Daddy does what?

Slightly work related ;-)

These Playtex bra videos on YouTube have won a number of awards, and I sent the link home to Deb. (I know they won awards because they are an excellent use of video for online marketing without creating a :30 commercial). Really. This was for work.

So Deb is watching them and Courtney was with her. Courtney asked Deb what she was watching and Deb said 'this is what your father does at work'. She gave Deb a totally 10-year old look. So I had to explain ;-)

Joys of having 3 women in the house ...

Watch all of them, they are pretty funny.

Frakkin' Toasters!

This is way too cool not to point out!

Details on the models created for the new series here.

Why getting outside our 'circle' could reap huge rewards

From a fascinating article by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker:

"Surgeons had all kinds of problems that they didn’t realize had solutions, and physicists had all kinds of solutions to things that they didn’t realize were problems. At one point, Myhrvold asked the surgeons what, in a perfect world, would make their lives easier, and they said that they wanted an X-ray that went only skin deep. They wanted to know, before they made their first incision, what was just below the surface. When the Intellectual Ventures crew heard that, their response was amazement. “That’s your dream? A subcutaneous X-ray? We can do that.”

I don't post about work here since this more about my family and my random thoughts on things, but this article was very interesting on a couple of levels. First, I love solving problems, even when they aren't related to highly scalable web architectures. Second, I love being in groups of people, many smarter than me, and watching them brainstorm, solve problems and even interact. I have (yet) to get an invitation to TED, but that looks like someplace I wouldn't want to leave.

The history of the phone is interesting (okay, sometimes boring) but it fits nicely into the belief that sometimes talking about our problems, or neat things we've found out, can apply to other industries.

Makes the whole discussion about 'how to innovate' take a different turn, doesn't it?

Hat and Bats Ladies, Hats and Bats

We just got home from Courtney's end of season softball party. I was surprised to receive two nice cards from her coaches and the girls. This season I did the book (kept score) as well as being 'dugout dude' (or 'dugout dad' depending on which kid you asked) so they thanked me.

As I mentioned previously, this was our first season at this park and looking back, I think we made the right decision changing parks. Courtney had a great time, learned a lot and we met a lot of new, very nice people.

About the title of this post. As the girls would come off the field, I would start yelling 'hats and bats ladies, get your hats and bats' so the girls would get their batting helmets and bats. Nothing disrupts the rhythm of a hitting streak like a girl not being on deck or not ready when it is her turn to bat.

Of course, every girl told me they were 'helmets' not 'hats'. I'd reply with 'helmet and bat don't rhyme!'. The few games I missed I had the KIDS asking me why I wasn't there.

Deb thinks I liked doing that so I could yell during the games and not be 'one of those parents'. I really did it because it would allow the coaches to focus on the game instead of whether the girls were ready. I also got to cheer a lot and be objective when the coaches were going nuts (plus I enjoyed showing the pitchers how they did each inning. For a girl who walked in a bunch of runs, showing how she got 2 strikes on each batter before the walk was important instead of focusing on the walk)

The coaches read from the story last weekend about the Central Washington University vs. Western Oregon championship game. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read this and share it with your kids. (video here). They thanked the girls for being good sports despite problems with one team in particular and reinforced that this is a game to be fun.

I'll rant about the team we had 'issues' with later ;-)

Bon Frakin' Jovi

Meghan went to her first concert Thursday night. (Well, she's been to dragon tales and some kid stuff, but this was a REAL concert). Deb, Meghan, Christopher's Godmother Maile and our friend Carin went. (Along with a bunch of neighbors and 1/2 the kindergarden teachers at Courtney's school, just not all together)

To set some background. Bon Jovi was popular WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL. They were more popular in College, but HIGH SCHOOL is when I first heard them. Of course 'Daughtery' opened for them, he is the American Idol almost winner from a few years ago. Meghan knew who that was.

To give you some context: Meghan is 13 and in 7th grade. My first concern was at the end of Freshman year in high school. I saw Def Leopard (yes, I know they are touring). Deb's first was Ricky Martin, well after we had Meghan and Courtney. No, I don't know why we never went to concerts together.

Deb said the crowd was mostly people in their thirties and forties. Meghan said most of the people were old 'like you guys'.

The 'Bon Frakin' Jovi' subject is a tip of the hat to Laryssa. She of course used a different word for Frak in college ;-)

(Yes I snuck a Battlestar Gallactica reference into this post. ;-)

Sleestaks!

Any guesses on what these are? How old are you? If you're younger than 30 or so you probably don't know what they are.

But I do.

No release date yet, but this looks like a cool movie, especially if you remember the series!

I also remember calling someone a 'sleestak' and having them look at me really strangely!

Got a Wii, lost to Deb

I've been looking at a Wii for a while now and today just about every store around here had them. 'Minimum of 15' read the ads.

So, at 10:45 Meghan and I went to Best Buy and waited on line. Yes, I waited on line for a game. Not at midnight, I'm not that much of a geek, but we did wait on line.

We got a Wii and and extra controller. On the big TV it looks really good.

Deb's first time playing it she crushed me at bowling. But I crushed her in tennis. Meghan gave me a run for my money in baseball and bowling. No one would play golf with me though. Of course I play golf on the Wii like I do in real life, so it wasn't something to brag about.

Courtney wasn't home when we got it, so we waited for her to detect the new cables and little white box. Once she did she jumped all over Deb.

Christopher just sits there and watches the screen or us. He hasn't tried to play yet, but I'll give him a week or so. The biggest challenge is to not hit him with the controllers!

So, anyone recommend any good first person shooters? Quake/Doom etc. type?

Syracuse beats UMASS in Lacrosse - no tourney chance this year

For all the grief I gave John and Joe about UMASS beating Syracuse in basketball, they were unusually quite last night.

See Syracuse kicked UMASS' a** yesterday in lacrosse at the dome. See here and here.

Well, hopefully this means Joe and I will be watching Syracuse on Memorial Day.

Touch a truck 2008

This year Christopher was old enough to go to the local 'touch a truck' event so we all went. I think Courtney had more fun than Christopher!

This is a yearly event that a number of the towns in our area hold in the spring. The name is pretty much what you get: they bring out all kinds of trucks and let the kids climb on them.

This year there was no fire truck for some reason, but a police car, several front loaders, a cement truck, a real John Deere tractor and several other trucks from the parks and recreation group in Kennesaw.

Some more pictures on the Flick site.

Doing my best to help the economy

This was an expensive week.

First the oven finally died. So we now own a nice 'double oven'.

Then the A/C downstairs crapped out. Fortunately only the downstairs was bad instead of both systems. And the furnaces are fine. I guess 11 years on 'builder class' units was pretty good. Many of my neighbors had theirs go out 2 years ago and last summer.

Being in Atlanta it is already in the 80's so the AC is going to be a requirement in a few days so it was replaced yesterday.

Joys of home ownership.