Category Archives: Ed

Trip to the zoo

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Today we (Kylie, Daddy and Melissa) took a trip to the Detroit Zoo, where we spent the entire day walking around and exploring. Kylie really enjoyed the Dinosauria exhibit, from the website:

It’s the largest outdoor dinosaur exhibit of its kind in the country – and it’s at the Detroit Zoo this summer, May 25 – September 5, 2011.

More than 30 life-like, animatronic dinosaurs that roar, snarl and move are providing a thrilling encounter at the Detroit Zoo’s sensational blockbuster Dinosauria exhibit. It is the most spectacular dinosaur experience this side of the Mesozoic Era.

Travel back in time as you explore a lush, three-acre DinoTrail recreating prehistoric life. The animatronic dinosaurs roar and move just like they did millions of years ago.

After we walked through the DinoTrail we went back to the car so we could have a tailgate picnic consisting of sandwiches and pop. Then, right back in to the zoo to look around at all the animals. Unfortunately the lions were not available for viewing, but we did get to see a tiger, and a polar bear laying out on the tundra. One of the things Daddy liked most though, was seeing the penguins swim in the Penguinarium and watching the leopard seals swim in the Arctic Ring of Life. Kylie got a real kick out of the “ice cave,” one of the walls in with the leopard seals which was completely frozen over and covered with ice. By the time we got all the way to the back of the zoo, where the seals are, it was getting close to 5pm (the closing time of the zoo) so we started to walk back towards the front so we could leave. That’s when we got stuck in a terenchal downpour, needless to say we got soaked on our way back to the truck but we all thought this was very funny and only added to our enjoyment of the day rather than detract from it. We will need to go back another time to see some of the things we missed, like the animals of the African Grassland or the Australian Outback. I was surprised that we spent so much time here today and still didn’t see everything. It was a very fun day and Daddy took many pictures that can be seen in the gallery.

Fancy Nancy Tea Party

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Today we celebrated Kylie’s 6th Birthday by having a Fancy Nancy Tea Party! Kylie invited a few of her girl friends from ballet and her cousins Delaney, Madelyn, and Amelia; and everyone got all dressed up and had a blast. We set up a tent in mommy’s back yard and put tables underneath with fancy placeholders that Kylie made. We then set out fancy tea sets, and decorated the tent with fancy feather boas that each girl would be able to take home. Kylie choose to have fancy pink tea and fancy finger sandwiches for the girls to eat, with fruit kabobs for snack before we had cake; we also had cold cuts for the adults to make sandwiches. The girls all had a blast playing on Kylie’s swing set and trampoline and running around with each other in general. Daddy was very busy today as well, taking over 600 pictures! Thankfully Mommy’s prediction almost a month earlier was correct and the temperature was right around 80 degrees, and while still warm, it was a beautiful day!

Kindergarten Completion

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Today was Kylie’s last day of kindergarten! I wanted to be there with her for her last day like I was there for her on her first day, so I took personal day from work so I could go pick her up. After getting her we went to pizza hut for lunch because that is where she said she wanted to go (as we were driving by). After we were done we went and played at Bishop Park for a few hours, but it looked like it was going to rain so we decided it was a good time to go to 7-eleven for a slushy and some Cheetos. By then it was time to bring Kylie back to Mimi’s and for Daddy to go back home. It was a really great few hours and I am very glad I was able to be there for another big mile stone. Next stop, first grade! A couple of pictures of our day can be found here.

Live Outdoor Theater

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Tonight Melissa and I went to Nichols Arboretum to watch a presentation of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. Apparently every year the U of M Residential College chooses a play to preform and it’s called Shakespeare in the Arb and this year the performed The Winter’s Tale. It was a very interesting experience. The play takes place all across the Arboretum with the audience moving with the actors from one area to the next to watch each scene. It was a very fun and entertaining time and lasted almost three hours. I think this is something that I would like to do again next year, but we would change a few things now that we know. Such as; we will dress more comfortably and bring along some quad chairs to sit in. I was able to take a few pictures towards the end with my phone, and they can be seen here.

Special Person’s Day

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Today was special person’s day at Kylie’s school, this is a day where each student gets to invite a person to come in to school to spend the afternoon with, and Kylie choose me! So I got to go to her school today and spend the afternoon out in the yard with her where we read books to each other (I read Harry the Dirty Dog and she read Hop on Pop) and have ice pops. Thankfully the weather was very nice, a beautiful not too hot sun shiny day. We sat on a blanket that I had brought with me just for the occasion and took turns reading our books and talking. It was really nice to see all the people who came to be with the children in Kylie’s class, and I was very happy that she choose me! Afterwards I waited around for a few minutes until it was time to take Kylie home from school, and then i took her back to Mimi and Mommy’s house because she spending this weekend with Mommy because of all the things that are going on (soccer, ballet recital, and BBQ for the troops). Kylie is going to have a very full weekend indeed.

Back in Michigan

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The flight home today was nice and uneventful, just the way I like my flights. As soon as we landed and I was able to disembark I made a beeline straight to my truck so I could go see Kylie. Having not been able to spend the entire weekend last week with her due to my flight leaving on Sunday, and not seeing her this weekend due to being in Texas, I was really looking forward to going to see her for a little while tonight. I gave her a few small things I picked up for her while I was in Texas and then we went and had a nice dinner at Red Robin.

NCDA Boot Camp, Day 6

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I just passed NS163 and now officially have my NCDA! It will take a couple of weeks for them to ship out my certificate but the system has been updated with my passing score so I am officially certified. Not just me though, everyone in the class passed both exams, so there are now 8 new NCDA’s in the field. Congratulations to all the other guys and to Jon Presti for being a great instructor and making sure we all had the knowledge needed to pass the exams and get certified. Now to figure out what to do with the rest of my day, because my flight doesn’t leave until tomorrow. Had I known we would be done by 2pm today, I would have scheduled for an early evening flight. Oh well, looks like I get to go explore Las Colinas a little.

NCDA Boot Camp, Day 3

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Had the first of two exams today, NS153, and I am happy to say that I passed! I am now half way to my NCDA. After the exam we began covering the material that will be on Saturday’s NS163 exam. After class I was talking with Jon and found out that he wasn’t going to be having dinner tonight because he was short on cash (due to forgetting to process a lot of expense reports, oops.) and so I told him he should come over to my hotel which is literally next door to his because we have free dinner in the lobby. We had some good conversation at dinner about the class, the material, and NetApp in general. Apparently this is the first time Jon has hung out with any of his students outside of class as well, which I thought was odd because he is by far one of the most straight forward, down to earth, and straight up cool techs I have ever met. Well, time to study some more!

NCDA Boot Camp, Day 2

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So my first test is tomorrow and in preparation we filled out the necessary forms for Prometric, and as soon as I got my form I had to laugh. According to the paper Prometric still thinks they are a Thomson company. Prometric Oops I then had to explain to the class why I was laughing: 1) Thomson doesn’t exist anymore, we are now Thomson Reuters, and 2) when we were Thomson, we sold Prometric in 2007. Jon said he was going to send an email to his contact to see about getting updated forms. 🙂 The second day of the class went smooth and as I predicted some of the conversations have been very interesting. Also like I predicted Jon is really awesome, he knows the material very well and has no problem admitting if he dosen’t have the answer to a question, but he gets the answer typically while we are doing the labs either by doing some quick research or calling one of his contacts. I can see Jon being a great contact through out my career.

NCDA Boot Camp, Day 1

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Made it in to class this morning, bright and early at 8am…and went into the wrong building. I wasn’t the only one though, the entire class including the instructor did. It had to do with the way we were given the address and how the buildings are actually set up inside with the suites. Long complicated explanation short, I found the class. Interesting enough the instructor was one of the last people to arrive (on time I want to add, as I was just really early), and he (Jon Presti) seems really damn cool and I think he is going to be a great instructor. We have decided collectively to begin class at 8:30 instead of 8:00, which for me means another half hour to study before class because, lets face it, I will be up well in advanced. Anyway, the first day was really good. There are 8 guys in the class counting me and according to Jon, this is the first time he has had a class completely comprised of guys from enterprise level storage environments. Based on some of the conversations we had today in class I am thinking the conversations about storage are going to be very interesting and informative. I found out today that of the two exams I need to take to get my NCDA certification, one will be on Wednesday morning and the other will be on Saturday morning. The one on Saturday is supposed to be the more difficult of the two, so I am certain I will be spending all of my “free time” studying. Well, one day down, time to hit the books!