Our new soda maker arrived yesterday. We have the Pure model from Soda Stream (http://sodaclubusa.com/default.htm).

We got the value kit, that included the Soda machine, 3 CO2 canisters, 8 flavor packs (they sent the diet version of one, but included an extra of something else), and a sample pack with 12 flavors in it (including many we didn’t order, so that’s good).

So far we have made the “Cola” and “Grape” flavors of soda. And… they are both quite tasty. It’s not Coke, but it sure does taste good, and the sodas are plenty bubbly (you can even control the amount of bubbly, since you carbonate the water).

We’ve got lots of flavors left to taste, but have enjoyed the 2 we tried so far. The machine is a little large (about 18 inches tall), but not too deep or wide. It fits nicely in a corner of our counter that was empty anyway.

Speaking of making soda – I just finished the Cola one, so I’m going to go make another!

My birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but I thought I better put up a blog post today since most of my readership is 3 time zones away.

Yes – tomorrow is my 30th birthday. Just in the past month or so, I’ve become resistant to the idea of getting older. But I guess that is just part of me, not liking things that I can’t do anything about

I want to say that I feel like I could have accomplished more in these first 30 years, but that’s probably not true. I’ve done a lot so far: earned 3 degrees, been a college professor, worked for a “dot com,” traveled to 8 other countries and 25 states (half way there!). Life now is, of course, great. We have a great house (filled with 2 fuzzy dogs), in a great city, and I’ve been married to Cortny for just over 7 years now. By the way, she is loveable, pretty, and wise. In case you didn’t know.

So what’s next?

In the immediate future: We’re going to continue to enjoy our time in Seattle, knowing that it isn’t permanent. I’m enjoying my work, and would like to see some new features be released. I’m happy to be able to keep working on educational research as well. As for future travel plans: we are heading to Cincinnati in March, Alaska in May (I’ll get pictures of Cortny on the zip line), Disneyland in October, and a larger trip in 2010 (Australia and New Zealand, Continental Europe, or Northern Europe and possibly Russia – we’ve got some time to have this trip planned, but we are thinking about it).

That’s where I’ve been, where I am at 30, and where I’m going next.

So you probably saw this on Cortny’s blog, but I thought I’d post it too. We ordered a home soda maker last weekend (to arrive next week), from http://www.sodaclubusa.com/ .

It just seemed like a cool idea and a very earth friendly idea. I was mostly interested in it for the health benefits … i.e. less sugar per serving, and no high fructose corn syrup in their cola (and other) flavorings.

The kit we got is the machine (to the left), 4 1-liter bottles, 3 CO2 cartridges, and 8 flavorings. We’re also talking about way to make our own flavors (just add orange juice, for example).

I’m sure we’ll be posting again after we try it out.

In other news – our request for 2010 Olympic tickets was not selected in the official lottery. We decided that we just really wanted to go, so we bought curling tickets from a broker (double face value + a service charge). I’m sure it will be worth it, but it would have been nice to have gotten tickets to one of the events we requested originally.

I’ve been away for a while. We had a good visit in Cincinnati and Indiana over Christmas. We got to see lots of friends and family and got so many presents that we were glad to have brought the giant suitcase

Before we left, Seattle just got pummeled with snow (well for Seattle anyway). We had about 9 inches of snow on the ground before we left on the 22nd. The dogs enjoyed the snow. Our palm tree did not enjoy the snow very much… .but I think it will make it.



Once we got back to Cincinnati, there were plenty of mom’s Christmas cookies. (This is just part of the christmas cookie tins)


Somewhere in there I went to the XU game, and watched them loose. They seem to do better when I can’t see the game at all…

Eventually, we watched Tessa eat a can of coke zero. Kids these days, she’s already on a diet!



We did have a really good time, but as usual our visit was too short. Eventually we will get around to scheduling our next trip home, I’m still looking up flight prices.

The day before we were supposed to fly back to Seattle, we found out that our trip was canceled. But… we were moved to a direct flight! Then, when we got to the airport, I was upgraded to first class! (Cortny wasn’t, but she let me take it anyway). I had orange juice in a real glass, a hot breakfast on real plates, and it was all free



A few hours after we landed, we picked up the puppies. After 6 days at the dog lounge, they were very very very sleepy! They were tired for about 3 days, which is good for us.



And the day after we got back, it was our 7th wedding anniversary. I can’t believe it’s only been 7 years We just made dinner at home, since we had been traveling and going out the previous week. Cortny and I haven’t gotten each other anniversary gifts since our 5th, but I felt like a bad husband not buying anything. So at lunch, I went out and got something that first the traditional 7th anniversary gift: copper. An Italian, hand made copper sauce pan. It looks really shiny on our stove. Happy (late) Anniversary Cortny! (Cortny has an anniversary blog post on her blog.)



And to cap of a great holiday period… I saw an R2-D2 fish tank at PetCo tonight. (Please don’t buy me one of these)

Ok – so Cortny is actually responsible for this, but here is our video Christmas card (QuickTime is required)

So, while most people just think of me as a “computer guy,” I actually do peer-reviewed research. It’s been a little less since going back to industry (although I’ve got a few things coming up in the next 12 months).

Anyways – one of my publications has recently been cited by other works.

First, I was cited in this paper: “ tablet-based paper exam grading system” (Bloomfield ‘08) http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1384271.1384295. They cited my paper “ Interface-based programming assignments and automatic grading of java programs” (http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1268784.1268805).

This paper was also cited in someone master’s thesis (http://homepages.cwi.nl/~paulk/thesesMasterSoftwareEngineering/2008/HiddeBaggelaar.pdf). They actually discuss my work a bit (few paragraphs).

My largest research project “Integrated online courseware for computer science courses
“ (http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1268784.1268828) was also cited (I was a co-author on the citing publication) in “ Using the inverted classroom to teach software engineering” (http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1368088.1368198).

Anyway – it’s cool to be not only a published author, but a cited author as well

I can’t take credit for any of this, but our new tree arrived yesterday and is now all set up. I did get it out of the box – but Cortny really took care of the rest She put up the lights and picked out the ornaments (we had to use a much reduced selection). Cortny even bought me cupcakes today! Thanks sweetie

We’re a little later in normal then getting the rest of our decorations out, but that’s mostly because they hadn’t been unpacked since we moved here. Being decorated for the holidays is helpful for us feeling like Christmas time is here. The weather has been so mild that it feels more like Halloween is right around the corner. Of course we have a change in store, there is actually snow in the forecast for this weekend. I’ve been told that Seattle looks good in the snow, maybe we will see.

As many of you probably know, I have been very busy with work lately. This past Monday we announced public availability for SimpleDB ( http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2008/12/01/amazon-simpledb-now-in-unlimited-beta/ ). For those of you who don’t know, I work on SimpleDB Of course, this don’t make me any less busy at work.

We decided to head downtown today to “wrap” up some Christmas shopping. We started by me going to yoga, and Cortny sleeping in. After arriving downtown we went to one of our favorite breakfast spots, Bacco. Then we spent some time at the “world famous” Pike Place Market. The market is always fun, and we were able to pick up some Seattle and Pacific Northwest goodies to give as gifts. I don’t think I every once did Christmas shopping in downtown Cincinnati, but shopping in downtown Seattle is fun. There are lots of decorations (and lots of LED lights). We followed up the market with Pacific Place and Nordstrom. Nordstrom is based in Seattle, so it is the main store, and they have lots of fancy designer stuff there.

Also new this week. Killer Bunnies and the Journey to Jupiter is finally shipping. There was a few months of delay. We haven’t played it yet, but probably tonight. And of course it looks awesome. You can pick up your own copy by clicking the link to the right.

And, starting Monday we will have our new downsized Christmas tree. It’s actually the same height as our previous tree, but it sort of went on a diet. The tree is skinnier than before. We have also replaced our lights with LED lights. Now being a computer scientists, I used the provided lifetime hours for the lights, and figure we can get about 68 years of usage out of the lights. This means that we will probably physically break the lights before they burn out.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We got to go back to Cincinnati/Batesville and visit family last weekend. We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which included more sides than anyone could possibly eat, oh and a turkey.

Today we’re back in Seattle, having Thanksgiving dinner with some local friends. We decided to do a non-traditional dinner. We’re having yummy Italian food instead! I just made the big pot of sauce, and we have some fresh pasta from the farmers market, some Italian meats and cheeses, and Cortny made a yummy looking pumpkin cheesecake.

So – Happy Thanksgiving, no matter how you celebrate it.

We didn’t really have a lazy day on Saturday – but the puppies did.

We went to Yoga on Saturday morning, then we came home and did some Christmas decorating. I realize that we’re about 2 weeks early for outdoor decorating – but it was dry and sunny. That is a combination we might not see again for 2 weeks. We do enjoy that it doesn’t get cold here – I much prefer raining and high 40s to rainy and low-mid 30s (like we often got in Cincinnati).

We put up garland, lights, and bows on the 2nd and 3rd floor balconies. We also have some light up trees that we’ll be putting in the front yard, but we’re saving those until we get a little closer to christmas. Here’s what the lights look like.



We also went to the grocery store, that’s always a good time. And…that was pretty much it – I did some work later, and we watched some movies.