And just like that, a new car is sitting in the driveway. It’s funny how plans you think are the smartest turn out to be not so smart. We were going to buy out the lease on our truck, but it was financially smarter to lease a new hybrid vehicle instead…

I’ve been a case on the iPhone kind of guy forever, but I removed the case from my 14 Pro last night and actually like how it feels in my hands. I think I’ll give it a go for a bit…

I decided to switch over to a theme I’ve been tinkering with for a while now. It’s not quite complete, but having it “in production” will be the motivation to fix the little oddities that linger. When it’s ready for prime-time, I might make the repo available. We’ll see…

📷 The North Shore of O’ahu. More beautiful than I imagined it would be.

Laniakea Beach

📷 Sunrise over Waikiki.

Sunrise over Waikiki

Thirty years in between with lots of ups and downs, the story turned out just how we hoped it would. So grateful for our many blessings along the journey.

then

now

If you’re a Tinylytics for Micro.blog plugin user on Micro.blog, I promise it will get updates soon to match the great enhancements @vincent has recently made to his analytics platform, Tinylytics. Sometimes there are just not enough hours in a day anymore…

After more than six years working together virtually, I was finally able to meet my mentor in person at the Dreamforce 2023 conference. I credit this person with turning my career, personal life, and whole life outlook around. Im so grateful for his objectivity and brutal honesty over the years.

I successfully resurrected a late 2012 27" iMac I had sitting around with OpenCore Legacy Patcher. It’s now running macOS Ventura. Performance is not that bad considering the machine still has a spinning platter hard drive. I think I’ll install a SSD drive in a couple weeks and give it another go.

📷 The Unofficial Last Day of Summer in Surf City, USA.

Huntington Beach pier and volleyball players.

I just reserved airport parking for our upcoming Hawaii trip. It’s hard to believe that after booking the trip more than a year ago, it’s finally here. This is both the honeymoon we never had, and a celebration of 30 years of marriage. Yay us!

I’m back to WordPress using Amazon Lightsail. The speed is impressive and the cost is 30% better than Digital Ocean with better VPS specs. Setup was easy following Amazon’s instructions and other blog articles. Highly recommended.

Looking at the rain (4-6") and wind (gusts 40-60 mph) models for tropical storm Hillary in SoCal (Huntington Beach), it could prove to be a pretty wild weekend. Our place is barely above sea level. I think I might grab some sandbags tomorrow just to be safe.

It’s always so satisfying, and such a relief, to finally solve a blocking issue that’s stumped me for days and held up three other teams from completing their work. Maybe I can finally sleep tonight. Maybe…

📷 Thanks for the awesome Micro.blog decals and note, @jean!

Awesome Micro.blog decals from [@jean](https://micro.blog/jean).

So… I ground the beans for the coffee and set up the brewer to start at 4am before going to bed, just like usual… But I forgot to put the carafe under the basket. This got me four kitchen drawers filled with freshly brewed coffee, and ruined both a dining room rug and my wife’s morning. 🤦🏻‍♂️

I switched all my domains to iCloud Custom Email Domains from Google Workspace last night. Set up was really simple, even with family sharing. You do have to understand editing your own DNS though. For $2.99 (200GB plan) a month vs. $12 a month for two users, I think it’s worth it.

A follow up to my AirPod drama… I splurged extra for the AirPods Pro 2. As someone with extreme Meniere’s Disease, I struggle to hear anything in even mildly noisy situations. I’ve found Transparency mode to be a godsend. I tuned ambient noise off & can finally hear what’s being said to me. 🥹

I’m having a rough day it seems. My AirPods earbuds took a trip through the washer today because I stuck them in a shirt pocket rather than their case. Go me…

Ouch! I managed to spill coffee into (not onto… into) my favorite Apple aluminum wired keyboard today. I’m crushed. I’ve been using this keyboard for almost 15 years without trouble. My backup is the same model, but with a finicky space bar key. So it goes.