da da deuce

e.w.'s good. he's talking more and more. i've lost count. every day something new. he's climbing more, and being more adventurous. my wife was was worried that he is too cautious. but he's getting there

his thing lately is to give big smooches when you pick him up.

he loves dr suess. or, "da da duece", as he says it.

last night, for the first time in quite a while, he fell asleep on me while i read to him, right before bedtime. it was the best just to have him on my lap, all still and peaceful, breathing, warm. i seriously considered just sitting there in the rocking chair and enjoying it for the whole night, but in stead, i gently picked him up, and while continuing to recite the last few pages of the book (which i have memorized), i laid him down in the crib and tucked him in and said goodnight.

da da duce

update on my son: E's good. he's talking more and more. i've lost count. every day brings something new. he's clibming more, and being more adventurous. my wife was worried that he was a wuss, but i think he's just cautious. he's getting there.

his thing lately is to give you big smooches when you pick him up.

he loves dr suess. or, "da da duece", as he says it.

last night, for the first time in quite a while, he fell asleep on me while i read to him, right before bedtime. it was the best just to have him on my lap, all still and peaceful, breathing, warm. i seriously considered just sitting there in the rocking chair and enjoying it for the whole night; but in stead, i gently picked him up, and while continuing to recite the last few pages of the book (which i have memorized), i laid him down in the crib and tucked him in and said goodnight.

just hearing things

this morning i was driving to work, listening to NPR on the radio, drinking my coffee in a paper aroura cup, and cursing at people who were going too slow; it was a typical morning. but then, while stopped at a traffic light, i could have sworn i heard a cat meowing. i looked around, and over my shoulder and into the back seat, but i didn't hear it again. i must be hearing things, i thought to myself. but it wouldn't be the first time i've unintentionally taken a cat for a ride in a car. once i took my parent's cat Kasey to the pizzaria in Denville. The car had been in the driveway with the windows open in the summer, and i guess she just wandered in, exploring, as cats sometimes will do. down the road a ways my friend brett and i heard the cat meow from the back seat. she looked scared and confused. we were too far to turn back or let her out, and we wanted our pizza, and besides, it was a little funny. ...so anyway, no cat today. just my imagination.

mid-air chase to the death

this morning, while walking to the metro, i saw a bird (a chickadee?) wrestling with a cicada...the bird had it in its beak, but the cicada was persistent -- buzzing and flapping its wings, so that the bird couldn't get a strong hold.

then the cicada broke free and flew away -- but the bird went after it, and for a few exhilarating seconds, they were in a mid-air chase to the death, coiling and swerving through the air! the bird then picked the cicada out of midair, brought it back to the ground, where 5 feet away, a precocious squirrel was watching, ready to pounce!

the squirrel approached, but then the bird flew away (because there was a car coming), but the cicada was securely in its mouth. it was awesome!

- by the IOD

last night i had a dream that i was talking with my mom. i was on the way out the door at her house, and my wife was waiting in the car. my mom started talking about the fact that she is retiring this year. she was having second thoughts. she was glad that she would have to deal with annoying things about work, stupid people, stupid situations, but she also would miss the people she worked with, and was secretly looking forward to things scheduled to start next year after she's gone. she said "what am i going to do all day?". i tried to reassure her that it was the right thing to do, that she could start by taking a well-deserved rest! and i insisted she would find all sorts of things to do, and that she'd be enjoying herself in no time. that's all. the funny thing is, in real life my mom is retiring, but she seems to have absolutely no reservations, and she's really excited and looking forward to it. am i projecting apprehension and doubts onto my mom in this dream? why?

seeing is believing, part IV

i forgot to mention yesterday... my eyes are hurting again for the first time in a while. it was bad yesterday. i thought that i was off the hook when the IT guy came over and changed my screen settings, but i guess i'll have to do more eye exercizes or whatever.

what a gas

this has never happened to me before. this morning i got in my car at the end of my driveway, started the engine, turned on the stereo, ejected the cd and started looking for a new one to put in for the ride to work. so far so good. after less than a minute of shuffling through cd's, my car engine shut off! i knew i was running low on gas, but i thought i would have at least enough to get to the gas station on the way out of town. i couldn't believe it- i though maybe it was the fact that the driveway is inclined, and that the gas that was left was just all on one side of the tank. i tried to start the engine again, and it started, but then quickly sputtered and died again as i tried to back it up. i thought quickly, and went around to the garage to get the gas can i just filled up for the lawn mower. thank goodness i filled it last week. there was more than enough in the can to get me to the gas station. it took me a minute to get the gas cap back on, but then i was on my way. i wondered if any neighbors saw me filling my tank with a gas can in the driveway? so then i was driving down the street, and thinking of the fastest way to a gas station, that was also in the general direction of my office. i picked my usual route, and after cursing at a few people who were going too slow, i got the gas station and got $20 worth. in conclusion, that little red light on the dash board comes on now and then, and i always tell myself, 'i've got enough to get me to the gas station!', but it finally happened today- i ran out of gas. one thing i did think of as i drove on to work, was that if i had not idled in the driveway for a minute to change my cd, i probably would have stalled at a nearby traffic light, block away from my garage and gas can. that would have been a pain in the ass. however, i never ended up picking out a cd. at the gas station i stared listening to 'morning edition' on NPR/WNYC, and i got hooked and listened the whole way to work. that happens a lot.

later on, i passed a school that's a few blocks before my office. a crossing guard stepped into the road with his "stop" sign and signaled me to stop. then he let some minivans pull away, and let some kids cross the street. little kids with little backpacks, skipping along the crosswalk, under the watchful eye and outstretched arms of the man in the orange vest. i thought to myself, "god bless the crossing guards".

last night i had a dream that i was at the cannes film festival, i think. (the reason i say that is because i remember talking with people about a film called "osama". now i don't know if that's just my brain filling in for "fahrenheit 9/11", but anyway...). i don't remember much except that it was on a beach. there were lots of people there in bathing suits and bikinis. i found an open deck chair next to a bunch of other people and started mingling, talking with a girl on my left. there was a college-feel to the scene; it was not present-day, per se. i think in this dream i was a single guy and trying to meet chicks. i felt awkward, but i was trying to be outwardly confident. that's it. i think had this dream because i was talking with someone over the weekend about how bad i was at being single.

cello there

so yeah, here i am sitting at my old desk with my old group at my old job. on paper i have gotten a promotion to a different job in a neighboring department, but my computer is not ready, so here i am. i actually have some lingering projects to wrap up and/or hand over, and also a training manual to write; so it's not a big deal that i'm stuck here. but at the same time i wish it were just over already and i could get into my new job. i'll be travelling, regionally, in stead of coming to the office every day. the travelling in the beginning will probably be the toughest because i will be in training mode. that means that i will be travelling with other people, to "shadow" and learn from them in the field. this means, of course, that i will be a slave to their schedule, and also that i will be travelling all over the place, even across the country, since there aren't enough people around here who can train me. whatever! the point is, in the beginnign it will be tough... so it will be a sink-or-swim test for whether or not it will throw my family-life into disarray. if we make it through this summer, the rest should be easier, because i will be making my own schedule and also staying closer to home, generally. furthermore, i am excited to start already because i will be learning a whole lot more than i ever would in this old job- i'm finally getting into the mainstream research side of the business.

oh yeah, and also i got a package in the mail yesterday from this lady who i met in europe at my training seminar. background: we were all cooped up in this hotel & conference center, and there was a billiards room with a piano in one part of the building. i was sitting and enjoying a beer in an adjacent room while flipping through a dutch art history book, when i heard the piano next door. it was beautifully played classical piano music, i honestly thought it might be a player-piano becuase it sounded that good. anyway, she was someone who i knew, and i complimented her between songs but then retreated back to my couch in the next room- i got the feeling that she didn't like to be watched. i sat and enjoyed a few more songs, finishing my beer and looking at more paintings in the book. later, at dinner, i brought it up again and we got to talking about music. she said she had studied piano ever since she was young, and that she continued to play as often as she could. she mentioned that she would always play for her family, but liked to provide background music for dinners and get-togethers, as opposed to recitals, where she felt that she was being watched too closely. we got to talking about how she is in the process of learning the cello. i mentioned that i know a little about cello music, and that i really enjoyed yo-yo ma's bach cello suites; and i asked if she had any reccomendations. she told me that she has friends who are professional musicians and music teachers, and that they have an excellent CD. they are a couple that play as a duet; one plays a classical guitar and the other plays the cello. the cd sounded very interesting, especially since i also like classical guitar music. so i gave her some money and she promised to send me one. i listened to it last night while having dinner with my son. he didn't seem to mind it. i liked it very much. it's a pretty diverse selection of songs; and the arrangement is very dynamic, including some string scraping and guitar/cello body tapping for precussion. all in all i like it very much. oh, and in the package was a photo of a mountaintop (the alps?), towering above the clouds, and a note. i plan to write back and tell her i like the cd very much.

here i am in amsterdam

i was in the airport in amsterdam for about 1/2 hour, then took a cab through lots of cow-country to get to this corporaste training center here in misty, cool, overcast Sint-Michielsgestel, at the De Ruwenberg conference center. it´s very much out in the sticks, but it´s nice in that it´s serene and relaxing. there´s lots of grass, outdoor sculpture, benches near little ponds, a few fountains. there´s a little town nearby down the road with a few resturants, shops, and a pub- but they are all closed today so it looks like i´m stuck here. there is one other organon person who i met at the airport and we talked about doubling back to amsterdam to see the sights, but just now we looked at each other and simultaiously realised that we´re pretty tired and that the drive might literally put us to sleep, and our main goal is to stay up all day today to make sure we get on local time ASAP.... so we´ll see. the museums can wait, i suppose.

going to the netherlands

so i got in the car at 3:00 sharp back at home, and the driver whisked me away to newark airport. right away he asked me when my flight took off, and we quickly determined that they had scheduled my pickup at least an hour early. he had me there in 15 minutes or so, and then i had about 2 hours to kill before my plane actually borded. i guess with international flights they leave you a lot of time, but in this instance it was unecessay. i got a salad thingy at this cafe and then i went through security. they didn´t make me take off my shoes or anything. i went to the terminal and got a coffee and started reading some material for my training. there was a german family waiting for the same plane, and they had a young girl and a baby girl, about 1 year old. they were cute and it made me miss my boy.