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Sam recently had a birthday and turned 10 years old. He and Diana have birthdays fairly close together so they got to jointly select the location for their birthday dinner. Their choice? Golden Corral.

It was the first time any of us had ever been to Golden Corral and I think the kids were influenced in their choice by the chocolate waterfall advertisements on TV. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that advertising works – especially on kids. Golden Corral turned out to be a bit more blue collar than the Chuck-A-Rama. Fortunately for me, that meant the people-watching entertainment value was high. Unfortunately for the kids, their expectation of a buffet is based on the buffet we went to in Vegas recently so they were a bit disappointed that the Golden Corral didn’t have the same selection and quality as the bigger Vegas buffets.

10 years old

Fortunately, a chocolate waterfall covers up a lot of shortcomings and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and ate as much chocolate covered stuff as they could hold. Life is good when you’re 10 years old and there is a chocolate waterfall around.

Sam getting his bear award and a hug from Mom

Tonight was Pack Meeting and Sam received his Bear award along with a gold arrow point and 4 silver arrow points. Now he’s on to the Webelos den. Before you know it we’ll be going on Scout campouts together.

Today was the 5th grade program at Caroline’s school.  I actually didn’t know that they were going to have the program until this morning.  I usually go walking every morning with a friend in the neighborhood who has kids almost the identical ages as mine.  She mentioned that she had to go to her son’s fifth grade program today.  I asked whether it was just his class or if it was all of the fifth graders and she said it was all of them.  I am glad she said something because I would have missed it.  I think Caroline didn’t mention it because she thought that I would embarrass her in front of all her friends.  I don’t know why she would think that because all the parents were in the dark for most of the program( I didn’t take very good pictures because of it).  I love Caroline very much and I think she did a great job.  She even had a speaking part at the beginning (I only wish I could have taken better pictures!)  Here are some of the very out of focus pictures I took of the event.

I also went today to Caroline’s class to see her float she made for her state report.  She has been working for a couple of weeks on it and was excited for me to see her hard work. All the kids in her class were sitting in a circle by their desks and showed off their state reports to their parents and all the other 5th graders. She was so proud of her work that right when I go there, she had to show me that she got a 95 out of 100.  I was really impressed.  Great job, Caroline!

Today Diana presented her book report on Princess Jeweliana and the Sparkling Rainbow Ball, by Allia Zobel to her class.   She took one of her princess costumes and fairy wings so she could tell the class all about her book as if she was the main character.  She did it all on her own and did not even have a cheat sheet to read off of.  I forgot to take a picture while she was giving her report so I had to take the following pictures while she watched the other kids give their reports.  It was a lot of fun.

Halloween wasn’t a fancy affair this year. I was too busy with school to help much with costumes and the older girls were too busy being teenagers to care about trick-or-treating like the used to. In fact, we failed to take our traditional pictures with the kids in costume although Sam managed to snap a self-portrait before he left for trick-or-treating.

Sam's self portrait

At least we managed to grow some good pumpkins in our garden this year and were able to carve them as jack-o-lanterns. Hopefully next Halloween will be more fun as I’ll be out of school by then.

Halloween Pumkins

I am sure glad that I took care of the tomatoes yesterday because this is what my garden looked like today.

A couple of days ago we had some snow, but not enough for the kids to play in. Luckily last nights storm brought in enough for the kids to enjoy!

While life at Dataimage was good, I started to feel a bit stagnant and, although I hadn’t finished my Masters degree yet, decided to jump at the opportunity when a couple of former colleagues told me about a startup they were working at. I’ve worked for big companies and small companies and startups in the past. In fact, this was my third time at a startup. Although in some respects software development is the same no matter where you work, the different types of companies all have their own interesting mix of challenges and rewards.

As a startup, we moved offices three times in one year due to growth, expiring leases and the like. While we were still waiting around for some office furniture I snapped this photo of the temporary desk I rigged up from a table missing a leg and a stack of unused chairs.

Truly a desk fit for a startup

That’s life at a startup – prop up a table and keep on coding.

I also had the opportunity to represent the company at a trade show. On second thought, opportunity isn’t the best word because I really detest trade shows. I detest them when I’m a guest, walking my way through endless booths looking searching for an interesting product or vendor, and I detest them as an exhibitor, telling the same story over and over again and trying to be positive and upbeat while my feet are killing me and the guy in the booth next door with the loud microphone is blaring endlessly throughout the day. Never again will I underestimate how tough it is to be a “booth babe”.

The view from the booth

If I never have to go to another trade show in my life it won’t be soon enough. Aside from my stint as the designated tech geek in the booth, I’m currently enjoying the challenges of working at a fast-paced startup.

September 2011 Update: After a year at the startup I finally completed my Masters Degree and decided to accept a management opportunity with Adobe Systems.

Today is my birthday and Sam made a special picture for me. It is interesting that when my girls draw pictures they draw a scene, but when Sam draws a picture he tells a story. Can you see the story behind this picture?

Here is our basement with nice new carpet!

Once Brian is done with the wiring, this is where the entertainment area will be.

Now we have our own cupboard under the stairs.

This will be Anne’s room

This will be Emily’s room

This year Caroline and Diana were the only kids who wanted to play soccer. Diana was improved from last year. She finally ran with the hordes of kids to get to the ball instead of just standing there looking at it. Caroline’s team was really good and only lost one game. Caroline’s best position on the team is defense, she is good at kicking the ball out of the way so the other team can’t get a goal. I am proud of them for doing a good job this year.

Diana’s favorite time in soccer

Caroline posing for a picture

Diana amongst the horde