversary. My close friends know that I am by nature amused by the toys of my past. My small town lifestyle gave me much more time in my youth to explore toys, especially the yo yo. The big three tricks, Around the World, Walk the Dog and Rock the Baby were in my repitoire in the 80s. With my new Yo Yo I'm able to perform a whole new set of string tricks, like Double or Nothing and the Brain Twister. The new Yo Yo is a 2008 Edition 888 by Yo-Yo Factory, bought from YoYoGuy.com. Here's the link: http://www.yoyoguy.com/PN/YF16/Whats-New:-Yo-Yos/888

Estes Park, Colorado is the official vacation spot of the Reynolds' family.  The last two years we've gone and had a blast.  Something is in store for each of us...Chris is always the cut up.  She used to be a center fielder and her arm can still throw like a cannon.  Here's she throwing like a girl, probably cause she doesn't want to hurt my expensive camera!  Not to worry, I was sitting safely in the van.  I'm looking forward to this years trip, though it might be the last for awhile.

Just like a mortgage, technical debt is paid over time. For example if you didn't write that test up front you can almost bet that the first thing to break will be that uncovered code. And the bill to cover, or fix, that technical debt will come due when you least expect and desire it...like when you have a leaky roof. In fact I was putting together a Web Service/NUnit testing example for my employer at the last minute before a trip to Cleveland where I demoed my sample, when the rain started pouring and wouldn't you know the hole I fixed a year ago started leaking again. The moment I heard the first drip I thought, why didn't I check it out more and why didn't I test the fix before I finished the drywall and painted? And now, I'm paying that debt in the real world. Seems to me work in the real world is a lot harder than the virtual...maybe I just understand coding better than I wield a hammer and trough.

Yes, that really is the picture of my ceiling whole!

Deana Rose Farmstead in Overland Park, Kansas has numerous waterfowl, most of which are ducks with an occasional swan.  But this bird I haven't the foggiest idea what it is.  Chris asked me what it was and of course with all my farm boy knowledge on the line I responded back confidently, "A goose".  Can anyone prove me right, on this one?