I’ve been running this CascadeSkier thing on the side for five years now. The sidebar gadget is still running but will be phased out as people move to Windows 8. The phone app just crossed 1000 sales and the Windows 8 app is on track to overtake the phone app sometime this ski season. I make pennies per hour, but as I’ve said before, it’s the only hobby I have that makes any money.
Today is a big day for the Windows 8 app. The update that hits today includes support for live tiles. Each ski resort can be pinned to your start screen and it will show a current web cam along with hourly temp, 24 hour snow total and total snow base. It’s the feature that got the most positive feedback on the phone and I’m happy that it’s in the Windows 8 version now.
Additionally, today is the launch of the CascadeSkier clothing line. I have a hoodie and a t-shirt sitting in my closet and they look great! If a dozen people purchase something, I’ll be shocked, but I mostly did this just for myself.
If all goes well, I won’t remember at least an hour of today. After a lifetime of sinus infections and being unable to breath out of my nose very well, my ENT doctor has recommended sinus surgery. They’re going to knock me out for about an hour, straighten my deviated septum, reduce the size of my turbinates (parts of your nose that help warm the air as it passes but in my case are blocking sinus cavities), and clean out some of my ethnoid sinus cavities. It’s going to be pretty unpleasant for a few days, but hopefully going forward I’ll be able to breathe better and have fewer infections.
I’ve been doing this daily blogging thing for over 10 years now, and I often wonder what it would be like if my parents or grandparents had done something like this. Would I read it? Most likely I think I’d go back to read their thoughts on major world events and big changes in their lives. Actually, Grandma Martens does keep a daily journal and I’d be very interested in going back through that at some point.
Tyla and I aren’t going back to Indiana for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year so we picked a cheap weekend in October instead. Luke, Rachel and David came over from Toledo and we all had a great weekend! It was a nice lazy, relaxing weekend with some Catan, pumpkin carving, and visiting a petting zoo and corn maze! Being back home always brings back a lot of great memories and it was fun to add a few more to that list.
I’ve been hard at work getting a new version of the 
Usually by now the weather is cool and rainy and it would stay that way through next spring. We’re still completely dry (dryest Aug-Sept on record and second dryest July-Sept!) so Tyla’s parents decided to take advantage of the bonus sunshine and go camping. They headed up to Bay View State Park for the weekend, and Tyla and I visited them for the day on Saturday.
Surgery Update
It has been one week since my sinus surgery. The first few days were really miserable, but on Monday I saw the doctor again. He said things were healing normally but I had more swelling than average. He is trying to combat that with some new meds. At the appointment he also cleaned a bunch of stuff out of my nose. I don’t know if it was that cleaning or the meds, but the last couple days have seen some big improvement. I’m still not allowed to blow my nose and I haven’t breathed out of it for a WEEK, but it’s draining a lot less now. I bet it will be another week or two before I’m done with all the symptoms, but I feel like I’ll be ready to head back to work on Monday.