The older I get, the more I cry.

Why is that?!?  Oh my god, I've turned into John Boehner.  I never used to be that that way.  My parents weren't that way but my father in law was a crier, so I'm not sure I can blame genetics. Maybe its a environmental thing.

Last night there was nothing on the tube (I could care less about the Pro Bowl) so we ended up watching this Hallmark made for TV movie called The Lost Valentine with Betty White and Jennifer Love Hewitt. It was the prototypical story about a lost love, sent to war and never to return. His widow keeps a vigil for him for 60 years.

By the end of the movie I was balling like an idiot. I first noticed this phenomenon about 5 years ago.  - That's it! ... maybe its a 40 thing, like loosing your eyesight. (That's a whole other story - as I sit here and write this with a size 24 font so I can see the damn thing, but I digress.)

Even the commercials are getting me - some sappy thing about a guy who saved all the birthday cards his kids ever gave him and I well up. Don't even get me started on the Sarah McLachlan animal cruelty one - I have to change the channel.

I'm only 45 now, but at this rate by the time I'm 60, I'll be that blubbering old guy in the corner of the theatre that you don't want to sit by.  Danielle - Taylor, when you two get married - I'll pay for it, but bring lots of Kleenex.

These are a few of my favorite things...

I think one of the purposes of my creating this blog, is going to be to share some of my favorite things.

On a technology front - it will be fun to read back 10 years from now about what we thought was cool and what was state of the art at the time. If you know me, then you also know the other thing I'm pretty passionate about is food.  I probably gained this appreciation from my father, who was a chef. I grew up in a household where we were exposed to all types of cuisine that my father was constantly trying out. Some good, some not so great, but things, that I assume eventually made their way to one of his menus. For this - I truly thank him.

Although I like to dabble in the kitchen and seem to have a pretty good feel for creating things, one of my favorite pass times is to go out and eat.  I would much rather spend my time enjoying what others create. There is nothing in the world better than sitting down at a nice restaurant and taking your time. My wife and I have been known to get someplace at 6:30 and not leave until 9 or 10. - Granted, that is usually a couple of bottles of great Zinfandel later.  Does that make me a foodie or just one of those people waiters hate because they can't turn their table?

Along those lines - I offer up one of my favorite deserts.

Chocolate Pots de Chantilly Creme

5 Large egg yolks
5 Tablespoons sugar
¼ Teaspoon sea salt
1 ½ Cups heavy cream
¾ Cup half and half
16 oz.Bittersweet or dark chocolate chips
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 Shot brewed espresso coffee

1.  Whisk yolks, sugar, and salt until combined.  Add cream and half and half.

2.  Transfer to a sauce pan and heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and the temperature reaches 180ºF.

3.  Place chocolate in a medium bowl.  Pour the egg/sugar mixture over the chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes to melt the chocolate.  Whisk until smooth and then add vanilla and espresso.  Pour into eight ramekins.

4.  Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate over night.

5.  Prior to serving - dress each with a healthy dollop of Chantilly Cream and chocolate shavings.

To Make Chantilly Cream:

½ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and beat until barely stiff.

Cheating? - or utilizing your resources.... you decide!

I just found a sweet feature in Google Goggles.  If you are not familiar, Google Goggles is a aspect of their mobile search engine that uses your phone's camera. Take a picture of an item like the Eiffel Tower or the Mona Lisa and the search result comes back with a whole bunch of info about that item. This is a pretty useful tool when traveling, and you want to know who that statue is of, or what that cool building is.

I discovered today that if you take a picture of a Soduku puzzle - whala!, it solves it for you right before your eyes.

Now I know most of you are going to think - well, that's cheating. - I beg to differ. In today's word, it is not as much about knowing the answer, as it is about knowing where to find the answer. I think understanding how to access the information and being able to cull urban legends and myths from the real deal is more important.  I can't wait to see what my kids, kids are going to have for resources at their disposal.

Sure, the three R's are important, but critical thinking skills are what sets my rock star employees apart from the mediocre ones every day of the week. I can train them how to do the specific job - but you have to hire for critical thinking. Besides, when was the last time you had to write a cursive sentence? Aren't you glad you spent a bunch of time on it in elementary school?

 - not to mention the goggles technology is very cool!

Google mobile apps.

A Parental Epiphany & Why my child Taylor will be ok in life.

The other evening I was riding in the car with my 16 year old behind the wheel. Being a typical parent, and knowing that she has only had her license for less than a year, I tend to be a bit of a back seat driver. We were headed to a restaurant and as we pulled down Orchard towards Parker road, she maneuvered over into the right lane. 

Knowing we had to go left on Parker, and thinking she was potentially heading in the wrong direction I immediately chimed in - "Hey, you know you need to turn left up here..."  I knew where we needed to go, and was going to impart that wisdom on my daughter.

"I know dad...." she responds, "This right lane turns left on Parker also, and then you are already in the correct lane to go right onto Arapahoe road! - that way I don't have to switch lanes in heavy traffic, through the construction site."

I was 2 chess moves ahead - she was 5. 

I guess it was at that moment that I realized that she knew what she was doing. In fact, she was thinking ahead of me. I should just shut up and allow her to get me there safely. They don't teach you this stuff in parent school. In another two years, we will be empty-nesters. I think I liked it better when she needed me a little bit more. If she applies that kind of logic to the rest of her thought processes - yes, Taylor will do just fine in life.  Me on the other hand?  - I think the jury is still out....

Family Tree Maker - one of my ongoing obsessions.

A couple of Christmases ago, we were sitting around the table and the discussion turned to family, and family history as it often does in that situation. Being a technology geek, I instantly found several pieces of software to address the chore of documenting the family tree and finally settled on Family Tree Maker and its online counterpart Ancestry.com You can read more about Ancestry.com and how it works, at NextAdvisor.

It started off innocently enough, with adding my family, my wife's and branching up and down a few lines. Soon I started doing some research and found a very cool tool that automatically searches public records based on likely hits from the data you provide. When you add a name to the software, along with a date of birth, if it finds a hit, you get a little green leaf on the name. you can then research the 'hit' and see if it is a match. The software looks at US Census data, public birth and death records, other peoples uploaded family trees and even some obscure items like passenger manifests. I was able to find images of the actual passenger ship manifests and Ellis Island records of both my mother and father coming over from Switzerland - Very Cool!

I usually work for a couple of weeks then loose interest then pick it back up again (probably like this blog will turn out) ...Well, its now two years later and I have 1261 people listed in my family tree. No one famous yet - but that's a feature too and the program is still 'looking'.

Everyone has their place....

Heaven is:

When the British are the police,

The French are the cooks,

The Germans are the mechanics

The Italians are the lovers

and the whole thing is organized by the Swiss!

Hell is:

Where the French are the mechanics

The British are the cooks

The Germans are the police

The Swiss are the lovers

and the whole thing is organized by the Italians!

My Blackberry isn't working and there is a problem with my Apple...

I thought this was very funny!

Happy Birthday Danielle!

Today is January 21st and that can only mean one thing. It's Danielle's Birthday!  - today my little girl turns 19. It is hard to believe it has been that long as it seems like just yesterday she was in diapers and then learning to ride a bike with training wheels. Today she is off at college, beginning to find her way in the world.  19 years ago I was back in college also, taking a technical writing class. I dug through my archives and found this....  Sappy at best, my attempt to 'be creative' but apparently what I was feeling at the time.

I'm very proud of my first, who has had to train us how to be decent parents. Despite everything she turned out just fine and has a great head on her shoulders.  (Taylor - I am very proud of you also!) Both of my girls have very different personalities and value sets which is very interesting to me considering they both were raised in the same environment. Nature is definitely a stronger influence than nurture.

Danielle - I love you and know you will succeed in anything you set your mind to. Be kind to your sister - she will be in your life a lot longer than Mama or I will. Know we are here to support you, prod you, and catch you when you fall. Remember you promised - you will always be my Teddy Bear.

- Daddy

My next car

I have been facinated with what has been going on with electric cars and have been watching a small california based auto maker called Tesla.  A couple of years ago they produced the Tesla Roadster, a very cool, but very expensive electric that goes from 0-60 in something like 4.2 secons and makes no noise at all.  At CES they recently introduced a mainstreem sedan, with production starting this fall.

I think it looks pretty sweet, and will likely be looking into it once it becomes available... 

Stupid is as Stupid does...

If you know me, you know I am a big fan of Apple Computer. Even since the early days, when my big brother came home with his first Apple IIc with a whole 8k of memory, I would spend my afternoons playing Zork on a 300 baud modem tied into some mountain bell server because it had no hard drive and could not support a program as large as Zork. ( its 600k I think, a text based adventure, that would now fit 1000 times over on the little SD card you keep in your camera).

So at the beginning of this year, I did what many people do and review their 401k and portfolio allocations and try and decide what investments are a good idea. I remember distinclty when I first saw Forrest Gump that he got into Apple early. Boy I thought, if only I had done the same.  I actually did a little reseach and if I had purchased some Apple when Forrest Gump came out (1994) and invested only 1000.00 @ $6.32 / share - that grand would now be worth 53K.  Granted Apple has been on a bit of a tear recently with the iPhone, iPod, iPad etc.  I own all of these - heck we have 4 iphones now...

So I read with interest that Apple is finally done with their AT&T contract and will be introducing the iPhone on Verizon. The new iPad 2 looks good and the company seems poised well for continued growth. - As a result I did buy some apple stock. -

I kid you not - it was less than 24 hours after I did this - the transaction had not even settled yet - Steve Jobs announces his leave and the stock drops 5%.  Now I'm still optimistic.  I still am bulish on the company and we'll see next January if the investmant was a good decision or not... but still - timing? Really?  I guess thats why I'm not a fund manager.