Merry Merry!

Christmas Eve was wonderful - my sister Carrie hosted us at her house with the in-town relatives. The food and company were great, and the kids were well spoiled with gifts. Papa decided it was time for some noise in the house, and gave Isaac a REAL Timbale and Cowbell set. My little Tito Puente is all set to go. Bella got a whole lot of art materials - somebody let the cat out of the bag that the girl's an artist.

Before heading to Carrie's, we had a quiet day in the house. We ate, watched movies, including Christmas Story: I had thought that the language in it was tame except for the one "bad word" Ralphie uttered... but boy it was full of "SOB, Smart Ass, Stupid, Idiot" and the like. I'm just getting too old... I'm grumpy about cuss words these days because I just don't want to hear my little ones saying them. ANYWAY the movie was funny and then we exchanged family presents: We gave the kids "night goggles" - sunglasses with brilliant blue LED lights on them. When we left Carrie's the kids both had their lights on, and they looked like a cross between Star Wars Jawas, and the Hartnoll brothers of Orbital (a techno band of the 90s where the guys had pen lights attached to their glasses to see the knobs they were twiddling). They kept them on for the ride home and the interior of the car was flush with blue light, and I kept thinking I was getting pulled over.

We left just in time... I wound up with a somewhat severe asthma attack (first one of consequence for years, really) - not sure if it was the tree, the dog, or the rich food (or all of them), but I was gasping for air by the end of the evening, but playing it cool so as not to ruin the time for the rest of the gang. Of course the puffer I had put in my coat pocket was dead as a doornail. So when we got home I hightailed it up to Isaac's room and grabbed his penguin shaped nebulizer and used some of his old meds. 15 minutes later, my lungs were clear, but my heart was pounding - boy that albuterol is intense when delivered in that manner.

The kids were asleep by 8:30, and I was out by 10... Pamela headed out to an evening service with her friend Carla - this time at a Lutheran church, which she was visiting more out of anthropological interest than anything.

It was another magical Christmas Morning - Santa had come in the night and had carefully arranged the kid's presents in the living room. The gifts were amazing: Bella got a retro Snoopy's Sno Cone machine, and Isaac got a REAL 1970's era Evel Knievel motorcycle set. The revving jet engine sound of that bike filled the house over and over again. Daddy was lucky enough to get a couple of Lego sets, and I got a lot of help building the Empire Strikes Back AT-AT walker. Well, once I built the mini-figures, the kids were off playing with them, while I did the hard work of building the large grey machine thing.

A couple of cute things:
1) Isaac: Instead of "I've changed my mind" has been saying "I cross-ted my mind".

2) Isaac has been singing "Release Goldilock" to the tune of "Feliz Navidad". Not sure why. UPDATE: Last night i misremembered it as "Rapunzel" - it's Goldilock. Still don't know why.

3) Bella has been grilling us on where we hide the presents in the house: Which presents I ask? The ones we give them, like the night goggles (I was concerned about a possible lapse in Santa Faith, but no worries). She has it down to one closet, or "someone else's house". Neither are correct, but I'll never tell. Then we were laughing about TERRIBLE places to hide presents. Like on her pillow. Or lined up on the toilet seat ("You'd see them, and if you DIDN't see them, they'd fall into the toilet water!!!"

The madness continues tomorrow with Bella's birth family coming over for stew and presents... it'll be a blast!

Choo Choo!

We woke up good and early today for our regular Saturday routine: We carpooled out to Synchro, dropped Pamela and Bella off, while Isaac and I went to the new semester of Circus School: Today, the kids got measured for their outfits for the big performance in the spring. Of course all these 3-4 year olds could ask was CAN WE WEAR THEM NOW? WHEN? WHEN??? The teachers got them back on track, and they were working as one big group going through a circuit of exercises: Climb up and roll down a hill of mats, then a trapeze swing and dismount, then springing over a barrier, then a balance beam, then a quick bit of juggling (throwing scarves), and at the end, they lined up for a bow. They did this quite a few times, and us parents gave them applause with each bow. They're teaching not just the skills of the circus, but the SHOW too.

We picked up Bella and Pamela afterwards and headed to Keys Cafe downtown St Paul. I went there quite a bit in 2005-2006 when I was doing work for Gillette Children's hospital, which was within walking distance (their new IT location is a bit farther away, alas). I reveled in the caramel roll... oh it's good there. And even better, the kids didn't think it was something they'd want to try, so I got it all.

After lunch, we headed out to the MN Transportation Museum to climb on the big trains. Bella liked the "business car", with sleeping quarters, a big office, several bathrooms, a kitchen, and a salon. The detail was amazing - they knew how to live back then. I didn't see a heater in there, though... brrrrr..... They were having trouble with snow on the tracks, so we missed a ride on the train, but will do a return visit. Also, we rode on a 1954 vintage bus to and from the parking lot. Pretty dang cool.

Then it was back home, and I went off to the Malt Shop - a hangout from when I was a kid. As I was my high school senior class president, I'm organizing the 25th reunion, and had put out an APB on facebook that I would be there from 2-4pm if anyone wanted to give me ideas for the reunion. One guy did show up, and we had a good chat... but the rest were no-shows.

A final errand: As noted before, my Macbook Air had developed a problem: The hinge holding the screen was getting looser and looser, and at a certain point, it cracked and the lid would fall open and closed. Since that update, the ribbon that connects the screen to the brains got loose, so my screen was showing only red and pink hues. It was very hard to use the computer.

Well, they ordered the part, and it came in in 5 days, not 2 weeks. They called me and I dropped it off Friday afternoon, and it was ready to pick up at noon Saturday. They promised 3 weeks, and the whole thing was done in one.

This is simply amazing: Think of any other consumer product: It breaks, you ship it off to the manufacturer for repairs. An Apple breaks, you bring it in and they fix it right there. It sort of blows my mind, and it's just one more reason I love that company. And it makes me doubly happy that I didn't panic and buy another computer. this one is now JUST FINE.

With all that running around, it's nice to be sitting on my couch in front of the fire, with Pamela right across the room. We keep smiling at each other. Yep, it's pretty nice.

Terrible Terrible Jokes about Jenga

What do you call a game with stacked wooden blocks that also analyzes your dreams?
- Karl Junga

What do you call a game with stacked wooden blocks that was a 70s pop psychologist who wrote "Fear of Flying"
- Erica Jonga

What do you call a game with stacked wooden blocks that is also the leader of a brutal dictatorship
- Kim Jenga-il

At this point, Pamela said "I'm done with these now". So that's all I have.

Buried!

You may have heard, we got some snow recently. It collapsed the Metrodome, which was pretty amazing. Actually I'm surprised it never fell before, really. What I love is the parade of "I KNEW it would happen eventually" people - forgetting it had stayed up without much incident for 20 years. That's not a bad roof.

We live in Edina, which means that even in the middle of the storm, we were getting plowed out. On Saturday night, we went out to a big birthday party for a friend, and it was Edina-to-Edina travel, which meant we didn't hit an unplowed stretch. The next day, going to visit my dad to help decorate their Christmas tree, we got hung up by impassable roads thrice and had to back out and find other routes.

It is days like these that I'm happy we invested in Mister Marshmallow, the 4wd Hybrid. We left Clive the Jaguar in the driveway for the first 2 days, but by Monday the roads were clear enough for him to be fishtailing down the road without hitting any snowbanks.

It's amazing to realize that we've hit a month since I started working at the new client (3 weeks technically, but I got wrapped into some meetings while transitioning out of Cleveland). The marker was that my first day in, they were doing a 90-day pre-live assessment, and today I delivered the 60-day pre-live assessment. And the things I know now versus then... whew. To be sitting at the table explaining exactly what the issue is with the Blood and Marrow Transplant Workflows, and what our next steps are... it's pretty cool. In this time, I feel like I've been able to really help the project along - not with any sort of magic, but just in listening, understanding, carrying concerns forward, and helping think of solutions.

Though sometimes I do get a little frustrated. One of my pet peeves is technical people who hide behind jargon. I had a person today who was quite obviously not telling the whole story, and kept dropping little technical terms as to why we would need to make some serious changes to our project or PATIENT SAFETY WAS AT RISK. I was watching the clinical people at the table getting hopeless - they were thinking that OBVIOUSLY what this guy was saying was true, it was technically explainable. I finally unloaded on the guy, letting him know I DO know the tech, and I knew exactly what the problem REALLY was, and that he had 2 ways he could fix it, and that it's not acceptable to put my project at risk like this. He made a look like a fish gasping for water.

It's good to have geek mojo. So we're still on target for our golive in 60 days, and it's going to be tight, no question. But I'm still happy. Almost unreasonably so. People keep waiting for me to crack. They don't know that I've been to Cleveland. Speaking of there, the cut cord remains cut, and they haven't brought me in for anything, which is wonderful. I do still get notes from people I brought in there wondering if I'm in a better place and if I can help them. We shall see.

Speaking of geek (and fish, actually), my poor Macbook Air has a cracked hinge, so the screen flops limply around. Apple said it's a free fix, but it'll be 2-3 weeks. They wanted to hold onto it, but I can't live without a laptop, and while it would have been a wonderfully acceptable excuse for getting that cute tiny 11" Air, I just couldn't do it. What is this... responsibility? It feels weird.

Not LESS busy...

Hooo eeeee. The past 2 weeks have been a semi-blur. There WAS an airplane trip... I did a one-day in-n-out to Maryland for a possible assessment, which there's no way I'll be able to do in the next 3 months given the insane workload I have right now on the MAIN gig, plus we're trying to wrap up our assessment for Allentown too. BUT I haven't been to a hotel for 2 weeks, and that feels good.

Bella and I took a quick break from Harry Potter to finish up the Spiderwick Chronicles: That was a fun series, but there were some strange daddy things going on - having the big ogre pretend to be the kids' father was a bit alarming to Bella.... but we made it through. We're back on Potter. I note, as a bedtime reader, that JK Rowling has extended each chapter by 4-5 pages from books 1, 2, and 3. You can see she's writing to keep up with her evolving readership, but as a dad who is contending with "just one chapter???" I am worried... and will be prepping my voice with tea with lemon.

Isaac pretty much hasn't stopped jumping up and down since I came home 2 weeks ago. Literally, he's like a superball, bouncing on every surface. He's also in a very "chatterbox" phase, where he is gabbing nonstop, and if you try to let it just wash over you, he will stop and repeat what he is saying and repeat it again and DADDY ARE YOU LISTENING repeat it again until I grunt an acknowledgement. He's on fire right now, and he's getting up at 5:30-6 in the AM, so Mom and Dad are getting the show first thing.

Zinsser has finally accepted me back into the house: I think I was a "beloved visitor" for the past year, but now I'm a regular pack member. He's spending more time on my lap now.

And Pamela seems pretty happy to have me around. We've been cooking dinners together, watching Glee, and just hanging out. The house is a bit of a wreck because I think we're both still feeling like we're in mid-exhale. We'll get it together. Plus, we're in the seasonal changeover: We're moving from Turkeys to Christmas for the decorating theme. This decompression is also probably why I've been slow to blog... I'll get back on the stick.

It's been fun working locally - driving in to work has been wonderful, grabbing lunch up in Northeast... there's a lot to love. Great little restaurants like oBento-ya and Uncle Franky's... plus Surdyk's and the Bulldog...

One key thing I'm working out is that the project is definitely behind, and the people are definitely burned out, but I don't think there'll be a problem hitting our date - we can make it. The real problem is what will happen the day after we go live - there's not really a good model in place for support, and they saw that in spades after their first mini-golive 2 months ago. The teams aren't burned out from the work to deliver this new hospital, they're hung over from a support nightmare. That helps me know where to focus my energies - unfortunately, the support model isn't one I have full control over, so I'll just need to be a strong advocate for our team.

Well, no rest for the wicked. Time to get the kiddos ready: Isaac to Swimming, Bella to Church. We have our one and only "friends" Xmas party tonight - a traditional party with people Pamela worked with back when we were first together, so these are people who bring up back to the heady days of the apartment on Harriet and the duplex on Aldrich! History is a good thing.

Yep - it was a year almost exactly.

From a blog posting on 11/23/09:

"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...."

Interesting how that turned out, eh?

A Happy Birthday

Monday was my birthday - turned 43, and where does the time go? I feel like 42 was sucked out of me and left on the shores on Lake Erie... but there were good things in the year. It'll just take me a little time to think of them.

So how did I celebrate my birthday?

I got up early, had some peanut butter toast and 3 shots of expresso... hit the road and pulled up to the new client. I worked a full day, had a lot of meetings, got connected to my new teams... Had a quick lunch at Uncle Franky's northeast burger and dog shop. I was out the door at 5:30, and stopped on the way home at the King and I thai restaurant.

The family was waiting, and we all enjoyed some Pad Thai, Cream Cheese rolls, Mock Duck eggrolls, and whatever #34 is (chicken in spicy roasted pepper and cashew sauce). It was great. I read the kids stories lay with them to get to sleep, and turned in early.

It was a perfect day for me. I was in town, I had family time, I was with the new client... I know there's a TON of work needed for this project, but it't not impossible, and just being here was great.

Here's looking for a fun 43!

And the NEW.

While I have spent a couple of days at the new client, today was really my "landing day" - I'll be fully committed to them from here on out. And it was a GOOD day - I achieved everything I set out to do, and honestly, while it feels like a huge project, I feel really good about being able to help them get across the finish line.

This is an Epic project, and a lot of them were onsite this week to help with building the system... So I got to meet some of them.

One asked, somewhat shyly, if I was "the guy who blogged about Epic?". I confessed I was, and she lit up - "I KNEW it! We heard a new guy was coming in from Cleveland, and we all thought it was probably you!". It was quite the brush with celebrity... ;->

I can already tell that the team is just dynamite. I'm going to enjoy this gig... REALLY!

And not just because it's 5 minutes from Uncle Franky's.

The Change

This was it - the week it all changed. It was my last week in Cleveland.

Looking back, it was a bit of a ride: I started in December, and it was supposed to be 3 months, 50% onsite. By January, it had accelerated to every week onsite, and by February, I was in an interim Director role. I was supposed to be done by March, then May, then September... And each time, there looked like some glimmer of hope that I could go, and each time there was some circumstance that kept me in place.

I've complained in the past - but I'm done with that. It was work, and yes, there was severe and deep dysfunction in the client, but looking back, I don't know if it was WORSE than any other. The issue was that the core WORK I was doing was stressful at a time when me and the family were ready for me to come home. And the work itself after the start became a lot of people management. A LOT.

Last Friday I spent an hour on the phone with two of my team members, listening to their sides of a dispute, and recommending "communication strategies" to keep them both on the team and not killing eachother. It was a big team - almost 40 reported directly to me, over 70 on the whole team. 30 were contractors I was responsible for managing, so I also did a lot of travel approvals, room and car rate negotiations, explanation of the per diem policy... and the obligatory "being nice to their salespeople" thing. Actually that was pretty easy, having been on the other side. More than one told me I was the best client to work with they'd had in years, because I knew their life. If this was a local gig, I probably could have stuck with it, but add to this it was travel... it was too much.

Anyway, we set this week as my last week: The client was in fact no closer than they ever had been to replacing me... we were getting ready for another Lucy Football Pull, and another round of "gosh, what will we do - just 3 more months". Well, Bella and Isaac and Pamela let me know they had enough. It was really time to recognize that there IS no good time... and they needed me more. I agreed.

Happily I didn't have to leave my consulting company to make this work: We swapped me out for another person in the firm... someone who will do a great job taking them to the next stage. She's also a lot tougher than I am, and will probably leave a different impression with the team.

On Monday I had a going away party. My bosses gave me tearful hugs. Actual tearful hugs, and hugs without the back patting. It was a little odd, but hey. And I had co-workers toasting me, getting drunker and drunker and standing and making declarations like "JIM YOU ARE A GOOD MAN. A GOOD SOUL, AND WE ARE HONORED TO HAVE WORKED FOR YOU". It was like an irish wake... with me still out of the pine box. Fortunately the pub was just a couple of blocks from my hotel, so I was able to celebrate AND walk home.

The week was a whirlwind of activity. In the middle of the week, I actually had a big presentation for my client in Allentown too, a preliminary findings review that had me up to 1am drawing data flow pictures. And I tried to hit all of my favorite restaurants: Breakfasts at LA Pete's, Dunkin, the Hotel Lobby, and Starbucks. Lunches at Aladdin's, the Winking Lizard, and Heidi's deli. Dinners at Romano's (a good fill in for Geraci's), Lola, and Hoggy's. I missed a final visit to Taza (lebanese), and Mike's Cozmic Subs... but it was a good round-up.

The flight home was on time and uneventful. I had a good conversation with a woman who is also consulting in Cleveland, and knows some of the people I'll be working with in Minneapolis. She gave me some good info.

As the flight came in, for the first time, we approached from the north EAST, and circled around to South West, and back in to the airport. So it was a long orbit around downtown, which stayed just in view out my window on the left side of the plane. A lingering sight to say "welcome home".

I got home in time to read another chapter of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban to Bella (the chapter with the Knight Bus - we were laughing a lot at my attempt to do the cockney voice of the bus conductor). And it was good to be home.

Falling Apart

Since Thursday morning when the gig was finally and truly "got", Pamela and I have been threatening to have a "celebration" - let's open some champagne! Let's kick up our heels!

Hasn't really worked out that way yet: Thursday the kids were good and wound up and I didn't emerge from Bella's room until almost 10, and Pamela was already in bed. Friday, Pamela fell asleep on the couch while I was teaching Bella double-deck solitaire before 8pm. About 4 sips were taken from the bottle of bubbly we did open.

Today, the exhaustion perhaps was explained, as she was laid low mid-afternoon by a stomach flu.

Still, if we're going to be doing nothing, it's a great day to do it: Huge heavy snow fell across the area, and the trees and power lines were ill prepared. We lost a gorgeous tree across the street, and there were fallen branches everywhere, plus the odd live wire.

The Jaguar proved it's complete ineptness in snow yet again, and I went through my annual "I'm SELLING THIS THING and buying a 4x4" rant (I love the car 350 days of the year, but those other 15 I hate it a whole lot). But I did need to use the car, as Pamela took Bella to Synchro swimming in the AM, and I finally took Isaac to the doctor to see about his rampant mucus (like 10 days of runny nose and phlegmy cough). The doctor assured me it wasn't pneumonia - likely just some bacteria who are having a long party in his sinuses and need to get spanked with some antibiotics. So Isaac is on the meds, and conked out.

Bella and Jenny are having a sleepover tonight: Bella is right now sewing together a bear from felt that she designed and cut out, and is now stuffing and stitching. And sewing buttons on for eyes, which are huge, mismatched, and mental. She's wonderful.

I think it's about time for me to ship those girls up off to bed now...

Things to report...

Sorry for going quiet on the blog these past weeks - there have been things afoot that I have been afraid to announce prematurely or jinx, but I'm ready now.

Part One: I made the decision that I needed to get off the road no matter what, and started the process with Cleveland. I didn't have anything else lined up, but we set an end-date, which is next Friday, Nov 19. Of course Cleveland was shocked and unhappy, but I feel that my reason is really unassailable: Traveling has been too hard on my family (and on me), and it's not what I want to do. If I was leaving to go to another traveling gig, I think they would be right to be peeved. But I'm getting OFF the airplane thing.

So in that light, Cleveland has shown some good colors, and everyone has been wonderfully supportive. I'm still feeling a bit conflicted - like somehow I'm supposed to have been able to "tough this out", but it was just too hard. On everyone.

Part Two: Having made that decision, I finally decided to find a local gig: I did this back in May when I thought I was leaving the first time, and had several good gigs lined up, and had to back away from them. So until I really knew I was leaving, I didn't want to get anyone started.

Fortunately, it was only a few days into looking that I found something: A big health system in the Twin Cities is going Epic, and they FIRED a key project manager, and the team is somewhat dispirited, and there's an immoveable deadline. I would point you to the blog postings surrounding summer 2006 for a similar engagement in North Minneapolis, and how I was able to deliver on that.

So I did a phone screen 2 weeks ago, went in for an in-person interview on Monday, got the job and was asked to start Wednesday (I'm working from Mpls this week). On Tuesday they called and said there was one more person I needed to interview, so could I come in on Thursday instead? SURE. I interviewed Thursday, and got an email asking me to come in at 1pm for the rest of the day.

And so I am officially "on the job". And happily, it's a clinically-focused project, instead of Revenue Cycle, so I actually will have more fun with it. At the same time, I'm wrapping up Cleveland this next week (my final trip out!), so I have two jobs - always a good time... And I start my birthday week fresh with just the one job, and no airplanes needed.

Two other advantages to this gig: When I've needed to do little one-day trips to New Orleans or Allentown, it has always been tough arranging travel to Cleveland, then to these places (and always via Detroit), then back. My one-shots will be a lot easier from this Delta Hub. Plus the place I'm starting uses the ROWE (Results Oriented Work Environment) philosophy, which means "we don't care where you are as long as the work is getting done". So conference calls won't be a problem.

And I don't think that planning around a 1 night trip every 2-3 weeks to one of my little strategic gigs is inconsistent with "getting off the road" - the ROAD I'm trying to get off is the one where I'm away 3 nights and 4 days from my family every dang week.

With the decision made and the safe landing spot found, I must say that my stress level is just plummeting. And I'm having a lot more fun with the kids - I can step outside myself and see that for months, my Fri-Sat-Sun time with them was tinged with a sadness of trying to "fit this in" before heading away again. This week, the fun has been less "pressured" - like "we're just hanging out like we always do, and always will". It's a subtle difference, but it feels wonderful.

I'll make it through this week in Cleveland. Things are getting better. They ARE better.

Bella's Art Show

A spontaneous thing this week at School:

Bella and her classmates were all doing art, and Bella issued a challenge that they should all do pictures of monsters/aliens. So everyone did, except for some kids who wanted to do other things, so Bella said "ok, it's just anything you want to do, but it's a grand contest". Everyone nominated Bella to be the judge, so the kids all gave Bella their art work, and she brought it home for judging.

She was worried about ranking them first to last, but said not to worry, her piece would take last place because it wouldn't be fair otherwise. But then she got the idea that instead of ranking them, she'd find something that each picture was "best" of - most colorful, craziest eyes, most hearts, longest tongue, and she'd do the awards that way.

She spent a lot of time coming up with the awards, and brought her first batch of judged works back to school.

But instead of making a big deal out the contest, she just put the results into the kid's take home shelves, for them to find at the end of the day.

And of course, everyone is giving her more and more artwork for the contest, and Bella loves being asked her opinion.

There are a few things I love:
1) Bella organized this.
2) Bella decided to accentuate the positive and look for the good in everything
3) Bella didn't want to use this for any glory - she just popped them into the boxes. She doesn't even know what people's reactions are.

This whole thing just has made me so happy and proud of my girl.

My Dream Job

I had the following dream last night. Analysis is welcome, but not required.

I have been called by one of my partners (Dan C) in my company to meet him at a large house in New Hampshire for a consulting gig. Dan and I sit down with a man, who is very concerned: His daughter is at college and he's afraid she may get herself into trouble - she needs role model and cautionary tale wrapped into one.

So my assignment is to dress up as a teenage girl, enroll in this college, and befriend his daughter. But I will also be pregnant, so that I can be a warning to her about the dangers of fast living in college. It's a 3 month gig, and when can I start?

I look to Dan and say "really, me? I don't look very good as a girl" (which is something in real life Pamela has told me more than a few times). Dan raises his eyebrows and says "look at our company - who else do we have?"

And so I start to work out the logistics - if I'm living in a girl's dorm, how will I secretly shave? When will I put on my pregnancy pillow? How will I get up to speed on the music these kids like these days? Will this work?

Fortunately I woke up before this scheme got out of the planning stages.

Back to last week...

I'm sitting at the pool while Bella gets going with Synchronized Swimming, and am thinking about where I was just one week ago...

Where we left off was a great week, leading into the weekend:
We got up early and started the 13 block walk from Canal street to the funky arts area on Frenchman Street. We met the whole gang and set out on a guided tour of New Orleans neighborhoods on cruiser bikes (single speed, fat tires, comfy seats). We visited the artsy neighborhoods, the upper ninth ward, Treme,, and skirted through part of the French Quarter too: We talked about the history and culture of the area, learned some things about Katrina, architecture, and more... In 3 hours we only rode about 8 miles total, but we snaked through areas that were beautiful and rich in culture, but off of the beaten path. We all agreed this was maybe one of the best tours we'd ever been on.

If you're ever down there, these guys are worth every penny: The Confederacy of Cruisers

Pamela and I sort of forgot that the bike tour was taking place OUTSIDE, so we didn't properly apply sunscreen. We were good and red by the end. We all set out to find lunch, and were stymied time after time to find a table for our group of nine... So after 45 min of trying, we agreed to split up and catch as catch can.

Of course within 15 minutes, we were all at the same restaurant, sitting at two tops and the counter, mere feet from one another. It was pretty amusing.

In the evening, we piled into a cab (literally - it was 10 of us in one minivan cab, sitting on laps), and headed to the Garden District. After a little walkaround, we had dinner. An aperitif on the menu I couldn't pass up: BACON INFUSED BOURBON. It was actually pretty delicious, but you don't want to think too hard about how it was done.

To close the evening, we went back up to Frenchman St to the Spotted Cat (or the "Potted Cactus" as I malaproped) jazz club, where the brass band was veering between T-Bone Burnett style "brother where art thou" country jazz numbers and wild Klezmer songs, with the crowd breaking into impromptu hora dancing.

It was a raucous end of a fun week, and it was the "perfect" New Orleans music experience to end the night on (much better than the burlesque from the night before). We stayed FAR FAR away from Bourbon Street on our walk home, to keep the good feeling going.

Sunday we slept in and had a nice late breakfast at the Stanley restaurant off of Jackson Square, then met up with Papa who had driven for two straight days to attend a conference down there plus do some pro-bono gold leaf work for a church. We wandered through some royal street antique stores, and parted ways for us to head to the airport.

We got home, with Isaac asleep and Bella waiting up for us. I got to cuddle her to sleep, and it recharged my batteries.

At least until I got up at 4am to head back to the airport for my week in hell. But that's another update.

One of those amazing weeks

We had our company retreat in New Orleans this week, and it was incredible. Mon and Tues, I worked remote for Cleveland, and flew to NO in the afternoon... and we had our first great dinner together - the 9 principals of the company. The hotel was a funky french quarter place - not very luxurious, but functional. My room faced Decateur so I had a fair amount of traffic noise coming in the window, plus some late afternoon jazz wafting in ruining my naps.

Wednesday was an all day retreat for the Principals, where we went over all sorts of operational and strategic STUFF. In the evening, the rest of the company showed up (26 more consultants!), and we had a fine dinner at Mr B's - we had a private room that we filled with laughter and increasingly loud conversations. At the end, half of the crowd went out the door to the left (back to the hotel) and half went to the right... toward Bourbon Street.

Oh, Bourbon Street, you scalawag. It is drunk disneyland, and just depressing, but if you get a few into you, it becomes sort of fun. We finished the night at Pat O'Brien's dueling piano room, and a hurricane was purchased and no surprises a headache followed on Thursday AM. Not TOO bad, but boy, those sweet drinks are just a bad idea. BAD BAD BAD idea.

Thursday we started the formal "retreat" for all of the associates - going over the company goals and getting into some educational sessions. We had a great keynote speaker - the CIO of the Cayman Islands Health System. The guy is a visionary who has been in a lot of leading practice places (including building one of the first successful healthcare data warehouses), and he shared his time generously.

Thursday night was another dinner out at Maximo's Italian Grill on Decateur (1 block from our hotel). We were hanging out on the gallery overlooking the street, and had a nice long dinner... but I needed to duck out early, because I had a very important visitor... GOOGY!!!

Pamela flew in Thursday evening, and so I raced to the hotel to see her. It was nice to have her here.

Friday AM, we woke up early and schlepped our stuff down the street (ok, 10 blocks) to the JW Marriott, stopping briefly for some chicory coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde. The JW was accommodating, letting us check in at 8am (!!!) and upgrading our room... which I was paying for with points anyway - FREE ROOM! Then I was back to the meeting, while Pamela had a nap, then some spa appointments, then some antiquing.

The session on Friday was again wonderful: We had a panel of 3 CIOs for whom we do work come and talk about their challenges and how people like us are ideally helpful. It was one hour of structured Q&A, and then they hung out for another hour for chatting - and that was just amazing access for us to have. BTW - Not by plan, but they were Cerner and Siemens site CIOs, not Epic...

Friday night the consultants were on their own, and leadership went to dinner at Bayona... but and afterwards went to a formal hotel ballroom on Bourbon Street where some very average Jazz was being served up... we were sort of checking our watches, but the owner of our company seemed happy there, so we were willing to give a little time... and then things took an unexpected turn: The show turned into a burlesque - dancers on boxes throughout the room, with the band playing blues stomps while the ladies slowly did striptease... the end result was a g-string and pasties, so it was strictly PG13, but it was just funny, because the ladies were totally hamming it up and bringing a lot of character. It was a situation where we were all at first confused, then annoyed (we don't as a rule like going to strip clubs) and then amused.

Saturday was another day, but I need to post later - it's time for breakfast.

Walking in Philly

Last night, out with some buddies in Philly, I passed an "Edible Arrangements" store and was stopped dead in my tracks by the poster in the window:

NASCAR FRUIT ARRANGEMENTS

Now don't be scared to click that link: Edible Arrangements just does fruit - they're not some sort of erotic edible clothing company or anything. But do be scared of the link because somehow they are selling fruit arrangements with a NASCAR theme.

I don't have language to tell you about how strange that is. Also, I'm not really the biggest Nascar guy, but I'm pretty sure that when you're trying to feature cars with different drivers, they're not all the same black and white checkered car with a number sticker on the door: The whole thing with Nascar is the bright unique colors of the cars. I know this because I have watched the movie CARS 86 times.

Oh god, I just pulled the number 86 out of my head, and yes, it's the car number for "bad guy" car Chick Hicks from the movie. The movie CARS.

I am ready for bed now.

801!!!

Somehow my last post passed by without my realizing it was number 800. That's quite a bit of Blog, people.

I'm in Philly right now waiting to get on the plane home: I was out here revisiting with the team I did work for last year in the Cardiac Center: It turns out that they are looking for some help getting my recommendations from last year moving: There were some management changes, a few other projects were delayed, and the bottom line is that things are ALMOST exactly where they were when I left. But I think we can get them back on track.

I had 4 hours of meetings, and will be preparing some statements of work (with the plan being I manage and direct the work remotely with some controllable hands on site). But I just felt ENERGIZED and excited - talking about clinical projects again... and imaging technology, it fired off all my geek neurons and I've been giddy all day.

I'm also a little giddy because I can't wait to get home and cuddle the family AND watch On the Road with Austin and Santino, which is my "happy place" show. I really want to be Austin when I grow up. Also on the media, Fringe continues to not-disappoint - it just keeps being amazing. If you're not watching it, I got nothing to say to you. Just watch it.

So in sort of an anti-Jimmy thing: You'll recall that I got "caught" saying NICE things about a company, and mild embarrassment ensued, but it was all nice (though I haven't heard back on any possible "next steps"... Epic....). Anyway, I got an email from a friend who wanted to know what he should do: A contractor on HIS project has left a series of frankly immature comments on his Facebook page about the project and the client. It's not even "abstracted" the way I do with my posts.

I don't have any good advice, but I need to share the awesome quote from my friend: "(D)on't live your life out loud and then wonder what went wrong when somebody pays attention to it." Good words in this public age. From now on, I'm going to even substitute the CITY NAME in my updates.

Well, can't wait to head back to AKRON.

The I in Interim

Ok. A Cleveland Post. FINE.

My position is interim - a full time employee is the budgeted resource, but they've had trouble finding someone qualified. You need to want to live in Cleveland, and right now the skillset they want is VERY in demand across the country - a person who is not already living here with the right skills can really have their pick of cities to move to if they want to be an FTE. Or if they want to consult, it's even better.

So when you have a resource who actually lives in town, and has the right skills, AND wants to work for you, you move on them. And so it was that I was sitting in an interview this morning with this candidate, who is a bright, dynamic, and very very qualified person. My thought is, ask some questions, but definitely also SELL the position a bit.

I didn't get much of a chance to because the two other people in the interview (my boss, and a peer) dominated the discussion, even preventing the candidate from answering questions at times. And at two separate points, the two actually sidetracked into several minutes of arguments about technical details, while I watched in dismay. My attempts to redirect were brushed off, and I gave the candidate the old "raised eyebrows" meaning "I tried".

At least the candidate got a full show of what to expect from the environment. I left the interview both happy that a good candidate was found, and worried that she'd never come back again.

I am hopeful, however. Because there's so much I want to do in the world, and I really want them to find their permanent person - they need it so much!

Whirlwind

Somehow it's Tuesday and I'm back in Cleveland, comme d'habitude. It was such a busy weekend I can scarcely recall it all, but there was Circus School, the Children's Museum, a celebration of a friend's Doctorate (with a bit of good whisky), a neighborhood BBQ (with the kids running around late again), a few hours at a laundromat washing I believe everything we own, mowing, raking, and two celebrations for Bella's B-Day. Plus Bella got to go see the 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.

It was a crazy 48 hours. I fear more detail is beyond my scope right now... but I will offer some images:

1) Bella got a whoopee cushion for her Birthday and she basically thought it was the funniest thing she had ever encountered ever. She was making EVERYTHING fart, and I was game too - until she slipped it under me with the flap tucked under, and I POPPED it. It made her laugh even harder, but I was about to cry. We got her another one.

1a) The cushion I broke was the old school flat one, but we replaced it with a "self inflating" one. Now, I'm not sure these new fangled whoopee cushions are capable of the same level of juicy flatus and the old school, but we'll see. I think the quality of the toot can be offset by the rapid reset and ability to generate MORE toots per minute.

2) Bella got Yahtzee for her B-Day. We rocked a game, and it was awesome. I love that game.

3) She also got the BOOK for Bartholomew Cubbins, and I read it a couple of times. I'm still trying to work out if there's a good message in this book... yes, there's the basic "stuff happens" premise about how bad things can happen for no reason. There's also an endorsement of the unreasonable behavior of the king - he's never called out for being wrong about the hats, and in the end he is rewarded for his persistent unreasonableness with a beautiful treasure. And I guess the lesson for Bartholomew is if you just quietly submit to power, eventually there's a reward for you.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

4) In spite of it all, we did take some breaks. Some naps were taken, hugs were given and received. Love was all around.

Ready for home!

Bella turns EIGHT tomorrow, and I'm catching an early flight home to meet her at the bus and have Taco Night... and maybe just maybe start Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It has been a busy busy week: I was at the office for 12 hours - 7:30 to 7:30, and I was neither the first person there, nor the last to leave. People are just killing themselves on this project, and there's 9 months to go before our first golive. That said, I'm still hoping to be in a "reduced role" by Thanksgiving.

I also had a kickoff meeting for the work in Allentown today: A bit of a rough start to the call: I thought it was an executive steering committee and I'd field a few questions. It wound up being a clinical work team and they were right out the gate with tough questions, and my "high level presentation" was useless. This was SUPPOSED to be for coordination for the actual project start in 3 weeks. Sigh. Add to this, my project sponsor was on PTO today, so I had no backup in the room. By the end, it was all smiles, however. At least I think they were smiling - I was on the phone.

For lunch, I made Mother Earth cry: I got a peanut butter sandwich from the deli downstairs. The bread was wrapped in cellophane. The peanut butter and jelly were in small plastic containers. There was a plastic knife for spreading, and the whole thing was in a plastic clamshell container. Seriously, a ghost pelican swooped down on me.

Actually - if you remember my story about my pet Turkey Vulture outside my window... there a new visitor: A blue jay likes to drop by and peck on the window until I notice, then cock his head and fly away. He's done it for a few days now. I think he's trying to tell me something.

By 3pm, the PBJ was not holding the hunger back, and strangely, a coworker started sending a series of emails talking about wanting/needing a Whopper. After 30 minutes of these strange messages (including google maps of the closest BK), he burst in and declared he needed a Whopper RIGHT NOW and did I want him to bring me one? Swept up in the madness, I shouted YES YES YES I want a Whopper!!!

20 minutes later I halfheartedly choked down a Whopper. Damn, those are terrible sandwiches.

Final note for the night: Rick and Kari, parents of Bailey and Ty are empty nesting in the most wonderful way: They now have a new iMac and TWO iPads. They're emailing me from coffee shops and talking about App Store apps. The kids going to college has, in their words "turned their brains and wallets to mush". I think they should just keep on having fun. I just think "wow, that's me and Pamela in 14 years!"

And it's off to bed - early morning tomorrow - want to get a lot done at "the office" before heading home to see the family I love.

So much...

There are some weekends where I feel like I'm cramming a whole week of parenting into two days, and boy is that getting old. I love this time, and I love every second I'm spending with the family, but I leave on Monday AM just SPENT. So what did we do this weekend?

Friday night, Pamela and I got to go out and have a date for her Birthday. We had fish and chips at The Cooper, then passed a romantic hour meandering through Costco. It was actually sort of dreamy... lingering in the office supplies comparing bulk packages of sharpies, without wondering where Isaac had run off to. Grandma had the kids, and by the time we came home, there was a good leaf pile raked on the lawn, and the kids were red cheeked and happy. And pelting us with handfuls of leaves, giggling...

On Saturday AM, I went with Isaac to Circus Juventas classes: this is a full hour class for 16 kids between 3-4 years old. It's structured 15 minutes of warmup, then 3 "stations" rotating for 10-12 minutes each, then 5 minute cooldown. The stations vary by week: This week, it was a balance beam obstacle course, a tumbling trampoline, and the trapeze. Last week it was silk loops (swinging), the german wheel, and a somersault run. First week it was a balance ball, iron hoops (hanging, sitting inside), and basic juggling. Isaac is a very happy boy at these classes, and they do a great job with the kids, keeping a 1:4 student ratio at the stations.

Isaac's favorite thing so far? The silks, actually - he hung in a cocoon for a while and he loved it.

After school, we spent some time walking around the neighborhood, and then Bella and I sat down to to enjoy the movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. We finished the book last week, and I promised we'd watch the movie... and we loved it. But where last time, Bella suggested we just watch the movies, this time, she acknowledged that without having read the book, that movie would have been WAY too scary for her. As it was, I got some good cuddles during the Basilisk scenes. Isaac was having NONE of it: He is a movie sissy and doesn't like many surprises in his media. He kept hollering from the top of the stairs "IS THE MOVIE STILL ON? WHEN WILL IT BE OVER???" Bella and I agreed to start Book 3 next week... and no we won't be watching "The Prisoner of Azkaban" until we're done with the book, which will probably be sometime in January.

After the movie, we had dinner at our new favorite - Pizza Luce in Hopkins. Then the whole neighborhood came together for a bonfire and desserts. The kids were running around with flashlights in the dark and whooping it up in the cool evening, and we all came home smelling of wood smoke. Of course our neighbor Ryan tried some new food experiments on us - we gladly overstuffed ourselves with his BBQ Empenadas. The whole evening was wonderful.

Today Pamela and Bella were off to church, and Isaac and I went to his swim lesson. After a short afternoon home, we were BACK to the Foss Swim School for his "friends and neighbors" birthday party. Two hours - one in the pool, one with the presents and the cake. Isaac was pretty tired actually, and I had to jump in the water to make him comfortable... but it was all fun. We finished the night at "The Nexus" - which is my name for a building that has both a Chipotle (for Bella) and a Smashburger (for the rest of us). Isaac was possessed by some maniac urge, and took my onion rings and plowed them into his mouth by the handful, with a wild look in his eye. It was a little disturbing.

After a bath, those kids were out FAST. It was a long weekend. And I'm just holding on... doing my best to blog.

Onto other things:
1) I love numbering my posts.
2) Angry Birds for the iPhone and iPad is a terrible terrible wonderful addictive thing. I have been playing with every free moment I get.
3) Fringe WAS that good. Dang it, that's a wonderful show.
4) I have an idea of how I might be able to work with those nice people at Epic, and will be sending a note along tomorrow. Watch this space.

And with that, I'm off to bed (maybe one more taste of that Caol Ila 12). Cleveland, I'll be seeing YOU in the AM as well.

Gunshy

Whew... that was interesting. I guess my last post was circulated around the very company I was saying I really really really liked, so I've actually been a little nervous about posting... pressure to make it "good", or something. Fortunately, I think I've made it past that, and am ready to go back to my usual.

1) I'm psyched beyond belief for Fringe tonight. I say to all out there, if you haven't watched Fringe before, and are leery about getting started, go find last week's episode - it actually gives you loads of context and backstory, and you can just run from there. Then strap in for the rest of this season. I did a post about "arcs" a few months back, about how heavily plot-arc'ed shows are rewarding for the long term viewer but alienating to the casual viewer... Well, Fringe has basically said "yep - we're an arc, but we're taking you ALL someplace new, so here's what you missed, and now you know". And the possibilities this season are pretty big.

2) I know I've done this before, but I'm sort of gravitating back toward language study again: On my way out to Verona, I did a 4 hour brush up on my Dutch. It was very fun, but then I didn't run into any of the Dutch people at Epic. ANNOYING. I have two things to say about Dutch:
- I love making all of those gutteral Gs. Hrrrrragh!
- It completely ruins your ability on German. Dutch is hard where German is soft, and vice versa. "I" is "Ick" (hard K) vs "ich" (gutteral). And "happily" is graag (gutteral H, rolled R, ah, gutteral H), vs Gern (Hard G). Other geekier examples will not be provided in the interest of not going there.

3) Kvetch as I may about Cleveland, I have grown to love "Cleveland Style Pizza". Between Geraci's and Romito's, I can't get enough of the sweet sauce and the chewy crust. When I was in Florida, I had Anthony's COAL FIRED Pizza. Coal. You don't get a good aroma or flavor from burning a fossil fuel, but somehow the whole thing worked out. Did you know my first word spelled on the fridge was Pizza?

That tale may be apocryphal, and I'm sure Anonymous Poster #1 will set me straight. I just don't know if the magnetic alphabet set had multiple Z's. Like Scrabble. Maybe I repurposed an "N". I feel bad that the fridge in our house has a wooden, non-magnetic front. My kids were deprived the alphabet letter thing. So I compensated with an iPad.

4) I stayed late at the office today after the rest of the consultants took off, and it was wild to be in such an empty office. TWO people came into my office to turn off the light and were shocked to see me still at my desk. Got some good conversations in too. 5-7pm is apparently when the "real decisions" get made. I'm on the 6am flight Friday - can't wait to get home.

Pamela had her birthday on Tuesday, and it was hard to miss that... It was several days of my not being able to use my unappreciated "cradle robber" taunt, until my birthday in November. Fortunately we do "birthday weeks", so we're going out Friday night, plus there s a very nice flower arrangement in the house I sent. We're also having Isaac's birthday party at the swim school - swimming and cupcakes, oh my!

And that's the update. I have some writing to do (a white paper on the potential of the iPad in clinical settings, and another on Personal Health Records). Plus my Fringe. Plus digesting that Cleveland Style Pizza. Plus....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

An Epic Week

While I usually keep things "no names, no companies" (except for movies, books, and music that I enjoy), I want to share something about the week I just had. One of the pieces of software I've been implementing at various sites including in Cleveland is "Epic". Epic is a full suite of hospital and physician management software tools, based around a centralized patient record. They have inpatient EMR, pharmacy, radiology, billing, ambulatory practice management, operating room, anesthesia, opthamology, and many more modules.

And people LOVE it. They are the fastest growing software company out there in this market space, and when we hear about someone NOT going Epic, there are usually a bunch of extenuating circumstances they're tied into. Is it the BEST software? Not necessarily... really what CAN be? But they have some clear advantages:

The company was founded by a software developer in 1979 and has grown organically. The founder is still in charge, and is fiercely independent. They build everything, they never acquire other companies. They are privately held and always will be. They build what they want to build, and their customers help them improve it. . Every person in the organization has an office. With a door. So they keep building offices in a cornfield in Verona. Anyone can approach the founder and she's on a first name basis with everyone.

They don't have a professional services arm: While a lot of companies sell you the software for a song then sell you the services to maintain it, Epic won't go there: Their software costs $X and that's non-negotiable. There is one way to have it cost less, and that is for you to HIRE as employees people on your staff who can maintain it. If you meet certain "self sufficiency" criteria, you can get a discount on your annual fees.

Every year, their customers attend one conference, held by Epic in their Verona Wisconsin location. It is well attended partially because you need to send people as a part of the annual discount, but also because it is a great way to re-connect with the community. CIOs, CFOs, and Directors from every single customer make the trek, as do their core support teams.

Now, let's put a different hat on here: Epic doesn't sell services, and they encourage clients to be self sufficient. This has spelled an excellent opportunity for consultants to staff these projects. I'm one of those, as are a few people in my firm. The company I left last year dealt exclusively in Epic staffing. So if you're in this business, you must know that UGM is an amazing opportunity to connect with potential customers.

So that's where I was last week - hanging out in Verona. My name badge looked like any other customer's, and I struck up conversations with people at many clients. Of course I was also wearing the hat of my current client, so I'd say that easily 80% of my conversations were actually tactical with peers... but there were 20% that were pure mining, and there are some definite opportunities I'll be following up on.

But more than the potential opportunities, something else struck me this year: This company impresses the heck out of me. They're so focused on a true mission, not beholden to shareholders, just trying to make a good product, and it's WORKING. They are the tool of choice across the country and even internationally. They try things out, they listen to their customers, and they aren't afraid to learn. They have an open culture that respects individual contribution.

It feels like a place I'd want to belong. Of course there are downsides. You need to live in Madison. No exceptions. There's a lot of travel, but it's here and there, not all one place. There's an expectation of dedication and hard work... but that's something I bring anyway.

The bottom line is that I'm thinking about what I could bring to them... maybe it is just that I continue to be a good partner on the outside, someone they can trust to install their software well (as I already am). But maybe there is something for me inside. Maybe. Just thinking about it.

Cats and Lizards!

Ah, beautiful Broward County. So many little lizards everywhere. And so many feral cats.

I pulled up to the hotel and saw three little kittens hop up off of the sidewalk and scoot into the bushes... while Momma Cat drew herself up into not really an aggressive, nor defensive posture, but sort of a "well what are YOU looking at?" sort of pose. Momma cat is a one eyed cat, and a bug-eyed one at that - her one eye was HUGE and staring. I felt like she was a cyclops... or a basilisk trying to freeze me.

I stayed a little longer than polite, since I heard my mom singing the "One Eyed Cat" song... which I don't even know if it's a real song, but it was always fun..

"Ah'm a one eyed cat! Sneaking 'round the corner... tryin' to get to you! I'm gonna GETCHA, when you least expect me to!" This song was usually "rapped", which just establishes our family as trend setters. I think that "Uncle Gil" who hung around in the early 1970s might have been spoken word pioneer Gil Scot Heron. Or maybe not.

And boy do I love all the little newts and efts and who knows what else - those little lizards are adorable. And EVERYWHERE. At least they're not in my room.

More like FART Lauderdale

Traveling to Fort Lauderdale tonight – I’m spending the week at the first hospital we’ll be implementing. And no, there's nothing stinky here, I just wanted to say Fart. MOVING ON. It’s a political mission to build relationships, which is a funny thing, since we’re actively trying to get me OUT of this client, so any relationship building I’ll be doing will have very little benefit to anyone. But it gets me out of Cleveland. And if you’re wondering, the reason I’m doing this is that we needed SOMEONE down there, and I already travel. Sending one of the rest of the team would have required travel authorizations and budget scrutiny. I’m the easy option.

(And yes, there is movement on the “getting Jim out of Cleveland” front – the client has crossed over from total denial of my ever leaving to provisionally thinking about a replacement… It is movement forward. Stay tuned.)

I’m flying on a “real” airplane for this trip. I’m in the big dog, a 757, up in First Class, enjoying a ginger ale in a glass made out of glass. It’s the little things. It’s a million times better than the little regional jet that I’ve logged almost 50,000 miles on this year so far.

I had an hour to kill in Atlanta, so I loaded up the iPod with the new Devo album: I remembered they had a new one because they were on Yo Gabba Gabba and the kids were shouting “Hey, look! It’s MARK!” – Mark Mothersbaugh has a recurring guest role on the show doing artwork, and they were thrilled to see him with a flowerpot hat singing “This is how we work it” (edit: original post had "This is what we do" - different song!). Anyway, the album is very throw-back and fun to listen to. And the 135 bpm tempo is good work “purposeful walking”.

(And if you're tracking the meta here: My children informed/reminded me of the existence of a new album by an 80's band I loved. The torch is passed)

I took a moment to sit in a bar to do some emails, and turned the music off to concentrate… there was a TV blaring, and I heard superdramatic music, with a voiceover “We’re taking detective drama to the next level”.. and assorted other dramatic hard-ass talk – I looked up and saw a soft focus girl riding an escalator, all smiles, looking at her phone… it took a while for me to figure out there was ANOTHER TV behind me that was the source of the cop show talk, and what I was watching was a cellphone ad. But for a minute, the juxtaposition was pleasantly jarring.

It reminded me of once when I came home in college to find my roommate Erik with a glass of bourbon, blaring Throbbing Gristle “Hamburger Lady” (industrial noise if you aren’t familiar) while watching The Dating Game with the sound off. I just looked, shrugged, and went to bed. In retrospect, Erik may have needed a hug at that moment. I let him down.

Oh, family updates: Bella and Isaac are back in school: Bella is my big Second Grader now, and she’s very happy to be back in her “zone”. But she’s tired and crabby at the end of the day too. Ship her off to bed with a full stomach and move on. Isaac is back to several days a week of preschool, and he’s full of stories about his classes too. He’s overtired too, and every single night at 2am sharp he wakes up, walks into the bedroom, and kicks me out so he can cuddle with mommy. I’m getting pretty used to comfort on an Ikea twin mattress.

ooooooooffffffffff

Don't know exactly why but I decided tonight to go to a Japanese Steak House. Something about a little sushi and a lot of table cooked meat sounded good. And it was pretty good, but I'm way too full now.

I sat at a table with two guys from Oklahoma, who were nice enough but sad I wasn't able to dish about sports, oh they WANTED to talk about Brett Favre. They had Mountain Dew with their shrimp hibachi. Our chef did a couple of small tricks but was pretty much all business. He was Taishanese, which is a southern region of China, not far from Hong Kong, which was the source of a LOT of Chinese in the 1840s in the Gold Rush. He complimented me on my Mandarin (they speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taishanese there), but let me know that the only people who call the Chinese Language "Puh-ton-qua" (the people's tongue) are government, so I should stick with "han-yu". Good to know: Pimsleur taught Puhtonqua, so I'll refrain from it.

Going to chill out a little before writing up a statement of work for my friends in Allentown PA for a little work... But perhaps I could just close my eyes for a few minutes to freshen up.

Jimmy's Tech Corner

1) I've gone a couple of days without shaving, and decided to take care of it this AM: We were OUT of my preferred Gillette Fusion 5+1 blade cartridges, so I went OLD SKOOL and rocked the Mach3. What, only 3 blades? What is this, Stalinist RUSSIA?

I gotta say that it was way BETTER: That little head stayed closer to my angular face curves and the shave was closer. It was like going from an SUV to a BMW 3 series. I wouldn't go all the way to say sports car, but it got the job done. So people, I'm here to say that you may not NEED the new Gillette 15 blade contraption. Mach3 did just fine by me. People you can get off of the upgrade train. Now, to completely reverse myself:

2) Pamela's phone was dying. Battery was down to a day, and mysterious white lines were criss-crossing the screen... I had to take action. So we got iPhone4s. We qualified for the upgrade, so it was a cheap move... and I love love love this phone. In fact, I have to say that the camera on it is actually a bit better than the Canon Supershots I've been using. I used it exclusively at the Fair yesterday and got amazing pictures and videos. Plus, in lower light situations, the white LED is much kinder to the photo subjects than a flash. I took a couple of A/B pics, Canon to iPhone, and the iPhone was nicer in all cases. Bella loves doing video chats from other rooms in the house with Facetime. Plus, HD Video, which came in handy yesterday....

3) I swapped out the insides of one of our toilets with one of those new two-stage flush systems - one button for mini-flush, one button for maxi-flush. The idea is that you use 1/3 of the water of a normal flush for your "pee only" flushes. They say it will pay for itself in water savings, but I just like the idea of saving thousands of gallons of water.

To celebrate, I donned a purple wig and sunglasses and a falsetto voice and used my iPhone4 to shoot a short video for the kids as "Mother Nature" showing them how the new toilet flusher works. I shot 5 scenes, loaded iMovie on the phone, edited it together with crossfades, added a techno soundtrack, and published the finished work. The kids watched it over and over, laughing. But it also got the message across. And it took all of 10 min to shoot and edit, and I was like a PRODUCER. Supercool.

And no, this video will not be on the internet.

Fashion Plate

Bella's hair. She hasn't let us cut it for about a year, and it's been getting long... and snarly. A low point of every day was approaching her with detangler and brush in hand and hearing the whining start. She has gorgeous thick blonde hair, but most days, it was matted and insane. We did ponytails and braids, but it was a mess.

Part of her goal was to grow it long enough to donate to "Locks of Love", so we were going for a 12" ponytail that could get snipped. The issue then became that yes, we want 12" on the ponytail, but she wanted shoulder length hair at the end of the process, so how long is that hair going to be again?

Long story short, we were able to get a 9" ponytail, with hair just at the shoulders. Snip snip. And then a transformation happened.

She's been brushing her hair with a beatific look on her face. Happy to be brushing without snarls. When we got home from the fair, she grabbed her shampoo and conditioner and said "I've got to get the fair out of this hair!". Plus, she started taking a closer look at her wardrobe and discussing color coordination options for hair bands. It's as though cutting that hair released a GIRL who was sort of stewing inside... she's gone all girly girl.

We're only 2 days into this, but it was such a stark difference in attitude, poise, and habit that I had to make a comment.

Just back from the Fair

Ah, the MN State Fair, the annual tradition. We had planned to go on any number of other days, but with my head cold earlier in the weekend, today was pretty much "do or die" day. So we did. And wow.

Usually we go early in the season, and early in the day. Today was smack in the middle of a holiday weekend, and we went in the afternoon. The swarm of humanity was incredible, and I caught myself a couple of times mildly hyperventilating. Fortunately, Isaac was a bit intimidated by the crowds, so he stayed close and came when called. There was only one moment where he decided to play "hide and seek" and raced off around a corner. Thankfully, his concept of hide and seek isn't too advanced, so he was just standing around the corner, grinning, but it was a panicky moment for me.

Food at the fair as always was delightfully disgusting. I started with an Andouille sausage with hot mustard and grilled onions, followed by a corn dog (Pronto Pup!). On top of that, a Harry Sings Jerk Chicken patsy with extra hot sauce (what was I thinking?). That held me until we found the cream puff stand and I indulged. I waddled for a while until the Strawberries and Cream stand was found. Finished the trip with one more trip to sausageland - a Kramarczuk's Brat with Kraut. Pamela, Isaac, and Bella all enjoyed their share of treats, but a gentleman doesn't tell what a lady has eaten (other than FRIED PICKLES).

This year was a turning point for both kids at the Kidway: Prior years, we've had to give away extra tickets at the end of the day because Bella just didn't like rides and Isaac was too small. This year was different: Isaac is over 36" and can ride everything there... and Bella was suddenly game for a lot of the rides. So I went through 2 $20 sheets of ride tickets in an eyeblink. They had a total blast - and I got some good pictures of them laughing.

The butterfly room was a bit of a bust for us: Not sure if there were just fewer butterflies or more walking perches, but we had no landings on us, and it was a bit embarrassing - a butterfly would float across the crowd and people were almost knocking eachother over to get "in the way" for it to land. And those who did get them to land on them walked through the crowd with a look of "see, I am a child of nature". Isaac had little patience, so I took him across the street for a burger, and we sat on the curb commenting on the passersby. Not bad comments: "Wheelchair". "Rascal". "Bus". "Car". "Balloon". He was into it.

My new highlight of the fair is "Pinball on a stick" - a full room of vintage pinball machines. They gladly ate about $2 of my quarters in short order, while Bella and Isaac looked on confused - why whack the ball around - what HAPPENS? Isaac chose the moment I hit multiball to take over one of my flippers, allowing all 3 balls to gutter in rapid succession. I wept silently.

Bella RELUCTANTLY took the sky ride with us - it's a gondola that crosses the fairgrounds. By the end of the day, however, the Gondola had become something she loved, and she wanted to be sure that next year, we take it for a ROUND TRIP.

Ending with the beginning, we got a late start as Pamela had Church duty (she did flowers in honor of Alexander, and they were amazing), so we took off after that. I took a wrong turn and we saw some scenic parts of north St Paul, but made our way to the grounds nonetheless... only to find that the "official" lot was FULL. We had to go on toward Snelling to one of the more expensive offsite lots... and it was a bit of a walk.

But on the way BACK at the end of the day, this lot was far enough away from the hue and cry that there was no line to exit, and we were on the freeway within 10 minutes of strapping ourselves in. Compared to up to 45 minutes we've been trapped getting out of the official lot. We also forewent the usual coating of dust and dirt that the usual lot gives. I think we may have a new "usual lot", people.

I will say that 4-5 hours is all we need of the fair in ANY circumstances, however. It is absolutely brutal. We got home at 6:30, and Zinsser was very very happy to see us (I had proactively blocked off all of his usual "indoor poo spots", so his legs were crossed. We were all in pajamas by 7:30, and I'm the only one up at this late hour or 9:30.

Another year, another Fair. Hopefully next year we can go back to my preferred "Opening Thursday with hooky from Work": Travel gods willing. Wait, that's not right. Let me amend that: Next year, we're going back to my preferred "Opening Thursday with hooky from work". PERIOD.

Moments with Isaac

1) Isaac is working on his potty training and is getting pretty darn good at it, but it does lead to a lot of "I never thought I'd be hearing myself say this" moments... Just last night we were at dinner at Perkins (pancakes for dinner? YUM) and Isaac and I ran off the the bathroom.

We marched back up to the table, and Isaac in full voice yelled "MOM!!!! GUESS WHAT??? I WENT POOP IN THE POTTY!!!" The whole restaurant was thus informed of his achievement. We were very happy for him.

2) Isaac has taken to performing "dramatic re-enactments" of his boo-boos. We'll be sitting in another room and hear a big "whooomphhh" of him falling off of something, a pause, then a cry starts, and he runs in. "What happened?" we ask? He takes us by the hand to the scene of the crime, and proceeds to set everything up as it was, and go through the motions slowly, falling to the ground, then laying down, eyes closed. He springs back up and asks if we want to see it again.

What's funny is that our friends Anne and Tony told us about their son Evan doing a very similar thing a few years ago (when he was nearly 4), so this is a total boy development thing, I think. Bella never did this.

3) We were all out last night on the neighbor's lawn (at the house we lived in 7 years ago) - they were projecting "UP" onto a screen, and the kids were on blankets while the grownups were on lawn chairs. And the mosquitoes were insane. Bella, Isaac and I fled the scene 15 min into the movie (meeting Russell for the first time) - Bella was shrieking about the mosquitoes, sobbing uncontrollably. Isaac claimed not to have noticed anything. I threw them both into the shower and off to bed, and this morning Bella looks like she has chicken pox, but so does Isaac - he was totally being bitten up too, but couldn't be bothered to notice or complain. Amazing.

And we're back...

Another summer trip up north is done, we're back, and I'm headed back out east Monday AM. A few notes:

1) Zinsser spent the week at the Pampered Pooch Playground, where he was cared for well: And we know it because they offer webcams, so a few times a day we'd log in and see him running around with other dogs, having a great time. He seems to have made friends with a sheltie. Not sure if that breed is a good influence, however... ;-> Anyway, the dog is back and has been a limp noodle ever since - we've heard this - they play so much that getting back with the family they tend to sleep for a few days. Bella is happy because Zinnie is zonked out next to her in bed.

2) Do you know about SillyBands? These are shaped rubber bands that the kids are going nuts for. We first learned of them by getting some off brand generic versions from our aunt earlier this summer, but the "official" sillybands are what the kids crave. There was a lot of SillyBand collecting and trading going on at the resort this year... and much of it was responsible, but some people who shall be unnamed pulled the "this is a rare one - it'll cost you 3 bands to get it in trade" gambit, which us parents shut down good and fast. Even Isaac got into it, with a pack of Marvel Superhero bands. Of course, they're OUTLINES of the superheroes, so Isaac keeps forgetting which is which. I've printed a handy guide with pictures of the real heroes the outlines represent, to help Pamela in my geeky absence.

2a) Isaac took Superheroes as a new "conversational gambit" - "say dad, do you like Superheroes? Who is your favorite? Mine is SPIDERMAN. Do you like IRON MAN? Me too! He's my favorite, along with Spiderman of course! ". Take 2: "Dad, you know who I like? IRON MAN. Do you like IRON MAN? He's my second favorite. You know who my favorite is? SPIDER MAN." Take 3... Take 4.... by take 5, I was laughing so hard I couldn't even participate.

But later that day, I heard him using the "Superhero Conversation Starters" with two other boys... and he sounded like a real pro.

3) In a way, the trip was sort of bittersweet, because it cast into relief just how divergent Bella's interests have become from Jenny's - they played a good amount, but Jenny also spent time with older kids leaving Bella behind a bit. We had some extra cuddles to give her, but she was definitely feeling a bit sad.... In better news, we learned that Bella loves to fish - the patience and attention to detail was right up her alley. One thing everyone could agree on was that Swimming Is Awesome. Bella and Isaac swam for at least 3 hours every day, and more if they could swing it. It was wonderful.

4) I actually stayed away from work for the week, more or less. I was largely successful, but I got waylaid by an email mid-week, in which a co-worker at my company (not Cleveland) decided to take me to task on one of my decisions, in a rather condescending way... I lost a night's sleep, then fired back a double barrel email, which I have yet to hear back on. It was really not anything that needed to intrude on my vacation, and it really ticked me off... So somehow I'll need to follow this up this week... Good times...

5) Time for bed - the Cab is coming at 5:30. My Jag is still in the shop - the extended warranty is definitely paying for itself - they have found a few things that need to be addressed, and the parts need to be flown in....so they're at 9 days with my car and counting. They did give me a NEW Jaguar XF to drive for the first couple of days, but then we went up north, and now I'm headed back to Cleveland... so I'm not really inconvenienced. And hey, if they fix the electrical fault that was causing the car alarm to go off randomly, more's the better.

New Orleans Stories

I was in New Orleans to help with an assessment: A little side project to help diagram how information is moving through a small hospital system. They got a new CIO a month ago and he's bringing in his old friends (us) to find out how they can improve things. I have a small part to play, but I'm happy to be helping.

Getting there was a trial: It was my intent to sneak away from Cleveland and participate by phone in the key meetings, but travel delays occurred (as noted in my previous updates). Wednesday the flight out left a little late, and I wound up barely making it to the site on time at 1pm. And instead of having my 6 meetings spread through two days as planned, they were compressed, so I was busy right through, and basically missed every Cleveland meeting. Not so great.

But then it hits me - HEY - maybe I want them to be a little annoyed with me? Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

ANYWAY. The meetings went well, and then I was invited to a dinner out with the CIO and a key Vendor. This vendor has been handling most of their operations (the whole shop is "outsourced", though they all live and work there). So I'm invited just to sit in and listen...

We're in New Orleans, by the way. Home of wonderful food. So we had to go to the CIO's favorite restaurant: Chevy's Fresh Mex. Fajitas and Margaritas. Something was off with the tortilla maker too, because the tortillas were about 1 lb each and shaped like wedges.

We all sit down and the CIO lays into the Vendor with a shopping list of screw-ups. This is not a friendly dinner. The assault goes for 30 minutes, while I mutely nosh on chips and salsa and sip my "top shelf" margarita. The vendor is backed up the wall, but then starts laying out how much the hospital actually needs THEM - heck, 60 people in their IT department actually work for THEM - they could pull out any time, right? Thus countered, the CIO backs off and it becomes a slightly friendlier dance, but a dance nonetheless.

The vendor is a small, birdlike man, with horn rimmed glasses and a needless goatee, with a texas accent and you can see the hair on his neck raise up with defensiveness. So it was all the more exciting when the CIO sent a signal to the server, and shortly thereafter a crew from the kitchen comes in clapping, places a sombrero on the Vendor's head, and sings Happy Birthday. I thought this guy was going to literally explode.

With absolutely nothing to contribute to this freak show, I amused myself by coming up with stories for the people at the tables around us... there's the guy stood up for his date! There's the girl bringing her hipster boyfriend to meet the parents... but wait, there was a natural high five with the dad there? This isn't a first meeting... maybe a planning of the wedding? My reverie interrupted by the CIO abruptly asking me "So what's you take on all this, Jim?" I fumbled a muttered "I'm really not in a position to say", which satisfied both the vendor and the CIO... Though we did briefly touch on my findings from meetings for the day, so it wasn't a total waste.

The lead consultant on this gig is a guy named "Guy", who has a lot of history in healthcare - he's been a CIO several times, but likes the life of the outsider, swooping in and fixing a broken organization. Guy has a colorful history and two vast wine cellars, and a thick, nasally New Yawk accent... he's got a story for everything, and a lot of fun to talk to.

Imagine my surprise when at lunch he revealed to me that he had "Invented the double cheeseburger". Turns out, it was 1971, and he was working in a cafeteria while also taking classes. He was burning the candle at both ends, and time was at a premium. So one day, he's starving but doesn't have time to eat two cheeseburgers. So has a flash of inspiration and puts TWO patties on that bun with cheese. It becomes his standard re-fuel, and soon enough, the kids are asking for them too - they have to put it on the menu, and he came up with it!

Honestly, when a guy tells you this sort of story, it kind of puts all of his OTHER stories into a bit of doubt. Was he really CIO? Did he really re-organize that department? Does he really have a secondary wine cellar in a climate controlled warehouse in Queens (actually someone else has confirmed this) It is mysterious, but it's part of why I love working with people. The stories.

Update from the Lake

Sorry for the paucity of updates recently... There actually have been some amusing things recently. This week, we're up at the Lake - Ruttger's near Brainerd. We're living the cabin and lodge and lake life, and it's been wonderful. We're here with Bella's friend Jenny, and Max and Gus from down the block. The five kids have been a unit, running like mad around the grounds.

And we were lucky enough to get a doublewide cabin (two bedrooms, and a huge common room with two sofas), so we've been the "landing spot" for activities... Last night, the adults were enjoying coffee inside (yes, we brought the machine), and the kids were running around like maniacs for a couple of hours. It was classic summer stuff.

It's nice that all the kids are now old enough to be a self sufficient unit, really. Isaac gets frustrated sometimes, but the older kids are good about slowing down and helping him along.

Today was just beautiful - warm, not humid, not too windy. We sat on the beach at the lake for almost 4 hours, while the kids got ready for a sand castle contest... plus a lot of swimming. It was heavenly. I got a water bike and ferried kids out to the water trampoline and back, which was much more fun that swimming out there pulling dinghies, as I did the day before.

On the way up to the lodge on Sunday, we made our once-annual trip to WalMart (we will only go there up in Brainerd), and the kids got their "trip toys" - a different meaning nowadays from the clubbing days... not that we know anything first hand about that. Anyway, the toys this time: Zhu Zhu pets. Absolutely hilarious, these things. Unfortunately we let one loose in the room and forgot about it as it zipped around for a day, and his battery is already toast. Also, I did put back my near impulse buy of a fedora. Glad I did.

The buffets up here are legendary, and Bella and Isaac have been eating well: Bella has managed to save room for Cheesecake, of course. On her first bite, her eyes rolled heavenward and she muttered "that's what I'm talking about".

It is tricky with this much activity to keep the kids in top form: Simply put, they need naps. Today, Bella and Pamela got a 2 hour snooze to prep them for Bingo tonight. Isaac passed on his nap, so he's already asleep. Last night, both kids napped, so we were up for S'mores and silly songs at the campfire until 10:30.

It was a clear night for the fire, and the moon was strategically positioned over the lake with a beautiful reflection. Isaac stared for a moment and asked "Can I jump to the moon, Daddy?". I said "You can try!".

He jumped a few times, then turned back to me, held out his hand, and asked "Can you help me?"

Shortly after that, he cuddled in as we looked at the stars, and he said "I want to stay here forever". See, now THAT's what I call a vacation.

Difficulties in the flying.

I escaped Cleveland this afternoon on my way down to New Orleans to do some fun Business Intelligence assessment work for a client down there. Nowhere near the French Quarter, by the way. But Memphis was my connection, and Memphis is where I am staying tonight. Something about a mechanical problem with the airplane.

Hopefully nothing like THIS (via the Onion)

Anyway, being mister Platinum Traveler, I got put in the same hotel as the flight crew, and booked into the first flight out tomorrow (yes, first class too). The only compromise was that they really really didn't want to pull my luggage, so instead I ran over to Target to get some necessities. Like a Tony Soprano shirt and fresh socks and undies. Things will be just fine.

That is, if I can find a CAR: Apparently there are no rental cars in New Orleans for love nor money. Not one. So I'll be cabbing it, I guess, which is also fine. Nothing's going to bug me.

In the meantime, I did miss out on a dinner with "The Bosses" back in Cleveland. This would have been a very surreal night, so I'm glad to be missing it. And I got a start on two of three industry white papers I've been meaning to write. Paper number 3 will be a little harder because I know nothing about it... yet.... But that's why I volunteered to do it - to learn.

Slayer'ed

Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
7 Seasons, 144 Episodes. All done now. All have been put into my eyeballs and brain and stored for future reference.

I suppose I should say SPOILER ALERT - I'll be talking about the show in general. Sorry.

Thoughts:
1) I wish I had actually watched this show back when it was on. It's great to be able to barrel through the DVDs, but I think I would have had a great time watching it realtime. And of course, it's impossible NOW to talk about this great show that started 13 years ago and stopped airing in 2003. Might as well start raving about "The Drew Carey Show".

2) The series ends with the "Hellmouth" under Sunnydale collapsing, ending the flow of evil, and leaving a huge crater where the town was. Everybody's happy until someone says "There's a Hellmouth in Cleveland, you know". Oh I know. I KNOW. And Cleveland hotel rooms is where I watched almost all 144 episodes, come to think of it. Plus airplanes.

3) 7 years was enough - everybody was looking a little tired by the end. Except James Marsters. Dude kept getting better and better. I'm happy with the story having been told. Actually, there were 4 places things could have stopped:

End of Season 1: The Master is dead, much rejoicing.
You could stop there, but the character development in seasons 2 and 3 were just great. Lots of good writing ahead, and classic episodes aplenty. Plus, Spike!

End of Season 3: The Mayor is foiled, the high school is burned down. Yay.
A lot of people end there: High school is over, the adventure needs to move somewhere else. But Season 4 has some great bits, including "Hush" and "Restless". Plus Season 5 is great.

End of Season 5: Buffy sacrifices to save the world.
You could totally end there: Season 6 is a surprisingly bleak examination of "moving on" from one phase of life to another - lots of depression, working things out, addiction... this is not the same fun show it had been in Season 3. But it's actually really good. But I can't blame anyone for not wanting to "go there" and consider Season 5 the end.

End of Season 7: The Hellmouth is closed!
Well, you do end there.

Anyway, I'm very glad to have watched this show from front to back. There are a dozen episodes that I'd watch again, and even more scenes that stick in memory. I'm a huge Alyson Hannigan fan now - she's just wonderful... and I also further love Seth Green. And I'll now watch James Marsters in anything (Caprica!!!) - count me among the fans of Spike.

Allright, here endeth my updates regarding Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I will still recommend them as a fun bit of video. Sure there were bad episodes, but the characters were great, and I sleep better knowing there are teenage girls with wooden spikes out stopping any vampires from biting me.

Some Cleveland Moments

1) While waiting for my flight on Thursday, I hit the airport pub, and was joined by one of my consultants. Richard and I have always traded a few French phrases in passing, since I saw on his resume that he had studied in France. So he walks up, sits down, and starts speaking French. I replied likewise, and we spent the next hour having a few p'tit coups and speaking French. We didn't slip into English but once, and we took a brief detour to German. It was pure geeky joy for me, and easily a highlight of the week.

2) Our new offices are in a suburban office park, but our building is fortunate to be surrounded by some large-ish trees: I think the building dates from the 1980s, which would have given these trees at least 20-25 years to grow up. Anyway, my window overlooks a grassy area with a lot of trees, and in the past couple of weeks I've seen a large brown bird swooping past - sort of eagle-ish. Last week I felt a presence behind me at the desk, and looked out my window to find a grand brown bird with an ugly pink head using my windowsill as a perch. My brown bomber is a turkey vulture, and for the afternoon, he was my pet.

3) You may remember a post from 3 weeks ago in which I talked about sorting through 40 resumes... well it became over 50 resumes, and I've interviewed almost half of them, and so far I have only found 5 people of the 11 I need. Some people were gone to other jobs before I ever got to them, some were incredibly unqualified for the positions offered, and of the ones I am bringing in, I have to wait for 3-4 weeks for them to exit their current clients. It is painful.

But not as painful as the aftermath of the other thing I noted in the July 13 post about me trying to stand up and boldly ask about actually getting people to commit in a meeting to a requirement. Yes, I got the commitment. And in the intervening weeks, I have had that commitment changed, retracted, enhanced, replaced, mangled, and ignored. There was no requirement, actually.

Just another week of treading water I suppose.

4) But at least I'm back at Marriott Marriott (or "Capital M Marriott"). Comfy comfy. Makes it all better.

Can I just mention - less than two weeks to vacation?

Two more things

1) Pamela got back from her scrapbooking retreat tired but happy. And she passed out around 8pm. ZZZzzzzzz.

2) Bella spend a lot of the day out on the front porch with Isaac, Zinsser, and her friend Carly: They had their Littlest Pet Shop animals, a bag of fabric, and a sewing kit, and Bella was making outfits for them. She was sewing capes and coveralls for them. For one, she made a cape and a headband - they called it "The Sweaty Kitty", and had a glass of water they kept dunking her into, to make sure that the headband was properly perspiration drenched.

In the end, there were 7 different animals that were turned into super heroes, including a small skunk with a cape that was 4x the length of her ("Trippy Skunk" was the name given - she uses her long cape to trip bad guys).

Bella, Harry, and Buffy

So ends another great weekend. This time, Pamela was out of town again at a scrapbooking retreat, and it was 3 solid days with the kiddos. We had a wonderful time together. We ate well, we played well, we slept well. We had our block party last night, which was interrupted by two storms and a tornado warning, plus the fire truck was a no-show, but we all had a great time anyway... and the kids were in the moonwalk for a good percentage of the day, and again this morning - they usually come pick it up around 11 the day after, so Sunday AM is a traditional jump fest. And just like last year, the kids got their jumping done and DONE, so that by the time the jumper had to go, everyone was good and ready to see it go, even the kids.

Isaac and I also tossed a football, kicked a soccer ball, and hit some wiffleballs off of a t-ball stand that Grampette gave us. I was doing my best to encourage his sportiness. We also had an epic 45 minute wrassling match which left his energized and me completely exhausted.

Bella and I are reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: I'm reading, she's listening, and we're going through it slowly, recapping frequently to make sure she's getting all of the nuances. She's to the point now where she's starting to come up with her own "guesses" about what might have been in the package Hagrid took from Gringott's. Her current theory: Since Hagrid was kicked out of Hogwarts and doesn't have his own wand anymore, he actually got a Nimbus 2000 WAND and is hoping to train to become a wizard again, and Dumbledore is helping him in secret, which is why it's a secret.

It is fun to go through it slowly - I'm picking up so many details I must have blown past before: Rowling really did lay out so much of this story right in the first few chapters - things she mentions in passing right in the beginning are major plot points later on. Also, I like slowing down at some of the magic moments: At Christmas, one of the wizards decorated a tree by waving his wand and gold bubbles came out and turned into balls on the tree. Bella marveled at that, waving her hand in the air as if conjuring the bubbles herself.

Bella did tell me that there is "some scary stuff" in there, but it's not worrying her or keeping her awake. She wanted me to know that. And also, can I please read just ONE more chapter?

Speaking of chapters: You know I'm watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I just finished Season 5 last night, and I'm quite impressed. 100 episodes, and you really get to know these characters. The stories just keep getting better. And I have to say that there has never been a show that I had so severely misjudged as this one. I really thought it was brainless fluff back when it was on, no matter what Entertainment Weekly was telling me. But dang it, Joss Whedon knew what the heck he was doing. Of course there are off episodes (and some seasons have held together better than others), but as a whole, this story is truly incredible.

There are standalone episodes that I can't get out of my mind - one is "Hush" where sinister visitors to the town steal everyone's voices - 2/3 of the episode is completely without dialogue - just sound effects and music. Then there's "The Body" where the sudden death of a key character is reacted to - and it's not played for shock or learning, just a study of all of the ways the death hits us - how time dilates, how tiny details get focused on... There's "The Zeppo" - in which Xander (a character without any powers at all) has a mini-adventure around the periphery of what may have been the greatest crisis ever to hit the series - a hilarious "outside looking in" episode. Plus just fun stuff like Doppelgangerland where an evil twin is on the loose....

But better has been the continual evolution of the characters - By season 5 nobody is even remotely who they were when the show started, but they all got there in a logical progression.

So here's my take:
Season 1: It's short, it's mostly "thing of the week", and low production values, but it has heart. Buffy fights The Master, who plans apocalypse.
Season 2: Character development kicks into overdrive - you really start caring for everyone... plus a really good mid-season twist to shock you out of your seats.
Season 3: Often referred to as the best of the series - A season long arc about The Mayor and another Slayer, leading to a great climax about the end of high school. Everyone leaves the season totally changed.
Season 4: A tough transitional season - Trying to cover College, plus the Military, it was sort of muddled, but we did get to see Willow start on her epic Arc.
Season 5: Much maligned in fan-dom because it basically added a completely random element into the mix - Buffy starts the season with a little sister nobody had EVER mentioned before, and it's all treated as normal. And yet, it was a 22 episode story that was completely linear with everyone deepening their journeys.

One thing I absolutely loved about Season 5: Everybody's been watching Buffy this whole time, tracking her growth. And yet all through the seasons, Willow has been growing in strength, and by the end of Season 5, it's clear that not only is she stronger than anyone had any idea, she's also got a lot stronger opinions about what should be going on than anyone suspected. This sets up the season 6 story with her as the focus. And it's so cool because Joss and company had been putting these pieces into place for 3 years - little things she's done in the periphery of every story.

I'm probably writing this for nobody but myself, because hey, it's a show that went off the air 8 years ago and most everybody I know treated it the way I did. But if there's someone out there looking for something fun to Netflix, I gotta say it's an absolute blast.

And now I'm going to watch the start of Season 6 before heading to bed. Back to Cleveland tomorrow!