March 30, 2009

Something to do the next time you're in Tunis

My first cousin, Sam, is starting a program in Tunisia and he's blogging about it. Sounds like it should be a great and unique experience.

March 24, 2009

My thoughts on Twitter, in cartoon format

I can understand the appeal of Twitter, I really can. I've got an account and have 'twatted', as Colbert says. But since I haven't bought into it yet, it's still easiest just to poke fun at it. And this sums it up nicely.

March 17, 2009

Name recognition

Want to know what to get me for Christmas Mothers' Day? Look no further than this.

It's better, all in all, to get name recognition from Olympian/lapsed role model Michael Phelps than from off-the-charts crazy pastor Fred Phelps, aka 'you bring the placards, I'll bring the crazy'.

January 14, 2009

Andrew update

Young Andrew will be 2 in about 2 weeks and I haven't written of his exploits in a while. Shortly before Xmas, he treated us to our first trip to the emergency room here in Chicago. Here's how it went down.

• Add one cast iron dutch oven lid, like this one


• Throw in one toe


• Add gravity and mix together

He managed to pull this lid out of our cabinet and drop it on his toe one morning shortly after I took off for work. Josie heard the loud crash and subsequent crying. It was only after a few minutes when the blood started seeping through his footed pajamas that it became apparent this wasn't a garden variety problem. She tried to stop the bleeding to no avail. Meredith helped; she's never shy about sharing her innate expertise on every subject matter ever invented ever.

When it was clear the bleeding wasn't going to stop, Josie pulled the kids together for a cold and icy stroller walk to the hospital. (We're only 3 blocks away from Children's Memorial here in Chicago.) For good measure, M slipped on the ice about a block from the hospital, so when Josie entered the doors, she came armed with dual crying kids. She called me in the middle of this and so I turned right around from work and met them there about 30 minutes later.

By the time I arrived Andrew was calmed down. The staff at the ER got the foot bandaged up pretty well and then we all waited together for a doc to take a look. At one point, they gave him some Motrin for the pain and I swear they gave about 5 times the max dose the side of the box tells us mere civilians to give. I'll never again angst over whether I went over the recommended dosage by a milliliter or two. And sure enough, something kicked in because shortly after an X-ray (which Andrew took in stride with curious detachment), he fell asleep at 10 in the morning in Josie's arms for the first time in...ever.

To sum up, the end results were no fracture, a bloody mess of a toe and a missing toenail. They had us keep him in a soft bandage for about a week. After realizing there was no serious damage, I half-hoped it might slow him down a bit for the holidays to give us a fighting chance. No luck. Aside from an occasional limp because of the big soft 'cast', he was at full speed. And the word 'bobo' jumped into the number three slot of most common words behind 'momma' and 'daddy'.

And I know what you're all thinking; yes, we now keep the dutch oven safely guarded behind our knife and broken glass basket. We don't want this happening again.

January 10, 2009

Will work for food

I'm suddenly finding myself keenly interested in any Obama job stimulus package. Or maybe my own personal government bailout.

My company's home office in Chicago is being relocated to New York in the summer, meaning me and anyone else not making the move are being laid off as of May 1. Despair and woe are not the overriding emotions, frankly. (that might have been the case with shorter notice and less severance.)

I'm actually handling it well. Given my longevity with the company, I'm in line for a decent severance package if I stay through May 1. Still, after the steady drumbeat of atrocious economic news since last summer, I don't relish looking for a job in this climate. Plus, even after 2+ years in Chicago, my network of colleagues is stronger in NY than here. So one thing we'll be evaluating is whether we want to stay here or make a move. Will obviously depend on how the job hunt goes.

Good times. Send job leads and cash donations.

November 21, 2008

Pray, don't ask me that

One of Meredith's books is a version of Beauty and the Beast. One of the passages in it has one of the characters saying 'Pray, don't ask me that question'. And so, of course, that's now part of her lexicon. We're at the grocery store and I ask her what kind of apples she wants. I get pray-don't-ask-me-that-question as the response, which usually turns the heads of anyone else who overhears. At times like that, I have an Elizabethan damsel for a daughter. She only says it once every 2-3 weeks, but it cracks me up.

September 13, 2008

1993 relived

Last night Josie and I got out to a local club to hear some music. The two main acts were Bruce Robison and Guy Forsyth. Robison and his wife Kelly Willis are two of Josie's favorite singer/songwriters. We have seen one or the other (and once both) of them perform separately probably 7 or 8 times from Austin to Houston to New York and now in Chicago.

Robison has penned songs that have been recorded by bigger names, so he personally stays under the radar. But he's really, really good. His genre is country, but if your biased against country, don't let that keep you from listening to him or to Kelly. To their likely detriment from a success point of view, they are both far from the 'pop country' that passes for country music on the radio.

Guy Forsyth is the 1993 connection. When Josie and I were first dating in 1993, we were semi-regulars at a weekly show he did on 6th Street in Austin at a bar called Joe's Generic Bar. Joe's Generic is closed now, but was just a very basic hole-in-the-wall blues club with no cover, which was key for my then-broke self.

It was very small, very intimate and Forsyth was (and still is, as we found out) simply a great entertainer. Unbelievable voice, a wide range of instruments and great blues. The sounds and energy he and his two other bandmates put out was phenomenal. His recorded music doesn't do his act justice. If you ever have a chance to see him live, go. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing him again and I'd jump at the chance again.

September 5, 2008

Let 'em have it

I sure was glad to see the GOP finally take on that scourge of America, community organizers. It's about time someone knocked them down a rung or two, what with their helping people and trying to improve communities. They make me sick.

Next target: those smug firefighters and paramedics. Always running through traffic lights and forcing me to pull over so they can 'do their job'. Makes me angry just writing about 'em.

August 16, 2008

Crime Wave

We've spent a week fighting off our own personal crime wave this week. Actually, Josie has. First, on Tuesday her purse was stolen out of our car. She was dropping M off for swimming lessons and thought she had locked the car. She was away from the car for about 10 minutes and when she came back, her purse was gone. We called it in and reported all of the credit cards and such, but what a pain in the ass.

Then we had someone let their dog go through our (closed) gate and leave an unwanted present on our front yard. Let's just say we didn't ask for fertilizer in that particular spot. They (or someone) also stole a bungie cord we use to keep our gate secure.

And today, she fended off a scam attempt. Someone approached her and said they were locked out of their house. They asked to use the phone; Josie dialed a number for her and there was no answer. At this point, Josie recognized this as a scam attempt, since the same thing happened about a year ago. The way the scam works, the con looks presentable, paints themselves as a normal person who's been locked out. They make a phone call (invariably with no answer) and then ask for around $15 to $20 for cab fare or something.

Jerks.

Josie just ended the conversation today, but isn't it nice to know such decent people are out there trying to con us.

Jerks.

July 16, 2008

Fish-sitting

We're fish sitting. A neighbor who is a few years older than M has a fish and is out of town. They asked us to fish sit and of course we said yes. Meredith is loving it so far, it's hard to say who's doing a favor for whom.

So here's the thing, though: I'm a little nervous. If it was a dog or cat, I'd be able to handle it, no problem. But what do I know about fish? I think I've watched too many zany sitcoms or movies where a fish doesn't make it when in someone else's care. A replacement fish is sought and hilarity ensues. Maybe Mr. Roper is involved. You get the point.

Here's hoping we don't enact our own zany episode. So far, so good on day #2. Quite easy, in fact. Still...

July 1, 2008

Swinging for the fences

Andrew learned well from Meredith's t-ball season. This has become his favorite activity of late.

June 26, 2008

tooth fairy

If all goes well, we may have a visit from Tooth Fairy tonight, since Meredith ended her day with one less tooth than she started it with. It's one of her bottom front teeth. She had gone to the dentist a few weeks back and the tooth was already loose then. X-rays show that her permanent teeth are right there behind the baby ones, just waiting to debut. And now it begins. I hope the Tooth Fairy has moved on from the dollars of my youth to iPhones. We'll have to wait and see.

June 24, 2008

my videography could use some polish

Here's video of Andrew from early May kicking around a soccer ball like a pro. He was about 15 months old when this was shot. We've never gotten around to getting a proper video camera, so this was shot using our basic little point and shoot Canon.

June 2, 2008

All baseball, all the time

Saturday for us was all about baseball, at least for Meredith and me. It was a gorgeous Saturday here and we started off with M's last t-ball game. She's come a long way in 6 short weeks. I wouldn't say she loves it like she did soccer, but she got into it by the end.

Then right after that we took a break from baseball and all four of us joined M's school classmates for an end-of-year picnic in Lincoln Park at a playground just a few minutes away from us. Both kids had a blast (no pics though).

Then we all came home and took it easy for an hour or so, before M and I hopped in the car and drove up to Milwaukee to see the Astros play (and lose miserably to) the Brewers. Miller Park was a really nice stadium, one of the nicest parks I've been too. M really liked it, focusing mainly on the food. Keep the popcorn, hot dogs, fries and ice cream coming every 2 innings and you can make it through the whole game, which we did. We had great seats, too, about 8 rows behind home plate. Thank you, Craigslist.

The sausage race during the 6th inning stretch was another highlight. If you don't know, Milwaukee is a sausage-eating town and they've got sausage mascots who race around the field. No on-screen dot races for these fans. There's chorizo, Italian, Polish, Brat and a hot dog. For those who were wagering, the Italian took top honors this time.

Meredith stayed awake and alert through the whole game and I think she'll be up for a return visit. Maybe we'll go see the red-hot Cubs next time, seeing as how they're a mile away, not 100.

On the Andrew front, he recently had a 15-month check up and is doing great. He's actually 16 months now, I'm just late talking about it. Like M, he's way up the charts on height and very middle of the road on weight. I used to think M was physical and coordinated for her age; she was and still is. But Andrew is hot on her heels. He's her equal and sometimes more so at this stage. He's more into throwing and kicking at this age. Of course, at this age for M, we were still in Brooklyn, sans yard, so maybe it's just different opportunities.

Over the last few weeks, he's really gotten into reading his books too. You just try to tell him no when he grabs a book and backs into you, angling for some lap time. Just try it, I say. You won't be able to pull it off.

Here are some more pics from the last few weeks. Click on the picture to move to the next one or use the thumbnails at the bottom. You can also place your mouse above the word 'Notes' to see any commentary I felt like adding.

May 29, 2008

milestones

I've been derelict in recording some of Andrew's milestone events. So let me put an end to that. Today, May 29, 2008, Andrew managed to open the oven and climb up on the oven door. (the oven was off, for the record.) And he figured out how to open the pantry, get into a box of shredded wheat and empty that on the floor. A momentous day, right? And yet Josie never thought to grab a camera and record the moments. Odd....