The Nhoj Podge

Sara O'Neill's letter to PKDW stakeholders

2009-03-04T15:12:00.000-08:00

This is the letter Sara O'Neill, my wife, wrote to the stakeholders of my son's preschool, Potrero Kids at Daniel Webster. We're trying to stop the preschool from closing.

To the stakeholders at PKDW: MNC Board members, SF Foundation, LIIF, Eastern Neighborhoods Public Benefit Trust, SFUSD, First Five, Children's Council, DCYF, San Francisco Supervisors and Mayor, Neighbors, Fellow PKDW Parents and Friends

A terrible thing is happening at Potrero Hill Kids at Daniel Webster (PKDW) preschool. I am attaching recent correspondence between Mission Neighborhood Centers (MNC) and Potrero Residents Education Fund (PREFund) so that you can better understand each of their points of view. [I did not include the correspondence in this post - JMO] I will offer my own below as a parent at PKDW.

My son, John Haley, loves his preschool. Our neighborhood, Potrero Hill, is family-friendly and close-knit. He attends preschool with children he has known since infancy. We can barely afford it, but we chose PKDW because we wanted to support this fledgling neighborhood ideal as part of a tremendous community movement launched by PREFund.

As a parent, I have been involved with several committees: Parent/Staff Relations, Finance, Daniel Webster Liaison and the Staff Search Committees. I watched the drama unfold for months and desperately hoped that the tension between MNC and PREFund would not affect the classroom experience for my son. It was clear to everyone that MNC and PREFund could no longer work together. The attached letters will tell you as much.

I'm writing because the conflict has devolved into MNC temporarily closing PKDW's doors, with slightly less than 30 days notice, on April 1st. Many of the stakeholders in PKDW have an intimate understanding of preschool and childcare in San Francisco. For those of you who don't, please allow me to explain that this is a disaster. One family has been "lucky" enough to re-establish their child in the program she was in prior to PKDW. Most families will have no such luck. In fact, most families will have no options. Many application processes for preschool in September are already closed. Almost every preschool in San Francisco has a waitlist. MNC may offer slots in their existing preschools -- and I hope they do -- but the parents that I have talked to (and I've talked to a lot of them in the last 24 hours) have lost faith in MNC.

I'm writing to plead with you, the stakeholders at PKDW, to immediately intervene to prevent the doors from closing. I am confident that the doors can remain open if MNC is willing to work with PKDW families, the stakeholders and, yes, PREFund.

Please come to the meeting this Friday, March 6, 2009, 6pm, at PKDW, Staff Bungalow (lower yard), 465 Missouri St at 20th St in support of the families at PKDW.

Respectfully,

Sara O'Neill
Parent of John Haley O'Neill, a Potrero Kid at Daniel Webster

CC: MNC and PREFund

Our dishwasher is broken

2008-02-25T07:07:00.000-08:00

I'd forgotten how much time one can spend washing dishes. I wonder which has a greater environmental impact: washing dishes by hand, which, presumably, uses more water, or washing them in a machine, which probably uses more energy. Anyway, we gotta get our dishwasher fixed, or get a new one. I can't keep this up. There are only so many hours in a day, and I'd rather spend them playing with my kids than washing dishes.

Nevertheless, we're renters, and we're a little timid about asking our landlord to repair or replace this appliance. I remarked to Sara yesterday that even if we had to buy our own new dishwasher it would be cheaper than moving.

40 minute delay

2007-06-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

A co-worker stopped by my desk just before I left work to let me know that she'd heard about Caltrain delays. "Caltrain is running 10 to 40 minutes late in both directions," she said.

No sweat, I thought. I've endured 10 to 40 minute delays many times. I'll just go to the station and find out how late the trains are running. I called Sara to let her know that the trains were running late.

When I got to the station, the flashing sign read,

"BOTH SOUTHBOUND AND NORTHBOUND TRAINS ARE DELAYED DUE TO A MAJOR CT FAILURE. EXTREMELY LONG DELAYS IN BOTH DIRECTIONS."

Later, I heard on the radio that there was a big crash on Meadow St. in Palo Alto.
Here's the story from the San Jose Mercury News: "Woman dead after Caltrain slams into car on tracks in Palo Alto."

I called Sara, and she offered to drive down to San Mateo to come get me. No, I'll just ride back to work and beg one of my co-workers who lives in San Francisco for a lift home.

Then I saw one of my friends from Caltrain leaving the platform and riding away, going north. "Riding home?" I asked her.

"BART!" She replied.

Now that's a good idea, I thought. Another cyclist was riding north, so I followed him and confirmed that he was going to BART too. I rode down El Camino, which was a little scary, because there's no shoulder in Burlingame. I suspect that El Camino is the route for n00bs riding from San Mateo to Millbrae BART; I'll have to look up a better way for next time.

I just happened to have a BART ticket in my pocket, and there was a train waiting for me when I got there. We arrived at the 24th St. station at 6:35, and I was home by 6:50, only 40 minutes late.

The sign should have read, "Expect major delays, unless you have a bike!"

Technorati tags: Caltrain BART delay bicycling commute

Economic Decision

2007-03-29T00:45:00.000-07:00

My sister, econoblogging for her seven year old daughter by proxy, displays this analysis of two purchasing choices. The amusing diagram explains why Selma prefers one choice over the other.

Technorati tags: economics purchasing choices child education

The Least Punk Rock Song in the World

2007-02-05T11:03:00.000-08:00

For the past several days, I have had this song going through my head and have been wondering, "What is that tune?" It's a song that, although I heard it all the time in my childhood, I have almost never heard since the 80s. Finally, this morning, I couldn't stand it any longer. I called my Dad, who should know because he was an adult when it was popular, and hummed it to him.

He identified it immediately: "It's, 'A Taste of Honey,' from the movie of the same name. You have heard it because it was recorded by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass some time during the sixties and it was very popular for several years thereafter."

As I was leaving for work, I realized that this song (as performed by HAATTB) is the antithesis of punk rock. It's the least punk rock song in the world, which means it's ripe for being covered by a punk rock band. Who will be first?

Technorati tags: music punk 60s Alpert cover jazz antithesis

My war on clutter

2007-01-05T08:14:00.000-08:00

My Mom and I are annoyed. We read the article in the New York Times, "Saying Yes to Mess," and we think it's just a rationalization for laziness.

Now, clean your room!

Here's my comment on the article posted on Lifehacker.

Would a ballet dancer perform on a stage littered with dirty costumes and unused set pieces? Would a pianist leave music strewn over the keyboard? A messy desk contains stuff in the wrong space. Storage goes in storage -- only the active project belongs in the workspace.

To those who assert that an empty desk is a sign of an empty mind I reply, my desk isn't empty! It contains only active projects because I can work on a few things at a time. My interpretation of GTD is that semi-active projects, those being worked on today but not right now, go in easily accessible storage, not on the desk.

Closet a mess? Well, that's all right. I put "clean the closet" on the project list and forget it for now. Work space a mess? I clean it up. If that means "Throw everything in the closet," so be it. I can't work in clutter.

As for general neatness, I think "active" clutter is OK -- if it's on its way to the right place, it's not a mess. On the other hand, piles of stuff gathering dust are yucky. Eventually, you want to use the space where the piles live. If you live in a 3000 square foot suburban starter mansion, maybe you can just use a different room. If, like me, you live with a family in a 1200 square foot flat, you need to optimize the way space is used.

And then what happens when you want to have people over? Moving twenty piles to set up a guest bed is a big headache. It's easier to set up for guests when everything is already stowed.

Finally, there's the matter of beauty. I want to live and work in a place that's elegant, that's nice to look at. If I look around the room and see clutter, it causes stress, just like an uncaptured project does. Neatness is the physical analogue to the informational organization of GTD.

- johnmarkos, 12/30/06, 12:27 PM

Technorati tags: clutter Lifehacker mess neatness

Finally, a law with some cents

2006-12-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

As we all know, melting pennies to sell the metal would disrupt the nation's critical "Give a penny/take a penny" system.

Link to Boing Boing's post on this new law.

Technorati tags: penny pennies law currency

Terracotta Miffy Army

2006-12-06T11:16:00.000-08:00

Nijntje invasie / Miffy invasion
Originally uploaded by Nogal logisch.

OK, not quite but almost. Anyway, the phrase, "Terracotta Miffy Army," sounds really cool. Good band name.

terracotta terracotta+army terracotta+Miffy+army Miffy bunny

A rockin' holiday tradition

2006-12-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

Our friends Little Fuzzy will bring their Christmas show to the Make-Out Room (in the Mission, San Francisco) again this season. We always dance and have a lot of fun there.

I hope we can get a sitter for the evening of December 14th. Anyway, Sara and I are really looking forward to the show. If you're in or near SF that day, it's worth checking out.

Here's some more info about the show at Zvents.

Technorati tags: Little+Fuzzy music rock live+show live+music Christmas Xmas Mission San+Francisco

Sayulita trip photoset

2006-10-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

I've created a photoset from our trip to Sayulita, Mexico. Enjoy!

Cabo Pulmo photoset

2006-09-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

I've created a photoset on Flickr for our pictures from our Cabo Pulmo trip. Enjoy!

Cabo Pulmo trip, part five

2006-09-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning it was raining a bit. We had wanted to go back to Mermaid Beach, all of us this time, but unfortunately, we only had time to clean, pack, and go to the airport in San Jose del Cabo. On highway 1, we noticed that the road signs to S. J. del C. sometimes showed contradictory distances. Apparently, sometimes the signs that supposedly showed the distance to S. J. del C. actually showed the distance to Cabo San Lucas, which is farther. Fortunately, the shorter distance was the real one so we turned in our rental car on time. At the airport there was a long line. In our recent travels, we've been pretty lucky with lines. However, this time we had to wait a while. Most of the travelers were large, boisterous, middle-aged men with southern accents. Private security staff with uniforms similar to those of the U.S. TSA screened our luggage.

A young woman had stood in line only to find out that since she had no checked baggage, her wait was unnecessary.

"Shut the fuck up!" she exclaimed to the baggage screener, not as a demand but in a tone that someone else might use to say, "You're kidding me." He just stood there, looking sheepish. Then she cut in front of us in line. We were moving slowly because we had a baby and many bags.

The flight from San Jose del Cabo to Phoenix was crowded. We didn't get an extra seat for John Haley. Because there were so many large gringos on the plane, they had to unload 16 before the plane could take off. Once several people had volunteered, they changed their minds and decided to unload some fuel instead. All this indecision caused us to be about twenty minutes late taking off. It was hot and uncomfortable.

Supposedly, we had a direct flight to Oakland with a "stop" in Phoenix. Apparently to US Airways/America West, a "direct flight" means, get off the plane in Phoenix, go through U.S. Customs, pick up your baggage, go to the ticket counter to find out the status of your flight, go through security again, and then get on a new plane to fly to your destination. Because the plane was late getting into Phoenix, the people at the ticket counter told us that we had missed our flight and that we'd have to take another one, three hours later. We were furious. Despite the fact that we had been told we wouldn't be able to get back on "our" flight, we decided to go to the gate to see if the plane was still there. We hoped maybe we could complain to the people at the gate and maybe get some vouchers for future travel.

I'm reminded of the saying that US Air stands for, "Unfortunately, still Allegheny in reality." Of course they're US Airways now but I think the saying holds true. They're still a regional carrier at heart, and not in a good way: they're still experiencing growing pains becoming an international airline.

When we got to the gate, we told them our names and they said they were holding the plane for us! Apparently in the time it took for us to get from the ticket counter to the gate, they changed their minds and decided we could fly on our original flight. The new plane was much nicer and newer -- a new Airbus A320 rather than an aging Boeing 737. Also, the flight attendants on the new plane were much more competent and helpful than those on the S. J. del C. to Phoenix leg. Nobody was sitting in middle seats between the aisle and the window. We arranged for John Haley to get and extra seat and sit in his car seat -- I took a seat in another part of the plane. After I settled in, I noticed John Haley's Cheerios in my backpack. I gave them to a flight attendant who handed them to Sara.

About halfway through the flight, a flight attendant asked the person sitting next to Sara to move to another aisle seat so I could go sit with my family. That was really nice and made the end of our journey quite pleasant. After Emily picked us up at Oakland airport, we went home and ordered out for pizza.

Cabo Pulmo trip, part four

2006-08-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

It was getting late so we decided to put John Haley down before we grown-ups had dinner. As we were getting ready for bed, I noticed the namesake of my astrological sign on the table. It was small, maybe two inches long, and nearly transparent.

"A scorpion!" I exclaimed. "What do I do?"

"Kill it," replied Sara. I smashed it with the half-full water bottle and it shattered -- scorpion bits flew several feet across the floor. Although later I found out that Sara and others wanted to inspect the scorpion carcass, I thought it would be a good idea to get the (possibly pokey and venomous) scorpion bits off the floor so I picked them up with a paper towel.

Dinner was excellent. Sara made spanish rice and used tequila to marinate tempe for the vegans and steak for the meat eaters. We convinced Bob to be the grill master and he did a great job cooking the steaks.

After dinner, we sat on a second floor deck above our hut and ate cake and talked. I think we went to bed around 11 pm.

The huts at Cabo Pulmo Resort get their electricity from solar panels mounted on some of their roofs. In Cabo Pulmo, it was so hot that we needed to sleep with the fans pointed directly at us. Because Sara had been in the house most of the day, cooking dinner with the fans on, the batteries had not fully charged when the sun was out. At about 1 in the morning, the battery ran out in our hut and our fans stopped. John Haley started fussing immediately when it happened. It was uncomfortably hot and we were worried that John Haley might get heat exhaustion from the extreme temperature and humidity.

Sara went out to find out if the other huts were affected or if the outage only affected us. After a few minutes, she came back and told me that there was power in another hut -- they all had unlocked screen doors and we could get right in. But they didn't have fans there. We'd have to bring the fans from our hut. So we carried John Haley, the Pack and Play, an extra sheet, our pillows, and our fans over to a different hut. In order to not wake up our friends who were sleeping next door to the new hut, we had to go around the back and carry everything over a three foot high beam. We set up the Pack and Play and the fans, put the sheet over the bedspread, replaced the new hut's pillows the our own, and went to back to sleep with one fan pointed at John Haley and another pointed at our bed. When we woke up in the morning, we left no trace.

Cabo Pulmo trip, part three

2006-08-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

It was really hot Friday night and John Haley woke up around three in the morning. After that, I had a hard time getting back to sleep. Sara was kind enough to get up with John Haley Saturday morning so I slept in till around 8 AM. I was feeling kind of down on the trip after that interrupted night's sleep -- it's too hot, why did we go for only two days, et cetera. However, after breakfast and a cup of coffee, I started feeling really good. Sara and I had a great conversation over coffee during John Haley's first nap. He napped till almost noon; we discussed going to Nancy's for lunch but decided on Restaurant Caballero instead. We made the right choice.

Restaurant Caballero is the most "Mexican" of the three Cabo Pulmo restaurants we visited. It has a kind of family feel. An adult and a child were watching music videos at the bar. We were really pleased to see and hear a rooster crowing in the yard next to the patio where we ate. I held John Haley up to see the rooster and recited the line from his book, "The rooster says, 'Cock-a-doodle-doo!'" Sara got a fish burrito sin queso and I got one regular. John Haley had rice and beans and this time they weren't too hot. The woman who took our order explained to us that the beans were made right there, at the restaurant. We all enjoyed our meals.

U.S. residents often have gastrointestinal difficulties when they visit Mexico. Inspired by Carl Franz, I now take the attitude that I'll eat what's put in front of me, enjoy it, and accept the consequences. Fortunately, there was no need for that kind of compromise in Cabo Pulmo. Some of our friends were a little worried about eating local produce uncooked; we all cleaned our plates at Restaurant Caballero, including the salad. I think we could drink water straight from the tap in Cabo Pulmo without fear.

Unlike the other two places in Cabo Pulmo, Restaurant Caballero printed its prices in pesos, which we liked. Cabo Pulmo prices are inflated compared to most of Mexico but still quite reasonable by U.S. standards. I think our dinner on Friday night was 320 pesos plus tip.

After lunch, our friends told us they were going snorkeling and swimming at the "Mermaid Beach," which they said was lovely. Sara wanted to cook the Saturday night dinner and John Haley needed his nap. This dinner, a vegan meal for Lisa and steak for Pete, was her gift to the couple for their bachelor/bachelorette party, which was the occasion for this trip. After about half an hour, I decided to follow our friends over to Mermaid Beach. They told us that there had been a sign but that it was now replaced by a plastic bag. "Look for the plastic bag," they said. "You can't miss it. It's a clear plastic bag."

I set off on my own to Mermaid Beach. It was nice driving down a dirt road in Mexico, all by myself. I finally saw the plastic bag -- it was a very sturdy looking bag on a stick -- after driving about 8 km. I parked near some cattle, right beside to our friends' rented minivan. There were a few people on the beach and in the water. I didn't see our friends but I decided they must be snorkeling somewhere where I couldn't see them. Later, I found out that this wasn't Mermaid Beach after all -- that one was a fifteen minute hike from the place we parked our cars. Nonetheless, Parking Beach was quite pleasant. I stripped down to my swimming trunks and waded in. The bottom at this beach doesn't go down gradually -- rather, it drops suddenly from about 10 inches to three or four feet. Although this dropoff doesn't work for little kids like John Haley, it's fine for adults and it means you don't spend a long time wading into the water.

The waves were very calm and I swam for a while, thinking to myself that this was one of the most pleasant experiences I could remember. The water was warm and everything was just great. Suddenly, I felt a burning sensation on the underside of my left arm. A jellyfish! I shook my arm vigorously, got out of the water and looked at my arm: it was all red from the stings. Clearly it wasn't a very bad sting because I kept on thinking to myself, Does this mean I have to stop swimming? I decided I could keep wading as long as I kept an eye out for more jellyfish. A (gringo) snorkeler had been stung as well. He caught a jellyfish on his goggles and was showing it to people on the beach. I kept wading for another half an hour or so. After swimming in the salty water, I felt cool for the first time since we arrived in Mexico. Although I didn't see any more jellyfish, I did see what I think was a needlefish. It was about 18 inches long, silvery-blue, and moved very fast. I also saw some smaller fish, maybe four or five inches long, darting around in shallow water.

Cabo Pulmo trip, part two

2006-08-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

About 60 kilometers north of San Jose del Cabo, we cut over to the coast on a smaller paved road. Between Las Cuevas and La Ribera, we saw the "Taste" sign that I had seen on Flickr. At La Ribera, we drove south along the coast, first on a small paved road, then on a dirt road for 10K until we came to Cabo Pulmo.

We met Bob, Lisa, Pete, Phil, Shannon, and Syndee at Cabo Pulmo Resort, where we stayed. They were staying in a large beachside unit. We stayed in a smaller "village casita." We thought we were getting a place with two rooms and air conditioning. As it turned out, we had one room and fans -- if we had read the website carefully, we would have learned that there was only one unit with AC and two rooms. Someone else was lucky enough to book that place.

It was dinner time so we thought we'd try Nancy's, one of four restaurants in Cabo Pulmo. Nancy's is supposed to be the gourmet one so we thought we'd have a good chance of getting vegan fare there. Once we sat down, however, we realized that there wasn't much for the vegans except for salad and that wouldn't do. So we left and ate at the Coral Reef, which is above the office at Cabo Pulmo Resort. We got rice and beans for John Haley but the beans were too spicy so he just ate rice. I had shrimp, which was pretty good. Unfortunately, there were a lot of flies buzzing around us as we ate our dinner and drank Negra Modelo.

During dinner, we tried to get John Haley to say, "Mexico," by chanting it to him over and over again (pronouncing the "xi" part like "hee"). We did succeed in getting him to say, "Meh meh meh," but he wouldn't go past "Meh."

I got some nice photos of the sunset over the hills.

After dinner, we set up the baby monitor in our casita, put John Haley in his Pack and Play (it has a tarp with mosquito netting, which was great) and sat with our friends for a while. Although it was hot, the beach and sea were lovely. I prepared myself for a day of doing almost nothing.

Cabo Pulmo trip, part one.

2006-08-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a whirlwind two and a half day trip to Cabo Pulmo, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Our flight from Oakland was at 6 AM so we left home at 3:30 in the morning -- our friend Emily, who was visiting from out of town, drove us there in our car. Although we didn't buy a seat for fourteen month old John Haley, we brought the car seat with us and we were lucky enough to get an extra seat for him on the first two legs of the trip. I have become quite fast at strapping the car seat into a coach class airline seat. We flew US Airways, which is in the process of merging with America West: the flight to San Jose del Cabo was uneventful. As we were descending over the southern Baja peninsula, I was surprised by how lush the vegetation looked. Although the ground was quite light colored and looked rather arid, there was a lot of bright green ground cover, along with large cacti. The San Jose del Cabo airport did not have an enclosed jetway -- rather, we walked down metal stairs, on to the tarmac, where it was very hot, and right into a long line of gringos waiting to go through Mexican customs.

In Mexico they love babies so a nice immigration official waved us over to a line for Mexicans and we got to go right past the long line of tourists. There was only one person ahead of us. We were a little nervous about getting through customs because Sara had packed some vegan food to make dinner on Saturday night (Lisa is vegan, as is another of the guests, and Sara doesn't eat dairy, egg, or terrestrial meat). I teased Sara about bringing chili powder to Mexico. A porter helped us get our bags to the rental car shuttle; they don't have smarte cartes at the S. J. del C. airport. We tipped him in dollars.

We rented a car from Alamo -- a Nissan Tsuru, which looks like a Sentra from the early 90s. Although it cost nine dollars a day, we opted for the $30/day full coverage insurance because our credit card doesn't cover rental cars more than 50 miles south of the border. Someone from Alamo helped us get our bags in the trunk (everyone wanted to help us with our bags) and we put John Haley's car seat in the back. Then we set off for the Soriana supermarket. However, we noticed that the car wasn't getting any cooler and it was quite hot outside. We turned around and then thought it might be getting better. Then we turned back towards the highway and then we decided it wasn't getting any better so we turned around once more.

We told the people from Alamo and someone came out to verify that the AC wasn't working. Then a more senior member of the staff came out to verify that the AC wasn't working. They decided to give us an identical Tsuru whose AC functioned properly. So we were off. Our first stop was the giant Soriana supermarket in San Jose del Cabo.

I was quite impressed by this Wal-Mart-sized market. Since my only previous experience of Mexico was a few days in the city of Chihuahua in 1997, I had expected everything to seem a bit more . . . well, Mexican. This place clearly had a strong Californian influence. Sara went to a bank in the same shopping center and exchanged our dollars for pesos. The exchange rate right now is roughly ten to one, which is easy to remember. She got a slightly better rate at the bank, however, close to eleven to one. Since most restaurants and stores that take dollars use the short hand of "ten to one," we avoided paying a de facto gringo premium by using pesos.

We left San Jose del Cabo, driving north on highway One, a well-maintained two-lane highway that I'm told connects with its namesake in California, U.S.A. I took a few pictures of the lush roadside vegetation.

Guest Post on Comfort Kitchen

2006-05-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

Today I have a guest post on my sister's food blog, Comfort Kitchen. It's about the two coffee cakes that I made for my wife's first Mother's Day. Although I have little experience with baking, they turned out well. I corrected the mistakes of the first cake with my second attempt.

San Francisco almost blew away tonight

2006-02-27T23:04:00.000-08:00

Creak! Crackle!

"What was that?"

It was the typical rush that happens when we think it's an earthquake. I got in the doorway and wondered if I should go in the baby's room and grab him.

The noise subsided and picked up again.

"I think it was thunder," I said.

"No, the house shook," Sara explained. "I definitely felt it."

"Well, I didn't feel it in the study. It must be the wind."

I went back to work.

Creak! Crackle! Shudder.

This time, I felt it. Then the power flickered.

On the news tonight we heard that wind gusts of 98 mph were recorded at Angel Island (in the San Francisco Bay). It's like a hurricane out there!

Technorati tags: wind, weather, California, San Francisco

Weird (probably illegal) telemarketing call

2006-01-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

Got a phone call today from "Unknown Caller." I picked up the phone.

Pause.

"Please call Lamar at 1-800-xxx-xxxx. Please call Lamar at 1-800-xxx-xxxx."

Uh, WTF? Who's Lamar? I didn't have time to jot down the number but if he calls again, I'm going to report him as a Do Not Call List violator.

Sleep schedules

2005-10-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

"My circadian rhythms are set for late nights," writes mysillyvalley.

After years of experimentation, I have figured out that I'm most productive between 4 AM and noon. Because I have few interruptions before 6, the hours between 4 and 6 AM are super productive for me, if I'm awake. When I was in college, I used to try to get access to those hours "the hard way," by staying up late. Now that I'm a grown up person and somebody's Dad, I get up early in the morning. These days, it's not unusual for me to wake up around 4 and stay up.

Babies know they're kids

2005-10-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

This probably comes as no surprise to most parents but it's news to me. I'm discovering that John Haley (our four-month old) knows he's a child. The other day when we were in the doctor's office, he kept looking over at a two year old, obviously aware that he had something in common with the other small person. Also, I've noticed that he likes children's music! I didn't think he really cared about music one way or the other but it turns out he really enjoys the one album of kids' standards that we have.

Clear air

2005-10-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

The air was remarkably clear yesterday morning as I was bicycling to work. Although I would have loved to have documented it somehow, I don't know how to take good pictures in midday lighting. Even if I did, would the clarity show up in a photograph?

I should put "learn to take good pictures" in my 43things!

Lethargy

2005-09-13T11:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a migraine and I'm feeling a little out of it today. It is very rare that I have so little energy. What does it mean to feel out of energy? I seem to be able to type and to get non-physical work done. And actually, now that I think of it, I did ride my bike to work today, so I'm getting physical work done too. So I guess it's just a feeling. Jorge Aigla (my karate teacher from college) says, "Pain is a sensation. It is not an emotion." Maybe lethargy is just a feeling not reflected in outward-facing reality. But then again, other people can probably see it in my face.

Travels with Boo Boo

2005-09-01T12:02:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we drove to L.A. with our two-month old son John Haley. Traveling with a little baby isn't anywhere near as easy as going on a road trip alone or with another grown-up. For one thing, there's the matter of diapers. Warning: detailed descriptions of a child's excreta follow. Normally, we use cloth diapers. We love Kissaluvs because they're really easy to put on and take off, they fit nicely, and they almost never leak shit or piss. However, we didn't really have a good way of dealing with cloth diapers on our trip to L.A. so we used paper diapers. This is basically a new experience for us. We used paper diapers in the hospital right after Boo Boo was born. Also, we sometimes put John Haley in paper diapers when we're out of the house. However, 95% of the time, J.H. is wrapped in fuzzy cloth with a nice woolen cover.

Paper diapers are nowhere near as easy to deal with as cloth. For one thing, we thought we could go longer without changing them. This was not true. What actually happens is that the baby doesn't notice when he's wet. This means that if you don't check his diaper frequently, it saturates and accidents happen. When this happens, you have wet baby clothes and often wet grown-up clothes too.

John Haley hates his car seat. If he's in the car seat, he's either fussing or sleeping. The sleeping part would be nice, except that he's already a good sleeper. Taking long naps during the day just messes up his nighttime schedule. Although the naps make driving easier, we tried to stop fairly often to feed and change our boy. All in all, I do not recommend long car trips with a baby as young as John Haley. We're traveling to Tahoe in a week. That might be easier, both because it is a shorter trip and because we'll have another grown-up in the car.

When we got to L.A., we were pretty tired. We stayed in the Hilton Checkers, right in the heart of downtown. On our first night there, we ordered room service, which was expensive but fun. Sara had salmon; I had chicken. Room service works very well for out of towners who have a small baby, since it's hard for us to go anywhere. Although we ate at the hotel restaurant once, we almost never left the hotel. In fact, we only went three places while we were in town: the hotel, the wedding, and the reception.

When you stay in a big downtown hotel, you have to pay everybody. You have to pay the valet for parking your car. You have to pay the bellman for pushing your luggage up to your room. When you get room service, a 19% gratuity is included in the bill. Nonetheless, the bill contains a blank line for "gratuity." Is that for extra tips? Why don't they just pay their employees enough in the first place?

The wedding was in a small, intimate chapel in a large Presbyterian church. Unfortunately, the wedding started about fifty minutes late: some family members got stuck in L.A. traffic on their way to the service. John Haley was really calm and quiet when the wedding was supposed to happen but started to get antsy as it actually got underway.

The reception was really nice. David (the groom) and I went to college together and I was happy to catch up with Melinda, another old friend from St. John's. For much of the reception, I carried a rather entranced John Haley around the dance floor and lobby. I grabbed all of the fish and vegetable appetizers I could find (Sara doesn't eat egg, dairy, or terrestrial meat). Although the dinner was good, I was glad I stocked up on appetizers (including a very yummy shrimp with gazpacho) for Sara: she could eat only green beans and bread. We left early, although not as early as you might think, considering our condition.

On the trip back, there was an accident on I-5 and the highway was closed. We didn't get off at the exit they recommended so we had to sit on the highway with the other idiots, baby fussing. Even after we exited the highway, we ended up sitting in traffic for over a half an hour. Note to self: if the signs say to get off at a certain exit, follow their instructions.

Bugs in the new Caltrain schedule

2005-08-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

They seem to be working the bugs out of the new Caltrain schedule. For the first couple of weeks, most trains arrived late, particularly on the weekends. I usually ride the "express trains" because they stop at both of my stops, Sunnyvale and 22nd St. Although the train makes very few stops north of San Carlos, south of that city, it makes all regular weekday stops (no trains stop at Atherton on weekdays). Because of this mixed schedule, long and short distance commuters are riding on the same train for the first part of my northbound commute.

The long distance commuters, as a general rule, tend to be very efficient about putting their bicycles on the racks on the bike car. If we're all going to the same place (e.g. 22nd St.), we put our bikes on the same rack. We all have the proper tags indicating what stop we're going to.

Probably because they don't spend much time on the train, some of the short distance commuters do not observe the same bicycle etiquette that the long distance commuters are accustomed to. Many of them don't have tags on their bikes. They do not organize their bikes in a way that makes it easy for commuters at later stops to board. Of course, some short distance commuters are very thoughtful and some long distance commuters are clueless. But in general, the longer the commute, the more thought is given to the organized placement of bicycles.

I wonder if there is an optimal placement for each bike based on boarding location and destination.

Because of this chaotic environment, the trains are often late, cyclists are often denied boarding on commuter trains, and the conductors sometimes get into arguments with passengers. I hear the complaint, "Five bikes to a rack!" quite often lately. Because I board at Sunnyvale and few cyclists are on the train that far south, I have not been bumped yet. I expect things will get a little less chaotic as the weather gets cooler and wetter.

Los Angeles

2005-08-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

We're driving to L.A. this weekend for a friend's wedding. I'm nervous about the trip, mostly because I don't like being in a car. Sara's better behind the wheel than I am and I think she'll probably do most of the driving. I'll sit in back, watching Boo Boo.

L.A. tends to be vilified because it represents suburban sprawl, pollution, consumerism and conspicuous consumption, and other ills. However, I've always had fun there. It's so big, I barely feel like I know the place. I don't think I would want to live there. Would it be possible to live my almost car-free life in L.A.? They say nobody walks there. I miss Potrero Hill already.

Caffeine

2005-08-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

I have been tapering off my coffee intake for the past several days. Yesterday I hit a low of about half a cup total (a quarter of a cup in the morning, a quarter of a cup after noon). I don't know if it was lack of sleep last night, waking up at 3:30 AM this morning to change Boo Boo, boredom, or just plain ol' psychological addiction but I couldn't keep up the virtuousness today. I walked over to Le Boulanger in Cupertino at about 10:30 this morning, ordered a double espresso and a fat-laden breakfast sandwich, sat on the overstuffed chair, and pretended I was in Paris. Oddly enough, the people behind me in the cafe were speaking French.

Whoosh! It was like putting Drano through the pipes of my mind. Three blog posts (the other two are on their way) appeared in my head as I was walking back from the coffee shop. It takes about twenty minutes before I actually start feeling high on caffeine. This delay probably encourages overconsumption of coffee. I intentionally avoid big mugs because I don't think it makes sense to drink a lot of coffee at once. A cup of coffee is five or six ounces. That's a little more than half of a standard mug. If you drink much more than a cup at a time, you're really just applying an irritant to your stomach.

I still think it's a good idea to keep the overall caffeine consumption low (maybe one cup a day total) but these little espresso breaks now and then are a treat.

New trains

2005-08-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

With Sara's help, I managed to get out the door in time to make the 6:49 train from 22nd St. to Sunnyvale this morning. The new Caltrain schedule should improve my commute somewhat. Caltrain has added "baby bullet" trains and local/express hybrids to its schedule. The hybrid "limited" trains run about 10 minutes faster than they did before today. I did notice that there was only one bike car on my morning train. In the past, there has often been two. Although bike car was about 2/3 full, I expect fewer early morning riders once people get used to the new schedule.

The new trains are faster on the way home, too. If I leave work at 4:30, I should be home by 6 PM.

Technorati tags: public transit, trains, commuting

The other Nhoj blog

2005-04-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

I guess this is the catchall Nhoj blog: the place for things I write that aren't stream-of-consciousness enough for Mental Compost but aren't political enough for Nhoj News or Into Future. We'll see how things develop.