How to get a free coffee at Starbucks

Now I want to preface this by saying that this is a dishonest thing to do if done on purpose.

So anyway, I ordered my usual drink the other day at Starbucks, a Tall Toffee Nut Latte with Whipped Cream. When the drink was ready, I noticed it was a Grande. I thought maybe they had made a mistake, but I didn't remember if they had charged me for a Tall or Grande. I probably would have noticed if they had charged me for a Grande.

But I decided to just keep it and I took a sip. It tasted kind of bad, at least compared to what I was expecting. Here it was not my drink. It was for someone who had ordered a plain Grande Latte. All the hundreds of times I have been to Starbucks and this was the first time I made that mistake. (wow, hundreds of times, how much $ have I spent there??)

The Starbucks "associate" was just finishing my real drink, so I grabbed that and apologized to him and to the customer for my indiscretion. They said no problem, he would just make the guy a new Latte.

I did not want to see the full Grande Latte go to waste, so I asked what they were going to do with it. Since they were going to throw it away, I asked if I could take it and give to someone at work. They said no worries.

So that is how I got a free Latte. Of course, when I gave it to one of my buddies at work, I didn't mention I had taken a sip. Oh well, what he didn't know, didn't hurt him. At least not that I know of...

Newest Addition to our Family

I have been spending most of my work life over the past 8 months on the launch of a new router at Cisco. It is a midrange router sold to enterprises and service providers. Most will not know what that means, but that is ok. Suffice it to say it is Cisco's largest product launch this year and is destined to be a multi-billion dollar product. And without routers, you would not be reading this post, because the Internet would not work!

It is called the ASR 1000 Series. Check out the site at www.cisco.com/go/asr

I am a product manager for the ASR, which means I am involved with everything from working with engineering, finance, and manufacturing, to developing the marketing plan and presenting to customers and partners.

Very cool stuff, but also very stressful at times. It is always nice to remember what really counts, which is easy to remember when I walk in the door coming home from work every day to a chorus of "Daddy!" from the boys and get to see my lovely wife.

The most important thing to remember about the ASR is that you should never try to lift one by yourself. I made this mistake. They are unbelievably heavy. The biggest one (6RU, or 6 rack units, which means it is 21 inches tall) fully-populated weighs over 100 pounds!

Hayden Visits the Hospital

Last night was a rather eventful evening for our family. What started out as an enjoyable time sharing a potluck dinner with friends ended as a tiresome and stressful night in the ER. Just as Hayden finished his dinner he suddenly started crying and fussing. At first we thought he was cranky from being tired and simply wanted to get out of his seat. But after taking him out of the booster seat, Hayden continued crying harder and harder, and then was bringing his legs up and arching his back.

It soon became clear that he was having abdominal pain. We left the potluck, hoping that Hayden would calm down in the car. But he just cried harder and was writhing in his pain. We made the decision to head to the hospital. Soon after arriving in the ER, and about 30 minutes after the crying began, Hayden started to calm down. He was agitated at being prodded and poked by the nurses and doctor, but was no longer writhing around. The doctor wanted to do bloodwork and check his urine. The results looked fine for the most part, and it appears the pain was probably due to a virus.

We were relieved that everything was basically fine and that it wasn't appendicitis or something like that. It was hard spending 3 hours in the ER, especially as it was late and BOTH boys were tired prior to our arrival at the hospital. Caleb tried hard to be a good boy, but it was difficult keeping him entertained. (Of course, it was the ONE time I had no Matchbox cars in the diaper bag!)

It figures that this whole ordeal happens just a few days after Hayden got a black eye. Over the weekend he slipped and hit his eye on an end table. He got a nice gash and his eye swelled and bruised immediately. So when we walked into the hospital the cause of the black eye was of interest to everyone. The staff even asked Matt and I separately about it to make sure our stories were consistent! It's good that they're vigilant, of course, but we felt terrible that they had to ask in the first place.

So that was our evening yesterday...*yawn.*

First post

Here it is-- our first blog entry. A bit lackluster, as I have nothing in particular to say. Just wanted to give blogging a try, and see if it might be a good way to share some of our family's goings-on. Stay tuned for more...