<p>As I was leaving to go to the farm this morning to do some maintenance, my daughter yelled at me to wait. She ran to her room and came back with Red to “keep me company” – it’s been quite a while since I’ve travelled with an <a href="/tags/stuffed-animal/">animal</a>.</p>

<p>This is not <em>the</em> Big Puppy, my daughter’s absolute favorite animal, but his backup. Big Puppy recently started showing the signs any animal would if he weighed five plus pounds and was carried <strong>everywhere</strong>, usually in a stranglehold about his neck. My wife and I decided acquiring a backup would be a prudent decision, especially considering the Huge size was no longer available in the catalogs.</p>

<p>On of BI’s annual events occurred this weekend: the <a href="http://www.bichineseconnection.org/">Bainbridge Island Chinese New Year Parade</a>. Parades aren’t really our thing, as a kid I didn’t care for them and my daughter seems to be following right along. We had some friends coming to visit however and the parade seemed like a great place to meet and catch up.</p>

<p>The handing over of <a href="/tags/stuffed-animal/">animals</a> is usually a production, with the frantic dash – “wait-wait!” – through the house by my daughter finding just the right choice for the ride.</p>

<p>So many old friends came out today, the sun, blue skies, Mt Rainier and an animal!</p>

<p>Polar Bear was chosen as today’s ambassador for the great stuffed animal collection. While we’ve been experiencing some really heavy rains recently courtesy of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple_Express">Pineapple Express</a> today wasn’t so bad. I’m a bit of foul weather junkie so this weather suits me for the most part.</p>

<p>“Gus wants to go on the ‘big boat’. He hasn’t been in a long time.” And so Gus spent a slow, rainy, start-of-winter day with me. I like Gus and I wanted him to have a good time but nothing much exciting happened. Sorry buddy.</p>

<p>My silence of late is attributable to having spent the better part of last week at <a href="http://www.ebay.com/">eBay</a> attending the <strong>Next-Generation Distributed Systems Summit</strong>. I was fortunate, in time and invitation, to attend, meet some really amazing technologists and learn a Tremendous amount (thanks <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blueberries-Picture-Puffins-Robert-McCloskey/dp/014050169X">Little Bear</a>). I’m still consolidating my final notes and thoughts on…

<p>When it rains, it pours – literally and figuratively. I left the house today in a pretty steady rain, managed to get about a mile from home and then stopped. My rear tire, fine on Friday and over the weekend, went flat! After a quick cyclocross run home, Pig and I made the next boat. Ugh.</p>

<p>Today was rough – I punctured – I will never forgive the hippo.</p>