This past weekend encompassed two wonderful events: Barry & Catherine‘s wedding, and Texas Sandfest 2004.

The former was held in San Antonio, and was rather remarkable. They had a tremendous number of people turn out to support them as they begin life together. That support was made very concrete during the course of the ceremony, as the officiating pastors opened up the microphone for anyone who cared to come up and speak in support of the couple. The reminisces, prayers, and well-wishing were a wonderful addition to the ceremony. We only got to speak to the couple briefly at the reception afterwards, but they seemed every bit as happy and excited as one would expect. (This may have had something to do with the fact that they’re getting to take a rather extended honeymoon in Thailand — one of the potential advantages of putting off marriage until one is a bit more firmly established in life!) It was also a treat for me to get to see many of the old guard from Trinity Baptist Church, the first institution of that sort I attended willingly. (“Daddy, you know everyone!” was the surprised reaction from my kids.)

Sandfest was even more fun than usual, as Meara came with us this year, both to get a dose of Texas coast life and to help out with the kiddos. We didn’t get to do much actual building this year, as by the time the wedding had (mostly) finished up and we were able to get down to Port Aransas, the awards for the amateur competition were already being distributed. (Our San Marcos Suns acquitted themselves handsomely, as usual.) The band played Saturday night, and we spent the day on Sunday playing in the ocean and building sand edifices at tide’s edge. Liam and Emily both did some body surfing for the first time, and we rented a boogie board on which the kids could perch while Kathy and I raced through the shallows towing them as fast as we could run. The only disappointing aspect of the trip was that our camera vanished while we were on the beach, leaving us bereft of photos for both the beach and the wedding.

Now we’re home and back about the business of schooling, job-hunting, and the raising of children.

We have a new addition to the household. Emily has been cultivating a farm girl persona for quite a while, part of which has been a steady, low-grade lobby for a chicken of her own, going as far as to check out and devour a book from the library on the care and feeding thereof. It should come as no surprise, then, that after a recent trip to our local hardware store she came home with a $0.99 ball of fluff named Gregory.

Gregory, a naked-neck chicken, has begun to imprint on Emily, and will cheerfully race around the house after her. The other children are, naturally enough, insanely jealous of this latest addition, and have shown a renewed interest in caring for their guinea pigs since I informed them that would be a good way to demonstrate the sort of responsibility that’s required to get a chicken of one’s own.

We’re still a bit unclear on what our local zoning laws have to say about keeping a chicken or two in one’s backyard, but hopefully if we keep it discreet, it won’t become an issue. (Though it would almost be worth it to get to tell potential employers about my criminal possession of a chicken.)

Today I interviewed at Microsoft. For five hours. Straight. Six if you count the time they took figuring out that someone had bollixed up the time zones, and they weren’t really expecting me for another hour. (I spent that hour listening to books on tape by the river, so it doesn’t really count, but I’m milking it for storytelling purposes.)

I went into the interview a bit dubious about the prospect of working for Microsoft. As a long-time Apple fan, Microsoft has often played the role of The Archvillain in my daily computing drama. Additionally, one runs the risk of getting lost in a company of that size — not a fate I want for myself.

The division of Microsoft I interviewed with is Digital Anvil, their Austin game studio, which has Freelancer and Brute Force to their credit. They currently employ about 65 people, which would mean the chance of getting lost in the shuffle is minimal. They’re also in downtown Austin, rather than the northwest side where Origin was located, so working there would mean a shorter commute and working in easy walking distance of Fadó and Alamo Drafthouse.

I quite liked the people I met during the interview process. Though the interview process was pretty long and left me tired out afterward, I think I did reasonably well. I wrote code on several whiteboards, marveled at how many ex-Origin people worked there, ate mexican food, developed QA plans for pencils, ogled their hardware, and talked about games a lot. They told me to expect to hear something with regard to a decision in the next two weeks or so.

On another curious note, the University appears to have created a new job requisition which exactly matches the earlier one for which I applied and was turned down. I’m a bit baffled as to what’s going on on that end, but guess I’ll shoot off an email or two and see if I can scare up any more information.

It’s been a busy few days around here. Trying to make the most of our remaining insurance, we’ve all had trips to the dentist. Seeing our coltish boy sprawled across the dentist’s chair with the aged dentist explaining what each of the pieces of equipment does was easily the most Norman Rockwell moment I’ve encountered in a while. I also went in for an eye exam and new pair of glasses. Men, take note: your wives may want input into the selection of eyewear, for as Barry so succinctly put it last night as we were discussing the issue, “you only have to look through them — they have to look at them.”

I took Liam and Abby out for their big days out with Daddy. Liam and I went to Kidzville, Chuck E. Cheese, and Natural Bridge Caverns. These particular caverns are still some of my favorite, as they have some of the most spectacular formations I’ve seen, courtesy of the Edward’s Aquifer. Liam was a bit concerned about descending into the bowels of the earth at first, but warmed to the venture once the initial perilous drop was passed. For our outing, Maggie and I ate breakfast on the square, went to storytime at the library, took a long walk down by the river, and caught Scooby Doo 2, which was every bit as good as I expected. (Which is to say not at all.)

Ben gave me a call earlier in the week to ask if I wanted to go to a Spurs game with him, courtesy of one of his suppliers at work. We enjoyed their Thursday night victory over the Pistons from the 11th row. While I had a nice time, and thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend the time with Ben, I feel that my quota for deafening sporting event attendance has been filled for the next two years.

Last night Kathy and I attended Austin Lyric Opera’s production of The Flying Dutchman with Barry and Catherine, themselves a mere eight days from their wedding. (Getting to go to the show was my birthday present for this year.) It was interesting to see one of Wagner’s earlier works, which don’t display as much of the characteristic use of leitmotif as one generally associates with the composer. The production was quite well-done, and we enjoyed the show and a Thai dinner beforehand a great deal. We topped off the evening by stopping in to visit Jason Young and his wife. Jason is a good friend of Barry’s who I’d met on-line, but never in person. What a treat to spend the evening in such company!

Finally, as my first two weeks of unemployment come to an end, I’m about to get serious about my job hunt. The University job for which I’d been holding high hopes failed to pan out. Since I haven’t found much else locally that would fit the bill, it looks like I’ll likely be driving up to Austin again. I have an interview with Microsoft on Monday for their Austin game studio, and will probably start exploring the more traditional web application/database developer stuff in earnest too. More on that as it happens.

• Just got done with a great show at Cheatham Street Warehouse with the Grant Mazak Band. Best crowd we’ve had there: lots of folks, energy was high, and we played well (and had a lot of fun). Thanks for coming out, everyone who did!
• David took me out to the studio for a bit this afternoon and ran me through the work he’d done to mix the live recording. It’s really interesting to me to learn more about the audio engineering work he does so well, and to hopefully be able to apply a bit of it to my own meager recording efforts. (Thanks for staying with the kiddos, Kath!)
• Abby and I went to Fiesta Texas on Friday. I enjoyed getting to run around with her for the day, and she seemed to really enjoy the time together, the rides, and the shows. She’s not quite ready for the biggest roller coasters yet, but was a bit more adventurous than I’d expected.
• Lowe’s is the Wal-Mart of hardware stores. I’m never going back. Fortunately, we have a great local hardware store in San Marcos (Steward’s Ace Hardware) that has nearly everything Lowe’s had, plus chicken feed and customer service.
• Had a nice long talk with Chris today while sitting in the treehouse. He met an English girl when over in Ireland for a wedding, and is going to see her at the beginning of April. I’m eager to see where this relationship goes.
• Went camping last weekend with Daniel and a number of his friends from back home last weekend at Goose Island State Park. It was a great time, and felt like a fitting kickoff to the next couple weeks of unemployment.
• In addition to Texas State University, I also have an interview lined up with Microsoft. It feels a little funny as a long-time Mac fan to be interviewing with them, even though it’s for one of their game studios.
• I recently finished most of the work on a website for my sister-in-law and her husband, who are headed to Uganda for some mission work in a few months. Both are brilliant and committed people, and it’s very exciting to see this coming together for them.

David finished up a first mix of Cheatham Street Special, one of the original songs the band performs. I’m really happy with the way it turned out, and am even more excited about getting a CD together now.

One of the things I’m doing with my next few week off is taking each of the kids out individually for a full-day romp together. Emily led the charge today with a trip down to San Antonio, where we explored along the river, ate at the Tower of the Americas, visited Ross’ mom at her shop, hit Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum, walked through the grounds of The Alamo, played on a downtown playground, fed the pigeons, and caught Cheaper By The Dozen at 50¢ movie night at the local theater.

We both had a great time. I’m very grateful for the chance to get the extra time with the kids, and was reminded again by the movie (which was better than I expected) of why I’ve made some of the decisions I have regarding career and family.

Looking forward to a nice break full of sunshine and bike-riding with the kids, I yesterday dropped off a couple of our bikes that needed a bit of work at Pedal Power, the local bike shop I prefer. On the way back to pick them up that afternoon, I came to stop at a red light. So did the car immediately behind me. The car behind her, however, didn’t, and both plowed into the back of our car. The speed of collision was relatively low, so nobody was hurt, and there wasn’t too much damage done to our car, but it was still an unfortunate interlude in our sunny day.

After getting the bikes home, we went out riding later. Emily tackled a big hill by Crockett Elementary, and Liam, who is normally a bit timid about physically hazardous adventures, surprised me by following immediately after. Unfortunately, he still hasn’t mastered using the brakes to moderate his speed when going downhill, and had quite a head of steam when he hit the bottom of the hill and went flipping off his bike.

Three hours and one trip to the hospital later, it turned out that he just had a bunch of scrapes and a nasty sprain. He’s on ibuprofin to keep the swelling down and has a bandage to keep his arm straight, but should be in good shape in a few days.

The frequency of these misadventures is starting to make me suspect that I’d be better off in a nice safe office somewhere!

My buddy Daniel and I took advantage of a borrowed microphone a few weeks back to record some of his poetry. This had been a project we’d been talking about for a while, but kept getting distracted by conversation, Fat Tire ales, XBox, kid-wrestling, movies, or any number of other things.

Daniel is a very talented poet, and I’ve been excited to help him commit some of his work to good-quality recordings. I haven’t finished all the engineering I want to do quite yet, but have a couple of tracks ready for preliminary listening: enjoy Speed and The Dead in Jazz.