It has been a fun filled and exciting time these last few months. We've launched a great bunch of projects and are working on the next batch - but, for the next week, I am NOT available. I am heading into the woods and I won't be back until the 29th of August. I thought you all should know since I am sure you're just chomping at the bit and waiting for my next post. We've got people staying in our place, the pugs are at the Dog Hotel of awesome, and I think I am leaving my phone in a fish tank somewhere. 

I intend on writing and sorting some of those posts I have written but haven't published. I am having to call them "From The Vault" or something like that since there are so many of them, I lost count, and quite a few of them are more than a year old. It is one of those things that happens when you're trying to be all "creative and stuff". The creative stuff got a little out of hand and I wasn't able to complete them. That is the way it goes, I guess. You can't let yourself get bogged down in the details until you've got a first draft done.

Thus, I head into the woods to recharge the batteries for a week and get back a little perspective.

So long, suckas! See you on the flip side.

Have you been thinking about what you want to do in 2011? I have - a lot. I have been thinking up ways to get my time back.

2010 has been a busy year of growth at the day job and we've been more than just busy - we've been uber-crazy busy. We've been so busy, you can't seen our feet any more as we're most likely running - well, mentally, at least. Our great bunch at the office have been helping me out to try and gain a little sanity back. I also own a lot of blame for this as I have been doing such a good job at making sure I am doing non-work related activities as well. But, it is hard. When it comes to my work, I am ultra-responsible to the point where it drives some people bonkers.

• "Take some time off today, Shane."
• "Dude, do you really have to do that technical thing right now?"
• "You're going home at some point, right?"
• "Ummm, you look like a crazy person. When did you last shave?"

I kid you not, there are days (thankfully, very rarely) when I get questions like that. So, I declare, here and now: "2011, you and me are going to have words."

So, to get me fired up again, and re-claiming a bit of my day - I present to you a video I put together over the last weekend. It is made up of some videos that I took when Serendipity, our oldest and most princess-like pug, because sick when she was only about seven months old. I did have these videos online some time ago but Google Video lost them for a year or so. Nothing fancy, just a good tale.

Oh, and by the way, we spent about $12,000 on her due to her spinal issue. Now, if that isn't responsibilty tied with love, I don't know what is.

When you are part owner in a small start up company, it can be very hard to make time for yourself. You work a whole lot in an attempt to make sure that you are on top of practically everything. Whether or not that is a smart thing, as a business owner, you can't help but want to make sure everything is looked at once - at least. The drawback to this is you find it hard to make time your life and, rarely, do you get to "smell the flowers".

I suppose this is why I haven't been blogging here like I wish I did. I have a rich life and a great number of opinions. You'd think I would be lathering up and chattering about something every single day. (An aside: I also hate writing these kinds of posts where I try to explain why I am not here as much as I would like - but what can you do. It seems to be a blogger trait. We love to think that we have a readership that cares - but, apparently, I am an ass.)

So, what is with my melancholy? When I woke up on Saturday morning, I did something very out of character. I hit the snooze button. A few minutes later (about 9 minutes, isn't it?) I reached over and hit it again. The third interruption found me turning it off. The next thing I knew, it was 11:30am on a Saturday morning and I hadn't even taken the dogs out for a walk yet. They didn't seem to mind, though, as they were cuddled together between us and happily snoring away. This, my friends, is highly unusual for me and I have a little nagging guilt about it. I don't remember the last time I slept in past 7am. I had a birthday marathon that kept me up until 2am a couple of weeks ago and I was up before 8am the next day. How crazy is that? My last visit to my parents home was the same way. Normally, I sleep like a baby and take as much time as I want. But, dammit, if I wasn't up at 7am every single day.

I don't want anyone who reads this to think that I am complaining. I am not. I am rewarded for the hard work I put in and if sleep is getting a back seat, then who am I to argue. I get to meet new people all the time. I am able to work on interesting projects. It is just that, some days, you wish you could fit everything into your life and, somehow, I am either blaming a lack of sleep or my ability to squeeze more things into my day by not sleeping. What I think I am really writing about here is a post about my recognition that I can't fit everything in and to force myself to remember that I do get a lot of joy from what I am managing to do.

I think I will end this one off by saying with something a famous engineer once said: "When it's important, you make the time." Damn you, Mr. Scott. Damn you!