From Minne-sota to Sara-sota. Why am I here? While at our trade show, we held a drawing for an Amazon Kindle2, and I got to deliver it! Of course it's for a customer who doesn't use any of the software we implement, nor do they use many consultants, but hey, it was a random drawing, and he won fair and square, so why not go out and see what they're up to?
My scotch avengers had just been talking about "when in a foreign land, look for rare bottles", and an internet search brought up an interesting restaurant/bottle shop on Longboat Key, advertising "Best rare single malt selection in Sarasota!". I needed some lunch, so off I went. The food was passable (gaspacho), the decor was mid-eighties Miami-vice style, but I was sitting outdoors and a breeze was blowing, so I didn't care all that much. The scotch selection was hilariously bad, however, which doesn't bode well for the rest of Sarasota, alas. We're talking 5 bottles: Macallan 12, Glenlivet 12, and Glenfiddich who-cares, Bowmore 18, and Talisker 10. Nothing to write home about, and I think that their internet bragging rights should be removed. Not that it would make much difference, all 5 bottles were covered with a thick layer of dust, so I suspect that even IF they were the best in town, there's just not a market.
Went to my meeting, which was pleasant enough. Confirmed we're not really a vendor match, but he was appreciative of the Kindle. I actually spent more time talking him through the features of the kindle than pitching the company... But who knows - something COULD happen - we did have a nice visit.
Then I called an old co-worker Nick who lives out this direction only to find that he's on a job in Connecticut, but he recommended a restaurant for soft shell crab (which I don't like, but I figure they'd have something I WOULD like), and gave me what seemed like clear directions. I just headed up Longboat key.
On the way, I stopped at a Marine Aquarium and met some Rays, Sharks, Octopi, and assorted fishies. But the COOL things were in separate buildings: First, a Seabird Hospital and Sanctuary. Egrets and Pelicans with broken wings are hard enough to look at, but for some reason, there were a LOT of sandhill cranes with prosthetic feet. Many of the birds didn't appear to have anything wrong - perhaps healed, perhaps just resting. A pen with 5 giant owls was quite startling - they all turned and looked at me at once. As sad as it is to see animals hurt, it was also incredibly heartwarming to think that people are giving their time and effort to help these animals and give them shelter and another chance. I left the hospital feeling hopeful for them, and for us.
Over to the Marine Mammal sanctuary: Some dolphins (not for show, they're healing!), lots of giant turtles (close enough to touch, but don't!!! they have powerful jaws!!!) And a manatee in a big pen swimming around: Manatees look like a child's drawing of an animal more than a real animal. They're all lumpy, and the tail seems added on, and the eye looks for all the world like a dot from a magic marker. They're like lumpy clay whale/seals. But they also seem pretty nice.
I enjoyed my time with the sea creatures. And that led to a powerful hunger... though not really for seafood.
I kept on the road, imagining that I'd hit the end of the road and the restaurant would be self evident, just as the Bubble Room really can't be missed on Captiva. "Just go til the road ends, and there it is". After 10 miles and two islands past Longboat Key, I figured out I had missed it. I pulled into a shack by the side of the road with a compelling skeleton sign called "Mister Bones BBQ". Turns out, it was delicious. I ate a full rack of ribs, waddled back to my car, and headed back to my hotel.
Now I'm working on "what comes next" in my career: I got a call this afternoon for a possible fun gig, which seems like a more major commitment than my other one... this is managing the building of an entirely new hospital... in the SF Bay area. Need to find out more (have a call in the AM), but it sounds like a great challenge.... Plus I have friends out there - first Yoshi moved there to work for Pixar, and my buddy Paul looks to have a new position at another Bay Area concern (which if you can believe it is actually as cool as Pixar, if not more so... but I can't reveal it yet). Plus the existing superfriends. So there'd be a lot of fun out there. I'd have to budget for a LOT of trips with the kids and Pamela - especially in the colder months...
The next few weeks will definitely tell more about what will happen: There are great possibilities, and the amazing successes of Paul and Yoshi just tells me that while there is a lot of upsetting energy out there, there is also some positive disruption happening, and I need to ride the wave.
I'll be home Wed afternoon... and we'll see what the rest of the week brings!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Not to be believed
When Pamela went on Oprah a couple of weeks back, she self-identified as "Dr Mehmet Oz's biggest fan" and got to sit on Oprah's couch with her Dr Oz action figure (sans Oprah, alas). The talent wrangler gave Pamela her card and asked her to write for tickets to Dr Oz's new show coming in the fall.
So Pamela did write last night, and by this morning, the coordinator had written back: Dr Oz will be on Oprah THIS THURSDAY - does Pamela want to go? A quick set of calls to arrange things, and yes, she's definitely going, and this time bringing her mom.
I'll be superdad with the kids from Wed night to Friday lunchtime. And Pamela will have been in the Oprah audience twice in a month. WOW.
In my own world, I'm still waiting for the stars to align for my next gig, but am growing more and more amused at how things are turning at my work: Today the new "big boss" decided that the way to penetrate into more clients is... wait for it... to hire a telemarketing firm to do the initial calls, and set up meetings for us.
I actually can't imagine that working... not in a relationship-based business like this. In fact I could see it backfiring in a massive way. But I'm not the big boss guy. I'm just a guy who is biding his time waiting for the next thing. Nothing to see here. No siree.
So Pamela did write last night, and by this morning, the coordinator had written back: Dr Oz will be on Oprah THIS THURSDAY - does Pamela want to go? A quick set of calls to arrange things, and yes, she's definitely going, and this time bringing her mom.
I'll be superdad with the kids from Wed night to Friday lunchtime. And Pamela will have been in the Oprah audience twice in a month. WOW.
In my own world, I'm still waiting for the stars to align for my next gig, but am growing more and more amused at how things are turning at my work: Today the new "big boss" decided that the way to penetrate into more clients is... wait for it... to hire a telemarketing firm to do the initial calls, and set up meetings for us.
I actually can't imagine that working... not in a relationship-based business like this. In fact I could see it backfiring in a massive way. But I'm not the big boss guy. I'm just a guy who is biding his time waiting for the next thing. Nothing to see here. No siree.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Crazy Neighborhood Living
Spring has sprung SO HARD: For the third day in a row, the whole neighborhood has been parked out on a neighbor's yard with kids running around and adults shooting the breeze with a beer or two. It's especially fun now with Isaac, who is capable of holding his own with most of the bigger kids, and is in the middle of the action.
He actually does so well, that Colin, one of the neighbor kids who is TEN asked for a playdate with Isaac yesterday. They spent an hour in their backyard (with Colin's mom) playing happily.
Today we rolled out the Mobile Relaxation Unit - the couch that Jenny's parents donated to the cause which Pamela and Papa extensively redecorated with brightly colored remnants. We carried it out the front door, set it down, and rolled it across the street and down the block on its casters. The neighborhood kids were all screaming with excitement to see this grey, pink, silver, and zebra striped couch rolling down the middle of the street. We were going to bring it home tonight, but the fact is tomorrow will be another party (and we'll be grilling!), so we left it over there.
Bella and Isaac are hitting growth spurts now, and have both outgrown their shoes. Bella has these big paddlefeet (when Kaitie handed her to us in the hospital 6 1/2 years ago, she actually apologized "I can see she got my feet!") so we can't just do the neighborhood shoe hand-down. We went to Schuler Shoes, a local institution and got her properly fitted with a couple of pairs of New Balances which have the room she needs. One of the pairs has robots and blinking lights on it, the other is silver with bright yellow details (Yellow is coming up in the rankings of favorite colors these days). Isaac also busted out of his latest pair, and so we got him a couple of fresh shoes on sale.
Of course, nothing is FAST in a small shoe store, so Isaac and Bella were running around like MANIACS which exhausted us. Isaac walked behind a rack of sportswear, and pushed his way through, pausing to declare "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!" as though he had just emerged from the curtain on stage. I almost fell out of my chair. What a ham.
As to work: I have one solid offer to start in July, one potential to start in 2 weeks, one fell through already, and one just arose today from a new source which I should find out more about tomorrow. So parachute or not, I think things are looking pretty good. On the parachute front, there's resistance at the management level, as noted elsewhere... but then our April forecasts aren't looking so good and we have an "emergency circle the wagons" meeting tomorrow. We'll just see.
He actually does so well, that Colin, one of the neighbor kids who is TEN asked for a playdate with Isaac yesterday. They spent an hour in their backyard (with Colin's mom) playing happily.
Today we rolled out the Mobile Relaxation Unit - the couch that Jenny's parents donated to the cause which Pamela and Papa extensively redecorated with brightly colored remnants. We carried it out the front door, set it down, and rolled it across the street and down the block on its casters. The neighborhood kids were all screaming with excitement to see this grey, pink, silver, and zebra striped couch rolling down the middle of the street. We were going to bring it home tonight, but the fact is tomorrow will be another party (and we'll be grilling!), so we left it over there.
Bella and Isaac are hitting growth spurts now, and have both outgrown their shoes. Bella has these big paddlefeet (when Kaitie handed her to us in the hospital 6 1/2 years ago, she actually apologized "I can see she got my feet!") so we can't just do the neighborhood shoe hand-down. We went to Schuler Shoes, a local institution and got her properly fitted with a couple of pairs of New Balances which have the room she needs. One of the pairs has robots and blinking lights on it, the other is silver with bright yellow details (Yellow is coming up in the rankings of favorite colors these days). Isaac also busted out of his latest pair, and so we got him a couple of fresh shoes on sale.
Of course, nothing is FAST in a small shoe store, so Isaac and Bella were running around like MANIACS which exhausted us. Isaac walked behind a rack of sportswear, and pushed his way through, pausing to declare "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!" as though he had just emerged from the curtain on stage. I almost fell out of my chair. What a ham.
As to work: I have one solid offer to start in July, one potential to start in 2 weeks, one fell through already, and one just arose today from a new source which I should find out more about tomorrow. So parachute or not, I think things are looking pretty good. On the parachute front, there's resistance at the management level, as noted elsewhere... but then our April forecasts aren't looking so good and we have an "emergency circle the wagons" meeting tomorrow. We'll just see.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Poor communication skills as plot device
I've grown in awareness when I'm watching or reading something of the prevalence of the unfinished sentence as a major plot device which simply wouldn't work in real life. This was used to horrible effect in the old X-Files, where if Mulder would simply finish a sentence, or add in a single detail when explaining something to Scully, she would have had enough information to actually HELP him sometimes.
Hypothetical example:
Agent 1 and Agent 2 are leaving from Spybase Alpha to infiltrate the underwater lair of Dr Devious.
Agent 1: How are we going to get in?
Agent 2: I'll go first and let you in.
Agent 1: How will you get past them?
Agent 2: I have a plan.
Flash forward - Agent 2 is seriously behind schedule, Agent 1 panics, stumbles into some guards, is taken prisoner, and is being brought before Dr Devious. In a nick of time Agent 2 pops out of a pool of water and saves Agent 1 "didn't I tell you, I can breathe underwater?"
If Agent 2 had just TOLD AGENT 1 his plan was to swim under the whole damn island because he has GILLS, Agent 1 could have sat back and worked with that. But NO. Agent 2 didn't reveal the plan. And it's not like they didn't have a good few hours in the SpyJet, just the two of them, flying to Dr Devious' island. What else did they talk about? American Idol???
This may seem extreme, but for god's sake, it's used on a weekly basis on just about every one of my favorite shows. (And of course in those Maximum Ride books: Anyone: "Max, let me tell you some useful information" Max: "WHATEVER!!!")
And when they do it, I want to scream because it is just LAZY WRITING. Even well written shows like Fringe are guilty - The cellphone conversation where if they just added ONE MORE SENTENCE to the conversation prior to hanging up, things would turn out differently. Like "I'm at the corner of Dunn and Bradstreet", or "I think that my wound is growing more infected", or "He's acting strangely". Things that I imagine you or I would probably add in.
So writers, and I know there are so many of you reading this, please please please, if you catch yourself withholding information to further the plot, that's ok. But then at least be realistic with how people who HAVE the information would USE that information. In a life threatening or strategic situation, a person sitting on a key bit of info and somehow NOT revealing it during the entire course of a transatlantic flight, or just before a firefight is just absurd.
At least let the person either NOT have an opportunity to be sharing the info (IE - don't have them talking in 90% detail about something but then trailing off "there's more.... but we don't have time"), or let them actually share the info WITH their people, but not US, so we can all be pleasantly surprised by the entire SWAT team crashing through the wall taking out the Vegan Terrorists because the whole group was working with the best possible information.
We as viewers can still be surprised.
And I'll be a lot less frustrated.
Hypothetical example:
Agent 1 and Agent 2 are leaving from Spybase Alpha to infiltrate the underwater lair of Dr Devious.
Agent 1: How are we going to get in?
Agent 2: I'll go first and let you in.
Agent 1: How will you get past them?
Agent 2: I have a plan.
Flash forward - Agent 2 is seriously behind schedule, Agent 1 panics, stumbles into some guards, is taken prisoner, and is being brought before Dr Devious. In a nick of time Agent 2 pops out of a pool of water and saves Agent 1 "didn't I tell you, I can breathe underwater?"
If Agent 2 had just TOLD AGENT 1 his plan was to swim under the whole damn island because he has GILLS, Agent 1 could have sat back and worked with that. But NO. Agent 2 didn't reveal the plan. And it's not like they didn't have a good few hours in the SpyJet, just the two of them, flying to Dr Devious' island. What else did they talk about? American Idol???
This may seem extreme, but for god's sake, it's used on a weekly basis on just about every one of my favorite shows. (And of course in those Maximum Ride books: Anyone: "Max, let me tell you some useful information" Max: "WHATEVER!!!"
And when they do it, I want to scream because it is just LAZY WRITING. Even well written shows like Fringe are guilty - The cellphone conversation where if they just added ONE MORE SENTENCE to the conversation prior to hanging up, things would turn out differently. Like "I'm at the corner of Dunn and Bradstreet", or "I think that my wound is growing more infected", or "He's acting strangely". Things that I imagine you or I would probably add in.
So writers, and I know there are so many of you reading this, please please please, if you catch yourself withholding information to further the plot, that's ok. But then at least be realistic with how people who HAVE the information would USE that information. In a life threatening or strategic situation, a person sitting on a key bit of info and somehow NOT revealing it during the entire course of a transatlantic flight, or just before a firefight is just absurd.
At least let the person either NOT have an opportunity to be sharing the info (IE - don't have them talking in 90% detail about something but then trailing off "there's more.... but we don't have time"), or let them actually share the info WITH their people, but not US, so we can all be pleasantly surprised by the entire SWAT team crashing through the wall taking out the Vegan Terrorists because the whole group was working with the best possible information.
We as viewers can still be surprised.
And I'll be a lot less frustrated.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
So far...
Two days home, and it's good to be here. Tiring, too!
Last night Isaac was bursting with wild energy, leaping from chair to couch to floor announcing that he's "SUPAMAN!!!" He took a good hour to wind down in bed, and then decided to get up around 3 to talk, sing, babble, and demand my company. I crashed on his floor a while, then brought him into bed with us. Funny thing, Isaac harasses ME in bed but leaves Pamela alone. If I'm on my back or facing him, he's happy, but noisy, which makes it hard to sleep. If I roll over and face the other way, he kicks me, tousles my hair, pokes my back, etc etc. He just can't keep his hands off of me.
By 4:30 I had enough, got up and went to the workout - not teaching, just using the studio to practice my aerobics routine. It's been over 2 weeks since I last taught and I needed to a) remember everything, and b) make sure I could do the full hour without dying. PASSED on both counts. Got home with fresh bread from Breadsmith and caught 45 min on the sofa before the upstairs woke up.
At work today, it was supposed to be "D-Day": My boss had made the case for me to be laid off based on a few factors, and his boss was going to check in with me today. Well, we had the meeting, and I blew it. I actually was myself, and he decided that I had skills and energy and he didn't want to let me go. So I'm going to probably have to forgo the severance and just move on. SIGH. It was a long shot anyway, but at least I tried. This might not be "the end" yet, as my bosses might just decide to act in my favor... things move in mysterious ways.
I came home a little dejected, to find the entire neighborhood in Jenny's front yard: The kids were all running around playing, and the parents were all kicking back in lawn chairs with sunglasses. We were kicking off SPRINGTIME in a proper way. 3 hours later, the kids were filthy, we all had full bellies from Famous Dave's (someone bravely went out to get takeout for us), and the stresses of the day had melted away.
We threw the kids into the tub to soak and it was off to bed for them. And I'm debating whether to catch Fringe tonight, or wait until tomorrow... hmmm....
Last night Isaac was bursting with wild energy, leaping from chair to couch to floor announcing that he's "SUPAMAN!!!" He took a good hour to wind down in bed, and then decided to get up around 3 to talk, sing, babble, and demand my company. I crashed on his floor a while, then brought him into bed with us. Funny thing, Isaac harasses ME in bed but leaves Pamela alone. If I'm on my back or facing him, he's happy, but noisy, which makes it hard to sleep. If I roll over and face the other way, he kicks me, tousles my hair, pokes my back, etc etc. He just can't keep his hands off of me.
By 4:30 I had enough, got up and went to the workout - not teaching, just using the studio to practice my aerobics routine. It's been over 2 weeks since I last taught and I needed to a) remember everything, and b) make sure I could do the full hour without dying. PASSED on both counts. Got home with fresh bread from Breadsmith and caught 45 min on the sofa before the upstairs woke up.
At work today, it was supposed to be "D-Day": My boss had made the case for me to be laid off based on a few factors, and his boss was going to check in with me today. Well, we had the meeting, and I blew it. I actually was myself, and he decided that I had skills and energy and he didn't want to let me go. So I'm going to probably have to forgo the severance and just move on. SIGH. It was a long shot anyway, but at least I tried. This might not be "the end" yet, as my bosses might just decide to act in my favor... things move in mysterious ways.
I came home a little dejected, to find the entire neighborhood in Jenny's front yard: The kids were all running around playing, and the parents were all kicking back in lawn chairs with sunglasses. We were kicking off SPRINGTIME in a proper way. 3 hours later, the kids were filthy, we all had full bellies from Famous Dave's (someone bravely went out to get takeout for us), and the stresses of the day had melted away.
We threw the kids into the tub to soak and it was off to bed for them. And I'm debating whether to catch Fringe tonight, or wait until tomorrow... hmmm....
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Home and Safe AGAIN
After 10 days away, I'm finally back in my own home, sitting on my couch in front of the fireplace, enjoying a decaf. The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind - from the trip to Portland, to the secret Eastern city, to Chicago for the Trade Show of DOOM, to Palatine for more family fun and Easter... and finally home today.
Some highlights of Chicago/Palatine: On Friday, we went to the train station and caught the Metra and went 5 stops toward Chicago to Des Plaines, to lunch at the ChooChoo restaurant. Isaac and Bella were both wearing striped overalls and loved the train experience. The ChooChoo was opened in 1951 - a malt and burger joint where the food is sent from the kitchen around the bar on a model train. It's delightful, and the joint was packed. The kids were enthralled and got excited every time that train came out. It was like magic. Sadly the town of Des Plaines figures that spot might be better used for parking, so there's an online petition to save this place at www.savethechoochoo.com
Jimmy to the Rescue: I'd been hearing from Bam that her iMac was starting to act funny. The list of symptoms were alarming, and I was happy that at our last visit in November I had the presence of mind to set up a backup disk for them. When I arrived on Wednesday, I ran over to it, confirmed that there WERE backups, and took one more just for good measure. When it went to sleep after backing up, it was to be its final shutdown. It never woke again... perhaps it knew that things would be OK now that the geek with glasses was there.
Bridget (Lilli's mom) is an Apple Store manager and had a line on an ex-demo iMac to replace it: Amazing machine, amazing price (my jaw dropped), so we went to get it and I spent the next couple of days bringing her data back from the dead, while pruning out years of ridiculous old downloads. By the end, we were back up and running with a fabulously huge 24" display. I love it when a technology story ends well.
Easter was our usual brunch with Grandma and the K-family at her retirement community. Very good food, good conversation, and both Bella and Isaac were pretty adventurous with the eating. About a pound of bacon each, probably.
The drive home started around 2, and we rolled in just before 9, having taken a leisurely dinner at a Pizza Hut in Mauston. The kids slept the first half of the trip, and we watched videos the second half. All was very very nice until about 10 minutes from home when screaming and squirming erupted. It was all hands on deck triage to get things down when we got in the door, and both kids zonked almost immediately.
And now I'm off to do the same.
Some highlights of Chicago/Palatine: On Friday, we went to the train station and caught the Metra and went 5 stops toward Chicago to Des Plaines, to lunch at the ChooChoo restaurant. Isaac and Bella were both wearing striped overalls and loved the train experience. The ChooChoo was opened in 1951 - a malt and burger joint where the food is sent from the kitchen around the bar on a model train. It's delightful, and the joint was packed. The kids were enthralled and got excited every time that train came out. It was like magic. Sadly the town of Des Plaines figures that spot might be better used for parking, so there's an online petition to save this place at www.savethechoochoo.com
Jimmy to the Rescue: I'd been hearing from Bam that her iMac was starting to act funny. The list of symptoms were alarming, and I was happy that at our last visit in November I had the presence of mind to set up a backup disk for them. When I arrived on Wednesday, I ran over to it, confirmed that there WERE backups, and took one more just for good measure. When it went to sleep after backing up, it was to be its final shutdown. It never woke again... perhaps it knew that things would be OK now that the geek with glasses was there.
Bridget (Lilli's mom) is an Apple Store manager and had a line on an ex-demo iMac to replace it: Amazing machine, amazing price (my jaw dropped), so we went to get it and I spent the next couple of days bringing her data back from the dead, while pruning out years of ridiculous old downloads. By the end, we were back up and running with a fabulously huge 24" display. I love it when a technology story ends well.
Easter was our usual brunch with Grandma and the K-family at her retirement community. Very good food, good conversation, and both Bella and Isaac were pretty adventurous with the eating. About a pound of bacon each, probably.
The drive home started around 2, and we rolled in just before 9, having taken a leisurely dinner at a Pizza Hut in Mauston. The kids slept the first half of the trip, and we watched videos the second half. All was very very nice until about 10 minutes from home when screaming and squirming erupted. It was all hands on deck triage to get things down when we got in the door, and both kids zonked almost immediately.
And now I'm off to do the same.
Words to Live By
Bella, Isaac, and I were at a playground, and Bella spotted a sand volleyball court and wanted to play "in the big sandbox". She dropped to her knees and started digging in the sand to make a big wall. Now, it was around 50 degrees, dry, and windy. There wasn't going to be much of a wall made, and while I was all for running around and climbing on the playground equipment, I told her I didn't want to get my hands dirty.
She told me:
"Dad, when you're having fun: the dirtier you get, the more fun you're having. And you're not dirty AT ALL."
Fair enough. We did play a lot, but not enough for her: She went to bed sad that she didn't get to have enough fun outside. Thankfully, spring is still springing, and we'll have a lot more fun in the months to come. And we're going to have to get some hands dirty.
She told me:
"Dad, when you're having fun: the dirtier you get, the more fun you're having. And you're not dirty AT ALL."
Fair enough. We did play a lot, but not enough for her: She went to bed sad that she didn't get to have enough fun outside. Thankfully, spring is still springing, and we'll have a lot more fun in the months to come. And we're going to have to get some hands dirty.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Re-CHARGE!!!
The mind numbing events of the past week seem so far away now, after a couple of great days with the family. The kids and I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo yesterday and made friends with the big cats and the monkeys... while Pamela attended a taping of the Oprah Show!!! I don't think I'm breaking any nondisclosure agreements by telling you that Pamela did NOT attend a big giveaway taping, so no new cars or weeks at Miraval, alas.
We've been running around outside a lot, building forts, and giving a lot of airplane rides. The house has been full of giggles.
Thanks for the well wishes after the last update: It was a total "venting" post, I admit, but I needed to get it out! Things are moving forward on all of my "secret plans" so I'm feeling very positive now.
We're off to take the train for a family adventure this morning, so that's the short update!
We've been running around outside a lot, building forts, and giving a lot of airplane rides. The house has been full of giggles.
Thanks for the well wishes after the last update: It was a total "venting" post, I admit, but I needed to get it out! Things are moving forward on all of my "secret plans" so I'm feeling very positive now.
We're off to take the train for a family adventure this morning, so that's the short update!
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Catch the Train
Well in the week since my last update... so much has happened. So much.
1) My secret meeting went extremely well, and I think there's a great opportunity out there. The catch is that for funding reasons it can't start until July, so I'm not sure exactly how to hold out until then. Perhaps I could get the old gang together and do some street corner busking.
But seriously - the job would be working in a clinical context again, doing large scale analysis and planning, working for cardiologists and geeks alike to build a new system. They were clear that it's a year to start, but could turn into multiple years... and they'd work with me on family friendly travel options (week on/week off, etc). It's for a children's facility too, so there's good karma in helping care for kids.
2) The trade conference has been an unmitigated disaster. We were asked to share booth space with our parent company which is in an entirely different line of business than us. So the whole booth looked like Company X, with just a little sign inside saying "Plus Company X Consulting". We were off the main drag, and had bad sight lines, and nobody knew we were there. And nobody would wander in looking for our services either, any more than you would go to a Ford dealership to purchase the new Stephen King thriller.
ADD to this that our parent company has been involved in some unpleasant litigation recently which has led (rightly or wrongly - I don't understand the lawsuits) to a general perception of our company is borderline unethical... and that's the name on my badge. As I schmoozed in receptions, I actually had several people physically recoil and walk away as they saw the name. REALLY.
So even though we all know I'm moving to some new thing, I did want to attend and do my real job well, since it is my job. But I was 100% stymied, and the end result is that I didn't have a SINGLE potential client interaction. It's mind blowing!!!
3) I did make some PERSONAL connections for my next potentials, however...
4) Allright I gotta vent - with a lot of time in the booth and not much traffic, I got to see our management team in action, and it wasn't pleasant. Our CEO showed up for 2 hours one of the days, and sat on a couch in the booth doing emails. Didn't say hello to the 10 people working, no pep talk, no personal connections whatsoever. The dominant narrative on this guy is "he's really smart, but not so good with people" - my revised narrative is "this guy is a total jerkwad". Sorry, but the job of CEO is to lead. To lead, you need to motivate people, not be a toad. It would have been better for him to have not shown up at all than this performance.
The layers below him were equally annoying. Booth rules are simple - walk around, engage customers, smile, don't eat, don't sit. Standard VP behavior in OUR booth? Sitting in circles, talking on phones sipping coffee, checking email, ignoring customers (the few that wandered in). It was embarrassing.
So to recap - terrible booth, bad location, uninspiring leadership, bad customer reaction to our brand... hmmmmm.... Remind me why I'm looking to move on again?
5) To rub salt in the wound of the week, the obligatory "team building exercises" for the week were just more depressing than anything. With the downward spiral in all other aspects of the company, our personal relationships are all fraying, and there's a breakdown in our willingness to tolerate eachother's quirks. So at the dinners, there were long silences, and a lot of "Whew, I'm beat - time to turn in!" Compared with years past where we all cut loose and had a great time... it just felt like one of those balloons with a slow leak.
AND SO:
I'm getting on a train to take me back up to Palatine to see the family, and I'm happy to have this week behind me. I thank you for letting me get this off my chest... I'm going to have 5 wonderful days up here surrounded with love which will bring me right back up to fighting strength!
1) My secret meeting went extremely well, and I think there's a great opportunity out there. The catch is that for funding reasons it can't start until July, so I'm not sure exactly how to hold out until then. Perhaps I could get the old gang together and do some street corner busking.
But seriously - the job would be working in a clinical context again, doing large scale analysis and planning, working for cardiologists and geeks alike to build a new system. They were clear that it's a year to start, but could turn into multiple years... and they'd work with me on family friendly travel options (week on/week off, etc). It's for a children's facility too, so there's good karma in helping care for kids.
2) The trade conference has been an unmitigated disaster. We were asked to share booth space with our parent company which is in an entirely different line of business than us. So the whole booth looked like Company X, with just a little sign inside saying "Plus Company X Consulting". We were off the main drag, and had bad sight lines, and nobody knew we were there. And nobody would wander in looking for our services either, any more than you would go to a Ford dealership to purchase the new Stephen King thriller.
ADD to this that our parent company has been involved in some unpleasant litigation recently which has led (rightly or wrongly - I don't understand the lawsuits) to a general perception of our company is borderline unethical... and that's the name on my badge. As I schmoozed in receptions, I actually had several people physically recoil and walk away as they saw the name. REALLY.
So even though we all know I'm moving to some new thing, I did want to attend and do my real job well, since it is my job. But I was 100% stymied, and the end result is that I didn't have a SINGLE potential client interaction. It's mind blowing!!!
3) I did make some PERSONAL connections for my next potentials, however...
4) Allright I gotta vent - with a lot of time in the booth and not much traffic, I got to see our management team in action, and it wasn't pleasant. Our CEO showed up for 2 hours one of the days, and sat on a couch in the booth doing emails. Didn't say hello to the 10 people working, no pep talk, no personal connections whatsoever. The dominant narrative on this guy is "he's really smart, but not so good with people" - my revised narrative is "this guy is a total jerkwad". Sorry, but the job of CEO is to lead. To lead, you need to motivate people, not be a toad. It would have been better for him to have not shown up at all than this performance.
The layers below him were equally annoying. Booth rules are simple - walk around, engage customers, smile, don't eat, don't sit. Standard VP behavior in OUR booth? Sitting in circles, talking on phones sipping coffee, checking email, ignoring customers (the few that wandered in). It was embarrassing.
So to recap - terrible booth, bad location, uninspiring leadership, bad customer reaction to our brand... hmmmmm.... Remind me why I'm looking to move on again?
5) To rub salt in the wound of the week, the obligatory "team building exercises" for the week were just more depressing than anything. With the downward spiral in all other aspects of the company, our personal relationships are all fraying, and there's a breakdown in our willingness to tolerate eachother's quirks. So at the dinners, there were long silences, and a lot of "Whew, I'm beat - time to turn in!" Compared with years past where we all cut loose and had a great time... it just felt like one of those balloons with a slow leak.
AND SO:
I'm getting on a train to take me back up to Palatine to see the family, and I'm happy to have this week behind me. I thank you for letting me get this off my chest... I'm going to have 5 wonderful days up here surrounded with love which will bring me right back up to fighting strength!
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Rat-a-Tat
On Saturday, Papabam came up to spend the week with us. Papa and Bella immediately went into project mode, and took over the dining room table with all sorts of little crafts. By Sunday, Bella was wearing a pair of eyeglasses made out of twigs and string, and there was a full size drawing of Isaac with butterfly wings on the floor. It's simply wonderful.
Sunday AM we went to the Arboretum for their annual pancake breakfast and maple syrup tour. We ate huge stacks of very good flapjacks and sausages, and even though the weather was brisk, we enjoyed touring the maple syrup fields... I was impressed with the latest technology: while they still use bags/buckets for some trees, they also run loooooong tubes down hills connecting a dozen trees in series, leading directly to the collection vat.
Our neighbors upgraded their couch, so we scrounged their old one and turned it into a "Mobile Recreation Unit" - we recovered it in scrap fabrics (fake fur, vinyl, animal print, flannel, it's frankly hideous in a good way) and bolted casters to the bottom. This beast will live in our garage and get wheeled out on nice days for hobnobbing on the sidewalk. We're going to carpe a lot of diems.
I'm in Portland today: We finally got a meeting with a client that I'd been desperately trying to get into for over a year. And when they made time, they MADE TIME: I got 90 minutes with them, including 30 minutes with their CIO, plus their director joined us for dinner as well. It was actually fabulous.
But more than the schmooze: When the CIO arrived, he had some very specific questions - how would we solve problem X? How would we design project team to do Y? For 30 min, it was a rapid fire conversation with just the two of us, and the rest of the people at the table sat back and tried to keep up. I gave him some free consulting, and he took copious notes. Enough to establish credibility, not enough to do the full job, of course. It's not like I read him the Colonel's secret spices recipe or anything. I got a good email back from him today thanking me for my time and looking forward to working more in the future.
I really liked yesterday because it didn't feel like sales. It felt like consulting: Talking about problems, and brainstorming solutions. And that just further cements my conviction - I need to be consulting again. And do I even need to mention that there's not a single other person in my company who could have answered his questions, nor is there anyone who could actually do the work I was describing that needs doing? Of course I don't. You know what I gotta do.
Dinner at the Heathman was divine, and I always love the fact that they have Ardbeg at the bar - long live the smoke! The Heathmans in Portland and Seattle are just such amazing places.
So shhhhhhh don't tell anyone but I'm not actually going home from Portland - I'm headed out to an east coast city to talk to another group about solutions - on my own behalf. I bought my own ticket, got my own hotel... and it's another "who could do this but me?" sort of gig. I'll be home Thursday and will probably have some news...
Then it's off to Chicago for the big HIMSS trade conference. Mucho schmoozo. But I'm still bringing my A-Game to the job I actually HAVE. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, doncha know.
Pamela, the kids, and Papabam will drive down to Palatine over the weekend and I'll meet up with them Wednesday for family fun time. We'll come back home after Easter. The kids get two whole weeks with their grandparents.
Sunday AM we went to the Arboretum for their annual pancake breakfast and maple syrup tour. We ate huge stacks of very good flapjacks and sausages, and even though the weather was brisk, we enjoyed touring the maple syrup fields... I was impressed with the latest technology: while they still use bags/buckets for some trees, they also run loooooong tubes down hills connecting a dozen trees in series, leading directly to the collection vat.
Our neighbors upgraded their couch, so we scrounged their old one and turned it into a "Mobile Recreation Unit" - we recovered it in scrap fabrics (fake fur, vinyl, animal print, flannel, it's frankly hideous in a good way) and bolted casters to the bottom. This beast will live in our garage and get wheeled out on nice days for hobnobbing on the sidewalk. We're going to carpe a lot of diems.
I'm in Portland today: We finally got a meeting with a client that I'd been desperately trying to get into for over a year. And when they made time, they MADE TIME: I got 90 minutes with them, including 30 minutes with their CIO, plus their director joined us for dinner as well. It was actually fabulous.
But more than the schmooze: When the CIO arrived, he had some very specific questions - how would we solve problem X? How would we design project team to do Y? For 30 min, it was a rapid fire conversation with just the two of us, and the rest of the people at the table sat back and tried to keep up. I gave him some free consulting, and he took copious notes. Enough to establish credibility, not enough to do the full job, of course. It's not like I read him the Colonel's secret spices recipe or anything. I got a good email back from him today thanking me for my time and looking forward to working more in the future.
I really liked yesterday because it didn't feel like sales. It felt like consulting: Talking about problems, and brainstorming solutions. And that just further cements my conviction - I need to be consulting again. And do I even need to mention that there's not a single other person in my company who could have answered his questions, nor is there anyone who could actually do the work I was describing that needs doing? Of course I don't. You know what I gotta do.
Dinner at the Heathman was divine, and I always love the fact that they have Ardbeg at the bar - long live the smoke! The Heathmans in Portland and Seattle are just such amazing places.
So shhhhhhh don't tell anyone but I'm not actually going home from Portland - I'm headed out to an east coast city to talk to another group about solutions - on my own behalf. I bought my own ticket, got my own hotel... and it's another "who could do this but me?" sort of gig. I'll be home Thursday and will probably have some news...
Then it's off to Chicago for the big HIMSS trade conference. Mucho schmoozo. But I'm still bringing my A-Game to the job I actually HAVE. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, doncha know.
Pamela, the kids, and Papabam will drive down to Palatine over the weekend and I'll meet up with them Wednesday for family fun time. We'll come back home after Easter. The kids get two whole weeks with their grandparents.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Bossypants
Isaac is truly feeling his two-ness, and his virgo-ness. The man has been giving orders non-stop for a few days. Hold this, I go first, no, no, no, THAT ONE, no I WILL DO IT. Any failure to obey will result in him immediately dropping to the ground screaming.
Pamela and I are dealing with it. Amazingly, so is Bella.
Bella woke up this AM and decided to make me some artwork: She drew me a frog, a snake, and a chameleon. The chameleon was a great drawing, with the spiral tail and long tongue - Bella really has a great eye for detail. That we almost missed the bus is entirely beside the point.
In fitness news, we're preparing for the launch of a new BodyPump release at our studio. The owner has had us working hard on this - we've had over 7 hours of group practice time... unpaid of course... and will have 4 more hours before our launch on Sunday. Now on one level, I acknowledge that to be in the exercise business for the money is a fools game - the only people making money are club owners. The trainers make $12-20 a class, but you can only teach 1-2 classes a day MAX, you need to cover your own training costs, you buy new music releases every quarter for $40 per program... Basically you are not making any money.
But you are feeling good about being in shape AND sharing the love of fitness with others.
The fact that we're working so hard on the releases led me to a strange event today: I was talking to a co-worker who started working out at a local community center. She started talking about the music being used in her "Pump and Lift" class... and I realized she's being taught BodyPump, but not in a licensed facility - the instructor is totally bootlegging our new release!!!
I don't know why this bugged me so much. I have a somewhat loose relationship with intellectual property in general (I borrow books and CDs, and have downloaded a show or two in the past)... but it seems that the fitness world is not exactly the huge money empire that would be completely unaffected by someone teaching bodypump without the license...
It just got me thinking, that's all.
Pamela and I are dealing with it. Amazingly, so is Bella.
Bella woke up this AM and decided to make me some artwork: She drew me a frog, a snake, and a chameleon. The chameleon was a great drawing, with the spiral tail and long tongue - Bella really has a great eye for detail. That we almost missed the bus is entirely beside the point.
In fitness news, we're preparing for the launch of a new BodyPump release at our studio. The owner has had us working hard on this - we've had over 7 hours of group practice time... unpaid of course... and will have 4 more hours before our launch on Sunday. Now on one level, I acknowledge that to be in the exercise business for the money is a fools game - the only people making money are club owners. The trainers make $12-20 a class, but you can only teach 1-2 classes a day MAX, you need to cover your own training costs, you buy new music releases every quarter for $40 per program... Basically you are not making any money.
But you are feeling good about being in shape AND sharing the love of fitness with others.
The fact that we're working so hard on the releases led me to a strange event today: I was talking to a co-worker who started working out at a local community center. She started talking about the music being used in her "Pump and Lift" class... and I realized she's being taught BodyPump, but not in a licensed facility - the instructor is totally bootlegging our new release!!!
I don't know why this bugged me so much. I have a somewhat loose relationship with intellectual property in general (I borrow books and CDs, and have downloaded a show or two in the past)... but it seems that the fitness world is not exactly the huge money empire that would be completely unaffected by someone teaching bodypump without the license...
It just got me thinking, that's all.
Plots and Plans
I've had a trifecta of "the world working in mysterious ways" recently.
1) Good buddy Yoshi started his dream job with Pixar this week. How did he get there? 10 years working at a science museum, 2 years away from home at grad school, 1 year at a software startup in Austin TX, and a chance encounter. Somehow all of those components came together to make this Pixar job work for him. Along the way, there was heartbreak and difficulties, but I tell you, if you asked him 10 years ago what his dream job was, this would pretty much be it. And he got there.
2) Had lunch today with Mom. When we made the lunch date 2 weeks ago, things were sounding a bit sad and desperate - Mom's a storyteller and makes money here and there, but is not following any sort of traditional career path (nor should she - the office life is not for her!). But two weeks ago, things were looking a bit grim. So we made the date.
In the meantime, three bits of synchronicity cropped up: a good friend has found a niche writing state grants and needs some help proofreading/editing. That's 20 hr/week. She's been asked to present a proposal for storytelling for a summer language program... from someone who just happened to be enjoying a cup of coffee when she was telling at a coffee shop. AND her great work on "My War" last year has led to another similar potential project.
So when we had our lunch at Mayslacks (a northeast Mpls institution with roast beef sammiches as big as Isaac's skull), the air was not desperate, but rather excited: What of these opportunities will prove the most lucrative? Of course we did talk about NEW possibilities as well, but I was so happy to see the universe had delivered some opportunities.
3) For my own part, my "next big thing" search has really accelerated: I did the math and figured out that while April will be an OK month, May and June will be extremely LEAN - to the point of not being livable with our expenses (we're talking selling my gold tooth). So I gotta get out. The die is cast, I'm not messing around, I'm 100% out in the world looking for the next big thing.
I did another round of reaching out yesterday, and have a couple of very interesting opportunities in my lap now. I've gone from no hope to a full HANDFUL of new options. Just this reaching out has really given me some amazing opportunities. As one person said "look at this resume - WHY did they have him doing sales? He's got an incredible consulting resume!!!" Now, these gigs will involve travel, which is something we're (Pamela and I, not Isaac and Bella) prepared to accept for the time being. But they'll re-energize my soul, give me work that I can be proud of, and frankly get me more jing-a-ling.
To assist in my exit, I prepared a PowerPoint to review with my boss explaining why he should lay me off and give me severance rather than letting me quit... A bold move, I admit, but actually pretty amusing. I had a co-worker proof read it without telling her what it was about, and she was curled up on the floor in laughing hysterics for a full 30 minutes.
I mean really: Asking to be fired is strange enough. But in PowerPoint? I'm blazing new trails. The only trick: Do I still get to go to Portland next week? (I really want one more Voodoo donut!!!!).
So I'm believing in synchronicity - that even in this crazy climate that there are opportunities for a person like me, and I'm stepping forward. STEP.
1) Good buddy Yoshi started his dream job with Pixar this week. How did he get there? 10 years working at a science museum, 2 years away from home at grad school, 1 year at a software startup in Austin TX, and a chance encounter. Somehow all of those components came together to make this Pixar job work for him. Along the way, there was heartbreak and difficulties, but I tell you, if you asked him 10 years ago what his dream job was, this would pretty much be it. And he got there.
2) Had lunch today with Mom. When we made the lunch date 2 weeks ago, things were sounding a bit sad and desperate - Mom's a storyteller and makes money here and there, but is not following any sort of traditional career path (nor should she - the office life is not for her!). But two weeks ago, things were looking a bit grim. So we made the date.
In the meantime, three bits of synchronicity cropped up: a good friend has found a niche writing state grants and needs some help proofreading/editing. That's 20 hr/week. She's been asked to present a proposal for storytelling for a summer language program... from someone who just happened to be enjoying a cup of coffee when she was telling at a coffee shop. AND her great work on "My War" last year has led to another similar potential project.
So when we had our lunch at Mayslacks (a northeast Mpls institution with roast beef sammiches as big as Isaac's skull), the air was not desperate, but rather excited: What of these opportunities will prove the most lucrative? Of course we did talk about NEW possibilities as well, but I was so happy to see the universe had delivered some opportunities.
3) For my own part, my "next big thing" search has really accelerated: I did the math and figured out that while April will be an OK month, May and June will be extremely LEAN - to the point of not being livable with our expenses (we're talking selling my gold tooth). So I gotta get out. The die is cast, I'm not messing around, I'm 100% out in the world looking for the next big thing.
I did another round of reaching out yesterday, and have a couple of very interesting opportunities in my lap now. I've gone from no hope to a full HANDFUL of new options. Just this reaching out has really given me some amazing opportunities. As one person said "look at this resume - WHY did they have him doing sales? He's got an incredible consulting resume!!!" Now, these gigs will involve travel, which is something we're (Pamela and I, not Isaac and Bella) prepared to accept for the time being. But they'll re-energize my soul, give me work that I can be proud of, and frankly get me more jing-a-ling.
To assist in my exit, I prepared a PowerPoint to review with my boss explaining why he should lay me off and give me severance rather than letting me quit... A bold move, I admit, but actually pretty amusing. I had a co-worker proof read it without telling her what it was about, and she was curled up on the floor in laughing hysterics for a full 30 minutes.
I mean really: Asking to be fired is strange enough. But in PowerPoint? I'm blazing new trails. The only trick: Do I still get to go to Portland next week? (I really want one more Voodoo donut!!!!).
So I'm believing in synchronicity - that even in this crazy climate that there are opportunities for a person like me, and I'm stepping forward. STEP.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Wonder of Wonders
It was another full-bore weekend of delight:
1) Friday night, had the boys over for scotch tasting and a movie. The scotches were all amazing, as usual, with the belle of the ball being a 21-year Lagavulin 21 that was sherry cask matured. It frankly tasted WONDERFUL. It's a rare beast, however... Will I taste another? Perhaps, but I'm better just for having tried this one for sure.
The movie was Tropic Thunder, which was so outrageously funny... due in no small part to the completely over the top performance by Robert Downey Jr. He COMMITTED to that role, and really made it. Every damn thing he said and did made me giggle. Tom Cruise was also great... Poor Jack Black was basically being Jack Black, which is usually good enough, but not when "Kirk Lazarus" was blowing our minds.
2) Saturday I took Isaac back to Edenborough Park, the multistory indoor climbing structure. Whereas 3 weeks earlier, he was more tentative, this time he decided to "own" the whole place. He led the way climbing to high levels and zooming down the slides: He got a few favorite "routines" in our almost 2 hours, and got so fast at climbing up and sliding down that I had to stop trying to keep up and take a "monitoring perch". He went all out in the moonwalk too, leaping around and giggling. Yes, he still needed me for a boost on a couple of the higher ledges, so I'm not completely superfluous, but this place is HIS.
Ran into the drummer of my high school band up in the structure - his son is about the same age as Isaac and we had just a quick hello before we had to pursue our kids in opposite directions.
Later that day, we had a visit from Yoshi, who has a life changing career opportunity to work for Pixar, and is moving to San Fran in a week. He had been working in Austin Tx at a game development startup, and their product is just getting ready to be released, so it's a bittersweet victory, but this is a ticket to the "big show" and we're all so happy for him. PIXAR!!! Best movies in the universe, and he'll be in there helping the artists, creating some new toolsets for them to use. Brilliant. Uncle Ant and his wife Candy also came along, and we had dinner at the Chatterbox (which seems to be doing quite well for themselves!) Poor Pamela missed part of the day suffering from a Migraine, but managed to pull it together for the evening.
3) Today my life belonged to Time Out Fitness: We're doing a big launch for BodyPump 69 in a week, and we were doing final technique workthrough, sequencing of who is doing what, coordination of wardrobes, and general tweaking. Over 2 hours of work, a LOT of it while holding loaded barbells, and also rehearsing with full energy. Which would be fine, except today was ALSO my 3rd attempt at taping BodyAttack. I think it went well - we discovered what the problem was last time... and I think it was a great class. I was completely wiped by the end, however, and am ready to be poured into a bucket like Odo from Deep Space Nine.
In my relaxed state, I was thrilled to find that Pamela had prepared Penne with red sauce and spicy sausage for dinner, which I devoured. This is on top of cleaning the porch and getting it all set up for "sitting out there" time. Since the kids had spent a LOT of the weekend running around outside, they were brittle little creatures who needed to be hosed off and put right to bed... which got done pretty early actually.
THEN the fun began: Time to box up all those Ebay sales and get the first wave of them out tomorrow! 9 packages ready to go today (the ones who have already paid...), one shipped last week... and 9 still to get paid for and ship. So far $500 in payments... waiting on another $175 from what has already sold. THIS IS AMAZING, and this will basically pay for our summer vacation. EXCELSIOR!!!
Allright, so I'm teaching BodyPump tomorrow at 6am, so it's time to hit the hay.
1) Friday night, had the boys over for scotch tasting and a movie. The scotches were all amazing, as usual, with the belle of the ball being a 21-year Lagavulin 21 that was sherry cask matured. It frankly tasted WONDERFUL. It's a rare beast, however... Will I taste another? Perhaps, but I'm better just for having tried this one for sure.
The movie was Tropic Thunder, which was so outrageously funny... due in no small part to the completely over the top performance by Robert Downey Jr. He COMMITTED to that role, and really made it. Every damn thing he said and did made me giggle. Tom Cruise was also great... Poor Jack Black was basically being Jack Black, which is usually good enough, but not when "Kirk Lazarus" was blowing our minds.
2) Saturday I took Isaac back to Edenborough Park, the multistory indoor climbing structure. Whereas 3 weeks earlier, he was more tentative, this time he decided to "own" the whole place. He led the way climbing to high levels and zooming down the slides: He got a few favorite "routines" in our almost 2 hours, and got so fast at climbing up and sliding down that I had to stop trying to keep up and take a "monitoring perch". He went all out in the moonwalk too, leaping around and giggling. Yes, he still needed me for a boost on a couple of the higher ledges, so I'm not completely superfluous, but this place is HIS.
Ran into the drummer of my high school band up in the structure - his son is about the same age as Isaac and we had just a quick hello before we had to pursue our kids in opposite directions.
Later that day, we had a visit from Yoshi, who has a life changing career opportunity to work for Pixar, and is moving to San Fran in a week. He had been working in Austin Tx at a game development startup, and their product is just getting ready to be released, so it's a bittersweet victory, but this is a ticket to the "big show" and we're all so happy for him. PIXAR!!! Best movies in the universe, and he'll be in there helping the artists, creating some new toolsets for them to use. Brilliant. Uncle Ant and his wife Candy also came along, and we had dinner at the Chatterbox (which seems to be doing quite well for themselves!) Poor Pamela missed part of the day suffering from a Migraine, but managed to pull it together for the evening.
3) Today my life belonged to Time Out Fitness: We're doing a big launch for BodyPump 69 in a week, and we were doing final technique workthrough, sequencing of who is doing what, coordination of wardrobes, and general tweaking. Over 2 hours of work, a LOT of it while holding loaded barbells, and also rehearsing with full energy. Which would be fine, except today was ALSO my 3rd attempt at taping BodyAttack. I think it went well - we discovered what the problem was last time... and I think it was a great class. I was completely wiped by the end, however, and am ready to be poured into a bucket like Odo from Deep Space Nine.
In my relaxed state, I was thrilled to find that Pamela had prepared Penne with red sauce and spicy sausage for dinner, which I devoured. This is on top of cleaning the porch and getting it all set up for "sitting out there" time. Since the kids had spent a LOT of the weekend running around outside, they were brittle little creatures who needed to be hosed off and put right to bed... which got done pretty early actually.
THEN the fun began: Time to box up all those Ebay sales and get the first wave of them out tomorrow! 9 packages ready to go today (the ones who have already paid...), one shipped last week... and 9 still to get paid for and ship. So far $500 in payments... waiting on another $175 from what has already sold. THIS IS AMAZING, and this will basically pay for our summer vacation. EXCELSIOR!!!
Allright, so I'm teaching BodyPump tomorrow at 6am, so it's time to hit the hay.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Operation S-Can continues
The first of my Star Trek toys just sold on Ebay. $72 + $10 shipping. For a toy I bought in 1995 for... $14, threw away the box, and let sit in a bin for 13 years. Not too shabby. Not all of them are gold: A lot of them will malinger at $5 and $10, plus shipping, which is still better than throwing them away.
It'll help pay for the replacement tire I had to buy today: you want to have a good spare in the trunk these days. (See last Thursday's blog on that) Very happy to have my complimentary roadside assistance for that.
On to Literature: My mom has suggested that I get into the James Patterson Maximum Ride series - about winged teens saving the world. It's apparently the new Twilight. So I'll be giving that a go. There are 5 books so far - I suspect it's a little less "big Arc" than Twilight and more "and another adventure with...".
Just finished a book by Bruce Sterling - The Caryatids. Sterling is a singularly frustrating author for me: He has such incredible ideas and a great head for the deeper macro causes driving the world he's describing. He builds great situations and backdrops. But he has a tin ear for dialogue and character: I never believe that any person in his stories is acting in a way I comprehend as a human being. It's as if he views people and motivations from a two way mirror without the benefit of audio and guesses at what their actions might mean, but misses the point entirely.
It doesn't help that the core of this book was four bickering clone sisters on a ruined greenhouse-effect earth who hate their clone mother (who is on a chinese space station) and a philandering man who loved them all... none of who acted with any shred of consistency.
An earlier book - Holy Fire - was similarly frustrating: Scientifically, it was a cool concept: A respectable octogenarian woman undergoes an age reversal process, and begins wreaking havoc because she begins thinking impulsively like a teen. There's interesting science to back that up (brain development in teens....), but written in such a way that really didn't relate. I wound up throwing the book down yelling "oh just GROW UP you pouty face". So maybe he did a good job. But it wasn't fun.
Maybe he shouldn't be writing for female protagonists... because I don't feel he gets them even close to right. On the other hand, maybe he writes BRILLIANTLY for female protagonists and I just don't understand because I'm not a female. I'm prepared to accept that possibility. But in either situation, the reading is not very satisfying to me. I'm moving him to my "not all that great for me" column.
Compare and contrast with Neal Stephenson and Charles Stross: They both work in similar veins, but both have a more fluid ear for dialogue and character motivation: I understand where people are coming from and why they're moving the directions they move in their books. It just feels RIGHT. Even when Neal takes for-freaking-EVER to get to the point sometimes....
Allright: Workout stuff. Shockingly, my second attempt at taping BodyAttack failed. A missing two minutes from the middle - I think my taping assistant bumped the red button while moving the camera. Sigh. Try three coming atcha Sunday.
It'll help pay for the replacement tire I had to buy today: you want to have a good spare in the trunk these days. (See last Thursday's blog on that) Very happy to have my complimentary roadside assistance for that.
On to Literature: My mom has suggested that I get into the James Patterson Maximum Ride series - about winged teens saving the world. It's apparently the new Twilight. So I'll be giving that a go. There are 5 books so far - I suspect it's a little less "big Arc" than Twilight and more "and another adventure with...".
Just finished a book by Bruce Sterling - The Caryatids. Sterling is a singularly frustrating author for me: He has such incredible ideas and a great head for the deeper macro causes driving the world he's describing. He builds great situations and backdrops. But he has a tin ear for dialogue and character: I never believe that any person in his stories is acting in a way I comprehend as a human being. It's as if he views people and motivations from a two way mirror without the benefit of audio and guesses at what their actions might mean, but misses the point entirely.
It doesn't help that the core of this book was four bickering clone sisters on a ruined greenhouse-effect earth who hate their clone mother (who is on a chinese space station) and a philandering man who loved them all... none of who acted with any shred of consistency.
An earlier book - Holy Fire - was similarly frustrating: Scientifically, it was a cool concept: A respectable octogenarian woman undergoes an age reversal process, and begins wreaking havoc because she begins thinking impulsively like a teen. There's interesting science to back that up (brain development in teens....), but written in such a way that really didn't relate. I wound up throwing the book down yelling "oh just GROW UP you pouty face". So maybe he did a good job. But it wasn't fun.
Maybe he shouldn't be writing for female protagonists... because I don't feel he gets them even close to right. On the other hand, maybe he writes BRILLIANTLY for female protagonists and I just don't understand because I'm not a female. I'm prepared to accept that possibility. But in either situation, the reading is not very satisfying to me. I'm moving him to my "not all that great for me" column.
Compare and contrast with Neal Stephenson and Charles Stross: They both work in similar veins, but both have a more fluid ear for dialogue and character motivation: I understand where people are coming from and why they're moving the directions they move in their books. It just feels RIGHT. Even when Neal takes for-freaking-EVER to get to the point sometimes....
Allright: Workout stuff. Shockingly, my second attempt at taping BodyAttack failed. A missing two minutes from the middle - I think my taping assistant bumped the red button while moving the camera. Sigh. Try three coming atcha Sunday.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Unfurling...
The weather has finally turned and the kids are going completely bananas. Isaac wants to be outside every minute of the day, and they're sort of oblivious to the fact that while it's definitely warm-ER, it's not actually WARM yet. Bella in short sleeves. Isaac running out the door, up the block, and splashing in a puddle in his socks. My challenge will be to let them love this weather WITHOUT them catching cold!!!
Sunday, with the melt just starting, the kids insisted on getting going on the swingset. Wyatt from up the block joined in (he's 6 months older than Isaac, and is a little buddy). They were climbing in the camper, sliding down the slide, working the swingset. All with a lot of snow and ice still around.
I took them over to the Convention Grill for some health food: Isaac went completely mental for a chocolate malt: He eschewed the spoon and went straight for the straw: He was sucking SO HARD I thought his eyes were going to pop out, but persistence paid off and he got it going. But then he chomped the straw and restricted the flow.... and came up with a solution: Pull out the straw and flip it to try the other end. Yes, this did somehow work, and yes, it did result in a LOT of malt on his hands. And yes, he did this flip trick about 10 more times. Dude was COATED in malt.
Bella actually did NOT eat much of her malt, but did justice to the corn dog and fries. She loves dipping fries into malts. Apparently tasty. I was working hard with these kids. The next morning, some neighbors commented that they'd seen me there - I had no memory of seeing them, and it's not that big of a place! They said I was obviously completely focused on the kids, and that it was good.
Tonight, I took the kids to the Burrito Store, and then they insisted I stop at the park near our house. They worked the playground equipment for 40 minutes, burning off energy and loving the outdoors. When I finally got them to bed, it was a little later than I was planning, so Bella and I skipped quickly to stories.
Somehow, we were talking about singing, dancing, and playing instruments. We agreed that singing plus one thing is pretty common (singing at the piano). And dancing and singing is easy. But dancing and playing the piano would be pretty ridiculous. Unless you had a big circular piano, and you danced in the middle while playing all around you. I loved that vision of Bella's.
Oh, and she made a grasshopper in class the other day: total invention on her part... I'll upload a picture soon.
Ok, a total random update, but there you go.
Sunday, with the melt just starting, the kids insisted on getting going on the swingset. Wyatt from up the block joined in (he's 6 months older than Isaac, and is a little buddy). They were climbing in the camper, sliding down the slide, working the swingset. All with a lot of snow and ice still around.
I took them over to the Convention Grill for some health food: Isaac went completely mental for a chocolate malt: He eschewed the spoon and went straight for the straw: He was sucking SO HARD I thought his eyes were going to pop out, but persistence paid off and he got it going. But then he chomped the straw and restricted the flow.... and came up with a solution: Pull out the straw and flip it to try the other end. Yes, this did somehow work, and yes, it did result in a LOT of malt on his hands. And yes, he did this flip trick about 10 more times. Dude was COATED in malt.
Bella actually did NOT eat much of her malt, but did justice to the corn dog and fries. She loves dipping fries into malts. Apparently tasty. I was working hard with these kids. The next morning, some neighbors commented that they'd seen me there - I had no memory of seeing them, and it's not that big of a place! They said I was obviously completely focused on the kids, and that it was good.
Tonight, I took the kids to the Burrito Store, and then they insisted I stop at the park near our house. They worked the playground equipment for 40 minutes, burning off energy and loving the outdoors. When I finally got them to bed, it was a little later than I was planning, so Bella and I skipped quickly to stories.
Somehow, we were talking about singing, dancing, and playing instruments. We agreed that singing plus one thing is pretty common (singing at the piano). And dancing and singing is easy. But dancing and playing the piano would be pretty ridiculous. Unless you had a big circular piano, and you danced in the middle while playing all around you. I loved that vision of Bella's.
Oh, and she made a grasshopper in class the other day: total invention on her part... I'll upload a picture soon.
Ok, a total random update, but there you go.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Electronic Bay
Operation "Clear 'em OUT" continues at the house: We've had a monthly visit from ARC (a good local charity). Every week we've taken another load of old clothes to Once Upon A Child, and we're turning old clothes into new ones for our growing kids. I have a trunk full of CDs and DVDs which I have every intention of taking to Cheapo soon... And we've agreed that Half Price Books is a terrible scam and a self perpetuating nightmare: Why do you never shop there? Crap books. Why crap books? Because they pay pennies on the cover price for everything, after making you wait for a half hour. A full bag of decent books - $2.50. REALLY? For that price, couldn't you have just eyeballed the bag and insulted us right away?
Today our adventures were two pronged - Shredding and Ebay. We have stacks and stacks of documents which we were in the process of understanding when Bella came along 6 years ago, and we have been randomly adding to that pile ever since. Well, it's getting organized now, and we are deciding that insurance cards for cars we haven't owned since 1999 are NOT crucial for us to retain. Nor are 10 year old insurance statements declaring coverage on our Artificial Insemination procedures. No, there's a lot of stuff we have been saving for absolutely no reason. SO WE'RE SHREDDING IT. Whrrrrrrrrrr. We've actually filled a paper lawn clipping bag with shreds. It feels great. Manuals for a TV I haven't had for 4 years? GONE. HAHA!!!!
As we were cleaning the basement, we "found" the bins with my "collectibles" from my toy hoarding phase of the 1990s. LOTS of Star Trek things. I also found a trove of old concert T-shirts from the 1980s. I was saving them, thinking that when I got to 40, I'd think they were fabulous and would knuckle a tear away and cherish them. I maybe even thought my eventual children would think they were cool. Well, here I am, and I'm not knuckling anything away. And I doubt Bella or Isaac will be particularly excited by Depeche Mode or New Order shirts. No more than I would have been jazzed to have a Kingston Trio shirt from my Parents, I guess. No, these are mementos but not memories. Plus, they're fetching a pretty penny on Ebay!
So I have 18 auctions up now. Search on my username - ppgwave - if you'd like to see some of the gems. I can't really keep my personality entirely out of the picture when it comes to Ebay: On the concert T's, I talk about how the show was. On one Star Trek ship that was frankly pretty poorly built by the manufacturer, I plead that the horrible condition of the unit is entirely because it was a crap item. On one I lied that the scuff marks on a fake phaser gun were from my using it on a secret mission.
My favorite so far is my Laurie Anderson Mister Heartbreak tour shirt from 1984. I wore that shirt at least 300 times since getting it, and it is practically transparent, but still legible. In the description, I hint that Lou Reed could make a nice gift to his gal pal Laurie A with this remnant from the past. Of all of the postings, this one already has an interested buyer. IN TASMANIA.
My one complaint on the process is that IT TAKES A LONG TIME to do auctions. I have extra auction software (GarageSale), and it still took most of the afternoon to put it all together. What a pain. Plus, I'll have to mail that stuff everywhere. Oh well. Better than just tossing it. The people who will buy these things will likely love them more than I am now. And if the experiment works, I may start to look at moving along my other "treasure trove" - my comic books from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
And with that, it's off to bed!
Today our adventures were two pronged - Shredding and Ebay. We have stacks and stacks of documents which we were in the process of understanding when Bella came along 6 years ago, and we have been randomly adding to that pile ever since. Well, it's getting organized now, and we are deciding that insurance cards for cars we haven't owned since 1999 are NOT crucial for us to retain. Nor are 10 year old insurance statements declaring coverage on our Artificial Insemination procedures. No, there's a lot of stuff we have been saving for absolutely no reason. SO WE'RE SHREDDING IT. Whrrrrrrrrrr. We've actually filled a paper lawn clipping bag with shreds. It feels great. Manuals for a TV I haven't had for 4 years? GONE. HAHA!!!!
As we were cleaning the basement, we "found" the bins with my "collectibles" from my toy hoarding phase of the 1990s. LOTS of Star Trek things. I also found a trove of old concert T-shirts from the 1980s. I was saving them, thinking that when I got to 40, I'd think they were fabulous and would knuckle a tear away and cherish them. I maybe even thought my eventual children would think they were cool. Well, here I am, and I'm not knuckling anything away. And I doubt Bella or Isaac will be particularly excited by Depeche Mode or New Order shirts. No more than I would have been jazzed to have a Kingston Trio shirt from my Parents, I guess. No, these are mementos but not memories. Plus, they're fetching a pretty penny on Ebay!
So I have 18 auctions up now. Search on my username - ppgwave - if you'd like to see some of the gems. I can't really keep my personality entirely out of the picture when it comes to Ebay: On the concert T's, I talk about how the show was. On one Star Trek ship that was frankly pretty poorly built by the manufacturer, I plead that the horrible condition of the unit is entirely because it was a crap item. On one I lied that the scuff marks on a fake phaser gun were from my using it on a secret mission.
My favorite so far is my Laurie Anderson Mister Heartbreak tour shirt from 1984. I wore that shirt at least 300 times since getting it, and it is practically transparent, but still legible. In the description, I hint that Lou Reed could make a nice gift to his gal pal Laurie A with this remnant from the past. Of all of the postings, this one already has an interested buyer. IN TASMANIA.
My one complaint on the process is that IT TAKES A LONG TIME to do auctions. I have extra auction software (GarageSale), and it still took most of the afternoon to put it all together. What a pain. Plus, I'll have to mail that stuff everywhere. Oh well. Better than just tossing it. The people who will buy these things will likely love them more than I am now. And if the experiment works, I may start to look at moving along my other "treasure trove" - my comic books from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
And with that, it's off to bed!
Friday, March 13, 2009
My Party With Isaac (Warning: Farts)
This evening was the Highlands School Carnival - a noisy confusion of excitement where Bella's elementary school is transformed into a, well, a carnival with games, prizes, moon walks, and general squealing mayhem. It is indeed the social event of the K-5th grade calendar. Our initial plans were to bring both Bella and Isaac along, and have one of us bail with Isaac around 7-ish.
Alas, Isaac has not been feeling well nor sleeping well, so I made an executive decision around 5pm to keep him home. I confess that for my own sanity this seemed a good option as well, and I looked forward to an early evening with him and a relaxing time watching Terminator and Dollhouse.
That was not to be.
From 5:15 to 6:15, we had a nice time in the basement watching SuperWhy and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He was glazey eyed, yawning, and chewing on his didda. Bedtime was right around the corner. So how to fill a little time? Ah, a BATH.
6:15-7:15 - Bath Time. Yes, it was an hour. He swam, laughed, floated on his back, sang, played with duckies, splashed, swam more, blew bubbles, giggled.... He was like popeye in a bathtub filled with spinach: He went completely crazy.
So I thought maybe he had blown off some steam and was ready for bed?
7:15-7:45 - dressing for bed, playing, reading stories, and the first attempt at bedtime. First farts detected.
7:45-8:00 - seemingly quiet, though some settling and cooing sounds.
8:01 announcement: "DADDY - I POOOOOOOOOED!!!!!"
8:02 - Entered room and was immediately overwhelmed with a grievous atmosphere. There was a POWERFUL STINK going on.
8:03 - Discovery: NO POOP.
8:04 - A toot so powerful, his feet actually left the ground. Several more followed. I took him out of the room to get some fresh air. He demanded to go downstairs.
8:10-8:30: Isaac is eating. Sausages with maple syrup left over from dinner, strawberries, crackers. He is voracious and very awake. Toots are beginning to subside.
8:30 back in bed.
8:45 - Bella and Pamela are back from Carnival. Isaac hears and is hollering his head off for Bella. Bella says hi.
9:00 - Isaac confirmed asleep. Now it's time for Bella.
Pamela and Bella had a great time at the Carnival: Bella won a gift basket chock full of art supplies and kits, which will lead to many great rainy afternoons now that spring may indeed be springing.
9:15 - After scarfing a plate of tortellini, Bella is in bed too.
9:30 - I finally get to watch Terminator. Taking a break to Blog, and then watch Dollhouse. I'll be sleepy tomorrow, but it'll be worth it.
Alas, Isaac has not been feeling well nor sleeping well, so I made an executive decision around 5pm to keep him home. I confess that for my own sanity this seemed a good option as well, and I looked forward to an early evening with him and a relaxing time watching Terminator and Dollhouse.
That was not to be.
From 5:15 to 6:15, we had a nice time in the basement watching SuperWhy and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He was glazey eyed, yawning, and chewing on his didda. Bedtime was right around the corner. So how to fill a little time? Ah, a BATH.
6:15-7:15 - Bath Time. Yes, it was an hour. He swam, laughed, floated on his back, sang, played with duckies, splashed, swam more, blew bubbles, giggled.... He was like popeye in a bathtub filled with spinach: He went completely crazy.
So I thought maybe he had blown off some steam and was ready for bed?
7:15-7:45 - dressing for bed, playing, reading stories, and the first attempt at bedtime. First farts detected.
7:45-8:00 - seemingly quiet, though some settling and cooing sounds.
8:01 announcement: "DADDY - I POOOOOOOOOED!!!!!"
8:02 - Entered room and was immediately overwhelmed with a grievous atmosphere. There was a POWERFUL STINK going on.
8:03 - Discovery: NO POOP.
8:04 - A toot so powerful, his feet actually left the ground. Several more followed. I took him out of the room to get some fresh air. He demanded to go downstairs.
8:10-8:30: Isaac is eating. Sausages with maple syrup left over from dinner, strawberries, crackers. He is voracious and very awake. Toots are beginning to subside.
8:30 back in bed.
8:45 - Bella and Pamela are back from Carnival. Isaac hears and is hollering his head off for Bella. Bella says hi.
9:00 - Isaac confirmed asleep. Now it's time for Bella.
Pamela and Bella had a great time at the Carnival: Bella won a gift basket chock full of art supplies and kits, which will lead to many great rainy afternoons now that spring may indeed be springing.
9:15 - After scarfing a plate of tortellini, Bella is in bed too.
9:30 - I finally get to watch Terminator. Taking a break to Blog, and then watch Dollhouse. I'll be sleepy tomorrow, but it'll be worth it.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tweeting and such
Not sure why but I decided to fire up a Twitter account: These are little 140 word updates you can broadcast to the world. I have a client on my Blackberry, so I can tweet things like "getting lunch now" and all 9 people who follow my feed will know that I am, at that very moment, getting lunch.
I haven't really figured out why one would tweet, but I'm doing it.
Twitter has been in the news recently as a bunch of GOP senators got Tweeting on their Blackberries during Obama's Not-SOTU speech posting snarky little things to the world about what they were thinking. Doonesbury has been teasing on the Twitter recently too.
So now, I blog occasionally, I update my facebook status a couple of times a day, and I tweet. So who is really caring that I'm this connected? I wouldn't dream of calling up my hairdresser Warren to tell him my thoughts about the latest Depeche Mode single, but he gets my Tweet on the subject.
So look at this Twitter thing as an experiment. I will likely let this fall by the wayside pretty soon... But if you do care, I'm ppgwave on Twitter.
In other news, we had our annual "cold weather tire separation incident" with the Jag today. We've gone through at least one tire a year during a cold snap - the tire just wiggles off the rim. Cost of doing business I suppose. It says something about the stability control of my car that it was the SOUND that alerted me that something was amiss, while the car continued to handle perfectly, despite riding on a rim and a ribbon of rubber. Did I mention it happened going 65 on HWY 100?
We were a bit bedraggled today - Isaac decided that 4 am was a good time to wake up. He joined me in the shower for my 5am get-ready-for-bodypump ritual, and then wanted to go back to bed. But as I was preparing to leave, I still heard him. Since I wasn't teaching, I decided to relieve Pamela, took him up to the 3rd floor with me, and we napped for another 90 min (and he actually fell asleep). But this wasn't a good night of rest. We all needed naps, but Isaac declined his, so it was an early bedtime.
And it'll be an early bedtime for me as well...
I haven't really figured out why one would tweet, but I'm doing it.
Twitter has been in the news recently as a bunch of GOP senators got Tweeting on their Blackberries during Obama's Not-SOTU speech posting snarky little things to the world about what they were thinking. Doonesbury has been teasing on the Twitter recently too.
So now, I blog occasionally, I update my facebook status a couple of times a day, and I tweet. So who is really caring that I'm this connected? I wouldn't dream of calling up my hairdresser Warren to tell him my thoughts about the latest Depeche Mode single, but he gets my Tweet on the subject.
So look at this Twitter thing as an experiment. I will likely let this fall by the wayside pretty soon... But if you do care, I'm ppgwave on Twitter.
In other news, we had our annual "cold weather tire separation incident" with the Jag today. We've gone through at least one tire a year during a cold snap - the tire just wiggles off the rim. Cost of doing business I suppose. It says something about the stability control of my car that it was the SOUND that alerted me that something was amiss, while the car continued to handle perfectly, despite riding on a rim and a ribbon of rubber. Did I mention it happened going 65 on HWY 100?
We were a bit bedraggled today - Isaac decided that 4 am was a good time to wake up. He joined me in the shower for my 5am get-ready-for-bodypump ritual, and then wanted to go back to bed. But as I was preparing to leave, I still heard him. Since I wasn't teaching, I decided to relieve Pamela, took him up to the 3rd floor with me, and we napped for another 90 min (and he actually fell asleep). But this wasn't a good night of rest. We all needed naps, but Isaac declined his, so it was an early bedtime.
And it'll be an early bedtime for me as well...
Monday, March 09, 2009
Persistence
Bella had a class project: Persistence. Every kid in her kindergarten class was encouraged to pick something to do or learn, and stick with it. Then they were to give a short presentation on what they persisted in. Bella and I decided that her persistence project would be to build a big Lego set all by herself.
We picked out a big yellow crane kit with over 500 pieces, and over the course of 4 weeks, we spent over 8 hours building this thing. And by "we" I mean SHE did everything, but I did quality control: As she finished a step, I took a look and if there were things out of place, I asked her to look harder at the instructions... and if there were pieces that didn't snap easily, I might have helped once or twice. But that entire thing was built by her, with her following the directions.
She definitely had challenges - some days were hard to motivate, some steps were harder to understand, and some parts were sort of boring to assemble... but by Sunday afternoon, she put the last piece in place and held it up, with a big grin on her face. We had taken pictures throughout the process, and printed them all up. She glued them to a posterboard and wrote her story.
Today, Pamela brought the poster and the crane into class, and Bella was the star of the show. She radiated pride as everyone oohed and ahhed over her crane and poster - the teacher said she had never seen a kid do a project that complex, and that the bar is raised.
An interesting aside - one of the alternative persistence projects we thought about was learning to spell our full last name. Bella thought that wouldn't be much fun for persistence. All the same, on Friday she recited all 16 letters to me from memory. So she really did both projects. What a girl!!!
Isaac has been quite something these days too: He's really being a little boy, but he is maybe the most polite gentleman I've ever met. He always says please and thank you, and you're welcome. The other night, he was arranging his toy robots on the shelf, and wanted to switch two of their places. As he reached for one of the robots, he said "excuse me, mister".
We went to a sock hop this weekend for Isaac's preschool, and he spent several hours running around playing, and just a little dancing. But we had a few moments where he would be dancing at one end of the gym, then suddenly dart clear across the room to the climbing area. As as he scooted, his arms were out to his sides and his feet were a blur - I suspect that his toes were touching only every 4th step or so, and only then so as not to arouse suspicion.
On my own front, my tendrils are slowly unfurling, extending out into my network, and my next thing is cordially invited to present itself. We'll leave it at that for now.
We picked out a big yellow crane kit with over 500 pieces, and over the course of 4 weeks, we spent over 8 hours building this thing. And by "we" I mean SHE did everything, but I did quality control: As she finished a step, I took a look and if there were things out of place, I asked her to look harder at the instructions... and if there were pieces that didn't snap easily, I might have helped once or twice. But that entire thing was built by her, with her following the directions.
She definitely had challenges - some days were hard to motivate, some steps were harder to understand, and some parts were sort of boring to assemble... but by Sunday afternoon, she put the last piece in place and held it up, with a big grin on her face. We had taken pictures throughout the process, and printed them all up. She glued them to a posterboard and wrote her story.
Today, Pamela brought the poster and the crane into class, and Bella was the star of the show. She radiated pride as everyone oohed and ahhed over her crane and poster - the teacher said she had never seen a kid do a project that complex, and that the bar is raised.
An interesting aside - one of the alternative persistence projects we thought about was learning to spell our full last name. Bella thought that wouldn't be much fun for persistence. All the same, on Friday she recited all 16 letters to me from memory. So she really did both projects. What a girl!!!
Isaac has been quite something these days too: He's really being a little boy, but he is maybe the most polite gentleman I've ever met. He always says please and thank you, and you're welcome. The other night, he was arranging his toy robots on the shelf, and wanted to switch two of their places. As he reached for one of the robots, he said "excuse me, mister".
We went to a sock hop this weekend for Isaac's preschool, and he spent several hours running around playing, and just a little dancing. But we had a few moments where he would be dancing at one end of the gym, then suddenly dart clear across the room to the climbing area. As as he scooted, his arms were out to his sides and his feet were a blur - I suspect that his toes were touching only every 4th step or so, and only then so as not to arouse suspicion.
On my own front, my tendrils are slowly unfurling, extending out into my network, and my next thing is cordially invited to present itself. We'll leave it at that for now.
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