Off to the races

The Los Gatos Educational Foundation Jog-a-thon was supposed to just that, but you can't explain the concept of jogging to kids. You either run or you walk, jogging is illogical.

Alexander staunchly refused to take part until he saw his best friend on the track. Then he was off and completed 16 laps in the one hour allotted wearing my lucky bicycle clip to give him speed.

Waiting waiting

I am waiting waiting waiting for my picture to be taken

I've been waiting waiting waiting over here.

Each year I wait in uniforms of soccer, baseball, basketball

I'm next line and then I'm in the clear.

Alexanders big weekend Part 1

This is definitely a weekend all about Alexander- starting of the with the Los Gatos Little League parade (at 8:45am- groan). The thing that amazes me is that so may people come to see their kids stand in the middle of a baseball field while someone sings the national anthem. Still it was fun to watch how seriously the kids on Alexanders team took it all.

Our Anniversary- 9 Years

9 Years and counting! I took some time off,after arriving back from the UK yesterday,to have lunch with Fiona and the Mrs. in Capitola. Not much time for reflection as we have (again) a rather active 14 month old (the deliberate result of our 7 anniversary), exploring the current reality of sand and stone.

Our Anniversary

When building a marriage, begin with a firm foundation, and then let your children grow from that. Alexander is growing top right. Fiona is growing top left. The three bottom stones represent: Love, Family and Friends.

Rod and Andy seen at Londons Leading Gay Bar

However we were there before any of the gay folk turned up. Just like old times we headed down to London to see Tangerine Dream in concert. It was a fun concert although I noticed that Edgar sat down to do his guitar solo (he is getting on a bit).

The concert started out with their latest album- madcap's flaming duty which contains vocals of all things. Even so the songs were pretty good, taking their lyrics from the likes of William Blake. The weirdest thing was seeing the worlds leading electronic band performing the Lake of Pontchartrain, an Irish folk tune.

Easter

Bob and Marty hosted the yearly Easter luncheon once again. And once again it was a spendid time to catch up with family and friends although Gray, Julie and the kids were sorely missed.

Easter

Sian, Ralph and their daughter Ella came and Alexander had a lot fun, despite looking quite respectable for a time.

Implementation Details

Armed with a plan, I grabbed my spade and posed for this picture. I then tried to dig up the ground where the new planters would soon(ish) reside. After an hour of struggle with the spade and a pick axe I concluded that digging the area with said tools would take about 5 days.

The solution was to throw technology at the problem and it was Dena who came up with the solution: Buy a rototiller!

I surveyed the landscape at Sears and then Orchard Supply. I really didn't want some gas powered behemoth and finally found an electric rototiller called the garden wizard. It was made by Remington which made be somewhat suspicious.

"I liked it so much, I bought the company!" rang through my ears again and again. If there was any reason not to buy this tool it was that stupid jingle from Victor Kiam who had no grasp of the UK marketplace.

However lots of torque, no gas cans, and Dena telling me how she had seen one of these in action spurred me on to a purchase.

Victor Kiam is of now buying real estate in Hades afterall. He liked it so much he ended up there.

A Plan (tool) for a Plan

The first thing a I need to create raised planters was a plan. And moreover I needed a tool to make that plan.

Google SketchUp seemed like the ideal choice, and I began in earnest at my nearest coffee shop. Google SketchUp is a cool app written in a cool language: Ruby.

However despite its coolness and despite my writing CADCAM programs in Fortran many years ago, I found changing the spec with SketchUp very difficult.

After a lot of swearing, my dear wife suggested a new tool for the job: It was radical! I biked down to Borders in Los Gatos and bought a geometry set! You know, the one with the protractor, a couple of set squares, a compass and a ruler. The joy of my life when I was 13.

I set about my task with gusto, drawing, erasing and redrawing the plan under my gardening directors eye. After 4 tries we had a plan that we agreed on and could set about implementing...

Here begins the blog of the raise flower beds

Dena wanted some raised planting beds to for her vegetable garden. I was happy to oblige: I don't to small repetitive gardening as a rule. It's too boring. But I like to do, big projects that leave a lasting impression on the garden such as chop down trees, build fishponds and if pushed in the right direction build raised planters.

Showtime

After 3 months of hard work, this week the latest versions of the products I am responsible for launched at the Embedded Systems Show in San Jose. Overall I have been very pleased with this launch and all the hard work of my colleagues at achieving it. Dave, Chris and I have done a total of 18 press briefings over the past two weeks and that work seems to have paid off. By the end of the briefings I could have recited the presentation in my sleep and last night I found myself doing just that.

It nows time for me to try and unwind. I need to serioulsy do this since the past couple of months have really ground me down. I planned to take all of this next week off but alas that won't work out and I will be working at least two days.