Category Archives: Family

Finally, a 360!

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On November 15, 2001 Microsoft released the Xbox video game console in North America and though I wanted one at the time I did not have the money to purchase it. So I waited patiently until I did have the money, but no matter how I tried to save something always came up and I never got one. Then on November 25, 2005 they released the Xbox 360, which has better video, audio and storage capabilities than its predecessor. Once again I tried to save money to get this new console, and once again something always came up and I never purchased one. All that changed today! After so many years of waiting and trying and hoping, I finally purchased an Xbox 360 today.

I happened to be reading though my jobs internal classified ads yesterday and stumbled upon someone selling an Xbox 360 with a 120GB hard drive, one wireless controller, and Rock Band 2 with the drums, guitar and microphone; all for $125! I literally had no choice but to buy this bundle! Now let me put that into perspective for those of you that are wondering why I didn’t have a choice; the Rock Band 2 bundle on its own is selling for $127 at this time, and the Xbox 360 Elite bundle (which this is the equivalent of) is going for $299! I practically stole this console! On top of that when I met the guy to make the purchase he also threw in 4 other games, a second wireless controller, a headset, and a memory module in addition to the console and Rock Band 2 for no additional cost!

I can not even begin to explain how excited I am to get this setup and to start playing Xbox 360. I know a lot of people who also have a 360 and a few from work are already planning on bringing in some older games for me to play. This is going to be a blast!

I’m Glad It’s Not Croup

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I got a phone call at work today from Tiffany to tell me that she was having Mimi take Kylie to the doctor today because when Kylie got up this morning she had a very bad, deep cough (to the point that Kylie started to cry) and both Mommy and Mimi were afraid that it might be croup. They were able to get an early appointment so I made arrangements to leave work and go to the appointment seeing as the doctor’s office is right down the road from my office.  When I arrived at the office Kylie seemed like she was feeling fine, but then again that is extremely deceptive with Kylie because unless she is really sick she is normally her chipper self. Then as we were sitting in the waiting room Kylie had a small bout of coughing, and from what I heard I had a pretty good feeling that she just had a small cold. When we got called into the Doctor’s examining room Kylie weighed in at 47.5 pounds; when they took her temperature it was 98.7. The doctor looked Kylie over and said that her ears looked good (which is always good news considering her past record with ear infections and my record with them when I was a kid) and that her throat was a little pink (but nothing to treat) and that her lungs sound clear. After all the examinations the doctor said that she had a simple cold and the reason her cough sounded so bad in the morning was due to nasal draining over night and that perhaps a humidifier might help prevent such hard coughing in the morning. Additionally some decongestant before bed might also help to ensure that Kylie sleeps well and wont have such a rough cough in the morning. Here’s to hoping that she feels better tomorrow morning.

Happy Easter

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This morning when Kylie woke up she was very excited to come out and see what the Easter Bunny had left her. She enjoyed her new book: A Light in the Attic, but like most children was even more excited about all the candy! We decided that seeing as today is a special day we were going to have breakfast out, and everyone decided to that Ihop would be the place to go. So Kylie, Melissa and I all got dressed and ready to go for breakfast. However after we got dressed Kylie insisted we take pictures because “everyone looks so pretty.” So we took a few pictures and then headed off for what turned out to be a very good breakfast. Afterward we came back home and enjoyed a nice relaxing day together.

Visiting Daddy’s Office

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Today was an oddly special day, well odd as to why it was special. Today Kylie got to come see Daddy’s “office” for the very first time. I was doing some work from home today and suddenly was not able to connect to my work computer any longer, so we took a ride in to the office; Kylie, Melissa and I. After signing in and going up the elevator we got out on the 5th floor and proceeded to head to my cubicle. When we got there Kylie was amazed at how many pictures of her I had all around my desk. She kept saying “That’s me in that picture. Oh, that’s me too” and then she noticed that hanging on the walls of my cube where various pieces of art she had made me over the last few years. She was really happy when she noticed that right next to my monitor was a ceramic shooting star that she had painted fro me for Christmas. She said “Aww, Daddy I painted this for you” and I said “I know you did and that’s why it is here. Whenever I miss you during the day I can stop working and look at all these pictures of you, and at all the things you have made me, and I feel better because you are with me.” Kylie smiled and replied “I am always with you in your heart.” I gave her a real big hug after that and told her she was absolutely right. Then she had lots of fun standing on my desk and writing all over my whiteboard as I worked to fix the issues I was having. Her and Melissa played for a while and generally had a good time while we were stuck in the office. Luckily it only took me about an hour to resolve the issue and then we were able to go back home. A few pictures of Kylie writing on my whiteboard can be found here in the gallery.

Hockey Game was a blast

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Kylie had a blast last night, and to top it all off the Red Wings won! Kylie got a pair of Red Wings dog tags as a souvenir when they walked into Joe Louis Arena and then got even more free swag during the night. At one point during the game people working the game came around and were tossing small Domino’s Pizza boxes into the crowd, if you caught one you got a free slice of pizza from one of the concession stands. It turns out that the guy throwing the boxes out into the crowd saw Kylie and walked right up to her and handed her the box, so she got a free slice of pizza! Then during one of the between period intermissions one of the ushers walked up to Kylie and said “When you walked in, I heard your Mom say this is your first Red Wings game to help make it special, I want you to have this” and handed Kylie an Official Red Wings Pre-Game warm up puck! She had a blast at the game and all the extra swag just added to the event. Check out the pictures from the game and see just how much fun Kylie had.

Kylie’s Going to a Red Wings Game

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Kylie’s going to her first Red Wings Hockey game tonight! I just got a phone call from Tiffany asking if she could pick Kylie up from daycare today (it is supposed to be my night to have her) because Mimi has just won 4 free tickets to tonight’s Red Wings game. Mommy called me to ask if it was ok that I loose a night with Kylie so she could go to the game, I of course said yes, I mean how could I not? I hope she has a good time, and I hope that we can take her to more sporting events in the future.

Sneak Peek of Kylie’s Recital

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Today I had the opportunity to go watch a sneak preview of Kylie’s ballet recital, not the entire thing just what they have learned so far. I have seen Kylie do her ballet before, both in class and around the house, and I have always been impressed and very proud of her, but seeing her with the entire class is impressive. Both Kylie and her classmates have come a long way and are doing great! I can’t wait to go see her first recital. The video I took with my phone of today’s class can be seen on the video page along with all the other videos.

Happy Anniversary to Me (and my job)

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I just realized that today marks my 5 year anniversary with Thomson Reuters. When I first started working for the company (February 7, 2005) we were Thomson Medstat, then in 2007 Thomson purchased Reuters (Reuters Article) we became Thomson Reuters Medstat. Eventually after the acquisition was complete we eventually transitioned to what we are now; The Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters. Over the last 5 years my career has gone down a completely unexpected path. When I graduated from college in 2004 my hope was to become a Unix System Administrator, and while I do perform some work on Unix systems I am by no means a Unix administrator. I started out as a humble Operator in (what was then) the North American Data Center (NADC) for Thomson Healthcare and Scientific. I was working third shift (11pm to 7am) and performing mainly system monitoring processes along with data submission (getting customer submitted data off of various media and into our data processing and tracking software) and general data center monitoring. After a little under 2 years I learned that the NADC was moving to Eagan MN to leverage the Thomson West Law campus and there data center. Knowing that I would soon be out of a job, when they asked for someone to go to Eagan to add in the build out of the Healthcare Data Center infrastructure I knew I had to go. So making the sacrifice to be away from 1 year old daughter for 3 months, I packed up and moved to Minnesota; little did I know those three months would turn into almost nine. After all those long months of racking servers, running cables, configuring ILO connections, and trouble shooting hardware issues I came back home, to what I thought was no job. However the day I got home I received a phone call from Bob G. asking me to join his team and to become a Storage Engineer. I’d be responsible for ensuring corporate backups (using IBM TSM) and eventually NetApp and SAN disk. Over the last three years in this role I have managed to become one of the most knowledgeable and turned to TSM admin in the company and gained the title of Sr. Storage Engineer. Had you asked me 5 years ago where my career would take me, I can guarantee this is not the path I would have laid out; but I have embraced the opportunities that were presented to me and here I am. I wonder what the next five years will bring?

Blood Oranges

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Every year I wait patiently for the end of January / beginning of February for one very reason, and surprisingly it is related to fruit; this is the only time of year that I can get Blood Oranges. I like regular oranges but only for juice, when it comes to eating an orange I much prefer these. Today I got to share my enjoyment with Kylie. I asked her if she wanted to have some blood orange with me and she “Sure.” But when she first saw the blood orange she thought it was strange and she said that she changed her mind and didn’t want any. I told her she at least had to try a bite of it before she made up her mind because it is good to try new things, guess what happened? She liked it, a lot! Kylie ate an entire blood orange after she tried it and even had some of Daddy’s.

Detroit Basketball

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Thanks to a promotion that Meijer does called “Meijer Ticket Zone” tonight I got to go see my first professional basketball game! Melissa and I got free tickets to go to the Palace of Auburn Hills to watch the Detroit Pistons play against the Miami Heat. This was my first time ever in the Palace, and I was impressed with the venue though I am not certain if I would want to see a concert there. While the experience was enjoyable, I still stick with my previous thoughts that I would rather watch the game from the comfort of my living room. The worst part about the experience was the drive to and from the venue; lots of traffic coupled with the fact that I really didn’t know where I was going didn’t make for the best driving experience. I’m sure the next time the trip will be easier, assuming there is a next time. The parking was ok, though the $25 parking fee was not to pleasing. The event was enjoyable and Melissa and I did have a good time, unfortunately though the Pistons lost 65-92. We took a few pictures of the pre-game set up and the outside of the Palace using our phones, they can be viewed here; additionally I took a short video (again with my phone) of the Pistons coming out onto the court, and that can be seen below.