When we got our cat Annabelle about a month ago at the MSPCA at Angell Memorial they provided a contract regarding the spaying of her. Since they didn’t have an appointment for the following few weeks and we were going to California we scheduled the appointment to spay her for the day after we returned from our vacation surrounding DK’s wedding. Given that we took a red eye with a baby back on Monday night and spent Tuesday trying to sleep and pick her up Annabelle was the main project upon returning.

Traveling to California with Madeline at 10 months is about as challenging as when she was 3 months but our minor adjustments to the plan made the trip much easier and often more fun. The adjustments were as follows.

1. Travel in first class in the first seat of the airplane where there is a little area where a baby could stand-up, crawl around, and play with toys while we have lots of legroom to kick our feet up when tired.

2. Minimize driving times and separate them with long periods out of the car. Try to place driving activities strategically near expected nap times.

3. Utilize babysitting resources at night. Hire a babysitter through the hotel for one night and bring parents in an intersecting trip to watch her while partying at the wedding.

4. Keep things simple by keeping events and activities to a minimum including skipping events that don’t appear realistic for coordinating moving the whole crew around to like the slew of social events associated with a wedding (rehearsal dinner, post wedding brunch, dessert hour, etc.)

5. Don’t bother bringing a laptop.

I won’t say we didn’t have our challenges but the adjustments helped us to avoid doing too much. But we did have some challenges.

In order to travel with our first class ticket using frequent flyer miles I needed to accept flights with a layover in Chicago. What that meant was that we left on an 8AM flight. Given the recent hullabaloo about liquids, gels, and other ways to make improvised explosives the word on the street was that we needed to be at the airport at about 6 AM to clear security and drop off our full load of items including a car seat, stroller, baby backpack, and two massive bags. Since before this we needed to wake Madeline, feed her, change her, and prep her mentally for a flight the start time for the day in Boston was 4AM.

The flight itself was bearable although we couldn’t take advantage of the more comfortable seating arrangement with Madeline requiring constant holding or attention. This meant that the day really started at 4AM and we never got to catch-up on the sleep during the flights. Furthermore while the real time elapsed may have been 8 hours, somehow it felt like about two to three days had elapsed on the plane such that by the end of the second flight Madeline had determined that the only thing left to do would be to shred the magazines we had brought and since we didn’t have an alternative that she was interested in we helped her to do so with the provision that Sarah periodically fished mid-sized magazine spitballs out of Madeline’s mouth.

So when we arrived at SFO we were tired and had we been home we would have gone straight to sleep. Instead we took the asinine transportation system that is the SFO rental car area. I have become so annoyed by the SFO rental car system that I have considered flying to San Jose where all you need to do is cross the street just to avoid it. The first problem is that they have a train that you need to take to the rental car area. In the past I had made the mistake of going to an off airport rental car location and the punishment is that you have to take the train to the rental car area and then take a bus from there to the rental car location. Most airports just have a bus that picks you up but because the train is so slow and awkward to get to they don’t want to provide any advantage to the off airport folks who could probably get you from the baggage claim area to the rental car in a minute using a shuttle. Instead we went through numerous elevators and lifts in a map that can only be considered idiotic but necessary for traveling with a large load of items just to get to the rental car location where we then were able to wait for half an hour while the one agent dealt with two people who had errors with their agreements. This was at Budget. I would consider renewing my Hertz get to your car fast membership but now that it is over I may just avoid this airport.

Had this been the only problem with rental cars at SFO I might not be calling for a public pillory of the planners who devised this devious rental car system but upon returning to the airport on Monday night I had additional problems getting to the location. I had filled the car with gas as required to save a few bucks on South Airport road. This road pointed towards the airport and I took it there but as it approached it suddenly turned into 101. The signs on 101 said something about taking the San Bruno exit to get to the rental car areas. Upon taking this exit I found myself going 70 miles per hour on 380 or some other highway away from the airport and couldn’t turn around for 8 miles. Upon returning to the airport I decided to ignore this sign and went into the airport where I was able to painstakingly travel through every part of the airport on the local airport road until about 5 miles later, the approximate distance of the train ride from the airport to the rental car location, when I saw a sign for “Rental car customer parking”. I turned into this location only to find that it was not what I had expected. It was a place for people renting cars were expected to park their cars. I didn’t have time to ask anyone about why this service was useful at an airport but did finally reach the rental car lot.

While dropping off the car the attendant was blasting some Spanish radio station on the car next to us. But when we left with our stroller, car seat, baby backpack, two suitcase, diaper bag, and travel backpack luggage on the second floor there was an elevator either to the 3rd floor or to the first floor. The 3rd floor is where the train lets you off to go to the rental car offices. The first floor is under the train platform and the elevator specifically instructs you to go to the first floor to get to the train. We did this but since we had a ton of luggage and so did everyone else the tiny elevator didn’t fit more than one family at a time. So we needed to wait for an elevator to go down one level. When we got to the bottom we then had to walk to the other elevator that takes you to the top of the train station and then wait again for a tiny elevator that couldn’t fit more than one family at a time. Finally we were up at the train station on the third floor and then I watched as the people were let out into the rental car entrance area followed by both sides of doors opening and we saw we could have just gone up one elevator instead of the idiotic route we took. Next time just go to the rental area.

But the rental car got us to Half Moon Bay fairly quickly. I was surprised, although I should have known, that in the morning and evenings anywhere in the Bay area during the foggy months that it is foggy and somewhat cold regardless of where you go. So we found that Half Moon Bay was foggy and cold but we did look around and then went to sleep in our room at the Best Western about five thirty PM with a brief wake-up to get the room service hamburger and club sandwich. Madeline’s diapers smelled terrible so I left them outside the room beyond the slider on the deck in plastic bags in the area overlooking the golf course. At night we heard what sounded like an animal rustling near the slider but the diapers were still there when we awoke.

We had breakfast at the hotel but then decided to tour the area by going the ten miles to the Ritz Carlton. We didn’t actually know where the Ritz was so we drove up the highway looking for it only to learn later when Sarah called them that it was a right turn at the corner where our hotel was. The Ritz was fun to see and offered some great views of cliffs over the water. We walked the edge of the golf course and didn’t have to pay for parking. An agreement must have been made between the folks at the Ritz and the government that they would be allowed to build 36 holes of golf by the ocean if they provided free public access to the beach. The lot we parked in had multiple Bentleys and Lotus vehicles in it. We parked next to a Bentley that was parked diagonally across two spaces to avoid riff raff from getting too close to it.

After leaving the Ritz we explored the downtown area of Half Moon Bay and decided that there wasn’t anything there. We then went to a local restaurant for lunch after checking out of the hotel and found that the view was great through their plate glass windows but the glare was enormous. I ordered a crab roll and decided that lobster is a better crustacean than crab since it tastes better. Sarah ordered a chicken Caesar salad despite being at seafood restaurant. Madeline ordered fruit salad.

After lunch we walked the beach and remembered the same thing we always remember on vacations when we get to the beach. Wouldn’t it be great to have something to lie down or sit on now so that we don’t get covered with sand? We are going to have to start bringing a lightweight blanket on all trips that might involve a beach or park.

The trek into San Francisco was quick. We stayed at the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental and upon arrival the bellman stole my car. He basically didn’t offer much choice in whether I would use their $65 per night valet service. It wasn’t a terrible service but I figured there might be a cheaper one. I had told Sarah that I loved the food at Tsunami but in order to go out to eat we were going to need a baby sitter. I called to the front desk to learn that they offered babysitting through an agency and hooked up a babysitter with a $15 fee for the set-up and $11/hour with a 4 hour minimum. So we put Madeline to bed at 7:15 and then waited until about 7:30 PM when the babysitter was set to arrive. The reception folks thought it would be best to call us to alert us that the babysitter had arrived and the call rang a nice loud phone by Madeline’s crib and woke her up. A few minutes later Donna, a grandmother, appeared at our door covered in big jewelry on her hands, ears, and neck. Donna was a professional at babysitting and was confident that Madeline could be brought back to sleep. Sarah first tried to comfort Madeline and then switched to nursing her. Donna mentioned that babies that are still nursing are the hardest because the only thing that they really want when they are tired or upset is their mother. Despite multiple efforts to calm her down Madeline had clearly become aware that she was about to be ditched and to be left with this total stranger and she was absolutely pissed. So as we walked to the elevator after about 45 minutes of wrangling to try to leave Donna with a sleeping baby we could hear the screaming of our baby about 50 doors away from our room. We told Donna to call us at dinner whenever Madeline fell asleep. Sarah looked as if she had just been through a war and was experiencing some form of traumatic stress having to leave her screaming baby in a fancy hotel in order to go to a restaurant. We did manage to eat at Tsunami with Molly and Yuval and Sarah spent about an hour calming down after 30 minutes into dinner we received a call from Donna to let us know that the she had rocked Madeline to sleep in her stroller.

The next night we went to the Top of the Mark with Zoe and Dave after a walk in Golden Gate park at the Japanese tea garden. We saw some great views and halfway through snacking on gourmet cheeses, raw foods, cocktails, and a bottle of wine Sarah and Madeline disappeared back to the room to change because Madeline had spat-up on her fancy dress. Sarah didn’t return and we decided to stay in for the night and watch most of a season of “Flavr4Lov”, the reality TV show where Flav-a-flav does some odd version of the Bachelor while wearing clocks around his neck.

Tiburon was a quick drive out of the city. It was purported to be Paradise given locations like the wedding being held at Paradise beach and a road for walking called Paradise drive. It was quite nice. The best part of Paradise was having a babysitter for Madeline both nights. My parents arrived in town at about 3 in the afternoon and watch her while Sarah and I enjoyed dinner at the hotel restaurant. We stayed at the Tiburon Lodge in a spa room. The Spa room included a hot tub in the back and mirrors on the ceilings over the hot tub and the bed. I didn’t think to bring back pink champagne on ice but next time I will.

Sarah’s mother had made the astute observation about Annabelle the cat that her nipples were growing about two weeks ago. By the time that we returned from California and I picked-up Annabelle in Bedford she had also grown very round in the belly. The two theories were that she either had worms or was pregnant. It turned out that she was pregnant despite our never having exposed her to a male cat. The spaying included a complementary cat abortion operation so we aren’t going to have kittens in the near future.

Posted by Dan Housman at 08:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Dan Housman at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Among the many reasons why it is hard to write these days I must include that the cat actively attempts to interfere with any attempt on my part to use the computer on my desk. She begins by hiding behind the flat screen monitor and periodically swipes her paw at my fingers as I type. After I get frustrated by this and stand-up to get her to follow me away from the computer she will then reseat herself in front of the keyboard in order to block me from resting my hands in the typing position. If I manage to brush her away from this position she will then walk across the keyboard itself in hopes of clicking on a key that will permanently lock the computer in an awful funk like running in Norwegian mode or setting off control keys that show strange symbols for paragraphs while using MSWord. Luckily she appears to be at rest for the evening at the moment and I have been spared the routine. Otherwise this would never have made it out.

The baby on the other hand offers a different form of interference. Basically I have come to the conclusion that if you have a life and a hobby and then you become a parent you will need to choose from among the following options. A – Sleep, B – Doing a hobby. When you no longer have time for sleep this generally means that you will also have no time for playing poker on Friday nights, working out three days a week, writing a blog, creating nify nick-nacks out of pine cones, and other such nonsense. The challenge is simply that a baby is not a fully capable person able to do things like eat, clean, use the toilet, entertain themselves, or play poker on Fridays. Because of these challenges you can’t leave them alone. They have funny hours that they keep for their day including sleeping at 8PM and waking-up at 6AM. This means that you have to be home a few hours before 8PM, like 6PM and awake at 6AM. Doing some simple math on the free hours. If you work from 9 AM to 5PM this basically leaves you with the drive home and the bleary hour or two you have to feed the baby in the morning and then figure out who will care for her while you are at work as your extra time. You also have the hour and a half of time after she sleeps to squander at your leisure only to wish you had spent it sleeping the night before. If you work an hour or two later in the day then it leaves you with nothing in terms of spare time. So this is the more likely reason for not producing anything in writing on a regular basis. It means that information needs to be condensed into forms like haiku. For example here is a brief passage recalling key events from the trip that Jeremy and I took to Vegas.

Circus Circus Vegas for kids with women in lobby giving birth to more kids. Chinese taxi driver – ‘you want to get raid?’. TI club good. Dancing with Nebraskan woman 6’4”. Stripper tells story of popping eyeball out with long heel and coroner’s office job. Jeremy recognizes porn producer at club. Old Vegas – Freemont street experience during the day is mainly looking at a bunch of crack dealers. Old casinos have $2 blackjack. Win money but watch wives gamble their wedding rings. Hard not to look at just the stage during ‘O’. Mayors convention in town meeting mayors. Rio floor no good to dance on because of beer glue. Too many grinding dudes on floor. Next time go to Rio roof bar not dance club.

Posted by Dan Housman at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I spent most of the day trying to get my laptop onto the corporate network. After over a year and a half of using the same network card, only three days after switching backpacks, I lost my network card. Normally this would not pose a problem but that same computer has chosen to not connect to any network without a network card. Database work without a network is like trying to do airtraffic control without radar or radio communication with airplanes. So I haggled around for an out of date network card and then borrowed a USB watch that a cubicle neighbor, who I hadn't spoken to in the full year and a half in order to install the out of date Cisco software to run the network card. It was all fruitful and I felt quite proud of myself.

Meanwhile at home Madeline was wreaking havoc on Sarah because she has finally cut the beginnings of her first tooth.

Posted by Dan Housman at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 2006: (10 months) Madeline now regularly stands on her own by pulling herself up on furniture. She has her first small tooth coming in. She is looking like she is about to walk but still falls often. Right now she has a black eye from one of her falls.

Posted by Dan Housman at 02:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have now lived with Annabelle the cat for about three weeks now. It is nice to have a pet at home again. She appears to have thwarted the mice. I have seen no evidence of them in the last few weeks. Because of this we have gotten careless and this week alone have had two taco nights where we fill the counter by the stove, the favorite picnicking spot of Brookline mice, with a cornucopia of Mexican foods like onions, tomatoes, tortilla chips, avocados, cheese, and ground beef. No mice have chosen to join the fiesta. Annabelle does not appear to be spending her evenings policing the kitchen. I know this because instead she spends her time waiting for me to fall asleep and then tries to vigorously rub off some form of scent from behind her ear onto my hands. I must admit that I feel a little violated by the experience of Annabelle trying to not mark just her territory but pretending to be a possessed bottle of cheap cologne aggressively marking me. She is headed for a showdown with the vet regardless of this behavior since we signed a contract to spay her as a part of our contract to rescue her from the MSPCA. I am hoping that spaying her will alleviate her need to rub up against me while I am sleeping as I generally don’t get much sleep to begin with given the other new inhabitant of my apartment.

Posted by Dan Housman at 09:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am sworn to secrecy due to some bachelor party oaths regarding the precise events of last weekend. I am not sure why such secrecy surrounds bachelor parties given that it can only breed suspicion to not make it clear what occurs and nothing of great interest ever does occur at these events. At least nothing has thus far in my experience. I met DF on the plane in Denver. He was busy programming something in SAP and I had just finished reading the latest issue of Maxim. I had read Bar stool sports on the way to the airport and found one article of particular interest by the publisher. He listed the top 10 decisions in life that he should have made earlier. A big one was switching from a queen sized bed to a king sized one. Given that I have been scrunching into a corner of my bed to accommodate a growing baby I believe that the most important thing I can do in the next three months to improve my quality of life is to switch to a king sized bed. He also had other insights like the benefits of online betting vs. a bookie and how happy he was he didn’t get a racing shirt while in Montreal. I had also bought a bottle of Patron tequila on advice from someone that it would be a good item for a bachelor party.

DF and I didn’t sit with each other at first. I was sitting with three generations of women. A mother, daughter, and 12 month old grand daughter. It was fun playing with the baby given that she wasn’t mine and to compare books, toys, and stories. DF came back to inform me that there was seating in economy plus so I moved. From what I can tell they squeezed people who fly coach in one half and stretched a few extra inches for other folks in coach to create economy plus. While I am happy for the airlines for doing so it is quite annoying to be squeezed for cash to buy a few inches of leg space. They almost want me to be uncomfortable on the plane in order to upsell higher cost products.

When we landed in Reno we went to the rental car location we realized that nobody was policing our rental car selection. I had promised DK that I would rent a Viper or something more special like a Lamborghini but we settled on the best convertible that they had – the Mustang. Oddly I had a dream last night that I was hanging out with Lindsay Lohan at a party. She got too drunk to drive but we were having a good time and she was glad to have the company of a normal non-famous person. So she asked me to drive her Lamborghini. Unfortunately I don’t drive stick very well and it was a disaster. But all rental cars in the US are automatics so I didn’t have any trouble driving the Mustang with the top down at night while DF marveled at the view of the stars in Tahoe.

We arrived at the Northstar cabin and drank the bottle of Patron with DK, CS, and the host. The cabin was incredible with a huge open kitchen that connected to the dining area and living room. Downstairs they had bedrooms, predominantly with tons of twin beds. The cabin looked out onto the golf course but you couldn’t see the 4th green outside the large two tiered deck until morning. Upstairs, our host, DK’s future brother in law by marriage (he married DK’s fiancées sister) slept in a king sized master suite bed with a big bathroom and Jacuzzi tub. The evening was low key and we tried to come-up with as many embarrassing stories about DK as we could. MM, the best man, and Roc had shown up at some point to make Roc the 6th player for golf in the morning. CS held his liquor despite thoughts that he might not do so well with the tequila.

The next morning CS cooked some egg concoction for breakfast. He called it German pancakes and explained that it was like Yorkshire pudding. Since he didn’t have any milk he used the flavored creamer for coffee as a substitute. They came out well and tasted good with the bacon.

We headed out to play golf. 6 people played in two sets of three. Our group got a straggler from the course, a 70 year old named Dell, and his wife who wasn’t playing the second 9. He was fun to play with but made our plan to bring illicit beer onto the course in our bags a no go. The course was fun and despite not having played in a year I was still terrible at golf. After playing we all agreed that we should play more often while home and may actually begin some golf again in the fall. The crew then moved on to purchasing dinner at the adjacent supermarket and I avoided the decision making process and inefficiency of six grown men shopping for a barbecue by calling Sarah to give her the update on the fun thus far. I then forced my decision for blue cheese dressing upon DK when the time came and we rolled on back to the home front.

It was Friday night and DK’s friends from San Francisco were streaming in throughout the afternoon and evening. I counted about 14 people total but since they were moving around I wouldn’t bet on the actual number. MM, DK’s good friend and brother in law who married DK’s sister was the best man. MM is having triplets with DK’s sister through some fertility process. MM is also in a wheelchair so we all spent time pondering how fun it will be to get around with those three kiddos when they are born. I can barely keep up with one.

Posted by Dan Housman at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)