Christopher T. Nitchie: Personal Stuff

Fri, 13 Dec 2002 00:18:32 GMT

Hey kids! I've moved! Be sure to update your bookmarks and newsfeeds.

Tue, 06 Aug 2002 03:16:43 GMT

I'll post more pictures as they come in. In the meantime, you should check out Zoe and Garth's wedding photos. They're gorgeous.

Tue, 06 Aug 2002 02:10:12 GMT

Married now. We've been home for exactly one week as of today.

The wedding was fantastic. It was held in Promised Land State Park, PA, which is in the Poconos. I take joy in the fact that my wedding was held in a place that a lot of people hold their honeymoon. Eveyone looked fabulous (but nobody cared, everybody was looking at Shannon); the minister gave a nice ceremony, and everyone seemed to think it was pretty nice. It was pretty short, too, which was a Good Thing; there was no air conditioning in the church and it was 90 degrees outside. Add 130 people in uncomfortable pews, and you've got a recipe for disaster if the ceremony is longer than about 30 minutes.

It did make for a somewhat painful picture-taking process. Shannon was miserable through the whole thing, which lasted about another half hour. I'm not used to wearing formal shoes, so by now my feet were killing me, which just added to the fun. This was, by far, the worst part of the whole wedding-reception process.

Then off to the reception, which was held at a place called Erhardt's, right on Lake Wallenpaupack. If you get married in northeastern Pennsylvania, have your reception here. These people really took great care of us. The back wall of the reception hall was lined with windows looking due west over the lake, which resulted in the most breathtaking sunset I've ever seen.

Our party favors were bubbles; we had a small bottle at every place setting. The tone for the reception was set when, during the first dance, some of Shannon's relatives came up and started blowing bubbles at us. Promptly thereafter, I changed into sneakers, which certainly loosened me up, and I think helped set the vibe in the rest of the room. In another highlght of the evening, our friend Juan caught the bouquet, raising some eyebrows among the more conservative of the friends of the family (the rest of our single guy friends prompty drew straws to decide who would propose). We had friends dancing with my mother, with each other, and with us. In short, it was a great party, and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Traveling sucks, paticularly when it involves 3 airports and 2 long car rides. We departed Sunday morning from Promised Land for JFK in NY. This took about two and a half hours; we arrived in plenty of time for our 3 PM flight to San Juan. This flight was about 3 and a half hours, putting us in San Juan at around 7:30. We sat in the bar, had a few drinks, and then hopped on a little prop plane (the Super ATR Turboprop), and 2 hours later landed at Vigie Airport in St. Lucia, which is essentially a long strip of concrete next to a shed, and we were very happy to finally be there.

But we weren't done yet. Still to come was a 24-mile car ride that took 80 minutes in a diminutive passenger van through the windiest roads I've ever seen. We didn't get to the hotel until 12:30 AM, at which point we were very, very sleepy and starting to feel a bit queazy due to the car trip.

Luckily, the resort was the Jalousie Hilton. If you're taking a vacation in St. Lucia, go here. Nestled right between the Pitons, it's a collection of villas overlooking the crystaline blue water of the eastern Carribbean. It's a truly breathtaking place. I'm very glad we got bumped from the Hyatt Regency; I can't imagine a more beautiful place for a honeymoon.

Of course, it helped that we had the best villa in the complex. We were told that we'd been booked in a mountainview villa with no plunge pool, so when the man driving us to our villa at 12:45 AM Monday morning asked us, "Did you request this villa?" we weren't sure what he was talking about. The villa was extremely spacious with high ceilings, a ceiling fan, and flower petals on the bed (which were replenished every day). Walking onto the deck, you're treated with a view of the Carribbean not 100 feet away; look right and there's Petit Piton staring you down (Gros Piton is hidden behind some trees to the left). Look down and, sure enough, there's a plunge pool, which is a private pool about 5x6, 4ish feet deep.

Exhausted though we were, we decided to take a quick dip in the plunge pool to relax after all that travel. So we went in for about 10 minutes, and then decided to go in and get some much-needed rest, only to discover that we'd locked ourselves out. So I drape a towel around myself (yes, we were wearing bathing suits) and start slogging back to the front desk, about 3/4 mile up the hill. Luckily, there was a security guy with a walkie-talkie about 100 yards down the road, and he took care of things for us. We didn't lock ourselves out again.

The only other debacle from the honeymoon was when I went snorkeling on Monday without putting any sunscreen on my lower back (at times I can be profoundly stupid). I'm still peeling. Other than that, we had some great meals, a stunningly beautiful and relaxing sunset sail, a tour to the heart of a volcano, we bathed in mineral springs, and on the last night lay on our deck looking at a brilliant starlit sky. The honeymoon could not have gone better.

The trip back was almost worse than the trip down (imagine 300 Puerto Ricans on a plane watching Gosford Park), this time involving an overnight in New York on my best man's futon in he and his girlfriends' third-floor un-air conditioned apartment in Queens, but we got home fine. I've been slowly but steadily getting back into work, Shannon is looking for both a job and a car, and is beginning to domesticate this place so it's more a home than a bachelor pad.

Over the weekend, we adopted a 4-month old short-haired kitten named Chloe. She got spayed this afternoon, and we brought her home tonight. She seems to be settling in nicely; this is already starting to feel like home.

Wed, 17 Jul 2002 00:19:21 GMT

The honeymoon troubles are solved; we're staying in a fantastic-looking resort that's gotten unanimously good reviews on Usenet; a set of villas on a hill overlooking the Carribbean, nestled in the jungled valley between two mountains on St. Lucia. The wedding is 4 days away; I leave tomorrow. I'm doing the final preparation, getting everything settled, making sure I'm not forgetting anything (note to self: grab an umbrella), and making sure the apartment is in decent shape for when I come home with my wife.

I can't wait.

Mon, 15 Jul 2002 13:38:02 GMT

As I switched off my alarm this morning, I had the thought: There's only one more time that I'll do that alone. Pretty wild. I leave Wednesday for New York, where I'll spend a day and a half with my best man and his girlfriend and some other buddies, some of which I haven't seen since College. Then on Friday we drive to Pennsylvania to meet up with Shannon and her family and take care of some pre-wedding business. Saturday, we get married, and Sunday we leave for a week in the Caribbean.

At least, I hope we leave for a week in the Caribbean. On Friday, I called the resort just to verify the reservation, and it turns out it's in receivership; it's no longer operating, and hasn't been since March. I was never notified, not by the hotel, not by Travelocity, and not by GoGo Travel, the third-party travel agency Travelocity used to make the reservations. Needless to say, panic ensued. I've been back and fourth with Travelocity about 5 times, finally talking to somebody who sounded like she could do something on Saturday afternoon. However, GoGo was closed at the time, so I have to wait until today to sort things out.

I wonder if there isn't a travesty for every wedding. Garth and Zoe had their problem with the guy making their wedding clothes, and now this. Ah, well. Hope it all works out. Today's big task: Packing.

Mon, 01 Jul 2002 03:47:41 GMT

I'm not allowed to go to Border's. Whether I need to or not, I always wind up buying a few things. It's awful. No matter how much I tell myself, "OK, you've got about ten books you need to read, you're up on your movie collection and there's no music you want, and besides, self, you don't have too much extra money, so we'll just not buy anything this time."

It was just as I was finishing this little litany that I saw Neil Gaiman's new book. I can't not buy a new Gaiman book. So I'm adjusting my stack, putting Coraline on the top. Great website, by the way.

Mon, 01 Jul 2002 03:37:26 GMT

Here's an excellent article in the New York Times about what needs to happen for the Music industry to adjust to the internet.

Sun, 30 Jun 2002 22:10:03 GMT

I got an e-mail from an unknown e-mail address with some interesting links relating to yesterday's post. First, a story called The Right to Read by Richard Stallman. Second, a site drawing parallels between Microsoft's Palladium project and that story.

Here's some more information.

Here's a story on an AMD motherboard design that could make Palladium work. AMD and Intel have agreed to work with Microsoft on Palladium.
Here's the original Newsweek story on Palladium via MSNBC. Note: the MS in MSNBC stands for Microsoft. Under Palladium, you probably wouldn't be able to read this article unless you had a subscription to Newsweek or MSNBC. If you could read it, you couldn't download it or save it on your computer for future reference.
Dave's words.
Good article on The Register (dubbing Palladium "Windows 1984").
Lots more stuff on Google.

Sat, 29 Jun 2002 19:40:56 GMT

Bob Cringely has the story on how Microsoft is going to take over the web. This will obliterate the web-as-commons paradigm and set the web up as nothing more than another Cable TV system, where large companies get to use it to distribute their content. It leaves their competition, most notably Linux, out in the cold. The article is a little technical, but I think it'll be pretty readable to everybody. This is important.

Fri, 28 Jun 2002 13:37:05 GMT

Where's Waldo?

Fri, 28 Jun 2002 13:36:25 GMT

IOL : The cow, the car and the driver's wife: "A couple touring the west Austrian Salzburg Alps got the shock of their lives when their car was hit by a falling cow, police said on Thursday. In the incident on Wednesday, the couple were emerging from under an overhead wooden scaffolding to protect drivers from avalanches when the cow crashed down on their bonnet. " [Phil Ackley's Radio Thingumabob]

Thu, 27 Jun 2002 14:02:42 GMT

A few quick links:

The pledge is unconstotutional. When I was in school, I just didn't say the "under God" part.

I need to watch more tennis.

Proposed redesign of the WTC. Neat looking, but I don't know how realistic it is. Dig the Twin Peaks background music! (I still like this one).

Thu, 27 Jun 2002 13:53:51 GMT

Just a quick note before work. I'm still here. I'd just about given up on the ol' blog, but I've gotten two e-mails in the last 24 hours via the mail link, so I guess people are still finding it and care enough to contact me.

Brett pointed out that my link to Deadly Bloody Serious was pointing to the wrong place. I see he's been helping Garth out, too.

And speaking of Garth, I got an e-mail from his fiancee (later: nope, she's his wife now, congrats!), Zoe, thanking me for the post below.

I've been spending most of my spare time enjoying the Michigan summer, being social, taking care of Wedding business, and writing a whole lot of freelance code. I've had to rewrite something I did last year due to some performance problems that were very, very deep in the architecture. It's been a lot of work, but a lot of fun.

Wedding gifts continue to trickle in. There are a few errant RSVPs out there that are causing some trouble with the seating chart at the reception, which is a big problem all by itself; we think there will be around 130 people to arrange. Shannon's doing most of the work, and she's doing a fantastic job.

Now that most of my freelance code is done, I'll be posting somewhat more often.

Fri, 10 May 2002 04:37:07 GMT

25 years ago today, I was born.

For the first half of today, though, it didn't really feel that special. Sometime after 16 and before 25 birthdays seem to have stopped being Birthdays with a capitol 'B'. Now, granted, I was awakened this morning by my parents singing "Happy Birthday" on the phone, which was a great way to start the day. But once I got to work this morning, it felt like Thursday, not a holiday.

Part of it I'm sure was that Shannon was out of town, and all I had planned today was go to work, go home, eat some food, talk to family on the phone and go to bed.

However, that all changed at around 1 this afternoon. I gave a presentation to some members of the power circle at my company based on some things I've been working on for about three weeks, and all indications seem to be that it was a pretty big hit, if not a home run. Today may well be the day that kick-starts the next phase in my career as a software developer.

Then my boss, who is a fantastic guy and a fantastic boss and a good friend, took me out to dinner in down town Ann Arbor with some other people, and had a really nice time. I got home just in time to watch the sun set behind the lake; I went out to a nature trail near my apartment and got some great photos.

I had dinner last night with another close friend, and again had a great time. I've gotten a slow trickle of cards and gifts in the mail this week. I'm feelin' the love, and it feels great.

As Dave said a few days ago,

"Early May, in the northern hemisphere, is a time of renewal. Everything is waking up, gardens are starting to bloom, babies are being born in the animal kingdom. It's the best possible birthday, imho."

I know what he means (happy belated birthday, Dave).

Fri, 10 May 2002 04:29:42 GMT

Garth's fiancee has a weblog. It's one of the most beautifully designed weblogs I've seen. I'm getting married in 72 days, and it's great fun to track another couple's trials and tribulations.

Shannon is in Ohio for the summer, doing things like getting dress alterations and putting together favors with her sister (bubbles with ribbon and mesh; they got to 120 today) and window settings and writing up the seating chart and all sorts of fabulous stuff. Garth, Zoe, from one couple to another (heck, from one side of the planet to the other), good luck. Ain't weddings grand?

Fri, 10 May 2002 04:12:12 GMT

Bert is still evil. Bert, Bert, Bert. Will you never learn? Link Discuss (Thanks, tonx!)
bOing bOing via Phil Ackley's Radio Thingumabob

Fri, 10 May 2002 04:10:49 GMT

Political Correctness gone amok on Tolkien?. Petitiononline.com is hosting a petition from some people that were "affected" by the most recent attack on the World Trade Center. The petition is entitled Rename 'The Two Towers' to Something Less Offensive Petition. [kuro5hin.org]

Tue, 23 Apr 2002 03:43:58 GMT

Phil Ackly posts a list of dog rules my father can appreciate.

Mon, 15 Apr 2002 23:56:47 GMT

Well, I'm all moved. I'll post some pictures... as soon as I find my camera. But first I've got to pay some bills... as soon as I can find my checkbook. And I'll do all of this just as soon as my body decides to stop being a giant, aching sore.

I hate moving.

Wed, 10 Apr 2002 01:32:53 GMT

Man oh man, do I hate moving. If there's anything I hate more than moving, it's taxes. And I've had to do both this week.

I'm normally a pretty laid-back kind of guy, but between the taxes and the moving and the job I've felt much more stressed than usual. I haven't been getting to bed until the wee hours of the morning, and then I have trouble sleeping. My appetite is off. I'm feeling fatter than usual (note to self, start an exercize regimen... sometime), and this afternoon I got one hell of a nosebleed, and I almost never get those. Next week can't come soon enough.

Tue, 09 Apr 2002 04:24:52 GMT

Now "Micah" has actually used the phrase "usable toothpaste" on his weblog. Someone, please, help him, he's out of control.

Tue, 09 Apr 2002 00:21:53 GMT

"Micah" seems to think that I can help his weblog go up in page rankings. As if I were his link whore or something. You know, I have more valuable things to offer than links! Links, links links. I feel so used.

Sun, 07 Apr 2002 06:35:24 GMT

I found out this week that I'm moving next week. One week from today I'll be in a new apartment, about 200 feet from the one I'm in now. We're getting a slightly larger apartment with a guest bedroom that I can use as an office and Shannon can use as a place to store her barbies.

Sun, 07 Apr 2002 06:29:56 GMT

It's official. My brother Mike is going to Northwestern for music. Congrats and kudos!

Sun, 07 Apr 2002 06:27:52 GMT

Well, despite many trials and travails, I finally finished my taxes tonight. Normally I would have finished them long before now, but I was delayed because Administaff, who was my employer for the first half of the year while I lived in Georgia, took forever to get me my W-2. The final calculation was painful because of the interstate move halfway through the year, and so had to figure the percentage going to Michigan by figuring the ratio of income earned in each state, dividing adjustmants appropriately, turning three times and spitting.

After all this, peace in the Middle East should be a breeze. Next year I'm definitely getting help.