Rancho Capistrano Part 2 (Peanut Butter River)

In this picture, my D partner Ted is standing to my left. The instructor thought he looked like Richard Gere. The second exercise in the afternoon of the first day was "Peanut Butter River". I will just set up this exercise and not explain how we completed it. There are 2 ropes laid out parallel in a field about 100 feet apart, which delineates the peanut butter river. There are four upside down cups in the river which we are to get the contents of. We are to cross the river as a team of eight people and get the contents along the way. Half of us are blindfolded going across one way and the other half are blindfolded coming back. At no time are we allowed to step into the river and we have carpet squares to stand on. We are two squares to start with and 10 Tootsie Rolls. It costs three Tootsie Rolls to buy another carpet square before we start. It costs five Tootsie Rolls to buy another square after we enter the river. We lose Tootsie Rolls if we step into the river on the way. Lastly, according to our company's LEAN policy, we must have a profit of Tootsie Rolls when we are done.

We spend a lot of time planning our strategy and coming to consensus as well as practicing on the squares. Let's just say that we had to stand extremely close together to accomplish this. On the trip back, there was an extra twist where the two cups were not in line perpendicular to the river. I, in my engineering mindset, wanted to cut a shallow angle between the cups and had to create consensus with that plan. After agreeing to be the front person, I laid out the squares perfectly as everyone laughed at my complete 'C' analytical approach. The whole exercise took about tow hours to compete and in the end we had plenty of Tootsie Rolls to eat.

I got my Wii!!

Once upon a time we had a rule that there would be no video games in our house. As parents, we didn't want the kids wasting time doing a sedentary activity that would make them fat, not do their homework, not spend time outside, etc. They could go to other friend's houses if they wanted to play. We bent a few rules here and there, first allowing some computer games. In Christmas 2005, Doug got Adam a TV plug-in Nascar racing game. Last year he got a plug-in Avatar game for his birthday. Finally, Adam got a Game Boy as a hand me down gift. That started the spiral into the Nintendo cult. Then the Wii came along.

It all started with this awesome live demo from Father Roderick on this Daily Breakfast podcast. If you don't know Father Roderick, he is a video game loving Catholic priest and podcaster. He has an Xbox 360, a Sony PSP and a Nintendo DS. Not exactly sure how he affords all that stuff! Then he got the Wii, even before Christmas! I had heard about this swinging remote control video game system, but didn't think much of it. I kept hearing more and more cool stuff about it in subsequent podcasts. Then this video pushed me over the edge:


I had just turned 40 and had been hemming and hawing about what to get for my birthday and finally it hit me that I WANTED THE WII!!! Cheap and fun, vibration turned on!! Last Saturday when I first set out to get one, I called every store in the area and found they were all sold out. Still sold out near the end of January? I went to Target anyway and asked whether I could prepay for one. No dice. They were getting a shipment overnight and were opening on Sunday at 8 am. On Sunday, I woke up at 7 am (early for me), woke up Dova at 7:20 am (really early for her), took some breakfast to go and bundled her up as it was only 7 degrees F outside. We were in the car at 7:42 am, and I arrived at Target at 8:05 am. I was a little alarmed that the parking lot appeared to have a lot of cars so early in the morning. Went inside and saw a huge line of about 100 people watched by security guards going to the electronics section. OH NO!! I hopped in line and got my ticket for the Wii. Whew, at least I knew I was actually going to get my hands on one. The guy said that there about 15 tickets left. I overheard other people in line saying that they got there at 4 am!! Most people starting showing up at 6 am and that's when they started handing out the tickets. But they had to wait in their freezing cold cars until the doors opened at 8 am. So really I was quite lucky to snag one as they probably sold out by the time I left a half hour later. Here is a picture of the ticket and Dova waiting patiently with me. When we got the the end of the line, an employee escorted my Wii box and game to the cash register. I didn't actually get to touch it until it was paid for and in the bag.



The Wii is completely awesome and totally immersive. In our first day of playing, I accidentally hit the TV with the remote, Adam threw the remote twice (the 2nd time, it hit so hard the batteries flew out everywhere) and we both bopped Dova in the head while playing. Adam, of course, is already better than me at bowling and boxing. The only other game besides Wii Sports that we got is WarioWare Smooth Moves. It is totally silly, very Japanese and the kids love it. I pre-ordered Wii Play and scoured the internet for accessories such as an extra remote, nunchuck and the classic controller. Yes, it all it's already sucked $417 from me so far, but is well worth it for the family fun. Even Doug enjoys playing tennis. Here is our Wii (Mii) family:



Please add my Wii number to yours!! It is: 8853 2130 1378 2228. I love seeing Father Roderick up at bat on mine.

NPR : The Impact of Barber's 'Adagio for Strings'

When I saw the title of this NPR piece show up on my iPod, I was psyched because this is one of my all time favorite pieces of music (as I'm sure it is with many others). Afterwards, I was really impressed with this superbly produced and enlightening NPR podcast as well. Many people have called this a mournful, sad piece, but I totally disagree. To me, it is uplifting as it transcends you to a higher peaceful place. I remember hearing it on the radio one night driving down a straight stretch of highway. It was just past dusk, where you could still make out dark trees along the side of the road. As I listened to the slowly repeating triplets, I felt as though the car was rising up above the road. I lifted my head up and looked out at the vast dark sky and felt completeness and oneness with the universe. No, I wasn't sleeping and hadn't been drinking and I did keep my eyes on the road. But is was truly an enlightening experience, brought forth by a beautiful piece of music.

Here's a place to download the piece (about 7 minutes).

Making Excuses for the Tooth Fairy and Santa

It was bound to happen that the tooth fairy would miss our house one night. At least she made it up to the 5th tooth. In the morning after the missed visit I made the excuse that we went too sleep too late the previous night so she didn't stop by. Adam went to sleep promptly that night, so that is an added bonus from now on. So when did the going rate for a tooth get up to $2? I made the mistake of asking a friend what they paid and went with that. We should have started at $1 as we are slowly going broke over all these teeth. Cutting back to $1 on tooth 4 met with a LOT of complaints. Neither Doug nor I had visits from the tooth fairy as children. But then, kids who did only got a quarter. I chalk it up to not "educating" my Chinese parents on this US custom.

The other day, I lost my mind when I heard that Adam "lost" his Gameboy Legos Star Wars cartridge. I started yelling that it was his most expensive game at $30. He said, but Santa got it for me so why do you care how much it costs? In my anger I said that we had to PAY Santa, and nothing is free. Then he asked me how I paid Santa. Oh the tangled web we weave! Thankfully, Doug found the tiny cartridge under Dova's carseat and put out this mom's fire.

So are all these stories considered lying to your children? Doug says that it simply supports our popular culture. It is quite magical to see how kids really believe in them.

Lights in every bedroom

Dova's lights are finally up, see the happy feet? I wonder if my obsession with lights above the bed will transfer to the kids. They love their lights, but will they outgrow them? Or will they have to inflict them on their significant others when the time comes? I especially love them in our post and beam house, it really looks cool with the wood ceilings. In case you missed it, here are the lights above my own bed. Below is the ghost of Dova jumping on Adam's bed.

Getting to Orlando

Our outgoing flight to Disney World was delayed so we had to deal with Dova running around the airport for 3 hours. At one point when we were about to board the plane, I took my eye off of her for about 15 seconds and when I turned back she was gone. I started calling out "Dova" and whole bunch of people started pointing to the row chairs behind them. Thankfully everyone else was keeping an eye on her. As if you could miss her antics. After more delays with the Disney Magical Express bus breaking down, and not being able to remember our room number at the resort, we finally arrived hungry at 10pm. Grandma immediately recognized that Dova was acting just like I had when I was 3, traveling with her alone in an airport. She said she didn't know what to do with me, I was singing and running around the whole place. Of course the saying "a parent's greatest revenge is grandchildren" completely applies here. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

My Not-So-New Job at 18 Months

Looking back at my various job posts, I figured I would update the things I love about my job list and consolidate my gripes into a new list. Hopefully writing down the not-so-good will help me purge them from my system and allow me concentrate on the good things.

11 Things I love about my job (woo hoo bonus item!):

1. 15 minute commute: This is absolutely tops.
2. C#: I continue to love programming in this language and creating my kick ass UI program.
3. Pay: I've finally been put on the RONA (return on net assets) program and get some nice bonuses. This is awesome, except that it isn't so much extra money, but money I need to stay solvent having a stay-at-home dad.
4. Window: I don't have an office, but I do have window. It is totally awesome to be able look outside anytime and witness stunning sunsets.
5. Shopping: Tax free NH is 10-15 away, satisfying this shop-a-holic.
6. Gym: Still $7/month and 7 min away. I just wish it would take 7 pounds off me.
7. Chair Massage: Twice a month at $5 a pop, now I can't live without it!
8. Free food: Most lunchtime meetings are catered with plenty extra, just in time for a free lunch when I get back from the gym or shopping.
9. Boondoggles: You do have to actually work at trade shows but it is nice to travel again. Plus there are awesome manager training boondoggles to chose from.
10. Activities committee: I'm a member of this committee which is a fun-loving group. It is fun to plan events and learn all about catering, favors, entertainment, etc. I also get to shop because I have a P-card.
11. HR Wellness programs: There have been lots of seminars and I have learned about all sorts of things such as: chiropractic, hypnosis, sleeping, acupuncture and The Secret (another blog post on that for sure).

Too bad most of the good things are really circumstantial and outside of the core tenets of a good workplace, such as great people to work with and a great company atmosphere. Tom fell off the list because he is now a part-time consultant, so I can't very well waste his time and shoot the breeze with him. My boss is still great, but I hardly ever see him, so he doesn't figure into my day-to-day work.

Now for the bad and the ugly. The basic issue I have is that the company treats their employees like children. Children who need to be watched all the time and are expected to behave badly. Basically it is the philosophy that they are doing us a favor by providing us work, as opposed to us are doing them favor by keeping them in business.

Here is my list of 10 gripes:

1. The employee: Sometimes he is just fine and great, but other times... Doug jokes that it must depend whether he is taking his meds.
2. No access to outside email: No POP, no internet email. Of course I read my gmail through a Bloglines email subscription, but I can't reply. Last minute update, I got LogMeIn to work today so I can remote to my desktop at home! I actually sent out a forbidden email! SHHHHH!!!!!
   
3. Dress code: This is 2007 for crying out loud! At least it is business casual and not strict business dress. Unfortunately on casual Fridays, people go all out scaring the management into thinking that if we did go casual, people would be dressed like that all the time. That only perpetrates having to be treated like children.
   
   
4. Constant monitoring of computers: We now have a weekly audit of our computers. In the past, I have had to justify all the programs that are installed that I use. There are logon and logoff scripts that run and sometimes it takes a good 10-15 minutes to boot up in the morning.
5. No vacation roll-over: Is this the 1970's or something?
6. Vacation police: At the end of last year, HR reported that I had a floating holiday left, which I knew I had taken earlier that year. I promptly signed up for an extra day and took it (it was December 26, Dova's birthday). Then they came back after the fact and told my boss that it shouldn't have been granted. It was their own mistake! Eat it!
7. Restricted sites: I can understand gaming sites and such, but YouTube? I can't watch a 1 minute video? Luckily Flickr got on restricted list but then later got off.
8. No telecommuting: I have an employee that I allow to telecommute, but this is still not comprehended by HR. They have called me to ask whether he actually works on Saturday. The VPN is extremely slow, and on top of that, the email servers are in Cleveland, making it painful to access email even at work. Plus I live too nearby to justify it.
   
9. Mandatory screensaver: Everyone must use the same password protected Windows XP screensaver at 20 minutes. It is locked out, but luckily I know how to disable this for movies on car trips. Otherwise can you imagine having to type a password in every 20 minutes for the poor kids? We are "allowed" to have our own desktop wallpaper, thanks big brother.
   
10. Unable to allow programs through the Windows firewall: Luckily I allowed Trillian on my laptop before this restriction came about. If I ever get another computer, I will be out of luck! I assume I'll be able to figure this one out when the time comes...
    

Basically, everyday I plug into the Borg. I have been assimilated. Resistance is futile. Good thing I still have the internet (at least the unrestricted portions).

Shopping bulimia

It's no secret that I love to shop. But I also track every expense so I know where the money goes. And I always these questions when I buy something:

1. Is it in the budget, or more likely, will I go over budget?
   
2. Do I need it or just want it?
3. Do I love it or will my family love it?
4. Is there something else I already have that I could use instead?
5. Do I have a place for it? This is key, I hate clutter and having stuff pile up everywhere.

Sometimes if I lapse and buy too much stuff, I find myself feeling guilty and return things. I almost get as much satisfaction returning things as buying them in the first place. I love the feeling of purging excess and of putting cash back into my own pocket. I'm even one of those people who take the 100% guarantee at any time from Land's End and LL Bean to heart. I've returned stuff to them that is worn out or outgrown because they encourage us to do so! Perhaps I really am a shop-a-holic and suffer from shopping bulimia. Buy and return, buy and return. I guess there are worse afflictions to have!

Here are 2 interesting articles from FrugalForLife links on compulsive buying disorder and savings in men vs. women. Thankfully, I only suffer from occasional impulse buying. I also love to save and invest as well, so I got it all covered!

Knitted book cover

Doug's cousin Allen graciously gave me his late wife Ruth's knitting yarn. In appreciation, I wanted to make something from this yarn to give back to him. Since he was an English professor and loves books, Doug made the suggestion to make a knitted book cover. The first flap I made a bit too short (on bottom) and the other flap is a bit too long, but it still works. Since the flaps sit under the book cover, it does poof it up a bit and looks a little odd. While you are reading though, it is quite cozy on the hands. I got him The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. Allen was delighted with the book and the knitted cover.

School pictures

Only a few months late, better late than never! This time I opted for the extra sibling picture, as this will be the last time the kids will be in the same school at the same time (the schools are split K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 in my town, and they probably don't offer sibling portraits anyway). The price of the portrait package went up from $20 to $23 this year, so I ended up forking over $69 for the 3 sets. Yowzer! It's expensive to be a parent. Plus, the pictures are all a bit goofy. Adam looks like he is rolling his eyes, Dova is OK, much better than the scared one from last year, and the two of them together look like they are goofing off. They say that if you don't like the pictures you can send them back and get your money back. But to retake them, you'd have to schedule a new appointment and go through the whole ordeal of getting them dressed nicely and getting their hair to behave.

Here is a set of all the pictures through the years (can never be too organized). At least I managed to remember all the kid's names for the class portraits and they will be forever saved in Flickr. I look back at all my old school pictures and just scratch my head, especially having moved several times before settling in Stony Brook NY in 6th grade. The digital age is good for something!

The iPhone is SOOO SEXY!!

I've been waiting patiently for this to be released before I decided which smartphone to buy, but ouch!! the $499 price tag!!!

Check out these other cool shots from Engadget.

My Superhero and Supervillain profiles

You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 85% Superman 65% Wonder Woman 60% Supergirl 55% Iron Man 55% The Flash 45% Spider-Man 40% Robin 37% Catwoman 35% Hulk 35% Batman 30%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...


You are Mystique

Mystique 73% Dr. Doom 66% Poison Ivy 66% Dark Phoenix 56% Apocalypse 55% Mr. Freeze 51% The Joker 51% Lex Luthor 45% Juggernaut 45% Catwoman 42% Green Goblin 41% Riddler 40% Magneto 39% Venom 37% Kingpin 32% Two-Face 25%

Sometimes motherly, sometimes a beautiful companion, but most of the time a deceiving vixen.

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz


Thanks to Mike O'Brien for the link.

Rancho Capistrano Part 1

My company is big on training for their managers as they have numerous courses where they bring in experts to conduct intensive on-site and off-site programs. So when it came up as a goal on my performance review, I shopped for the best boondoggle. A two day course in a mission in southern California? I'm there. It is a nice perk of being part of the manager's "club"at this company. I have no other frame of reference, not having been a manager before, but I do believe that his company really tries to groom and coddle its managers. Which is great to promote a cohesive company culture, but a bit stifling when the company is an old-fashioned conservative company headquartered in the Midwest. Not exactly a perfect match for the innovative project that I'm on and the fast-paced new technologies, new tools, new gadget person that I am. But I always fall back to the 15 minute commute and great pay. So here is part 1 of the account of my boondoggle.

Rancho Capistrano is so beautiful you can't take a bad picture. Here is the set of pictures from the trip. The course "Improving Performance through Coaching", had an intriguing description which included "wear comfortable casual clothes, including hats, sunscreen, shorts and tennis shoes as we will be spending a lot of time outside". OK, I can live with that. I've been to team building touchy-feely courses before. I learned that people should stay 3 feet away with me, don't get too close! When I saw a bandana on the table I asked the instructor, "Is this a blindfold?" He laughed and replied, "No, it's a teaching tool." At that point, I knew what I was in for, or at least I thought I did. Here is our first experiential adventure, the "Minefield".

We were paired off into coach and coachee, where we alternated roles through the exercise. I was paired with a pure D (dominance), according to the DiSC test we took, where I am a high C and part S. Still we got along great, as I have many close friends that are D as well. In minefield, five plastic cups are laid out in a row. The goals was to walk around the cups slalom style blindfolded. The first coaching approach was "No coaching". I walked slalom style and ended up diagonally across the field. In the second pass, the coach had to stay on one end and "talk" the coachee through. The third style was "guidance" where the coach could hold the arm or shoulder of the coachee and walk them through. Much better results obviously but also the start of the "touching" part of the program. The last was an exercise in adapting to change. A rope was put up across the middle of the course about 2 feet high, unbeknownst to the coachee. I, the coacher this time, approached this head on, bringing the hand of my partner down to feel the rope and he easily hopped over and was the first to complete. And is his D way, he said, "Yay, we win!" I was baffled by some of the other approaches where the coacher simply directed "lift up your leg up.. higher.. higher!!" or having them lie down and scooch under the rope without touching it as if it were on fire and couldn't even be mentioned. Of course before I had my partner touch the rope, I asked if it was allowed to tell what it was or touch it. Even after seeing us complete the course, the other coaches didn't pick up on the easier direct approach I took. Of course, I was proud to "win" as well.

Movies I watched on the plane

On my business trip to California last November, I had taken along a few movies that I friend lent me years ago to watch on my laptop. Red was excellent, but I got concerned when a nude sex scene (this is a French movie) unfolded and being on a public plane. I don't think most adults traveling alone censor their movie choices and consciously try to watch family friendly stuff. What if someone's kid is looking on? Do you need to hide it? What is the code of conduct in that situation? Luckily the scene was short so I didn't have to squirm for too long.

The other movie I watched was Miller's Crossing, which was also excellent. I love the plot twists and trying to figure out the motivation for all the seemingly crazy moves the characters chose. Again, this movie was pretty violent and I wouldn't want my kids looking on. Especially sitting on an aisle seat with high visibility. Maybe the low angle of visibility for laptop screens pretty much takes care of it.

Happy 3rd Birthday Dova!!

Dova's birthday is actually 9 days before mine, on December 26. Although she got gypped for her party, she somehow always manages to get 2 birthday cakes. The first one was at Grandma Linda's house on her birthday and the second one I made to her wishes (blue clown fish strawberry cake) for her supposed party. She definitely gets cheated on birthday presents having a birthday so close to Christmas, but apparently she also gets cheated for her party as well. Two years ago for her 1st birthday, I planned a party for her birthday on Sunday December 26th, but no one could come on that date. I moved it to January 1st and we got a modest showing. I did start the tradition of playing Christmas carols and making everybody sing. I made her 2 cakes on for birthday as well posted here and here (just looking at those makes me forget how much she's grown!). Last year I planned the party again on Monday, December 26th, and despite a huge rain storm, we got a huge turnout and lots of people were forced to heed my Christmas carol handout called "Sing It!!". It was a great time.

This year, I had originally planned to have her party on Saturday, December 30, but another family event for Doug's uncle got planned on that date. So I sent invitations out for December 31st. We got hardly any replies and for the few kids at her school, one replied no and the rest didn't even get back to us. The only positive replies were from Doug's cousin, the 2 grandma's and a maybe from George. No kids!! Then one by one on the day before, everyone canceled. I still baked the cake, but in sync with ill-fated party, our cat Wysiwyg decided to eat a chunk of the cake overnight. In the end, only George and Terry came, but it was a nice time nonetheless. I didn't have to make any goody bags and didn't even have to clean up the house much. I think next year, we will have the party BEFORE Christmas to see if we will fare better.

The only other problem with having a birthday so close to Dova's is that by the time her birthday is over, I don't even want to bother having one for myself, being all celebrated out. So we both get gypped. Oh well!!

Christmas video - definitely not my house!

Last year I was totally blown away by the synchronized Christmas light display of Carson Williams. Check it out here, if you haven't seen it already. This year, I happened upon this video, which is obviously done by a much wealthier person, but somehow not quite as impressive. The video production is also too slick looking. I do love the spotlights (did he buy out his neighbor's house or is all projected from the tree?) especially the snowflakes falling around 2:20 to Josh Groban's Believe from The Polar Express soundtrack.

Happy Birthday to me!

It was bound to happen someday, you wake up and suddenly you're over the hill (or in my case you stay up past midnight). As an added bonus I managed to break my friend's Palm. Apparently there is a bug where a birthday alert in early January (by default alerts are set one week in advance which in this case spans the new year) causes the power to stay on continuously. It was dead and she couldn't fix it until she read this article.

I guess I am holding up extremely well and am thankful for the wonderful family and job(?) that I have. I admit I'm not thrilled about being 40 and spent a good part of 39 dreading the impending day. Not planning any exciting midlife crises or even a celebration after Dova's party fiasco. I did get a wonderful trip to Disney World for my family from my mom. Thanks Mom!!

Laws of Conservation for Parents

All those physics courses were good for something right? BTW, check out the first video on this site, it is funny (the rest are not very exciting).

I have formulated several laws of conservation for our household:

• Conservation of good behavior - if one child is behaving, the other will act up. Also if one child has been behaving exceptionally well one day, the next day will be hell.
  
• Conservation of good eating - if one child is eating well, the other will refuse to eat
• Conservation of birthday parties - if one child has too many kids at their party, the other will have none (another post to come on poor Dova's birthday party - or lack thereof!)
  

Lightkeeper Pro - it really works!!

I got this tip from Quentin about the Lightkeeper Pro and was dubious at first. As I said in a comment to his post, I have stars above my bed similar to what Jordan's Furniture has in their mattress section. This is one of those programmable lights with 16 different settings and one section (every 4th bulb) went out several years ago. I've tried to pull and check every one of these bulbs in this section but haven't gotten to them all. Since I wasn't about to take these lights down and install a new set, I got this tool to fix them up.

I fumbled with the device for a while, and after what seemed like endless red herrings and trigger pulls, the section finally lit up again. It turned out that all the bulbs lit up perfectly fine and it was a bulb shunt somewhere that was faulty. So no amount of pulling and checking bulbs by hand was going to fix this! I was so excited that I jumped and hollered for joy that my lights were working again.

Here is the view from my side of the bed:

Last but not least, here is a video of some of the cool light effects: