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I was contacted by a potential new client about building a web site for them. They’re a pretty big company, so, like all big companies, they have a Process for bidding on projects. In this case, they won’t even tell me precisely what kind of web site they need until I’ve completed a company profile on a system called Ariba.

From what I can tell, Ariba is a tool intended to let companies like this engage companies like mine as contractors. So, fine, I went ahead and filled out the profile. It was onerous and pretty invasive– asking for financial information, proof of liability insurance, employment histories, and so forth. But hey, this is a big company and maybe that means big bucks for a web project, so I forged ahead.

Half an hour later, after I’d submitted the profile, Ariba informed me that based on my company profile, there were 18 other companies who were looking for contracts I could fulfill! Yay!

Curious, I clicked to learn more.

Ha ha, just kidding, Zing Studios! You’re such a sucker.

Nice, Ariba. I just hope this is worth the effort.

Today’s winner for best spam message:

The message doesn’t actually say what they’re selling, but it’s apparently related to a “Dr. MaxMan”. What a cool name!

I guess it has something to do with growing vegetables. Maybe an organic fertilizer?

Last night, as part of our continuing quest to make cookies and deliver them to random people, we decided to take a plate of chocolate-chip deliciousness to the local fire station. It was about eight o’clock at night, but of course firemen are always on duty, so we rang the bell and presented the cookies.

It may have been a slow night, because they invited us in for a tour of the station. We spent about an hour talking with Monty (the lieutenant), Todd (the engineer), and Amy (the paramedic). The three of them have been working the same shift for years– Monty, in fact, has been a fireman for 38 years. They’re good friends and love working together. They showed us the trucks, talked about how calls come in and are dispatched, told us about their training, and on and on. We had a lot of questions and ended up having a great time. The level of experience and dedication these guys possess is pretty impressive. It’s good to know we’re in good hands in an emergency.

This morning Zack was on the couch with his water bottle and he dropped it. It landed like this:

Now what?

April showers bring… snow, I guess.

For most of April, it’s felt like November or something. The past few days have brought cold, grey, drizzly days that eventually turned to snow. I suspect this year we’re just going to skip over spring and go right into summer.

As a guy who typically eats pizza several times a week, the last 16 days have been pretty hard. Since I’ve been sick, I haven’t been eating my “normal” diet, and given my runny nose and hacking cough, a half-pound of mozzarella cheese probably wouldn’t have been a good idea.

But today I was able to end my fast. Brian and I went out to Parry’s Pizzeria and enjoyed a half-pound of mozzarella with an obnoxious amount of grease.

Ahh, it’s good to be back in the saddle.

So Kyra went out to prom last night with her long-time friend Ricky, who looked dashing in a white suit.

It almost didn’t happen… Ricky lives in Utah and had been planning to drive out here, but was involved in a car accident a few days ago. His friend, who had been planning to come as well, ended up cancelling. In the end, Ricky bought an airline ticket and showed up ready to roll. Now that’s dedication! (Or a serious crush on my daughter.)

It was spring break, Zack was off with friends (as always), and the rest of us were sitting around home wondering what to do. Kyra’s friend Chaille was bored as well, and lounging on our couch. Laralee was just getting over a cold, and I hadn’t yet started mine, so we decided to go bowling. Because, why not?

Of course all of us were terrible, but that’s not the point. The point of bowling, as everyone knows, is to launch the ball down the lane with the most speed possible so it absolutely crashes through the pins and knocks them over with sheer momentum.

It’s also important to have a little dance prepared for when you get a strike. Here’s Kyra showing hers.

(I had quite a few little dance moves, which naturally irritated Laralee, who only had one or two strikes all day.)

We’d paid for 90 minutes, which was just about enough time for three games with four people. As the minutes wound down, though, we realized we weren’t going to quite be able to finish the last game. So the final three or four frames became sort of a comical speed-bowling competition, where we were often tossing the ball down the lane before the little gate had been pulled up. Luckily there weren’t any incidents like that time at Dirk’s 15th birthday party (long story).

Here are the three ladies looking all professional or something.

And of course I always look good.

For a long time, Zack has been planning to buy one of those goofy rubber horse heads. We keep telling him it’s a waste of money and after about five minutes he’ll get bored of it, but it doesn’t squash his dream.

A couple of weeks ago, Laralee was putting together an order on Amazon and needed to spend a few extra dollars to hit the free shipping threshold (yeah, we’re too cheap for Prime). So she dropped a horse head in the cart, and a few days later we had it. Zack didn’t know, and he was off at his friends’ house when it arrived. Kyra put it on and sat on the couch, and he came in, saw her, and was confused. “I didn’t know you wanted a horse head too!” he said. Kyra told him it was for him, and he practically melted. He gave her a big hug and told her what an awesome sister she is.

Here it is in all its glory:

Ahh, Zack. Sometimes I don’t know about that kid.

I found a few more photos from our adventures with Thom, Katie, and Julian a few weeks ago.

All of us headed down to Boulder to hike at Chautauqua, which is a popular trail leading into the foothills on the western edge of town. It was a gorgeous day and fairly crowded on the trail.

Julian might sometimes wonder about that weird cousin of his…

We’re resting at the top of the Flatirons:

Thom gazes out at the rest of the Flatirons, with Spivey (?) peeking out of his pack.

Zack and Julian “ride the dragon”, so to speak, in a park in Golden:

Here are Thom and Katie at the peak of Copper Mountain:

Good times as ever.