Its been an up and down this holiday. Dealing with the madness of Thanksgiving into Christmas then first night. Its mayhem. The kids have really enjoyed themselves and they have definitely been taking advantage of daddy being home for the last two weeks. What I have learned this xmas is that with four kids its only going to get more insane as the years go on Somehow with enough love (and wine) we will make it. I hope you enjoy the photos from this round. Sorry there are so many, I really did try and trim the size down but with two months of photos its tough. There are 217 photos to gaze at in the gallery. I hope your holidays went well. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas everyone!  We sent out a few hard copies this year, but I would like to be as environmentally friendly as possible and send you this holiday note.

So here is what’s happening:

We were all sick the last few weeks with the girls getting the worst of it (RSV).   We had close to 20″ of the snow the last few days which made shoveling our 20 degree pitch driveway a whole lot of fun.  Hampton ended the first half of his preschool year with a very 4 year old skit which included the teacher singing and the kids wondering why they were not able to eat cookies until she was done :)  Gavin is coming into his own and is a very talkative 2 year old (though he takes a bit of time to warm up to people unlike his brother).  Work is going very well for me at MathWorks and Carrie is meeting lots of new moms here in Milford. We are looking forward to having Dolly and Rick for our first ever Christmas at home.  We are also expecting some old friends to join us at New Years.  All in all this has been an exciting and busy year for our family and with a new house and two new children it has been nothing short of eventful.  I will get plenty of pictures up by the new year, but until then have a very happy and safe holiday.  I wish you all the best! You deserve it.

Hello again. The sever has been powered off for the last 7 days during my recent move to Milford, MA. My wife and I purchased our first home and we are very happy. Frankly I could have turned the server on a week ago with only a few hours of downtime, but I have been so busy I just let it sit in the basement amongst the hundreds of boxes and toys in the playroom.

OK, so short but sweet. The next big event is twins in 2 weeks! Yep, thats just two weeks away. I will post again as soon as I get a moment to breathe.

Schools warned against signing up for software from Microsoft

Schools should not sign software licensing deals with Microsoft because of the computer giant’s alleged anti-competitive practices, a government watchdog has warned.

I started to email this article around to people and then I decided to let you all know. Its a short blurb, but as always the comments on digg are worth a read. Its also a good time to bring this up to people, there are a million better/cheaper ways to equip your school then MS (or any other group/individual without unlimited resources); especially in a time when that money could be better spent on books, supplies, and needed programs. Just my 2c though.

Dow 13K and the Second Great Depression

The article is about our current state of economic affairs. Bascially its says Gen X’ers like myself are struggling to stay afloat while we watch our parents live it up (a terse summary I must say); the exact opposite of what life used to be like. I can relate completely to this article. Why must I have to make so much money? Why can’t I just manage a small forest someplace like my degree would have me do, or teach like I would like to do? The answer is society and it has gotten out of hand. Anyway a good read for anyone concerned about where this is all going.

Highlights from the 2007 Quality of Living Survey

Canadian, European and Australian cities continue to dominate the rankings this year, which saw little significant movement among the top 50 cities.

Zurich, Geneva, Vienna, Vancouver, and Auckland remain the top scoring cities on the Quality of Living index. One of this year’s biggest improvements has been in Osaka, rising 8 places to 42 from 51. Improvement was also seen in Oslo, which climbed five places from 31 to 26.

Boston comes in at 36 so I don’t feel so bad living here. However the other places on this list make me really want to travel.

NASA - Solar Storm Warning
This week researchers announced that a storm is coming–the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). “The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one,” she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.