So everywhere I go there seems to be something I need to correct or fix. This computer I left with my parents now has the noisest power supply ever. It looks like I will be able to treat myself to a trip to the computer stores and try and get myself either a new case or just a power supply. It will depend on price and the deal I can do.

I also see that it is a priority to get Jennifer at Sausage a new monitor. Unfortunately flat screens here are out of the question due to price, but I am sure I can find a good deal on a nice 19 inch CRT.

Also it has come to my attention that Jen is a thinkgeek fan! She has a couple of cool toys from there, including this thing you suction cup to a surface and drop marbles down.

Well so far I have had a Sausage Roll and a Mars Bar, foods I have not been able to obtain in the USA at all. Boy they are good.

However my mate Ray called me yesterday and organised a trip to nirvana. Yes Nepalese is on the menu Saturday night, so there will be no meals during the rest of the day so I can sample all of my favorite dishes!

I was thinking about my wife Karissa and some of the firsts I have had with her. I didn't realise some of them until I got to thinking. I am also not writing this to be a suck, I am pretty sure she probably isn't even reading this currently.

She was my first illogical love. It made no sense to have a relationship with her but I pursued one anyway.

Then she was the first person I can truly say I had love at first site with. Yeah it may have been lust as well but I knew she had the goods upstairs as well.

Lately I have also realised that I love her unconditionally. I will take her however she is. Support her through anything and love her until the day I die.

Ok so at times the flight from San Fransico to Sydney was liek a rollercoaster!

Normally this would not scare me, but when you know your sitting inbetween a 747 pilot (the row behind) and his wife (sitting the row in front) and that she is turning around with a sheer look of terror on her face, you know it must be a little dicey. Also the flight attendents being buckled in and telling stragglers at the restroom that they must sit down before they become a projectile, well it must be bad!

Otherwise the flight was pretty decent for once I slept. I also met a German of Turkish decent and his girlfriend who were going to drive up the east coast. We swapped travel stories and the like and generally I helped him refine some of his english skills.

I finally got into my parents house a little while ago. I polished off a sausage rool, and am now goign to make a quick stop by the Sausage offices and then go and surprise my Grandmother.

Oh and boy is it hot here! Forty something celicus today. This will take some adjusting!

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

So I am sitting around here working and waiting. Waiting for that long endless flight over the Pacific Ocean to my country of origin in Australia. I say country of origin as I no longer know where to call home.

In many ways I think of my home with Karissa and Hayden as my home, but then again I am proud to be Australian and think of that entire country as home. I even now in smaller ways think of Kentucky as home.

I suppose I got my wish of being a global traveler and jet-setter. However it is not all it is cracked up to be!

All I need is to go up a level in the financial stakes so that I can afford to include a rest stop in Hawaii when going back and forth to Australia. Actually make that 3 or 4 levels as I would want to take Karissa and Hayden with me too! They love the ocean with a passion and we always have had the best times whenever we get within cooee of the beach!

Well today I take off for my Australia and West Coast trip. It is more work than pleasure but there will plenty of time for me to ponder life as I travel.

I am sure I will great times, meet interesting people and generally have fun. However it is a bit upsetting to be missing Hayden's 4th Birthday. I love spending time with my daughter and Karissa so it will be a bit different for all three of us over the next month or so.

Seeing my parents and sister are going home tomorrow and I am leaving for Australia on Saturday we gave Hayden an early birthday party.

It was Barbie all round! Cakes, plates, you name it, it was Barbie! No pics for public consumption though as I have to maintain my respectability!

We all had fun and Hayden received some really fun presents to play with.

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Are there times when you feel all is hopeless? That a task or situation cannot get any better? I would love to know what you do to get yourself out of the despair and overcome the problem. Or if you cannot overcome the problem how do you move on?

Ok I am only really blogging on at this time to tell anyone who is looking for a good hotel near the Mall of America, that the Eagan Holiday Inn Express has free high speed internet in every room. I am impressed yet for once have not really had the need to use it. This has been a trip to show my parents this mega-mall, and they have been somewhat impressed. Unfortunately Karissa is not feeling the best so we have had to cut it a little short. On the way home tomorrow we are stopping at some super outdoor sportsmen store just off I35.

Well I finally got to show my parents the some of the snow that we normally have to deal with in Des Moines! We only got 2-3 inches but it is still a bit of fun!

I also went out with dad for a "diner breakfast" at the Drake Diner. I love hashed browns!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

So for a it of comic relief we decided to take my parents and sister on a road trip and to meet Karissa's family in Kentucky.

Firstly we stopped in St Louis and saw the Gateway Arch, then we journeyed on to Memphis and saw Graceland. Then we spent the rest of the week in Kentucky, mainly spending time with family but also seeing a few of the local sites.

Let me elaborate a little.

The arch was great, the museum was interesting and I learned a lot about the Lewis and Clark expedition. The ride up the arch was nerve racking in the "tram" cars. I believe my sister was going to freak out completely until Hayden told her not to be a scardy cat!

Graceland was not as grand as I had imagined. Although I am no huge Elvis fan it was really interesting to get and insight into the kings life. It looked great and varied. I was surprised to see that he was so into gospel music and charity work.

Spending time with Karissa's family is always fun. I can truly say I like them all. Yes even her very enthusiastic sister who I have not always seen eye to eye with. I think my new outlook on life in general has helped with that relationship.

My family behaved themselves and got to meet anyone who is anyone in the family.

Anyway it was a great trip. I even got to watch some TechTV which I do not get here at home.

Well after a week in Kentucky I am am back, logged on and ready to work.

When I have caught up I will share some of the tales of our journey.

Mike Chandler posted a comment to my blog which noted that my posts has been quite inspiring of late. I am glad someone has picked up upon my change in thought and attitude. I have been doing a lot of reflecting on the past year, and have really seen this new year as a sort of rebirth or new beginning for a lot of the facets of my life.

If other people find this at all inspiring I am glad. It is nice to know other people can learn from my mistakes and be guided as they feel appropriate by my actions. I don't want to become any sort of guru, but it is nice to know that people listen and really think about what you have to say. I never intended this blog to become so personal but it has naturally. Natural is good if you ask me!

After a night in St Louis and a trip up the arch, I find myself in Memphis Tennessee. It appears that the parts of this town we have been through are fairly poor, and I definitely would not want to find myself walking through the neighborhoods I drove through. This portion of our road-trip is so my family can go to Graceland. We found out today that Elvis has his birthday on Wednesday so we are not sure how busy this shrine to the king will be. Also at $25 a pop I was expecting some hair-raising rides, although I know I will be sorely disappointed int hat department! We did see the old aircraft he use to fly around in as we drove past.

Back to this morning. The gateway to the west, the jefferson expansion memorial arch was amazing. The tram going up to the top was a little freaky but otherwise the views were amazing, the museum interesting, and the surrounding parkland was beautiful!

Tomorrow we hit Kentucky and my family gets to meet Karissa's family. This is sure to be similar to one of those old Soviet/US meetings of the post-cold war era. Fried food will probably be involved!

With this new year I really felt and knew that there were changes I needed to make in my life, if my life was to become a more fulfilling and happy one. For too long I had my priorities turned upside down. So now I look forward to this year being one of discovery, friendships and family.

I am not saying my work is not important to me, but at the rate I was going that was all I was going to end up with. I just need some definition between work and home life. A new office I am setting up in the next few months will be the first step in doing this.

Anyway have a nice day, whoever you may be, wherever you may be reading this!

So everywhere I go there seems to be something I need to correct or fix. This computer I left with my parents now has the noisest power supply ever. It looks like I will be able to treat myself to a trip to the computer stores and try and get myself either a new case or just a power supply. It will depend on price and the deal I can do.

I also see that it is a priority to get Jennifer at Sausage a new monitor. Unfortunately flat screens here are out of the question due to price, but I am sure I can find a good deal on a nice 19 inch CRT.

Also it has come to my attention that Jen is a thinkgeek fan! She has a couple of cool toys from there, including this thing you suction cup to a surface and drop marbles down.

Well so far I have had a Sausage Roll and a Mars Bar, foods I have not been able to obtain in the USA at all. Boy they are good.

However my mate Ray called me yesterday and organised a trip to nirvana. Yes Nepalese is on the menu Saturday night, so there will be no meals during the rest of the day so I can sample all of my favorite dishes!

I was thinking about my wife Karissa and some of the firsts I have had with her. I didn't realise some of them until I got to thinking. I am also not writing this to be a suck, I am pretty sure she probably isn't even reading this currently.

She was my first illogical love. It made no sense to have a relationship with her but I pursued one anyway.

Then she was the first person I can truly say I had love at first site with. Yeah it may have been lust as well but I knew she had the goods upstairs as well.

Lately I have also realised that I love her unconditionally. I will take her however she is. Support her through anything and love her until the day I die.

Ok so at times the flight from San Fransico to Sydney was liek a rollercoaster!

Normally this would not scare me, but when you know your sitting inbetween a 747 pilot (the row behind) and his wife (sitting the row in front) and that she is turning around with a sheer look of terror on her face, you know it must be a little dicey. Also the flight attendents being buckled in and telling stragglers at the restroom that they must sit down before they become a projectile, well it must be bad!

Otherwise the flight was pretty decent for once I slept. I also met a German of Turkish decent and his girlfriend who were going to drive up the east coast. We swapped travel stories and the like and generally I helped him refine some of his english skills.

I finally got into my parents house a little while ago. I polished off a sausage rool, and am now goign to make a quick stop by the Sausage offices and then go and surprise my Grandmother.

Oh and boy is it hot here! Forty something celicus today. This will take some adjusting!

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

So I am sitting around here working and waiting. Waiting for that long endless flight over the Pacific Ocean to my country of origin in Australia. I say country of origin as I no longer know where to call home.

In many ways I think of my home with Karissa and Hayden as my home, but then again I am proud to be Australian and think of that entire country as home. I even now in smaller ways think of Kentucky as home.

I suppose I got my wish of being a global traveler and jet-setter. However it is not all it is cracked up to be!

All I need is to go up a level in the financial stakes so that I can afford to include a rest stop in Hawaii when going back and forth to Australia. Actually make that 3 or 4 levels as I would want to take Karissa and Hayden with me too! They love the ocean with a passion and we always have had the best times whenever we get within cooee of the beach!

Well today I take off for my Australia and West Coast trip. It is more work than pleasure but there will plenty of time for me to ponder life as I travel.

I am sure I will great times, meet interesting people and generally have fun. However it is a bit upsetting to be missing Hayden's 4th Birthday. I love spending time with my daughter and Karissa so it will be a bit different for all three of us over the next month or so.

Seeing my parents and sister are going home tomorrow and I am leaving for Australia on Saturday we gave Hayden an early birthday party.

It was Barbie all round! Cakes, plates, you name it, it was Barbie! No pics for public consumption though as I have to maintain my respectability!

We all had fun and Hayden received some really fun presents to play with.

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Are there times when you feel all is hopeless? That a task or situation cannot get any better? I would love to know what you do to get yourself out of the despair and overcome the problem. Or if you cannot overcome the problem how do you move on?

Ok I am only really blogging on at this time to tell anyone who is looking for a good hotel near the Mall of America, that the Eagan Holiday Inn Express has free high speed internet in every room. I am impressed yet for once have not really had the need to use it. This has been a trip to show my parents this mega-mall, and they have been somewhat impressed. Unfortunately Karissa is not feeling the best so we have had to cut it a little short. On the way home tomorrow we are stopping at some super outdoor sportsmen store just off I35.

Well I finally got to show my parents the some of the snow that we normally have to deal with in Des Moines! We only got 2-3 inches but it is still a bit of fun!

I also went out with dad for a "diner breakfast" at the Drake Diner. I love hashed browns!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

So for a it of comic relief we decided to take my parents and sister on a road trip and to meet Karissa's family in Kentucky.

Firstly we stopped in St Louis and saw the Gateway Arch, then we journeyed on to Memphis and saw Graceland. Then we spent the rest of the week in Kentucky, mainly spending time with family but also seeing a few of the local sites.

Let me elaborate a little.

The arch was great, the museum was interesting and I learned a lot about the Lewis and Clark expedition. The ride up the arch was nerve racking in the "tram" cars. I believe my sister was going to freak out completely until Hayden told her not to be a scardy cat!

Graceland was not as grand as I had imagined. Although I am no huge Elvis fan it was really interesting to get and insight into the kings life. It looked great and varied. I was surprised to see that he was so into gospel music and charity work.

Spending time with Karissa's family is always fun. I can truly say I like them all. Yes even her very enthusiastic sister who I have not always seen eye to eye with. I think my new outlook on life in general has helped with that relationship.

My family behaved themselves and got to meet anyone who is anyone in the family.

Anyway it was a great trip. I even got to watch some TechTV which I do not get here at home.

Well after a week in Kentucky I am am back, logged on and ready to work.

When I have caught up I will share some of the tales of our journey.

Mike Chandler posted a comment to my blog which noted that my posts has been quite inspiring of late. I am glad someone has picked up upon my change in thought and attitude. I have been doing a lot of reflecting on the past year, and have really seen this new year as a sort of rebirth or new beginning for a lot of the facets of my life.

If other people find this at all inspiring I am glad. It is nice to know other people can learn from my mistakes and be guided as they feel appropriate by my actions. I don't want to become any sort of guru, but it is nice to know that people listen and really think about what you have to say. I never intended this blog to become so personal but it has naturally. Natural is good if you ask me!

After a night in St Louis and a trip up the arch, I find myself in Memphis Tennessee. It appears that the parts of this town we have been through are fairly poor, and I definitely would not want to find myself walking through the neighborhoods I drove through. This portion of our road-trip is so my family can go to Graceland. We found out today that Elvis has his birthday on Wednesday so we are not sure how busy this shrine to the king will be. Also at $25 a pop I was expecting some hair-raising rides, although I know I will be sorely disappointed int hat department! We did see the old aircraft he use to fly around in as we drove past.

Back to this morning. The gateway to the west, the jefferson expansion memorial arch was amazing. The tram going up to the top was a little freaky but otherwise the views were amazing, the museum interesting, and the surrounding parkland was beautiful!

Tomorrow we hit Kentucky and my family gets to meet Karissa's family. This is sure to be similar to one of those old Soviet/US meetings of the post-cold war era. Fried food will probably be involved!

With this new year I really felt and knew that there were changes I needed to make in my life, if my life was to become a more fulfilling and happy one. For too long I had my priorities turned upside down. So now I look forward to this year being one of discovery, friendships and family.

I am not saying my work is not important to me, but at the rate I was going that was all I was going to end up with. I just need some definition between work and home life. A new office I am setting up in the next few months will be the first step in doing this.

Anyway have a nice day, whoever you may be, wherever you may be reading this!

So everywhere I go there seems to be something I need to correct or fix. This computer I left with my parents now has the noisest power supply ever. It looks like I will be able to treat myself to a trip to the computer stores and try and get myself either a new case or just a power supply. It will depend on price and the deal I can do.

I also see that it is a priority to get Jennifer at Sausage a new monitor. Unfortunately flat screens here are out of the question due to price, but I am sure I can find a good deal on a nice 19 inch CRT.

Also it has come to my attention that Jen is a thinkgeek fan! She has a couple of cool toys from there, including this thing you suction cup to a surface and drop marbles down.

Well so far I have had a Sausage Roll and a Mars Bar, foods I have not been able to obtain in the USA at all. Boy they are good.

However my mate Ray called me yesterday and organised a trip to nirvana. Yes Nepalese is on the menu Saturday night, so there will be no meals during the rest of the day so I can sample all of my favorite dishes!

I was thinking about my wife Karissa and some of the firsts I have had with her. I didn't realise some of them until I got to thinking. I am also not writing this to be a suck, I am pretty sure she probably isn't even reading this currently.

She was my first illogical love. It made no sense to have a relationship with her but I pursued one anyway.

Then she was the first person I can truly say I had love at first site with. Yeah it may have been lust as well but I knew she had the goods upstairs as well.

Lately I have also realised that I love her unconditionally. I will take her however she is. Support her through anything and love her until the day I die.

Ok so at times the flight from San Fransico to Sydney was liek a rollercoaster!

Normally this would not scare me, but when you know your sitting inbetween a 747 pilot (the row behind) and his wife (sitting the row in front) and that she is turning around with a sheer look of terror on her face, you know it must be a little dicey. Also the flight attendents being buckled in and telling stragglers at the restroom that they must sit down before they become a projectile, well it must be bad!

Otherwise the flight was pretty decent for once I slept. I also met a German of Turkish decent and his girlfriend who were going to drive up the east coast. We swapped travel stories and the like and generally I helped him refine some of his english skills.

I finally got into my parents house a little while ago. I polished off a sausage rool, and am now goign to make a quick stop by the Sausage offices and then go and surprise my Grandmother.

Oh and boy is it hot here! Forty something celicus today. This will take some adjusting!

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

So I am sitting around here working and waiting. Waiting for that long endless flight over the Pacific Ocean to my country of origin in Australia. I say country of origin as I no longer know where to call home.

In many ways I think of my home with Karissa and Hayden as my home, but then again I am proud to be Australian and think of that entire country as home. I even now in smaller ways think of Kentucky as home.

I suppose I got my wish of being a global traveler and jet-setter. However it is not all it is cracked up to be!

All I need is to go up a level in the financial stakes so that I can afford to include a rest stop in Hawaii when going back and forth to Australia. Actually make that 3 or 4 levels as I would want to take Karissa and Hayden with me too! They love the ocean with a passion and we always have had the best times whenever we get within cooee of the beach!

Well today I take off for my Australia and West Coast trip. It is more work than pleasure but there will plenty of time for me to ponder life as I travel.

I am sure I will great times, meet interesting people and generally have fun. However it is a bit upsetting to be missing Hayden's 4th Birthday. I love spending time with my daughter and Karissa so it will be a bit different for all three of us over the next month or so.

Seeing my parents and sister are going home tomorrow and I am leaving for Australia on Saturday we gave Hayden an early birthday party.

It was Barbie all round! Cakes, plates, you name it, it was Barbie! No pics for public consumption though as I have to maintain my respectability!

We all had fun and Hayden received some really fun presents to play with.

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Are there times when you feel all is hopeless? That a task or situation cannot get any better? I would love to know what you do to get yourself out of the despair and overcome the problem. Or if you cannot overcome the problem how do you move on?

Ok I am only really blogging on at this time to tell anyone who is looking for a good hotel near the Mall of America, that the Eagan Holiday Inn Express has free high speed internet in every room. I am impressed yet for once have not really had the need to use it. This has been a trip to show my parents this mega-mall, and they have been somewhat impressed. Unfortunately Karissa is not feeling the best so we have had to cut it a little short. On the way home tomorrow we are stopping at some super outdoor sportsmen store just off I35.

Well I finally got to show my parents the some of the snow that we normally have to deal with in Des Moines! We only got 2-3 inches but it is still a bit of fun!

I also went out with dad for a "diner breakfast" at the Drake Diner. I love hashed browns!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

So for a it of comic relief we decided to take my parents and sister on a road trip and to meet Karissa's family in Kentucky.

Firstly we stopped in St Louis and saw the Gateway Arch, then we journeyed on to Memphis and saw Graceland. Then we spent the rest of the week in Kentucky, mainly spending time with family but also seeing a few of the local sites.

Let me elaborate a little.

The arch was great, the museum was interesting and I learned a lot about the Lewis and Clark expedition. The ride up the arch was nerve racking in the "tram" cars. I believe my sister was going to freak out completely until Hayden told her not to be a scardy cat!

Graceland was not as grand as I had imagined. Although I am no huge Elvis fan it was really interesting to get and insight into the kings life. It looked great and varied. I was surprised to see that he was so into gospel music and charity work.

Spending time with Karissa's family is always fun. I can truly say I like them all. Yes even her very enthusiastic sister who I have not always seen eye to eye with. I think my new outlook on life in general has helped with that relationship.

My family behaved themselves and got to meet anyone who is anyone in the family.

Anyway it was a great trip. I even got to watch some TechTV which I do not get here at home.

Well after a week in Kentucky I am am back, logged on and ready to work.

When I have caught up I will share some of the tales of our journey.

Mike Chandler posted a comment to my blog which noted that my posts has been quite inspiring of late. I am glad someone has picked up upon my change in thought and attitude. I have been doing a lot of reflecting on the past year, and have really seen this new year as a sort of rebirth or new beginning for a lot of the facets of my life.

If other people find this at all inspiring I am glad. It is nice to know other people can learn from my mistakes and be guided as they feel appropriate by my actions. I don't want to become any sort of guru, but it is nice to know that people listen and really think about what you have to say. I never intended this blog to become so personal but it has naturally. Natural is good if you ask me!

After a night in St Louis and a trip up the arch, I find myself in Memphis Tennessee. It appears that the parts of this town we have been through are fairly poor, and I definitely would not want to find myself walking through the neighborhoods I drove through. This portion of our road-trip is so my family can go to Graceland. We found out today that Elvis has his birthday on Wednesday so we are not sure how busy this shrine to the king will be. Also at $25 a pop I was expecting some hair-raising rides, although I know I will be sorely disappointed int hat department! We did see the old aircraft he use to fly around in as we drove past.

Back to this morning. The gateway to the west, the jefferson expansion memorial arch was amazing. The tram going up to the top was a little freaky but otherwise the views were amazing, the museum interesting, and the surrounding parkland was beautiful!

Tomorrow we hit Kentucky and my family gets to meet Karissa's family. This is sure to be similar to one of those old Soviet/US meetings of the post-cold war era. Fried food will probably be involved!

With this new year I really felt and knew that there were changes I needed to make in my life, if my life was to become a more fulfilling and happy one. For too long I had my priorities turned upside down. So now I look forward to this year being one of discovery, friendships and family.

I am not saying my work is not important to me, but at the rate I was going that was all I was going to end up with. I just need some definition between work and home life. A new office I am setting up in the next few months will be the first step in doing this.

Anyway have a nice day, whoever you may be, wherever you may be reading this!

So everywhere I go there seems to be something I need to correct or fix. This computer I left with my parents now has the noisest power supply ever. It looks like I will be able to treat myself to a trip to the computer stores and try and get myself either a new case or just a power supply. It will depend on price and the deal I can do.

I also see that it is a priority to get Jennifer at Sausage a new monitor. Unfortunately flat screens here are out of the question due to price, but I am sure I can find a good deal on a nice 19 inch CRT.

Also it has come to my attention that Jen is a thinkgeek fan! She has a couple of cool toys from there, including this thing you suction cup to a surface and drop marbles down.

Well so far I have had a Sausage Roll and a Mars Bar, foods I have not been able to obtain in the USA at all. Boy they are good.

However my mate Ray called me yesterday and organised a trip to nirvana. Yes Nepalese is on the menu Saturday night, so there will be no meals during the rest of the day so I can sample all of my favorite dishes!

I was thinking about my wife Karissa and some of the firsts I have had with her. I didn't realise some of them until I got to thinking. I am also not writing this to be a suck, I am pretty sure she probably isn't even reading this currently.

She was my first illogical love. It made no sense to have a relationship with her but I pursued one anyway.

Then she was the first person I can truly say I had love at first site with. Yeah it may have been lust as well but I knew she had the goods upstairs as well.

Lately I have also realised that I love her unconditionally. I will take her however she is. Support her through anything and love her until the day I die.

Ok so at times the flight from San Fransico to Sydney was liek a rollercoaster!

Normally this would not scare me, but when you know your sitting inbetween a 747 pilot (the row behind) and his wife (sitting the row in front) and that she is turning around with a sheer look of terror on her face, you know it must be a little dicey. Also the flight attendents being buckled in and telling stragglers at the restroom that they must sit down before they become a projectile, well it must be bad!

Otherwise the flight was pretty decent for once I slept. I also met a German of Turkish decent and his girlfriend who were going to drive up the east coast. We swapped travel stories and the like and generally I helped him refine some of his english skills.

I finally got into my parents house a little while ago. I polished off a sausage rool, and am now goign to make a quick stop by the Sausage offices and then go and surprise my Grandmother.

Oh and boy is it hot here! Forty something celicus today. This will take some adjusting!

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

So I am sitting around here working and waiting. Waiting for that long endless flight over the Pacific Ocean to my country of origin in Australia. I say country of origin as I no longer know where to call home.

In many ways I think of my home with Karissa and Hayden as my home, but then again I am proud to be Australian and think of that entire country as home. I even now in smaller ways think of Kentucky as home.

I suppose I got my wish of being a global traveler and jet-setter. However it is not all it is cracked up to be!

All I need is to go up a level in the financial stakes so that I can afford to include a rest stop in Hawaii when going back and forth to Australia. Actually make that 3 or 4 levels as I would want to take Karissa and Hayden with me too! They love the ocean with a passion and we always have had the best times whenever we get within cooee of the beach!

Well today I take off for my Australia and West Coast trip. It is more work than pleasure but there will plenty of time for me to ponder life as I travel.

I am sure I will great times, meet interesting people and generally have fun. However it is a bit upsetting to be missing Hayden's 4th Birthday. I love spending time with my daughter and Karissa so it will be a bit different for all three of us over the next month or so.

Seeing my parents and sister are going home tomorrow and I am leaving for Australia on Saturday we gave Hayden an early birthday party.

It was Barbie all round! Cakes, plates, you name it, it was Barbie! No pics for public consumption though as I have to maintain my respectability!

We all had fun and Hayden received some really fun presents to play with.

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Are there times when you feel all is hopeless? That a task or situation cannot get any better? I would love to know what you do to get yourself out of the despair and overcome the problem. Or if you cannot overcome the problem how do you move on?

Ok I am only really blogging on at this time to tell anyone who is looking for a good hotel near the Mall of America, that the Eagan Holiday Inn Express has free high speed internet in every room. I am impressed yet for once have not really had the need to use it. This has been a trip to show my parents this mega-mall, and they have been somewhat impressed. Unfortunately Karissa is not feeling the best so we have had to cut it a little short. On the way home tomorrow we are stopping at some super outdoor sportsmen store just off I35.

Well I finally got to show my parents the some of the snow that we normally have to deal with in Des Moines! We only got 2-3 inches but it is still a bit of fun!

I also went out with dad for a "diner breakfast" at the Drake Diner. I love hashed browns!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

So for a it of comic relief we decided to take my parents and sister on a road trip and to meet Karissa's family in Kentucky.

Firstly we stopped in St Louis and saw the Gateway Arch, then we journeyed on to Memphis and saw Graceland. Then we spent the rest of the week in Kentucky, mainly spending time with family but also seeing a few of the local sites.

Let me elaborate a little.

The arch was great, the museum was interesting and I learned a lot about the Lewis and Clark expedition. The ride up the arch was nerve racking in the "tram" cars. I believe my sister was going to freak out completely until Hayden told her not to be a scardy cat!

Graceland was not as grand as I had imagined. Although I am no huge Elvis fan it was really interesting to get and insight into the kings life. It looked great and varied. I was surprised to see that he was so into gospel music and charity work.

Spending time with Karissa's family is always fun. I can truly say I like them all. Yes even her very enthusiastic sister who I have not always seen eye to eye with. I think my new outlook on life in general has helped with that relationship.

My family behaved themselves and got to meet anyone who is anyone in the family.

Anyway it was a great trip. I even got to watch some TechTV which I do not get here at home.

Well after a week in Kentucky I am am back, logged on and ready to work.

When I have caught up I will share some of the tales of our journey.

Mike Chandler posted a comment to my blog which noted that my posts has been quite inspiring of late. I am glad someone has picked up upon my change in thought and attitude. I have been doing a lot of reflecting on the past year, and have really seen this new year as a sort of rebirth or new beginning for a lot of the facets of my life.

If other people find this at all inspiring I am glad. It is nice to know other people can learn from my mistakes and be guided as they feel appropriate by my actions. I don't want to become any sort of guru, but it is nice to know that people listen and really think about what you have to say. I never intended this blog to become so personal but it has naturally. Natural is good if you ask me!

After a night in St Louis and a trip up the arch, I find myself in Memphis Tennessee. It appears that the parts of this town we have been through are fairly poor, and I definitely would not want to find myself walking through the neighborhoods I drove through. This portion of our road-trip is so my family can go to Graceland. We found out today that Elvis has his birthday on Wednesday so we are not sure how busy this shrine to the king will be. Also at $25 a pop I was expecting some hair-raising rides, although I know I will be sorely disappointed int hat department! We did see the old aircraft he use to fly around in as we drove past.

Back to this morning. The gateway to the west, the jefferson expansion memorial arch was amazing. The tram going up to the top was a little freaky but otherwise the views were amazing, the museum interesting, and the surrounding parkland was beautiful!

Tomorrow we hit Kentucky and my family gets to meet Karissa's family. This is sure to be similar to one of those old Soviet/US meetings of the post-cold war era. Fried food will probably be involved!

With this new year I really felt and knew that there were changes I needed to make in my life, if my life was to become a more fulfilling and happy one. For too long I had my priorities turned upside down. So now I look forward to this year being one of discovery, friendships and family.

I am not saying my work is not important to me, but at the rate I was going that was all I was going to end up with. I just need some definition between work and home life. A new office I am setting up in the next few months will be the first step in doing this.

Anyway have a nice day, whoever you may be, wherever you may be reading this!

So everywhere I go there seems to be something I need to correct or fix. This computer I left with my parents now has the noisest power supply ever. It looks like I will be able to treat myself to a trip to the computer stores and try and get myself either a new case or just a power supply. It will depend on price and the deal I can do.

I also see that it is a priority to get Jennifer at Sausage a new monitor. Unfortunately flat screens here are out of the question due to price, but I am sure I can find a good deal on a nice 19 inch CRT.

Also it has come to my attention that Jen is a thinkgeek fan! She has a couple of cool toys from there, including this thing you suction cup to a surface and drop marbles down.

Well so far I have had a Sausage Roll and a Mars Bar, foods I have not been able to obtain in the USA at all. Boy they are good.

However my mate Ray called me yesterday and organised a trip to nirvana. Yes Nepalese is on the menu Saturday night, so there will be no meals during the rest of the day so I can sample all of my favorite dishes!

I was thinking about my wife Karissa and some of the firsts I have had with her. I didn't realise some of them until I got to thinking. I am also not writing this to be a suck, I am pretty sure she probably isn't even reading this currently.

She was my first illogical love. It made no sense to have a relationship with her but I pursued one anyway.

Then she was the first person I can truly say I had love at first site with. Yeah it may have been lust as well but I knew she had the goods upstairs as well.

Lately I have also realised that I love her unconditionally. I will take her however she is. Support her through anything and love her until the day I die.

Ok so at times the flight from San Fransico to Sydney was liek a rollercoaster!

Normally this would not scare me, but when you know your sitting inbetween a 747 pilot (the row behind) and his wife (sitting the row in front) and that she is turning around with a sheer look of terror on her face, you know it must be a little dicey. Also the flight attendents being buckled in and telling stragglers at the restroom that they must sit down before they become a projectile, well it must be bad!

Otherwise the flight was pretty decent for once I slept. I also met a German of Turkish decent and his girlfriend who were going to drive up the east coast. We swapped travel stories and the like and generally I helped him refine some of his english skills.

I finally got into my parents house a little while ago. I polished off a sausage rool, and am now goign to make a quick stop by the Sausage offices and then go and surprise my Grandmother.

Oh and boy is it hot here! Forty something celicus today. This will take some adjusting!

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

So I am sitting around here working and waiting. Waiting for that long endless flight over the Pacific Ocean to my country of origin in Australia. I say country of origin as I no longer know where to call home.

In many ways I think of my home with Karissa and Hayden as my home, but then again I am proud to be Australian and think of that entire country as home. I even now in smaller ways think of Kentucky as home.

I suppose I got my wish of being a global traveler and jet-setter. However it is not all it is cracked up to be!

All I need is to go up a level in the financial stakes so that I can afford to include a rest stop in Hawaii when going back and forth to Australia. Actually make that 3 or 4 levels as I would want to take Karissa and Hayden with me too! They love the ocean with a passion and we always have had the best times whenever we get within cooee of the beach!

Well today I take off for my Australia and West Coast trip. It is more work than pleasure but there will plenty of time for me to ponder life as I travel.

I am sure I will great times, meet interesting people and generally have fun. However it is a bit upsetting to be missing Hayden's 4th Birthday. I love spending time with my daughter and Karissa so it will be a bit different for all three of us over the next month or so.

Seeing my parents and sister are going home tomorrow and I am leaving for Australia on Saturday we gave Hayden an early birthday party.

It was Barbie all round! Cakes, plates, you name it, it was Barbie! No pics for public consumption though as I have to maintain my respectability!

We all had fun and Hayden received some really fun presents to play with.

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Are there times when you feel all is hopeless? That a task or situation cannot get any better? I would love to know what you do to get yourself out of the despair and overcome the problem. Or if you cannot overcome the problem how do you move on?

Ok I am only really blogging on at this time to tell anyone who is looking for a good hotel near the Mall of America, that the Eagan Holiday Inn Express has free high speed internet in every room. I am impressed yet for once have not really had the need to use it. This has been a trip to show my parents this mega-mall, and they have been somewhat impressed. Unfortunately Karissa is not feeling the best so we have had to cut it a little short. On the way home tomorrow we are stopping at some super outdoor sportsmen store just off I35.

Well I finally got to show my parents the some of the snow that we normally have to deal with in Des Moines! We only got 2-3 inches but it is still a bit of fun!

I also went out with dad for a "diner breakfast" at the Drake Diner. I love hashed browns!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

So for a it of comic relief we decided to take my parents and sister on a road trip and to meet Karissa's family in Kentucky.

Firstly we stopped in St Louis and saw the Gateway Arch, then we journeyed on to Memphis and saw Graceland. Then we spent the rest of the week in Kentucky, mainly spending time with family but also seeing a few of the local sites.

Let me elaborate a little.

The arch was great, the museum was interesting and I learned a lot about the Lewis and Clark expedition. The ride up the arch was nerve racking in the "tram" cars. I believe my sister was going to freak out completely until Hayden told her not to be a scardy cat!

Graceland was not as grand as I had imagined. Although I am no huge Elvis fan it was really interesting to get and insight into the kings life. It looked great and varied. I was surprised to see that he was so into gospel music and charity work.

Spending time with Karissa's family is always fun. I can truly say I like them all. Yes even her very enthusiastic sister who I have not always seen eye to eye with. I think my new outlook on life in general has helped with that relationship.

My family behaved themselves and got to meet anyone who is anyone in the family.

Anyway it was a great trip. I even got to watch some TechTV which I do not get here at home.

Well after a week in Kentucky I am am back, logged on and ready to work.

When I have caught up I will share some of the tales of our journey.

Mike Chandler posted a comment to my blog which noted that my posts has been quite inspiring of late. I am glad someone has picked up upon my change in thought and attitude. I have been doing a lot of reflecting on the past year, and have really seen this new year as a sort of rebirth or new beginning for a lot of the facets of my life.

If other people find this at all inspiring I am glad. It is nice to know other people can learn from my mistakes and be guided as they feel appropriate by my actions. I don't want to become any sort of guru, but it is nice to know that people listen and really think about what you have to say. I never intended this blog to become so personal but it has naturally. Natural is good if you ask me!

After a night in St Louis and a trip up the arch, I find myself in Memphis Tennessee. It appears that the parts of this town we have been through are fairly poor, and I definitely would not want to find myself walking through the neighborhoods I drove through. This portion of our road-trip is so my family can go to Graceland. We found out today that Elvis has his birthday on Wednesday so we are not sure how busy this shrine to the king will be. Also at $25 a pop I was expecting some hair-raising rides, although I know I will be sorely disappointed int hat department! We did see the old aircraft he use to fly around in as we drove past.

Back to this morning. The gateway to the west, the jefferson expansion memorial arch was amazing. The tram going up to the top was a little freaky but otherwise the views were amazing, the museum interesting, and the surrounding parkland was beautiful!

Tomorrow we hit Kentucky and my family gets to meet Karissa's family. This is sure to be similar to one of those old Soviet/US meetings of the post-cold war era. Fried food will probably be involved!

With this new year I really felt and knew that there were changes I needed to make in my life, if my life was to become a more fulfilling and happy one. For too long I had my priorities turned upside down. So now I look forward to this year being one of discovery, friendships and family.

I am not saying my work is not important to me, but at the rate I was going that was all I was going to end up with. I just need some definition between work and home life. A new office I am setting up in the next few months will be the first step in doing this.

Anyway have a nice day, whoever you may be, wherever you may be reading this!

So everywhere I go there seems to be something I need to correct or fix. This computer I left with my parents now has the noisest power supply ever. It looks like I will be able to treat myself to a trip to the computer stores and try and get myself either a new case or just a power supply. It will depend on price and the deal I can do.

I also see that it is a priority to get Jennifer at Sausage a new monitor. Unfortunately flat screens here are out of the question due to price, but I am sure I can find a good deal on a nice 19 inch CRT.

Also it has come to my attention that Jen is a thinkgeek fan! She has a couple of cool toys from there, including this thing you suction cup to a surface and drop marbles down.

Well so far I have had a Sausage Roll and a Mars Bar, foods I have not been able to obtain in the USA at all. Boy they are good.

However my mate Ray called me yesterday and organised a trip to nirvana. Yes Nepalese is on the menu Saturday night, so there will be no meals during the rest of the day so I can sample all of my favorite dishes!

I was thinking about my wife Karissa and some of the firsts I have had with her. I didn't realise some of them until I got to thinking. I am also not writing this to be a suck, I am pretty sure she probably isn't even reading this currently.

She was my first illogical love. It made no sense to have a relationship with her but I pursued one anyway.

Then she was the first person I can truly say I had love at first site with. Yeah it may have been lust as well but I knew she had the goods upstairs as well.

Lately I have also realised that I love her unconditionally. I will take her however she is. Support her through anything and love her until the day I die.

Ok so at times the flight from San Fransico to Sydney was liek a rollercoaster!

Normally this would not scare me, but when you know your sitting inbetween a 747 pilot (the row behind) and his wife (sitting the row in front) and that she is turning around with a sheer look of terror on her face, you know it must be a little dicey. Also the flight attendents being buckled in and telling stragglers at the restroom that they must sit down before they become a projectile, well it must be bad!

Otherwise the flight was pretty decent for once I slept. I also met a German of Turkish decent and his girlfriend who were going to drive up the east coast. We swapped travel stories and the like and generally I helped him refine some of his english skills.

I finally got into my parents house a little while ago. I polished off a sausage rool, and am now goign to make a quick stop by the Sausage offices and then go and surprise my Grandmother.

Oh and boy is it hot here! Forty something celicus today. This will take some adjusting!

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

So I am sitting around here working and waiting. Waiting for that long endless flight over the Pacific Ocean to my country of origin in Australia. I say country of origin as I no longer know where to call home.

In many ways I think of my home with Karissa and Hayden as my home, but then again I am proud to be Australian and think of that entire country as home. I even now in smaller ways think of Kentucky as home.

I suppose I got my wish of being a global traveler and jet-setter. However it is not all it is cracked up to be!

All I need is to go up a level in the financial stakes so that I can afford to include a rest stop in Hawaii when going back and forth to Australia. Actually make that 3 or 4 levels as I would want to take Karissa and Hayden with me too! They love the ocean with a passion and we always have had the best times whenever we get within cooee of the beach!

Well today I take off for my Australia and West Coast trip. It is more work than pleasure but there will plenty of time for me to ponder life as I travel.

I am sure I will great times, meet interesting people and generally have fun. However it is a bit upsetting to be missing Hayden's 4th Birthday. I love spending time with my daughter and Karissa so it will be a bit different for all three of us over the next month or so.

Seeing my parents and sister are going home tomorrow and I am leaving for Australia on Saturday we gave Hayden an early birthday party.

It was Barbie all round! Cakes, plates, you name it, it was Barbie! No pics for public consumption though as I have to maintain my respectability!

We all had fun and Hayden received some really fun presents to play with.

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Are there times when you feel all is hopeless? That a task or situation cannot get any better? I would love to know what you do to get yourself out of the despair and overcome the problem. Or if you cannot overcome the problem how do you move on?

Ok I am only really blogging on at this time to tell anyone who is looking for a good hotel near the Mall of America, that the Eagan Holiday Inn Express has free high speed internet in every room. I am impressed yet for once have not really had the need to use it. This has been a trip to show my parents this mega-mall, and they have been somewhat impressed. Unfortunately Karissa is not feeling the best so we have had to cut it a little short. On the way home tomorrow we are stopping at some super outdoor sportsmen store just off I35.

Well I finally got to show my parents the some of the snow that we normally have to deal with in Des Moines! We only got 2-3 inches but it is still a bit of fun!

I also went out with dad for a "diner breakfast" at the Drake Diner. I love hashed browns!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

So for a it of comic relief we decided to take my parents and sister on a road trip and to meet Karissa's family in Kentucky.

Firstly we stopped in St Louis and saw the Gateway Arch, then we journeyed on to Memphis and saw Graceland. Then we spent the rest of the week in Kentucky, mainly spending time with family but also seeing a few of the local sites.

Let me elaborate a little.

The arch was great, the museum was interesting and I learned a lot about the Lewis and Clark expedition. The ride up the arch was nerve racking in the "tram" cars. I believe my sister was going to freak out completely until Hayden told her not to be a scardy cat!

Graceland was not as grand as I had imagined. Although I am no huge Elvis fan it was really interesting to get and insight into the kings life. It looked great and varied. I was surprised to see that he was so into gospel music and charity work.

Spending time with Karissa's family is always fun. I can truly say I like them all. Yes even her very enthusiastic sister who I have not always seen eye to eye with. I think my new outlook on life in general has helped with that relationship.

My family behaved themselves and got to meet anyone who is anyone in the family.

Anyway it was a great trip. I even got to watch some TechTV which I do not get here at home.

Well after a week in Kentucky I am am back, logged on and ready to work.

When I have caught up I will share some of the tales of our journey.

Mike Chandler posted a comment to my blog which noted that my posts has been quite inspiring of late. I am glad someone has picked up upon my change in thought and attitude. I have been doing a lot of reflecting on the past year, and have really seen this new year as a sort of rebirth or new beginning for a lot of the facets of my life.

If other people find this at all inspiring I am glad. It is nice to know other people can learn from my mistakes and be guided as they feel appropriate by my actions. I don't want to become any sort of guru, but it is nice to know that people listen and really think about what you have to say. I never intended this blog to become so personal but it has naturally. Natural is good if you ask me!

After a night in St Louis and a trip up the arch, I find myself in Memphis Tennessee. It appears that the parts of this town we have been through are fairly poor, and I definitely would not want to find myself walking through the neighborhoods I drove through. This portion of our road-trip is so my family can go to Graceland. We found out today that Elvis has his birthday on Wednesday so we are not sure how busy this shrine to the king will be. Also at $25 a pop I was expecting some hair-raising rides, although I know I will be sorely disappointed int hat department! We did see the old aircraft he use to fly around in as we drove past.

Back to this morning. The gateway to the west, the jefferson expansion memorial arch was amazing. The tram going up to the top was a little freaky but otherwise the views were amazing, the museum interesting, and the surrounding parkland was beautiful!

Tomorrow we hit Kentucky and my family gets to meet Karissa's family. This is sure to be similar to one of those old Soviet/US meetings of the post-cold war era. Fried food will probably be involved!

With this new year I really felt and knew that there were changes I needed to make in my life, if my life was to become a more fulfilling and happy one. For too long I had my priorities turned upside down. So now I look forward to this year being one of discovery, friendships and family.

I am not saying my work is not important to me, but at the rate I was going that was all I was going to end up with. I just need some definition between work and home life. A new office I am setting up in the next few months will be the first step in doing this.

Anyway have a nice day, whoever you may be, wherever you may be reading this!

So everywhere I go there seems to be something I need to correct or fix. This computer I left with my parents now has the noisest power supply ever. It looks like I will be able to treat myself to a trip to the computer stores and try and get myself either a new case or just a power supply. It will depend on price and the deal I can do.

I also see that it is a priority to get Jennifer at Sausage a new monitor. Unfortunately flat screens here are out of the question due to price, but I am sure I can find a good deal on a nice 19 inch CRT.

Also it has come to my attention that Jen is a thinkgeek fan! She has a couple of cool toys from there, including this thing you suction cup to a surface and drop marbles down.

Well so far I have had a Sausage Roll and a Mars Bar, foods I have not been able to obtain in the USA at all. Boy they are good.

However my mate Ray called me yesterday and organised a trip to nirvana. Yes Nepalese is on the menu Saturday night, so there will be no meals during the rest of the day so I can sample all of my favorite dishes!

I was thinking about my wife Karissa and some of the firsts I have had with her. I didn't realise some of them until I got to thinking. I am also not writing this to be a suck, I am pretty sure she probably isn't even reading this currently.

She was my first illogical love. It made no sense to have a relationship with her but I pursued one anyway.

Then she was the first person I can truly say I had love at first site with. Yeah it may have been lust as well but I knew she had the goods upstairs as well.

Lately I have also realised that I love her unconditionally. I will take her however she is. Support her through anything and love her until the day I die.

Ok so at times the flight from San Fransico to Sydney was liek a rollercoaster!

Normally this would not scare me, but when you know your sitting inbetween a 747 pilot (the row behind) and his wife (sitting the row in front) and that she is turning around with a sheer look of terror on her face, you know it must be a little dicey. Also the flight attendents being buckled in and telling stragglers at the restroom that they must sit down before they become a projectile, well it must be bad!

Otherwise the flight was pretty decent for once I slept. I also met a German of Turkish decent and his girlfriend who were going to drive up the east coast. We swapped travel stories and the like and generally I helped him refine some of his english skills.

I finally got into my parents house a little while ago. I polished off a sausage rool, and am now goign to make a quick stop by the Sausage offices and then go and surprise my Grandmother.

Oh and boy is it hot here! Forty something celicus today. This will take some adjusting!

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

So I am sitting around here working and waiting. Waiting for that long endless flight over the Pacific Ocean to my country of origin in Australia. I say country of origin as I no longer know where to call home.

In many ways I think of my home with Karissa and Hayden as my home, but then again I am proud to be Australian and think of that entire country as home. I even now in smaller ways think of Kentucky as home.

I suppose I got my wish of being a global traveler and jet-setter. However it is not all it is cracked up to be!

All I need is to go up a level in the financial stakes so that I can afford to include a rest stop in Hawaii when going back and forth to Australia. Actually make that 3 or 4 levels as I would want to take Karissa and Hayden with me too! They love the ocean with a passion and we always have had the best times whenever we get within cooee of the beach!

Well today I take off for my Australia and West Coast trip. It is more work than pleasure but there will plenty of time for me to ponder life as I travel.

I am sure I will great times, meet interesting people and generally have fun. However it is a bit upsetting to be missing Hayden's 4th Birthday. I love spending time with my daughter and Karissa so it will be a bit different for all three of us over the next month or so.

Seeing my parents and sister are going home tomorrow and I am leaving for Australia on Saturday we gave Hayden an early birthday party.

It was Barbie all round! Cakes, plates, you name it, it was Barbie! No pics for public consumption though as I have to maintain my respectability!

We all had fun and Hayden received some really fun presents to play with.

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!