Seems so long ago.

I didn't realize it's been a week since posting. My job has been keeping me busy, as has the family.

My job has not changed, but I have been busy working with a mentor toward a new career path, called an IT Architect. As its name implies, an ITA architects an integrative solution to a business problem. Given my penchant for weaving known details into a system, this should be a good fit for me. This week has seen me create a "merit badge" for ITAs, writing up some lessons learned from previous assignments, and taking classes. This is on top of what I normally would be doing.

At home, this week has been busy from doctor's appointments and working in my yard. Now that our swimming pool is functioning again, I have to vacuum and skim the pool every day (and, of course, swim in it!). Also, the area around the pool has been neglected for a long time, and is very overgrown with weeds, small trees (under four feet in height), and other ground cover. I am rebuilding the stone pathway around the pool, both for beauty and to keep dirt from dropping into the pool. Naturally, all of this takes a lot of time, and I work until sunset (8:25 or so) on it.

Finally, there's Windows Vista. While Vista has its good points, it can be a pain in the rear to configure properly. For example, I just purchased a new, 22" HD LCD monitor to replace my old, 15-inch non-HD LCD monitor. For a variety of reasons, it took an entire evening to set up properly, not least of which was Vista's insistance on calling it my secondary monitor and forcing me to use a too-large resolution, pushing part of the display off the screen. Anyway, I did eventually resolve that issue and a couple of others. I was "forced" to install an HD DVD program and watch "T2: Judgement Day" in HD to make sure my monitor was now working properly! Now if I could only get it to recognize my TV tuner....