On vacation

@home no less and enjoying the time off!

Windows of any stripe is bullocks

In my family we use only Macs and Linux.

Our home computers consist of:

Mac Mini (family)
MacBook (Sean)
Thinkpad T60 w/ Fedora 8 (Sean)
MacBook Pro (Nina)

My parents use Macs. My brother and his wife use Macs. My sister is the last hold out. In her job she uses a Dell laptop running XP. She called me desperate for me to fix it and remove the viruses. Can you tell I am a Linux hacker and Mac user? So out of love, I am repairing her WinXP laptop.

Update: It now blue screens after installing Microsoft’s own OneCare ™ program in which it attempted to clean the WinXP software of several trojans. So it now won’t boot up. Effing brilliant.

Sean

Jiggle Jam

On Sunday we attended the KC Jiggle Jam festival at Crown Center. We got to hear Funky Mama and Mr. Stinky Feet in concert, while enjoying the activities at the festival. I think the boys like the water fountain the best.

The boys got face paint and loved it – until they had to eat and it became a mess. Liam was a spider man and Colm was a pirate. Arghh!!

They also enjoyed the inflatable slides. Like this one.

Mr. Stinky Feet entertained us with his music while we had a nice lunch.

And a trip to an event at Crown Center is not complete without splashing in the fountain.

Sean

Beautiful weather this weekend

Liam had a Soccer game today and we enjoyed the nice weather. We later had a pizza party where the team got their season trophies.

Sean

New School – Spring Picnic

We visited the kids new school today as they were having a spring picnic. The kids enjoyed themselves.

I am excited about this smaller private Catholic school for our boys. They have a rigorous approach to the arts, music, and Science. They teach French starting in preschool.

Sean

Letting nature take its course…

So, this morning my wife had the brilliant idea to let the boys work out their differences rather than breaking up an argument before things get out of hand. I presume she read this somewhere, but I digress… I was up stairs and suddenly heard this fighting and kicking and screaming. Evidently, both boys were having a go at each other. I can see us now in the emergency room with one boy stabbed through the arm with a pencil while trying to explain …well you see there was this program that suggested you should let your children work out their differences when they argue….Who ever came up with that bunk never raised boys!

Sean

Baby Finnegan

Last evening we watched my nephew Finnegan. He was a very good baby. It was interesting to see how Colm responded. Colm was such the little helper. He got Finnegan his pacififier and played with the portable mobile to get Finnegan’s attention. When Finnegan responded, Colm would just jump with joy. Liam at first wanted nothing to do with a baby. But later while Nina was getting dinner ready and Finnegan was fussy, Liam leaned over and tried to cheer him up.

Sean

Killing independent ‘Sean’

Recently, I have come to the realization that having a company phone is not a great thing to bring home when it has email. I get on the average about 150 email a day. That is on an average day. The little red blinking light is a distraction when going out to dinner or trying to enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon. It is a bit like an intrusion on my personal life, quite frankly. I know I have a lot more responsibility now and keeping track of details is critical to the success of our products, but independent Sean needs time for himself and his family. Indeed, this blackberry is killing independent Sean. A Sean divided against itself cannot stand!

I love this scene from Seinfeld:

So I have a new rule. The ‘crackberry’ stays in the office unless I go on business travel. It does not come home with me in the evening nor do I spend the weekend with it. I spend evenings and weekends with my family as independent Sean.

Having a lot of responsibility brings with it a lot of stress. I work out and run several times a week over lunch, I have started playing my violin again with Liam, among other things. But that is only one way of trying to find a better balance between life and work.

So now I have my own personal phone.

Sean

Ah, the joys of dinner time

Liam and Colm share their joy with dinner and introduction to new vegetables. I would like to imagine somewhere that dinner time is a pleasant experience, filled with light hearted conversation on the day’s happenings while eating a nice meal. But no, our three and recently turned six year old have other plans.

Note Liam’s indifference. The reason is of course entirely due to the power of a certain video game that he plays with Daddy. Colm, however, has his limits – even if it means loss of quality video game playing time.

Sean

So Daddy takes the kids to school today

Nina had to go to a meeting at the boys’ school for next year. I was tasked to get both the boys to school on time. According to my instructions, Colm would require gentle coaxing with orange juice, followed by a gentle backrub, and cheery wiggles music to get him out of bed for school. Evidently, Nina’s mother did not attend the same Klingon preparatory school as mine. We Kelleys do not coddle the weak in the morning. It is sunshine and out of bed where I come from. Needless to say this was a bit of a shock to my oh so sleepy red-headed son – who was not used to having a Daddy drill sergeant.

Next, Daddy was in for a shock because his youngest refused to eat breakfast. What??? No breakfast?? We Kelleys eat cereal for breakfast and have a good start to our day. Yet my little one was refusing to eat. Oh problem. I pleaded. I ordered. Alas, to no avail did my efforts come.

Next, I had trouble finding my car keys because my eldest decided to play with them. It was an interesting morning.

Sean