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.

ahooy!

So, as I suspected, at about mid-day my phone and email started filling up as all the recruiters started sifting through their in-boxes and resume search results from the past week while they were off on vacation. So, I feel better about my job prospects but I am curious about some things. For instance, I have gotten called by more than one recruiter about the exact same job posting. Does this mean that there's a limited pool of applicants coming up on the resume search for this position? Should i take it as a sign that I may have some leverage on this particular job posting? Or does it just mean that everyone is plowing through the same pile of resumes, of which mine is one of thousands? Who can say...

Family Date nite

We all, Andrea, Felix, and I, were invited to have dinner with my sister and her new guy whom she is dating. He lives in the cities here, not even very far from our house. So he had decided that he was going to teach her how to eat sushi. We met them at Midori's, a family run japanese restaurant near our house. I guess we are the first family contact. When I mentioned that I would have to get a sitter, she responded without hesitation, "No no, bring Felix." Wha...? OK.

So we arrived on time and they were already there. We met the guy and he seemed very normal, very nice, respectful. We got a table and sat down and we did some small talk and he seemed to be a very good conversationalist, very comfortable in his own skin, and very comfortable in the presence of Felix in a Public place. After a few minutes Felix decided to show his true colors and became an attention hogging hambone. From that point on I was mostly distracted by Felix, stuffing my grilled salmon, rice, and veggies into his mouth with my chopsticks. I think Suzanne and Andrea and Jon talked about stuff. They seemed to all be having a fabulous time. I do recall giving Suzanne pointers on the proper use of chopsticks.

Seemed like a nice guy.

location, location, location!

Have I mentioned how every day I get emails and phone calls from recruiters who want to place me in positions here, in Minneapolis? Sometimes its the same recruiter who I have already told several times that I'm only interested in positions in new York.

So, Andrea told me to remove our local contact info from my resume and resubmit it. She found that people in New York wouldn't even look at her resume when the yha a non-new york address. makes sense I guess. Nobody wants to waste time on people who are not local or who are going to want relocation assistance. Anyway, so I change my street location, etc to just plain "New York, NY" and when required (for resume posting sites) to enter a valid street address I put our friends' address in Jersey City. Voila. Posted resume last night and this morning I've gotten three phone calls and several emails for positions in New York/New Jersey area.

Now the big issue is that they positions are either "Start as soon as you can" or "When will you know you actual availability?" This morning's hour long recruiter conversation included "Would you be able to come out for interviews sooner than your current planned trip, if necessary?"

The guy I spoke to this morning inspired a lot of confidence, as it is his job, of course. I am the wheat that he must harvest and then convince someone to buy, I', the cattle, I'm the commodity. The fact that someone thinks they can sell me, make money, and also not screw me (one would ASSUME) in the deal is a nice feeling, though. Very personable guy, so I would hope that he's successful. He's going to call me back today or tomorrow with some stuff. His advice, "Ok, focus on selling your house, I'll see what I can work up here. I'd like to get your paperwork in front of some of my customers. I've got some ideas. I can get you taken care of."

So, at least it FEELS like I've got someone on my side. i know he's really on his side, but if he has any good sense, which I expect he does, he knows that its always a good idea to do right by people because it can benefit him in the future as well as the initial commission he might make off of me (from the employer) if he gets me placed.

So, sell the house, find an apartment, find childcare, actually move...figure out where all the money we are going to need to pull this off is going to come from...that's all I have to worry about now...heh...RIGHT!

And the worst part is, we're looking at apartment listing all teh time but these all seem to be similar to the job situation: Move in now, or Aug 1. Nobody is looking for renters any further down the road than that, it seems.

forgot

I forgot what I was going to write about.
Felix and I went to the Man-Store to get some stuff for being handy. I intend to fix the leaky faucet on our tub. I also need a 2x2 to replace the one that was stolen (along with my bicycle). And while I was at it I got some new house numbers, since the ones we have suck and you can barely see them during the day and can't see them at all at night.

We will start our unburdening process shortly, meaning its garage sale time! One nice thing about moving way far away is that you are really forced to get rid of the stuff you've been lugging from place to place even though you never need it or even use it, or even look through it! It's the great pairing down, so to speak. My stereo receiver, 25-CD Changer, and small but excellent sounding(and heavy) Pro x77 speakers will be on the block, as well as my (Shawn's) skis, all my leftover motorcycle gear, my scuba stuff, etc.

I expect we'll be getting rid of some extra furniture (not much though, since we're sort of spare in our furniture decorating anyway) and clothes as well as anything baby-related that is no longer being used and that we did not buy ourselves (though we'll probably try to give back any baby clothes and toys and stuff that we have on loan from the greater family lending library), just in case there is a #2 some day. Dunno. I don't expect us to have much storage space in NY and I'm sure not going to rent a storage unit. Not sure I know the place for nostalgic nicknacks anyway. I know I have a bin full of crap from highschool, college, etc. The "formative years" so to speak. Stuff I really have no attachment to. All going to go, I think.

Of course, aside from not wanting to take stuff with us we don't need, we also need to declutter as much as possible in order to sell the house. Who wants to go look in a basement or an attic and just see someone else's junk all over the place? No thanks. Most people don't want to be reminded of what the house will look like once they move their crap in. Don't spoil it for them. They'll have plenty of time to do that to themselves (as anyone can tell, I've fallen out of love with this house...a while ago).

Click, BOOM

So, even though Andrea will not officially accept the offer until tomorrow, I have pulled the trigger and notified family and close friends.

See, I've been telling people at work that I was only going to be around for a year or two and then its off to NY so Andrea can become the rock-star designer that Minneapolis's head is too far up its own ass to recognize.

If you read this and you did NOT get an email from me about our plans, its probably because I just forgot your email, forgot you were alive, or maybe you are just a complete stranger who reads my blog and don't realize that I do not know you, no matter how involved you feel in my life as you read about it on the interweb. Or maybe I haven't sent an email to friends yet, just family...

Hello? Mr. Pickles, hello?

So I've got my resume on Monster and a couple other sites...and nobody reads your resume, they just scan for keywords. SO I've been called and emailed at least twice a day by recruiters who want to hook me up with a sweet contractor job at...my current employer. Not only that, but its for the team on the other side of the cubewall from me. Funny. It's like, did you read the email? Did you see my profile? Looking for NY, not MN. Ugh.

Weight

Feeling much better today. Focusing on work.

It's funny...hey wait that's my bike.

Yeah, well, its still sorta funny. This morning while getting ready for work, I was standing half dressed talking about, of course, impending relocation or something related to it when there was a commotion outside. From the bedroom window we heard someon yell, "Put that back!" and then Andrea saw a white haired guy run across the street and I saw him running behind a black guy in a bike, holding onto the bike rider's shirt, yelling "Stop! Stop!" AH, I thought, never a dull moment in this craphole neighborhood. Then a minute later our doorbell rang. Huh?

It was the white haired guy. I noticed that something was missing from my front porch. Specifically, one of the wooden spindles on the railing, even more specifically, the cheapo $60 bike I bought from Target a couple years ago that had been locked to the railing all last fall, winter, and this spring. "A guy just sto9le you bike!"
"Oh." I said. The older guy was dripping with sweat.
"I tried to stop him but short of coming to blows he wasn't going to stop."
"Thanks." I said.
"You can get in your car and chase him down! He went down that way. A bald guy!"
"No, that's ok," I said, still covered in shocked amusement, "It was a cheap bike. It wasn't in great shape anyway."
"I think the tires were flat." he said.
"Yeah. Hey, sorry for the trouble."

So, that's how my day began.

I don't really care about the bike at all, but the feeling of personal invasion is hard to escape. I mean, he damaged my house a little bit and he took something that was mine. It wasn't his. What made him think it was OK to just take something like that? That little bit of psychic disturbance has had me off-kilter all day. That on top of the stress of the impending decision about where Andrea will work (definitely New York now) as me feeling like I'm on the verge of a breakdown. Literally.

But I think I just need to focus on the stable, on the known, and things will be ok.

oh, my head, my back...

So, Andrea's trip to NY was nowhere near the dramedy of her trip to Chicago. Got to the plane on time, etc. Taking care of Felix all by myself (well, I had a short break on Thursday when Kim, the nanny, came and took him to the park) definitely took its toll. But mostly we're all feeling a bit shell shocked because of the sudden multiplication of hard choices. So, now Andrea is being pursued, in some cases very aggressively, by firms in Chicago AND New York and all of them have their own time frames and offers...and we have to both decide between them AND I need to find a job, AND we need to get rid of this house, AND we need to find somewhere to live, AND we need to figure out who is going to take care of Felix while mom and dad are working full time, AND we need to pay for that...

...so, anyone who has advice or experience, or who would like to move to New York to be a live-in nanny for cheap, let me know.

updates

Ok, so here's the updates:
Andrea's trip to Chicago - A+
Turns out that after all her missed flights and whatnots, she arrived in Chitown around 2:50pm and had a great afternoon meeting with the people at the studio. They really liked her, she really liked them, and they said the would need to know if she will take the job shortly after she comes back from her interviews in new York (which she leaves for tonight). If she will commit to the position, they can wait until September for her to relocate. So, that's basically a sure thing if the offer is accepted in time. And at the end of her time there, she felt like she had spent just the right amount of time, not too little and not too much. So the whole airport drama was sort of not a complete loss (though wasting half a day at the Humphrey terminal is a special sort of hell, I know). At the very worst, it did not affect her chances at this job. So...basically we're almost guaranteed to be relocating to Chicago (or she is at least and me to follow as soon as possible...and who the hell knows what happens to Felix...ugh!) by September unless she actually gets an offer from the place in New York. And that's a whole other ball of sticky wax, because who knows what that offer will be or if it will even be as good (in timing, salary, etc.) as the Chicago offer. So, Chicago stuff all worked out well, so far.

Father's Day/Weekend - B+/A-
Well, despite my comments on being somewhat ambivalent about Father's day and my prediction that the airport fiasco would invalidate any honoring of thine babydaddy, we actually had a weekend packed chock full-o-father's day stuff.
Saturday was a hodge-podge if (ina/a)ctivity. We were all feeling wasted, warped, hung-up, and hungover from Friday's emotional rollercoaster. Felix was all crank-a-tank early in the morning (5:30am). We all took naps from about 9:45am to 1:30pm, which is a a LONG nap for Felix. After we all eventually woke up we gathered some supplies and went to the beach! It took us a while to get there since we were trying to stay off the highway. At about 4:45pm we got to the beach and Felix conquered the sand and surf. It was fun. The only part that was not so fun was that 15 minutes after we got there they had their "safety check" where everyone gets out of the water. This takes about 15 minutes to complete, I guess...15 minutes spent trying to keep Felix from going back into the water or dumping as much sand as he can onto the blanket. We had a great time, though Felix started getting cranky again as we were leaving, probably because he was hungry.
As a nod to father's day, Andrea went and got us dinner at Chatter box, so I was not required to make dinner. Felix went down at what seemed like a mostly normal bed t-

LATE BREAKING NEWS FLASH!!!!!
Hard decisions just made even harder!
So, despite all of Andrea's naysaying, what I had predicted has come to pass. In New York, EVERYONE wants to hire her. Both places she interviewed at today said, "Yes, please, come work for us, PLEASE!" And to make matters even worse, the studio she specifically went to NY to interview at even said, "Hey, no hurry, we won't need you to start until fall..." which, until we see some numbers, basically makes it a tie with the Chicago offer. Well, not REALLY, but it makes choosing between the two that much harder. In a way, Andrea was sort of hoping that her NY trip would be fruitless because that would make the decision for her. Oh no. That would be toooooo easy. Not one, but two studios in NY want her. She's 100% on her interviews-to-offers percentage. That's damn good.
That also says something, again, pretty clearly about Minneapolis. Here, she can barely get a call back. She was called an anachronism during an informational. She was told by one local studio during an informational, that design isn't even about design in Minneapolis, that it isn't even about advertising either.
It points the way pretty clearly: For Andrea to get the chance to do the work she wants to do and get the recognition it deserves, she's gotta leave this area. No joke. When internationally known, award winning design firms and studios in chicago and new york spend their time trying to sell HER on their projects and telling her "Please, if you are serious, let us know and we would totally hire you like yesterday." She's being wooed by studios in two different cities! Minneapolis can only be bothered to fart in her face and steal her lunch money.

SO, from this point on it only gets tougher.

I ave started hsopping my resume online and submitting to positions in both areas. I've also started getting calls from recruiters. Unfortunately none of them have been for jobs in the areas I'm interested in. But it is nice to know that my resume is coming up when people say "I need someone who is X". I'm feeling more marketable already!

I've submitted for a couple positions that actually sound like they would flow really well from what I'm doing now. Mostly change management/SCM type stuff, but a couple software deployment and a release engineer position. So, I'm starting to feel pretty good. I think, really, the only anchor around our necks is going to be this house. I'm wondering if we might just let it burn down. I know it sounds horrible, but I'd welcome a natural disaster right now, provided my family and important stuff is safe and secure when it happens.

Seriously. If the roof blew off and the walls fell down and the car got pelted with hail damage...that would be effing perfect.

oh father!

so, Sunday is father's day. On this day I am minutely conflicted. Father's day and Mother's day are similar to Valentine's day, secretary's day, grandparent's day, etc... in that they are largely Hallmark Holidays. But nearly so much as Valentine's day, which I view as just sort of plain stupid and evil. Mothers and Fathers days are good holidays, I think, in that they (should) promote introspection about your relationship with your respective parents. It is good to occasionally say, "Hey, thanks a lot. I appreciate you being there for me all the time." or "Thanks for sending me to college, I wish I hadn't been such a bonehead back then." or even "I respect that you didn't give in." Honoring your parents is something that should get some airtime in your day at least once a year. According to "everyone", the minimum offering should be a card and flowers. If you are able to, you take said honoerd parent to dinner, or something. A token that says, "Hey...thanks. I didn't forget this time."

That said...and I say this as a father myself (though this is my first anniversary), I wish retailers would shut up about it and stop trying to make me feel inadequate for not sending my parents on a cruise or buying them a flat screen TV during any of the special deals or sales. Now, granted, I encounter this pressure much less (not because I'm heartless) because I don't watch commercial TV, so I don't see the ads. I do see them online, hear them on the radio, and see the in-store displays. Maybe because I don't have the TV stream of adblather I am more conscious of the other marketing avenues. Anyway. I'm not some grinch who just doesn't want to give presents to my parents for all the pain and suffering I've put them through. (and I should come clean and say, yes, I know, I'm a horrible gift giver even when I DO want to give them, I'm sorry for that) As a new father, I'm experiencing all sorts of things for the first time. For Mother's day, I took my mom out to dinner because she was actually in town (the day before actually), otherwise I would have just given her a phone call. If times are good and we have money just laying around getting dusty, I might send her a gift certificate to Amazon or JoAnns. I also made Andrea breakfast in bed since she definitely needs to be recognized for her mothering (this year Felix got her a card too). And I gave her the day off and took care of Felix all day. On weekends, I usually try to take as much Felix time as possible anyway, since Andrea usually needs a recharge (though the weekends have morphed a bit since she started working), but a guaranteed 100% day off is a pretty good gift, I think.

Anyway, so Andrea asks me what *I* want to do for father's day. Do I want to do something special? Do I want to do something special as a family, with just Felix, by myself?

Huh. Something to think about. I think its safe to say, after this morning's performance I shouldn't expect (or really even deserve) a chunk of "me time", but perhaps we will do a nice family event that might give Andrea some release from the tension of today....I think we might take Felix to a beach or something. But I certainly wouldn't expect either Andrea or Felix to go shop the special sales for some thing I was hoping to get from someone.

Now, be it known that my parents have never demanded gifts on any of these days. Wouldn't turn them down, but they like to know their children are at least thinking of them.

Aw hell, I'm too scattered to finish this...
and I need to finish grilling the lamb while Felix is still asleep.

chitown

Well, for those of you playing along at home, Andrea did get to Chicago at 2:15pm, and I imagine that right now she's probably just meeting the whole crew at the studio and wowing them with her portfolio. And I hope that they take her to a nice place for dinner, and maybe a late lunch.

Hallmark does not yet carry a "Sorry for possibly crushing your dreams, yet again - Wife" card yet. I know, I looked.

fubar

well, I did it again.
The past week or so have been spent preparing for A's trip out to Chicago for an interview. The studio she's interviewing at is interested enough in her that they want to fly her too Chicago for the day, have a car pick her up at the airport, show her around town, etc, and then send her back to the minneapple in time for a late night tuck-in for Felix.

SO...after my previous airport experience, I felt pretty confident that she could catch the light rail 45 minutes before her flight and have no problems. Well, being OVER confident, I didn't get her to the light rail until right at 6:30, for her 7:00 flight. And we just saw the train pull away so we knew it would be maybe 10 minutes before the next one arrived. OK, so we drove to the airport and got there just in time to get on her plane....but AirTran moved from the main airport terminal to the Humphrey terminal last month. So then we SPEED to the Humphry terminal and arrive there 5 minutes too late and she missed her flight. So get on the next one, right? Well...yeah, ok...so they TRY to get her on the next flight but its already overbooked (WTF?). That flight leaves at 10:25 which gets her to Chicago at noonish, which sucks, but hey, spend the afternoon in CHicago and come home at night. Ok, so they try for that. Nope, they load up the plane and fly off, no Andrea on board. Her confirmed, guaranteed flight leaves at 12:52 and gets to Chicago at around 2:15. So, her day of being wined and dined by a prospective employer has turned into a nightmare morning followed by a late morning of drama and boredom at the Humphrey terminal, which is like being stuck in a small airport in nowhere midwest with no shops or food places, followed by a flight and just enough time to meet the studio, show her portfolio, maybe grab a light dinner, and then back onto the plane at 7:50 and home by 9:30.

If this were a vacation or a trip that spanned several days, this change in schedule would be a huge hassle, but not too much more than that. For a one-day visit with an prospective employer, who is interested enough to fly you out...well, it takes on a whole different flavor entirely. Andrea, understandably, is beside herself. She hates being late for things and even more hates for someone to think she's not on the ball, especially when an opportunity like this is in play. Obviously, she's very unhappy with me. My stupid confidence turned hitting a tight deadline into utter disaster. And of course, I was the one riding her ass for the past week to make sure she had everything lined up, all her stuff in order, her clothing picked out, everything because, "I'm just not looking forward to the morning-of drama if you forget something." Yeah, serves me right, but it does not serve her right at all.
She hates me, understandibly, and I'm not too proud of myself either.
I feel sick. I hope they are very understanding, but even more I hope that once she gets on that plane her day gets better, not worse. I've robbed her of a little bit of RnR, even though it is around a business trip, and I've possibly tarnished the impression they have of her. I wish I could call them and say it was all my fault.

Of course, this also means that next week when she flies out to New York we'll all be riding MY ass pretty damn hard to make sure I don't mess it up again.

And of course, Felix misses his momma. It doesn't help that I got him up early so we could all go to the airport. He should be finishing up his morning nap soon...its been a good long one.

It's supposed to be in the 90's today. Ugh.
I feel like crap for what I've done to Andrea, Felix is off because of the heat and his lack of sleep, and not to mention he's used to spending the mornings with mama. We'll see...this will be a test run for next week when I've got him for 2 days and 3 nights on my own.

And we've got a handful of important errands to run once he wakes up.
sigh...
You've done it again, bonehead.

no seasons

and now I shall rant a bit about our lack of proper seasons. This is Minnesota, we should have four distinct seasons. Cool and wet, hot and moist, cool and dry, and frozen. And those four distinct sensation-based seasons are roughly the same length, or at the very least, not drastically different lengths. Those of you playing along at home may have noticed that this year we've gone from frozen to hot and moist in a record 4 weeks, and that's not even a proper four weeks, I just mean that it has been roughly a month between the last substantial "cold spell" and the first substantial "heat wave". During that month there have been mostly moderate days, lots of overcast, lots of rain, a couple "cold" days and several unexpectedly warm days. Before that it was basically just cold all the time and from here on out I expect it will just be plain hot and humid. Basically, I'm still paying off my heating bill from the winter and already I've had to install one of the AC units so that Felix can sleep at night and his nanny doesn't quit during the day. WTF? If anyone with half a brain out there still doesn't believe in global warming, wake up. It's real. And even if its not, don't be such a bitch. Pollution is bad, gas guzzlers are bad, SUVs = bad, and it goes without saying that your asshat "Who gives a fuck about global warming, I'll be gone when the rapture comes anyway?" attitude is pretty much the big bad.

house

Everyone talks about how you should buy a house, a house is the biggest and best investment you'll ever make, etc etc... Of course, there's caveats and asterix and footnotes and exceptions to every one of those "house" cliches. Like, how you should buy a house...if you plan on staying in the same neighborhood, city, or state for the next 10 years, or if you plan on having the same job with regular pay increases or advancement, or guarantee that you will have a series of consecutively higher paying jobs, etc. Yes, a house is more like a marriage than a purchase; don't do it if you only plan on being around a couple years. Or maybe a house is more like a dog; if you do get one, make sure that the amount of time you have for it is more than the amount of time it actually needs. And of course, just as with a marriage or a dog, make sure you are getting a house for the right reason! (and that everyone who is getting the house agrees on what that reason is, same as married and getting a dog).

Well, last week I actually started a finished my first real house project since Felix was born, I think. I'm not counting fixing the kitchen sink because my dad did that. Last week I replaced the seal around our tub which was poorly done in the first place and was pretty much coming off in all the places where you'd wish it wouldn't. In finally pulling out the old nasty (and wrong sized) caulk-strip, I discovered that water was not seeping under the tiles and into the void between the walls and int othe drywall of my kitchen ceiling. No, the edge of the tub behind the tile actually has a lip. Instead the water that pools on the tub's ledge (due probably to a combination of the half-assery of the "remodel" job they did putting the tub in crooked and the fact that this 100 year old house is probably shifting on its foundation and what may have been kinda sorta level before is now just outta whack)and just soaks into the caulk and makes it mushy. And nasty funky stuff likes to grow there. So, in pulling out the bad, I discovered a little good. AND I replaced it all with a double-strength application of extra wide caulk strips that are also bright and shiny white and will rewmain so if we are methodical about trying to squeegy the water off of them after showers or baths (Felix likes to splash).

more than meets the eye

My weekly flyer-email from eReader.com spotlights a special on the new Transformers book based on the movie. Normally I wouldn't look twice at something like this, as books based on movies don't tend to be all the good and if you don't even know how good the movie will be outside of the whizzbang special effects you have seen in the trailers, well, what's the point? But in this case I was aroused by something unexpected. The book, based on the movie, is written none other than Alan Dean Foster. While in the greater scheme of literature Alan Dean Foster may be considered more of a Sci-Fi/Fantasy pulp artist and film novelization powerhouse (alien, Starwars, etc...) I fondly recall reading many of his books as an adolescent. The Flinx series, which apparently is still receiving new installments, and other Humanx Commonwealth novels, the Spellsinger series, as well as just stand alone novels he'd written like Quozl and The Vanishing Point. The thing about Foster is that while he is very prolific, he is also incredibly readable. His prose does not seem to suffer from the sheer volume he puts out. This is just a tidbit. Maybe I'll look up some of his newer novels and see if they spark my interest. Check out his wikipedia entry or visit his homepage if you are interested in seeing what I'm talking about.

breakfast of champions

I am referring, of course, to snot. Phlegm, specifically, with a smattering of post-nasal drip.

Now I'm not so sure I'm dealing with allergies. Leaning towards sinus infection. After all, is is quite common for me to get some bug and be sick and then Andrea catches it and what made me feel a little crappy for a few days will lay her up seriously. I tend to have a bit sturdier constitution than she has, which maybe you would expect from the youngest of five siblings. I catch a cold and it give me a runny nose and a headache, she catches my cold and she gets sore throat, body ache, fever, and can barely get out of bed.

My only current symptoms are the post-nasal drip, the cough (both phlegmy in the morning or after long periods of inactivity and dry itch cough throughout the day), and off and on congestion w/runny nose (haven't seen that one too much in the past couple days).

Andrea is still coughing her brains out, blowing her nose off, seriously fatigued, and generally feeling like shit in no uncertain terms.

Felix has congestion, runny nose, and occasionally a cough, but usually from all the drooling. He's still teething pretty hard core.

genesis

In circumspect, I can see now how belief in a god can happen. This tapping happens and I have no way of determining what is causing it, or even, in fact, exactly where it is coming from. And I've TRIED oh so many things to figure this out. And the fact that it keeps happening, and I keep not being able to figure it out, drives me to the point of distraction. How much easier it would be for me to tell myself, "TOD is making the noise. I think TOD is an invisible spirit that created everything and that tapping noise is just TOD's way of talking to the house-spirit."

And if I believe that TOD is making the noise, I'll soon believe that he is probably the unseeable cause for most of the previously unexplainable effects I've ever experienced. If I think about all those things TOD does, I can probably piece together some sort of picture of him based on why I think TOD is doing all those things. Pretty soon I've got a very complicated and detailed description of the whats and whys and wherefores of the all powerful TOD. And if someday a plumber or carpenter tears up my floor or ceiling and finds that the cause of the tapping noise was caused by the pipes shifting and rubbing a floor joint every time the hydrostatic pressure in the neighborhood pipeline changed more than 1 millibar (? making this up as I go, obviously). Every time someone on my block turns on the tap or flushes the toilet, my dining room ceiling goes "TAP!". When I discover that and someone says, "See, it wasn't TOD at all!" I'll just smile knowingly and say, "Oh really? Perhaps TOD made the plumbing in this house, in this block, in this city, like that so that I would discover him and his awesome works. It has been revealed to me that I might better understand the shear awesomeness of the TOD. For this to be a coincidence is just way too far out...this is a complicated scheme, a plan, a series of cause and effect that could only have happened by the design of some superior being, of TOD."

And besides, if I'm not being driven nuts trying to figure out why everything is the way it is, I'm able to be more productive at other things like making bricks out of shit or hunting for food, which makes a belief in TOD something of a beneficial trait that evolution will select.

So, being an atheist, I have to relax and get comfortable just not knowing why my dining room ceiling goes TAP and just not worry about it until it actually does cave in (which is no longer covered by my policy).

So, I guess you could say that TOD exists BECAUSE of evolution, not despite it.

tell-tale tap

As I mentioned before, I've been sleeping on the couch until my coughing goes away. Well, tonight all is quiet, the dishwasher is done, Andrea and Felix are sleeping peacefully upstairs, and I'm sitting at the dining room table relishing the few spare moments I may get this weekend to indulge in whatever I feel like. So of course I'm tinkering on my computer in the basement from my laptop in the dining room. No music is playing, no background noise but the slight whisper hum or the refrigerator and whatever vehicles happen to roll by outside. And then I hear it. Sort of a dry, distinct TAP...................TAP..........TAP......................TAP. At first I thought, "Oh, its probably just something outside, blowing against the window or something..." but there it was again. I pause and wait and sometimes it doesn't seem to come for a while...but eventually, it always comes! It sounds like it is actually coming from the ceiling. It sounds like a drop of water smacking onto a linoleum floor tile after a very long fall or a pebble bouncing off of a windshield at 60 mph. Your basic quick tick/tap/bump in the night. House settling/shifting, etc... It's just so unnerving to here it because of my existing neuroses about ants and water damage and just about this ancient house intending to collapse around us at any moment. For all I know, there's a midget in a timewarp trapped between Felix's floor and the dining room ceiling and he's been working on this time dilated Morse Code emergency communique for the past 10 years. Most likely Felix is rolling around in his crib and that motion is translating down through the floor and seems to find itself released through the same creaky joint in the ceiling. Who knows. It's driving me mad, though.

And of course my homeowners insurance premium just went up a few dollars a month because they are now using credit score to determine your rate? WTF??? My HO insurance is paid out of the escrow for the house...if I stop paying my mortgage, I lose the house, and its not like I can make a claim then, can I? I fail to see how my credit score in any way logically should have an impact on my insurance premium. It's just plain fucked. And on top of that I also get the statement which says, "Oh by the way, now that we're coming up on your one year anniversary in your new home, we're going to make some changes to your policy. Here's two pages of greek. Good luck.

It's getting so it may just be easier for them to send you a list of exactly what they do cover, since it is a much sorter list than what they don't cover...which now appears to include mold, rust, dryrot, bacteria, and water damage that may have been caused by the shitty plumbing job done by the assholes who sold you this dump in the first place. You've lived with it for a year (or it is taking longer than a year to surface as an issue) so now it's not our problem, its your problem.

Sigh... I'm not cut out for owning old, used, expensive things. If we had to live hear longer than another year or so, I'd say tear down the house and drop one of those nice new modular homes on the lot.

Really, my only real fear, the one that all of my other fears are just grubby little children of, is that we will lose our shirts over this house, that we will never get back even what we put into it, that it will crumble around us and ultimately cost us even more to move out of than it did to move in.

It appears that in selling a house you simply need to cover up any problems long enough that they become the next owner's problem.

And did I mention that I saw a wingless female carpenter ant today? She was wandering around by the side door to the house, looking for a good place to start up a new nest. I have never seen such a big ant in my whole life. At first I thought I was seeing things, like it was some sort of special effect. The ant was black and looked like it was almost an inch long. I chased it outside and sprayed it wit the Orth Home Defense MAX I had gotten a few weeks ago. It didn't seem to like it much, but it also didn't seem to slow it down any. It just headed into the grass to get away from me. Andrea asked me why I didn't just step on it. Ok, this was a HUGE ant....and actually I was hoping it would die from the spray and then I could show it to the pest control guy when I finally do make the appointment, to verify for sure that if we don't have carpenter ants IN the house, we sure have them looking around the area. I have not seen a single ant inside the house since I sprayed outside the backdoor, back steps, and the back wall around the foundation with the Home Defense...but that doesn't mean they aren't hiding between the walls and ceilings...methodically, but arrhythmically, chewing through my house with an uncharacteristic TAP............TAP..................................TAP....

It's probably just the wind or accumulation of ambient motion expressing through this one focal carpentry joint. Yes, I will spend the next few days convincing myself of that.

spring schludge

Well, for about 10 days I've been suffering from somewhat polymorphic allergy/sinusitis symptoms. Andrea has succumbed to something similar but different, the usual 3-6 day lag behind/before me(this case behind) and Felix has two bottom teeth, so he's been wearing his crankypants pretty much off an on all day and definitely all night for the past week or so. And along with the super drool, he's also got some nose crusties and he's been doing this super cute (but I'm wondering if it is due to congestion or him possibly feeling some other sort of sinus irritation) thing where he scrunches up his nose and cheeks and blows through his nose in short bursts. It looks funny, like he's happy, but maybe he's just trying to blow his nose? And we're also worried he might be harboring an ear ache too, since when things start to go cranky for any reason, the first thing he does is starts going for the ears.

For me, I started out dealing with hard-core post-nasal drip and the occasional (sometimes frequent) uncontrollable spastic coughing. In the morning this coughing brings up a good deal of crud, but during the day it seems mostly to be a dry cough. I can't control it because what triggers the cough is a dry tickle/itch that feels like having a hair stuck in your throat and it only gets worse as you breathe and try NOT to cough. And the coughing causes headaches and is generally irritating to everyone around me. Starting this past monday the coughing has lessend a LITTLE, the post-nasal has tapered off a bit (but I still cough crud up in the morning, just less), but now I've started with come and go congestion and runny nose with the occasional sneezing. So it SOUNDS a lot like allergies...of course the OTC loratadine (10mg) doesn't seem to do diddly. Also, now it feels like my jaw NEAR one of my lymph nodes is tender... so who knows. We're at about day 10 or 11 so I'm wondering if it was viral it would be on its way out by now. I hope so. I've been sleeping on the couch so my coughing won't keep Andrea up more than she has to be (due to Felix's teething).

Andrea is congested, sore throat, body aches, fatigue, and in general out of commission due to her already grueling regiment of being Felix's milk maid. So, add to that the lack of sleep due to my coughing and Felix's frequent wakeups at night... This morning she hit the wall and I'm staying home to take care of Felix while she tries to rest up and regain.

Felix, with his super drooly mouth and little nubby teeth, has become very clingy in the past week. Sometimes he doesn't want to be put down. He actually seems to be giving us hugs sometimes and not just hanging on for dear life. He's almost completely mastered the stairs (he goes up and down but still has trouble getting starting going down) and his favorite thing is to crawl UNDER the furniture now, including going after toys that have rolled into hard to reach spaces. We've also seen him trying to climb into his pack-n-play, which is impressive and frightening at the same time...once he is able to master climbing up and over something like that, we're screwed.

So, it's the sick tending the sicker and minding the young here at casa de premidlife.

mr. tooth

Felix's first tooth has come in. It's just a rough spot just breaching the bottom gum, but it is a tooth for sure. That helps explain why he has been so cranky in the evenings and frequently wakes throughout the night. Sure hasn't hurt his appetite any, though. He eats as much avocado, banana, mango, pear, lamb, yam, cereal, carrots, etc. as we can toss at him. And of course, he loves the teething biscuits. Whoever came up with those things was an evil genius. On the one hand, they are just the perfect thing for a baby to chew on, on the other hand, they convert from rock-hard biscuit to barley flavored slime in minutes and from barley slime to organic super concrete in seconds, adhering to any and all surfaces, including skin, that it comes into contact with.
good stuff. and the kids love it.

a-day

For those who don't remember, today is Andrea's birthday.
I'm taking the day off from work so I can give HER the day off from work.

antics

OK, let me get some things straight out there. I have very little issue with insects in their proper context. Take proper context to mean: not in my home, not in large volumes, not in any way which I could perceive as threatening to myself or my family.

I can look at a giant mound of an anthill teaming with millions of ants without even flinching, so long as this is happening, say, in a desert or some other remote location. But when I see ants in my house in numbers greater than, oh, five, and for periods of longer than, oh, as long as it takes to smash them all, then yes, I tend to develop an "issue" with said insects. The same goes for any type on insect (except for roaches...there is no acceptable quantity or duration for roaches). One spider is no problem. Fifty spiders, yes, i think I'd have a problem with that. One ant, no problem. Fifty ants of all different sizes, especially in a localized area, yeah, I have a problem with that.

My weekend was all but ruined by the ant invasion which started early last week. Why was it not until the weekend that I got really out of sorts? Well, that's when I did a little research and found out that we most likely are being visited by carpenter ants who are most likely interested in living in the walls of our house, if they are not already doing so (which I think they are). So, I develop what my wife considers irrational obsessive behavior regarding our uninvited guests.
"Why don't you get this worked up about any of our several OTHER more pressing issues, like getting the car an oil change or finding a nanny, instead of worrying about some stupid ants?"

I tried to explain it, but I think I failed. She got that it had a lot to do with control and unknowns. Mainly i got super panicked because I did some research and found out that carpenter ants like to move right in and set up shop and that to really effectively deal with them, you should probably hire professionals.

Here's where the big fear comes in for me:
A - This will require money. Possibly MONEY. It's difficult to find anything on the web about how much it costs to really deal with this problem.
B - This is something that will only get worse over time if not dealt with correctly.
C - From what I observe, there is quite a lot of room for ambiguity (are they already living in the walls? How much damage have they caused? How bad could it possibly be at this rate? Is this going to be an ongoing battle against nature? Is this going to make it harder to sell the house? How big of a mistake was it to buy this house in the first place? Did we get a sub-prime mortgage? Do we need to disclose that we had the house treated for carpenter ants when we try to sell the place? Did we get screwed by the people who sold us this house? Is this ant problem just and indicator of a larger issue with the house, like leaky pipes pipes somewhere that will slowly cause more and more water damage until one day the kitchen ceiling caves in and leaves us with thousands of dollars of repair work to do before we can even think of selling? Does my homeowners insurance cover ANY of this? etc...) and not too many places to turn to get those ambiguities resolved.

So I called Orkin to get a "free inspection/estimate" but I was able to get their customer service person to fess up to their standard treatment plan, which is a 1 year deal that comes with visits costing $275(first treatment), $80(30 days), $80(60 days), $80(90 days), $80(180 days). Well, I don't like the sound of that, but at least its something tangible.

Then I came across the website for a local pest control place that said, "Don't panic! Carpenter ants are a pest and they can cause damage but most likely they will not compromise your home's structural integrity if dealt with. Do NOT feel pressured to sign up for an annual treatment plan that costs you hundreds of dollars. We can provide you with treatment options that are much more affordable for homeowners." Basically, this is what I needed to see. A website that stated, in so many words, "Don't worry, you're going to be OK. Here's why..."

So I called them up and spoke to a guy there and he was also very reassuring. He explained how the big name places will require monthly visits, which used to be necessary, but that current technology (for killing bugs, I assume) doesn't need that anymore. Now they use a material that the ants don't detect and so they walk through it and carry back to the nest. Then, as they groom each other they end up poisoning and killing the entire colony. Sounds great, right? Well, yes, they do recommend follow up visits, but basically just twice a year, one at the beginning of the season (spring) and one in late summer/early fall. the reason being that even though you kill the colony or the satellite colony (like the one they are trying to set up in my kitchen walls, I imagine) you still need to prevent ants from re-infesting, which they are want to do unless you are able to seal up all avenues of access AND replace any of the attractants that drew them in in the first place (previously water damaged wood). In our case i think that's sort of unrealistic since this is like a one thousand year old house. So, I was straight with the guy and told him I panicked and called Orkin first and then later found his website. He said, "No problem. Definitely get their inspection." I told him that unless they told me something drastically different after the inspection than what their customer service rep quoted me, I'd be calling him back to have his guys do the treatment. his quote was basically half the price of what Orkin said, and required far fewer visits. So, really when you consider Orkin was saying that it would be about...$600 for one year's worth of ant treatment and about $400 each additional year, and this guy was saying it would only cost $250 for the whole year and then only $200 for each year after that...well, seems like a no-brainer.

Which is why I have regained my sanity, for the most part.
So that begs the question A asked me earlier. Why is this ant thing totally bugging me out when there are other pressing issues like the possibility of the car breaking down or us needing a baby sitter or some other such "unknown"?
Well, see, those are already sort of known unknowns.
I *know* that when it comes right down to it, i can take time off to watch Felix if absolutely necessary.
I also know that, if the car does break down in some way, I'm not necessarily at the mercy of the "professionals" or their ridiculous pricing schemes. I've owned cars for like, ten years. In this past year I have done what I consider to be a relatively major repair on my own at greatly reduced cost. And if the car is our of commission for a few days, a week, well, I know we can get around that too.

But when it comes to the house...I know very little about home-owning so whenever something comes up that is of direct or indirect impact to the house, our ability to live in it or at least extract out of it what we put in, I get VERY VERY nervous. I don't know if ants are a nuisance or a major major deal, if they will cost me $100 or $1000 or $10,000 (when we try to sell). And more to the point, I don't feel comfortable trying to do it myself when its not necessarily something that can be done effectively by the individual home owner.
So, pretty much anything that happens involving the house gets top billing in the anxiety show unless it is one of the few things that I already know about, like restarting the boiler, installing a new dryer, etc...

Lets just hope that the seam in the kitchen ceiling is due to the house expanding and contracting from the changes in season. Hope against hope.

latest low

Reason 151 of why I'm regretting buying a house:
Carpenter Ants (probably).

frigration

Today was a bonafide success at work. Everything was essentially all lined up and falling down right in a row by 10:30am so the rest of the day seemed like a formailty. Like a real Friday. We were migrating a major development group to our new source control tool using the process I had worked out two months ago. Yesterday the DBA didn't seem to know it was going on which was bad since they had to do most of the actual work (follow my documentation). Why was this migration a big deal? Because they had their source control environment set up in a very specific way in the old tool and I was able to move their existing settings, database (of metadata), and actual data to the new tool without them losing anything. Most of the other teams are not nearly as mature or complex as this team, so they were just taking a snapshot of their current state and uploading it into the new tool. Not this team. They basically pulled out of the old tool on Wednesday and when they log on the new tool on Monday it will be like nothing has changed (except increased stability and some improved functionality). This is a major win for my team because these guys are the last ones to go to the new tool (as far as we're keeping score...after we are "finished" the stragglers will be coming out of the woodwork...the old source tool goes down about 10 times a day, for real) and we delivered exactly what they wanted, when they wanted, and with as little impact as possible to their development. (we think). We'll know more Monday, but today felt like summer Friday afternoon.

damn!

I just got hit with an idea that is soooooo freaking awesome that I'm afraid to even talk about it...but I alkso am in no position to make any single part of it happen, so whats the use of keeping quiet?

sigh...ever wonder if you accidentally got hit with someone else's inspiration?

teething

It seems that Felix is teething...for real. He's been waking up a lot more frequently at night, has his drool on 24x7, and he gets super cranky pretty quickly, especially at night.
Poor kiddo.

sprung?

As in, has it become spring? have we become sprung? Yesterday turned into a nice day, weather wise, and its just supposed to get better over the weekend and into monday. Which is why A turned down the thermostat yesterday (the babysitter was sweating, it was so hot in the house) and then turned it back up before we went to bed. Well, Felix woke up lots last night, most likely because he was a little cold. I couldn;t tell because when you are only in your skivvies and it's o'dark-thirty in the morning/night you don't really notice the difference between 60 degrees and 70 degrees, you just know that under blankets is toasty and out of blankets is not. So anyway, finally around 5 thirty and Felix's umpteenth wake-up, which we'd been asssuming was for feeding since his diaper was not wet, I felt his icy little hands. OK, the kid is a lot like me, so it isn;t unusual for him to seem perfectly happy even though his hands and/or feet are icy cold. His hands are covered in drool half the time, which makes them extra icy. Anyway, as I hovered about at 5:30 in the AM and noticed that it seemed a bit cooler than I expected, and Andrea's complaints of "It is sooooooooo cooooooooooold!" finally started to get some traction. I went down and looked at the readout on the thermostat. 60 degrees. While this was the type of temps we've been dying for outside, its not exactly what we were hoping for inside (or some of us, anyway). WTF? I punch the temp setting and its sitting up at 74. Hrm. That's not good. I go down to the basement and check the furnace. Not running, not a peep, and the boiler is cold. It had been hot the day before, I remember because i had dried one of Felix's diaper wraps on a radiator. Hrm. I whip out the manual and start the process of restarting the boiler. Nada. I do it again. Nada. Crap.
I check out the thermostat, do the little reset thingy on it, put it back on the wall. Nothing. Crap.
So then turn it all off...no point risking gassing or blowing us up. I go up and try the stove and oven. They both work fine, so we still have gas. I even went down to check the meter while the oven was on and heard the reassuring (or frightening, depending on what month it is and how big that gas bill is) tchink tchink tchink or the little dials on the meter spinning.
I go back up to the bedroom where Felix and A are now sleeping (or at least A is trying to sleep while Felix is out like a drunken sailor) and pull out the space heater and turn it on. At least I can heat up the bedroom and finish out the night and tackle the boiler issues at a more reasonable hour.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm getting out the heater. The boiler isn't lighting."
"Well, call someone. It is f-f-freezing in here."
"It's Saturday morning, I doubt anyone is around..."
"Well you better call someone, now."
Sigh...
So I go into the closet and get the business card of the guy who installed the boiler just under a year ago and call him. It's about 6am now. I get his machine so I leave a message. 2 minutes later I get a call back. I think I woke this guy up. I think the boiler company he is the president of, he is also the everything else of. So, with him on the phone and Felix in hand (he decided that he needed to wake up and not go back to sleep...) we went to the basement to troubleshoot the boiler. After about 15 minutes of "Does it have one of these?" "Yes." "Push the button on it." "What button?" "There should be a button." "Oh, there it is. It's a switch." "Yeah, whatever, push it. Did you hear the relay throw?" "No." "Hrm. Ok...look for the..." we did this a couple times and finally I went back up to the thermostat and to calm Felix down (I had parked him in the dining room in the pack-n-play while i was fiddling with the boiler's electrical bits) and switched the thermostat's switch to cool then back to heat. Suddenly I heard a loud familiar "Cli-THUNK" of the boiler kicking on. I called the guy back (the call got dropped probably 3 times during this whole process) and said, "Hey, its working now. Thanks." And now we have heat, again. Which hopefully we'll get to turn off again...but anyway...the sky is clear, it's hovering around 30-40 degrees outside, maybe warmer. Supposed to get into the 50s today and 60s tomorrow. Felix and I walked to the coffee shop on the other side of the park and got coffee and breakfast burrito to share with the babymama (just me, not Felix). And all is relatively right with the world. Well, with that specific part of it at least.

whiteout

Welcome to spring, this wonderful snowy morning seems to say to me.
We finished version 1 of A's portfolio website and let me tell you, I seriously hate Internet Explorer and this process has just reaffirmed that sentiment. Needless to say, her website whic his chock full of javascripty ajaxy XHTMLy goodness does NOT look as it should on IE (any version). Hell, I don't even think it will show up on anything older than IEv6.x.

And I'm sorry, I know its supposed to be a usability best practice to bend over backwards to accommodate every ancient browser under the sun, but you know what? Do you REALLY want to get a job working for someone who uses that kind of crap? No. In Graphic Design you judge and are judged not only by your work but also by your ability to stay current. You do not do tomorrow's design for yesterday's browser, or client, or anything.

But mostly, I just don't want to have to remake the same site like 5 times just so some schmoe who can't keep up with what's current can look at a website.


Of course, next step it to add Flash to bridge the gaps if possible.

My dad, who used to work in interface design/usability gave the website a failing grade because it lacked user feedback. Of course...he only viewed it in IE. HA. But whatever. Mozilla provides plenty of feedback. Apparently IE doesn't even treat CSS the same as everyone else.