Talk about cool

My cousin's roommate is very artistic and drew this charcoal picture of a handful of her favorite artists/album covers and if our group can't appreciate this fantastic piece of art, no one can...

 

I told my cousin that her roommate should do this for people and make some cash on the side.  Maybe ask them for their ten favorite album covers and then charge ~$250 to draw it for them.  If I had the money, I'd buy one.  I'd love to hang something like this in my house.

What would your ten albums be?

I am going to have to think about that myself and respond as well.  It's hard because my ten favorite albums musically would be different from the ten I'd want her to draw, as some of the covers of my favorites are fairly boring.

Took my chances on a big jet plane

This past weekend Gina and I were blessed enough to spend four days in California.  Of the 2000 employees in my area of the bank, 75 of us won a Circle of Excellence trip this year, which was essentially all expenses paid.  We flew into San Diego on Thursday and then commuted about 30 miles north to La Costa Resort and Spa, a swanky destination in the town of Carlsbad.

 

 

It was the first time that we had been away from the kids for more then one night since Natalie was born (i.e. it was a bit traumatic at points...especially for Gina).  But, it was definitely healthy for us to get away for a few days.

Mostly so I don't forget pieces of the trip that I want to remember later on, I have decided to document the highlights from the getaway while they are still fresh in my mind.
Thursday:

• Before we left the house on Thursday morning, Gina said she felt like we forgot to pack something.  I told her not to worry about it.  We had two suitcases to check in and one carry on and as long as we remembered the carry on (my suit, her dress) everything else was replaceable.  I then promptly proceeded to forget the carry on at the security checkpoint.  A half an hour later I realize this.  However, I was fortunate that they still had the bag at the checkpoint and after a short interrogation were willing to allow me to take it.
• Departure time: 9am, Arrival time: 11:30am
• After checking in at 3pm, Gina and I crashed for three hours before the meet and greet everyone was asked to attend at 7pm.  It was a well needed catch up on sleep for both of us. 
• It was a nice opening event, as I pretty much knew no one (outside of the names of some of the attendees) and it gave us a chance to make some friends.

Friday:

• After a motivational speaker in the morning, we all went off to do one of four company sponsored events.  Gina and I choose a winery tour in Temecula (other options were golf, kayaking and the resort's spa).
• We toured Callaway Vineyard and Winery and then did a wine tasting seminar / luncheon there.  We then went to Wilson Creek Winery and Vineyard and did a wine tasting there as well.  I learned quite a bit and was able to try a lot of good wine.  Gina and I both liked Wilson Creek more of the two and Gina bought a sweatshirt there.  Gina also got her swerve on and potentially found a new customer for Rick's drop stop business as Bill WIlson (who Gina discussed things with) sounded sincerely interested.
• The picture below shows the stainless steel containers where the wine ferments for weeks before moving to barrels (red wine) or smaller steel containers (white wine).

• It rained during most of the wine tour, even though almost no rain had fallen for weeks in the area before Friday.
• After returning to La Costa, it had stopped raining so Gina and I went into the hot tub for a while before the evening event.  We ended up talking to two gentlemen in the hot tub who were there to golf (the resort hosted the PGA tour's Accenture Match Play Championship from 1999-2006).  They were from the San Jose area and were pretty funny guys who told us a lot of California stories from back in the day.
• The weirdest moment of the weekend had to be when we saw that after it rains, snails (not worms) come out and are all over the sidewalks.
• The evening event was a trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  The park was closed (except for our group) and I was surprised how far off the beaten path we had to go to get there.  Also, the trial they had us take once we got there to our scheduled tram tour was ridiculous and for a few moments I think Gina thought we were going to die with how narrow/steep/etc. the roads were considering they brought us back to the trams on the luxury buses.
• The tram tour was fun, but very cold.  The temperature was consistently warmer in Minnesota then California all weekend. 
• It was very interesting to see an environment where rhinos, giraffes, zerbas, antelopes, gazelles, etc. all were co-habitating with one another in the same common area.  We were also able to see Ivan, the giraffe in many of the park's advertisements.
• After we returned, Gina and I found our way back to the hot tub before heading off to bed.

Saturday:

• The group was given free time until the formal awards ceremony at 6pm (i.e. suits and dresses).
• Over the course of the weekend we enjoyed looking at the cars parked on site.  About nine of every ten cars in our specific parking area of interest was either a BMW, Jaguar, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz or Hummer.
• We spent the afternoon in La Jolla, an upscale area along the ocean within greater San Diego.  The town is home to Torrey Pines Golf Course (home the 2008 U.S. Open) and a high end outdoor shopping area.
• Waiting for the bus to leave from La Jolla, Gina and I were talking to the events coordinator for the weekend and he told us a story about his son-in-law working on the 72nd floor of the second twin tower on 9/11.  Needless to say, the story warrants its own blog entry sometime in the near future.
• Walking around the stores we ran across the following items: Cal Ripken signing his new book at Warwicks (Gina had to pull me away because the line was literally around the block), a store called Morrison Hotel (which I have decided is the coolest store name ever) and sea lions hanging out in their natural environment along the ocean.

• Saturday night we attended the awards ceremony and it was a lot of fun getting dressed up.  Gina looked incredible.  The 75 of us were presented with awards for being winners, etc.  We were also entertained by magicians at the end of the night, though one was very good and one was pretty bad.
• The dinner was amazing.  It was steak and shrimp (both cooked perfectly) and the dessert was lemon creme brulee.  It was literally the best dessert I have ever had and I am not a huge lemon (usually too strong) or creme brulee (usually a little boring) fan.  The lemon taste was subtle and topped with a coffee truffle, a hazelnut truffle, three blueberries, two raspberries, a blackberry and whip cream.
• We learned of a few stories at the awards banquet from earlier in the day, such as a guy from our group who golfed at the resort in the morning and ended up being placed in Morgan Freeman's tee time.  Another couple ended up eating lunch at the resort next to Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte. 

Sunday:

• Our wake up call came at 4:45am.  Yuck!!!
• At checkout, the bill for the room for the three days was >$1000.  However, the amount we owed was $0.00.
• We were able to see the USS Ronald Reagan on our way to the airport.  It has returned to its home port over the weekend.  It was particularly interesting to me because when my dad was in the Navy ('69-'71) he was stationed in San Diego on the USS Oriskany.
• We ended up standing next to the guy who golfed with Morgan while we were waiting to get our plane tickets and he said that Mr. Freeman was a very nice guy (except for when a large bird swooped down and stole the breakfast bar in his cart while he was putting on one of the holes.  I guess he chased the bird for a while but unsuccessfully recovered the bar).
• Departure time: 8:45am, Arrival time: 2:30pm
• We made it home to see the kids around 3:30pm.  We had a lot of fun but we were also happy to be home.  

Now, I just need to start packing for my trip to Talladega this weekend.  Natalie is going to forget who I am by the time I return from it on Monday.

Thank you Sean!

It's not the first time it has hit close to home since the war started (Kyle Anderson), but I hope it's the last!
This is the uncle of one of Gina's current students:

A soldier from Rosemount died Sunday in Baghdad of wounds suffered when a bomb exploded near his  vehicle, the Defense Department announced Wednesday. Specialist Sean K. McDonald, 21, was assigned to the Army's 9th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based in Wiesbaden, Germany. A spokesman for the Army's 1st Armored Division could not be reached for comment Wednesday night. McDonald is the 55th person with Minnesota ties to die in connection with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.startribune.com/722/story/1087771.html

I'm not a politically driven person, but I will at least state that this death should never have happened.  It's unfortunate that it takes something like this to open a person's eyes but I feel very compelled at the moment to state how much I appreciate what our soldiers are doing to protect our country across the world.  They aren't asked whether or not they want to go.  When they enlist they give their life to our country and just do what they are told (and it almost all cases they do it with honor and do it extremely well).

THANK YOU!

The Ugly Mug

I was recently decided to play softball this summer.  I subbed for a team in Farmington a few times last year and they asked me to play full time with them.  At first I graciously declined but Gina talked me into playing.  Our friend Justin is now coaching the team so that helped with the decision, as well as the fact that his wife Erin and their two girls will likely be there most nights as well.

A local tavern named the Ugly Mug is going to sponsor the team.

Now that I'm officially on the team I am starting to get a little more excited about it.

Over the years, softball has treated me pretty well...I just haven't enjoyed it all that much.  I think I made the mistake of trying to substitute it for playing baseball (something I still miss incredibly).

I've only played sparingly (maybe six to eight games) since Tenacious D broke up in 2002 and I am hoping that this time around I can enjoy softball for what it is now that I have had time some subsantial away from it.

 

I can tell you this though...I do miss the smell of a ball field.  I am very much looking forward to that again.

The order of the phoenix

My brother informed me over the weekend that him and Morgan were randomly selected to view a pre-screening of the new Harry Potter movie which will be released in July.

 

After the showing they were asked to fill out surveys and were encouraged to stick around for focus group discussions.  Matt was guessing that a couple of the movie's bigwigs were in attendance.

 

He said that some of the special effects were not completed yet but that they both enjoyed the film quite a bit.  Chalk one up to the benefits of living in Chicago.

The Otter view

When Natalie and I go downstairs to play, I typically hop on the computer and check my email at some point.  Depending on how long I spend at the computer, she sometimes comes over to me and wants to get up on my lap.

The first thing she says when she's situated is Otter.

It never fails.

She wants me to show her a picture of my brother-in-law Chris.

So...I go searching through our pictures.  Sometimes it takes me a while to find one and in the meantime she's saying Otter every couple of seconds until I do.

The girl has broken me.

This is now our new desktop background:

 

Something to write home about

These days I am not nearly as plugged into the music scene as I once was in my single years.  While it's is something I have freely accepted based on all of the other wonderful things in my life these days, I do get sad about it on occasion. 

While I was home from work with Macie I was thinking about the music I spent so much of my life listening to.  It's hard for me to remember specific time periods of music (other than college) but I wanted to do what I could to document my musical path for my own historical reference, if nothing else.

I've always listened to a wide variety of music, but I have also had a couple of artists that I have spent large chunks of time with at given stages of my life.

Here is the list of artists I focused on at the different stages (with albums of focus during that time period as well).  The first one listed is the one I spent the most time with, etc. 

Someday, I may dig deeper into each of these time frames.

Early high school - Pearl Jam and Nirvana

Late high school - Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine

 

 

College (Freshmen) - The Doors and Pearl Jam

 

 

College (Sophmore) - Counting Crows and Bush

 

 

College (Junior) - Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor

 

 

College (Senior #1) - Soul Coughing and Led Zeppelin

 

 

College (Senior #2) - Built to Spill and the Get Up Kids

 

 

Pre-Gina (2000 - 2001) - Mike Doughty and Tenacious D

 

 

Pre-wedding (2001-2003) - Jack Johnson and Mason Jennings

 

 

Pre-Natalie (2003-2005) - Mason Jennings and Old 97s

 

 

Post-Natalie (2005 - present) - Mike Doughty and All-American Rejects

 

Inside, Outside, Upside Down

Here's 41 random observations from the last week:


I knew things were going to be just fine at the hospital when our labor nurse ended up being named Gina (same spelling and everything).


I believe that it is going to be a long time before a day goes by that I don’t think about how close we were to having a dire situation on our hands on the way to the hospital. For those that don’t know, we left at 6:15pm for the hospital based mainly on a hunch that Gina was progressing with her labor. Her contractions were getting stronger but they were still seven to eight minutes apart (the general guideline for heading to the hospital is contractions every five minutes). By the time we were checked into the hospital it was 7pm. Gina’s water broke at 8pm and if she would have already had her epidural and if the doctor was at the hospital, Macie would have literally been born at 8:02 (all she needed was two pushes). After waiting to meet Natalie for sixteen hours following Gina’s water breaking (and 1.5 hours of pushing), the pace of this delivery was incredible.


With the speed of the birth, Gina was unable to get an epidural (her biggest fear). However, the anesthesiologist was able to give her a spinal just five minutes before Macie was born. It helped take the pressure away and Gina was grateful for it.


We’ve had so many visitors since Macie was born (including Molly essentially every day) that Gina and I have been overwhelmed (in a good way) with all the love.


Macie has the biggest eyes I ever remember seeing on a baby. Currently, her eyes are brown (though you can detect hints of blue in sunlight) and they just suck you in.

I forgot how hard it is to tell that a newborn is breathing. When they sleep they are so calm and peaceful that at least ten times a day I check Macie (either by rubbing her head, adjusting her blanket, etc.) to make sure she is OK.


I knew this already from Natalie’s birth, but there is no question in my mind that the female is the stronger of the two sexes. What Gina did in that delivery room was extraordinary.


Who needs sleep anyways?


After every feeding, Macie gets the hiccups.


If there is a next time, I am going to worry less about being packed and just make sure we have our camera.


Unlike Natalie who has been Nattie since day one, no nickname has stood out for Macie yet. Nicknames that have been thrown out there are Mace, MJ, Josie, CC, etc. I really thought I'd be calling her Josie (playing off her middle name) but I'm currently favoring MJ. Only time will tell...


Natalie has done wonderful with Macie. We have had our moments (especially when Gina is feeding Macie), but overall things are going well. I love it when Natalie says Macie’s name (usually in a whisper).

I’ve been reminded in the last week that I still have my swaddling touch.


Our house is now officially a poop factory and I am the king of the poop patrol. Good golly.


The funniest moment of the week occurred just as Gina was taking Macie into our room to feed her one afternoon. She looked at me dead-panned and simply said “moo” as she walked past.


With the fits that Natalie throws these days from time to time (her terrible twos are starting a bit early), I forgot that at birth (and for a while after) babies have a cute cry.


Talk about threading the needle, both Molly (ten days in Disneyworld) and my buddy Matt from work (six days in Aspen) returned to Minnesota on the 6th. Gina’s parents left for the weekend in Vegas on the morning of the 8th and were able to see Macie before they left. Gina said her mom is spoiled and always gets her way.


One of the sweetest things that happened at the hospital was our nurse Gina showing up the day after Macie was born a half hour before her shift started so that she could spend some time with us. It meant a lot.Congrats to Molly’s mom Marcy on the winning guess out of the 51 people who attempted to predict when Macie would be born.


Leaving the hospital bubble was hard to do. Life seems so much easier there.


A big thank you to my mom for staying at the house with Natalie and Casey while we were at the hospital.


Gina has healed so quickly. Not only did she not have any stitches this time but she was up and moving around just fine only a few hours after the birth. She has said on multiple occasions that it doesn’t feel like she just gave birth.


Since returning home from the hospital, our family has endured the deaths of two of our fish. It’s been traumatic.


I am excited to read Marley and Me now that Macie has been born. I made it about half way through the book a few months ago and had to stop because part of the book was too hard to get through.
It feels great that I have finished designing the birth announcements and they should be mailed out by the end of the week.


It does not feel great that I have done very little research for strato this year. I am so far behind right now.



One suggestion to the future parents out there: If you are having a winter baby, remember to install the car seat before it is below zero outside. That was not a good time.


When the doctor told us that it was a girl, Gina and I started laughing.
Gina and I then spent the rest of the night in disbelief wondering what just happened. Hours earlier Gina was at school, teaching a full day. At 3am we decided to shelf the thought and attempt (unsuccessfully) to get some sleep.


The human body is absolutely the most incredible single entity ever created. Ask any parent who has been blessed to have a child born with ten fingers, ten toes and a clean bill of health and my guess is you will find a very large percentage of those people agree.


Neither Gina nor I loved the name Macie in the beginning. Gina brought it up and it was intriguing enough to keep around, but nothing more. However, over time it really began to grow on us. We walked into the hospital with five girl names (Macie, ???, Ella, Anna and Susanna). The second name does exist, but we are not telling anyone what it is on the off chance that we have another child and it’s a girl. Unlike the boy names where we had two names that we loved, we really had no idea what we were going to do for a name if we had a girl. We even considered abandoning the girl’s list and starting over. A half hour after Macie was born, Gina and I both held our child for a bit and informed each other what name we thought our new baby looked like and we both agreed that she was definitely a Macie. You have no idea how glad I am that we were on the same wave length.


Gina and I found the name Macie reviewing the governments SSN site of popular baby names (mostly because I’m anal, we looked at the top 1000 registered boys and girls names in 2005). Though I don’t hear of a lot of Natalie’s, it was the 18th most popular SSN name registered in ‘05 (Nattie’s birth year). Macie was 458th.


At the hospital, we ran into our friend Nicole’s sister Sarah P. from high school and her husband Brett. They were checked in about the same time as we were and had a beautiful baby girl at 6:44pm on the 8th named Elizabeth.


Natalie and Macie were born in the same room (201) at the hospital.


Gina and I always said we’d pick the most popular spelling of whatever name we chose. Macie is spelled numerous ways (Macy, Macey, Maci, etc.), but Macy is the most popular. The reason we went with the spelling we did was that Macy is only the 243rd most popular name so it didn’t really matter that much. It’s not like we were changing the spelling of Hannah (the 7th most popular name) to Hanna (the 244th most popular name).


Macie (and all of its different spellings) means Matthew’s Estate. With so many important people named Matt in our lives, it is a perfect fit.


The middle name of Jo is in honor of Gina’s mom JoAnn. On a side note, I do like that both my brother and grandpa have middle names of Joseph as well.


This date thing we have going on with Rick's side of the family is a bit out of control. Gina and I had the same wedding anniversary as Ed and Mary Jo. Ed and I had the same birthday. Ed passed away on Gina's birthday. Natalie was born on Grandpa S's birthday. Macie was born on Grandma S's birthday.


Natalie and Macie, as newborns, do not look much alike. Natalie looked so much like me and Macie looks a lot like Gina. I suppose it’s only fair we each got one.


There may be nothing in this world more wonderful then holding your sleeping newborn baby against your chest, smelling her and simply listening to her breathe.


Watching Macie nose dive for Gina, a bottle, a nuk or whatever else is near her mouth is priceless.

A Houdini among us

In December, Natalie graduated to a big girl bed.  She may not have been 100% ready (she was close though), but we needed to open up the crib for the baby and didn't want both transitions happening at once. 

Gina and I bought a twin box and mattress and put it on the floor in her room.  Nattie has to work a bit but she can even get into bed on her own.

 

From the start, we have tried to teach her to stay in her room until we come and get her.  However, parenting is just like life...it tends to play out somewhere in the gray.

 

We want her to stay in bed overnight and in the morning until we come and get her, mostly from a safety standpoint, as getting out her room essentially grants access to the entire house while we are sleeping.  But, it is also convenient for her to let herself out of bed after a nap.  Otherwise, she needs to work herself up and start crying for us to know she is awake.  If she's in a good mood when she gets up it's counterproductive.

Not good.  No simple solution exists and Gina and I are all about consistency.

Gray area solution:

Overnight, we put a gate up outside of her room so that she knows she needs to stay in there even if she wants to get out (usually around 5am).  If she sees the gate she needs to go back to bed, if she doesn't see the gate she can come out. 

All and all, it's worked pretty well.

Within the last week, however, she's pulled a couple of magic acts on Gina in the morning.  Last week, she walked into our bedroom with the gate and handed it to Gina saying "here you go." 

Point taken.

I need to tighten the gate to the doorway.  I had thought seeing the gate up would be deterrent enough.  I was wrong.

I've since corrected the issue.

Then this morning happens...

Natalie was in our bathroom when Gina got out of the shower.  This time, the gate was completely in tact.  Gina asked if she had crawled under the gate and Nattie told her yes.  Gina then took her over to the gate and asked her how she got out (because sometimes she answers questions a certain way and doesn't really know what we are asking). 

She got down on the ground and pushed her lamby under the gate.

Point taken.

The kid is no dummy.

In order to tighten the gate I need to keep it off the ground a bit so that I can twist the tighening device on the bottom properly.  Last night, I had tightened the gate a bit high (maybe five inches off the ground or so).  She recognized that the gap was large enough this morning for her to get out and took advantage of her daddy.

 

 

Natalie 2  Brian 0

My 20-month-old daughter has just outsmarted me for the second time in regards to the gate in the last few days.

Hopefully I won't need to add another post in the near future about a third (or more) instance as well.

Super Bowl XLI

While I may regret going on record with this...

Colts 26  Bears 17