/dev/null

On Tuesday I spent the day at the Minnesota High Tech Association spring conference. AaronF was on a panel and did a session on using wikis in education and I came with to man the booth. As a developer, I’m obviously not the best person to be manning the booth, but it was a good experience for me.

Most of the people who stopped by the booth didn’t know what a “wiki” even was so it was fun doing a little education. Some people looked utterly confused while others “just got it” right away. There were a couple of people who said things along the lines of “I was trying to find the phone number of my daughters teacher and she said ‘we’ll just check the wiki’!” It obvious that the millenial-generation is FAR ahead of the rest of us

I didn’t get to attend any sessions but did have a chance to talk to some interesting folks. The event made me realize once again that there is a fantastic technology community in Minneapolis/St. Paul. I ran into my old boss from Digineer who I worked for before defecting to MindTouch. Digineer continues to grow and is doing very well which is great to hear.

The coolest booth at the show belonged to the Tronix Team. These guys do after school programs with kids where they help the kids build electronics projects. They showed a fantastic Lunchbox Boombox and a great push-to-talk speakerphone which when used with some donated international calling cards allowed some immigrant students to call their families back home. I was just blown away by the coolness and practicalness of that project. I’ve emailed them and am hoping I can volunteer sometime…really great stuff.

The conference also gave me a chance to catch up with Aaron and Mark (who’s now working at Ideapark).

So the verdict is in: tradeshows aren’t my bag, but some interaction with the local tech community is good for me

So lately I’ve been in the house hunting game. I’m sick of living in my 650sq ft apartment and have _finally_ decided it’s time to buy something. I’ve been looking primarily in the Como neighborhood since I’m familiar with that area, it’s fairly central, and has good access to biking trails/parks/etc.

I’ve looked at both townhomes and single family homes, and I’m torn. In some respects a townhouse is nice since it requires minimal maintenance but I _really_ dig the idea of having my OWN house (and a yard, grill, garden, basement). Two weeks ago Mare and I found a really great house that we both really liked. Unfortunately, it was just slightly above what I wanted to pay. It was originally listed for 290k but had been on the market for nearly a year and was recently dropped to 260k. I kind of put it out of my mind and hoped to find something else. That was a mistake…

Today my parents were in town (I drove the to the airport so they could go to Florida and escape the northern tundray) and I showed it to them. They thought it was a great house and told a story of when they bought their first house (which was also above their price point, and the house that I grew up in). My mom said that buying that home and paying a little more was the best decision they ever made. They said that I should make a low offer and just see what happens.

So I made a big step and called my relater to have her draft a purchase agreement. As the time past I got really excited about the possibility of _finally_ owning a home. A short while later she called me back and said that JUST TODAY the house had been sold. CRAP! Needless to say it was a bit of a letdown. In the back of my mind I keep hoping that something falls through, but it sounds like a done deal. Oh well, back to the drawing board I guess.

I guess the only good part of the story is that I was within clicks of selling my MSFT stock (which I’ve been saving for a long time specifically for this purchase) and now it gives me some time to watch the market more closely. I still feel a little bummed though. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be and I hope something equally as good comes along.

I’m excited for the weekend. Mare and I are headed up to Bemidji to spend Easter with my brother Andy. He’s super excited to have visitors and we’re taking him bowling on Saturday. He’s gonna be down in a couple weeks for Special Olympics basketball so I’ll get to see him then too. We’re driving up with my sis, and my other sister (and her boyfriend) are driving from Grand Marais to meet us. My other little bro is meeting us on Saturday and grandma and grandpa and my aunt are driving down to join us for Easter Sunday.

It’ll be great to spend time with the family and have a nice weekend off