Category: lil’ chino

the coming spawn

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this is sabbatical


Today I had the day to myself; well, Keaton and I, that is. Let me tell you, today was “sabbatical.” My time alone with Keaton this morning embodied everything I fantasized about before leaving for this nine week vacation. I rose early and showered, prepared for the day, and bid farewell to Sharaun and our houseguests as they departed on a sightseeing trip to San Francisco. Keaton and I had made plans to go to the park, and I leisurely readied her diaper bag and stroller. After some sunscreen for her and I (a bright, overly-warm sunny day today in northern California), we set off on the mile-ish walk to the closest public park. I brought along my iPod for the trip, set on random, but kept the volume low enough to converse with Keaton along the way: “Truck!,” she’d say. “That’s right,” I’d reply, “That’s a truck!” “Plane!,” she’d exclaim. “You’re right,” I’d confirm, “That’s a plane you’re hearing.” It went on like this: “tree,” “rock,” “car,” and, eventually, “slide!”

I was the sole dad at the park, and we had walked right into a local “mom’s group” who had convened there for a “playdate.” This thing is quite common among the stay-at-homes, I’ve come to learn. At first, there was some hesitation, but soon the matrons accepted me into the fold – and we were all conversing as we watching the children play. We exchanges ages, talked about language development and diet, and fawned over the cuteness of our collective brood. It was fun, actually, and I could all of the sudden see myself perhaps enjoying being a stay-at-home Mr. Mom. Now, in reality I’m much to selfish for such a job – but it was fun to entertain the thought.

We stayed at the playground for an hour or so, sliding on slides, playing in sand, and running around in the mulch. It was on the walk back home, though, that things really began to sink in. Thinking to myself, I wondered: was it Thursday?, no, maybe… Wednesday? Ahhh… who cares anyway, look at that blue sky! Here I am, walking home from spending an hour at the park with my daughter, and I have nothing to do at all for the rest of the day. In fact, I can read my book, maybe write a little, but most of all lounge around on the couch listening to the “Deep Tracks” channel I love so much on XM. Whatever I want, that’s what I’m gonna do; Nothing, that’s what I have to do. Feed Keaton some chicken and broccoli and put her down for a nap. Man it’s a beautiful day… this truly is what sabbatical must be all about. I think it’s finally sunk in. And, friends, the real loveliness of this is that, as I sit here today, I’m not even to the halfway point. Still plenty of loafing to do.

Anyway, here are some images of our daddy/daughter trip to the park today. I took Ben’s advice and used a new kind of WordPress plugin, so the below images are kinda fancy-like (g’head, click on ’em and see for yourself). Not sure if I like it, lemme know if you have some feedback.

I actually think it’s pretty slick, no? Yeah, it took me about an hour to get WordPress 2.3 installed and fiddle with the new plugin. Anyway, it’s tough because it’s so sweet, but I don’t want to completely abandon my Coppermine gallery install – where all my pictures have traditionally lived up until this point. We’ll have to see how well I like this style before I decide to do any mass migration. Enough, nerd talk, yes?

I originally had another bunch of paragraphs after this one, all on a completely different topic – but decided to cut them out and use them later in the week. So, as of now, I’m officially ending this post. Peace out and I’ll holler at you later. Time to go read my book and perhaps catch a nap coincident with the baby.

See ya.

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keaton gets the spirit


Today was our day at Disney, and let me just say that it was awesome. I haven’t been to the “Magic Kingdom” since graduating high school (it was our school-endorsed “sober” celebration), but have fond memories of the handful of times I’d been as a kid and young adult. Disney is a theme park done right: It’s clean, it runs like a well-oiled machine, and whatever you decide you may need or want never seems more than a short walk away.

The day was just about as hot as I believe physically possible. I was covered in a sheen of sweat from the moment we parked until the moment we un-parked, and, at times, the sweat poured off me in round droplets, plopping to the ground. My shirt clung moist to my back, and I sucked down water at each passing fountain. However, defying the many potential frustration factors: The stroller, the extra gear, and walking around in the ninth canto of Hell, we both actually sailed through the day with permanent smiles. We worked as a team, handing-off and taking turns and sharing, and the entire day was stress-free and enjoyable (a rarity for me, if you know how I can sometimes react to “doing things”).

Anyway, I got to thinking that I should really start learning to stomach walking around under the blazing sun – as I’ll be doing a week-solid of it come Monday when Anthony and I hit the Muir Trail.

Back to the story… Originally, I was unsure what, if any, enjoyment Keaton would be able to get out of the trip – still being a baby and all. Turns out, though, that she had a great time. Although we only stayed for little more than half the day, we were able to get on almost all my favorite rides. We hit Pirates, the Jungle Cruise, the Dumbo thing, Small World, and Peter Pan. Keaton absolutely loved It’s A Small World (yeah, I know it’s technically not supposed to be capitalized). In fact, her reaction was so awesome that I started tearing up watching her smile and clap and sing along nonsense words as she sat on my lap. She got a little scared on Pirates and the Dumbo ride, and seemed relatively indifferent on Peter Pan and the Jungle Cruise. By the end of the day, she was plum tuckered out – and wilted away into her stroller for our final walk down mainstreet to the monorail home.

Leaving, Sharaun said, “I feel like we had such a great ‘family day’ today, right?” And we did; it was awesome.

Tomorrow we fly home. I don’t look forward to the flight, but I am ready to get back to the homestead – even if briefly before the big hike.

Goodnight.

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no post today, just pictures

A busy weekend, just a little too beer-soaked for my tastes – but good despite. So, I didn’t get to write. However, you can click the image below to be taken to a fresh batch of Keaton pictures at her gallery.

Happy Independence Day from Keaton (and family)!

Enjoy!

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teenage freerange


I had planned on doing absolutely nothing Sunday in celebration of Father’s Day, but I ended up going on a do-nothing bender and wasting the whole weekend on the couch. The iPod stayed on shuffle, and I napped when Keaton napped – it was pure bliss. Saturday night we pondered renting a movie, and ended up downloading a pirated cam-copy of the new “Knocked Up,” kinda like a parent’s night out – but in. Y’know, we’d’ve paid $10 to watch it on-demand, I think – if the cable and movie industry teamed up to do first-run in the home. Could be a viable business model for young parents, older folks, and the generally shut-in or social-phobic. Duh.

But anyway, Sunday morning I woke to Sharaun carrying Keaton into the room with a card in her hand. “Can you give the card to daddy?,” she asked, and Keaton dutifully handed it over. Then, I was asked what I’d like for breakfast (I requested banana-walnut pancakes, since I was asked), and it was whipped up for me while I got ready. Sounds nice, right? ‘Twas. So, let’s keep going.

Really enjoyed reading this short article online the other day, reminded me of all the roaming I used to do as a kid. Sometimes, when I recall to Sharaun some of the journeys my pre-teen friends and I underwent, she’s amazed that our parents let us be as freerange as we were. As pre-driving kids – we were borderline feral. We’d range across the town on foot and by bike, at all hours – sometimes with parental blessing, sometimes without. I don’t think the level of paranoia was there like it is today, and that was only eighteen or so years ago. I can remember being in 7th grade, which would make me about thirteen years old, riding our bikes from our sleepy little riverside burg over the the causeway onto “the island” – a long ride even by my adult brain’s standards today. Once there, we were far enough removed from our own stomping grounds to feel independent and important. Plus, there was a fireworks store there that not only flaunted Florida law by selling the good stuff (firecrackers, bottlerockets, etc.) out of small room in back, but that also had no qualms selling to kids, as long as the money was green. We’d ride the eight or so miles in the moist-furnace of Florida heat, stop at Wendys for a Frosty, pick up a bundle of ladyfingers from the secret stash in back (all you had to do was ask), and take them over to the mall across the street to light a run of ’em and toss ’em in the womens’ bathroom.

Sometimes when we’re home visiting Sharaun’s family and we drive over that causeway, I’ll look to the skinny little strip of paint-cordoned concrete on our right where we used to ride and wonder at not getting killed. Not only did we ride, we walked. I can remember, one day, having walked up to the store for kicks. While there, we’d sneakily swithed the stick-on pircetag (before UPC) from a cheap piece of beef jerky to cover the pricier tag of a “10ft beefstick,” effectively stealing it for pennies on the dollar. As we walked home, we split into groups of two on either side of the narrow lane, each holding (and occasionally gnawing on) one end of the massive meat-rope as we stretched it across the road. Seeing a car approaching in the distance, we waited until the last minute to yank our snack-slash-toy out of harm’s way. Turned out that, in that car was my dad. Here we were, four thirteen year old boys, miles from home and on foot, trying to clothesline automobiles with a few yards of spun beef – and my dad didn’t bat an eye. He slowed, said hello, and was on his way, allowing us to find whatever trouble we could as we trudged the remaining miles homeward. The independence that we felt was liberating, and allowed us to get mixed up in all sorts of shady goings-on – and I consider that independence as a key part of my youth.

Today, though, my initial tendency is to keep my kid close. I’m going to do my best, though, to afford her the freedom she’ll need to get the same kind of independent growth that my friends and I did (minus the beer, pyromania, and weed, of course).

Goodnight.

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home alone


Today Sharaun and I reached a parenting milestone, although, we admittedly reached it long before I thought we would. See, today, we left Keaton at home alone for the first time. Now, before you go calling up CPS, let me elaborate. Sharaun usually heads to the gym early in the morning for an early morning “spin” class (not being a gym kinda guy myself, I imagine this is a Grateful Dead concert style dance class for women in long flowy bohemian skirts). Also important to let you know: Sharaun locks her keys in the car all the time.

Now, with those two pieces of knowledge, you can better appreciate my story. So, Sharaun leaves the house around 5:30am or something for spin class, I’m merrily sleeping – dreaming Natalie Portman is feeding me Pizza Rolls in her underwear (a.k.a. foreplay). ‘Round about quarter-to-seven, my foggy brain thinks it’s hearing a knock-knock-knock at the front door – I groggily dismiss as an auditory hallucination. Couple seconds later and the knocking is back, now loud and unmistakable. I climb out of bed and peer through the peephole: Sharaun. I open the door and retreat behind it so as to hide my unbridled magnificence from the world at large.

“Hey,” I say. “Hey,” she says. “What happened,” I ask. “I’m screwed,” she replies, “I locked my keys in my car.” “Mmm… and you’ve been using your spare key, so you really are screwed,” I concur. “Yeah,” she says, “I’m totally screwed.” “How’d you get here,” I ask. “Susie dropped me off.” “Huh, that was nice,” I say. I then head off to the shower, while Sharaun makes an audible vow to redouble her key-finding efforts. Over the past couple weeks, she’s dumped out and sorted, archaeologist style, through Keaton’s toy bin multiple times. She’s pulled off all the couch cushions twice, poked around under couches and even ruled out odd locations like the garage, bathrooms, and the fridge – all with no results. At this point I’m not too worried. Worst case, I figure as I shower, she puts Keaton in the stroller and walks several miles to the gym to call AAA (on a payphone, because her cellphone is also locked in her car.. with her keys) to come open the door.

But, it never got to worst case – Sharaun walked into the bathroom before I could even hit the showers proudly holding out her found keys in front of her, beaming. “Where were they?,” I asked. “In the couch, where I’ve looked a hundred times,” she replied, “But deep in the crack, way up in there.” “That’s good,” I say. All’s right with the world, right?

“How am I going to get to my car?,” she asks. “We’ll have to leave Keaton here,” I say. At the time, Keaton is still sound asleep in her bed – probably dreaming about Job feeding her Cheerios, or something. “Can we do that?,” she asked. “Well, what else can we do, she’s still asleep,” I say.

And so, I threw on some shorts and a t-shirt and grabbed my wallet and keys and we took off. And, for about five minutes, Keaton ruled the roost – manned the castle. Now, I don’t know if this makes us bad parents… or if I could get in trouble for writing it here, but she seemed to survive OK without us.

And, in the end Sharaun found her lost keys.

Oh hey, check this neato little “invention” out.

Goodnight.

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the jostling thousands


Good Wednesday evening to you folks – had a good, but slow, day (work-wise, at least). I think people must still be on vacation or something, as the flow of e-mail was low-low-low (cue car salesman voice). It’s OK though, because the work part of my day is over and Keaton was looking cuuuuute when I got home. And now, I’m reclined on the couch typing. Spent some time putting up some new pictures from our Memorial Day weekend camping trip, mostly of Keaton. You can check them out by visiting her gallery here. Hope you enjoy ’em.

This weekend is the Arcade Fire show in Berkeley. We’ve got a huge entourage of ten peoples going, from the music-nuts to the casual fans to the relatively uninitiated. We had considered renting a minibus/van thing to all caravan down together, but several calls to every rental agency in the area turned up nothing. No worries though… we’ll figure it out. I’m excited, if a little worried about trying to get a decent spot among the jostling thousands (a capacity sellout, around eight-thousand) packed into the 100% general-admission venue. Recent setlists look extremely promising, and the band have been planning some super-cool afterparties at local venues. Not that I think us almost-adults would entertain the idea of heading out to a club after the show (we’re old as balls these days)… but a guy can pretend.

I just don’t have anything more to write… Goodnight.

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sated, buzzed, and sweaty


A three-day weekend spent communing with nature. Three days with dirty feet and dusty skin, greasy hair and smelly clothes; three days spent sated, buzzed, and sweaty.

I had a great time… lounging in the sun, swimming in the river, drinking around the fire, and taking a couple small hikes (4mi and 3mi, respectively) as a family. Keaton enjoyed herself too, and was a great little camper. We arrived midday Friday and broke camp bright and early Monday morning, bellies full of that camping staple – breakfast burrito ala Coleman stove. We were home by 10am, car unpacked and cooler emptied by 11. The rest of the afternoon consisted of trawling for new holiday weekend leaks (some good stuff too, the new Architecture in Helsinki, the new Polyphonic Spree, and the new Paul McCartney), and an afternoon nap. All in all I came away better for it, my only injuries being somewhat sore legs from our short hikes and some painful little nicks on my fingers from trying to open a Newcastle with a rock.

The first harvest of my first foray into gardening is nigh. This weekend, I counted a whopping fifty-nine green tomatoes (several different varieties), at least a few of which are big enough that I figure they’ll be reddening up soon. My corn stalks are all averaging about 2ft-3ft tall and look healthy, and I would’ve had a nice handful of strawberries by now had the dang birds not carried every stinking one away just before they were pickin’-ripe. Of all the things I planted, only the peppers have fared poorly. They’re growing, but they’re just slow… still tiny and seemingly stalled out as seedlings – some have been completely destroyed by some sort of pest, chewed through at the base. I’ve decided I’m going to dig up their squares and plant pre-grown peppers instead – I’m cheating.

I’m seriously considering changing webhosts, StartLogic’s performance has been on a steady decline for about a year now – and I’m wondering if they’re just overburdened and can’t keep up with the business. If I do switch, there’ll likely be a spotty transition period while the domains transfer and I attempt to setup all my major subpages again (a little worried about having to restore my blog and gallery…). Anyway, I sent this note to my current host today:

Subject: Database-reliant pages continue to be EXTREMELY slow

Hi there,

This is the 3rd time I’ve mailed about slow performance on all my database-reliant pages, but the load-times continue to get worse. Lately, I get timeout errors more often than not – making my pages nearly unusable.
Is there some concrete answer you can give me about this? At your suggestion, I’ve done many things to try and alleviate the slowdown:

  • Reviewed all my code for efficiency in database calls
  • Randomized database calls from a pool of all available users
  • Removed any high-load code

If I can’t get some increased performance, or if the answer is “upgrade to a higher-price plan,” I’ll be honest and say I’ll likely defect to a more reliable host.

Hope you can help me out – thanks.

We’ll see what happens. Sorry for the geek-talk.

I think that’s enough for tonight. I did upload a bunch of new Keaton pictures from our weekend outing – but I’ve not put them in a public gallery yet as I want to wait for some images from other cameras that were on-the-scene to get ’em all in one batch. Goodnight folks.