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I waxed nostalgic after reading reviews of “Lollapalooza”:http://www.chicagoist.com/archives/2005/07/25/the_beginning_of_something_great.php in Chicago this weekend. Being sort of a veteran of the early years (1992 and 1994), it’s somewhat hard to come to grips with the idea that it’s been almost 15 years since I saw that first Lollapalooza at the World Music Theatre (at least that’s what [...]

I went camping in Big Sur with the good folks at my day job last week. About two and a half hours from Palo Alto, it’s a gorgeous 90-mile stretch of coast line that starts a little after Carmel. Forests full of gigantic redwood trees, miles of hiking trails (along with tons of poison oak) [...]

Maybe I can get my blogging mojo back by reading this “article on being a more productive blogger”:http://www.to-done.com/2005/05/be-a-more-productive-blogger/? More likely, it’s the work hours, the running, the kidlet and life in general (not necessarily in that order) that’s keeping me so mentally exhausted at the end of the day that to even attempt composing a [...]

Remembering Jack.

We had been teaching Kai baby sign language when we finally made first contact about a month ago when he made the sign for “more”. He now knows the following: more, milk, eat, water, ball, finished and fish. How he learned the fish sign is a long story. We’ve watched a couple of the recommended [...]

My free time with Kai has been incredibly rewarding these past few months. From the moment he began to walk (@12 months), the door in his mind and personality has swung wide into the open expanse of the world around him. As I described to a dear friend, Kai now walks with a purpose into [...]

There are no words to express how happy you make me. There is no gift worth more than what you give to me each day. From father to son, I give you love from the beginning of the world to the tips of my fingers. Happy 1st Birthday Kai.

Despite my hyper-paranoid efforts, including thoroughly washing my hands after going anywhere in public, I succumbed to the flu this week. It’s definitely worse than a getting a tooth filled.

Today was the first time in well over a decade that I had to go to the dentist for something other than a semi-annual teeth cleaning. I was hoping that the M.O. for getting a cavity filled had evolved somewhat over the past ten years. Alas, they still use that ridiculously long needle tipped with [...]

It’s been 2 years since we said goodbye to our dog Jack. Despite the changes in our lives and having Kai to share it with, the message in our hearts to our dear friend is still the same.

Work conspires against leisure at the start of another warm Fall in Northern California.

These days I am so sleep deprived because of Kai, hopped-up on or jonesing for caffeine, and suffering through newfound California allergies that sort of feel like the Labyrinthitis I had a while back, that I truly can’t tell where the sleep deprivation ends and the rest begin. It’s like taking four tabs then getting [...]

Now that we’ve started looking in earnest to buy a house here in California, the abstraction of sticker shock is really starting to become more of a reality. Those of you familiar with Bay Area Real Estate can now nod your heads in commiseration. The word that comes to mind having gone through the process [...]

Things I’ve learned about babies so far:

When something is placed at or near the roof of their mouths, they have a suck reflex.
When you touch the middle of their palms, they have a grasp reflex.
When there is a sudden noise in the room, they have a startle reflex.
Unbeknown to most, when you wear long [...]

I am supposed to get an MRI of my head tomorrow afternoon in order to rule out anything anomalous with regard to the headaches I’ve been having with this whole unfortunate inner ear incident. I’m nervous, because of the obvious worst-case scenarios, but I’m also kind of excited because I’ve never actually had one [...]

I’ve had a weird week that is too exhausting to detail here. I’ve been diagnosed with this strange malady called Labyrinthitis. No, the condition does not make you want to dress up like David Bowie in the movie with a similar name, although truth be told, I’d prefer that over the real symptoms. It’s a [...]

I’ve been missing my hometown Chicago lately. This usually happens when a) good friends come to visit us in Silicon Valley or b) warmer weather comes around and I remember how great the city is when it’s warm. If you’re from Chicago, you know what I mean by the term warm. It may be 45 [...]

The Dvorak experiment is still going slowly but steadily. Those first few days were tough and there were moments when I just wanted to throw in the towel and stick exclusively with qwerty. At this point, I can comfortably switch between the two layouts (qwerty or dvorak) when I really need to and the only [...]

I am currently trying to learn the dvorak keyboard. It’s pretty nice and I wish I learned it first before learning the qwerty keyboard. It’s slow going however. These last three sentences were written using the dvorak layout and it took fifteen minutes.

I have been deathly ill for over a week (ok not deathly, but it damn well feels like it). Seems like a bunch of people I know (at work and online) are also deathly ill (ok not deathly). Illness != Feeling like writing; Hence the lack of updates. Blogging is overrated anyways. It certainly doesn’t [...]