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And isn’t it good
If we could freeze moments in time
We all would
But I do what I can
I do what I can

-Sheryl Crow

Earlier this month, Erik went to a birthday party and visited a fire station in Austin.  Here are a couple of pictures:

File this under the things I wish I had when I was a teenager.

Rock Band.

As many of you might recall, I bought Susan a Nintendo Wii for her birthday.  This has been a big deal for the family.  The kids have enjoyed playing bowling and Mario Kart, but we did not expect the impact that Rock Band would have.

Rock Band is a game where the participants are playing in a band (singing, guitar-ing, and drumming) to well known rock songs. Our good friends Tracy and Allison introduced us to this game at their place one night.  We watched and we were hooked.  We bought it the next day.

Tonight we rocked out to the Police (Synchronicity II) and the Stone Temple Pilots (Interstate Love Song).

Even Emma can sing on “easy” mode.

Over 200 years ago, some ornery colonists got the bright idea to start a democracy.   Today we enjoy 500 channels on TV and squirtable cheese.

Happy Birthday America…you big lug.

When I was younger and my birthday would roll around, my parents and grandparents would always recount the day back in the 60s that I was born.  They would say what they were doing or what they were thinking and it always gave me a little bit of insight on what was going on in the family at the time.

Well, I’m finding myself doing the same things with my kids.  I remember the events 7 years ago when Ms. Emma decided to come into this world.  I tried to tell her about it, but she was pretty distracted by all the stuff we did her for her 7th birthday.

We had a fun day.  First, we went to the San Antonio Zoo.  Things we learned from the zoo:

• Being able to see the hippos up close and personal via a glass wall has a downside.  Apparently hippos don’t need a private restroom to do their business.
• The butterfly house was beautiful.  We were able to see some large, colorful butterflies up close and personal.
• Erik does not like butterflies.
• The San Antonio Zoo has very little natural breeze.  This isn’t a huge deal except this has been the hottest June in recorded history.

After the zoo, we went to Mi Tierra and had lunch.

The kids love this place because of how it’s decorated and the wide variety of desserts at the bakery.  I had my favorite TexMex dish (Green Chicken Enchiladas) and the kids had chicken strips.  Emma decided since she was now seven, that she was mature enough to enjoy hot sauce on chips.  She did pretty well.

On the way back, Emma and Erik had a siesta.

We went to Granny’s house for dinner, cake and presents.  Of course we had to sing “Happy Birthday”.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Here’s a photo album with all the pictures.

I suppose it was just a matter of time before another family member demonstrated the need for eyewear.

Sorry for the lack of posts…Clark Kent duties have been pretty intense of late.

What a whirlwind several days it’s been.

If you’ve been following my Twitter stream, you were probably able to guess that I was out of town for most of last week in wonderful Orlando Florida. Microsoft held their annual TechEd conference at the spacious Orlando Convention Center and it was very good. There are all sorts of things I want to do when I return to work on Monday.

Given this was a convention that was attended by 6000 software development professionals, I was in a “geek” kinda mood. Luckily, I was able to break away for a half day to go to EPCOT. I rode the newly refurbished Spaceship Earth (the big golf ball) and ate at the Biergarten in the Germany pavilion. I watched Illuminations that night.

I was in the same room (a very, very big room) with Bill Gates on Tuesday morning. He’s retiring this year, so they showed a video about his upcoming retirement. I can only imagine it was fun to make. Here’s the closest thing I could find to it on YouTube:

Tonight we’re going to go see the comedian Eddie Izzard at the Paramount theatre with our good friends. This week looks to be a busy one. Kayla is taking college classes in summer school, Emma is attending day camp and we have a number of doctor visits. It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m already looking forward to next weekend.