Happy St. Patrick's Day

OK - yes I am on a roll for posting - but I wanted to say Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone and I did not want to mix that up with Kris's birthday. I was in Richmond yesterday so I did not have a chance to post Kris's birthday wish.

Yesterday was an interesting one. The trip to Richmond was for work - a quick visit to the Federal Reserve - but with driving down and back and lunch and everything it made for a full day. While I was in Richmond Tika texted me. She had just spoken with her counselor at school about planning courses for next year and of course getting ready for graduation in 2010. She was all excited since her counselor had suggested that VCU would be a good school for her. In the nation it is a top 5 ranked art school and she has the grades for it. I was pretty excited because it literally was a mile from where I was and I know it is a good school and reasonably close by. We talked about it more last night and she has a couple of others in mind so we will start looking at SATs and applications in the coming months.

So - a funny story - we were in DC on Saturday afternoon and I needed a coffee so we swung by the Starbucks in Chinatown. We sat down and there was a paper sitting there. Now this was Saturday at maybe 4 PM. I saw the paper and it just struck me funny - so I had to take a picture. Maybe it was a "timing" funny - funny at the time.

Have a GREAT St. Paddy's day and be safe.

.... cu

Happy Birthday Kris

Happy 15th Birthday to Kris!!!

Yesterday was Kris's birthday. I actually celebrated with her Sunday. Well celebrated with her, Sam and her friend Bree. It was a GREAT day - some cookie baking, which she wanted to do for her friends (they like my cookies); some shopping and lunch; and of course CAKE! Since Kris is taking German this year I decided to challenge her with a German Birthday greeting on the cake I made for her. She liked that :-)

One more big birthday this spring - with Tika's coming up in about 6 weeks - 17 years old - YIKES!

..... cu

Creating more noise ....

I am truly not certain if it is a good thing or not but hopefully the topic will get some interest and people will start talking.

So now you are thinking - "What the heck is he talking about?" I got a e-mail from one of our marketing people today and Renay San Miguel (former CNN host) was looking to talk to someone about some recent changes within the Cybersecurity arena within the Federal Government. I had spoken to Renay once before so I had no issue talking to him. It was not a long conversation this time but he did use some of the ideas I put out there - always nice to see. If you want to check out the article follow this link - TechNewsWorld Article Link

Have a great day .... cu

Updates and Orlando ....

Right now I am at a Government conference in Orlando. The weather is not great - but I guess better than DC - the lows here are the highs in DC the last couple of days - but I do not think the Floridians appreciate that. There have been a couple of good speakers here that have given me a few good ideas and I will be looking into those the next week or so and over the next few days I will post up some more info I gathered at the conference.

Work-related it has been an excellent conference since the people here are largely senior staff, CXO's etc ... so with the current changes going on in the government it is an excellent networking opportunity and I am sure some new business will come out of it.

On the fun side I was playing around last night - had chicken and beef rolls (sushi-style) and had some soy sauce left on my plate and starting playing with it and ended up with my soy sauce fish.

On the update side - I uploaded some photos of Sam and Tika from the West Virginia tournament. I added them to the post on the tournament so just scroll down to the February 8th post and you can see them.

Seeing how Kris was not in this tournament and I do not see enough pics of Kris on my blog I sneaked one of her the other day. I like it.

I am heading back from Orlando tomorrow - hopefully DC will have warmed up by then so I can do some more running outside - the Cherry Blossom 10 miler is only a month away.

Have a great day.

...... cu

Update from Italy ....

I spoke with Tika on Tuesday. She is doing very well in Italy. She said she was still sore from competing on Sunday and I am not surprised since she competed in five events over a VERY long day. She said they started early in the AM and did not finish until almost 11 PM. She did phenomenally well winning a Silver Medal in Short Weapons and a Bronze in Kumite. She also placed in the top 5 in Kata, Mandatory Kata and long weapons. I had a message from Sensei Liz, one of Tika's instructors, and she said that Tika had very tough competition from some girls that came in from the US West Coast and also from Italy and Spain.

So now Tika is enjoying Italy. Monday she was hiking near the area where they are staying. Tuesday was spent at the Vatican. Tika of course was enthralled with the artwork - the sculptures, paintings, tapestries as well as the architecture. She could not stop talking about it - which was great. Yesterday they were to your the Colosseum. She has 3 more days in Italy and I know she will enjoy them. I am anxious for her to get back so I can hear all about the trip and the competition.

.... cu

Good Grades and Good Luck .....

The girls got their report cards this week ---- they did very well as usual. Sam had 2 A+'s, 3 A's and 3 B+'s. Kris had 3 A+'s, 3 A's and a B+. Tika is following her Dad with with her worst grade in English, a C, but outside of that an A+, 4 A's and a B (in French - also not one of my strongest subjects). Now I will say that a C in Loudoun County is an 80. I was very proud of all of them especially since all of them are doing at least 2 and in most cases 3 advanced or honor courses. Kris was thrilled to see a current year GPA of over 4.

On the "Good Luck" side --- Tika leaves tomorrow afternoon for Italy. She will be there until next Sunday. This weekend she will be competing in an International Karate tournament. "Good Luck" really does not do her justice as she has trained hard to get ready for this and after this years National title I am confident she will be a tough competitor. This will be the first time she has travelled overseas without me so I am anxious about that - but I know she has good people with her. I know she will have fun and will come back with lots of stories and pictures and I expect a medal.

I will post info and pics as soon as I get any

cu .....

West Virginia Karate Tournament ......

Yesterday Sam and Tika traveled to St. Albans, West Virginia for a NKF (National Karate-do Federation) Tournament. It was quite a drive for them, almost 360 miles. They left VERY early Saturday morning, 4 AM, and did not get back home until 2:30 this morning. Neither of them felt that the tournament was run very well (Sam's quote - "It was horrible") but they did well none the less. Sam placed 2nd Kobudo and 4th in Kata. Tika placed 1st in Kata.
Now Tika is getting ready to leave for her tournament in Italy. She leaves Thursday for 10 days. Of course I am very proud of her but nervous to send her to Italy without being there. I know she will do well though. I will post updates as I get them.

Have a great weekend - btw it is 65 degrees here now :-)

.... cu