To the Moon

Dylan told us tonight that when he grew up that he wanted to take a rocketship to the moon with Daniella. She's in his class at school and he seems pretty fond of her. Sam is kind of sweet on Sophia but insists he only has boyfriends. He wants to be an airplane driver when he grows up. Grown up is six btw, Sam basically says he will be all grown up at six and able to watch scary movies, drive and play golf. I hope he's not all grown up at six.

I spent the day working on Soloso to get it ready for the Convention this week. A board member is doing a demo of it tomorrow for the other board members in San Antonio. I probably should have been there but didn't want to be gone all week. I'm sure it will go fine and I'll do the full hour overview of the out of beta product in Phoenix in September.

Great Falls

We took a trip up to Great Falls on the Virginia side yesterday and met Charlie, his sister and his parents for some 4 year old demolition derby. The boys and are all around the same size and all lack the basic fear of pain so we had quite a few scrums and full body tackles. The boys went to school with Charlie until he moved to Maryland but love playing with him. I took some pictures per usual and posted them to flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157600151188637/

Cross Creek

Cross Creek
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Not as good of a round this time but an equally good day. This course is a little tight and I found myself in the woods a fair amount. Oh well, no golf for a few weeks now with lots going on with work and its ok.

ouch

ouch
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

New Shoes = Happiness

Nicole finally picked up the shoes that Sam and Dylan said were super hot. In fact, they are. She didn't get the purse they picked out for her but some shiny red things you wear on your feet picked up her spirits after a hard week. I actually got a new pair of shoes out of her trip to mall too but they are brown Merrill type slip ons that probably don't deserve a photo. (sigh) I think we are both happy it's Friday and the work week is mostly behind us. It looks like the site I was hired to lead the creation of will launch on time next week and me and my staff have been busy testing for bugs and content all week. More work to do this weekend but not that much and I get to do it watching the boys be boys. It's all good.

Butterflies

Butterflies
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Ceiling art at Oyamel. A new restaurant in the Penn Quarter near AARP.

New Shoes

Momma and the boys went to the mall tonight to buy new sneakers. They picked up some pretty sporty Saucony running shoes and they seem pretty happy with them. It appears Nicole decided to go shoe shopping at Nordstroms as well the boys thought her new red heels were "hot". They also tried to pick out a red purse for her but she ended up not getting that.

AIA Google Earth Demo

We launched our layer on Google Earth yesterday and did the annnoucement using You Tube. Very 21st century of us. Anyway, take a look at the 3 minute video and download Google Earth if you have time.

A Little Warm Weather

A Little Warm Weather
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Goes a long way in bringing up the flowers.

Good Round

Good Round
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Me, Donkey, Modean and Wacky Dave played The Woodlands in Baltimore today and I managed an 80. I had an opportunity for 79 and messed up an easy pitch. Great day, 75 and sunny. Donkey should give the game up.

Mario Haircut

Mario Haircut
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Dylan is playing Mario Kart on the DS while Sam is getting his hair cut. The video game keeps them occupied and out from under the feet of Patrick as he cuts. It is a video game but its non-violent and actually helps them with motor skill development. I think we have decided that we are not going to allow shooting games while they live in the house. This is going to be tough as I'm sure other parents will not follow that theory so they will see them elsewhere.

rainbow room

rainbow room
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

A lovely event.

broadway

broadway
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

On my way home and had to stop and take a quick picture of times square from 50th. I can't wait to get back here to take the boys to the Lion King or Mary Poppins. They really like taxi car city and all the lights. I like it too but have had enough for now. I'm having a quick beer at an irish pub on 8th and then off to bed. Early flight home tomorrow.

View from rainbow room

View from rainbow room
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

At the copernican awards in the rainbow room atop rockefeller center. Good connecting and cocktails.

Harvard Club Dining Room

Harvard Club Dining Room
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Having lunch in the grand dining room at the Harvard Club in Manhatten. The meetings are going well and having a good time connecting with all my council buddies.

Published Photographer

I had a guy contact me about a photo I took at the Scottish Walk in December asking to use it for his web site. Of course I said yes and he let me know that it's was posted today. I guess that makes me an actual photographer now. I know you are all saying, "don't quit your day job" but I thought I'd send you to the site to check it out. http://www.stgeorge-va.com/xmas2006.htm.

Still in New York and late for my morning meetings. Need to get running.

Hudson Lights

Hudson Lights
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Got to the hudson hotel at 7:30 and they acually had a room ready. I'm just doing some e-mail and heading over to the Harvard Club for breakfast in a few.

A day late

I tried to get to New York last night for a Constumer Experience Council board dinner and was told my 5pm was cancelled along with the 6pm and 7pm due to high winds. Needless to say I was going to miss dinner anyway, so I booked myself on the 6am and here I am. Actually, it was the nicest delay I've ever had considering the whole Virginia Tech shootings made me want to see the boys anyway. I got to spend some time with them last night and sleep in my own bed opposed to a hotel room.

If all goes well, I'll be in Manhatten by 7:30am.

Dylan and Sam with some help

Good thing they had a couple teachers their for the five kids. The boys could barely catch an edge but that's my fault for not getting the skates sharpened. Who knew that new skates come dull, well Uncle Brandt did but we won't do that again.

One Rainy Day

Cold and rainy, not much like spring but it was good for my newly cleaned up, fertilized, seeded and top soiled lawn. Mr. Woo came by on Friday and did his yearly spring thing and everything looks much better. 3 inches of rain will get things growing. We took the boys to their first ice skating lesson today. Turns out, Uncle Brandt was right and the skates needed sharpening. Not that I didn't believe him, just that I forgot to get them sharpened. I guess dull skates makes it harder to skate. They will be ready for next Sunday. I'll post a couple of picture of them on the ice in a few minutes.

Sam Wrote a Song

I got home late tonight but the boys were still moving around in their room so I went up for a goodnight kiss. I had a quick conversation and Sam told me he wrote a song for Uncle Adam. He sang a few words but they were hard to make out because his voice was so high and soft but it actually sounded like a song. I'll see if I can record it tomorrow.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

This is a cool video that does a real good job explaining what people call web 2.0. It's been out there a while but I ran accross it again and thought I would share. Worth the 4 and a half minutes it runs.

Chancellorsville Easter Hike

The lone gunner rides his cannon towards the oncoming rebs. Actually one of the boys taking a rest after about half of a 4 mile hike at the Chancellorsville Battlefield, part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park near Fredericksburg. We got there around 10:30 and after a quick tour of the visitors center we set off on a long hike that may have been near the max the boys can handle. We had a bunch of complaining near the end but all in all, they enjoyed it. It was nice to get a little civil war history in with the hike and we made sure to stop at all the markers and read what went on there.

When we got home the Easter Bunny dropped a bunch of eggs in the yard and the boys went at it. I have all the pictures up on flickr for those interested. http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157600057322784/ Enjoy.

Pre hike breakfast at Perkins

Pre hike breakfast at Perkins
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Their are only 4 Perkins Restaurants in Virginia and one of them is in Fredericksburg. It is conveniatly on the way to the Chancellorsville battlefield where we are hiking this morning. Minnesota has hundreds of Perkins and I miss them at times.

Snowy Start to Spring

It was in the 80's earlier this week but we woke up to snow and temps in the 20's this morning. The red flowers started popping up this week and the yellow ones are fading. The cherry blossoms are pretty much toast now as well so the mass of tourists making my evening commute difficult should be gone. I'm starting my taxes today so let the depression begin. We are plannig a nice 4 mile hike tomorrow at the Chancellorsville Battlefield near Fredericksburg. It should be a little nicer tomorrow but I got my D70 back last week and I'm ready to take some pictures.

150 Best Buildings

150 Best Buildings
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The lobby of AIA has a new exhibit. This time its the America's Favorite Architecture exhibit. You can see these buildings online at www.favoritearchitecture.org But these big prints of the buildings are much cooler. If you didn't already know, next week is Architecture Week. Good times.

Filler Post

I've been working all week and haven't had much time to take pictures of the things around me. I had drinks with an old friend that I used to do business with at AARP tonight. It was good to see Allen and hear about how things are going. It might not be that long and we will be in business again but it was great to re-connect. The cherry blossums have basically come and gone. It was in the 80's and sunny Monday and Tuesday but rained hard last night and turned cold. The cherry trees show their best sides for only a short amount of time and once again, I only paid minor attention to them while they shined and now miss them that they are gone.

AIA installed a new exhibit in the lobby today. It's the 150 best buildings and I will post some photos of it soon. It's pretty cool that the lobby and social gallery at my work are really museum spaces and change on a regular basis. You should all come visit me and check it out. Good times...

Happy Passover

We had a nice little Seder tonight and the boys participated a little, at least more than papa. I did drink the wine and had matza ball soup. The boys each had a set of plague masks that they took on and off during the meal. They are all very lovely plagues. After dinner, Nicole hid the Afikoman and asked the boys if they wanted to find it. Dylan proceeded to say he wanted to find the Afipenis and pulled down his pants. Ahh, a new holiday tradition is born. Here's the link to the rest of the pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157600044175594/

Catch a Wild Ride

P1000113
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Here's a link to the pictures Linda and Nicole took yesterday. A bunch of them turned our really well.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157600040631222/

Home at Last

I got home on time and unharmed last night and immediately build a fire. It was only 60 yesterday so it's still borderline fire season. Besides, I have wood coming out of my ears from the two cords I bought in January and wanted to burn down a little more. Watched "Flags of our Fathers" and drank a little wine after the boys went to bed. I'm looking forward to watching "Letters from Iwo Jima" now. It will probably be better than "Flags".

Anyway, Nicole, Linda and the boys went to the Reston Zoo yesterday and got a bunch of good pictures. I'm going to add them to flickr later today and post a link. In the mean time, I created a collection from the resort in Tucson. It was a nice hotel.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157600040432421/