Y I like SBux

I like Starbucks because they hire the best caliber people who really can recognize the positives in their customers. It is not enough that they provide such a high-quality product, but they also give superior customer service.


The other day as I was leaving for a flight to Ohio, I stopped into the Starbucks at the airport. They asked me my name. I told the barista. Sometimes they will clarify my name - "is that with a 'y' or an 'i'?" Not this time; maybe they knew already or maybe they did not care. Either way, I just waited for my beverage. To my surprise they saw something more about me and decided to give me a little validation on the side of my cup.

Thanks for the R-E-S-P-E-C-T Starbucks!

Dad Lesson #2255

Yesterday I got what I estimate to be my 2,255th lesson as a father. I determined the lesson number by taking the number of days since Drake was born. I figure I have learned at least one new thing about being a father since his birth. Honestly, I think this number is very low. I could easily add a lesson for each day each one of my 4 kids have been in my life and that would put the lesson number at 4,611. But who is keeping count of lessons. This was just one more lesson of many that I will have during my life.

So, here is the lesson. It was a simple math lesson in the form of a word problem. Not 2 + 2 kind of easy, but still easy. Follow along.

My father bought Emmy Kay a goldfish for her birthday and she named him Chum. It promptly went fins up within a few days so I went out and bought her a new fish. She named him Chum too. I figured Chum Too would find a ride on the porcelain train within a few months and we would be going into Wal-Mart and spending another $.28 on Chum III. There was only one problem, Chum did not go belly up as quickly as we believed. Instead, he kept eating and growing. 9 months later and he is still around.

Here is the problem. About a week or so ago, Chum started to get a bit lethargic. Then he started to just look bad, kind of distressed. I am not a fish whisperer so I did not really have any clue what was going on. For three or four days, we thought Chum would take his final gulp (?) and be done with it, yet every morning we would wake up and Chum would give it another day. I changed his tank water and he started looking better. Then, Chum's tail started to look bad and it began to fray. Next thing we know, it has all this "fuzzy" stuff on it. I looked online and found out that Chum had fin rot. Great. I did not know what fin rot was or did, but it sounded bad. It has rot in the name and reminded me of trench foot. I read online that I could get some medicine to put in the water and hopefully make it better. Now for the math. I went to Wal-Mart to buy the fish rot fixer stuff and there I stood...I could buy the "stuff" for $3.00 or a new fish for $.38 (yep, inflation has even hit the goldfish market). If I could bring myself to send Chum on the porcelain train alive, then I would just buy a new fish, however Emmy Kay wants her fish to feel better. That means Even though the math would dictate buy a new fish, I went ahead and spent 8x the value of a new fish on the medicine. Why? Because Emmy Kay wanted it. Dad math don't make sense.

Now, I have brought the stuff home and put it in the tank. It appears that it made Chum take a turn for the worse. Yesterday, his rear fin fell off. It came off in pieces during the day, but it is now gone. We have a goldfish with no rear tail. It is a funny looking fish. Not haha funny, sad funny. He is still able to swim around, but he is not moving around a whole lot and I think his days are numbered. I now call Chum..."Stumpy."

I fear that when my test gets graded (and Stumpy is gone) I will find out that I should have just bought a new fish.

C'mon, give me a smile

I have been in Amsterdam for the last few days. It really is an old and beautiful city. The buildings are all stone, with narrow streets and canals.

I arrived early on Sunday morning and could not check into my hotel. I finally got a room around noon and had enough time to take a 30 minute nap and a quick shower. More sleep would have been better, but I had to get out to the trade show for work. It was feeling like a long day already.

I went to dinner at an Indian restaurant that had wonderful food. I have not had a whole lot of Indian cuisine and all the people traveling with me said to forget this experience...it evidently will not always be this good. After that we found a sports bar with American Football and watched a little bit of the games. Although it was 9pm in NL, the early games were still on back in the US. I finally got back to my hotel around 10pm and went to my room. When I tried my keycard, nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing. No lights, no sounds. Nothing. So I went back to the front counter. After a brief conversation with them - "Yes, I tried to do it slowly. Yes, I tried quickly. Yes, I even tried it backwards. Okay, thanks for making up a new key."

Back up to the room. I hadn't really slept in almost 2 days. I was tired.

I got to my room and tried again. Insert, slide out....nothing. I tried it again, slower. Nothing. I tried a few more for good measure and went down to the lobby again. I walked up to the counter and told them it did not work, so they sent me up with security to give it a try. Back on the elevator and back to the fruitless swiping. The security guy called maintenance. The problem was that the lock only took keycards, no physical keys, and the battery was dead so the whole lock needed to be removed. It was now after 11pm. More swiping and nothing, but this time with master keycards. The security guy sent me down to the cafe for a cup of coffee. After a few minutes, he came back and told me I had two options. 1) I could wait at least an hour for some one to arrive and remove the lock or 2) he would put me in another room. I opted for #2.

Did I mention that everything I had with me was locked in that room? My clothes, my computer, my phone charger. I had a suit, a cell phone and my passport - that's it - still, I just needed to sleep, so I didn't care. I got into my new room, crashed on the bed and slept till morning. When I woke up, I realized that I had been moved into a much nicer room. I went from a shoebox to a larger shoebox, but this one had a semi-balcony and overlooked a neat town square. Look at the picture...it was cool.

I decided that this was going to be my new room at the old room rate. Squatter's Rights. So, I went down to my old room and grabbed my stuff since they had fixed the lock and went to my new room. On my way out that morning I stopped by the front desk, gave them my old keys and let them know I had moved my stuff. No one questioned it, so I headed out. Mission Accomplished.

I got back to my room later that afternoon and some one from housekeeping stopped by my room to make sure "everything was okay" and then left. About 10 minutes later, another person from housekeeping came by and asked the same thing. I knew something was up. Then the phone started ringing, and ringing and ringing. It didn't go to the frontdesk, so I figured it was the frontdesk. I answered the phone. The manager on duty informed me that I was only supposed to be in this room for one night and I could either return to my other room or pay to upgrade into the new room. Evidently a shoebox with a view in Amsterdam is considered an "Executive" room. I declined both options. I then reminded the manager that the evening before her hotel locked me out of my room, away from my stuff and it was very inconvenient. I also told her that I had no intent on changing rooms again and would not pay a higher rate. Thanks for checking with me. She protested. I decided to hit her with the big guns...I heard the words come out of my mouth..."you are charging me $450 a night AND you forced me to sleep in my underwear last night. I am not making any changes!" I heard her frantically typing and then she realized the reason I was in this room and she apologized and let me know it would be taken care of. Done.

So, I have been able to sit in my room with my balcony door open enjoying the sounds and cool breeze from the city. It is really awesome. I am sorry that I missed out on some sleep the first night, but I think this may have made it worth it.

BTW, Amsterdam is a great city to walk and travel by way of public transportation. There are trams all over the city and everyone, I mean everyone, travels by bike. I heard there was an average of 2.3 bikes per person in the Netherlands. It is flat. At sea level and people ride their bikes everywhwere. I was here once February and they were biking in a blizzard. The other thing is that they park their bikes anywhere. Every pole has a bike attached to it and the train stations have thousands of bikes parked out front. It is really something to see.

So, back to the title of my blog post...I only have one complaint about this city; the people don't smile. I have sat in town squares and stood by canals, just watching people and no one (except obvious tourists) are smiling. Now, it is very overcast here most of the year, but still, can't they eek out a "tee hee hee" once in awhile? I just don't get it.

I have a meeting tomorrow near the airport and then I head out to Paris. I have enjoyed my stay in Amsterdam and I hope to make it back here one day in the spring to tour the countryside and see the windmills and tulips.

Eeeeek, a Lizard!

This month I am doing lots of traveling, so my plan is to take pictures along the way and post them to my blog. Kinda like a travel journal. We will see how long it lasts. I am not sure what will come first - losing interest in writing the blog or growing weary of uploading the photos from my phone. I guess we will all have to tune in regularly to find out.

Today, I am in Phoenix. Typical for the desert it is very hot - 100 degrees hot. Of course it is a dry heat so it is not really that bad, mostly when I am used to the humity of ATL. I flew in yesterday for a meeting today and then I am heading out on a red-eye tonight. This all seemed like a much better idea before I found myself sitting in a Starbucks at 8:30pm local time, feeling like it was 11:30pm on my internal clock and knowing I had 3 hours before I could even board my flight. At least I was upgraded to first class so the 3 hour flight (and hopefully 3 hour nap) will not be too bad.

I love the desert. I love the jagged rock mountains, the vibrant colors, the rugged plants...all of it. Rachael and I had seriously considered moving out here when we were looking to leave VA Beach. I am glad we landed up in ATL, but I still yearn a bit for the western US and the desert.

So, when I booked my trip I was able to get into a swanky resort called The Phoenician for a few dollars more than the Courtyard I usually stay at. My intent for this blog post was to put up some pictures of the view from the hotel, like this one:

And this one: And they even had a "Cactus Garden" with some beautiful cacti, like this one: This one: And the one that became my friend:

After I went to the hotel lounge for dinner I came back to my room to watch a little TV and go to bed. As I got closer to my room, I noticed a hotel employee hanging out around my room. As I walked up, she said hello and asked me if I was staying the in "this room" and pointed to my door. I said yes and she informed me that there was a little problem in my room. Problem? What could that be? There was no "problem" when I left the room. I gave her a look that said go ahead and expand on that a little. She told me she was in the room turning down my bed (a nice service I might add...maybe I should teach my kids to turn the bed down for us before they are sent to bed each night) when she noticed a lizard running across my floor. Excuse me, did you just say "a lizard" because I could swear you just said "lizard." She assured me that it was a small one. Fortunately, she was able to catch it and was waiting for building maintenance to come and deal with it. I don't like bugs (please see I caught a bug) and I am not fond of lizards or really any type of critter. God made all these things to scurry away from me, not for me to have to touch them or deal with them.

We stood outside my room door with an awkward moment of silence when she asked me, "do you want to see it?" Well...I guess so. So into the room we go to find my new roommate, the lizard, on the middle of the floor under a glass cup. Now, I expected it to be small; I mean I would have noticed if there was a Komodo Dragon in my room but I was not expecting anything this small. This lizard was teeny - I don't even know if I would have noticed it or even cared if I did actually see it. It is hard to see in the picture below because he was flipping out under the glass when I took this photo, but if you look closely you can see him.

The thing about it all is that I usually do not stay at 4-star resorts when I travel. I mean I stay at decent hotels but this was out of the ordinary. However, even at a cheap hotel you do not expect to find a lizard sharing the space you are paying to occupy. And just like that *snap* this trip became memorable.

I did not sleep very well that night and I am not sure if it was the bed or the lizard, but regardless, I did enjoy the chocolates left on my pillow. :-)

Goodnight and Sweet Dreams

I believe late last night, she let out a big sigh and said goodnight. She hoped it would turn out better, but her hope was wavering. They were doing their best to show her their admiration and respect, yet it was just not meant to be. They still have their memories, all our memories, and they will not drift apart. We just wanted to see it work out better as the next chapter was turned. This is just the way it will be...it will become part of our history.

Last night, the Anaheim Angels defeated the New York Yankees and knocked the Yanks to 10 games behind in the AL East to make it to the playoffs. Of course there is always hope that it will turn around, but the Yanks elimination (or magic) number is also 10. At this point, for the Yankees to make it into the playoffs about 6 teams in the AL will need to crumble; starting tonight. That is not likely to happen. So, after a 14 year run in the post-season play-offs, the Yankees will be sitting at home watching their big screen HDTV's this October. Wishing they were in the big show and I hope figuring out how they can get back there in 2009.

The really sad story is that after 85 years this is the last season for Yankee Stadium. The House That Ruth Built. I am guessing that last night she also recognized that the season was all but over. After hosting so many championship teams, she will have to go into October empty. No fans in the seats, no players in the dugout, no pitchers in the bullpen and no one on the field. Quietly and proudly, she will stand her last October, alone, but full of more wonderful baseball memories than any other field in sports history.

Goodnight Yankee Stadium and Sweet Dreams.

"Get to bed - it's a school night"

This is the first time these words were spoken in our house. Drake is starting Kindergarten tomorrow and Emmy Kay is starting Pre-K. A big day in our house...literally. Both kids will be home-schooled so the walls of our home will take on a new role, school-house. Everyone is really excited around my house so I hope everything goes well tomorrow.

We have planned to home-school our kids for a long time. We have thought about this a ton and feel like we are doing the right thing. People always like to weigh in with their opinion about it and it runs from support, to people thinking we are doing the worst thing for our children. I could say a thousand things about it but I think the bottom-line for us is that we will take it one year and one child at a time. Regardless, I believe we can provide an education for our children that is at list 1% better than the government or a teacher with a room of 20 - 30 kids. Time may change my mind, but right now we are getting ready for school tomorrow.

I am very fortunate that my wife is extremely organized. She has the kids schedule planned out for the next 3 months with lessons for each day. On top of that, I can go to our shared Google calendar and see what their school schedule is for each day. Changes will happen, but I am glad we are going into this with a plan. At least with a plan we have somewhere to adjust and we can figure out what to change. Becoming a parent of 4 kids has been a crash-course learning-curve on so many things. It has been a fun and exciting 6 years. Now I am very excited about adding a totally new dimension to our family...this is taking it to the next level.

Tomorrow morning the school bell rings at 9am and the fun will start. The challenge will be to learn how our kids learn. So far, we think Drake is linear and Emmy Kay is...well, she is...Emmy Kay. She once told me that she did not want to go to church because the people at church keep trying to teach her "new stuff" and she didn't like it. I am not a very abstract thinker and Rachael tends to think in straight lines so most likely, Emmy Kay will be schooling us on thinking outside the box. Quite honestly, I think it will be good for both of us. Also, for anyone that says home-school kids aren't "socialized" - spend 15 minutes with Emmy Kay and you will understand why we are not concerned.

So find a seat, sit down and get ready for class.

Rest in Peace Micah

I had to put my cat to sleep today. He had liver disease and the medical options were limiting. We probably could have spent a small fortune and kept him going, but it was not the best alternative. Now he is gone and we have to move on.

Micah was not a nice cat. In fact the term we used most often was nasty. However, he was a very entertaining cat. Weighing in at about 20 pounds and with more hair than Rapunzel, he was a very pretty cat. And I believe that was his biggest issue. He wanted to be a tough cat but he was caught in a pretty-boy's feline body. Micah lived everyday with inner turmoil. We considered therapy, but he would not open up. Instead he would just lash out at us and hiss or growl. A terrible and gutteral growl. Unfortunately, coming from his fluffy face, the growl just wasn't very menacing. He had wiskers that curled around his face like a clown cat. Micah would then try to scratch you with his claws. We had removed his front claws for the safety of the furniture, so he was left with soft mittens that actually had tufts of hair growing between his foot pads. He would swat at you with paws that looked like cotton balls. Again, he would get angrier. That is when he would begin to come at you with the sharp teeth. By then, I just wasn't interested and would walk away. I think Micah was one to bottle his emotions until the right time to snap.

The emotional "uncorking" always seemed to come at his brother Joel's expense. Joel is his exact opposite. Joel weighs in at about 20 pounds, but he is short-haired and sweet as could be. He really is a lap cat (if you want a 20 pound cat in your lap). Every once in awhile, for no apparent reason, Micah could not contain the nasties anymore and would pounce on Joel. He would bite him, swat him and get the back claws up to scratch him. You could see the look of confusion in Joel's eyes like "what is wrong with you!" After a few minutes of chasing Joel around, Micah would feel like the pressure cooker valve was sufficiently vented until the next time he just had to let go. Sometimes he would try it with me and swat at my leg when I walked by, but those incidents usually landed up with me shadow boxing the cotton ball paws until he became worn out and frustrated. Or at the very least a little more angry.

Let me also add that Micah did not have the best grooming habits. Cats are supposed to groom themselves, which he did for the first few years. But after awhile I think he just could not keep up with the amount of hair he was producing. This led to knots and mats on his fur that were the size of a kitten. Not surprisingly, he did not like to be groomed by me. I think I pulled a few litters of kittens worth of fur off him over the years. I wasn't gentle and given my perception of his need to be a "tough cat" I think I was a little harder on him. Typically when I would groom him, there would come a point where he just couldn't take it and would turn and go feline on me. This usually ended with a number of scratches and scrapes on my hands and arms...not pleasant. On the bright side, at least his hair will be with us for a long time. When we went to China last year, we found his hair in our luggage. Whenever I travel for work, I find his hair in my bag or somewhere on my clothes. We keep a clean house, but Micah was a very hairy cat and it will not be gone anytime soon.

I got to be with Micah for his last few moments and he seemed settled for the first time since he was a kitten. It may have been the heavy dose of drugs the vet gave him or maybe he had made peace with his inner turmoil. Either way, I don't believe that animals have a soul to live for eternity, so that was my goodbye to him. Plus, if I did believe that animals did go to a heaven or hell, the rules would have to be very "loose" to get Micah through the Pearly Gates.

Micah left us with lots of funny stories and interesting conversations. He was the kind of cat that would make visitors double take and ask us if he was so big because there was something wrong with him.

Oh, there was something wrong with him...it just had nothing to do with his size.

Rest in Peace Micah, we will miss you.

I caught a bug

No really, I caught a bug today. Now, this shouldn't be that big of a deal but I did it today and I did it all by myself. Okay I have to be honest, I hate bugs. I mean scream like a school-girl hate bugs. Rachael and Drake do all the bug killing in our house. We have an exterminator service because as George Costanza's father says "I will not stand for infestations." So, catching a bug was a big thing for me.

I was in the backyard picking up some of the kid's toys during their nap when I saw a very large red and black bug walking in the grass. I got a little closer to it and it looked like a spider or ant but with red and black fur on it. I had never seen anything like it. Fortunately the kids have been catching bugs lately so I had a butterfly net nearby and grabbed it. I went for the bug and put the net over it. Quite honestly, I had way too much net for a bug that was about a half inch or so long. I got the thing to go into the net but then I needed something to put it in. The kids have bug jars, so I called into Rachael to grab one for me and bring it out. The kids were taking a nap, so I could not enlist their help. Rachael came out quick, but by the time she got outside, the bug had climbed out of the net and fallen next to the house. It ran quickly for the house and before I could maneuver the big butterfly net, it ran up under the hardiplank siding....and was gone.

I was really bummed. More than I should have been considering my general aversion to all things "buggy." Rachael only saw the bug for a second, but we both agreed that it was very cool...well, maybe not cool, but definitely different and Drake would love to have seen it. The only thing was, we had no idea what we had just seen. It was big like a spider but really looked and moved a lot more like an ant. Only it was so big and the black and red fur only made it more confusing. We decided to look it up on Wikipedia and sure enough there it was...a velvet ant.



I had never heard of this thing before. It has the nickname "the cow killer" because the sting from this critter is so painful. It looked menacing when I was chasing it, but I had no idea it could inflict that much damage. Now I was really upset that it had gotten away. Evidently they are not commonly seen, due to spending most of their time being nocturnal. However, I had seen one and almost caught it...almost.

I went out to start mowing the lawn and thought I will look one last time. I went to the spot where it crawled up under the siding but I didn't see a thing. I decided to look around the side of the house and as soon as I walked around the corner, there it was - racing along the outside of the foundation by the fireplace. I darted back into the house yelled to Rachael to come back outside because "it is on" again and grabbed the bug jar on my way back out. I rounded the corner with just enough time to get the jar over the velvet ant before it got to the end of the fireplace. I used a little finesse to get the lid on and voila...I caught a bug.

It was very exciting and it actually turns out that the velvet ant is not an ant at all but is a female wingless wasp. She does have a very wicked sting but she has never been known to actually kill a cow. The kids finally woke up from their nap and were all in awe at the big furry ant. Normally, we follow "catch and release" rules at our house but given the potentially painful sting of this little fuzzy lady, I think we will let her expire in the jar and then move to the "release" portion of the program. Not the most humane solution, but I have four kids and two cats..."humanity" is not what keeps me up at night...I think the correct term is "insanity."

4.0 to Four-dot-done

On Sunday we welcomed William Michael to our family he was 9lbs 2oz and 20 inches. A big boy and the final installment in our collection. Will and Rachael are both doing great. The "big" kids are very excited about their new baby brother.

HAPYFOTHRDAY

On Father's day we went out for bagels before church. I had just ordered and we were waiting for our bagels to come out. I was sitting with Rachael and Blythe Ann. The big kids were over at a corner "play area" with some toys, crayons and stuff. I was just drinking my coffee and talking with Rachael about our plans for the day when Drake walked up and gave me this on a napkin he had asked for earlier.

It made me tear up. Not only was it very sweet of him to give this to me, but he has never written anything before. He will write his name and write out letters, but not words. He started reading all on his own about 6 weeks ago by sounding out words. Now, he is sounding them out in his head and writing them down.

There are not enough words to express how much I love this little guy.

I have told people before and I will say it again...I am continually amazed at how my kids manage to make everyday better than the one before. Every day is a Happy Father's Day.

Of Sir Francis Drake and Minivans

For those of you who do not know, my family is a descendent of Sir Francis Drake, the first European to circumnavigate the globe. My mother's family has lived off the sea as fishermen for over 200 years and many cousins in my generation were fishermen for most of their lives. My father's family is from Norway from an island named Reksta, so I am sure they spent some time on the Nordic seas as well.

I can make the argument that I come from a long line of seafaring people. In fact, my mother was actually named after her father's schooner, the Lucy Mary (see below). Yes, she grew up in a culture where the children were named after ships and not the other way around.

Fast-forward over 350 years from the birth of Sir Francis Drake and you get to me - a marketing manager living in Atlanta, Georgia. I yearn for the cold seas of the North Atlantic but alas I am trapped in North Atlanta. We are in a drought and there appears to be no chance of getting a ship out of port. One day I may sail on the seas like many generations before me, however today I must just drive to work.

Yet, the call of the sea is still in me.

So....this weekend we transitioned from a one car family (for almost a year) to a two car family. I believe it was my pining for the sea that caused me to purchase a new flagship for my Asphalt Armada. We bought a Silver Kia Sedona minivan. I now have 2 minivans in my armada...the fleet is growing. Sir Francis Drake had his ship, the Golden Hind and therfore I shall now refer to my new minivan as the Silver Hind. She is a glorious vessel and my entire "crew" is very excited about the new flagship.
Stock Photo


As an additional footnote, I would like to add that we bought this minivan outright. We walked in, negotiated our deal, wrote a check and walked out with the van. 4 years ago, I would never have believed we would be able to do this and it was a great feeling. I thank my wife for getting us on Dave Ramsey's debt elimination plan which helped make us believe this was even possible.

The odor of a young Paul Anka

I scoff at you who love your iPods. I think you are living in a bubble. There is a monstrous world of music out there and you are trapped in your flourescent colored box. From a form-function perspective, you cannot beat the iPod, but from an experience perspective it comes up short...very short.

As the MP3/iPod craze swept the country, I decided to go in another direction. I went with XM Radio. I held back behind the first wave of available radios and was fortunate enough to catch the XM Inno and ride the big wave. The Inno has full XM functionality, portability, MP3 play-back, recording capability, auto tuning by artist, scheduling and much more. It is an awesome product.

What I love about the Inno is the experience. It gives me access to music I would never find on my own. I typically camp out on Alternative Rock, Jazz, the Starbucks channel, 80's, 90's, NPR, Yankees games, Big Band Jazz...lots of stuff I know and love to hear. Most of the time I know the artists and I even know the lyrics. I can hum the tune and it is all famliar...just like you folks trapped in the "walled garden" of your iPods. However, since I am listening to live radio, I also get to hear music in the same genre that I have never heard before. And that is where the Inno provides such a great experience. When I hear a song I like; I just hit "record" and it pulls the song off the internal buffer and it is on my Inno to be replayed forever.

So, I hear songs I would never hear otherwise...which brings me to the great "find" that motivated this post.

The other day I was listening to the Big Band station (channel 73) when this gem came on. The sum is so much stronger than the parts. I wasn't paying complete attention when it came on and then I realized what I was hearing. I could not believe that my Inno was going to give me the opportunity to bottle up this magic....it is gold, pure musical gold.

Enjoy the magic with me...I give you Paul Anka (of "Puppy Love" fame) singing the Nirvana classic, "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

I miss my Mom

15 years ago, today, I lost my mother to cancer. Since that day, 15 years ago, I miss her miserably every day. Not a day has gone by that I did not think about her and miss her. The first couple of years was terrible, but then I became used to the pain of not having her. Coming up to the anniversary of this date, I have been thinking about Mom and her impact on my life a whole lot. Third only to my birth and my wedding date, this was probably one of the most impacting days of my life. The other two were positives...this one was not. But I constantly remind myself that this is one of life's rules and I just need to accept it. I don't always like to accept the rules.

I have been concerned that I am forgetting her. I see Rachael with my children and I feel like there is no worse thing I could do to my mother than forget her. I know she gave every piece of herself to me and wanted me to know that I was loved by her with all her heart. If she was here, I would let her know that she did a great job. I cannot tell her that, but I never doubted that she knew it. Mom could turn the other cheek, but she would not let you hurt her family. We were the world to her. And then I get almost angry with myself when I begin to think that I am forgetting her...how could I do that?

I am now realizing that I am not forgetting her, I am just living with the pain of not having her. Like a person who has very bad arthritis and just lives through it, I am doing the same. I cannot change it, so I must accept it. If I begin to think about all the things she has not shared in my life, I could lose my sanity....meeting Rachael, seeing me get married, seeing me graduate college, seeing me graduate grad school, seeing me go to my first job, seeing my first house, meeting Drake, meeting Emmy Kay, meeting Blythe Ann, getting excited about our future addition in a few weeks...the list goes on. When I consider the big things, I am sad...but when I consider the little mundane moments that I am missing out on with her, just picking up the phone to talk or have a cup of coffee with her, it really makes my heart sink.

I live with the pain but I also know that she would be very proud of me. She would love Rachael and would just adore all my kids. I wish they could meet her but they will know her through me. And with that, I know she is not forgotten. The instruction she gave me and the love she poured into me is being passed down to the next generation. Mom is not gone, she is just not here.

I am very thankful for the time I got with her and the relationship I had with her. I will always cherish those memories and I will never forget her.

I miss my Mom.

Three great words

My three favorite words to hear are "I love you" coming from my wife or my children. I know it comes from their heart and it makes me feel wonderful knowing that I am loved by the people who love me the most.

Right after those three words, I would have to say another great three words to hear is "Miss Kimmie's Ribs." Yesterday, Miss Kimmie invited us over for a Memorial Day BBQ and she made her lip smackin' ribs. These are a work of art. They are spicy, juicy, saucy and beautiful. Miss Kimmie rubs them, slow grills them and then slathers the sauce on them. Perfection!

Thanks Miss Kimmie and I can't wait to hear those three words again.

Teddy Ruxpin could probably fly to Jupiter

This is an update to my April 25th post.

I learned the other day that the "IT" toy from the 90's had 4 times the computing power of the Apollo Lunar Lander. I can't decide what bothers me more...the fact that Furby has the ability to land on the moon 4 times over, OR the fact that it only retailed for $35!

I think this "Lunar Lander" statistic is becoming an obsession for me.

I think I'm turning Japanese

The other day I was involved in a meeting using Cisco's Telepresence (TP) system. It really is truly amazing how realistic a video-conference can be with this technology. The images are life size and in 1080p so it is almost more realistic than being with the person live!

I was presenting to a group of Japanese cable operators who were visiting our San Jose office and we had been pulled in to give an update from our business unit. TP systems typically have 3 screens, but we were using a single unit system that would toggle between individuals as they spoke. Unfortunately, our interpreter was sitting off screen so she did most of the talking and the image on our single screen was of the same person. We would talk, she would interpret and the image would never change...always the same Japanese man.

I was up just after lunch and it began to show quickly. This guy is "virtually" sitting just a conference table away from me. Unfortunately, he does not have a monitor to see himself, so he has no idea that I am presenting only to him...then lunch starts to kick in and I can see him start to nod off...

Two minutes later and he is asleep.

Image for illustration only

So picture this. I am talking to a man that is asleep in a language he does not understand. Every 30 seconds or so a disembodied voice interprets for me from somewhere else in the room. Still the man sleeps. Once the voice stops, I start into my next train of thought on the changes in video consumption by consumers on the global market. Still the man sleeps. I know the topic is not exciting and the only non-verbal cues I am picking up come from a man who is asleep and sitting only 6 feet across from me in 1080p resolution.

I started out with 2o slides and cut it to about 6. It was one of the worst situations I have ever presented in. I just wanted to get out.

Happy "Gotcha" Day!

A year ago today I was in Nanchang, China meeting my daughter Blythe Ann for the very first time. In the Chinese adoption program, they call this "Gotcha" day. Personally, I don't care for the name. Maybe it is because I grew up in Jersey and the term "Gotcha" was not a positive one. However, after living through the waiting and red-tape of an Int'l adoption, I can definitely understand why they use the term "Gotcha"...I really felt like I just wanted to grab my kid and run out the door. After months and years of waiting we finally had her. I wanted to put China behind me and get my little girl home

Blythe Ann was a little over a year old when we got her and she could do nothing. She could not sit up, eat solid foods, move a blanket off her face, laugh, smile....nothing. A little bit of it was from shock with so many changes, but once she got used to us (mostly Rachael) she was still way behind a normal 1 year old. It was a little scary, but also exciting that we would get to see so many firsts. Honestly, we felt like we had a 1 year old new born that already slept through the night. Bonus!

Now a year has passed and I can't believe it. It feels like just yesterday we were in China living off Pringles and Oreos (their packaging looks the same in Chinese) talking to the two big kids via webcams. They could care less about Mom & Dad, they just wanted to see their new little sister. On the other hand, I have a hard time remembering our family without her. 366 days later (thanks to the Leap Year) and Blythe Ann is right where she belongs - in our home. She is quickly catching up to a normal 2 year for development and hanging strong with her brother and sister. She shares the lower bunk with Emmy Kay and is doing great. It really is amazing. I look at pictures from a year ago and I can not believe how far she has come.

I look at this little girl who was handed to us a year ago; she was dirty, frightened, alone and resilient and I know God intended her for our family. Like my other children, she gives me joy beyond words and challenges me to be a better parent. I love this little girl with all my heart and I am very thankful that I will get the opportunity to see her grow up in our family.

Happy GOTCHA Day!

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Am I the missing link?

I recently fessed up to my friend Greg Troxell that I have joined the blogosphere. I have been a closet blogger because it is very safe in here. I wanted a little time to find my "voice" and understand how this whole blogging thing works. However, every time I leave a comment or put a new post up, I become a bit more exposed to discovery. I knew my outing would one day come and I can feel it pressing hard upon me. I am not a fast runner and the web has many tentacles so I knew discovery was a mere series of clicks away.

So this has me thinking....what am I adding? Perhaps a link to my page from some one else will become the "missing link" in a web-surfers life. That pearl or gem of wit and wisdom that changes their life. As they aimless click from site to site, looking for the next cyber "hit" like it is some sort of drug...I may trigger the epiphany that changes their outlook. A life changed, a cure found, a relationship restored, a decision made, a problem solved, a heart mended, a wound healed, a pain soothed, a time remembered, a need realized, forgiveness granted...

...Or, more likely it will be one of many stops as the web-surfer is clicking from dribble to drab and drab to dribble being entertained, informed; seeing a glimpse into how other, everyday people view the world. This may be the case but I am glad to officially be a part of the blogosphere. So, with these 4 simple words I am outed:

"you have been added"

No Deja Vu

Today is May 10th and it is my first in the last two years. I existed on May 10th, 2006 but not May 10th, 2007. It was wiped off the face of the earth for me last year...literally.

Last year, we traveled to China to adopt our daughter Blythe Ann. We boarded a plane on May 9th and landed on May 11th. It was a 16 hour flight and we crossed the International date line. I have to say it was one of the more bizarre things to have happen in my life - just lose a day. Now I know the day was not literally lost. Each second clicked on like normal and I did not really travel through time, but it just felt that way. I read a short story by Stephen King called the Langoliers - it is a story about a plane that takes off and falls "behind" time. The people on the plane look out the windows and see nothing, just black. The world does not exist and they have to figure out a way to fly back into time and "catch up."

The Langoliers was in my mind the whole flight to China and I kept looking out the window. We got on the flight at night and flew in the dark for 16 hours until we landed at sunrise. The really weird thing was that I looked out the window and never saw lights or anything for the entire flight. It was very strange.

So, today was May 10th and I felt like today was a very special day. I can easily take tomorrow for granted because it always just shows up. I hope that May 10th is always a little reminder for me not to take this day or any day for granted.

She ran her fingers through my hair

Yesterday was one of those days at work when I felt like I should work for free. I had a meeting in Greenville, NC - just a short 1.5 hour flight and another 2 hour drive out to the customer. I was driving down to ATL at 6am kind of dreading the day…driving, security, waiting, flying, driving, meeting, driving, security, waiting, driving…and finally home. Now granted, I only really had to “work” about an hour and I was talking about DVR and HD consumer adoption, something I probably already do in my sleep.

So I am really not looking forward to almost a 2 hour drive in a rental car without any entertainment. I go to pick up my car and I have a Pontiac SUV of some sort, but no satellite radio. I love XM and I will discuss it in another post, but I could not travel that long without satellite radio. I went back to the counter and asked if they had anything with satellite. The guy checked his computer and said “All I have is a convertible. Is that okay?” Yep, I played it cool and casually said “Well, if that is all you have, I guess I will take it.” I took my ticket, confirmed there was no daily rate change ($46…check) and headed out to space 517.

Mine was black, but you get the idea.

Let me set the stage for you. In Raleigh, where I landed, it was 65 degrees and climbing fast. The sun was out and a few big fat clouds were lazily sliding by. It was a great day for a convertible and I had a long drive and I had satellite radio AND I was technically “working.” May 7th was moving in the right direction.

Needless to say, I spent the day with the top down and Mother Nature running her fingers through my hair. It was an unexpected great day. I did not like being alone to enjoy it, but that is an occupational thing I am used to and I have to accept it. I turned the all 80’s station up as loud as I could and set the cruise control to 74 and let the NC countryside speed by.

A good day.

The only downside was that I had to fly home with my voice a little hoarse from singin’ 80’s tunes all afternoon and my hair blown to heck, a la Kevin Bacon in Footloose. I am going to request satellite radio every time I rent and see if I can get this experience again.

So many Cincos have passed

Today is Cinco de Mayo. As a white kid raised in Jersey, this day has little to no significance for me. Fortunate for me, my wife loves Mexican food so today becomes an excuse to make fajitas for dinner and eat 'til it hurts. It is a mucho grande day in the Reksten house. Next year after 4.0 is born, we will get the margaritas back into the mix and probably start a new tradition of inviting lots of friends over for the feast.

However, over the years I have developed a tradition on Cinco de Mayo that I look forward to more than the fajitas and margaritas. Every year since I have had access to email (which I did not have at my first job...YIKES!) I have been wished a Happy Cinco de Mayo from some co-workers from my first job. One guy (Dave Dale) is more tragically white than myself and the other (Luis Rodrigues) is a tragic white guy trapped in a Portugese man's body. I see Luis every couple of years, but I have not seen Dave in over 12 years...yet each year we manage to find one another via email and spout off messages about Freedom, Revolution and Victory. It is a tradition I love and one that seems to endure. Sadly, I am always the last to send the email out to Dave and Luis talking about the great battles of Cinco de Mayo. That is not due to lack of importance - I think I just want to savor the tradition. Truth be told, I begin to look forward to it by late April.

Today was no exception....Dave delivered and Luis delivered and I am about to hit send. I know Cinco de Mayo has significant meaning to a whole people group and I am dismissing the importance for my own tradition, but I don't care, so...Viva Cinco de Mayo!

One for the road

Since July 2007, my wife and I are the proud owners of one vehicle and one vehicle only. You cannot imagine how much it messes with people's heads when we tell them we only have one car. How do you get to work? How does your wife get the kids around? How do you shop for groceries? What about an emergency? What about.....?

It is simply amazing how people today are unable to shift their mind from losing their driving independence. In essence, that is all my wife and I have done. We have given up our personal freedom for the greater family good...I still get to work, my kids still make it to wherever, we have groceries and 911 is still the first call for emergencies. However, we have to work together and compromise on just about everything if we are going to keep things rolling. We originally started with the intent of doing this for a couple months and now we are heading into a year. I can't believe we made it this long, but it can be done.

Our objective is to buy a car with cash (thanks a lot Dave Ramsey) and we now have more than enough funds to make it happen. However, when I think about parting with my cash to just have the convenience of two vehicles, it suddenly becomes a difficult decision. I thought that I would be eager to pull the trigger at this point, but I am not. The thought of another car, higher insurance rates, higher gas bills and more maintenance does not seem like a good trade-off to gain some personal independence. Cash in hand can really mess with your priorities...in a positive way.

So, now that my wife and I have given up our independence, we are looking at the actual costs to get it back and I honestly wonder if it is worth it. We made it this long, so could we go another month or maybe even longer?

"Houston, we are clean shaven."

An interesting fact. A Braun electric shaver has more computing power than the Apollo Lunar lander. Think about that. The first astronauts went into space AND landed on the moon with little more than a calculator and tin foil.

I wonder if Neil Armstrong wakes up every morning, grabs his Braun razor and marvels at how far we have come in the the almost 40 years since his "giant leap for mankind" in 1969. Or, I wonder if he looks at the astronauts who fly in the Space Shuttle and kinda thinks they are little more than junior space rangers.

Cleanliness is close to...frustrating

Here is my issue: why has our society decided it will no longer be easy to wash your hands in public?


Remember the old days when you would walk into a restroom, finish your "business" and then confidently stride over to the sink. There you would find a faucet, some soap and some towels to dry your hands. We all had these elements at home and they made sense...lather, rinse and dry. A perfect formula for cleanliness, but something went wrong along the way. Personally, I think we should have seen it coming when the faucet was replaced with a single "push" faucet that produced a 6 second stream of anything from frigid artic water to a stream of not quite warm water. From there it was all downhill....

Fast forward to today and now the restrooms of the world are littered with the so called "motion sensor" devices. The faucet, the soap dispenser and the paper towel dispenser. I don't know what makes these things work, but I often find myself doing a very interpretive hand dance just to get a 3 second stream of water onto my hands. Next, I battle to soap dispenser, almost pleading with it to "dispense" its foamy goodness. On the outside chance, I actually get some soap, it is back to the hand dance to try to rinse off. It is at this point that I believe the soap has some sort of sensor repellent that makes the faucet not respond. So, I shuffle my feet down to the next sink...no luck. Then, I see some one two more sinks down having some luck getting the water out. Maybe, they found the one that will work. I stand at my sink, waiting, lathering some more (to look busy), ready to bound to the sink when the guy moves away. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see some one step up to my original sink and it works fine. Is it me? Do the sensors work on body temp? Am I still alive? What is going on?

Finally, the guy steps away and I pounce onto his faucet. If nothing else, maybe I can get 2 seconds of his "residual" water flow. Luckily, this faucet responds to me and I get my hands rinsed. Now, I have to dry.

Fortunately, the faucet dance was a good warm-up to the paper towel sensor. I feel like Napolean Dynamite auditioning for Happy Hands. I flail, I flutter, I wave and I twinkle my fingers. At last, the machine spits out its bounty, but alas it is not enough paper to dry my hands enough. I go back into audition mode and Happy Hands has an encore. The paper spits out again and I am finally ready to leave.

So this brings me to my question. Why is the automation industry so intent on making our world a dirtier place? Or maybe we should just thank "the management" who is so free to plaster their name in the restroom. I go through this everytime, but I know there are those that take shortcuts (and you know who you are). For all of you who stand with me, I encourage you to keep up the good fight. Evidently, cleanliness is a cause we have to fight to keep and as for me I will never give up the battle no matter what the management may throw at me.