It is very likely that I will not be blogging for the next week or so. Sherry and I are traveling to my parents' house in New Ulm, MN, and then next week to see all of Sherry's family in Aberdeen, SD. We are very excited to see our families. We have not seen them for quite a while.

We get to start off our Christmas week with a night with our best friends, tomorrow night. We exchange gifts, and usually have a meal. This year, we are exchanging gifts, and will be having appetizers; some that the adults will like and some that the kids will like.

So, to everyone, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Today is the 7th anniversary of that horrible day in history we all know as 9/11. 343 firefighters lost their lives on this day seven years ago as well as many, many Americans. As a volunteer firefighter and as an American citizen I took some time today to think about and remember this day in history and all of the men, women and children who lost their lives.

Tonight at the Hayfield Fire Hall we are hosting a dinner for all of the retired firefighters and their families. The current firefighters are serving the meal. We do it to honor them and their years of service and also to remember those fellow firefighters who lost their lives seven years ago.

What are you doing to honor and remember our fellow Americans and American heroes today?

It has taken me a while to get my blog reworked...time constraints. I got to thinking a while ago that my blog in its old state, did not reflect that much of who I am. I mean, part of my life is work, yeah, and ColdFusion and web development. But you know what? The majority of my life is not at work, and not in front of a computer. My life is not my job. My life is my family and friends.

So I have updated my blog to reflect who I am. My wife and I live in a small rural town in Minnesota. The picture at the top of my blog is actually what we see out of our bedroom window. Yup, soy beans and corn! We choose to live there. We don't like the craziness of a huge city. We work in a larger city, but it sure is nice to drive home at night and go somewhere peaceful where not alot of people live. It takes us about a half hour to get to and from work, so gas prices hurt us, but as we are driving home at night, I get more relaxed as we get closer to home.

I am planning to blog more about what I do for fun, and of course still some stuff about ColdFusion and web development. So, look for my posts about me joining a volunteer fire department and about the Ragnar Relay road race my wife and I and 10 friends just ran.

My wife Sherry and I just got back from our vacation in Seattle, Washington, Vancouver and Vancouver Island in British Columbia. We met up with some friends, Layli and Clayton, from Canada and had a blast!

We flew out of Minneapolis on Saturday, May 24th, and flew into Seattle. The plane ride was good, and that is crazy being that we flew with Northwest. Heh. We got to Seattle and went to the Space Needle. 16$ per person to go to the top of the 500 plus feet tall structure. So worth it.

We went to Canada that night to Abbotsford, which is about an hour or so east of Vancouver. We stayed with Clayton's mom, Cathy, and the next day we prepared to go to the island. The next day we traveled to the island and took the ferry over. It was a two hour ride. They fit more than 150 vehicles on this cruiseliner-like ship. Nice ride.

The island was beautiful! We stayed with Clayton's brother, Brandon, at his house in the hills of Duncan. We could see the ocean from the balcony outside our room! The following days were spent visiting the attractions on the island. We went to a winery, there are like two dozen or more wineries on Vancouver Island, we also golfed at Arbutus Ridge which is quite possibly the nicest course I have ever golfed on. We also toured downtown Victoria and took the ferry back to the mainland from there. Also on the island, we grilled out a bunch, drank and ton of Canadian beer (Kokanee) and played bocce ball. We did get to see the oldest lighthouse on the island as well.

Back on the mainland, we toured Vancouver for a day and went shopping and rode the Sky Train. Vancouver is a pretty city. We also ate great seafood and again drank great Canadian beer. We also went to Tim Horton's at least daily, and once three times in one day for coffee. If you have never had a coffee from Tim Horton's, you are missing out! We did get to golf one more time in Abbotsford, and I shot an 86 on a par 72 course. Pretty good since it was only my second time out this year. It was a short course with no par 5's, so that helped my game.

But now we are back in Minnesota and back to work. It still helps to look at the pictures and think back to all the fun we had! We try to see Layli and Clayton every year on a vacation, whether they come here or we go to Canada or we meet somewhere. Next year we are planning to go on a cruise!