BushChang Family Web Site

Home of Steve, Christine, Katherine, Ally, Rosebud, and Rex

You are here: Home / 2008 / Archives for August 2008

Archives for August 2008

Chuckee and The Jumbo-Tron

Chuckee and The Jumbo-Tron

It was a very busy weekend. First, our family celebrated Katherine’s progress with her reading board. Between various trips and activities this summer, we managed to squeak in 50 books (read by Katherine, not us) of increasing interest. Her first couple dozen books were primarily Bob books. Later books included high literature such has “Fred and Ted Go Camping,” “Dora’s I Love My Papi,” “Ruby Bakes a Cake,” and “My Little Pony Tea Party.” All good stuff.

For her celebration we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. We bought a bucket of tokens and tried to win as many tickets as possible. Allison also rode some of the kiddie rides and tried to go thru the tunnel, but was scared silly by a large boy perched in the tunnel entrance. Despite some setbacks, we must have earned a couple hundred tickets which bought the kids 4 bubble bath tablets, 2 plastic combs, 2 plastic frisbees, a ring and a plastic lizard. The highlight for the kids was seeing Chuck-E-Cheese himself at a nearby birthday party. Allison just stared at the party, finally turning to me and saying, “Thank you for bringing me to Chuck-E-Cheese. Can we go say Hi to Chuck-E?” She was so overwhelmed that she repeated her thanks in the car, “Thank You Everyone for Chuck-E-Cheese.”

On Sunday, we took the kids to a Mariners Game. I had prefaced the game half-joking by saying, “Maybe they’ll put us on the Jumbo-Tron!!” Well, in the middle of the first inning, lo and behold…we looked up…and Allison and I were on the Jumbo-Tron! The girls ate Dipping Dots, a bucket of popcorn. We made it to the 6th inning and finally left amid a huge rainstorm to go back home. I’ll have to post pictures tomorrow from our non-stop weekend.

The Olympics and Katherine’s Scrapbook

The Olympics and Katherine’s Scrapbook

I’ve been watching the Olympics just about every night, which explains my bleary eyes and tiredness in the mornings. This is probably because I have many fond memories of watching the games when I was a kid. I vaguely remember something about Mark Spitz when I was *really* young. And, I definitely remember Nadia, Olga and all the star gymnasts since 1976.

I suspect that Katherine will remember the 2008 Olympics for swimming and gymnastics. Thanks to TiVo, we’ve watched the big highlights of the games, and Katherine has been so impressed. She’s taken to flipping through our Seattle Times and Wall Street Journal to find swimming and gymnastics pictures. She’s also started her official 2008 Olympics Scrapbook. It consists of a dozen pages or so in a binder. The pages have carefully cut pictures glued to them…LOTS of glue. She’s got a cover page, a final page with the Olympic rings colored with dot paint and other art too. Tonight, she insisted on giving us the narrative of her book after dinner. She proudly told us about Michael Phelps and his 8 gold medals, Nastia Luikin and of course…Shawn Johnson.

Allison has gotten into this with her own scrapbook. Her pictures are a little more ragged, and some random newspaper copy has made it into her book. But, she’s very proud of her work. Allison also told my mom the other day, “Pau-Pau, you’re taller than Shawn Johnson!”

Katherine’s First Violin Lesson

My mom said that it’s payback time for all the violin lessons and practicing she endured when Sharon and I were kids. ๐Ÿ™‚

I took Katherine to her first lesson this Monday. We brought her rented 1/10 violin and her Suzuki Book 1. Katherine was very serious and listened to her teacher explain how to hold the bow. They worked on that for several minutes. Then she played the open E and A strings – four 16th notes and 2 quarter notes – “I’m a little monkey” – over and over again. The teacher kept checking her bow hand before every iteration. Frankly, while I was proud of her progress, it was a real exercise in patience and tolerance.

The good news is that I can coach Katherine using the teacher’s techniques. My goal is to get 5-10 minutes of practicing in daily for now. Biggest challenge is fending off Allison who is insisting on her own lessons (talk about clutching that bow! I could barely pry it out of her hand.)

Swimming Continues

We’re wrapping up our second week of swim lessons this week. Despite the rain during class, the kids are getting more comfortable swimming. Allison can now swim about 10-15 feet under water, kind of like a frog. She takes a big breath, pops under water, and then re-emerges on the other side of the pool. Katherine is still working on this skill – often standing up to take a breath every 5 or 6 feet.

On Monday, Allison earned her first red ribbon which states, “I swam the width of the pool.” Katherine earned another purple ribbon, “I dived off the diving board.” It was mayhem in the car afterwards; Katherine was SO bent out of shape that she didn’t get the red ribbon tool. Today, she managed once to get across the pool without standing up and got her red ribbon.

Both kids dived (belly-flopped) off the diving board and swam to their instructor at the end of class. Very cool.

Cisco Completes Acquisition of Pure Networks

Cisco Completes Acquisition of Pure Networks
Today, Cisco completed its acquisition of Pure Networks. The press release on the definitive agreement can be found here.

I started Pure Networks in July, 2002 right before Katherine was born in November. In the same year, I started a company and had my first child. It was quite a balancing act as I felt passionate about both endeavors. At Pure, I had the opportunity to work with some great people and companies. I learned a lot about building companies and investing in people and relationships. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.
It’s hard to believe this chapter is my life is over. I turned 40 last October and I think I have at least one more startup in me after the kids get involved with school full time.

I’m currently working in Microsoft Research as a Software Development Engineer for Susan Dumais. I’m having a great time writing code and learning about search related technologies so I have no immediate plans to do something else.

I don’t know how to swim yet!

I don’t know how to swim yet!

This is our second summer of swim lessons with Miss Suzi, who is a wonderful kids swim instructor. I took the kids this morning – both were super excited to hop in the pool and get going. Because Allison is now 3, she was able to join the class for bigger kids and Katherine. They started with kick board work and ended with the diving board. Katherine went first off the diving board, falling into the pool in diving position with Miss Suzi holding her. The instructor then backed up 20-30 feet for the next two kids, who dived off the board and swam to her. Next…we all heard Allison pipe up in her 3 year old voice, “I don’t know how to swim yet!!” The instructor then swam up to her, and she fell into the pool in diving position with assistance.

Allison’ sense of humor continues to be very quirky and unpredictable. The girls and I were working this afternoon on their workbooks. Allison flipped to a page that required her to know her vowels. The conversation went like this:

Mom: Allison, you know your vowels right?
Allison: No…
Mom: <starts to sing the AEIOU song from Leapfrog> AEIOU, we’re the vowels, we’re the glue, we stick words together, we’re very sticky letters
Allison: AEKIOU, We’re the vowels, we’re the glue
Mom: You mean I not K, right?
Allison: I can change the vowel song, can’t I?
Mom and Katherine: Uh No!!!

What else? Allison and Katherine are so excited to play with the neighbors’ kids. As a result, they can get rather zealous in their recruitment of other kids for playtime. Case in point…I was cleaning up after dinner tonight while Steve was watching the kids. I went outside to find Steve in the garage, Katherine on the driveway, and Allison’s bike next to the neighbors driveway. I ran across the street and found Allison standing in front of the neighbors door asking, “can you come out to play with us??”

Their favorite activity is biking up the cul-de-sac near our house and then zipping down the hill at full speed. Katherine is thankfully in control of her bike and uses her brakes well. Allison has decided the best way to descend the hill is to barrel down the hill full speed and then come to a screeching halt at the bottom of the hill. It’s just heart stopping…

Lake Wenatchee

Lake Wenatchee

This was our third year camping at Lake Wenatchee. Overall, the kids loved the camping experience…

– They rode all around the North Campground at the State Park with their friends.
– They walked then rode down to the beach on their bikes.
– We popped popcorn and made smores.
– We watched Leapfrog DVDs and ate snacks to and from the park.

Despite the lack of sleep and packing/unpacking/cleaning process, it was another successful camping trip. The kids are already asking if we’re going to go again next year!

Allison and the Bus

Katherine had mini sports camp last week in the mornings. As a result, Allison got to run around with Patty and her choice of activity? It was riding public transportation around Bellevue. ๐Ÿ™‚