Oy.  So much for my New Year’s Resolution (made early, no less).  Maybe because I didn’t make it on NYE, it doesn’t count as a resolution.

Anyway, nearly a year ago, I left Microsoft after 10 years and went to Adobe.  I wrote a whole long post about it back then that Wordpress somehow decided to eat.  Not sure why.  Fast forward to Februrary of this year (I’ve been saving up this story for nearly 2 months now).  I was down in San Jose at our nearly-annual/nearly-biennial Tech Summit, which is an internal conference for the company to gather together and see what we’re all doing.  It was pretty cool to see something like this.  Microsoft doesn’t do this sort of thing, but I suppose that would be a prohibitively mammoth undertaking to try and get everyone in the company together for a week long conference.  Never mind that everyone in the Seattle area would probably blow it off and go into the office instead.  Anyway, I digress.

One night during the conference, there was a dinner organized for all of Adobe’s Program Managers to take part in, if they so chose.  This dinner was at a hotel at a restaurant called Il Fornaio,which is one of those faux-upscale chain restaurants.  The food was oddly not terribly Italian.  Again, I digress.  The interesting thing that happened there was that there were several of us in the lobby area waiting to sign in and get our name tags identifying who we were.  While we were waiting, an older, distinguished looking gentleman stopped near us and asked us if we were Adobe employees (probably tipped off by the little Adobe sign on the table).  After nodding our heads, he then proclaimed loudly, “Love your products!”  We all proceeded to smile and mumble our thanks at his bon mots and the moment passed.  But for me, it was shocking.  I cannot remember the last time a non-relative or friend of mine indicated with any sort of genuineness that they loved any product made by Microsoft without any qualitative hedging (e.g. I love my Xbox360, but I’m on my 3rd after two RRoDs).

Which leads me to the second half of my story.  Only 1 week after returning from San Jose, I was at Costco shopping with my parents.  Since I have 10 years worth of Microsoft schwag, it’s not uncommon to find me wearing one of my many Microsoft-branded polar fleece tops, including the one that was the Windows Vista ship gift (valued at $1 from a Chinese textiles manufacturer).  On this particular Saturday at this particular Costco, I was indeed wearing said fleece.  During checkout as I was watching the register tape get depressingly longer, the ‘boxer’ (as opposed to the checker) looks at me and asks, “Hey, do you work at Microsoft?”  Generally, I answer this question truthfully when I don’t much care about explaining why me, an Adobe employee, would be wearing a Microsoft fleece.  But on occasions where I don’t feel like having a conversation about that, I just generally nod “yes” to kill the exchange, which is what I did on this occasion hoping that this is what would, indeed, happen.  Well, instead of leaving it at that, the boxer proceeded to chastise me for how expensive MS Office was and how she had to use Wordpad (which I had to guess given the hints she was trying to convey) since it was ‘free’ and how Wordpad printing was screwing up her letters.  Really not wanting to have this conversation, I mumbled some kind of apology and proceeded to cart out my overflowing Costco cart.

This, btw, is the kind of exchange I’m a little more used to when it comes to Microsoft products.  If I am not free product support for everything from Office to Windows to Money to some random app somebody downloaded from the Internet, I’m usually the target of some user’s ire over losing all their MP3’s in some computer crash (again, usually due to some random app they downloaded from the Internet).  This is generally the experience of most, if not all, Microsofties which is why the experience I had in San Jose was so totally shocking.

Snark.  *Snort*

Only 7 more shopping days left.  I find my parents difficult to shop for.  It’s not like they have everything already, but trying to find them what’s truly useful but not ‘utilitarian’ can be a fine line. 

I so clearly suck at this.  BFF.

I resolve to write in this blog at least 4 times a week, even if it’s only a couple of lines of inane observation (which is, after all, what the blog is basically titled). 

I want to become more consistent about it because I need something that I’m fully in control of at home to be done on a consistent basis.  Who knew kids had free will from the day they were born?

I had this big post about my last day at Microsoft and my starting up at Adobe, but for some reason Wordpress ate it.  And now I am not motivated to rewrite it.  Perhaps in a few days I can muster up the energy.

On June 29th, Andrew graduated from his preschool.  Two years ago, we had barely brought Zoe home from the hospital and had taken Andrew out of his daycare so that he could gain a richer set of experiences and education than what he would’ve gotten there.

In many ways he still looked and acted like a toddler at that time, and I remember the first few days of dropping him off and him crying as I left.  Now, he’s such a big kid.  I’m so proud of everything he’s achieved and how much he’s grown.  I look forward to the future and how much more he will grow as a human being.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.   – Albert Einstein. 
 

Magic Lantern Preschool’s resident hedgehog came to visit our house for the weekend.  He was a nice addition given what had transpired just the past Thursday.  It was nice to have a new little pet to take our minds off of little Robie. 

Photos after the jump.

My little Zoe turned 2 on Friday.  I was a horrible father last year and did not blog about even though I blogged about Andrew’s birthday the month before.  Oh, the shame!  Well, this year I am not going to be lazy again, and so here is the blog about Zoe’s 2nd birthday.

I cannot believe it’s already been 2 years. I suppose I will say that every year as she gets older. She’s such a little spitfire, our Zoe. She came into the world looking a little concerned about things with just the slightest furrow in her brow indicating her slight disappointment or displeasure with the state of the world.  But we could tell early on that she wasn’t going to take things lying down.

And she hasn’t.  She’s a very opinionated little spitfire and she likes what she likes and isn’t afraid to let you know.  She can be totally sweet one second and a ball of angst another.  But she gets over things soon and gives you a big smile to let you know she’s over it.

Happy Birthday, baby girl!  We love you so much!

Zoe at Birth

Zoe – 1 year old

Zoe – 2 years old

Several weeks ago, our cat Robie escaped the house when someone who was working in the house inadvertantly left the door open to come and go.  Robie was never an outside cat and was always afraid of being outdoors even as a little kitten.

I remember when we got her.  Emma and I were driving around doing some errands on a cool, gray January Saturday in 2001 when we saw a sign for kittens.  We drove to the address and discovered a little hole in the ground apartment underneath a little convenience market.  We told the people there we were there to see the kittens.  There were only 2 left: Robie and a little black kitten.  Even though this was a little hole in the ground apartment, we could tell that the cats there were well-loved.  Anyway, Emma picked up the black kitten and I picked up the little tabby.  She was such a small, adorable little kitten.  This was who I wanted to take home.

Well, the owners didn’t want to let her go so young, so we let her stay with her mommy for a couple more weeks.  Then Emma brought her home one day.  She was still tiny, but she was pretty frisky.  When we got her home, Emma’s cat – Teacake – instantly hated her (naturally, since Teacake more-or-less hates everybody).  But, she eventually acclimated to her presence.

I named her Robie after the Robie House, which is a Frank Lloyd Wright house built in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.  Robie was an affectionate kitten, always wanting her morning nuzzles.  This was before even Andrew arrived.

Well, she got out a few weeks ago and we kept a lookout for her hoping she would come back.  Like I said, she was not an outdoor cat, but the few times she did venture out she zipped right back in.  We didn’t see her for weeks, and our hope grew dim.  Hopefully, she had at least found another family to live with. 

Last week we had finally resigned ourselves to never knowing what happened to her.  THat is, until she magically seemed to appear in the backyard and scoot underneath the deck over the weekend!  Emma thought she saw her, but the cat never came out.  Then on Monday, Andrew and I saw her scoot under the deck!  Maybe Robie had come back!

Well, today our neighbor found her in their garage and we finally got her back.  She was in bad shape, though, and wouldn’t eat or drink anything.  And she seemed to be having trouble walking.  Emma took her to the emergency room for pets.

The doctor said that while she had no broken bones, Robie was very, very sick.  She came back, and we all got a chance to say goodbye.  Goodbye, Robie.  We love you.

Robie Cat Hong

January 2001 – June 14, 2007