Ava at Dance Class

So last night they had 'Parent Observation Night' at Ava's dance class. It was interesting. Her class is for 3-5 year olds, and there is a 2 year old and then Ava as the young one's. Ava is just about 3 and seemed to do pretty good compared to many of the kids, but you can easily pick out the older kids as they seem to take it a bit more serious. They have only had 4 or 5 classes so far, so everything is VERY raw, and the distraction of having the parents there probably had a huge impact on everyone's lack of attention...but take a peek at the video! It's a little fuzzy from compressing it down for this site, but you get the idea. Enjoy!

If I miss ANYTHING about IDS...

That's right...I unfortunately have to resort to watching the few live broadcasts that I can from PDC 2008. This is the first year in quite a few that I haven't gone to at least one major Microsoft conference (PDC, TechEd or BI), and I guess if there was ANYTHING I miss about IDS, I guess this would be it. I'd be in L.A. right now, still sleeping after a night out at one of the very few bars in downtown LA. Considering the cost of the conference, plus lodging and entertainment expenses, we just can't justify sending any of us out there. Not to mention, I no longer have the time or luxury to play around with every beta that comes out. Don't get me wrong, you learn some great stuff and keep on top of all of what is up and coming at MS, but we are focuses on getting a product out the door. That said, I am pretty excited to hear about Silverlight 2 for MOBILE! Sounds pretty cool! And I'm not sure if it would be as fun when knowing that the 200 dollar bar tabs you are expensing really are just coming out of your own pocket. As Jim can attest, we definitely didn't have to live on a shoestring budget at these things. MS takes GREAT care of you and provide a ton of great food and drinks (both at the conference during the day, as well as at evening events), and we got away with expensing pretty much whatever we wanted through IDS. IDS even picked up the tab for Jim's hooker in Seattle! (Sorry Jim, I couldn't keep it a secret any longer!!)

Anyway, for those who might be intersted, and by just odd chance read this within the first 2 hours of posting, you can watch the opening Keynote LIVE at www.MicrosoftPDC.com. It starts at 10:30 CDT.

Ava Loves to Dance!

This post is a few weeks late as Ava has now had her 3rd week of dance class...but if you didn't catch it in my previous post, she is now (as I just said) in dance! She's in the 3-4 year old Tap/Ballet/Jazz combination class at Select Dance Academy in Shakopee. She's one of the youngest in her class but her teachers say she is doing great!

This session goes into Spring with her recital being sometime around May 10th I believe at the new Shakopee High School. Should be interesting! We aren't sure exactly what they do for their hour each week as we aren't allowed to stay, but they apparently have a couple of 'parents' days where we can observe what they do. I do know that so far she's learning the basics of Ballet (First/Second,etc. position, Arabesque, Jeté, Plié) as well as basic toe tapping...fancy! She'll show you all of it, so she's obviously learning!

Anyway, I'm sure this post is more exciting for all of my 'female' readers (yes, I say it as if I have a large dedicated reader base). Hope you all enjoyed your summer...'cause if you haven't noticed....it's OVER!