A new lease...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sept 13

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

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

End of the week...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Didi

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

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

Interesting.

The Grader

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First Grade Coming...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scenes from The Fair

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A story

One of the reasons I've been willing to be away from the family is that the opportunity to make a difference at a pediatric hospital really seems like a good thing to do for the world... even if they move slowly and bureaucratically in many ways, it's also obvious they do great work for kids.

My first week onsite I was getting a tour and walked past a room with a sign above it - "Camp Need-a-Heart" - inside was a girl I'll call "Sara", about Bella's age, awake and talking to her parents, hooked up to a machine the size of a refrigerator. The room was decked out beautifully, with an entire wall of "get well" cards and colorful streamers across the ceiling. The nurse told me she was waiting for a heart transplant.

One of the things I've been charged with doing is analyzing how data flows between the systems in the cardiology department, so I noted her name and looked at the data trail: A transplant patient really has every possible sort of exam and procedure done at some point - Echocardiograms, EEGs, Holters, Caths, Transplant prep visits and documentation, surgery... in one patient I could see it all. So I used this data to make my flow charts, and moved on...

Mostly. I was curious about what documentation would actually appear once the transplant took place, so I made a point of checking on the record every week or so, just to see if that new document had arrived. And a few weeks ago, there was a new record: Transplant Surgery Performed. I logged the document path, and was done with my workflow.

But I wondered about Sara, and how she came out. Seeing her that first day had been so powerful - a girl about Bella's age with a failing heart and a family so devoted. I wanted her to be ok.

Two days ago I was walking through the department and wound up walking past her room for the first time since that first day. I slowed just a little to look in as I walked past, wondering if she was still there. The sun was shining, and Sara was sitting on a couch by the window next to her mom, reading a book. She was smiling broadly and I caught her looking up at her mom with a laugh. The fridge-sized machine was gone, and she didn't appear to be hooked up to anything. Looks like she came through ok.

It made me proud to be doing what I'm doing.

Take me home

1) My hotel is on the "other side" of the Convention Center from Center City: To get to my place from the subway, I walk up 12th street, through a full city block-long tunnel, surrounded on both sides and above by the convention center. It's actually quite wide and not claustrophobic, (unless there are lots of buses filled with conventioneers). It's very echoey, which makes the skateboarders and occasional drunkards very audible. On both sides, large windows offer a view into the convention center itself, and I get to see what's being set up.

As I was walking "home" last night, I saw a number of police vans in once side of the center, and several dozen officers walking around in an otherwise empty convention floor. An hour later I walked back
through on my way to dinner, and saw that they had set up a complex set of obstacles: Ramps, stairs, boxes, etc, and this was actually BIKE COP TRAINING! I didn't get to see them going through their moves, but I was excited to see that high curbs, 10 foot stairways, and retaining walls are all things that the Philly PD bike police are trained to handle.

2) On that same walk, I heard a swarm of bees coming up behind me, and turned to find a pack of 12 people on Vespas coming up the road. Walking toward me was a group of 3 moms and 8 kids, and the kids literally started jumping up and down hollering and waving their arms. The Vespas all obliged with enthusiastic beeping and as much of an engine rev as they were capable of. The kids turned to watch them go, literally springing in the air, dancing with excitement. The Vespas passed, the kids passed, and I was alone on the street again. It was fun to have that moment swirl around me.

3) It was a much more effective week for me: Finally FINALLY closed that sale, which will bring a nice bonus around the holidays. Got a lot of work done for both clients. Did some good language learning. Ate some half decent food (no disappointments this week, thank you very much). Got some exercise. Kept a positive attitude. I'm not sure why some weeks feel good and others don't... I think that I do go through cycles - maybe every 5-6 weeks I have a few down days, and they just hit last week. OR maybe it has to do with my excitement at having a week at home coming up.

Yes, I'm working "remotely" next week. Papabam are likely already at the house, we're hitting the State Fair tomorrow, have tickets to see A Prairie Home Companion Friday Night, and then just quality time with the family. I have a lot of writing to do and I'll be on the clock next week... and I have a few site visits set up to see what's working or not for some cardiology groups in Minneapolis, but my nights will be in my own bed, I'll be tucking in my kids, my dog will be on my lap, and thing will be good.

4) I'm on an early flight right now, coming home to take Bella to her open house at school, to meet her first grade teacher. This is big important stuff, and I'm happy I could make it.

Oh: My first week with the MacBook Air has been like some sort of crazy dream. This thing is so light and wonderful. Incredible.

Mo' Better

Already feeling better about this week, productivity-wise. Got good work done on a number of fronts, plus got some Mandarin learning in the bag this evening (inspired by having a co-worker who will let me try my language on him!)

Got forwarded an email from my former boss' boss back from the company I fled, and was relieved/horrified to find truly abusive language in this message, which was sent to 5 VP/Sr VP level people. The guy was bad crazy, and I'm happy to be out of there. Note to anyone who knows where I worked - it's not the CEO, this is a senior VP being the jerk... Even though my feelings for the CEO aren't too kind either.

Food: Had a non-disappointing day: Found a Vienna Beef stand a few blocks from work and enjoyed a true Chicago Style for lunch. For dinner, tried another place near the hotel in Chinatown, and was NOT disappointed, so food is going OK so far.

Yeah, I stayed up too late last night, got up too early, and am dragging, so this quick post will be my night-night to you. See you in the morning when I'm refreshed!

The Busyness - AGAIN!

Another weekend, more fun! Friday was our traditional "plan lots of stuff but collapse because it's FRIDAY and it's been a long week" day. I did have more than a little actual work to do in the day - several conference calls, some updated documentation... I'd love it if I just worked M-Th and had a true 3-day weekend every week, but it doesn't quite work that way. BUT it's hourly work, and I don't mind.

Pamela had a dinner out with her church people on Friday night, so it was Dad and the Kids having some fun... Pamela has been starting to ramp up her involvement in church again, which is great. I do think they bring a wonderful network of support, plus it's a bunch of smart people who are fun to talk with. Of course you run into the navel gazers: There was a hilarious/frustrating bit where someone decided to do a drive to collect towels for a men's shelter (so that the guys can dry off from their showers). All was going well, until someone decided to mandate that "we should only be giving hand towels - big fluffy bath towels are a luxury and cause more environmental impact because they take more water to wash."

Yeah, because those homeless guys are living in the lap of luxury with their big bath towels... Just makes you want to strangle people for missing the dang POINT. Hey, we do what we can: When I travel, I don't have the sheets changed for my 3 nights, so I'm doing my part. But if a dude wants enough towel to wrap around his waist and walk around, I think we can allow that.

Pamela handled it very well, to the point of getting people coming up to her congratulating her on her poise. Love it.

Saturday was Isaac's last day swimming at Foss in the "Tots 4" - he was swimming 6 feet from the stairs to the island without any help or floating devices... which was amazing. He's a great swimmer just like his sister. Bella finished Foss too, and won't be going back this fall - she'll be doing Synchro instead!

Had the boys over for an Avenging Saturday Night, and we had a very wild lineup of bottles that wouldn't pop to mind as "obvious" - a sherried, ancient Glenlivet, a rum casked Springbank, the last of my Birthday Bunnahabin 25, a wildly complex Rosebank (tasting notes - finish of iron filings. REALLY), the legendary sherried Talisker 20, a brilliant Caol Ila, and a new Port Askaig (tasted like a creamy Ardbeg). It had been 8 weeks since our last avenging, and it was just so wonderful to see Ant and Chicken again.

Zinsser decided that Ant and Chicken were a disruption to the very stability of our Pack, however, and spent a lot of time bark bark barking... until they bribed their way into the pack with dog treats. Then Zinsser was happy to be sitting with us in the basement, swimming in the malt smells.... The movie was 3:10 to Yuma again (Chicken hadn't seen it), and it was completely brilliant AGAIN. Bale and Crowe were wonderful...

Oh, and we decided to rent a Rug Doctor to get some cleanup from our weeks of puppy training... and that was some foul water coming out of that machine. Some rugs took 2-3 passes.... Plus the weekly mowing... Grocery shopping, fridge cleanout... Oh I got into trouble on that one. I have a fear of leftovers in general, and so when I look at a fridge full of to-go containers, I reflexively start tossing them out.

Unfortunately, I tossed out some things that were actually more fresh than I had thought (which was funny since I actually brought them home myself on Friday - 48 hours is quite acceptable), and I got a cross phone call at the airport - Pamela had been looking forward to those leftovers. ATT decided to add to the fun by dropping the call 3 times, so I called to apologize 3 times, and was made to swear a blood oath not to toss out leftovers without clearing it with the person who actually LIKES them.

I want to go on record as saying I do have a problem with leftover maintenance and I am too quick to toss. I will work on that.

I'm back on the east coast again: Flew out late tonight - it's actually much more mellow to do it this way - the airport is peaceful, the flight crews are a little loopy, and it's easy to catch some zzz's on the plane, which unfortunately leads to having energy at midnight to update blog posts, I suppose....

Things to warm the geek heart

1) I have finally cracked the code and can do Killer Sudoku. I've completed two so far. Here's a link to one... it's Sudoku, but with no starting numbers, plus boxes where the numbers need to add up. Until Thursday, my attempts had resulted in a half dozen crumpled up pieces of paper... but Thursday on the airplane I somehow made it happen. And tonight I did it again (different puzzle, thank you for your support). It's brilliant.

I have tried the 1-12 Sudoku too, but that just feels like WORK. This Killer feels like a real challenge.

2) Technology refresh: With the new job came a technology budget. And I was going to resist, but my good buddy Paul decided to stimulate the economy by buying a Macbook Air, THEN deciding to sell it to buy a desktop Mac. So I'm the happy recipient of a nearly new second hand Macbook Air with the solid state hard drive at a great discount: Oh and the SSD means that other than the keys, there are no moving parts in this puppy (well, there may be a little fan). It is silent, and as Ant put it, I've had pads of paper that weighed more. It truly is incredible to have a computer weigh less than 3 lbs, yet be full sized for viewing and typing. Plus it's zippy.

I do have a buyer for my perfectly good Macbook Pro, so this comes out ok on all accounts. I'm just so pleased with this thing.

3) New catchphrase in the house: SPAGETT!!! It's from "Tim and Eric's Awesome Show- Great Job" and well you just need to see it. And you'll want to jump out from behind a fake plant and yell "SPAGETT!!!"

Fuzzy Week

When I'm in Philly, I have several hours a day of gloriously unstructured time... There have been some times when that unstructured time is taken up with nothing but work (leading to 16 hour days... which have certainly occurred). But when things are a little slower, I have more options.

This is usually when you'll see me updating the blog. It's time I could be spending on my novel (just getting started on that one), or refreshing a language... and some weeks have been very very very productive. This week, I have been struck with an overall feeling of fuzziness... I didn't feel like I was being effective in my off hours, and it frustrated me.

On the plus side, I did get a lot of exercise, so that should count for something.... But I still can't shake a mild feeling of not having been on top of things. Next week will be different.

As long as I stay clear of Expert Village.

Still, time for an Anecdote:
I ate for a seond time at a nice nouvell-mex place in University City called Zocalo. One of the waitresses had a very "Selma Hayek" demeanor - her voice was a dead ringer... but she was having a lot of trouble with basic communication in english - "ahmmmm vah-ree sorry baaaaht we don haaaahv daaaat". She tried to describe the wine list to a table near me, and literally couldn't say the words "Chardonnay" (Kar-DOUGH-nay) or Rielsing (Vee-sa-LINE). These were so thoroughly butchered, and she was so impervious to being corrected by her customers, that I grew to suspect that this is sort of a Borat-experiment for her Master's.

When I had her as my waitress 5 weeks earlier, I was convinced she was brand new, maybe pulled out of the kitchen to help out, and I tipped well in spite of the borderline ineptitude. And 5 weeks later she is exactly the same... Hmmmm.... I definitely think it's an act.

Speaking of language - one of my new team members who started this week is a Chinese immigrant who has offered to speak Mandarin with me. I'm very excited. On the other hand, we discussed what the expectations are for his first 3 months, and I discovered I had accidentally already done 3/4 of the sum total of his work expectations. So I forwarded him my work, and will be very interested to see how it evolves. Hey, we'll have plenty to time to work on my language!

I was going to blog...

But I got trapped in "Expert Village" - some of the most amazing videos ever posted to the web. They're collected under the new company "ehow.com" but you search on the YouTube for Expert Village and you will not be disappointed.

To get you started, let me tell you about some BEEKEEPING SAFETY TIPS

Or how to speak with a British Accent

Or some handy GERMAN PHRASES

The fun never ends. Until it does end.

Mouth Destroyer

Back in Philly: Sunday was wonderful with Bella's birth family over for sausages and beer. The kids were in great form: Isaac matching cousin Clayton jump for jump, little cousin Macey finally walking and making the most of her mobility... and Bella. Oh Bella.

My enduring vision of Bella this Sunday: She snuck a plastic bag out of the house and walked to the sandbox, where she filled it with sand and some other things. She took a stick and tied the bag to the end, and slung it over her shoulder, like an old fashioned hobo or runaway. For a good 10 min, she just padded around with that stick/bag, not really telling anyone what was up, with her "serene/mysterious" look on. Then she approached Kaitie: "Would you like a sand pile on your hand?" Well of course.

Bella set the stick down, untied the bag, and produced a small plastic cup, scooped sand into it, then placed the cup upside down on Kaitie's palm. She then pulled out a small plastic hammer and tap-tap-tap-tap, and pulled up the glass. Voila, a well packed cone of sand in Kaitie's palm. Then she carefully slid the glass back over the cone, and had Kaitie flip her hand so that no sand would spill. It all went back into the bag, the bag was retied to the stick, and she slung it back over her shoulder, back on the prowl. Over the next 45 minutes, all of us got to enjoy Sand in the Hand. Bella was very serious throughout, and looked pleased every time the cone held form.

I just need to say that the whole experience was so amazingly "Bella".

The flight out today was uneventful. There are 3 "regulars" on the flight - Mister Slick is pretty friendly, but never gets bumped to first class. Mister Owl jokes around with Mister Slick, but declines the nod with anyone else. Cranky Coach is a young guy - early 30's, prematurely bald, clearly very into sports, and even though we've been on the same flight a dozen times, will return every nod or wave with a blank stare.

Work keeps getting stranger: You all know I'm somewhat underutilized. Well my boss today was excitedly telling me about two new people who will be joining my team. Tomorrow. To do things... that I was sort of thinking I might be doing, sort of. I'm very puzzled, actually, but he seems so happy and enthusiastic. We went on an adventure today too - we walked together clear across campus to deliver a manila envelope. And we got all the way to the office, and the person was IN the office, but we decided to drop the envelope with the secretary.

Halfway, we encountered a motorized revolving door that let my boss through, but not me. He went through, and it stopped. he pushed a button to have it go, and I'd walk in, and it would stop, trapping me in the glass cage. Then it would slowly back up, to release me. We tried variations on this 10 times, and every time, it sensed my presence and declined to let me through, but only after teasing me. He'd hit the button and the door would be swinging like a fan, but the second I got it, ERRRRRT. Must have had a soul detector. Still, it gave me a chance to do my "The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few" Spock death scene from Star Trek Wrath of Khan. Eventually, I just took the unlocked normal door RIGHT NEXT to the rotating door. We had a good laugh.

Dinner tonight was a horrible horrible disappointment: Went back to the Szechuan Tasty House, got the dumplings, and wanted a non-deep fried chicken dish, perhaps with peapods. They brought something out which looked good and the first few bites were good, but then I hit a burst of MSG: I felt my tongue get encased with a cool, lime-y, chemically flavor, and nothing tasted right. Also, my vision blurred slightly. That was 3 hours ago, and I still can't taste anything. I'm sorry Tasty House, but as much as I love your dumplings, I will not be revisiting.

I walked the city for a while (safely) wondering if I would start hallucinating.... but I think I'm ok (assuming there really ARE tiny green dancing men in my room... they showed ID). I'm drinking a LOT of water, however.

I'll be visiting Jersey later this week. They seem excited. And that's the update for now!

Fish Fry!!!

Just got back from an actual Fish Fry over at with the parents of Izzy and Zofi, Bella's friends in Synchronized Swimming. There were around 16 people there, plus as many kids, and it was fun in the sun, with a gas-fired fryer (with 4 gallons of oil) doing the business on beer battered perch and ore-ida french fries. We brought a big Caprese salad, and there was lots of fruit available, so it wasn't all evil. It was a fun time, and Isaac was in the middle of it, of course... he walked up to where the kids were playing, and hollered out "HEY KIDS! I'M HERE!!!" But Bella took some time to warm up. After 10 min on mom's lap (in the hot sun), Izzy lured Bella away with a plan/project. Didn't see them for almost an hour after that: They had locked themselves in the basement bathroom with a roll of toilet paper, a fresh roll of scotch tape, and a bucket of "littlest pet shop" toys, all of which needed wrapping in "bandages".

By the end of that, Bella was warmed up enough to cause all sorts of trouble, including enlisting the kids to tackle me and remove my shirt. All that fish must have put them in the mood to see more pale skin, I suppose. It was very odd. VERY odd. Witht he shirt off, she was content to go back and play with the rest of the kids. But she was DRIVEN.

Isaac had blown off his nap today (which meant I didn't get one either), so by 7:45, he was pretty tired. He's actually been pretty wiped by the end of these days... staggering down the hall like a drunkard, didda in his mouth and a goofy grin on his face. After a couple of stories, he was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow. Which left me with "old man Zinsser".

Zinsser has some curious tendencies about being a guard dog: I took him for his walk, and he heard some kids laughing off in a yard. He planted his feet and began barking. Then walked right past a squirrel, past a rabbit, and leapt up barking, straining at his leash at a passing by runner. I think he's really not so much a dog, as he is a cranky old man in a furry outfit. That said, he is a wonderful cuddler, and while I TRIED to nap this afternoon (as Isaac sang and laughed to himself), Zinsser was stretched along my side, with his head up on my shoulder. Such a nice dog.

I've got the place to myself for a little while longer: The older kids are watching The Incredibles back at the Fish Fry while Pamela gets some grown up conversation with some friends... Everyone told me to come on back over once Isaac was asleep.... joking of course!!! So I'm just blogging a little, reading a little, and having a quick visit to Buckingham Palace. There's a little Bunnahabin 25 that just needs a little nudge before it'll be ready for a cashing at the next Avenging. The things I do for these people.

Hot Hot Storm ACTION

As you may know, my wife is something of a storm maven. I made her week by giving her a DVD of tornado footage a few years ago, she sometimes watches StormChasers (though we agree that the show is more dumb people drama than actual storms), she has tornado dreams....

And any time that storm siren goes off, she is up like a bolt getting the kids into the basement, putting the tv on, or weather radio... And at least a few times a summer, she's out on the back deck, looking up at the sky musing about whether that cloud is rotating or not. In short, she's a fan of the weather.

Yesterday was a big day for weather: A TORNADO came into the Twin Cities! It blew by a block from where I grew up! It was headed to DOWNTOWN! It was just a mile or two from our home! Storm sires were blaring, the neighborhood moms were getting kids into the basement (Bella was over playing with Casey, and went to their basement...)

And Pamela and Isaac were sound asleep. The sirens didn't wake them up. She was awakened eventually by the phone ringing from people calling to see if we made it through the storm ok. And we did come through ok... there was no damage in our neighborhood, so no worries.

I thought it was pretty amusing (from my perch in Philly), and Pamela was just chagrined that she missed out on the "storm fan moment of the decade". And yes, she told me to blog about this.

Quick Update

Mister Google and I spent a few minutes today talking, and it turns out that "Sh*t through a tin horn" originated with (or was popularized by) General Patton in a speech he made to the 6th Armored Division in 1944:

"Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like sh*t through a tin horn!"

Of course, it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But at least it has some history.

On Business Dress

As I reviewed my blog entries, I was reminded of my proudest accolade when I was pronounced the Third Best Dressed Customer at the coffee shop at a client. Such days of sartorial elegance are perhaps behind me, but it did get me thinking about business dress.

Back at Ameridata in the early 1990s, it was a very formal shop. This was the computer configurator and reseller that later got rolled into GE and hasn't existed as such for over 10 years, so I have no problem with using their name. Anyway, this was a shirt and tie shop. Not a suit shop... that would be too fancy (only the VP wore those), but a pressed shirt, trousers, and a tie were required. No matter whatsoever that we never were customer facing, and that we were even off of the main campus (relocated to a beyond industrial space above a ceramics factory, that interestingly my friend Tony worked at years later).

And the average age of the workers there was mid-40s, so they'd been doing this uniform for a while. I was 25 - a fresh faced kid of the 80s and I didn't really GET the formality. But I obeyed: They paid my salary.

Fridays were Casual... and I always tried to keep it reasonable - still a button down, but perhaps jeans. But I remember one coder, a pear shaped creature named Phil. Phil was in his 50's, coasting toward retirement. You could give Phil a coding task and be assured it'd be done in about 2 weeks. No matter what you asked him to do. 2 weeks. Change a field name. Didn't matter. Phil had some of the most awkward expressions I ever heard, simultaneously crude AND nonsensical. When something went well, he say it was like "Sh*t through a tin horn". I still can't really get anything positive out of that visual. There was an office-wide modification "Smooth as poop through a horn", which really didn't make it any better. He had a few of those.

Anyway, Phil was probably the reason we didn't have casual days after a while. He just didn't get casual, and his attempts were as horrifying as his turns of phrase (and frankly, his coding too). Every Friday he'd come in with his dress slacks (usually tan), a white sleeveless T, underneath an XXL novelty T that was draped over him like a Mumu. They varied from "JESUS IS AWESOME" to "WORLDS BEST GRANDDAD" to "DON'T TELL ME, BECAUSE I DON'T GIVE A SH*T". Casual days went from weekly, to one day a month, and eventually they went away.

As before, I was young, I didn't get business dress all that well... and I had a couple of gaffes in my days that caused an inordinate amount of office teasing. One day I forgot a belt. I swear, EVERY SINGLE person in that office chuckled and pointed it out. A few put their fingers through my belt loops and gave a tug, pulling me over. It was as though I had wet myself or something. But that couldn't compare to the day (long after casual day had been revoked) when...

I forgot my tie.

Oh my god. The VP (Ed) walked by, stopped, backed up, gave a look, then walked away. 2 minutes later, my manager called me into his office and let me know there was a problem with my attire... I asked if he wanted me to go home and get a tie? Oh no no no no,.... it's not that serious. But don't let it happen again - it's not PROFESSIONAL. Which led to another day where EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the office stopped by my cube to take a look at "MISTER CASUAL DAY".

And I mean, we're talking about a 15 person IT shop, tucked above a ceramics factory. And we shared space with the CALL CENTER, who wore shorts and T-shirts to work. It was amazing... that this culture just EXISTED like this. I don't think anyone would have noticed if we were all naked as long as the system kept running... But we had our rules.

Prior to that, I worked in the worst place on earth, where we were sub-sub-subcontracting out the writing of telephone billing software (Chronicled in Corporate Tales of Woe Part 1 ) 6 people, tie mandatory. Prior to THAT, was the best place on earth - my apprenticeship in dad's basement (best coffee of any gig I ever worked).

After Amerdata, there was one more "formal" shop I went to for a year, before the walls crumbled, valkyries shrieked from the skies, and business casual became the norm, around 1996. My tie collection officially stopped at that point.

From 1997 to 2008, the only time I wore a tie was for a first interview, and there were a few where I didn't even do THAT. It was only when I entered the sales force in 2008 that I broke down and updated my tie, suit, and sportcoat collection... And now I'm back in consulting. But oddly, the Tie is sticking this time: When I go out to Jersey, our company has decided to wear suits to project an "image" (a lot of these guys came from big 6-5-4 firms, and the suit is a uniform). I don't mind... but the dry cleaning bills get a bit old.

With the new gig in Philly, they say dress like your boss, which I am unfortunately too closely: We have a few similar pieces of clothing, and just the other day we were having a meeting, both wearing khaki pants, a dark shirt, and a brown/white houndtooth check sportcoat. He wears the coat once a week... but I haven't figured out which day reliably, so I think I have to take it out of rotation or something. But the rule is shirt and tie, or shirt and coat, no tie. Coat and Tie are possible, but in no way required. The only catch is if it's a day I'm also visiting Jersey, I gotta work the Suit back into the mix. Oh, it's impossible to pack. IMPOSSIBLE I tell you.

The downside to this scheme is that for weeks the weather has been muggy and in the 80s-90s. you don't wear a sport coat in that... you carry a sportcoat. And a tie is just closing off a route of ventilation. I imagine that when the heat breaks and fall comes around, I won't mind it one bit. I might even update my look a little.

Perhaps I might qualify for best dressed visitor to the Philly hospital coffee shop? Shouldn't be too hard - most of them wear scrubs anyway. Doctors. Always running around in scrubs. Not very Professional.

That'll do.

Yelp! didn't do me wrong tonight. Szechuan Tasty House on 9th and Arch street - 4 stars out of 5 on their rating, and worth every star. I had szechuan dumplings (steamed in a hot sauce) that were so amazing I ate all eight of them, and I should have stopped there.. but I had already ordered their specialty Kung Pao chicken, which was also amazing. I did not finish the kung pao, and left 1/2 of a dumpling (that had fallen to the floor - only reason), and waddled out of there for under $15. Which is nuts.

Fortunately I had a good 45 minute workout earlier in the evening, so hopefully I had a couple of calories banked. Maybe not. I'll need to stay up for a while and burn some energy. Maybe calisthenics, Charles Atlas Style. Starting with wiggling my toes. Or perhaps some blinking. INTENSE BLINKING.

Ooooof.

Work went well today: One of the things we're trying to do is figure out exactly how bad some of the data we have IS - some of it has never been reconciled to the master patient index, so you'd never find the info on this patient without some creative searching. Just randomly I picked two patients and traced their data: And out of the FIRST TWO, I had my boss scratching his head wondering just how it could get THAT messed up. We have some work ahead of us.

I also had a good call with another hospital to see how they're doing this, and was relieved to find that while they're ahead of us, they're a mere step or two ahead...

That's it on this subject tonight, but I might have more later on....

A retrospective

I was talking to my friend Paul (no, not you, Paulie, the West Coast one) and was doing a little life planning: We've worked together on all sorts of schemes, not least of which was the BrainReady project back in 2007, plus a few other product ideas... He's at another one of those life crossroads: He just took a new job, moved the family again, loves his new life, but is finding himself living a few pennies short a month of adequate... and was looking for ideas for how to take the next step.

The problem is of course that in his chosen career line, there's a limit you hit being a worker that can only be exceeded by being an owner. It's a line I've had to dance with myself - and my first try at ownership (aka sales) was a failure, and I went back into my hourly world... I'm trying ownership again, but keeping my feet grounded in my skills to earn my keep hourly as well... and it's looking good. But back to Paul: When you work for a big company like he does, and you're at the top of your paygrade, you need to find outside ventures.

Thankfully he's not the type for MLM schemes.

So we're talking and it occurs to me that he is semi-famous: A top ten single in the early 1990s, working with Thomas Dolby, a good ten thousand people who pay attention when he irregularly posts in his Myspace... and he loves to write just like i do. I counseled him to start telling his story - not hide behind a name (like we did with Brainready) but just be himself and start telling stories about his band, about growing up the son of a Maestro, about working in San Mateo during the DotCom bubble... start weaving his narrative.

How does this make money? Well, it doesn't, actually. Not directly. Maybe these people will click on an ad on his site... but the point is, if the stories are told well, I think people will read them, and tell others about them. And then he will get links from other sites... and suddenly he has attention.

And with that attention comes opportunity: perhaps it's writing for other sites. Perhaps it's leaping into the techno punditocracy, speaking at TED. Perhaps it's a book. Perhaps it's a sitcom or a movie based on these experiences (the 90's are a very untapped nostalgia market). Having a degree of semi-celebrity gives him a leg up I certainly don't have. And all it takes is a site and the willingness to write.

I hope he does do it: I think that by putting his stories out there, he'll get people interested, and something will find him.

The whole discussion got me thinking about my own blog... what I formed it for, how I've updated it. I went back to late 2005 when I started it, and discovered I'd posted over 667 times. That's an average of 3 times a week for 4 years now. I certainly never formed it for fame (objective: achieved), but just to write. I love to write, and this site gives me an excuse to do so.

I have always nursed a mild fear that what if Blogger went away tomorrow - what would happen to these stories? I've meant to copy these posts off to a Word document for a long time, and tonight I finally did it. And it took up 830 pages in Word - and the pictures didn't even copy in. That's my writing.

As I copied, I didn't read a lot, but i skimmed and realized this time covered the loss of Mark, the arrival of Isaac, SEVERAL jobs (and dramas), the creation and dissolution of BrainReady (and my publishing 3 books), my discovery of fitness, my life as a fitness instructor, my migration to a traveling life, a lot of vacations, and a shocking number of hard drive crashes. About a million good quotes from the kids, and a lot of posts about food that I love...

Revisiting these pages reminds me of some of the areas I haven't really explored recently, and I think I'll be posting more about my thoughts and inventions in addition to the life narratives... and I think there are some stories from the wayback machine that haven't been told yet that I'd love to get out there.

At any rate, it has been a real pleasure to have a forum to share these thoughts, and while I have no idea how many people do read this (I think I'm safely over a dozen these days), I do want you to know that I really appreciate you taking the time to know me. Thank you.

Back in Philly

Safe and Sound this time... no wrong turns, no meandering walks. Stick to the zone... there's a good boy.

But first, it was the annual trip up to Ruttger's! A little different this time - only 3 nights, and no PapaBam or Lilli, but we were with some neighbors and had a great time. We stayed in a lodge instead of cabins and were pleased to find roomy bathrooms and spacious rooms, plus adjoining doors to create a larger party zone... oh and no musty smells (part of the whole "cabin thing" no matter where you go). The weather was very agreeable, with 2.5 amazing days, and 1 pretty good day. The kids were in that lake quite a bit, whether swimming or just wading in up to their butts in their clothes.

It wasn't without issues: To save a few pennies, we went on the alacarte plan and ate at the bar a few times... but once everything added up I'm not convinced we were better off than if we had done the buffet in the main dining room... and the quality would have been a bit higher too - it wasn't BAD, but it wasn't great... though Randy did get a hideously charred Reuben that had me seriously questioning every link in the failure chain that resulted in this being sent to the table (What cook would send this? What line manager would plate this? What server would bring this?). But that was pretty much the only bump. Oh, and a couple of people puked again (it's not a trip unless someone does, really) - one from heatstroke, one from dodgy potato salad (not from the resort!) But no lasting ill effects.

Pamela picked up some crazy false teeth with discoloration and gaps, and handed them to all the kids who wore them with pride and giggles to dinner one night, and we all gasped in embarrassment as our server grinned widely to show us his authentically hideous teeth... It was a priceless moment - we got "punk'd"

We were lucky to have TWO semi-pro photographers on the trip too, Randy and "the other Pamela" - who took dozens of pics of the kids frolicking - so this may have some wonderful pictures to show someday. The kids swam a lot - between the lake and the pool, they were in water over 4 hours a day.

Quote from Isaac this trip when asked "do you need to go potty?"
"Not at this time, dad." Very matter of fact.

Sunday came just in time - the kids were all starting to poke at eachother and test eachother's nerves, and they were definitely getting on the grownup's nerves too, so we shuffled off to Buffalo around noontime. Naturally Isaac did NOT nap - dude was low on sleep anyway from the excitement, and by the time we got home, he was a walking wreck who we needed to keep up until 7 so he wouldn't get up at 5.

Zinsser? He was so happy to see us, he almost wriggled his butt into light speed wagging mode. He spent the 4 days with his half brother Otto up the block with neighbors, and reports were that he was very very good, didn't mess on their rugs, and even let Otto sleep occasionally. Zinsser was full of cuddles and love for us all.

I crept out at 5:45 this morning to head to Philly: Nope, not upgraded today, but I'll take the pity miles. Started reading The Black Swan, about unpredictable outliers, and am somewhat charmed by the writer's style - he's sort of like the love child between Steven Leavitt (Freakonomics) and Tim Ferriss (The Four Hour Work Week). It works for me.

In the interest of saving my back, I've decided to experiment with NOT lugging my computer around: Bring it to the hotel for evening/morning work, use a flash drive, and move key files back and forth to work, where I have a perfectly usable computer. Today was the first day, and I didn't hit any problems... and more to the point, I made it to the end of the day without a nagging pinch in my neck. I may NOT need to go for that MacBook Air just yet. Every day/week/month you put off a technology purchase is time that technology will keep getting better, faster, and cheaper.

After work, (and work days are not particularly long at this client), I had some amazing Thai food, and found myself close to a movie theater... so I decided to skip over and see "District 9" which was AMAZING: It really synthesized a lot of very cool elements and had a realistic grittiness that was amazingly authentic... but what I loved was that this movie was THAT GOOD and cost under $30mil, which it already made back. And on a monday evening it was a nearly full theater, which speaks well to the word of mouth. The protagonist was a wonderful worm who you couldn't fully hate, nor could you fully root for him. This will make for a fine Avenging movie someday soon.

Speaking of Avenging - Boy, I haven't seen my boys for almost 2 months! Luckily NEXT week I have them on the calendar.

That's enough for tonight. I should just mention that work is starting to accelerate at the new client: I actually have system access, and spent a good bit of time today reviewing echocardiograms (more to see how the report-building functionality works)... I can feel the groove beginning.

In the Hood

Mid-afternoon, the entire network went down at my client site. The whole data center lost power, which you can imagine was a BAD THING for the hospital. Some infrastructure guy will be in trouble. But on a personal level, that meant I couldn't access any of the systems or documents I needed, so I decided to head out early to the Airport where there IS a network at least. That was the plan.

I stood at the train station, and at the exact right moment according to the schedule, a train pulled up and a bunch of people got on. I followed them all on and sat down. When the man came to take my ticket, he gently let me know I was on the WRONG train. "Get off at the next stop, go to the other side, ride the next train BACK, and try again". He even gave me a free ticket for the ride back.

I got off, walked around, and waited patiently for a while... and a while longer... and then I decided "nuts to this, I'll just take a cab". Philly is a walk around and find a cab sort of town so I went up to the street and looked for a busy street to walk toward. I picked LEFT and started walking. As I walked, I started noticing that the neighborhood was not very good. Not good at all. Lots of shirtless men walking around, lurking on street corners. Lots of boarded up houses. Lots of police cars, not so many Cabs. Eyes were following the misfit in the button down shirt and rolling suitcase.

Around 4 blocks in, I found a safe haven - a Water-Ice stand (Philly's unique treat - it's sort of like Mister Mistee meets Gelato: No dairy, cool and refreshing, and a recipe for an instant "cold eye".) I went in, got a $1 blueberry water ice, and called a cab. The operator had me repeat the address a few times, with a bit of incredulity in her voice.

5 min later, a cabbie called - he wanted to confirm that I really did want a cab, and that if he came, I'd really be there. YES.

When he arrived, he looked me up and down and said "What on EARTH are you doing down here, man?" I told him, and he said "Man, you're in the middle of Beirut, brother. Good thing it's not dark". For the whole ride to the airport, the guy kept looking in the rear view mirror, and laughing, shaking his head.

Apparently I was in a not very good part of town. Got it. Next time, I'll either WAIT for the train, or just get on the RIGHT ONE to start with.

So I've been complaining about the heavy laptop bag in connection with the long walk. Yesterday it hit mid-nineties in Philly, with high humidity, and I had a Jersey meeting, so I was in a suit too. By the time I collapsed in my hotel room, I was pretty wiped out, and I think my muscles were a bit strained. When I woke up today, my arms and back were in a good bit of pain, which stuck with me all day. While complaining to my lovely wife while killing time at the Airport, she suggested I look for one of those "quick massage" areas.

I found one, and I'm so happy. I got a 30 minute deep tissue assault, and 15 minutes in the robot chair, and my body is feeling every so much better. Not 100% yet, still a little twinge in the neck... but it was a great great great help.

Well, there's a little rain here in Philly, and that means a delayed flight. I was offered the toilet seat on the 5pm flight (middle, last row), and decided to keep my first class seat on the 6:30 flight... which became a 7:15 flight.... which is now looking to be a 7:45 flight.... But I'll hit ground before 10pm at least.

And then it's off to the lake tomorrow. YES.

Breakthrough!

I finally got email and network access at the new client. Yes, this is 4 weeks in. I told you they move slower than I expect. But this unlocked a glittering treasure chest of documents that will go a long ways to answering some of my questions before I go harassing the users. But yeah yeah yeah!

Also, I got clearance to buy the Macbook Air from my company (expensed!), AND found a buyer for the existing MacBook Pro. So that's coming together too. Soon I will not be the hunchback of Chestnut Street any longer! And since I decided NOT to get an apartment (due to the insane cheapness of my favorite haunt, actually - downtown Philly for under $100/night in a clean safe place with decent internet) I'll still be doing a good bit of walking.

It was a busy weekend (AGAIN) - Relished the finale of So You Think You Can Dance, and I'm thrilled with the outcome. It IS strange, however, to watch our stars revising dances from the season - seeing it performed a second or third time suddenly makes it seem like choreography instead of spontaneous magic. Watching a replay of the original is ok, but watching re-dances sort of dulls the magic. I'm thinking that the Jai Ho suffered the most on that... On the other hand, Max and Kayla's Samba was even hotter.

I took the kids to Edenborough a couple of times for big fun playtime, and they were thrilled. Friday was a swarming mass of kids (rainy day), but Sunday was a ghost town... The kids are officially too fast for me in the play structure now, so I go up and down a couple of times with them, and let them run, keeping an eye on the exit to prevent any Isaac Escapes.

Bella has graduated in Burrito-hood: She no longer needs the burrito bowl, she takes her beans, rice, sour cream, and cheese wrapped in a tortilla now, and can EAT THE WHOLE THING. It's frankly a little alarming - I tend to toss out 1/3 of my burritos, since that's the point where I get "full" but not "stuffed".

On Sunday I took off for the airport for a short week: I got nice hugs from the whole family, but Isaac was very sad he couldn't come with me. Zinsser was too: He spent most of the weekend stalking me, jumping into my lap to cuddle. He loves his master... (Talking about Zinsser here, not Isaac)

This weekend we're all headed up to Ruttgers for a family relaxation vacation. It will be... wonderful....

Oh, and Yelp steered me wrong again: Corner pizza place 4 blocks from my hotel, 4-star review (fairly recent too) and I got a floppy slice that was nothing special. I'm thinking maybe democracy doesn't work with food.

Ethnic Food

When I stay here in Philly, my favored haunt is a block outside of Chinatown, and a block behind the Reading Terminal Market (which I have written about in the past, you know). Good food on all sides. Well, not on the north side - that's a freeway. Anyway, good eating.

I've been relying on Yelp.com iPhone application to pick good places... I discovered that my own Food-ar was broken my first week out here when I had the worst indian food I've ever tasted, in a place where despite the candlelight, wood paneling, and comfortable chairs, the food came on STYROFOAM PLATES. So I need recommendations. And Yelp has not done me wrong.

Tonight I wandered two blocks eastward into Chinatown to a chinese noodle soup place that was highly recommended. I sat down, the only non-Mandarin speaker in the place, with the TV blaring some sort of Chinese Idol singing contest with amazingly garish graphics behind the singers, and a wizened panel of judges who may have been critiquing the songs, or they may have been offering advice on balancing Chi. Not sure.

I skipped over the "fried intestine" appetizer plate, and went for "Sliced Beef Noodle Soup". Here's where we get to the part where sometimes truly ethnic food can be.... strange... When you get this dish in a vietnamese place, it's called Pho, and the beef (if you order Pho Tai) is very lean and it's a somewhat refreshing dish, with fresh basil and light rice noodles. In this restaurant, it was thick brisket-y beef, with a meaty broth, with egg noodles, and picked greens strewn across the top.

I won't say it wasn't delicious - it was actually very good. But it was almost startlingly "ethnic" - there was very little there to cater to a western taste bud, and I found myself just a little disappointed - not in the meal, but in my inability to just let go and enjoy it. I ate most of the greens, some of the beef, and all of the noodles, but left a fair amount of soup in that bowl. I can't help but think that if uncle chicken (Nick) were there, not only would he have eaten it all furiously, but I guarantee that one of the appetizers would have been attempted as well.

Walking is something I'm doing a lot of here in the City of Brotherly Love: My hotel is 3 blocks from the subway, the client site is 6 blocks from the subway the other direction. So I walk a good 18 blocks total just to and from work. Then on days like today when I need to head out to Jersey for meetings, I walk another 9-10 blocks one way or the other to a ZipCar parking facility, and back. Today, I've done around 40 city blocks of hoofing it. Plus a half hour on the elliptical (because it's not just about walking, you gotta get that heart rate up too)

Walking all that distance with my laptop bag has got me thinking that I need to lighten up: a 6 lb laptop doesn't sound that big, nor does the bag (with all sorts of papers in it). But after a few miles, you notice the weight. I'm looking at those Macbook Airs again, this time with INTENT. It also makes me resent the existence of neckties, especially when it's 90 degrees and humid.

I think I'll try to get a good night's sleep tonight: I'm meeting a client at 8am at the Amish Diner a block from my hotel, and I am very excited. Last time I ate there was with him, and it led to me leaving my job and taking this crazy new life. Mostly because he shared a slice of the best turkey bacon I'd ever tasted. The bacon turned me. And tomorrow I will get my own turkey bacon.

A big weekend

Reunion Weekend! Say it loud and it like music playing, say it soft, and it's almost like praying.

All right, first things first: So You Think You Can Dance: While I was shocked at first, I've grown to be at peace with Evan beating out Ade for the final. I love Ade, but I'm a fan of Evan's character... and he's dancing just fine - he brings some great joy to it. I was happy to see Melissa out finally - The fact she went SO long without ever being asked to HipHop was just embarassing... it felt like they were giving her a pass every week they didn't throw her to NappyTab's crazy prop factory. I mean, Evan and Randi did a (very vanilla) hip hop, and it wasn't terrible... So now we'll never know if she could crump en pointe.

For the final, I predict Janette will storm the stage in her fiery cuban way (despite having been voted off 2 weeks ago) and usurp the title. Watch for it.

Ok. I just had to have that out.

Thursday we drove out to Madison (Fort Atkinson, actually) for the reunion... Of course, no napping kids, and Zinsser was a great road dog - basically zonked out on Bella's lap. When we arrived, steaks went on the grill and the kids started playing.... and didn't stop for 4 days. Plus Zinsser found a friend in Braedon the 1 year old golden doodle. The two of them rolled around and played for four days straight. Zinsser looked like a wet rat half the time, having been thoroughly been drooled upon by the big galoot dog. We actually had to physically separate them often so they could rest. If we didn't, they were like punch drunk fighters in round 14, leaning on eachother and refusing to stop playing.

They only got into one fight, and it was late in the day after not enough rest, and of course they were fighting over a dried bull penis. Oh yes, I did say that. They're called "Bully Sticks" and dogs love them. The dogs took turns gnawing on it, and trying to keep it away from the other dog.

Friday was a gorgeous day, and Bella swam for much of it. Saturday was cooler, but still nice enough for everyone to play outside. Isaac did not go in the lake, but there were two trapezes hanging from trees that he couldn't get enough of swinging from: His upper body strength is really something. All of the guys (all generations) had fun with Isaac, playing t-ball, bocce, you name it.

It gave me an idea for a sitcom - "Coachie" - Two arty intellectual parents with a spacey science-loving daughter adopt a son whose birthparents were athletes. In an effort to support his athletic tendencies, they employ a nanny/coach, who can bring the proper level of competitiveness and sports appreciation to the household. Lots of "fish out of water" humor with the rough but tender coach trying to understand the strange new yorker-reading parents, but moments of genuine pride and bonding abound. I'm pretty sure it would be on Fox.

Bella played a lot with Seeger, who is very on her wavelength: They were dogs and scientists quite a bit. They found a lot of little toads, and we even brought some home with us... but released them into our garden, but not before a whole lot of crying, AND us doing the research to discover that keeping toads as pets is not a casual activity.

Back home on Sunday, again no napping with the kids, and Zinsser asleep the whole time (perhaps happy to finally be getting a break), and an early bedtime. Big thunderstorms brought Bella into our bed around midnight, and a bad dream had me rocking Isaac at 1. In my delirious state from tiredness and watching So You Think You Can Dance right before bedtime, I grew convinced as I was rocking Isaac that he was actually baby Brandon, and I was rubbing his head telling him he was going to go all the way and become America's Favorite Dancer. Which was a bit odd.

An early flight to Philly... and a last minute upgrade to First made the morning AOK. I tried to take the train into town, but it was late (!), and showed no signs of keeping on its schedule (the conductor was opening and closing panels, stroking his chin). So I took a cab. The pace of work at the new client is somewhat... slow...

I remember this from my previous cardiology gig too: There were huge slow moments in the project that nobody seemed too worried about. I think that people just don't UNDERSTAND these systems, and expect that they are inscrutible and things MUST move slowly. I'm prepared to adjust my tempo as appropriate. I do still have my Jersey client who is anything BUT slow.

That's enough update for the day... Have a great night!

Short week

Rain rain rain in Philly. The philly airport is notoriously moisture
averse so I have no good idea when I might actually leave this burg.
Ah well.

I forgot my kindle at homethis week and discovereed the wonders of the
kindle for iPhone software. It's actually readable and convenient on
the iPhone and it connected to amazon to get my latest (trashy scifi)
book. Hooray!

After quiet weeK my friends in Jersey needed my superpowers again. I
zipcar'ed out there in a mini Cooper and got some stuff done... And
got a primo hoagie. Mmmmmm.

Things are still ramping up on the new gig. After2 weeks I still don't
have a login or email. But I got a loaner laptop that let's me see
some things. Plus I've been talking with cardiologists. Which is
always interesting.

Looking forward to getting home and then blowing outta town for a long
weekend with the reunion. There will be much playing. Much.

Sent from my iPhone

The runway of doom

The bad news was that my flight out was delayed and the gate changed
twice. The good news is that we caught a tailwind and landed at our
original time

The good news is that we just missed a big storm in Philly and landed
safely. The bad news is that Philly is a parking lot now with all of
the planes that were stuck trying to get out. And we're stuck on the
ground with nowhere to go.

Been sittting here for 20 min so far, a mere 100 feet from our gate
waiting on someone to pull is forward. Awesomeness.

Also, just discovered that awesomeness is in my iPhone spellchecker.

Blogged from my iPhone

A quiet house?

I came home Friday afternoon to find only one kid around... Bella has gone on a long weekend trip with her friend Jenny to Milwaukee, and we're ships passing in the night: I will not see her before I head back out to Philly later today!

In Philly, my hotel is a block from Chinatown, and I had a great bowl of Pho the other night, and went next door to the "Shanghai Bazaar" - yes, those chinatown classic stores are everywhere, but this one was actually pretty nice and frankly more than half of the merchandise seemed tuned to an actual chinese customer - books, calligraphy supplies, formal clothing... no boxes with digital chirping crickets. Anyway, one of Bella's favorite outfits from ages 3-4 was a silk pajama set from a previous chinatown trip, so I upgraded her to a biggirl set this trip, and it'll be waiting for her return. I also got a nice laquered fan for her.

So we've been a 3 person family this weekend again - and it has been fun to focus on Isaac: Yesterday, he just climbed into my lap, curled in, and said "I love you Daddy - you're the best". Isaac is being pretty nice and mushy. We took a lot of walks and read a lot of books. We also got him a haircut up at the Sports Barbershop around the corner. He got a "sporty boy" cut - short on the sides and back, with a little more on top "just like you, Daddy!". Of course, the haircut added 6 months to his age.... and I think he thought he was looking pretty darn good.

Last week, when I was calling home, I was hearing talk of "Bella's Pet Rock". Pamela had worked with Bella to make a sleeping bag for the pet rock. Pamela had sewed a set of pajamas for the pet rock. I was having trouble visualizing this, because most rocks Bella has brought home have been <2 inches in diameter: Not sure how to sew an outfit for a tiny rock. Well, I finally saw the pet rock: an 8 inch square chunk of concrete. This is what Bella lugged into the house to declare as "her pet". And so the sleeping bag and pajamas suddenly made sense.

I should mention right now, that I love this insanity.

I have a busy but compressed week coming up: I leave tonight, and work M-T-W in Philly, with a half day trip out to Jersey on Tuesday for some meetings (Finally get to see how this Zipcar thing works), then home. On Thursday we hit the road for the annual Reunion out near Madison, to see all of the cousins and chill out by the lake. I'm really looking forward to it!

Sounds like the house is starting to wake up, and there's a lot to get done today - Carpet steaming, Ikea run, Mowing... all before I take off. And that's the way it is!

Ramping Up

Ok - I didn't finish the story about the Block Party: The kids were in that jumper until we pulled them out around 9 (2 hours past their bedtime, but at least an hour earlier than the other kids wound up staying up), and they both passed out quickly... The weather got colder and colder, and so in the middle of July, we had a fire pit going, passing around hot coffee and Bailey's. With the kids down, I was on house duty while Pamela hung out, rolling in after 11.

The next morning, the moonwalk was inflated at 9am (the family hosting the jumper set that time as the earliest, even though their 3 kids had been up since 7 demanding more bouncing). The whole neighborhood of kids was BACK out at 9:01 jumping again, but there was exhaustion... a little less pep to the bouncing. By 10, they were all just sitting in and on the jumper, getting on eachother's nerves, but unwilling to leave the space, because hey, it's a MOONWALK. By 11, when the men with the truck finally came to take the moonwalk, there was a brief flurry of frantic jumping, but then general relief that no more jumping would be required.

There were widespread reports of rubberlegs, aches, and general grumpiness. Our whole house took a NAP. Even Bella. It was good. We had the semiannual neighborhood progressive dinner on Sunday night (ramped back from quarterly - I love my neighbors, but my time is ever more precious at home), and had a good evening of catching up... Rita and Jeff are seeing an increase in business, which means they've weathered the downturn well: We've been so concerned and hopeful for their design-build operation...

Now I'm in Philly, and will be for quite a while. Last week out in Jersey was frankly so stunningly taxing that I had a hard time getting my head on straight Monday, which was fine, since the first few days of a gig are always just ramp up time. My boss Ken handed me a thick manilla folder filled with notes to get caught up on, and I've read the whole stack thrice now - once each day. By today, it was all making sense, and I was hitting the internet to get more info on some of the esoteric things they're doing....

This is a cardiology project, but a very very different one than I did a couple of years ago: In a traditional cardiology unit, you're dealing with arterial plaque and coronary blockages, mostly older people, and 95% of the time, you can clear things up with some drugs, angioplasty, or inserting stents. Maybe 5% of the time you're dealing with something genetic. In PEDIATRIC Cardiology, it's 95% genetic anomalies.

So the needs of the doctors are very very different, and you get to realize that these tools have all been built around the 95% adult cardio model. My job is to help figure out a solution that will actually work for the Pediatric world. And it may not actually exist yet. It's very exciting.

Today I was doing research on the most common heart defects and the sorts of procedures that are used to treat them. Also, I did some deep diving into some of the procedures that I hadn't really seen much of in the past. Today I learned about Electrophysiology - the study of the electrical system that works the heart. Seems some people have overactive nerve clusters in there which lead to the heart twitching rapidly and being inefficient in its job as a pump.

There's a procedure called Ablation where you guide a wire up into the heart, and literally zap tissue in the overactive regions to disrupt the electrical feedback loops. There's a a surgery called "The Maze Procedure" which is more invasive - they actually go in and cut patterns into the heart with a scalpel and then sew it back together, and that scar tissue is less likely to have the electrical storms. And finally, if a person has an out of control arrhythmia they do a "Cardioversion" which is basically using the Defibrillator paddles to shock the heart back into sync.

This is all very cool and interesting stuff. It's not really very common to think of yourself as an electrical being, but every muscle twitch is an electric process.

Can you tell I'm happy to be back in the clinical world, learning about things again? Much more fun than trying to figure out how to get the assistant of the CIO of that one health system to pass a message along about how we have the best consultants if only they'll give us a chance. Much more fun.

Anyway, the point is that after a few days of drinking from the firehose, I'm starting to feel like I might just know what I'll be doing, and am having the pieces fall into place. Add to this that I am totally loving this city (more on that in posts to come, but you can be assured food probably factors in to this), and this will be a very good gig for me. VERY good.

And now I'm going to switch gears and do some work for the Jersey client... a promise is a promise.

A New Home

Philly. Phil-LAY. Here I am.

Running off to a meeting in a few minutes but so far so good. Got an office (better than the communal picnic table I had at the South Jersey place), got things to get revved up with, and most importantly, I'm working in a hospital, which has a great energy.

Nothing to report yet, except that I'm here, and happy.

Safe and Sound

Sorry about that last post: I was tired, my brain was completely full from the week's work, and I was READY FOR HOME.

I wound up only being delayed by 2 hours, and things were ok. The crew was very polite and kept us informed. It was fine.

Had good family time upon arrival, cuddles at bedtime, and then Pamela and I snuggled in to watch So You Think You Can Dance, which is just my favorite show in the world. Man those kids can HOOF it!

Off to the Block Party now: The moonwalk has been set up across the street since 10am, and yes the kids have been in it all day. Isaac is still napping (he got 90 min of moonwalk in before naptime), and now it's the big neighborhood bbq and party into the evening. I think that Bella might actually get 10 full hours of moonwalk in today.

8 weeks

Eight stinking weeks going to south jersey. Last day on the job and I have a mechanical problem on the airplane. Yay.

At least they deplaned us and gave us snack vouchers (free food is good).

Final presentation went very well today by the way. It felt goooooood.

But I'm very ready for home.

PS - Final in Jersey

1) Had to change hotels from the one I'd been at for two months... worse internet connection, but better blackout shades (overslept one day!) Somebody has a puppy that's yipping and it makes me miss Zinsser.

2) Perhaps ashamed of the stinky car from last week (I kept it all week, but didn't hold back when I returned it and in the subsequent internet survey), they gave me a sweet ride this week: Ford Mustang (not convertible) with Sirius Radio. I've been listening to Sirius 22 First Wave non-stop (80's alternative) and barreling down the road.

3) I've been doing my "Jersey's Greatest Hits" restaurants this week: Primo's Hoagies, Ariana Afghani food, La Posata Italian... Still need to hit Joe Palumbo's Mirabella Cafe one more time for that Rigatoni Bolognaise (Which they call "Rigatone Bah-Loyne") Oh what will I ever eat in Philly? Oh no, did you say I'm staying across from the Reading Terminal Market? DID YOU SAY THAT?

The Brain Fry

This is the big week at work: It's my last full week at the Jersey client before moving to the Philly client, and I'm building my final deliverables... which are major presentations to large groups. I did my first one today, which I think was the harder one, all told: This was the project that a predecessor had thoroughly flubbed and I parachuted in to do it right in half the time. In the end, I identified 10 major workflow gaps that needed addressing, and spots for 38 workstations they hadn't considered across their 4 hospitals.

It's the sort of thing that I seem very good at doing: Synthesizing hundreds of data points across a dozen subjects, holding the whole picture in my mind to absorb the problem and craft the solution(s), and THEN somehow relate everything I've learned to a large group of people in a cohesive manner. In truth, the statement of work didn't say this is what they wanted, but I delivered exactly what they NEEDED.

I'll always wonder if I missed anything, but dang I uncovered a lot of stuff. So then the harder challenge is how to take 10 big problems and present them in an hour. Once the structure finally came to me, it practically wrote itself (though it did undergo 3 huge revisions). I whipped up some fun graphics (representing all 10 projects on a timeline with interdependencies), and ran the meeting with a steel grip - we actually finished on time with concrete to-dos... and everybody was happy.

Shifting gears to the other project has been hard. I tried before lunch, but it didn't take. I played hooky in the afternoon to watch Harry Potter (having already worked 24 hours in the previous 48, I felt entitled to a little break). Loved the movie! Hermione's moods were practically breaking my heart... and nobody but nobody gives icy stares like Snape. Alan Rickman is wonderful.

Anyway, the night is still somewhat young, and I've got all 24 hours of Thursday before presenting on Friday, and I know this project even better than the other one, so I'm not terribly worried. I'm seriously considering packing it in for the night and letting my neurons rest for a spell, since the last 2 days were pretty darn intense.

I'm pretty psyched to be starting the new gig, but I'll be on retainer to my Jersey friends to help see some of my more mad schemes to fruition.

On the home front, we're a bit alarmed that Isaac has been skipping his nap more and more... first because we need the break in the day, but second because we still remember well our trials when Bella lost her nap. We had to end her naps because with them she was staying up to 10 pm. But for 3 months, she had horrible night terrors from her lack of sleep, screaming bloody murder. They were some of the hardest parenting days we had. Hopefully Isaac will either keep napping (for a long time), or make a clean break and go to bed early nightly... I'm not sure which would be better.

Bella is really enjoying doing Synchronized Swimming, and has asked to keep on doing it into the school year. It's a "sport" but it's based on cooperation, not direct competition, which I think works for Bella. Plus she loves to swim. Oh, and that tooth has NOT fallen out yet. She may be waiting for my return...

No wacky Jersey stories, alas, mostly because I've been so busy I'm lost inside my skull. I think that the people at Dunkin will miss me. They know my doubleshot espresso order from the moment I walk in, and they're always so nice. I think the store is family owned, because the same multigenerational east indian characters are there anytime I show up - morning, noon, evening.

Well, I gotta do something. Something....

Turned the corner...

Woke up refreshed and ready to make up for lost time this morning... No insomnia, no headaches. I had a great day at work: I had good meetings, got great information, uncovered more messes to clean up (my job), and even got some good quality time in with the project sponsor (who has been AWOL for a week).

I think the Febreze was even starting to work on my stinky car.

I felt like a guy who was on top of everything, until about 4pm, when I discovered I had lost my wallet at my previous meeting (in a hospital. Totally safe place, right?). Fortunately, a panicked trip back and the nice guy in security not only recognized me, but had the wallet, all contents intact. I was so happy I skipped off to the car.... then walked BACK IN when I realized I had forgotten my KEYs on the security desk. On the way out (to the laughter of the guard) I made sure my phone, wallet, keys, ID badge, suitcoat, shoes, glasses, and pants were all intact.

That's a little signal from the world that I needed a little break, so off to dinner. Now I'm back to the hotel for more catchup work... but hopefully not TOO late of a night. Got plenty of meetings tomorrow.

I've decided to take the job offer, by the way. I looked at it very very hard, and it appears to be all upside, with no visible downside. I get to do the work I wanted to do in the first place (making the money I was hoping to make), there's a pathway back to the Twin Cities after my non-compete finishes, and I'm already being given some commission opportunities. Plus, HEALTH INSURANCE, and somebody else handles all of the billing and taxes muckymuck. Works for me.

Looking forward to some wonderful family time this weekend!!!

Stinky Car

Well, I've definitely had better weeks than this one.

1) My rental car has a musty smell somewhere between fat man sweat and swamp. I have febrezed it repeatedly, but it's just not pleasant. And there's a good gallon of water loose somewhere in the body panels, because it slooooshes when I turn. Ordinarily I'd have turned it in, but due to the next two points I haven't had time, and I might as well ride it out.

2) I got in late on Monday, got checked in (after a frustrating incident with the credit card people who couldn't be bothered to post my payment when I made it on their website last week), having driven the stinky car into Jersey... and then I sat awake until 3:30 am with horrible horrible insomnia. So I was a partial zombie for some of Tuesday.

3) Tuesday evening I joined my co-workers for dinner, and had a glass of red wine. Now, 4 times out of 5, I'm ok with a glass of red wine. This time, not so much. I didn't feel particularly good (which didn't make for a productive evening), then halfway through the night I realized I had the signs of a migraine. I was a complete wreck, heaves and all. I pulled into work around 10, took a nap at lunch (drove to the hotel - can't nap in the stinky car!), and only really got back into the swing mid-afternoon.

Well, I've turned the corner - I'm going to have a productive evening and get caught up tonight. No coffee, no antihistamines, no wine, no nothing. Just going to have a quiet evening with spreadsheets and project plans and have a better day tomorrow.

On the plus side, I've started to arrange for my transition to the new client in downtown Philly. I have my public transport maps ready, AND since I will be keeping some hours at the current client, I've enrolled in Zipcar.com which is a car sharing service. My friend Al in San Fran uses Zipcar and swears by it. I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully, no stinky cars.

It's been a strange week at home too - Zinsser has had the doggy trots and has got Pamela up several times a night for potty breaks (at least he is asking - better than just pooping). Looking forward to a quiet weekend with the family - less craziness than the past weekend, ok? OK?

Brains

I'm at the airport preparing to board, but thought I'd dash off a few quick ones:

1) This morning Bella was running very late to her morning nature camp... she wasn't dressed, she was sleepy, and she hadn't eaten, and we only had 10 min to get it going. I asked her what she wanted to eat, and she asked for my trademark fried egg and ham on toast sandwich with habanero pepper sauce. I said that I didn't think I had TIME to make it for her. She thought for a moment, then suggested "what about HALF of a ham and egg sandwich then?"

Can't argue with that. I wound up making the sandwich and she wound up missing camp... but after the crazy weekend, she was a wreck and really needed a down day.

2) This afternoon, Isaac had been refusing all food but popsicles (AND he blew off his nap too), but was complaining he was "Hun-ga-ree". When I suggested a run to Five Guys ("The Hamburger Store!!!") he was game, dancing around. We had a quick stop at the post office, and he managed to tell four different people that "I'm going to the HAMBURGER STORE WITH MY DADDY!!!"

On the way he mused "The hamburger store will be Wonderful!" He saw a block party in progress on the way and shouted out "Look! It's a CELEBRATION!" When we finally got there, he was dancing and charming the patrons, and exclaimed that "This place makes me hun-ga-ree". When the food actually came, he was more talk than action, but had a half dozen bites of his burger and around 20 fries.... which was good enough.

3) Pamela and I decided that it's probably better when I leave in the early AM - walking around all day knowing I'm leaving is just a bit tough.

4) On the way here, I drove behind a white Town Car with open back windows, and a small arm kept dangling a teddy bear out the window on the freeway. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel with tension.... I could only imagine what would have happened if Didda or Doggie the Dog were lost in transit.

Eventually I pulled alongside, and found the grownups paying no attention (very wasp-y), the kids not in boosters looking horribly bored... a lost cause. The teddy bear was a cry for help of some sort (not literally), but those issues will need to get worked out in therapy in years to come.

Time to get on the plane!

Boom Boom FirePower

I now know what that is: She saw it in a TRAILER for Night at the Museum 2. And there was some Darth in that. Now it makes sense.

Glad to know there isn't some bootleg starwars movie out there Bella has seen that I haven't.

Mercy Me

My apologies to those of you for whom this is a regular source of Jimmy News - things were busy this past week, so I'm trying to catch up.

The Week At Work was good - My client has nicknamed me "Columbo" for rooting out the actual core issues that were supposed to have been found by my predecessor... so now I'm planning how to fix the problems. On my original project, my "neat and tidy' solution once we got into it was almost a million dollars in software and hardware upgrades AND two new positions needed in HR for the new workflow. So I've got a good "Plan B" on the table that will cost a heckuva lot less and get the job done. They still like what I've pulled together, thankfully - the high price tag was the result of a number of Directors saying "sure!" and a bunch of Managers saying "but it'll be this much..." Disconnects like this are the whole reason I'm there, actually.

No good animal stories this week - it was a pretty heads down week, and the Canada Geese seem to have moved on someplace else. The giant snapping turtles (Gameras) have kept a low profile as well, no doubt because of all the tourists sent there by this incredibly influential blog.

It was a very busy weekend, of course. Friday was a lot of yard work, then we saw some old friends for dinner at the Chatterbox (which I still like, but am starting to think that the inept service is actually BY DESIGN, and not some sort of growing pains), then an evening of scotch tasting with my boys. It was an evening of strong, "different" tasting scotches - not much smoke and peat, but rather lots of fruit on the palate. We watched the French spy spoof "OSS 117" which I would recommend to just about anyone - it was delightfully wacky, while never dropping "character" - unlike Austin Powers, where Myers spends the movie mugging at the camera, these people really tried to make a pitch perfect 1960s spy movie, only a completely insane and daft one.

Saturday was the 4th, and Pamela got up at 6am to meet with some neighborhood gals, and they pushed the Scott Terrace Mobile Recreation Unit (MRU) down about a mile to the parade route. The MRU is a garishly recovered couch that we mounted on casters for mobility. Pushing it down the street over 10 blocks was definitely work. After the parade, I helped push it BACK. The parade was great as usual... it always seems like too many military vehicles - I mean this isn't Soviet MayDay here, plus those diesel antiques belch a lot of fumes. Isaac was somewhat controllable this year, though during gaps in the parade, he ran in wide circles around the middle of the street in sheer joy at being able to. The clouds and mild drizzle kept us cool and unburnt.

Playtime in the afternoon, with a comically interrupted nap (no fewer than 5 separate kid-based wakeups.... I did not get much rest). Then more friends over for a 4th of July grill, lots of kids playing in our back yard, many popsicles, and cheap fireworks on the driveway to the oohs and ahs of the assembled kids. It was a late night to bed.... And an early morning for me as my east coast system snapped awake at 6 and denied all attempts at a snooze button.

Coffee in the late AM with Grandma and Grandpa, and then Bella was whisked away to the Edina Pool with the neighbor kids, while Isaac and I tried again for naps. I got some sort of wakeful shuteye, and Isaac got a good recharge in. Zinsser was also quite the snoozer. Tonight we were over celebrating JeMae's birthday with the neighborhood, and the kids were again nowhere to be seen, playing complex games (with modified rules for the younguns like Isaac).

At bedtime, Isaac was shouting "Boom Boom FIREPOWER!" over and over. I asked Bella and she admitted and she and Jenny had taught him it. She said

"It's from Star Wars - there's this little guy inside of a self destruct and Darth Vader is trying to do a choking thing on him, but he's too small and inside the self destruct, and I think he says "Boom Boom Firepower" - but maybe not at that exact moment - maybe later"

Having watched Star Wars a few times myself, this particular scene wasn't known to me. I have no idea what she could be talking about. Changing the subject, she brought up the Battle of Hoth in Empire Strikes Back, with the "GIANT ROBOTS TRYING TO STEP ON PEOPLE". Then "if you like Star Wars, why don't you watch it more often?" Why indeed.

Finally a few details: Isaac is obsessed with Popsicles. It is the first thing he asks for in the morning, and he likes to march over to the fridge, throw open the door, stroke his chin, and say "hmmmmmm.... how about.... POPSICLES!!!" pointing triumphantly up at them. (We make fruit juice freezes, so it's not THAT bad).

Bella woke up today in a reflective mood and asked to look at her keepsake box. She flipped through early pictures, her school work, her art, and re-organized it all and put it away. She was in a very happy place reviewing her progress to this point.

And finally, since I've left the old job, I'm not on their Blackberry network, so there's really no purpose at all to me having a blackberry - they don't sync well with Macs, they aren't very cool. So I up and sold a bunch of old gear again (ipods and cellphones) and had enough to get the newest iPhone. And I'm in LOOOOVE. It's just great to have an iPhone again.

Hopefully South Jersey will have some good stories for me this week: I'm leaving Monday AFTERNOON for a long week, so send good energy to the homestead.