Sunday 30 March 08; 2045

Hi All,

Henry is safe and sound having arrived in Washington D.C yesterday with his Mum and grandparents. He let me know that the first this he had planned for this morning was to hit the indoor pool at the hotel and then on to the Lincoln Memorial so I'm sure it will be a fun filled few days, they take the train up to NYC next Saturday and then more fun before they come home on 4/09. I am a bit envious having never been to D.C. and although I've been to Manhattan it was only for the day and he is going now for the 2nd time and gets to spend a few days there. Envious yes but excited for the wee fellow nonetheless.

Today I went down to the Ballard neighborhood just North of downtown by about 5 or 10 mins and went to the farmer's market and loaded up on some dried porcini and matsutake mushrooms, tasted what could very well be the finest cheese I've ever had (Mt Townsend Creamery Seastack) so bought a crottin of that and some braising greens then walked around the downtown area of the neighborhood, grabbed a couple slices of puttanesca pizza and wandered about some more. It'd a neighborhood I'm considering when I next move. Closer to work and the downtown life and still close enough to fetch Henry from school and feel a bit more of the urbanite. I feel like I'm headed through a bit of a mid-life crisis and I think what may help get me out of it is to get out of the suburbs and get back to the city where there is some life and excitement; I'm getting pretty tired of the "normal" middle aged lifestyle and all the trappings that come with...

I am headed out to a show tomorrow night; X, a seminal punk rock band out of Los Angeles in the 70s. I first saw them in SLC with my friend Bruce in the early 80s and I'm really looking FW to the show tomorrow night. Although I'm feeling very young going out on a school night, I do know my 48 year old limitations and I took Tuesday off since I know I can't stay up all night and make it to work anymore like the old days; no more all nighters for me...

The garden is still going great, the veggies are doing well. My cherry tree is about to burst with blossoms, too bad it's not of the fruiting variety but my plum trees will follow closely and once again I'll be up to my arse in Italian plums and with the local blackberries I'll once again be livin' large for free and I can't wait!

Not much more for now, I'll try and take some photos tomorrow while I'm overindulging in PBRs and Wild Turkey, WHOO HOO! so look for that :)

Bim salah bim

Sunday 23 March 2008; 2050

Sorry all, I skipped a week there but I really just couldn't face it you know? I had a really naff week and really didn't want to think about it so I just didn't. Now you get the update for 2 weeks instead.

So two weeks ago, I had a check bounce and realized I had made a $1000+ mistake in my check register (not to my favor thank you) and the week just went downhill from there. Now to say that was the high point of the week is a bit of an exaggeration but not by much so I won't go into detail but suffice it to say I suffered for 24 hours from gastric distress that brought tears to my eyes, the woman with whom I've been keeping up for the past 6 months decided she won't be coming to visit as we planned (but we're still great friends so there is an upside there) and to top it all off I missed the bus a couple times and finally missed it enough by the end of the week that I had to drive into the city and ended up with a fucking parking ticket because I either wasn't paying attention or more likely since the sign was half behind the post missed it and ended up parking for the day in a 1 hour parking spot. Like I said, the week was naff, no let's go another level and just say it was a fucked up week and now it's over and this past week was far better! :)

This past week work has been good, I'm involved in a number of things in which I'm interested and have some skills and it was just all round a good time. Even found a new place for lunch that was really quite good and is even close enough to the office to walk so it made for a great Friday outing a couple days ago. For the most part the weather has been good and although today started out rainy and nasty the day ended up being a beautiful bright and sunny one for zombie jesus day after all. Henry was with his Mum and and they went north to her sister's for a big day of choccies and easter egg hunts to celebrate resurrected bunnies and stuff.

Henry was able to get the lawns mowed with the manual push mower (we're switching as another step towards sustainability and ridding ourselves of more and more power stuff where we can), I was able complete the planting in the raised bed (add broccoli, chiaggio beets, leaf lettuce, rainbow carrots and mesclun) and had a few more things pop their heads above the soil (we now have peas, carrots, bok choy, chard and lacinato kale sprouting), the forsythia in the neighborhood is exploding, my daffodils are bright and huge and I was able to get the entire rose bed weeded as well as the interior of the car detailed so all in all it was a good weekend.

I'm sitting in front of the tube and catching up on cooking shows from the DVR after a lovely meal of seared chicken breast topped with red pepper artichoke tapenade and mozzarella with gnocchi in brown butter with garlic and sage from my herb garden and 1/2 a bottle of Turley Vineyard 101 Zin. Hmmm, wonder what the poor people are doing for dinner tonight? Ah well, I suppose Marie A would tell them to eat cake so why rock the boat; let them eat cake as I deserve to treat myself this way once in a while no?

Henry is doing really well with tae kwon do ad we're just kind of putting in the time with bowling as he is beginning to lose interest pretty quickly as Spring pops up and the days are nicer. Tae kwon do is in the late afternoon and no weekends so it doesn't cut into nice Saturday weather nor do we have to get up to get there so I can see where it is preferred. We may not encourage it going forward as both his Mum and I believe he will get far more from the martial arts with discipline and the physical exercise and we'll see if we can find a set of music lessons to round things out for his extra curricular activities and we can keep it at that. Neither Kristin nor I (or Henry for that matter) are all that interested in his having activity after activity to attend every day and dining at 9pm every night. We both want him to have time to be a kid and play in the backyard and ride his bike and all the other accoutrement of childhood. We see all these parents running from one activity to the next with their kids all the time and there is no time to just be a family or for the kids to be kids and that's not gonna fly.

Anyway, not much more to write about right now, suffice it to say that once again life is good after the bumpy prior week so all's well.

Hasta until next week

Sunday 9 March 2008 @ 2100

Here it is the first day of daylight savings time and as much as I believe we should leave time alone and let it run, if we're going to have it then I'm glad it starts earlier and ends later now. It was great that it was light until after 7 already except I slept until 10 today :). Couldn't be that bottle of wine that I drank with lots of Mama Lil's peppers and goat cheese last night...

The week was pretty busy, Henry started tae kwon do and although he went kicking and screaming he is really good at it and has shown a real propensity for it. He sparred Friday for the first time and he threw some really great kicks against the older kid the master had the younger ones sparring with (and taking lots of kicks). Henry got some kicks up over his own shoulder height and was really after it for a bit there. It is great exercise and he is sleeping well too. We also took Henry to his first appt with a counselor and he clammed up quite a bit but a few things came out that we can start working on and we will have Henry go back again in a couple weeks. I think we both feel it's a good thing right now but frankly we think the tae kwon do will do more for him. Good solid activity, something at which he can excel individually but also be part of a larger group as well but time will tell.

It was my birthday and the team went all out and brought in lunch on Thursday as well as decorating my cube and the wall above it. Here's a photo with me in my birthday crown because remember, Jim is King. I was also asked to facilitate classes for the corporate partners on how to make the perfect espresso so I trained both Tuesday and Wednesday and 3 of us ran the 200 or so people from our building through how to make the best espresso drinks. It was a lot of fun and I met up with a lot of people that normally I only see in the elevators or hallways so now I have more names and more networking going on as well and lots more people know me now as well so I guess I can't get away with quite as much as I have in the past :)

Henry and I went to the annual bike expo after bowling yesterday and that couldn't come fast enough as the kids were bowling poorly and then just kind of fell apart after the first game and ended up losing all 4 of the available point this week so it was not a high point. We did however have fun looking at all the new stuff in the bicycling world now that some bikes retail for as much as cars. We're starting to gear up for the cycling season and if the weather is not rain this Saturday I think we'll head up to Arlington for the first charity ride of the season called The McClinchy Mile. It's a nice 20 mile mostly flat ride to get us going and frankly sounds a lot more interesting than another Saturday of bowling/ Kristin and I talked about bowling now that we're a few minutes into the league and we agree that now that we are out of bumpers, the parents are all way too serious about this and not so interested in the kids having fun but more about their winning. Well, like any of them I would rather the kids win but someone has to lose and for hell's sake it bowling after all! Not something important and some of these parents are just too, too much. We may not encourage Henry to continue on if he gets into the tae kwon do; perhaps that and some music lessons or something and that is enough but he is going to go out and run track this year since his favorite teacher is the track coach. The 4th graders can't compete but they let them go out and workout with the team in the running events and then next year start to learn about the field events as well so that's plenty. Neither Kristin nor I are interested in being one of those families that is running the kids from one activity to the next and eating dinner at 9 pm every night and no time for homework.

Here is a photo of my front yard with the springy daffodillies popping up and my raised vegetable bed on the right. Although you can't see them, the shelling peas and bok choy popped up this past week and are growing quite nicely. this year I am keeping a gardening diary so I can actrually keep track of what works and how they are all doing based on the dates and varieties of planting.

Neighbors Susan and Steve out enjoying the Springtime evening and watching the world go by from their front porch.

Not much more for now and it's time to get ready to hit the hay so I'll sign off now. Until next week, auf wiedersehn

Monday 3 March 2008 @ 0657

Greetings!

Here it is the beginning of March and we're well into the gardening season already. Although the weather hasn't been beautiful every day we have had our fair share of nice sunny days in the Puget Sound.

The week has been pretty odd as I was ill with a cold that would not allow me to even breathe at all on Friday so I stayed home rather than infect my coworkers and was able to get a few things done here before I finally at noon just hit the couch for a nap as I couldn't stay upright any longer. This has been kicking my butt energywise and I just couldn't keep up. I made it to work Wednesday and Thursday but as far as productivity I wasn't really there and all I could think about was hitting the bed when I got home those days. I'm finally starting to feel as if I may be on the upswing but still not there yet and breathing is still a challenge but I got out this weekend for a few tasks and the house isn't a complete wreck.

Henry and I were able to come to agreement on his chore list and we have entered into our contract now. He now has a list of the things he does daily, weekly and over the weekends he spends here at our house. He has the list, he gets to schedule the tasks (including his homework and reading tasks) and has even agreed to cook dinner once per week. He understands these are the tasks that are expected of him for both being a member of the household and also for earning his allowance and he is expected to complete these tasks prior to any gaming system play or TV. I think we will find some success here and feel that this is a step in the right direction for him to go.

Bowling went pretty well this week with Henry's team taking 3 of 4 possible league points and they are now solidly in 2nd place and only 2 points behind the 1st place team so he and his team mates are all quite excited. Although his Mum and I really don't care how they do we still want them to do well and pay attention and try their best and so far that's where they are. Henry will be starting tae kwon do this week and he is not very excited about it but his Mum and I decided it would be a good activity to have him in; it will assist with discipline (the master checks their homework, asks for reports from parents to know that the kids are being polite and respectful at home before allowing them to participate or test for advancement) and is very active. We have friends that have their kids at this dojo and their kids are flourishing and get excited when they advance and disappointed when the master does not allow them to test or have to sit out the practice sessions. Henry is also meeting with a counselor for the first time Tuesday and although he is not happy about this either (we think he believes he is in trouble) both Kristin and I are happy we have found someone with whom we believe he can confide and learn some tools to help him through some of the tough times he's been experiencing lately. We met with his teacher last week and all 3 of us think that a lot of his challenges come from not having the tools to break big things into smaller more manageable tasks. That's where the scheduling his tasks came from as he tends to look at his homework or his chores as this big job he needs to do all at once. I've also started trying to show him how we all break stuff down in everyday life. Last week I roasted a couple chickens for dinner and we had that with gravy and veg. The next night we took the meat from the bones and made BBQ chicken pizzas with pizza shells I had made the last time we had pizza, the following night we made chicken and cheese enchiladas and now we'll make chicken pot pies with the last of the meat, some leftover veg and gravy. We talked through how each of these tasks was completed a bit at a time in order to not spend all night in the kitchen and we have fresh and lovely dinners each night as well as lunches for Dad to take to work. I let him know that is the same way we can approach our chores and homework and everything else and that I use planning like that at work all the time so that big projects get broken down into smaller tasks that I can accomplish or delegate to other resources and they all come together in order to have any big project done completely and on time. I think he's getting it, YAY!

We planted a bit more this weekend, I put in both Olympia spinach and lacinato kale as well as two artichoke plants. I am hoping to see some sprouting of the seeds soon and have high hopes for the chokes as well as they are supposed to do really well in this climate and since we are so close to the water we should have some of the similar aspects to the weather that central California sees. I planted a sage in my indoor herb garden and also planted a couple of hyacinths for the kitchen window to brighten the aroma and add a bit of color. The 50 new daffodils I put in last fall are all up and about to pop so the borders out front are looking quite nice and the lilacs are all setting huge numbers of buds as well so we'll have the deep purple, white and lavender colors and the lovely scents we have come to expect here in just the next few weeks. We are really looking FW to Spring and have plans to attend the annual bike expo next week and the following week will be the first of the training sessions for the 2008 Tour de Cure ride for diabetes to happen in May (be on the lookout for my annual fundraising stump speech in an email box near you :)

Anyway, it's been a big week and it looks to be another one shaping up this week. Work will be busy ad I'm involved in a couple projects that need a lot of attention and this is the 2nd week of the month so that means performance reviews for all my suppliers; at last count that means no less than 15 hours of going over reports and listening to all these separate entities toot their horns and our teams letting them know where their challenges are and how we expect them to turn those challenges into opportunities for improvement. Happily this month I don't think I have to be an asshole to any of them for a change so they all get to see my happy face instead of my stern asshole face.

That's about it so sayonara until next week