6 Months Old Today

Callum turned the big 0.5 today. And as an occasion such as this demands, the US took a national holiday to mark it (some called it Memorial Day, but we know the true meaning).

We had a birthday cupcake to celebrate, although Callum was only an onlooker as far as the eating part went. We couldn't find a 6-month candle, so we considered snapping one candle in half, but just went with one regular candle in the end.





And then we find out that missing out on cake was probably not that big of a deal, since he was more interested in something else entirely anyway.

Hanging out on Sunday

The 3 of us went out shopping today to an outdoor mall near where we live. While we were out, Callum had is cute factor set to high today so Jen grabbed some photos. Here is one to rival the photo we got just 2 days ago that we thought was the best photo of the kid so far ... this one is pretty good as well.



We also found a fountain that Callum seemed to find reasonably interesting, at least for the length of his short attention span.

Playin' With The Kid

A short video of me playing with the kid that Jen shot today. We are playing the bounce game. If you are not familiar with the bounce game, the rules are reasonably simple. Basically your role is to hold the kid in an upright orientation and then move him up and down vertically so that he can bounce. The kid's role is to basically giggle and coo wildly and drool like a madman.



Then we Jen took what might be the best photo of the kid so far and as a bonus you can see his two teeth ... yep he is up to two now.

Get Shrekked

So tonight was the last night of the conference. Traditionally the conference has a big party tonight and this year was no exception, kind of. This year, the party was outside where it was cold and windy, the beer selection was significantly worse than last year and it was all over and done with by 9pm. And in addition the band this year was Smashmouth, who if it wasn't for the Shrek movies, would have blissfully disappeared into oblivion by now.

Anyway, here are some photos.







Here's a panoramic view:


So as I mentioned previously, the band was Smashmouth. I was pretty apprehensive about seeing these guys. Under any other circumstance you would be hard pushed to pay me to see them. And as it turns out, my apprehension proved to be well deserved. After they had exhausted their Shrek repertoire, they resorted to cover songs. And if you think watching Smashmouth doing cover songs in the middle of a park in downtown San Francisco on a Thursday night sounds a little odd, it actually got even odder. I have seen plenty of bands play covers. In fact I usually quite enjoy a cover song. And when Smashmouth started to play "Runnin' With The Devil" by Van Halen, it seemed like an odd selection, but not necessarily terrible. But then, the very next song, they did a cover of "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love" also by Van Halen, and not only that, it is also off of the exact same album. Weird. Very Weird. I can honestly say I have never seen a band cover the same band for two songs in a row. But wait! There's more. Guess what the next song was? You guessed it, a third straight Van Halen cover, and yep, from the same album as the first two. Seriously, can anyone claim to have ever seen one band cover another band for 3 consecutive songs and not only that, all of the songs off of the same album????

Anyway, for all of the closet Smashmouth fans, here is a clip of them doing Running With the Devil for your pleasure. Apologies for the person making derogatory comments that you can hear in the video. What an ass. :)


Anyway, since the party wrapped so early, we hit the Thirsty Bear for some post party brews.

Last day tomorrow. So very tired, what a very long week it has been.

JavaOne 2008 Opening Day

First day is over and done with. The opening keynote was so-so. Nothing particularly earth shattering announced unlike in past years. Neil Young was there, but did not actually perform.

Here are some random photos:

JavaOne 2008 Opening Day

Monday In San Francisco

Flew up to San Francisco yesterday (Sunday) afternoon to spend the week here for the JavaOne conference (for the uninitiated, it is a conference for software developers).

Hit the Wunder Brewing Company yesterday afternoon. It is new and wasn't here last time I was in San Francisco. It was pretty good actually, decent beer and the menu had more on it than the usual all-fried bar food.

Today there were 2 events going on (the conference doesn't start properly until Tuesday). The first was CommunityOne which is a small more informal one day conference for all of the open source developers/projects. There was also Java University. I registered for both and drifted between the 2 to see sessions I was interested in.

In the afternoon I took off for a couple of hours to take the tour at the Anchor Brewing Company. They don't offer tours on the weekends and the tours are booked out a month in advance, so I was organized well in advance for this trip. The tour was good and there was a tasting at the end. Not as interesting as some of the free tastings at other breweries since I had actually had every beer they brew previously, so there was nothing new to try. But I stuck it out and re-tried all of their beers to not offend them!

Here are a few photos I snapped:

Anchor Brewery Tour

After the conference ended this afternoon, I went with some of the guys from my team to see the Oakland A's play the Baltimore Orioles. Usually I would go see a Giants (Jen's team) game instead, but they are playing away for the whole week. Anyway, it was a slow game, the A's finally won 2-1 in the bottom of the 10th inning.

Anyway, the conference starts for real early in the morning and runs through Friday night. Going to grab some sleep now as it will probably be the last good night's sleep for the rest of the week.

No Witty Comment Needed

Got Tooth?

So we (and when I say 'we', I mean Callum) have reached another big milestone. It is no longer possible to deny that this kid is teething. He has been drooling like a wild dog in a butcher shop for a month or more by now, but we now have clear pictorial evidence. Well almost.

Hands up if you have tried to get a good and clear shot of your 5-month old's first tooth lately? I am guessing not many. As it turns out, not as easy as it sounds. So, here is a slideshow of all of the shots we tried, none of which both show either the tooth or are in focus at the same time.



If you are not convinced, just believe me when I tell you there is tooth. It no longer is possible to just shove my finger in his mouth and let him self sooth by sucking, that now just plain hurts. And I am sure you do not need me to paint too detailed of picture to see where this leaves Jen.

Do you speak english?

WARNING - RANT TO FOLLOW

I speak English. In fact I have for a while now. Most people seem to be able to understand what I say (which doesn't necessarily mean they understand 'why' I am saying it, but that is a different issue).

But there is a small group of people that seem to struggle to understand me. I do not know why this group is different than everyone else. They seem to communicate with others freely, they seem to understand at least some English, they must have filled out some kind of employment application, but they do not understand me.

They are the coffee slingers ('barrista' is way too lofty a goal for these folks) at every chain place in the US it would appear. Starbucks? Check. Dierdrichs? Check. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf? Big check.

Here is the cup I was handed today at the CB&TL near our house. It was not overly noisy when I ordered and I did not have a sore throat. And yet, this is apparently what my name is ...



Clearly "Do you posses even a slight grasp on common sense?" was not one of the questions on the employment form. At no point did the name "Kreg" seem strange enough for this person to even double check she heard me correctly.

This wouldn't be rant worthy as an isolated incident. However, as Jen can attest this is another episode in a long, long list of name misspellings at coffee shops.

Kickapoo

We noticed Callum likes to kick currently (or possible he just has an involuntary twitch that makes his legs shoot out laterally). Either way, we found the perfect toy for him - Tom Hanks would be jealous.

Lies That Fairy Tales Told You