Maintaining Perspective

One of the biggest challenges I have, and I know others struggle with, is maintaining perspective while working in Silicon Valley, particularly for a startup. It is very easy to get caught up in it all and let a company work you for many hours. This almost always comes at the detriment of family time. I know for me I can sometimes loose perspective and need to have it reset from time to time. As the kids get older for example they are more aware of times when I am away or working late. Julia was recently was giving me a hard time about being "gone too much". Now that is just her point of view, but in some cases perspective is reality so I need to make sure I keep paying attention.

I am not great at it, and always need to be checked, which my family does. I think it is something I will always struggle with for sure.

There is always more work...

Great Physics Games for Kids

A friend at work showed me a couple of really great physics games for kids. They both are a nice combination of fun graphics with details that promote real learning about the physical properties of materials and shapes. They are fun for adults who like games and challenges as well.

The first is called Crayon Physics and involves drawing with a crayon to make a ball move through some obstacles to a star. In this version you can draw any size square or rectangle to accomplish the task. In a new version you can apparently draw more shapes, though I cannot find the download for this yet.

The second is called Armadillo Run and involves building to completing structures to help an armadillo (rolled into a ball) move into a portal which moves him to the next level. There are lots of materials you can use but you are constrained by physics and a budget to pay for the materials. It is also a ton of fun and Julia has caught the bug, working on the levels exhaustively.

Try them out!

Running Again

Well after a 6+ week hiatus I am back out running in the mornings. Despite my attempts to "not" over eat during the holidays I managed to put on 10lbs and I shudder to think of where I would be if I had not watched myself. Binge eating! It has been painful and cold and dark but I am committed so I won't stop at this point. Thankfully Melissa and the kids outfitted me with some cold weather exercise gear and that has made a huge difference for me. No more frozen hands or legs.

As an additional motivator I am also starting to prepare for a snow camping trip (more on that later) and am deathly afraid of being so out of shape that they decide to leave me somewhere face down in the snow b/c I cannot carry my own weight!!

Serious Obession

This is a story of serious obsession which when you read it you may find very troubling. You might remember that we have started to get quite competitive with regards to the GeoTracks that Nicolas has, each alternatively claiming to build the best track possible. They have gotten quite elaborate at this stage, multilevel craziness. So I was out of town for a few days at our annual kickoff and just returned home today (Friday).

Melissa generally had a good couple of days with the kids while I was away however she slept very poorly last night and went upstairs to take a well deserved nap when I got home. I decided to take the kids out for dinner at the local pizza place.

I called Melissa to check in from the pizza place to see what she was up to and what was she up to?

Perfecting a track...

Not what I would have expected given a break after three days... I may need to have an intervention.

Hero worship

In the last few weeks Melissa and I discovered a tv show and have become obsessed with Heros.

If you are a fan of Lost or The X Files then I think you will like this. We are watching the first season on DVD and have stayed up way late getting caught up on the show.

So far we like the writing and acting. Try it!

Six Words You Don't Want to Hear...

The other morning we were in our somewhat hurried morning routine and I was fixing breakfast when I heard six words you don't want to hear, in this case they came from Nicolas our 3 1/2 year old. He called out "Daddy, I had a poo poo accident" ( I guess that is technically 7 but I am not counting the Daddy part.

Let me tell you that this was a high quality accident. I will spare you the gory details but suffice to say he maximized this accident in several dimensions.

Since I was in the middle of cooking I thought I had better call Melissa to assist which she did.

Wow, if you've had kids you may have had this happen, if not I hope you don't hear them!

Pictures from the beach

Just following up on my previous post - here are a couple of pictures from New Year's Eve as well as New Year's Day at the beach.

http://kreisas.smugmug.com/gallery/4096059#P-1-12

New Year's Day at the Beach

Happy New Year Everyone! I wish you a happy and healthy 2008.

We started off this year on the right foot for sure. On a whim we decided to go to the beach on New Year's Day with some friends and we had a blast. We packed up the kids, some lunch and Skittles the dog we are sitting and headed out for our favorite beach, the New Brighton State Beach, around 11am.

The weather was warm and sunny with next to no breeze and the forecast called for mid-60's but when we got there in the sun it felt more like the 80's. There were very few people at the beach and there was a very gentle surf which gave the kids a chance to try out their new shorty wetsuits that they got for Christmas.

We quickly stripped down to shorts and tee shirts as we watched the kids run in and out of the surf. We also had a picnic, went for a couple of long walks and through the football and played Frisbee. In all we spent almost 4 hours there just hanging and relaxing.

What a great way to start the new year! We love living in California.