Jon Barclay

Its been quite a while now since Google announced a new product called Street View. It basically is a new way of seeing a street not from a satellite picture but as if one was standing on the street looking around. When I first heard about it I thought it sounded interesting and a little creepy but that they would just do it in San Francisco and San Jose.

Now low and behold Google has gone and expanded their coverage to many many places including our neighborhood! It is a little surreal to look at your own home, and especially if you happen to be lucky enough to be outside when the camera took the snapshot.

Google is no slouch and has been expanding the coverage very rapidly. On Sunday night I was looking at my in-laws neighborhood and was disappointed that they had not yet been added. However, within a few days Google added many streets around them. Check out this picture from their neighborhood, and keep in mind it won’t be long before yours may be added. Time to get to that yard work!

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It is amazing how fast kids grow up! It seems like yesterday Evan was just starting to wriggle his way around the floor, and now he is full blown walking. Before we know it he is going to be talking too!

I uploaded a couple photos we took while Grandma and Grandpa Balke were up for Thanksgiving.  Check them out by clicking on the picture below.

The Schutzhund USA blog posted this picture back in august. It reminded my of how much fun it has been to see the interactions between Evan and Charlie.

Last week Jenn’s parents were up for thanksgiving and we were looking at something on my laptop. Bodo had his leg up on the couch next to where Charlie was laying. Up crawled Evan, who began playing peek-a-boo with Charlie. First Evan would hide his face behind Bodo’s leg, and then he would poke his head out, look at Charlie, and giggle. It was one of the funniest things I have seen. Evan must have done it four or five times before we all distracted him by our laughter.

No doubt, having dogs and small kids around each other is not easy. It sure can be fun though!

Jennifer took some pictures of our Cutiepie a couple of days ago while she was cleaning.  I thought they were great pictures.  Check them out at her Blog: Kleine Barclay.

Over the last few days I have rediscovered how much fun it can be to play computer games. Since marrying Jennifer I can count on one hand the number of times I have spent any significant time playing. This is not because she dislikes games. There are just many things that are higher on the priority list.

Still that does not mean that every once and a while a good “shoot em up” game isn’t a whole lot of fun. I had to laugh when I saw this clip from The Big Bang Theory, Will this one’s for you.

I put together a video with the pictures from our trip. You can watch a small version , or you can download a large version here.

We made it back from our European adventure and are none the worse for wear aside from some Jetlag. It was a great vacation and was really fun to spend some with Jennifer’s extended family in Germany. Evan did exceptionally well for a seven month old and was amazingly patient as we dragged him all across Europe.

I have posted some of the pictures from the trip. Enjoy.

Jennifer posted a video of Evan in his new Jumperoo. It is pretty funny to see him doing a little jig.