Living the dream baby!

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Our Bama

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BoBo, BoBo Bear, Bams, Bamers, Bamie, FoFo, Bobies. Those were all our nicknames for our dog Bama. After 14 fantastic years, his run as the greatest dog on the planet came to a somber end today. This is one of those things that will be really tough for Sonya and I to talk about, so I’ll try explaining as much as I can here, so you won’t have to ask us about it when you see us.

If you ever met him, you knew he was special. One of those pets that, if lucky, you get to experience once in your lifetime. We were lucky enough to find him at the ripe old age of 10 weeks. I bought him for Sonya as a Christmas present back in 1992. We weren’t married, didn’t own a home, but for some strange reason I thought it was a good idea at the time.

In retrospect it was something that was totally out of character for me. It was one of those irrational, spontaneous things that I didn’t do. After a conversation with Sonya a few weeks before, we got into this debate over the type of dog we would get someday. She wanted a Boxer because they were handsome, sleek, energetic dogs that you could actually run around with. I wanted a Bull dog, because well, I had one as a kid and I thought they were cool looking. Not surprisingly, Sonya turned out to be right.

When I was shopping for a present, we had also started talking about buying a house together. Perhaps I thought that by getting her a dog, it would motivate her to go the whole 9-yards with buying the house. I don’t really know what I was thinking, other than, she wanted a Boxer, so I got her a Boxer.

My mom watched him for a week until Christmas, then brought him over to my dad’s place on Christmas Eve. I’ll never forget the look on Sonya’s face. She had this adorable puppy that was all in favor of checking out his new home. That first night, we let him sleep in his crate downstairs. He howled like, well, a puppy that was away from its mother for the first time. We eventually brought him up stairs to shut him up. The second we set him on a pillow on the floor, he never uttered another peep…for 14 years.

We had to go back to work a couple of days later, which is when our first adventure happened. We put him on the side of the house during the day while we went off to work. My sister had the presence of mind to suggest putting her cat’s tag on his collar until we were able to get one. Low and behold, he jumped the fence that day and went touring the neighborhood. Some kids down the street found him and called to tell us that they had our dog “Lucy”.

Over the years, we learned that Bama 1) couldn’t swim, 2) hated to have his paws touched, 3) farted like a buzz saw, 4) loved any human that would give him the time of day, 5) had a natural talent for modeling, 6) was incapable of passing a large rubber ball, 7) loved to dance, 8) hated squirrels, 9) tolerated small children better than any dog on the planet, 10) would park himself on any lap that made itself available and 11) was faithful to the very end.

Time eventually caught up with him, but not before living almost twice the life expectancy for his breed. Part of that probably had to do with the fact that he was an indoor dog that spent most of his final days guarding our bedroom from squirrels.

The kids are a little sad, but it’s been particularly hard on Sonya and I. Bam was our first child. He will forever be that dog once-in-a-lifetime dog that made our lives better. And for that we’re grateful to have known him.

More [Photos of Bama]

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Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Christmas Photos

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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

The Boys



Well here's something I never thought I'd see. Is that Scott actually playing the role of daddy? I think I saw a pig flying outside my window.

Baby Adam is now officially 13 days old and I have to pay a visit. Yes, I feel guilty, but Scott lives in outer Mongolia, so I guess I don't feel that guilty. Why'd he have to move so far away. Perhaps we'll stop by sometime next week.

Cousins

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Sonya has a couple of cousins that we see on a semi-regular basis here in the Bay Area. One of the nice little traditions that the girls all started a few years ago is to get together for dinner during the holidays. We continued that tradition by meeting up in Palo Alto last weekend.

We all had dinner at Buca di Beppo, then had gelato at a cremery dowtown. Dinner was a lot of fun, although it was pointed out that we all used the night away from the kids to talk about, you guessed it, the kids.

Sonya's cousin Julie and her husband Matt have a one year-old, and her other cousin Laura (and husband Mike) has a bambino on the way. Her other cousin Jeremy and his wife Heather, who were married last summer, were probably bored to tears with all the kid banter.

We wrapped things up with coctails and a few rounds of billiards at the Blue Chalk. Good times.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

2006 In Review

In case you were asleep for the past 365 days, here's a recap of the year...

Friday, December 15, 2006

The Card

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The Card - Circa 2005


Ok, this year's Xmas card is finally out the door. We got off our butts and produced it earlier this year. For those of you who've received it, you'll notice the theme is tied in to another post on this blog. If you haven't figured it out, you'll just have to go back a few posts and read up.

If you haven't received one, it means one of the following:

1) You've moved and haven't given us your new address
2) We've lost your address
3) You've pissed me off in some way, shape or form this year...ok, not really.
4) I have no idea who you are (and you're starting to creep me out).

Tell us what you think of this year's card here by posting a comment.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Naughty or Nice?

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"No seriously, I'd prefer the cash!"


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Santa needs to wash his beard!


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Ry at Xmas in the Park

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Xmas Nights



If you have nothing better to do at night and you're cruising the streets of Sunnyvale, be sure to checkout the Christmas light exhibit at 1168 Tangerine Way [MAP] in Svale. Two familes have teamed up to put together one of the coolest holiday light displays I've ever seen. They've incorporated over 55,000 lights that are synchronized to music.

They even broadcast music on an FM frequency (104.1), so you can watch from the comfort of your car. They run a play list of about 100 songs that runs from 5:30pm to 11:00pm nightly. If you do go, be sure to bring canned food or some cash to donate. They have food bins and a cash box for charity.

Christmas Carolers will be singing at the display on Sunday, Dec. 17th at 7:00 pm.

Checkout their website.

Some stats on the display:

54,408 lights
184 Amps (all lights on)
21,200 Watts (all lights on)
514 bulbs replaced before Opening Night
131 individual computer controlled lighting elements
30 unique animated songs
21 additional "static" (All On) songs

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Yahoo's Next Big Challenge

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Yahoo announced a major restructuring late Tuesday evening (here's the press release), followed by a company-wide all-hands meeting led by CEO Terry Semel. The message was pretty clear. We need to consolidate our business and focus on key areas in order to compete with our competitors. Part of this includes positioning several senior level managers in new roles. Most notably, our CFO Sue Decker takes the helm of one of three newly formed divisions. Current CTO Zod Nazem will assume the helm of another, while a search goes on to control the third.

Semel made it clear in the company meeting today that the rumored 10-15% layoffs suggested in Brad Garlinghouse’s Peanut Butter Manifesto are bunk and that employees need not worry about such rumors. The biggest result of the shakeup is that current COO Dan Rosensweig will be leaving Yahoo in March.

Am I worried?

No, not worried. I’ve been working in the industry long enough to realize that change is inevitable. Especially in the fast paced internet industry. If you let stuff like that worry you, then you’ll go nuts in this business.

I’m happy to see the company take action rather than offer up lip service to the market after the street made it clear that revenues must keep pace with what our competitors are doing.

Have we lost our touch?

We’ve certainly made some mistakes, but at least we’re smart enough to recognize that they were mistakes and take action to rectify them. I’ve seen what happens when you have senior managers at the helm that have no clue. Yahoo isn’t in that position. There are some insanely smart people working for this company. I just hope there is enough motivation among the rank & file to stick through the tough times ahead.

We have a long way to go, but we one thing no other company in the world has. Millions of users. More millions than anyone else on the planet. It’s our job to motivate those folks to stick around and to attract the ones that don’t back to the great products that we offer.

Semel blogged about the road that lays ahead, which includes some pretty poignant remarks. How many other CEOs blog? Much less lay out the roadmap for an industry leading company for the world to see?

This is just another challenge for this company, and in the five years that I’ve been an employee, I’ve seen us tackle challenges head on.

I can’t wait for the opportunity to solve new problems, and play a part in building the next phase in Yahoo’s evolution. It’s been a blast for the last five years, and I’m looking forward to the next five.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

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We found our tree
The family trekked up to the Santa Cruz Mountains on Saturday afternoon for the annual Christmas tree haul. We hit the usual area (Bear Creek Rd just past Lexington Reservoir), but we tried a new tree farm this year.

It seems that the pickings get slimmer and slimmer each year. Perhaps another indication of overcrowding in the Bay Area? We tried a different side road, and found a place called Faty’s Tree Farm. No untruth’s in advertising here. It took us all of 15 minutes to find a nice fat Douglas Fir that stood about 9.5 feet at the peak.

The view from Faty’s was absolutely incredible. You could see Monterey from the summit. Unbelievable weather for a December day. I wore shorts, t-shirt and a light fleece sweater and I was fine. Gotta love California weather.

After cutting the tree down, we hauled it back to the truck and tied it down on the roof. I think we were door to door in less than an hour and a half. I don’t think I could have plucked a tree from the Home Depot down the street any faster.

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This is serious stuff
I must admit that I was seriously considering the Depot this year. It’s a lot of work to lug the kids up to the hills, and it typically consumes an entire day. Sonya reminded me that Ryan always gets the shaft when it comes to doing stuff like this, because we peeter out after having been there / done that with Karsyn.

She was right. He deserves to experience these events, so Home Depot gets to wait another few years before we go that route.

The 9.5 foot tree we brought home had to be trimmed a bit, because we only have 8-foot ceilings, so I lopped off a bit of the base and the top. Dragged it into the living room and set it in the stand.

Low and behold, we picked a winner. It is indeed a fatty. Nice and healthy…at least for the next 30 days.

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The decorating crew
Sonya strung the lights on the tree, while I hung our exterior lights on the perimeter of the house. I have to say that there’s nothing more irritating than a strand of lights that is half dead. These things are cheap enough these days that it’s not worth the time to try and find that one damn bulb that’s burned out, so we have a dead patch for a day or two (until I can get down to Thrifty’s and buy a new strand.

After the lights were all up, the kids went to town on putting ornaments on the tree. Ry really had fun. He’s a bit of a non-conformist, insisting that his ornaments be hung on the bottom 2 feet of the tree. Of course it doesn’t help that he’s under three feet tall himself, so we’ll live with the bunching!

After all was said and done, we ended up with a pretty darn nice Christmas tree. I can’t remind myself enough how lucky I am to have such a great tree trimming crew. They did a wonderful job.

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Our Tree!

The Blogosphere Grows Again

The blogosphere grew by one blog this week, when my bud Scott started his very own message to the world. He's still not sure if he's going to keep things isolated, but he's doing it because he's going to be a pappy.

Checkout Christine & Scott's Blog

I figure if it's free for the world to see right now, then he won't mind me pointing folks that read this blog to it.

12/2 UPDATE: We're still all waiting for Scott to tell us something. What up dude? Is that kid here yet or not?