It has been a very stressful few weeks at work for me–way too many projects going on all at the same time. I like being busy and juggling things, but the 14 hour days are starting to wear on me a little. If the big dollars were rolling in, that would make me feel a little better, but as it is now, it just means I’m working for less money per hour now than I did in college. I still enjoy it overall, though, so I’ll keep plugging away and hopefully the big payday will come eventually.

Here are some of the things going on in my world right now:

• Los Angeles School. We signed a contract to help manage a charter school in the Los Angeles area beginning this fall. This project will involve travel, technology planning, training, purchasing, installation, security, remote access, network management, video conferencing and web development. All with a limited budget, too. I am excited by this one, but it carries a moderately high level of risk.
• Golfing in Minnesota Website. The first of a planned nine Minnesota Publishing Company websites, Golfing in Minnesota is in full swing (pardon the pun). The framework is in place and now I’m adding data and news on a daily basis. It’s great to be back in the golf business again, but the amount of information we are dispersing is staggering. The tees above are part of our new promotional campaign.
• Andrew Tank Golf. The assistant men’s golf coach at the University of Minnesota has hired us to do a personal website, following on the heels of the sites for head coach Brad James and the Golf Institute.
• The creators of the Minneapolis production of Bush is Bad – The Musical have hired us to do a show site similar to the one from the New York production.
• The HSRA/Studio 4 network of websites need some significant work done this summer to strengthen our branding, prepare for the LA school (and a potential 2008-09 New York school), raise funding for capital projects and roll out the new version of our student information management system, Project Excellence.
• Technology plans (and wish lists) for HSRA and the LA school need to be updated for 2007-08.
• The 2007 Tapemark Charity Pro-Am golf tournament at Southview Country Club in West Saint Paul is rapidly approaching (June 8-10). This will be immediately followed by Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
• A new charter school in St. Paul wants us to write a tech support proposal for them that would start this fall.

Those are just the things off the top of my head–there are many others in our project tracking system.

Busy, busy!

When we ordered the pool table for the office, we also bought a ping pong topper so we could use it as a conference table. I hadn’t actually played ping pong since college and forgot most of the rules (more at Wikipedia). Late last week, we set up the net and it’s been non-stop ping pong during break times since then. It takes more skill and physical effort than I remember, so not only is it fun, it’s good for you!

In honor of the new Twins season, here is a picture my brother took from spring training in Fort Myers, Florida, a few weeks ago. My dad, sister and brother went there for the first time this year and had a great time. Professional hockey, golf and football are more my thing, but I’ll likely be a bigger Twins fan if they ever get that nice new stadium built…

The picture from my dad’s surprise arrived last week:

What a finish to the season too! Hope they can sweep Oakland and beat up on New York too…DK

My dad turned 60 last week and we really surprised him (even though I almost blew it the night before). I told him I was taking him to the Twins game against Detroit and out for dinner before the game. We also told him my sister couldn’t get off of work (in Duluth) and that my brother wasn’t able to visit (from Orlando).

My brother had arranged to use frequent flier miles for a ticket, though, and I picked him up at 1:30. My sister also drove down from Duluth and we all surprised my mom while she was watching my kids after school. I purchased five tickets to the game, so I took two, while my brother, sister and mom snuck in the Metrodome while my dad and I were at dinner. We had my brother come up from behind us so he could tap my dad on the shoulder and tell him he was in his seat. It took him a few moments of fumbling for his ticket stub before he realized who it was.

Despite the Twins not coming through with a win, we all had a good night. My sister arranged to have a happy birthday message displayed on the scoreboard, which we saw during the sixth inning (and should get an emailed photo of soon). We had a nice dinner the following night too at Cherokee Sirloin Room in Eagan with a few more friends and family.

Next milestone birthday: my uncle in Spokane turns 60 in December…DK

The kids started lessons again at Wise Swim School in Apple Valley this weekend. I just love the programs and instructors at this school–highly recommended…DK