end of august update

The last half of August brings happy celebrations for us. Alex turned 4 on the 19th and Sam's arrival day is the 24th. Alex chose a cake with rubber-bug finger puppets on it, and got some cool presents related to her latest interest in bugs - a ladybug game, a plastic "Venus fly trap" that catches bugs into a clear cylinder for viewing, a "bug loupe" to magnify them, and 5 live caterpillars that will soon be turning into butterflies. To balance things out, she also got some new princess attire and a fairy princess doll with black hair and a matching dress. I guess she can be the queen of bugs.

We had her party at Wheeler Farm, and it turned out great. Bryan's remote-control airplane was a big hit, despite a brief stay on the pavilion's roof. (We got it down just fine.) The kids enjoyed making fruit loop necklaces (easy party activity - just bring floss and fruit loops!) and we attempted some games, but with 1-4 year olds the games were pretty chaotic. We played Follow the Leader, Hot Potato, and chased balloons which were blown around by the wind. We lit the candles, sang happy birthday, and Alex was all ready to blow out the candles when she got some "help" from her friends - at which point she cried - ironic because SHE was the one who blew out Ava's candles at Ava's party. Poetic justice was served, but she didn't appreciate it. She cried all the way through the second candle-lighting-and-singing, but recovered in time to blow out her own candles and was soon engrossed in cake and presents. Once again I felt so thankful and lucky to have Alex, and said a special prayer (in my heart) for her birth mother. I wonder what she thinks about on this day.

Alex's party day was also Sam's arrival day. How he has grown. He decided to mark his accomplishment by finally climbing out of his crib. He climbed out twice the other day, though I didn't see him do it. He appeared this morning in the kitchen before 7 a.m., sleepy and clinging to his blanket. Ah, the glory days of confining him safely to his bed are over...and at only 2 years and 4 months. Alex was well over 3 before she ever thought of climbing out. We are debating between keeping him in his crib a while longer, versus just putting a mattress on the floor. Either way, we have a Sam on the loose so we will have to be on our guard. :-)

And that's the update. One of the pictures may need explanation. It shows Alex being an owl, showing how she can turn her head around backwards. :-)

"Lightning" Bolt

In spite of my love affair with most team and individual sports, I was never one to follow track and field with anything more than a passing interest in the latest world record. I must admit that the advent of the olympics didn't really strike much of a chord with me, especially after one of the best football tournaments ever in Euro 2008. How could you follow up all the drama of the beautiful game and hope to fill the void that exists after a major international tournament?

To me, the olympics has always been too many sports on at the same time, which is quite confusing and distracting. Things like swimming, sailing, shooting, gymnastics, tae kwon do, amateur boxing, fencing, track cycling, 20km walkathon, water polo, etc etc.. they just don't really resonate for some reason. Lack of globally identifiable athletes? Difficulty to "watch-in-passing" for people are not intimately familiar with the sport?

The first thing that captured my imagination was Micheal Phelps' 8 gold medals. I didn't really watch any of his events, aside from a replay of one of them, but to have lived in a time where such a record is broken was exciting stuff. The real kicker was the track and field, however. If you conjure up an image of the olympics, the first thing you'd think of besides the hoops logo and the flame would be an olympic stadium with a big track and large patch of grass (which would be awesome to play football on) in the middle. Athletics have always been the heart and soul of the games, and this year has been a special one.

Usain Bolt, fastest man in the world. His antics and showboating as infuriatingly endearing as anything you've ever seen. His run in the 100m was something else. To be so blase about it all and still manage to shred his own world record is something I will remember watching for the rest of my life. I've never set a reminder to watch a track and field event in the past, but after that race I had to see if he can do it in the 200m. The fact that he did was almost expected but just as exciting. The cool thing was that he busted a nut this time around. Micheal Johnson is known as Superman, and its for good reason that his record stood for 12 years. Bolt really pushed himself for that one, and its going to be interesting to see how much further he can take it, being so young and all. The theory goes that he'll try to incrimentally better his world record to keep the money and the interest rolling (a la Sergey Bubka), but I don't know if its humanly possible to do better with the 200m. Although there had been some headwind that night, so you never know.

I've now developed a routine of watching the olympics coverage at lunch and after work (government working hours, 7-2), and I must say that its really introduced me to something new. I can't say that I'll now start following all the other events like the world championships and the commonwealth games, because only the olympics can give you this feeling. I am, however, much more interested in London 2012 than I was two weeks ago!

feeling lazy

It's summer and I'm feeling lazy. So lazy I haven't even blogged for the past few weeks. I've also been choosing sleep over workouts - frustrating, as I love the way I feel when I get my workouts in, and I know I should be getting up early to take advantage of these beautiful early summer mornings - but some part of me must be unconsciously yearning for those carefree summer days of childhood...no school, no obligations, nothing I HAD to do. Not to mention the Olympics are sucking up a lot of my time. Those opening ceremonies were sure impressive, weren't they? I watched the synchronized diving last night - I don't remember ever seeing that before, but it was sure beautiful. We're having fun rooting for Korea and the US.

But just because I'm feeling lazy doesn't mean I'm actually sitting around doing nothing. Ah, that would be nice, but my life doesn't really enable that anymore. This weekend I've enjoyed some quality time with Ava and Lena while Cameo worked, which is fun and busy. Alex and Ava are playing SO well these days - it is so GREAT after the past couple years of 2- and 3-year old competition and fighting! Lena is getting more capable of holding her own against Sam, though he is still the primary aggressor, but it is hard to stay mad at him because he's so darn cheerful even when he's misbehaving and getting time out. He actually kisses me when I put him in the time out chair and loves to buckle himself in. Very talented at using his charm. His latest trick is opening the refrigerator and helping himself to whatever he wants. He can't reach much above the veggie drawer, but he enjoys his stolen mouthfuls of lettuce and green onions. When he sees me coming he runs away chewing joyously. I wouldn't mind it so much if he didn't leave the refrigerator door open...or pieces of chewed greenery lying about...

In closing, I have to give an honorable mention to my latest audiobook, which I'm only about 1/3 of the way through: The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. A good summer read, well told, lots of adventure mixed with food for thought about God/religion and interesting facts about various animals. Definitely unique!

Después de 7 años vuelvo a Madrid

Pues sí, como dice el título del post he vuelto a Madrid.
He empaquetado unas cuantas camisetas, libros comics y a mi gatita Candela (ya os hablaré de ella) y me he venido a Madrid tras aceptar una oferta de trabajo bastante jugosa.
He vuelto a currar para Babel, mi antigua compañía de UK. Me han pedido de rodillas y llorando que vuelva con ellos y les ayude con un proyectito en Madrid relacionado con EA.

¿Ventajas? Que mi familia y mis amigos están aquí tan felices de verme, que no pagan mal, que me encanta Madrid y que pillo más experiencia que nunca viene mal para el CV.
¿Desventajas? Que curro como un animal de carga. Soy el típico pringado que va con dos móviles de aquí para allá. Hecho más horas que un reloj y además tengo que estar "on call", vamos que tengo que estar localizable a cualquier hora. Un infiernazo...

Pues eso, que si andas por Madrid y te apetece podemos quedar y liarla un poquillo.
Yo ya he estado en un par de fiestecillas y festivales. Por cierto, no os perdáis el Payback, garitón en la Sala Changó, (Covarrubias, 42) para unas sesiones de Hip Hop, Oldskool, Dubstep...

Besos!

cookbook battle

How funny - right after I posted that debate I was having about which cookbook was better - here is a New York Times article reporting that the author of one of the books is suing the other for copyright infringement!

I don't know enough about the case to comment on whether it's legitimate - but unless the content is expressly the same, I wouldn't think the lawsuit will be successful. Could the writer of one vegetarian cookbook sue another writer of a vegetarian cookbook, just for stealing the idea?

Anyway, I'm thinking I probably won't buy either book at the moment - at this point, my kids seem to be doing fine eating their fruits and veggies, especially with a little butter or sugar on them. :-)

Gamedevmap

Gamedevmap es una web de grandísima utilidad para los que nos dedicamos a los videojuegos.
Es un mapa del mundo donde puedes elegir la ciudad que te apetezca y te dice que empresas de videojuegos tienen sede en dicha ciudad.
Una maravilla.

deceptively delicious vs. sneaky chef

Recently two cookbooks have been brought to my attention - "Deceptively Delicious" and "The Sneaky Chef."

Both books purport to help you "hide" veggies and healthy stuff in your kids' food so they will get better nutrition. I am intrigued by the idea, as my kids are getting pickier, though they still eat pretty well. (I'm a little worried about Sam, who yells "Fries!" every time we pass a McDonald's.) It is getting easier now that they have more teeth and can actually eat salad if it's chopped up. Still, I'm always open to new ideas that can help us get our 3-5 servings a day of fruits and veggies.

The ratings are a little higher for the Sneaky Chef on Amazon. Has anyone used either of these books or made any of the recipes? I'm wondering if they are very time-consuming, and also if they are really "healthy" or if it's just hype.