Up until this point, I have generally avoided blogging about work minus a couple of occasions. That is all about to change. I refocusing my blog to be more career-oriented with my recent move to work independently. The main reason for this change of direction is to get myself more closely involved with the online Flash community, though there are other factors involved as well. Of course, it goes without saying, I will not blog about specific projects during development to maintain client confidence, but occasional revelations & experiments which arise because of those projects will be shared here.

Will I still blog about my personal life? Yes, probably about as much as I do now. So please excuse the long lapses.

It’s now 3 weeks since I left Trailer Park to go on my own as a freelancer. I am definitely busy with the freelance projects I picked up since starting at the beginning of the month. Most of my clients to this point have been people I have known and worked with through my career. It is encouraging that my connections I made in the past are now coming back to help me build my future.

The adjustment for the last 3 weeks has been a bit easier than I expected. Despite the desire to sleep in just a little bit later, JJ continues to wake Theresa and I by 7:30 every morning. Not to fear though - our cabinets are stocked full of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee *the best coffee in the world*. I am generally at my desk working by 8:30 to 9:00. Since I am home without a commute, morning web surfing to catch up with the world can be done earlier.

On the days that Theresa works, JJ goes to daycare. The apartment is unusually quiet those days — so some music or an audiobook from the library keep me company as I plow through the project of the day.
On the days they are home, Theresa does a great job of keeping JJ from bothering me. This is especially impressive since my office is in our living room. Should things go well for the next few months, I am pretty sure we will upgrade ourselves to a 3-bedroom apartment with the 3rd room being the office.

Anyway you cut it though, it has been a great month - one of the best I can remember in my career.

January 5 has come and passed, and with it my resignation from Trailer Park became official. It was definitely weird. I worked with a lot of the folks there for about five years give or take a few months in either direction. At the end of the day, there was cake & I was actually left speechless when asked to say a few words.

The weekend was one of celebration.

Dinner with Matt & Kathy on Friday.

A surprise costume birthday for Mitch on Saturday. I went as Professor Chaos — Mitch, I need a picture of it.

And then we topped it off with Theresa, JJ & I going to Disneyland for JJ’s first trip there. The weather was perfect, traffic was minimal & crowds were likewise. Overall, I think JJ’s favorite ride was the Monster’s Inc. (there is a small 4×5 tv screen in the car which brought a big smile to his face). He was not so fond of the Pirates ride and seemed indifferent about the Winnie the Pooh ride as he was more infatuated with the fact that there were doors that swung than the ride itself. Adding a nice topper to the day, James & Weena joined us for dinner in Downtown Disney.

That’s it for the moment. There are some pics of the Disneyland trip in my gallery for anyone who cares to check them out.

This is old news to most of my readers, but it is BIG news.

I have tendered my resignation from Trailer Park (formerly Creative Domain (who took control of our web group from Faction Creative where this whole thing started)).  My last day will be January 5, 2007, which is just shy of a month away.

Rather than moving on to another full time position, I will be chancing it on my own as a Flash freelancer / consultant.  Should anyone need me for flash development work, I will either be at my computer working diligently or preparing a grande cafe latte at Starbucks depending on how things turn out.

As more & more of my friends try to be like Theresa and I, I want to welcome Ben Grogan back to Los Angeles. He is not only copying me by working at my company and sitting at the desk next to me, but also living in our condo building renting from our landlord. In addition, Ben & his lovely wife Maria (a sarcastic, loving, evil woman much like….oh….say…..my wife) have a young baby boy who is huge and all too anxious to grow up much like JJ.

In addition, congrats to Deb & Glenn on their big announcement as they try to be more like us with Deb’s pregnancy. I have already made it clear to Deb that if they have a girl, I will forbid JJ from marrying her as I continue to protect the ancient secret Schlossberg fortune of jewels, gold and cursed Aztec treasures. Yes - yes - my parents deny its existance but I know it is real and soon it shall be mine……all mine…….

So for about — oh let’s say — eight months, Theresa has been harassing me to set up a blog for her to talk about raising her first child. And for about 8 months, I put it off.

Alas, I could delay no longer. So check it out:

http://www.andyandtheweb.com/jjblog

Congratulations to Mitch & Kim on the birth of their new daughter, Samantha Skye Rily.

Just shy of a month ago, we took a week’s vacation to New York. I’ve been meaning to blog about it, but have been rather busy of late. So here goes…

The significance of the trip was initially to see my parents’ new house in Goshen & to introduce JJ to his great-grandparents. Somehow it blossomed into a lot more. A small family reunion of my immediate family became a house warming which became an extended family reunion. My mom cooked up a storm feeding some 40 odd people. (Odd in the sense of a close approximation to 40 and odd in the sense of my extended family is really really wierd.)

There was some drama. A few typical family moments which I won’t go into detail about occured, but I think they were outweighed by my little brother’s 36 hours of travelling through 4 airports to get to New York. I was worried about my allergies being a problem with Xena, my parents’ black lab, but the gods looked down up us with a smile with hardly a sneeze, wheeze, or sniff.

While seeing the family is always fun, one of the best highlights from the trip was getting to see Spamalot in The City during the weekend up there. We had great seats & got a phenomenal meal before the show thanks to a restaurant recommendation from Mike & Irene. (The pizza was great! Thanks!) For anyone who has not seen this show, it is a MUST SEE.

Last, JJ flew wonderfully. He was quiet & pleasant both ways without screaming or crying. In fact, we were thanked by the people around us at the end of both flights for having such a quiet & wonderful child.

Time to head to work now. More posts to come about many other things soon.

Prelude…

Midday Friday, Bryan called me to say that he had an extra ticket in Premiere Seating of the Star/Kings hockey game for Saturday evening. With only 1 ticket available, I would have been forced to pass solely because I had once previously ditched my wife to go to a Stars/Kings game with Scott. A second such outing would surely have left my son fatherless — or at the very least ensured him a life as a single child with a squeaky voiced father. Fortune was in my favor though, as Bryan got a second free ticket. A few phone calls to find a sitter for JJ & we were going to a hockey game!

Saturday….

The one thing that sucked….

The Stars lost the game 1-0. Now in the grander scheme of things, this is not a big deal. They are still going to make the playoffs in a prime seating, but there is really few things for a sports fan better than walking through an opposing team’s arena after a game is over wearing the visiting team’s logo when that team has won. (In some cities this can and does end with knife wounds and chalk outlines, but LA is not one of those cities.)

Why it ruled….

Brandi arrived early to watch JJ. This was somewhat of a relief as her timeliness is historically questionable.

The seats were in the front row of the VIP section along the side of the visiting team’s bench which is truly the best seat in the house for a hockey game. This meant that we had no one in front of us & that we got waiter service for food & drinks on top of not having to sit amongst the plebian hordes.

There was a great fight. Throughout the game the ref’s were interfering early to stop fights, but I think they finally realized that a bench clearing brawl might breakout if they don’t let one go.

The topper to the evening though was this. After the game, we were crossing the street to our car when I noticed 2 guys dressed to the nines looking strangely inappropriate and slightly uncomfortable in the crowd of t-shirt & jersey wearing hockey fans. As I was thinking to myself that one of them looked quite a lot like Sergei Zubov, the guy next to me commented to his buddy “That’s Modano & Zubov.” (Modano & Zubov did not play due to injuries.) Modano was being rather stand-off-ish and clearly didn’t want to deal with autographs & what not. I also think it didn’t help the matter that I was sporting his sweater. Not wanting to annoy him, I resisted the urge to ask for an autograph or a photo & just made a brief comment to the two of them as we passed them. “We missed seeing you guys out on the ice tonight.” Mo was polite & thanked me & said hi to Theresa who was also wearing a Stars sweater.

So there you go. Thank you, Bryan, for the tickets. Thank you, Brandi, for watching JJ. The evening was awesome & it couldn’t have happened without both of you!

Good
After about a year and a half of living in a hotel, my parents finally closed on their new house in Goshen, NY.

My son, my wife & I are over our collective colds.

My son came to visit me at work for lunch. His mom came to but only cuz he is not old enough to drive yet.

Bad
The US Mens Hockey Team is likely to have their collective asses handed to them today by Finnland.

Honey, since we were both sick this past weekend and have been dealing with JJ & his cold, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day with this simple comment on my blog:

“You’re not sand.”