Jamie Wakefield

Did you know we're moving back to Vermont? Movers come tomorrow. The apartment will have paper plates, two computers, a bed and a couch. For four days before we fly home. Internet right now is through what's known as a "hotspot" on Wendy's iPhone, which, through 3G, provides internet access. Since we have exceeded our limit on fast internet bandwidth speed, we're stuck with dial-up like internet access. Hence, very few updates. Quick rambles: We will be home late the 17th. The little dog is starting to show signs of age, his hearing seems gone and the four flights of steps are murder on him. He will be happy to be home to the green green grass of Vermont and four steps to get inside the house. Wendy quit reading "A Dance with Dragons" yesterday. I don't blame her one bit. Shame on you George "Robert Jordan" Martin. (Please sir, in your next book can you stop focusing so much on peeing, torture, whining and food? Thanks.) ...

Wendy is contacted by a huge company (they're in the news a lot lately including last week's issue of Time magazine) who she has done work for before. 'Hi Wendy, How are you? Good. So, what we want this time is an investigation into two people. They want us to design a hundred million dollar project for them. The problem is, they don't seem to have any money, no previous projects, and no history of business because their company was started only six months ago. We need you to verify that they are legit." "No problem." Wendy contacts the home office and they put her in contact with a German spy. When I say spy, I don't mean it in the way Wendy is a spy, I mean it in the James Bond, gadgets, surveillance, trained in hand to hand combat kind of spy. Wendy is put in touch with him and she details what she needs. Four weeks go by and things seem to be going well. She is getting regular updates and brief reports. The spy doesn't work alone, he has an as...

So, we're investigating... America has no companies doing nuclear. No new nuclear engineers. All the guys that used to do that are 60+ because of the current opinion about nuclear in the US right now. So, another country, of the five we're looking at, doesn't have the intelligence, infrastructure or technological base to do anything this company wants. Their computers and engineering are almost stone age. Another country has no nuclear. The country doing the most solar is... Spain. (Who we're not supposed to investigate.) Wendy puts me and the intern (the wonderful Diana) on search duty. Investigate the other countries. Investigate the US for thermal solar, co-generation and other tech the client is looking for. And so the search begins. This is harder than you might think. It takes me a week to grasp it, and another week to teach Diana. "No, they do solar, not thermal solar." "Yes, they have pictures of generators, but they build and sell them, they don...

I asked my wife permission to tell this story. Why? Because she’s a spy. Don’t tell anyone! People constantly ask you what you do. I’m a writer, and a computer tech. That encapsulates me. Wendy’s story is a little harder to explain and always confuses people. When she gets done explaining people generally say ”So, you’re a spy?” “No!” She protests. Yes, I nod. Wendy came to Madrid to work for a company that does competitive intelligence. They have some operatives in the field, they contact companies and say “Anything you need to know about the competition?” In a very general sense, things like that. Like I said, it’s tough to pin down. I really can’t go into all of the challenges she/I faced with her business because… well, because. Let me just give you a few examples that I find fascinating. Wendy came to Spain with essentially no training, no idea what she as getting into, no idea what the job would entail. In nine months she had contacts with the biggest companies in...

I LIKE BIG BRAINS AND I CAN NOT LIE! YOU OTHER BROTHERS CAN’T DENY! You wish you had one too. I know I do. I only have a little brain. It’s a good brain in the sense that it is sensitive, compassionate, patient, and expressive in writing (after only a million words fine-tuning that particular skill) and usually courageous when I need it most, which is a family trait. I love movies and TV shows about big brains and I always have. I find them fascinating. The plot can even be crap so long as the main character is brilliant beyond normal human norms and I will still love the story. Stories like Little Man Tate, Good Will Hunting, Sherlock Holmes, The Social Network, Nerds, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Lie to Me, etc., I love them all. I think this is because I have always had a little brain and as a child had never understood the kids with big brains. When I was in fourth grade I vividly remember paying rapt attention to the teacher and still didn’t know what was going on. She...

Well, I showed up at the Evolution Magic shop yesterday to draft. Considering Spain is on holiday I expected thirty people eager to play Magic on a Thursday. Sadly, we had four and one of them was one of those guys who seems to think since he is in a Magic shop the owner is actually paid to listen to him. When he finally took a pause for breath I asked (in Spanish): “Tournament today?” “Yes, draft this morning and Legacy this afternoon.” “I know, but… is it going to happen?” He turns to his partner (as in, business partner, not lover) and gives a questioning look. He clearly doesn’t understand what I am asking. I blame my Spanish. I like this guy. Hell, I like both of them immensely. “I don’t know. It depends.” He smiles and shrugs. It is a motion of “We could do a draft if you want, but I am hoping more people show up.” I couldn’t agree more. Twenty minutes later I am on the phone with Wendy asking “Can you look up Forbidden Isle? I saw good reviews for it and we nee...

Having spent three months in Vermont for the wedding and returning to Madrid in September, it felt odd to plan a trip home in early December for the holidays. Didn’t we just get back to Madrid? Plus, getting the paperwork to get the little dog back into the states , the stress on him having to travel again, and the massive expense of flying made us decide to stay in Madrid this holiday season. Sort of. Wendy is a certified diver and I have wanted to become one so we could dive together. So, we're going on Holiday shortly after Christmas. We found a nice veterinary service that also has kennels and will pick Thor up so we don’t have to crate him up and put him in a taxi. Having gained five pounds in his short time with us, we tell him he’s going to fat camp. There won’t be any leftovers for you. In the days leading up to our trip I take the PADI online course so I won’t have any classwork when I get to Lanzarote, I’ll just have to do the diving with an instructor. We have a stressle...

Holy crap, connection overload! I’m going to have to learn how to be more snarky, condescending and just plain mean. I just have too many friends! I do my best to keep up with emails, especially important ones that need a response right away, but every now and then I let things slide. I had a couple I needed to answer this morning and decided I would catch up on a bunch from the past I should have answered. It’s ninety minutes later and I have just hit “select all” then “delete.” I just can’t do it! I have too many friends and Facebook has made it even worse. Which is why Twitter continues to baffle me - who has the time? I don’t have the ability to keep up with meaningful emails much less type or read a random thought every twenty minutes. With an internet connection there are already constant distractions or websites I meant to check on in the middle of writing - like right now, I just remembered I wanted to look up where the phrase “hell bent for leather” came from. There was a guy ...

The wedding was more than I could have imagined. There was never a moment when I wanted some time to myself. There was never a time when I felt like I was on stage and taking care of everyone else. It was three days of bliss that I didn't want to end. No one told us about the comedown. We planned so much. We laughed so hard. We had so much fun. And now it's over. How odd... I have five pages of notes that will turn into a fifteen page entry. So many great sayings, so many funny moments, so much fun and dancing and laughter. And now it's all done... How odd... It's been an emotional week that we never expected. I have a ring on my finger that means the world to me. I feel its weight, I twist it, I look at it's beauty and I think "I have wanted this for years." So why are we sad? Well, for one thing, it's done. It's all over and it was magnificent. For another, my friend Tommy Phelps passed away Tuesday morning. It's been an emotional week.

As you can tell from the lack of updates – we are in Vermont, continuing to plan the wedding, meet with carpenters, landscapers, electricians and whatever you call a guy who redoes the stones in your driveway. For those regular readers, you will know that I am going to have an operation on my eyes to replace the lenses and put in artificial lens that will never wear out and my vision will never deteriorate with age. I am very excited. In the meantime, my eyesight continues to deteriorate and I continue to 1) bitch about it and 2) need stronger and stronger reading glasses. Except they’re not reading glasses because I wear them from dawn to dusk. Wendy suggests I get contacts. “Those are like six hundred dollars. At least, they used to be.” “Why don’t you look into it?” I am surprised by what I find. I make an appointment at the nearest Lenscrafters. Guess how much an eye exam and disposable contacts that last 2-4 weeks costs? Go ahead. Guess. Wrong. $93.45. It takes me ten minutes to ...

This is a slightly older picture, but it looks sort of weddingish. Well, I’m totally obsessed with Magic again. I used to get up, read some web comics, check out some politics, check out some MMA forums and possibly post on them. I would do this until coffee kicked in and then I would get to work. Nowadays I get up, turn on the computer and immediately go to Magic Online to play some games while I sip coffee. I still check the news and check MMA websites during the day but for much less time than I used to. Wendy and I are playing Magic on the terrace at night after work gets done as well. Yup. Totally hooked again. In other news – Yesterday was an interesting day. I took a sign two feet wide and almost as tall as I am and walked around Madrid, standing in different spots where there is people traffic and advertised a free sample of my new book that is 18 pages long. Two hours later I had handed out two. One guy was very polite and said it was a great idea, very innovative, wished me t...

That is what I looked like when I met Wendy. (Click the picture to get a bigger view.) In the post below are pictures of what I look like now. Thank God Wendy remembered I was a nice guy in high school. Why else would such a beautiful, brilliant woman give the old me a chance? Tip - Nice guys finish first.

Wendy, Castles, Segovia. . Just because I know some of you like to look at Wendy almost as much as I do. . (Sigh. The extra periods you're seeing force a line break. Blogger won't give them to me today. I'll work on my HTML next week so I can fix this myself.) . Wendy and I have put almost no thought into the ceremony. What matters to us is the gathering of friends, the dance party afterwards, the introduction of friends that have never met. Last night we had Lena, Stefan, Ruth and Sergio over for fajitas and a game of Carcasonne, and I realized that Lena has never met Lorelei. This shocked me. I don't think Leigh has met Lorelei. Dave has never met Leigh. How is it that these great souls, these wonderful people, do not know each other? (I could list a dozen people I consider great souls that have not met each other but that would go on for a long time. Seriously, every single person I have invited to the wedding I would gladly take a bullet for.) . I asked Wendy if we ...