the city by the bay

ohmygodohmygodohmygod we're having so much fun. it's awesome here.

the drive was something. we wanted to leave at 7pm, we left at 1130. that put the 14+ hour drive with too many hours with fee awake in the a.m.... but it was alright. reese took the first shift while I attempted to nap. she rocked the house and drove for 300 consecutive miles, handing off to me around 4am, deep into oregon territory. i took over and drove for the next 500 miles with stops for coffee, food, and bathroom. reese can hold it like a camel so she busted my chops every. single. time. that i had to pee. hey, i drank like 5 cups of coffee! a man's gotta pee, that's all i'm saying. all in all, we averaged 65 MPH with 32.1 MPG for the 800 mile trip.

we got hustled by bums at a rest stop, that was pretty awesome. everybody had to pee that time, so we did it and got out. his majesty needed some new clothes, too, but we just went down the road to the gas station and fee and the dogs did their business and we were on the way.

only a couple times where i had the falling-asleep-we're-all-gonna-die moments. the pre-dawn dusky non-light is murder on my eyes. when i said that to reese she was like yeah try driving through the dark with one good eye. uh, no thanks! i have to concentrate so hard to see anything that i get exhausted. on the way back we're going to pull over for that half hour and take a goddamn rest.

anyway, blah blah, drive drive, and we're here. gas is cheaper than i expected, it's about the same as in seattle.

we went out last night to zeitgeist, then for kulfi, then home to take care of the dogs and cater to his majesty's every need. the city was awesome. it felt like parts of hoboken and seattle and queens and chicago and a bunch of other places. and everybody - everybody! - was dressed like super fucking sharp, it was awesome. super chill city, too.

anyhoo, so we're here. we're going to go do some stuff. we'll post pics soon as we can.

shame on us and vacation musings

yeah yeah i know what you're thinking... we haven't posted in ages. it's a travesty. But we've had good reason. First Fenix was sick and let me tell you that the trajectory on puke from the belly of an 8 month old is surprisingly far reaching. Blech. So no surprise that Jason and I both got sick too. It was a bad scene all around. But we are finally on the other side of that nonsense. As a matter of fact we are headed out for a much needed vacation. Me, J, Fee, Luna and Noodle are driving down to SFO:

We will be on vacation all next week. I can't wait to see friends and for Fenix to see his new friend that he doesn't even know yet, Declan. It's going to be a blast.

We'll be trendy types and make our way to Burma Superstar for lunch. We'll be tourists and visit Alcatraz (we've both been to SFO but have never been there). We'll shop. We'll drink. We'll drive over to sonoma wine country and restock our home wine supply. All this in one week.

I really can't wait!

See you when we get back.

How to get effed by United Airlines:

Fly with them.

My flight from Richmond to Chicago had its start time delayed by air traffic control. A short delay, only 20 minutes or so.

When we landed in Chicago I busted my tail to get to my new gate, which was hard because it was all the way across the airport and because we didn't even deplane at a gate. We deplaned on the tarmac and had to hoof it across the concrete, then up a series of ramps until we were actually indoors again. THEN I could run halfway across the airport.

As I was walk-jogging up to the gate of my connecting flight, I noticed with despair and growing fury that a) it said FLIGHT CLOSED and b) that the plane was actually right there, it hadn't even pulled away from the gate. The United Airlines person was like "um yeeah, the next flight to Seattle is tomorrow. Also, I've enjoyed ruining your day. Please have a nice day."

She said that the next flight out of Chicago to Seattle - on any airline - was the United flight that left at 8:30 am Saturday (today), and that I had no choice but to stay the night in Chicago. This option would have put me home at around dinnertime tonight.

I can't even describe how angry I was.

Seething, I went to stand in United's customer service line to get my hotel and cab taken care of. The line had about 45 travelers in it, and only a couple people working the desk at the front of the line. It was a one-to-two hour line. The guy behind me had his connecting flight re-directed but his luggage wasn't, so he was stuck overnight in Chicago with no luggage. Go United.

For the two weeks before my travel I was worried in the back of my mind about exactly this thing happening - it's dangerous traveling through Chicago's O'Hare Airport, you know? So yesterday during all of this there was a little voice saying "I told you so, I told you so." I fucking HATE that voice.

While standing in line I called the awesome professionals at my company's travel agent, Carson Wagonlit, and was able to get booked on a US Air flight to Las Vegas with a connecting flight to Seattle. This was scheduled to put me in to Seattle at 2:30 this morning and give me a personal best - and never to be repeated - 6 plane rides in 3 days.I booked that flight but - of course - the plane was leaving in 20 minutes and was entirely on the other side of the airport. There was no jogging this time. Nope, this time I ran my white little ass off all the effing way across O'Hare. Let me tell you, that sucked. I got to the new gate and got my boarding pass. I told the gate agent what happened and she said "wow, we sure are getting a lot of pissed off United customers today."

So, got on the plane AND managed to get an aisle seat, my personal favorite. OK, we're ready to take off. Go ahead. Go ahead...

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Captain, uh... we seem to be having some trouble with the internal intercom system. I'm not really sure exactly that the issue is, but technicians are on the plane now and we'll let you know as soon as it's resolved."

Thirty minutes or so went by, dangerously eating into the time I would have to navigate the Las Vegas airport to get to my connecting flight to Seattle. So of course my nerves were on edge. Further contributing to my annoyance was the attitude on the plane (Vegas, baby! woo!!) and the dirtbag in the seat just across the aisle. He alternately appeared to be on the verge of throwing up due to being a nervous flyer ... and couldn't wait to party, chanting on a number of occasions Drink! Drink! Drink!

Oy.

Eventually they resolve the intercom issue and we started flying. That's what you're supposed to do on a plane: fly. Due to it being a night flight they turned the lights off. I was really wired so tried to read my magazine, except my personal reading light was on the fritz. It would stay on for a few seconds or a few minutes, then turn off without warning. I could reach up and whack it with my knuckles to turn it back on for a moment, but there was nothing keeping it on unless it wanted to stay on. Eventually I borrowed a keychain flashlight from the flight attendant, but you had to squeeze the bejeesus out of it to get it to stay on. I did that off and on for an hour or whatever, long enough to calm down, then napped a bit until we landed in Vegas.

When I deplaned I asked the lady where my next flight was and she told me. You want to guess? ALL THE WAY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE AIRPORT. Remember, flight 2 of 3 on the day was delayed taking off. I said "do I have enough time to make this next flight? Do I have to run to catch it?" She wouldn't say you HAVE to run, but suggested that running wouldn't be a bad idea, you know, if I liked running.

oy.

so I move briskly to the end of whatever the hell concourse I was at, down a few ramps and again I'm on the tarmac. I'm standing with a half dozen other travelers looking just as worn out as I am, like we slept in the dryer. After a couple minutes the bus driver shows up to drive us over to our correct concourse. we unloaded, across the tarmac, up some ramps, and it's time to hoof it over to the gate again. I walked briskly to my gate to find that my plane had already been boarding for some time now. I joined the end of the boarding line and within 2 minutes or so was on the plane (it was THE END of the boarding line).

We took off in short order. I struggled to nap on the two hour flight, mostly failing. Something happened to my right ear on the first flight of the day and I never was able to synch it up with the rest of me, with the pressure and whatnot. It's still hurting, as a matter of fact, though at least I can hear through it now.

We landed with a bump and three thuds that would have yanked tears from my wife's eyes, and thank the gods I was in Seattle.

After navigating to the car and exiting the garage I got home around 3:30 this morning. With the baby and all we've been up since around 7 , though I was able to nap for another or so with the baby when he crashed earlier.

I never want to fly again.

Ever.

Richmond to chicago, 4th flight (of 5) in 3 days

another day, another flight. Once again i am on a robustly sized EMB145, three seats per row (2-aisle-1). At first glance it is in roughly the same condition as the last.

The first seat I grabbed, my proper seat, had no tray table. I was annoyed about this mostly because I wanted the aisle seat but had the window one. Anyway, a nice couple who booked seats B & C approached, assuming that they would not be seperated by an aisle. Ha! I switched with them and now have both a window and an aisle seat. the little textured knob on my fan does not work, but I do have a tray table.

I wonder if there will be water in the bathroom! I cant wait!

Traveling

As you may know I'm traveling for work currently. Writing this on Friday while tooling around Richmond, Virginia. Currently I'm chilling in the airport pub waiting for my flight back to the 206 (via Chicago for ****s sake, cross your fingers for me). the music in applebees sucks, thanks for asking. now I'm freeeeeeee, freee-fall-iinnnnggggg.....

After the turbulence-a-licious flight T described below we navigated home, unpacked, and stayed a night in our own bed, then I got up and flew back to the east coast so I could do some work today. I already posted about the awesome spill that happened on my flight from Seattle to Saint of the Louis. the flight from STL to Richmond was interesting. I had the ONE CARRY ON AND ONE PERSONAL ITEM like they said I could have, but my carry on was too big to fit in the overhead bin because it was a small plane. Not "how much do you weigh" small (it had a bathroom!), but small.

that plane had some problems. when we were taking off one of the doodads covering the light on one of the seats near me just... fell to the ground. the plane was old, and being old made the plane sad. I went into the bathroom and there were a few things about that made me laugh. one, there wasn't the regular bi-fold/accordion door to enter, it was a sliding pocket door. the accordion door would have smacked one of the people in the last row on the elbow. oh, the seat configuration was window seat, aisle seat, aisle, window seat/aisle seat. 3 seats per row, like 35 rows to the plane or something.

so I walk to the back of the plane and slide the pocket door open. the first thing that I see - as it's right in front of me - is the sink. I know immediately that I will not be washing my hands after this trip to the bathroom when I see a cylindrical blue and white container in the sink with four words clearly visible:

antibacterial wipes

kills germs

ok, so the water doesn't work. I can work with that. I mean, it's lame and everything, but whatever. also, they charged for snacks ("just four bucks for chips!") but didn't take credit cards, which was a bummer since I ran out of cash on the turbulence-a-licious flight the day before.

anyhoo, fly from NJ to SEA, then fly from SEA to VA the next day, an overpriced cab ride to the hotel, six hours of tossing and turning, and it's time for breakfast. I always *try* to eat well when I travel, and ... whatever. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. mostly depends on where I go and what's available locally.

In particular I try and have a good breakfast. Today I hit a home run: check out the omlette, bacon, home fries, grits, juice, coffee (and yogurt, not pictured because I ate it while the dude was cooking my omlette) that I nabbed at my hotel:

lets everyone raise their glasses for a safe trip home! be good!

:-D

The jerz

OMG jersey was the most fun I have had in effing forever. we spent a lot - a far majority - of our time at Wife's sisters house with her sister and husband and their newborn twins and Wife's other sister and her mom and her cousin who drove up from Virginia and her other cousins and aunts that live in town and visited her grandparents and my uncle and cousin and my best friend mike and my cousin's pub in NYC and T's best friend and her best friend's little son and oh. my. god. our little man got so much love it was just awesome.

Interlude, it's Thursday, the day after we returned home to Seattle and I've departed again to fly to the east coast for work. Due to editing this probably won't be posted until Friday. I am on a plane when writing this, and I'm writing to tell you that peeing in turbulence sucks. The bloody mary was all right, though. donut worry, tho, I was not actually peeing when I wrote that. I wrote it back at my seat. also, I always wash my hands. always. and I spilled club soda all over the little tray attached to the seat back in front of me. yes, I am "that guy" that spills stuff all the time, and trips over stuff, and whatever else. I had no napkins so had to wipe it up with my hat. good thing it was club soda! now all I need to do to make sure it doesn't leave a stain is to blot it... with club soda! get it? yuk yuk...

sigh, if Wife were here she would be rolling her eyes and she would say get on with it already except it would be "under her breath", haha, as if there is such a thing. end interlude.

My family/community growing up in the 206 (* & **) was my sister and my parents. Period. When Wife was growing up she went to school she with a whole giant group of cousins. Though they were not literally her brothers and sisters they may as well have been. Wife always had someone to look out for, someone that would look out for her, someone to eat lunch with, someone to could call that would beat someone up so nobody messed with her, someone to walk home with, to play with, to eat dinner at their house or vice versa, to go to the mall with, to take vacations with, and the list goes on and on. and on.

The biggest thing missing from my childhood (in retrospect, of course - yuk yuk), was family. Or better yet, community. Wife and I have talked for a long time about the differences between our childhoods, and while we each had our own personalized b.s. to deal with, we both turned out okay. Anyhoo, the biggest difference - and by difference I mean *my opinion* of the most important factor that was different from her upbringing to mine - was family or community or whatever you want to call it.

Wife and I have talked on and off about the number of kids we want, 1-2 or 2-3. Given the propensity for twinning in her family, that's 1-2 pregnancies. The joke is that what I want our boy to have is more siblings and cousins than you can shake a stick at - like Wife had - and it doesn't really matter if we have 2 or 3 pregnancies, we simply are not getting there on or own.

being in NJ was bittersweet. we got so much love that it made it really hard to leave.

* referring to the greater seattle area
** yes, that refers to area code 206. yes, I currently live in the same area where I grew up. yes, the area I currently live in now is area code 425. HOWEVER!, during my childhood it - and everything else in Washington State west of the Cascade Mountain Range - was area code 206. So it fits, all right?

tiny wine and whiskey

These are the two things that got me thru the flight to and from NJ. Oh and let us not forget the tears. They were flowing so I guess that helped me too? And the best part is that Fenix slept blissfully through the whole thing. Never cried or fussed. But his mom? Not so much.

I HATE turbulence. Yes, I know that it's just like a driving on a bumpy road but I really don't care. I don't like the way it feels and I can't help thinking about the plane doing a nose dive every time that it happens during a flight. I used to take Xanax to help with the anxiety before a flight but my prescription is expired so I didn't have a pill to take this time. Thankfully J had the bright idea that I should order one of those cheap bottles of wine that they sell on the plane. Well that took the edge off and then I chased it with a tiny bottle of Glenlivet and I actually felt good.

What do you do when you hate to fly but you love to travel?!

Anyway I forgot to post the link to the full set of NJ/NYC trip pics in my earlier post so here they are: NJ/NYC trip

6 more days til NJ

I am getting kinda giddy over here in anticipation of our trip back home to see my family and my other peops. So in the spirit of that giddiness I thought I would school you on the area that I am from and hopefully change whatever negative perceptions you might have about NJ.

NJ is like every other place, there are good parts and bad parts. Most people think of this small stretch of turnpike when they think of NJ:


Well this is not really what all of NJ looks like... just that small part of it. I was born and raised in Englewood, NJ. Englewood is not all that different from one of the more residential neighborhoods of Seattle like Wallingford or Ballard but with a bit more socioeconomic diversity. It has tree lined streets with sidewalks. The houses are colonial style as opposed to the craftsman style homes that are in abundance here in Seattle. There is a downtown area with a main street that has lots of cute shops and restaurants.
Bonus: It is also very close to NYC. Here is Englewood on the map:

Famous people that either previously or still do live in Englewood:

• Eddie Murphy (his estate was known as Bubble Hill)
• Karen O (from the Yeah Yeah Yeah's)
• Lil Kim
• George Benson
  
• Dizzy Gillespie (my grandpa got into a fender bender with him several years ago!)
  
• John Travolta
• Tony Bennett
• Sarah Jessica Parker
• me (just kidding)
• Brooke Shields (well she went to school there, my grandpa worked at her private school)

So as for NJ as a whole, it's actually a cool place to live. If you live in northern nj you can drive to any of the following places in 4 hours or less:

• Southern Vermont (I loved to snowboard at Mt Snow & Killington)
  
• Philadelphia
• Washington D.C.
• Boston
• Baltimore

NJ has nice sandy beaches and there is actually a significant surf culture at the Jersey shore (yeah we call it the shore). I have spent many summer weekends hanging on the beaches of Belmar, Avon, Bradley Beach, Mantoloking, Point Pleasant, and Long Beach Island (LBI). The water isn't blue and warm like the Caribbean but it's nice and not disgusting or dirty.



Let's talk about Hoboken for a sec. It is the town where J and I were living when we met and it's even closer to NYC than Englewood:


Cool things about Hoboken:

• The PATH train to NYC
• Oddfellows serves Abita Purple Haze
• So many cool bars (though there are plenty of cheezy ones *cough* Bahama Mamas *cough*)
• More delicious Italian food then any reasonable person could ever want to eat
• Birthplace of baseball and Frank Sinatra
• Beautiful brownstones and railroad apartments
• Fun, young residents
• Very pedestrian friendly. You don't need a car if you live in Hoboken and work in NYC. And it's a mile square town.

I could say alot more about NJ but I'm gonna let all this soak in. We'll take lots of pics while we are away and post some fun stuff when we get back. In closing I leave you with a photo of the place where Jason and I both worked before we even knew each other (Rockefeller center). We probably took the same train to work everyday and ate at the same food court on our lunch breaks. Life is crazy.