It is pretty much impossible right now to not see the news and get a little depressed. While Microsoft is a healthy company and work life has been good here, all is not rosy in the economy in general. I now feel like a pauper when I travel to Europe as the dollar picture isn't looking good, the real...

This week my wife and I went to check out a school that we plan to send our two kids to next year. Although the city we live in (Bellevue, WA) has a good school district, we are not very pleased with the results from the elementary school near us. We considered moving (my wife is a real estate agent...

As those of you who read my blog have likely already figured out, I have no problem speaking whatever is on top of my mind. This post has been steaming in my head for some time, but I avoided writing it as I have a feeling that it will offend some people. If this post does offend you, then I can't say...

IMG_8958 Originally uploaded by kirispupis This photo was taken about a week ago near Petra, Jordan. We hired a guide to take us around and show us Little Petra, which is a smaller version of the gigantic Petra that was recently named one of the new seven wonders of the world. My two kids, ages 3 and...

It's funny how the posts you least think attract the most attention. My blog earlier this week about the recall of the 'Sarge' die cast car is one of the most popular posts ever on this blog. So far I have about 1300 views of it, which is the most I have ever seen in such a short period of time (my blog...

As most of you already know, I have two boys, ages 3 and 4. Therefore it follows naturally that we own the movie 'Cars' and have every die-cast car in the collection. I was most alarmed today when the first thing I see on CNN is one of their cars has been recalled. For those not aware of this, the particular...

I thought for a good spirited Monday post I would post some of the funnier conversations we have had with our three (Nathan) and four (Eitan) year olds. Nelya : And when we go to Israel, we’re going to see the Dead Sea! Eitan: Are there fish in it? Nelya: No, that’s why they call it the ‘Dead...

Based on a recent discussion between my three year old and a taxi driver in Bangkok, we have a long way to go towards creating speech applications capable of understanding young children. Taxi driver: (driving past where the king of Thailand currently resides) This is where the king lives! My son...

Some time ago I wrote several posts on travelling with small children that were quite popular. Recently I had the chance to travel with our two year old and three year old for two and a half weeks to Thailand and I thought I would post some addenda to the small children posts as not all of my advice...