Marie’s article submission was published online today!!! I’m so proud of her. Her article was titled, “Overcoming a girl’s struggle in Cybersecurity“. She submitted it after attending a SANS Cybercamp in 2020 where they were given the opportunity to submit and article for publication.
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Today Atom and Marie received their acceptance notice to the IBM Quantum’s Introduction to Quantum Computing course. It’s a 1 year program open to 5000 high school students around the world. I’m so proud of them and can’t wait for them to become quantum computing practitioners.
Today we celebrated 17 years of marriage and family memories. It’s hard to believe that 17 years have past since Jackie and I were joined in marriage. Through these years we’ve grown closer together as friends, become parents, and partners in life. I love Jackie for being my other half, a super mother to our kids Atom and Marie, and the fun in my life. Here’s to another 17. Love you Jackie!
Today is Mothers Day. It’s a different kind of Mother’s Day because we’re under Covid 19 stay at home orders. The day started around 8ish a.m. I snuck down stairs while Jackie watched TV to put my chef-like skills to the test. I tried to prepared a quick breakfast for Jackie. I popped a Starbucks coffee pod in the ol’ Kurieg magic machine. I reached over for two slices of bread and dropped them into the toaster and set it for a slight toast. The slices of toast were transformed into a delightful morning treat topped with the right amount of layers of peanut butter and Nutella. I cleaned the plate of crumbs because presentation goes a long way as many years of watching cooking TV competitions has taught me. Once the coffee brew completed its last phase, I poured in the creamer to create a balanced flavored coffee blend. By this time, the combined aroma of coffee and toasted treat was filling the kitchen. I quickly grabbed a Mothers Day balloon and rushed upstairs to wake up Atom and Marie to help with the breakfast-in bed mother’s Day surprise presentation to Jackie. Yes, and that was just the morning 🙂
For lunch we treated Jackie to Grublove gourmet burgers with a Margarita. Like always the burgers did not disappoint. The sweet potato fries added a little surprise for Jackie.
After lunch, Jackie was surprised with the edible arrangements delivery of a set of chocolate covered strawberries and a balloon bundle.
We ended the day with dinner with some flavorful tacos from Bizarra Capital. We all enjoyed our tacos choices.
Another awesome Mothers Day celebration in the books. Despite the current Covid 19 pandemic and stay at home restrictions with managed to spend some quality family time. Happy Mothers Day to all mothers out there especially my mom and Jackie’s mom.
Today we celebrated Marie’s 15th birthday under Covid 19 stay at home rules. We tried to stay within the guidelines but it’s hard when friends you haven’t seen in a while stop by. Anyhow, it was a good turn out, lots of cars, friends, and honks. Thank you to everyone that stopped by. 
We pulled off a covid-19 Drive by birthday celebration for Atom. Thanks for all those that drove by, honked, and showed some love. It was hard to keep to the 6 feet separation rule but we kept it brief if we got too close. Thanks to Marie and Jackie for making this happen!!
It’s a new year and new decade. We hope to accomplish a new set of resolutions. In this new decade, Atom and Marie will be graduating High School and completing their undergraduate studies. Yikes!! But without getting too old too quickly, we’re going to take it one day at a time and make sure to enjoy family time and life together.
Today Marie attended her first day of high school at Bishop Amat. We coincidentally parked right in front of the welcome Amat crowd. Although she tried to avoid the Amat tradition for incoming freshmen, they pulled her in. They asked her name and then the Amat welcome party cheered her name and Marie proceeded through the welcome walk.
We all slept In until the late morning. We made it to a late lunch plus desert to Cheesecake Factory, sat down at 2:29pm. Like always, Cheesecake Factory didn’t disappoint.
We headed to Barnes and Nobles for two reasons, first for the Atom to spend some time on his Human Geography AP studying and Marie to complete her Math homework. The second reason was of course to not waste a vacation outing without visiting a Barnes and Nobles bookstore.
More to come.,.
I can’t believe we decided last minute to take advantage of Atom and Marie’s spring break and my upcoming b-day (April 26th) to spend it at Las Vegas and include a visit to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.
After a few hours past our scheduled 1pm departure due to last minute errands, prep time, and some lunch, we finally headed to Vegas around 4:11pm. We arrived at our hotel, Treasure Island at 10:14pm after a few stops to stretch out our legs. The self kiosk-based checkin was easy and quick.
We settled our luggage in our room and quickly headed to an 11pm dinner at Wahlburgers. The Fiesta burger was scrumptious. Everyone was satisfied with the choice of burgers.
Too tired for sight seeing, we hurried back to our room for some relaxing and preparing for the next days. Walking around the strip was eye opening with some of the people walking around. Vegas is still a place for grown ups but we’re going to make this a fun and learning experience for the kiddos.
We also found that the iPhone camera doesn’t work well with the bright lights of the Vegas strip.
