Isaac is Five

Isaac had a birthday party this afternoon at Foss Swim School, where he had 8 of his buddies and his big sister along too.  They played games in the pool for 45 minutes (led by some very patient and energetic swim instructors), and then it was time for cupcakes and presents.  What we saw were some of the most amazingly well behaved kids - they all are in school together and are very used to paying attention to teachers.

Isaac was also a very gracious host - after opening presents, he would say things like "what a wonderful gift" and give hugs to his friends.  I was pretty darn proud, and was just astonished at how nice they all were to each other - somehow this preschool stuff is working...?

Tonight, as we got ready for bed, Isaac told me "my butt hurts, it's tired of being in clothing".  After stripping down for PJs, he fled and dove into bed with an impish grin, and asked "can I just sleep like this?"   I replied "Sure, if you want to."

"But you're the boss of me, you could tell me to wear pajamas if you wanted to"

Dad:  "Yes, but you're really good at using the potty, and so I'm ok if you want to make this choice.  But you WILL be wearing clothes to school tomorrow".

Isaac:  "Well yeah, because who would want to look at my BUTT all day?" (prolonged laughter)

So he's sleeping in the buff tonight, ad he thinks it's pretty much the most grown up thing in the world.  I'm just banking on this not ending with a lot of laundry to do in the AM.

In other news:  Bella and I have passed the halfway mark in Harry Potter 7 (the book), and decided to reward our progress by watching Deathly Hallows Part 1...  and it was just amazing.  I had seen it earlier in the summer, and it was even better...  and to confess, I hadn't read Book 7 for a year or more before the movie, so some of this wasn't as fresh as it could have been.  But with the book fresh in mind, it was even stronger.

Of course I'm a big sissy and was crying within 5 minutes, with the scene of Hermione wiping herself out of her parents minds.  Bella and Pamela both rolled their eyes.  That's how I roll.

I'm pleased to report

The kids made their way through Jedi today - they have now seen the full original trilogy.  And they loved it.  Isaac was very happy that "Dark Fader" died, but respected that he sacrificed himself.  They LOVED the Ewoks - Isaac was marching around making Ewok noises all evening...  

I am willing to give George a pass on the Ewoks - they were cheesy, but the kids do love them.  And since the "Special Edition" did away with the YubYub song...

One thing I was a bit embarrassed about - I caught myself muttering every line the Emperor said, just as he was saying it.  Isaac noticed and asked politely "Dad, can you never ever do that again?".

Isaac has a terrible cold, so I've been loading up the videos and keeping him comfortable.  One thing I thought he'd like are the Clone Wars shows - they're 20 minute episodes of pure action set in the time between "Clones" and "Sith" in the Prequels.  They have a lot of Light Saber Yoda action in there.  What's interesting is that the exposition is about 2 sentences at the beginning of each episode, and then you're right into it.

After two shows, which he did enjoy, Isaac insisted on Episode IV A New Hope again.  And he sat and just enjoyed the full "real" Star Wars experience.  While blowing his nose non-stop.

Bella is doing well with her guitar lessons - she's taking it seriously, and played her practice songs for us several times today.  She gets this faraway smile when she does so.

And that's the update for today.

A strange biography

Ok I like to share my dreams when I can remember them. Here's one from last night - just a fragment:
I'm sorting through a stack of books, trying to decide which to keep and which to chuck. I linger on one book.

An 800 page hardcover tome with a weathered slipcover. The picture on the cover is of a man wearing a Mario style overall set - red overalls, white shirt, red baseball hat. He's reclining on a white leather sofa looking at a copy of the same book I'm reading.

Two women flank him wearing futuristic jumpsuits looking out at the viewer, one brunette, one blonde. The couch is in a stark white room, and a huge window is behind them through which you can see the curve of the earth and a wheel shaped space station. They're clearly on some sort of space cruiser.

The man in the Mario outfit is David Cross (Tobias Funke from Arrested Development). This is his autobiography and it is titled "That was some shit, it was".

Zooming back out to me holding the book, I remember thinking it was a pretty good read, but not worth keeping. I chuck it on the toss pile.

Then I woke up.

Media Update

Three (or so) Media things for today:

1) Isaac has been insisting for a few days that "he is ready to watch STAR WARS", so I agreed to watch it with him today. I turned out that yes, there's a lot of guns and shooting and yes an entire planet gets blown up, but there's not much SCARY stuff in there. If anything, the "action" on Tattooine was a bit draggy for him, but once we hit the Millennium Falcon things moved at a decent clip. And he loved Darth Vader.

I do have to say that my DVDs are the "Special Edition" ones from about 10 years ago, and its really quite jarring to see all of the digital effects that Lucas had crammed into there - all of the fakey storm troopers riding lizards, the lamentable "conversation with Jabba" that makes no sense since Jabba is literally HALF the size he is in Jedi - even Bella commented "there's a bigger one of those in another movie". I am OK with the new improved "explosion rings" for Alderaan and the Death Star, but a lot of the rest of it was just painful. I am not looking forward to the further tweaks he put into the Blu-Ray releases.

Anyway, the kids loved Star Wars, and have demanded we do "The one with the SNOW" on Sunday. So we're doing that.

2) Torchwood Miracle Day ended last night, and it was just hard to gauge my feelings - I felt a bit like at the end of Falling Skies - "well that was interesting - not sure we needed 10 episodes to get there". It had a cool premise - one day humans turn immortal - just life, not healing, so people who are dead are still alive, but still suffering. And one guy who is immortal (Captain Jack) turns Mortal. But they just sort of dinked around with it and quite honestly it would have fit in a well written two episode story, or been stretched to a 5 episode series like Children of Earth was (which is still amazing - do yourself a favor and netflix that). But at 10 episodes, they just flailed around.

Let me just say that it's been very stark - I get to the end of a Torchwood, and I go "hmmm, interesting". Then I load up a Doctor Who and I'm on the edge of my seat completely enthralled (in no small part due to Matt Smith's amazing work).

I'm not sure what will happen with Torchwood - I hope if they go high-concept again that they'll do more with it than they did this time. But that's done.

3) On the recommendation of friends who know I love my Dr Who with Matt Smith, I've started watching from the 2005 beginning, with Christopher Eccelston. And I love it, and can't believe I wasn't watching this years ago! Eccelston has an impish gawkiness with great self assurance that leads very often to a very puzzled look when things aren't working out. Anyway, I'm very happy to have another 50 episodes to enjoy (just 5 more with Eccelston, then I get into the David Tennant years, and I've seen a few of his episodes and can't wait to get to know him.)

4) Alphas was renewed for next year! More David Strathairn! More "sorta-mutants"! It's all great fun.

And that's my media news, what I'm enjoying. Posts about my life will return soon enough.

Isaac quotes today

When I grow up I want to jump from a giant cliff. Because I want to be a PROFESSIONAL.

(wondering why urinals are out in the open but toilets have doors)
Why do people want to see other people pee?

Blogged from my iPhone

The August Update

It sure feels like the month has flown by, but in some ways it crawled. I billed fewer hours in August than at any time in the past 18 months - I took time off. I worked short days. I spent evenings lazily watching 30 Rock episodes rather than pushing powerpoint slides around. I was somewhat LAZY... but I also got back on my fitness regimen, exercising thrice weekly and making use of a simple yet demonic tool called the "TRX Suspension Trainer".

 We bought cars. We re-did Bella's bedroom. We had weeks in which no room in the house could be navigated in more than two paces straight ahead, forcing weaving around piles of this, that, and oh yes the other thing. We had a dog in a cone, and fed him by hand. We had a jealous dog who we fed by hand just so he wouldn't feel left out. We had kids who were getting MORE AND MORE BORED by the entire world of summer and who can recite the Phineas and Ferb theme song in their sleep. I know who Perry the Platypus and Dr Doofenschmirtz are now.

 I took a couple of short business trips and got stuck in Atlanta. I took 3 days at the lake without a laptop or iPad. Bella and I picked up Book 7 of Harry Potter again, and I got to do my Kreacher voice again. Isaac has thoroughly exhausted what can be achieved by climbing the lilac tree in the back, and has been eyeing other trees for possibilities. I have realized that I moved the play camper in such a way that if not this summer, then certainly by spring Isaac will work out that he could easily climb onto the garage roof from it.

 Isaac has been having babysitting/playdates with Colin, who is a relentlessly athletic boy across the street, and the two of them play sports, and time disappears. They also play Wii, and cars. They're 6 years apart, but genuinely like each other's company.

We hit the State Fair and it was wonderful: Not too hot, first day so everything was fresh and clean and everyone was still friendly. As we walked through the barns, one girl raced up to us with a chicken and encouraged the kids to pet it. A full table of rabbits was there for the petting. As we walked past a lamb shearing, the farm family offered the kids a big handful of wool to take home. I ate a LOT of sausage, as is my divine right.

 My friends Nick and Paul lost their mom to a very scary disease, and we all mourned.

 August is over now, and September brings with it a bunch more business trips (Akron next week, Philly the week after, Madison the week after that)... while still working my main Minneapolis gig. Fall will be busy. The kids will be back in school - Bella will be in 3rd Grade, Isaac still in Pre-K. Synchro will be starting again, as will Circus school.

Bella will start Guitar Lessons next week too - and I will gladly sit with her to learn Kumbaya. I'm imagining her smile as she makes a successful chord. Isaac's energy will need to be channeled. Perhaps a drum set.

 August was a great month.

Into Battle

After a wonderful couple of days at the Lake and a productive interlude back at the main client in Minneapolis, I have spent two days deep in the clutches of the darkest monsters in the consulting world.

It started Thursday afternoon: I was headed back to Maryland for a "final" visit with the client out there: We had done work in the Feb to May timeframe, and I've been trying since then to present my findings to the board, who meet for a mere 90 minutes every month. I was bumped from the agenda in June (hours before boarding my flight out there). I was bumped from the agenda in July (the notification came while my flight was in air, so I did NOT cancel that trip - but it was great fun anyway because I got to hang out with Erik in DC).

This week, I got confirmation, then double-checked. Then triple checked. No I was not going to be bumped this time. But as I booked the travel, my spider sense was tingling… all of the direct flights were booked. I had no choice but to connect. What could possibly go wrong?

We landed in Atlanta and headed to the connecting flight, waited a little while on the tarmac, then wheeled back to the gate: BAD WEATHER somewhere in the DC area was preventing our departure. We all deplaned and hung out waiting for news. The weather lifted, but then we lost our crew due to work restrictions, so we were clear to go, but needed to wait for a replacement crew. Finally by 10pm, we had a crew and were in the air… and on the way we circled for an extra 30 min while more storms passed. I had got on in Minneapolis at noon, and landed in Baltimore at midnight.

Further frustrations ensued - a very slow possibly incompetent checkout guy at the car rental place delayed me a further 20 minutes. When I got to the hotel, the door was locked and it took me 5 minutes of banging and calling to get the clerk to wake up and come let me in. My head finally hit the pillow at 2:30 am. And the wakeup call came at 6am.

After the shower, I grabbed my electric shaver and felt it die in my hand as I finished the right side of my face. A quick trip down to the front desk secured me some shave cream and a "razor" to finish the job, and it's a miracle I didn't slit my throat accidentally.

I made it to the presentation and NO I did not get bumped. YES it went off without a hitch. I was running on pure adrenaline, making grand hand gestures and didn't even notice until after I sat down that my cuffs were unbuttoned and had been flapping wildly as I waved at the data flow diagram showing exactly where those hand washing and pressure ulcer statistics were going to be stored for future reporting in my grand vision.

I did not walk out of there with a signed statement of work, but it went very well indeed.

In the midst of all this, I spent over 90 minutes across three conversations with our client in Rochester who has decided that while he loves us and our work, and cannot deny we are delivering for him in a big way, he'd like us EVEN MORE if we were 20% less expensive. Now I have been in meetings with this guy and he is what I will call a "Drone Winner" - he will continue to circle back onto the same point over and over and over and over until the opposition throws up its hands and says "this is not worth fighting for anymore". Through this strategy he has somehow risen to the title of CIO in a major health system, and woe be unto any vendor he begins to negotiate with.

And he has decided to negotiate with me.

I have been standing as firm as I can: I am fully prepared to end this engagement and walk away from this work. But GODS this is exhausting. And not fun. I make a point, he agrees with the point, and he says "but if you were 20% less expensive…." as if that would make my point even MORE valid. And so I have been battling with this robot terminator from the future who cannot be stopped but insists on ENGAGING in the conversation…

So that's in the middle of the crazy travel. And now I'm on my way home, and I'm pleased to announce that the trip home is going WITHOUT A HITCH. Flights are on time, traffic was light, and I even caught up on some sleep. I did have a long layover in Atlanta on the way home, but I got caught up on some email and even did a little creative writing. Plus I got caught up on Alphas and Torchwood too!

Oh, and speaking of BATTLE: TNT, I hope you're not expecting me to be watching Falling Skies next summer. That was some WEAK SAUCE the way you ended that…

A long long week

Monday - a big day at the Minneapolis client: We announced our choice of vendor for the major Digital Radiology system we are buying and implementing. I wrote letters to the vendors (the yes and the no), plus a bunch of vendor partners, all of whom were wondering which tool they were going to need to hook into... plus a letter to all of our radiologists to explain that if they have specific issues they want our new vendor to address, let us know now so we can put it into the contract. It was a day of writing.

Monday Night - caught a flight to Philly.

Tuesday - Drove to Jersey to my old client there who wanted a presentation on something called "Information Lifecycle Management". The trouble is that this subject has about 4 major facets - a technical weenie piece, a patient record archiving piece, a legal piece, and an IT governance piece. My presentation hit on 2.5 of these areas, but it turns out the client was more interested in the 1.5 parts I didn't hit on as much. I figured this out about 10 minutes into my 2 hour presentation, so I needed to do a LOT of improvising.

BUT it turned out well in the end: They asked me to put together a project plan to make it happen. So now I just need to whip that up and find 2 people to do the work. Easy.

Tuesday Night - met up with some of my company comrades and had a fine steak dinner, followed by watching my colleagues inhale cigars while I wondered if the smell would ever leave my skin and clothes. I seriously considered throwing away my outfit from the evening.

Wednesday - was very bedraggled in general due to the previous evening, but pulled it together for a meeting in Philly with the Children's hospital I worked at back in 2009. Turns out all of my prep-work and planning is in the same state more or less as it was when I handed it off in 2009. But they're totally finally ready to execute on it. So they want me to come back and oversee a team to put my plan into action.

Next steps are to build out a 6 month plan, find staff to do it, and propose it. Easy.

Wednesday Night - out with my full company leadership at a tapas bar. My entree had a strong taste of shrimp sauce. Shrimp shell actually. It wasn't entirely pleasant, though others had the same thing and wolfed it down. I guess I'm just not a sprimp guy. I'm ok saying that now.

Thursday - ALL DAY MEETING: What is our strategic plan for the next 5 years? How can we get there? I was actually pretty jazzed - we have a LOT going on in our company and I'm definitely in a good place right now. DEFINITELY.

Thursday Night - Went to a dinner place called Fri Sat Sun. Dinner was ok, but the dessert was amazing - puff pastry with vanilla custard, topped with berries and caramel. Mmmmmm.

We headed out as a group to see our friend Gregg's house: They're blogging their updates HERE and they are actually going to be on a DIY Network show in the fall - they had their 4th floor redone for a home improvement show. It is an amazing space, and I swear they are investing an insane amount into this. But they love it, love the house, love the west Philly neighborhood. The house is from 1881 and is just amazing.

Friday - ALL DAY MEETING: Went over our tactical plans - my Minneapolis Market plans and my Business Intelligence plans. Bascially, if we could hire 5 people in the next 2 weeks for my projects, I'd have them working for a long time. And that would be good. Our best minds are thinking on this now.

Friday Night - flew home from Philly, got home. Pamela was asleep when I walked in at 9:30. Gesso has spent the evening at my feet. Isaac woke up to pee 20 min ago, and asked for some cuddles to get back to sleep. All is good in the world.

Sure would be nice to take a break.... BUT SATURDAY IS COMING. It's my 25th High School Reunion, and I planned it. I have no idea how many people are coming... we'll be selling tickets at the door and I sure hope people show up. I do have about 40 pre-payments which doesn't really cover costs, but it'll do for a start.

My old buddy Jeannine won't be making the trip. Another person paid, but needs to back out because she was just diagnosed today with breast cancer and starts treatment on Monday, and strangely is prioritizing spending time with her family over 25 year people from the past.

It's a full day affair - a picnic in the late AM, and a party in the evening. And I'm officially NOT planning the next one - this has aged me.

So I'm REALLY looking forward to Sunday and the week ahead where yes I'll be busy, but I'll be home. And Home is GOOD.

The Comedy Stylings...

Jokes from Isaac:

Why did the house go up in the rocket ship? BECAUSE IT HAD LEGS.
Why did the Pig open the door? BECAUSE IT COULD

The next joke will be the FUNNIEST EVER:
Why did the Pancake get up and move? BECAUSE IT WANTED TO JUMP UP TO THE ROOF!!!! THAT'S WHY!

I must share

I need to share with you this very odd Japanese thing: THIS PERSON plays with tiny fake food and makes fake food from japanese kits. And it is absolutely captivating. I recommend the ones referring to "Re-Ment" with the sound up - the tiny click clack sounds he makes with the tiny food is strangely relaxing.

That is all.

Came down this am...

Good morning! I came downstairs this AM to find Isaac quietly playing at the kitchen table: He had a 3 hole punch, a 2 foot dowel, and two pencils.

"They're SUPERHEROES, Dad! This one is Long-ey (the dowel), this one is Clamp-ey (the punch), this one is Girl Draw-ey (a pink pencil), and this one's the BAD GUY (a green pencil)."

Now he's in the basement setting up cars. It's nice to see him being creative!

Ch-ch-changes

Farewell Lord Landshark - the Jaguar XJ is no longer in the driveway. After almost 8 years, it was time to say farewell to the royal beast. Things were starting to happen. A bit of trim came loose,the shocks started feeling a bit stiff, a puff of blue smoke when firing it up... it could have gone for another year or five no doubt, but not without cost.

And as time has passed I have come to realize that perhaps as a 43 year old father of two kids under 10, I may be in a "valley" of Jaguar's target market - between the young money and the kids-in-college treat. Right now I need practical. And I'd still like FUN, but not necessarily "high performance".

So say hello to the Shuttlecraft, my new white Honda Fit Sport. It's fast enough, very roomy, very cool looking inside and out, and has room to haul. Plus it has an iPod jack for my music and language lessons. It's smaller than the Mini on the outside, and bigger than the Mini on the inside. And I could have bought FOUR of them for what that XJ cost years ago.

So I'm back to practical. There were three key moments that led to this change:
1) Going up north with my bosses to assess a hospital in Hibbing - the CMIO saw my car and said "I do not see that as a jim car: There are at least 8 other cars I see as Jim cars. That one is not even on the list. I don't understand".

2) Winter: Losing a tire EVERY SINGLE WINTER to the cold and having the tire separate off the rim, usually while driving. Getting it beached in a snowbank last winter was the last straw.

3) While parked for a long weekend in my dad's driveway, he noticed an ominous stain left behind: "If you're not already having some oil troubles, you will be soon".

Now, these are negatives. But there's a huge positive in that Fit. It just makes me smile. It simultaneously reminds me of my old VW GTI, and of the longing I had in my heart for the 1984 honda civic hatchback - same one my friend Dean had. It was such a cool car, and it never seemed to be in the shop. The Fit is a lot like that car.

So out with the old, in with the new. I'm excited. I'm happy, and I'll be getting over 30mpg, suckers.

Heavenly

Just got back from four delightful days near Madison seeing many cousins for a family reunion. Four days of the dogs running loose on a big farm, not able to believe how much space they get to run in. Four days of a bunch of playmates for Isaac and Bella from dawn to dusk. Four days of chillaxing with New Glarus brews by the lake, with a cool breeze blowing in. Four days with no TV, very little internet, and a surprising number of Words with Friends games. No books were read or attempted. Several naps were taken.

Poor Pamela sprained her ankle BUT GOOD the day before we left: She's been doing a "get fit" nutrition and cardio bootcamp program at Lifetime Fitness, and as it always happens, she stepped on something just a little wrong, and her ankle collapsed... and a short wait at the Orthopedic ER later, and she's got an aircast. The pain laid her up for a lot of the trip and kept her out of the water too... So I pulled double duty, helping her, and keeping an eye on the kids as they spent every possible moment in the lake. Also, I was the chauffeur, so the driving was up to me... though it's Pamela's left ankle that's hurt, so she will be able to drive the kids this week, have no fear people.

The dogs were pretty good on the trip: They're not welcome at the lake house, but the farmhouse where we sleep had plenty of room for them... they just needed to spend the hours we were at the lake in the kennel, which they found frustrating. Also, Zinsser is a bit of a neurotic animal, and was very barky. We need to work on him, Gesso was a saint because he is the perfect animal, even if he does poop where he shouldn't.

I was a LITTLE bummed about Pamela's ankle, because it would have been fun to go visit Epic, which is about a half hour from the lake, and would have been a fun afternoon diversion, but we are going to do it next time... and by that time, the campus will have doubled in size YET AGAIN, I'm sure.

And it's worth mentioning that I didn't do a single lick of work while on vacation. Oh, I took some calls and responded to an email or two, so call that a lick of work if you will... but the laptop stayed in its container, only coming out to print a recipe from Epicurious.

And that was the weekend that was. And I was right back at it today, with a drive to Rochester for a 4 hour meeting in the AM (90 min drive each way), and a full afternoon back at the Minneapolis client.

While in the halls of the Mpls client, my old boss stopped me and gave me a wide eyed look and said "Jim.... Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim. You got out at the right time, my friend. You are a lucky devil". Then he shook his head and kept walking. I guess the big Epic project is hitting some bumps in the road... I'm happy to be on my PACS project, where all I need to worry about is how, if we pick a different vendor from the one we're on right now, we will will migrate 100 terabytes of images through a pipe that can only handle 80 gig in a day (hint - it will take four years).

And that's about it for right now: The kids are asleep - Bella has just learned about Horcruxes, and I have given her a STERN warning that she is not to go about making one. Isaac is incredibly Daddy-focused right now, so as I was reading to Bella, he was screaming at the top of his lungs at Pamela about how "GIRLS ARE BORING I WANT DADDY".

I'm sure I can go back and find some Blog posts about frustrations when Bella wouldn't let me comfort her in the past... but for right now, my poor gimpy wife is just a little sad that her little boy doesn't want her hugs. This will change, as things always do. But for a lady whose ankle is killing her, she needs a little extra TLC.

Infinite Jest

So I finished Infinite Jest yesterday. Finally, 980 pages plus over 350 footnotes, some of which spanned multiple pages and offered key plot points not found within the main text. It was both very satisfying and extremely frustrating. It's as though the whole book is setting the stage, bringing you into the characters, building connections, and setting up a singularly explosive situation, only to END just as a hand is striking a match to ignite the powder keg. It is all setup, and it pulls a Lucy football by just ENDING.

Now I must say that I did love a lot of it. The characters, the writing, the dialogue were all just amazing. There were some scenes in the book that will never leave my mind, which is a good thing. But I was left ultimately unsatisfied... And I know that was exactly what he wanted to do, to leave us on the edge, not knowing what would happen next.

As I wrote before, a lot of the book is about addiction, and what it brings people to. There's not a single fully functioning person in the book, and everyone is wounded in some way, and acting badly. It's a big love letter to AA, which counsels you to take it one day at a time and just be in the moment and not look ahead because. So ending abruptly is perhaps just right.

so I respect it. I respect what he did there.

but I still want to know - did Hal take the dmz that left him wrecked at the beginning of the book willingly, or did Pemulis dose him as he did others? Will the quebec separatists ever get ahold of the entertainment and unleash it on the unsuspecting north Americans? Will Maranthe actually seek out Joelle Van Dyne and try to work out the nature of the entertainment? Will Gatley recover? the presence of the crown at the end indicates he was more hurt than we realized, and maybe he won't be able to stay off of pain killers after all? Will Orin escape the glass cage with the roaches and tell the quebecois wheelchair terrorists where his father was buried?

Now that I write this, I guess these are pretty silly questions if you haven't read the book... But that's what I'm left with.

Croup and other things

Poor Isaac wound up with a case of the Croup this week - the barking seal-like cough started up on Friday afternoon and were lucky enough to catch his doctor by phone before the end of the day - she prescribed a strong course of steroids for him. As we all know, steroids are just a mess for all involved. When I was on them back so many years ago for fertility, I had a run of fevered creativity (leading to my sitcom script) then many days of flat out irasciblity. I was no fun. And true to form, Isaac is no fun on these things. He is weepy, frantic, loud, and shy, all within the course of a few minutes. I've been giving him extra cuddles to compensate. And on the plus side, it did knock that croup right out of the park.

Bella and I are still enjoying our Doctor Who episodes. We got to season 5 episode 4 tonight, the one about the Weeping Angels (vicious statues that attack only when you re not looking at them - creepy and excellent for low production budgets), and it was the first time Bella confessed that it was maybe a little scary.

It was a good fathers day, even with the weepy boy (and the girl who was getting a little jealous about the attention being paid to the weepy boy). We had dinner out at Pei Wei, and we discovered that Bella likes Edamame! That will be very handy when we do ago to Japan... Just in the past months she's decided she loves smoothies and turkey too, so her diet is definitely broadening.

Yes it is a few weeks later and Infinite Jest remains unfinished - I'm a tantalizing 70 pages from the end. This will be completed. This journey will end. And I'll be done wi it and can pick up something nice and relaxing. Like James Joyces Ulysses.

Other random thoughts... The not-as-busy continues to be a good thing for work, and I find myself spending evenings relaxing and not trying to cram in work in every waking minute, I did have a business trip get canceled at the end of last week, whichi didn't mind one bit except for the fact I was going to add on a dayton visit my best man Erik in DC. But we have rescheduled for July.

OH YES one last thing. I did some music this week! Two pieces of music for my neighbor Dave for a short movie he was making for his workplace. Two groovy tracks that made me happy to product, and I felt parts of my brain awaken. What was very fun was bringing up the sequencer files and showing Bella how all of the parts were played and layered and mixed. She was pretty amazed. Weepy Isaac justwantedto know when dad was goingq to be done showing things on the computer so he could watch Scooby Doo again. I cuthim some slack.

There is one thing:

For the past 18 months I've been on projects between Cleveland and Mpls that required ALWAYS ON brain: Looking at my email inbox, I have had very important things arrive at 11pm, and get resolved by 11:45pm. The intensity level has been very high, to the point where I didn't really know how high it was.

Until I started my new project: My email volume is down to 1/5 of what it was just a month ago. Emails to my sponsors, even URGENT ones, tend to be answered in hours or days, not minutes as before. I am adjusting to the fact that that last email check at 11pm will probably NOT contain a gem I need to address for 20 minutes.

I'm having a bit of a time adjusting... but I'm also really enjoying the silence.

Yes I know.

I'm still here. Just haven't blogged.

Things are still going well: My move to the new project has been great - it affords me more time in the day to do all of the other things I apparently need to do... since Bidness is still BiZOOMing.

It's Bella's last week in 2nd Grade. I'm sort of in shock that time is moving this quickly.

I did see the X-Men movie during a business trip to St Louis... and I loved it.

I still have not finished Infinite Jest, and am starting to wonder if I ever will: It just keeps GOING and GOING. I'm still enjoying it, but let me just say I THINK I GET IT: ADDICTION IS REALLY REALLY BAD, even when it's written about in a wry, effacing manner.

I'll update more in the days and weeks to come, but I just wanted to end the drought! Life is GOOD! REALLY GOOD!

We do love the DS

As noted before, Isaac loves the Nintendo DS - and Mario. Last night at Toys R Us, he picked out a set of Mario action figures and spent the evening making jumping sounds with them.

Today, he was looking for the DS, found it, and said "THERE IT IS! How can I ever thank myself?"

I think maybe he needs a little less DS time.

Counterbalance

Ok - something amusing for you:

Isaac is obsessed with Ages and is amazed and freaked out that until Gesso reaches one year old next January, he will be ZERO YEARS OLD.

So he doesn't refer to Gesso by name. He calls him "The Zero Year Old". As in: "DAD, where's the zero year old? Can I hold the Zero year old?"

Bad Dreams

I don't often let the books I read or the movies I watch filter too deeply into my subconscious: Seeing Alien twice in 1979 at the tender age of 12 (with the ticket agents at the Skyway completely not caring with Rated R means) definitely did me SOME damage back in the day - my dreams had shiny black toothy things in them for many years to come after that. But in general my books are read, mused over, and perhaps serve as some light backdrop for dreams.

Not so with Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace: It's a huge book, in which frankly not a LOT happens, but what DOES happen is drawn in such detail and over and over and over again that you can't help but allow his FULL intent be engraved somewhere in your psyche - he draws his messages lightly but repeatedly, so the remaining outline stays.

And as a result, I've had more than a few bad dreams directly attributable to this work of fiction: There's a lot of stuff in there about addiction and recovery, a lot about tennis, a lot about slowly revealed details of mildly plausible near future, but a thread running through it is a lethal videotape called "The Entertainment" which is supposedly so enthralling that it shuts off every other desire and turns people into drooling goons... and it's something that is instantly captivating, so the imagery in the book involves one person putting it on, succumbing to it, someone finding that person, and succumbing, and eventually a whole room full of people before someone kills the power.

Needless to say this very concept of something so attractive that even glimpsing it is dooming yourself is a metaphor for addictive substances of all kinds (when my friend Mark started down his path years ago, he related that that first taste of the substance was like "well, this is it, this is perfect, and this is all I ever need".) It's compelling in a way that a traditional substance abuse take wouldn't really be, since we have guards up about the dangers of alcohol and drugs already.

In fact, the book is CHOCK FULL of shocking drug anecdotes (a lot of it takes place in AA surroundings), and it's almost numbing, but the idea of "The Entertainment" has seeped pretty deep for me: I have had recurring dreams of finding my family enthralled, and then I turn my head to see what took them...

They're very unsettling dreams... and it speaks well (???) to the Author's ability to really communicate that feeling that I'm processing it with personal worry.

I'm about 2/3 through this massive tome, and I think I may need to take a little break!