So - is anyone doing anything with this. I thought a simpe blog would be easy to update... which it is, but "the guys" are not that up on posting stuff.

heaven forbid - should we let MOM blog on this as a replacement for newsletters?

guys... what are we going to do?

ok - I'll be quiet now. :)

Rick

WOW... what a cool conference. Talk about community and passion. I must have taken about 20 pages of notes from the sessions over the two days I was there. It had a great format that allowed for enough depth to the content, 10 minutes for Q&A.  Then you had a 5 minutes for something completetly not related called a JOLT from a different speaker on a different topic. whatever time was left (usually 10 minutes or so) was for break.

I was very impressed with the content and speakers. I'm now contemplating getting off my Butt and creating one myself. I remember growing up and listening to CBC on the kitchen radio over the weekends with the family cooking. I rediscovered that I enjoy audio drama, stories, comedy and discussions taking place on the speakers. I really enjoy the format and I'm now figuring out all the back end to be able to pull one off. What topics? hummm...

• fatherhood / family
• technology
• journey of personal development
• "remember when's"

I don't know. I'm working that out. I think I almost have a name - but I'm keeping that to myself right now.

Don't worry - I will keep you posted. And I will continue to blog here.

I took the kids out while Kelli was resting her back. Unfortunately her Mothers Day included her coming down with a bit of a cold that has been in the wings for a while. I decided that I wanted to get some up to date group snaps of the kids for the friends and family. They turned out quite well - I think. I took these with my Nikon S51c 8 megaPixel camera - not bad. My only criticism with the camera is the slow optics / auto focus and delay with shutter... oh well - 8 MP goodness is quite nice.

this one is my favourite...

More can be found here in my Flickr set. I hope you like them!

Rick

Finally got off my butt and got the new blogging engine up and working on the new hosting provider. Hopefully, with a few tweaks, I can make the site look a little better then it's current state. I spent the better part of the evening manually copy and pasting the old entries from a static word doc I used as a backup once and we now have content.

The plan is to start once again documenting what is going on with the family and our lives, so that we can keep others up to date with what is happening. With this new platform, it appears that it is very flexible to add a number of things to the user experience to make this all more productive for everyone involved.

I must go off and get some sleep - 3 days of 2 am bedtime makes for one cranky dad.

I hope that you like what you find here and I hope that you come back to keep in touch.

Based on the number of posts I have done in the past year - I would have to say - it is stagnant.

Why is that? I don't really have a good answer for you.  I hear from so many friends and family that the site should be up and running with updates to get some pictures and news out there. I guess I need to get off my A** and get started again.

First off - a piece of information for you. If you come looking for pictures of the family and kids - they are now up and online at my flickr page.  You can see the public pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rick_claus and there are MANY more private ones that are invitation only for friends and family. If you don't already have access - email me and I will invite you into the private area.

Gotta run. I promise to make more recent entries.

DSCN3791
Originally uploaded by Rickster-CDN.

I wanted to post this photo just to see what the blog entry would look like since it is made by the flickr website. In theory, it should be just like any other blog post, but I do not know what it will come out as.
One thing I don't like about this service is that you have to make your photos public if you want to do things like this (blog post) or a flickr badge. They are great concepts, but it makes it so that you have to make pictures public in order for them to be viewed.
I am still on the fence as to if this is ok or not. Do I really want my pictures visible to the public? I guess this is the price to pay for the free service - but I don't know if the policy is any different if you had a paid for account.
There's nothing to do other then try things like this out to see if they meet the needs. It sure would make publishing gallery pictures a lot easier then a manual process.
What do you think? Drop me a comment!

Ella and Grace behave been playing Peek-a-Boo through the toy mailbox they have on their LittleTykes garden.  It is SO funny to watch as they squeal at each other.

I managed to capture it on tape today.  I’ll transfer it off to my computer and see how it comes across on the new web site and links.

I’ve standardised the web site with a new skin which gives it a nice look and feel. I’ve also brought in some old posts from the old web site. I’ll continue the process tomorrow – after I get some sleep!

Rick

When Kelli and I were getting ready for dinner, Mac said the funniest thing. We had the cousins over (Liam & Mason)  this past weekend because Mike had taken Nancy out to Mont Tremblant for a quick get-away.

Earlier in the day Mac had drawn / written something on a piece of paper and rolled it up into a scroll. He made one for Liam and one for Mason.

When Mason opened his up, he asked Mac what is was and what it said.

Straight faced – Mackenzie replied:

“It says www.com”

Did he get that from Advertising? Mom or Dad? Who knows.  It is just hilarious that he’s using web terminology at 3 1/4 years!

I wanted to start of the start of the second year with a commitment to keeping the website up to date with both news and info tid bits as well as with pictures.

So – here is the redesigned site.  A place to have simple posts put up on the webserver and an image gallery.  Both Kelli and I will be contributing to keeping this puppy up and running happily – so stay tuned for updates!

The girls turned one yesterday. They were very cute in their party dresses and hats.

Just wanted to say that Mac and I had a wonderful day today. We decided that I would take Mac out to the Experimental farm while Kelli and the girls would stay home. I got Mac ready and packed up the car - then Kelli had a thought... Why not bike up, since it was AMAZING weather outside. I repacked and got the bike and trailer ready.

10 AM ish. Off we go - but first, Mac had not eaten much breakfast, so I decided to stop at Kettleman's bagels for a some food. From there, on to the bike path and down to Dowe's lake for a picnic. We were eating bagels with cream cheese, feeding the ducks, kicking dirt and running in the grass - needless to say, we didn't care where we were or where we were going. This went on for quite some time, until he remembered that we were heading to the Experimental farm.

On the way to the farm, I glanced at my watch to realize that it was lunchtime. We stopped to get some food from a chip truck and proceeded to have picnic number 2 at the ornamental gardens. I wasn't able to be as laid back here, since Mac likes to play in the dirt (or should I say flower beds!) so I decided we should move on.

At the farm at last. We made it in time to see them wash some cows and then how to make home made ice cream. Then it was off to the barn to see the tractor exhibit and down the road a bit to get to the Sheep barn. We wrapped it up with a nice horse drawn wagon ride.

It turned out to be a FANTASTIC day with Mac. I haven't had so much fun in a while. It was great. We got home and Kelli and the girls were in fine spirits as well. All is good in the house of Claus.

Oh yeah - one poop accident in the park in the toilet training category. No big deal, there was a bathroom around the corner and I brought a change of clothes. It was my first external to house poop'ing, but I made it through it.