plot thickens

so...we didn't make it to monday. an hour after his last dose of motrin, felix's fever got worse. he was breathing fast and shaking and his armpit temp was 103.1. "ok," I said, "lets go to the ER." this was at about 11:30pm. when we checked in at the ER his rectal temp was 104.1. felix has very accurate armpits, it appears. and so they gave him tylenol I think and his temp was last recorded at 102.something. we've seen a doctor and are now just hanging out waiting to get his chest xrayed. we are up past everyones bed times. i'm supposed to go to work tomorrow but we'll see how that goes...

end in sight?

with the new year upon us I find several plots hopefully coming to an end, or at least taking a mid-season break:
icehouse 2007 - insured! but what else will happen next?!
feverboy - this is hopefully a pre-new years cliffhanger subplot arc that will resolve itself before 08. basically, sometime saturday felix pitched a fever. could have started in the AM but we gave him motrin for teething so we never noticed the fever until the afternoon when he woke up from his nap. highest recorded was 102.5. we called the nurse line to find out when and where to take him. then called his peed office and the oncall doc called back. he said we can treat the fever with tylenol and motrin to get through the weekend and if he's still feverish on Monday then they will see him there. he goes up and down during the day and obviously his nap schedule is blown all to hell. Its really strange to have this child be so unlike his usual self, tired and cranky and wanting to do nothing but lie still because he's so hot and feeling sick and then two hours later he seems completely back to normal for about two hours and then he slides right back down to the previous feverish state. I was really fantasizing that he would break out of this fever cycle sometime today but the later it gets the more I'm beginning to feel like he and Andrea will be going to the doctor tomorrow. or maybe I'll take him. Nobody will care if I am in to work late tomorrow, especially with a good reason like a sick toddler.

Have I mentioned lately how amazing he is? He is. Truly amazing. He communicates fairly well, he's a super monkey ninja toddler, for real, and he's still just about the cutes thing ever ever EVER. Really.

Xtra xmas

well, i got the word from our adjuster today and WE'RE COVERED! woo!
I'm sure that this process will be less than painless, but at least we're over the first (and hopefully the greatest) hurdle. At the very least, I feel a lot better today and a lot less stressed out. now if only I could get in touch with anyone to share the good news...

eve

As I grow up and my family becomes larger and more geographically dispersed, I realize how arbitrary holidays are. Their primary purpose to me and my family is to server as a starting point to the conversation which results in some sort of agreement about when, where, and how to get together. This getting together is the primary purpose of the event, not the underlying mythology or story or event that originally marks the day that starts the aforementioned conversation. I guess these things are useful because without these arbitrary traditions, people wouldn't do the same sort of things.

Seriously, how many people do you know would just agree that on some specific day they would give gifts to nearly everyone they know in some form or another? Mostly gifts of "thought" but for their closest friends and families it might add up to some very significant expense. Who would do that just out of the blue? Nobody. It has to start small. But it essentailly starts the same way. SOmeone has a story about a day and someone else says, "Hey, you know what? We should give our kids a cookie on that day. And a cokkie to our friends, etc. et.c" and so on and then advertisers get involved and soon you have Santa Claus and all sorts of ridiculous expectations like fur coats and iPods.

I like the getting together part. I'm sad to not be able to have the big get together live and in person with my extended family, but we are planning to have our own first xmas tomorrow (or second, really). It will hopefully bring some respite from the possible bad mojo looming over our heads.

Merry xmas, happy holidays everyone.

how far up the hill do you live?

the hill I'm referring to is the one that all the shit is constantly rolling down. As anyone firmly planted in the real world knows, this is not a nicely sloping hill either. It has some very steep drops and some very flat middle parts and I think at the foot is actually an above-ground swimming pool that is fed by the constant stream. At this point, I don't feel like I'm living at the bottom of the hill, but I do feel very much like I'm living in a bit of a valley or a wide pass where the shit tends to hit hard suddenly and circle around a bit until we manage to shovel it over the lip of the downward side. Right now I'm looking for my shovels.

train writer

I have had relatively good luck with
using my transit time for scribbling down
my ideas, pieces of dialog, even whole
sections of prose in my handcrafted
notebook while riding to or from work.
The hardest part is doing it when the
train is really crowded. On those
occasions I opt to read instead, or
watch a show if I have any queued up.

easy like friday evening

having a quiet night at home. Felix is down for the night. Andrea and Glen are off at an event. i'm finally getting some time to sit and collect my thoughts, have a little "me" time...and I'm wasting it all sitting here writing on my blog :(

Actually, what I'll probably do in the next hour is turn on a show I haven't had time to watch on the way to or from work (I re-encode them for playback on my pocket PC and watch on the train) while i do the dishes.

so, whats happening...I now have library cards for both the Brooklyn public library and the New York public library (see: Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island). I actually have two books on reserve and waiting for me to pick up at the branch three blocks from our house. The problem is, as with most libraries, they're never open during hours that normally employed people can actually visit them (hence the sense that sometimes library target demographic is truant children and the unemployed). I'll pick them up tomorrow, I hope...never know if a library is going to be open on the weekend. I know that the central (Brooklyn) branch is open on weekends, but you never know about the smaller branches. Those are the ones that have hours like 11am-2pm. What? That's not a schedule, that's a friggin nap!

I have finally finished getting the ball rolling to get the house rented out. now the property management company will be doing whatever it does to try and find a renter. I suspect that the $$ for "advertising" is bullshit since they're probably just posting a listing on their own website, but hey, you never know. maybe they do list with newspapers and real estate services, etc. they stand to make more money with people in the house than without. of course, they don't lose anythign by having it empty either. whatever. I'm just hoping that they find a/some good tenants and we can get on with it all.

actually, after I finish the dishes, I should really try to do some writing exercises. yes, it is that time of year when I start saying I'm going to try to start writing again, or wish i was writing again, or try harder to write, or mope about not being able to write...other than the visual verbal stain I leave on this blog every so often. but you know...we're in New York where everyone is a part time actor/writer/artist/something. why not me too? being realistic, I'm not going to be practicing aikido anytime soon, so I should try and find other hobbies that can more easily fit into my schedule...so basically for times like this.

anywhoo...I'm off to do some dishes and listen to a show.
happy whatever you feel like being happy about this time of year. seems like most people around me are swimming in bad news and bad mojo (not any of us, but definitely some of you). be happy for something.

i would be a little more relieved and relaxed than I usually am this time of year because of the house...if not for that i'd probably be feeling my holiday happiest this year, happier than i have been in years past.

bubble bobble

so, I've gotten the paper work started to hire a property management company to try and rent out our house until the housing market turns around. it feels very weird to be handling all of this via telephone and email. anyone who tells you that the housing bubble isn't real (just like global warming, right?) should not be counted on to watch your cat while you're on vacation.

work is busy, ramping up a bit for me. again, after working in IT for a major retailer, it is a bit of a shock that the holiday season has no impact on the schedule of work (other than working around people's vacations). back at big red things supposedly slow down during the "freeze" of peak season when no changes can be made to the production environment. well, I'm not in retail anymore so i have a whole new calendar to get used to. soon I'll be assessing hardware for our upcoming refresh, teasing out the complexities of deploying Office 2007 across the enterprise and, surprise surprise, NOT having to worry about migrating to Vista any time soon.

Felix is still in the midst of his cold-season sniffles but over the weekend he got feverish for about a day and since has developed a nasty sounding cough that comes more at night. It sounds like the croup, I think. I will try to get him a dr. appt tomorrow, but it is really just a confidence building/due diligence exercise since at this point in a child's life, treatment for 95% of infant/toddler cold/illness is "fluids, fluids, rest, use a humidifier, prop up the crib for better drainage..." Basically everything you already are doing if you are halfway intelligent. But its better to see a doctor and get their co-pays-worth of advice before continuing on the board certified regimen of doing what you've been doing.

Worst case scenario is he DOES have something that falls into that 5% that is treatable by antibiotics (pneumonia...bacterial bronchitis?).
So, that's basically the short program of what's been going down. We all generally feel like crap due to the shift in weather, -50% humidity (and that WITH a humidifier running all night) and general crapuliciousness that goes with public transportation.

ta.

Holidrizzle

What? Thanksgiving is THIS week? holy moses time flies in the big apple. Seems like Halloween was just last week. I have found my autumn to be pleasantly lacking holiday music, though I did see regular TV the other night while picking up dinner and all i can say is...how on earth did we ever put up with those crappy commercials?

So, I thought thanksgiving wasn't until the last thursday of the month, or at least, wasn't until next week. So suddenly I'm looking at a 3-day week, which also means a 4-day weekend (both Andrea and I get Thursday AND Friday off from work). How weird is that? Gone are my days of remembering to try and take that day off. Gone are my days in retail. Also, at work, I've been here for what, two months now? coming up on 3...now is when I'm looking like I'm going to get busy instead of ease off like in my old job. In retail, the retail side gets super busy but the support side, well, that slows down a bit since nothing major can be implemented during "peak season." I think I'm liking it in the non-retail world. I'm sure that benefits consulting has its own special calendar, probably related more to the fiscal calendar or something.

So then the question comes from all directions, "What are your holiday plans? Are you going back to Minnesota?" Of course we're not going anywhere. We'll probably stay in all day on Thursday and hang out. Friday I think we'll have the nanny come and watch Felix so Andrea and I can go out and catch a movie or something. We started to make our own traditions back in Minneapolis and I expect we'll do that here too, but I have a hard time feeling like the holiday traditions are really going to take shape and start to stick until Felix is old enough to hold on to them too. Holidays, in my mind, seem to be more for children and extended families. What's that? Has my atheism McScrooged my love of a "day off" and an excuse to sit on the couch, watch football, and drink beer before dangerously over eatingmyself into an early grave? Not at all. It's just that holidays don't seem to eclipse anything like they used to. It used to be that when life was rolling along and things were on your mind, hey, at least you could push that stuff to the background and just focus on the holiday, on the food and family and fun.

I expect that when we do finally make our way back midwest for a visit, we'll be a lot more appreciative of our surroundings and family and friends. Partly because we'll probably be mooching off of them for a place to stay and a car to borrow when we want to visit someone...and of course, the baby sitting!

It's hard for me to imagine experiencing a holiday in the same way as I used to; sitting around doing nothing, eating lots of food...just being. I don't think anyone can "just be" around a fireball like Felix. Seriously, we are the support crew for rocketship Felix. Look out!

Did I mention that he is now on to acrobatics?

I scream, you scream, we all scream for butt cream

Felix has developed a very nasty looking diaper rash. My skin burns just looking at it. Poor little guy. So I've been looking into various butt soothing remedies since the (zinc based?) cream we use frequently doesn't seem to be doing the trick. I think also it is due to him not getting changed enough during the day and not having the cream applied regularly enough. I think we need to institute a strict butt drying policy as well. Sigh.

Today we toured a local, highly sought after child care center for next year. The tour is the first step in the enrollment process. Then, sometime in February we get to wait outside the place because enrollment is first come-first serve. Andrea's not too excited about the place even though it is one of the few places that offers a 5-day, 7am-6pm schedule for 2 year olds and it is a good place to get a leg up on the competition for the lower school there, which is also highly sought after.

Last night was a pretty rough one and I really felt it today. Tonight isn't looking to be much better. It's quarter past ten and I've already been in to soothe Felix twice, and just now a third time while writing this paragraph. Its more complicated by his being both teething, has a craptastic cold, AND this diaper rash from hell. And the only thing that sort of soothes him sometimes is to get to sleep in our bed, which doesn't mean sleep so much as play bumper pool all night ling with mom and dad as the bumpers.

Anyway, I'm generally feeling worse these days, my crappiness doesn't completely o away when I get up and out of here and into the world like I had been doing last week. I think its everything working together to whittle away my immune system and eventually I will succumb to the level that Andrea and Felix already have.

Now i need to go soak my foot. I have an ingrown toenail (the big toe, of course) that somehow feels like some sort of legacy. I seem to recall my dad have horrendous looking toenails. Well, now I'm falling pray to foot disease too. Hopefully soaking will be enough and we can avoid the minor surgery involved in cases that are too far gone. I just can;t imagine having my foot in bad shape around here...it'd be like having your car in the shop! Yikes.

Sunday Evening Post...er...Saturday

I would have to say that a toddler is like a Ferrari. No, not red, sporty, and capable of going from 0-120mph in 90 seconds (wait, no, that DOES sound like a toddler) but that a toddler is like a very very expensive and finely tuned piece of machinery. You get one small thing out of whack and that's all she wrote. Motor oil and transmission fluid all over the highway. So, what am i talking about? Previously noted shifts in routine aside (and the perpetual state of "teethinghood"), Felix had a much too short nap today. Yep, game over man. Even if we spend time on ourselves, make plans for ourselves, and do as good a job as we can to make sure that we remain autonomous, there is just no escaping that parents really are just the pit crew for the toddler-mobiles that we brought into the world. (Sorry about all the automotive metaphor...not sure what that's all about) When his schedule gets messed up, it impacts our schedules as well. Its not like you can just say, "Oh, well, I'll just do the same stuff I normally do while he is napping and we'll get back on his scheduled when it usually happens." Uh huh. Good luck with that.

I think the problem is that as adults, we are USED to operating at various levels of restedness and we have learned (or at least how to compensate for) our limits in those cases. Toddlers, on the other hand, are fresh and expect to operate at peak efficiency all the time until they suddenly stop and pass into a short regenerative coma like a nap or a bed time. Then they wake, re-calibrate, and off they go at full speed ahead. They have not developed the levels of activity us analogs have. Toddlers are still cutting edge and digital.

Anyway, needless to say Felix has had a rough day and so have we all. The past week has been rough due to his escalated teething (actually have one or two more teeth half-way emerged) and cold symptoms (snotty nose) which are compounded by the heat coming on at night which makes this place dry as hell. Andrea's sick, I'm not the greatest (but not too bad) and Felix is cranky at night and early morning, but otherwise happy as can be. It's a lot harder to deal with now that he only has one nap. Back when he did two naps a day you had a shot at resetting him with that second nap if the first one was missed or cut short. On one nap, the only reset opportunity comes with a good night's sleep. I hear that still exists somewhere on this earth.

Also, only a parent can truly understand what "sleep like a baby" means. Really.

savings?

If someone had tried to convince me that the world was somehow geared to make life easier for people who don't have children I would have said, "uh, yeah, suuuuure." But I'm starting to think that is really the case.
I don't think that there is a conspiracy or anything, just that the wants, needs, and basic physiological and psychological (mainly the latter, but directly stemming from the former) requirements are given much less attention than those of non-child-rearing lifestyles. Its more a case of global/universal neglect. It is a crime of neglect that you inevitably find yourself on one side of one day and then suddenly and unexpectedly (not that you will unexpectedly have children, just that you will suddenly realize that you are now on the OTHER side...you know, the one with all those complainers) find yourself on the other side.

Case in point:
Daylight savings time. How does this benefit the average parents? Do they get the fabled "extra hour of sleep?" Only if their children have somehow been reset to the correct time by the latest update from Microsoft. But the point is, the kids will get tired at the same time they they always do, they will wake up when they always do, and they will get hungry when they always do...except how it is an hour earlier in our adult schedules. So that extra hour of sleep turns into just and extra hour of being awake and chasing a freshly energized toddler around the apartment half naked before escaping off to work. It also means that upon arriving home, that kids wants to e fed NOW, not in 30 minutes, not when momma gets home, but right pronto now Tonto! And going to sleep "earlier" means that now we have less fun time with him unless we try to make that extra hour in the morning the fun time...which is sorta tough when you're low on sleep. More on this later.

boooooooooooone tired.

Happy Halloween.
As you may know, this is one of the few times of the year when the negative aspects of the big 3 religions. Every school child over the age of eight has no doubt been taught the harrowing tale of Hallow's Evening when Jesus, Muhammad, and Rabbi Perlman held a round-robin arm-wrestling tournament to "settle this thing once and for all." No doubt, the parable of the Devil's trickery involving rusty razor blades hidden in the sweet treats of the pious trio teaches all our young ones why you should be kind to animals and always opt for the treat and not the trick. But I'm not going to go over that old saw again, its common knowledge.

Felix has a nasty cold AND he's teething like a mofo from soho, so he's been waking up a lot and guess who also wakes up with him. and of course andrea also wakes up, and if glen is home i'm sure he's being woken up as well. anyway, so i've been feeling fairly like hammered shit to some degree all week. I think it has to do with adjusting to the gradual change in season. I will NOT be ranting about the seasons (or lack thereof in the midwest), but I will comment on the hilarious reaction that my fellow New Yorkers have to a slight drop in temperature. The mean temp this week has been probably around 62F during the day and 58F during the night so, being rather tempered by the midwesternian extremes of weather I find it laughable that people are bundling their children in the most fashionable snowmobile suits and skipants in late October and they themselves ride to work in the finest JPG parkas, handcrafted by Parisian urchins for tuppence a night, etc etc. The great thing is, people are wearing drastically inappropriate clothing for the slight drop in temperature, yet the subway is still 200 degrees at any given stop (except between smith/9th and 4th ave which are outside and, oddly enough, a steady 38F all year round, don't ask me how). Considering the amount of time I have to spend outside s the amount of time I'm likely to stand on the subway platform, I don't think I'm even going to bother unpacking my winter coat. A good sweater can get me from my front step to the 7th ave station in the hairiest of winter weather. Never mind this slight change in the wind that has cooled off our avenues to a slightly brisk autumn splendor.

And yet, even New York has that lovable asshat, Mr. Comicbook T-Shirt and cargo shorts all year long...this type of guy is a universal constant and can be found in any climate.

rollup

Mom and dad came to visit this weekend. All in all, a good visit, I think. It was nice to see them and really it was much sooner than I had expected to see anyone. Sure, Shawn popped in a couple weeks back, but he's so random that I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up on the moon.

I have realized something: for all of our non-going-outness, we don't really spend much time in our apartment. On Friday and Saturday the weather was mostly rainy (finally clearing up Saturday night) and though we attempted to keep up our usual routines with mom and dad in tow, it was harder than I expected, and even harder to remain at our house. Its not like we don't hang out here...but we just generally don't hang out much at all. We're running to the store for this or that, picking up or dropping off laundry, dry cleaning, groceries, taking Felix to the park, fixing Felix breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack and or same for ourselves...it was having other people around while we were doing a scaled back version of this that made me sort of see it from outside of myself. I don't know what their actual impression was, but I imagine that my parents must think we do nothing but run around the neighborhood and wash dishes all day long, pausing only to make cross-country forays into the park. But, in a sense, that IS what we do on the weekends because that's when we have time for it. All week long there is only time for one or two things and then its dinner, bath time, dishes, bed time. But when I'm not so self conscious about it the cooking and cleaning and everything just blends in with the breathing and trips to the park so it doesn't feel like we're doing so much more. I dunno...

My advice if you are going to visit us or people like us (meaning New Yorkers with small apartments and young children) and you are not going to get a hotel or motel room (or even if you do get a room somewhere) that magically provides free car-service to anywhere, is to start training early (as if you were training for a marathon, seriously...we walk a lot around here and we don't even think twice about it, another thing that became blatantly obvious to me once mom and dad got here), make sure you have comfortable shoes, appropriate rain gear, and arrive with only as much stuff as you feel comfortable carrying for a whole day (not that you'll have to, just that its a good way to judge your level of packing...and you never know, you might have to, especially if you do get a room somewhere). Also, since we have a relatively small apartment, we don't have much in the way of guest accommodations. The most luxurious thing we have is our couch which folds down into a slightly less-than full-sized bed, but only considered luxurious in so far as it is slightly less firm than the wood floor. We have a queen-sized air mattress but...well...nobody in their right mind considers that a preferable accommodation. I guess you could say that whatever you would do to pack for backpack camping would go a long way towards preparing you to visit people in New York. And besides, you won't be here long enough to have spare time to fritter away with solitaire or emails or whatnots. if you get a break, like the baby is sleeping, you take full advantage and take a shower, run to the coffee shop, or maybe just sit on the couch and take a nap because the only time you KNOW you will get to do that again is the next time you happen to put the baby down for a nap, which is a whole week away since someone else does that for you while you are at work.

What I'm saying is that to really get the mosy our of visiting new yorkers is to be like a new yorker; crafty, calculating, flexible, and relatively fit. The reason why there are double-decker buses driving all around the "sights" in Manhattan is NOT because you couldn't possibly see them all without driving from one to the next, not the case at all. Its because it would otherwise involve a lot of planning, plotting, and above all, walking. Now, we didn't do any sight seeing with my folks and from my previous paragraphs you should be able to understand why. I don't think we could have done it if we wanted to.

Andrea came to New York four years ago and has, in her heart, been a new yorker ever since. I feel like I was a closet new yorker as well. Finally, I'm somewhere that things move at a more brisk pace. Everything is faster, more rapid, go go go. And I'm not one who likes pressure, but I definitely like not getting stuck behind people who are moving slow for no apparent (or even for apparent) reasons.

Case in point: Felix lived in Minneapolis for 13 months and never learned to walk. We've been in New York for two months now and he's walking, running, skipping, jumping, and climbing all manner of things. Now, I know my math may seem a little bit republican, but a little bit flawed in its reasoning, but it's truthiness math, I know it in my heart that it is right. Don't try to confuse me with facts and logic.

Well, my time is up. I need ot get to bed so I can start tomorrow anew.

Oh, and it absolutely kills me to see people wearing down jackets in 50 degree weather. I wore a thin wool sweater over my button-down shirt but I couldn't stand to have my sleeves rolled down for more than 20 minutes. That is something I hope I don't lose, my temperature control.
g'night

Sunday Night Post

TA DA. Just read last week's Sunday night post, but substitute dates and names and, i don't know, throw in some random adjectives to spice things up. I'd do it for you here but I'm too lazy.

Ok, here's something. I got a phone call today from the recruiter who got me my current job. I have not heard from this guy since the day we closed the deal, over two months ago. My boss has been back to his office a couple times in the past few weeks since he's hiring a couple more engineers. The recruiter was calling me to touch base, see how things were going, see if i was happy and if there was anything bothering me or that I was worried about, any red flags, am I doing what I was hired for or is it not what I thought it would be? Uh, no, I like the place, I seem to be fitting in well, I like my boss and co-workers, its exactly what I was hired for and I'm enjoying it, why?

Oh, he's been talking to my boss a lot lately and all he hears is high praise, they love me, hope I'm there for a long time, I seem to be really good at my job, etc etc...he just wanted to check with me and get my side, and that its good to hear it coming from me.

I get the feeling that there's some history behind this phone call, something to do with they guy who was recruited for my same job about a year ago who quit the same job after the first week. The story I heard was that the guy got a better deal somewhere else. Anyway...I dunno if he thinks he's protecting his investment because he doesn't get paid unless I make it to 90 days or something, but getting one random phone call is hardly a loyalty-making move. I'm at my new job, i like it a ton, and I'm a lot more loyal to that place than the guy who called me up and intriduced me. Not that I'm not loyal, he just hasn't had much of a presence. And besides...my benefits just kicked in so I'm not going anywhere!

Felix's 15-month appt is Tuesday. He was officially 15 months old last Friday. And he walks almost all the time now. And crouches, and picks stuff up, and constantly points at airplanes and helicopters. He seems to really like airplanes. When we hear one from the lving room, he points at the window with a big big big smile. Next he just has to start learning more english.

squeaky

out of the shower, Felix still asleep, and Andrea is home so maybe I'll step out for a few errands or something.

decisions decisions...

...Sunday morning, one mug of coffee consumed, one toddler completely wiped out and taking a nap...do I write in the blog or grab my one shower for the weekend?

Maybe I can do both...make it a quick shower.

yatta yatta yatta...

Not much to report. Felix has had some ups and downs, starting Monday night when he decided to scream bloody murder from 12am to 5am almost non-stop, it seemed. Needless to say, I took Tuesday off because I felt horrible and I had no sleep. Felix finally slept on the couch for two hours before the nanny came. Once she showed up he was cranky for 15 minutes and then, whammo, he was back to his mostly normal self. They went to the park, per usual and I ended up working from home most of the morning, which mainly consisted of chasing around emails trying to get someone to make a decision about deploying a video driver update to a certain group of computers (and also me researching how, if at all, we could isolate this specific group and send the update only to them). Felix slept through the night Tuesday and so did I, mostly, yay! Wednesday was full "How you feelin???" from the CIO and everyone on down the line.

So Felix is 15 months old tomorrow. He has his checkup on Tuesday, which reminds me I need to call our old health provider and go through the rigamarole to get access to my account there even though I no longer know what my ID# was. Ugh... I just need to get Felix's vaccination records, which, I suppose we have in their original hardcopy form...hrm. Something to think about.

Anyway, I made dinner last night (just heating up fresh tortaloni and vodka sauce from the mozzarella and pasta shop around the corner, and steaming some green beans) and tonight (made a smoked trout salad with steamed broccoli and sliced tomatoes), so I'm starting to get a little bit of a feel for the old kitchen magic. And it is a bit easier to go shopping with Felix in the carrier instead of the stroller or just carrying him. It is a happy medium. This thing, the "Ergo Carrier", is totally for dads. It's like a utility belt for your kid. It transforms, it has options, you can do a side carry, a back carry, or even a front carry. It's nearly impossible to figure out without reading the instructions and even then you have to play with it for like a day before you can even understand how to do it by yourself. And you have to have a cooperative kid. Its the type of device that, if the kid is kicking and crying and not wanting to go in, he's not going in. But its pretty cool and it makes it very easy to carry him the 15 blocks to the store and back (though I usually have to deal with a few tantrums in the store and at least one position change).

So, Felix has been doing well at night, I'm into my job, Andrea is absolutely in love with her job, and we barely see Glen because the restaurant finally opened and he's working the dinner shift. Sigh, it starts to sound old and stale but life...is...good.

Sunday Evening Post

The weather has become very pleasantly autumnal. We accomplished a lot this weekend. Foremost, we defrosted the refrigerator and freezer. Sadly, it took 2 hours to defrost the freezer and about 6 hours to defrost the fridge, and that includes using a hair dryer on high for about half an hour. See, the people who lived here before us don't seem to have actually been around much or really keep the place up much at all. When we moved in there was a punchbowl sized inverted ice dome hanging from the cooling elements at the top of the refrigerator compartment on the right side (almost perfectly round except for the indent where the fridge light meekly kept the ice at bay). So we've had this ice monster pressing down on our food and drink since we moved in, providing a higher percentage of humidity than you'd prefer in a refrigerator and definitely more water dripping all over everything. The freezer had a good inch and a half of permafrost on all five sides. A few weeks ago I mentioned to the owner that we were concerned about the refrigerator; was he stealing it's pensions and social security checks? does it ever shut up about Roosevelt and the good old days? when is it going to stop freezing the food and melting the ice cream? I said I would be willing to go halfsies on a decent used refrigerator and there seem to be many good ones on Craigslist. Well, he seems to think that a used fridge is on craiglist probably because there's something wrong with it. Might I refer you to the monstrous iceberg menacing my dairy products? If it has a door and it gets cold, it can't be worse that this one. Anyway, he said "Just defrost it and work with me and we'll see how things go." Oooookay. So now I have done battle with the depression era icebox and the fruits of its loom and we will now see just how long it takes for the iceberg to re-emerge. I suspect that the previous tenants never defrosted in the two years they lived here. Even so...dude, that's effed up.

I was considering mounting a web cam in there to monitor the progress of Titanica Two's formation. So far? Not much. But its only been a day.

I expect I'll be much happier with the refigerator now that we won't have little trickles of water dampening our produce and pooling on the tops of tupperware. yay.

Felix got a little bit under the weather. Today he had a fever of about 101. I'm hoping it is due to teething, but it just as well could be a virus or other bug he picked up from other kids. Tis the season. And he is not just a walker, but a runner, a skipper, and a jumper (and a faller downer). He now actually prefers to walk if he is going for more distance. Still prefers the old kneewalking for quick, short bursts, but if he has to go more than five feet he promptly pops up and goes for a jog.

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past few days. 60s-70s in the sun during the day, 50s at night, clear. This is what October is supposed to feel like. I haven't checked, but somehow I imagine Minneapolis is still hovering in the 80s and people are complaining about how horrible it is, except for the one day when it only hits 79 and then they'll all be "Oh, this is wonderful. Just wait until it's -200 degrees outside" which will not happen until mid February, shortly after the first snowfall if the past few years are any indication.

testing...

is this thing on? yes? oh. I guess I'm the one who's off. What to say? busy week. got a cool carrier for Felix but I haven't really been able to try it off. had our 4th year anniversary. new rule: there are two options for getting really good food here; you either only go to a place you have good food at once or you have to go there almost every day. if you do not follow one of these scenarios, your second and/or third experiences to the originally stellar establishment will be frustrating, disappointing, and probably result in food poisoning.

my boss is off getting married this weekend. again. he'll be out for a week and so I'm under the direct supervision of the cto. woo. solved a tech problem today, so I think I scored some sort of points...but then again, that's my job. also discovering that i may be the general go-to guy since the network engineers all have actual network stuff to work on while i'm focusing mostly on research and what little packaging stuff comes up here and there. I think I'm establishing my rep as a good problem solver.

Felix is walking all over the place all the time. And the toddler tantrums have started. magically one day he has learned the whole body conniption fit (involving jumping, swinging arms up and down with little fists, thrashing of the head and body, with high pitched squeal frequently identified as "the killer"). it's quite something to see. luckily it only lasts about 2 minutes.

week in review

ok, so after coming back to blogging I'm just going to say that now my life has become much more busy and so I can't promise to put frequent or even timely posts up here. but you'll get whatever i can manage to give.

this week:
work is still good. I'm enjoying my job and it really does seem like a nice place to be. I think all the hoo-hah about New York being so damn expensive comes from morons who didn't figure in the cost of living difference BEFORE they came looking for work.
Still glad we moved. Love the hood, love the park, don't even mind the subways too much. Beats the hell out of the commute I could have had. Still getting the hang of shopping and figuring out my choice shops for which products. trying to avoid having to go to Target because it is a harrowing (frustration and anger usually well up whenever i go there because of how ridiculously poorly the store is run and maintained.) Not a good shopping experience, not the Target experience people in the midwest are used to.
Can't deposit in any ATMs here so we're all doing it by mail (and consequently, not writing each other checks for anything anymore...hello wire-transfer service!). This wouldn't normally be much of an issue since we're all doing direct deposit (well, maybe Glen isn't, but I'm not so worried about transferring money from him to me or vice versa). I think Glen will be switching to a local bank. Not sure if Andrea will either. They use a regular bank so they can find pretty much the same thing out here. I'm not switching because the Credit Union (or whatever it is now) still provides me with pretty good service and doesn't seem to be charging me randomly for extra fees left and right. Hell, they've sent me postage paid envelopes to do my deposits for the next century.
Benefits started! woo. so now we have medical insurance and Felix is scheduled for his 15-month check up (more shots, ugh). Not a minute too soon, since he's picked up his first cold. Been snotty, crusty, and cranky for about a week and a half. Walks all over the place now, but still only when he feels like it. more video to be emailed around but of course, if we had a nice mini-DV cam we could keep those interested well supplied with high quality, full motion, precious moments.
As i think I mentioned before, Felix is determined to knock his little teeth out and get into whatever other danger he can manage on such a limited budget.
Our anniversary is coming up this week. big #4??? Yeah...lots has happened since #3. oddly enough, this will be our 2nd in New York, which means we've had as many in New York as we've had in Minnesota. In some ways it doesn't seem like its been that long but in other it seems like it's been much much longer.
I've finally given away my fat clothes. OK, not really mu fat clothes, but my "I can't wear these any more because I've lost 4 inches off my waist" clothes. I'm back down to 32" waist. Inseam remains the same. Apparently my feet were not very fat. But anyway, I reached the conclusion that if i did put weight back on, I wouldn't want to be wearing the same clothes as before. So they went out on the stoop around 5pm and were gone by 7pm. Just a few pairs of pants and a few shirts. I still have SOME 36" wais stuff, but not much. I also need to buy some new belts. And shoes (not related to weight loss) and a whole new wardrobe. Well, ALL of us need new wardrobes, but all in good time.

all in all life keeps on ticking ticking ticking into the future...
New York is only really expensive to visit, I think.

stages

You know, it seems like we wait so long for Felix to get his baby teeth (still at 6 and holding, molars teething like a mofo) and now all he seems to want to do is engage in behavior that will result in knocking them out. This is the month of the bloody mouth, to be sure. With great teeth comes great responsibility. And much bloodshed. Teeth + walking = pain and suffering (and many a fat lip and bumpy noggin).

september to remember

Here we are, closing out the first month of my life as a New Yorker with another relatively great week. Everyone is adjusting to their new roles and circumstances fairly well, I think. All the wonderful goodness of working for a benefits consulting firm kicks in tomorrow (that is, excellent medical and dental and all that other stuff) for employee + family, so we can start getting out teeth cleaned, fillings and prescriptions filled, Felix can get his 15 month checkup during his 15th month (assuming we can pick out a pediatrician in that short amount of time), and life can resume without that "without a net" feeling we've been having ever since I quit my last job, the prescriptions ran out, and Felix developed a runny nose.

Felix is walking, if you hadn't heard or seen the video. Actually, he's running now too. He still prefers to knee-walk or crawl depending on the terrain, but he is quickly shifting from crawling to knee walking to walk walking quite easily. Now it appears that he chooses his ambulatory style based on the intended altitude of his hands and face. If he's in the sand or grass, he stays on his knees to move fast and quickly goes ot crawling so he can see whatever is on the ground up close. If he's coving lots of territory he will stick to his knees, drop to all fours for sudden bursts of cheetah-like speed, or rise to his feet if he wants to get or grab on to something that is above his shoulder-level or above his head. I think he still finds walking completely upright to be something of a trick or a hobby; not something that you do all the time and not when you mean business. But that is slowly changing, too. He's also become a much more avid climber, if you can imagine that. His major development today was that he rose from kneeling to standing without pushing up with his hands at all. It was all leg. Kneeling to one-leg up to crouching to standing in a relatively (I expect unconscious) fluid motion. He wobbled a little at the top but then ran off in zig-zag fashion. When this kid learns how to lean into his turns we'll need to install speed bumps and edge-guards.

I had a good work week, accomplishing a relatively major task in the time allotted and also laying the groundwork for some pretty major future changes. I still really like my job and I like the people there a lot too. I'm quickly learning the pros and cons of working in a smaller company, but luckily not a tiny company. As far as size goes, we've got a pretty sophisticated operation going, IT wise.

Andrea comes home most nights glowing with what I can only describe as job satisfaction. It is something of an alien experience for her to really like, no, love her job. She often speaks of her job as a double-whammy, "Like getting paid to get a masters, that's how much I'm learning. I get master-level critiques almost every day!!!" And this whole weekend, a gorgeous indian-summer weekend in Brooklyn, Andrea keeps falling into a mystified mantra of, "Oh my god I love our neighborhood, I don't ever want to leave here." And I agree, it is very nice. One of my little refreshers after a day of work is to take Felix for a walk up and down 7th Avenue and just window shop ro pick up some odds and ends, and just be in the neighborhood. This area absolutely teems with life, with activity, but, I don't know how to describe it so much as just "the good kind." We are all very happy to be here. I know we've made some tremendous leaps and landed on some pretty amazing (and incredibly stable) ledges on the far side, so I don't expect that our story is anything but the exception to the rule. But you know, I really doubt there's a real rule. For our set of circumstances, we probably did exactly what should have been done and had exactly what should have happened happen. Life is good.

My 32nd birthday was a non-event, and as such was probably one of my most enjoyable birthdays of late. In a way, it's nice to not have a bunch of people get together or go through so much effort because then I don't feel like anyone was put out by it and also that no one felt pressure to attend, etc. It is just another way in which the distance between here and Minnesota is more than a little freeing. I don't have to worry about organizing any events and I don't have to even consider motives for people not being able to attend. Its win-win all around.

One of these days Andrea will be emailing or posting or maybe just describing, pictures of our apartment post-unpacking.

And the odd ting is, it feels like we just got here and as if we've been here forever, all at the same time, all after 30 days.

We're all liking, if not loving, our new jobs, we're collecting paychecks, we're paying bills, and Felix finally made it through a whole night in his own bed. Here's hoping for two in a row.

And now something from home:

Brooklyn's in the house!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Do you want to know what's the worst thing about semi-stupid help-desk people? They do not believe that there is anything beyond the script. Well, if i can ping your cable modem, there's NO REASON you can't get on the internet. All the right lights are blinking and all of the tests that I can run come back "normal" therefore nothing is wrong. Your inability to connect to the internet must have something to do with you not being bounced around between the local and national helpdesks enough times, or not turning the damn modem and computer off and back on in just the right sequence...or something.

Grrr. I WORK with these things, been using them for a long time, and when i tell you that the modem is not working correctly, odds are, I'M RIGHT. So tomorrow I am going to bring my supposedly perfectly working cable modem into a TimeWarner location and trading it for another perfectly working cable modem, because its impossible to get these jerkoffs to come to your house.

Luckily the phantom wireless network that was in place when we moved in is still there, still unlocked, so I can connect to TimeWarner's website to find thew phone number to call up these helpless people. And of cours,e an hour later, I can post this pissed off blog.

bday

Tomorrow is #32. I am firmly established in adulthood now, it seems.

Bloggersphere

I got to introduce myself to the rest of the IT at today's staff meeting. Other points of note, we're looking at starting our own company "blog" and just "three years behind everyone else." (not my words) Heh, its a fun place. I like it.

Got email from our agent and the house situation is starting to sound a little better, just not better enough. Not yet, anyway.

Also got email from Mom, a internet junk mail about a little kid's school essay about why he believes in God. I responded back...twice. Hope it doesn't come off too snidely...I'm just a little worn out with it. Richard Dawkins may be an asshole when it comes to his rabid attacks on religion, but he makes a very good point. Why should people's religions be held in greater esteem than other aspects of their personal lives? You can joke around about all sorts of things, but don't mess with a person's religious beliefs, their convictions. Oh no, not that! Even if they believe a DIFFERENT religion, you should still respect that. Yeah? Then why not respect a woman's right to have an abortion? I don't mean her legal right, I mean her belief in it. That's just like religion. It's something she believes without any real factual basis, just something she knows because maybe someone told her and it seemed right to her. Or how about respecting a religion where the women are mutilated so as not to experience pleasure from the acts of sex? It's just as valid a religion as the rest of them, but somehow the fact that some part of it is so distasteful that it overrules the sacred protection that religion gets as part of the social contract. And don't get me started on the gays. You can honestly say, with a straight face, that you can respect Mohammed Jihadmiester's personal belief in Islam but somehow Adam and Steve are an abomination because they want to live together for the rest of their lives and keep each other company and happy, just like Merle and Edie have been doing for thousands of years? Gimme a break. Hate-crime laws and legalized gay marriage, that's the real war on terror.

I appreciate the crazy street preachers and the mad dog fundamentalists because at least with them you are allowed to view religion in the proper context.

Rock

Well, another good day at work. For both Andrea and I. As we all knew and expected, Andrea really likes her new job, her new employers, and her new home. I feel the same way. I imagine that given the opportunity, we'd both stay at our respective jobs much longer than we're expected to stay. But Felix gives us both reason to return home. I know what you're all thinking, "Don't you want to see each other?" But we don't need to go home for that. During lunch I hopped on the six and met Andrea at her new studio. We walked a few blocks away and sat on a bench and ate our sandwiches together. When she works during the day, Andrea learns something that I've known all along; you really come to look forward to and enjoy your time with your kids when you spend most of their waking hours at work. Tonight Andrea gave Felix his bath because she wanted to get more quality time with him. I usually give him his baths (not always, but more often than not) but I know what she's talking about. We've been giving him baths almost every night since his new favorite thing to do is rub his dinner into his eyes and hair. You just can't clean that up with a paper towel or a wash cloth. Doing that only cleans the surface and makes his hair start to smell like sour milk the next day.

All in all, life is good.

Mondays

Heh, not the "I hate Mondays" type of post that usually bears this type of title. In fact, I am looking forward to Monday. My first Monday at my new job. Not that Mondays are any different from any other day at the office, but for me, it is the signifier of my first complete week at work. And I hope to make some real traction on my new work load. I have ideas and I'm going to be able to work on them, for real! I asked my boss last week about current processes, etc, and he said, "My only requirement is that it works, doesn't break anything, and doesn't make it more difficult for anyone else. Otherwise, go for it...but run it by me first." Of course. But, yee-haw!

Ok ok ok. But yes, it is nice to be looking forward to going to work in the morning.

day too

So here we are on our 2nd full day of NYCitizenship. Something I have noticed is that a LOT of the people who go walking or walk their dogs in the morning wear shirts that have NYC bradning or logos of some sort or another. Makes me wonder if they are tourists who converted to residents and just never gave up their souvenir shop wardrobes or maybe these shirts are their grubby-grungy-don't-care-about-it clothes. I don't know. I just always find it strange when you are at a place and you see people wearing shirts that reference that place (unless it's supposed to be ironic). Like, there's a shop just down the street that sells nothing but Brooklyn apparel. I get it, but I imagined it is for people to gear up before going abroad, not to wear Brooklyn across their chests while actually being IN Brooklyn. You know, like the line from PCU: "You're wearing the shirt of the band to the show? Don't be that guy."

Anyway, again, the morning ritual has played itself out: Felix gets up early, gets Andrea and I up, I get dressed, pack him in the stroller, go get coffee, and off we go for our walk. I decided to not go the same way I went yesterday and explore the park more. That is on damn big park. We walked along the path the went south, then cut over to the walking path on the side of the parkway. The road slopes down and to the east, eventually bottoming out at the lake at the southern end of the park. And I mean lake, like a real lake, not like the pond at Powderhorn. We looked at the ducks then headed along another path back north up into what I expect was more the middle of the park. We came across more open areas where people were letting their dogs run. Felix was getting bored and tired (I wasn't letting him out of the stroller because the grass was still wet with dew...and I'm a little paranoid about all the dogs) so we headed back west eventually. Under a tunnel and then out the other side I could hear water rushing. It was "The Ravine" where Felix and I had walked yesterday. We came out into familiar open area and went past the dog beach, through the park, and then home. Felix was revved up at home and wanted to play. I finally got him down for a nap, at which everyone else who was awake went back to bed to try and get more sleep (except me).

Last night we put a dent in the unpacking process. We didn't unpack so much as move things around to free up a lot of the space we'd been hogging with poorly situated furniture and boxes. ALso, yesterday I put together our new bed from IKEA. Today I will finish it up by assembling the drawers that go in its base. I also assembled Andrea's desk and moved all of our various shelving units around to get them out of the way. We now seem to have some living space, and I imagine it will only get better as we get things put away. Andrea and Glen are trying to get the kitchen in order, contact papering the cabinets and drawers so we can put our flatware, dishware, and food away. I can't wait till the kitchen is up and running. There's so many options for eating out, but it really does get tiresome. It will be nice to get back to some of our standard home cooking. We need to do a grocery shopping trip, for real.

Tomorrow is my first day at my new job. I'm a little nervous, as I guess is to be expected. I mean, you interview, you talk to the people, you get a job description, etc., but you never really know what its going to be like until you get there and get started. And, of course, just like in Minneapolis, going to work will be a sort of escape from home. I'll have my morning and evening commutes, but while I'm at work, I'm not thinking of home things. It will be nice to get back to the technical side of my life. For the past weeks I've been locked in non-technical mover/builder/packer/unpacker/stacker/mechanical mode.

And I'm sure I'll be sopping up the remnants of the address fiasco for a couple more days, but all in all, things are looking pretty good. We only have a short list of things for the landlord to fix/get fixed/reimburse us for fixing. I don't know that he did much of a run-through for the previous tenants. They cleared their stuff out and they did a little paint touch up here and there but it doesn't seem that they cleaned very much. Or perhaps they just assumed we'd be repainting. But there are a few doozies, like the doorknob (or lack thereof) on the bathroom door.

nycyoulater

Well, we have made it. All of our stuff is up the 3 flights of narrow stairs and we officially "moved in". I expect we'll be unpacked in time for spring cleaning.

My dad and I drove the big yellow truck cross-country and met up with Andrea, Felix, and Glen who stayed behind to close up shop and then flew out here on Saturday. I think it is safe to say that they had the harder time of it, living without furniture or regular conveniences while trying to manage a baby and a full schedule of house cleaning. Felix came through it OK I think though he put some serious wear and tear on Glen and Andrea who were like zombies when we met them at the apartment. I had it much easier by far. My only difficulty was trying to keep my ass from going numb or my neck from getting sore during the bumpy bouncy ride, or trying to keep my armsa and legs from freezing solid from the arctic wind coming from the AC for 1200 miles. We had beds (or couches) to sleep in every night and wireless internet too. We stopped for meals at rather regular intervals, had a bag full of goodies to munch between meals. The sound system in the truck was fu so we attempted to listen to an audio book for ab out 5 minutes before giving up, same with the radio on the next day. All in all, the drive was not too bad. Dad drove day 1 and 3 and I drove day 2. I think the unloading was a lot harder than the driving, for sure. I wish we had chloroformed and packed up a couple of our truck-loading helpers. Hey, free trip to nyc.

So, with wireless internet at each evening stop I had high hopes of blogging the trip as a serial. We can all see how that ended up. The first night we got in at about 2am. That was in Toledo at grandma's house. The second night we arrived at the Days Inn in the Poconos at about 11pm, but the "wandering wifi" was so damn slow it was painful to use. We finally arrived in Park Slope at about 2pm. Our internet isn't getting installed until the 6th, but luckily someone nearby has left their wireless open with no encryption. I think it's OK for me to borrow it for the next couple days so long as we don't do anything bandwidth intensive like downloading shows. The Tea Lounge just down the street also has free wifi.

So, this morning Felix was ready to go at 7:30am. He was probably ready much sooner but I wasn't. Andrea is still trying to regain her sanity from three days of sleep deprivation. I packed Felix into his stroller and off we went in search of my Sunday morning cup of coffee. First we went to one of the gazillion little grocery markets near our house and bought some Felix necessities so we could easily feed him through out the day as well as a couple odds and ends for the rest of us. It's great having all these little markets but we need to find a bigger grocery store that offers better prices. There are a couple that are a little further away (haven't checked prices yet). The little places are great when you need something quick, but not what we should be using for daily or weekly shopping trips. Anywhoo, we loaded the groceries into the stroller and one bag around my wrist, walked for ab out 5 blocks back past our street and found as place thats open 24hrs (remember, its 7ish on a Sunday/holiday weekend) and got me a large coffee. I think it was $1.25. Not bad. Caffeine in hand, and Felix happily munching on a banana (then a nectarine), we headed on our real walk. We went back up our street, past our house, and on to Prospect Park, which is a block and a half away from us. Walking through the park, it looked like there had been some serious partyin there last night and a lot of the guests were still there! Seemed strange. Then I realized what was going on. This is Sunday before Labor Day. I'm sure that there were lots of people grilling out in the park yesterday and the people I was seeing this morning were staking their claims on the BBQ grills for today's grilling. See, grilling is only allowed in specific areas of the park. We walked on, further into the park.

Nearer the middle of the park is a huge open area with rolling berms and slopes. The park was covered in dogs. Ah, the Sunday morning dog people were out and their dogs were mostly running free. Coffees in hand, poop-baggie dispensers at the ready, the dog people of Brooklyn were letting the dogs out in force. Everyone was very well behaved. Those are the two things you see all over Park Slope: Babies in strollers and well behaved dogs. Back to the park. There is some water at the park, some ponds and streams. At one of the ponds there is a fence or gate the runs out into the water, creating a small dog beach and swimming area. Wet, well behaved, dogs.

We walked around a bit, saw some of the waterfalls Glen had mentioned yesterday, and headed home. Felix was asleep by the time we reached our front stoop and covered in nectarine pulp. I was tempted to leave him there so I could bring in the groceries but instead I just left the stroller. On my way back up with the stroller and Felix we ran into our downstairs neighbor, whose name just so happens to be Felix too. He has a daughter that I think is a little younger than our Felix. We said good morning and he said, "How was your first night in New York?" "Oh, it was OK, I think." "What about this little guy?" "You didn't hear him?" "Thick walls," he said with a big grin. I guess so. You probably only hear him crying if you are on our level or perhaps if you are outside and the window is open.

Back up in our apartment, the place is a disaster, but a sort of nicely controlled one. Everyone else is still in bed. I cleaned Felix up and after he played around for a while I was able to put him down for his nap. Finally, he's able to get a regular nap.

My dad seems to have taken well to the neighborhood. He said, "Some part of me envies you living here." "Yeah," I said, "the part that doesn;t have to carry furniture up 3 flights of stairs." Actually we weren't too rough on him. He mostly stayed in the back of the truck and handed stuff down to us, only being pulled in for heavy heavy lifting when he, Glen, and I carried the credenza up. It was heavy, but not nearly as difficult as we thought it would be. It turns out the most fearsome furniture we moved up was the queen mattress, which I had to use brute force to bend in unnatural ways to get it up the last flight of stairs. As I described it to my dad, we had to "taco" it. Never miss the opportunity to use the word taco as a verb.

So we are effectively moved in. All we need to do now is get our essentials unpacked and situated and then set about arranging and decorating, etc.

I think dad really likes it here, except for all of the walking. Apparently his hips give him trouble when he walks too far.

We are now New Yorkers. Even dad, who is an honorary New Yorker since he seems to enjoy sitting out on the stoop and watching people go by.

Today has started out fairly well.

big-ticket

So, we got the new title for the car in record time and within 30 minutes of getting it I have started the process to donate it. One more large loose end tied up.

Just got one thing left...

its in his head

Well, we have seen proof that the only thing keeping Felix from walking is his own personal/mental/intellectual reason. He has been practicing standing on his own quite a bit lately, and every time we go to the library he sees other kids who are around his age or older and sees them running, walking, standing. Every time we come home from the library, he seems to want to try out what he's seen. Last night he looked like he was really trying to walk. This morning while he was playing, he was standing by the couch, holding on with his hand for moral support, when a garbage truck pulled into the alley. Felix is fascinated by garbage trucks in the same way people are fascinated by sharks and bears and tigers: awed, amazed, curious, and a little scared. Anyway, when he heard the garbage truck's tri-tone back-up alarm, he looked up and out the window and without even hesitating walked two steps unassisted, through open air, and put his hand on the coffee table for the last few steps to the window before pressing his face to the glass and trying to see the elusive garbage truck. Andrea was laying on the couch, uncharacteristically partaking of mine and Felix's morning ritual, and i was sitting on the bottom of the stairs. We both looked at each other in astonishment. There was no warning, no wobbly baby-stepping, just, "What's that? I'm going over there NOW!" regular, confident, unconscious walking. Andrea and I immediately clobbered each other in the middle of the living room floor, saying, "Did you see that?! He walked!" and hugs and kisses and the happy random tear, all the while Felix looked out the window and then at us as if to say, "What are you guys making all that noise about? Can't you see there's a garbage truck out there?"

afterthought

Oh yeah. I guess i haven't explicitly mentioned it since Monday (though I maybe mentioned it in passing the other night) but I did get the offer from the company I wanted to work for on Tuesday morning right as I got off the plane and I accepted. So, I think I said I wasn't stressed out anymore since our living arrangements have been solidified and our working arrangements have been solidified, but that's the deal. I got the offer from the company in midtown Manhattan as a "network engineer" though I'll actually be the SMS engineer and application packaging expert. Since the company is only about 1000 employees and the IT is something like 30-40 people, I'll get to get my feet wet in all kinds of other areas. It sounds like its going to be a lot of fun and a very good job for me. I turned down the higher paying consulting job on Long Island for this job. In a way, I did the same thing Andrea did: I picked the job I knew I would really enjoy and grow in, not the one that offered the most money or the shiniest carrot. It really is astonishing how quickly all of these things have fallen into place. From everything I read and hear (even from our new landlord) our experience relocating to New York is incredibly unique and definitely the exception to the rule. In the same regard, I would say, hey, look at us, we're not magical wand-waving wizards making this happen. We aren't even religious and don't attribute any of this success to any external origins like karma, kismet, god, or luck. I guess "luck" in so far as it represents favorable coincidence or circumstance allowing for a less probable positive outcome. I'm sure I'll hear from my mom because she's been praying for us this whole time and may be a bit miffed that I'm disputing the impact that might have had on our outcome...sorry mom, no offense meant. But thanks for thinking of us! It's always nice to know that people are concerned with how things are going. As a material humanist my tongue in cheek response to "I'm praying for you" would be "I'd prefer money." Of course I wouldn't say that to my mom. My parents are retired, after all...

OK, so before this spins off into a philosophical monologue, I'll just say: Got the job, got the apartment, got the nanny, got it all! Just gotta get the house sold.

obligatory

yes, I'm up and its almost midnight so here's the obligatory post.

It is very very odd, this stretch of time I find myself in. Andrea and I are both home all day (meaning, not at work) but we're not fretting about finding work, finding a place to live, or anything. Andrea is focused on what to do to get ready for the move. I'm doing whatever she says she needs me to do. Sure, I have a few of my own things to do, but my major stresses are out of the picture. The house, well, the house. I'm cashing out my 401K (oh no, they all groan in chorus) which should pay for the mortgage until the house sells, or even allow us to help the house sell sooner. Once I'm looking at paying the mortgage AND rent AND bills out of my salary alone, THEN I'll get stressed about the house. But for now I'm in this weird place where I'm not on vacation, but I'm not working, and I'm not freaked out. It's really weird, but in a good sort of way.

Its like a never ending stream of saturdays and sundays, which is really weird in itself, but which also does things to your mind. I'm losing track of what day it is. The largest unit of time I can really remember is an hour. You go beyon hours and I just don't know what you're talking about. Today and tomorrow is about as concrete as I can fathom. Was today Tuesday or Wednesday? I think it was Thursday, actually. Seriously. I've been doing my Saturday schedule for several days now, and enjoying it. Will I be able to adjust to going to work? Is this what a vacation feels like?

I spend the mornings with Felix, playing in the park...he's just about to start walking. I can see he's starting to try.

I have started making breakfasts and lunches and dinners...

I don't know how to explain it...on the one hand I feel like i have tons of time, on the other hand, I don't really have any free time for leisure. This few chunks of time I've grabbed tonight are sort of fluky. I htink it seems like i had time tonight because I was doing something that didn't require much thought and i was able to double up tasks. We're manually destroying all of our old records and paperwork that we've accumulated in our filing cabinet, retaining only what we decide is actually useful.

Honestly, I don't know why you are supposed to save all your utility bills and pay stubs and bank statements. Maybe the last years worth, but all of them? We have a wooden filing cabinet that is packed full of papers...most we never even look at again but are stashing away because we think we're supposed to. So now we're going back through them all and blacking out vital info with a sharpie and then shredding the pages (by hand so far, poor andrea). I mean, seriously, why take all of that with us? Is it necessary? It hasn't been so far.

I got William Gibson's new book from the library....had it sitting on my dresser for two days now...and I'm worried I'm not even going to get to read it because I don't have all of those idle chunks of time that you have when you're in the midst of a normal life. No bus rides to work, no lazy afternoons...every moment seems to be full of something. I'm actually sort of disappointed that these few moments I have I'm writing here instead of opening that book. I guess I'll have plenty of time for stuff like that once life resumes. Subways and lunch breaks and weekends during nap time. Those things will all resume at some point in the not so distant future. Right now feels like...hang time. Slow motion. Like pollen drifting through a sunbeam.

shazaam!

Somehow, I think we've actually managed to pull it off. This morning I signed a lease and put down security deposit and first month rent on a beautiful 2 bedroom in thhe heart of Park Slope. Incidentally, it was the only apartment we actually managed to see over the weekend (that's a WHOLE long tale I won't get into right now). We LUCKED OUT, big time. I think what it came down to was that the owner met all of us, saw how determined we were to move, got a good feeling for us, and decided we were the type of people he wanted as neighbors. Seriously, I'm sure other people looking at the place might have had higher paying salaries or better credit (than me, andrea and glen have good credit). Whatever the case, we made a very good impression and they liked us. So I secured the deal this morning before going out to my two interviews. The resul of those is that I am almost guaranteed a job I really think I'm going to love with people I can really get along with in a convenient place (midtown Manhattan)...they just need to pow wow tomorrow morning and contact the placement agency with their offer, which I no-doubt will accept. And that, as they say, will be that. In a matter of days we'll have tied up all of the most crusial loose ends and my world will once again be returned to a state of sanity. I think I've lost 10 lbs during this trip from all the hiking and lifting of Felix's stroller going up and down to the supways and such. No wonder new yorkers aren't fat!

pocket blog

ok... i've been living on my pocket pc while in new york, which is a real bitch for writing emails and blog entries. I have several in progress and several in planning but you're going to have to wait. this entry took 3 minutes to write.

no vacation

It's quarter past five in the a.m. and everybody but me is at the airport trying to get their flight home. My stay in ny has been extended for a number of reasons, not least including job interviews and apartment hunting. Needless to say, both avenues have been both reassuring and stressful. Both fronts have wonderful opportunity but also require us to just wait. And they're all timed wrong. The apartment rests solely on whether or not the financial figures work out. The jobs both hinge on my interviews on monday. It would be so much easier to land the apartment if my job was nailed down. sigh...

so the title comes from a conversation with Andrea. When telling people that we're moving to new york, a common response is, "I love visiting new york but i wouldn't want to live there." Well, when I compare my experiences in new york, including the two times I came out here to visit Andrea during her internship and now this past week, I agree with Andrea's assessment that people have it all wrong. Visiting New York would not be what we consider a vacation. The reason being that you need to put so much time and effort into planning out your trips into the city that it could hardly be relaxing. You see the droves of tourists coursing from the WTC station out and up top China town and you just think, "i would hate to spend my free time trying to pack all of that into a short trip." If you mess up one of your subways or connections, you could end up way way way off course and with tons of stress. New York would be a very stressful vacation, think, unless you are throwing a lot of money down the tube and staying at a hotel in manhattan and using taxis to get all around. Otherwise, all that walking and hauling your shit around, with no place to sit or pee...does not sound like a vacation to me! I'd rather live here an have my own relative homebases like a place of work, a home to go home to at the end of the day, maybe a frequent hangout, a place to really rest up for real. I have not been here on vacation by any stretch of the imagination, but I have had to get all over and let me tell you, I'm beat!

sleepless in minapple

Yeah, when she sees this I'm sure Andrea will ill me, but what the hell. If she is asleep right now, it is only because her body has shut down. SHe said she couldn't sleep at all last night. Well, I slept fitfully last night and tonight I'm wide awake. So I'm tootling around the house, trying to do little things here and there to ease our transition. We fly out to NY tonight on a 6:55p flight, but travelling with Felix, we're going to try to get to the airport at about 4pm. We will arrive in NY around 10 something local time. No idea what shape Felix will be in. Then we hightail it over to Jersey City to crash at Ally and Mushi's. Then we have to be up at the crack of dawn. I have a round of interviews starting at 9am in midtown Manhattan, Andrea has a tour of a daycare, I have another interview at 1:30pm in midtown, Andrea wants to stop in at the studio and get her paper-work started as well as pick up her check for the freelance she did and her letter of employment, then we are camping out in a park to interview nannies. All this time, Glen will be interviewing at various restaurants. Friday we have another daycare tour and more nanny interviews. Saturday is designated as our day to go to open houses or visit apartments and try to get one secured. Sunday, Andrea, Felix, and Glen probably fly home in the early morning. I will stick around for an interview on Monday out on Long Island. Between now and then, we may all add interviews on any given day...this trip will be packed.

Somewhere in there we have to eat, let Felix stretch his legs, sleep, get Felix some naps, and try to keep from losing our minds.

So, here's the tag line for this particular NYC full length feature:

One apartment, Marry Poppins, two jobs...can you find all fo these in New York City in three days? You'll find out soon enough!

yes no maybe NOT

Wow. SO now I'm like, unemployed. It feels very weird, very scary. I think its scary because I have no idea how long my hang-time is going to be. The deal with going right back to work with my previous employer is all but off the table since they discovered (rather late in the game) that they did not need our direct VP's approval (my boss's boss's boss's boss's boss) but actually the "pyramid executive" which turns out to be the CIO. So...yeah. While everyone was all confident that they'd make it happen, slam dunk, etc, now they're all "Oh, gee...I dunno if we can really make a good case to her..." Wtf? It's the same damn case, isn't it? Or maybe its just too embarrasing or something, to admit that you have a little team somewhere that relies on a small handful of people to keep things not only running from day to day, but keep things moving forward. I have no doubt that my old team can keep chugging along pushing their buttons and accomplishing their day to day work without me. But what they'll find is that not much new happens. Anything new that happens will come from outside of the team, and let me tell you, it sucks a huge load to have someone external to your team start calling the shots. But, you know, I've been saying half jokingly that once I'm gone the team will be dissolved and the functions will be dispersed to various similar type teams. I actually sort of left a proposal for just that in my last project update.

Who knows. Maybe when my old new boss gets back from vacation he'll decide he really REALLY needs me back (but I really don't think so) and I'll get that phone call.

Here's the part that I hate, though. I have my next paycheck coming up which will be a full pay period worth of pay PLUS about 6 weeks of vacation paid out. Then, somewhere from 2 to 3 weeks after that I can cash out my 401K which will be another nice lump sum (side not: everyone groans and says "Oh, you get nailed on that cash out, though, ugh, its horrible! Don't do that...") but you know, for me the 401K is a lot like a tax refund. Even though I always kept tabs on it and sometimes adjusted my contributions or the way it was "invested", that steadily growing number was more like a video game score, not like real money, because it wasn't connected directly to my day-to-day well being. On the one hand, yes, it sucks that I'm going to lose thousands of dollars by cashing it out and I will effectively have to start from scratch with my retirement savings. But those are all things that I don't really feel right now. Even at a number somwhat less than that arcade score I've been monitoring, it'll be like real net positive cash flow that will be desperately needed even if I don't start working immediately. So, in the next month or so I will actually have a lot MORE money on hand than usual specifically because I left my job. Bit it doesn't feel like that's real, either, until it happens.

And of course we also have special circumstances all around that make that infusion of cash no longer a luxury, but a necessity. So, while I'm quite used to and capable of floating through the second week between paychecks on a couple hundred bucks, it feels a lot different when in the middle of that week we're taking a trip and will need to have money at our disposal for traveling expenses. And of course we'll need to put down a hunk of cash for an apartment which could eat up all of my vacation and some of my regular pay, and then there's moving costs, which is going to be a couple grand, and of course we'll have to keep paying the mortgage until the house sells... so, even with large than usual amounts of money flowing in, we're still doing a delicate dangerous balancing act. And even if its not as bad as I'm making it out to be, the point is that it FEELS that way. This stands to be our most tense and stressful month yet.

And to make it worse, I'm now without many of the resources I'm used to having at my disposal, like decent laptop computers, access to almost any computer-related or business-related book for free (books 24x7 is one of the great untapped benefits at my preious employer. I used to tap it all the time), health insurance, dental, prescription...sigh. There are so many things we probably should have made sure we did first, like get a 3 month supply of prescriptions, any last checkups or things.

Sigh.
Felix calls. I have to go.
Good luck.
Send money.

major tom

So I handed in my official resignation at work. My official last day is this coming Friday. So, what to do? Well, its sounding like I'm probably going to go right back to work in nearly the same job but as an independent contractor. This works great for me because it gives me a stead ypaycheck until I find work in new York. It also allows me to continue working on and hopefully transitioning some of my current projects rather than have them die on the vine. There's only so much you can do with documentation, after all. So, counting down... of course the contracting thing is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination, so I can't go counting on that cash flow just yet.

On top of that, as soon as my new boss came up with the contracting as an option I got a response and subsequently had a phone interview with a game design company in New York who is looking for someone like me to be their IT infrastructure guy. I'm just afraid I scared them away with my suggested salary requirement. Have not heard from them in over a week now. We'll see what develops there. I'd like to work for them, but since its a smaller shop than I'm used to (30 full time staff vs. the bajillions of people working at my current company) they might not even be able to offer a competitive salary in my range. I mean, I can mae a super great case but if they just can't afford it, they can't afford it. I just hope they come back to the table.

Today we had our first open house and it sounds like a few people came and there is at least THAT much interest. No telling how much is just people who like going to open houses for recreation. Hopefully something will come out of it. We got out of the house and took Andrea's dad to lunch and afterwards Andrea, her brother, Felix and I all went to the beach for a couple hours. The first time Felix went to the beach he was content to stay in the very very shallow water and play in the wet sand or ty to bury our blanket. This time he had a great time being carried into the deeper water (only up to my waist) by mom and dad and splash around. I spent most of the time crouched so the water was up to my shoulders/his middle. He played around with us in the water quite a bit. As scared of water as I was as a kid, I'm very conscious of doing things that might freak him out. I'd like to avoid giving him that sort of negative experience. I don't know where my initial fears of deep water came from, but as a result I did get dunked by more than one swimming instructor. Looking back, I realize they were probably jr. high kids or high school kids working a summer job, but back then I thought they were adults, so it was a very damaging experience for me. Anyway, Felix is such a physical kid that I don't want to prematurely turn him off of any avenues for expending his energy.

And in two weeks we fly out to NY to look for apartments, nannies, jobs, etc.

birthday massacre

Saturday we had Felix's birthday party and family and friends were there at the park for grilling and food and a pinata. I haven't been to aikido classes in almost a year but I pulled out my trusty jo and the kids had at the pinata with it. Unfortunately it was so solidly constructed that even after knocking the legs off it's main candy cargo compartment there was no sign of the prizes within. Finally I stepped in (the kids were getting TIRED from beating on this thing) and delivered a standard body strike (I think I executed with decent form) and the anticipated candy explosion finally happened. Suddenly the kids were no longer tired but were anxiously scrabbling around on the ground for the brightly wrapped sugar bombs.

The weather was perfect - mid 80s, breezy, no rain.

And we managed to give back almost all of the remaining baby stuff; good luck to you all planning on having another baby!

I got a little burned on the back of my neck, legs, and arms. Felix did not get burned. He does, however, have a farmer's tan, just like his dad :)

Today we took Felix for his 1-yr dr. appointment with vaccinations and blood labs. ugh. It turns out he's only 20.45lbs (only about 1 pound, or a little over 1 pound since his 6 months appt.) which puts him in the 16th percentile for weight. The doctor said, "well, we expect the weight gain to drop around this time because he's so active...what kind of milk is he drinking?" and I'm like, "Uh...breast milk...what else would he be drinking? He drinks a lot of water." "You should start him on whole cows milk now. How much water is he drinking? You can just give him whole milk from now on." I made a joke, "No skim milk for you,k kiddo!" and she said something like, "Yes, you'll have to get different milks now. Most parents are happy once they can finally giove the baby the family milk...What do you drink now?" to which I repsonded, "We don't drink milk...but I guess we'll start buying it now. He has had soymilk a few timesa and he likes that, but there's sugar in it, so he doesn't get much."

Apparently she thinks he isn't putting on weight because he's very active and because we are not giving him a steady diet of cow milk and sugary juices. He eats fruit, veggies, meats, breads, and yogurt by the ton (and poops it by the half-ton), so I don't know that he's really under weight. I was a little surprised that he only gained about a pound, but then again, he has gone from barely crawling at 6 months to full-on monkey status (crawling, rolling, hopping, climbing, swinging...just not walking upright) at 1 year. He sure seems bigger. Jus tyesterday after his bath I was holding him up in front of the full-length mirror and for the first time realized how long his legs are. You don't notice so much when he's clothed and playing because his knees are always bent and he has pants and diaper, and all his gear on, but seeing him all straightened out, the kid has looong legs. His legs are as long as his head and torso together, it seems like. But he's only in the 30 something percentile for height, I think. So who knows. I still think that these percentile scores aren't necessarily a good developmental judgement considering how obese Americans, and American children specifically, are these days. Are these global scores or just American scores? And wouldn't it make more sense to have height, weight, and head circumference correlated and maybe combined into a single score? I mean, what does it say, developmentally? If you are just looking for tracking your single child's development, what's the point in comparing it to other kids? I guess after reading/listening to Freakanomics I question the usefulness of these % scores. I mean, they never really tell us what they mean or what they are deducing from them, or even if those deductions are actually logical. What's to say that Felix isn't in the 16th percentile in weight for his age because most kids between 6 amd 12 months put on a lot of weight due to their parents starting to feed them "adult" foods like Big Macs and Coca Cola? And Juice...my god, juice...sugar water.

One of the gifts Felix got was an electronic talking nursery rhymes book, which had your standard marketing on it, pictures of a right-aged child using said toy. On this box the child was obese, I mean like puffy, drooping cheeks, porcine, obese. The kid didn't even look happy. It was shocking. That was the model that the advertising people put on this product. I wonder if that's what they thought represented the "everychild". I wonder if they did research and found that that model DID represent the everychild. What does that say about the usefulness of the growth percentiles?

Anyway, on to the massacre...pinata massacre on Saturday, Felix massacre on Monday morning. After getting his three immunizations, which was heart wrenching, we took him up to the lab where they drew blood. On children, they draw blood by pricking their finger with a lancet and then milking wound into little vials. So, Felix is sitting on my lap and I'm holding him still and the lab tech pierces his finger then starts sopping up the blood with an alcohol nap, probably to keep him from clotting, and then proceeds to squeeze his finger and scrape it with these little plastic vials. She finishes up with this first vial and then, trying to cap it with the same hand, slips and tosses the entire vial of blood on my shirt, face, and pants. I was less upset about the blood on my clothes than I was about the fact that she had just wasted a vial of Felix's blood and would now have to do it again, prolonging his agony (and it was agony, believe me). Poor little guy. We left looking like there had been a massacre. I went hime to change my shirt instead of being dropped off at work, so I was an hour later than I had planned on. Poor Felix.
Happy Birthday little guy...

sale sale sale

Ok, so we survived the yard sale and came out OK. We moved a ton of stuff and still had some stuff left over. I got rid of 75% of my assorted computer gizmos and related junk. I haven't had time to tinker with any of the less than 100% complete computers in years anyway. Some people got some good goddamn deals, I tell ya.

And, to top it off, we put an add on Craigslist saying that we would have leftovers for free affter the sale. Let me tell you...it was like out of a movie. 4:30pm rolled up on us like the fuzz busting a good old whorehouse. Cars skidding to a halt and people rushing up and grabbing whatever they could get their hands on. Andrea says, "everything on that table is free." and heads inside and I stop her and ask, "Are we giving the table away for free?" "What? NO." "Well, then I think we better get it inside."

Sure enough, within about 10 minutes only the most despicable dregs of our sale were left on the boulevard. I chucked that stuff into the dumpster an hour later.

And tonight we signed on the dotted line to put our house on the market. Go baby go.

Tomorrow I think I will and in my notice at work. So much is happening in such a compressed amount of time. It is a truly bizarre space to be in. When I'm at work all i can do is look for another job. When I'm home, all i can do is think about work and all the stuff I'd like to accomplish or wrap up before I'm gone. It's weird to consider that I will possibly be unemployed for a period of time. How weird and scary is that? If things work out in a particular order, we could be homeless as well (although that would actually be a GOOD thing).

In a way, it would be really nice if we were just able to cut ties and make the leap to NY. The only real anchor is the house. If I didn't have that mortgage to worry about, we could just pull up stakes and go. Sigh. On the up side, 1 way airline tickets are pretty cheap if you buy them a couple weeks in advance. Obviously round-trip is cheaper if you know your return date and buy with similar lead time, but in the event that I have t fly out to NY early, or if I stay longer and then flay back here at a different date...

Who knows. details details. I don't like the idea of splitting the family up if its not absolutely necessary.

gar-bage sale

So, day one of our yard/porch sale (since we have no garage) was pretty successful. We still have a lot of the stuff we really wanted to get rid of, but you can tell that people were coming in from the Craigslist posting. I kept wondering why everyone was asking "So, moving to New York, huh?"

We had advertised that we were going from 11am to 4pm. At about 10am Andrea and Glen we starting to get everything set up. By 10:15am there was a swarm of people sifting through our stuff. By the time 11am rolled around the surge had ebbed and we were a bit dazed. A steady stream of people, mostly looking for some of the things that had been swept up in the first mad rush, came by. It felt great, like we really stood a chance of getting rid of most of our stuff AND making a tiny little profit at the same time. But then the initial surge was over, whether they were mostly craiglist people or just passers by, and the adrenaline ebbed, and then THOSE people started showing up. You know them...garage sale assholes. They drive expensive cars and have deep dark tans and usually ponytails (on the guys) or expensive-yet-badly-done dye jobs. They haggle when haggling is not even needed, when its not even tasteful. They had no rhyme or reason to their garage sale purchases except that they got a deal. These are the people who, when looking through your collection of vintage fur coats that you are obviously selling for MUCH less than they would find in even the most bargain basement thrift shop, they still ask for more off, even if its just a dollar. They ask because they feel like they can, like they've got you over a barrel. And they know you are torn between standing firm on that one dollar but they might also be offering to buy something that you know nobody else probably will. You know, maybe it is the gall to ask for that one dollar that keeps them driving a Lexus, but I can't help but to feel that for them, it doesn't matter what they're buying, its the making a deal, the getting of someone to submit to their will that motivates the to buy the most random assortment of shit, and then haggle over it.

You know these people. They are the ones who will peruse your collection of DVDs and comment on how they can "get this stuff cheaper on ebay." Then go log on, asshole. You pay no shipping and handling here and your gratification is almost instant. Further more, we're not selling because we need the money to pay for kidney transplants, we're selling because we need to de-clutter and perhaps supplement our moving fund. Cripes. It only takes on really bad garage sale asshole to sour a day for me.

And, incidentally, it appears I have not completely forgotten how to speak spanish. A large portion of our customers have been hispanic, many of whom spoke little english. Granted, mostly just saying numbers and pointing at things, or clarifying "Para todos" or "cada uno". But still...helpful. At least I know I can still count to 100 en espanol.

Hopefully we'll do as well on day 2. I need to post to craigslist again and also set up a posting on freecycle to let people know that they can get stuff for free after we're done.

Pirate is NOT the new Ninja

I discovered Ask a Ninja today.
enjoy

here's the new recruit

Well, this morning I spent about 40 minutes making calls to HR and 401K and did the paycheck math and figured out my absolutely optimum "last day". Then, of course, I reported my findings to the CEO of the relocation enterprise. I won't be announcing to my employer when intend to vacate until sometime next week, when me new boss has officially started. He already knows my plans (in the elevator today he offered to link me up with a guy he knows out east who might be hiring) just, like everyone else, does not know the specifics. Originally I was going to hang on to my job until i found a new one to go to, but that's just not in the cards. There's something called money at play here, namely the large sums of it we are going to need to actually move, so while I steady paycheck is nice, what we're really going to need is some rapid infusions of lump sums like all those weeks of vacation I've never used and all that 401K (heh, if left alone, in 60 years it might be a tidy sum, but as far as 401K goes, its not exactly a retirement savings just yet) that isn't really all that much, but could mean the world in terms of securing housing, paying a mortgage (until the house sells), and allowing us to float at least until Andrea starts getting paid.

So, the title...I posted my resume online and I mentioned before frequently getting called by headhunters, recruiters, etc. Sometimes you can tell its a guy in a bullpen who has a list of search terms and is matching words from resumes to words in job postings and trying to insert himself in between them to pick up some finders fee. Ok, it goes with the territory, and in some ways it feels great, in some ways not so great. It feels great when you get called by someone who seems to think that you really are a good candidate for a particular job, especially if its one that you haven't seen, or that isn't posted, or maybe even there isn't a posting but someone saw your resume and thought, "This guy has potential, I think I might be able to get him in here...or maybe there." I've run across a couple individuals that I think are really seeing some value in my compilation of skills. I've gotten calls from people who clearly are just trying to cram a peg into a hole and pocket the cash. My response to them is short, "Sorry, that's too far away. I don't have a car." or "For a short term contract such as this I would need to earn $90/hr to make it worth my while."

But I'll just say I have some prospects. Every day is like a roller coaster though, the emotional ups and downs. I had a phone interview the other day, my first, and I keep going over in my head, "I should have said this..." and then thinking, "God, that would be a really interesting job...if only it weren't so far away from the city. Even if they offer I don't think I can take it." Grrr.

On another note, we have our housing inspection tomorrow so we can go on the market on Monday. I've been completing projects at record pace, though not many of them are really impactful on the result of our inspection, I don't think. I mean, I dug out the inspection of this place from last year and literally nothing has changed except we've put a little wear and tear on, I started insulating the attic, and our crap is still everywhere. But still, last night I used almost all of my power tools and quickly installed sort of railing/slats thing out of 2x4s to somewhat close the stairwell in the basement. It wasn't an R&R but was a "safety" thing that our own buyers inspection guy pointed out last year. You know, the more I look at this house and the initial truth in sale report from last year...we sort of wasted money on the buyers inspection. GRANTED, what we were paying for was piece of mind, but still, in a city that requires a truth in sales inspection I think the buyer inspection should cost a hell of a lot less. Its a bit of a racket, especially since those guys aren't even certified by anyone. Not anyone who matters least wise, and they offer like, no warranty, on most of the inspection. Its really a purchase agreement placebo if you ask me. Anyway...so I've been getting handy and we've been getting ready to vacate. You know, all things considered, I think we're just going to have to clean and tidy up anything that has to remain here and this place should do OK. I mean, WE bought it not so long ago, right? The two houses nearby sold in under a month on the market.

We'll see.