We took a week-long vacation to San Diego for some much needed decompression after the stress of leaving my job. Here’s a few things we did:

-Got up at 3:45 AM and took a limo to that airport. (Tricia was very excited).
-Dealt with a Mason explosion of the worst kind on the plane to Phoenix. The rookie parents didn’t pack extra kid clothes in carry-on so the world’s best flight attendant rescued our bags from the plane’s cargo hold to get us some clothes.
-Stepped into 65 degree and sunny weather, rented our car and headed straight for the beach.
-Mason loved the ocean and the sand. So much so he HAD to roll around in it.
-Anna had her first bikini experience.

–Legoland is an amazing amusement park with some of the most incredible lego sculptures and little kid rides.
-The San Diego Zoo is enormous with the highlights being a toss up between the Pandas and the Polar bears (yeah, in San Diego)
–Sea World is equally amazing with its dolphins and whales.
-The trolley tour is a great way to get to all the touristy stuff in a hurry.
–Gringos has some HUGE margaritas, and yummy food.

Check out our pictures.

I fell off into the life-change abyss over the last few weeks. On February 2, I resigned from my beloved job at TMP Worldwide for an amazing opportunity at Hudson Highland Group. I’m now working as the Director of User Experience within the Human Capital Solutions Group. It’s the challenge to help build a business that really drove me. It feels like a startup again, and I love it.

In between jobs, Tricia and I took the 2 kids for a family vacation to San Diego. What an experience!

I had fun finding a clue about what we did when the clock struck 12.

This year we had a relaxing Christmas at home in Chicago. Christmas Eve we spent with friends drinking, and whooping it up. At one point we were playing ‘Fact or Crap’ followed by Trivial Pursuit DVD Edition. Christmas morning we spent at home just the four of us. It was so exciting to see Mason come down the stairs in his own house to see that Santa left him a tricycle and helmet. He loved it. This is also the year of the Little People. Our entire playroom is overrun with the cute little plastic figures and associated playsets. After Christmas we managed to get the house back in order in anticipation of Anna’s baptism that’s only a week away. Now we’re looking forward to some New Year’s frivolity. Bring on 2004!

Two little elves.

I had no idea how William Shatner became the spokesperson for Priceline until I saw this 1978 Rendition of Rocketman in spoken word. WOW!

It’s the big 2-9. We went to the Melting Pot on Saturday for an awesome fondue-fest. I had no idea that I could actually spend 3 hours eating dinner. Every bite was yummy, the atmosphere – romantic, and all without the kids for the first time since Anna was born. Tonight we’re doing presents and ice cream cake to top off the birthday extravaganza festival weekend as Tricia reminds me it should be. Happy Birthday!

The stories of bloggers getting fired because of their blogs are always entertaining. This firing of a Microsoft employee shows just how serious it is to take pictures of Mac G5’s on campus.

I’ve been researching Social Software for a few weeks now, first hearing about it via an invite to Friendster. I’m intrigued because the whole “revolution” is based on a concept that flamed out personally for me 3 years ago. At the height of the dotcom boom I was the lead UI designer for an internet startup named “Who2Trust”. Our model was to build a directory of recommended service businesses (doctors, dentists, financial planners) through people you trust. We had the whole 6 degree of separation thing. We wanted to make money from businesses buying profiles, just like they buy Yellow Page ads. Our competitors included iThought.com, Servicelane.com, and others. We failed for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was motivating people to make connections and recommend businesses for the shear joy of it. Anyways, it’s very interesting to read a designer’s view of his own little startup from 1999 called epinions.com. In Peter Merholz’s view epinions is the Social Software website that’s got it all.

I wrote a few epinions and certainly got into the pay per review earnings model. It was cool to see how many people read and liked my reviews. And there certainly was some competition to get more friends into my web of trust and keep doing better and better reviews to make more money. The thing is that the affinity is very loose. I knew none of the people in my web personally, and I don’t feel bad for having left the site unused for 3 years. My point is that I don’t put too much stock in Social Networking as a primary means of maintaining relationships unless I’m getting relevant information. I think that the social networking caused by interlinked blogs has some potential to get me there. Is there a way to have an RSS feed with 6 degrees of separation from the friends list in my blog?

Thanks to Mark for pointing me towards this website put together by Jessica Helfand, William Drenttel and others. Dana, my roommate during my NY Internship, worked for their studio. I hereby pledge to read more design writings, and I’m now seeing why Walt is so in love with RSS Readers.

I should also be reading this design blog more frequently.

Gawd does my site need a redesign. I’m sick of it. It’s like a pair of fahionable shoes that I’ve worn well past their expiration date. What with my smattering of home made Christmas gifts in process, my ongoing contributions to religious society, and the raising of 2 babies, this site is doomed to come back into style like a good Salvation Army find.