November 2005

There were 40 posts published in November 2005 (this is page 1 of 4).

All That and a Turkey Sandwich

Holidays are supposed to be a time to relax. Mine are chances to catch up on things that I’ve been neglecting.

I spent a good bit of time Wednesday tidying up my home office desk. I was facing a long wait at DMV to get a duplicate title for our Volvo. I decided if I’m going to waste an hour, I might as well do it searching for the original title. Sure enough it turned up, only Kelly found it, having been inspired by my searching.

We spent Thanksgiving morning playing in Durant Nature Park. The afternoon was spent giving the house a much-needed cleaning, top to bottom. After the kids napped, we headed over to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving proper.

The house was just as we imagined it to be: full of joyfully noisy kids! My sister’s family was there as was my Aunt Nancy, visiting from Tallahassee. Travis and Hallie were gleefully spinning around the whole night. It was a hoot!

After the kids’ bedtime, I headed back over to get in a game of Hearts with the boys. Reid was the reigning champion and it was time for a rematch! Scott was there suddenly got sleepy after I socked him with the queen of spades. Hmm! It was fun playing, though.

The next day, we returned in the late morning for more visiting. After a terrific lunch of red beans and rice, the men suited up and spent the next 90 minutes spreading a vapor barrier under my parents’ house. It turned out to be pretty fun as far as those things go. We did a super job.

Saturday morning, Aunt Nancy spent a few hours at our house for a little one-on-four time. Hallie wowed Aunt Nancy with her amazing mind while Travis gleefully marched all around the house, cackling as he went. It was quite a show for Aunt Nancy – one she really appreciated.

N.C. State began their game against Maryland around noon, so we had that tuned in on the radio. I was quite happy when State won the game, as it clears the way for a bowl game.

Aunt Nancy left in time to watch the FSU-Florida game at my parents’ house. Unfortunately, it was not a good game for the Seminoles. FSU barely avoided a shutout in the suprisingly lopsided game. The Noles don’t stay down for long, though, so don’t worry.

Sunday, Kelly came up to me with a gleam in her eye. “Do you know what I really want for my birthday?” she asked.

“What’s that, honey?”

“I’d love to get some rooms painted!”

I couldn’t resist a pitch like that. So it was off to Lowe’s to buy paint and supplies. By 4 PM, we had a newly-painted fireplace wall in our den. Only took us a year to make up our minds, but it looks great!

There was no stopping Kelly’s ambition, however. She immediately began work on painting our downstairs bathroom. I helped with taking fixtures off the walls, but she did the patching, sanding, and painting. It just got finished tonight. Like the other paint job, it looks fantastic.

I had an early appointment this morning which got me out of the house before the kids woke. I got a phone call from Hallie a bit later that reminded me of the powerful role I play as Daddy. I posted a quick account on the Hallie and Travis page.

I’m in need of some quality sleep, so I’ll stop blabbering now. Thanks for reading!

RTP Gets Googlized

I’ve heard enough evidence to say that Google is indeed coming to RTP. I’ve confirmed that executives from the company have been here.

I’m thinking that ChannelAdvisor will be snapped up soon. You heard it here first.

Google Rumor Reaches N&O

The rumor of Google coming to RTP reached today’s News and Observer with an article that cited the blogosphere. The article cited Jason Caplain’s Southeast VC blog as well as “online marketing guru” Andy Beal, though its not clear what Beal knows that Caplain does not.

Beal was the only one available for an interview by the N&O reporter. Google was unavailable for comment, as was Caplain.

The one tidbit that the article did bring to light is that real-estate brokers are hunting for office space less than 5,000 square feet for Google. That isn’t exactly on the same scale as the Googleplex, to say the least. I’m wondering if this is to be a sales office, or a mini-datacenter as Robert Cringley wrote about.

Yesterday, Greg Brown cited second-hand information that a Google jet has been parked at RDU for the past few days. I didn’t get a chance to check that out personally, but it seems to me that a search for a datacenter wouldn’t take as long as a search for a staff office. It will be telling to see how long that jet is here.

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Happy Thanksgiving

I’m appreciating all that I’ve got this Thanksgiving. We’re out for a walk on this beautiful day. Then after naps we’re headed over to my parents’ house to visit family. It should be a most delightfully noisy Thanksgiving.

Padilla Indicted

Terror suspect Jose Padilla has been indicted on terrorism charges and I couldn’t be happier. Padilla is a so-called “enemy combatant” in the eyes of the Bush administration, which has led to his incarceration for three years in a military prison without being charged with any crime.

“The issue before the Supreme Court is still alive and active — that the president signed an order to hold an American citizen for three years without criminal charges,” said Andy Patel, Padilla’s attorney. “The fact that they now decided to charge Mr. Padilla with a criminal offense doesn’t mean they couldn’t do this again to another person in the future.

It only took three years of Padilla’s life to bring charges against him. He’ll finally have his day in court. Padilla is a known gang member. He may be a terrorist. He may even be the John Doe 2 from the Oklahoma City Bombing. Regardless of all this, he is due his day in court. Now’ll he get it.

Let’s see if these charges stand.

More Google RTP

I found another reference to the rumor of Google coming to RTP. Note that its all rumors. Nothing has been announced. No concrete evidence exists.

Andy Beal, a local marketing expert, guesses that ChannelAdvisor may be the company to be assimilated. Andy points out how Scot Wingo, founder of ChannelAdvisor, has been blogging about Google Base. Andy also points out that Jason Caplain, in addition to ChannelAdvisor, is also invested in Motricity, the Durham mobile phone software company, and wonders if Motricity could be in Google’s sights.

The blogosphere has been called a giant echo chamber. I’m not helping that reputation by repeating unsubstantiated rumors. I’ll let this story rest for now until some solid evidence comes my way.

Google RTP?

A local venture capitalist, Jason Caplain, is reporting of a rumor that Google may be opening shop here in the Triangle. No sources are quoted, and no further information is given. I don’t know where they get their information, but VCs are generally known to be tuned in to the emerging business scene.

Caplian speculates that Google would get here through an acquisition, rather than build fresh. That makes me wonder if Google had anything to do with local hosting provider Hosted Solutions mysteriously calling off their seemed-like-a-done-deal recent merger plans. Since Google would be more interested in people, not datacenters, Hosted Solutions probably isn’t a target.

Trilug has had its last two sysadmins hired away to Google and shipped off to California. Now I’m in that role. What would I do if the phone rings, especially now that moving’s not a requirement?

[Update: 5 Jan 2007] Google has purchased a start-up in Chapel Hill called Skia.