Stardate 65208.98 - Loren's Special Day

Loren's school vacations and Citi's holiday calendar sync up, so when Loren has a day off from school I almost always have a day off from work. So she and I enjoy a father-daughter day together, which usually involves working on a project. In February we opened up a scrapbook project that she had received for Christmas and put it together. It was a lot of fun and we completed the entire project in one sitting, which is pretty good as it took a long time.

Loren's ability to sit and work on something and stay focused is getting better and better. Last weekend at the beach house, for example, she took a stack of books and sat on our bed and read for 30 minutes - all by herself.

NYC

Stardate 64903.01 - Loren's First Day of School

In September Loren started her first year of real school as she started Kindergarten in the New York City public school system.








Additionally, I left my company of the past two years (Gartner) where I've been supporting the Board of Elections in the City of New York and joined Citi. After 15 years of consulting I decided I was ready for a corporate job.

Atlantic Highlands, NJ

Stardate 63029.28 - Office Holiday Party

Cheryl and I decided to host a small holiday party for my co-workers last Thursday night. For some reason, Loren was particularly excited about this party. Cheryl, with just 2 weeks until her due date, did a fantastic job organizing and preparing the food for the event. We had a pretty good turn-out, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Here Loren sits at the food table to have her dinner.


Terry and Lisa mug for the camera as Cheryl walks by.


Naz, Aparna, and Emily chat.


Michael and Scott pay attention to another conversation while Rick caught me taking the photo.


Ed tells a story while John listens.


The team surprised Cheryl and Xandree (also pregnant) with cards and gifts. Xandree threatened me if I put any photos of her up here, so here is one just of Cheryl and me while Ed, Michael, and Aparna listen to my reading of the card.


NYC

Stardate 62900.21 - Top Hotels for Business Travelers

I don't travel on business any more (one of the advantages to having a job with a local client), but I do keep my eyes open for interesting travel items. Forbes just released a survey on the best hotels for business travelers (click here for the survey). None of the hotels listed are ones I've ever stayed at, but it was interesting that personalization and customization are rated pretty highly. I also appreciate that (which is why I'm a member of a dozen hotel loyalty programs), but the customization at places I stay seems to be pretty minimal. Apparently, I need a higher class of hotel.

NYC

Stardate 62885.83 - Medical Report

As many of you already know, I had surgery last Wednesday for a Right Inguinal Hernia. This is something I'm pretty sure I've had for over a year, but as the doctor told me, "Hernias never get better, they can only get worse." So I finally scheduled the surgery at NYU Medical Center (same hospital where Loren was born).

I know some of my friends and co-workers have already had this procedure, but for anyone else who may need it now or in the future I wanted to briefly talk about my experience. People with no interest in this type of thing can stop reading and hope for a new picture of Loren tomorrow. Some people may feel this is too much information, but I found it very helpful to talk to people who had already been through the procedure so if my experience can help set people at ease who are anticipating this procedure then that is what I want to do.

I had to go in 10-14 days in advance for a pre-surgery screening and other than a 2-hour wait that was uneventful - drawing some blood, an EKG, and a lot of questions. The day before the surgery I received my instructions and my time - no food or drink starting at midnight Tuesday and report at 0730 Wednesday morning. After meeting with every single person who would be working on me (and even the people who clean the room, I think!) and answering the same questions over and over I was finally ready for the procedure. The doctor was running about 30 minutes late, but I was quickly taken into the surgical room around 0900 and climbed up onto the table. There was some small talk, I was given an IV and oxygen, and then I don't remember anything until being woken up post-op and asked to help move off the table onto a gurney.

I was wheeled into recovery and asked if I wanted anything to eat or drink. I was very tired and groggy, so I asked for some decaf coffee. As soon as I drank a sip, I realized I was very nauseous. After lying on the bed for 30 minutes or so they moved me into a chair. They asked me about the pain - on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst pain ever (the time I broke 3 ribs and the morning after when I sneezed both came to mind). I replied the pain was a 2 or a 3, but the nausea was overwhelming. They gave me something in the IV for that (along with a lot of fluid), but it didn't help. Later they gave me a shot of something in the leg that was supposed to help. It helped me enough to get into a cab with help from Cheryl and get home around 1330, but I felt like I had the stomach flu. I went to bed and didn't get up until the next morning. I would sleep for 2 hours, get up to use the bathroom, and go back to sleep.

The nausea didn't dissipate until Thursday afternoon, and I didn't completely get my appetite back until Sunday. The entire time from the surgery through today the pain has been around a 1-2. The pain was completely dwarfed by the nausea, which I understand can happen from general anesthesia. In fact, the pain was so low I didn't even use the Percocet they prescribed for me and instead just used over-the-counter ibuprofen. In fact, I haven't even taken an ibuprofen in more than 24 hours as I write this post.

My friend Brian Hampton told me that the worst part would be getting up in the morning, and he was right. Everything is just sore and it is hard to get out of bed, but once I am up I am fine. I have an appointment this Friday with the doctor for a follow-up and I'm hoping the dressing gets removed--think about having a few napkins held on you by plastic wrap. Lets just say the itching really started kicking in yesterday.

So I spent Thursday and Friday off of work and watching nearly an entire season of Star Trek: Voyager (most of season three and the start of season four). Saturday I took it easy with the family, and on Sunday Cheryl took Loren to New Jersey to her parents' place so I could have another day with minimal activity. I worked a half-day from home on Monday and was back up to a full day yesterday (I'll be telecommuting through the end of the week). I should be able to go back to work in person the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Overall, it wasn't too bad. The pain was a lot less than I anticipated but the nausea was much, much worse. Apparently being under a general doesn't affect everyone the same, but for me it was so much worse than any other part of the procedure. I also recommend people really listen and take it easy for several days so that you have time to recover and heal up -- I was pretty tired for the next few days and was in bed by 9 PM for a few days afterward.

NYC

Stardate 62717.66 - Annoying Outlook Error

Ever since I started my new job back in June I've been getting an annoying Microsoft Outlook error whenever I modify a Note and then either activate the screen saver (lock the terminal) or exit Outlook:

Could not complete the operation. One or more parameter values are not valid.

It then produces an error message similar to "the note will close and changes will not be saved", even though the changes are saved.

I Googled around for a while and finally found a fix. Go to the tools -> options -> other tab, then click on "advanced options," and finally unselect "when viewing notes, show time and date". This change immediately solved my problem.

NYC

The Green Sheep

Yesterday I played hooky from work for the morning and chaperoned Loren's class to the New Victory Theatre for a performance of The Green Sheep. I won't spoil the ending by giving away where the green sheep was (it was a pretty dramatic climax). Thumbs up all around from the kids...even the 1 1/2-2 year olds in the class below Loren stayed interested for the whole thing.

Here Loren and her partner for the trip ride the bus across town.


Loren with the sheep posters in the corral... I mean waiting area.

Stardate 62703.99 - What they pick up...

Actually, not that kind of picking something up. Her daily report card came back on the 10th and it stated:

This morning while playing in dramatic area Loren said she was going to work. She had a very special meeting that she woke-up early for. She invited [her teacher] to the meeting. Then, Loren made several phone calls.

This was the day after I had to get up early for an 18-hour workday.

NYC

Stardate 62703.07 - Grandparents Visit for a Picnic

Last Sunday (September 7) I had to work for several hours in the afternoon, so Cheryl's parents and Grandmother came over to visit and help Cheryl out with Loren. After I got back from work, we ordered pizza and went up to the roof deck for another picnic.





NYC

Stardate 62589.75 - NJ Trip

After a rough week of multiple presentations for Cheryl (note to self, don't bring stuff home and try to work on it the day before the presentation when you've just installed the latest version of Microsoft Office which is nothing like the previous version and you are under a tremendous amount of pressure!), we decided to go to the beach for Saturday. We got out of the city early Saturday and due to the imminent threat of rain the traffic was light to the beach. We managed to get a good hour under our belts before the thunder and lightning appeared and we packed up and headed back in for lunch. We really knew it was time when the wind suddenly shifted and it was suddenly 10 degrees cooler than it had been.


Loren has come a long way from the times last summer when all she wanted to do was smash sand castles. Now she wants to decorate them (note the feather). After lunch I took a shower and when I came out it was dark and pouring rain with wind so strong the cars were shaking in the parking lot. After about 20 minutes, it cleared up and started to get hot and humid again. Here Loren poses in a new outfit Cheryl's Grandmother purchased for her. Loren loved it!


We then went over to Cheryl's parents' house for dinner and some time in the pool. Loren kept telling Cheryl, "I want to swim by myself! Mommy let go of me!" I guess it is time to get one of those flotation vests for her to use in the pool. She has the hang of what she is supposed to do with her legs and arms, and spent a good 30 minutes running Cheryl and Grandma ragged in the pool! The best quote of the evening, however, was in this exchange between Cheryl and Loren:

Cheryl - "We have to get out of the pool, it is almost time for dinner."
Loren - "I want pizza!"
Cheryl - "We're having chicken burgers, Grandma doesn't have pizza."
Loren - "Get it delivered!"

Yes, Loren is a child of the city.

We spent the night and Cheryl's parents watched Loren so we could go out to a movie. I'll try to post the review later this week (we saw The Dark Knight). After church on Sunday we came back into the city. A college associate of mine (Kim Walter) was in town with her husband and 2 children but they had split up so he and one child could watch the Yankees and she and the other child could explore New York City so we met them for lunch in between their tours of FAO Schwartz and the American Museum of Natural History. We told Loren if she was good we could get ice cream on the way home and of course she wanted the messiest cone possible.


On Friday we leave for Ohio for a wedding, so this week is a short one and we should have a bunch of photos and stories after that trip.

NYC

Stardate 62535.26 - Sunday at the Museum

Curt here, logged into Cheryl's account. It is too late and I'm too tired to log her out and log me in. On Saturday Cheryl took Loren out to NJ to the beach and to visit with her parents, while I went to see a movie and enjoyed an evening sail in the Hudson. They spent the night, and then came back early Sunday. We decided to go to the American Museum of Natural History, which we've been to several times. We left around lunch, so we stopped at one of the vending carts to enjoy a quick snack, and Loren got ice cream. We just sat on the edge of the sidewalk and ate before entering the building. Loren loves her ice cream!


Afterward we went down to Macy's so I could buy a pair of cuff links (with a quick stop for pizza first). After telecommuting for 6 years and getting by on just a week's worth of dress shirts for the past 3-4, I finally purchased some additional dress shirts and I got two of them with french cuffs, just for fun. I also needed a few new undershirts so I got a 3-pack while we were there. By that time we were all hot and tired and we came on home to a nice, cool apartment.

NYC

Stardate 62442.28 - Que Calor

My Spanish is a little rusty, but I think "Que Calor" translates as "How Hot!" Indeed, I picked the perfect week to start a new job where I have to wear a suit and spend 45-60 minutes commuting. The heat index today was a sultry 107, and I am pretty much miserable on the commute. What is really annoying is that the commute would be about 30 minutes on the weekend, but the express trains run slower on the tracks on the weekdays for some insane reason. It took me nearly an hour to get home today, and with Cheryl in Germany and a babysitter bringing Loren home from daycare that extra time is costing me money!

Being back in an office environment has been nice, except for the commute. Yesterday someone on the train was holding her stomach like she was about to throw up. Not normally a problem, but she was directly in front of me and I had no where to run. I finally managed to squeeze a couple of people away from her so I'd have some cover if she started to hurl. And this morning I got to see a woman essentially give a man a lap dance for the entire commute down to Wall Street. I mean, I understand listening to your iPod and maybe grooving a little, but NOT when the train is packed so full of people that your "dancing" constantly results in rubbing up and down against a fellow passenger. And believe me if you are reading this, you are NOT a looker. I would have moved.

And in the interesting Loren story department, I was reading her the "ABC in NYC" book (which I have not read in months) and when we got to "G" being "George Washington Bridge" she said, "That is how we get to Denise's!" Well, she is exactly right. I'm not sure if she remembers that from the trip a few months ago, or if Cheryl had recently read her the book and made that connection for her, but I prefer to think that Loren is just brilliant.

And P.S., doing the single parent thing sucks. Especially when I don't get home until an hour before her bedtime. I ended up letting her stay up an extra 30 minutes just to be able to play and interact with her some more.

NYC

Stardate 62436.31 - Escape to the Beach

On Saturday we went to the beach in NJ to visit with Cheryl's Grandmother and also to have dinner with Cheryl's parents. I discovered on the way that I can no longer yell at other drivers with Loren in the car. During a traffic jam a car drove up from some distance away on the shoulder, then cut over in front of me when there was a bridge (and no more shoulder). The Battlestar Galactica version of what I said was "Fracker!" Unfortunately, Loren repeated it about 5 times. I then started yelling "Chickens!" (thanks, Steve and Rachel) and Loren started repeating "Chickens!" and never again said "Fracker!"


Another funny Loren story is that I was trying to take my contacts out Friday and Loren was playing in the Living Room and asked me a question so I said, "You need to hold on, Loren, I'm taking my contacts out." Loren came down the hall to the bathroom saying, "What do I need to hold on to?"

Training for the new job (really all the corporate in-processing) went well this past week, and I really start the new job tomorrow at the client site. I'm excited about the change and am really looking forward to it!

NYC

Stardate 62369.78 - CA Day Four

On our last full day in Yosemite we took the Mist Trail to a bridge below Vernal Fall. The hike up was pretty much hell. It was a 1.6 mile round trip, and we though that it would be alright for Loren. I think she got tired of the elevation gain, but she refused to go into the backpack carrier. So it was a long, hard slog up the trail with an unhappy Loren. She was in a much better mood once we arrived at our destination.



Luckily, she accepted a ride on my shoulders all the way down so we made much better time going down the mountain. And we needed to make better time, because I had my fourth and final interview scheduled for that day. Yes, after 12 years I am leaving the consulting firm I work for and moving to another consulting firm that is local here in NYC. I had a phone interview scheduled for mid-day, so I conducted my final interview over the phone while sitting in the car in Yosemite Valley. It looks like I'll be starting on June 2. No more telecommuting!

After the hellish hike, we decided we needed something more calming so we went to see some giant redwoods. Loren was fascinated by the "not allowed" sign, and tried to figure it out for a while. After I told her what all the symbols meant, she still stared at it for a while, whispering what I had just told her.




After that we were done for the day and went back to the "little apartment" for our last night in the park.

NYC

Stardate 61987.50 - Christmas, Part Four

After we opened gifts on Christmas we went outside where it was pretty balmy and took some pictures of Loren and Ellie in their matching outfits.




For lunch we went to Cheryl's Grandmother's condo at the beach, and somehow managed to cram 15 people into her place. It got pretty warm in there, and at one point I propped the front door open to get some air moving. While Loren napped (it was a very late nap) we played the game Apples to Apples, and Cheryl's Mom won the game barely fighting off a last-minute surge from Cheryl's Dad. Apparently we never took the camera out, however, as we have no pictures from lunch.

Once Loren was up we drove back to NYC, and Cheryl went back to work on Wednesday and Loren went back to school. Uncle Andy and Aunt Jen came into the city on Wednesday and after a visit to The Met came down to our place for dinner. Cheryl cooked up some chicken and the same Gorgonzola salad that was such a huge hit at Thanksgiving. They went back to NJ Wednesday night so they could get in some more visiting with Steve and Rachel Thursday morning before heading back to the Northern Virginia area. We're supposed to get together with Steve and Rachel and Ethan and Ellie again before they head back to Arkansas, but I'm not sure when.

I had planned to work half-days this week, but with new DVDs to watch and things to do around the apartment (like un-decorate the tree and post Christmas photos to this blog) I've taken more Paid Time Off than I originally planned. But things are really, really slow at work right now (most people are off until the second or third of January) so it isn't a problem. I do have some things I must get done this week before our vacation starts in early January so I have a feeling I'll end up working a full-day tomorrow. Not that I would put anything off until Friday.

NYC

Stardate 61828.46 - Message Received?

I think my boss is a little behind on his e-mail. I received this e-mail today, along with about 6 other, similar messages (first three lines are edited to protect the guilty, but the rest of the message reads as I received it):

Your message

To: X; Y; Z
Cc: Boss
Subject: ABC
Sent: 5/11/2005 18:08

was deleted without being read on 10/30/2007 08:33.

NYC

Stardate Unknown - In a Cab

My flight got in 1 hour and 15 minutes late, so I left St Lois on Friday and am getting home on Saturday. And don't get me started about my trials at the rental car place. Lets just say it took a full hour from the time I pulled into the car return and when I got to the check-in counter.

At least I am almost home.

NYC

Sent from my Blackberry

Stardate 61613.33 - On the Road Again

I am on a business trip this week, and not one to my office in Virginia. This time I'm in Montgomery, Alabama (state slogan, "Hotter than Hell in August!"). I flew from LGA to Birmingham, because a co-worker who has been here before (I never have) said that it was an easier airport to get into and out of. Here is my litany of complaints:

1. Again, I got to learn the difference between "non-stop" and "direct" as my "direct" (but not "non-stop") flight from LGA to Birmingham landed in Atlanta for an hour before continuing onto Birmingham. Imagine my surprise!
   
2. If you are going to let the computer land the plane, I'm not sure getting on the loudspeaker and announcing to the passengers that the computer is going to be landing the plane is a wise decision. The people around me seemed a little unnerved by it. Probably not the reaction you wanted.
   
3. It is great that Delta airlines has this big marketing blitz on right now about how great they are making their planes, but those of us stuck on a MD-88 don't want to hear it. Yes, the plane was clean and the overhead compartments were new. But there was no audio system, no video system, and you don't even get the full can when you are served your soda.
   
4. I'm not sure the "difficulty" allegedly experienced at the Montgomery airport is worth a 90+ minute drive from Birmingham to Montgomery on a very crowded I-65. Yes, the speed limit is 70, but I didn't achieve it for the first 15 minutes or so.
5. Alabama is a lot more hilly than I expected. Especially between Birmingham and Montgomery. And I love driving in lots of traffic on hills when people do 80+ down the hill and 55 up the hill (in a 70 mph zone). It is called cruise control people - learn it, love it, live it.
   
6. I got into the rental car and figured out how to get the outside temperature to display. It cycled between 101, 102, 103, and 104 during the drive to Montgomery where, as I arrived at 1830, it finally settled down to 99.
7. Why do hotel air conditioners always seem to be set to "Antarctica"? The temperature was set to 60. Now, I know it is "Hotter than Hell in August" here, but 70 (29 whole degrees cooler than outside) would have been quite fine, thank you.
   
8. If a co-worker picks the hotel, do some research first. If he tells you "It is an Extended Stay America" place, make sure he knows the difference between Extended Stay America and a loose collection of independent hotels known as "Extended Stay Hotels". Because I can tell you that the difference is new and well-appointed for one, and old, drab, and no shampoo for the other one. Guess which one I am in?
9. If you haven't eaten anything but a bag of sun chips in 6 hours, don't gorge yourself on a Schlotzsky's sandwich and a cup of lemonade the size of a pitcher. You'll just feel gross.
10. And Schlotzsky, don't give me a game piece with the promise that I could "Win $25,000 A Year for Life" and make me go to a web site to give you my address and crap and then tell me, "Unfortunately, due to the Official Rules, residents of New York are not eligible to participate in the Schlotzsky's Winning Combination Game." That's just rude.
    

So while not off to a disastrous start, this trip is off to a low-grade annoyance start. And I already miss Cheryl and Loren! But I will enjoy my few nights break from putting Loren down to sleep, who is pretty good most of the time but still fights sleep like mad.

On the plus side, I arrived with no paper maps or directions and just put the address of the hotel into TeleNav on my phone (w/ GPS) and it guided me directly to the hotel. That is one of the coolest things ever! I'll never grow tired of hearing, "...and your destination will be on your right."

Montgomery, Alabama


The photo is from Wikipedia's entry on roads. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
Subject to disclaimers.

Stardate 61476.48 - Loren Rides the Train (Video)

Here is a video of Loren on the train at the company summer event. She really did have a great time, although by the time I shot this she was pretty tired and starting to really slow down. You can see at the end that she is having a good time.



NYC

Stardate 61476.42 - Company Picnic

My company's local office held its summer picnic over at Central Park tonight, so even though Loren was down a couple of hours on sleep due to an early wake-up and a very short nap, we went ahead and proceeded over to the park. We arrived just as the event started, and the crowd was very light.

We put Loren on an airplane ride, not too sure if she would like it or not -- she loved it! She refused to get off of the ride, and luckily there was no line so she went multiple times.


We then moved to a boat ride and a train ride, both of which she also enjoyed.


We also did a bouncy car ride but it was a bit much and we didn't do that one again.


After our picnic dinner we took her back to the plane and the train and she really fell in love with the train, yelling "yellow car!" (the train car was yellow) and pulling at her seat belt and yelling "seat belt!" over and over and over. We hated to tear her away from the rides but by 7:30 PM we felt we should get her back home and to bed.




NYC