Ethan sick before Christmas
Ethan had his tonsils taken out a week before Christmas. He also had his adenoids taken out, whatever they are, and had something cauterized. I think I posted about it, but summary is that it was not fun. This is a picture of him recuperating in a big chair between the fireplace and Christmas tree.
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Ethan is kind of hard to see, on the left side
February 25, 2008
Useless Travel Story
Let it be known to the 3 people who read my blog that this post has nothing insightful or meaningful. It’s basically me complaining about a tough week I had.
Last Monday, a week ago, I woke up in Boston (I refer to our home in Milton as Boston since it conveys a city, not so much the exact location I live in). The kids had off from school (eldest in kindergarten, middle in pre-school, youngest in nothing), so Patti was going to head to NY for the week to stay with her parents and see a friend in NYC.
Monday I worked from home and they left...
Monday I worked from home and they left in the morning. Great afternoon of working from home, cleaning lady came and the house stayed neat and sparkling for more than 10 minutes.
Tuesday morning I woke up in Boston and flew to New York on the 6AM shuttle. For some reason I woke up the night before at 2AM after sleeping for 3 hours and couldn’t get back to sleep. I had a very stressful week ahead of me, which culminated a terrible month for me work-wise, so I think the stress gave me insomnia, the kind where I can fall asleep no problem but once awake, even after only a couple of hours, I could not get back to sleep. I’ve never had that problem before in my life, but age, children, a mortgage and more responsibility at work I guess will do that to you. Oh well, life goes on.
So on Tuesday I flew to NY and worked in NY City all day. I was exhausted. Later that day I flew to DC, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, DCA, and kind of ironic considering Reagan fired over 11K striking air traffic controllers in 1981.
I had a meeting in Lynchburg, Virginia, the next morning and instead of driving the 3 plus hours on Tuesday night, decided to drive to Charlottesville VA and finish the drive in the morning.
As I was heading to the Hertz rental car in DC I called my sister, who lives in northern Virginia, for the best way to head out of town. One mapping system told me to head south on 95, another told me to head west on 66. Good thing I called her, because route 66 during rush hour is for high occupancy vehicles only.
I headed south during rush hour Tuesday evening, a horrible situation. I basically sat in traffic, parking-lot kind of traffic, for the entire ride on 95. Awful considering how tired I was and that I had another 2 hours of back road driving when I got off.
Then once I got off, I was on a series of country roads that while traveling through beautiful Virginia country side, didn’t allow me to go 85 MPH like I wanted to. Plus I only had Google maps on my Blackberry and printed directions, no GPS system like I should buy, so I was kind of nervous that I would end up in West Virginia sleeping in my car in a cow field.
I made it to a surprisingly nice hotel in Charlottesville for the night, had really good and cheap room service, and got a good night’s sleep. Tuesday was one out of three really stressful events out of the way.
Wednesday morning I woke up and headed to Lynchburg to go to my meeting. I’ll spare you the details, but it was a good day overall and item 2 out of 3 was done. Thursday was the worst of the week in terms of what I had to do for work, so I still had that in front of me.
Getting to and from Lynchburg Virginia is difficult no matter what you decided to do. Richmond, Charlotte North Carolina, DC, whatever, is at least a 2 hour car drive away. But my father said he thought there was an airport in Lynchburg when I talked to him a week earlier, and yep, there was, with two airlines flying out of it. So needing to get to Toronto, Canada on Wednesday night, I decided to fly out of Lynchburg.
I got to the airport and it was basically a building next to a tarmac where a plane flies in, picks up some people, and flies out. In fact, the lady who checked me in was loading bags on my flight later on. The TSA security guys were having coffee when I got there so a metal gate was lowered to get to the gate and I had to wait for them to finish their break. I had a couple of hours to kill so no big deal.
I flew Wednesday from Lynchburg to Charlotte North Carolina and then on to Toronto. Both flights were on time and no issues.
For anyone who flies internationally, they know that you have to go through customs. I’m not an expert on customs, but I know it adds another layer of hassle when traveling, and I don’t like it. But in Toronto I made it off the plane, and through customs in lightening quick speed. It was after midnight and I still had to drive to Markham, about 40 kilometers away, so it was nice getting out of the airport quickly.
At the Hertz counter I got into my Toyota Matrix, which I can honestly say I had never heard of and thought for a while that it was a car that was unique to Canada until someone told me a couple of days later that they do indeed sell them in the US.
When I get into a rental car, I check where all the important buttons are, I fix the mirrors, I recent the odometer, and leave.
So after I got on the highway, 401 heading east, I looked down at the dashboard and first saw that the temp was 11 BELOW and I was doing 120. HOLY S**T I thought, did I get off the plane in some parallel world where we live in extremes. Well, as you can guess, in the myopic world I call home, I forgot they follow the metric system and use Celsius for temperature. So while still pretty cold, it was only 12 degrees Fahrenheit and I was driving a safe, although not legal, 72 miles per hour.
I got to my hotel around 1AM and fell asleep about an hour later. Ugh.
Thursday morning I woke up, exhausted, worked from my hotel, and headed to my meeting. It went well and after spending over 5 hours in front of a group of people, presenting, answering questions, making jokes, ducking and weaving, I was DONE with my week from hell. Over a month of 7 day work weeks and anxiety was over. It was time to head to NY City where my wife was waiting for me at the lovely New York Hilton. I was FREE. But there was one last thing I needed to do.
In Canada there are some things you can buy that you cannot buy in the US because of the embargo on Cuba. Now, I would never buy these things in Canada and bring them to the US because that is against the law, but I like to go to smoke shops and look at the Cuban cigars. I then buy perfectly legal Dominican cigars and bring them home. Since I was going to see my father in law, who enjoys cigars, I wanted to get some pretty good ones.
So I left the hotel my meeting was at and drove to a really nice town and bought my perfectly legal Dominican cigars. I then got back on the road and rove 120 KPH to the airport, where I went through the customs, security, and go to my gate. Actually, I first went to the duty free shop and bought a bottle of Canadian vodka called Iceberg because I liked the look of the bottle. I became a fan of Duty Free shops in Bermuda last year because I realized that the items – liquor, perfume, chocolates and local items – are typically cheaper than in the store and tax free. By the way, the vodka is pretty awful and I should have bought a bottle of Stoli or something I knew would be good. Oh well, I love the Canadians but I guess vodka is not their thing.
I then got on a Continental flight at 8PM for the slightly less than 2 hour flight to Newark. Back on NY, Patti left the kids with her parents on Thursday morning and headed in to Manhattan. Her good friend Karen is in a hospital in NYC on bed rest for a pregnancy, so Patti was going to head in, spend the day with her, then go to the hotel at night and wait for me. I was feeling SO relieved because my exam week was over, so I could not wait to get to NY and meet up with Patti.
Keep in mind I fly a lot. Most flights are on time or slightly late, with being very late or cancelled something that does happen more times that I like. But arriving early never happens, and arriving 35 minutes early on a one hour and 45 minute flight NEVER happens, but guess what? It did. We were on the flight and about 45 minutes into it the captain came on and said they were in their final approach and asked the flight attendants to prepare for landing. The attendants just went through giving out drinks and stuff, so the guy next to me and I looked at each other like “huh?”. Side note: while the guy was nice enough, he was spread out in his seat like he was home alone in his basement watching a basketball game. His arms were not only all over the arm rest, they were on MY side of the seat, an infraction that is just not done with frequent fliers. But I was in such a good mood, Dominicans in my carry on bag, bottle of vodka, wife waiting for me, that I didn’t mind. Which is strange considering I am usually pretty grumpy about stuff like that.
So we landed at 9:10, THIRTY FIVE EFFING MINUTES EARLY. YES!!!! Early, how about that. It was incredible. I made it quickly to the curbside pickup and got into my car service, which I called from the plane to let them know I got in early and they were already there. Patti and I were instant messenging each on and she was in the executive lounge on her laptop just killing time. At this point it was a little before 10 and she got to the hotel around 8. The New York Hilton on 6th gave her a kind suite when she checked in.
I met her in the lounge, we had a drink and I dropped my stuff off in the room. I was kind of wound up from the flight so we went for a walk. The great thing about NY City is that there is activity 24 hours a day. It’s a fun city and lots to look at, so we went for a walk and then headed back to our suite.
Friday morning I was supposed to drive to central New Jersey for a meeting. But the biggest snow storm of the season was predicted for the NY area so we decided to do it over a web conference. I got up and took my call from the hotel while Patti worked out, got breakfast and did some shopping. The entire morning it was snowing, which started in the middle of the night, and the local newscasts talked about how bad the roads were. It was heavy, a ton of flights were cancelled, and the roads were apparently backed up. I decided to leave the city early and drive the 100 miles or so to her parents house instead of waiting later in the day.
Hertz for some reason gave me a really nice Cadillac, with all kinds of cool features like heated steering wheel and a rolling lumbar that acts as a back massage. We left mid town around 1 and hit zero traffic going through the tunnel or on the Long Island Expressway. Nothing. I could have driven 90 miles an hour if I wanted. It was still snowing, or more like sleet at that point, so I was slow, but we didn’t hit the nightmare-ish traffic the news was telling us about.
Made it to the in-laws, I worked from the house the rest of the afternoon, and we went on to enjoy the rest of our weekend.
So that was it. A stressful week and not a fun travel schedule. But I am done and on to my next thing.
Just thought I’d share (a useless story).
February 19, 2008
MacBook Pro
I forgot to mention that we entered the world of Apple (besides our iPods). I finally broke down and bought a Mac. Patti needed a new laptop and I was about a click away from ordering a Dell and in a moment of hesitation, I didn't order it. We then decided to give the Mac a try. It's Patti's laptop and so far so good. I even know what the spinning rainbow of doom is.
I can't make fun of Mac owners anymore. Too bad. I enjoyed it.
February 18, 2008
Things not to say at work
I was reading an article on what NOT to say in the workplace this morning. It was kind of funny to realize how many things I say that I should not, but I seem to stay employed so I guess I say it in a nice way.
Anyway, many of the same comments that you should not say at work are said around the house, with my wife, the kids, friends and their kids. For Patti, our home life is her work environment, only with no sick days, terrible pay, no overtime comp and a sometimes dangerous work environment. So here is the list of things not to say, but in the content of my personal life.
1. "That's not my job."
Said to Patti, when she asked me to change Emerson’s diaper. At least I thought it was funny.
2. "Yeah, no problem." (If you don't mean it.)
What I say to Emily or Ethan when they ask me some inane question, like if I can jump over the house or make the car fly.
3. "Don't tell anyone I said this, but ... "
What I say to Emily when I definitely want her to tell someone. Like, “don’t tell anyone I said this but I am taking Ethan to the hockey game”.
4. "I haven't had a raise in four years."
What my wife would have said when Emily was 4.
5. "It's not my fault."
Heard on an almost daily basis from our 3 kids and at times myself.
6. "To be honest with you ... "
Patti says this to me after I’ve asked her a question 10 times. “Patti, do you know where the portable DVD player is”. After 9 times of her saying no, she will say To be honest with you, it’s hidden in the pantry.
7. "Whom did you vote for?"
I have no need to ask this in Massachusetts, the answer is always “not a republican”.
8. "I got so trashed last night ... "
We usually say “it feels like I got so trashed last night” but without the benefit of the getting trashed part. With three kids and a cat, rarely do we have 5 hours of unbroken sleep, let alone 8 hours.
9. "I just didn't have enough time for that."
Spoken daily.
10. ". . . or else."
Spoken hourly.
February 12, 2008
Emily taking the plunge
Emily, our 5 year old, has been taking swimming lessons since she was 2. Not sure if she is going to be in the Olympics, but she’s a very good swimmer for her age. And she really loves the water.
Last month she wanted to jump from the high diving board at Boston College, one of the places she takes lesson.
I thought “why not, what’s the worst that can happen, she gets rescued by a life guard and a life time of fear?”
So she jumped, with her teachers watching, and loved it. Since then, I’ve taken better video but all I have for now is this choppy image taken from my cell phone.
It might not seem that far, but for a 5 year old, and even me, the high board is pretty high.
Overheard in Atlantic City
I was in Atlantic City, NJ the past two days (more on that later, ugh) and I overheard the following comment
"It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, like swallowing a cat"
February 05, 2008
Yes We Can...With The Black Eyed Peas
Say what you will about Barack Obama, but he inspires great music videos.
...and the primaries get wackier and wackier.
some more information on the song here
Airplane Hit By Lightning
Something happened today that has never happened in my years of flying - the airplane I was in was hit by lightning. Or at least that’s what we were told.
I was flying from Boston to NY on the Delta Shuttle, and we were in the clouds. The weather in the northeast today is terrible. The flight was really bumpy and we were jumping around, and I was having a hard time working on my laptop.
I looked out the window, I was in a seat near the wing, and all of a sudden there was a flash and a really loud BOOM! It felt like watching a canon fired at a reenactment, with that feeling of reverberation. You could feel the plane vibrate at the shock of the lightning. I think it hit on my side. I was looking right at it, I might have an ability to summon lightning.
So of course everyone stopped what they were doing and gave the "what the (expletive deleted) was that?" look. One of the flight attendants who was sitting (the pilot made the attendants sit) turned to me and said we were just hit by lightning.
I have to be honest, for the first time in my life, at least that I can remember, I was a little nervous.
Of course, IF I am going to die, the most lucrative is to die in a plane crash while traveling for work. In fact, the MOST lucrative is to get mugged on a plane flying in a dangerous country, for work, that crashes. That way I get hazard pay, assault that leads to death, and a death resulting from an airplane crash while at work. For many of us, our companies offer free life insurance that goes up if death occurs while at work. I told Patti that if I have a heart attack while mowing the lawn, to put a briefcase in my hand.
Anyway, we landed fine and no harm was done.
PS. I have some pictures I need to post, and some interesting things I need to write about, but I have been on the road Monday AM to Friday night. Working way too many hours for a good looking guy like me. I'll get to it soon though.