Category Archives: Personal

Getting Acclimated It’s now been one month since we touched ground in Slovakia. Boy, has the time
flown by. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been up to. We were quite fortunate to have been
met at the airport by our good friends, Radko and Lucia Hulic, who flew from Slovakia with Zuzana’s
parents to attend our wedding in California back in November 2001. Radko came with his car, and also
cajoled a friend into coming with his car. Between the two of them they were able to fit our seven 72 lb
pieces of luggage into their two cars, as well as a stroller and 4 Continue reading →

Time to Slow Down in Slooooow-vakia Slower is sometimes better. That statement seems counterintuitive to
how we as Americans tend to think. Our outlook is geared toward ever-increasing productivity. The more
things get done and the faster they get done, the better; the more time-saving appliances we have, the
better; the more efficient and effective we are, the better. But a fast-paced and productivity-oriented lifestyle
is not the panacea it portends to be. When we get more and more accomplished in less and less time, our
lives tend to get faster and faster, until we get to the point where we’ve forgotten how to simply savor the
moment and Continue reading →

Sleep Lady to the Rescue! Kerrigan is now just over 5 ½ months old. Yet, for some reason, he’s never
managed to sleep solid through the night. We’ve been feeding him on a average 3 – 4 hour cycle, usually
whenever he wakes up from his nap. After the late evening feeing at 10 or 11 pm, he then wakes up
between 2 and 3 in the morning for another feeding. Because of the predictability of his routine, we just
expected him to start sleeping through the night on his own, sometime after three months. Well, it turns out
that just didn’t happen, and we started racking Continue reading →

Being a Hands-On Father Another benefit of a more flexible work schedule is that I’m able to be a father who
is both present and actively involved in the life of his child. Rather than abdicating my parental role, leaving
most of the decisions to my wife, I’m able to exercise the duty God has assigned me to be a leader of our
family, to steer us in the right direction and help keep us on track. I’ve always believed the key to success is
knowledge. So I make it a habit of reading books on whatever topic I’m dealing with in my life. If I need to
think about retirement, I’ll start Continue reading →

Being a Hands-On Husband Even though my official last day at Disney was April 15th, I had a few weeks
paid leave and did not have to go into work. So right now I’ve enjoyed about a month off work, which has
been nice. However, I don’t really feel like I’ve been on vacation (that’ll come next week in Cancun,
Mexico). It’s been more like catching up on things that fell by the wayside since the birth of our son Kerrigan.
I’ve also been studying various aspects of .Net (as you can tell from my technical blog postings). And I’ve
been preparing for our summer trip to Slovakia. Even though Continue reading →

So Long, Mickey! Friday was my last day as an employee of the Walt Disney Company, where I worked as a
Principal Programmer for just over 5 years. It was a good run for me. My first job as a traditional corporate
developer. Prior to that, I worked either as an independent contractor or as a developer for a consulting
company. Although it had its own difficulties and challenges, I’m glad I had the experience of working as a
programmer in a large corporation like Disney. I had the opportunity to design and implement software to fit
within the infrastructure of a large, multinational conglomerate, and at the same Continue reading →

Today we closed escrow on the sale of our town home in Santa Clarita (Saugus). Two years ago
we bought a 3 bedroom, 2 ½ bath unit, in a complex at the corner of Seco Cyn and Copper Hill Rd,
with a two-car garage and about 1300 square feet. In spite of the hassles of moving, we decided it
was a good time to sell, because it looks like the housing market may finally be peaking. Of course,
we thought it had almost peaked 2-3 years ago, but it just kept going higher. But prices have risen
to such a level that we’ll soon reach a point – in fact we may already be there – where just a very
small minority of households can afford to purchase a home in certain areas of Southern California. Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Weekend, Nov 26-27, 2005:  We decided to take our very first out-of-town trip as a family. As our destination we selected one of our favorite places: Ventura Beach. It’s only an hour’s drive from Santa Clarita, a straight shot … Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2005: Four years ago today Zuzana and Tony were married at Blessed Kateri Church in Santa Clarita, California. Today we are celebrating both our four year wedding anniversary and also our first Thanksgiving as a family … Continue reading →

Even though my wife and I got pregnant fairly early in the year, we were still both working and focused on all the things that made up our lives. It wasn’t until August that we really started to prepare for … Continue reading →