Signed a treaty at work…

Annabelle had outpatient ear surgery for tubes at Children’s Hospital (client). The staff there is just great. Let her bring her car back to her room, even. And no complications is even better…

The “twins” now weigh only four pounds apart. They’re continually adorable…

And trouble…

The brothers trade off loving each other and fighting, too…

Oh, I had a lovely time at the dentist. No cavities, which earned me a high-five from the dentist. In your face, plaque…

The neighbor’s one dead Christmas tree turned into two…and then into three…

And a trip to New York. The Grand Hyatt is becoming a favorite hotel. The rooms have been completely revamped. It feels very “W” there now. And the views of Grand Central are truly special…

Taxis and ant people!

And I took Grant bowling…

Holy printing press, Batman!

Batman + Jason Falls + Nathan Wright…

Batman + Oscar De La Hoya…

Batman + Magic Johnson…

Batman + Leonard DiCaprio at opening of J. Edgar at the Chinese Theater…

Santa Monica Pier at night…

Batman + Santa Monica Pier…

Batman + In-N-Out Burger…

Batman + the Hollywood Sign…

Astronomers Monument at Griffith Observatory…

Batman + Albert Einstein…

Batman + downtown Los Angeles from the Griffith Observatory…

Batman + Pacific Ocean…

And then hopped a flight from LA to NYC…

To attend the PR Week 40 Under 40 award luncheon…

And that was plenty for one week, eh?

I don’t know how new this is, but it’s nice to see…

This would be a good place for a sponsored link directing to the memorial page. I’m sure this will be a must-see destination for centuries to come.

I myself am hoping to make it down there this week or next.

Had some fun with the kidz…

This is a bus stop…

This is a “meeting place”…

I went to New York for work, and Jenny tagged along…

And so did these yahoos…

And so did Batman…

And a shot of Ground Zero just before Hurricane Irene…

Meanwhile, the kids were perfectly happy at Nana and Papa’s…

And we discovered these Vikings upon returning home…

I took Grant to swimming class…

It was 101 degrees…

More after the jump!

At work, I lowered my shades to darken and cool my office AND hooked up the laser projector…

And then Doug made sangria…

I was unwillingly filmed going through the body scanners at MSP airport…

Batman and I made the rounds in Washington, D.C…

The Hope Diamond…

Our D.C. office has these Smokeeters installed in all the conference rooms. It hearkens back to when business couldn’t be completed until you had smoked half a pack and enjoyed some single malt scotch — while at work…

The house next door is getting a new roof. He used the same company we did, Why Wait Roofing. But where our crew did our home in less than five hours, this one is on five days and counting…

Grant and I went camping at Lake Auburn Campground with our friends, The Schmidts…

With the women folk gone for the weekend, Grant, Grayson and I built a monster Hot Wheels village…

I mowed and sprayed weed killer on the not-yet-finished-landscaping project…

And the whole family hit the Sunday night Chaska Cubs game with friends at Athletic Park…

More after the jump!

Spent some quality time at Reagan National Airport…

Discovered this great Brazilian restaurant called The Grill from Ipanema up in Adams Morgan…

Grant got some sweet Lego sets as early birthday presents, and we spent a significant amount of quality time putting them together…

Annabelle is getting quite proficient at the iPhone (at 9 months old)…

We took my entire extended family to the Mall of America and hit some rides…

Our church, Oasis Church, had an outdoor service and family outing at Schimelpfenig Park in downtown Chaska…

We then took the whole fam (13 people) to the Minnesota Zoo. The news media previously reported it was closed due to the State of Minnesota shut down, BUT it was open. So we had the place to ourselves. It was hot. Even the camels were hot…

One night we had a giant bonfire in the backyard. We actually put a significant dent in the huge pile we now call Big Bird’s Nest in the back alley…

Popsicles with my son and niece…

Independence Day Parade…

And enjoyed a few hours chilling on a blanket waiting for the fireworks…

I actually found it quite difficult to log-in to my personal GoGo account to see how much GoGo Unlimited pricing was….$35/month = certainly not free.

A true freemium campaign should make it easy for me to upgrade my current account from the denial of service screen.

Because encountering a “Sorry, we’re limiting your internet” screen is extraordinarily frustrating (particular to a business travel with an e-mail inbox full of billable work) it should be as easy as possible for them to use the stick in the “carrot and stick” marketing strategy to take money from me in this situation.

But no. Not easy. Then I tried to just buy a one-day pass (thinking maybe that wouldn’t limit my usage), but I can’t report if that works since the payment system didn’t remember my billing information from my flight last week.

And since my wallet is in my jacket and since my jacket is in the overhead bin and since I’m in a window seat three people down from the aisle, I guess I’ll just stick with the freemium service for today.

GoGo is a NoGo. We’ll see if it opens back up enough for me to publish this post.