As of today, I am officially a member of the Habari Project Management Committee. In all honesty, I'm a little overwhelmed with the trust that the other members of the committee have placed in me, and I hope to live up to that trust. I'm excited to be a part of this project, and hope to be a part of its future in any way that I'm able.

I am not a coder (or at least not much of one), which is, I think, an illustration that the PMC is focused on the best product for the user, rather than the best product for the people writing the code. What I hope to do is help make sure bugs are tracked well and acted upon and make sure that we don't lose sight of the fact that most users aren't coders and don't really care how a given feature works, as long as it does work.

Thank you for your faith in me, fellow members of the PMC. And to the rest of the Habari Community, I'd like to say thank you for creating an environment where it's fun to be active and it's easy to keep up the motivation to work on this project.

On September 28, 2002 (or 2000 if you believe the programs from the wedding) I married TBWITWW. Now, those who know me, may wonder how I managed to accomplish such a thing, as she's clearly out of my league. I wonder that my self, but I'm not about to question it. While my referral to her as "The Best Wife In the Whole World" is somewhat of a joke, it's not because I don't honestly believe that she is, in fact, TBWITWW. If you have a wife, and you think she's better, well... good for you. Everyone should be lucky enough to honestly believe that they got the best.

We've been through a lot in those 5 years. We've been at the point where we couldn't pay bills and weren't sure where grocery money was going to come from. We've had to move twice (in less than a year), not by choice. I've been a pall-bearer three times since the wedding. We lost Aiden and had a miscarriage. Our careers aren't where we expected them to be by a long shot. When we said "for better or for worse" I don't think either of us expected quite so much of the latter.

That said, I think, on the whole, it's been a good five years. I'm still in love with my wife. She still makes me smile when she walks in a room. She supports me when I need her help. She makes me laugh. She understands my obsessions and she understands the things I fail to pay attention to. We are a team, and to me, that is what makes a marriage. We've faced conflict and stress, we've had arguments. We've learned that we don't discuss politics well (mostly my fault). We've learned that our taste in art (music, painting, theatre, whatever) vary quite a bit, but with enough overlap that we can find a common ground. It's been an interesting process, and there's still a lot that we have to learn from and about each other. I'm looking forward to it.

I feel in a lot of ways that we are at a turning point for our relationship. We've reached a level where we are looking forward further than a paycheck or two down the road. Money is suddenly not the major decisive force in what we're able to do. We're ready to move forward, and we've got the wisdom and strength to make those moves. I'm looking forward to it.

While I could write a horrible poem, or ramble sappily on, that would annoy you, and still not express how I feel about my wife. She's amazing. She's exactly the person I need to be a complete person. I love you Nicole. I've loved you as my wife for more than 5 years. I've loved you for who you are for longer than that. And I'll love you as long as I have breath. I love you.