March 2025 – Can/Am Cup
2025 was a monumental year for our little curling bonspiel. We had new competitors, including Jason Hamilton and the one and only Brent Ozar, and new winners, including Alana Wharton and, believe it or...
Bedroom built-ins
It took several months of a Saturday here and there, but we finally finished our most recent project: built-in bedroom cabinets. We were kind of bored with our bedroom. It was pretty plain, with...
Garage cabinets, part 1
One of the things I miss about Rhode Island is the basement. Well, basements are no end of trouble, so I don’t miss the basement. Just the amount of storage it could handle when...
March 2024 – Can/Am Cup
(Sorry, this was sitting in my drafts folder for months!) I’ll save the suspense: I once again did not win the Can/Am Cup. And after several years of losing in the finals, this time,...
A Return to Bergen
A few years back, I went to Oslo for work. At the end of my trip, I had a couple of spare days, so I flew to Bergen and took the glacier train back....
May 2023 – Wrigley, a work change, and distractions
Stack Overflow Meetup Last month, Stack Overflow had a meetup in Chicago. While I had great conversations and great meals at Portillo’s and Nando’s, my best memory from this trip was finally getting to...
April 2023 – Spring break, work travel, and other stuff
Spring Break No school for the kiddos next week, so we’re headed to the beach. I have a couple of side projects that will keep me busy while I’m not thinking about work: a...
March 2023 – Curling, Curling, Curling!
Most of March went by very slowly until the 16th, when we got on a plane to Toronto to rekindle our annual Can/Am Cup! We weren’t able to cross the border in 2021 or...
February 2023 – One Year Closer to 50; Remembering a Legend
Welp, I turned 49. And that’s enough about that. Moving on, it’s been more than 5 years, and I still choke up a little when I think about Gord. The Hip is always rotated...
January 2023 – AmazonFrown, Museum of Illusions
I realize I’ve neglected this blog and I’m going to try to be better about it this year. I’ll start with the bad; I was quite disappointed to read Amazon’s announcement that they are...
Honored… to not win a trophy
Last week, I blogged about my Leadership Award for writing 200 tips at MSSQLTips.com. I’m pretty proud of that award, as it represents a lot of work over a dozen years, and I know...
Welcome to the family, Bob Cajun!
Today we brought home a freshly-minted cavapoo puppy we named Bob. Bob Cajun, to be more precise. Not a traditional dog name, for sure. What’s in a name? A lot. Our friends Matt and...
Master Closet Remodel
I recently blogged about what we’ve been doing with more time at home due to the pandemic. One of the things on my list was remodeling our master closet. When we walked through before...
Aaron’s Eggs
We make eggs a lot, and we like a little spice, so here’s my recipe. Leave out the hot things if you don’t like spice. I like a large non-stick pan, and a silicon...
Scenes from Bergen, Norway – Part 2
Flying into Bergen reminded me of flying into Seattle, except all those hills and islands were bare and green instead of peppered with houses over every square inch. There is no practical way to...
Scenes from Bergen, Norway – Part 1
This week I was in Oslo for SQLSaturday #667 – I gave a pre-con on Friday, then two regular sessions and a vendor spotlight on Saturday. I posted my regular session slide decks and...
Please Stop Abusing BCC
I’m involved with many e-mail distribution lists, and use incoming rules to direct those messages – based on To/CC – to a specific folder. Every few days, one of the lists I’m involved in...
Alexis Sutorius
At the beginning of September, I lost a dear friend and fellow nerd, Andy Sutorius. He passed away in his sleep from a heart condition that he kept very private. Our friendship goes back...
Where I was on 9/11
Luke & I – September 2001 About a week before that fateful day 15 years ago, I landed at MSP to meet with my good friend Luke Magnus. We were in a group of...
Real-Life Road Apples
The album that drew me in I jumped with joy when a package arrived today. But I didn’t jump very high, because my heart is heavy.
A Week in Poland, Part 4 : Kraków / Warsaw
After the emotional roller coaster of visiting Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Birkenau), Grant and I were both very glad to be on to brighter and happier places. We stopped in Kraków but our...
A Week in Poland, Part 3 : Auschwitz II (Birkenau)
The main Auschwitz I camp (I blogged about earlier) gets all the attention. It has most of the iconic imagery everyone associates with the Holocaust, most notably the “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate (“Work Sets...
A Week in Poland, Part 2 : Auschwitz I
I feel all kinds of different emotions for all kinds of different people – sorrow, envy, pity, joy. But nothing is as breathtaking as stepping inside a concentration camp, and the inevitable and involuntary...
A Week in Poland, Part 1 : Wrocław
This week I’ve been in Poland – for the first half of the week I spoke at SQLDay in Wrocław, and now I’m doing some tooling around the country. This was some fantastic isolated...
Recovering old photos
So these jerks over at “New Ventures Corp” scooped up my domain (aaronbertrand.com), are squatting on it, and won’t entertain offers < $500 USD. So, they can keep it. I thought that all of...
A March 2015 Update
Way behind on posting photos, sorry. Mixture in here of pictures from our curling trip this weekend and the month or so leading up to it. UPDATE 2015-03-25 : Added some pictures from Casey:
CanAm Cup 2015
This weekend we had our first full-family road trip since Nora was born. The occasion? Our annual curling pilgrimage. What a blast! While I finished second for at least the 5th year in a...
Madeline’s first haircut
Since she was born, Madeline had never had her hair cut. Lost plenty to hair ties and brushes, of course. This past weekend we decided to go with Michelle and Jen so Madeline could...
Madeline at Disney on Ice
Just wanted to share this quick video of Madeline singing along to “Let it Go” at Disney on Ice in Providence last week. [wpvideo iRIfpD3E]
Madeline turns two!
Madeline had a Sesame Street-themed birthday party this year! Lots of folks came – Mem, Pepe, Liza, Beaug, Sue, Tim, Olivia, Pookie, Lis, Jackson, Michelle, Jen, Henry, Scott, Kristy, Bryce, Rowan. We also had...
My Cup Runneth Over
I’ll be the first to admit—I was nervous about having another baby. I had so many concerns: how would another baby affect our current easy, breezy family dynamic? And how in the world could...
Nora Autumn Grace Bertrand
Nora was born at 4:12 PM, September 15th, 2014, weighing in at 9 lbs, 6 oz.
Yard fun, a recital, and Davis Farmland
We’ve been taking advantage of the great weather. A few shots from the yard last weekend: And yesterday we did bacon and French toast on the grill; smashing success! A recital – sort of...
Madeline’s in the Pool
My family took Madeline swimming while we were up in Canada last weekend. Here are the pictures they took:
Can Am Cup 2014
Last weekend, we headed up to Canada for the 7th annual Can Am Cup. The trip didn’t start off great – Nicole got a ticket in New York State, not far from her debacle...
Unboxing the new Mac Pro
I talked at great length in January about the new computer I ordered on December 20th. Today, it finally arrived. Unboxing I took a few pictures as I pulled the box apart and changed...
Italy, September 2013
Sorry it took such a long time to get to these, but here are our pictures from Rome / Vatican City, Pompeii, Positano / Capri, Capo Rizzuto, Alberobello, and Venice. This is a small...
Deer Michigan, I liked SQL Saturday, but…
(Yes, the typo in the title was intentional.) I had a fantastic time at SQL Saturday #256 this weekend in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Great event, hilarious after-party, and some of the best hospitality you’ll ever...
Halloween 2013
For Halloween this year we decided to act as if Madeline and Henry were twins or siblings (as they pretty much are) and dress them up as a costumed pair. At first, we planned...
Madeline turns one!
Our little Madeline has come a long way. These are similar photos at 3 months and at one year… she still loves the light Pepe put up for her (click either to enlarge): Here...
An update for August
Finally catching up on a whirlwind month. First, I wanted to be sure we posted a 9 month picture of Madeline, from June 28th, which we missed in our last couple of updates:
Catching Up
Summer moves quickly. We had Henry’s birthday, July 4th, a trip to Canada… lots of pictures to show but I’ll save the stories for real time.
Madeline’s Last Swim Class…for now!
This past weekend was Madeline and Henry’s last swim class of the season. They both have made so much progress and love the water…which is both a blessing and a curse. It’s great that...
Northern Ireland
This weekend I spoke at SQL Saturday #229 in Dublin, and Sunday I went with Magda and her son Mattie to Giant’s Causeway and the 13th Century Dunluce Castle.
Objections to the new Mac Pro?
Yesterday at WWDC Apple announced and gave a sneak peek of the new Mac Pro, which I have been waiting for for a couple of years. For background, here is my current setup, an...
Lots of pictures from Alaska
I spent last week in Alaska with a bunch of friends on SQL Cruise. We left Seattle and headed to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria, BC. This was the same itinerary as the trip...
Reflecting on an amazing comeback
A week ago today, I was watching the Boston Bruins on the brink of yet another crushing series loss that had started so well. Even winning a Cup in the meantime, there is still...