Hannah's Ballet Recital

Today was Hannah’s ballet recital. We were so proud of her as she performed her routine. She was a Can Can Doll and flawlessly executed her moves. Hannah is on the left. Click on the triangle to play the video.

The carpet from India has arrived

Last week the memento that I purchased in India had arrived. The hand tied rug from Agra arrived. We decided to put it in the family room as you can see.

The Vegetable Garden

Despite the numerous challenges of having a vegetable garden in Vienna, Virginia I have decided to plant what should be a bountiful harvest in late summer: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and eggplant. I have also done some daring things like watermelon and cantaloupe although I can see already that the later did nto make it. The biggest challenge to this area is the deer and rabbits who will feast on your vegetables morning noon and night.

The end of an era

Today saw the conclusion of 15 years of Service for Patty McGrath at BT. For those that have worked with Patty at BT they know that her wisdom about ERP systems is only surpassed by her passion for doing the right thing. The right things are the root of her principles on instance management, testing, interfacing closely with users, testing, years of experience on multi national installations, and oh- did I say TESTING?
Beyond her zeal for being the best at what she does, Patty is a gem of a person. One that is dedicated to life long learning, one that has compassion for everyone around her.
A trip past Patty's work station indicates that Patty lives her life on her own terms and practices what she preaches. Patty is green- and this not just because she is Irish. She lives a life of conservation and kindness to the environment. Patty recently brought us cookies generated by wind power. They were great despite me having to wait until Passover was over to eat them! Patty is a die hard liberal that studies and understands all aspects of local, regional and national politics.
I know I speak for all of the people at BT when I say that Patty's departure will leave a massive void in our organization. Patty was the stabilizing force in the office. The one that knew how to react on the days where things did not go perfectly. She mastered a methodology for untangling the jams that we got ourselves into. Her calm demeanour in the face of near database tragedy was always helpful.
Patty has been a friend, mentor, cohort, conspirator to scores of people in BT. She has been all of these things to me. As my career started at BT in 1998, at what we called Concert 'classic', Patty provided all of the guidance, wisdom and direction as any professor can. Despite my relative inexperience, she graciously gave everyone around her the chance to learn- and learn we did. At some point we all aspired to learn as much as she was able to casually forget in one day.
Patty has shared in all of life's experiences for me. Marriage, the birth of my children, the recent loss of my father. Through those times her spirituality has helped find deeper meaning in everything. I will miss seeing her at the office every day but I know she is just a phone call away.

Patty, best wishes always and keep in touch...

Clear

Today I used my Clear membership for the first time. Clear is a privatized security service at major airports that does background checks on applicants and captures biometric information on you to 'ease the security process'.

I was completely underwhelmed by the service and have to admit, I can't see the reason I paid $128 for an annual subscription. Essentially you are paying for a shorter security line however it is only a matter of time until the Clear membership will be on equal footing with that of the regular line creating no incentive to join the service. I had thought that the biometric data would speed us through the queue however once your finger print is scanned you still have to go through the same routine on the normal line. The same TSA agents, the same scanning. It is a real disappointment. Is there anyone that actually finds this useful?

The Shortest Close

On Thursday I had a chance to attend a lunch time seminar at the Tower Club at Tyson’s. A very impressive venue for MorganFranklin’s lunch-time seminar series. The topic- the ability to shorten the financial close. I was happy to see Emmett Pepe there, a long time friend and Controller at Broadsoft. Moderated by Caroline Leies, MD at MFC the speakers first presented some prepared remarks and then left the floor open for questions.
I asked a question at the end that I thought was going to get some more play than it did. I asked the panellists if they felt that their ERP systems were enablers for shortening the close. Based on the remarks I heard, technology still needs to go a long way before the controllers of this world see the systems as enablers of efficiency.
I was surprised with that however when I heard which systems these people were using, I was not surprised.
I hope that people will investigate the benefits that Oracle Release 12 brings to them. I think they will find a number of advances that will help them gain efficiencies out of the close process.

Friends

Hannah is here posing with some of her favourite people.

Another casualty of the rain

Another casualty of the rain is the trees in the back yard. Lucklily this did not fall on anyone.

The Floor Waters Have Receded

The record rain that we have had lately has caused quite a bit of turmoil for us. We found that the storage room leaks. Luckily we had most of our stuff on top of plastic crates so there was not a lot of damage. The landlord sends a repair man out on Memorial Day to do the fixing. We really enjoy this house however thare are a few things that are making it hard to be here.

The Nanny Situation

The nanny situation has been a bit frustrating these last few weeks. We posted a few ads on line however we have not been able to get a perfect fit. Forget perfect- at this point, we’d be happy for as close a fit as possible. In the short term we have found a wonderful person that can help us on half day Mondays. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that with us both working full time, it is really hard to past ads, to interview people and to find someone that can help us.

Hannah rides her bike

Look at how well Hannah rides her bike on the first try... Click on the triangle to play the video.

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a grand spectacle. Construction started in 1631 by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to symbolize the love he had for his second wife Mumtaz Mahal . She died during the birth of her 14th child. The Taj took the effort of 20,000 people 22 years to build.

The Taj is built entirely from Indian marble and semi precious stones. When you see the Taj it appears that the delicate art work is painted on. It is not, in fact all of the detailed artisan work is in-laid in the marble. The blacl writing is onyx and represents text from the Koran. All of the other detail is semi precious stones.

Due to the crystalline nature of the Indian Marble, the Taj is best seen at dawn and dusk. The crystalls in the marble reflect the color of the light being shone on it.

Today we saw the Taj under the blazing 112 degree sun.