Zeigen

I recognize the relationship between Taco Bell’s menu and actual Mexican food has always been something similar to the relationship between how computers work in Hollywood movies versus how they actually work in real life — a fiction loosely inspired by the source material, designed to look genuine to those who have never had much hands-on experience with the genuine article.

But as I drove by a Taco Bell this morning and saw an ad for their new “Bacon Club Chalupa,” I couldn’t help but feel that they’re not even trying any more.

I don’t eat bacon (heresy!) but I’ll bet 31 grams of fat and 970 milligrams of sodium never tasted so muy bueno.

Well, I thought everything was back to normal on Thursday morning. Sophie and Sammy slept through the night (more or less), no undue bodily fluids appeared, and everything and everyone seemed happy and well.

Until: Thursday afternoon at work, the school called to tell me Sophie wasn’t keeping her food down. So I picked her up and Kimi and I took turns looking after her; she was in a great mood, but with a very touchy tummy. (That’s the scientific medical term.)

Today she’s “excluded” from school, but still very happy. We’re giving her juice and very simple foods instead of milk, and Kimi’s watching her today while I try to catch up at work. (A friend who is a father of twins told me that he was useless at work for the first year after his twins were born. I don’t feel “useless” but it’s definitely harder to balance life and work.) Hopefully Sophie’s back to normal after today — just in time for her teething pain to start.

In better news, Kimi had her two week follow-up appointment after her back surgery of April 22; they declared her to be healing well, and gave her the green light to drive (which she took advantage of by slipping off to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night, and seeing Baby Mama with Yvonne Wednesday). However, they extended the ban on her lifting/bending/twisting by another two weeks, so it’ll be six weeks more before she can carry her children.

Tough weekend.

On Thursday last week, one of Sammy’s teacher’s reported that Sammy had a condition that I will not describe in detail (this being a family blog). Friday it continued, even causing an accident on the floor at one point. But then he was better. Friday night, Kimi gave me a break and I snuck off to see Iron Man (thoughts on that later). Saturday morning, Sammy woke me up at 5:45 and I felt miserable, my stomach in knots, weak, in pain. I soon discovered I was suffering from that same unmentionable condition as Sammy.

Now, previously, Kimi had worried that handling the burden of watching the kids mostly solo (while she recovered from the back surgery of two weeks ago) was too much for me, but I dismissed her concerns. After all, I had handled the first weekend all right, right?

(I had taken Sammy and Sophie to Happy Hollow on Saturday, and we went out all day Sunday as well. For once, work on Monday felt more relaxing than the weekend…)

But now Kimi was right, the lack of sleep and Sammy’s bug had caught up with me, and I hadn’t arranged any backup. I was too exhausted to call around much, but our usual fallbacks for help with kid care were either out of town or dealing with their own kids. So, Kimi, despite recovering from back surgery, stepped up while I recuperated, and John and Yvonne helped by taking Kimi and Sophie out to a rummage sale in the morning while Sophie and I slept. Then Kimi took Sophie in the afternoon while Sammy and I napped. By the late afternoon, I finally had started to feel better. I didn’t eat a thing all day. On Sunday, I was still a bit weak, and still dealing with the condition, but was mostly better. (The only thing I ate on Sunday was half a rice cracker.)

Kimi was now exhausted, however; still, she kept Sophie while I took Sammy for an abbreviated version of our usual morning cafe-and-Farmer’s-Market routine, picking up some food for a barbecue with Rob and Kelly at noon. (Which was fun.) We all took it easy that afternoon.

Alas, the bug that had bit Sammy and me then got to Kimi at around four in the morning on Monday. Only she got it much worse than either of us. After I dropped the kids off at daycare Monday morning, her condition had got much worse. She was alternating between being unable to get warm from chills and unable to cool down from hot flashes. She wasn’t able to keep food or even water down, and was in so much pain that Urgent Care was the only option. They saw us right away, which gave me hope, but then it was so inefficient: First a nurse took her vitals. Then wait 20 minutes in the room. Then another nurse for more vitals. Wait 20 more minutes. Doctor finally comes in, asks all the same questions. He gets called away (it is an emergency room after all). Wait 20 more minutes. He comes back, resumes exam. Decides it’s the same stomach bug. Writes an order for anti-nausea shot. Wait 20 minutes. Nurse comes in to give shot. Wait 20 more minutes. Doctor comes back to re-examine. Writes a prescription for anti-cramping. Kimi convinces him she needs a pain-killer, so he grudgingly orders some vicodin. Wait 20 minutes. Wait 20 more minutes. Meanwhile Kimi is moaning and shivering from the pain (although no longer nauseous). I go looking for a nurse for the pain. Finally she arrives, Kimi takes the pill, we get a wheelchair, off to the pharmacy, then finally to the temporary home so she can sleep. I’m still a bit weak (plus it’s been weeks since the kids have slept through the night — the 3am and 4am back-to-back wakeups are really getting to me), so I grab a couple of hours before it’s time to get the kids. So much for work on Monday.

Today we’re all better, finally, so that’s a relief. And both kids slept through the night last night (well, at least they did after 10pm — before that, not so much). And even better, Sophie slept in until 6:30am and Sammy until 7am, so everyone had eight hours.

Twenty-four hour stomach flu bugs — put them on your list of things to avoid.

* * *

This next part I wrote a week ago but never got around to publishing.

* * *

Last Wednesday, Kimi and I checked in with our contractor to see how the house reconstruction was going. They’ve been at work for a week, and in that time have removed all the carpet and old flooring down to the foundation (revealing far more cracks and patchwork than we had imagined even pessimistically), knocked open the walls we’re removing, and removed the shower in the master bath where they was extensive dry rot and termite damage.

Sammy was with us, because he was in a weepy mood and didn’t want to be left with the sitter; he seemed to take it all in stride, asking (as he frequently does these days), “What’s that!?” with great interest as each barely-recognizable-room was explored.

It’s been a bit challenging to live in one big room for the past few weeks as Kimi recovers from her back surgery on April 22. The good news is that Kimi’s back pain is gone, and she’s recovering from the surgery well (after being initially underprescribed for painkillers). She’s still supposed to be taking far more bed rest than she actually does, and for another week she’s not allowed to drive, and for five more weeks no bending, twisting, or lifting anything more than 8 pounds.

* * *

I took a fair number of pictures from the Happy Hollow expedition on Saturday, April 26. It’s conceivable I might actually load them and publish a couple. Suffice to say a great variety of happy experiences were enjoined. Except for me keeping him out long past his normal nap time, which caused quite a host of difficulties for the rest of the day.

* * *

Kimi: [reading from a new book about Africa, picked up at Sunday’s rummage sale]: This is a picture of a pygmy hippopotamus. Can you believe there used to be hippos that small? There used to be a lot of them in Madagascar, but now they’re all gone.

Sammy: Now they’re pretend.

* * *

Update, 12:40am Wednesday: Sophie’s turn. She just went through three cycles of throw-up/clean-up and is now out of clean pajamas. She seems to be in good spirits, despite all the vomit. She is now on my lap wrapped in a towel, while I wait to see if she throws up a fourth time, babbling happy noises that sound suspiciously like “uh-oh.”

The Webby Award winners (Video category) were announced this morning. Congrats go to Fast Lane Daily for picking up a People’s Voice award in the Sports category, and Onion News Network for winning several awards, including a Best Writing Webby and Comedy: Individual Short or Episode.

(Congrats also to nominees David Pogue of the New York Times, Barely Political, ThreadBanger and EPIC-FU!)

To subscribe to any of these for your broadband-enabled TiVo DVR, head over to the TiVoCast page, or visit TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All

Henry IV Part One, Act III, Scene 1:

Owen Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.

Henry “Hotspur” Percy: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?

Here, Hotspur neatly refutes his cousin-by-marriage Glendower’s pretentious brag with a fine skeptic’s rebuttal. I was reminded of this exchange from this case from last month: A so-called tantrik employer of black magic claimed to be able to kill any man with a curse within three minutes, and the challenge was taken up on live TV.

I took a personal day today as Kimi recovered from the surgery. She was in good spirits and only a little dazed from the morphine, and came home today around 11:30. She was in pain from the surgery but for the first time in years didn’t seem to have back pain. Apparently the nerve was gigantic and inflamed, and the surgeon said she was surprised by the extent of the damage. But preliminarily at least, all seems to be better.

The kids are both in good spirits (although Sophie’s falling asleep too soon to get a good dinner) and glad to see their mom again.

I’ll keep you updated, but so far we’re both optimistic that the surgery was a success.

From here, she’s got six weeks of no lifting anything more than 8 pounds, no bending at the waist, and two weeks of no driving.

Kimi and I would normally celebrate my birthday by going out tonight, but she won’t be home; instead, her back surgery is today (right now, in fact), and she’ll be at El Camino Hospital tonight.

We had a nice pre-birthday dinner last night instead (with John, Yvonne, and Logan as our guests) where she made all of my favorites: Artichokes, garlic new potatoes, baked brie, chilled cracked crab (a little late in the season but still nice), plus some salad and chicken for Sammy. Thanks sweetie!

She then fretted all night instead of sleeping, and prepared weeks of meals for Sophie and organized everything she could get her hands on. A little nervous about the surgery? I think so.

Tonight it’s just me and the kids, but I’m thinking about taking us all out for sushi. I’m distracted by Kimi’s surgery and hoping she gets through it and the recovery okay (six weeks of no lifting).

In other news, the kids are settling in well (getting up nice and early in the morning, making it easier to get them dropped off at school and me to work on time), and in even better news, my back is no longer sore from moving.

My brother Rob was just chatting with me:

Robert: How old are you now? I can’t keep track, it keeps changing each year

Stephen: heh
41

Robert: Stop it

Stephen: Er
38?

Robert: Each time you get older, you drag me with you

Stephen: I’ll put it in reverse then

Robert: I don’t want to follow you down this path
thank you, yes reverse will work quite nicely

Stephen: Or just kill yourself now and stop the wrinkles before they begin

Done.

Tomorrow morning the house gets tented and (we hope) the termites are exterminated. Then construction begins Thursday.

Done. 

To get to this point, we’ve spent the last two weeks packing and moving and relocating, but now we’re done. Done.

We ended up filling up the POD we rented with about 30 boxes and items to go, so I had to grab some more storage space yesterday. While Kimi watched the kids yesterday (with help from Bob and Kyrie towards the end of the day), I got the last of the stuff out and stored.

Done.

Since we basically finished yesterday, we were able to take a trip (with John, Yvonne, their new baby Logan, and Yvonne’s parents) down to Hakone Gardens in Saratoga for a picnic and koi-watching escape, which was very relaxing. And needed.

Kimi did the final pass this evening, and we’re both sore and exhausted.

Done.

Moving is horrendous.

Last Saturday, Kimi and I took a break from packing, got a babysitter and went to Yuri’s Night Bay Area over at Moffett Field, with Tracee and her friend Rafique. The event was an all-day affair, 2pm to 2am, with plenty of talks and interesting exhibits in addition to the music. It was quite Burning Man-esque, except without the playa dust, blinding desert heat, dust storm white outs, camping out for a week, driving several hundred miles, and the no commerce thing.

I would have liked to explore more, but based on our babysitting arrangements and when Tracee and Rafique could join us, we only made it there at around 9pm. The main attraction for Kimi was seeing Amon Tobin perform, which was around 10:15. The immediate problem was food: There were only a few booths, what they sold was a bit weird, and the lines were extremely long. Kimi and I waited in one long line, only to arrive at the front just as they ran out of food. So we bought some overpriced organic juice. Repeat again at the next line, where all we ended up with were some bizarre chips made from weird roots, and some chocolate. That was dinner. For an event of this size, they clearly didn’t plan the food situation well enough. More vendors, more choices, and adequate food supplies at each vendor would have helped a lot.

We spent a bit of time near a fire sculpture, talking with friends, and gradually made our way around to see different displays, some aeronautical, some environmental, and a few rides. We waited in line for the psycho-bike ride, which was a lot of fun: Four people pedal on bicycles, which spins around four seats in a merry-go-round. First you pedal and then you ride (or vice versa). I haven’t ridden a bicycle in a while, so it was a bit of a workout.

We had to relieve the babysitter at midnight, so we weren’t able to stay too late, but we did enjoy the performances, and I thought the light installations were very well done. The music was so loud, though. I guess the kids today can’t have it any other way, but I was very glad Kimi remembered ear plugs. I was a little put off to see one dad had dragged along his (approximately) seven year old daughter and plunked her down by the speakers. She didn’t have ear plugs, and clearly wasn’t enjoying herself. Same kind of parent who drags toddlers to horror movies, I guess.

Amon was outstanding, and did make the evening worthwhile. There was a bit of cognitive dissonance in wandering past hangars and flight trainers, across a parade ground and runway, only to arrive at a rave on an airstrip. I would love to attend this event next year, prepared with having eaten at home and being able to attend more of it.

(Apologies for the bad picture quality; the only camera I had with me was the iPhone.)

That was quick — a whole week without a blog post.

As is traditional in the blogosphere, here’s my long-winded excuse for not having updated this blog:

• The dog ate my homework, along with my left tibula.
• I was too busy doing my taxes and the check is in the mail, taped to a brick.
• I was sick with a case of temporary sickle-cell anemia.
• We were kidnapped by Libyan terrorists, developed Stockholm syndrome, ate French fries and Belgian waffles, and then were stranded when our American Airlines flight was canceled, so we had to swim home (uphill both ways).

The truth is that we’ve been spending our time moving out. Packing up. Hauling boxes. So so so many boxes.

The floors of our house are in a terrible condition (thanks to the cracked foundation of our 1950s era house), and the bathroom and the kitchen both need work. I’m not the kind of man’s man who can just fix all that solo, so we’re having some work done. It’ll take about two months, and in the meantime we’re living in a guest cottage in the back of Bob V.’s house. For two months. Eight weeks. Two months. Did I mention we’re all sharing a room for two months?

Last week we got almost everything packed (and I took off Friday from work to help get it all done). Monday the PODS people (hah!) arrived. Thanks to Kyrie taking the kids Saturday morning and Sunday evening, we’re now in pretty good shape. Last night, we moved into the cottage.

It was a pretty rough night. Both Kimi and I are sore from lifting boxes, and Sammy and Sophie naturally were a bit disoriented by the new location, so woke up several times. Each at different times, naturally.

Sammy and Sophie are both used to sleeping in their own rooms, and even though they get the upstairs while Kimi and I are downstairs, it’s all one big room.

Our house is pretty small, but to really appreciate how nice it is to have a house, all you have to do is try to squeeze stuff for a toddler and an infant into 600 square feet. Still, it’s a great space, and we’re very appreciative of Bob and family for letting us camp out.

It’ll be very nice to have new floors and a remodeled kitchen, but in the meantime, I repeat: We’re insane.

We did take a couple of breaks from moving: Wednesday we had Kevin and Rachel over for Uncle Frank’s BBQ and a game of Race for the Galaxy (my new obsession, a board game I’ll review here sooner or later), and Saturday night we took in Yuri’s Night at NASA Moffett Field, about which I have several more thoughts that may actually appear here as well.

…that I was a long-haired hippy.

Kimi scanned this in for some reason. I believe it showed my potential as a gas station attendant.

Three years ago today…

Love you always.

This week’s videos had everything from a practical joke that had me fooled for days to another reason to argue with my sister on the phone about conspiracy theories. Here’s a sample of the things I enjoyed watching in the past week:

1. Indy Mogul tricked me into caring…and that’s just plain wrong. Starting with last week’s Q & Erik, Indy Mogul’s been perpetrating the myth that their host, Erik Beck, injured his eye while making the death ray for this Monday’s “Backyard FX”. I was telling people all about it, making them watch the “footage” of the injury, and generally feeling bad for the guy…until yesterday…when they revealed that the whole thing was a hoax. Well played, Indy Mogul, well played.
2. Have you ever thought about modding your DS, Playstation controller, or iPhone? If not, check out the awesome skins on last week’s DL.TV (there’s even a mugshot of Mario and Lugi that’s just. plain. awesome.)
3. Should she stay or should she go? That was the question on everyone’s mind this weekend on the Sunday morning talk shows. As always, Veracifier and TMPtv give us a snappy recap of the topic in their Sunday Show recap.
   But wanna know how they’re capturing all that footage? Check out the behind-the-scenes blooper reel from April Fools’ Day (with a special appearance by a stack of Series 3 TiVo DVRs on the desk behind Josh).
4. Am I conspiracy nut? No. Is there a picture of me on the phone with my sister while standing on the grassy knoll in Dallas? Yes. The Onion took a firm jab at all of the “truthers” out there with yesterday’s report on a new 9/11 conspiracy book.
5. The Professor Brothers (from Super Deluxe) examine the world of the future. One word: BEARSTRONAUTS!

Keep on Downloading!

John T.

We’ve added Gourmet Magazine as a new partner to TiVo’s Video Downloads today. Each Tuesday, a new episode from The Gourmet Channel will cover cooking, travel (through their partnership with National Geographic) and promotions.

(And by the way, my wife and I think subscriptions to Gourmet Magazine make a great gift.)

To kick things off, there are five episodes you can download:

• Sara’s Weeknight Meals
• Partners in Exploration
• Exploring Galapagos
• The Ingredient: Sake Lees (aka sake kasu)
• The Ingredient: White Asparagus

To get your Season Pass to The Gourmet Channel, you can either visit TiVo Central Online, or on your Series2 or Series3 broadband-connected DVR, head to TiVo Central -> Find Programs -> Download TV, Movies & Web Video -> Browse Other Video -> All -> The Gourmet Channel.

Bon appetit!

By now, everyone should know what a Rickroll is. (Right?)

• There are some who are (accurately) decrying it as dumb and childish.
• There are some who are predicting that we’re only just now getting started.
• A detailed timeline is informative.
• Remixes such as the muppet version are springing up.

I present for your consideration five alternatives to Rick Rolling someone:

1. Have them click here and tell them they’ve been Lickroll’d.
2. Have them click here and tell them they’ve been Rick Moll’d.
3. Have them click here and tell them they’ve been Rickshaw’d.
4. Have them click here and tell them they’ve been Ricky & Mole’d.
5. Or there’s this, where you can see a definite Nick Roll.

We already announced (back on March 12) that TiVo will support playing YouTube videos through your TiVo Series3 or HD DVR.

At a dev. meeting just now, I pushed for a parental controls feature that I’d like to make sure is a P1, one which many of our customers have requested: Under no circumstances will the app allow playback of this video. (Warning: Don’t click that link, you already know what it is.)

So, rest easy, citizens of the world. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and smart blocking of certain content.

For the last few months, I’ve not been playing very much World of Warcraft — typically 3-6 hours per week and that’s it. That changed last Tuesday — they’ve released some new content, and I’ve been playing a bit more than normal. On Sunday, while Sophie was napping, I played a few minutes with Sammy on my lap, and explained to him a bit of what was going on.

He really likes watching my character fly around on his Netherwing Drake (Sammy calls it a bird), and while I was doing a couple of quick daily quests, he narrated a bit of what he could see. He doesn’t distinguish between my character and me — both are just “Daddy” to him.

“Now Daddy’s fishing.” (I was.)

“Daddy’s getting that flower. He’s getting all of them!” (Picking herbs.)

“Daddy’s giving the big fish to that man.” (True, turn-in of the World’s Biggest Mudfish.)

“He’s mailing those boots to mommy. Mommy will like them!” (Mailing some magic boots to a bank alt for disenchanting.)

“Those are clouds.” (Yup.)

“Now daddy’s at the farmer’s market. He’s buying fruit!” (Not quite, I was selling junk and buying candles in the Shattrath Lower City refugee camp.)

“That’s the sun going down.”

“Daddy’s flying to Hawaii!” (Taking the flight path from Silvermoon to the Isle of Quel’Danas. Every island is Hawaii to him right now, since we’ve been talking about his trip to Hawaii last year and looking at Hawaii pictures.)

This morning, the kids and I had a leisurely breakfast before I took them to pre-school. No rushing or hurrying. Then I stopped in at a local coffee store and read just about every page of today’s paper — something I haven’t done in months. Right now I’m relaxing at home and will probably play some video games. Later today, Kimi and I will go and check out mini-vans.

Slacker much? It’s Friday! Why aren’t I working?

Today is the National TiVo Holiday known as “Blue Moon,” which I’ve written about in some detail before. I’ve now been at TiVo for nine years (nearly a quarter of my life), and this is my tenth Blue Moon. There were 90 employees when I started, and 15 of those 90 (one in six) are still at TiVo after nine years. I think that’s impressive, and speaks to what a great company TiVo is to work for.

Pony’s got a post up at the TiVo Community forum with his version of the story.

In other news, Sophie is now six months old, and we just started her on solid food this week. She didn’t seem to care for it, actually. But she’s doing well, and has started sleeping through the night every now and then, just to taunt us by showing us that she can do it, if and only if she wants to. On the plus side, I’ve managed to see some amazing sunrises.

Sammy, now two-and-a-half, has taken to saying, “I don’t know” when I ask him questions about things he knows very well. He’s also in the “what’s that?” phase, pointing at things he fully understands (like grass and trees) just to get me to talk; I think he’s reveling in the ability to be able to hold a conversation and make me answer questions.

When I picked him up from school yesterday, he told me he wanted to eat out. What do you want to eat, Sammy? “Shushi.” He’s on a sushi kick. His favorites are California roll, shrimp tempura, tuna, and hamachi. He also devours the pickled ginger.

Last Friday, while Kimi went to spend time with John and Yvonne and newborn Logan at the hospital, I took Sammy and Sophie to sushi at the local place near Safeway, which I picked because it’s usually empty. Instead it was crowded (even some TiVo co-workers), and Sammy now loves to point to things (like artwork or calligraphy) and say, “That’s Japanese!”

To celebrate Blue Moon and a small raise, all of us went to Sono Sushi (sushi boats) on Castro last night. For once Sammy seemed a bit more interested in the lollipops on the sushi boats than the actual sushi, but he still devoured some raw fish and declared it to be his favorite. I love this kid. He’s definitely his father’s son.

I know I owe some pictures. I have some free time today, so watch for them later…

Between watching my NCAA bracket get destroyed by a co-worker in the first round and working to add more and more channels to the newly-released Web Season Pass feature, what was I watching this week?

1. Even though I love Brit-Brit (shout out for your appearance on “How I Met Your Mother” this week), I still got a big laugh from this week’s episode of Super Deluxe Sings.
2. As I’ve said before, I’m a huge gaming nerd but I also love the environment. Why not combine the best of both worlds? ViroPOP helps me with a list of environmentally-conscious video games.
3. Not since Joe Theismann got his leg broken by LT have I seen anything that made me shudder like last week’s “Most Awesome Broken Bones” from Break.com. And as I heard in a meeting today, “What was the escalator guy trying to do?” Judge for yourself.
4. If you like animation, you need only read these two words: Chuck Jones. This week’s “Refrederator” episode of Channel Frederator brings us a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon that includes all my favorite Looney Tunes gags (including characters imagining that other characters are talking food).
5. Do you like cake? How about liquor? What if the two could be combined? Wonder no more! Mark Bittman brings together apple, cake and “any liquor you’d actually drink” into a dessert that makes me want to bake immediately on this week’s The Minimalist from The New York Times.

Enjoy!

–John