A Night at the Armory

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Been awhile since I posted and I almost deleted the Blogger app on my iPhone yesterday. Kinda glad I didn't. Yesterday hurricane Sandy blew through NYC, displaced thousands, and a few hundred of them, nursing home residents, from the Rockaways., arrived in my neighborhood, Park Slope, Brooklyn. We have an armory here (did they used to pass out guns to minute men in such a place?) that is now used as a really swank indoor track. This week those nursing home residents are lying on cots in the track infield.

Quite a scene.

Lots of things to note, but of note is my time spent escorting Lottie around. As a volunteer, my job is to be a watcher. I watch one row if residents and if they get up to smoke or pee I make sure they get there and back. Some you learn you don't need to follow like Murray who went to the deli for a sandwich.

But Lottie thinks a school bus is coming for her. So every 45 minutes or so she gets up to get on a school bus. I just walk along side her. There are school buses but they are just steadily dropping off residents not taking any away. I can't really explain this to her because she's not really that lucid. And I can't definitively say when she going home because no one knows.

While I type we've been standing out here for 30 minutes or so. Kinda cold.

I get really worried though if Lottie (or Rudolph, or Nicholas, or Yakov who were also wandering around disoriented) were to walk away they'd be lost. And trust me no ones watching them.

So I'm back outside with Lottie watching the buses (the line stretches down the block farther than the eye can see). It's also the smoking area.

Also of note is that publicly housed nursing card residents smoke brown cigarillos (standard issue I guess) kind of like a cowboy or, as I recall, my mom for a little while when I was a kid. Except for Lottie. She eats them.

best package under the tree

From 12/27/11

back home in brooklyn from a great xmas in connecticut with family i wanted to share a couple snapshots of my favorite gift this year: an original program from the 1963 march on washington which included mlk's "i have a dream speech." she and my grandfather, a methodist minister in bristol, connecticut, were in attendance that day...so much love for them for attending and for putting some of their good stock into my blood.

the best part of the gift, aside from the beautiful program (filled with artwork not words or propaganda), are the included treasures: clippings from the local papers covering their travels from hartford down to d.c. (see picture of the two of them sleeping on the train below). journalists along for the ride describe a train ride filled with rehearsals of song and non violent protest measures. almost unbelievable in a time of so much reported violence by police on blacks, the article reports that not one arrest was made on the 200,000 protestors in attendance. a lot of lessons to be learned from us today as we continue to protest injustice.

also a copy of a brochure of of king's letter from a birmingham jail. my grandfather also marched on selma - he didn't get arrested but he did a get a handshake from king.

wow, glad to still be able to share yet another meal with them this weekend, my grandfather's 95th christmas.

From 12/27/11

you are alive

"you are alive". lori and i bought a print of a photo with these words spray paint scrawled on an nyc wall. the prints for sale were all gathered, post september 11th, and the sales were a fund raiser for relief efforts. we had only been dating for 4 months, and while we were already pretty in love we couldn't have predicted then what a great future was in store for us.

on the 10 year anniversary of september 11th i have found it hard to decide how the event impacted my life. after all, as close as i was to the tragedy (i could see the second tower fall from my vantage point on 5th avenue and smell them burning for weeks), i was "still alive." we've started a family and i've been able to find success as an architect in new york city. my life couldn't be fuller, busier, or better. so looking back on the last 10 years it is hard to say how september 11th has changed my life.

i've read the commemorative journalism published this week - so many memories, some despite the infamous slogan, i had forgotten. i wonder along with some of the more intellectual musings if we are living in a post ironic state, how was being funny changed by such an event?

and then tonight i listened to a story corps collection, "we remember," recording stories of those lost in the attack on the world trade center. and i cried, which i haven't done too much of in the wake of the tragedy then or now. it's taken ten years passage for the gravity of all those lost and their legacies halted to understand the benefits (privilege?) of being alive.

and it is with that that i feel true sadness for the lost, their families, and the memories they were not able to create these past ten years. i'll be thinking of all of my friends and loved ones tomorrow...nothing like a strong reminder like this anniversary to never take a day of life for granted.

stand in the place where you work

if facebook is good for nothing else it is good for starting a stand up desk revolution. my friends ryan and chris have me thinking sitting is for sloths and they have the reference, and in ryan's case the experience, to prove it. ryan's lost 10lbs.

check out this great article chris posted.

i work in a brand new white laminate lined architect's office. it's not too stodgy but i will be falling out of line if/when i decide to stand. rather than acquire a dedicated standing desk i want to use a desktop converter. that way i can stand or sit and if i catch too much flack i can just stow the thing under my desk until the air clears.

since it is an experiment and i can't commit yet i want to spend a max of $100. this is a much bigger budget than chris and ryan who used bolts of cloth, reams of paper, and assorted plastic boxes. but at the same time ready made standing desks and converters can be hundreds of dollars!

here's my research:

cheapest...
standup desk
$69 black
only 15" deep.


here's a great article: standing desk shootout.

from the article the winner is:
giraffe desk.
$900.
beautiful in a 2003 kind of way but wtf! 900 bucks!
32x27x9" high


the other contenders are all dedicated standing desks.

i also looked at ikea hacker and then realized (since i have the ikea catalog memorized) that the billy bookcase height extender does the trick. $20, and i have one in the bottom of my closet!

***

(currently) the winner is: the billy bookcase top with a close second to the $69 stand maybe with a monitor stand on it to get the monitor a bit higher and let my keyboard live under it to help with the 15" depth.

should probably get an anti-fatigue mat too.

i'm targeting october 1...stay tuned!





photo1: ernest hemingway exemplifying standing desking

photo2: my desk. killer view of times square assuming my standing desk faces out the window.

vinny

It's my first post in awhile so i thought i'd write with news of the biggest addition to our life. vinny. a green 1999 acura sedan. the bad news is that after 80 years in the road, my nearly 95 year old grandpa has had to call it quits for driving. the good news is that he gave his car to our family of four. i'm kind of uncomfortable with being a car owner in nyc. you truly don't need one here and if you do they are easy to rent or car share (zip car and the like). but with two kids some of the train is pricey and kind of doesn't work so we are driving more. and on our last rental trip we spent a small fortune on a week and we had to hustle home lest we get charged for a whole 'nother weekend. so renting has become more costly and arguably more inconvenient than parking and car maintenance. or so i thought. cell phones go hand in hand (or hands free!) with car driving so vinny's first two weeks of adventure are pretty well documented... the car came to me with a brand new battery. but i left an interior light on for 5 days so the first time i took him for a spin was on a tow truck: I needed a new battery (to replace the one week old battery i killed) so $168 and warm and informative conversation with my friendly pakistani immigrant tow truck driver i was back on the road. that night, in fact, i drove to the grocery store. it pained my conscience to know i was increasing the carbon footprint of my park slope food coop groceries, but when i had the automotive might to carry a bottle of seltzer AND a six pack of beer home (when walking with cart i can only carry one or the other) i started to come around to the idea of driving to the store.

and then came the snow (again). good news is alternate side parking is canceled so you don't have to move your car. bad news is when you go out to your car it looks like this:
it took me and hour and a half to dig it out and most of that snow gets tossed into the street and the passing cars methodically push it back onto your car - just a little harder and denser! i also had to change plates and add some car seat do-hickeys.

i can't tell if the post is running over so i'll part with a couple lessons learned:

1. if you have yellow snow all over the trunk of your car you can wonder how on earth a dog climbed up there to pee without leaving tracks or you can operate under the assumption that the mini van owner behind you that you parked 1" from had to pee at the same time as he became very annoyed with me and killed two birds with one urine stream.

2. while changing over the license plates i learned that if you are a house mouse in suburban connecticut in my grandparents temperate garage. it might make sense to establish a nest behind the rear license plate complete with bird food from the nearby storage canister in the garage. but now you're in brooklyn baby!

an emotional argument

i posted the above status report this morning. the referenced piece by scott simon is here.

i don't intend this to be a post on the ground zero mosque (formerly known as the ground zero burlington coat factory i think). for me there is no debate - the building type is "as of right", americans have the second amendment right to the freedom of religion and for what it's worth - the mayor backs it. also the u.s. president. scott simon makes a better presentation of the same point of view i have anyway. the bottom line is, and as my favorite republican buddy, vin, would say, "it's a free country dude."

i want to say a word to the part of simon's piece that tears me up. it's the part that remains nine years later as distilled memory for anyone who was in town during 9/11 and it's aftermath. posters asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of their loved ones (a hope that they hadn't perished in the attack and the knowledge that even a big city like nyc would come together and help if it could). the barricaded line of latitude that was canal street from the day of to many months on. no unauthorized personnel allowed below it and many gathered there to support aid workers coming to work and those leaving a long shift.

the A train subway station at that same point that i reluctantly entered around 11am the morning of just to try to get home to lori in brooklyn. who were those heroes driving the trains and buses trying to get us home to our families instead of getting themselves home to theirs? that train literally runs under ground zero. the throngs of people already on the train that literally pulled me on and made room.

smells of burning building that carried for miles. whether at my home in brooklyn or my work a mile uptown from ground zero you knew which way the wind was blowing if you could smell that smell. the fire burned for weeks.

paper and ash fluttering through the brooklyn neighborhood of carroll gardens where i was eventually able to rendez vous with lori. a couple of miles away and across the river.

seeing tower 1 on fire, rushing to my office, watching the news, learning it was a plane, thinking it was a horrible accident, seeing tower 2 hit by the second plane, watching tower 1 fall. seeing all this like millions around the world saw on their tvs. but then walking out into 5th avenue and 26th street with a direct view of the burning tower 2 still standing. we knew what was going to happen and then we saw it drop. grown men including my boss fell to the pavement weeping.

so many firefighters were rushing down there and so many would die. i think it must have been months of funerals held - each fallen hero deserving their own ceremony. towards the end i remember they were looking for ny-ers to attend them because the families and fire department brethren were too tired and spread too thin to attend anymore.

i remember never really crying like so many did.

i remember going via plane to a wedding in north carolina a couple of weeks later and realizing how much sympathy other parts of the country had for new york.

they say it takes 10 years before you are a new yorker so i'm not there until 2011. i had only moved to town a few months prior to 9/11. given that fact, i'm not sure if i have the right to take the recent mosque controversy so personally. but i do.

the decision to build a constitutionally encouraged, legally filed mosque hardly warrants a emotional argument. but if i could offer one it would be that this a local issue - our issue. a place of worship (how many mosques must there be in nyc 50? 100?) for a religious denomination that hosts nearly 2 billion members (yes they have a few crazies included but don't we all?) to be built a rather healthy new york distance of 2 blocks away from ground zero isn't really too big of a deal. and i'm not alone when i think that. around the city this news story isn't even much of a news story.

this is why i take such great offense at the national right wing media frenzy (likely used to excite a sleeping mid term electorate more than anything else) focused on a local new york city issue.

i may not be a real new yorker until next year but this is our issue not the nation's. we've done a lot of healing in nine years but the memories persist. memories of a city coming together and healing ourselves ever since the tragedy occurred. we've been helping one another out since 9/12 and seeing this mosque built is just another step along the way.



additional listening:

- john stewart's daily show "extremist makeover homeland edition" from his 8/19 show. around 7 minutes in he uses a charlton heston speech (made famous in bowling for columbine) to illustrate , by association, how it is an american religious group's second amendment right to build a community center wherever law permits no matter how sensitive the area.

Coupla Good Recipes

veggie chili:

4 cans of beans (kidney bean, black beans, etc.)
1 medium onion
1 yellow bell pepper
2 stalks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1-2 tblsp chili powder
3 bay leaves
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tsp cumin (clutch)
2 cans tomatoes crushed

1-2 cups of cashews
1 cup raisins
grated sharp cheddar

heat a stew pot or dutch oven on medium - low - keep it there throughout. cover bottom in oil. saute finely chopped onion, pepper, celery, and minced garlic. sweat for about 10 mins.

add spices and stir.

add tomatoes, bay leaves, and beans. simmer for at least 30 mins. covered.

remove bay leaves

serve and top with cashews, raisins and cheese.

extras - a loaf of crusty bread. and if you want to meat it up for the non veggies serve over meatballs or fried italian sausage chunks.



***


stonyfield strawberry (or mangoes or blueberry) yogurt muffins:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup Stonyfield Farm yogurt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen. Or mangoes as it were.

Preheat over to 375F. In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, and baking soda. In another bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla. Toss strawberries into the flour mixture. Then pour yogurt mixture into flour mixture and stir. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Yields 12 muffins.

Gpop Eulogy

Welcome all.

My condolences to Lois for losing her partner and to Aunt Nancy, Uncle Buddy and my Mom for losing their much loved father.

I am in good spirits, all things considered, and am happy I can be here today with you all. It’s not often

that our whole family comes together like this. Thank you all for being here.

Lori and I welcomed our son Nico into the world this fall. New arrivals are a time for reflection so I have been wondering what my influence on Nico will be, what his influences on the wor

ld will be, etc. I also have been reflecting on who has influenced me.

I am an architect and my career, together with the love and good times my family provides me, leave me extremely fulfilled. Grandpop, too had once aspired to be an architect. I can’t recall the exact reason why Grandpop didn’t head to architecture school, but I think I can safely speculate that as a high school grad in the economically depressed 1930s and son the of an immigrant farmer several years away at school would not have been possible. Looking out across this audience it is hard to believe how high Grandpop and his Jensen/Petersen clan have lifted us in two generations’ time.

Grandpop was a huge influence on me becoming an architect, not just through his support but also through his gift to me via mom to think technically. A common gift to a young architect is often a Frank Lloyd Wright picture book or a magazine with a popular interview with a star architect like Frank Gehry. But Grandpop for years has been feeding me architecture detail articles from Popular Mechanics and local real estate offering plans complete with floor plans and asking prices. In turn, when I’d wrap a Christmas present for him in a recycled blueprint from my office, he would actually read it before he moved on to the present. As if the drawing were the important part of the gift.

When we’d happen by a new house under construction Grandpop wouldn’t admir

e it from the street. He’d walk right up to and into the place. We’d investigate the concrete basement amongst discarded nails, and bare walls walls. Imagine the rules we were breaking by doing that? But a sharp dressed man in a cap, necktie, and dress shoes (galoshes if it was raining) with a firm handshake and confident “how do you do” is granted a certain license in these situations. He was the definition of a proud man.

While Grandpop may have been a good technical thinker he was a great visitor. And these visits to construction sites are just one example. I’m sure many a person in this room experienced a visit from Grandpop. If you were a friend, family member, or grocery store owner in the greater Hartford area, you were on his circuit. His midsized American sedan would pull and in he would come. At our house and when the restaurant was still open he’d come bearing the gift of ice cream. Later at my first job for a firm in Hartford a visit would include handshakes all around. His hat, when indoors, was always in hand. When he’d leave the office our receptionist would say, “what a handsome man.” Granted he was a much younger then…79.

My first recollection of a funeral is the one we held for Grandpop’s wife, my Grandma Osa Jensen. In 1981, she died too young. Grandpop’s passing was sadly sudden but not altogether unexpected. We should all be so lucky to live and be loved for nearly 90 years and to meet our great grandchildren.

At the risk of undryin

g my eyes I’d like to say to Grandpop. “Rest in peace. It gives m

e great comfort and warmth to know that you are, as we gather here, visiting with those who have passed before you. Hugs to grandma. We will miss you.”

project poop play

me to my daughter, "what did you do today?" alexandra was home from daycare sick so she spent the day with her brother and his nanny nicole. of nicole's many great habits is the pic or two a day she sends to us sent via her blackberry. so when i said to alexandra, "did you slide down the curly slide?" "yes." "did you play with boys on the ice?" "yes." and "did you swing in the swing?" she answered "yesssss."

but then the tables turned. "daddy what you do at work today?" "did you make projects?" (i'm an architect). "did you make poo poo?"

correct on both counts. i guess it's all in a day's work be it playschool, preschool, or the office. and tomorrow i'm checking my desk for a spy cam...how did she know?"

6:41

whooh...cough. cough. just got back from my first visit to the newly opened park slope armory ymca. i put down a 6:41 mile on their track not bad for my first timed mile in years. anyway the place is beautiful and vast...its opening well timed with my tiredness developed for the prospect park y across the street from us.

now if i can only reduce the extra jiggle on my waist. a true belly developed on me for the first time this winter. yikes.

for those of you local to the area, join the armory y - it's only $15 more a month on top of the prospect park y monthly. and you can check it out as a guest 6 times with any existing ymca membership.

too long to tweet

feeding my video game vice of deer hunting i shot at digital deer on the subway ride home with a laser guided scope. then following a strange new years resolution to run home from the subway up 9th street i took off up the hill. past the large anonymous apt building and that's when the laser beam started following me. some kids playing a trick with a cat toy - probably. me running zig zag pattern like a deer to avoid getting shot - definitely!

the day after born to run

i just got back from a night run in brooklyn. it's my first run since completing christopher mcdougall's "born to run". burned out runners, scientists, anthropologists, and most of all aspiring runners. you've got to check this book out. and run like the wind "leaving no trace upon the ground" while you are reading it because when it is done and you are back to the literary same old same old your legs are going to get a little heavier.

i just had my first slow feeling run in weeks. slow feeling because i'm not going to wear a watch for awhile and i won'tlook up my route on google pedometer so i can't say for sure how far i went or how fast. running free of these things is only the most itty bitty step towards running like an ultra marathoner. and king of the ultra marathon is the tarahumara indian (pictured). dwellers of the copper canyons of mexico and running in bright red blouses and sandals - they never got the memo that running is bad for you. they are still of the mind that we are "born to run". mcdougall focuses on this group of born to runners after his physical therapist tells him his knees hurt because our bodies aren't made to run. mcdougall doesn't buy it and over the course of 300 pages he's convinced me of the same. going on runs while reading the book i too was convinced i was born to run.

end of book report - a few more random thoughts:

i'm going to run my third half marathon this spring. 13 mile racers are a dime a dozen but what is significant for me is that i never ran further than 6 miles until i tore my left knee and recovered from surgery just in time to put down six 10 minute miles in the third leg of the nyc triathlon. i used a deliberate shuffle kind of stride where my only focus was to stay out of pain. ever since i've been able to run longer distances.

abrupt segue to my wife in the next room watching the biggest loser show on tv. in preparation for this spring's race and - hopefully - subsequent triathlons i just used my birthday money to buy a swim class for the winter. it will be the third time i'm taking level II swimming for triathletes. the last time, 3 years ago (1 year B.A. - before Alexandra) i dropped 10 pounds from my weight of 15 years: from 185 to 175. i was too skinny. ever since the A.A. era (after Alexandra) i've weighed 215. not fat for a guy who's 6'-4" but a whole lot heavier than i want to be.

i'm in the middle of a terrific maragaret atwood book about life after THE flood (a time when running would be a useful skill) but it's just not providing the same inspiration on my runs as "born to run" did. again - my highest commendations to the book you can count on me rereading as i approach the starting line for next year's racing season!

sandbox diaries #1

i wanted to write the occasional post on the antics that occur in or near the parks' sandboxes. pictured here is the 3rd street sandbox - it's the one i pictured when i was thinking of writing and i snatched this pic via image search.

notice the resident toys. each day starts with a set of them. some parents (foolish parents) drag some of their own kids toys up there. it sets the scene for a lot of tug of warring and "mine-ing". what a mess. can't say i love doing time in the sandbox.

lori said i should write down some of the stuff that happens at the playground. crazy stuff. take this one:

we have these neighbors - their kids go to alexandra's daycare. for awhile there we were seeing them 2 times a day. now just once. but the crazy thing is they don't recognize us. which makes this story possible.

alexandra and i were eating a snack on the bench at jj byrne playground - there is a patch of grass in front of the old stone house. and there was B and his mom. they were playdating with another mom and son. each boy about 4 years old.

they had one of those drugstore playballs and the kids were wrestling - equally matched and having fun over it. at one point our neighbor mom started a game of kickball. when the 4 year olds couldn't get it she showed them how and with the full force that her wide as tall brickhouse body could muster she kicked the ball hard and fast into the forehead of her son's playmate.

the tough little guy flipped backwards but for some reason didn't cry. and for some other reason his mom happened to be looking the other way and missed it. i thought the kid was knocked out and alexandra looked at me like "whoah."

the neighbor/brickhouse mom gave an awkward giggle then looked about before trying to head towards the kid. admit her guilt. but since the mom had been looking the other way and neither of the 4 year olds saw what had hit them she realized no one could prove she did it.

so my neighbor/brickhouse/model parent just walked the other way. the knocked down 4 year old bounce back to his feet like the playball that had hit him and kept on going.

but neighbor/brickhouse/model parent/guilty party there were eyeball witnesses in me and my daughter. busted. just another day in the park. stay tuned.

stokke'd

11am just back from a park slope parents classifieds collection run of a baby sling (free) and a ketter tricycle (free) - and there is a note in lori's inbox that we're first in line to buy a used eames rocker.

the whole classifieds operation (imagine craigslist but we are all clones transitioning tikes through small apartments unloading free range plastic goods for cheap) is a post in and of itself - maybe another time.

what i wanted to write about was the walk home. as though i were wheeling gold bullion home in my granny cart i took the first protective measure to wrap the chair in an opaque tarp. i don't think twice about flashing my ipod in the neighborhood. i had just counted $100 bucks in the open outside chase on 7th avenue. but i'll be damned if i'm foolish enough to wheel an eames rocker through the tree lined streets of park slope!

a year ago our neighbor moved out of her place with her son and their things. the movers brought out her stokke crib before they had room for it on the truck and so it sat at the foot of the truck unattended for a second or two here and there. would you believe that no less than three perps tried to wheel off with it...as though it had been discarded curb side...next to a moving van. from that day forward we call this type of white collar theft - stokke'ing.

the return mission was a success - i was pretty sweaty and skittish but the wolves didn't stokke me. welcome to the family and move over ikea now there's something meatier.

sensitive area

this is a sensitive subject for a sensitive area: flushable wipes. whoever said "soft/smooth as a baby's bottom" wasn't lying. so very soft - and smooth. wish i could say the same of my 33 year old bottom. which makes me ask all you guys - why do they get wipes and not me?

of the many things our baby girl and her needs have brought into my home - i am most fond of the flushable wipe. more precisely the excuse to have flushable wipes in the home.

us young dads are part of a small club that's in the know. seriously ask the young dad closest to you and he'll know what i'm talking about!

celebrites too:
terrence howard
howard stern
saddam hussein
brad pitt

further reading:
man of exception blog
The Ass Wipe Network
A Wet Wipe Manifesto

why don't they have more teachers on talk shows?

better late than never i was introduced to the late great frank mccourt during a string of obituaries and recorded interviews that ran on the radio last monday night. i was tempted to head out to the bookstore that night to buy 'angela's ashes' but opted to wait until friday when i finished the other book i was reading.

i picked it up on the way to the f train and when we came out of the tunnel in brooklyn a woman leaned across the train aisle and asked if i had had mccourt for a teacher. i said no had she? and she had - as an english teacher in 10th and 11th grade. she went on to make some small talk and worried that she had wasted time in his class but she left me to my reading adding. 'they say his memoir [angela's ashes] is made up - that a child could never recall all those facts. but i saw him twenty years after i had left his classroom and he asked how both of my parents were by name and even remembered the street i lived on. the facts in that book are not made up."

i'm loving lunch and train commutes with the memoir - a terrific work. thanks to my train friend i have a trust for the book i may not have had otherwise. but my biggest take away from our conversation was the impact that a single english teacher can have on a student. i too wasted away so much of my english classes (in 2001 i actually felt compelled to write my old teacher mrs. h to say that i had finally learned to enjoy reading/studying). most of all i thought of my wife lori.

(pictured: lori and class at the gates opening, 2004. lori second from right. the girl next to her still stops to chat with us when we see her on 5th ave.)

lori is currently wrestling with a phd dissertation, a draft of which has already won the praise of her adviser. she's already feeling the pressure to aim for the stars and land a gig in an academy of 'higher learning'. but she's a damn good high school english teacher.

frank mccourt wrote a some great works but the greatest work he spoke of when interviewed were his students. we live near lori's school so run ins with grads are frequent. i guess this is a blog post to say how much it means to them/us/me to have her in the classroom.

nothing like work to scare some play into you!

friday 5pm and my boss pays a visit saying he hates to say it but we need to pull weekends in order to hit a june 19th deadline. i get scared and so does the young associate dad next to me and we manage to stave of weekend work until next weekend...given the short notice. nothing like the threat of work to scare you into play. here's what we did this weekend - put forth in bullet points in homage to middle management efficiency:

• friday night date night. lori and i paint the restaurant "sette" red with a $20 gift certificate. we walk in just as steve buscemi (killer imdb list!) walks out. gotta love brooklyn.
• afterwards we hit the park slope food coop - in and out in a flash.
• finally on to hagen daas for cones and back to the house in 2 hours time. try keeping that kind of speed while pushing a stroller.
• saturday morning playdate with e,b, and s. bagels.
  
• site supervision on a renovation project next door in construction.
• tell landlord we're moving out of his place and into afore mentioned renovation. he says find a replacement tenant.
• call back in 30 minutes with replacement tenant.
  
• put baby down for nap. work in backyard on a kitchen redo design.
• baby wakes up, we go get (more) ice cream, kitty litter. then bbq and eat posrk chops.
• play in yard, lori goes back to coop, alexandra and i dance down to my krs-one pandora channel.
• put alexandra to bed, back to autcad. turn on danny stiles saturday night radio program - "best rcords from the 1900's"!
• work butt of on the kitchen design until 1am.
• download entire krs-one discography from this torrent. sorry kris i know i owned it all at one point or another. there will never be another one like KRS.
• sunday am sleep in till 8:30 woken up by baby girl to be told mommy has made bacon and eggs.
• lori's hair smells like bacon rest of the day and i love it.
• go for walk with alexandra, meet a, j, and s at a grassroots bike sale. saw a great raleigh there with "rod brakes"which i had never seen before but loved. hope my friend james buys one.
• salami, fresh mozarella, red pepper, olive oil, black pepper sandwich with the gang in our backyard.
• siesta with lori - family nap until 5pm. whoah!
• grilled bone in chicken breasts with bbq sauce. tricky to cook to proper temp but i think i nailed it.
• listen to neighboring community center's christian rock band through the window. not too shabby. maybe it was my calling? (hope my in laws are reading). church!
• administer scissor surgery to a big toenail that's falling off. kinda gross, kinda awesome.
  
• ice cream
  

and that brings us to now - a 10pm blog before i head to bed. what a weekend! i wonder how i'll squeeze an 8 hour work day in the office into that next weekend...stay tuned!

ever google your unborn child's prospective name?

right now we are choosing between:



















and:







(presumably the gentleman in the middle)

i'm leaning towards the namesake of the shirtless fellow.

incidentally this is our daughter's name's rightful owner:

facebook friend triangle

i've been putting this post off because it's about facebook. and how do i make a single concise post about facebook? is it weak of me to admit that i love this social network thing? that its rise is perfectly timed with my new father shut-in phase each night from 8pm on? baby to bed, boot up laptop, fb!

so i'd like to frame this post around the 'facebook friend triangle'. i googled for an article on this concept but couldn't find one. maybe i'm making a scoop here? anyway a facebook friend triangle is when you make friends with someone and start snooping. are they fat? married? dating the opposite gender since the last time i saw them? and finally you root through their friends. and whammo they know another one of your friends and you never knew it. small small world.

i just made my fourth facebook friend triangle.

1. brian (a friend of a friend i met at a party) knows julio (who i work with) because they went to architecture school in pr together.

2. csl (in my triathlon club) knows cdb (who was my wife's roommate who moved to nyc the first week of september, 2001) because they both have written for the nytimes.

3. bethany (my wife's former coworker) knows sarah (my sister's old soccer teammate) as a fellow teacher at her brooklyn high school.

4. and candice (first person i met at virginia tech during summer orientation) who knows chris (who i've been friends with since i was 7) because she loves to dance to his dirtybird records dj sounds.

anyone else felt this phenomenon?

Your Luv-in Rev.Vin

my grandfather, a retired minister, puts out a mini message or two each week. the same way he has for at least forty years. thanks grandpa and happy new year all!

Everything you need to know you can learn from Noah’s Ark...

1. Don’t miss the boat


2. Remember that we are all in the same boat.


3. Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the boat.


4. Stay fit. When you’re 60 years old someone may ask you to do something big.


5. Don’t listen to critics. Just get on with the job that needs to be done.


6. Build your future on high ground.
   
7. For safety’s sake travel in pairs.


8. Speed isn’t always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.


9. When you’re stressed, float awhile.


10. Remember – the ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

Ps: lori and i watched war of the worlds for the first time on saturday night which lead to our 'escape plan' talk. (one of the privileges of living in nyc is having such a plan...i've already had to walk home to lori from manhattan to brooklyn twice since i moved here in 2001. no cell phones neither!)

so here are my adam's ark picks, I'll be keeping them in my desk drawer at work:

• a meeting place


• crank radio with cell phone charger and flashlight


• that old pair of running shoes you were going to throw out


• a water bottle and cliff bar (takes three hours to walk home)