I have missed far too many days for me to pretend I am continuing a 365. So I'll restart. Maybe this time I'll do better at it.
Today's entry is about yesterday. If I'm successful at this 365 thing, it will be because I do it in the morning. My evening's are too unpredictable with other demands. Mornings are my time to devote to what is personally important for me. Evenings tend to focus on the family and preparing for my next workday.
We (mostly me) have been talking about taking the kids into the city for a Saturday for quite a while. We had all sorts of excuses to not do it before, and found an excuse to do it this time. Katrina and Aria headed into the city on Friday night for a young women/women seminar at the Manhattan Temple. They caught the 5pm train and headed South. Afterward they went to Aki's to stay the night. The rest of the kids and me got home from work about 6. Christian went immediately to bed. The rest of us ate something and I put Libby and Jake to bed about 8:30. I watched the Heat get slammed bu the Celtics.
I personnally like the Heat as a team. I like a bunch of star players deciding to take pay cuts to assemble an awesome team and win. That's what it's supposed to be about. So despite the hoop-la around LeBron's decision, I liked the way it worked out. So since the Knicks are out, I was rooting for the Heat. Ugly game. It finished around 11:30 and I went to sleep.
6.5 hours later, I am shocked awake by someone manhandling me. It was Christian. We had settled on 6:30 as a wakeup time, but he thought it was 6. I'm sure the kid was up with the sun, waiting patiently to wake me up and get us moving. My first reaction was, "ARGH!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME??? LET ME SLEEP!!!" But I gave it a half-second of thought and realized that when I get the kids up for Sunday, I do the exact same thing to them. So I couldn't get mad at him. I accepted my lot and moved on.
The other kids got up, we got dressed, had breakfast, and at 7:35 we left the hotel for the train station. We caught the 7:57 train no problem, and I texted Katrina: "We're on the train. At Grand Central at 9:30." Her reply "That's early." The train ride was cool - it was a first for Libby and Jake, and Christian's first ride along the Hudson. The coolness lasted about 30 minutes, and then everyone but Christian was asleep.
Arrival at Grand Central was cool. I had Jake by the hand, and it didn't take him long to realize that he really could get lost or separated easily, and he stayed pretty close to me. We stepped into the main concourse, and Christion looked up at the ceiling. "Woah, those are greek mythology!" They were constellations. Jake was fixated on the crab, so I get a shot of it, the kids next to a teeny police car parked inside, and a couple others. Katrina texted that they wouldn't be there until after 10, so we wandered through the hallway to Lexington, where we crossed the street together and got donuts from a street vendor. Back inside, we went up the stairs to the new Apple store, where we could look over the entire main concourse. I told the kids we were going to play a game called "Who can see mom first?" Aria texted to ask where we were. I told her that we were in the main concourse, and were trying to find them. Libby spotted them come out of the tunnel from the subway down and to our left.
Then we were together. We went to the World Trade Center area first, and took some time to explain to Jacob what happened. The kid is smart. "What happens if you fly a big ariplane like you got in to come to New York and flew it into a building?" "It would fall down and catch on fire." We walked through the church there, and confused Jake by pointing out George Washington's church pew. He does not yet have the ability to separate events before his birth. George Washington and 9/11 are currently conflated in his mind as contemporary events. Both equally in the past.
We hailed a cab and rode down to Battery Park next. The kids climbed a tree and chased pigeons while we waited for Tim and Aki to come. We met at the Clinton monument, and then walked up to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. It was noon. 4 adults and 4 kids made the rest of the day really enjoyable. Jake soon decided that he preferred to hold Aki's hand, and Libby decided that she preferred Tim. The ferry goes right by Liberty Island, and Tim got some pictures of Liberty with her statue in the background. She was all smiles.
It turned into a perfect day - a little bit of a breeze, mid-70s, clear sky. The boat passages were nice. Not crowded (not summer yet), not long to wait, and with the kids spread out, it was a nice way to relax a bit. Not something we get to do much when we're out with all the kids at once.
After a quick turnaround at Staten Island, we arrived back in Manhattan and got lunch. There is a deli and a McDonald's next to each other. Libby chose sheese pizza, and so did Aki. Tim took the other kids to McDonald's, and we ordered yummy food from the wide selection there. There were tables on the 2nd floor, so we ate together there.
Lunch over, we took the subway uptown, where Katrina put my mom's name on the prayer roll at the temple. She had back surgery later in the day, and we were all thinking about her. The temple is next to Central Park, so we walked around a bit and found a nice spot on some sun-warmed rocks. We gathered everyone together and said a prayer for mom, and then the kids ran around and played in the bushes. We had our weird adult banter. Nice time. I got a little bit of a nap.
It was finally 5pm, and time to start moving home. We searched for ice cream on the street but were unsuccessful. We needed a Mr Softee, but had no luck as we walked down Madison Avenue and Park Avenue with our retinue of children. The subway took us back to Grand Central, where we said goodbye to Tim and Aki, and we got out. A potty stop at the Dining Concourse and some searching later, we found a little gelato place. The prices were silly, so we offered the kids a choice: a little gelato here, or whetever they wanted at DQ. They all wisely went for DQ. We were 14 minutes early for our train, got our seats, and relaxed. What a day. Jake used my jacket as a blanket and Libby's as a pillow and slept on me most of the way while I read.
We hit DQ at 8pm or so and sat down with our mounds of ice cream. Jake wanted a chocolate Dilly bar, so he got it. Aria wanted a large mint Oreo blizzard, so she got it. Another large blizzard for Libby (cookie dough), a banas split bloizzard for Katrina, a medium chocolate dipped chocolate waffle cone for Christian, and a turtle sundae for me. Many calories were consumed. I asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was that was not eating ice cream at DQ.
Aria: just hanging out with Tim and Aki.
Christian and Jake: playing at Central Park
Libby: "seeing my statue"
We crawled into the hotel just after 9. The kids dutifully brushed their teeth and slept. I did laundry - by the time I was done, everyone else was asleep.
Lovely day. Couldn't have been much better. What a life.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
#92 - Fun in the forest at Fahnestock
Monday, April 30
Today I am thankful for an uncle and aunt who love their nieces and nephews.
On Saturday evening I got a call from my brother. He and his wife had some time and were thinking of coming up to see us. Were we free? We had some things on Sunday morning, of course, but the afternoon looked free.
So on Sunday after church we went down to Riverside Park in Beacon for half an hour to wait for the train. We piled in the van and went to our new almost-house and played and walked around. Then we drove a few minutes away to Fahnestock state park. I've been there before, and this time the beach was closed again. But the campground across the street was open. We drove in, parked in an open spot near the restrooms, and explored. The kids headed straight down the hill to a marshy area (there are a lot of those here - the solid rocky bottom prevents water drainage from low areas). In the first pic, you can see Christian and Libby. But you have to look closely. Christian is an easy find - Libby is a little spot of pink from her pants, almost completely hidden by the trees.
Today I am thankful for an uncle and aunt who love their nieces and nephews.
On Saturday evening I got a call from my brother. He and his wife had some time and were thinking of coming up to see us. Were we free? We had some things on Sunday morning, of course, but the afternoon looked free.
So on Sunday after church we went down to Riverside Park in Beacon for half an hour to wait for the train. We piled in the van and went to our new almost-house and played and walked around. Then we drove a few minutes away to Fahnestock state park. I've been there before, and this time the beach was closed again. But the campground across the street was open. We drove in, parked in an open spot near the restrooms, and explored. The kids headed straight down the hill to a marshy area (there are a lot of those here - the solid rocky bottom prevents water drainage from low areas). In the first pic, you can see Christian and Libby. But you have to look closely. Christian is an easy find - Libby is a little spot of pink from her pants, almost completely hidden by the trees.
When Christian and Libby were exploring back there, Christian's shoes got wet. Libby stepped boot-deep in muck. She was embarrassed at first, then she was laughing about it: "I stepped in the mud and I got fish in my shoes!" The extra legs there belong to my brother. We dropped him and Aki off at the station just before 6, I dropped the family off at the hotel, and I went to choir practice. We have stake conference next week, and this was the 2nd of 2 practices. I'd missed the first one.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
#91 - Building bridges, always
A few days ago at work, I met someone who is far up the management chain from me. I'll call him Ken. He unexpectedly showed up to a meeting I was running and took a seat in the corner. As we were dialing in to the conference call number, he greeted me. He mentioned that when he saw my name come across his desk (when I applied for the job I have) that he called my former VP (who I'll call Jim). I knew that Jim and Ken were conncted on LinkedIn because I had done some homework, and had half-expected to need an introduction from Jim or another VP at some point during my job hunt.
Ken said that when he asked Jim about me that Jim had said, "Hire him. You'll be happy you did."
Now, Jim had told me as I left the company that he would say some nice things about me. He encouraged me to ask people to call him. I didn't do it, because I wasn't sure how much he knew about what I had accomplished, and sometimes he said things that were wrong because he didn't know as much as he thought he did. I did not want to risk him messing things up for me. It turned out that quite the opposite had happened.
The importance of this event brought some things home to me. The first is that putting your best foot forward at all times is a requirement for a successful career. I was able to make my job transition in 2012 successfully only because I made a very good impression on someone in 1998. The initial impression I made on that guy let him hire me in 1999. When I needed a new career path in 2012, that's the guy I called. In the mean time, I had done very good work for a very long time, and a fair amount of it had crossed Jim's desk. I did not put him on my list of references, and I did not expect my new company to call him up and ask about me. But they did.
I think about the opportunities I had at my previous company to disappear - to take on less challenging work, to not challenge the status quo, to stop asking questions. Sure, I made mistakes. But I owned up to them, and never made the same mistake twice. That stuff sticks - and you never know in our connected world who knows whom. The one time you performed poorly, that one interaction you had with someone: that might be the someone your next employer calls to ask about your performance.
There are no opportunities to slack any more. It's much like the GMAT's math section. The GMAT is a test akin to the SAT for students who want to enter a master's program in business. The math section is self-selecting: the test gives you an easy question. If you get it right, it gives you a harder one. When you start to get questions wrong, it goes back to the kind you could solve before. By the end of the test, it knows what kind of math you can do, and how good you are at it. A quality employee is going to find getting and keeping a good job pretty easy. The test is self-selecting where good performance is noted and stays with you. A poor performer, like the self-selecting math questions on the GMAT that may show that you barely passed high school algebra, will find himself stuck in the same place. There is no more opportunity to restart a career in management any more, no fresh chances. Good careers will build consistently. Poor careers will flatline pretty quickly.
Most of this is to the good. A poor performer does not belong in, and will not be good at, a position that requires a more competent person. The converse is true for high performers. There will be people who get burned by a bad boss or the 1 big mistake she didn't see coming. But overall, it's a system that is going to be good for companies and the people who run them.
So build your bridges at all times. My last written communication with Jim was a long, thoughtful note on the company, its strategies, his leadership, and what I felt the company needed from him. He told me he had read it once and would read it again. That was 4 hours before I walked out the door for the last time. Build bridges, even as the heel of your shoe takes the last step onto the other side. Always.
Ken said that when he asked Jim about me that Jim had said, "Hire him. You'll be happy you did."
Now, Jim had told me as I left the company that he would say some nice things about me. He encouraged me to ask people to call him. I didn't do it, because I wasn't sure how much he knew about what I had accomplished, and sometimes he said things that were wrong because he didn't know as much as he thought he did. I did not want to risk him messing things up for me. It turned out that quite the opposite had happened.
The importance of this event brought some things home to me. The first is that putting your best foot forward at all times is a requirement for a successful career. I was able to make my job transition in 2012 successfully only because I made a very good impression on someone in 1998. The initial impression I made on that guy let him hire me in 1999. When I needed a new career path in 2012, that's the guy I called. In the mean time, I had done very good work for a very long time, and a fair amount of it had crossed Jim's desk. I did not put him on my list of references, and I did not expect my new company to call him up and ask about me. But they did.
I think about the opportunities I had at my previous company to disappear - to take on less challenging work, to not challenge the status quo, to stop asking questions. Sure, I made mistakes. But I owned up to them, and never made the same mistake twice. That stuff sticks - and you never know in our connected world who knows whom. The one time you performed poorly, that one interaction you had with someone: that might be the someone your next employer calls to ask about your performance.
There are no opportunities to slack any more. It's much like the GMAT's math section. The GMAT is a test akin to the SAT for students who want to enter a master's program in business. The math section is self-selecting: the test gives you an easy question. If you get it right, it gives you a harder one. When you start to get questions wrong, it goes back to the kind you could solve before. By the end of the test, it knows what kind of math you can do, and how good you are at it. A quality employee is going to find getting and keeping a good job pretty easy. The test is self-selecting where good performance is noted and stays with you. A poor performer, like the self-selecting math questions on the GMAT that may show that you barely passed high school algebra, will find himself stuck in the same place. There is no more opportunity to restart a career in management any more, no fresh chances. Good careers will build consistently. Poor careers will flatline pretty quickly.
Most of this is to the good. A poor performer does not belong in, and will not be good at, a position that requires a more competent person. The converse is true for high performers. There will be people who get burned by a bad boss or the 1 big mistake she didn't see coming. But overall, it's a system that is going to be good for companies and the people who run them.
So build your bridges at all times. My last written communication with Jim was a long, thoughtful note on the company, its strategies, his leadership, and what I felt the company needed from him. He told me he had read it once and would read it again. That was 4 hours before I walked out the door for the last time. Build bridges, even as the heel of your shoe takes the last step onto the other side. Always.
#90 - Life changes with cash in the bank
About 2 weeks ago, I walked into our local Chase branch to get a cashier's check for what we'd call earnest money for our home purchase. The teller greeted me happily, and asked casually if I had considered upgrading my checking to a premium service based on my large balance.
Our down payment is sitting in the bank. It's more than we've ever had in a bank before.
She told me that she'd like to give me the check with no fees, and if I had a minute, she'd have someone help me. She got on the phone, and Kim walked over to take over the transaction. This entire episode took maybe 2 minutes - I already had my cashier's check made out, and had been escalated to the "relationship banker". This is a buzzword I had heard before. This day was the first time I had experienced it.
It turns out that banks want to handle your money. All of it, if they can. And if you have a bunch available, you are suddenly an actually valuable customer whose business they appreciate. This is in contrast to the "valuable customer" we have been in the past, who takes advantage of free bill pay online, account transfers, and free checking, but who rarely has a large enough balance for the bank to find useful.
So Kim took me to her office and we sat down. She explained that my new premium account is free, as long as I kept a certain balance limit in checking, savings and investment accounts. "Investments?" I asked. I did not know that Chase did investments. Indeed we do, she assured me. It is, after all, JP Morgan Chase. To write that sounds kinda haughty, but it was very colloquial, just some idle office chitchat. When did I open my account? What brought me to New York? Oh, look! You just got approved for a home loan!
I don't know if she had clicked a button to check or what, but the printer behind her had spit out a home loan prequalification letter with an excellent loan rate. In 2 minutes while we were chatting. Would I like my address updated? And was my phone number correct? There I was, my account was all set up, contact info fixed, free cashier's check in my hand. And did I have a minute? Our loan officer happens to be free, and he can go through the prequalification with you if you'd like.
No pressure, nothing asked of me - simply a series of "how may I help you"s scattered with some very pleasant and low-key chit-chat.
To cap off the experience, I shook the loan officer's hand, and we walked to his office and shut the door. He asked how far along we were in our loan process. I told him, and told him our interest rate, closing costs, and points, and he looked at me like a friend would. "That's a great deal. I could give you a song and dance, but I can't beat that." He smiled at me, we stood up, I thanked him for his time, and I left.
Zero pressure, genuinely friendly people who just wanted to help a customer. Of course, there's something in it for them, but they did not want to take my money. They wanted me to like them enough to give it to them.
And I think I will. There aren't any downsides to it, and there are plenty of advantages. Well played, Chase.
Our down payment is sitting in the bank. It's more than we've ever had in a bank before.
She told me that she'd like to give me the check with no fees, and if I had a minute, she'd have someone help me. She got on the phone, and Kim walked over to take over the transaction. This entire episode took maybe 2 minutes - I already had my cashier's check made out, and had been escalated to the "relationship banker". This is a buzzword I had heard before. This day was the first time I had experienced it.
It turns out that banks want to handle your money. All of it, if they can. And if you have a bunch available, you are suddenly an actually valuable customer whose business they appreciate. This is in contrast to the "valuable customer" we have been in the past, who takes advantage of free bill pay online, account transfers, and free checking, but who rarely has a large enough balance for the bank to find useful.
So Kim took me to her office and we sat down. She explained that my new premium account is free, as long as I kept a certain balance limit in checking, savings and investment accounts. "Investments?" I asked. I did not know that Chase did investments. Indeed we do, she assured me. It is, after all, JP Morgan Chase. To write that sounds kinda haughty, but it was very colloquial, just some idle office chitchat. When did I open my account? What brought me to New York? Oh, look! You just got approved for a home loan!
I don't know if she had clicked a button to check or what, but the printer behind her had spit out a home loan prequalification letter with an excellent loan rate. In 2 minutes while we were chatting. Would I like my address updated? And was my phone number correct? There I was, my account was all set up, contact info fixed, free cashier's check in my hand. And did I have a minute? Our loan officer happens to be free, and he can go through the prequalification with you if you'd like.
No pressure, nothing asked of me - simply a series of "how may I help you"s scattered with some very pleasant and low-key chit-chat.
To cap off the experience, I shook the loan officer's hand, and we walked to his office and shut the door. He asked how far along we were in our loan process. I told him, and told him our interest rate, closing costs, and points, and he looked at me like a friend would. "That's a great deal. I could give you a song and dance, but I can't beat that." He smiled at me, we stood up, I thanked him for his time, and I left.
Zero pressure, genuinely friendly people who just wanted to help a customer. Of course, there's something in it for them, but they did not want to take my money. They wanted me to like them enough to give it to them.
And I think I will. There aren't any downsides to it, and there are plenty of advantages. Well played, Chase.
#89 - Daily life April 13-28
Saturday, April 28
Today I am thankful for permanence.
It has been about 2 weeks since I last wrote. I don't expect to let it lapse that long again. In the past 2 weeks, we have signed a contract to buy our home, had it rejected by the bank, taken our signed contract (the one the bank rejected) to the school to apply for residency to get the kids started in school, and finally scheduled our home inspection, appraisal, and survey.
In addition (meaning everything that is not work or house-buying related) Paul Hawkins came to visit us, we've been invited to eat with several families in the ward, and we've started buying things for our new home. With restraint - we have many large items to acquire, and no space for it all to stay.
So first things first - the house process is moving, finally a little more quickly than glacially. We signed the contract on the house after we attached a rider. The initial contract put all the risk on us, and we are not willing to commit to the purchase blindly. The risks are specific to NY real estate, so I won't elaborate, but the risks were unacceptable to Katrina. As usual, I wanted to plow ahead and she wanted to stop. And she was right. So we put a rider on the contract. The bank took a few days to reject it and to inform us that they would accept no changes to the contract.
So we proceeded with mitigation. Once we have the home inspection complete and we're confident that we are buying what we think we are buying, we'll sign the contract without addenda. We did find some broken heating registers, so we had to verify that the repair would go forward. Without a working heating system, a home inspection loses a lot of value. It should be done on Monday, so we scheduled the home inspection for Wednesday. If the inspection comes out reasonably clean (and we expect it will), and the inspection paperwork for the home's recent addition comes back ok, then we'll sign the contract probably on Friday. On the following Monday (the 7th) we'll have a survey done on the property. There are no official surveys registered with the town or county, so each home owner has to have a survey done to verify the property lines. An appraisal needs to be done, and title information needs to get to our attorney. Both of these are ordered and should be done by May 7.
At that point, everything on our side will be complete - for the contract, the bank's loan requirements, and the seller's requirements. And we'll just be waiting for the bank to sign the papers to sell us their property.
The waiting has been maddening. The impermanence, the constant shuffle of papers and emails, the ebb and flow of information against a background of no progress at all. From a legal, pragmatic perspective, we have made no progress on the house in the last month. We have negotiated in vain and filed some paperwork that was rejected, and that's it. And yet we are hopeful.
Being thankful for permanence today is really because, despite the lack of progress on our new home here, the fact that we are here in NY and that is the deal has finally settled in. It's often windy here. The low might be 28 one night in late April, and the high may be 75 a couple days later. Going to do things requires a drive. Paperwork is done manually, by hand here. Aria is the only Beehive in our ward. There are lots of things for families to do here that are not free, but not expensive. Sales tax is a nuisance, but we can live with it. Pumping gas must be done, and complaining about it is not productive. The entire area is phenominally beautiful in the spring. Nature gets a complete makeover once Spring really arrives.
On the fmaily activity front, we've started to do our Saturday thing - we get out every Saturday to do something. Today, we (Katrina, Liberty, and I) went to the dog parade and festival in Beacon. I've never seen so many dogs at one place in my life. Main Street was closed off, the street was packed, and there were as many dogs as people. Then we went to a park by the Beacon train station again after wandering the old city streets for a bit, and then we hit Kohl's for some school clothes for Liberty and a waffle maker.
Last weekend, I took the kids to see "The Lorax" at the drive-in in Hyde Park. Good movie, great time. We parked Gortja backwards, opened the gate, and snuggled together in the back. It was perfect. We had left the hotel at 5:30, went to Petco where we looked at fish a lot, stopped to pick up chap stick for Libby, and to see a cool park between Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park, and got to the drive-in just a few minutes after it started. Perfect. Katrina was working on a lesson for church, so we left her in peace.
Last night, Christian and I saw the new Pirates movie. The Wallace and Gromit Pirates, not the Disneyland Pirates. Decent movie, but not nearly as good as Chicken Run or the Wallace and Gromit shorts. Then we got dinner for 2 at Pizza Hut, which was surprisingly good.
I think Katrina has finished tying up loose ends in Oregon, and those are all done. I still have work to do on school paperwork (about 2 hours per kid per year - blah!) and there are some odds and ends on the house purchase I'm working on, but that kind of work has started to calm a bit.
So that's it for this entry. I need to file a couple more on specific topics, so I must move on.
Today I am thankful for permanence.
It has been about 2 weeks since I last wrote. I don't expect to let it lapse that long again. In the past 2 weeks, we have signed a contract to buy our home, had it rejected by the bank, taken our signed contract (the one the bank rejected) to the school to apply for residency to get the kids started in school, and finally scheduled our home inspection, appraisal, and survey.
In addition (meaning everything that is not work or house-buying related) Paul Hawkins came to visit us, we've been invited to eat with several families in the ward, and we've started buying things for our new home. With restraint - we have many large items to acquire, and no space for it all to stay.
So first things first - the house process is moving, finally a little more quickly than glacially. We signed the contract on the house after we attached a rider. The initial contract put all the risk on us, and we are not willing to commit to the purchase blindly. The risks are specific to NY real estate, so I won't elaborate, but the risks were unacceptable to Katrina. As usual, I wanted to plow ahead and she wanted to stop. And she was right. So we put a rider on the contract. The bank took a few days to reject it and to inform us that they would accept no changes to the contract.
So we proceeded with mitigation. Once we have the home inspection complete and we're confident that we are buying what we think we are buying, we'll sign the contract without addenda. We did find some broken heating registers, so we had to verify that the repair would go forward. Without a working heating system, a home inspection loses a lot of value. It should be done on Monday, so we scheduled the home inspection for Wednesday. If the inspection comes out reasonably clean (and we expect it will), and the inspection paperwork for the home's recent addition comes back ok, then we'll sign the contract probably on Friday. On the following Monday (the 7th) we'll have a survey done on the property. There are no official surveys registered with the town or county, so each home owner has to have a survey done to verify the property lines. An appraisal needs to be done, and title information needs to get to our attorney. Both of these are ordered and should be done by May 7.
At that point, everything on our side will be complete - for the contract, the bank's loan requirements, and the seller's requirements. And we'll just be waiting for the bank to sign the papers to sell us their property.
The waiting has been maddening. The impermanence, the constant shuffle of papers and emails, the ebb and flow of information against a background of no progress at all. From a legal, pragmatic perspective, we have made no progress on the house in the last month. We have negotiated in vain and filed some paperwork that was rejected, and that's it. And yet we are hopeful.
Being thankful for permanence today is really because, despite the lack of progress on our new home here, the fact that we are here in NY and that is the deal has finally settled in. It's often windy here. The low might be 28 one night in late April, and the high may be 75 a couple days later. Going to do things requires a drive. Paperwork is done manually, by hand here. Aria is the only Beehive in our ward. There are lots of things for families to do here that are not free, but not expensive. Sales tax is a nuisance, but we can live with it. Pumping gas must be done, and complaining about it is not productive. The entire area is phenominally beautiful in the spring. Nature gets a complete makeover once Spring really arrives.
On the fmaily activity front, we've started to do our Saturday thing - we get out every Saturday to do something. Today, we (Katrina, Liberty, and I) went to the dog parade and festival in Beacon. I've never seen so many dogs at one place in my life. Main Street was closed off, the street was packed, and there were as many dogs as people. Then we went to a park by the Beacon train station again after wandering the old city streets for a bit, and then we hit Kohl's for some school clothes for Liberty and a waffle maker.
Last weekend, I took the kids to see "The Lorax" at the drive-in in Hyde Park. Good movie, great time. We parked Gortja backwards, opened the gate, and snuggled together in the back. It was perfect. We had left the hotel at 5:30, went to Petco where we looked at fish a lot, stopped to pick up chap stick for Libby, and to see a cool park between Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park, and got to the drive-in just a few minutes after it started. Perfect. Katrina was working on a lesson for church, so we left her in peace.
Last night, Christian and I saw the new Pirates movie. The Wallace and Gromit Pirates, not the Disneyland Pirates. Decent movie, but not nearly as good as Chicken Run or the Wallace and Gromit shorts. Then we got dinner for 2 at Pizza Hut, which was surprisingly good.
I think Katrina has finished tying up loose ends in Oregon, and those are all done. I still have work to do on school paperwork (about 2 hours per kid per year - blah!) and there are some odds and ends on the house purchase I'm working on, but that kind of work has started to calm a bit.
So that's it for this entry. I need to file a couple more on specific topics, so I must move on.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
#88 - a few finalities
Thursday, April 12
Today I am thankful for some closure.
Sunday at church was a good time. My talk went all right, we talked with other members for an hour I think, and the kids just hung out until we were done. Good thing it wasn't raining. They just stood around the car waiting for us. They all had a good time, and the younger 4 all made friends. Aria is just the wrong age - she may be the only Beehive. Which means she may become the Beehive President.
Monday we went to someone's house for Easter dinner. It was excellent - super informal, relaxed, with food that everyone was happy with. Cheesy ham topping over rice, salad from a bag, rolls from Wal-Mart. Perfect. They have 4 kids, all of them about 4 years younger than ours. We left there about 8:30 and came home to sleep. Tuesday I had a normal workday and went back in to work after the kids were down. I got back to the hotel about 2am, exhausted but happy that I was done. We also got a phone call from the bishopric inviting Katrina and Aria to speak this week in church. They both accepted.
Wednesday I got an email that the buyer had signed the purchase papers for our Oregon house. Today I got an email from our loan officer that our loan was officially approved. They needed to see 4 other documents before funding the loan, but the loan was approved. We should see the equity from our house in the bank tonight. And the sale will be complete. A massive chapter in our lives closed.
Also today, my boss apologized to me. I've been working through performance reviews the last few weeks, and she and I disagreed on 1 person's review. We've gone back and forth on it, and today she was back from vacation and we talked about it. She apologized for not taking the time with me up front to cover them, and gave me complete license to give the review I thought was appropriate. So tomorrow morning I can put the review back to where I and the other folks I talked to thought it should be, and submit it for the 4th and last time. It feels good to have her confidence.
The kids went to mutual and scouts last night, and that was good, too. Things are coming together. We should have the signatures we need tomorrow so we can put the kids in school next week, which is our next big hurdle. And we should see contracts from the bank by Tuesday, so we can schedule the home inspection and the appraisal.
Here are another couple pictures from our trip to the park last Saturday.
That's the Beacon train station for the Metro North railway in the background above. It's only 10 minutes from our hotel, about 20 from our house. The picture below was too pretty to not post. That's Libby out there, surrounded by the Hudson.
Today I am thankful for some closure.
Sunday at church was a good time. My talk went all right, we talked with other members for an hour I think, and the kids just hung out until we were done. Good thing it wasn't raining. They just stood around the car waiting for us. They all had a good time, and the younger 4 all made friends. Aria is just the wrong age - she may be the only Beehive. Which means she may become the Beehive President.
Monday we went to someone's house for Easter dinner. It was excellent - super informal, relaxed, with food that everyone was happy with. Cheesy ham topping over rice, salad from a bag, rolls from Wal-Mart. Perfect. They have 4 kids, all of them about 4 years younger than ours. We left there about 8:30 and came home to sleep. Tuesday I had a normal workday and went back in to work after the kids were down. I got back to the hotel about 2am, exhausted but happy that I was done. We also got a phone call from the bishopric inviting Katrina and Aria to speak this week in church. They both accepted.
Wednesday I got an email that the buyer had signed the purchase papers for our Oregon house. Today I got an email from our loan officer that our loan was officially approved. They needed to see 4 other documents before funding the loan, but the loan was approved. We should see the equity from our house in the bank tonight. And the sale will be complete. A massive chapter in our lives closed.
Also today, my boss apologized to me. I've been working through performance reviews the last few weeks, and she and I disagreed on 1 person's review. We've gone back and forth on it, and today she was back from vacation and we talked about it. She apologized for not taking the time with me up front to cover them, and gave me complete license to give the review I thought was appropriate. So tomorrow morning I can put the review back to where I and the other folks I talked to thought it should be, and submit it for the 4th and last time. It feels good to have her confidence.
The kids went to mutual and scouts last night, and that was good, too. Things are coming together. We should have the signatures we need tomorrow so we can put the kids in school next week, which is our next big hurdle. And we should see contracts from the bank by Tuesday, so we can schedule the home inspection and the appraisal.
Here are another couple pictures from our trip to the park last Saturday.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
#87 - A real family Saturday
Saturday, April 7
Today I am thankful for the cool little people that live with me.
I got up this morning to prepare for Terry's departure and my escalation meeting for work. Thankfully, we had figured out some things and the meeting went pretty well. Katrina took mom to the airport, the kids and I had a leisurely breakfast, then we got busy.
First, we had the kids clean the hotel rooms - dirty clothes, garbage, toys, the whole deal. By the time they were done, it was 10:30, and Katrina was back. I took the kids down to the pool. They were done around noon, we came back and hung out at the room. I had a date with Aria to see The Hunger Games. We have a rule that if a kid wants to see a PG-13 movie before he or she is 13, they have to read the book first. Aria did that. So we went to see the movie. Wow. It is unrelentingly intense. No attempt at silly humor - the team that made the movie understands that it's a serious movie with serious themes, and there is no attempt at making it a circus. It's deadly serious from the starving people in the opening montage to the closing credits.
Really a stunning movie. Well made, well-produced. Stark, gritty. Makes you feel different having watched it. It reminds me of seeing the video from the Vietnam war where the military guy shoots a guy in the head point blank for no apparent reason. We saw that in US History in high school. It's always stuck with me. This movie shows just how ugly people can become. Even the good guys have serious trouble hurting others. There's no James Bond remorseless killing going on, no inconsequential violence like in a superhero movie. You get a very real sense that these are real people dying, and that their deaths matter. Nothing gratuitous in any of this. Wow.
I got back and started to write my talk for church tomorrow and Christian came in and plopped down on a chair. "Dad," he said, "I want to do something."
"Something that is not staring at a rectangle in the other room?"
"Yes. I want to go somewhere and run around, do some physical exercise. Can we go?"
"Sure. I know just where I want to take you."
"Okay! I'll go grab anybody else who wants to go!"
So Jakers and Libby wanted to come, too. Aria was watching TV, Katrina was napping. We took off to the park in Beacon right next to the train station. It's an awesome place. We spent a long time strolling along the beach, then spent time in the play grounds. Beautiful place, stunning setting. Here is one of many beautiful pictures I got there.
Today I am thankful for the cool little people that live with me.
I got up this morning to prepare for Terry's departure and my escalation meeting for work. Thankfully, we had figured out some things and the meeting went pretty well. Katrina took mom to the airport, the kids and I had a leisurely breakfast, then we got busy.
First, we had the kids clean the hotel rooms - dirty clothes, garbage, toys, the whole deal. By the time they were done, it was 10:30, and Katrina was back. I took the kids down to the pool. They were done around noon, we came back and hung out at the room. I had a date with Aria to see The Hunger Games. We have a rule that if a kid wants to see a PG-13 movie before he or she is 13, they have to read the book first. Aria did that. So we went to see the movie. Wow. It is unrelentingly intense. No attempt at silly humor - the team that made the movie understands that it's a serious movie with serious themes, and there is no attempt at making it a circus. It's deadly serious from the starving people in the opening montage to the closing credits.
Really a stunning movie. Well made, well-produced. Stark, gritty. Makes you feel different having watched it. It reminds me of seeing the video from the Vietnam war where the military guy shoots a guy in the head point blank for no apparent reason. We saw that in US History in high school. It's always stuck with me. This movie shows just how ugly people can become. Even the good guys have serious trouble hurting others. There's no James Bond remorseless killing going on, no inconsequential violence like in a superhero movie. You get a very real sense that these are real people dying, and that their deaths matter. Nothing gratuitous in any of this. Wow.
I got back and started to write my talk for church tomorrow and Christian came in and plopped down on a chair. "Dad," he said, "I want to do something."
"Something that is not staring at a rectangle in the other room?"
"Yes. I want to go somewhere and run around, do some physical exercise. Can we go?"
"Sure. I know just where I want to take you."
"Okay! I'll go grab anybody else who wants to go!"
So Jakers and Libby wanted to come, too. Aria was watching TV, Katrina was napping. We took off to the park in Beacon right next to the train station. It's an awesome place. We spent a long time strolling along the beach, then spent time in the play grounds. Beautiful place, stunning setting. Here is one of many beautiful pictures I got there.
We left the park at 7, hit Wal-Mart for some dinner and other things. The boys did not have church shoes, and Jakers' tennis shoes were destroyed. The boy got good use out of them, I can't complain about him or the shoes. I got some Voila! in the freezer section, and a few other odds and ends and we got home at 8. I made some dinner, and the kids went to bed. It was really nice to finally spend a whole day with my kids. I love these people, and I have missed our time together. I love their enthusiasm and excitement. I miss discovering things with them, and teaching them new things. Teaching curious Christian about the world around him, and him asking followup questions is one of my favorite things in the whole world.
Katrina has been busy putting together Easter baskets in the other room while I write in here. Need to finish my stuff now. Tomorrow morning should be nice. The morning meeting for work might be cancelled, and we're heading off to church at 9. It's going to be a good day.
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