2008: Forks on the Road

This letter is also available in Portuguese.

We greeted the arrival of 2008 at the Ponta Das Canas Beach in the Island of Santa Catarina in Brazil. Daniel re-Christened it "Daniel's Beach." Daniel spent most of his waking hours playing at the sand and water there. After that we went to the Xangrilá Beach in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which Daniel called "Vovo's Beach" because that is where my mother (Vovo' is Grandma in Portuguese) has a house.

Soon after returning from Brazil I went to Victoria in British Columbia where I interviewed for the position of chair of the Department of Computer Science. The interview went well and the department demonstrated interest, but after several weeks of pondering a move from Edmonton to Victoria. I withdrew my name from consideration. I then applied to the position of Department Chair in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta. Taking such a position would imply in an important shift in my carreer because the administrative responsibilities would leave much less time for research. I applied to both positions after insistence from esteemed colleagues. I aggreed to proceed with both applications because I believe that I could do a good job in such a position, and that I could be happy with such a shift. My department in Alberta decided to select someone else for the chair position, and thus suddenly I had to reactivate plans for a sabbatical that were in very tentative form.

Fortunately my collaborators at the IBM Toronto Laboratory where willing to work with me to set up a plan for my sabbatical on very short notice. Thus I started my sabbatical on July 1st and started working on a contract with IBM on July 15th. Given that I finished a three-year appointment as graduate chair in the end of June, this was a very nice change. Suddenly I had no more administrative responsibilities, no teaching responsibilities, and could dedicate my full time to research. The project with IBM is very interesting and is allowing me a very close look at the practical aspects of applying what I teach in graduate school to an industrial infrastructure.

In May we went to Calgary to visit with Daniel's birth family. For the first time we had a reunion with Daniel's birthmom Belinda, his sisters Mak and Emily, and Emily's parents Howard and Liz. In November Emily and her family came to visit us at home in Edmonton. It is amazing to watch how well Daniel and Emily play together.

Antonio and Wanda Braga from Minas Gerais spent a sabbatical year in Edmonton. Daniel grew very attached to their sons Bernardo em Mateus, which Daniel called "my boys", even though they are several years older than Daniel. While they were in Edmonton we did several fun things together, including going to a hockey game and to the Cirque Du Soleil. When they left in August Daniel was sad and said "I lost my boys." But in the Fall Daniel made new acquaintances both in "school" and with Cecilia, the daugther of Denilson Barbosa and Bethania (Denilson joined the Computing Science department this year). At school Daniel's closest friends are a pair of twins, Dennis and Sinan, who are from Germany. Daniel says that they are "my brothers." Daniel often speaks English with a German accent.

In the first half of the year conferences and participation in thesis defenses took me to San Francisco, Waterloo, Budapest, and Tucson.

In August I hosted an international workshop in Edmonton and thus was involved with all the aspects of reserving rooms, selecting menus, hiring buses, etc. Luckily I have very good and competent help that told me what to do. Daniel's American grandparents came to visit early in August and we took a trip to the Jasper National Park along with them in their motorhome. For the rest of the year Daniel talked about the trip to Jasper with the grandparents as "my favorite holiday."

Late in August someone broke into our house and stole my two laptops. I lost about a week of time to get set up again for my remote work with IBM. More importantly I lost almost a year worth of digital pictures of Daniel. I know, I know, I know, I should have backed it up. Following a Brazilian saying ("Iron padlock on busted door") our house now has a security system.

We got back to Edmonton just in time to celebrate Daniel's 4th birthday with a Super-Hero themed party. During the second half of the year both me and Scott were working from our basement, with occasional professional trips. I went to Pasadena, Portland and Toronto, Scott went to Liverpool and Calgary.

Scott's consulting work has slowed down significantly this year. He has mostly worked sporadically as instructor in training courses. He continues to work a couple of times a week in two higher-end wine stores in town as a casual employee. He has learned a lot about wines, and I have benefited from his selection of good wines.

This year Daddy was alone with Daniel for Halloween. They did the most of it by going out with Daniel's German friends. This Fall too, Sander, Daniel's best friend since he started "school" moved to a different daycare, and Daniel moved from the "Banana" to the "Popsickle" room. Big transitions in a 4-year old's life. It seens that been a popsickle puts him in a position to tease the Bananas now.

In November I volunteered to coordinate the cooking for a "Noite Nordestina" organized by the Brazilian Association of Edmonton. It was for about 120 people. The menu included Shrimp Moqueca, Vatapa, and Chicken Xinxim. Fortunately I had excellent volunteers to help me and everything went well. It seems that the crowd was very pleased with the food that we cooked.

The Fall in Edmonton this year was very nice and allowed us to spend lots of time outside, jumping on leaves, skipping rocks by the river and doing other fun things.

We are now in Oklahoma visiting Daniel's grandparents and Scott's extended family. As usual I am cooking several of the meals, and Daniel is enjoying lots of attention from everyone. On January 3rd Scott goes back to Edmonton with Daniel and I go to Zurich to attend a workshop. In February we all go to Brazil for some vacation at Vovo's beach and to attend Vovo's 70th birthday celebration.

I am writing this on Christmas eve. Gaga and Daniel are making the cookies to put out to Santa. Soon I have to go cook the Christmas Supper. We are having a quiet time only with Gaga and Grandpa here in Oklahoma. We hope that you are also having great holidays.