Monthly Archives: March 2007

Wife’s Bday

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I haven’t heard much in the way of comments (besides a freak-out by Lisa, but she just fears change), so I’m going to stick with this new design for now. Jenny suggested a pic with more bluish tones, so there you go.

Today is my beloved wife’s 31st birthday. We both took the day off to sleep in and play. This afternoon we plan to visit BodyWorlds in Dallas. I saw it in Chicago and loved it, and now Jenny and I can share it. We’re having dinner at Red Lobster and then spending the night at the Renaissance Hotel in Dallas. We might watch the Stars-Wings game on TV since we’ll have CABLE! Tomorrow morning we have massages scheduled at a local massage school (cheap cheap!), and if the weather is nice, we might hit the North Texas Jazz Festival in Addison. Should be a busy weekend! One thing I love about my wife is that birthdays are not traumatic for her, but instead something to celebrate. Let the party begin!

New Look

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In case you haven’t noticed, after MANY years of using the same overall look on andybox.com, I have changed it! This might not be the “permanent” look, but it’s something I’m trying out, and I’d love to know what you think. I made the background white, the text dark blue, the main font Arial, and the top nav bar light blue, trying for a cleaner look that’s easier to read and a bit faster to load.

In other news, the garage sale was a big success! We raised over $1000 for Less is More, helped declutter the lives of several friends and family members, and helped lots of people get great deals on some useful and/or interesting items. A friend hauled off most of the things we couldn’t sell, which made cleanup much easier.

This Beautiful Mess

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One of my favorite and most influential music videos is “Everybody Hurts” by REM. In case you haven’t seen it, it’s set in a traffic jam on an urban highway. One by one, you peer into various cars and see a caption of the occupants’ thoughts, such as “I wonder if anyone cares”, “Does she still love me?”, and “I feel so alone”. The theme is that everybody has stuff going on at any given time, lots of stuff, some good and some painful. So no matter what’s going on, we’re not alone. That idea both comforted me during a difficult time and changed my perspective on people. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in our own little world that we don’t think much about what’s in other people’s worlds. I’ve had tons on my mind lately – busy shifts at work, trying to be a better husband, the garage sale, grants, the surprisingly complex process of babymaking, Bible study, wills, stock purchases, and many other things. But my people also have their own pressures and topics to think about. One couple is starting to raise money to adopt a baby after their final in-vitro attempt failed. One friend feels like all her friends have left her behind because they all have husbands and kids while she’s still single. One friend got fired and is looking for a new job. One couple just bought their first home. One friend has a pituitary mass and is waiting to find out how the docs want to treat it. One friend is still waiting to get a job as a firefighter after months of interviews, waiting, hoping, and enduring a job he hates so that he can continue to put food on the table. One relative interviewed for a job up in Chicago. It all combines to form the beautiful mess of Planet Earth. As Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Various Updates

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I have several items to report:

  • My mom’s parents have upgraded to cable internet service, so now they can surf the Net at warp speed. Yeehaw!
  • I got my first adult tooth filling yesterday. Although I was quite upset at having tooth decay, Dr. Butler did a great job. They can now fill cavities with tooth-colored material so that it looks completely natural.
  • I am now officially a grant-writing volunteer for ALARM. Celestin (the president/founder) and I had a great meeting on Monday. They have lots of great ideas and just need help finding the money to pay for them. That’s where I come in.
  • Our garage sale prep is going GREAT! Our Sunday school class and families are contributing lots of stuff, and our living room is filling up. We plan to run ads in both the Keller and Fort Worth papers to boost publicity. We’ll be open for business March 23-24 from 8-3. If you’re in the area, come shop or just hang out!
  • My stocks are not doing well! This isn’t as much fun when the price doesn’t keep going up. At least my Prosper borrowers are paying me back.
  • Tonight I went to poker night with the guys from my men’s Bible study (ironic, eh?). We ate manly food like wings and tacos and then played Texas Hold’Em, which I’d never played before. Not surprisingly, I only won one hand and was first to leave the game. Good thing we were playing for free chips instead of real money or, even worse, clothes.

The Importance of Software Testing

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I am embarrassed to admit that my heavily-emphasized AndyBox.com Customer Survey has been broken for the last week, and no one knew it, not even me. I just thought no one cared. =) I accidentally messed up some of the code and didn’t test the page after I monkeyed with it. Bad Webmaster, Bad! Sigh. So if you responded after I listed the 5-6 questions just above the survey, I didn’t get your response. My server created the email and sent it into a black hole instead of my inbox. So please have pity on me and try one more time!

Jazz

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Tonight I took Jenny on a surprise date to Jazz in the Atrium at Dallas Museum of Art. It’s a free jazz show from 6:00-8:00 PM every Thursday. We toured the modern art museum (some weird stuff in there!), got dinner at the cafe, and enjoyed the fabulous voice of Texas native Rosana Eckert, a smooth and engaging alto who also teaches at UNT’s music school. Her talented band easily kept up with her. I like live jazz partly because it acknowledges individual talent without deifying any one performer like pop concerts can do. In jazz culture/tradition, although the singer or band leader has the microphone, each performer takes turns in the spotlight with solo-type work, often ad-libbed, while the others keep the rhythm softly or stop playing altogether to focus attention on the soloist – the pianist, the saxophonist, the guitarist, the drummer, the percussionist, the trumpeter. The singer/bandleader also introduces each performer to the audience, often repeatedly throughout the show. Contrast this with a Britney Spears concert (poor Britney…I admit that I like some of her music, but I hope she gets real help soon) where the focus is on BRITNEY, and all the dancers, lights, musicians, makeup artists, roadies, etc. are there to make her look good. Thousands of preteen girls pay good money to worship her. Jazz isn’t about image; it’s about the music – rhythm, passion, texture, virtuosity, sweat, and dreams.