You have reached the Web Site of Adam Barnhart. I'm not in right now: I've gone on vacation until August 25th. If you leave your name and e-mail address, I'll get back to you as soon as I have the time. Wait for the beep...

Freedom! Or some semblance thereof. Work has been nothing short of amazing the last month or so. I'm in a "feast or famine" business, to say the least, and this is a feast worthy of a foppish emporer. It's certainly quite enough for lil' ol' me, anyhow. I haven't had a code-free day in something like a month, and most of the days in between hither and yon have been at least half-full (half of the full 24, that is) with work. More often, they've been something like two-thirds full, which, even for someone like me who truly enjoys his work, isn't completely fulfilling. I've been fortunate that the monster of the projects I've been working on has me dealing with Allison Massenzio, a peach (is that a good thing?) of a human being with whom I speak so often that Teresa has taken to calling her my "girlfriend." In any event, with all the hub and bub going on at work, I've put my foot down and (re-)annexed my life. I've no intention of slaving for The (Wo)Man for the foreseeable future, and, rather, plan on spending quality time in a vegetative state.

The first weekend of Adam and Teresa's Excellent Adventure features a long-awaited visit from my parental units. They've threatened to come visit since I moved up here, though, with Teresa and I living in a matchbox of an apartment until moving here last December (as detailed in Volume One), it's probably a good thing that the plan hasn't come to fruition until now. In any event, while they're up here, Teresa and I are planning on letting them give us a guided tour of the area (neither Teresa nor I have really hit the tourist traps up here over the last few years...neither of us have been to Alcatraz, for example). It'll be fun.

In the last installment of this part of the world, I spoke a great deal about the hostel Teresa and I seem to be running anymore. This trend seems to be continuing. In addition to the Great Parental Visit, the previously mentioned Teri and child stayed with us for a few weeks (this is the moment to thank some higher power for cool landlords) while finding a place for mother, father, and child to stay. Though trying desperately to live in Alameda with us (after hearing Teresa and I ramble on about its merits, anyhow), they wound up finding twice as much real estate for a considerably smaller price tag up in Pinole. And, in all honesty, if you can handle being stranded on the 80 Corridor through some of its ugliest stretches (from a traffic perspective, the landscape is actually fairly attractive through there), it's one of the Bay Area's most cost-efficient nice places to live. In any event, after the successful relocation, Teresa and I had all of a day to ourselves before the dozen (or so) road warriors that are most of the Viking Mafia production company ("Films You Can't Refuse," indeed...) attacked our living room floor for a semi-hemi-demi-quasi-bi-weekly meeting-thing. Exactly what all that entails still escapes me; you'll hafta ask Bad Cop Dog about all of that.

And that's really about it. I apologize for having scarcely anything interesting in these words, but the reason I'm taking this vacation is that I really haven't had any free time in my life that would make for interesting storytelling. Hopefully, with some time off, I'll clear my head, do something exotic, and perhaps finish one of the half-done ideas that I've got for this page (and, believe it or not, I've actually come up with a few).

Since it relates, at least tangentially, to what I do here about once a month, I've actually taken an interesting in online journaling. If you're as interested in the notion as I am, a good place to start is the Open Pages index. Without hesitation, I'll point you at Deborah Stoltzfus' and Jennifer Wade's online diaries (Ed: or would point you at them, anyhow, if they'd stayed up). Andrew Hicks (Ed: see above -- if you know where the site is these days, let me know) is the other side of the coin, though I suppose I'm less enthusiastic about his than the other two (I haven't read it front to back, in other words).

And while you're poking around, there's a Dilbert that managed to make its way to the outside of the oversized cube that Bing and I disgruntledly share. It's an insightful expose on the cubicle (Editor's Third Note: This link no longer exists...does anyone know of a good archive of this stuff, as the Unitedmedia archives only are kept around for a month?) that CfMC oughta pay some attention to.

When I start with another site here, it means I haven't done a damn thing with my own. It's a sad situation, but one I hope to rectify soon. I promise, when I get back, I'll put something new up. In the meantime, I'm going to be happily inaccessible for a week and some change and any questions, comments, or complaints you may have will be summarily ignored until August 25th. See you on the other side.