Sanibel 2012 Part One

Sitting on my veranda on Monday evening - can this really be the 4th day of vacation already? Wow. It's been a wonderful time so far.

It started Thursday evening - the mom of one of Isaac's best friends emailed to ask if we had a ride to the airport arranged for Friday - could she be our taxi? OF COURSE! And so Friday am, a minivan pulled up and Isaac's friend Reid was standing with a sign for us, wearing a sportcoat and sunglasses. A quick ride to the airport, with the soundtrack of Isaac and Reid trying to say "poopy" as many times as possible, laughing uproariously.

A smooth flight to Atlanta, where we met up with Papa and Bam, with whom we would share a connecting flight to Fort Myers. Lunch at Chick Fil A (delicious despite their politics) was cut short by a series of strange messages: Our flight at 4:20 was delayed... to 4:50... to 6:30.... no wait, it's at 4:20 - BOARDING NOW... AT A DIFFERENT GATE COME ON PEOPLE!!! We got on in time and made it to Fort Myers safe and sound. Our minivan at the ready, we drove to the Harbor View Marriott - just on the Fort Myers side of the causeway, but with a view of the bridge. My points bought the rooms, which were suites (all they had left!) - a room service feast and a late bedtime, with the kids fighting on the hide-a-bed. Such is life, at the end of a long travel day.

Saturday we slept in a little, had the breakfast buffet (which I know well as a Marriott man - they always are the same, but pretty good nonetheless). Then a few hours of swimming at the pools (a colder, chlorinated one, and a warmer salt-water one. We swam for a good 2 hours before checkout. We had 3 hours to kill before we could check in to the condo, so it was off to SuperTarget to stock up on dry goods and last minute hats and crocs. While isaac, Bella, and I had an emergency snack (when we gets hungry, we gets HUNGRY, especially after swimming), a man in the cafeteria was calmly having a heart attack. It was his third so he knew the drill, he calmly sat (sweating and turning red) while the Target people brought him chewable aspirin, cool water, a towel for his forehead, and called people on his list. The EMTs showed up, and it was all very matter of fact. Bella had a lot of questions, and I was able to tell her some things about cardiology thanks to my work.

Then it was across the bridge to Sanibel: A quick lunch with an amazing blackened grouper poboy, and then to the Condo. We're right on the beach, first floor walkout. 2 bedrooms for us, 1 bedroom condo for PapaBam... and it was STRAIGHT to the ocean - suits on, we're going in. The surf was a bit rough but the water was warm, and Bella and Isaac were tentatively excited... It was their first encounter with the ocean, and it is a bit intimidating - so big, the waves so strong, the water so SALTY. The kids actually sort of hated it. They were happy to hit the condo pool - a small warm pool that was more familiar. For dinner, we went to a little hot dog place I remembered from my last trip here 12 years ago called Schnapper's Hots - they do great hot dogs and shakes. Perhaps going to the grocery store for fresh food was pushing it for bedtime, but we survived. Night Night.

Sunday morning began early - Bella was up at the crack of dawn and woke up Papa and Bam to go Shelling while the rest of us snoozed. Isaac slept in a little which was a miracle. There was a lot of swimming - Ocean and Pool - both kids were warming to the idea of the Ocean. Isaac decided the loved grabbing handfuls of sand and hurling them into the sea - he called it "Feeding the Ocean", and he grew to have elaborate dances around the feeding ritual - we watched as he stood facing the sea, turned into a cartwheel, grabbing handuls of sand, then pirouetted and the flung the sand to the water, finishing with a respectful bow. We stayed at the condo all day, leaving only to get the forgotten sour cream to complete taco night, oh and a few tubs of ice cream too. We finished the day with a walk up the beach toward the setting sun. We found someone had built a labyrinth on the beach with sand and shells to mark the path, so we all walked it. We found many shells, and were visited by dolphins on our walk back - two of them out hunting for dinner, letting themselves be seen for just a little while. Then I imagine they were off to collect their checks from the Sanibel tourism office.

This morning the whole gang woke up early to go shelling - Bella, now with her head in braids in proper island style, was in the mood to find more cockleshells, and she did. Isaac decided just a few minutes into the affair that this was not his bag at all, and could he maybe play his Nintendo for a while. That was AOK with me, and we sat in silence with coffee and the sounds of Mario as the shell hunters went on their quest. This was going to be a quieter day...

At 10 sharp, the condo pool was open for business, and the kids were there. At 11, we switched to the ocean, where I showed the kids the amazing thing - it's shallow, then deep, THEN SHALLOW AGAIN. The kids did not want to leave the sand bar for a looong time. Lunch at the condo of frozen pizza and sandwiches... and then we got the brilliant idea - we needed a little downtime and time out of the sun - what about a road trip to Captiva?

Ok - I think Captiva should have a huge sign as you cross the bridge: WARNING: There is no place to park here. If you are in a car and you don't live here, just go home. After a deeply frustrating attempt to find public parking of any kind, we decided to just hit the Bubble Room and have a late lunch, early dinner (and use their parking lot). The Bubble Room was as always charming, but something in the last 12 years, the extra layer of dust on the memorabilia makes it a little creepier than I remember it. Still, the cakes and pies were fantastic. Nobody was in much of a mood to keep walking around the area, so we headed back to Sanibel - while I had my Zillow iphone app open reading off the sale prices on the properties we passed. Somehow Captiva seems less charming when you realize those houses are for sale at $5m and more. Even post-bubble. There are no deals to be had on Captiva, my friends.

We salvaged the afternoon with more ocean time - at least that's what I was told - I hit the bed for a 20 min catnap and was awakened 90 minutes later with the family piling back from the beach. We worked as a team to get these kids ready for bed - Isaac was asleep less than 5 minutes after going to bed (but not before having a bedtime snack of peanut butter toast, waffles, and grapes). Bella and I read two gripping chapters of Mysterious Benedict before she got so excited she lost a tooth! It was off to bed with her, tooth under pillow, and I jumped into the car to assist the Tooth Fairy in finding just the right treasure for the pillow... We shall see what we find when the morning comes!

And so it's a peaceful night, I'm feeling wonderfully relaxed, and content knowing I have many more days ahead of us on this dreamy holiday.

My Opinionated Son

Isaac has decided that he's an Atheist:  Yesterday I was sitting with him, and he asked me "do you believe in God, dad?"  I explained my agnosticism - that I think there's something out there but have no idea what it is, but understand how a lot of people feel and how important God is to them....   he answered "well, I DO NOT believe in God.  He's not real."

I asked him how he came up with this and he said "I figured it out myself:  It's OBVIOUS, Dad".

This is on top of a few days earlier when he was overheard telling a sister of a friend that "God it just a FAIRY TALE".   A few other times in the past few weeks I've heard him mutter at the tv when people say "I put my faith in God" (mostly during Hoarder shows, right?) - he just says "Not real.  There is no God.".

Pamela and I are pretty much at a loss as to how this worldview developed, as well as his vehemence.  I mean yes we're certainly not people with a black and white view on the matter - and Pamela is certainly more spiritual than I am, but neither of us have ever given this sort of message...   I'm thinking that there's a chance that part of Christopher Hitchens' spirit must have flown into him last year.   (As to Bella, she's not sure either, but I think she's probably more of a druid than anything).

But I must say that probably my own worldview isn't going to be particularly helpful in this - I can't assure him with a straight face that God is real, all I can encourage is to keep an open mind.  But he's a very empirical person, a very direct thinker:  If he asks for a cookie and I say no, he says "WHEN?".  If I say "Later", he asks HOW MUCH LATER.  If I say maybe he won't get a cookie at all if he doesn't let up, he says "NOT EVER?  I WILL NEVER EVER GET ANOTHER COOKIE AS LONG AS I LIVE?"

In the meantime, I think I'm just going to coach him that there ARE some people who believe very strongly, and perhaps we should keep his thoughts on this a bit closer to the vest.

In a related area, he's still very much a guy guy, but is starting to think that girls might not be the enemy. Yesterday, I overheard him talking with Amelia, a sweet blondie who he'll be going to Kindergarten with next year:  He asked her "Do you like Barbies?"  She answered "Not even a BIT - my sister does, but I don't like to play with them at all.".  He brightened a little, then asked a followup "What about Princesses - do you like to play Princess?"  "NO not at all" was the response, and Isaac decided that Amelia would indeed be an ok playmate for the next 20 minutes.

He's figuring out that there are some girls who aren't girly-girls, who he can probably interact with and enjoy their company.  Today at the playground, a girl his age was showing him her skills with the zipline and the hanging rings - he was keeping up and they were having a good laugh, until she was able to prove she was better at the rings - she could skip a ring and swing across in 3 moves instead of 5.  Isaac couldn't match it.  So after 3 tries, he just took off running and sat down under a basketball hoop with his head in his hands.  For about 20 seconds.  Then he picked up and tried again.

I liked that instead of throwing a fit, he decided to give himself some space to cool off.  That was actually pretty darn mature.

I'm really enjoying watching him grow up...   but I know I'll miss this little boy as he grows bigger.  After all of this, he confessed tonight that he really doesn't want to get any bigger, that likes being just this size, that he wants to be a kid, and he wants me to be his dad forever.

I told him he can enjoy his time being a kid, and we don't need to worry beyond that... and that yes, I will be his dad forever.  And ever.

Media Update

1)  Watched "Drive" the other night.  Absolutely incredible - like an action movie haiku - not one word or action out of place.  I absolutely loved how the driver and Irene were comfortable in their silences.  Also, to start the movie with a chase scene that mostly involves parking and waiting and driving slowly was pretty amazing.  The brief moments of violence are amazing in their brutality but non-glamour.  And Albert Brooks...  boy.   Who knew?  No spoilers but the "shh shhh shh, it's ok, it's all done" moment was stunning.

The soundtrack was hypnotic as well.  The music was done by Cliff Martinez who is my new favorite music guy - he did Soderbergh's Solaris and Contagion too - he does very minimal soundscapes that just create an edge to the scenes that I love.

2)  I am going to go on record:  The Harold and Kumar movies are just wonderful and ridiculous.  Pure, unapologetic love letters to the wonders of weed and bromance.  I saw the Christmas movie this week and had to pause it a few times out of paralysis from laughter.  Part of the wonder of the movie (and the whole series) is the completely depraved character of Neil Patrick Harris...   He is a revelation.

3)  I love love love a show on NBC called Community.  I had heard great things about it from the AVClub.com blogs, but never jumped in.  I'm downloading episodes and loving them.  I just started season 2.  It's about as close as you get to can get to Arrested Development, with a little less dysfunction and a little more cultural in-joke.

And that's the media update.

After HIMSS

Well, turns out that even if one practices moderation in drink and bedtimes, being in smoky environs and yelling at parties (with the music so loud, the default conversational tone is "yell") and excessive schmoozing were enough for "The Ick" to re-enter the body, and by Thursday I was back on my back feeling terrible.  My sensible and lovely wife Pamela reminded me that it is not actually NATURAL for a cold to last for over 3 weeks, and for heaven's sake will I just go to the doctor?

A quick visit later I had a Z-Pak in hand and was starting the powerful antibiotics.  The doc had a good idea that while this might have started viral, it's likely that it went bacterial, so let's try to kill that.  And 5 days later, I am thrilled to say I really really feel better.  My guts are turned inside out due to the Z-Pak's power, but acidophilous you are my friend and you will rebuild my flora.

Bella had a swim meet this weekend and she's getting better and better all the time - it's fun to watch her getting the choreography and hitting the marks on the music.  And she's just so good in the water...   But of course Isaac and I didn't spend the whole day at the meet - we had a Dad's Day together, with me back at Lifetime Fitness for the first time in 3 weeks, then some Pei Wei, and a bunch of great quotes which I posted to Facebook...  but I'll repeat here because Facebook is temporary and this blog is forever:  I actually used the blog to help me remember something from 2009 (about the bird sanctuary and aquarium I visited on a business trip...)  So the quotes please:

Isaac held his arm up to the brown wood wall at the restaurant and said "look - I'm blending in" and yes the color was pretty close. I said that was so cool and held my hand up and said "look - I don't blend in as well as you do". 

He said "don't worry dad. I know what you can blend in with: a light bulb!"

AND:

I was waiting for Isaac to finish a drawing at pickup today and he said "I'll just be a minute - why don't you check your phone while you wait?

Anyway.  

I'm back in Jersey for part of the week:  Tricky travel day:  Started at 4:43 (2 min before my alarm) when the airline texted me to alert that the flight was delayed for 90 minutes.  So I reset the alarm for an hour later, got up, had a leisurely morning until the airline texted me with a "never mind, it's only delayed 60 min" which had me bolting out of the house with my toast half-eaten and my coffee sloshed into a travel mug.  I pounded the coffee on the way, and discovered that a fair amount had dribbled down my chin onto my shirt.

I'm TSA-Pre now, so I don't wait in lines that mortals do anymore, so I breezed past, got some club soda and worked the stain.  With 5 days on the road, I really don't have a spare shirt, and was hoping to make this work.  In the end, the tie covered the remnant of the stain well.  Got into Newark in just enough time that if I got into a car and hit the road immediately, I'd be 5 min early for the meeting (of course I had planned on a hour of cushion in travel, but we know where that went).  

I didn't plan on missing a fork in the freeway and being taken 15 miles off course...  so I did make the meeting but was 15 minutes late.  GOOD TIMES.  At least I was only attending, not leading.

It's a strange project where I have been brought in to sort of provide oversight as two vendors actually provide the services - I'm supposed to keep the two vendors from getting in each other's grills, and make sure there's a coordinated plan across the 6 months...   but I'm not sure if I'm actually superfluous or not.  We'll see.  In the meantime, I had some goooood New Jersey Italian:  A slice of pizza and a dish of penne and red sauce with sausage...  it was entirely too much food, and incredibly delicious, and it came to about $10.  RIDICULOUS.

I'll be headed down to Philly for a social evening on Wednesday and then up to Boston Thursday for some meetings Friday and a flight home.  Interesting detail:  Round Trip ticket to Newark Mon-Fri was $500 more than a one-way to Newark, a train to Boston, and a one-way from Boston to home.  Not sure what that is all about.

The Boston meeting will be interesting - Another sales guy in our company made the contact, and it turns out that the guy (Arvind) is a fellow I've run into many times in the past 12 years, and we've always got along.  So they got the meeting on the condition that I come along.  I'm bait.  But I'm ok with that, because I have an evening in Boston now, and I'm going to USE it.  Maybe go to Panera, YEAH.

Circling way back:  There were two additional details from the show:  

1)  One of the tech blogs made a big deal about complaining about being ignored by vendors in their booths who seemed more absorbed in their smartphones than looking for customers.  One of the companies he called out was a Minneapolis company and I know the guys.  And they are totally chuckleheads who were immersed in their phones when I dropped by too.  It was just funny.

2)  Turns out after I got that great demo of Epic tools, another of my team got asked by JUDY what we thought about what we saw - I wasn't there.  Apparently my colleague said something like "meh, it's ok".  And then she told ME she said that.  I almost died, and wrote Judy a note to relate my own thoughts about the tool - I was just mortified.

I understand sometimes wanting to play it cool, but this was seriously cool stuff:  I had written up a full page email to our whole company explaining just how cool it was.  I don't know why we wouldn't just tell Epic they had done a great job.  People are just so...  so...  frustrating some days.

Ok, that's the update for tonight.  Off to bed - got a long day of meetings on deck tomorrow.

Everything is amazing

I had a great time at the trade show yesterday, and got to spend some time looking at some very cool new features coming from Epic....  my favorite company.  Three times I had people come up to me and thank me for my nice blog posting from 18 months ago (where I got all mushy in love with Epic).

But it was a loooong day and it segued right into a long night with vendor receptions and the annual invite-only "event" from HISTalk, which is basically Gawker for Healthcare Technology - a snarky blog filled with rumors, but also an excellent place to find out useful information.  I made the invite list (and many did not - rumor had it tickets were being traded for $50 outside the event).  The MC for the night picked me out early and insisted that I participate in an Elvis Lookalike competition during the big show.  Of course I said yes.

Naturally the competition was rigged, a "real Elvis" crashed the stage halfway through, so I decided instead of crooning "blue suede shoes" as was requested, I started singing "Don't you want me baby" by the Human League.  Not really sure why, but people liked it.

Later on, our whole gang went to find a bar, and found it impossible to get a table - they were all roped off... unless you purchased "bottle service" - a $200 bottle of vodka gives you a booth for you and your friends.  I did the math, and actually it wound up being a really good deal - They brought cranberry, soda, and tonic, and a big bottle of Chopin, and that had all 10 of us set for 2 hours - everyone (but me) had 2-3 drinks - so you figure 10 people, 2 drinks at $12/each, the bottle was actually a good deal.  Plus it made me feel like some sort of high roller.  People were looking at our table with envy.

Las Vegas:  People can SMOKE there.  That's still a strange thing for me to process.  My entire wardrobe has been encased in plastic bags and will not be removed until it's ready to be washed.  STINKY.

I'm proud to say I didn't go overboard at any point - no hangovers, not a single cent gambled:  But so much time in loud bars has shredded my vocal cords, so we'll have to have me sound nice and husky.

The title of the post refers to Louis CK's monologue about watching someone get frustrated because the in-flight internet is busted - and I am totally using the inflight internet right now.  It's amazing.  And now we're descending and I'm going to be picked up by the family and we're having dinner out together - and THAT's going to be REALLY wonderful.

Fairyland

I'm at the big HIMSS trade conference for healthcare - it's in Las Vegas and I'm at the Venetian.  This is my first time in Vegas since my dad took me here for my 21st birthday:  I will say this is not the same town I visited those 23 years ago:  I believe that I am on "the strip" which is completely unrecognizable... not that I remember that much about my trip so many years earlier (with the possible exception of the floor show we saw with a lady magician who "made her clothes disappear" - I later discovered that she actually does the trick with her twin sister, who I guess was on boob duty.  That's a strange family dynamic right there.  The disappearing top bit was just the end, the rest of her act was actually a pretty decent magic set.)

Anyway, I'm still not feeling GREAT, so I've been taking breaks and marshaling my energy for my bursts of interaction.  Last night we had our big reception, and almost 200 people showed up.  For followup purposes, I wrote down the details of about 25 conversations I had across the 3 hours.  It was exhausting, and my voice is fried - I sound like Kim Carnes.

I do love this show, and in 90 minutes, the real fun starts:  The trade show floor opens.  Up to now it's been meetings and "educational sessions" which I really can take or leave.  But let me loose on a floor of vendors with the latest in healthcare technology, and yeah, I'm happy.  I have meetings set up with a few, but have left a few hours to just prowl.

As to the rest of Vegas - I did step OUTSIDE the hotel complex to get some fresh air and find the Starbucks, but it's mostly indoors.  I've been walking right through the casinos - I have no desire to play a single game - I'm not really wired for gambling, which is good.

Time to catch a few ZZZs before the trade floor - then it's a pretty intense day going into the evening - two big parties I'm invited to that will be good for networking.  Then it's an early flight home tomorrow and not a moment too soon.  I'm missing the gang.

I do want to come back to Vegas with my sweetie pie, however.  It's pretty wild.

On Drama

I just came off of a 4 day "solo dad" stint with the kids and dogs - Pamela was up at a scrapbooking retreat, having a wonderful time. I took two "work at home" days to be available to the little ones, and we did all the classic dad stuff... Ate well, danced a lot, played a lot fewer videogames than you'd imagine, and read a lot. Also I attacked the sock pile, and finally filled all of our sock drawers with happy matches.

It was a wonderful time to recharge, after a few weeks of more travel than I've been used to, and a few more coming up. I'm on a plane right now to DC to visit my best man Erik. Well, technically I'm going out to do some work for a hospital in Fredericksburg, but I'm looking at it as an excellent opportunity to see my good friend. Take these moments when they're given, I say.

I took my late evenings with the dogs at my feet, the kids asleep, the socks sorted, and I got caught up on some media: I finished up the first season of Homeland - a manchurian candidate like show that won Claire Danes the Golden Globe, and she earned it, for sure. Damian Lewis also was very good as a frustratingly opaque POW who may or may not have been turned by to a terrorist in captivity. I'll leave the plot points at that, because at least one dear reader is just 2 episodes in, and the DVDs will be released in a few weeks and I want the REST of you to consider watching it. WARNING: This is a showtime series, therefore there are boobies. Move past the boobies (nowhere near as many as Game of Thrones, btw), and you'll be in good thriller-land.

I read an interview with one of the creators of Homeland Alex Gansa - he was a showrunner for "24" for a season, so he knows how to build tension... but I can reveal in a spoiler free manner that Claire's character is certainly no Jack Bauer - I think she holds a gun about once in the show... but is no less destructive in her own way. Two things struck me about the interview - first was the fact they're set up for a season 2 (or more), which leaves me with an odd feeling: When the last moment of episode 12 flashed by, I thought "now THAT's an awesome way to end this". I felt like every character had a great arc - we saw everybody's low and high, and the "situation" played out well for 12 episodes - there was a strong arc... I just don't know how that can be done in a second season - and I'm not sure I want to know what happens next. But I suspect I WILL want to know before long...

The other thing I read was that while they had an overall arc for the series, that on and episode by episode basis they were pretty much making it up and seeing where it goes. He revealed that even on 24, when there was a mole, they usually picked the mole right near the end based on the person whose activities were most likely to have been mole like. That means they were counting on a mole existing, but didn't know WHO until the last minute.

This sits WRONG with me: I don't think it's too much to ask to have these things actually plotted and planned out... but apparently series television is a lot looser than that. I guess it comes down to my ultimate disappointment with X-Files, where it turns out they really had no cohesive overall arc - that they were making it up as they went, and in the end tried to retrofit a conspiracy into there... but there were many episodes that didn't gibe with the big picture - where a person who is later revealed to be a traitor actually risks his/her life to save the person they were secretly undermining...

In Homeland, I can vouch that they DID make it all make sense - there's no "hey but why did he then..." moment at all - it's very consistent, but almost in spite of itself. In the interview it's revealed that a very key plot point was established through improvisation... which was a bit amazing to me. On the other hand, I have to respect that even though they had an arc in place, they were able to start to refocus parts of the plan based on strengths you find in the people playing the characters.

I was thinking of this more with last night's Downton Abbey - a show that is quite wonderful, but the episode last night was just a bit of a turd, with the ridiculous "Martin Guerre/English Patient" subplot - you KNOW that wasn't in the big arc planning sessions.

My other media completion was Neal Stephenson's REAMDE, which I loved beyond all reason, despite the fact it took over 50 pages to truly HOOK me. But as I've written before, Stephenson meanders a bit before letting the story start to go: In his 3000-page Baroque trilogy, it takes fully 200 pages to find a plot accelerator. REAMDE deals with a virtual world, but also about Iowa farm people, Idaho survivalists, Russian mobsters (and former Spetznatz heroes), Chinese hackers and street vendors, Hungarian IT support, MI6 spies, and Islamic Jihadists. It really gets roaring.

What's fun is that the main villain is not so much a criminal mastermind as much as a very good situational improviser: He doesn't think more than one move in advance, and as such is unpredictable and unstoppable. You can't root for him - he's just too terrible - but he's FUN to read, which is a great thing.

And so, I got caught up on media, and will be dong REAL work for a while, I suppose. Sigh.

Scraps

Pamela is hustling and bustling getting ready for a long scrapbooking retreat that she's going on this weekend coming up.  She's got special scrapbooking cases, has ordered a ton of pictures from our iPhoto library, and has started pre-making a few things:  Apparently she's gunning to be the honorary president of the scrapbooking sorority - Phi Beta Scrappa.  So I'm not asking a lot of questions about the plaster of paris drying in flower pots.

That means it'll be a long weekend of solo-daddy stuff this week - which was ALMOST a problem with some travel I had planned, but fortunately I was able to move some things around, and now Pamela can go have her fun free and clear.

Work is a bit crazy right now - In addition to my own work, I have been charged with growing a special business line around my geek knowledge of business intelligence (data warehousing and analysis).  Well, I've been doing a few small engagements in my "spare time" over the past year, but this year, it's feeling as though things are possibly warming up - I have two sold part time engagements and have a third in the hopper - the goal is that all three will have someone else working them longer term, but right now Feb and March are looking pretty busy - especially considering the other work I still have in Philly AND my main work in Minneapolis.

I had the Avengers over last night, and it was a wonderful lineup - a couple of old Highland Parks, a couple of Lagavulins, an Ardbeg, a Glenfarclas, and some japanese thing I can't recall the name of...   all were somewhat rare bottlings, and it was a delightful lineup.  We finished with a Todd Margaret marathon - watching Season 1 straight through.  This is a fine "downward spiral" comedy in which at every turn, the protagonist (played by David Cross) digs himself in deeper and deeper...  Great if you like Cringe Comedy.

In other media, I'm trickling my way through Homeland from Showtime - Claire Danes is fantastic as very fragile genius (?) and the manchurian candidate soldier is really well played too.   That, along with Fringe ad Downton Abbey have my TV needs down (though I do fill in with an occasional episode of Community).

For books:  Bella and I are 2/3 of the way through The Hobbit...   and boy I just had forgotten a lot about this ripping yarn - it is VERY fun, and Bella is thrilled every night with our chapter.  And in Dad reading, it took about 50 pages, but Neal Stephenson's REAMDE has finally set its hook in me, and I'm being carried along at a brisk pace.  Stephenson has a way of meandering at the beginning of his books (for my taste) and I'm always looking for the "moment" the book takes off:  In most of his, it takes 100 pages...  I just need to be patient.

The kids are asking to go for a walk, so off I go!

Centurions and Bunnies

Another Dream:  For context, we have a house full of relatives, and Pamela let me sleep in this morning.  This dream was a late morning, need to wake up dream:

A newly revitalized Roman Empire has conquered the United States, and the US is currently being overseen by a Centurion.  As a part of being conquered, I've got a job to go around outstate Minnesota to "spread the word".  I'm in a middle school building in St Cloud, and I have my "celebrate victory" stuff to put up:  I'm in the main auditorium, and need to string up the "HAIL CENTURION" banner across the proscenium.

Of course, people aren't terribly happy about having been conquered, but aren't so much actively resisting as just NOT being helpful.  So I'm all alone in the auditorium, and I can see annoyed staff peeking through the windows, shaking their heads.

I'm wildly unprepared for this task - I don't have a ladder (they didn't give me one), nor do I have a hammer or nails, so I'm trying to work out how to string this banner.  I have scaled the ornate woodwork up about 10 feet, and have one end of the banner stuffed into my pocket.  I'm checking to see if there's any way to wedge one end of the banner into a crack in the woodwork, and an realizing that the banner is actually just crappy crepe paper printed with "HAIL CENTURION" over and over - much like you might have a cheap party store "Happy Birthday" banner...   Man, Centurions sure is cheap.

At this point in the dream, I realize I'm having a dream, so I need to wake up.  So I wake up, grab my bathrobe, and come downstairs.  Walking into the dining room, the whole family (with house guests) is sitting having breakfast and they turn to face me in unison:

They're all wearing handmade silk bunny rabbit outfits, with drawn on whiskers.

At this point, I realize I am still dreaming.... and then I REALLY woke up.  I think.

Jim's Crazy Dreams - Collected

For my dream connoisseurs:  here are the links for my insane dream posts:

The Playpus Dream
The Batman Dream
Duran Duran Barbershop Quartet Dream
Apartment Rental Dream
Botswana Abduction Dream (Scroll to 3rd section)
Strange Biography Dream
British Prison Break Dream
Sailing the Skies Dream
And the newest:  Strip Club Dream

Enjoy!

The Strip Club Dream

I had this dream last night, woke up and remembered the details...  and I share it with you now.

I am walking up Hennepin Ave in Minneapolis on the seedy block with the strip clubs on it - the 90's, Brass Rail, and Augies.  I am walking behind a strange man who I remember from downtown in the 80's - a mentally disabled man we called Jer-Bear...  who I hadn't seen for years.

He turns into Augies - it's 11 in the morning, and I'm seized with curiosity - just what the heck could be going on on a strip club at 11am?  Truth be told I've never been in a strip club (true), so I was maybe a little curious about what they're like inside.

I walk in, and it's a pretty average bar, no dancers anywhere, and at the back of the bar is a maitre d' podium and a velvet rope, with two bouncer types standing there.  I walk up and ask if I can see what's back there.

They ask if I've ever been there before.  I say no, and they say "why don't you take a look around?  You can have nine minutes for free".  They hand me a large wall clock so I can keep track of the time.  I walk past the rope and look to the right.

There is a large open area with a clump of sectional couch pieces.  There are about 6 people stretched out on the couches, cuddled up with person sized teddy bears.  They're all napping.

Immediately to the right there's a stairway down.  I go down to find a big open space with about 15 circular couch setups - it's run down and a bit dirty, but well lit with high ceilings.  In each of the couch areas, there's a different "thing" going on.

Right by the stairs are a group of people dressed as cats playing with large balls of string.  Off to the left is a group of people laughing and playing with balls or balloons - they're batting them back and forth.  I can't recall all of the other things I saw, but they're similarly innocent.

I walk a ways in, and find a group of overweight computer-guys with short sleeve oxfords and beards, and they're on their hands and knees with blissful looks on their faces.  In the middle of them is a huge mess of cell phones, power adaptors, and computer cables, and they're trying to find the matches for each.    I watch as one grabs a phone, finds the right adaptor, plugs it in, unplugs it, then tossed it back on the pile with a laugh.

I look at my clock and realize my 9 minutes are getting close to up, so I wander back upstairs and hand the guys the clock back.

"Did you see anything you like?"

"Yes, but I just don't have the time" is my reply.

And then I woke up.

Isaac and Pork

Driving home with Isaac:
"What's for dinner Dad?"
Pork tenderloin.
"I don't like Pork."
You do like Pork.  You like Bacon and Ham, it's the same thing.
"No, Pork comes from a different part of the pig, and pigs roll around in mud".
They clean the pig before...
"Before they stick the pig?  Before they kill it?"
Um.. yes....
"We shouldn't do that to animals, do you understand?"
I hear you...
"But I asked do you UNDERSTAND?"
Yes, I understand.
"Dad, Pork is OFF THE MENU.   FOREVER!"  (with a dramatic wave of his hands)
Ok...
"Pigs.... they just need to SURVIVE".

45 minutes later, Isaac was happily munching on a big strip of bacon.

The Mode - Part 1

Depeche Mode Albums and my strongest memory of each, first in a series...

First a full confession, it took me until 1983 until I started getting into synth pop at all...  

Speak and Spell (their first album, 1981)
Sitting at camp in Colorado in summer 1983.  A kid from LA was telling me all about "synth pop", and let me hear a tape on my walkman...  side 1 was Depeche Mode Speak and Spell, side 2 was something by OMD.  To my virgin ears (and the low quality tape player) it sounded too tinny and awful.  It wasn't until 1985 that I truly revisited that album.

A Broken Frame (their second album, 1982):
It took until 1987 - second half of freshman year, at a party.  The record was on, and I barely recognized it - I had leapfrogged over that album back in the early 1980s, since I started with Construction Time Again.    I remember telling the host that it was "cool that he was into Depeche, but man this is their worst album, isn't it?"  The host took it as a bit of an insult, and was right to.  In the months that followed, I finally went back and listened to the album, and realized that while not perfect, it really had some great tunes.  

Construction time Again (their third album, 1983):  

Sitting in my living room, perhaps in 1983, listening to a documentary on public radio about the new "electronic sound" - Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk were featured.  My friend Jeannine and I each vowed to buy one album from each artist - she picked Kraftwerk, I picked Depeche, and bought Construction Time Again...   and truth be told I didn't actually LIKE it at first, and was very jealous at Jeaner's Kraftwerk.  It wasn't until a year later that I gave it another listen....  and finally got it.

Moments in IL

We're relaxing at last down in Palatine - it's been a long few days of travel and family excitement, and we're finally on a "down day".  The dogs have been doing well on their visit too, adjusting well to apartment living.

Isaac and I took off for a quick runabout earlier today - all of the holiday mayhem had us both needing a break, but also stewing a bit in our juices.  So we went off to Pinstripes for a little bowling action:  Of course being the day after Christmas, it was PACKED.  But the hostess offered up a lane for 25 minutes...     which was exactly enough time for one game of speed bowling. 

Isaac has been playing a fair amount of Wii:  He loves Super Mario of course...   but there's a little limitation:  When playing one player, you can only be Mario, but if you play two player, the second player can be the other characters.  Isaac has decided he only likes playing if he gets to be the Blue Mushroom guy...  which is ok if I'm playing with him...   but when I am busy, he has a "method" to play the blue guy that sort of disturbs me:

Basically he plays as two player, and lets Mario die over and over.   It disturbs me.  But then I'm probably reading too much into it.  I did make a comment about it, and now he's having the blue guy carry Mario along with him.

Bella has been spending most of her time with Papa working on art:  She got a book on how to draw dragons, and has been drawing drawing drawing.  Her cousin Lilli gave her a crazy wolf hat that she's been wearing non-stop, and her other cousins have her a hot pink snuggie blanket.  Also, Isaac gave her a pair of ladybug head hugger headphones.  I just caught her hunched over a drafting table tracing dragons, listening to reggae on the headphones.  It's pretty amazing.

In my traditional role as tech support, I have helped the in-laws with their technology.  This trip, it involved helping them buy a new TV and Blu-Ray player, upgrading their cable internet to a faster speed model, redoing their wireless network, adding  a DVR and upgrading the cable to HD...   Well that was fun!  Also, they got a new iPad too, and I got that hooked up too.  Earning my keep!

Oh, and here are some pictures

Three Isaac Quotes

Three quotes from Isaac in the past 2 weeks:

Quote 1:  With Mom at Breakfast (Reprinted from Pamela's Facebook Post)
Breakfast at Perkins with Isaac before school this week.
His order came. Pancakes with whipped cream and sprinkles and a side of bacon. His "usual".
He looked down and asked "Mom, who chased down this pig?"
"What Isaac?".
"Mom, I'm serious. Who in here chased down this pig. Was it hard to catch him? Was it HER? (points to waitress) Was it hard to get it in here? Who killed it?


Quote 2:  In the Car with Dad
I was driving with Isaac the other day and he announced "Dad, I know of a way to take off a penis"
WHAT?
"Actually I know of TWO WAYS to take off a penis".
Ok, what are they?
"Scissors, or a sharp knife"
ISAAC, WE WILL NEVER TALK OF THIS AGAIN.


Quote 3:  in Bed
Isaac has been great about his potty training, and the one time he still wears pull-ups is at night.  He has been asking about when he can stop wearing them.  Our agreement is that if he goes 3 nights with a dry pull-up, he can go commando.  


So when we were in bed on night 3 after 2 dry nights, he said "ok, tonight, no peeing.  Keep it all in until I wake up and go to the toilet".
I replied "yes, that's right"
"Dad, I wasn't talking to you.  I was talking to my penis".

And now some education

From: Breay, Jim
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2011 2:58 PM
To: imfo@edina.ci.mn.us
Subject: Street Naming Question

Hello!

We live on Scott Terrace in Edina, and our 5 year old son was wondering if it would be possible to change the name of our street from “Scott Terrace” to “Super Mario Galaxy Street”.  I told him I would ask the city whether that might be possible, and what the process would be to move forward.

For my own part, I’d suggest we change the name to “Megalodon Shark Terrace”.  I think that really either one would really provide some additional “curb appeal” to the coveted 5-7 year old boy demographic.

Thank you!

Jim B-Reay

---------------------

From: Steve Kirchman
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2011 15:42:16 -0600
To: Jim Balabuszko-Reay
Subject: RE: Street Naming Question

Jim:

City ordinances contain no provisions for renaming streets. If all homeowners on Scott Terrace submit a request to have the name changed to another specific name, staff will prepare a report and recommendations to forward to City Council.

Steve Kirchman, Chief Building Official 9www.CityofEdina.com ...For Living, Learning, Raising Families & Doing Business

Another day of learning

As you all probably know, I'm happiest on a project when I'm learning something new.  Today I spent time learning about a new thing:  Laboratory Services.  This is where they send the blood and samples, and they run the tests and grow the cultures and press the slides and look through the microscopes.  But here's what I didn't know:

It is a magic land of robots.

Practically every test involves spinning something, or raising or lowering the temperature, or adding a precise amount of some agent, and then spinning it again, and then adding another re-agent.  Over and over.  And they have built very interesting machines that do all of this for us.  The human measures the sample into a tube and places it into a machine.  The machine moves the tube around, spins it, then a needle attached to the end of a robot arm squirts something in there, and then the tube moves some more...  And the human watches a screen and notes the numbers that are shown.

I don't know how much fun the actual people are having, but I bet would be LESS fun to be doing all of the repetitive tasks that the machines are doing.  And I was hypnotized watching these machines.  I was on a simple introductory tour and kept finding myself lagging behind the group because I had become transfixed by yet another robot.  I was imagining manic xylophone music, too.

On the tour was a visit to the blood bank:  They had a retina scanner for entry (I did try, and the prim british voice said "pull back, come forward, forward, back a little, back a little, ACCESS DENIED").  They had "plasma shakers" - things that looked like glass doored refrigerators, but that had racks and racks of milky plasma in bags, and the racks moved back and forth constantly, shaking the plasma so it wouldn't gel or something.  The red blood, that just sat in fridges.  But plasma is ALWAYS ON THE MOVE.

I put on a disposable lab coat and went through the virology lab:  I saw a clean room where a man was inspecting samples that had been deep frozen and had a thick layer of frost over the labels.  I was hopeful that no alien spores were in there... though to be fair, if they were spores, that would be the mycobiology lab, not virology.  I passed several robots that were not moving and dark, with sleek glass enclosures and giant monitors next to them indicating that their DECONTAMINATION CYCLE had 3 hours remaining of the 8 required.  8 hours to clean a robot at high heat.

I had to take a call and missed the genetic testing, stem cell, and pathology lab walkthroughs, but I'll have another chance next week.

The system I'll be helping them pick is not robotic, nor does it shake anything.  It's the computer system that sits behind it all, tracking the orders for who gets what test, keeps track of who belongs to what sample, and what their results are, and then forwards that info along to their medical record.  The organization behind the robots.

And so it was a fun day.

The Reformed Addict...

I must confess that my lack of blogging is working hand in hand with my lack of motivation on language learning and a general fallow spell on writing music as well.  The past year has been one of recovery and reconnection from my extended time on the road, and I think I've been trying to do a couple of things a little better than before:

When I'm home, I try to really be home and present for the family.  Isaac needs to be played with.  Bella needs to be read with.  But more importantly, Pamela needs to have time with me in the room (and I need to be with her too) to decompress at the end of the day.  It just doesn't seem right or fair for me to disappear upstairs to be working on my Japanese pronunciation or tweaking a bass drum track.

Which isn't to say I'm not pursuing geeky pursuits - I'm reading a lot and still getting caught up on old Doctor Who episodes... but these are things I can do with some earbuds in, sitting and looking at Pamela as she does whatever she's doing (recently it's been research on the 1990s for a set of posters for a Girl Scout sleepover.  These girls have no idea what Color Me Badd have in store for them).

I have been spending a fair amount of time at the Gym...  but there's a good reason:  Isaac LOVES the kids club at the Gym, and asks to go EVERY SINGLE DAY.   I try to go every other day.  Knowing that he WANTS to play for 90 minutes keeps me on my toes and encourages me to really get a good workout in - I'm running around 4 miles a session now.

Sometimes I bring Bella, but she's much more interested in reading and drawing than dodgeball.  Pamela's also in the mix, coming along 3 times a week for her group fitness team...  we're all working on health, here.  It's good.  I'm starting to recognize the crazy guy who used to teach fitness classes...  and I think I may actually be in slightly better shape now than I was back then.

So that's what I've been up to:  I'm just not quite in a writing state of mind.  I'm spending a lot more family time, and more free time is taken up with exercise these days.  I'll get there again, don't worry.

Time warp

A good day in Philly, but had a very odd thing happen.  I was here 2 years ago, and I had produced a set of recommendations that I have figured out they really haven't acted upon.  When I got re-engaged, I was reviewing my emails, and found one status report from 11.19.09 that I had sent to my immediate boss, but that may not have reached the rest of the team.  So I forwarded it along.

Today I had a full hour meeting to discuss what I had put into that email two years ago, and what we should do about it.  We went point by point through the email and they explained how this one thing wasn't an issue any more, and how this point was still a problem, and what should we do?

But the strangest thing was that really for most of the document, my recommendations were still valid - they just hadn't gone and done it yet.  The whole place was more or less in the SAME PLACE I left them back then.

So I'm actually now looking at the potential for getting a resource engaged with this client to actually go ahead and do the things that I specifically told them to do over 24 months ago, only this time, really make sure they DO it.

Walking out of that meeting, I ran into my old boss from the earlier time who has moved to a different area.  Ken was a research librarian who had been put in charge of a cardiac center with lots of opinionated physicians.  He always seemed happiest in his office with a whiteboard full of concepts about standardizing diagnosis codes or categorizing procedures - he remained a librarian at heart.  Well his new job is doing JUST THAT - standardizing codes and things.  And he seems happier.

And though he didn't actually do anything with my previous recommendations and that frustrated me a little, I was happy that he was doing what he wanted to be doing in life.

Fascinating stuff.

These things happen

I'm back in Philly at the Children's Hospital again.  I still have my full time job in Minneapolis, don't get me wrong, but there's something about Philly that keeps drawing me back.  It takes me from my home, makes me miss my kids, my wife, my dogs.  I should be happy in Minneapolis, but I keep getting drawn back.  I have tried to figure it out...  and today I got the flash:

I go there because I think they're doing good work for the world, and I think I can help them.

At one meeting today, I had my agenda, the person showed up, we talked, and within 5 minutes, we had figured out that my questions had been answered.  This area will not be impacted by my project (which incidentally is to select a patient monitoring system for the pediatric cardiac cath lab - where they fix kids' hearts).  I should have stopped the meeting, but the person said something about their plans for 2012, and I just sat forward in my chair:  I think I can help her.  I had seen that very thing attempted at my previous client and I just wanted to share some insight.  We talked for another 15 minutes pinging around ideas that had nothing to do with my project, but that will hopefully help her deliver HERS more successfully.

Later in the day, we were sitting in a final meeting to determine if our company will help them select a new laboratory and pathology system:  The project manager and the lab guy from my team were there - I was there for continuity only - I won't be doing the work.  But halfway into the meeting, I felt myself leaning forward in my chair.  I couldn't help it.  I THINK I CAN HELP THEM.  I raised a few questions and found myself wanting to help them solve this problem.

I think there's something about this client that really triggers some sort of endorphin reward for me.  I'm not sure it's entirely healthy, but I will say the client seems to really appreciate it.  Fear not, I'm not hitting the road here - I have forcibly limited my involvement to every other week, just a few days here and there.    But I wanted to share this.

Related topic:  In the last 2 years, I have been called upon as an expert in the following subject areas:  Digital radiology image storage and review, speech recognition, inpatient electronic medical records, patient registration and billing systems, web-based personal health records, rehab documentation systems, echocardiography review systems, cath lab procedure recording and reporting, long term non-radiology medical image storage, and clinical and financial analytics.  And i'm about to learn more about anatomic pathology, pathology slide scanning and retrieval, bedside barcode systems for lab specimen collection, and much more.

I think that these opportunities are amazing, and I'm grateful every day that I'm "allowed" to learn things like this, and become an "expert" as needed.  I think I have some pretty unique wiring, and am lucky to have a life that indulges that.  Every opportunity to learn and share gives me a boost...  and that's probably why Philly is so rewarding.

I've got a meeting with a gang of Cath Lab nurses at 7:30am tomorrow, so it's off to bed.