Monday, December 31, 2012

Homeward Bound

We're back home now. The jet lag, they say, is a lot easier coming West, but the winds aren't. What took us 14 hours on the way out was closer to 17 on the way back, about 7 of which The Dragon Boss spent on my chest, mostly sleeping, but also burrowing his face into my buttons and swinging it back and forth every ten or so minutes, or every time I moved the slightest bit, which couldn't have been all that restful.

Baleen slept most of the flight, thankfully, as our teamwork meant I got the plane, she got the first day back, as it's been about 36 hours since I last slept. I watched a little of the movie on the plane as that's all the space would allow.

It's going to be a quiet New Year's Eve here in the Mission suburbs. We're trying as hard as we can to stay up past 7pm and Baleen's found just the cure, Lena Dunham's Girls. Season 1 is on iTunes and rather than reflect about all the great events in 2012, recent and over 9 months old now, we're just going to watch a few 20-somethings struggling to grow up in Brooklyn.

Friday, December 28, 2012

The Alps

The Dragon Boss took his first trip to Neuschwanstein yesterday as all 9 month old children should, skipping in and out of Austria along the way to make it three countries he's visited though, thanks to Jean Monnet, his passport only shows two.

He saw Pumpkin arrive, as welcome is too strong a word, because though he came bearing gifts of pecans, chocolate and an English duck, TDB still hasn't smiled at the dark-haired man.

Papa, Uncle Margarine and I treated him a little better, though, as we got what will most likely be our final day of skiing in today, at Garmisch-Classic. We spent most of the day on the famous Kandahar run that goes from near the top of the mountain all the way into town. The 770 meter elevation drop, spread over 3km of trail, took us from heavy snow on top to rain at the very bottom, which made for some very tired legs, forcing first Papa, despite his lunch of animal lard on schwarzbrot and then the 3 of us to call it a day just before the last lift closed.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Christmas

We set up Secret Santas for Christmas, ensuring that the gifts under the tree didn't bankrupt us from their undiscounted price and for the fees we'd have to pay United to cart it all back home, but those rules didn't apply to The Dragon Boss. Everybody was to give him a gift with instructions not to scrimp on the wrapping paper, according to Marmee. Oh, the joys of the inverted pyramid, where two generations are all focused on one little offspring.

Breakfast and presents took us to just about noon - TDB doesn't yet display the urgency or ability in unwrapping Christmas presents that he'll soon develop - and we headed out to the Ski Jump for an Uncle Margarine led walk up to the Partenkirchen Gorge, rebranded as the Ski Stadion excursion when we learned the Gorge was closed due to ice.

The real gift came at dinner, deep into downtown Parternkirchen, the town where Uncle Margarine isn't welcome, he says. There was tradtional Bavarian dancing, Bavarian music, and, even more traditional, big Bavarian beers, pear schnapps, and copious amounts of pork and potatoes. Styles change slightly over time, too, with dirndl hemlines rising and falling an inch here or there, or lederhosen reaching below the knee, but what nobody was prepared for, and everybody loved, was the 6 foot, big bosomed transvestive brought in to play the Christmas bells.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Papa's Birthday

The mountains are for alpine activity. Even if you don't have own a bobsled or have access to the ski jump, there's downhill and cross-country. With the snow level rising all the way to 2,000 meters in the warm weather, that just left the Zugspitz, with its 40cm of new snow and one way up the mountain, the Zugspitzbahn, once an hour with stops at Garmisch, Kreuzeck, a few other places, and, lastly, Grainau.

For Papa's birthday, one of the last notable ones where you and I now bear the cost of his medical care, there was the annual cross-country race, but in less competitive circumstances. Papa was a little sick, Uncle Margarire was in lawyer shape, Baleen told us she'd take care of the Dragon Boss and meet us along the course, and Aunt Wizzie and Marmee weren't in danger of winning. So Shrimp Jr and I decided to be social, skiing with the group and then away from them, but finishing next to each other after doing an additional loop to Untergrainau.

Tomorrow's Christmas. Hopefully we've got another few years of TDB sleeping through the night before he's banging on our doors at 5am telling us not to shower and to, Get out here, NOW.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Munich, x2

It's been a house of 6 for the first 4 nights, just Papa and Marmee down in the dungeon, The Dragon Boss, Aunt Shrimp Jr, and Baleen and me on the second floor, but we all piled back in the Ford for the trip to Munich to pick up Uncle Margarine and Aunt Wizzie.

The weather's warmed due to some massive cold front over Russia, keeping the warm air over us, which means we'll have to travel higher for snow, maybe above 2,000 meters, eliminating Lermoos. It also means that the famous Munich Chriskindlmarkt is soggy.


It also means that Baleen, TDB and I will be taking the train home, leaving our spots for aunts, uncles and their luggage, and that we'll get to see if TBD loves the train as much as his dad does.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Nights, Interrupted

Let's not talk about the nights, they've been active for all 3 of us, and anybody else who wakes up at the sound of The Dragon Boss' cries, the attending footsteps, or the clatter in the kitchen as we preapre a bottle, except to say they've been manageable and within expectations, especially considering TBD's parents have had extreme jet lag, too, waking up at 2am on our own each morning, the difference being we can recognize what's happening and why it is we're in an unfamiliar room.


Let's talk about the days, like cross-country skiing from Garmisch to Grainau to Obergrainau, all the while the Zugspitz appearing larger and larger, until we turned around and it got smaller and smaller.

Or the drive into Austria to ski Lermoos, still within sight of the Zugspitz, where Baleen kept up her consecutive streak of goulash lunches, two, going on three, in 20 cm of new snow.


Or the kilograms of pork and knudlen we've consumed on our first three nights, all of which TDB has shared with us from a high chair at the table, a new and welcome experience for the parents of a child with a 9:30pm bedtime. 9:30 to about 2:30am, that is.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Deutschland

We're here. Deutschland, that is, after 14 hours on 2 planes, the second of which was Lufthansa with meals that one likes to eat, and the bulkhead middle row of 4 adults, 3 babies and 7 pacifiers.

The contained space was tough for The Dragon Boss and his parents, not in the predictable way, that he was one of those babies who wouldn't stop crying from wheels up to wheels down, but like you've just pulled an all nighter preparing for a midterm, then slipped on the ice on the way out of the auditorium and been told by the doctor that you have to stay awake for the next 12 hours. TDB just didn't stop moving.

But we're here, TDB has his first stamp, we've gone straight from Munich to the mountains, and we're ready for the first night's challenge: baby jet lag.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Gute Fahrt

It sounds better when the French say it, Bon Voyage, but we're not going to Chamonix. It's Garmisch, or if you're from Germany, Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Try and spell that without looking.

It's held the Winter Olympics, back in 1936, and almost in 1940 before the IOC wisened up, and we intend to do some skiing there. A lot of it, in fact, as long as Marmee and Papa, already there and telling us how cold it is, don't mind babysitting while the sun's still up (and just before it rises if it's looking like a powder day).

But with the weather as cold as it is - and we can translate Celsuis to Fahrenheit, it's still cold - The Dragon Boss needed a little more protection. So we went back to Patagonia and 600 count goose down for the little guy. We promise not to make him wear it on the plane on Sunday, just almost every day thereafter.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The Bay

There's a lot of evenings at home now with The Dragon Boss, but if you want to meet for an early breakfast, say around 7am, we'll be there. Our Saturday social schedule has moved up about 5 hours. No more brunches at noon.

And when the weather's nice, especially when it isn't supposed to be, like in mid-December, and just after it's been bad, we'll be out. It's for Baleen and me, really, as TDB might just like to stay home and crawl on anything in sight, but we need a little sunshine and something more to do than see what's on Hulu.

Plus, Cooper said he wanted to see TDB and we hadn't been to the Marina in ages and when we were last there, we certainly hadn't gotten a picture on a day like this.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Commuter's Choice

There's a new twist to my evening commute home. Where I used to turn off Market onto Valencia from the left of the three lanes, jumping across two lanes of traffic with all the other bikers, the city has put in a turn lane and a light just for bikers.

There's a catch though. To make a left you've got to make a right as it's a jug-handle turn, as Dario's dad and anybody esle from New Jersey who's driven down Route 1 trying to make a left hand turn will know.

The other catch is that it takes longer, first by waiting out the light at Valencia in the bike lane and then becuase by waiting all but a juiced Lance are forced to miss the timed light at Duboce. But to get home to TBD and Baleen, I'll trade safety over 60 more seconds any day.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Rain

It's raining in the city, bringing with it all that that means, like snow in Tahoe, caution before surfing or swimming in the Bay with all the run-off - not that I've been in a few months - and the detritus that washes down city streets.

Up in the Haight it's probably needles and Ben and Jerry napkins, down in the Marina it's Starbucks cups and Clif Bar wrappers, in the Mission it's cigarettes and iPod shuffles, but in the Mission suburbs, in the southeast shadow of Sutro Tower, it's what children leave behind.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Patagonia

It took me 32 years to get my third piece of Patagonia clothing, including that above the ankle pair of wool hiking socks; it's taken The Dragon Boss 9 months.

After all, we do live in the Mission suburbs where it's almost a uniform for the neighborhood tots. Plus, Baleen does most of the procuring, with plenty of help from grandparents and other relatives so his early start is no surprise.

It's irrational, I know, especially as the longevity argument doesn't work. TDB will never, ever, ever wear it out, thus allowing us to send it down to Ventura for a free replacement before he grows out of it, but he does look darn good in it so I'm sure the fourth isn't too far away.

Monday, December 3, 2012

1st Holiday Party

The abundance of firsts are coming to an end as The Dragon Boss comes within sight of a year. This weekend's first was his first holiday party at the home of the Kiwi and the local, our Mission suburb neighbors.

TDB got all dressed up in his holiday gear, which is the first fancy dress (as in attire, not dress like a girl or that thing he wore at Easter) that I like. You'll see it again, or at least some San Franciscans will because in our holiday circuit, we'll be seeing some of you again (and again). This isn't jury duty or the DMV.

While it would have been nice to stay out a bit later, have a few more drinks and walk home in a roundabout way, having TDB with us, I think, introduced us to more people than we might otherwise have met as everybody likes talking to a baby, especially when he's so well behaved and the only one there.

Friday, November 30, 2012

November

It got busy in November. Let's recount. The Dragon Boss learned how to crawl, looking a lot like a picture of evolution with his right leg propelling him up and out of the water and the house now reflects it with corners protected, outlets plugged, and the stairs barricaded which means that he's lost weight moving about while his parents have gained a pound or two sitting around watching him which is definitely not what happened on the Thanksgiving flight to Houston to stay at Uncle Margarine and Aunt Wizzie's new house where he never stopped crawling the entire flight and the entire time in Houston, unlike his mom who developed an unsightly and unfriendly abcess - I've become adept at spelling that word - in the back of her throat that required two visits to the ER for drainage, the second requiring the expertise of an ENT specialist while TDB and I walked to Courtney's for their 50c coffee and peanut butter, jelly and sliced strawberry sandwiches which TBD tried to eat now that he has two teeth, but I kept from him, worried about the old dog and peanut butter stories and how we already had one family member under medical care.
TDB's hosts for Thanksgiving
Reading, TDB is definitely reading
Spying on Uncle Margarine's neighbors
Papa spies an investment property
Teeth!
Let me crawl!
Protected corners
TDB develops self-sufficiency (out of necessity)
More than just pureed foods
Cutting teeth
What happens when Baleen visits Houston

Friday, November 2, 2012

Crawling

The Dragon Boss will not sit still. It'll be 18 years, at least, before I look him in the eye, but another year before I get off my knees because the little guy is mobile.

Our city apartment looks larger than it is from six inches off the ground, yet there are only five rooms, but in those five rooms are countless dangers. Sliding doors that can close on fingers, a step from the back of the kitchen to the patio, glass coffee tables with hard right angles, a hard fireplace mantle, the kind that put that scar on Uncle Margarine's forehead, and worst of all, a series of steps.

So we're off to the internet, the place we spend most our time learning about what's to come when we're not experiencing what's right now, to order protective devices: styrofoam for the angles, plugs for the electrical outlets, and a good gate for those stairs. But what we'll really be doing is crawling around the ground, making sure TDB doesn't find all those dangers that I haven't listed here. 

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween

There was no doubt what The Dragon Boss was going to be for Halloween. Ever since he stared at that blue name card in his crib back in March wondering why his name didn't sound like the Tsi and Sanchez on both sides of him (actual names), he said he wanted to look like his last name.

Halloween, we said, we just have to find some clothing to make what's apparent even more apparent. Plus, it'll be a preview of your Christmas trip to the Alps. So we put him in faux lederhosen, some echte knickers and long stockings, and carried him down to Fair Oaks in the rain.

The only thing that he asked for that we couldn't comply with was a good German beer in his sippy cup, brewed according to the Reinheitsgebotor, or even a Radler. It's just a prop, pop, he said. But not even in Germany will we give that to you, TDB.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Sandy

San Francisco doesn't get frequent natural disasters; it just gets a big one every now and then by geological time, which is every fifty years or so. But the East Coast does, lying as it does along fall's hurricane path. Even Uncle Margarine and Aunt Wizzie start to worry once the temperature stops rising.

Though The Dragon Boss doesn't have to worry about hurricanes, at least not yet, his grandparents do. Papa and Marmee reported strong winds and rain all weekend, but no damage. That's a welcome improvement over the trees that came down all around them during Irene last year.

Further up the coast, Gigi and Mikey kept their power on and the trees off the house. The waves just behind their house on West Beach got big enough for a brave surfer to take advantage of the once a century conditions, while further inland, Babu and Nyanya are doing just fine, according to Baleen, though it's not clear if they were in Pennsylvania or Vermont when the storm hit.


Friday, October 26, 2012

Anchor Sprints

I'm out of practice. I haven't been biking in a while, I haven't been drinking in a while, and I haven't had a whole lot of boxed pizza in a while either, surprisingly, perhaps, but our family of three has comprimised on the first two activities while excelling in the third with healthy, home-cooked meals. After all, home is where we normally are beginning around 6pm every day when The Dragon Boss returns.

And if I haven't done much of those three things, I certainly haven't done all three at once over the last seven months. But that's what Thursday night called for as Mission Cycling descended on Anchor Steam Brewery for a sprint-off. 32 entrants, single-elimination, 250 meters on side by side stationary bikes with your times projected on a big screen.

250 meters isn't very far and just under 12 seconds isn't that long to be going at your max speed. Doing it six times doesn't seem like that long either. I mean, that's barely a mile at 1.5 kilometers and about 70 seconds of effort. But when you're doing it at max gas on a belly full of Anchor Steam Liberty Ale and Goat Hill pizza, it feels a whole lot longer than that. The only thing that helps is coming in second and bringing home a gift card to Locanda. Goodnight, TDB; hello date night, Baleen.   

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Uncle

Uncle Margarine took a plane to San Francisco yesterday. That's all he would have taken had it just been Baleen and me in San Francisco, for Uncle Margarine is a busy man.

But The Dragon Boss changes things. After the plane, and nearly working through the night, Uncle M took a train and a cab to see TDB this morning before heading back to the airport for another plane to another place that wasn't home to Aunt Wizzie.

TDB showed his affection by crawling all over Uncle M and promised to do the same next month when we bring TDB to his sixth state as Baleen visits Houston for the first time as Thanksgiving guests at Aunt Wizzie and Uncle M's new home in the Heights. 

Monday, October 22, 2012

Mark Spitz

The Dragon Boss entered his first public pool on Saturday. He'd been in over his head a handful of times, first in Lake Anza over in Berkeley, then the Presidio's Petite Baleen, a private pool on the North Shore of Massachusetts, the Atlantic Ocean (a couple of times), and Moonraker up at Sea Ranch, but never a public pool.

The locker rooms aren't as nice, the pool area always looks more East German than West, and the crowd looks more like what I see in jury duty than my social circle, but it's close to us and, best of all, TDB loves it.

He gets in there without a rash guard or a swim cap like some of the others and just swings his arms for 30 minutes. I was lucky enough to get splashed this time, next time it might be Baleen balancing him on her chest as I take pictures.


Friday, October 19, 2012

The Crawl

Build some walls, put some chewed gum on the sharp edges and keep the cleaning solutions far from the ground, the Dragon Boss can crawl.

Last week all he wanted to do was stand, holding onto either you or some flat surface. If you put him down, he'd rock back on forth like he was warming up in the 100m sprinting blocks, get a little frustrated and mope at his lack of progress.

Now you put him on the ground and it's a 10 foot race. 10 feet, because that's about all our apartment affords between bar stools and glass coffee tables. Once he gets his left and right turns down, then I'll be vaccuming the whole apartemnt every other day, not just those two areas where he likes to crawl.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

NLCS

We're rooting for the home team. San Francisco comes togther when the Giants are winning, surprisingly, when tickets cost as much as they do, but that doesn't keep the roofers and the techies from all rooting for the same thing, a Giants victory.

The Dragon Boss and I are hoping that we'll come back to beat the Cards and play some World Series games the last weekend in October. If we do, then I'm buying a seat for the back of my commuter bike and we're headed on over to the ballpark.

Hopefull,y Baleen will get over her aversion to riding in the city for this and see her husband and son together on two wheels. We might even have to get Cooper and his dad involved. It's entirely flat from the Marina to the ballpark without any trouble, that is, unless you're riding on the sidewalk right next to a bike cop.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Glam-ma

Gigi and Mikey are in town, bringing some North Shore chic to Northern California. On Friday they were his primary caretakers, bringing him a few dozen yards from me in my downtown office as they strolled down Market Street to the Ferry Building, and then strolled him back by the ballpark. It was his first visit to either of those places.

This weekend we all went to the Dipsea steps and the Tourist Club that we've successfully visited on two consecutive second Saturdays of the month. But it's not for the German bier that we climb those steps, it's the views so we might be back on November 10th, too.

We showed them the treehouse we almost bought, 140 steps from the Mill Valley floor. Mikey thought they weren't up to code, not in structure, but in stature, and Gigi agreed, saying the shallow steps didn't make them seem like 140. But everybody agreed that maybe, it just makes a lot more sense to hike up the Dipsea steps than to own a house on them.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Report Card

The Dragon Boss got his first report card. It's from Bright Horizons, the back-up day care facility right downtown. When Baleen and I poured over it, as we will in the years to come, we noticed a lot of exclamation points. He also had five wet diapers.

Whitby loves bubbles! He would watch them float around and try to catch them with his hands! A bubble that landed on his cheek surprised him and then he laughed! While he was watching the bubbles, he would make funny faces, too!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Downtown

The Dragon Boss came to work with me this morning. We took the early J train right outside our door, early enough to get a comfortable seat in the last car. TDB hung out in the Baby Bjorn on my chest watching the San Francisco downtown working crowd: men in sharp suits with nice shoes and nice haircuts, the jeans and t-shirt crowd, and the man who got on with golf clubs, looked down at TDB and said, Good morning, blue eyes.

On the 5.45 train home, we were squeezed in like sardines. TDB, again on my chest in the Baby Bjorn, seemed just as happy as before, even as I worried he'd soon start overheating like his dad. People talk to you when they're forced up right next to you with a baby on your chest like they wouldn't if there wasn't a baby there.

One woman asked how old TDB was and said she was on her way home to her 10 month old. Another told him he was being so good. The closest guy, wearing a nice, crisp white shirt and closest to TDB, right in front of him, actually, said, loudly, I'm guessing becasue of the earphones connected to his iPhone, He's not going to spit up on me, is me?   

Monday, October 8, 2012

St Francis

The Dragon Boss thinks churches are petting zoos. Papa and Marmee took him to the church up the hill from us on Sunday morning while Baleen and I were down in Salinas for the Western Chic wedding.

One might assume that the animals outnumbering the children in the church was just San Francisco being San Francisco, but there was an excuse this time: Sunday was the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, our city's namesake and the patron saint of animals.

So while my Brooks Brothers jacket was getting chewed on by a horse, Marmee was keeping TDB's hands by his side and they navigated the pews in a stroller. Down doggie, she said in church for the first time in her life.