I’ve bee busy with work lately. Our second major web application project is nearing completion of the first phase. We’ve included almost all of the features we think the client will want and are in the process of preparing the project for the client to test. In the mean time I’ll be working on some change requests for our other clients.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about how to continue to develop my skills. I’m beginning to regret not taking the object oriented programing class when I was in college. To make up for the perceived lack of knowledge I’ve picked up a book and have started reading it and am trying to figure out what I should do to help make the information stick. I’m also hoping to have a Microsoft developer’s certification by the end of July or the beginning of August and would like to get a database certification as well. I’ve also realized that with all the applications we are trying to push to the web, I have very few design skills. I think what I have made so far is pretty good, but there is definately room for improvement so I’ve been looking for books and web sites to help me improve.

I’ve started coaching t-ball again. I’m the assistant coach for the Pirates (who don’t do anything). We’ve had 1.5 practices so far and I have not met the whole team yet. Hopefully next week we will have 7-9 players. The kids are doing very well, they seem to catch on pretty quickly, hopefully we will keep finding ways to challenge their skills so they will be able to continually improve.

House hunting has started to drive me crazy. There are so many options. I could live in a condo, a townhouse or a regular house. Aside from a good neighborhood, I really do not want to have to maintain a yard. Hopefully I can find a house in a good neighborhod with a home owner’s association that does the yard for a reasonable fee. The HOA maintained yard really contradicts with my not wanting to live where the HOA has a lot of rules. I don’t want to have to get permission to use my property, if I’m paying the mortgage I think I ought to be able to do what I want (within reason, I’m not going to create a dump or paint my house bubble gum pink). I have heard of neighborhood’s where the HOA will not let you work on your car unless it’s in the garage with the door closed.