Archives for November 2005

Thanksgiving was a doozy this year. We went down to Kelly's brother's house and met her dad and step-mom, plus her brother, sister-in-law, and all three of their kids. Kelly and I have a lot going on emotionally and relationship-wise, but we did the best we could and, in the end, it turned out to be a pretty good day.The girls stayed at their aunt's house and Dylan spent the night with a friend. Kell and I returned home and went to bed early. On the following day, I performed one of my annual Christmas season traditions - early morning shopping for bargains. I found a few good deals at Staples … [Read more...]

I've had the joy of spending a lot of time with my kids this weekend. On Friday, Katie Jo and I went for a walk to both ends of our street. We visited with current neighbors and some new neighbors who are finishing up construction on their new house. We played in the creek. We tossed pine needles and climbed the stonework at the end of the driveways. But we had the most fun tossing dozens and dozens of acorns into one of the bigger crawdad holes in the creek.Thursday was Katie's last day at preschool for a few days due to the Thanksgiving holidays. So I went to visit her, along with Kelly, for … [Read more...]

‘Tis another day to remember the things that I’m thankful for. The list could be huge, of course, because I’m such a blessed and luck guy. However, I’ll just list a few things that I experienced this week. Here are some things I experienced this week that brought a big smile to my face and at least a momentary rush of joy:- Grocery shopping with TWO full carts ‘cuz our family is so big. Oh yeah, and the bill was $453!- Seeing a little old lady and little old man walking and happily holding hands- A hug from someone I love- Pulling some cute kiddie clothes out of the laundry that don’t fit … [Read more...]

Kelly and her girlfriends headed out for a night on the town last night, which left me ample time to catch up on chores. (I'm sure you'd have found me very sexy looking since I always do chores in a French maid outfit, fishnet stockings, and stilletto heels. JUST JOKING!)So I invited some of my girls best friends (the three Lyttle sisters - Bailey, Morgan, and Zoe) to hang out since adult supervision was on hand to keep things under control. As it turned out, Dylan had invited a couple of his friends over as well. So we had a crowded house with lots of fun stuff going on.Ever wonder what five … [Read more...]

I had to travel to San Francisco on Sunday night so that I could be there bright and early for a Microsoft product launch that started first thing on Monday morning. (In case you didn't know, I'm an expert in database technology and Microsoft was launching the newest version of their database - SQL Server 2005.)The day started off with a big flashy presentation by Steve Balmer, the CEO of Microsoft. AC/DC music was blaring "For those about to rock". Flashy images were shooting across all of the screens and monitors. And he was ushered in by Cheap Trick - live and in person. (They were also … [Read more...]

Fall is my favorite time of year. And Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I guess that it's because the holiday is so close to my birthday. I can remember as a little 4- and 5-yr old kid that I cried a lot on halloween, mostly because my mom and grandmom would make me dress up in these embarrassingly bad homemade costumes.I guess that's the reason I now love self-deprecating costumes best of all these days. If it makes me look sillier or stupider than most of my friends, then that's the costume for me. My kids, however, love the silly costumers. What do you think? … [Read more...]

Just a quick posting that I got some quotes in the UK's biggest IT publication - Computer Weekly. The story is located at http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2005/11/01/212652/HasSQLServer2005beenworththewait.htm.-Kev … [Read more...]

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My all-time favorite poet is e. e. cummings. But here's one of my favorite poems by Robert Graves called "The naked and the nude"For me, the naked and the nude(By lexicographers construedAs synonyms that should expressThe same deficiency of dressOr shelter) stand as wide apartAs love from lies, or truth from art.Lovers without reproach will gazeOn bodies naked and ablaze;The Hippocratic eye will seeIn nakedness, anatomy;And naked shines the Goddess whenShe mounts her lion among men.The nude are bold, the nude are slyTo hold each treasonable eye.While draping by a showman's trickTheir … [Read more...]

We had a low key Halloween within the Zebra household. The two oldest kids went out to trick-or-treat with their friends while mom & the two youngest went out to trick-or-treat in our old neighborhood. The new neighborhood is great, but the houses are space very wide apart and their aren't nearly as many young kids around. That means the little ones would visit much fewer houses and fewer houses would have goodies to give out. At the end of the evening, I only had five, FIVE, trick-or-treaters. I was pretty shocked.Well, today is the day for rememberances of things joyful and fun. Here … [Read more...]