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!

Happy Mom's Day!

It's an early morning - Isaac had me come to bed in the middle of the night, and we woke up before 7. Bella was out until 10 last night at her Synchro Meet (and post meet dinner), and she was up before 7 too. The puppies have been up and playing too. Everyone's up but Pamela, and she gets to rest because it's her day.

We have a fun day on tap - headed out to Pinstripes for brunch then bowling with a family who we just love but who are moving out of state in a month, so it's bittersweet, especially considering Isaac and Bella both love love love the kids in their matched ages.

Isaac's addiction to Mario goes unabated - but it's a good thing - we probably wouldn't have made it halfway through the swim meet yesterday if Isaac wasn't buried in his DS playing Super Mario 3. And boy, he's actually getting pretty good. Every single day starts with "Hey Dad, can we go to the chatterBOX?" The Chatterbox is a restaurant nearby with ok food but with Nintendo systems, so you can play Mario with your food. And Isaac thinks it is heaven. And he always stresses the third syllable - chatterBOX.

Isaac's very into discussing "big ideas" these days - If Dad is this tall at 43, imagine how tall he'll be at 100! Why can't we make a car that's Isaac-sized and let him drive it on the road? It could be Isaac sized in the front, and have a big back seat for Dad to sit in. Where would we go? chatterBOX!

Bella has been reading a lot... not 6 months ago, we read the 5 book Spiderwick Chronicles together. She's been checking out the sequel series from the library and is reading them herself. She's also reading the Boxcar Children series too... I'm seeing her curled up with a book quite often now, and it makes me happy.

As for me - work's going aok - my Mpls work is stabilizing and is lightening up appropriately, so that I can take on the work for St Louis and Maryland... Mayo has been slow to act on a proposal we sent last week, but hopefully that'll cook... and there's more in the hopper.

Plus, it's a gorgeous day - time to hit the shower!

A better night at the circus

Pamela called up the circus to find out what the deal was... and they were both informative and apologetic... but it turns out that some of the information about where we could stand and more importantly, info on our free tickets, had been sent along and had wound up in Pamela's junk mail folder, unread! So part of it was us. But they acknowledged that part of it was them - their ushers and crew should have known the processes for toddler parents (because we weren't the only people confused and angry).

We had a much different night last night - and we did get seats. We stayed for 4 more acts (including the most amazing kids standing, walking, and jumping rope on top of 3 foot diameter balls.)

And I was on "go get Isaac duty" after his bit, and to bring him back up to the stands, and I will say that the ushers had a very different demeanor, and were far more positive in how they were herding the expectant parents off in the wings - it looked like a much better night for all involved.

So I just wanted to have that update out there - I beefed about Circus Juventas, but then we worked it out, and it was a much better night. So they're back on my happy list.

Busy Boy

By the way, work just keeps going. Here are the projects I'm currently doing:

1) Minneapolis: Two projects - my "old" project of being the lead for the clinical teams for a big Epic install - 5 weeks into a successful golive, working on transitioning out, but still in the role. Will be done in 3 weeks.

2) Minneapolis - same client, Second project, and major PACS upgrade (digital radiology). Still in the planning stages, will be full-time (sort of) for 12 months. Just 5-10 a week for now.

3) St Louis: Reviewing their reporting architecture to assess their readiness for reporting on Accountable Care metrics. 100 hours in 8 weeks.

4) Maryland: Finalizing my findings for their reporting and data access audit and planning a one year project to implement tools to improve the consistency of their reporting. About 40 hours in 2 weeks remaining, more to come.

5) New Jersey: Reviewing proposals from 2 vendors for a full suite of Cardiology tools - assessing whether there are major gaps in the proposals and mapping against my own "what works" knowledge. 30 hours across 3 weeks.

Plus we have a proposal on the table in New Orleans for a project similar to 3)....

AND I just had a huge meeting with a major health system in Rochester MN, and may have a portfolio of projects for 2-3 people for the next year - will know more about this as it develops.

So Jim is a busy boy!

It should have been fun but...

Isaac had his first show tonight at Circus Juventas, and we were all very excited. We ran out for dinner together, and got there early... Isaac was led away to backstage for the show and we eagerly awaited. The show is a 3 hour "recital" for all of the kids from toddlers at the start to highs schoolers. The show started at 7, which is actually when we like to get Isaac started for bed, so we knew we couldn't stay for anything beyond his little bit.

Now, during the dry run, we were told we, the parents, would be at one end of the stage and the kids would come over to us at the end. So when we headed that way for the show, we were stopped by the ushers and told that no, we had to wait in the lobby, we couldn't watch the kids, and they'd be brought to us afterwards. THEN, another person said we could "sneak" over to one of the side stage areas by the bleachers, but we'd have to keep back with bad sightlines and no seats. And several times during the (5 minute) set people came through hissing at us to "leave a path - people need to get through" - of course the only people who actually needed to come through were the people hissing at us.

Through this Bella started crying - she just wanted to see her brother. Unbeknownst to us, Isaac in his 45 minutes backstage was getting anxious - he thought we had LEFT him, and was getting freaked out, and when he did come out to perform, he didn't know where we were.

Ok - I'm sympathetic that 90% of the audience is parents of kids in the show - you can't have them not paying for the show. But for the kids who are 6 and up, the parents are free to drop them off and pick them up later. For the toddlers, the kids need to see their parents, and the parents need to see the kids. And it's unreasonable to ask us to buy $20 tickets for the 5 minute toddler parade.

I think it would have made a lot more sense to have a little roped off area for the parents of the toddlers and kinders, let us just beam with pride and lead the kids to us at the end - it would have been an "awwww cute" moment.

As it is the whole thing left us feeling sort of shabby - like we had to sneak in to see Isaac perform. We should have been sneaking cigarettes too. Knowing this is the scoop for next year too doesn't really fill me with excitement.

Gesso!

Yep we got another dog... little Gesso is a Schnoodle from the same breeder as Zinsser, but different parentage. He's strawberry blonde, and just over 12 weeks old - a good month older than when we got Zinsser and boy it shows. Gesso is lot easier than an 8 week puppy for sure - he's already holding his pee and poo for hours and is pretty good about going outside - just a day into it.

Gesso is totally daddy's dog. Wherever I am, he wants to be, and he's in my lap at least as much as Zinsser is in Pamela's lap. I took a nap today and he was curled up on my chest for most of it, and I woke up with him laying across my neck. As with Zinsser, I have NO allergies to this creature.

So how did this come about? Well, it all happened this past week. A combination of elements combined to help me feel somewhat at ease about life: I got put onto a new project at the big client (lower stress), I got kudos from another client, I got a healthy tax refund... and I "accidentally" surfed to the website of Shelbo Schnoodles, where this little face stared out at me.

We'd always intended for two dogs, really, but number two was planned maybe to be a standard poodle. But truth be told, I like Zinsser's size, and I like the temperment of the Schnoodle, So when I saw this little blondie looking out at me, I said "I WANT HIM". I did clear this with Pamela, and contacted the breeder, and we made it all happen on Saturday afternoon.

The kids had no idea. We brought up a picture from the website during lunch on Saturday, they said "awwwww" and Pamela said "well let's go get him then!!!" Bella was sort of in a smiling, shocked silence, while Isaac was dancing and yelling around the house. We drove the 45 min to Isanti, got the dog, and life has been great.

Zinsser was definitely aloof for the first day. But by tonight they're fully playing with eachother - Zinsser does the respectful "play bow" and brings toys to Gesso. They play Tug of War, but Zinsser attenuates his tugs so it's not hard on Gesso. Gesso is now playing tag with Zinnie. They are having a lot of fun.

So why "Gesso?" Zinsser is a brand of wall primer. Gesso is what painters use to prime their canvases. So they're both primers. Getting arty with it, they're "foundations" on which we can paint our lives. Also, it's fun to say "Jess-Oh" in a "GOOD BOY" voice.

A final note: Tonight at dinner, Bella sat back with a smile and said "You know I remember going to go get Gesso like it was Yesterday!". Pause for laughter. That girl is a HAM.

In case you were wondering:

1) I was able to recover from Disney ok - I really did have a rough two days back, but have re-adjusted to the non-magical world.

2) Happily, the golive that I had abandoned to go to Disney actually went really well. There were problem areas, but they were the same ones I knew about when I left, and 3 weeks in, they're stabilizing. I actually was able to take last weekend off, so things aren't too bad.

I did have one of my team leads quit on me just this week, but I seriously think she was slightly insane. It is for the better, this.

3) Strange coincidence: I was reading a book on lessons healthcare can take from the airline industry ("Why Hospitals should Fly" - great subject, but very clunky prose). A key turning point in the aviation industry was in 1977, on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, when two 747s collided due to bad communication and top-down leadership style (the engineer was afraid to correct the pilot). I'd never heard about this disaster, nor the island of Tenerife.

Later that evening, I was listening to a spanish learning podcast - Coffee Break Spanish. I was a big fan a couple of years ago, and downloaded their latest for this trip. I pop the headphones on and it's a dialogue about the language and culture of... Tenerife.

I got double Tenerifed in one day.

4) Business is BOOMING: Right now I technically have two jobs at my main client (and need to pick between them). I'm in Maryland on a third one (close to finishing up), just sold work in St Louis, and am close to a deal in New Orleans. Now I need to clone myself or find some very smart people like me. NOT ALWAYS EASY. I'll make it through this group of gigs with a protege brought in, but I'll need more more more help.

It's a good position to be in, however. As long as I can keep all of the plates spinning!

5) I just want to have out there that I have lust in my heart for Chik-fil-A. I had some for dinner 4 hours ago and I am still nowhere near hungry. That stuff fills you to the edges.

Safe at Home

After the rainout of Thursday, we were looking for some sun on Friday, and we got it - it was a temperate, sunny day, perfect for a revisit to the Magic Kingdom. We got there bright and early, and hit all of our favorite rides again: Papa and I knocked our backs out of joint on Space Mountain, then got all spinny on the rockets ride... so we eased up on the thrills and kept it to the lovable rides - Small World didn't disappoint on the revisit.

By late morning, the word had got out to all of the world that it was a GREAT DAY to be at the park, and a sea of humanity descended onto the Magic Kingdom. Soon, even "gimme" rides like the Teacups were posting 20 minute waits, and Peter Pan hit 60 minute wait by 11am. We got Fast Passes for the Jungle Cruise, which is typically not that hard to get on, but when we finally arrived, we found that the "civilians" without Fast Passes were waiting 70 minutes. We sped through in 10.

The Jungle Cruise was interesting because there was a "never event" which clearly rattled the boat driver - the elephants who playfully spray water just in front of the boat had their timing off (or the driver did), and we were blasted with firehose-strength water. I looked it up, this just doesn't HAPPEN on the ride. The driver was really apologetic, and dropped his Bob Hope cornball routine for a bit, wanting to make sure we were actually ok.

(Later in the evening, as I put Isaac to bed, he spent some time crying about the elephants - WHY DID THEY SPRAY US? I DID NOT WANT THAT!!!)

Our brainstorm for our last day at Disney was to acknowledge the fact that Bella had blisters on her feet, and Isaac by the end of each day was insisting on a grownup to carry him, so we got a big double stroller for the kids, and they were very happy. The strollers have a window for a big nametag, so we named ours "Duran Duran (Rockstar)". After every ride, we'd call out to eachother "Where did we leave Duran Duran? We'd better go get them".

We bailed by 3pm, having ridden the train around the perimeter of the park again, and also the TomorrowLand People Mover. Everyone was pretty beat so we zoned out for 2 hours with some shows and naps (and the Giraffes and Zebras came over to give us a show on the porch too). Then it was down to dinner at the "fancy" restaurant at Jambo House - Jiko. The food was AMAZING - everything was incredible - as good as I remember some dinners at Table of Contents back in the day, if that's any indication. Simply amazing, and the waiter was great with the kids too...

A huge surprise - Dave and Kristine (who bought our old house and live on our block) and their kids decided to cut short a road trip to Colonial Williamsburg and hit Disney, and they surprised us at our table (I helped plan it, from text messages earlier in the afternoon). The kids ran off for some serious playtime, and we got to hang out with D&K and swap tales of Disney. It was very spontaneous and fun.

Isaac had a VERY hard time going to sleep, and as noted above, had worries about the elephants, but also tearful protestations that he wants to stay at Disney FOREVER, and have somebody send down his toys and Zinsser and we can just LIVE THERE. WHY CAN'T WE LIVE HERE? It took an unheard of 45 minutes to get him wound down.

Today we got a late start, had a big breakfast, and made our way to the airport. We had plenty of time... assuming of course that I had noticed that our flight time had changed. As I checked in, the kiosk said I was too late to check luggage, and I discovered our flight had moved UP 2 hours, so far from being early for our flight, it was leaving RIGHT NOW.

I almost had a full on panic attack. I'm sure they must have sent me a message on this at some point, but I've been so swamped with work I must not have processed it properly. Long story short, being Platinum does have privileges, and we got on the next flight, though we lost our First Class seats, and Pamela "had" to sit by herself in an exit row while I sat with the kids. Hey wait, I think that actually worked out ok for Pamela.

By the time we finally got home, we had maybe one nerve left between us, and we were about to fray that one too, but Grampette was to the rescue, with Zinsser at the door ready to greet us. We forgot our stress and got ready for bed. Well, most of us did. I read Bella a long awaited chapter of Harry Potter (which she was asleep by the end of - I'll be doing some refreshing tomorrow night). Not a peep from Isaac, and Pamela has been out for 90 minutes already. So what am I doing up? Well, I hadn't seen last week's big Fringe cliffhanger, so I had to get caught up. But I think I'm ready for bed now.

RAIN.

One thing from yesterday I forgot to mention: We went to the Pirates area, and there was a Captain Jack Sparrow "How to be a Pirate' show... and Bella got called onto the stage to learn how to swordfight... WITH CAPTAIN JACK! Isaac was furiously jealous, but he got to join up on stage later when all the kids were invited to join his crew and take the pirate oath.

I didn't read the fine print on this, but I think they are actually legally Jack Sparrow's children now.

Now: Today.

RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN. From the time we woke up to the time we're drifting off tonight, it switched between hard rain, really hard rain, torrential rain, monsoon-type rain, and oh man am I tired of this rain. We had severe cabin fever, and were sort of crossing our fingers hoping for a clear-up by the late afternoon so we could go scamper around Epcot again, but no, it's still raining.

There were movies (Swiss Family Robinson), some Wii in the lounge, lots of snacks, some games (new Angry Birds:Rio, and some Mario on the DS), reading, and chatting.

Out of nowhere, we came back to our room to find roses and a beautiful beaded giraffe, and a note from the staff hoping we are having a magical stay. MAN does Disney know how to treat a family right.

Tomorrow we're revisiting the Magic Kingdom, to see a few of the things we missed... and the weather report is for blue skies.

Two good days

After the rain-fest at Epcot on Monday, we were in the mood for a little break, so Tuesday was a "no park day" - we had a big breakfast at the buffet in the hotel, and wandered over to the sister resort - Kidani. Both Jambo and Kidani share a view of the wild animal plain, but they seem to have different "regulars" - Kidani had some great Vultures sunning themselves, along with a couple of ostriches.

Jambo is a grand hotel, but Kidani is more suites-driven, with a smaller lobby, fewer rooms, and a cozy atmosphere. But they have a different pool area, and that's where we spent over 4 hours - a pool with a pretty fun waterslide and a "splash park" - zero depth with lots of fountains and misters. Jenny came to join us for a couple of hours too. The kids swam and swam, and got a little crispy in the sun.

The weather held nicely for us - it would have been a good park day, but we needed the rest.

We hopped into the car for dinner at the Wilderness Lodge, the Whispering Canyon restaurant. There was very little whispering going on, but lots of fun. Loud boisterous waiters, hobby horse races, and if you needed some ketchup, well, you needed to holler our for it, and chances were you'd wind up with a dozen bottles for your effort. The food was FANTASTIC as well - some of the best we have had on the trip.

A wander around the grounds of the Wilderness Lodge was good - it's a beautiful property, but all told, it does the north woods feel a bit TOO well - we thought we probably wouldn't want to go there for vacation since, well, we get that sort of think up at Ruttgers, so why do it here?

Today was an EARLY day - Up by 6, at the Magic Kingdom by 8, and on the Dumbo Ride by 8:10. In rapid succession we hit all of the Fantasyland greats - Peter Pan, Dumbo, Merry Go Round, Small World... No wait on any of it It was my first trip to Small World since, well, since it cost an A-Ticket to ride. And I loved it - it's WAY more charming than I remember it - and I'm sure they've updated it with certain PC tweaks, but it still feels like a wonderful call back to when you could point at a mountain and a doll in Lederhosen and say "That's SWITZERLAND!!!" The world doesn't feel quite as identifiable any more does it? Maybe it never really was, but I loved remembering those touchpoints.

On a whim we hit the Haunted Mansion - Isaac loved it, Bella hated it, even though we tried to prep her that it was "All Scooby Doo style ghosts - nothing real". Isaac was a real thrill seeker in general - he insisted on the Race Cars (he also insisted on steering, which led to many many jarring "bumps" as the car corrected itself on to the guide rail). AND he insisted on the Ripsaw Roller Coaster, which he laughed manaicallly during - he wanted to go on it again and again.

We pretty much hit everything we wanted to hit with no waits (again, thank you Tour Guide Mike), and laughed as we saw the Dumbo Ride with 50 minute waits by the end of our day. We're planning on revisiting the Magic Kingdom on Friday and hitting TomorrowLand with everything we got.

We left by 2, had some chill time at the hotel, and then started back to the Magic Kingdom for dinner, just in time for a short squll to pass through, throwing lightning around and forcing us down to 20 mph on the highway while sheets of water poured across our windshield ("A nice way to get the car clean" said Isaac). The rain cleared up just as we pulled up the The Contemporary Resort.

The Contemporary is the hotel that has the Monorail going right through it, which I thought was AWESOME. But inside, it really doesn't do modern much more than your average Courtyard by Marriott... it was just sort of blah. I wish it had a retro-sixties futurism happening, but it was more just, retro 80's Hyatt Regency sort of feel, which was not terribly awesome.

We did have a buffet dinner, and we had all of the characters drop by - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, and Goofy. Isaac was out of his mind jumping around and hugging them all... but he did ask "why don't they talk?". Then Isaac and Bella did a 5 minute spontaneous dance which I will call the "cupcake sugar rush dance" - but it got quite the audience.

As we left, Pamela was beckoned to the table next to ours - they wanted to know if Joe and I were by any chance TV stars, because they could SWEAR they'd seen us somewhere before. I think that we just live a little big, maybe we give off that "comfortable in the spotlight" vibe. Because I'm pretty sure nobody saw that TV Pilot we made back in the late 1990s ("Papa and the Jimmy").

Tomorrow will be a lighter day - if the weather holds, we may revisit Epcot to see what we missed and spend a little more time in the international areas. But no big plans. At the very least, we're sleeping in for a while.

Almost unbelievable

On Thursday, our new system went live. On Friday, we hopped on an airplane to head down tot sunny Florida for a week at Disney World. First, about the work: I'm in shock, but things seem to be going well - there were some issues in areas that we had already known might cause us some trouble... and the fact that there were no OTHER major issues meant we were able to focus our resources on those trouble spots. I've been checking my work email no more than once a day, just to see if something huge has emerged, but no, it seems to be going ok. SO I'm just fine with being here.

The flight down was good - on time and relatively smooth... but the last 10 minutes had us hitting some pretty major bumps... and poor Isaac wound up puking all over the place as we taxi'ed to the gate. Of course I wasn't quick enough with a bag, and it wound up EVERYWHERE. Fortunately the door opened shortly and people were able to flee. The flight attendants were very pleasant - apparently Isaac wasn't the only kid to have lost his cookies on the flight, either.

The downside is that Isaac has been announcing that "i think I'm going to frow up" at every opportunity. It figures - he didn't really see why he puked before, so it's a potential for every minute now.

So Friday we checked in to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, an African-themed hotel with a gorgeous atrium and wild animals wandering around right outside our windows. There are 4 giraffes, a pair of zebras, and many ox-goat-bull style animals. Some with absurdly large horns. The room isn't big, but the view is great. Nothing like having morning coffee watching a giraffe nibble on some leaves 100 feet away.

On Saturday we did the Animal Kingdom park. Here's where Pamela's obsessive planning came into play - We did all the rides we wanted to do, with no waiting at all. She got us hooked up with Tour Guide Mike, which is a "Disney Insider" website. She set up an itinerary that was based on going "contrary" to the typical flow of guests at the park, and strategic collection of "fast passes" which let you jump to the front of the line (but need to be planned out). For most of the day, we were like Salmon spawning, flying against the crowds. We started with a character breakfast at Tusker House, where our not-very-African bacon and waffles were complimented with visits from Donald, Daisy, Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy, all in safari gear. The kids were thrilled.

We passed out early after that day, but not before running into Rick and Kari, parents of Bailey and Ty, who were at the tail end of their weeklong trip. We retired to the pool for drinks while the kids swam (mostly with Rick) - Bella discovered the water slide at the end of the pool and went down it thirty times. She counted.

Sunday was a chillaxing by the pool day - the kids were tired, we were tired, and we spent many hours at the pool, Randy, JeMae, and Jenny came by after THEIR day at Animal Kingdom, and there was another swim-fest into the evening. We had dinner at the big buffet in the hotel, which has African-themed foods (which to my tastes means "sort of BBQ, but with a great red harissa sauce you can put on everything"). The food was great.

Monday was our day for Epcot, and it was a RAINY RAINY DAY. It started drizzling, but by the time we finished our first ride on "Soarin'" (the imax flying ride), the lightning was flashing and there was a half inch of standing water everywhere. We stuck to plan and got to do the indoor rides we wanted to do, but by 11:30, we were getting hungry - we ducked into the british pub in the "international" part of Epcot and had a leisurely pub lunch... while the rain thundered down. "A Beautiful British Summer's Day" as Papa said a few times. More than a few times.

Since we were in the international area (which has exhibits from Canada, Great Britain, Morocco, Germany, Italy, USA, China, Japan, France, and I'm sure I'm forgetting one), we decided to fill out a "passport" for Bella - where you go to each country, find the "kidcot" station and get a stamp and talk to a native speaker.

It was actually very fun, though by the end of it we were thoroughly soaked. Highlights included Japan, which had an amazing gift shop, and Great Britain, where we ran into Tigger AND Mary Poppins! Mary was very nice to Bella, and Isaac did some jumping with Tigger.

Soaked to the bone we made our way back to the hotel, and we're taking another day off Tuesday - we all need the break. I wound up carrying Isaac for most of yesterday and my shoulders and arms are all a-twitch from exhaustion. I'm sitting in the grand lobby using my phone's connection, since Disney has taken the admirably retro approach of not only NOT having any Wifi, but also charging $10/day for a cabled connection.

It is forcing me to think twice about checking emails... so I'm really only checking in once a day with work, and am offline a lot.

And I needed some serious offline time. I'm very happy to be relaxing.

NEXT UP: We're doing the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, and we hope the weather agrees with us!

In case you're wondering

The golive went very well. The 36 hours of conversion pre-live were successful, and as of this writing, we've been up and fully live for over 18 hours, with no major incidents to speak of (knock wood). I leave on my vacation knowing I brought them right up to a good golive. Now it's just watching and fixing, which the team can definitely do.

And I'm going to Disneyworld!

Countdown!

1) Yesterday Isaac was dancing around the kitchen, with Spiderman in one hand and Electro in the other (small plastic dolls), singing "Chicka Wow Wow!.. That's what my baby say,.... Chicka Wow wow... That's what my baby say". I have no comment.

2) I'm terribly thrilled about a product for the iPad: The Fairlight CMI. Back in the 1980s, the Fairlight was between $30-60,000. It was big and white and had a video screen with green text and you used a LIGHT PEN to program it. Duran Duran had one, as did Thomas Dolby, and so many others. I have written about my Fairlight Lust many times in the past.

Well, the co-inventor of the Fairlight, Peter Vogel, went and made a version of it for the iphone and ipad. It has the same sounds, it works in a lot of the same ways, and you program it in the same way. It is in every way that matters, a full on Fairlight. And it runs in an iPad. What's even more fun is that when you load sounds or select programs, it plays the sounds of the clicky keyboard and clunky disk drive. It's a bit gimmicky, but perfect for me. So I've been playing with it a bit, loading up the breathy ahhh sound and playing "Ghost in You" by Psych Furs, and "Shout" by Tears for Fears.

3) We're going live this week... and I really do think we're ready. My team is at the hospital now preparing for chart conversions that start at midnight. To kill time before gotime, I've declared a Haiku competition.

4) I had a good work weekend for my Maryland stuff too - I heard back that they were very happy with the info I delivered. That made me happy. I do like doing good work.

5) Friday is when we take off for vacation and I am INCREDiBLY READY for this.

Sail the Skies

Another Dream, transcribed for your consideration and enjoyment:

Started in a communal loft space where me and my friends are all staying - we're wrapping up a visit to Tokyo, and preparing to head to the airport. I'm setting my facebook status, and linger for a moment on my Facebook picture: It's a small animation that I recognize as a student movie I had done in college - short movies of my friends eyeballs, shot in grainy black and white. As I'm reviewing the movie, I try to remember which eyeballs were for which friends. The last one before it loops is of a guy with pretty bugged out eyes, shifty, and I remember "I don't recall his name, but boy was he a jerk".

Facebook status updated, it's time to head to the airport. I'm running late so I commandeer one of those airport carts. For some reason, the airport has been done up using a fake beach theme, with big plastic palm trees, and huge dunes of sand, making "islands" on the blue concourse carpeting.

Naturally, I swerve the golf cart into one of the beaches and get stuck on the sand, so I jump out and hightail it for the gate.

The airline I'm using has a "nautical theme" - "Sail the Skies". The upshot of this is that instead of having a regular jetway to the airplane, the airplane is sitting out on a blue painted circle on the tarmac (the "sea"), and they ferry me out to the plane on a "boat launch" (which is basically a rowboat on the end of a forklift). I'm sitting on the prow of the boat, as I'm ferried out to the airplane, and clamber out into the open airplane door (without a stairway). The stewardess has a sailor outfit on.

I settle into my seat and look at my flight itinerary: Looks like this isn't a direct flight, but a one-stop. Hmmm... This flight goes direct to DALLAS Texas, at which point they're transferring me to a BUS to drive to Minneapolis. I have two options - either one of those tall shuttles they use for rental car transfers, or a long Ford Econoline van.

As I'm reviewing the options, I'm disappointed: It's 20 hours in a van, and EITHER option is not that big of a vehicle. "Oh man, that's a long time, and I don't want to have to talk to the driver that whole time"

And that's when I woke up.