Villanova Elite Eight Game

And we are all watching a double digit lead 18-8 at 7:26pm, hoping for
a win tonight and a trip to The Final Four.

I took the Acela to Boston late on Wednesday and had no hotel
reservation. I walked from South Station to over the area along the
waterfront where all the new development is and got a room at the
Westin. I ran into Jay Wright in the lobby, said "Hey Coach! We're
lookin good!" Crushed Duke the next night.

20-12 ... now

Still lookin good!

Watching Our Animoto Videos in DVD Quality

was our favorite part of the day. I had a task postponed too many
times (according to RememberTheMilk) to upgrade our old Animoto
account we opened in 2007. After making our first few videos, Tara
ended up making a second account and used that over the last year -
this second account upgraded for Animoto "all-access pass". In
addition to the longer videos, all-access allows you to download mp4s.
That is what I really like because we can add the videos to iTunes and
watch on our connected devices. I have been talking to more people
about Animoto lately. When I explain Animoto it's essential to show
them. (it's also most helpful to show people videos of their own
photos or at least experiences they can relate to - the emotional
response is important)

The one thing you can't do in front of the PC or iPhone is lean back
into videos. The biggest screen in the house (in our case a 52" LCD)
is how a family is entertained and share time together.

Tonight we tried refreshing our Animoto videos with high bit-rate
(i.e. DVD quality) downloads - a for fee option in the all-access
pass. We generated a few grams of carbon off the Amazon, Google and
Akamai grids (and poured a few bucks into the economy). Within 30
minutes and we were enjoying these videos in a way we never had
before. I think Saturday Night family Wii event has met it's match if
Apple buys Animoto. Animoto would be the exclusive killer app for the
Apple TV. I wonder how much I would pay for Season Pass to
StevensFive.TV (I still can't believe the Wii I just bought is
standard definition)

Good mornings

Dad sometimes works late, so there are nights that the kids don't see
him before they go to bed. Here is sleepyeyed Jack with dad first
thing in the morning. It's when they catch up with hugs and how
things are going. Who ever thought dad would be a morning person?

Boston Harbor Sunset

There are boring slogging business trips and then there are special
ones like summer solstice in the Russian White Nights. My current trip
to Boston at the Akamai Customer Conference is of the special kind. I
met Michael Afergan, Akamai's CTO today and talked about the future.
Now I am ok a ship cruising the Boston Harbor. It's good to be back at
an old home.

Cheers

Dad is out of town, in boston at a conference. Tonight over dinner
Matthew, Jack, and Jillian came up with a plan of what they wanted to
do after dinner. It started with the tea party that Jillian was
having in her room before dinner. She had invited the boys, and they
had made it more interesting by putting hot water into her tin toy tea
kettle.

So here's what we did after dinner. They set the coffee table with a
tablecloth, cut fresh hydrangeas from out back for a centerpiece, set
out candles (I lit them), made hot cocoa for everyone, and set a
tastycake on a plate for each person. They were so excited about
this, and they did all of the work. We even had music c/o apple tv,
and scrolling photos. The music was the kid music we used to listen
to over and over again when the boys were little. There was lots of
laughter and even some dancing. The only thing missing was dad.

Bedtime Stories

Every night over the past month Dad has been reading The Hobbit to the
kids. They love it. Dad left tonight for a conference in Boston
after reading to them. The kids miss Dad when he travels and surely
they miss hearing him read to them at the end of the day. So he set
me up with the apple tv version of The Hobbit audiobook. Mom doesn't
quite cut it as a hobbit narrator. Plus this way I have silence (!)
so I can get a few things done at the end of my day.

Some Things Never Change

But some things do. We still like tailgating at a dry hot Phillies
game on Saturday afternoon. But new for Tara and I was the concept of
PingPong adult beverage games. Looks like the popular thing is setting
up a platform table and using a PingPong ball in place of a quarter.
In the dry hot wind there was quite a rate of consumption taking place
around the lot at Citizens Bank Park. Bean Bag horseshoe seemed to
surpass PingPong on popularity.

We didn't have a plan for this afternoon and the 4pm Phillies game
against the Braves sounded good. Game was sold out so we traveled down
to city at noon to get standing room only tickets for $14. Gates open
at 1:45 and we hope to get on the field for pictures with the players.