Thursday, June 30, 2005

Happy Birthday Grampa

While I was whining about how hard it is to travel with 2 year olds, I forgot to wish my Dad a happy birthday. Thank you dad for putting up with my crap, like the time I puked in hands on that car ferry on lake Michigan and the time in high school when my girlfriend puked in the back seat of your car (this may be the first time your heard that one).

You've been a fantastic father and you obviously have something I need to work on. Thanks for being patience (I don't know how to spell) with me all those years and feel free to help me learn how to be display more patience with these two beautiful (now sleeping) children.

Love you and again, Happy Birthday.

Mark

Mark Carpenter
General Manager and Director
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Airplanes and 2 year olds

So, the plane is delayed for an hour. First a mechanical problem, then weather. The boys cannot handle the close proximity of air travel at this age. Dylan is still awake and kicking the seat in front of him, beating on the table or screaming at the top of his lungs. Sam was doing that until he puked on Nicole and fell a sleep.

I have no idea how we are going to get home. I don't think I can get on a plane with them again until they are four. We're over Colorado or one of those mountain states and I'm considering asking the pilot to drop us in Utah so we can catch a train.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager and Director
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

06-30-05_1648.jpg


06-30-05_1648.jpg
Originally uploaded by homerclees.
Dylan

Tuesday, June 28, 2005


We are getting closer everyday to the completion of the basement remodeling project. The walls are now back in place, the painting is almost finished (navajo white walls and white trim) and we found some porcilin tile today that should work well. I also had an electrician out today to install some new outlets and circuits for the sump pumps (don't want them tripping in a storm) as well as a new ceiling fan in the guest room for all you sleepover guests.

The other fun thing I was able to do when the walls were torn up was have some catagory 5 ethernet cable and two jacks put in the walls and run to a router upstairs. This will allow the basement to have "wired" internet access which is faster than my "wireless" set-up around the rest of the house. I'm getting ready for digital convergence when voice, data, video and all served throught a common digital gateway. Basically every device in your home is networked and is interoperable with the others. Of course, entertainment will be the first application for this new world so a Media PC with a HD tv will show up down there before I start networking the stove or washing machine.

Oh yeah, one more thing, I hate Cox Cable. They used to be my hero's but they completely messed up a simple request for them to install a new outlet and digital services line in the basement. I'm looking at satellite in the near future...The only good thing is that they failed to either show up on time or at all four times resulting in a $19.99 credit per instance. An $80 credit will knock my cable bill down quite a bit this month. Those bastards.... Posted by Hello

New walls, paint and floor.. Posted by Hello

Sunday, June 26, 2005


All grace with some nice form.. Posted by Hello

We played in the pool on the deck today and we learned how to run thru the sprinkler. Nicole has quite the form in the shot above this post. The boys tended to take the side of the water unless we forced them to run up the middle. Posted by Hello More soon...

Saturday, June 25, 2005


These are my playing partners for golf yesterday. Nice day but man was it windy out there. This course right on the water, accross he 65th street bridge from Ocean City. Very tough course with great views of the bay and OC but plays even harder with a 10-15 mile an hour breeze. From left to right, Dave, Mike and Modean. Nice shorts catfish... Posted by Hello

Friday, June 24, 2005

Modean


Modean
Originally uploaded by homerclees.
After golf

Bad t shirts


Bad t shirts
Originally uploaded by homerclees.
Oc

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Par 3

I played a little par 3 course today and hit a bucket of balls to prepare myself for Lighthouse Sound. It was all good but I worry about my game considering the number of strokes I took on that piddely little goat track. I just ordered some risotto and I'm hoping that will help my game tomorrow. Sam fell on his face this morning at the park so he has a new wounds just after his "running into an open drawer" wound healed. That boy has some face issues. He just runs hard at all times. He will probably be a linebacker or a really aggresive la cross player down the road. It appears Dylan will be the pretty boy.

The basement is coming along nicely. The workers just installed some cat 5 ethernet cables and a couple jacks down there to prepare it to be the digital media room, and of course a creative play space for the boys. More soon...

Mark Carpenter
General Manager and Director
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Wednesday, June 22, 2005


This is a Kumie picture from last weekend. Here's a link to the rest of her shots. http://www.tighttrousers.com/gallery/AWF2005 Posted by Hello

The guys are still working the basement today. I'm looking forward to getting all that done. More soon...

Monday, June 20, 2005


I just found out we launched a re-modeled bulletin site last week. It looks nice and fits into the new main site design much better than the old bulletin site. I like it when things get done and I'm oblivious to it happening. Obviously a lot of work went into this from the designers and developers. Also, we found a contractor who is going to start on our basement remodeling job this week. I'm looking forward to that being done. More soon. Posted by Hello

Sunday, June 19, 2005


Here are the boys, Mama and Kumie on an old tall ship in Alexandria. We went to the Waterfront Festival today with Kumie, Ashton and Joseph. Nice weather for an outing. I'll put a few more shots on flickr which you all know you can see by going to www.durpenters.org. More soon. Posted by Hello

Petco


Petco
Originally uploaded by homerclees.
Shopping
So, Fathers Day is apon us and they boys made me french toast and bought me lots of presents. They also able to say Happy Father Day. They also partnered up with Kumie to post some pictures of them selves on her blog http://www.icegrl.blogspot.com/ .

We are off the the Alexandria Waterfront Festival this afternoon for more boats and bands. http://www.waterfrontfestival.org/ Did you know that Alexandria was settled over 350 years ago as Belhaven and got it's current name over 250 years ago. The District is only a little over 200 years old. I'll have pictures later..

Saturday, June 18, 2005


This is a transitional neighborhood in DC. 13th and Florida NW roughly. Laura Rossman's going away party was at Kathleen and Jim's house right accross the street from these row houses. 10 years ago you could have bought one of these skinny three story jobs for $150,000 and take your life into your own hands. Today, $700,000 and you still have a slight risk of getting involved in some gun play. Check out the tops of these two units. One has been painstakingly redone and the other hasn't been touched in 70 years. It was like that up and down the street. Some people can afford to live there, others are being forced out. More soon... Posted by Hello

Friday, June 17, 2005

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Nothing to say today except you should check out Kumies blog for some good stuff from our resident artist\developer, Mark Jenkins. http://icegrl.blogspot.com/

Good stuff...

Wednesday, June 15, 2005


This is the Sofitel in Chicago from the sidewalk waiting for my car yesterday morning. It's a pretty cool hotel with real unique shape. Looking up at it with the clouds rolling by quickly made it look as if it was falling over. Very windy in the windy city yesterday morning.  Posted by Hello

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Back from Chicago

Well, almost. I'm writing this on the plane and it will post when I land. I actually just read a cool article on wifi on jets. United will have it for a bunch of their domestic flights in 06. Its already working well on a bunch of International routes. I'll be able to blog in flight. Just what everyone wants.

My meetings went well yesterday and it turned out Jud and his brother Mike were in town for Neocon, a gigantic furniture conference. I followed them around to industry parties last night after dinner with my agency guys. Good times.
Mark Carpenter
General Manager and Director
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Monday, June 13, 2005


This is the photo I was talking about that I couldn't upload Saturday or Sunday. Something wacky goin on. Anyway, we took the kids to the pool Saturday where I was able to test out my new "freebie" water proof digital camera. It sucks as a camera but you can take it in the pool, so it has that going for it. Sam loved the new water slide but Dylan opted to hold off using it for now. I'm sure he will be an old pro by the end of the summer.  Posted by Hello

I was walking from my hotel to the Euro offices this morning and noticed this from Chicago's Red Eye newspaper. I decided not to spend the 25 cents for the rag but felt it was worth blogging. At least my blog is pretty clean considering this... Posted by Hello

Blue chicago


Blue chicago
Originally uploaded by homerclees.
Jud and mo

Sunday, June 12, 2005

O'hare


O'hare
Originally uploaded by homerclees.
Waiting for gate

Coldplay

This new album by Coldplay is kind of boring. I must say I like the new Wallflowers much better and that White Stripes album has me confused. I need to listen to it again.

I bet kumie likes Coldplay. Oh yeah, the new Better Than Ezra album rules.

Good times.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager and Director
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Picasa and Hello Pissing me off

I have some nice shots of all of us in the pool yesterday but I can't get them uploaded due to some wacky glitch with Hello. This post is in lew of seeing actual pictures which is what everyone wants to see. Hopefully soon.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager and Director
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Friday, June 10, 2005


The boys hit the library this week with Blanca and she's beginning to take a bunch of pictures of their week days with my slightly older Canon digital camera. I guess that's the advantage to have 4 or 5 useful digital cameras in the house. Hmmm, maybe I need another new one. Probably not... The boys actually look studious in this shot. I'll post a couple Chuck E. Cheese shots on the web site. More soon...  Posted by Hello

New members all the time

Fun fact

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

So Mike Lee and Erik Smith from GBN had dinner tonight at Bistro Bis on Capitol Hill. Erik ran the scenario planning sessions on the future of the web the last couple days and he and Mike debriefed me on all the good stuff that happened. It's really exciting stuff and just the beginning of what should be some fantastic future scenarios GBN will deliver later this summer. Nicole, Me and the boys are going to visit Erik in Emoryville over the 4th of July weekend we are in Berkeley. (Emoryville is just down the street)

The other exciting part of dinner was that Hillary Rodham Clinton had dinner right next to us. We had a good time trying to figure out where and who the secrect service agents were but didn't really nail it down. Mike took a sneaky picture over Erik's shoulder since neither of us could actually get up and ask for a shot. http://hiptop.bedope.com/pics/111828356296E40F8-1.jpg Eric is the guy, Hillary is just behind him.

Oh yeah, I shot 80 this morning at Brambleton. I played with a few guys from my e-business council who are meeting tomorrow in Reston. I'm going to miss the meeting, too much to do.

More soon.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Not surprised

I guess any airport named George Bush International is going to have problems. I swear I've always had delays or problems whenever I've gone through there. My United flight was delayed two hours so I jumped a Continental direct to DCA (Reagan National, scary going from Bush to Reagan). I'm about 45 minutes as I write this and all in all I should get home earlier than the original flight.

The two days at Personalysis was useful and thought provocing. Phillip Bailey was great to work with and helped me with a ton of insights into a number of my relationships. I'm tired now but feel pretty good about how I can use this information to be more effective at work and home.

I'm golfing with my e-business exexcutive buddies. Then I'm having dinner with Eric Smith from Global Business Networks. He's been running the scenario planning workshop for my group at aarp the last couple days.

As predicted, not a lot of good pictures from Houston.

More soon.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager and Director
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Monday, June 06, 2005

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Houston we have a problem

Actually Houston is the problem. Hot, humid and full of strip malls. I told Sam and Dylan I was going on an airplane and Dylan said "bye,bye, papa, see you later". I don't know where he hears this stuff. They've had two trips to the airport this weekend, one for me and one for Nicole. They must think we just need to go on an airplane every once and a while or we are going to go see grandma since that's the only places they go. I don't think they have a sense of distance or the understanding that the world has time and space constraints. The trip to a PRK is the same as the one down the street as it is to one in Berkeley or Wayzata. It's all very simple.

If I find anything interesting in Houston, I'll take a picture and blog it. Don't hold your breath.

More soon.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager and Director
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Saturday, June 04, 2005


My friend Jessica and I took the boys on a Metro ride to Pentagon City to buy pretzels and socks. It was really about the train ride while mama made her way back from Charlotte. Nicole was actually only gone 8 or 9 hours. We dropped her off at the DCA around 7:45am and she was back at the house by 5pm. Jessica and I blew bubbles for the kids after the train ride. This is Sam reaching for something that is going to disappear. Posted by Hello

Train station


Train station
Originally uploaded by homerclees.
Again friday

Thursday, June 02, 2005


We went down the street to the Alexandria Train Station to watch Choo Choo's tonight after work. It's quite the hot bed of train action. You got VRE trains, Amtrak and accross the tracks a bit, Metro. The boys even got a ride on a station luggage cart (modified golf cart) from the station guy. We then went across the street to the Masonic Temple and climbed a lot of steps. I'm putting some more pictures up in my flickr account. You can access flickr from durpenters.org. I'm a little exhausted from the Provider Conference yesterday and trying to pick all the right words to say this afternoon at Laura Rossman's going away party. She was my first boss at AARP and was there for 15 years. I think my comments went over well and I didn't cry so I got that going for me. I'm going to miss her.. Posted by Hello

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Ronald reagan building

Ronald reagan building

Where i was speaking

ASI Provider Summit

I'm at the AARP Services, providers summit all day today. I walked to the Reagan Building this morning from AARP headquarters and realized how seldomly I leave that building during day. I usually drive in, park in the garage, head upstairs and go back to the garage for the drive home. The Penn Quarter nieghborhood where I work has really grown up and is quite vibrant. I need to get out and walk more aften during the day. At least until it's 100 degrees and humid.

I'm speaking today at 2. Time to get pumped up and sell the digital future of AARP.

Maor soon....
Mark Carpenter
General Manager and Director
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Morning walk

Morning walk

Navy memorial