Our weekend was amazing; relaxing in an old log cabin with a wood burning stove, hiking in the autumn leaves, and walking through the mud of a drained lake. Herrington Manor and Swallow Falls have always had a special place in my heart but even more so now.

I’m super excited to begin planning a life with her. Though, I didn’t expect to be planning the wedding so quickly! After searching about 20 venues and realizing no one had any openings for next fall we realized the importance of making plans and setting a date now. No luck finding anything yet. But I have hopes we’ll find something soon.

Herrington Manor engagement

My point of saying this isn’t to rattle the cage too much, it’s more to talk about the unknown (or known) and how challenges are sometimes the thing we remember and appreciate most in life. I won’t lie: The idea of a dreary Saturday searching for wood while I get poured on isn’t the most attractive idea ever. Yet, with the right outlook, it might end up being one of the most rewarding things you could end up doing. Out of all the adventures I’ve taken, it’s the ones with some kind of adversity that I remember best. It really makes you appreciate when everything is “just right.” It brings a little sense and modesty to an individual.

Some of my trips have been relaxing and smooth. Others, not so much. That’s just the gamble you take. But regardless of what is given, I hope I can continue to appreciate and take the opportunities that are given.

All that to say, once I’m done my home renovations and I plan a trip, you two aren’t getting off so lightly. Have fun this weekend, come help me with my house if you get bored, and definitely make sure to invite me along next trip.

The dances never actually stopped. Lots of people sent emails and as of right now there will be no changes with Austin Grill. Meaning, if you want to dance and want to show your support, come out with us sometime this or next week. Up to date information can be found weekly on Charm City Swing’s mailing list, located here.

If you’ve ever been there dancing or ever wanted to, or have been dragged along by me and enjoyed your time there, now is the time to act. Send an email to Bill Duffy. Tell him how much you loved Austin Grill. Tell him how great it was. Tell him how you see the ads for dancing at Austin Grill in the papers ALL the time. Here’s what I said:

Hi Bill,
I just wanted to tell you how disappointed I was to hear Austin Grill decided to stop hosting swing dancing on Monday nights. I’ve been at Austin Grill nearly every Monday since March 14, 2005 when it first started and honestly can’t imagine what my life would be like without it. Honestly! I met my girlfriend there the week it started. I’ve made countless friends, including much of the bar staff. It is literally THE BEST reason to live in Baltimore. It was a wonderful and unique venue, the staff there has been incredibly supportive and friendly, and your food is awesome. I speak for many of my family and friends — Austin Grill will not be the same without it and we will all terribly miss this event.

Unfortunately, the decision has been made. Unless someones mind is changed, there is no more dancing at Austin Grill. We’re looking for other venues. We want one with a big floor, a parking lot, and a safe neighborhood.

And most unfortunately, this isn’t a good time for Dorry, Sommer, Emily, or me, or anyone who might actually be able to help rescue it.

In fact, I’ve thought multiple times how instead of an “unlock code” on my iPhone (to prevent people spying on my mail, etc. if I were to lose it) I could just have some type of swipe or gesture that would unlock it for me. Swiping: Wave of the finger future. Pun intended.

We had a blast. I’m pretty sure the combination of alcohol + good food + company was just about perfect. The beach was amazing: sunny, warm, and windy.

When you do a vacation like that, you have to do it right. Pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Skip the lunch. Big dinners: filet mignon kabobs, homemade pizzas, homemade biscuits, etc. And even a fancy dinner in downtown Charlestown. We know how to eat and we know how to eat right, baby!

Best thing of all: I didn’t bring along my computer. I had everything completely wrapped up here at work. And nothing catastrophic happened! For realz.

[Update: I uploaded the pictures to PicasaWeb. I'd have deleted some of these but I figure people who were at the vacation would like to see copies, even if they are bad.]

My fourth time ever skiing (and having tried slalom skiing a couple times before), I felt comfortable enough to give up on the two ski thing and go slalom. I finally made it up out of the water on my first start (yeah!) but fell after just a few seconds. Second try, I got up and stayed up for a good long run. That was my first time ever doing so and quite exciting.

Round two came along and I opted to wake board. Having never done it before, I wondered what it’d be like. It’s definitely easier than slalom skiing. I’m not sure if it was more fun or not. The idea of jumping off the wake is cool but I had a hard time keeping my balance enough to even move through the wake, much less try and jump. I did face-plant a few times. Sommer and the others laughed at me but as I told her, if I’m going to hurt, I might as well hurt and give everyone else a little entertainment.

What fun! I can’t wait to go again.

So you can imagine my dismay when, after installing on my pwned (hacked) phone and thinking to myself, “this is a good product, perhaps I should buy it” I ran into a brick wall:

No. Not happening. You just can’t do this, no matter how cool your software is! This screen says two things to me:

1. Developer is overly confident that their software is the bomb, will never fail, never break, never act differently than a user might expect.
2. Developer wants distance from the users of his/her product because users like me are dumb and will contact them about stuff they just don’t want to be bothered with, like their bomb-less application crashing.

It’s great developers are finding an outlet outside of Apple’s App Store to sell applications but this one is not for me.