Dave Aiello

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

I officiated the Great Northeast Collegiate Hockey Conference championship game between New Jersey Institute of Technology and Muhlenberg College on February 27. That was my last game of the 2010-2011 hockey season.

I had the opportunity to officiate several other important games before and after that, but turned most of them down since the beginning of February because I was too busy at work to take the time off.

I hope to be able to officiate more games, more often next season than I did at the end of this season. But I have no way of knowing how After6's business will evolve, and what our staffing options will be at that time.

Kathleen and I had wanted an iPad for a long time.  I hadn't purchased one at Christmas because I knew that the original iPad was late in its product life.

When the iPad 2 release was imminent, I was on a business trip to Western Canada. This was the first business trip I had taken for my full-time job since before Jimmy was born, so Kathleen and I did what we could to keep the family in touch with each other with daily Skype and FaceTime calls.

On a red-eye flight from Seattle the night before the iPad 2 was released, I considered what would happen if I bought an iPad and took it with me on another overnight business trip. Jimmy would be heartbroken and would want me to leave the iPad at home. At that point I knew that I would have to buy two iPads so that one would always be home no matter where I was.

Having two iPads feels extravagant to me, but the total cost of purchasing two iPads is less than what I would spend on a notebook computer for my business use. The value proposition of this version of the iPad made the decision to buy two a fairly easy one for me to make.

After two years working at Six Apart, I was offered the opportunity to take over Movable Type Pro support for the world outside of Japan if I created an independent company.  So with a great deal of support and assistance from Kathleen, I started After6 Services LLC.

After6 was soft-launched in the softest way possible.  For technical reasons associated with several contracts on which the business was initially based, I was unable to form the company until January 11, 2011.  However, I began working on the business that became After6 on November 1, 2010 when I left Six Apart.

The business has really taken off in the past few months, and we are very optimistic that it will turn out to be a good investment of our time and resources.

I haven't been keeping up on the status of the swingset lately.  I'm sorry if you were depending upon posts to this site to see the progress.  The swingset is finished.  I finished it back on July 5, and Jimmy and Peter have gotten a ton of use out of it.

I think it's safe to say that I learned a lot about carpentry tools through the process of assembling this kit.  Toward the end, I was able to drill some holes myself that hadn't been properly piloted.  I wouldn't have known where to do that before I started such a large assembly project.

The best part of doing this, however, is that Jimmy and Peter have a great backyard playground assembled at a fraction of the cost of most comparable swingset kits we compared.  It is possible for a geeky dad to build a kit like this from the ground up.  Thanks to my brother Scott and to Kathleen for their help with parts of the job.

Around Jimmy's birthday, we purchased a new swingset for the backyard.  This has been a big hit already, despite the fact that it isn't finished.



A number of people have asked whether we got an iPad when that product was released.  My reaction was, "That swingset is my iPad."  It's about the same in terms of cost and it's a platform for a lot of interesting new adventures for the family. It has no electronic components so far. I guess that's the biggest difference.

Since this photo was taken, I've added a set of steps to the front.  I hope to get the slide installed this weekend.  We'll see how that goes.

The Aiello family had a great Christmas and are having a happy new year so far. We had time to spend with our family and closest friends on Christmas Eve at our house, and on Christmas Day at Kathleen's parents' house.

Peter and Jimmy got a lot of terrific gifts and we're thankful to our family and friends who gave many of them. We limited the number of gifts given within the family in the hope that Santa would be able to bring us a new HDTV on or just after Christmas. Luckily that happened for us.

This was a tumultuous year for us as a family. We were thrilled to welcome Peter into our lives. None of us will forget Kathleen's medical situation at the beginning of 2010, and we are all thankful that she has continued to recover her strength and energy.

Kathleen and I both enjoy our jobs immensely. We are fortunate to be doing things that we really enjoy in our professional lives. That makes a huge difference in our quality of life.

I'm still pulling together a Christmas 2009 Photo Set, but I've finally posted several good photos of the family and some of our experiences.

We wish all of our family and friends a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you in 2010.

Although we struggled a bit as a family, we had a nice Halloween that we'll remember as a fun time.

Jimmy certainly had a great time. He participated in two parades: his preschool's Halloween Parade on Thursday and the Newtown Halloween Parade on Saturday. He also got to watch the Goodnoe School Halloween Parade on Friday, as he did last year.

Peter and Kathleen have had a tough time for the last few days. They've both had the flu, and Peter was still somewhat under the weather on Halloween. In spite of that, they ended up having a good time.

It seems like everybody in the Philadelphia area is rooting for the Phillies, so this Halloween will probably go down in history for a home loss to the Yankees. But that wasn't as big a part of our night as it was for some people in our neighborhood.

We had a great time in Stone Harbor at the beginning of September. I've been meaning to post a story linking to some of our photos of the trip, but I've been busy.

Jimmy and Peter loved the Jersey Shore this year. Peter enjoyed sitting on the beach blanket and playing with his toys. Jimmy loves the water and digging in the sand.

The biggest problem of the whole week was that the ocean was rough. That meant that Jimmy had to be in arms length of one of us while he was in the water, even on the guarded beaches.

I tried to disconnect from the daily rat race as much as I could during the week. I posted to Twitter minimally. I didn't do much with Facebook either.

I got online for a little while most nights after we put Jimmy and Peter to bed. But it was never a priority. It was the right decision.

Did I mention that we love firetrucks?

Jimmy's favorite television program at the moment is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Playhouse Disney. He doesn't watch it that much, but the dialog from that show has really pervaded his consciousness.

Jimmy: Can I have a cookie?

Kathleen: What's the magic word?

Jimmy: (Thinks for a moment.) Meeska Mooska...

Kathleen (interrupting): No! It's "please"!

Here's Jimmy eating his homemade Mickey Mouse cookie.
[ Photo: Kathleen Aiello ]