green office culture -or- bring your snot to work day

(at right. an image search for "sinus infection")

1 day of sick time left in my sick bank and 4 months of my daughter in daycare left before it refreshes. this is what runs through my head with some regularity (everyone knows that a kid in daycare equals an opportunity to catch every cold in town). but today it was a constant concern - i think cold and flu season arrived at labor day this year.

all my best hopes for a speedy recovery to my "podmate" at work who hacked, coughed, and blew into tissues this morning...our office is near her doctor and she has a big time deadline tomorrow so why not pass the time in the pod rather than dr's office or at home in bed? but seriously, what is it with american office culture and the badge of honor it awards for playing through the pain of sickness? why are sick employees encouraged or even allowed into workplaces? how am i going to coast into the new year with but one sick day when i have to fight a two fronted germ war (my office and alexandra's daycare)?

i know a sick day off is a day's pay without labor and that (due to the stress of a deadline) sickness is often concurrent with important to do's. but what about infecting the rest of the place?

our office and the recirculating air handler that i sit under is a big germ fest. who out there thinks i can make it to january 1 on one sick day? one thing's for sure, should i blow that last day early this fall i'll be playing through the pain till christmas. pass the kleenex.

high stakes hide and seek

this post involves a toddler, a new father, an unguarded spiral staircase in their new apartment, and a happy ending.

his morning like every morning since osa started daycare found me with a 1/2 hour’s sole custody after lori left for work. It’s my favorite part of a weekday – alone time with the baby girl – and a chance to prove to myself and the world (lori) that i know what i’m doing.

We’re in this new apartment which has many boo boo hazards and one granddaddy of them all – a spiral staircase whose landing is a terra cotta tile floor 10 feet below. We keep a baby gate up or the door closed to the room with stair at all times. this morning i went with the closed door.

so when i started our morning routine of washing dishes, entertaining baby, making lunch, dressing baby, hide and seek, monitoring baby i had it all under control. osa was running around like a crazy girl but that's just because she loves to be chased. it's a simple game of hide and seek barely evolved from peek a boo...until this morning.

i was washing a bottle at the back of the apartment when alexandra took off for the front of the apartment - there's but one skinny line of vision from the sink that provides the ultimate peek a boo high for her. when i went to 'peek' she was nowhere to 'a boo'. and i heard footsteps...what?

i put down the bottle brush and took off after her. but she wasn't at the front door. the bedroom door to the stair was closed (phew!) so i started to look behind boxes (we just moved) and in her room but she wasn't there. i totally panicked and then i heard giggling (seriously sounded like that old movie child's play) coming from, of course, behind the closed bedroom door with the stair in it. what a great way for her to teach me that she had learned to turn a door knob (for the first time) slip in and shut a door silently.

i took our lord's name in vain then ripped open the door as she began to take off for the stairs. luckily i caught her grabbed her and hugged her before she got there. we did the rest of the dishes and morning prep with her clutched under one arm as i worked along. the new morning routine, the new solution. i'm going to keep that little mush-mush held tight at least until she's through high school. and buy a surplus of baby gates!

I Stalk Barack

(Pic of a pic. Couldn’t get the stupid thing of my camera phone. Guy with pink arrow is none other than Barack Obama! I happened upon him while passing through The Parker Meridian’s hotel lobby.) Last night, I confirmed my suspicions that Senator Obama and crew were staying at the hotel next door to the building I work in. SWAT teams, assault rifles, secret service agents (complete with red lapel pins – thanks Tom), street closures. It had to be one of the candidates (they were both in town to exemplify how polite they could be around the subject of 9/11) and with all that protection it was more likely Obama than McCain. McCain packs his own pit bull wherever he goes! I may have to save the part where a grin took over my entire face and I yelled “good luck!” and got a wave for another post. AutoCAD calls…

the box - weekend2

weekend 2 and my facebook status was updated to "adam is ready to rock...sheetrock." the sheetrock arrived in the van of leopoldi's hardware owner, joe, who lugged in 10 sheets with me for the right price of free. leopoldi's and their excellence shall be the subject of another post.

more thanks is due to my very good friend brian. a fellow young dad whose son is just months older than alexandra (it would seem months turn to weeks turn to days older as time moves on...they are very good friends too). our wives also speak the same dr. teacher speak (c&t 5000, self ethnography, can you believe so and so's pedagogy pendulum has swung back to phonetics?). they are the rubbles to our flinstone.

anyway in our most manly mandate ever brian and i unholstered our power screw drivers and threw up a whole lot of drywall for a day. we climbed a very short and steep learning curve too. by the end we were really cooking with gas. btw for cutting large openings like doors and windows out we highly rec'd covering over completely with the wall board then cutting out using the rough framing as a template. start with a pointed drywall saw to get the corners started then slip in a board saw and go to town. mad dusty but highly effective and speedy.

a hundred thanks to brian who, on a very hot and humid day, kept me going. the kid exudes enthusiasm and i was honored to share a few 8' long perfect slices so that we could woot, high five, and pound, lock, and shock.

thanks brian and leopoldi's...almost there

Baby's First Duathlon

(Photo note: that's neither alexandra swimming, nor me in a women's bathing suit, and it certainly isn't the prospect park Y!)

today was alexandra's first gym and swim class. the day started at 6am and soon moved to daisy's diner for a little caloric intake - how phelpsian?. the multi sport combination of gym and swim would take some preparation.

there was some meltdown during warm ups over a a dropped pacifier and taking away an off limits watermelon container, and a fall against the bathtub during pregame. eye rubbing signaled nap time but we rallied anyway and found ourselves at the gym portion of the day. balls, babies, tunnels, adults avoiding eye contact, adults talking to other adults by asking questions to their babies.

alexandra was rallying through event one. but during transition one - change into a swim diaper - she crashed hard eyes closing, more eye rubbing.

one 'if your happy and you know it' song set in the blue waters of the ymca pool and she had had enough. apparently if you are happy and you know it you should spin around, but do not wet your face or splash around. the song went on but from that point on the alexandra's race was over.

i type this as alexandra sleeps it off. in spite of it all it was a great saturday morning with my baby girl. maybe next time i'll shout coaching chants at her (crumpled piece of paper in hand 'you see this? this is how you played out there...like a piece of trash!") but today i was content to hang out with my babe and know there will always be next saturday.

i can remember my first swim lessons in wood pond - i quit before lesson 2, followed by open swim sessions at cornerstone where i was too scared to join the others in the deep end and would pass the hour by myself in the shallows. it would be 25 years later when i would get back to the pool again for my next swim lesson!

i feel like this morning i passed the first test of not pushing her to do something that was supposed to be fun but wasn't. we'll see what happens next week...maybe we'll just cut class and eat watermelon in the park!