Go Rice!

For our fourth anniversary this year, we decided to make a trip to Houston to watch Rice play in the C-USA conference championship. Timmy came too. Here Doug is keeping score in the final game. 

A taste of political science

Timmy explores the Baker Institute for Public Policy (at Rice University) with dad. 

Peek-a-boo!

 

Another friend says goodbye

I don't know if any of you heard about the boating accident on Lake Travis last Wednesday, but my former High School youth director turned Catholic priest died while vacationing in Austin. I even saw him celebrating Mass at St. Louis last Saturday (the first time I'd seen him since he left for the seminary). He was a wonderful guy. This is a picture from the pilgramage to World Youth Day in Paris that he led in 1997. He kept a blog at http://www.fathertodd.com/blog 

My favorite job !

Lucas loves watering the garden (and the yard, and the fence, and mommy...) 

Aloha!

 

Peace !

 

Baseball Blue

Nothing like watching a game of baseball with our friends Kyle and Erin (especially when Erin buys me a snowcone) 

See Spot

See Lucas
See Lucas read
See Lucas read to Timmy.
Read Lucas, read! 

My labors of the past 2 1/2 years are beginning to bear fruit

A tooting-my-own-horn post..

As some of you know, I've been working on the next-generation memory technology (fully buffered DIMMs) the past couple of years for Dell. It's been a really interesting time (and yes, I understand now why "May you live in interesting times" is a curse). I've been involved with industry groups defining the technology; I've been the interface between memory vendors and the rest of Dell (along with all the 7/8PM conference calls that entails); I've become known as "Mr. FBD" at Dell.

Our first FBD products launched today: Dell Precision 490 & 690 Workstations.

Congrats to my colleagues in Austin! Us Round Rock types (servers) will be joining the party soon (watch this space). It's nice to see the last couple of years of work begin to pay off!

yum

Maybe Timmy's not quite big enough for this toy yet 

If trees could talk

... he'd probably say, "You're standing on my roots!" 

Fairie Wood

We went to visit Crowes Nest, an educational farm, on Wednesday. Part of the farm has been taken over by fairies. 

Humpty Dumpty

So that's why he fell off the wall, the peacock pushed him! 

I'm singing in the rain

 

New car!

We've decided to replace my '93 Camry with a '01 Acura MDX. Doug is happy. 

Bubble defense

Lucas fights off a bubble invasion with a squirt gun. The orange apron is from the Home Depot kid's workshop. 

Lucas takes a picture

He's getting pretty good with the camera. 

I'm longer

Lucas wanted to know if Timmy was "big as Lucas" yet. No, but he's catching up. 

Goin' places

...well, almost. 

Goodbye Gimli

Today we lost a friend in a car accident. Gimli spent four years with us, and although she took backstage as the kids arrived, she was always loyal and friendly. I'll miss the way she followed us on walks around the neighborhood, and even put up with a toddler chasing after her. I'm sorry she couldn't have stayed with us longer. 

Fireman Lucas

Leave it to Grandpa to discover that noodles and high-pressure water jets combine to make great water guns. 

Chillin' with Grandma

Timmy thinks the water is too cold to go swimming, but he enjoys hanging out at the pool with us. 

Kitties

It's an old picture (back when I had time to burn on puzzles) but I thought it was cute. 

RIP Great Grandma Beatrice

I am sorry to announce the passing of my dad's mother Beatrice Watkins early this morning at the age on 85. She succumbed to cancer. My dad describes her as the "heart" of his close-knit family (he has five siblings). We called just a few weeks ago to wish her a happy birthday, but despite her illness her death caught us by surprise. She is pictured here in July of 2004 (with Lucas) celebrating fifty years of marriage.