Took Kylie and Melissa to see Toy Story 3 today over at the Quality 16 off of Jackson Ave in Ann Arbor, and boy was that a great idea! We have all seen the first two (in fact Daddy owns them on DVD, he’s a sucker for the Disney cartoons) and we were all looking forward to seeing the new addition to the series. I think it is safe to say that the movie was everything we expected. Kylie loved and Daddy and Melissa really enjoyed it too. The continued story of Woody and the gang was great, rarely does a third movie in a set hold up as well as this one did. This is the first time that Daddy has taken Kylie to the movies, and it was great and I can’t wait for another movie to come out that I can take her too again. Apparently while we were inside enjoying the movie, outside tornado warnings were going on. By the time the movie had ended and we went to go outside and Daddy turned his phone back on he had a number of messages from Mommy asking if we were all OK. It was definitely another fun and eventful day.
Monthly Archives: June 2010
Busy Fun Day
Today was a rather busy day for Kylie, Melissa and I, much busier than we thought it was going to be when we woke up, but in a good way. We started out just by simply relaxing and having a calm day. But then around lunch time we decided to head to the pool and swim for a bit, Kylie really seemed to have a good time playing in the water. Additionally she is getting much better at swimming; kicking and using her arms and she is also getting much more comfortable with putting her head underwater. After swimming for a bit we decided to lay out in the sun and dry off and relax, and relaxing it was. After we went home and changed we had some dinner and decided to head down into Depot Town to look in on the areas first ever Ton-Up Motorcycle festival. They had all sorts of motorcycles on display, live music, food vendors, local accessory dealers and even a wrestling show. Seeing all the older vintage bikes (which was a focus for Ton-Up) was really cool, but Kylie really seemed to enjoy watching the wrestling match, which was rather surprising to Daddy; and of course she liked listening to the live band (Rattlebox was playing while we were there). Hopefully next year we will head to the festival a little earlier in the day because by the time we arrived a lot of the vendors had packed up and left. As an added bonus and surprise ending to the day Daddy decided that after looking at what was left of the festival that we would take a walk over to Cafe Luwak in downtown Depot Town and have some ice cream, this decision, of course, was an overwhelmingly good idea. Today was a really great day and I look forward to many more like it.
Soccer Party
Today was Kylie’s soccer party for the completion of the six week season. It was downriver in Trenton in the church parking lot and Kylie had a lot of fun. I was really impressed with all the things they had there for the kids to participate in. To start they had pizza, cookies, cotton candy, and Capri Sun juice pouches to drink; all of which were very enjoyable. For activities they had a number of large inflatable games for the kids to play on including a large bounce/jump house, an obstacle course, and a big slide. These are the three main ones that Kylie seemed to like, but I think I would have to lean towards the obstacle course as being here overall favorite; she must have ran through that one four or five times in a row and even more than that in total! On the video page there are three videos, one of each of the three activities she seemed to like best. After the party was over we decided to head back to Ypsi and swing in on the Crossroads Music festival. However, seeing as everyone had already had a long day and we all seemed to be pretty tired, we did not stay as long as we typically do and instead came home and called it a night. I was just happy to see Kylie have so much fun, that makes it all worth it to me.
Success, decrypted
The past few days have been pretty busy for me with the work disaster recovery test going on. It was nice to be back in Philadelphia, as I really enjoy this city; I am always amazed at the beauty of City Hall and the Masonic Temple. However, this time, work did not afford me the opportunity to do any site seeing. The test went well though, in reality it went better than anticipated. The new LTO4 tape drive encryption I implemented went very smoothly. I was able to configure the TS3500 library to communicate with our TKLM server without any issues, which was a very pleasant surprise. Once that was done and the AIX boxes were built we brought up the TSM server, and i have to admit, once the server started reading the first encrypted tape to restore TSM’s database I was elated. Had we not been able to read the encrypted data on that tape we would have been in a world of trouble, especially since I had already moved the entire environments data to encrypted tapes. Once the TSM server was completely up and running all of the necessary restores ran really smooth, and as a bonus the new LTO4 tapes wrote the data back out faster than anticipated. In the end it was a successful test and a pretty decent validation of all my hard work to implement the new encryption method.
Off to Philadelphia
Due to some unfortunate scheduling I had to cut my Father’s Day with Kylie short (dropped her back off at Mommy’s house around Noon) as I have to leave for a DR test in Philadelphia which starts tomorrow morning at 8am. My flight leaves at 1:45 which means I have to be to the airport by 1 the latest. I tried to get a later flight out so I would have more time to spend with Kylie, but the price went up by an additional $600 for the later flight, so sadly I am not able to postpone the flight any later. The only thing that makes it anywhere remotely ok is that Kylie has been with me since Thursday night, so I have had a good amount of time with her the last few days. So off I ago once again to Philadelphia, at least it is a city that I really enjoy being in.
Happy 5th Birthday Kylie!
I can not believe how fast time goes by! Today, Kylie, you are 5 years old! I look at you and see how big you are getting and it just amazes me. I still remember the day you were born, giving you your very first sponge bath right after with the nurse, holding you and looking into your beautiful eyes. I never knew how happy I could be until you were born. And now, five years have passed. Everyone told me it would go by quickly, but I just didn’t realize how fast it would truly be. I wish I had a way to slow down time and spend even more of it with you, building memories and having fun. I hope as you continue to grow you realize just how much everyone loves you and cares for you. Ever since your first day you have been a very happy and loving little girl, and I hope you continue to be happy, upbeat, and positive as you grow. The empathy and sympathy you display for others at such a young age always amazes me and makes me proud. I hope we can continue to provide you with all the opportunities and chances to explore all your hearts desires, either to continue with something you already know (like ballet) or to learn something completely new. Though I can’t wait to see what the next five years brings for you, and I greatly look forward to watching you grow, learn, and explore the world around you, I hope it doesn’t go by as fast the first five have.
Speaking of new things, today is the day you embark on learning something new. For the past few months you have shown increasing interest in Mommy’s violin, so Daddy got you your very first violin! A 1/8th Suzuki Violin complete with bow and hard case. You were very excited when you opened your eyes and saw the case in front of you. Soon you will be starting private lessons once a week which Mommy will help enforce during the week as you and her play together. I know Mommy is very excited to share in this experience with you, both to see you grow and play the very same instrument that she plays and to help her get back into playing as well. I hope that over the years this will be something the two of you can share and bond with. And, of course, I am very much looking forward to hear you play such a beautiful instrument!
On top of all this, today is an extra special birthday (for me at least) because it is also Father’s Day! A day that without you I would not have been able to celebrate for the last five years! This is something that only happens every few years and for me it is a very special treat! Today, like every Father’s Day, we went out to breakfast together, just as I used to do with my father. Today, though, instead of going to McDonald’s we went to Ihop and had some very yummy pancakes and eggs. On top of that you even got a free ice cream Sunday because you told the waitress it was your birthday! You thought it was very silly that you were having ice cream with breakfast, but you enjoyed it immensely.
This morning, with you, was such a blast! Happy Birthday Little Bit, We love you, whole bunches forever!
Last Day of Soccer
Today was the last day of soccer for the girls, and I can’t believe how fast it went by. The girls seemed to really have a lot of fun and they definitely got some good exercise running around. Kylie thinks she would like to play again given the opportunity, and I am very happy that she is interested in participating in sports. Hopefully she will continue to be active with sports and extracurricular activities as she continues to grow. The only downside to all this soccer though, is that it has been really hot and sunny, but plenty of water and sunblock takes care of that!
“SPF Daddy…The Sun never stood a chance.”
Crossroads Music Night
Another fun night at the Crossroads Music festival! We wanted to make sure we went tonight because the band Just Jill was playing again and we really enjoyed them last year, and this year was no exception! This band puts on a really good show and the music they perform is great. Additionally, for the second year in a row, the lead singer gave Kylie her tambourine again! Not only that but she even jumped down off stage and was dancing with Kylie too! A video of Kylie playing the tambourine can be found on the videos page or via this direct link, and a few pictures from the music can be found in Kylie’s Year 5 June album.
First Ride in a Long Time
Finally had time to get back on the motorcycle today! I feel, due to weather and other restrictions, that I am riding less this year than previous years. I hope that changes as the summer goes on. Riding is one of the few things that helps me to relax and de-stress. Looking back, it appears that this is the first ride since April 29th, that’s almost two months! It was real nice to be back on it though and the 68.1 mile ride was very nice. I don’t have a map of this particular trip though, as I honestly do not remember the route I took. I need to save money and get a GPS that allows me to upload map overlays so I will be more easily able to keep track of where I have gone. Putting the maps in by hand (which is what I normally do) is very time consuming and tedious, additionally it becomes a big problem when I don’t remember the full route like today. It’s hard to remember the route though when we are exploring roads we have never been on before.
First Central Air Day
After Soccer today Melissa and I went to Patrick’s (my buddy Chuck’s son) Graduation Party for a few hours. It was nice to hang out and have a drink with a bunch of really nice people. The food was great and the company was super. The only problem was the heat. It turned out to be incredibly hot today, and even though the party was mainly held in the shade of Chuck’s garage, the heat was still quite oppressive. So much so that as soon as we got home we closed the windows and turned the central air on for the first time this year. Judging from how the days have been though, I have a feeling this is the first of many uses this summer. There goes the electric bill. 🙁