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Birthday Extravaganza

Ross — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:51:35 +0000

Today is the Color Princess' 5th birthday. I can't believe she's 5 years old already! (Of course, from her demeanor, you'd sometimes think she was 11 or 12, but that's the subject for a whole different post.)

For her birthday today, CP gets an afternoon of Mom and Dad all to herself – Dee's sister is coming to babysit the Tenacious Bean so we can take CP to her first movie-theater movie (How to Train Your Dragon), followed by a trip to Chick-Fil-A for a special treat of chicken nuggets, waffle-fries, and a milkshake. She's going to be so excited!

This wasn't all of the birthday celebration the CP got this year, though. We had a surprise party for her earlier this week when all the family could get together – it was an absolute blast:

When the Color Princess walked in the door, she was blown away by the streamers and decorations my wife had put up while she was over at her cousin's house. Here's the CP and her cousin posing in front of the fireplace decorations:

Posing in front of the decorations

She loved her birthday cards (this one lit up when you pushed a button) and her summer-themed presents (two swimsuits, a play sprinkler, and a giant wading-pool).

Showing off her sparkly, light-up card

Showing off her presents

She adored her cake (princess-themed, of course), and even her sister got into the festivities a bit. Everyone had a great time, and the CP can't stop talking about how much she loved her birthday. I think it was a hit, don't you?

The cake (princess-themed, of course)

The Bean gets into the decorations

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The Calendar’s Not Broken, It’s Just Moving at Double-Speed

Ross — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:55:41 +0000

Calendar 2009

It seems only a few short months ago that I wrote my last birthday post here. I can't believe it's been another year already. Really, I can't believe how time flies when you're living your life. But most of all, I can't believe I'm now 30 years old. When I was a kid, 30 seemed ANCIENT. Now that I'm 30, it seems like I'm just a few short years out of high school. Strange how perspectives change, huh?

This year's birthday is a mixed bag – I'm always happy and grateful when another birthday rolls around, especially when it makes me a little introspective and I focus on how things have been going. On the other hand, I'm on an assignment in Minnesota right now with 6 weeks in between visits home to see my family (currently going on 3.5 weeks and rounding the home stretch to my next visit home in mid-August). Additionally, I have to work 1pm to midnight today (what's with making me work on my birthday!?!?) which sort of sucks, but at least I got to sleep in late this morning and putter around the hotel a bit. Sleeping late + reading a good book and drinking coffee in bed is not a bad start to a birthday – I recommend trying it sometime.

So without further ado, I'll jump right into my yearly introspective retrospective, semi-objective super-collective of selective reflectives:

Demolishing her first birthday cake

Over the past year I:

Took a vacation with my family to Playa del Carmen, Mexico (would love to be back there with the family again!!)
Celebrated Rosalie's First Birthday in the traditional family style, Violet's 4th birthday, and Dee's __th birthday (that's classified info and if I told you she'd have to kill me)
Read some good books
Rediscovered the time suck that is Facebook and Facebook apps like Bejeweled Blitz, Poker, Lexulous and Scrabble
Set up my Homeowner's Association community website and continued to maintain it
Started running (again!)
Finished first in my age division in my first 5k in 5 years (ugh, now I'm in a new age division, guess it's time to work my way up again)
Dramatically improved my cholesterol levels through diet, exercise, and a couple of helpful cholesterol medications
Appear to have gained a lot more grey hair (probably from chasing after my kids!)
Sold another piece to epiffunnies.com and had it voted as ePIFfunny of the Week
Joined my synagogue's Brotherhood's book club. Although I'm missing out on most of the meetings this summer, it's still fun. Plus, I'm the youngest guy there by about 15-20 years :-)
Built a playset for my kids in the backyard with the help of my father and brother-in-law (thanks Dad and Brian!)
Watched Violet's very first dance recital (cutest video EVER coming soon to a blog near you!)
No, I don’t get to drive the crane

Kept afloat in my role as lead electrical on this project and began my stint up here on-site in Minnesota for commissioning

In the coming year I expect I will:

Spend a lot of long hours on-site here in Minnesota cursing equipment and working my butt off to get things running properly
Not see my girls NEARLY often enough, but will immerse myself in their lives at every given opportunity
Finish this damn Vox Export tool (I swear it's almost ready for testing!!!) and get it out to the ~~masses~~ people who have asked about it

And just like last year, I also have some things I hope to do, including:

Bring smiles to the faces of every one in my family as often as I can
Get back into running regularly
Wrap up this assignment as quickly as possible and get back home to see my family SOON
Get back into posting regularly on Vox
Enjoy every day – Time's a one-way street and I don't want to miss any of the sights along the way

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OK, This Time I’m POSITIVE the Calendar is Broken

Ross — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:04:10 +0000

Calendar

It's that time of year again! (And no, I'm not speaking of my annual car-wash, that comes in September). I'm talking about my birthday! Which is today! And has been great so far, in spite of the fact that it's a Monday, and I'm at work! And this post really doesn't need all these exclamation marks!

So as of this morning, I can refer to myself as "Just shy of 30", or, when I'm feeling all of my 29 years, as "Not Yet 30!" Last year, I wrote a post about all the things that had happened in my life since my previous birthday. I thought it was such a good idea I decided to make it an annual blog post. Even though this year might not measure up to the extremely busy nature of that previous year, it's still one worth looking back on and remembering all the good (and not so good) things that happened.

Over the past year I:

Rosalie at 24 Hrs Old

Sat at my wife's side while she had a c-section and brought our 2nd daughter into the world
Spent 5 weeks in Pune, India doing a system checkout for work
Saw a severe drop-off in amount of blog posts I've written (mostly due to dealing with 2 kids now, but procrastination and laziness have had their toll on my posting schedule, too)
Began running again
Stopped running again
Began running again (ok, ok, I know I need to keep this up – it's just been so HOT outside lately!)
Read some good books
Joined the local synagogue
Wrote a sestina
Attended my first ever NFL football game (ok, it was a preseason game, but still fun)
Celebrated my other daughter's 3rd birthday and my wife's __th birthday (I have still not been given permission to release this information to the general public)
Set up a personal website (and then promptly did almost nothing with it for 8 months)
Took some golf lessons (enough to make me dangerous, I think)
Took a trip to the UK for work and continued my streak of getting-sick-while-out-of-the-country
Got my first ever speeding ticket (16 years without a ticket, not bad, eh?)
Became the Electrical group leader for a new project at work
Discovered my cholesterol makeup was NOT good, and began diet/medication changes to alter that fact
Learned how to code for Greasemonkey and made some random scripts for Vox / Twitter
Booked a trip to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, for January of next year!
Made an effort to be a better person, husband, and father (and think I've succeeded)

In the coming year I expect I will:

My Girls

Travel here and there for work (but hopefully most of the trips will be in-country and of a shorter duration than they were last year)
Get behind again on all the home-improvement projects I've got lined up
Make at least one big fatherhood blunder that everyone will laugh at in hindsight
Start creating and managing my Homeowners Association website (oy vey, what have I gotten myself into??)
Spend as much time as humanly possible with my wife and kids

And finally, in the upcoming year I hope to:

Bring smiles to the faces of every one in my family as often as I can
Get back into running regularly
Do a good job as the lead on my project to show everyone that I'm ready for this responsibility
Start attending more synagogue services
Get out with the golf clubs occasionally
Get my cholesterol down without resorting to eating (only) rabbit food
Continue to post regularly on Vox
Enjoy every day – Time's a one-way street and I don't want to miss any of the sights along the way

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I Think The Calendar’s Broken… It Can’t Be Another Year Already!

Ross — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:16:34 +0000

A Very Good Day

As of tomorrow, I'll be embarking on my 29th* revolution around the sun on this big ball of rock we call home. Birthdays have never been a huge thing in my family, so I'm expecting just a little fun with friends and family and a nice meal or two. Usually the day doesn't feel any different from any other day, but it does help denote the passage of time and gives me a reason to reflect on what I've been doing and what I want to do in the near future.

*For those of you who are are not thinking straight at the moment, this means I'll be 28 years old.

Over the past year I've:

Interviewed for and acquired a new job in a new field and in a new state
Sold my old townhouse
Bought a new house
Moved my entire life from Baltimore, MD to North Carolina
Rung in a new year of 2007 on a farm in Florida
Took a three week trip to India (for work)
Celebrated my daughter's 2nd birthday
"Helped" my wife get pregnant with what will be our second daughter (I'm glad I was present for this!).
Joined Vox and transferred over all my blog posts from previous sources all the way back to when I started writing a blog in March of 2002 (Wow! over 5 years of blogging, even if I *was* sort of sporadic at first!)
Celebrated my wife's __th birthday (tomorrow would be my last birthday ever if she found out I mentioned her age on the internet)
"Found" an old friend from my college days (actually, she found me)
Made some new friends on Vox
Curbed an addiction to a certain MMORPG by quitting the game completely
Made an effort to be a better person, husband, and father (and think I've succeeded)

In the coming year I expect I will:

Travel at least once more to India (again, for work)
Travel at least once to Oman (for work)
Possibly travel at least once to Malaysia (noticing a pattern here?)
Join the local synogague (I've been meaning to do this, but things kept getting in the way…but I've got to get the priorities straight here)
Teach my daughter at least one bad habit that I will later regret
Watch my wife give birth to daughter #2

And finally, in the upcoming year I hope to:

Begin writing some more fiction
Bring smiles to the faces of every one in my family as often as I can
Get back into running regularly
Continue to post regularly on Vox
Enjoy every day – Time's a one-way street and I don't want to miss any of the sights along the way

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