Batten down the hatches

Big storm a-coming. We're all provisioned up, have sufficient taco ingredients for several days of nourishment for Bella and Isaac, and have set up a sizeable fenced in dog run for Zinsser that will allow him to do his business without us having to get the leash out.

So Philly is really really done: After a good transition session on Friday, my email box has been silent as the christmas eve mice, so I'm just going to zip up that project folder and turn my attention to Cleveland. The 4 hours of work I referenced last week turned out to be very successful: Our client is headed off to vacation satisfied that things are on the right track, and his admin just sent out our meeting schedule - and it really will be less than 50% travel through March. I'm so excited.

With me working at home this week, I've had a little "helper" - Bella has been up and out of bed right away upon hearing me wake, and has been shadowing me: She nestles in with me on the couch and watches me work on spreadsheets and review documentation, asking questions about what some words mean, and challenging me as to whether this is "really work". But mostly, I think she's just happy to have me around. We've also been reading a LOT - we're on the chapter books, and she gets mad when we reach the end of a chapter... "But dad, you can't stop THERE - it doesn't make SENSE yet!!!"

On the other hand, Isaac has been a bit remote: He's very focused on his CARS: When he's not watching the show, he's playing with the vehicles. He's not cuddling at all, but he'll wrassle. In general we just need to bundle him up and throw him out in the back yard for a while. Dude needs to burn off energy.

With the weather coming up, I'm happy that we're pretty "under scheduled" for the next few days: We carved out a LOT of just us four (plus Zinsser) family time... so I say "let it snow let it snow let it snow".

Quick media update: I know that nobody actually watches Dollhouse, but I'm just going to be one of those voices on the internet hollering out "THESE LAST FEW EPISODES HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLE" - If they had been this good from the start, we wouldn't be looking at cancelation, but on the other hand, it's pretty remarkable to have 16 episodes of backstory to build on, and then put the hammer down on your last 7 episodes, and treat it as a miniseries with an arc. There are some seriously challenging concepts in there (well, the core concept was pretty challenging to start with... programmable people doing your every whim?), Anyway, I'll be sad to see it go, but I am happy to have it go out WELL: I'd rather have this great story than 4 seasons of meh (like what we have with Heroes).

Other media update: I'm so happy for Russell on SYTYCD: He was wonderful. I hope his leg gets better. I think that of the top 4, he really had the whole package: Jakob was the best dancer, but he was so mild in interviews it was hard to get a read for his personality. Same for Katherine, who was so impressive. Ellenore worked the personality angle, but honestly by the end I was a little weary of her "head tilt" move: But her robot dance with Ryan was just the best, even if Nigel didn't "get it".

Allright, my car should be ready to pick up now, fully winterized for the days to come!

I need a break

And I'm going to get one. My work in Philly is basically done as of a half hour ago. Tomorrow is all about packing up and giving hugs. And I'm out. It's strange to have the sum total of what I did here essentially boil down to 6 documents (admittedly, REALLY GREAT documents) that fit into a 3 meg zip file, but that's the information economy for you.

IT helped that the Jersey gig also had a big deliverable this week, which I spent a fair amount of time in Jersey handholding this week, PLUS my second big deliverable for Cleveland. It has been a busy week, with way more billable hours under my belt than I want to see in a single week again in the future.

I'm going to keep this short because I need my typing fingers in full strength: I have 4 more hours of work to do tonight for Cleveland, and I gotta get some food first.

But when I get on that airplane tomorrow.... I get to hang OUT for over 2 weeks. IT WILL BE AMAZING.

I saw a Nook

Having just bought the Kindle DX (and not even having held it in my hands - it was delivered while I was in Philly), I was naturally curious about the competition - setting aside the mythical Apple Thing which doesn't exist, I had to wonder about that new Barnes and Noble Nook: Would it be so cool I'd regret my purchase? Today, I got my hands on a Nook, and I have the answer:

The short answer is no.

The long answer is: If I wanted a slightly heavier Kindle with a cool color screen at the bottom AND I didn't already have a bunch of books purchased in an incompatible format, ok maybe.

The screen is odd, because you use it to select things, but the big screen above is what shows you the options: So the two screens work together, which sounds cool until you realize that the little color screen is fast like an iPhone, and the top screen is slow like the Kindle. The end result was that I was impatiently tapping on the color screen waiting for things to happen, while the upper screen was doing that slow Wipe-Flash-Draw thing that is acceptable when reading a book, but not so much as a computer display.

Plus I have around 80 books of "investment" in the Kindle, which is a closed system (like the Nook), so there's nothing there to sway me across. I'm just excited to see the BIG screen of the KindleDX. It will rock.

On Safe Blogging

Sometimes I feel odd about the level of anonymity I try to keep on this blog: I don't use last names, sometimes not first names, and my clients are by city only... which can be tough when in the family we all refer to a family as "The Gustafsons", but in the blog I say "Matt and Krista" (and yes, those are made up too). This paranoia may or may not be justified, but something just happened to a good friend which encourages me to keep it anonymous:

My friend Paul is working for a major entertainment company on a project with a very high profile Property: The exact nature of his work has not even been whispered to me, and I consider myself a pretty good friend. It's one of those "if this gets out..." sort of things. I know enough about it to know I shouldn't know more, and even if I did know more, I should keep it quiet.

Paul got together one night with an old friend who helped him get established in the business, and this friend is something of a high profile guy himself - an 80's pop star (and I do mean STAR) who has reinvented himself as a geek god. The two shared a good bit of wine and swapped stories...

And The Friend posted something on his (quite well read) blog about the evening, using Paul's full name, and indicating a talk about The Property in detail. Now, he didn't reveal more than I already knew, and Paul has kept things close to his vest with ME, but the unmistakable thing gleaned from his posting was that "There's something new coming in this franchise, and Paul told me about it".

The story has been picked up on the interwebs, and I've seen Paul's name on Ain't It Cool, IO9, and others... Poor guy. I am deeply hopeful that he keeps his job, and The Friend posted a retraction a few hours later... but the damage is done: Paul is believed to HAVE TALKED ABOUT THE PROJECT.

And so, I will keep my musings anonymous, if not for my own sake, then for the sake of those I write about. And on my Tales of the 90's blog, while I do use SOME names there, it's all ancient history (over 10 years), and nobody gets in trouble. I promise.

'Allo Cleveland!!!

Another packed weekend has come and gone: Bella is back in her room, and Isaac is adjusting: He liked having Bella in his room! Isaac is in that horrible period where the nap may or may not be necessary on a given day... he's been VERY tired by the end of the day, and has had some days where that Didda has stayed close at hand all day. He's completely addicted to the Pixar CARS movie, and asks to watch it every day. Lightning McQueen's voice is always in the background it seems these days. Even Bella is getting tired of it, but Isaac can't get enough. HE IS A BOY.

On Saturday, an neighbor had a birthday party at a community center gymnastics room, and Isaac and Bella were incredibly happy, running around, doing somersaults, walking the high beam, bouncing on trampolines... it was a great day. Bella asked to do more gymnastics in the future, so we'll have to see where we can wedge that in! Isaac was fun to watch - he was a total professional with everything, getting a very focused look and determined to do the exercises QUICKLY. We all gasped when he leapt up and grabbed a horizontal bar and swung himself back and forth before jumping off onto a mat... it was quite the show of strength and fearlessness.

Technology News:
Allright, I did it. I got an AppleTV. And I love it... and more importantly, BELLA loves it. She is completely comfortable navigating it, and it's nice to have all of our movies, shows, pictures, and music from the iMac available on the big TV downstairs. And Bella's proud of the fact she can run it all by herself. I was close to just getting a PC for downstairs for this purpose, and I'm glad I went the AppleTV route: Much less expensive and it does what I want it to do.

In other technology news: I have replaced my dead Kindle with the DX model: The bigger screen and support for PDF files is going to be great, especially since my new gig will require that I review huge PDF files filled with Finance-Talk and Technobabble: It'll be much easier to read them on Kindle format than to stare at a computer screen.

The New Gig:
I'm on the final countdown in Philly: I canceled my Zipcar contract, the hotel knows I'm only here for one more week, and I'm making the final rounds of my favorite haunts. After this week there's just 3 more days next week and I'm done. I'm having breakfast with my local friend to see about coordinating some work in mid 2010 perhaps - IN A DIFFERENT AREA.

My first meeting in Cleveland went very well: The sponsors are very engaged, and while we only had an hour on the schedule, they cleared 3 for us so that we could really get into depth. We worked hard this past week to deliver a "straw man" presentation to give them something to react to: The final deck was 50 pages, and they had not only reviewed it, but had great comments on every page. Actually, there was a section I had just fleshed out lightly as a "this is the sort of info that will go in here" framework, with some temporary details that weren't entirely correct, and they latched onto them, until I re-explained that the whole section will be nuked and replaced with the "real" info.... I actually got a little worried... but it ended well. They were very complimentary of our effort, and now I have a big thing to whip up by Tuesday, so I'm getting down to bidness.

The Finance area is in a nice part of town. The IT area, on the other hand, is in a less friendly part of town. A massive converted warehouse that looks like nothing from the outside, but lavishly retrofitted inside with high ceilings and open work areas. But on the way, my partner (the driver) misinterpreted a hand gesture from another driver and cut in front of him... and the gentleman decided to follow us for a few blocks, rolled down his window, and with a disturbing stillness, asked why we had cut him off: We apologized profusely. He stared for a while... then drove off slowly.

And 3 blocks from that very incident, there was a shooting that evening.

But I'm not going to worry (and don't you worry, Mom): There are hundreds of people working at that site, and people take care of each other. And I'm not really working on that site anyway: We established that my work really WILL be done from the home office!!! Yes, I'll be parking on the 3rd floor. We're all very excited. So when I do visit, it'll be for a day of meetings, then back home.

So back to work for me now.

Oh here I am!

Since the last update, we packed the kids and Zinsser into the car and sped down to Chicagoland for a long Thanksgiving holiday. You'd think that a long holiday weekend I might be able to update the blog or something, but no... I was actually a bit more unplugged than usual this time. Maybe it was because every time I turned around, my niece Lilli had absconded with my laptop and was working her arcane horse configuration and trading network game. But I'm ahead of myself.

I started the week working from home: My Jersey Client has finally knocked loose some decisions so I've been spending time wrangling cats: My project is to redesign the ID badge (for aesthetics AND to add a new id barcode for their patient care systems), and to do this I need to coordinate across HR, IT, Security, Facilities, Marketing, and of course Senior Leadership. There are a lot of technical moving parts to consider as well... so I'm actually pretty busy with them.

My work in Philly is winding down: I've been refining my final deliverables and will likely be completely done before Christmas. It's a bit disappointing to me: They're a hugely dysfunctional organization and I could provide value, but they're overcoming a pretty major "consulting hangover" from overspending the past 5 years, and they need some "personal space" while they get their house in order. What this means is I had hoped to help them outside of the carefully proscribed "box" they had put me into, but my attempts to break out have been stymied. So we're ending it, and I'm feeling good about the deliverables...

A similar organization exists in Minneapolis: I had done a lot of great work over 3 years for them, and they're currently in a complete "consulting shunning" mode, due to overspending a few years back. So it'll be a few years before they're ready to accept help again. I just ran into a few people from there last week, and had that view confirmed. Which means that places like Jersey and Cleveland are going to be my places of work for a while.

Back to Home: We packed into the car and drove to Schaumburg on Wednesday. My traveling life at least affords me the perks of points, and I was able to get two suites at the Residence Inn for us and PapaBam for 3 days away from the allergicness of Papabam's sweet cat. The hotel was also able to accommodate Zinsser, who was a GOOD BOY. Naturally, Portillos was the first meal of the day down there. We swam in the pool and had a general great time.

Thanksgiving was with the German side of the family, and Zinsser was invited! It was a starch fest - Sweet Potatoes with Apricots were my favorite. Bella ate a pound of mashed potatoes. Pamela went to town on the rutabagas. Isaac.... Isaac ate crackers. Crazy kid. They had a fenced in yard too, so we had some great running and chasing of Zinnie.

Alas, I think Zinsser got ahold of some rich table scraps, because at 2 in the morning, we awoke to a whimpering dog who had soiled his kennel and got it all over himself. He was so embarrassed. And we were so horrified.

Friday was a relaxing day - we went for a long walk in Elk Grove, got baked goods from Jarosch, and had a classic Johnnie's Beef. Bella and Lilli went to the stables and rode horses (well, Bella rode a Pony), and they were both beaming when they got back. Bella chilled out to the new Santa Buddies movie (where they "make" golden retriever puppies talk all hip like, and get this, THEY SAVE CHRISTMAS). Bella was all smiles, and Lilli was all rolling eyes at the cheesiness, but Bella let Lilli know SHE was enjoying it, and please don't ruin it. I thought that was pretty bold.

Saturday we packed the kids and Zinsser off to Bailey and Ty's house: We were going downtown for a wedding, and Kari volunteered to watch the little ones. With not a shed tear, the kids barely noticed us leaving (the humans were playing Wii upstairs, and Zinsser was wrestling with Dakota, an old 80 pound chocolate lab who became a good friend). Downtown we stayed on the Magnificent Mile (thanks again, Marriott Rewards points!) and ran off to the ceremony.

This was an Irish Catholic girl marrying an East Indian Catholic boy, and both families were well represented. The Mass was long, as they did both western and eastern traditions - I think they spoke 3 sets of vows! The reception was at a hip latin food nightspot, and they shoehorned all 680 of us in. The mojitos were flowing, the food was amazing, and the dancing was crazy. By 11, we were tuckered out and ready for bed.

Sunday we slept in, got some breakfast, drove back to Palatine, and got the kids: Bella, Isaac, and Zinsser were happy to see us, and according to Kari, they were perfect angels, all of them. Isaac didn't want to go! We were all tired, and I think we all could have gone to another hotel and napped, but no, I insisted that it was TIME TO GO HOME, so we drove home.

We got home around 9pm, and the kids zonked pretty quickly. Bella is sleeping on Isaac's floor, by the way, AND Isaac has his big boy bed, so you KNOW it's hard for them to stay focused and wind down.

Oh - why is Bella in Isaac's room? Well, for the past year, as Bella has been going to sleep, she's had a dry cough. We assumed it was some allergy that being horizontal sort of exacerbated. Maybe we just didn't want to think too hard abouut it, but a couple of weekends ago, we had Jenny staying over, and came to the conclusion that SOMETHING is in Bella's carpet, because Jenny was on an inflate-a-bed and had a runny nose every night. So we decided the carpet must go. We pulled a little up before we went on vacation, and were horrified by the stains and dust that were in there: We steam clean this carpet twice a year, and it was still completely filthy. So once we confirmed it, Bella moved to Isaac's room.

Now, Monday I left as a possible open day - you know how weather can get around the holidays. So I had it as a work from home day instead of a travel day (which was REALLY GOOD because Jersey, Philly, AND Cleveland had major things I needed to manage with them in the day). And in the evening, Pamela and I decided to finish the job of ripping up Bella's carpet.

Remind me to NEVER put carpeting in to a house. It is nasty. Also, those carpet tack boards are evil and I not only scratched my hand on them, but I also have sore palms and forearms from working the crowbar to pry them up. Just don't do it.

So now Bella has unfinished wood floors, which actually look pretty cool. We'll probably have them sanded in the spring, and will drop a rug on there in the meantime.

Today I'm back in Philly, and will be in Jersey Thursday. Cleveland next week for a day, then Jersey and Philly - I'll be a traveling fool. But things REALLY are slowing down on the travel: Philly will be done by Christmas, and the trips I make up to then will be 2 days max - it's all transition now. My trip to Cleveland next week will be the only one until January, and even then, they only want to see me out there 25% of the time - they trust I can do most of my work remotely. So I'll be up on the 3rd floor quite a bit in the months to come, and I couldn't be happier!

One final note before I close out this epic update: The Jimmy Tech Curse continues unabated: A poor decision on my part as to what pocket to store a power adaptor in has led to the crunching of the screen on my Kindle. It is Kaput, and the repair cost is the same as a new one (especially with the lower prices they go for nowadays). So I'm currently Kindle-less, and trying to decide what to do: Part of me wants to upgrade to the larger format edition they came out with. Part of me wants to wait forever for the new Apple Thing that nobody actually knows what it is or when it may come out. And part of me is saying "Jimmy, you're semi-off-the-road for a little while - maybe you don't need a Kindle".

I'll let you know what happens.... if the three people living in my head can come to consensus.

And now it's off to bed.

It's getting big around here.

Getting ready for turkey day - we'll be packing the whole family (including Zinsser) into Mister Marshmallow and driving down to Chicagoland for the holiday. I'm looking forward to some time in a hotel room, finally. Wait, what? Isaac remains apparently deathly allergic to cats so we're holing up in a hotel instead of Papabam's house - and Papabam are joining us. And the whole thing will be paid for by points from my "regular" hotel stays. I'll take those perks!

Travel will be getting a bit less for a little while: I had "the Talk" and it went very well actually. We set a few extra deliverable targets and a hope that January will be it. And after the talk, the energy just changed - lots more friendliness, laughter, even a half hearted high five occurred. I think that the fact that I was willing to leave money on the table to do the right thing for the client really impressed him... perhaps he was dreading that I would just burrow in and work out my contract doing little. Anyway, it's good that we set these new expectations because....

I got the big gig: I'll be headed to Cleveland to help plan out a 5 year, $100m project, and if they like what we bring to the planning, we're in for the doing. The work is very strategic and high profile, and they're not expecting to see much of me - I'm budgeted for 5 visits from now through February... I have a coworker who will be my eyes and ears on the ground. And that means I'll be around a fair amount more in the next few months....

Assuming of course that I DON'T get the gig in Fort Myers: They're moving very slow, and they even had a good employee candidate who walked because they moved too slow... so I may go out there, or I may not. At this point, I have a job (3 actually) so if Fort Myers needs to not happen, I'd be ok with that. (See, now I've jinxed it - NOW they have no choice but to need my help).

So that's the work life: I finished the Allentown gig, and it was very fun - they were very receptive to our recommendations, and they are warm people, so it was rewarding to help them out.

Home Life: First off, I'm going to say I AM SORE: We joined a new club, and I went to an 8pm Kickboxing Cardio class, which totally kicked my tail across America. As I said on my Facebook page: 30 min on the hotel treadmill 3 times a week does nothing to prepare you for a non-stop one hour jumping and punching and kicking workout. By the end I was jello. I poured myself into the car and hit the GPS to take me home, as I fell asleep. (wouldn't that be great some days?). That I made it THROUGH is a testament to my not COMPLETELY losing my fitness level from when I had to stop teaching back in May...

By the way, my old club has stopped offering BodyAttack entirely: it was too high-impact for most of their people, and there were several injuries (with the instructors too). That's a total buff-kids class, but I did love it. Speaking of Buff - Pamela has been to 5 personal trainings sessions, and they're working her HARD. After TurkeyDay, I'll be scheduling my class too, so I can work on thickening my neck and increasing my eyebrow ridge. If possible I'd like to get one of those back-of-the-head creases that big guys get. Then I'm going to tattoo my name on my neck. BECAUSE THAT'S NOW HOW I ROLL. They'll love me in Cleveland.

BIG NEWS in the house: Isaac got a Big Boy Bed today. He's asleep in it right now - and he was incredibly happy about it. We got him Lightning McQueen sheets - that boy loves the Cars movie like nothing else. And last week he peed in the potty, but in his own way: He came downstairs from his nap completely naked, took Pamela by the hand, led her upstairs and showed her what he had done. No coaching, no "try!". He just decided to go for it. Didn't spill a drop either. So if that's not Big Boy behavior, I'm not sure what is.

We're 1/4 of the way through ripping up the carpet in Bella's room - we're taking a part-time pace on this. The floors underneath are gorgeous, and will sand up nicely. We're thinking about repainting too. Bella's leaning toward Yellow... But I seem to remember a short story where a woman was recuperating and went mad in a room with yellow wallpaper. I don't really fear for Bella, of course.

And finally, a shout out to Paulie and Melissa, the couple who asked me to perform their wedding ceremony last year: Their son Roman was born on Friday, and we're all so excited! As their Reverend, I had to let them know that I would NOT be performing a Bris, however.

That's enough for now: Can you tell that my mood is lighter?

Puh-Hilly

Man, I have all KINDS of irons in the fire these days. The Florida thing is possibly heating up, the Cleveland thing is getting closer, my Jersey work is on the move, I'm delivering the assessment in Allentown this Friday, and I'm definitely wrapping things up in Philly. I'm actually pulling for the Cleveland gig the hardest, because it'll be 50-75% remote work, which would keep me near the family for a few months... after which point the legalities that keep me from being a Minneapolis King will have expired. Plus the Cleveland gig would also be a HUGE resume builder...

I'm just not sure what to make of the Philly thing: I was not invited to two completely relevant-to-why-they-pay-me strategy things right outside my office... so I got to HEAR these plans being made 6 feet away from me. I even stood up and lingered in the doorway, perhaps to be invited in to join the discussion. I mean, maybe he's looking for that initiative - "oh good, join us!". But no invitation was given, and THAT'S a strange thing... to then go "well I was just getting a cup of coffee... so... um.... "

I have a meeting tomorrow to work on a graceful rampdown. It's ridiculous. I did check with my other contact inside, who said that my deliverables were easily the best thing he'd seen come out of that area... and he's pretty sure I'm not the problem here. At times like these, I'm REALLY happy I signed up with my company, because even if things ended tomorrow, there's more than full time work available to me across our clients, in addition to the opportunities above. We've got work. And I like busyness. If I had stayed independent, I'd be feeling a panic right now, wondering what financial nightmare I might be subjecting the family to.

It's all very worth it, but I'm feeling the travel this week - mostly because I was away for 3 nights into the weekend and only had a day at home. The days are busy, but the evenings have been maddeningly quiet. Time for more Mandarin lessons... and hitting the elliptical machine. And some comedy: Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis on "Funny or Die" has been keeping my spirits up. That bearded man is so uncomfortably hilarious...

I had more "Pizza by the CUT" today. I don't think they're going to make it. I went in at lunchtime and I was the only guy there. The owner came by and was asking me details about what I did and didn't like about the pizza, and was it "different" tasting from the last time I came in, because they made some changes. So now I either need to go in there every day, because now we're buddies, or I need to never go back again and not set foot on the block or he'll gaze with eyes that say "why are you wanting me to fail? I CHANGED THE CRUST!"

It's all very complicated in Philly, I guess.

The Big Easy

Forgive me reader, for it has been more than a week since my last update. So much to share. I had a deliriously nice 4 day stay at home - Friday night I got home, and took off Wednesday afternoon. Things got very exciting with the Jersey client, and I put a lot of hours into the phone and email triage. But some key decisions were finally made, and I get to MOVE FORWARD with a few new things that I'd been spinning wheels on before. So, let's call it success!

On Tuesday evening, Pamela and I up and joined a healthclub again: The studio we had been going to just wasn't working for us: It's a 15 minute drive each way, and with scheduled classes we were having trouble meeting... so we joined up with a "chain club" that is just 3 minutes away AND offers child care too: We got signed up with a personal trainer, too, because we need someone to help us move forward and encourage us in our health. Pamela has been to the trainer twice already... my schedule won't allow for it until NEXT weekend, alas.

Speaking of healthy lifestyles, I'm in the airport coming home from New Orleans: My company has an annual retreat for employees to review the year and plan for next year. Lots of team building, but also a great exchange of ideas. Our hotel was on Toulouse Street a block off of Bourbon, so we were NEAR drunkDisneyland, but not so close that the whooping kept anyone awake. The first night, we had a big dinner at Mister B's and hit the strip. I had one of those Hand Grenade drinks that is basically sugar and denatured alcohol. One was enough, and as everyone was ordering their second or thirds, I sat it out and retired early. Even so, Thursday AM I had a flashing red warning sign in my skull that read "You are on alert: If you mess with that style of drink again, there will be HELL TO PAY". A few tiny bits of headache or woozy were offered up as proof, much like a ransomer might send along a piece of clothing or a finger to prove they're serious.

On Thursday, we had a 6 hour "relationship building" workshop, the intent of which was to let people know that IF they happen to hear about potential work in their network, it's not actually sleazy to follow up on it. The speaker was your standard cheezy guy, and he mostly "facilitated" us. In truth, he was up front with us saying "it's all common sense stuff, I just want you to examine what you're doing, and how you can do it a little better".

The guy probably didn't help his case, however, by coming out with us the night before, getting REALLY DRUNK, hugging everyone and giving everyone nicknames. I was Jimmy, there were two Dannys, a Craigger, a Gregger, Dawnie... Gigi became Gina all night... it was a bit embarrassing. The team bonded afterwards by doing impressions of the guy. So maybe it was money well spent.

Thursday night was a fancier dinner at TinFin, which had the distinction of being one of the slowest meals I've ever participated in. It was over 4 hours from sit down to stand up, and it was a standard "Apps, Salad, Entree, Dessert" sequence, not a coursing menu (which take 4 delightful hours). This was in a loud environment too, so our conversations were a bit tough. One of our team members had a childhood tracheotomy, and is a whisperer. I felt bad for her. We did all get up and switch seats frequently, though. 4 hours next to the same person? No.

Since we got out so late, and remembering my stern warning from my skull, I went straight to bed... but about half of the gang went out. LATE. Friday AM I was up at 6:30, walked around the quarter, got some Beignets and coffee, found espresso to finish the job, and was early to the morning session. This was a working session for 2010 strategy, and fully half of our team was SEVERELY hung over. One guy would leap up and run from the room occasionally. Others just held their heads in their hands. Two people simply didn't show up. NOT GOOD. I felt superior, but I didn't gloat.

Our sessions got done at 3, and we reconvened for another dinner at 6, so I had a couple of hours to wander around, so I went on my own walking tour, grabbing some chicory and beignets, watching the paddleboats, peering into the antique stores. Dinner was incredible - this was just the leadership team now, so a smaller place, which I cannot remember the name of.... I had roasted and flash fried quail, and then lamb loin with goat cheese... And we went out until 2am to a piano bar with an open courtyard... and we all stayed away from the Bourbon Street nightmare. On the way back I watched one of my co-workers get propositioned by a lady of the night as he walked WITH his girlfriend. Amazing.

Today I slept in a bit, then we went on a 2 hour walking tour of the French Quarter. It was very cool and I learned a lot, but it was also funny in that the guy started with high energy and lots of information, and by the end, the tips were petering out, and he was just waving at buildings saying "that's where they filmed Interview with a Vampire", "That's Nicolas Cage's place - it's being foreclosed right now". Great stuff. But it was some good exercise that the weather was beautiful.

New Orleans is a jealous mistress: when you're there, it wants your full attention. Things like "catching up on email" or "working on documentation" are not easy to achieve: Either the city is calling you to wander and explore, or you're in your room trying to rest up for the next thing the city throws at you. I actually have THINGS TO DO, and I wanted to update this blog, and tried all day to get to it, but the city kept calling. So I gave in, had a big catfish po'boy, waddled back to the hotel, checked out and headed to the airport a good 3 hours early in the hopes that this bland, sterile environment is more conducive to my productivity than the siren's call of history.

To wrap it up: It was a great trip, and unlike other "team building" I've done at other companies, I felt like this was very productive: We actually came up with some good strategies. And even though the trainer was a cheezeball, I picked up a couple of tips on how to be more productive with my networking which I'll be putting into action right away. The team building was great because the team is great - there are no clunkers or timewasters in this company, and everyone's respectful of eachother, so it was all just a good time.

Now, in the week to come it's going to get busy: It's a 5 day in Philly week, with one big presentation on Friday, a couple of visits to Jersey, and some hopefully some good talks with the big Philly client to get ourselves back in alignment. I may need to ramp it back too, because one of the things we may have done in the retreat is written me into a VERY strategic opportunity in Cleveland... only 3 months and not all onsite (YES) but enormous visibility and it would be quite the feather in the cap.

I wonder how my clone is coming along?

But this does mean that I'll be seeing the family for ONE day out of 8, which really really sucks. At least the following week is TGiving and I'm taking the whole week with the family... and we're driving to Chicagoland. I cannot wait!

S'gonna be allright

So the last post had some frustration in it. No question I'm having some issues with the clients, but nothing I can't work through. Last night I took a break headed to an Irish Pub, had a great burger and fries and a tasty brew, and felt my frustration melt away. I got back to the room and watched the premiere of "V", which was just fine. I got some good work done after that, and went into work feeling pretty good.

Yes I crunched more data, and yes I walked a long long way in these loafers that aren't ideal for long walks... and now I'm at the airport getting ready to come home for a long weekend: I'm working from home for half of next week, and the other half will be in N'awlins at our annual company meeting.

Three nice things:
First was listening to a podcast of Ira Glass interviewing Joss Whedon in front of a live audience. It was nerd-vana, and I loved every minute of it.

Second was remembering about Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog. I may need to watch that with Pamela right away.

Third was watching V: See, we KNOW the V's are bad, because we remember it from last time... but Morena Baccarin is just so wonderful as Anna. She was great on Firefly as well (as was Alan Tudyk, who plays an FBI agent... it it too much to ask for a cameo by River Tam - I mean Summer Glau? ;-> ) It's not high art, but it's a good diversion.

One final thing before I board: I went to a pizza place for lunch today where their motto is "Pizza by the CUT!" Which makes no sense so I had to go in. Turns out they make pizza in giant rectangles cut into long strips, and as you go through the line, the guy picks up one end of the strip, the guy lifts the strip and takes a pair of scissors: How much you want? They cut the size piece you want. Pizza... BY THE CUT.

It's a ridiculous gimmick, but the pizza was delicious, so I'm willing to forgive it.

Some Images

1) Waiting in line watching while the woman at the register slowly fishes out her money, then counts it out. The woman in front of me was shifting from leg to leg with impatience, practically snorting with annoyance. So naturally when it was her turn at the register, she handed the person her item, then set her bag down, started fishing for her purse...

PEOPLE: You are buying something. You are sitting in line with nothing to do. Why not get your money out in advance? Is everyone secretly thinking they'll get to the register and the cashier will say "aww honey, it's free day today for you!" And if THAT happened, what hassle it would be to put that money back in your purse.

And I assure you in the above examples, these people were not juggling kids, nor did they have their hands full. Nope - it is just pooooooor planning.

2) I'm finding myself in some "poor communication" situations: At my primary client, during a meeting with higher ups to discuss our strategic plan, I worked through a powerpoint that I believed represented our best work. And at the end of the meeting, my boss pulled from a manilla folder HIS version of the strategic plan, complete with images lifted from my earlier work, but with a direction I had never seen. I work 10 feet from this guy, we've known about this meeting for weeks, I put this thing together, and he was working on a shadow plan in secret? Very strange.

At my Jersey client, I have a problem: I'm managing two of the people working out there, both of whom report to one woman who has caused problems in the past. She has a malicious selective memory, and is over her head and is quick to deflect blame. My "emergency" project was cleaning up after another consultant who ran afoul of her... and I'm trying to keep a lid on things... but it's hard when I get emails that say "CALL ME IMMEDIATELY". So I call, and she wants me to know she's "concerned" about my person. She hasn't done anything wrong, no, it's all going well.... but there's something... something she can't put her finger on. And she wants me to look into it.

Seriously: I'm getting emergency calls about a "Vibe", even though all empirical evidence indicates that everything is going well on the project. Sigh.

Halloween and More

Another impossibly busy weekend, as usual. It was short, with me not getting back until Friday afternoon.

Now kids, I need to confess that I'm getting old. Not the spry thing I once was. And at some point in the last year, I acquired a "condition" - a mild hernia. It very well could have come during my fitness craze, or perhaps while hoisting my children over my head... but the fact remains that there's a bit poking through (not hideously - just a little bump), and decided to see a surgeon about it. So Friday afternoon I met with a guy who had been recommended by two neighbors. Dr Grubbs confirmed that yes, I have not just one, but TWO hernias. The fellow who was along with said "looks like a two-fer!". Dr Grubbs countered "I'd prefer a NO-fer".

He laid the facts out for me: Only 1 of a thousand hernias ever develop into something painful. But the surgery itself has an up to 10% chance of lasting soreness. So he invited me to do the math: .1% chance of pain, which could be operated on as needed, or 10% chance of pain if I pre-emptively operate. Given that the bulge is only cosmetic, and not painful in the least, I'm going for the "wait and see" option. So yay, a surgeon who isn't afraid to turn away business when it's not needed? That's heartening.

Halloween itself was a blast: Pamela was a fighting nun, Bella was a ghost (non-animal), Isaac was a robot, and I was a fancy french lobster. See?



I dare you not to sing "Lobster Face" to the tune of Lady Gaga's Poker Face. I DARE YOU. Anyway, we had a fine evening of candy gathering. Isaac, Zinsser, and I turned in early (8:15), and Pamela and Bella went on to party with the neighborhood until 11. It was very nice to be zonked out with my dog. I love my dog.

Sunday was a day of mostly sitting around recovering from the excitement. We had big plans, but they were for naught. Instead we enjoyed eachother's company. I headed back out to Philly Monday AM, and hightailed it right up to Allentown for some meetings which went into the evening. I got home and decided to veg out with a movie, and watched "The Hangover" which had been positioned as "incredibly funny" by several people. Maybe I was just too tired, but it didn't really do much for me - it felt like a greatest hits of other funnier movies... I was counting the references until I was exhausted.

it was mostly harmless (except in the parts where it was just offensive). Just not the belly laughs I was looking for.

This morning I got up early, ready to visit the client, and discovered the subway and trolley stations were locked. Silly me, I thought "hmm, this entrance is closed, let me find another". I wandered 3 blocks before figuring out: TRANSIT STRiKE. So I hoofed it to the client, who is about 25 city blocks away from my hotel (but very convenient when the metro is running!). I did a chinese lesson, and listened to This American Life.

I love This American Life, because I love imperfect voices telling stories. This week, it started with a woman who kept getting quieter and quieter, until her voice was rattling because she wasn't putting enough air to keep the vocal cords humming... It sent chills down my spine. Sometimes Melissa Block gets to that conspiratorial rattle too. Those are good days. But enough about the craziness of my voice fetish. The point is I walked to work on a beautiful morning, and I got a lot of work done.

Today I was a data wrangler - loading patient records from multiple systems and looking for mismatches. It's actually pretty fun, but it's definitely below my paygrade... but again, it's stuff that needs doing, and I'm glad to help. My boss was in the next room putting presentations together for a big meeting this afternoon. A meeting that got canceled at the last minute because one of the key participants was called into surgery, leaving the other 29 people who had found their way over in the middle of a transit strike without a meeting to attend.

I strolled back, with the growing realization the the loafers I was wearing were not intended for this long haul. I'm nursing some chafed ankles now, and am going to wear my running shoes on my hike tomorrow, and try not to think of 1980's career ladies hustling down the street with white tretorns.

No word on Fort Myers, by the way.

Allright, got a little more work to do tonight, so have a good one.

This afternoon we were supposed to have a couple of meetings...

A grand adventure

First things first: Isaac's lip did heal. He's back in the game. I was seriously freaked out, but now am better. Thank you.

Sunday I decided to blow the kids minds and take them on an adventure... an adventure in public transportation. Isaac has been talking about busses and trains for a year - CAN WE GO ON A TRAIN? WHEN? WHEN? So this weekend, Pamela was out of pocket for most of Sunday doing an insane and extravagant flower arrangement to welcome the new pastor to her church... and I got to take the kids on an adventure with dad. Sunday morning, we piled onto the 6U bus headed downtown at around 10am.

Isaac was beside himself: We're on a BUS? WOW! Bella was much cooler about this, since she's been taking the yellow school bus for a while now, but she was fascinated by the differences - the seats, the advertising, the lighting, the paybox, the transfers... many many questions. I pointed out the city as it rolled past. Once downtown, we walked to the light rail stop and hopped on the train out to the Mall of America. Both Isaac and Bella commented that the train wasn't quite what they expected - it was so QUIET! And low to the ground! They have memories of the big clunky commuter train in Palatine, and the Light Rail is a different beast entirely. Once we got onto the rails and off the street they started to appreciate it more.

We got to the Mall in good time - the total transit was about an hour, so not really the BEST for the kids, but they were well entertained. A whole gang of people coming from an Eckankar meeting got on and were laughing uproariously at two in their part (who were German), eating bananas. Laughing a lot more than the situation indicated, really, but hey, let that light shine. A woman sat with me and chatted up the kids - she had been an 8th grade schoolteacher for 40 years, and knew how to engage them.

Once at the Mall, it was wallets open for fun and full steam ahead. We went through Underwater World, which blew all of our minds: What a great aquarium! They have Sawfish! SAWFISH! I assumed those only existed in Warner Brothers Cartoons. Bella loved the turtles - even the VW Bus sized one. After a quick lunch, we went into the amusement park, and blew through $20 in "points" on a number of rides: Isaac is now tall enough to go on rides with his big sister, and his big sister is now big enough to accept the savage thrills of the kiddie rides in good grace. I got to watch them sitting together on the Big Rigs, the Blues Clues airplane dogs... Though when it came time for the Merry Go Round, Bella insisted on finding an animal that did NOT go up and down. A sturdy camel did the trick, while next to her, Isaac whooped it up on a rabbit that DID go up and down.

We stopped at a cake decorating contest and decorated a pair of cupcakes for later, and then went back through the aquarium again. This time, we spent extra time "playing" with the starfish and crabs, who really didn't have time for us - being busy all inanimate-like. Helping with the Starfish petting area was a nice lady dressed as a zombie surgeon. I mean a surgeon who is also a zombie, not a surgeon who specializes in operating on zombies. We had to clear that up.

The hour of rides home was longer than the ride there, and Isaac was clearly tired. He had a 3 minute liedown with a didda, but then went right into flirting with an early 20-something girl who looked a bit like the kind of people I was hanging out with in my early 20s - punk-lite but with a smile. She was journaling or sketching or something, and having a great time peeking at Isaac. Bella and I had our own cuddle.

It was a wonderful day - and the kids were fantastic: Isaac stayed close and listened, Bella was a great helper, and she was obviously having fun. Apart from the food and experiences, we bought nothing (though I would have totally sprung for a plush Yo Gabba Gabba set if one existed).

Back home, we all relaxed and built up our reserves for the week ahead.

Not again!

I got home safely, if a little late, and was happy to find we were having the neighbors over for a Pizza Party - good company, Jenny as a playmate for the kids, and fooooood. Not much to report on the dinner, BUT... after dinner we were having some dessert in the living room when 2 of the 3 kids burst in yelling about something silly (they wanted to put on a show), and pulling up the rear came Isaac.

Isaac had a red bloody mouth, with blood all over his shirt, and had dripped a red trail from the kitchen, and was screaming.

After the surgery this week, we were absolutely terrified: Pamela picked him up for comfort, I started getting ready for the trip to Children's Hospital... fortunately, JeMae is a triage nurse and was able to help us assess the situation, with some detective work.

As near as we can figure, all 3 decided to bolt from the kitchen at top speed to surprise us, but Isaac tripped and fell flat on the floor. His remaining front tooth gashed into his lower lip, actually breaking through the front just a little. We gave a cool cloth, some ambesol, and some tylenol, and isaac began to calm down and the blood slowed. JeMae took a look and let us know that it WASN'T the surgery site, so that's not a worry - this was a classic "bit lip" and the hole wasn't big enough for stitches, nor were any teeth loose, so we're better off just letting him rest.

So Pamela and Isaac went up to bed, and Isaac slept well. He did wake at 2:30 in pain again, and I gave more medicine...

By this morning, he was back in great spirits and insisted on going to swimming class, and then we went to Bachmann's for quiche (yes the site of the first Dental Emergency)

Around noon, he started shrieking again, and I gave him more ibuprofen and ambesol, and he's napping now.

The poor kid. It's just too sad to mention.

Why

Why is there a "Dr Andrew Weil" brand of granola snack bars? This is not a good thing.

Why am I doomed to love TV shows that are pre-empted at the drop of a hat? Dollhouse is put on hiatus (again) into December, and Fringe is pre-empted by the AL Playoffs? These are shows that give me happiness. Let me have them.

Why did Caesar's Atlantic City run a pre-auth on my credit card for $350 when I was staying for one night, and the room rate was $130? I mean, sure I might order the Beluga Caviar service with Dom Perignon, through room service... Maybe.

Why do Video Slot Machines even exist? Without the satisfying "clunk clunk chunk" of the wheels, the whole exercise boils down to a random number generator. Yes, they have animations, and funny pictures... but what possible fun is there in hitting a button and having it say "NO" or "YES", which is what it basically boils down to?

I gotta go.

Short Ones

1) Bella has taken to putting her favorite stuffed animals into a pillowcase and goes to sleep hugging the sack of them. She explained this to Pamela the other day:

"First, this way I can cuddle them all at the same time. Second, they're warmer in there together, and I threw in a little blanket for them to share. Finally, in case of a fire, I only need to grab the pillowcase to leave, and all my favorite animals are safe".

It reminded me of my "fire preparation plan" for our house growing up: I had a 2nd floor bedroom, and outside my window was a stand of tall pine trees. My plan was simply to throw open the window and leap out and grab a pine bough. I never practiced this, and in retrospect, I think the nearest pine branch was a good 8 feet from my window, which itself was 12 feet above the ground - tracing the arc of the fall, it's most likely I'd have a handful of needles, with the pine bough not slowing my descent in the least. It would have hurt.

But those practicalities mean little to a 2nd grade "fire safety chief", as I was. I had a PLAN.

2) I was able to escape Atlantic City with sanity intact. Walking around that town, even early in the AM, was a bit depressing. The place just reeked of old sweat and cigarette smoke. It was a long day though - 50 miles to Philly, drop Mike at the Airport, then another 60 miles up to Allentown. 4 hours of solid meetings with various groups, nonstop talking and note taking, then BACK to Philly for the evening.

I stayed at the Sheraton this time: While it's geographically closer to the client site, it's certainly not more convenient: From my Marriott, I walk 1/2 block to the Metro or Trolley, and get dropped off between 6 blocks (metro) and 2 blocks (Trolley) from the client site. The Sheraton, it's 6 blocks from the client site. No metro, but no drop-off-closer option. Plus it's $40 more a night, for which I'm not sure it's worth it even if it WAS a faster internet connection....

I did eat at the nouvel mexican place, and Fake Salma Hayek was nowhere to be found. But the food was good as usual. I made an appearance at my primary client this morning (finally), and am ready to hit the air for home. Crazy week, but a good week.

Oh, and no word on Florida yet - might have a call on this next week. My main competition is a guy who has a whole website built to create the illusion that he's a big company with dozens of top quality resources, but it's actually just him. He includes several pages of his "philosophy" on projects. I don't like it.

Atlantic City

Hoo boy. Not really sure where to start. The drive in was gorgeous - a turnpike lined with brightly changing trees, only flattening out at the very end, when the road literally spilled us right into the parking garage of Caesar's on the boardwalk. Wandered through the skyway to eventually find the front desk, in an absurdly large chamber with a 20 foot statue of Caesar Augustus, overshadowed only by the comically large frying pan on a fake fire (advertising some Emeril-endorsed venture) that a 5 year old kid kept leaping at, hoping to clamber up on the handle.

I was given a key to "Suite 2536", and I was struck with two thoughts: 1) Wow, high room!, and 2) the building didn't look that tall from the street. Sure enough, I got into the elevator and saw the floors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 25, 26.... Yep. My scenic vista is of the airconditioning units. Also, the floodlights that illuminate the building are a mere 4 feet from my window. Fortunately blackout shade technology is pretty advanced, and I did have a dark room to sleep in.

After a few hours of work, I met up with Mike in the lobby. Mike was my boss at the last job and helped engineer a soft landing into my current happy place. We have a tradition of having fun in big cities, and when he got a call to do a sales trip to Atlantic City, he called me up and asked if I'd join him - dinner on him. With AC being just 50 miles from Philly, plus hotels very hard to find this week in Philly anyway, I said sure!

We found a row of restaurants - all "brand extensions" of more famous restaurants - Phillip's Seafood, Continental, Buddacon, and heartbreakingly, Sonsie. Sonsie is a beautiful place in the Boston BackBay and has a lot of memories for me (and for Mike, actually). It's where Pamela and I shared breakfast on the morning we learned of Lady Diana's death, for one. Mike saw Stephen Tyler of Aerosmith at Sonsie one time, too. And now it's a "Brand". Sigh. We couldn't bring ourselves to eat there, so we enjoyed the asian-fusion flava of Buddacon, which was pretty ok. They had Talisker at the bar, and I was astonished to see how much they were pouring for $14. Easily a double, if not a triple. One would have been enough, but I had two.

Then it was off to the Casino. Happily they have smoke-free areas.

I'll leave the details out, but I'd just like to have it out there that I went in with $60, and left with $60. My numbers went up and down... but never really did anything. Mike went in with $100, and left with $1,400. That's Mike for you. He walked up to a quarter slots machine, put in a $5 bill, and won $125. He hit 3 of a kind AND a straight at the 3-card poker table. Blackjack was more of a controlled bleeding - up then down then up then down... but you do blackjack for fun, not profit.

At the end, we accidentally ventured into the smoking part of the Casino, and Mike lost $300 in rapid fire at a 3-card poker table run by a sinister man with shiny rings on his fingers... We took that as our cue to escape, and I was asleep before midnight.

This morning, I got up not feeling bad (which if you know anything about evenings out with Mike, you know they usually end with a headache), but desperate for coffee. The Starbucks I had spotted the night before in the Pier mall was blocked by a burly security guard - the mall's not open until 11. What sort of cruel world is it when there's a starbucks that is NOT OPEN at 7:30am for a guy who needs an espresso? I hit the internet and found another one, out in the "real world".

That meant I needed to find a way OUT of the Caesar's complex first. Several false starts kept me going through skyways to other Trump properties - and no signs for "Exit to Street Level". Finally I found a sign for "Bus Lobby" - I figured Busses are on the ground. And yes, it was an exit. I just had to weave through a throng of bleary eyed gamblers who were headed "home". The Starbucks wound up being 3 blocks away, in the middle of an outdoor shopping plaza, and I enjoyed a quad espresso with the entire Atlantic City police force.

It's back to Philly this morning, then straight out to Allentown. I guess some sports team in Philly did a good thing last night - so I expect a bit of mayhem.

Jack o Lantern - The Day

This AM we got up early, carried a sleepy Bella over to the neighbors house (who got her off to school for us), and drove to Children's Minnetonka for Isaac's procedure. Even at 6:30am, everyone was very very nice and chipper, and boy did they have a system for making everyone feel at ease. Lots of open play space for Isaac, and everyone including the nurse, the anesthesiologist, and the Surgeon came by for a talk, and everyone checked the wristbands and verbally confirmed what was going to happen....

At 7:30 we were brought into the operating theater, and they gave Isaac a two stage gas knock out: I held him for it, and watched him smile from the laughing gas, then his eyes roll up with the knock out. They say that some kids fight the knock out and writhe and cry, but Isaac just went out with a little wiggle.

For the record: I would prefer to never be in the position of holding my child as his eyes roll back into his head again and his body goes limp. It was eerie.

The procedure went quickly - just 10 minutes later, the surgeon emerged, gave us the tooth, and told us that in all of his years, he had never seen a kid so peaceful before the procedure, and go under so uneventfully. He said that when they go down smooth, they usually wake up smooth... And 15 minutes later he was awake in the recovery room. We cuddled him for 30 minutes watching PBS kids, while he enjoyed a popsicle.

He was in good spirits coming home, and we watched a few Yo Gabba Gabbas together, while I got caught up at work. By 10, everyone was yawning, and we launched into a collective nap upstairs. An hour later I got up, and went to work on the laptop, and the rest joined me up 3 hours later (!!!). After the big nap, isaac was in a great mood and wanted to play and wrestle, so we did play and wrestle like maniacs. Then he forced me to take him to Target because he wanted "A Racecar". The evening was spent with Lightning McQueen and Big Mac, zooming around the dining room table.

Bella dragged home after 7, having done a full day of school, plus her first day of Synchronized Swimming (our little Esther Williams), and was asleep before Isaac, amazingly. But while they were up, Bella was excitedly telling Isaac "WE HAVE THE SAME MISSING TOOTH NOW!!!" and Isaac was proud of his gap tooth "It's JUST LIKE BELLA!!!"

So it's off to bed now, and I'm hitting Philly tomorrow for a short week. Now that I know Isaac is ok, I feel allright about leaving.

Northwest decided I really needed to sleep in and proactively canceled my 7am flight (on account of weather... which isn't actually coming), putting me on a 10:45 flight instead, which completely messed what I had planned for this short week. But a few deep breaths later, I discovered that all is recoverable. And there's a huge convention in Philly this week, hotel rooms are scarce, so I decided to finally bit the bullet and try out Atlantic City (a mere 40 min drive). I'll write with a full report.

Jack o Lantern

ou may recall last year when my Isaac had an unfortunate rendezvous with a stair and wound up with 26 stitches. Well, this morning he went to the dentist, and we discovered that in the year since then, one of his front top teeth has "died" and is abscessed - and is probably giving him some pain. So we have an appointment for Tuesday AM for him to go to an oral surgeon to clean it all up and remove that tooth.

And so my boy will have a missing front tooth for the next 4 years until his permanent one comes in. And I know he'll be just as charming and adorable, and I think it'll help his mood not to be in pain - not that he ever lets us know about that - he's such a happy guy I think he just shrugs it off. And strangely, there's neighborhood precedent: Theo up the block had one of his top front teeth knocked out when he was very small (I think 2 1/2), he's 5 now. So gap toothed boys are getting to be a bit of the fashion in the neighborhood.

But it's emotional, and Isaac does have such a wonderful smile today. I'd be lying to say it doesn't bring a tear to my eye. We had a lot of hugs today.

It was a long week in Philly - a lot of running around: One day in Allentown, one morning and one evening in New Jersey, and a lot of time working working working. I had a big deliverable due for Friday, but by Wednesday, we had acquired sufficient new information as to some costs involved AND some change in scope of projects we would be relying upon, we decided to shelve the presentation and take ourselves off the agenda.

And some of the ways in which we are seeing our project change are going to cause some big changes in my involvement: This may wind up turning into an internal process improvement project, along with a scope increase for their electronic medical record project, both of which would be handled by default by their internal teams. I may spend 2-3 more months getting everything arranged, and then shuffle off to let them act upon it.

Which might not be a bad thing, because a requirement came down the pike for a project manager in Fort Myers Florida that I'm the only person in the company with the right credentials for. So spending 50% time in sunny Florida starting in November might not be the worst idea... and Pamela may even want to bring the kiddos on down!

As a long week, I didn't come home Thursday, but instead caught a morning flight today. And for the second time in a week, I had an evening out with a co-worker - this time one of my pals from the Jersey project. We met for drinks and food at El Vez in Center City Philly - 3 blocks from my hotel, and a cab ride for him. We had some margaritas, and good laughs. The evening ended with two barely sipped absinthe cocktails and a stumble home... but I'm alive today.

After the madness of the past many weekends, it'll be nice to have a somewhat under-scheduled weekend ahead. We had my Dad and Karen over for pizza tonight, and the kids were out of their minds - lots of showing off and wrestling. Bella was asleep by 8:30, which speaks to how zonked she was. Tomorrow is pretty open, and after the kids go to bed, I'll have my Avengers over for late night basement haunting. Because I need my boys.

Fear not

Yes gentle readers, the night passed without incident, the police and fire departments were not called.

In fact, I think that the histamine reaction I had from the bites of chocolate cake so thoroughly distracted my body that it almost forgot to react to the shrimp in the predicted manner. ALMOST.

Thank you for your cards and letters. It means a lot.

Preparing to explode

I just got back from a wonderful dinner with my not-really-client John who helped me find this gig in Philly, with his wife and 18 month old son. They live in a cool converted warehouse space with one really big room, and the son sleeps behind a curtain - cool urban living, but they're already contemplating a move.

To prepare I had given John my two "watch out" foods - Sensitive to dairy, and can't do walnuts. He wrote back regretting that he won't be able to make his cheese and walnut pot pie... and all seemed to be going to plan. My spidey sense tingled however, and I loaded up on the allergy meds before heading over.

He met me at the train and took me to the swanky pad, where we were greeted by a big dog - of the "i'm allergic to it" sort. But I was friendly. I played with the boy, some sharing of crackers, some piggy back rides, some "my what a lumpy sofa" play. Then he was off to bed and dinner came out.

Shrimp Stir Fry.

Now, I rarely talk about shrimp: I don't think of it much. And it's something I don't mind eating. But shrimp has an effect on me. It gives me uproarious gas. But having already talked about allergies, I didn't think it right to say no, plus I figured I usually have an hour or two before the party begins, so I'd be back at the hotel... By this point, I didn't even blink at the flourless chocolate cake for dessert: I just ate the damn thing, and will deal with the breakout.

I'm back at the hotel now, waiting for the fireworks.

On the plus side, we had a great evening - we get along well, and we even kept the shop talk restrained and involved his wife: She is a nurse, and had great stories about the clinic she works at... as well as her time in the Dominican Republic - she did free clinic work there last year, and it made a huge impression on her.

I'm going to hit the hay early and hope I don't go into anaphylactic shock before the morning, when I need to pick up a Zipcar and drive to Allentown for a one day IT assessment. Love my work!

That's about it for now!

The lingering yuck

So I've been mostly well, but have had moments of fading in and out of wellness: For a day I thought "Sinus infection", another day "Exhaustion". Today, there was an accidental 3 hour nap. I'm up too late, but am headed up in just a few minutes.

We're on deathwatch with Pamela's iMac again: This time it's the logic board... but this is the only problem I've had since I bought 3 years ago... and we do know how the lifespan of computers is not all that long anymore. It's just a month beyond its 3 year warranty, so this one will be a good $800 to fix, so we're better off going for a new machine. But the problem is intermittent, and at least it's not data related - our songs and pictures are safe, unlike the hell I documented a few years back. (The sharp eyed will note that yes, there was a data problem with this computer last summer, but it was with an external hard drive, not the computer itself). But I'm looking at another computer purchase sometime in the next few weeks, I suppose! Sigh.

Jimmy's techno mojo continues, because the cordless phones we bought last year are all expiring too - holding a charge for around 10 minutes of talk time before abruptly disconnecting. Seriously, what am I doing wrong???

It was a good day with the kids - we bought pumpkins and had lunch at Chipotle. Bella built a lego helicopter. Isaac jumped off of things over and over again and didn't get hurt. Zinsser walked to to door and barked when he needed to go potty, and didn't have any accidents. And Pamela even got a nap in too. We're switching the decor over to fall (though based on today, maybe we should skip it and head straight into winter decor! SNOW on Oct 10?)

Allright I'm headed up. Pamela is vegging to some Food Network, and that's ok. I stayed up too late watching the Tivo of Dollhouse and Fringe, AND getting caught up on So you think you can Dance. So yeah, the only TV I care about is on Fox. CRAZY.

Happy Birthday Bella!

Today she is seven. Wow. WOW.

My cold is gone, but I'm still a bit under the weather: I've been working pretty hard this week, and late into the evenings, so I think that "sick" is just replaced by "exhausted".

So instead of staying up blogging tonight, I will go to bed. NOW.

(But if you're dying for some good Jimmy Stories, click on the Tales from the Nineties link to the right. I got stories)

Fully Better

I'm back, baby. BACK. Just in time to head back to Philly. Sigh.

The weekend was fifteen kinds of crazy, thanks to Pamela being out of town (in Chicago participating in Senior Year homecoming activities for Bailey and Ty, the twins I've known since they were mere months old). I couldn't go, but I did hold down the fort.

And it was a whirlwind of a weekend: I had 8 kids in the basement for much of Saturday, Isaac didn't nap at any time, and I even squeezed in an Avengers gathering. But we were all thrilled to see Pamela back today.

It's a short update - The alarm will ring in under 7 hours, so I've got to go get that head on the pillow. More updates from the hotel tomorrow. I promise.

A little better

Headed home now on an early flight, and I'm looking forward to meeting Pamela at the airport for a lunch date before she heads off to Chicago for the weekend. It will be very futuristic, and if it was in a movie it would be symbolic. But it's actually just nice.

The cold moved on from the nose and decided to visit the lungs for a while. Good rattly coughs. I should be a real pleasure on the airplane. I'm medicated.

Did I mention it's early and I'm tired?

Sniffles

Around 2pm today, I started falling down down down with a mild headache, the sneezes, and an impossibly runny nose. Emergency medicine applied, I made it through meetings and back to the hotel for a nap...

A bowl of hot Pho made me feel a little better, but now it's time for bed. I have a busy day tomorrow, and this cold needs to speed its way through. Water Water Water!!!

Update: Wed AM - took my morning meetings via conference call in the hotel, but am tentatively feeling better. The sore throat has not emerged, and the head doesn't hurt. I'm just a sniffle factory. I'm out in the world now. Starbucks has better wifi than the hotel today.

Only the craziest weekend.

Friday was planned to be busy: Pamela had been working on the Edina Family Center's presence for the Edina HS Homecoming Parade. 40 custom T-Shirts had been made. Huge signs. Hundreds of hand cut-outs. Our day was meticulously scheduled - I was to pick Bella up at 3:40, we'd hustle to the parade start, I'd drop the kids off and race back, park the car at the end of the parade route, run back and march in the parade, then post parade party.

Of course, after 10 days of near drought, Friday was the day the rain decided to visit. All morning, the moms were wondering if they should pull the kids out of the parade, just have a mom-presence in the float... but that decision was pulled, because the whole parade was canceled due to rain basically coming over the horizon sideways at people. Of course right at parade time, there was a brief clearing... and everyone slapped their foreheads... but then the rain was all "naw, just messin with you" and started back up.

But that was an emotional rollercoaster, and the only thing for it was some early birthday celebrating for Pamela with some Maggiano's and some Cheesecake Factory takeout. After packing the kids to bed, it was "decompress time". Naturally I took the opportunity to watch Fringe and Dollhouse, which make life good. Oh, and Friday AM is also when Zinsser got his cone off and was the happiest dog alive.

(BTW - it's Monday night. Heroes is just finishing up, according to the clock. But am I watching? No. They're DEAD TO ME.)

Saturday was a full on sprint day: Started with Isaac swimming (he really is the best in his class), and I ran into the drummer for my old high school band PG13 who threatened/promised to finally bring me a box of our albums (which I haven't had a copy of for at least 15 years) for next week's class.

Then it was a birthday brunch... Isaac and Bella got hippity-hops which they spent the weekend bouncing around on. Later in the day it was off to Bella's Birth Family for her cousin Clayton's birthday (and they also celebrated Isaac's, since he was born just a week before Clayton.) we got home and it was another collapse-in-a-heap evening.

Sunday we had people over for a joint Isaac and Bella birthday party with Cupcakes. Just 90 action packed minutes that felt like 4 hours, but seemed over in 15 minutes in retrospect. I'd like to formally apologize to all the parents in the neighborhood for injecting that much sugar into their kids... they were screaming and running around like maniacs, with frosting smudged on their faces. Spontaneous hog piles, climbing up high on the swingset... it was pure energy in motion. And the weather decided to visit again - high winds, and a drop of at least 20 degrees over the course of the 90 min with a little spitting rain... but that didn't keep the kids from playing.

With everyone gone, Tara showed up and took possession of the kids for the evening so that I could take Pamela out to Oceanaire to celebrate her birthday (which is actually today). It was one of those perfect nights where it wasn't too busy, the pacing was great, and the server was on our wavelength. And the food was as always incredible. It is a true pleasure when the "fine restaurant experience" is actually in full effect.

Oh, and of course there was work to be done as well: One of those fun things where one of my consultants took off on a 2 week tour of Italy, and one week in, the client freaked out that something hadn't been done, and it's up to me to try to get them connected RIGHT NOW. I think it all worked out, but it's still reverberating today.

Then it was up at 4:30 and off to my airplane. I now have an airport buddy: Dana who worked at my old place, but now works at my new place takes the same flight as I do (though we part ways in Philly), so we have a little time before boarding to catch up on the week, which is good since I'm the overall Project Manager of her project! The poor dear is only Gold Elite, not Platinum, so we'll never share breakfast up in First... I giggle nefariously. How odd that stale raisin bran is something I covet on an airplane but nowhere else on earth.

In Philly, it was GO time on one of the project phases: I finally got extract files from two vendors, and spent part of the afternoon loading them up into Access and doing comparisons... while also working with HR and Medical Records to get a temp to help fix all the problems I'll be finding. AND the info I filled my brain with last week has finally slotted into place and I'm busy typing to get all that down onto a less organic storage medium.

When I hit the ground later this week, I'll be Doctor Solo DaddyKins, while Pamela takes a little trip for the weekend... So keep holding onto your hats, it just keeps being busy.

Full Brain

I had a few major interviews in the last 2 days, getting overviews on how Electrophysiology procedures are documented, as well as how heart-lung machines operate and when/how clamp procedures are documented.... also how Pacemakers are tracked, plus long discussions with peers at other hospitals about how THEIR cardiology departments are structured. That's a lot of info to take in.

I find myself in the odd position of feeling as though my brain is actually FULL. I can't even transcribe my notes yet - I need to close my eyes and let all of this information start to get collated and filed. I need to do nothing with my brain for a little bit.

Speaking of my brain: I had one of my odd "waking moments" last night. I woke up and grew convinced that all of my possessions in the hotel room had "shifted" to one or two rooms over: As though all of us hotel guests have our things on a lazy susan, and it had spun. That suitcase, that laptop, those clothes, all someone else's. Pretty much the whole floor was going to wake up and find someone else's stuff in their rooms. Unless I did something.

So I sat up, closed one eye, extended both arms in front of me, and "waved" them to the right. The first time didn't work: I felt my fingers "slip off". So I firmed my hands and gave a more purposeful flick. And it all rotated... but THESE weren't my things either. So one more flick, and I took a look, and yes, THESE were my things. Satisfied, I put my head back down, and was fast asleep.

Now, when I woke up, my things were indeed there. But more strangely, I remembered doing this whole thing very clearly, as real as if I had got up for a drink of water. So yes, a strange evening.

I'm looking forward to coming home tonight, having family time this weekend, and most importantly, having a one-on-one date with Pamela on Sunday to celebrate her birthday (which is Monday). It feels like months since we had time with just the two of us, and I'm extremely excited.

Ok - enough brain activity - time to go look at a website that makes fun of poorly made cakes.

Full of Garlic

Yes, a food post. A few weeks back we tried to do a company outing to a well known Italian restaurant in the Southern reaches of Philly, only to discover they'd closed for good. There was another place nearby but it was too crowded, so we fell back to a good nouvelle-style place a ways away... but I was always curious about that other place. Ralph's is the second oldest restaurant in the US, operating in the same family continuously since 1900.

An unpretentious red sauce joint with tight tables and mobster accents all around.

But was it any good? I had ziti with grilled italian sausage with a very garlicky red-sauce. And it was wonderful. Add on a sprite, and I was out of there for well under $20, completely stuffed. The waiter was very nice, and we had a long chat about the Kindle - his daughter is going to college and he's hoping she can get textbooks on it.

One of the things that fascinates me about Philly is the subterranean complexity: There are areas near City Hall where you can go several city blocks without ever coming above ground - some areas are long tiled tunnels with harsh lighting, some are depressing 70's era underground malls. Some stations have art deco tiling and iron work reminiscent of the 1930s, others are newer and more sterile.

In some areas, there are three distinct eras of technology: The Broad Street Line (north south) is a classic old subway from the 30s or earlier, passing right under the street, a single flight of stairs down. The cars have a laquered metal look, and you can see the iron beams and parallel tracks as you go. The Market street line (east west) feels more like a 1970s line, with smaller, darker tunnels and gleaming aluminum cars. And deeper still are the old streetcars, which have large subterranean boarding stations in center city, and emerge from the ground west in University City. And right by my hotel, all 3 are present.

And that doesn't count the commuter rail lines running east/west just a few hundred feet north of all of this (which I use to get to the airport), even further underground, nor the entirely separate lines going eastward - the "Patco" lines with ill lit stairways on side streets and peeling paint indicating ancient disrepair, yet somehow it's still going. Whereever you walk, you feel the rumble of something moving underground.

The world right under my feet is bustling. It reminds me of my time in Tokyo, in the Shinjuku district, where we went blocks and blocks without being in sunlight.... but while it all felt very clean and new over there, it's all old, worn, and yet strangely loved here. You almost get the feeling that some of these stations aren't so much DIRTY as much as they're just like the well worn jeans you can't bear to throw away...

Yeah, I like Philly ok.

3 Years

My little Isaac turned three years old today. I did spend a moment with him this morning just as he was turning 3: When my alarm went off at 4:30am to get me to the Airport, Isaac woke up too, hollering "DAD!!! DAD!!!! WHAT'S THAT SOUND????" I went in to see him and told him it was my clock. He chuckled - that's no CLOCK dad. It sounds like... like... a FIRE TRUCK!" I gave him a big kiss and lay down by his bed to help him drift back off to sleep... then crept off to the shower, though I would have loved nothing more than to keep on snoozing, even on the floor.

The weekend went quickly - our effectiveness was impacted due to the complete collapses we had on Saturday - but things felt better by Sunday. Sunday evening, we took Isaac and his two sisters (including Jenny) to the California Pizza Kitchen for a treat. Evening's not the right word - somehow once we arrived we realized it was only 4pm. But more's the better to have the place to ourselves as Isaac reminded us why we don't take him to restaurants: The boy cannot be contained. But he sure is cute doing what he's doing.

Anecdote from the weekend: Isaac came to me the other day asking if he can have the "DA-da DA-da". I had no idea what he was talking about despite his repeated attempts to tell me about the DAda DAda. Finally he took my hand and said "come with me, dad, I'll show you". He pointed to a card on the desk - a birthday card we have in wait for one of my friends - and I opened it - it plays the Chicken Dance. He started dancing, hollering "DAda DAda!"

So I'm back in Philly. Work was work: A smooth flight, but stuck in Coach. A beautiful room at the Courtyard that overlooks City Hall (I can look up at Ben Franklin). Got more things done on my assessment, plus work for Jersey, and some fresh work for an Allentown rehab hospital. Then took a little break for a short nap and the season premiere of Heroes. It didn't unlatch my brain or anything the same way as Terminator or Dollhouse has, so I may be a bit of a fair weather friend to this series this year.

Tomorrow I'm off to Jersey for the AM... good times will be had by all.

Unrelated

1) I somehow fell into watching Syfy's X-Files Lite series "Warehouse 13".. I watched the premiere, and wasn't sold, but somehow wound up catching all 11 episodes thanks to downloading... and dang it they got me caught up in it. There are some truly loathsome elements, not the least of which is the liberal use of early 1990's pizzicato strings in the soundtrack for when they're indicating "they're just being cute here"... plus very unsubtle "backstory setup, backstory relevance" couplings: You know it's tough when in the premiere someone says "yeah, I heard about what happened in Denver" and you set your watch, and sure enough, in two episodes, you find out "what happened in Denver".

But these things aside, the core charm of the show is in these malevolent yet creative artifacts - sort of a whole show about the Weasley Brother's Magic Shop gone loose in the world with just a couple of FBI agents to try to keep it in line. I caught myself caring a bit, and having fun. So there you go.

2) We had some financial stress points these past weeks with the gap in me transitioning from contractor to employee with my new firm and a 4 week gap between paychecks, which I could/should have managed better.... As I've hinted - the past 18 months at my old job had been pretty bad for us, and we're clawing our way out of a pretty deep hole. Even though things have been getting better, we wound up in a bit of a bind this past week... Not bad enough for us to need to reach out to anyone (and there is help out there, I know), but definitely as close as we've got without actually going there. So when the check cleared Friday, it was a good thing, but in that instant, we both just deflated into heaps, not believing how close it all felt... And today we both reacted... Pamela with a migraine, and me with a general grumpiness....

Of course the kids picked up on it and were very defiant and yelling all day, which was extra fun. But by the end of the evening, equilibrium was back in the mix, kids were sleeping happily, Pamela and I had a good talk, and we're set up for a good Sunday.

And yes, everything is now ok.

3) Perhaps reflective of the stress, I had a very strange dream:

I'm on an airplane headed to Botswana (where in the real world, my company is managing the building of a hospital, so that's where that came from), and upon landing I realize I forgot my passport. As I'm walking through the Botswana airport, they have a food court just like any american airport, and so I stop to grab a drink while I work out what to do without a passport. I realize that the language of GOVERNMENT in Botswana is Dutch (which it isn't really) and regret that I hadn't done more work on that language.

As I'm pondering, I look over and see my friend Gene (who was also best friends with Mark Loesch in the real world), and ask him what HE'S doing here. He just shakes his head and his rough-looking friend stares me down. I exclaim "I've known you for 15 years, I see you halfway across the world in Botswana and you can't tell me what you're doing here?" As I say this, I'm on the floor, as someone has drugged me....

I wake up, on a flight back to the states.

A new lease...

Philly again, after that week away. I'm feeling invigorated and am hitting the project(s) hard. Big presentation yesterday in Jersey, big meetings in the AM in Philly, and I'm feeling "re-bonded" with my client sponsor, who I think was getting a little bit prickly for some reason before my week off, but now all is well. And I'm going back out to Jersey tomorrow, and have multiple phone interviews set up through the end of the week... it's a good and busy week, and that's how I like it.

I switched hotels from the Four Points near Chinatown to the Courtyard right in front of City Hall: We're talking 4 blocks difference, but a whole world apart. Dunkin and Starbucks right around the corner, subway right there, but more importantly, the rooms are BIG, the walls are THICK, and the bed is COMFY and the internet is FASTER. It's definitely worth the $30/night more, but probably not worth the $120/night more it would be if I didn't get the hospital discount...

It was employee health awareness day at the hospital, and they were doing flu shots, but there was a huge line for that, so I "settled" for a full health evaluation: BMI, Blood Pressure, Glucose, Cholesterol. And I'm here to say that while I could use a little more fish oil and fewer carbs, my numbers are all in the normal-to-good range. Nothing is high. Which is a wonderful relief, especially considering I haven't really been exercising all that much in the past 2 months - 2 times a week max. I celebrated with a burger for dinner. Ain't I a stinker?

Speaking of stink - it was a wild day back in Edina: Pamela had things scheduled from 7am to 8pm nonstop. Zinsser got "fixed" (though he would likely disagree with that description) and had some dental work done at the same time. He is totally a dog wearing a cone. Isaac skipped his nap. Pamela visited the dentist and had NO CAVITIES! I got tired just hearing about it. Hopefully she'll get a good night sleep tonight.

Week 2 of school appears to be going without incident... and PapaBam are safely back in Chicagoland, much to our shared sadness. It would be great to have them up here full time. Papa could make magic wands for everybody, and Bama would be the dog walker.

I don't often post links but Caesar forwarded me a truly disturbing/hilarious site called "People of WalMart" and I simply can't stop looking. I know that makes me a bad person. BUT IT FEELS SO GOOD.

Sept 13

It was two years ago today that I lost my friend Mark Loesch....

I was writing about him on the 90's blog and it was a good memory... he was a good man and I miss him.

End of the week...

Well, Bella ended her first week as a First Grader, and BOY is she tired. She has been melting down practically from the moment she walks off the bus - it's a huge adjustment from the lazy days of summer to actually using your brain for 8 hours IN A ROW. I'm getting little moments of sweetness, but a whole lot of sass, which comes on when she's tired. And she's been ravenous for dinner - last night eating a full plate of pasta, two pieces of garlic bread, and SEVEN meatballs. Tonight she was complaining of pain in her legbones, so I think that in addition to her brain cells being worked hard, I think we'll be seeing our little weed sprout up a little higher in the week to come.

Isaac has been in the midst of mindstorms as well this week: He's been sleeping poorly, having days of extreme emotions, has been VERY cuddly... Part of it is he's missing his sister, for sure. But also we've noticed that this week he's acquired some new language, and by tonight I was noticing some very distinct new turns of phrase. I think that a bunch of brain bits were working to realign this week, and clicked into place. He's a subtly different boy today.

Part of it may be that today HE got to go back to school too: He'll be at preschool 2 days a week (2.5 hours), and 1 day of playgroup. When he came home from class today he was BEAMING - he loved going back to school and being with kids. This is a social guy, and he loves the group dynamic. His teachers remarked on his changes too - they said that this spring he was "a blur of a boy" - always on the move. But now he's more focused and interested in detailed play.

And detail is what he likes: He's been taking blocks and building long lines... and then sorting them by color, then by size... he's capable of entertaining himself quite well.

Papa has taken over half of our dining room table with his projects: This time it's carpentry related. He has made two colorful wood robots that stand up, but can fall down and become zoomy cars. I think that he could sell these things, but when you factor in the amount of time he spends on each one, his hourly rate would be.... um.... a dime. He also has made the most incredible magic wand for Bella, splicing two twigs with gold wire, rubbing with inks, inlaying beads and orbs... this thing truly looks like a an object for conjuring, and I'm planning on waving it over a lottery ticket tomorrow.

This has been a good week: It has been fun to watch the kids going back to school The bus stop has been wonderful. Working in the house has been a treat. Visiting with PapaBam has been a dream. But Sunday night, I must return to Philly for meetings. All good things... as they say. But I have treasured this week and am grateful to have been able to do it.

Didi

As you know, Isaac refers to his blanket+bearhead combo as his Didda. The word came from nowhere, but it has stuck for since he had language for it.

I found out today that "didi" (pronounced didda) in mandarin chinese is "little brother".

Interesting.

The Grader

Well, Bella started First Grade this week. The whole neighborhood assembled at the bus stop to send all the kids back to school, and there were a few misty eyes... among the parents. This year, there are 5 little kids at the bus stop, waving off to the big kids, and Isaac is only the second-youngest of them. They all run up to the end of the block to watch for the bus coming, and when it shows up, they try to RACE the bus up to our end of the block, screaming "THE BUS!!!! THE BUS!!!!!"

And of course Zinsser gets to play every morning with his cousin Otto too, and they're almost the same size now, so it's a more even match.

Papabam have been here this week to help out, walking the dog, making projects, doling out the cuddles, and generally giving Mom and Dad some backup. Zinsser thinks he's in heaven since he gets 5 long walks a day. No accidents in the house!

Tuesday night, Bella got to pick dinner for her first day, and it was TACO NITE. Since switching to soft tacos, she's gone down from her trademark 7-8 tacos to 2-3. Those tortillas are definitely filling. We've eaten well this week: Pizza night, Pasta night... last night was BLT night, which went better than expected (thank you Nueske's!)

Yep, I'm here this week, and I've been working quite a bit. I had two really good site visits at former clients, picking their brains on how their cardiology departments are configured. I actually got two completely different "philosophies" explained this week, either of which would be a good way to go in our Phuture in Philly. I've been sending breathless updates to my peers and sponsors in Philly, which may explain why I'm not writing as much here.

The other explanation might be the launch of my Tales From the Nineties blog (linked at the Right)... this is something I'm doing with Paul and Caesar (all on our own blogs) where we're trying to tell stories about the bubble years of the 1990s. It's all explained on that blog if you have any interest. It's all about work and technology and opinions, not family or current events... so no need to keep current over there for many of you... but go ahead and check if you like.

Bella and I have been loving the new They Might Be Giants CD/DVD called "Here Comes Science" - they're all little songs about science, and while some are pretty light ("Electric Car" doesn't really explain anything), others are brilliant ("Meet the Elements" and "Bloodmobile" are standouts for me). The package has a DVD with a cute video for each. The explanation of all the things Blood does in Bloodmobile was actually instructive for me. And I work in Cardiology!

Isaac likes the songs too, but not for the content: The boy loves to dance to them. Bella just studies the videos and listens intently. That's my scientist.

Back to school: Pamela was asking Bella last night what she learned or found interesting about her day in school: "Pretty much everything was interesting."

Also, as she was drifting off to sleep, she decided that "The Earth is a giant eye, and the Sun is the other eye, and they're always watching. But only the Earth can BLINK".

First Grade Coming...

On Thursday I came home early to attend the open house for Bella's elementary school, since she's going to be a big First Grader. We met her teacher, found her locker, and had some good playtime in the playground. Bella was her usual nervous, reserved self in the situation, and Isaac was his usual gregarious self. On the playground, he found a neighbor friend, Amelia, who is just a little younger than he is. He shadowed her around the playground, making sure she could get up the ladders and down the slides. He waited at the bottom of one slide for her, and and she came down, he helped her off and said "Great Job, MeeLeeAh"

You already know about Friday... Saturday was a lazy day with a lot less going on, as we collectively passed out. Papa set up a giant blue tarp over the swing set, and kids have been in it every waking minute - everyone loves a fort.

Today we went out to the Arboretum after a nice pancake breakfast and wandered around the beauty. We lingered by the waterfall, and appreciated the flowers still in full bloom. Isaac and Bella had fun under the big oak tree in the nature play area they have set up in the education area, and we ran into a friend of Bella's from kindergarten, whose mom let us know a sad bit of news she had just learned:

One of Bella's classmates from last year, who is also in her classroom this year, was diagnosed just Friday with brain cancer. The kid is 6 years old, and woke up Friday with half of his face limp. They rushed to urgent care and an MRI later discovered that he has a tumor. It had been growing for who knows how long, and finally impacted a nerve cluster, and left untreated it would shut down more and more parts of his body. Unfortunately, survival rates for this sort of thing are very low (a 25% chance of surviving 12 months and a 10% chance of long term survival).

We're all really hoping for the best - he just started an aggressive radiation and chemo regimen, which will take all his time for 6 weeks, then they're hoping to be able to let him come to school... be with friends and play. It'll be an interesting year, and no matter how this turns out, these kids are all going to learn things about the world that most adults don't need to learn for many years.

I find it sad and amazing that in one week I learn that one kid Bella's age is surviving with a new heart in her body, and another boy her age woke up with a lump in his brain that could end his life. And I look at Bella and think of all the stories I've told about her, and all the stories I hope to tell, and all the stories I hope she tells me... and it makes me hold her that much closer.

Scenes from The Fair

1) As we walked from the car past the portapotties to the gate into the Fair, I decided to do a quick pit stop to deal with the diuretic issues of drinking 4 doubleshots of espresso before 8am. Isaac saw me veer off and asked Papa where I was headed. Papa said "Your daddo is off to see a man about a horse". "I WANT TO SEE THE HORSE!!!!" was his instant, tearful reply, amazed and saddened that I'd be off seeing animals without bringing him. We finally got him calmed down, having explained about 'euphemisms" and "archaic turns of phrase", and fortunately the wonders of life birth building was mere steps away and we were able to distract Isaac with baby chickens.

5 hours later, as we were walking back to the car, Isaac pulled my hand and started toward the porta-potties: "Now I want to see that horse." He made me open 3 separate (unoccupied) rooms to prove that they were indeed just toilets, no magic horse stables within. We have made Papa swear an oath to watch his language with the kiddos. ;->

2) Yep - it was 5 hours at the fair with Isaac, Jenny, Bella, Pamela, and PapaBam. Great food, an hour at the KidWay with the kids, an epic visit to the Butterfly House, and delight with the small animals building - always my favorite. Isaac was having a grand time, and was literally DANCING through the fair, with a little sashay-skip move with occasional spins. Bella and Jenny were a good pair as well, though when it came to the rides at the Kidway, Bella was the cautious one as always, with Isaac and Jenny going for the thrills.

On the Merry-go-Round, Bella got up on a tall horse, but after a few minutes (and before the ride actually STARTED), she climbed off the horse and went for one of the benches. The round-and-round was enough excitement without needing any up-and-down-maybe-falling-off action. She had a pretty satisfied look, though with occasional moments of worry. That Bella is no thrill seeker... Though all three kids (and Daddo) went down the giant slide TWICE!

3) We all got home around 2:30, and Jenny and Bella settled in for a movie, and everyone else went to sleep. It was a wonderful break in the day, because at 6 we were back in the car and back off to the fair - no kids this time. We got tickets to see A Prairie Home Companion at the Grandstand. The show was definitely fun, though I was a bit vexed by the camera work - between the cameramen and the director picking which camera to show, it was horribly clear that nobody on the visual side had any idea who was doing what on stage: You'd have a violin solo happening, and the camera would hang on the guitarist. There was a quartet singing, and the cameraman framed 3 of the four, left the 4th guy entirely off screen, and let that shot sit for the whole 3 minute song. I know, it's radio - we shouldn't care - but the big screens help a big place like the Grandstand feel a bit more intimate, so it did make a difference.

As to the show itself, it was a typical show with some funny state-fair live interludes. It's interesting to remember that Garrison really is a somewhat shy person, and he started the show singing with his back to the audience... but as it progressed he unfurled and by the end he was very out there. And the fireworks at the end were dazzling.

4) I destroyed my brain and taste buds with a jerk chicken roti from Harry Singh's: It was delicious, but so hot I was almost hallucinating. Somehow I've grown so used to things being advertised as "hot" not really being that hot. To have their tag line "Oh God It's HOT" actually be completely accurate was unexpected... and delightful.