Yeah, I know. I've been terrible about keeping this up to date. So here are some pictures to catch you up on activities at Kline Manor. So here are some fun things to see, grandma and grandpa, that we've all been up to.At left, speaking at the PASS cloud computing seminar in Seattle.I did a huge amount of traveling and speaking at conferences in 2010. It was a good year and all indications point to 2011 being even better. But I'm also trying hard to keep my travel in check and spend lots of time with the kids and with Rachel.At right, the Chihuly Art Exhibit at Cheekwood Botanical … [Read more...]
Beards Are More Than a Lot of Long Whiskers
I had a lot of travel to contend with over the past couple weeks. While travel in and of itself isn't a horrible thing, long trips are very unpleasant. I miss the family to an almost debilitating degree.A lot of my friends and acquaintances say "Yeah, but you're traveling to really cool places in Europe and all over the world". True indeed. But I'd be equally lonely if I had to drive 2 hours to Chattanooga or fly 9 hours to London. It's loneliness either way, only the accents change.One of my friends asked why I'd grown out my beard. The picture at left is actually only 1/2 of the beard. … [Read more...]
It’s Birthday Season at Casa De Kline
Professionally, summer is one of the busiest times of year for me since there are multitudes of customers to visit and conferences to speak at.Personally, summer is also very busy for me because it's a parade of birthdays and other significant dates. It's hard to keep up with all of it!Dylan Turns 19It's always a bit of a shock for me when I compare where Dylan is at his age to where I was at the same age.At 19, I held two part time jobs (one was selling shoes on commission at the wonderful but now defunct Castner Knotts department store and the other was running my own computer pc-clone … [Read more...]
Big Time Award
It's always a joy to see your work validated. In this case, one of the products I work on at Quest Software called Toad for SQL Server won the award for "Best of Microsoft TechEd in the Database Development Category". This is sort'a like an Oscar or a Grammy, but in Microsoft software tools.Pictured (L to R): Jason Hall, head of Qsft's SQL Server Sales Consultants; David Gugick, Director of Architecture; and me … [Read more...]
Something I’d Always Wanted to See in Person
Ever since I'd first seen pictures of it as a kid flipping through my parent's National Geographic, I'd always wanted to see the Grand Canyon in person.Rachel and I were able to share that first brief glimpse together last month. It was a really magical moment and one that we both hope to enjoy again, with the kids and over the course of a couple days.Although the pictures are marvelous and amazing, the truth is that they don't do justice to this amazing national treasure. It truly is an inspiring sight. … [Read more...]
Thanksgiving 2009
We had a blessed Thanksgiving this year. Sam was able to drive down from Greencastle, Indiana, where he goes to Depauw University, to join us. And Rachel's mom, dad, and brother came over for the feast. Dylan's girlfriend, Rachel Ramsey (who I now call "Twix"), was also able to join us. It was a great time! … [Read more...]
Honor 58 & Spelling Bee
Kaylee did really awesome in this year's spelling bee. Last year, Rachel wouldn't let Kaylee live down her first round elimination on a word that they told her would be on the spelling bee. This year she made it through three rounds and even had a word - "solemn" - come up that we'd studied together. Yeah Kaylee! On a related note, I was hoping to see Anna compete. But for reasons of her own, she opted out.The Honor 58 situation, though, is a honor choir open to 5th through 8th grade students who qualify in a tough audition. Kaylee and Savannah both made it in and gave a great … [Read more...]
Dia de los Muertos & Cheekwood, Fall 2009
Dia de los Muertos is the Latin American tradition celebrating the Catholic holiday of All Saints Day. Emily's Spanish class entered the contest at the region-wide tapete contest. Tapete (pronounced "tap-et-ay") is a traditional Mexican chalk art expressing a variety of traditional "Day of the Dead" themes. Since the Day of the Dead is not traditionally a sad or scary day, the scenes are usually very festive and bright. Emily drew the image for her team and they put it on pavement and ... WON! Great job Emily!The celebration was held at the very beautiful Cheekwood botanical gardens and, … [Read more...]
Cool Tool – ScribeFire
On the recommendation of my friend Joe Webb, I've started to use a cool blogging tool called ScribeFire. ScribeFire is a Firefox plug-in that makes blogging easier than ever.If you do much blogging of your own, I encourage you to consider adding ScribeFire to your tool kit. You can find it here.Enjoy,-Kev … [Read more...]
Her Bite Is Lethal!
Ok, she's not a killer. But she can kill you with cuteness! I took this picture of Jelly Bean a couple months ago when it was still very warm. I don't remember exactly why but, as I was driving the entire family somewhere, I decided that we needed to take a bit of detour to spend at Old Hickory Lake. The weather was great and we all had a fun time splashing in the water. JB enjoyed teething on the driftwood, as you can see in the picture above.Be careful, this one bites too! … [Read more...]