Winter seems to have had an effect on our internet activity... well, that and the new baby & new job have certainly slowed down any activities other than just getting through work (we were 2 or 3 guys down for a long time - we're only just starting to get back to full capacity), and enjoying the whole "new dad" experience.

Whilst Emily has been no trouble at all recently, she still takes up a lot of time - that's my choice though... I love coming home and hanging out with her and Laurette after work, and then after that, on the nights that I don't have extra work to do, getting the motivation to write up something isn't coming easily.

I would like to say that I'm about to ramp it up (there's a lot of things I have on my list that I want to get out there), but honestly, I don't see it changing for a little while - work is ramping up big time (it hasn't slowed down since about September last year) and I have a lot of things that I want to do there, a lot to do with Laur & Em, a lot to do at home (we're looking at moving house soon - "soon" is about 3 months in our timeframe!) as well as everything else....

hopefully I'll get a chance to get back into things soon.. we have a lot of things going on with openslice (about 4 versions that have been released to a small group - it's faster & cleaner), a number of standard-based discussions to kick off, and hopefully we'll be able to get things going again with a view to heading over to Lotusphere next year (about a 25% chance at the moment... but still a chance)

hope everyone else is doing well

ok.. I couldn't let this one go by without a little comment...

Laurette and I were just watching a tv show where they showed the "inner workings" of an AI program that can drive cars... don't get me wrong - it's just a tv show - not a documentary...

anyway, Laurette, trooper that she is, and desperate to get her mind active again in the land of code after the birth of Emily, rewound the pvr and paused the code on the screen so she could read it to see if it was legitimate, and give it a quick peer review... needless to say, it drew a number of scoffs at the poor quality - even for the half-baked pseudo code that it was...

scary... true... and one of the many reasons that I love her!

my... how things change...

This time last year we were abuzz with news of our travels around the USA in the lead-up to Lotusphere 2006, but this year it's a very different story indeed. This year, apart from sadly not being able to make the trip to Lotusphere 2007, Laurette and I have welcomed the beautiful little Emily Grace Rynne. There is one similiarity between being a new parent and a trip to Lotusphere for those of us from the other side of the world - the constant feeling of jet-lag!

If you've read the story on Laurette's blog, then you'll know that we've delivered almost the perfect contractor baby scenario - after a 40-week delivery schedule, Laurette went into final UAT (hospital) on the day before the due date. Whilst the baby was technically "complete" and "signed off", there was still the matter of the delivery before the project was truly complete. After considering our options for implementation (delivery) - parallel, rip and replace etc, we decided on a full deployment. After pulling an all-nighter, she was delivered at 3.30am on the morning of her due date (January 4, 2007) - which gave us until around 6am to tidy things up and complete the paperwork... just in time to sign off on the deal as promised before the business day got under way.

How are things going so far? - well... it's certainly a shock to the system to be constantly, relentlessly, on-call 24/7 to her demands (although, I guess being married to Laurette has been a good preparation!). We're getting used to the concentrated efforts every four or so hours - getting through the cycle of feeding, changing, settling, (singing, dancing), and then hoping that she sleeps enough so we can have a chance to recover for the next time around.

It's a case of "so far, so good" I suppose - don't get me wrong - there have been times where I've found myself up at 3, 4 and 5am trying to remember the words to any lullaby I've heard in the last 30-odd years, and finally settling on making up my own... we love her completely, and as new parents, we're facing all the challenges and fears that come with the territory, and, as tired as we might be... if we're honest, we're loving every minute! (well... almost every minute!)

I managed to get away on Friday to see the second day of the Australian Open at the Royal Sydney Golf Club in Rose Bay, Sydney. Now... normally the goal would be to take advantage of a beautiful day to get away from work to play golf, but this day was different... The Shark - Greg Norman - was in town and it was most likely our last chance to see him playing in an event in Australia.

First off, what a fantastic location for a golf course - just next to Rose Bay, home of hundreds of luxury yachts and cruisers, mini mansions which pass as houses, and a place where a car needs European heritage or all the other cars on the block tease it for being "common".

But the main draw of the day was a chance to watch the legend Greg Norman in action on a golf course, and we managed to watch him for about 13 holes. It was quite incredible to see the gallery following him around, just happy to be in the same space as the great man... whenever he stood and considered his next shot, a hush would fall over the gallery as they anxiously waited for his next shot.

It must be tough to only play a few times and have the expectation of a nation on your shoulders, but his game certainly improved over the days of the event. There were moments of greatness - an eagle on the par 5 seventh and hitting a monster drive and onto the green in two.. awesome stuff.. unfortunately followed up by a bogey and double-bogey only a few holes later.

I managed to get a couple of photos during the day



oh... and the sweet irony of one of my recent posts regarding tourists sitting in the sun crackling like bacon wasn't lost on me when I got there and realised that I hadn't packed a hat or sunscreen for the day (we were in the middle of an unseasonable cold snap)... here's a picture of me at the end of the day -> my face

and the result? Well, unfortunately Norman was unable to get back to his previous days (despite landing some legend-worthy shots in front of the big crowds which followed him every step of the way), however another Queenslander stepped up to claim the Stonehaven Cup -

"Queenslander John Senden has stormed home with the round of the tournament to claim the MFS Australian Open by a stroke from US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy at Royal Sydney."
Australian Open Web Site

so.. everyone knows about summer in Sydney right? heading off to Bondi Beach to hang out in the 30+ degree heat, the faint smell of bacon in the air as the sun scorches down on varying levels of the unprotected skin of tourists with nothing better to do than sit by the surf...

umm... well.. yeah... today - not so much...

"This morning's recorded low temperature of 8.3 degrees is the coldest November minimum in more than a century."
Sydney shivers with record low - National - smh.com.au

Welcome to Australia in Summer today - freezing temperatures, icy winds, snow and hail... oh... don't worry.. we still have a couple of bushfires marching on - all within a couple of hundred kilometres of each other! Nevermind though, it will all be back to usual on the weekend - edging back towards the high 20's and maybe a 30-degree day on Sunday...

usual service will have been restored...