Hi Tony,
It's going well, I think anyway

Baby steps and all that - I'm enjoying learning, which helps.
I loved the article from iA on user interface, pretty profound at times and some interesting points on perception.
The other I just came across and it was cool how it explained the processes the company went through to get their designers up to speed. It's pretty much what I'm hoping to do: wear both the designer and developer hats.
I got my first page up online; a pretty simple design for a friend (www.liamcarlin.com). I'm still waiting for some content and his type choices, so it's a work in progress. I don't like the links at the top, so they'll be moved.
I bought my domain today (woop!), so when I've got the time, I'm planning out the framework for that. Once I get a good responsive design, I'll use that framework and re-do Liam's site. But, yeah, progress is being made
Have you done any more on the Sunrise (?) Cafe design-a-long post? I was looking forward to following that.