I've been taking Emily out for a long years now around the time of her birthday for some frou-frou time and father/daughter bonding. The tradition is that she usually gets new acrylic nails done professionally. And since she's a captive audience, I get to talk with her about whatever might be on my mind. The dynamic is a little different now. Anna and Katie both wanted to give the big lady nails a try and, being wrapped around their finger, I couldn't say no. They both chose colors that worked well for them and had a lot of fun studying everything the nail professional did. I think it's … [Read more...]
My Favorite New Blogger…
May 28, 2008 by Leave a Comment
...is Jessica Hagy. She's totally awesome - very smart and funny. Her blog is composed entirely of drawings on 5x7 index cards, usually ven diagrams such as the previous or the following one:Or this one: Blogroll her today!-Kev … [Read more...]
The TN Renaissance Fair, 2008
May 26, 2008 by 1 Comment
It's that time of year again -every weekend in May - time for the TN Renaissance Fair. We were blessed with unusually good weather this year. It was relatively cool and breezy, while still being a nice sunny day. And despite all of the rain we've had this month, it wasn't muddy either. The knights were quite a spectacle on the jousting grounds and the living chess match seemed a bit more polished and with more elaborate choreography.Dylan and Emily had other plans for the day. I suppose I'll have to get more and more used to that as they each become more independent. But I still missed … [Read more...]
Skinned Knees
May 16, 2008 by Leave a Comment
Katie has a tradition of running down the handicap-access ramp at the YMCA in a spunky-kid attempt to beat me and her sisters down the stairs. Usually, she wins because she runs at maximum speed.When we came down the stairs earlier in the week, Katie took off as usual down the ramp - but this time she was wearing flip-flops. Not a good choice for a high-speed sprint and, BLAM!, she was skidding across the concrete before I could even think straight. She skinned up her knees, big toes, and palms pretty badly, but especially her knees.I probably should've taken her into the YMCA to see if they … [Read more...]
Europe at the Speed of Light
May 15, 2008 by Leave a Comment
The Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne, SwitzerlandI recently completed a whirlwind tour of Europe on behalf of my employer, Quest Software. As is typical for these sorts of trips, we try to pack in as many customer meetings and public seminars as possible to maximize the value of the trip while I'm there. This trip spanned seven cities and four countries. During the first week, I visited Cologne, Hamburg, Munich, and Franfkurt in Germany as well as Copenhagen, Denmark. I've blogged about all of those places before so I won't spend much time on them now. (Note to self - I just checked and it looks … [Read more...]
The Kids Choir Trip to NYC
May 14, 2008 by Leave a Comment
I've been meaning to post pictures of Dylan & Emily's choir trip to NYC, but I've been so busy that it's been tough to find the time. One problem has always been carefully laying out all of the pictures on the Blogspot editor. Rachel turned me on to an awesome new service called Photobucket which makes this process much easier. You simply upload your pics to Photobucket and it will create a bloggable slide show for you. Voila!Click on the link below to see more pictures.Photobucket Album … [Read more...]
Vampire Babies of Amsterdam
April 28, 2008 by Leave a Comment
No, it's not a terribly parody of "Werewolves of London".I was walking through Amsterdam's airport, Schipol, enjoying the HUGE GINORMOUS shopping areas. That's when I saw her. A cute lil girl, no doubt. Adorable in fact. She was so cute that they chose to put her on the advertisement. But I had to wonder if I was the only person who thought her scary long. Those toofies are at least twice as long as normal. What do you think? … [Read more...]
Air Travel in Your Future? I hope not…
April 11, 2008 by 2 Comments
The macro-economic scene these days is just getting worse and worse. Consumer confidence is at its lowest in 26 years. Need a hug? (It hasn't been this bad since Jimmy Carter was president. It's pretty clear that the current president will score lower than Carter in the history books, which is definitely the bottom 25% of presidents. But I digress...) So, I've got a trip to Seattle next week to attend Microsoft's annual MVP Summit, a pilgrimage of 4,000 Microsoft technology experts to drink from the holy fountains and carry off a lot of swag. Since we've had about 1,000 flights cancelled in … [Read more...]
Stonehenge
March 29, 2008 by Leave a Comment
On my recent business trip to the U.K., I was able to enjoy a little bit of tourism in Devonshire including Salzebury Cathedral where the Magna Carta (or at least the best extant copy) is located, the fantastic city of Bath, and the amazine pre-historic site called Stonehenge.The weather was quite bad - cold, rainy, and quite windy. Stonehenge is a world famous site and rightly one of the Seven Wonders of the World. And I'm sure you've seen many pictures of it. However, there's simply no comparison to visiting the place in person.Founded by the Romans as a thermal spa, Bath became an important … [Read more...]
