Celia's Favorite Movie

Turns out, somewhat unsurprisingly for a 3 month old, it's Milk.

We're sure that the movie must be pretty good -- Sean Penn was performing some great acting in the beginning of it. But then we all passed out less than halfway through.

Vote Milk! Vote Milk! Vote Milk!

No Wonder Grandparents are Nuts about Co-Sleeping

It seems that so often, poorly done news sources stick very provocative, suggestive statements into their articles to make a case about a buzzword. It seems that they are paid by a political party or otherwise have extremely unusual motivations for leaving behind professional writing and editing ability. Here's a good one about something called sleeping with your child:

"Whether the Lakeville case prompts charges, nearly every such infant death -- the clinical term is "co-sleeping" -- could have been prevented, said Linda Thompson, a pediatrician at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis."

Let's read that statement's text closely, as it is written...The clinical term for infant death is "co-sleeping" and nearly every such co-sleeping death could have been prevented, as advised by an authority figure that everyone should trust. Co-sleeping, therefore, is something that is should be prevented.

Kidding, right? Who wrote and edited this story? Does the writer David Chanen take the quote seriously? If that quote was accurate, maybe Linda Thompson should clarify what she meant.

No wonder my parents' anxiety went through the living room ceiling when we said, "oh yeah, we love sleeping with our little girl." Which I do. I've been sleeping and connecting with my little girl every night for three months now. I love hearing and feeling her breathing, hearing her noisiest dreams, feeling her small swaddled body next to my head, knowing that she eats right when she needs to because we hear her, and our small family is together.

Here's what I and her mother don't do prior to hopping into bed with our infant, which the article just may be missing when it comes to describing co-sleeping as infant death: hit the bong, binge drink, tap a vein, or pop a couple downer cocktails. Oh yes, we are not elderly or obese either, which much of the american population is. Maybe that incredible Star Tribune should mention something balanced and informed about the statistics of people that co-sleep successfully and the awful and unusual stories that they report on. But I guess producing accurate statistics and thoughtful insight is costly, and news sources like this one need drama to produce readers and traffic in the age of collapsing media outlets.

Cheers to co-sleeping for healthy, sober parents and their babies. It's unfortunate that some parents cannot. And for those who think that the baby should be left to sleep in a room by itself, best wishes for the later results of that decision.

First Flight

Celia boarded her first United plane a couple nights ago, headed for Boston. She ran into her friends Tim and Erica at the gate.

She wasn't really paying attention to the three hour flight delay at the gate.

And once she got on the plane, she seemed pretty happy the whole way.

Celia's First Credit Card Offer

How sweet. Celia got her very first junk mail offer -- a credit card of her very own.

Now, I'm not privy to credit score calculations, but can a six week old newborn really have a high enough credit score to be receiving offers already? Her income isn't all that steady yet. Anyways, she can get up to 48,000 airline miles for signing up for a card. Is that right? The banks have adjusted their risk management models, right?

I really don't think that the big american banks needed a bailout. They need something else altogether.

New-Dad-Friendly Boulder Stores

Quick 1 - 5 rating system for Boulder baby stuff stores to visit for new dads in Boulder. Based on my experiences on the day after my daughter was born (five is best):

Becoming Mothers - Five stars 

Friendly, casual, competent. Good variety of mother and baby stuff. Staff is helpful and willing to answer any question. No odd vibes whatsoever when talking nipple pads or anything feminine.

McGuckin's - Four stars

Not specificially a baby stuff store, but they will help with advice and piecing anything together. 

Ellie's Eco Home Grocery Store - Four stars

Cool staff, cool stuff.

Rocky Mountain Kids - Three and a half stars 

Lots of nice baby stuff but not everything.

Bundles - if you enjoy being ignored and condescended to, by all means.

Target - a few stars

Only place that you can find the real deal Lanisoh Lanolin in the back of the store. Very handy stuff in the first couple of days.

Pharmaca - four stars

Staff can be a bit crunchy for my taste, but they know their stuff and you can find lotions, quality nutritional supplements, and great herbal concoctions.

Wine Merchant - Five stars

Best place to find some celebratory prosecco or champagne.   :)

Lap Sleeping

Some mornings are perfect for a lap nap. Celia demonstrates for us here.

Cecilia Marie Likes Her New Mattress

Looks like Cecilia is happy with her new purchase. It replaced the 15 year old mattress she started out on.

Ozo BigUp Espresso

Ozo's new bigup espresso blend is the shiznit. It opens up into the palate with blueberry, cocoa, and finishes with a hint of bitterness. They came close to winning the Barista national championship this year with good reason. These guys know good bean.

Bush Leaves Country to Speak for the First Time as Ex-President

Serial failure George W. Bush had to leave the U.S. of A to speak for the first time as an ex-President and claimed that he won't criticise our current President because he "deserves my silence". It's apparent that he still hasn't read Lincoln's "It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt". Pitiful. Instead, the current president, the american public, and millions around the world deserve a series of apologies from him. 

Although the silence is pretty nice. 

Boulder Bach Festival

The Boulder Bach Festival is raging on this weekend. Tonight, they played a nice Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins along with two other great pieces. What a fantastic group of musicians -- you'd think the leads that aren't international musicians were all local Phd's. 

This year is the third that we've attended and they seem to keep getting better.

Photo Hanging and McGuckins

One of the most fantastic places in Boulder is our hardware/general store in the middle of town -- McGuckin's. You can get most anything there for building projects and get the best advice on how to put it up. The expertise and help at this place is priceless and our dog loves the place too. Here is a before of our empty living room wall with the rod layout guide...



Apparently, the hanging rod that we ordered from Red Envelope has feet that are meant for wood walls, not plaster.
After letting the guys at McGuckin's know about the rod feet, and the lack of information about the thickness of the plaster and the slats behind it, they provided all the advice needed to get the right parts for holding the frame.
The first part was to gauge the thickness of the plaster and the slat behind it. After drilling through the old brittle plaster with a 3/16 rock carbide drill bit (masonry bits do the trick!), an old coat hanger can be bent into shape, poked through the hole and then measured for thickness.
After finding out that the thickness was 1 1/4 inches, the McGuckin's guys provided these little engineered marvels -- "sleeve type wall anchors". A few of those across the top make for a sturdy fit for the rod.
Voila! One wall ready for a baby shower!

Jax Dinner and Top Chef

Yes, we love Jax. It's a fantastic seafood place in Boulder. Tonight, our friend Kate let us in on the awards the Chef Hosea achieved in the past couple of weeks -- it's impressive stuff. Apparently, he's a hit with the NYC crowd too.

Jax has the best oysters in town and some great infused vodka martinis. The scallop dish and the catfish dishes are out of this world. The entrees were great, although a little more salty than usual.

The four of us (can you find the fourth?)...

Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss!

One of the most influential modern artists. And fun to read.

Elephant and Dragon

I've been slowly getting through the Elephant and the Dragon. It's a slow read, partly because it seems to be a fairly scattered book, documenting politics and socio-economic forces in India and China and their impact on trade with the west.

The book seems to be written by a journalist that seems to stick with high-level opinions of the subject matter, without researching much to inform those opinions. Maybe it was written in haste, who knows? 

But throughout the book, the author persistently makes the point that in these countries, workers can churn out the same work for much lower wages as their "counterparts" in the U.S. This assumption simply has not been true from what I've seen. While many of the folks from those countries are doing some great work, around 2001, one of the startups I was working for was interested in outsourcing some of its networking programming to what was supposed to be the most talented tech center in China. Our execs visited, our programmers met their finest, and the groups at these centers simply did not have skills (although that is changing, I've seen some pretty excellent coding out of Asia). Another tech company that I worked with recently hired workers in India for their call center. The costs turn out to be the same as the centers in the U.S., only the accents and phony lines about the weather in your hometown turn out to be difficult to understand and a turnoff for customers. I am sure that's not always true for every effort to outsource, but often it is. It seems that some niche work can be very cost effective to outsource, but not all.

Anyways, the book has some great news about the increase in quality of living for so many that endured hardship under Mao and the challenges that India is overcoming in making progress. The author makes great comparisons about tradition and issues in India impeding progress, and the Communist parties' ability to make changes unimpeded. But then it seems that she leaves out examples of what happens to Chinese peasants, both old and young, when the government simply decides to build something as massive as the Three Gorges dam and immediately displace these people. 

Fairly interesting book about global trade.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

We finally saw "Who Killed the Electric Car?" last night. What an appropriate flick to watch as the Big 3 Detroit autowreck-maker executives fly private jets to demand taxpayer-funded bailouts. It's a frighteningly insightful documentary on how the practical implementation of GM's EV1 electric car was killed by the auto industry and big oil.

A few of the most interesting pieces of the film have to do with video footage recording Alan Lloyd's conflict of interests and parliamentary process actions during his pivotal role in California's hearings and decision-making to install "pumps" for electric cars around the state, the profit motivations of the Big 3 to continue producing internal combustion cars that require high levels of maintenance compared to no/low maintenance electric cars, and GM's sale to Texaco of the rights to Stan Ovshinsky's practical and inexpensive battery technology that already could have replaced oil consumption in the U.S. The battery itself made the electric car practical, affordable, and workable. GM quietly sold the patent and rights to the technology to Texaco in 2000. When there are trillions of profits for the Bush family and other oil interests to make over the next 50 years, of course these guys would want to suffocate such progress. 

Now, if you are an american, you get to go work another few days each year to bail out these guys. It's incredible how powerful and unsustainable the U.S. makers really are, and how well they commiserate with Big oil. Be sure to watch this movie now. 

Should be Removed From Netflix

If there ever was a time when I wanted two hours of my life back, it was tonight after watching "The Anniversary Party". I would rather sit through a pulsing sinus headache for days than endure this awful thing again.
Fine lineup, thought that I saw a couple of nice views of L.A., but the movie was nothing more than an exercise in irritation. Every character was annoying. Oh wait, maybe it was meant to be very artistic. Who cares? Don't waste your Netflix slot on this awful waste.
Cheney should have run this flick at Guantanamo -- it would have been more effective.

Go see Slumdog Millionaire instead! Or put Diving Bell and Butterfly in your next Netflix slot.

Utah State Senator Chris Buttars

Apparently, in some small, far-away place in Utah, there exists a level of hate so strong that it is necessary to vote people like Chris Buttars to the state Senate. If he wasn't so hateful, he would be completely laughable. Here is one of my favorite quotes from this nutcase referring to gays: "They're probably the greatest threat to America going down I know of." 

In what sense of America "going down", Mr. Buttars? Most gays I know would probably say that they are the greatest force supporting America "going down" than ever before, not the greatest threat. It's a fantastic subject, but do we really need to discuss in the state legislature who wants America "going down"?

Anyways, this guy is a confused nutjob, spouting off about gays, muslims, blacks, and anyone that isn't just like himself. America has lots of major problems to be handled right now (did he miss the unemployment rates, Middle East military occupation, threat of terrorism, financial crisis)  and to bring up this nonsense is outrageous and irresponsible. He deserves public scorn, humiliation and condemnation.

The gay friends at our wedding danced and celebrated with us, my gay neighbors have been wonderful people and supportive. They helped build the white picket fence around our backyard in a big way -- placing the thirty-some six foot 4x4 posts three feet deep into the ground. "Meanest buggers"? Anything goes? No. Very American indeed. 

Yes, gays have morals that can be discussed, catalogued, and found to be more wholesome than anything this guy maintains. But why not leave these people to their own lives?

Get your groove on, Mr Buttars.

Slumdog Millionaire

I want a Dev Patel t-shirt. 

He does a great job of acting as the teen-aged Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire, where a Mumbai orphan finds his way to the indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". The movie turns out to be an exhilirating watch, a complete thrill and fine love story. The train rides and soundtrack are great. 

It's got my vote for best picture this year (at the same time, I suppose that I should see more in that list than just this movie). 

Go see it! See it now!

Divers and Butterflies

We finally saw Julian Schnabel's movie retelling of Jean Dominique Bauby writing "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". What a fantastic story, shot with great cinematography and visual effects. Schnabel directed it as a kind of flick that will stay with you, both the emotions and visuals are powerful.

A must-see.

Electrical Work in 100 Year Old Homes

If you ever have a chance to move in to a beautiful old house and go for it, be prepared for the work that comes with it. Old homes have character, often are in great locations, and come with tons of growing pains.



For example, if you rebuild a falling apart garage in the back that structural engineers fear, planning to rent out the apartment you carefully build on top, you may want to space out that work another year from ripping out all the electrical in your old home. Oh yeah, you might also try to plan on completing that work at a different time than in the midst of a massive global financial crisis.



But you only live once, right?

Electrical work can be necessary and its hassle is a temporary thing. Old homes deserve love and care. Be sure to take the time to schedule bids from multiple contractors, recommendations of the crew's work from past clients, and take the time to find out if you can get a firm bid from one of them. It's unusual, but can be done. Drywall work can be a sizable added cost, so be prepared for that cost as well. Oh, and the house will be an absolute dusty mess for a while.

Note -- scheduling appointments to collect bids for work can be a tricky thing. If you schedule your appointments first thing in the morning, electricians are likely to be right on time. Expect all plumbing bidders to arrive at least one half hour early or while you are in the shower.

Stop Asking Whether It's a Boy or Girl

We get this question all of the time, and seriously, it isn't even born yet. Genuine interest is nice, but no need to rush it. A congratulations that we've gotten this far is nice.

We also don't have a name picked out yet. I'd like to see it first, then I'll know.

Lately, we've been getting asked by multiple people if we've decorated our soon-to-be baby's room. At first, I thought that meant hanging pictures or something. But yes, we've painted (apparently, that's really what people are asking), put down wall-to-wall rugs, and family and friends have been giving us great furniture, bins, baths, and baby stuff.

It seems to be another one of those popular filler questions, much like "how's the weather?", or a conversation lead-in for couples that want to share more about their own kid's room(s). Which can lead to interesting discussion about what colors people use and how the room came about.

Along those lines, Cecil Adams published fascinating research results that he did on the gender color associations that much of the western world has fairly recently hoisted on itself...boy=blue and girl=pink. It's a shocker to know that pink was referred to as a boy's color by Parents magazine as recently as 1939. My, my, how times change.

The Isthmus in Madison, Wisconsin subscribes to his column The Straight Dope, which made me a fan for the past 15 years. It's a gem, and Cecil Adams really is pretty smart.

Outliers

"Blink" lost my interest immediately, and I didn't get all that swept up by "The Tipping Point". Malcolm Gladwell's new "Outliers" is a fantastic and persuasive read about success, what really goes into it and what can be done when opportunity presents itself. 

I especially liked the chapters that study cultural mores and habits as contributors to success within specific contexts. Thanks, Robert and Annie, for my copy. Read the whole thing on one plane trip -- couldn't put it down.

President Obama Sworn In

It's a countdown keychain to the end of the Bush regime, and it's 0!

What a great morning and great way to start the day. My country's new president, Barack Hussein Obama, was sworn in this morning, and Bush took a helicopter far far away. A group of us watched at Annie and Robert's.

Obama's speech spoke to generations of all americans, Muslims, Christians, Non-Believers, and people of all colors. If you haven't re-read it yet, be sure to.

Whoa, Bush Wasn't a Cowboy?

Well, yeehaw, what do you know, folks? Bush is selling the Crawford Ranch. You know, the one he bought just before the election in August 1999 (just one darn year prior to the election of 2000). The sale of this temporary shooting location for brush clearing should be a reminder to those of you that voted for him that you fell for the Republican siren song that every Democrat is elite, out of touch, all about government largesse, and embodies evil within government, unlike this great commoner. Yeehaw. Really, it was the incompetent and overprivileged guy that you voted for.

Somehow, this ranch was just another symbol of that down home brush clearing kind of guy that you wanted. You can, however, blame your mistake on something else. Repeat after me, "Fox News is not a legitimate news source", and you might fell better about yourselves.

Also, thanks for coming around this election. Another four years of that drivel and everyone would have moved to Canada. Cheers to major change.

Here's an interesting note, Bush's new neighborhood is called "Preston Hollow". And here is a much clearer picture of what kind of person Bush really is:

''Until 2000, the neighborhood association's covenant said only white people were allowed to live there, though an exception was made for servants. The document, enacted in 1956, reads:

"Said property shall be used and occupied by white persons only except these covenants shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of different race or nationality in the employ of a tenant."''

Following his administration's "hands off" attitude towards financial industry regulations and the resulting credit and real estate mess, he must be getting a real deal on it.

Big and Round

Look at that belly! 

Otherwise known as "bun in the oven", "knocked up", "preggers", "el preggo", this belly is big, round and full of wonder.