Finished Book 4

Yep - Book 4 of the Twilight Series was consumed in under 24 hours - couldn't put it down for even Heroes (though I do love the new directions that Sylar is taking, make no mistake... and Claire's de-humanization is fascinating to watch. But we're talking about Twilight here).

Book 4 made slogging through Books 2 and 3 completely worth it: But you can't skip 2 and 3 - you don't realize how important the stories they tell ARE until it's all brought into focus in book 4. Very well done.

And to anyone (MOM) who might be thinking about taking a breather between books: Don't do it. Just dive into 4. DO IT.

Halfway through my crazy trip: Tacoma went VERY well, and I'm back in MSP ready to board for Boston. I'll be back home in 27 hours from now.

Isaac continues to heal - stitches come out Thursday, and we'll see the dentist next week. I do miss that all of my creatures at home - Pamela, Bella, and Frankenstein.

Tough Guy

After the events of yesterday, Isaac was up and at'em at his usual time (7am), and spent a good 20 minutes rolling around in bed with us playing. He was just happy. His face was good and swollen, but you could see him smiling in there.

After a few shows in the AM, he insisted on going outside to play. Bella was invited over to a neighbors house for a long day of playing. So we started up the block, and as we passed people, I felt the need to explain his face... so we went up the block SLOWLY.

When we hit mid-block outside of Casey's house, we saw a bald eagle perched up in a tree, looking over the neighborhood. There were three very annoyed crows circling around yelling at him, but the eagle was unperturbed. It is an odd thing to see such a large bird... I figured it was the Great Spirit coming down to see how Isaac was doing.

After the sighting, Isaac decided he was strong enough to march down to the park and play on the swings and slides for a while. We got back up the hill and he had some lunch, and a nap... and Pamela and I took the opportunity to pass out too.

Into the evening, Isaac kept on playing, showing no signs of feeling his face - his attitude was entirely intact. We had dinner and more playing, and he hit bedtime at his usual 8pm time, somewhat reluctantly.

In the meantime, we got so many nice calls and notes from people - we were really touched. And we got quite a few cookies delivered as well, which was too bad since we don't like cookies all that much ;-> .... we were in HEAVEN!!!

Alas, I'm off to Tacoma in the morning, and won't be back until Wednesday evening, so keep those good thoughts of support coming for Pamela and the family. I wish I could cancel, but there's a boardroom waiting for my presentation. Sigh.

Oh, one more thing: Finished Book 3, and will likely consume Book 4 on my long travel week here. Good stuff here. Good stuff.

PS - it's in the air

In the past 6 days, one friend's kid broke his arm in two places, and another friend's kid fell of his bike, and got a road rash on his face, many stitches, and a loose tooth.

There's just something in the air.

I should also mention that as a kid, I sent my parents to the emergency room several times: At least two bike accidents that I remember between ages 4-5, and one severe dog bite at 11 or 12. There might have been more, but I don't recall clearly through the fog of time.

Poor Little Guy

Isaac went in for his 2 year checkup on Friday morning, and the doctor told us that he is apparently suffering from a raging ear infection. Of course, we had no idea - the guy isn't crying, he's not particularly cranky, and not tugging on his ears... he was somehow bearing this burden quietly, while maintaining his happy personality. We shook our heads in amazement, and thanked our stars that this was caught before it got worse. We considered ourselves somewhat lucky.

This morning, Isaac and I played hooky from swimming - his ear didn't need that chlorine for sure. We ate together, had a shower, wrassled, read stories, and generally had a great time. Bella came home from HER swimming (with Grandma) and we three went out to meet Pamela, who was just finishing a Pilates session.

We went to our favorite garden store with the fabulous restaurant inside, and I ordered up quiches for us while Pamela wrangled the kids. Isaac was running around, and Pamela was chasing him. Just as I came to the table with the appetizers, I heard Isaac screaming and Bella ran up saying "Isaac FELL!".

I rounded the corner to see him with a face full of blood: Pamela was carrying him back to the table and tripped - Isaac caught the edge of a stair with his mouth and bit through his lip and cheek - an inch long hole - and had knocked the teeth too - one chip, one pushed up into the gums...

We ran to Children's Hospital where they got us right in and the poor little guy was just wracked with sobs. They gave him a sedative and he chilled out a bit. In the meantime, Grandma and Grandpa raced to the hospital to fetch Bella and give her an afternoon that didn't involve sitting in a hospital looking at her brother's face. For that we will be forever thankful.

Isaac wound up getting 23 stitches to close the wound - some inside, some outside. It's not quite as bad as the Joker's scars in Dark Night, but it definitely extends beyond the lip line. Through it all Isaac was actually pretty brave - when he cried, we all (including the doctor and nurses) sang songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, and ABC, which calmed him right down. He even tried to sing along. He told every new nurse "Hi!" as they arrived, and "Bye" as they left. And they had a TV with Spongebob on over his bed so he was telling us about "BobBob" as he watched.

I spent the whole procedure right at his side. I couldn't hold his hand, since he was strapped into a papoose for safety purposes. In a very strange moment, the EMT who was holding his head firmly but gently had her pager go off, and it was a man's voice saying "are you there?" over and over. Which reminded me of a 1990s techno song by Josh Wink that used almost the same sample.

He should have the stitches out by Thursday, and may or may not have a little scarring - it's very dependent upon the person. The teeth will wait until early in the week, when we'll see a dentist.

We got Isaac home and watched Mister Rogers, feeding him a vanilla protein shake for strength, read a few of his favorite stories as he held his diddos (blankies) and I held him until he fell asleep.

Through it all, even though he was clearly in pain, Isaac tried his best to be his usual friendly self. As I watched him in the late afternoon, he was trying to be normal, but his balance was off (still a bit drugged), and would suddenly notice the stitches again, and be worried.... the next few days will be VERY hard for all of us I think.

What's worse is that Sunday is Pamela's birthday: I had hoped to let her sleep in and pamper her for the day, but instead it's all hands on deck. And I'm sure she's feeling some guilt for the accident, for which I hope that she forgives herself, as no one could ever blame her - it was simply a terrible accident. And we're going to have to remember that Bella needs a little extra love in this time too.

Extra love all around I say. We're going to need it.

Busy Days

I bookended my day with workouts: my 6am as usual, and then an extra hour at 8pm to work on technique and vocal projection: Even though we use mics, it's important to speak from your diaphragm when leading group fitness, and I need to work on my "big leader voice". The catch is that that big voice takes a lot of energy to produce. Add that to the mental energy of remembering the choreography for a full hour, the emotional energy of trying to bring a room of people along with you, and the physical energy of actually lifting weight along with everyone else, and you've got an amazing workout.

Plus, if I get that big voice, I'll be able to command others in my work and personal life to do my bidding. GET ME A CUP OF COFFEE NOW PLEASE (even when commanding, one should be polite)

I got my big strategy project out in Tacoma, so I'll be heading out there next week, and then a few more times later in the year. It'll be good experience, and a nice excuse to visit the area (and build more business out there... Seattle is a somewhat tough nut to crack. Maybe if I grew a beard....?)

Isaac has been putting us to work: Since we eliminated Bottles 3 weeks ago, he has been a very spare eater, worrying us to death. But his energy level remains high, he's strong, and happy as always, so perhaps I should worry less. But as we took the bottles, we reverted to more cuddling and rocking at night, and we need to get back to "it's night time, go to sleep" (which we had working pretty well up until Bottle D-Day). So we'll have to let him do some crying, but he's a very adaptable guy.

I visited Bella's kindergarten class last night and met her teacher. Oh my goodness, Bella is a lucky girl - her teacher is a "true believer" and loves kindergarten with all her heart. She made a movie of the kids learning in school, she read us some of their conversations, and explained her own history...

I found it interesting that she shared two "science" stories where she was overhearing the kids coming up with theories about things amongst themselves... and Bella was featured in both stories: She is a natural scientist, and her teacher is going to let her continue to explore than knowledge on her own terms. It was wonderful.

In truth, I wanted to run right back and join that class as a student. Their learning just seemed so free and fun. At the very least, I want to be a fly on the wall as the go through their day.

Heroes

Dear Tim Kring and company:
I forgive you for season two. You have made it all better in just two hours.

WOW.

Twitchy

I'm finally a "real instructor" at my club, and taught my first FULL BodyPump this morning: I had been expecting to do maybe half the tracks (newbies "co-teach" to start), but instead my co-instructor let me lead it all and he worked the floor. I got the choreography for all 10 tracks right (with a couple of tiny hiccups), but wound up a bit more winded than expected: Talking for a full hour plus lifting weights... and I "forgot" to go down in weight, so I was trying to do it all with my standard workout weight. As a result, I'm a bit sore now, and my arms are all twitchy... But it was a GREAT way to start the day.

In other news, PapaBam are here for the week, and it's been great to have them around for the weekend. We had the neighborhood kids over for Isaac's big 2nd birthday yesterday (how on earth is he TWO already? Oh my goodness). He had a great time, as did the kids.

We're now almost 3 weeks without any bottles for Isaac, and he's sleeping through the night again - he still asks for them, but he makes it through without them. We discovered that he loves PF Chang Mongolian Beef (which we can get faster and cheaper at PeiWei by our house), so we've been stuffing that into him at every opportunity.

Bella was a great big sister all weekend, helping Isaac open presents and taking care of him: She rode a fine line between jealousy and supportiveness, which is hard even for some of us grown-ups to handle, so I'm very proud of her.

I'm in town all week, then a strange trip next week: 24 hours in Seattle, 24 hours in Boston. More on that as it develops.

That's the quick update.... More as life happens.

Still Alive, really

Yes I survived my big weekend of working out, and enjoyed life this past week... I am currently out in the outskirts of Madison attending the big user conference for the software my company specializes in supporting. Between the conference sessions, the schmoozing, and the "team building" I have had I think 15 total un-allocated minutes to myself since Sunday.

The 30 minute bus ride from the hotel to the conference has been ideal for my continued consumption of the Twilight series of books on my Kindle. I'm 1/4 through book 3 now, having suffered through the sub-Scooby Doo non-mystery of book two (though I do love the Italians), but also having thoroughly enjoyed book 1. It's fun reading for sure...

Pamela has been a complete saint these past 4 nights as I've been away - the kids are doing a bit of acting up/out and last night she got a total of 3 hours sleep the poor dear. I'm coming home today (leaving the conference in about an hour actually) so hopefully equilibrium will be restored. Plus, the fun is coming to town: PapaBam are coming for the weekend and into next week, which will be a lot of fun.

Well, I'm going to go and press the flesh for a while, putting on the good game face. I'll have more "fun" updates this weekend!

Aced it.

For those who are curious, I passed the class this afternoon: Now I "just" need to finish up my American Council of Exercise certification, get CPR certified, and film myself teaching a class and I'll be Pump Certified.

That was a LOT of exercise over 3 days. I will likely start feeling sore pretty soon.

And just to clarify - my comment yesterday about "the other people" in my class sounded a bit snarky - but in reality - 80% of the other people were getting trained by their clubs and had NEVER even seen a BodyPump class, so since I've done classes for over 2 years I was at a serious advantage. I just didn't want anyone to think I was trash talking. ;->

Rubberlegs

Today I finished my second day of Les Mills BodyPump instructor training, and boy am I sore: We're run through the workout at least 8 full times in the past days, plus today we did a "fitness challenge" where we ran for 15 min and then lifted heavy heavy weights (40 squats with 80 lbs for example...) for a half hour just to push ourselves.

My job was to learn one track last night - the Shoulder track. Shoulders are always the hardest to teach because they tend to be planes trains and automobiles: you change between a bunch of different exercises because you're trying to work all of the areas of your shoulder equally. So for this release, you start with pushups, you move to rear delt raises, then stand for mac raises (which are like a front raise plus a side raise at the same time), switch to rotator presses, and finish with overhead presses, changing weights three times in the process.

Of course, I totally nailed it. ;->

Tomorrow I get to teach squats, which is basically ONE movement with different counts (2 up 2 down, 3 down 1 up, singles, slow, you get the idea... but it's all just a squat!) I already have it memorized, so it should go pretty well. Tomorrow is the final day of class, at the end of which we either pass or "need followup". I'm guessing I will pass, based on what I've done so far (and frankly, where I rank with the rest of the class... the Jimmy is doing pretty well).

What's been nice has been moving from knowing the counts to knowing the coaching points - so I can actually offer good advice to the students and motivate the group. My time with Time Out Fitness has been very helpful because I've been able to emulate my instructors there - they have a pretty high caliber of teaching there.

So after 9 hours of working out today (with some book time, some review of video of our teaching), I got home and cooked up dinner for the gang (Pasta for Bella and Isaac, Bacon and Eggs for P and I). Isaac got VERY excited about the bacon, and ate two whole pieces. He's working on eating more and more, and tonight he actually lay down and went to sleep after I read him a few stories: No mention of Bottles... he seems to be adjusting.

I also got to put Bella to sleep, which was wonderful and cuddly: Tonight she wanted to know why there's Queen of England, and who she IS.

Alien Bella

Tonight Bella was full of cosmic questions: "Do you think there are really aliens on the moon?"

I said I didn't really know - we've never SEEN one, but I think they exist out in the universe somewhere.

"Did you know that even though the sun is far away, you could get burned up by it if you were in space?"

Yes, I did know - and can you imagine how hot it is if you were closer to it?

"If you tried to stand on the Sun, the lava would totally melt you and you'd die".

Agreed.

"But you might then come back as an alien"

And what would Bella as an alien look like?

"I'd be all blue, with green spots on my back. I'd have blue antennae, with orange balls on the ends of them. I'd have 99 arms and four, no, six legs. My arms and legs would be orange. My fingernails would be black, but my toenails would be white. AND SHARP! I'd have two strips of eyes going all the way around to the back of my head, a short orange snout kind of like an elephant, and I'd have black teeth from eating lots of candy and marshmallows. Oh, and one more thing - on my back, I'd have spikes".

It sounds like she's got it all worked out then. I'd love to draw this creature, but am a bit baffled as to how to draw 99 arms - I'm thinking more of a tentacle mass, or perhaps a branching dendrite mass (3 main limbs, branching into 3 sub limbs, multiple times until the very ends are like tree branches....)

Day two of Isaac's no-baba zone has gone a little better... he certainly ate more food than I've seen him do before, which is wonderful, but he's still not quite to the volume necessary.... but I bet each day will get better. His spirits remain high.

Since last night was such a nightmare, I'm turning in early tonight for sure!

If you're curious

Yes, he was up most of the night. And no, he didn't take to the SippyBottle. The hours of 1:30-4am were filled with a very disappointed little guy, though to be fair, between say 3 and 4, he was just AWAKE, and not as sad.

He had a half PBJ sandwich for breakfast... still not enough but it's a start. MUST BE STRONG.

Oh, and Bella was first in line for the Bus this morning - proud as heck to be going to school again. Apparently, the bus line starts a full 15 minutes early, with kids running out of their houses earlier and earlier to get the "best seats" - and by consensus, the kids let Bella take the front spot today.

The Big Day

This morning, my little girl Bella got on the big yellow school bus to go to all-day Kindergarten. She was a bit nervous last night and had a lot of questions and concerns, but finally dropped off. When she awoke this morning, she was ready and all business. Got dressed, made her bed, had some breakfast, packed up her backpack, and went out to the curb with all of the other neighborhood kids. She was calm and professional about the whole thing.

When the bus finally arrived at 8:45, one neighbor girl held Bella's hand to get on the bus, and Jenny sat right next to her for the ride. We almost dislocated our shoulders with all the waving... and at the end, Isaac stood among all of the adults and started asking about where's Bella? Where's JenJen? He looked a bit worried.

I ran off to work, where there are other big goings on which are taking some of my brainprocessing cycles... and I got the call at 2pm that Pamela had decided that today is D-Day for Isaac's bottles.

Isaac remains a tentative eater on the best of days: We've seen him shovel down a whole plate of pasta, or a full slice of pizza, only to turn his nose up at the same dish a dozen more times. He's getting better about trying foods, but 90% of his calories are still coming in bottle form. It's time to move him along.

So a compromise is to offer formula in a sippycup... which he thinks is flat out ridiculous and is not standing for. Naptime today was 45 minutes of writing and sobbing until passing out. At dinner, he actually made a bit of an effort to eat (a taco shell, a spoon of meat, a spoon of applesauce, and a half bagel with cream cheese... across a 2 hour period). For night time, he again refused the sippybottle, and had to be rocked to sleep.

It's as if he's saying "look, if we're losing the bottle, let's go all the way. Stick with it, people". I'm fully expecting a few very sad wake-ups tonight. But my gut feel is that this may only be a couple of days of misery before he figures it out and directs his appetite to the bounty we provide to him.

Ok, back to Bella: the Bus came home at 4:15, Bella marched right off, with a huge smile. We had prepared her favorite meal, taco night. As we munched, she was talking a MILE a MINUTE about her day, and how awesome school is, and who she met, and everything. She was in seventh heaven, that kid. Of course, when we tried to get her to tell anyone ELSE about her day, she clammed right up... so we're grateful for the outpouring, and can only hope that she continues to share her stories. After dinner, she got to go play for an hour with Jenny, which was likely a perfect capper to her day.

As we tucked her in for bed, I asked if she knew what she gets to do tomorrow: "Go to SCHOOL! YAY!!!!" That girl is ready for school and excited. Knowing that made it much easier to see her off this morning: We really didn't have tears - we were more proud than anything.

Tonight as she dropped off, Isaac was having his trouble with the no-bottle situation, and Bella started crying: Turns out this whole bottle thing is reminding her of the trauma of when the "Pacifier Fairy" came and took all of her pacifiers when she turned 3. She was so incredibly sad back then, because she was the ultimate Pacifier addict. Isaac has no use for those things - never has - but she was identifying with him. She's a wonderful big sister.

In our lives, things are slowly starting to move back to normalcy: No houseguests, kids starting school (Isaac starts his ECFE next week), the Rev Duties complete, vacations done... Now it's my turn to upend things: This weekend I'm taking a 3 day intensive course for my fitness instruction, so I'll be gone all day all weekend... then I have a 2 night business trip this week coming up, then 4 nights away then next week to Madison for "the other big conference". After that, it should be more predictable.

Keep those cards and letters coming...

The Rev in Action

Just got back from New Ulm and wanted to post a quick update: The wedding was absolutely beautiful. They used a vineyard in southern MN, with an absurdly picturesque oak tree in the middle of the grounds. Tables were arrayed under the tree, and over 50 candle lanterns were hung from the branches above. The only issue was the occasional falling acorn, but no one was injured.

As for the service: I had been quite nervous up to the day before the ceremony: While I had several drafts of my service written, it had not quite gelled to the point I needed it to. And all of my attempts at a tranquil "space" to write in had been foiled by life circumstances (a terrible cold, travel, Pamela's back, exhaustion), so it wasn't until Friday morning that I finally felt I had the peace to just finish it all up: And it all came together just right. I reviewed the ceremony with the couple and they were very happy.

The unhappy party here would be the bride's family who are very conservatively religious, and I don't think they knew that they weren't getting a "REAL" minister. At the groom's dinner, the father in law cornered me to ask when I decided to give up my career and pursue the ministry - and what was my experience that brought me closer to the bible and Jesus. Oh man that was fun. I danced around it, saying that this is just one of the things I love in life and that I try to make time for everything... He walked away confused. We really didn't speak much after the service, that's for sure.

But the important thing is that the COUPLE were happy with the service - it had everything in it that they wanted, and nothing that they didn't. There was humor of course, and we actually had a good time up there. Oh, and of course I put my service on the Kindle: I might be the first minister out there to have done that... I should write to Amazon!

So my first experience as a Reverend was very very positive. We also did a lot of helping out with the preparations... and I also filled a semi-best man role too, so Paul and I had a lot of time together which was very nice. But in the end, I'm completely exhausted, and need to lie down!

All's Well

Pamela returned after midnight, and the house is whole again. Both kids have been buzzing with excited energy all day, happy to have her back. A few quotes for you:

1) Bella was crying on Saturday night, missing mommy. I asked her to think about how I go on trips too, but I always come back, so Mommy will be back too! She said: "Yes, but YOUR trips are for WORK, and SHE'S taking a trip for FUN! Why did she have to take a trip for FUN?"

2) The next night, as she was settling down she asked: "When we get a dog, will we send it to school?"
I clarified - you mean obedience school? Yes, because we'd definitely want the dog to learn life skills.
"Like Swimming? Do they teach dogs to swim in obedience school?"
No, I think dogs just know how to swim.
"Yeah, they just jump in and go. But I wouldn't want my dog to practice swimming in the ocean. Number one, if it gets tired, no dock! Number two, it could get eaten by sharks, or some other kind of fish. Nope, the ocean is no place for a dog to learn how to swim".

3) Isaac is back to calling me Daddy. I think the fact that Papa and Lilli call me Jimmy got him all wrapped up in the name, but now that we're back home, it's business as usual.

His language continues to develop: The other morning he was reaching for my alarm clock (every night is an adventure to find my clock, then make sure it's set to the right time, then make sure the alarm is set to the right time - the kid is a whiz at changing things!). Anyway, he was pointing at the clock and said "Daddy - I want to do Tick Tock": Excusing the use to To Do instead of To Have, that's a good sentence.

Up at the lake, I was walking to the cabin and Papa asked "Isaac, who is that?" He pointed and said "Oh, I know! It's a Daddy!" I love my clever children, yes I do.

Well, it's an early night for me, so signing off.

Fear Not

Pamela's back was better by Saturday, and by all accounts she has had a very nice weekend in Vegas! No bigger update than that for now... but I wanted to set the world's mind at ease.

Oh my...

A quick update: Day 1.5 of Mom-Free Weekend went well: Isaac and I went to my workplace and charmed the coworkers. We followed that with a terrible lunch at Leeann Chin, but he liked the eggroll and rice. Sidebar: What happened to Leeann Chin? It was always bad, but in a sort of crave-able way. But at some point, they decided to pre-sauce the sesame chicken, and it became a goopy mess. Nuts to them.

Bella and Jenny played here for part of the AM, then went off to the pool with Grandma and Grandpa, then back here to play and chomp down on pizza for the afternoon. They've integrated Isaac into their playing, too, so I actually got a fair amount of work done today too!

But the Oh My is that Pamela woke up today in Vegas to find her back had popped out again: She got a massage, she laid around in the cabana all day, and she has taken pain killers, but this evening she was flat on her back, missing out on a steak dinner and a round of mayhem. POOR DEAR!!!! This is just too sad!

More updates as they happen....

Whooooooo Phillies

Ok. It's been a busy week since we got back from the Lake on Sunday. First off, I caught a cold on Friday, was a wreck on Saturday, had the cold move into my chest on Sunday, hacking up phlegm as we drove home.... Good times, good times. I suffered through work Monday (had to get caught up on some things) and hopped a plane to BILLINGS again that night.

Had a big presentation at 9am Tuesday in Billings, and caught the 1pm flight home. Wednesday AM I flew to Philly. Ah Philadelphia.

I was with Mike (my boss) and Katie (our marketing sassafrass), and the goal was a "VIP Event". But first lunch at Reading Station (again - I can't stay away from that place, and I haven't eaten the same place twice). This time, my meal was a pastrami sandwich with huge chunks of meat which they trimmed lean while I watched, with some slaw and russian dressing on rye bread that somehow kept it all together by being denser than shale. It was amazing to eat. I had a bowl of chicken matzo ball soup too, which was the best I'd had since Zaroff's passed away.

On to the VIP... but first a detour to the Philly Airport Marriott - Expensive, surprisingly inconvenient given its location, and not all that nice, with some VERY surly or inept help. Good times. We had dropped in prior to the Reading Feast and checked our bags since the rooms weren't ready.... and to get them back took over 15 minutes of them LOOKING for them in various rooms. Wow.

Ok, the VIP event was the Phillies versus the Washington Generals^h^h^h^h^h^h^h Senators (sorry - double old school joke: The generals are the patsy team that loses against the Harlem Globetrotters in every game, which was a comment on how badly they were pasted last night... and the ^h is very old - if you didn't have your keyboard configured correctly and tried to use the backspace key on an old UnIX system, it would display ^h instead of removing your typing. So double the geekiness for all of you).

We had people from three prospective clients there, and we provided food and drink and some great seats in a skybox in the new Citizens Bank Park - a really wonderful stadium actually. I was introduced to philly's own "Water Ice" frozen treat: Basically a hard mister misty in a minicup. Water Ice. Wow. Anyway, the schmooze is the word at these events, but I took the low key approach, which I think is the better option anyway. Of course the team won, which always helps things.

Came home this morning on the early flight, spent the late morning with the family, then took Pamela to the airport: Yes, she's doing a ladies' weekend out: VEGAS BABY with 5 Moms from Bella's pre-kindergarten class. I already to a report - they were seated on a party plane in the midst of 16 young men on their way for a bachelor party. There were a lot of "whoooops" and high fives. (This doesn't happen in first class on the way to Billings, by the way)

Isaac caught my cold, and has been walking around with a stuffy nose, adorably "daying dings wid a duffy doze" - now that he's talking a lot, it's maybe the cutest thing I've ever heard, even though I feel very sad for him. He's getting his energy back, however: As I sat on the floor watching Mister Rogers with him tonight, he climbed up onto the couch and stage dove right onto my belly.

He continues his "eating more" path which is heartening: Tonight he attacked a bag of "Cheetos Natural", and when I tried to grab a few he actually swatted my hand away yelling "NO DADDY! MY CHIPS!!!!" If only I could get that with broccoli. For my dinner I had a BLT made with fresh tomatoes from our victory garden: Huge, fresh, delicious. I will never even LOOK at a hothouse "Tomato". Forget it. NO WAY.

So that's the quick update. Life continues to speed by at an unreasonable pace, but it's all wonderful.

Update From the Lake

Oh my this has been a relaxing week. Many naps have been taken, many long hours sitting staring at the water while the kids either nap or run around like maniacs. A few minor things to report:

1) Today Bella asked “Why is it called November? Why not YES-vember?”

2) Isaac has taken to calling me “Jimmy”. Not Daddy any more. I hear “JIIIIMMMY!” from the bedroom when he’s up from his nap. “JIMMY!” with upstretched arms wanting a ride. It’s hard to accept this complete lack of respect, but coming from the little guy, it seems ok.

3) Bella has been pretending to be a Dog a fair amount up here – she calls herself “Sparky” and Isaac has been walking her around the yard. When she’s being Sparky, he calls her Sparky. When she’s Bella, he calls her Bella. He’s very up on the Role Playing.

4) Lilli had researched the horse riding ranches up here and decided on one… that turned out to be a 75 minute drive each way. I decided to be the hero and drove her up there, where she had a great 90 minute ride: She had a 14 year old girl trail guide who took her on a ride through forest, field, and river with lots of galloping: It was a dream come true for her.

As I waited for her on the farm, I got to know the Emu, Donkey, pet Horse, Calves, Goats, Chickens, Kittens, Llama, Peacocks, Ducks, and Geese that roamed the area. The Gander decided that I was perhaps something of a threat, and spent a bit of time chasing me around.

On the rides, Lilli and I had long random conversations in which I learned a great deal about Vampires (a pet topic of hers), she learned a little Japanese, and we both laughed at roadside signs for the “Bump and Putt”, “Whimsical Unicorn”, and “ANNU BOGO” (Still don’t REALLY know what that meant – perhaps “Annual Buy One Get One Free Sale”, only in Klingon.)

5) Bella has been collecting small glass/ceramic animals – one a day. We gave her an allowance, and PapaBam have been further funding the endeavor. She started with the rodents (mouse, ferret, squirrel), which made me very happy. The dogs have been added as the week has progressed. She looks very “important” with her small purse with her money and her judicious selection of JUST the right small animal for today.

6) And clarification on why there aren’t any Russian Speakers: It IS the economy, but it has more to do with the fact that the US dollar is in the toilet: Students from overseas can make a lot more money staying overseas – It simply isn’t very lucrative for them to come here! Yay US Economy! USA USA NUMBER ONE!

7) Finally, it’s fun to see family resemblance at play in the larger groups at the resort: There is one “Grandpa” I see who bears a striking resemblance to Mark Lenard’s “Sarek” from Star Trek – very Mediterranean looking with dark eyes and magnificently arched eyebrows. And looking at the table of 16 people, you see those eyes and eyebrows spread amongst the next two generations – a couple of daughters, and a smattering of grandkids.

Just one more day up here - Hard to believe it’ll be a week. For the record, yes I did check the blackberry a few times a day, but for very good business reasons. And yes there were a couple of calls I had to make. But 99% of the time has been pure vacationland, and it has been wonderful. It’ll be nice to be back in my home zone again, however!

The Up North Update

We’re in full relax mode up here: The weather has been very nice, the facilities are as usual excellent, and everyone’s in a great mood. This is shaping up to be a very good vacation indeed.

Naturally since I had stated my desire to leave work behind, my blackberry blinked this morning with news that a new client who I had been trying to get into since the beginning of the year was actively seeking me out… of course! Fortunately my boss will start the overtures.

Isaac is a wild man: He’s been running around the lawn tossing a mini football and flinging frisbees and running in circles. He’s loving the outdoor life, hollering “OUTDOOR!!!” whenever he finds himself inside for more than a minute or two. He’s eating pretty well too, with a newfound love of Ice Cream: He has had a few bowls of it now (starting with one at our house offered by cousin Lilli), and while eating, he pauses frequently to lift his spoon to the sky and proclaim “AYE SREEM!!!!”

Bella and Lilli are a wonderful pair: They are both popping TicTacs at an alarming rate, and Lilli showed Bella how to play Chess tonight: They actually played a full game, and Lilli guided her to a win (with generosity beyond her 12 years). Lilli has decided that Uncle Jimmy is a plaything, teasing me non-stop, tackling, tickling, and sassifrassing: But I’m also the one who at least tries to understand the fevered ramblings of her tweener manga-influenced mind, and I think she appreciates having someone who is willing to operate at her level.

The lake beach has been well visited, and there may remain a few rocks of distinction there, but the grand majority of them have been secreted into boxes and bags by the industrious Bella, and are on our porch. I suspect our car will be riding pretty low on the shocks. Bella and Isaac also swam in the pool for quite a while today… this will be how our days go.

To my great dismay, there don’t appear to be any Russian-speaking exchange students here this year. I asked someone, and they said most of the foreign kids are in the housekeeping area this year… I suspect that perhaps the economy is a factor, and the resort had no trouble filling their waitstaff positions with locals. It’s just a theory. But I’m glad I had boned up on Russian anyway… It’s a fun language.

Oh, and right above our deck is a robin’s nest: Three teenage babies are hanging out, and the mom comes back to feed them very regularly, all around 6 feet from our chairs. We wonder if those big birds will be ready to fly this week: If so it’ll be a wonderful treat.

So that’s the update from Up North. More as it happens. And yes, I am checking messages. Occasionally.

Hit the road Jack

It's time for our annual pilgrimage to "The Lake" - Papa and Bama have arrived with the improbably 12-year old Lilli in tow (complete with goth vampire novel and assorted Manga comics to entertain her). We're piling into the rented minivan for a week, and hope that the world can survive in our absence.

There may be a few updates from up there: It is the 21st century, and Wifi exists just about everywhere, doesn't it?

In the meantime, I've made it clear that this week is not about work: Even though I actually have 4 hot sales prospects cooking, I've sloughed them off to my boss and while I'll bring the Berry along for quick replies, the work laptop (on which "real work" would be done) is safely on my desk in Golden Valley, likely to have a nice vacation from being turned on. No, I'll be reading a good Sci Fi book (finally tackling Matter by Iain M Banks), reviewing fitness materials, and continuing to refine my sermon for the wedding I'll be performing in 3 weeks... 3 WEEKS!!!!???!!!!

Take care, see you in a week!

New Yawk

Monday afternoon, we got a call from a potential client in NYC wanting to know if we wanted to meet this week to talk about a big project. Naturally we said yes indeed, so my boss and I are in the middle of a 13 hour visit to "The City"

A 9am flight, 1pm landing, a town car into the city. We walked into the neighborhood a bit (33rd and 2nd ave) and found an italian place: Split two entrees - Penne alla Vodka and neopolitan pizza with sausage and pepperoni - both were flat out amazing.

We walked back to the meeting, and had a great 90 minute conversation with the client: They're just starting and are looking for advice as well as resources, so we were able to really share some of our experience, and position ourselves to help with the project directly.

Now we're in the Worldclub killing 45 minutes before the flight home - we'll be home in the home airport by 10 and home by 11. Not too bad, and it feels like a good trip.

I must say that even though it was a short visit, I still wound up loving every minute of it - this is such a cool city, and I NEED to get a big project here so that I have more excuses to visit.

The Instructor

So this morning, I "co-led" the Bodypump class: One of the club owners David was there, and we alternated tracks: I did Squats, Back, Biceps, Shoulders, and the cool-down. While I didn't do a whole lot of "extra" stuff (I stayed on the stage, I didn't go "correct" anyone's form, my banter was minimal), I was spot on with the cueing and I think there was only one little mistake (I called a 2upanddown, when it was really a 3up1down) which I corrected immediately.

It was really really fun to be doing it, but I also had to go down on my weights so that I could focus on the class, so my workout wasn't QUITE the same as usual. I got feedback from David - a bunch of relatively minor corrections, and the praise that he'd never seen a beginning instructor do so well on his first class.

And I haven't actually had the formal training, nor have I had access to the actual instructor materials for the class - I just picked it all up by being a class participant. So it's just crazy around here.

What else to report... My electromagnetic brain has killed yet another set of phones in our house. I don't know why, but phones only last 2 years in this house before the simply die in mysterious ways. I blame the Jimmyfield effect - I always get two fewer bars of cell reception than anyone else, and my phones die much faster than other people's. So I got some new phones today for almost-free:

Back in November I bought both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players, thinking that the "format war" might stretch on a while. Turns out Toshiba gave up in February and Blu-Ray is the winning format. In an effort to soothe the rage of those who picked the "wrong" format, Bestbuy (along with Amazon and others) gave out $50 gift cards to those of us who had bought HD-DVD players. So I used that "pity money" to get some new cool looking phones for the house. In the meantime, the old phones have decided to turn off their mics and refuse to work more than 6 feet from their base stations. They're just making things worse for themselves, I hope they know that.

Pamela came back from a "Mom's night out" a few minutes ago. No, it wasn't a bunch of ladies and mojitos. It was Pamela shopping all by herself - some well deserved alone time. I put the screaming herd to bed (whoo - they were in a STATE tonight), and she brought me a slice of cherry pie for my troubles. So now I'm going to tuck into that pie.

Then off to bed: 6am class starts early (6am actually). I'm not teaching tomorrow as far as I know: It's step, and I could probably do it (and offered to help if needed), but I think Allen (the usual instructor) will be back on the scene.

Some quick updates

1) Our regular instructor hurt his back this weekend, so I'm filling in Monday at class - my first "real" fitness teaching! This is just crazy.

2) Had a great afternoon: Mom was performing an amazing biographical drama for the MN Fringe Festival: It's a drama that is set in 1942-45 following a strong lady who loved and lost and went to the ETO to help the troops and loved again - and it's all true. It's based on letters and diary entries between the woman and her mom, and the story was written by the daughter/granddaughter. It's a very moving portrait of both what it was like for Red Cross service workers AND for those back at home in places like Bismarck ND.

She's done this a few times in the past, with two other tellers, and this time it's in a premier slot at this festival. Even better, two of the subjects (the woman and her daughter - the mom passed away in the 1960s) were in the audience, which was frankly electrifying - to have these stories told back to the people who wrote them originally....

So it was a great afternoon, and I'm so happy for the success that the story and that mom and her cohorts in the Klatch (her storytelling collective) are having.

3) A quick Isaac moment: In the Foss Swim School, when a kid has done a good job, the teacher asks them for a "high five" - and when the kid delivers the slap, the teacher yells "whoaaaaaah" and falls over backwards into the water. Every kid loves this, and Isaac is no exception.

Last night at bedtime, he was having a hard time winding down, and asked for High Five around 20 times, before I set him down to settle. 10 minutes later, he was hollering again, needing that last 4 ounces of bottle to set his hungry indicator to "full" and really pass out. But before he did, he murmured...

"Daddy.... Hand".
- I put my hand up.
"High. UP HIGH".
- I raised my hand.
"Open"
- I opened the palm.
"High Five!"
- And he slapped my hand.

And I gave him one last WHOOOOAAAHH! And popped him to bed.

And a Clean and Press!

I'm coming out of the closet - it's time to confess that I have been leading a secret life. Yes, in addition to being ordained recently, I've been working on a secret project.

I'm training to be a group fitness instructor.

After 2 years of truly loving exercise, I've been taking more and more steps toward incorporating exercise into my life: When I travel, I always work out in the hotel. When I'm home, you've read about my adventures doing step aerobics in my back yard. When I play with the kiddos, there's a whole lot of lifting and swinging: Both Bella and Isaac are regularly bench pressed - and they love it.

A couple of months back, a visiting instructor at the club took me aside and commented that he hadn't ever seen a student who could do a whole hour of step from memory, which I clearly was doing. He said I should really consider moving up to the podium and training. With that I decided to at least give it a shot...

So for the past weeks I've been working through a group fitness training manual from the American Council on Exercise, and practicing my cueing (again, from memory). Tonight I had an "audition" with Jeannie from Time Out for Fitness (where I work out). It was just the two of us, me on stage with the mic, and she on the floor, ready to do what I told. I did three tracks - a step aerobics track, a heavy weights track, and a shoulder strength one. I was very surprised to actually make it through all three intact. On the step, I actually missed one changeover and had to improvise to get back on the 'right side" so that both sides of the body got an equal workout.

In the end, she told me I'm a natural, and is looking forward to me getting the rest of the training... to start teaching Les Mills Bodypump in the fall (and moving into BodyAttack and Step in the winter). Of course, with everything else in my life (kids, work, ministering), we'll have to see what my commitment can be... but hey I'm already going 3-5 times a week, why not make the most of it?

Just like I'm loving being on the sales side of the business at work, having worked on the "talent" side for so long, I think it'll be fun to look at the other side of fitness - to see the clockwork behind a well functioning class. I love to see all sides of anything I'm doing, so this just feels natural.

So that's my big announcement. I'm out of the closet on this one. Wish me luck!

Quick Quotes

1) The other night, we let Bella zonk out in our bed. Naturally I moved her when it was time for us to go to bed. In the morning, she asked how she got into her bed, and I told her how I moved her... she grumbled "you always move me when I'm fast asleep. You never move me when I'm half asleep. Well, one time you did, back when I was four. But not since then."

So last night we got home late and she and Isaac were asleep in the car: As I carried her upstairs she was fading into awakeness, and when I reached up to close her windowshade, she asked to look for a moment: "That's my star up there, I can see it", and sure enough there was a glowing star on the horizon. "You can close the shade now, daddy. Goodnight."

This morning I told her that I had in fact moved her when she was "half asleep", but she didn't remember any of it. Luckily I did.

2) In Madison, Bella was drifting off to sleep, and asked "Just one more question Daddy: What is the part in your hair FOR?"

3) Isaac knows his animals: The other night we were quizzing him:
What does the Cow say? "MOOOOO"
What does the Cat say? "MEOW!"
What does a DOG say? "WOOF WOOF"
What does an OWL say? "HOW DO YOU DO?"

Stunned, we asked "What? What does an owl say?"
He paused, then said "WHOOOO!"
We're not sure what animal he got mixed up with. "How do you do?"

4) Isaac in the last couple of days has picked up the habit of "buying time" while thinking by saying "ummmmmm....." It is very adorable. Trust me.

Lake Update

We're currently up near Madison at "The Lake" for the annual family reunion. The very quick update:

Isaac did not nap, and instead talked, sang, yelled, and cried nonstop during our 5 hour drive yesterday. Bella, on the other hand, snoozed for quite a bit of it. Shamefully, we briefly had a "favorite child" in our lives. Hours later, once we were at the house and all of the cousins were playing, equilibrium returned.

We took a "party bus" to see Elvis Costello and The Police play in Milwaukee while a fleet of babysitters took control of the brood. Bella immediately bonded with her tween captors. In a joyous turn of events, it happened to coincide with "GermanFest" in the same area, so we started the evening with brats and beer and lederhosen and a cover band playing Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire" in GERMAN. It was amazing.

The concert was wonderful, and oddly punctual: Elvis Costello launched into Pump it Up at 7:30 PRECISELY. Sting ambled onto the stage to sing "Allison" with the band... and some of the early Attractions were in the band too - Steve Nieve rocking the Vox Continental! The Police were incredible - they were a stripped down 3 piece, no keyboards, using old gear like Moog Taurus pedals and a Roland GR300 guitar synth. Wonderful evening.

After 2 long good encores, it was time to retreat to the party bus, where we were stuck in traffic, moving literally 20 feet in 1 hour. Then there were some detours, and we wound up going through some bad parts of town... we didn't get home until 1, and we were SPENT. Everyone slept in until a luxurious 7:45am.

Now we're at the lake and I've been out waterskiing twice already, once on a Wakeboard, which was pretty darn tough, but fun too. I'm planning to go out one more time this afternoon and try to drop a ski (intentionally). It's remarkable how fun watersports can be when you actually have some muscle strength to pull it off. I flash back to my wheezy twenties and my failures to waterski.... I have a good trophy for the day - a good shinwhack from tumbling over my skis on my last run.

Isaac is the mayor, as usual, but has been a LITTLE subdued today (perhaps still wiped out from his diva performance yesterday)... but the older cousins have really taken to him, just as Bella is in the middle of everything and is always given a special job in the games: All afternoon, a waterballoon fight has raged through the yard, and Bella and the armory guard.

So there's more sunlight and fun to be had... Signing off. Oh yes, I left the Blackberry at home. This is VACATION. ;->

Comfy

Pamela and Bella had gone shopping for back to school clothes, and Bella was holding to her "not fancy" rule, and also picking out clothes based entirely on softness: lots of leggings going on. As she appraised her stack of soft clothes, she proudly told Pamela

"Mom, I'm going to be the comfiest kid in the entire school".

The girl has her priorities right.

I've somehow fallen into a groove at work: Our primary work is in placing consultants who have a specific skillset for implementing Epic healthcare software, and it's been our bread and butter for over 3 years. But before that, we were more general purpose, doing more of whatever is needed. Well, we're starting to get a lot more calls for "different" work - someone needs a centralized database that consolidates the info in 4 systems... or someone needs a new custom tool for reviewing rejected data for patterns...

All of these requests are falling into my lap, and I get to flex my brain and come up with proposed solutions, budgets, and staffing models. In the past week, I've done more Visio work (a business graphics program that's good for process flow and system design) than the previous 6 months, and have had a heck of a lot of fun... The only problem staffing these things - how many bright geeks can I recruit to my cause?

Pamela has been a complete maniac in our gardens: she tore out huge swaths of garden and has reclaimed it for lawn use - these large weedbeds just weren't PRACTICAL. So we have yards and yards of white grow netting across the back of our house. The victory garden is also doing very well: The tomatoes are budding like mad and it's going to be a wild crop. Peppers are growing, the herbs are delicious... it is a good place we've created back there. Now if we could just get the Mosquitoes to move away.

Mister Animal

Sometime in the past two weeks a switch turned on in mister Isaac's brain and he is a boy who throws things and hits with regularity (whereas it was sporadic before). We've all had books, food, balls, utensils, and shoes flung at us, with varying degrees of accuracy, and no amount of "NO" seems to dissuade him. It's a challenge for sure.... because he's still so sweet (with that impish grin), but his new tendencies have made household peace a distant memory as Bella shrieks as the aggrieved party. Ah good times.

But at the same time, he's deigning to join us for more eating of real food (he shares his sister's love for Chipotle), he's sleeping through the night more regularly, and his vocabulary continues to grow at an impressive rate. In picture books, he can identify the Zebras, Elephants, Birds, Hippos, Giraffes, Goats, Sheep, Cows.... even if he can't say their names very well yet. So there's good with the bad.

Friday Night was Summer Living - we went off to the Edina Pool as soon as I got home for work, met Isaac's friend Wyatt and his parents Nikki and Ryan, and splashed around in the pool for a few hours until the sun started to set. The pool has some fun older kid stuff too, which Ryan and I had to partake in - especially the zip-line: Holding onto a handle and zipping down a wire, you hit the end and are catapulted upwards and then crash into the water. We did it a few times... and Pamela said we looked completely mental. Mission accomplished.

Saturday Night was another Avengers Night, where we tried my special Ardbeg Import - the Corryvreckan limited edition. It was flat out mind blowing, and this is after a lineup with TWO 1967 Strathislas (one Sherry, one Grenache Casked) and the end of the venerable 25 year old Highland Park. It was a late night (Spiderman 3 is a long movie - but a much better one on the second viewing, I must confess), and there were a few cask strength drams on offer (100 proof rather than 84 proof as usual), so the morning came cruelly early to me, and I regretted asking for the sleep in Sat Am, when I could have been the one to sleep in today.... instead I'm operating on 5 hours sleep what with mister Isaac the early bird.

Should be a light week: I had two trips planned, but canned one due to a local conflict. At the end of the week, I am excited to visit my Alma Mater (Macalester) with Ty and Bailey who are considering its hallowed halls. Then it's off to Madison for a long weekend for the big Family Reunion at the lake, with the added fun of the Police concert!

In a less depressing vein

I saw Speed Racer last week and it was completely AWESOME in a turn-off-your-brain-and-lookit-the-colors sort of way.

It was like Cars, without having to trouble yourself with what sort of Apocalypse occurred to create all of the sentient vehicles leading to the extinction of their former human masters.

Out to lunch with the kiddies yesterday, I accidentally saw some sort of cartoon that is based on a "battle card" game - Sort of Pokemon-esque, but far more "Cyber". The bit I saw essentially involved two rivals sliding cards into their arm-blasters, summoning "Emerald Battle Pegasus", and "Sapphire Crystal Battle Dragon", while a crowd of friends and rivals watched in awe and horror at their audacious moves. But far from being dramatic, it was simply a recitation of procedures that made double deck solitaire sound exciting:

"Your Emerald Pegasus attack is doomed, for I now load up my Sapphire Crystal Dragon in Defense Mode, and I combine it with a second Sapphire Crystal dragon and a Crystal Fireball Defender, fusing them into Double Sapphire Crystal Fireball Defender Dragon!"

Onlookers: "WHA??? Oh no! His attack is doomed!"

"Your defense will not stand, for I combine the power to my Emerald Battle Pegasus with both the Rock Defender Turtle card AND the Crystal Phoenix sonic attack card" (and suddenly, a number appears in the bottom corner to assure the Asperger's viewers that this attack does in fact outnumber the defensive capability of the defender)

I have no idea how it all ended, but I suspect that in the end these shows will simply be a recitation of random dice throws and mad-libs style attack names Superlative+Mineral+Animal Name+Element.

I had to watch a Roadrunner to assure myself that there is still entertainment out there.

Robots and the End of the World

Two recent stories (and a lot of earlier ones I've read) have had to do with mankind's impending doom largely at its own hands, with Robots around to pick up the pieces: In Wall-E, it has to do with overconsumption, and Robots are our caretakers, and ultimately not so much our saviors as much as reminders of what's really important.

In Saturn's Children by Charles Stross, it is more of a mystery just why we died out, leaving an army of robots and barely inhabitable colonies on all of the planets of our solar system, partially terraformed: We wink out just as we're in mid-space age... but in this story, there are a lot of hints left behind that society had turned us into something not particularly NICE, and as more details come out about how the humans had used the sentient robots they had made, you're left with a bit of a "good riddance" feeling.

In both stories, these creatures we've made have somehow inherited more humanity than intended, and they're the carriers of our legacy.

In other stories I've read and seen, the arrival of sentience in a computer system leads to immediate destruction of our current way of life, either through the computer attacking us (Terminator, et al), or through a hyper-accelerated evolution leading to all of us being "uploaded" into a new consciousness (and the earth being dismantled for component parts for the great computer - called the Singularity - again, Stross, as well as Rudy Rucker).

It's interesting that there is so much pointing to the apocalypse, assisted by our technology... In Saturn's Children, it feels like a late Heinlein Romp (indeed, the racy cover and protagonist are clear nods to Heinlein's robot girl drama "Friday"), but gets deeper into examining the damage done when a society creates servants (or slaves) for their labor and leisure. Just as Wall-E's earthlings are unwitting prisoners to their leisure culture: Eventually, when you've got a thing with a brain and emotions catering to your every whim, you start to wonder, what's in it for the robot?

It just points to the fact that we do love our apocalypses, however they come. Nature's fury, alien attacks, Post Nuclear, Robot Uprising... and the newest genre - enslavement by leisure. I'm still very pro-technology, make no mistake, but I think I'd like to keep it pretty dumb and make my own sandwiches when I need them.

Prototype

Last weekend, I prototyped my Sandwich Trivet with the most dangerously susceptible hot sandwich: Egg in a Hole. Done properly, Egg in a Hole can be a crunchy delight. But leave it on a place and let that condensation build up, and you have a floppy hot egg thing.

The prototype involved a high-rimmed plate and several chopsticks laid across in parallel. The sandwich was made and placed on the sticks, and lo, as it cooled, it retained crispness. Plus it cooled evenly on both sides. Yes, the Trivet must be made.

By the way, I fully acknowledge that I am insane.

Home from Denver

The second day of meetings in Billings went well (i believe I shall return, and perhaps this time I'll actually see a river or something), then a quick lunch of a fantastic green chili smoked pork burrito. The table salsa was fiery hot - it was a delight. Then a flight to Denver. I keep forgetting that the "new" airport is so far out there (20 miles from town!), and I get wistful for the days of my youth when we'd fly into Stapleton and be at my Grandparent's within 5 minutes. Also, the rental company was clean out of everything but SUVs, so I was a big truckin' guy in my white 4x4.

I let Ms Garmin GPS guide me immediately to a spot that my boss frequents - Sushi Den. A line snaked around the block for tables. Apparently this place is frequented several times a week by Mike's dad, Don, and just mentioning his name is enough to get a table on the busiest night. I had rehearsed my explanation in Japanese, but didn't need it: there was an open slot for me at the Sushi bar, where I asked the chef Kenji to treat me to Omakase (oh-ma-KA-say) which means "feed me interesting things". So I had 4 rounds of stuff, all delicious. Next to me was an older gentleman from Cedar Rapids IA who had never had sushi before, so we struck up a friendly conversation and I gave him pointers on what to order, how to eat it, and he wound up loving it! Kenji-san was very politely patient with my japanese as well. A good evening.

The next morning, I had a simply terrible omelette in the Courtyard restaurant: The guy would cook up the eggs separately, THEN fold the dry egg cake over your desired (unheated) ingredients. It was like an egg taco. There was no reason for this. No reason at all. I had food jinx later too, as I had an unsatisfying pork dish at Las Delicias - a nearly legendary mexican restaurant in Denver... Apparently I was supposed to order a simple Chicken burrito with green chile sauce - any other order is madness. I wish I had known.

In the morning I dropped in on my Grandparents who were happy to see their eldest grandson: They kept insisting that I had somehow grown an inch or two recently (perhaps my posture has improved?). They were full of stories, and Grandpa was tracking everything very well (he's been in and out of lucidity recently, but he was 100% there for my visit, which was wonderful) Uncle John and cousin JJ also dropped by with the dogs (a Golden and a Golden Doodle) - I tell you, I thought they were happy to see me, but when those dogs walked in, they lit up twice as bright. They do love the dogs.

JJ was just back from a trip to Cooperstown and New York City, and was off to play some golf with a friend. He was proudly telling me that they played well against this team of 12 year olds from Houston: This team is the elite team in the 12-year old league, and parents have to pony up $40k per season per player to pay for the coaches. This struck me as some kind of madness, and happily everyone else thought it was nuts too.

Meetings in the afternoon into the evening, then drinks with the team: I resolved to never again complain about travel after spending time with Jose, a new hire, who has 3 kids at home (2, 4, 7) and a 10 hour each way commute from LA to Appleton every week. We need to keep him on the West Coast somehow. He was certainly not complaining - but perhaps it was because he bore it so stoically ("It's my job") that it affected me.

A 6:30am flight home today, some quick work in the office, and now I'm home while Bella is out splashing in the pool with neighbors, Isaac is napping, and Pamela is getting a tour of the State Capitol with some friends. It's good to be home.

Billlllllings

First off, I must say that every single person I've interacted with in the past 24 hours in Billings Montana has been wonderful: When I checked in at midnight last night, the clerk not only guided me in by phone (the area of the hotel is too new to be on GPS yet), but also chatted me up with talk about the Portal video game, and the observation that I have a laugh just like George McFly (Crispin Glover) in Back to the Future. From there, I've had coffee shop gals who just wanted to chat for a while, waitresses who were forthright in their recommendations, hospital secretaries who actually walked me 2 blocks to the right office instead of just telling me where to go....

Our meetings here in Billings are going very well: For a small town, they're actually very tech savvy and have big intentions that I think I can help them out with. Plus, they don't mind spending an hour just talking about the industry and trends and whatnot. Given that in Seattle, I'm pulling teeth to get 15 minutes, having 6 hours scheduled with all levels of management, plus a 3 hour dinner with two key decision makers (with way too many belly laughs to be reasonable), it could make me feel spoiled.

All that said, there are a few things I need to mention:

1) The billboard for "Scary Larry's" - Pawn Shop, 24 hour loans, Native American Crafts, and Adult Superstore. I'm wondering if I can maybe get an off-color dreamcatcher there.

2) The 10 foot high billboard with a lady realtor holding a fancy dressed poodle.

3) The fact that there are pawn shops on every block... it makes hocking things almost seem... normal...

4) Casinos Casinos Casinos. Every single place with a liquor license also purports to be a casino, of which there are around a million in this town. And they have such ritzy aspirations: "Monte Carlo", "Big Texas", "Attached to Old Chicago Pizza".

So another day of meetings tomorrow, then off to Denver! Wish me luck!

Holy Smokes

We have made it through quite the long weekend, people.

Friday the 4th, we got up good and early and Pamela went with a few other Moms to stake out primo seats for the Edina 4th of July parade. Us dads ambled up an hour later with the kids in tow (in my case, literally in tow: I dusted off the bike and hooked up the Burley). The 2 hr parade was a blast as usual, though I suspect some padding (there were a LOT of restored military vehicles in there, stinking things up with their manly exhausts). The marching bands all graced us with a "stop" in front of our seats to Isaac's delight. He also loved the NEIGHS, all the drummers, and the larger vehicles. He was no fan of the clowns (is anyone a fan of the clowns? Really?)

During the Parade, I found myself wanting some future technology: As the rafts of jeeps went by with aged veterans, I wished for a floating information balloon for each: A name and identity, which war, perhaps a link to a story or two. As it was, it was several dozen old men (and a few old ladies) without context... and I wanted more!

Friday evening the neighbors had an open BBQ, starting at 4. Two dozen kids and the same number of adults enjoying grilled food, crunchy snacks, and beer sweet beer. Knowing that there are some Scotch neophytes on the block, I brought a bottle of Strathisla 12 to share (a mild speyside with some great apricot tones). I had to leave around 8 to put Issac down, but when I retrieved the bottle Saturday AM, I found that it had been QUITE WELL ENJOYED. Apparently my name had been taken in vain a few times on Saturday AM by headache wielding adventurers. NOT MY FAULT, people.

We decided it was just too late for Bella to see fireworks, so we made do with one of the neighborhood dads lighting off a "Target Pack" of ground fireworks. Bella loved them, and slept well.

Saturday was another "play all day" affair for Bella, while Pamela worked furiously to get things ready for Mae's birthday in the evening: Yes, another all-neighborhood BBQ party. In the middle of the day, I decided to do the Bodystep routine in the backyard again: It was a hot and not very windy day, but I made it through alive.

The party was fun: The kid mob was even BIGGER this time, and while I did get Isaac down at a reasonable time, Pamela dragged Bella in AFTER 10 so we knew that Sunday would be quite the day.

Today we started late and slow, and didn't really get moving until much later in the day. There were a lot of shows watched (Tubbies, BooBah, Calliou, and other "mellow events"), and we all took naps at various points in the day. Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's for Steaks and a kiddie pool, where Bella and Isaac blew off what little steam they had left from the weekend... Carrie and Scott were there too, and it was great to get caught up on everyone's doings.

Despite the pure exhaustion, bedtime for the kiddies was a bit of a chore: Bella's mind wouldn't turn off until after 9, and Isaac got himself so overwrought that he up and puked. But all is finally quiet in the house and Pamela and I are catching up on the world.

The week coming up will be long: I'll be in Montana, but then a quick trip to Denver where I'll get to see my maternal Grandparents, who I haven't seen for over 3 years I think? But Pamela will be solo for 4 nights, so I'll be sending her positive vibes and will come back with hugs and foot massages for her.

A line is crossed

I have made my first Ebay Scotch purchase. My favorite distillery has been coming out with some limited edition bottlings that are simply not coming across the pond, and it's worked me up into such a frenzy that I was considering a daring weekend flight into and out of Edinburgh just to acquire them. Fortunately a kind soul had the bottles on the EBay for a not entirely outrageous price, and it was a lot cheaper than the flight. So they should arrive in a few weeks and we'll just see how this experiment goes. Chicken and Ant will flip their lids.

But having spent British Pounds on this hobby now, it seems undeniable that a line of some sort has been crossed, and that there is a new world of bottles available if only I can stand the exchange rate and Royal Mail.

In the opposite spectrum of health maintenance, it's time for the new releases of Bodypump and Bodystep, and time for me to start memorizing new moves. Pump fired up this week, and Step will be the week after next (which is good, since I'll be traveling next week!). Every time there's a new release, it totally busts my chops, since you grow to realize how much muscle memory you rely on - just changing a few moves can really throw off your muscles and you start to "feel" it all again. The new release has the Moby "Bourne Identity end credits" theme for the Abs: Great song makes up for a completely unreasonable move which I can't even describe here ("side plank with curl under" would be the technical term I think).

Poor little Isaac has had a rough couple of days: The construction across the street has been revving up at naptime, and yesterday there was a dumpster delivered, filled, and retrieved, and the poor kid only got a half hour in before waking up screaming from the noise. And he spent the day throwing things and yelling, before passing out with half of his usual dinner bottle, which led to THREE wake-ups in the night (up from ZERO for the past week!). So Pamela has set up a nap-zone in our sitting room, which seemed to work, though having got it all arranged, the workers decided to take the day off.

Finally, I spent the last 2 days in "strategic meetings" with the new company, and am perhaps a little frustrated that my total numbers are around the same as my first month - I'm not growing very fast... but we figured out I'm actually in the BEST position of the whole team, because I have 4 clients who are preparing for implementations (which is a wide open, multi-year opportunity), while everyone else is in mid to end-of-project state with their clients... so there's a very real possibility that by this time next year, I'll have the most business. So I just need to adjust my sights and set patience level to maximum...

With that, I'm REALLY off to Billings MT next week, and then to Denver for meetings. Happily I'll get a little time in there to visit with the Grandparents... which will be wonderful. I'll have stories. And no, I won't have time for fly fishing in Billings. Sorry.

Mister Swagger

Poor little Isaac: One of his preferred timewasters (I mean "small motor skill development activities") is to stand on a chair and "wash dishes". He's very good at it, and has never had an issue, until Saturday, when he was Reeeeeaaaaaccchhhhing over to grab something on the counter that he probably shouldn't have been reaching for, and lost his balance and tumbled to the ground.

It was one of those "fwump" sounds, not a "whack" sound, he didn't hit his head, and he was immediately pissed off. After a few minutes of cuddles, he was back on the move and we thought little of it. Saturday night, he did wake up a few times just seeming a bit sad, however.

Sunday morning, we noticed that he was sporting a limp. A stylish swagger perhaps, but definitely one leg was being favored. We decided to take him to Children's: while he wasn't really complaining about the leg, the limp was quite pronounced.

At Children's, they did a wonderful job getting him checked out: He charmed the staff in Radiology to the point where they gave him a Mickey Mouse doll just for being fun. Isaac loved his "MOUSE!!!" In the final result, no fractures were found, so it's probably just a soft tissue issue that'll clear up in a few days.

Pamela and I noticed an interesting discrepancy: The doctor came in and said "if he is in pain give him Tylenol instead of Ibuprofen because bones heal by inflaming, and Ibuprofen inhibits inflamation. If he still limps in a week, bring him to your primary care physician."

5 minutes later we got his computer printed "discharge instructions" which the nurse went over with us. On the printout was the recommendation "if pain is evident, give Ibuprofen, and if limp persists for a week, return to Children's." So two pieces of completely contractory information. We're following the doctor's recommendation on this one.

Today he is still limping a bit, but it's really not slowing him down... and just to prove a point, he took a tumble off of another chair today. I get the feeling that the people at Children's are probably going to get to know him pretty well.

In the Bella File, two points of interest: We had some cousins come to visit on Thursday evening through Saturday AM: One of the cousins is Kiel, a blond nordic viking of 13 with a very sweet demeanor. And Bella went gaga for him. She wanted to know where Kiel was at all times. She wanted to be sitting with, on, on top of him at all times, and he was very game to wrassle with her, sending her to giggle heaven. Oh, it was a treat to watch Bella completely losing her mind in a crush... her "boyfriend" Tayden should watch out, I say.

The second Bella point: We were having dinner, and Pamela asked what Bella is most looking forward to in Kindergarten: The answer was "Learning how to write". What else is she looking forward to?

"Learning how to juggle".

Apparently that's in the curriculum of Kindergarten these days.

A JimVention

So I'm a guy who likes to eat... and I'm a particular fan of Reubens... hot sandwiches in general. But I have a huge frustration: That hot sandwich sitting on that hot plate creates a condensation issue which invariably leads to a sogginess on the bottom. If that sandwich has sat for any period of time prior to coming to me, it can be disastrous.

The first thing I do is flip the sandwich: All that does is prevent MORE sogginess, but it unfortunately cannot reverse the sogginess that has already crept in. So I got an idea.

The Sandwich Trivet.

A sandwich sized grate, like a cookie baking cooling tray, with small lets that elevate it up a centimeter or so. It could be metal, it could be bamboo, but the key is that is has very little surface area contact with the sandwich: A 7" square piece of wood with 9 small holes cut into it wouldn't vent enough. A fine packed screen mesh would have too much surface contact I think. 2mm metal rods in a wide spaced grid?

It would be appropriate for grilled cheese, burgers, reubens (and rachels), really any grilled or hot sandwich. I'm thinking the target market is restaurants, since that's where I have the bulk of my sog issues. There could be a cardboard model for takeout containers... I draw the line at a plastic model: Who would want that coming to their table, and who would want to see that in a takeout container in these environmentally sensitive times?

So I ask you the readers of the blog - is this an idea whose time has come - should I create this trivet and market it - or is my particular insanity unique to myself, and you all are just fine with a limp, floppy bottom to your burger? And if you DO like it, have you any good ideas on how to start MAKING this thing?

Wall-E

I loved WALL-E. Now, of course you say "Jimmy we know all about you and robots, so this is no big surprise". True true. I will cop to the long time love of robots, and a movie with excellent robots is bound to be a hit with me. But I will counter than the movie "Robots", while also about robots, was far less satisfying. While "Robots" was basically a "people movie" with robots, with the standard pop culture references that make no sense in context, WALL-E was a robot movie about robots, and sort of about people. Sort of.

I won't get into the full review here, but I will enumerate some of the things I loved and will try not to spoil anything for anyone:

1) All of the robot sounds. (there is very little "English" in the movie, but a lot of "language" - it's pure artistry)
2) The characters of these bots - Wall-E, Eve, Mo, the bug, the giant eyeball thing... These things with no "lines" have amazing personalities.
3) Hello Dolly as a central theme?
4) Fred Willard
5) Sigourney Weaver
6) The Apple references throughout.

7) The most slapstick and hilarious Pixar Short ever opens the movie. It was pure Roadrunner in its inventiveness.

I should note that two recently loved movies, "I Am Legend" and "Idiocracy" both had central themes that were scarily present in this movie... and it was wonderful.

I won't write any more about the movie except to say that Bella asked to see it again, and I'm going to take her as soon as possible. I highly recommend this beautiful movie.

Safe, sound, and so forth

Pamela got back just fine yesterday morning, and was greeted at baggage claim by loving husband and excited children. Alas, I had to run off to a full day of work shortly after bringing the clan back home... but the kids were so happy to have mom home they barely noticed my leaving... Fortunately a babysitter had been arranged, so that Pamela had an opportunity to rest up, considering she had been up since 4 to get home on a 6:30 flight... and insomnia had wracked her bones prior to 4.

By the time I returned at a somewhat late 6:30 (but with peacemaking curry in hand), the kids were literally falling apart, so it was full triage mode. Isaac did eat a curried potato samosa, which fit with his strange dietary tendencies just right. Bella was profoundly not interested in the curry.

This morning, I made an appearance at Time Out for Bodystep, which got my blood going for the day ahead. I got to brag a little about doing the routine without guidance, and they let me know that a new release is coming next week... Time to start over with the learning! (you know I love it)

I came home to find Isaac again in a sad state - his 4 teeth cutting at once is really messing with his attitude. He tries to be brave. On the plus side, he's so worn out that he's been assenting to cuddle a bit, so it's not ALL bad. Then it was off to the airport - yes, I'm on the road: Portland for one night, Sacramento for another. This weekend, we have guests on the 3rd floor, so I guess we just strap in and make this stuff happen.

In good news: iTunes now has a pack of all 12 Roadrunner cartoons for download, which I did indeed download, and I shared one with Bella: She thought it was one of the funniest things she'd ever seen, and demanded to see more. As I rewatched them with her, I was paralyzed with amusement - the crackpot physics are so completely amazing to watch: My favorite is where Coyote is on roller skates, with a bathtub full of water strapped to his back, with an outboard motor in the water. He fires it up, and moves forward... completely violating every law of physics there is. Newton would have a stroke.

Speaking of Newton - in Kindle News I finally finished Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle - all 3 monstrous books (in slim Kindle form). It was actually quite rewarding, and in the end a ripping yard. You can tell that Neal was getting a bit impatient to finish - the last 200 pages or so were quite economically written and to-the-point. But now I'm looking forward to his next book due in the fall, about which NOTHING is known... As long as it's not a "clan of the cave bear" pre-language grunting book, I'll be ok, I'm sure.

A quick Portland note: I had the most amazing donut ever. I walked over to Voodoo Doughnuts (12 blocks from my hotel) and had one of their legendary Glazed Maple and Bacon donuts: A maple longjohn with a strip of crispy bacon. The maple glaze was slightly tart like real maple syrup, not oversweet, and the bacon was perfect, on top of an airy pillow... oh goodness was it delicious. www.voodoodoughnut.com if you don't believe me, suckas. I'm planning to get up early tomorrow and take a run (the time zone favors me here, though my 6am CST workouts are also pretty nuts) and it'll be pretty hard not to stop in there for a quick "health undo".

I'm off downstairs to meet with the consultant who I got placed out here to both welcome him aboard and get as much inside info from him about the new client as I can get through legal and decent means. I'm prepared to use Steak and Martinis if necessary, I'm that serious.

Day Three

Pamela remains out of town, and I've made it through the third night... Things are helped somewhat in that I have barely seen or heard from my daughter all weekend: She has decided to move in with Casey, and comes home for periodic sunscreen slathering and nutrient consumption, and then is back to the wonderful backyard up the block.

Yesterday we started with Isaac's swim lesson - he's in the same level of class as before, but he's really starting to "own" a lot of the activities - and is hilariously screaming for the things he likes: All of the other kids are newbies, so I think Isaac will be a good "example" kid for the others. He's still not doing SOME of the things, so we don't want to rush him to the next level by any means! Afterwards we made three stops: Target, Burrito Store, and France 44 - where they were grilling Brats outside - I got one with kraut and mustard, and another with a homemade hot pepper and onion relish. Amazing food. After eating, Bella was off...

While Isaac napped, I put on the headphones and set up an Aerobics Step out in the back gazebo and did an hour of BodyStep: It was a bit of an experiment for me to see if I could recall the steps for all 12 songs - there was no verbal cueing on the CD I was listening to, so it was all from memory of class. I actually did very well - only on 3 did I wind up somewhere off in the counts. The rest I had down pat... and was even vocalizing a few of the "up next" cues. Of course, I have no idea what the neighbors were thinking about my activity... I can only imagine what it looked like, me clomp clomp clomping on a plastic step, muttering things like "ok, up next three knee repeaters, three two one, and BASIC right...."

I did get the kids started for bed earlier - 7:30 - and they were READY for it, for sure! Then Uncle Ant showed up and we had an impromptu Avengers Night, enjoying some fine scotches and the AWESOME movie "3:10 to Yuma" One of the most surprisingly excellent movies I've seen in a long time... completely took me off guard. I was in bed by midnight, and Isaac graced me with yet another night of sleeping through - his third in a row for me...

After breakfast, Bella was off to play already, and Isaac and I went back to Target to get some things I had missed... and there was a huge stack of Wiis in stock. Once again, I resisted the urge. Even though it looks like fun, I just can't see WHEN I'd get around to playing with it! WiiFit or no - I've got my own way of keeping in shape.

Today is a big party at the end of the block - an annual Ice Cream Social with trampoline and every kid in the world. I have made arrangements with the hosts to send Bella solo while I monitor the napping Isaac. It looks a bit cloudy out there, and I'm hoping that the weather holds for the party!

Pamela comes home tomorrow at 8:30am and the whole family can't wait to see her - Bella and Isaac are both wondering about where Mommy is... so I'm sure this close to what Pamela goes through during my little trips!

Tonight after the kids snooze, I might treat myself to Be Kind Rewind, the latest Michel Gondry movie. Allright, gotta go work on that yard, assuming it's not raining!

Oh, and one more Isaac thing: Yesterday he started saying "Eight... Nine... TEN!". That is a very interesting kid.

Whirlwind

So I actually worked from home today, while taking care of the kiddies, and I can say that it was no easy feat to actually be productive, and if it weren't for a 3 hour window where Bella was playing and Isaac was napping... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was a gorgeous day - warm but not too hot, sunny, a light breeze. Isaac woke at 6:20 after graciously sleeping through the night for me. We played for an hour before Bella joined us downstairs. A hearty breakfast and a shower and we were off to take Bella to her church camp. While she learned about God and the Rainforest, Isaac and I got caught up on email, played in the sink, wrassled, giggled, ate, and so on. By 11:15, it was time to go see Bella's final "project" at the camp.

The final project was 4 musical numbers (Bella was only in the last one) and a movie of the week (thank goodness for Macs - the movie was turned around so quickly!) Isaac was fascinated, and ran RIGHT up to join the chorus. In the first number he stood right in front of Jenny and danced. For the second number, it was a smaller group, and he tried to climb right on stage, so I had to distract him... By the movie, he was back up in front sitting with all of the other kids.

The church leader said of Isaac "I'd heard about him, but had never really believed it until now... wow, what a kid!"

Bella was a full participant, singing and moving along with the other kids (though giving off full shy vibes at the same time). After the program it was cupcakes and punch in the basement, where Isaac played for another 30 minutes: I almost got whiplash keeping track of him - fortunately the other kids also kept tabs on him. I'd turn my back, and then hear the piano playing - ISAAC. I'd hear a kid yelling because someone stole his artwork-in-progress - ISAAC. I'd hear a grownup wondering if that kid is supposed to be in the kitchen - ISAAC. What a guy.

We came home and Bella immediately went off to play with the neighbor kids... and Isaac went right to sleep - for almost 4 hours. Naturally I checked in on Bella's progress through the day (I need to make sure she remains welcome wherever she's playing every hour or so - it's just polite).

During this window, I generated a proposal for a new client, worked on a new opportunity for an existing one, worked through some hiring issues we're having, and got some feedback and next steps on my data warehouse thing. Oh, I wanted to nap, make no mistake. But I didn't take today as PTO, so I needed something to show for the day...

Later we congregated at the neighborhood pool: I showed up with Isaac and the neighbor kids were thrilled to have him in the water... and Bella was a great helper. Unfortunately, while the other kids had a good hour of pool time, Isaac and I only got 15 minutes before the sky opened with a summer shower. We ran home and got some pizza, which both Isaac and Bella devoured. Then it was BACK to the neighbor's post-rainstorm for 90 more minutes of kids running around and grownups keeping one eye on them and catching up on the doings.

I finally got those kids extracted and started toward bed at 8, but no sleeping happened before 9 - those were some EXCITED CHILDREN. So now having done a few loads of laundry, a good bit of work-work, and a whole lot of kid-work, I'm looking at that clock and thinking "yep - good time for bedtime". I'll leave those movies, manuals, and language lessons for another day.

Some Isaac and Bella things

Isaac's words keep getting more clear and useful: Help and Wait are newer staples, as are more names, and some compounds (Bye Bye Mae Mae!) He's a little singer, and loves the ABC song - he does ABCD pretty well, and the rest are more indistinct. Perhaps most oddly, he's taken to saying "Seven Eight Nine" in a row quite a bit. Not really sure where that came from, or what it could possibly mean, but he loves 7-8-9. (Perhaps he's telling the punchline to the old joke "why were 4, 5, and 6 nervous? Because 7 8 9!)

Bella has been spending the weekday mornings at UCC Bible Camp (Not UU, UCC up the block, who are plenty liberal even if they like their Jesus a bit more than the Unitarians). Tonight she's been singing a song about God Loving Us, and we can love our enemies, complete with sign language, which has been a blast to watch.

A related anecdote from earlier in the week: Up at the Grandview, Bella loved wading in the shallows of the lake, finding sea glass and rocks. A little boy around her age joined her with rolled up pants, and they seemed to be having a great time... until he spotted a big rock in her bucket and decided it would make a good SPLOSH. Bella literally lost her mind and DOVE into the water (fully dressed) to try to retrieve the rock, which was a bit further out than she could go. She was soaked from head to toe and was screaming bloody murder at this kid - you do not mess with Bella and her nature.

Tonight as I put her to bed, she confessed:

"I have a terrible image in my mind. I keep seeing that boy who took my rock and threw it, and it makes me sad and angry every time I think of him. Because I loved that rock - it was the most beautiful rock I had ever found, and I wanted to bring it home and sleep with it in my bed every night and hold it and hug it."

By the end of this story, she was wracked with sobs, and I sat with her as she calmed down. That poor sensitive girl. I tried to relate that the point of that song she kept singing was that even when someone does something bad and we think they're our enemy, that we can forgive and love them.

"I never ever want to see that boy ever again."

End of discussion.

wrasslin

Just got back from a deliriously wonderful 4 day vacation with the family plus Grandma and Grandpa. We went up to one of the "up north" resorts, this time going for the multi-bedroom condo slightly off the property but still quite within reach of all of the amenities.

It was 4 days of wonderful wrestling matches with Isaac and Bella, lots of cuddles, and much good food and wine. The weather was a bit cool for too much lake time, but we did hit the beach twice, and both times Bella wound up with soaked clothes, unable to keep from venturing into the water to look for stones and sea glass. Isaac was only soaked the first day, and by the second day we had figured out enough on-shore distractions to keep him from following his sister into the muck.

Fortunately, GrandView has a great indoor pool which Bella visited daily. On the day that Daddo came along, we went down the waterslide no fewer than 20 times together. Daddo's bones realized sometime later that it had been a bit jarring all of this water collision and Daddo had some soreness to account for.

Immediately upon returning on Monday, I had to pack up and head to Philly for meetings on Tues and Wed AM. For my Tuesday meetings, I had recalled my $80 taxi bill for the trip out to, waiting for, and back from the client up in the northern reaches of the city. I decided to try a different tack, and figured out the public transit route up there. The express subway picked me up 1 block from my hotel, and deposited me 3 blocks from the client site, with only 4 stops on the express line in between.

The (potential) client is up in a tough neighborhood, and I thought it good to walk in the shoes of my (potential) consultants to know if the subway is an option. It is, as long as you can make it past 1/2 block of roughness right outside the subway station. In talking to the CIO (who is growing to be a good acquaintance, perhaps 2 meetings away from friend) it's nice to know of this hospital: They do service to their community, and as such have lots of medicaid, medicare, and no-pay clients. But they're growing, and are looking to open another hospital in a "better" part of town with the express purpose of PAYING to keep the old hospital open. I thought that community focus was pretty cool.

I'm getting a feel for this town... I still think it's pretty tough and hardscrabble, but am growing to like it too, especially the more I walk it. Last night, I passed a woman at 10pm waiting for the bus with a little boy asleep on her shoulder - a little Isaac. I had all sorts of thoughts, but most of all, I realized how nice my 4 days with the family had been, and how lucky I am to have people like Isaac and Isabella and Pamela in my life.

A few impressions

I was in Seattle the past 2 days, and I got to revisit my favorite Sushi place of all time and space - Izumi in Kirkland. I met up with Paul out there, and we spent a couple of hours bellied up to the sushi bar being fed wave after wave of insanely delicious sushi. It all started with Paul saying "how about some Salmon", and the chef rattled off no fewer that 8 different kinds of Salmon he was serving. cutting out the smoked varieties, we settled on 6 different kinds and cuts of fish, from lean and savory to fatty and creamy. Izumi cuts their fish very generously (there's at least as much fish off the rice as on...) and every bite was delicious.

Of course we also chatted about our previous business and creative ventures (Brainready, Roamfi, Project Manager, and others), and began to lay the framework for the next phases of our creative endeavors.

Backing up: On the way to Seattle, we took a very long route around the runways, and for a few minutes I was treated to the view of people doing fire suppression training: A good half dozen silver suited people standing in front of a burned out husk of a plane (the trainer plane - not a real accident), with a wildly raging fuel fire they were spraying foam onto. It was quite the scene really. The flight itself was very very bumpy, but I had been "bumped" to first class, so I survived in style.

Fast forward: I had a meeting this morning with a prospect in Tacoma who simply had not answered any of my emails or calls for the past 4 months, but suddenly decided to respond and meet. It was a very positive meeting, especially when we got to my "pet project" of data analytics - she got very excited and by the end of the conversation, we were making plans for me to come out again to talk to her team about my ideas... She said she'd got similar pitches from other vendors, but none had the enthusiasm and passion for the subject I showed, and she was very impressed.

So the Jimmy Effect is still at work here.

On the home front: Bella went to a 3 day "camp" at the Arboretum, and had that "serene smile" going on every day: That girl does love the nature. Also, out of nowhere, she has decided she likes Eggrolls. I brought some home tonight and she gobbled one up without question. I didn't want to mention the cabbage, beansprouts, shitake mushrooms, and chicken she was enjoying - she just went for it. Late last week, she packed a chicken springroll (with rice noodles, cilantro, and beansprouts) without question either. Absolutely bizarre, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Isaac continues to confound with his eating: His sadness/teething may have subsided for a bit (which had put him off food entirely for a few days), but he's still not eating MUCH, nor is he eating things predictably: He chowed down a ton of fried rice a few days back, but then refused it entirely tonight. But he did have a few tentative nibbles on the egg roll tonight... reminding me of the night a year back when he ate most of a potsticker, but never repeated the feat. The man is a "taster" - not an "eater".

We're off tomorrow for a 4 day weekend to Grandview with grandma and grandpa - we're staying in a 3 BR condo which should be very fun. The moment we return, I'm off to Philly for 2 nights... I don't imagine we'll be doing Morimoto's again, however. That was a bit on the pricey side of town.

My final observation tonight: I have heard the word "escape" pronounced "eck-scape" many times in the past week - during E-Learnings for work, during the pre-flight announcements... I'm starting to wonder if I should just give up and accept that this word is not what it once was. Sigh. People.