July 2026

Baseball season officially has come to a close this month. My oldest's team was eliminated in their first playoff game. They were seeded in the top tier bracket and played a very good team. It was a great game of actual baseball but ultimately they just didn't have enough to pull it off. How they played in their final game might be one of my favorite things about his season this year, everything coming together on the ball field.

We experienced something that game that was completely new and shocking: one of the opposing players was ejected by the umpire for using foul language. Per the rules that is an ejectable offense and blue had had enough of that kid.

I never ever had to worry about that happening to one of our boys. They all were polite, respectful, and uplifting to each other. An amazing team to be a part of. Up next will be getting ready for Fall Baseball. We'll be pulling together a team and gearing up next month.

We had a great 4th of July. It's crazy that it's America's 250th birthday this year. There are some cracks in our democracy starting to show. Some alarmingly unchecked items that make me apprehensive about where we're heading as a nation. All of those thoughts were set aside for time with family, "dressing up", enjoying a giant slip-and-slide, and launching off some fireworks.

The 4th kicked off a much needed week long vacation for me. It was relaxing to put all the stress of work away, focus on myself and family, and enjoy life. We capped my vacation off with a trip to Valley Fair as a family. It was soooooo awesome. We were there all day and hit every ride. It's been a very long time since I was there and it was great to enjoy the rides, relive memories, and make new ones.

I also busted out some retro PC games this month that are near and dear to my heart: Warcraft II, Starcraft, and Warcraft III. Getting them up and running on my Linux PC was pretty easy compared to the hoops I had to jump through in the past. Wine has come a long way!

I really love Warcraft II and have a ton of fond memories from playing it. I was able to get an IPX network game going against the two boys and share my "enjoyment" with them. I totally dominated them in combat between orcs and humans. Once again proving, I am in charge. For my own reference and others, I wrote up what I had to do to get things working here.

We also started watching Phineas and Ferb as a family. I laugh so hard at the antics in that show. One of my favorite scenes so far is when the sister character, Candace's, voice drops so low she becomes a blues singer. I was in tears and everyone was right there with me. Silly humor is the best! We are plowing our way through the show and having an absolute blast!

In case it wasn't clear, this month was incredibly refreshing. Full of rest, fun, family, and enjoying summer. I haven't had a "summer break" for a very long time. This one definitely checked all the boxes. In a somewhat poetic way, it mirrors getting a summer break as a kid. I "graduated" from being a developer and now I'm entering my next phase as an Enterprise Architect, with an awesome vacation in between.

- Ben