Robert & Rachel

New upstairs, new rooms

2012-01-27T22:50:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we got fresh new carpet installed upstairs. I pulled out the old carpet and moved furniture... And painted, prepped, cleaned up 20 yr old cat, dog and human pee. Yuck. Anyway, brand new fresh smelling carpet. It looks beautiful. We moved the boys' room from downstairs so that they both have their own rooms upstairs. We installed a couple of heavy duty swiveling baby gates. The kids haven't slept better in their lives. They no longer wake each other up and sleep in much longer. Rachel and I are loving our new home. Their old room downstairs is now our office. Everything looks great and is much more "feng shui."

Dreaming of Hot Dogs

2011-12-02T21:52:00.001-08:00

Enjoying the day, thinking about my family. Thinking about Jude and how cute he is. The other evening he and Rachel discussed what he was going to eat for breakfast the next morning. Then the next morning - Rachel already half-way to Seattle - I open Jude & Greyson's door to pick up fussy Greyson. Jude jolts up, out of deep slumber, and declares: "Mom said I can have yogurt, a hot dog and warm milk in the green cup with the green lid for breakfast so I need yogurt, and a hot dog. And warm milk in my green cup. Can we get that *now* daddy?"

Greyson's 1st Birthday

2011-10-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

Greyson Zachary and family celebrated his 1st birthday today with lots of family and friends. Festivities were held at Uncle Mitch, Aunt Kelleigh, Grant, and Cole's house in Dallas, Oregon. When we sent out the evite a month ago, I recall I said something like, "We know what you're thinking, 1) didn't a Mardock baby just have his birthday, and 2) where the heck is Dallas, Oregon?"

The response, which I think is still funny even after writing the evite a month ago, was:

1) The Mardock / Wood / Bellamy pool of kiddos certainly is expanding. But THIS is Greyson's first, and arguably most important birthday celebration. If you happened to go to Jude's 2nd or 3rd birthday, we thank you heartily, but his 1st birthday a couple of years ago was definitely the most critical. Furthermore, we totally get it: there are lots of kids, especially around Sept / Oct. (Note Chris and Jeanne's 2nd baby is expected +/- 2 days from Grey's birthday). We'll probably start to double up on birthdays in the future. But THIS is Greyson's singular day to shine. So we hope you can join in for an hour, two, or more!

2) Dallas, OR is practically a suburb or Portland. Merely 45 minutes south. Party is held at Mitch and Kelleigh Ratzlaff's house. Kelleigh is Rob's sister. Mitch and Kel's house affords everyone rain or shine party success at an affordable rate :-)

Yes, I know Dallas is more like 2x 45 minutes from Portland, but I didn't want to scare away potential guests!

In attendance today were Great Grandpa Mardock (Marvin) and Great Grandma Mardock (Olive), Aunt Dani and Aunt Joanne, Uncle Andy, Uncle Adam, Uncle Josh, Uncle Isaac, Tiffany (our excellent friend from George Fox), Great Uncle Bob, Grandma Linda, and of course a bunch of little toddlers and little boys: Grant, Cole, Isaac (another one), and Carter.

Greyson, we love you. We have high hopes for you and we are excited for your future. Here's to another 79+ years, you little tiger, you!

Nehalem Bay State Park

2011-09-26T21:57:00.001-07:00

The Oregon State Park system owns a few dozen yurts that you can rent for a reasonable overnight rate. However demand far exceeds supply and you have to reserve about a year in advance. That's exactly what we did about one year ago: rented a yurt near Manzanita, OR for the weekend. Now, at the time the weather forecast showed clear skies. Who could have foreseen that one year later the weekend would be one of the wettest in months...

At one point I recall Rachel suggesting that we just rent a hotel. But we stuck with it. Mitch, Kel, Grant, and Cole met us there for one evening. We enjoyed great family time. The boys wrestled in the small space, Greyson was typical Greyson (he woke everyone up at 3am). Despite the rain, we went to the beach, ate at Mo's, drank coffee at sleepy monk, and even visited the tillamook cheese factory. Tue next day the sun rose for our long and relatively peaceful drive back to Tacoma.

This was our first time camping, and although it was in the posh confines of a yurt on the Oregon coast, it was still a little challenging. Thankfully it just gets easier from here. Maybe I should reserve the yurt for next year...

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Vehicle Repair: Maintain vs Cut Your Losses

2011-08-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

Maintaining a failing vehicle is a good analogy to stewardship in a corporate finance setting. Consider: in 2006 we bought a beautiful rebuilt (aka ‘salvaged’) 2004 Honda CRV with only 5,000 miles for $14k. At the time, the blue book value for a similar CRV not salvaged was close to $25k.
Considerations for taking this risk:
1) We desperately needed a car. And we strongly prefer to have a small SUV like a CRV, Rav4, etc…
2) We don’t have much money. A year earlier we had left the Peace Corps with hardly any financial assets.
3) We’re highly materialistic people so buying an old beat-up 1980s Mazda just wasn’t an option.
We saved ourselves over $10k and we had a beautiful car that we otherwise could never afford.

Here come the financial considerations. At what point would you, as a financial professional, “maintain the asset” or “cut your losses”?
1) 1 year after we bought the car, we finally check out the growling noise emanating from under the hood. Turns out it’s the transmission, and it needs to be replaced.

Cost = $2500.
Decision = Maintain the asset. I just bought this car. I’m ticked off. But since smashing the car with a baseball bat isn’t an option, I pay up.

2) 2 years after we bought the car. The transmission starts to growl again. Clearly the disreputable mechanic didn’t do a very good job of rebuilding the transmission.

Cost = Not sure but probably another $2500 since we don’t have a warranty
Decision = Do nothing. Let the transmission run into the ground.

3) 4 years after we bought the car, the radiator starts to leak on a barren highway between Bend and Portland. Scared and nervous, we manage to keep going with a $3 bottle of “bars leaks.” Upon returning to Tacoma, we get the car checked out. Indeed, we need a new radiator, pipes and thermostat.

Cost = $900.
Decision = Do nothing. I’d rather keep plugging up the leaking radiator with “bars leaks.”

4) 5 years after we bought the car, something stinky (literally “smelly”) is going on. Not only is the radiator still leaking, but the water pump is leaking, tubes are leaking and the thermostat thinks that everything is hunky dory. Prognosis: still need a new radiator, and also water pump, tubes, serpentine belt, and a couple of other belts.

Cost = $1500.
Decision = Maintain the asset. We had gotten over a year more of run time on the old radiator. And it isn’t uncommon for a vehicle with over 100k miles to need a new water pump. Pay up.

5) 2-5 years (at the same time) the transmission is growling louder, people start to tell us “wow you should get that looked at” (our response: “no, we know what it is already.”), it starts to sputter, and finally, in year 5, it starts to hum. The hum is loud, like a fog horn coming from under the passenger’s feet. Prognosis: the current transmission specialist says it best: “you got a crappy transmission. It needs to be replaced.

Cost = $2500
Decision = ? What would you do? $2500 would keep the car running for likely another 5 years, at which time it’s definitely time to get a new car. Keep in mind that other than a brake replacement and new tires, no other work has been done on the CRV. No tune up, no timing belt. It runs really well.

In the corporate finance setting, it would be asked, “has the asset been fully depreciated.” Answer = not really. It was paid through a low student loan interest rate, which we’re slowly paying off over the next 20 years. Next the finance person would say, “what are my alternatives”? The alternative, as we see it, is to invest in a new car for our new life stage: ie, a bigger SUV capable of hauling around 2 boys and their soccer gear. Cost = $40,000. Loan term = 5 years at 5% interest. Monthly payment = $700. Breakeven analysis: getting the transmission repaired will pay for itself after 4 months of new car payments.

In the corporate setting, they would likely continue to maintain the asset. But it still stings. The only true way to solve this dilemma is to make a time machine and decide not to buy the car in the first place. But even then… even then… even then… after all the repairs, we’re still cheaper than if we had bought a new CRV in 2006.

Summer Vacation 2011

2011-07-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

Yessir, finally! Were on the road with the two boys. First stop is Portland and a night at Chris & Jeannes place. Highlights = putting the two boys plus Daylon down to sleep and ordering Urban Fondu desert takeout. Then this morning Jude and I went out to get coffee and breakfast for everyone else. Driving through Portland's Forest Park, Jude asks me to stop so we can find bears. So... That's what we did. We found a turnoff and explored Wildwood Trail for a half hour. No bears, but Jude and dad discovered that he has an innate love of the outdoors. This is gonna be a fun boy to raise. Greyson will love the outdoors too, I'm sure...

Day 2: Salem (Dallas) with Mitch, Kel, Grant and Cole. Absolutely loving the family time, the BBQ, and watching Jude, Grant and Cole wrestle each other. Grant and Cole treat Jude with great "delicacy" (delicateness?) as they play the night away. Jude loves his older and wiser cousins, and the four parents realize we really must make annual plans to rent a vacation home for a long weekend.
Day 3: Bandon (S. Oregon Coast) driving through the Willamette Valley between Salem and Corvallis reminds me why I love Oregon. Lush woody hills, vineyards, creeks, lavender farms, fruit stands, orchards. It's a beautiful place. Grey slept a good 3.5 hours on our way across the coastal range to Bandon. Once in Bandon, we check into our inexpensive motel with a room literally overlooking the famous sea stacks and cliffs. After dinner, Jude and I drive Grandpa Don to the tiny airport where don has his Cessna tied down. Jude watched ad Grandpa Don took off into the sky. Quite a memorable moment for Jude, seeing him fly off into the clouds. Back at the motel, we put the kids to sleep and Grandma Linda keeps an eye on them as Rachel and I walk hand in hand on the cliffs as the sun drowns out over the horizon.

Tomorrow, breakfast, then off to Medford!
Day 4: Bandon to Medford. It's 9:15 am and Jude is still asleep. What's up with this kid? Is this the beginning of a stage on life (also known as the rest of his life)? ...

The remainder of the day is spent in the car driving the tiny road between Bandon and Roseberg with grandma in the front seat and Rachel wedged between the two car seats in the back (not sure if we've me filmed this but when our CRV eventually dies were getting a bigger suv). Greyson, once again, sleeps the entire ride from Bandon to Medford (3.5 hrs). Upon arriving in Medford, we fire up the backyard BBQ and grill some protein. Linda's yard looks great, good job landscaping over the last fee years! After the kiddos go to bed, we watch a mildly entertaining Liam niesen action flick.

Day 5: Medford. Jude and grey wake up pretty early from an already poor nights sleep. Linda goes to work and it's time for Grey's mid-morning nap. When he finally wakes up it's about 11am. By this time, rob and Rachel are in dire need of good coffee. We dive over to Jacksonville and spend an hour at Pony Espresso. Rachel logs onto her work computer to check her email and belatedly turn on her out of office notification (oops). Jude has been a good boy at Pony Espresso so as a reward he and dad visit two playgrounds. The first one he "don't like it the wood chips" (he didn't like the wood chip surface). The second park he liked the school bus, but the flirty jr highers are hogging the drivers seat. Later that night, Rachel and rob enjoy a humble date playing mini golf and racing each other in go carts.

Day 6: Crater Lake. Unfortunately I've let the story lapse by a couple of weeks and I'm finishing up this story 2 weeks after it ended (it's currently July 28th). If I recall, Day 6 was our last day in Medford. The sun decided to shine that day - ostensibly because we no longer had the time to swim in Don and Linda's pristine pool, the sun decided to mock us. Around mid-morning, we packed up and visited Del Rio Vineyards in Gold Hill, Oregon. Had a great time visiting Delores, one of Linda's great friends and one of Rachel's old friends and mentors for her days living in Medford as a child. From Gold Hill we trekked through the state and national forests to the rim of Crater Lake. On cue, both kids squaked, complained and cried as we pulled into our parking spot from the long journey. This caused our Day 6 sight seeing to prematurely end, and we departed to our small, tiny, rustic and downright uncomfortable Mazama Village Cabin. At this point on our trip, both boys are tired. Mom and dad haven't slept well in several days, and we're beginning to get tired. Just when we start to feel a little cranky, we grab an incredibly satisfying dinner buffet at the Annie Creek Restaurant in Mazama Village. I'm not sure why they don't market this place, but it's fantastic. Definitely worth a stop if you happen to be on highway 62 in the middle of nowhere. I wish we could say we slept well that night, but it was actually the worst night of all. Not because the place was small or uncomfortable... just because the two boys were miserably omnipresent through the night.

Day 7: Bend. The next morning we packed up and drove the 6 miles back up to the rim. We once again oooh'ed at the lake's beauty and serenity. Then scooped up the boys and drove up the highway again. Our destination this time was Bend. Our hotel wasn't ready so we stopped at the Lava ... Something.. national monument. Not sure why I can't recall its name, but it had the word Lava in it, and it was an over-sized lava dome right off the highway. Very fun, very scenic, lots of pictures. Jude enjoyed chasing the squirrels. We arrived in Bend at a beautiful, overpriced, and rather lifeless inn with a view of the Deschuttes River. If I recall, that night spent an hour at the play ground, finally letting Jude swing and slide. Funny how no matter how nice and swanky you plan your vacation to be, if you have a toddler, they just don't care. They only care about the play ground. Lesson learned. After the park we found good Thai food and settled down in our big, fancy, clean, beautiful hotel room. Incidentally the boys slept well that night, leading me to believe that the environment does influence their attitudes and endurance.

Day 8: Back home. But not yet. First, we awoke, visited our favorite Bend coffee shop (Thump), and drove down south to the High Desert Museum. This was a winner. We really enjoyed the variety of things to do and see here. It was very toddler friendly, and interesting enough to keep the parents curiosity going. When both kids were worn out, we loaded them up and drove the long distance back to either Portland or Seattle (we decided it depended on how the kids were doing). About 2-3 hours after we left Bend, both kids had still not fallen asleep for their naps. It was getting bad. Jude had gone from loopy to plain mean. And Greyson swung between quiet angel and beastly infant. But then, around Mount Hood, both boys fell hard into deep sleep. Rachel and I decided if the boys were still asleep we would continue on home to Tacoma. And incredibly, thankfully, and mercifully, both boys were asleep for 3 hours between Mt Hood and around Tacoma. Back home in Tacoma, we unpacked, enjoyed our familiar home, took Jude to a park, and got ready for my parents to arrive that evening from Austin, TX. Yes! The adventure continues!

I'm not sure what sort of family vacation we will do next year, but it will undoubtedly be NW local, and will involve playgrounds, swings, slides and fields to run in.

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Tell Me About Your Day Today

2011-06-29T22:59:00.001-07:00

Jude, my adorable toddler, recent graduate to the 3-5 year old room at daycare (he's about 2 3/4 yrs), uses cunning and skill to keep me in his room as long as possible at bed time. His recent trick is to ask me how my day was (no doubt a play on the same question I had asked him over the past few months). So inevitably, because the question is so cute and because he is so directly asking me to respond, I answer: "well after I dropped you off at school I drove up to seattle..." Jude: "Seattle? That's where the base-a-ball is, the the Mariners." Dad: "that's right, Jude, good job!" [10 second pause] Jude: "Tell me about your day today daddy."

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Extreme Busyness to an Unnecessarily High Degree

2011-06-17T22:07:00.001-07:00

The other day was typical in a day in the life of Rob and Rachel. At 5:30pm, Rachel calls me to explain that a realtor is showing our home in 90 minutes.

Now a couple of notes here: 1) I'm still at work in Seattle. 2) Rachel had just gotten home from a long day working in Seattle and had just picked up the kids in daycare. 3) We live 60 minutes from Seattle in Tacoma. 4) Our home is on the market and could be shown at a moments notice (it's been on the market for over a year).

Back to the story, I fly home and arrive 60 minutes later to see my lovely wife literally wiping down the counters with a whiny toddler in the other hand and an infant strapped to her chest in a baby bjorn. One part incredibly impressed, and another part a little bitter about life, I can't think of what else to say but, "wow, Rachel. Thanks for cleaning the house and watching two boys and starting to make the dinner that we now can't eat for another 1 1/2 hours and for doing it all after you worked for 9 hours and commuted for 2 hours."

We didn't think we would have our home on the market for over a year. We thought it would be a couple of months. So at the time we started looking for a church in the community we intended to move to. And we found a great church. In Bellevue. 60 minutes away. And we enjoy our small group that we attend, 45 minutes away. So that's commuting 5 days a week plus twice on Thursday and again on Sunday.

Even though Rachel and I work a mile away from each other in Seattle, we can't commute together because our daycare - like all others - has a 10 hour limit per day. So Rachel wakes up at 5:00am (I sleep in until 5:30) and she leaves the house at 6:20. I stay and take the kids at 7:30. Rachel returns to Tacoma in time to pick up the boys by 5:30, and I try to get back home by 6:30.

Rachel was just offered her third promotion at work (she declined the first two) and she is now a manager of accounting with people, project and budget responsibilities.

We would love to have time to do a hobby, jog or get more involved, but few social activities meet between 11:45 and 12:15 noon weekdays...

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Little Boys

2011-06-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of cute pics of the boys, Jude (2 3/4 yrs) and Greyson (9 months). The like each other a lot. Grey cracks Jude up constantly, and Jude is a caring and nurturing older brother.

J and G in a typical ham-ish pose.

Another typical pose: Jude slightly annoying Grey.

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Obligatory June Update

2011-06-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

In the last few months a lot has transpired, but unfortunately I've done a poor job of documenting this. Jude is a hoot - he's speaking complex sentences, using new verb tenses and counting into the teens. Greyson is sitting up and can stand with a little help. Rachel has transitioned back to work from 4 months on maternity leave, and Rob was promoted to the next level at work. The house was recently refinanced and we save a couple hundred dollars per month on our mortgage, and we've made our backyard look lovely with a new patio set and a Traeger wood pellet grille.

In July we're tentatively scheduled to vacation for a week in Oregon, and later in July mom and dad Mardock are coming to visit for a week from Texas.

Lots of specifics... hopefully I can start providing more interesting and humorous details to come...

Hamilton Pool (Austin, TX)

2011-03-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

Jealous of my family in Austin. The picture below is my niece, Natalie (daughter of Matt & Jen) at Hamilton Pool, south-west of Austin. We lived in Austin, knew about Hamilton Pool, and still never went. Next time we're there...

Bedrooms

2011-02-24T21:47:00.001-08:00

A quick note to memorialize an important milestone: Greyson's first night in his room, away from mom and dad. Jude and Grey both share a room now. Mom and dad can finally have a quiet conversation without fearing of waking up the infant. Jude pretty much enjoys his new roomie. We hope this relatively easy transition continues!

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Simple Faith and Sinking Islands

2011-02-19T21:47:00.001-08:00

The other day as I traveled yet another hour from home to work, I listened to a moderately interesting article on NPR about the tiny South Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Almost entirely Christian, its inhabitants pray every day that tsunamis and climate change won't sink their country for all eternity. Their prayers are so focused, so humble and so sincere: "lord we ask that you come to Kiribati and lift up our islands so that your children don't sink into the vast ocean. Protect our country and lift it up [literally]."

I'm not sure why, but it struck me immediately that to the people of Kiribati this was not only a personal prayer of protection, but it was also a prayer of significant geo-political consequence. "Protect us from actions that are often beyond our control. Help people in distant lands to understand that their environmental impact has a direct correlation to the survival of our country and our very existence."

I thought: this really puts into context the valid yet fear-laden, vociferous and over-discussed geo-political prayers among some in America who pray intensely for things that in the end - I believe - are of lesser significance to the lord: the prophetic notion of the caliphate, the presidents anti-Christian theories about universal *access* to healthcare, and the infallibility of Israel's earthly leaders.

I may change my thoughts in a month or two, but right now my belief is: focus your prayers on the hints that matter most: be thankful for the gifts of grace and mercy. Be thankful that we have a place in the lord's kingdom. And pray for protection for your family against the sin, temptation and separation from his word.

http://m.npr.org/story/133650679?url=/2011/02/16/133650679/climate-change-and-faith-collide-in-kiribati

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Goings On + Mom's Visit

2011-02-17T21:46:00.001-08:00

Jude is speaking in full and complex sentences. Very cool. Greyson is a gigantic infant. At 4 months he is almost 18 pounds. He's in 9-12 month clothes, and he's growing out of his sleep sacks. Greyson still sleeps in our room bc we're afraid to put he and Jude in the same room (selfishly we are only concerned about our own sleep). Jude got a warning at daycare today to "be gentle" after he pushed Garret down for no reason.

Rachel started work last week after a 4-month maternity leave. During that time her office moved from 3 miles away to 36 miles away. Major bummer. However... Two big positive results of the move are that the company felt bad about making 1000 people drive 2 hrs a day so everyone gets 1-2 days a week to work at home. And, rachel's in a vanpool with 5 other super nice ladies that leaves just down the street at 6:30 am, and leaving the office at 3:55 pm. When a meeting is about to go long, Rachel can say - in all seriousness - "I'm sorry I've got to leave to catch my carpool." I would love those 2 small luxuries but my schedule isn't too bad (qtr-end earnings release not withstanding).

Finally, mom (Carol) has been up here with is for 2 weeks. She's leaving tomorrow, and we are already very sad. She has been helping out during the critical transition from rachel's maternity to her starting work. And with Greyson's daycare not ready for him we absolutely needed her to be up here. Mom very graciously offered her time for two weeks, and it sounds like she's loved every minute bonding with Jude and Greyson. Jude lover her very much. And Greyson feels very protected, comforted and loved by her. We love you mom (grandma) and appreciate your time here from Texas. Thanks dad for giving her up for these two weeks.

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Closing out 2010

2011-02-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, we know it's February, but this post is dedicated to the last couple of fun events of 2010: Christmas, and New Years Beach Blast.

Christmas: We let Jude open one give per night starting two days before Christmas. This was done "not" because we lack patience, but from prior year learnings we knew that Jude needed to understand that inside the pretty paper were some nifty gifts. Unfortunately it still didn't quite work this way.

Christmas morning came, Jude and Greyson wore matching pj's, mom and dad made a hearty breakfast and relaxed (just the four of us). When it came time for presents, Jude became fixated on each gift. When we opened an Elmo DVD, Jude wanted to watch the entire thing - no longer caring that there could potentially be other exciting Elmo products under the tree. In the end, I think we continued to open Jude's gifts up until New Year's Eve.

New Years Beach Blast: We celebrated the annual "Bellamy" Beach Blast this year in Pacific City, Oregon in a giant 3 story, 8 bedroom house. Okay, I'm not positive it had 8 bedrooms, but it "officially" slept 30 people, and unofficially it could comfortably sleep probably 80. Normally our family - with all the new noisy kiddos - fills a house to above capacity. Not this time. It was an uncomfortably huge house with a surprisingly teenie-tiny kitchen. Overall the trip was a resounding success with lots of great memories. Mitch and Kel came and some of us went to the beach, climbed the dunes and scanned the immense horizon (it was uncharacteristically clear that week, not a cloud in the sky). Lots of board games, Jude played in the tide pools.

For me though, the highlight was driving on the beach in Josh's new 4x4, then getting impossibly stuck in a sand dune. Jude and Heather tried to help as much as they could but eventually Chris picked them up at a gas station. Josh and I stayed, on our bellies, under the truck, trying to scoop sand from under the entire area. Sand was well above the axles. Over an hour later in the pitch black night, Josh and I (with the help of 4 local boys) plowed the truck free. It was an exhilarating moment for us all and will remain a great bonding story for decades to come.

Whew! Now that these stories have been recalled, we can focus on the new year and family news to come.

A moment to reflect

2011-01-22T15:14:00.001-08:00

Literally. I have a free moment. What do I do with it? Rachel and Grey are up in Seattle and Jude is down for a nap. I just trimmed the hedges and made myself a chocolate Abyss (stout) milkshake. The house is "show-ready" clean. Now I pause and reflect. Should I chop some wood? Clean the fireplace? Paint a wall in the basement? Or just enjoy a moment to enjoy the quietness...

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The Adventures of Polo and Jude

2011-01-10T14:05:00.000-08:00

Dad: What do you want to read tonight?
Jude: I want to read Polo and the Dragon
D: Okay, but this time you tell me what’s going on in the story.
J: Okay

D: Alright, let’s see. Polo goes out on an adventure … his boat gets stuck in the ice … He can’t get out. He’s stuck, oh no! What happens next?
J: yeah!
D: Polo looks in back of him and what does he find?
J: a treasure chest
D: and Polo opens the treasure chest and what does he find?
J: a marker!
D: that’s right. He takes out the market and what does he draw?
J: a door!
D: and he opens the door and where does he go?
J: yeah… … … in a jungle!
D: that’s right. He’s walking through the jungle and guess what he finds?
J: a … a cave!
D: and inside the cave he finds a table. What’s on the table?
J: food, the dragon’s food!

It’s fun for us to see the wheels and cogs turn in Jude’s head. Thanks to Kate J. for introducing us to the adventurous dog and his many animal friends. Thanks to Polo the evening bedtime ritual is consistent and always enjoyable.

Jude-isms

2011-01-05T10:50:00.000-08:00

Jude’s English skills have come along nicely since his first word “banana” about 6-8 months ago. Jude now speaks in complete sentences, such as “I want to go to the beach,” and “Mom, the baby has poop in his pants! That’s funny,” and “Where did Aunt Heather and Uncle Josh go?” Below are a few notable Jude-isms that help his parents know exactly what is on his mind:

How about. He says it in front of just about everything to express his desires. As in, “how about milk? How about candy? How about read a book?”
Dump it out. That is to say, “I want to help prepare food with mom or dad, specifically in the blender or mixer.”
Milky. Aka milk. Not sure why he calls it this but I suspect it’s a bad influence at daycare
One three, one three, one three, five! This is how Jude counts
Have it in the microwave. Jude love his milky, but if it isn’t at least ceremonially and momentarily placed in the microwave, it isn’t yet ready to drink.
BIG (barrel voiced with hands wide open) … *little* (tiny voice with fingers pinched together). Followed by infectious belly laugh.

Snowy Adventures to Walla Walla

2010-12-30T11:11:00.001-08:00

Lest we forget to record our favorite memories of 2010 for all eternity, we here briefly reminisce about a fun adventure to Walla Walla. A huge winter storm for the ages struck the Northwest a couple of days before Thanksgiving, threatening our long-planned trip with Jude and Greyson to Walla Walla. We never seriously entertained the idea of staying home though. There was too much family to see, too many people to introduce Greyson to, and too much food to eat to stay in Tacoma. Instead Rob ensured he could install snow chains (if needed) and we packed up and departed across the treacherous Cascades. With Chris, Jeanne and Daylon in tow, our two cars conquered the passes with minimal slippage. A few long hour later we arrived at our half-way point at Glory and Blake's house in Yakima. The next morning we finished our journey on uncleared icy highways between the tri-cities and Walla^2.

The rest of the time at the huge concrete mansion was spent playing games, eating, watching movies, and taking care of our two sick boys (yes I neglected to speak about that extra burdensome variable).

Overall a fantastic trip, Greyson's first road trip, and a great and memorable Thanksgiving adventure in (and to/from) Walla Walla.

Can Rob actually install snow chains properly? Check!

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A Very Proctor (Tacoma) Halloween

2010-10-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

This little community we live in just seems to get cooler and cooler. Early on Halloween Day, Jude's nap and Greyson's incessant need for milk kept us from going to the local Tacoma zoo for family-friendly trick-or-treating. As the afternoon drew on our options grew more limited to the point that we said, "let's just walk to Starbucks." On a total hunch we also discovered that Tacoma’s Proctor District shuts down and all the stores hand out candy to kids. We quickly dressed up Jude into his lion costume (roar!), and Greyson into his Pea In The Pod costume and strolled our Bob Duallie up the street to the Proctor Starbucks.

We were so impressed by our little community. Families and kids were everywhere in Proctor. If we can’t manage to sell our house for another year we won’t be too disappointed.

The afternoon was a crisp and clear fall day. Leaves falling, blue skies, it was gorgeous. Greyson did such a great job of sleeping the whole time! After a just a few stores, Jude figured out to put his bag out in front of him so that people could drop candy inside. On the way home Jude practiced roaring like a lion. Later in the evening Jude helped hand out candy to trick-or-treaters as mom and dad enjoyed a warm mug of Romanian style “vin fiert” (spiced / mulled red wine).

Jude helped dad carve three pumpkins. He helped by pulling out the innards and throwing them into the trash.

Our adorable little Pea in the Pod: Greyson at 1 month and 2 days old.

Dad and Jude walking through the Proctor District old town shopping area gathering Halloween Candy. We’ll definitely do this again next year if we’re still in the area.

Jude having a great time roaring at all the other residents. In his simple lion costume, Jude made quite the impression.

3 Weeks In...

2010-10-20T20:33:00.001-07:00

Three weeks after little Grey came home from the hospital and it appears we've got a pretty decent routine working. Jude has really stepped up to the plate. He has shown a loving interest in his new little brother and is sure to include him in his daily activities. Although only 3 weeks old, we can already tell that Grey has a much more easy going personality than his intense and colicy older brother when he was 3 weeks. Grey's constant feeding cycle is to he expected. Rachel tries to get rest on Wed-Fri as Jude stays home now on Mon-Tue. Dad has taken over parent duties for Jude's unpredictable nights.

This tiny phone makes lengthy appreciations more difficult, but we are both very thankful, beyond words, that Linda could stay with us for 3 weeks before Greyson was born and after. And this weekend Carol is going to stay with Rachel for the week. This means a lot to us and we are very thankful.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Greyson Zachary

2010-09-29T21:12:00.001-07:00

We are proud parents tonight. Welcome Greyson. Born tonight at Swedish at 7:18 pm. 8 lbs 6 oz and 20 in long. A healthy and beautiful baby boy.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Last Quiet Night

2010-09-28T21:40:00.001-07:00

Were scheduled to have Greyson tomorrow. This feels like the night before you get married. Lots of thoughts going through our heads, including, "wow this is going to be the last good nights sleep for about a year."

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I Want Pants ... Well Who Doesnt!?

2010-09-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

The other day Rachel handed me a half-dressed Jude (shirt and diaper). However, at the same time I had planned on quickly running to the backyard to fix something. Therefore, I quickly threw some shoes on half-dressed Jude to take him outside with me. Upon fastening his shoes, Jude protested: "I want pants. I want pants. I want pants" until I understood what he was saying. "You want pants?" I repeated. "Yeah." And, slowly but surely father and son are learning to communicate with each other.

Jude's Octopus Cake

2010-09-12T22:15:00.001-07:00

(Aka Jude's Second Birthday). On August 30th, Jude celebrated his second birthday with friends and family at the Portland Children's Museum. It was very cute watching over a dozen small children (mostly toddlers) waddling, running and tripping all over the room. A big thank you to all the little kids whose moms and dads let eat octopus cake with Jude: Grant, Cole, Drew, Isaac, Macy, Ayla, Evan, Joel, Addi, Pailey, and Daylon. All super cute and loads of energy!

Also a big kudos to Jeanne and Rachel for making the coolest octopus cake ever. After researching them online, Rachel decided she could make her own, but better and cheaper. Between she and Jeanne, it was pretty brilliant.

(more pictures soon)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Greyson on His Way

2010-08-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

I am the happy and proud soon-to-be father of Greyson TBD Mardock. Sometime between September 25 and October 5, Grey will complete the Mardock family: dad, lovely wife, and two spry little boys. I can’t wait. Greyson, we’re waiting with great anticipation for your birth in the next few weeks! Love, Dad

The Ferrari of Tricycles

2010-08-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we woke up with a great idea to buy Jude a simple tricycle for his 2nd birthday. Novel, says I; nothing says easy lovin’ than getting a simple ready-to-ride trike from Toys R Us. This from the family who researches so long into what kind of baby carrier to buy that by the time we get it he’s too big for it. But oh, life for the Mardocks isn’t as easy as simply going to Toys R Us and getting a $20 Radio Flyer.

At Toys R Us we discover that tricycles have actually “devolved” over the past 20 years into cheap, breakable plastic garbage heaps and cost $60 and up. (Of course when I was a kid, they were American-made solid steal and rubber). Rachel and I reconsidered the simple notion of buying a trike. We decided to search around the Tacoma area for other options to no avail. All garbage. Then we discovered there was this uber-fancy German trike company called Kettler. Hand forged by real Teutonic engineers, with all the bells and whistles. The particular one we were interested, I called the “Ferrari of Tricycles.” The Air Navigator. This bad boy has real air-filled tires, plus a push handle for the parents. But then it gets better: the Air Navigator's petite frame belies the fact that it’s approved for up to a 400 pound human. Its rear wheels swivel like a shopping cart so that the parents can push the trike seamlessly without lifting and repositioning the trike (lest it veer off the sidewalk and maim the poor child). And lastly, its front wheel locks so that the wheel is always pointed straight ahead. Another must as parents push the lazy child up and down the block.

I must tell you, I had stars in my eyes. Clearly I wanted this trike so much more than Jude could ever care. At $250 though, it was just a hard justification to make. Didn’t we wake up that morning just wanting a simple $20 trike? How did we get from Junker to Ferrari? After much introspection and consideration about whether the trike should be a family heirloom or just a toy, we decided to keep the money and get the trike from Toys R Us. At $60, it’s still more than we want to pay, but I feel like we avoided an epic frivolous purchase. Certainly Jude would appreciate that money towards his college savings plan. Although with a weight limit of 400 pounds he could still easily ride the trike to college.

So ends our trike story, and onto another story: whether or not Rob and Rachel will invest $700 on the swankiest duallie stroller on the market, or whether we’ll ever get it through out heads that humans have been raising babies for millennia without the aircraft aluminum frames, Baby Bjorn carriers, and video baby monitors…

Big Boy Bed

2010-08-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

This morning at 1:30 Rachel and I awoke to a toddler-sized sneeze, mere inches from our heads. Both startled out of our sleeps, we looked over to find Jude just watching us. Clearly he had arisen from his big-boy bed, walked silently down the hall, and was waiting for an opportunity to get our attention.

Jude took to his big-boy bed much better than we could have anticipated. A couple of days after setting it up in his room, Adam and Dani put him down for a nap, not knowing we weren’t yet using the bed (we were more just getting Jude used to the idea of having it in his room). Later that night we were having a heck of a time getting Jude to sleep in his crib. Out of exhaustion, Rachel sat down on his bed to hold him, but Jude quickly slipped out of her arms onto the bed and he promptly fell asleep for the night. And that is the story of how Jude transitioned to his big-boy bed. All the discussion, concern and scenario-planning and he simply took to it like a fish takes to water.

The crib is now ready for little baby Greyson (ETA Sept 25 – Oct 5). We hope that Grey sleeps better than Jude. We like to think of Jude as being borderline colicky as it helps us justify how tired we were for the first year; and they say your second child will have the opposite level of difficultness from your first. We shall soon see…

Begin Microblog

2010-07-06T23:33:00.001-07:00

1: Please pardon my brevity and typos, I'm writing with my thumbs
2: Whereas 99.9% of my after-hours computer time is on my phone, and it doesn't look likely to change anytime soon, expect to see brief and incorrectly spelled blog posts
3: I've been thinking more and more about getting a tiny Bluetooth keyboard
4: Next week is my busy week - with long nights to boot. I love my wife. And I'm also thrilled that Heather is coming up to keep Rachel company for a couple of days.
5: Jude is an absolute ham and doll. I look forward to seeing him when I'm at work
6: Rachel is tickled pink at the thought of having little Greyson. She's confirmed on numerous occasions that "no more, never. I hate being pregnant."
7: We're still trying to agree on Greyson's middle name. We're now thinking Charles or Alexander... But it could change tomorrow.
8: That is all!

Pleasant Day in Bellevue

2010-06-27T22:53:00.001-07:00

The three of us spent a warm day checking out the Eastside of Seattle today (Aka Bellevue) as part of our preliminary scouting of possible places to live. Yes, as soon as our home sells, which could be in a month or in a year, we will be moving into a rental on the East side of Lake Washington. We recently found a church that we've been attending. The people are pretty cool and the message is smart (a rare combo). The next thing to consider in a move is daycare. As Rachel and I will still be working, and as we have no family within a hundred miles, well be using full time daycare for our two boys. That equals about $2500 per month, or effectively $30,000 a year. That equals the take-home salary of someone making about $40,000 (40,000 *[1-25% tax] = 30,000). I am awestruck at how people can afford this. It makes so much more sense to invest that money. And the govt doesn't give parents hardly any tax assistance for daycare as they do for small potato expenses like a mortgage payment. What does a parent do...

Please forgive my run-on sentences and typos as I'm writing from my iPhone.

On the Market

2010-06-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

A little over two years ago, Rachel and I found a cute old Craftsman home in the tony area of Proctor, Tacoma that we could afford, knowing that much work needed to be done. Over the past couple of years, we've textured walls, painted everything, de-popcorned the ceiling, tiled, added appliances and a fireplace insert, ripped out a yard and put a new one in, installed lots of random lights and fixtures, and who knows what else... I've lost track of it all. All said and done probably over $10,000 of improvements. During this time, Rachel's company decided to move forward their move-date to Seattle 3 years from 2013 to 2010. So to make a long story short, we decided that although we put tons of hard work into our great little Craftsman, it just isn't going to be possible to commute with babies in the back seat up to Seattle and back to Tacoma every day for a total of 2.5 hours ... every day. Hence, our home is on the market (how's that for back-story)

We will be taking a loss on the property given how much in transaction fees we're paying, but if we can get close to what we're asking, then Rachel and I can start fresh in a new place closer to our two offices in Seattle without breaking the bank. We're really excited that in a few months (or more, who knows) we'll be living 30 miles north in Seattle / Bellevue.

In the meantime, check out our home listing. See the improvements we've made. I think there's even a link to the original listing from the previous owner in a previous blog post that you could compare our improvements to.

Click here ... or ... click here.

More exciting news coming your way soon!

It worked. Now I'm sad because...

2010-06-02T21:28:00.001-07:00

If I knew how easy it was to post from my phone, I would have updated much sooner. The fact is, between working a long hard day, commuting from Seattle to Tacoma, renovating our home, and raising a baby / toddler, I have no time other than the few moments I sit in bed on my iPhone prior to lights out. This changes everything! I'm so sad that I've blogged only about 6 times in the past year. Darn you Facebook for stealing my pithiest of one liners and for synopsizing my family's life experiences into one-line status updates when they deserved so much more color, context and verbiage.

So some news of the day includes this: we're selling our home. Oh yes! It turns out the company Rachel works for is moving to Seattle 3 years sooner than they anticipated. We can't both commute to Seattle with a baby in the back seat, so were selling our beautiful home and moving closer to work. We'll post the MLS listing in the next few days. The real estate market is pretty bad, but our house is really great and really decently priced, so who knows. It could sell in one week or one year!

Testing Nifty iPhone App

2010-06-02T21:06:00.001-07:00

As about 95% of my non-work related computer time is spent on an iPhone, and as I truly am wanting to get back into a normal blogging routine (because facebook is such a bad historical family record!), I'm testing out this nifty iPhone app to see if it acurately posts to our blog. Clearly what is lost by using this app is Microsoft Word's spell and syntax check, because that last sentence was a whopper of a run-on!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Jude's First Haircut

2010-02-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

Jude officially traversed the blurry line from babyhood to toddlerhood several months ago when he picked himself off the rug and took his first primordial steps (with Also Sprach Zarathustra playing in the background – at least as I recall it). However, we were further reminded of Jude’s non-babyness the other day when we got his golden locks trimmed for the very first time. At one point prior to the appointment, we discussed whether all three of us were psychologically ready for this rite of passage. In the end, we concluded that either now or three years from now would be the idea time. Three years from now represents when a toddler begins to no longer fear for his life at the hands of a barber or hairstylist. Imagining Jude with 5 years worth of hair convinced us that now was the time.

In my mind, toddler haircuts are reminiscent of the 70s and early 80s, as has been documented below:

Notice the horribly uncomfortable atmosphere. Comfort was definitely not a priority – function was key. Fast forward to today. These kiddos have their own salons, with beautiful lighting and wallpaper, barber chairs in the shape of Jeeps and rocket ships, and TVs playing Elmo & Friends:

Overall, Jude did excellent for 2/3 of his visit. Then, he politely waved his hands back in forth to signal “all done,” put his sucker down, pulled off his smock, and clearly exclaimed “aah” (which is Judeian for “up”). He fussed when we didn’t respond to his command, but even during his fussiness, he was a pretty well behaved little guy. Kudos to the stylist, and kudos to Jude for passing this important milestone. Your hair now reminds us clearly that you are a little man. No more old ladies exclaiming what a cute little girl we have. And for those of you curious: yes, Jude’s hair is still a little curly at the bottom. Hopefully his curls last into his teens, because they’re awfully cute (and girls really seem to like them!)

Long Overdue Update

2009-12-19T22:57:00.000-08:00

... a long update? Not really. But I've felt convicted to update the blog for about two months. Such is our life now that we use Facebook so frequently. Its "status updates" have usurped the more meaningful and descriptive blog stories. We'll try to change that going forward; if for no other reason than for Jude. I'm sure he'll want a running log of our lives to refer back to when he's dealing with his midlife crisis. He'll want to know "what were we thinking"?

As the prior story mentioned, we replaced our yard. I shoveled Tagro (essentially purified manure) throughout the front yard, and spread grass seeds. The grass grew a couple of inches before the bitter cold came and frosted the ground. It should be okay through the winter; but if not, at least the old yard is gone and we can easily fix whatever Jack Frost throws our way when Spring comes.
Rachel and I flew to Kauai and stayed for 3 nights in Poipu at the Grand Hyatt, 3 nights in Princeville at the St Regis, and 1 night on Alaska Air. We regret much that we didn't immediately summarize this amazing trip sooner. It was a "once every 10 years" kind of trip. Amazing, beautiful, relaxing. Lots of sun, lots of fun. Jude stayed home with his grandma Linda. As we neared the end of our trip, we were really looking forward to seeing Jude again. It made coming back to cold and wet Seattle very enjoyable.
Jude got the H1N1 flu back in November. He was out of school (daycare) for 7 days! At several points his feaver was up to 104, which was scary and a little amazing. I didn't think feavers got that high. I was always under the impression that around 104 and 105, that's when you're pretty much dead. But Jude fluxuated between 100 and 104 for about 6 days. He was a trooper. A real great kid.
As I mentioned in our Christmas card letter, around the time that Jude got over his flu, his personality really took off. He started talking and interacting at a much more interpersonal level. He laughed at us and did things he knew would make us laugh. He runs around, chases Jackson, puts objects in specific orders and in specific places - it's absolutely bizarre seeing him develop in such intentional and incremental ways. There's no way he could do 3 months ago what he's doing today. Just tonight he literally stopped what he was doing when I told him "no." Wheels are turning up there. What a good kid.
Thanksgiving with Chris and Jeanne was a blast. After Turkey Day, Rachel and I got to spend a day with Adam and Dani at their new place in Longview. Mitch and Kel came up and met us there, as Longview is half way between Tacoma and Salem, OR. It's great to have family so close to us up here.
Christmas is fast approaching. We have an awesome Turkish fir in our living room that we cut down at a "u-cut" tree farm. The house is decorated, presents are under the tree, and the annual Rescue Christmas CD is in its music rotation. Rachel and I bought each other a door clicker unit for our CR-V, but other than that, gifts are a surprise.

2009 was a momentous, long, and tiring year! We will definitely look back at this year with a combination of great memories, and a little bit of shock that we pulled it all off with such little sleep.

Ben Folds Live (pt 2)

2009-10-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

As a follow-up to a concert we attended in Houston back in 2006 (link here), Andy, Joanne, Heather, Brock, Rachel and I attended the Ben Folds + Seattle Symphony concert two days ago. Amazing! I can't get over what an incredible performer he is. The sound quality with the Houston Symphony was substantially better, but this performance was much more fun. Ben told stories about the meaning of his songs, and made up a song right on the spot. At the end of his performance, Ben played 1 encore song with the symphony (Narcolepsy) and 3 encoure songs after the symphony existed stage (Army, Rockin' the Suburbs, and one that I call, "Ode to the Seattle ^*&# Symphony")

Andy Bellamy credited with photo

Replacing the Front Lawn

2009-10-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

...a much bigger project than it sounds. And "replacing the front lawn" doesn't even sound small. Below is one "before" photo taken about 2 years ago before we lived here. Our phase 1 (demolition) is now complete and we have a few pictures below. Next comes phase 2 (renewal). We're not entirely sure when phase 2 will commence but we expect it will be much less physical work than phase 1.

Ironic, but true: multiple neighbors told me how much better the lawn looked after it was gone and only dirt remained. Oh the wonders of a simple extreme makeover.

Hopefully there will be more to come!

Highlights from Jude's 1st Birthday

2009-09-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Aug 30, 2009 marked 1 solid year of Jude's existence on this good planet. And what a doll he's been. It seems like only yesterday he was 1 mo old suffering from both the consternation of painful gas and the humiliation of his parents dressing him as a pea pod. But now, at the age of 1, our little guy is a walking, talking (at least he thinks he's talking), grinning, laughing, and personable young man. We celebrated his big "o-one" with friends and family down in Portland (as virtually none live up in Seattle save for the Steeles). At Cook Park, we enjoyed great food and fellowship, culminating in ceramonial rites of passage such as "blowing out of the first candle" and "stuffing the face with cake." As this was Jude's first and last taste of sugar until his second birthday, we wanted him to really get into it and enjoy it. As you can see from the pictures below, Jude didn't disappoint. At first he gingerly picked at the frosting, moving to a delicate finger swipe, then on to full-force fists and wrists mashing and molding the cake into a lump of unidentifiable sugar-stuff. Enjoy these chronological photos from the afternoon party!

Jude's beautiful Costco cake. Thanks to Heather's connections, we got Costco to make a special duck design.

Happy Family.

Rob and Rachel blowing out the candle before Jude could grab the flame.

Jude considering the texture.

Fist in the cake!

Happy Birthday Jude!

Random Filler Stories

2009-08-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

For those keeping up with world events, yes, we are alive. We survived Seattle’s hottest day in the history of the universe, all without air conditioning. Since records began in the late 1800s, the temperature has never exceeded 100F. Wouldn’t you know it we move here from hot hot Texas and Seattle blows past its record with a whopping 103F. It felt like Texas (or more specifically like Riverside, CA on a hot smoggy day). Except unlike Texas, the infrastructure in the NW is grossly unprepared for temperatures above the low 80s. Rachel, Jude and I spent three evenings at the lovely Tacoma mall. One evening we took Andy and Joanne – visiting from Florida – out to dinner. After-dinner weather was still essentially magma in vapor form, so we drove 45 minutes away to Sonic for a refreshing cherry limeade. Lovely.

In other news, 1) Rachel and I have enjoyed many a game of Ticket to Ride with Jordan this summer. Our cousin Jordan had a JAG internship at Ft Lewis and we offered him our upstairs. Best of luck in year 2 of law school! 2) Chris and Jeanne welcomed their blessed baby angel Daylon into their amazing family. Lucky kid. He doesn’t know how lucky he is. Or he's just feigning ignorance as infants often do. Then again neither do Jude and Liam know how lucky they are. 3) Hawaii! Rachel and I are uber excited for our once-every-seven-year vacation to Kauai this October. I must gloat: we’re staying 3 nights at the new St Regis in Princeville and 3 nights at the Grand Hyatt in Poipu. More fun stories of this in October. In the meantime, Rachel and I must try to contain our excitement and anticipation by perfecting mai tai recipes over the weekends. 4) Very excited to visit the Mardock clan in Austin over Labor Day. More fun stories when we return in September.

Smallif

2009-07-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

I just learned a handy Excel trick to create just about any type of conditional formula. For context, right now Excel offers pre-built formulas that lets you sum up an array given a specific criteria (sum up all of column B whenever its value in Column A = Texas). Excel calls this "sumif." But what if you want to find the minimum, maximum, or rank given a specific criteria?

First, check out this website.
Then check out this clever "smallif" example: I have 10 people scattered throughout column A (100 times). Each person has several different values listed in column B. I want to rank the values for each person from smallest to largest. Try this: {=SMALL(IF($A$1:$A$100="John",$B$1:$B$100),1)}. Note that the brackets {} are automatically inserted by pressing CNTRL+SHIFT+ENTER at the end of your formula. Repeat this formula as many times as you need, entering ,2, 3, 4, 5, ..., n for as many values as you have (in order to rank them from 1 to n)

Jude Across the Pond (pt 2)

2009-06-08T20:34:00.001-07:00

More photos! Stories coming soon:

Jude in the shoebox-sized bassinet on the British Airways flight to London (the leg of the trip without Rachel).

British Museum

Mummies!

High Tea at Fortnum and Masons

Put me to bed! I'm so tired!

Jude Across the Pond (pt 1)

2009-05-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

When Rachel’s two-week business trip to London was confirmed, we agreed that I would watch Jude in Tacoma with Grandma’s help (Linda), and then fly to London with Jude for the second week. The first week was hard on Rachel, but with the help of Skype we were able to see each other and chat as if we were in the next room. Linda helped tremendously, and the party grew even bigger when Jeanne and Heather came up the road to stay for a few days. During that first week, I (Robert) worked during the day and took over Jude’s evening and night duties that included playing, feeding, changing, reading, putting to sleep, and feeding again every 4-6 hours. Looking back, I have to say that my one on one time with Jude was probably the best time I’ve had with the little guy so far in his brief life. I loved learning how to listen to him and understanding more of his personality. He likes to be read to each night – I read him two books, one of which is always the same. I noticed that each night he leaned forward to touch the same small picture in the book. And he learned too! He learned that I don’t pick him up after I put him to bed, so there’s no use fussing (I use the 15 minute fuss rule … he’s out before he reaches 15 minutes).

On Friday afternoon, Linda, Jude and I left for the airport – Linda to return to Medford, and Jude and me to London. With the exception of a nasty old man sitting next to us (and I know who you are! I looked you up on LinkedIn) the flight to London went great. Jude slept and played the entire time. When we arrived in London, the three of us (with Rachel now) spent the rest of the day touring around the city rather than sleeping. By the time night arrived, Jude was more than ready to sleep for the night. And just like that – Jude was acclimated to Greenwich Mean Time (+8 hours from Seattle).

Here are a few pictures we took during that initial 3 day weekend (Memorial Day in the US = random “Bank Holiday” in UK):

Rachel & Jude at Tower of London (it's more than just a tower)

Rob and Jude at Tower Bridge (insured as a boat by Lloyds of London)

Jude making faces in random park to the side of Parliament

Rachel and Jude across the River Thames

Rachel and Jude with Parliament

Rachel and Jude with Parliament and Big Ben

Jude, Rob and Ben

Jude attacking Rachel

Rachel and Jude at Harrods

Random cute Jude photo

Rachel and Jude at Buckingham Palace

Road Tripping with Jude

2009-05-11T10:34:00.001-07:00

Though just 8 months old, Jude has visited national parks, traveled back and forth to Portland on countless occasions, driven with his parents to Medford, and even flown to Los Angeles to visit the grandparents. Below are a few photos of Jude's travel adventures:

Trip to Olympic National Park with Katherine and Jerrod. Note to potential visitors, it's still snowy there in April / May. We didn't know that, and you could tell that half of the other people didn't know that either. The other half were trekking up to the nearby peaks on their snow shoes and skis.
Jude: loving the crisp mountain air!

Jerrod & Katherine visiting from Texas thanks in part to Southwest Airlines' cheap fares (Jerrod: it took 8 hours. I might as well have flown to Europe)

In retrospect, we should have known to check the weather conditions, but at the time we all wanted an adventure. But wow, did it get snowy very quickly! We practically turned the corner and suddenly it went from dry and crisp to 10 ft snow drifts and foggy.

Trip to Southern California. Jude and parents visited the Mardock side living in Springville / Porterville area. We like being in the same time zone, but we're really excited that they're moving to Austin, TX - surprisingly faster to get to Austin than flying to Burbank and driving 3 hours north to Springville.
Grandpa and Jude sharing a moment

Trip to Medford, Oregon. Well, no pictures here, unfortunately, but Medford isn't going anywhere. We visited the Bellamy side, with Josh coming up from Sacramento for a fun action-packed weekend. I got to see the new Star Trek film in an actual movie theater! Haven't been to one of those in over 8 months.
Random non-Medford photo: mirrors and hands are two of Jude's favorite things

Jude and his red socks, getting ready for dinner

CDSs Part 3: Hitting the Jackpot with a GM Bankruptcy

2009-04-30T14:50:00.001-07:00

If GM declares chapter 11 bankruptcy, debt holders may actually be the big winners. Here is some background:

Bucking the trend, GM's imminent bankruptcy will likely create financial ripples from Main Street back to Wall Street. While a bankruptcy will arguably be good for viability and vitality of the company itself (it's a 100 year old has-been saddled with billions of dollars worth of decades-old moribund capital infrastructure and entitlement expenditures, in dire need of a "new beginning") it will be negative to a host of others including, but lot limited to:

a) semi-skilled, high school educated UAW workers with decades-long expectations of earning MBA or PhD level incomes
b) stock holders who have already seen their investments plummet 91% in just the last year (who will then see it plummet an incremental 100%)
c) executives at GM whose compensations were ceremonially set to $1 on the condition that if they could turn the company around they could stand to earn tens or hundreds of millions (if they could avoid bankruptcy).
d) creditors and bondholders who didn't have any form of bankruptcy insurance.

Creditors and bondholders who did have some form of bankruptcy insurance, on the other hand, just won the jackpot.

Oh yes, I’m talking about credit default swaps. That $39 Trillion butt-hole of a derivative that keeps popping its head up whenever a company goes bankrupt. Keep in mind that when CDSs were being invented just 10 years ago, the world economy was at the beginning of its 8-year winning streak. CDSs were an insurance policy against the ever-so-miniscule chance that any legitimate company could ever go bankrupt. Brokers, dealers, traders, and other financial ‘innovators' had no interest in scenario planning against “what are the implications of CDSs in a recessionary environment,” because by the time such a reality presented itself, they would be long gone, living back in their suburban Main Street high school home towns in the big 6 bedroom track house with 3 cars and a trust fund for their two children.

Had such financial innovators scenario planned about CDSs in a recessionary environment, and had they any financial stake in such a possibility, they may have put safeguards into the systems. Such as (in the context of GM):

1) If GM goes bankrupt, just those debt holders who actually own the debt can buy CDSs to cover their position.
2) If the wife, neighbors or golf buddy of debt holder wants to get some of that CDS insurance coverage on GM too, they can’t. They can’t because they don’t own the debt. That would be silly. That would be like this author getting a life insurance policy on Fidel Castro or any other random citizen of this planet.
3) Likewise, if a GM debt holder wants to cover their position with a CDS, they can’t double, triple, quadruple, or quintuple their insurance coverage (as in, “I just lost $1 million when GM went bankrupt, but it’s all good because AIG just paid me $300 million on my GM credit default swaps when it went bankrupt.”)

Here are a couple of broken scenarios that may play out in the next couple of months:
GM will declare bankruptcy – a quick and clean bankruptcy that will clean off its books and kick-start it into the new century (because they are seriously stuck in the 1990s). --> Many bond-holders will feign disappointment at the hand they had been given, but secretly they will be giddy that they hit the jackpot. Their debt had been worthless for years by now, but the insurance on that debt is golden! --> Financial repercussions as AIG (you and me), Merrill Lynch (Bank of America), Barclays, and Morgan Stanley start paying out billions of dollars in CDSs. What next? It gets fuzzy since the banks are already teetering on the brink of collapse and that risk is mostly baked into their current market value ... so "how much" of a shock this will be to them is unclear. The US government may demand that anyone due to receive cash from an AIG CDS take a percent of the money due. But that may result in hefty lawsuits from an eager cadre of lawyers who haven't been doing too well in these difficult economic times either.

I digress ... at any rate, be on the lookout for people getting excited at a GM bankruptcy, because they just won the jackpot. I just said that in a really long roundabout way.

Student Loan Interest Rates = Diabolical Scheme

2009-04-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

Help me find the error in this Socratic logic:

A: an "interest rate" = risk free component + risk component*
B: student loans are risk free**
C: therefore, student loan interest rates should be 0%***

*"risk free" = something like us treasury notes, currently at about 0.4% (that is, under 1%)
** i) only by death or by full payment can a student loan be erased. ii) student loans are the only type of loan that cannot be absolved through bankruptcy. iii) student loan lenders have the power to garnish wages through collaboration with the us treasury department
***or more accurately, 0% above the risk free rate, which is about 0.4% right now.

Double Chocolate Chip Caramel Pecan Cookie Recipe

2009-03-31T11:50:00.001-07:00

I've lost this recipe several times, so I'm eternalizing it here. I can't claim to have created it, just to have popularized it.

Mix in separate bowls the following -

Dry:
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Wet:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cube butter
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
**mix in mixer**
1 cup chocolate chunks or chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (recommend walnuts, pecans, or almonds)
1/2 - 3/4 cup caramel cubes cut up into quarters
**mix in mixer**
**Add dry ingredients, mix some more**
**spoon onto greased pan, bake @ 350 F for 10 minutes**

Jude loves the sunshine

2009-03-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

Too bad we live in Seattle...

Living in Seattle:
Pro - REI headquarters (thus the adorable vest)
Con - rains a lot (but everything is green)

No More Peas Please

2009-03-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

I hate peas and I'm not afraid to show it.

But I can't get enough of that Jumperoo! Dang, it's fun!

March 3, 2009: The Market Reaches Bottom

2009-03-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

I hope I'm right, I hope I'm right! But I've gotta stick to my guns, after forecasting on October 10th that we would know when the bottom hit when the NYSE dropped to around 6800 (at the time it was at 8400). It may seem like all is hopeless right now, but I for one am a little optimistic that securities are now priced to sell.

Wow, maybe it's March 5th. Who knew GM and C would both essentially fail on the same day...

Would You Rather...

2009-02-27T15:32:00.000-08:00

GK and I were discussing what would be better: 1) to be raised by wolves, or 2) to be raised by gorillas.

Raised by wolves (like Mowgli from the Jungle Book): greater possibility of being hastily eaten.
Raised by gorillas (like Tarzan): greater possibility of having your arms torn out and face bitten off.

I’d like to raise the option of 3) being raised by a pack of adorable little Yorkies. They’re just so darn cute and cuddly. And they’re loyal too. I’d imagine I would be raised with manners. And to know my place, of course.

Volcano Monitoring

2009-02-26T13:20:00.000-08:00

My tribute to the hard working people at the USGS (US Geological Survey). Don’t let Bobby Jindal tell you we don’t need you. If it can happen to Dante’s Peak and downtown LA, it can happen anywhere. Also available as “flair” on Facebook.

Things to do in Houston (and Austin)

2009-02-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

After a colleague of mine in Seattle told us he was leaving for a job in Houston, my first reaction wasn't "oh I'm so sad to see you go," but "oh, how cool!" Then I discovered some of my family may be moving to Austin. My instinct wasn't, "oh how sad, your moving 1000 miles farther away," but "awesome! I can't wait to visit ya'll!" Here are a few of our favorite places in Houston (and Austin). I'm going to edit this in a couple of days to incorporate a list that Katherine B gave me. If you have anything to add, let me know and I'll add it as well:
(Note - Rachel and I lived "in the loop." There should rarely be a reason to leave the inner loop)
Jog or walk, or just enjoy: Memorial Park, Hermann Park, Rice University

Our favorite pizza places: Collina's (the best), Star Pizza (what other people think is the best … very deep dish)

Tips about University Village: Enjoy discovering the restaurants, they're eclectic and very interesting. Black Walnut Café (Veggi, NW-style food), Mi Luna (Great tapas), Hungry's Bistro (Great brunch, Mediterranean, humus), Benjy's Restaurant (I forgot… maybe I liked the happy hour and fancy cocktails), Yum Yum Cha (Cantonese, dumplings, hole-in-the-wall place), Some other café on the corner of Rice and Chaucer (across the streat from Hungry's Bistro) is great, veggi, NW-style food, great deserts, Goode Company BBQ

Best supermarket in the world: Central Market in Highland Village. Like Whole Foods but much, much better

Tips about the big exciting mass of restaurants between Highland Village and Montrose (on a map, between Wesleyan, Montrose, above I-59): Amy's Ice Cream (classic, a must go place. Try Guinness Ice Cream or sometimes Avocado ice cream), Freebird Burrito (another TX classic place, a yuppie version of Chipotle, yes they have veggi), Hobbit Café (Seriously, this is an earthy place taken right out of a Tolkien novel), O Porto (Portugese, Tapas, hole-in-the-wall place), PF Changs in Highland Village (Sadly, the best Chinese place we found), Lupe Tortilla (Oh, how we miss Lupe… the best tortillas, plus excellent margaritas, very popular), Luling's BBQ (A great authentic experience), Ragin Cajun (A wonderful and bizarre cajun restaurant, one of those places with LSU paraphernalia and license plates adorning the walls), Empire Café (Great coffee, veggi, brunch, conversational place), Katz's Deli (Really good, one of the best kosher deli's you'll find anywhere in the country), Starbucks in River Oaks (See the Starbucks across the street from the Starbucks on the corner of Shephard and Gray), Teala's Mexican & Tila's Bistro (Both sound the same, both in same area of River Oaks, both really good), Chuy's Mexican (An insanely popular place, especially for the UT alumns), Taco Milagro (A very, very popular place on Thursday afternoon happy hour time, big patio, a great place to meet people. It's actually nicer than it sounds… it isn't a "taco cart" or anything), Pappas, Seafood, Pappas BBQ, etc… Anything from the Pappas people (See the giant armadillo)

Galleria area: The mall itself is friggin huge, with lots of great shopping, but alas it has become a hangout for the punk yuts (youths), America's restaurant (Very nice, expensive), McCormick and Schmicks (Yey! $2 happy hour food menu!), Just drive around and be amazed at the commercial activity going on. You'll find something interesting.

Kemah: A tourist trap, nonetheless, a great selection of seafood places. Go to the original Landry's. Get a water view and watch the power boats go through the canal.

Miscellaneous: Houston's Restaurant (on Kirby), Carisma $4 Car wash (on Kirby. Seriously I miss Houston just because of this place, near the corner of Kirby and Bissonnet), Make a friend who has a beach house in Galveston, Downtown - Market Square historic area, good bars… Flying Saucer bar. Tunnels in downtown Houston (A strange sight to see all of downtown scurrying around underground), Drive around River Oaks at Christmas (look at Christmas lights), Go to San Jacinto Monument (Even though it is sort of silly, it is higher than the Washington Monument. A Texas Thing)

Day Trips: Drive to College Station (Aggie Land), go wine tasting, visit the 1st G Bush presidential library (surprisingly interesting and interactive), go to the Dixie Chicken (a nasty dive of a place), Drive to Fredericksburg and surrounding areas (really fun, gem of a place pleasant wine country)

Austin favorites: Trudy's (mexican, great margaritas, UT hangout), Kerby Lane Café (Best breakfast in Texas (we think), great pancakes), Mozart’s Café (Not good coffee, but a really great hangout, good deserts, huge porch on the water), Bats under Congress St Bridge (Go in August or September. Better yet, go to the nasty TGIF, ask for a patio seat, and watch the bats while enjoying an ice tea and mozzarela sticks! (we've done that, it's surprisingly fun), Jog around Town Lake (between Lamar Blvd and Congres St … it's a great walking / jogging loop. Walk down the trail a little farther to see all the turtles!), Look at the turtles! They’re so cute!, Barton Creek Pool (natural pool, it's awesome), Barton Creek Greenbelt (I can't stress enough how cool this place is. It’s free. The creek is crystal clear, big swimming holes, fun little rapids, popular with the college crowd, you feel like you're in the wilderness, but you're still inside the city limits), Malaga tapas bar, Walk around UT (It's an impressive place, find something to do), and last but not least, Whole Foods World Headquarters (get lost in their giant flagship store)

Where is the Stimulus Suggestion Box?

2009-02-03T16:11:00.000-08:00

Here are my two suggestions for immediate relief for normal Americans:

1) Loss on sale of home tax benefit
Let home-owners who must sell their home in a down market realize some sort of tax benefit for their loss. Businesses can already do this, but pity the poor individual who currently gets the shaft. Home-owner decides “what the heck, I lost my job and can’t make my mortgage payments, and darned if I’m going to live in a $300,000 home that I bought for $350,000. I’m going to foreclose.” Let the tax benefit have some kind of carry-forward provision. “Homeowners can amortize the difference between house sale price and house purchase price over a 10 year period on their 1040”

2) Lock in student loan interest rates TWICE
Poor uneducated college graduates who think they’re doing the right thing by locking in their multiple variable interest rate student loans into one simple loan. It made sense to us all at the time. Instead of writing checks to Sallie Mae, Wells Fargo, Department of Education, and Perkins – all at different and high interest rates – I can just write one check to Department of Education and lock in a rate at 5.5%. Wow, 5.5% is an all time low, this is great! But fastforward 7 years. You still owe tens of thousands of dollars. In fact it feels like you’re not making a dent in your loans. By now that all time low 5.5% is now down to 2%. That could have saved you $50,000 or $100,000 on the life of your loan. “If only I could have seen the future,” you cry. “I would have waited seven years, writing 5 checks every month, and then locked in my student loans…” Again, if I were a business, I could swap rates and lock in rates an infinite number of times. But Uncle Sam has poor uneducated college graduates in a vice grip. Squeezing interest out of us 5.5% annually and mocking our myopic decisions to lock in our rates soon after we graduated.

I’m not sure if I actually made the suggestion in there, but I think you get the point. Do you have any other great ideas that Obama should bring forward that aren’t being talked about in the press? Ideas must make an immediate impact on normal people.

Why Blogging is Better than Twittering

2009-01-28T10:37:00.000-08:00

I may break down and sign up for a Twitter account (a text-message like microblog where you submit 1-2 sentence posts at a time, especially relevant in a time where more and more people have smart-phones). I do like the idea of keeping track with friends via tiny and non-committal pithy comments. But Twitter cannot take the place of the context, color, theme, and nouns verbs and pronouns that you find on a blog.

Fake Twitter example:
Rob posts: “Made it to Shasta. No chains req’d”
Josh responds: “I told you. Next time trust me”
Brian adds: “Ah, you’re both whiners”
Rob responds: “Almost got in accident, I’m okay”
Brian adds: “Ha ha, too funny, probably got a buzz from that nasty mermaid coffee”
Rob responds: “No, seriously, I almost died.”
Josh responds: “Come on guys, why can’t we all get along… We settle this over Halo”

Huh? What happened? Why did Rob go to Shasta? Was bad weather expected? He almost died? Wow! How!? Are other people coming to visit him at Shasta? Some lodge or cabin where you can plug in Halo? I need more info! All of these questions could be answered, with pictures, charts, and context, in a blog. The other day I looked back at a post about some random weekend trip we took to College Station and thought, aww, that was a fun weekend! But I’m sure if I had a Twitter account at the time, my post would have been something like, “In Aggieland, Whoop!” ... Well whoop-dee-doo! What happened?

If only we had a blog during our treks in Romania and China. There are so many stories worth writing about that you will never know:
1) The 14-hour “hunger train” trip to Iasi
2) The trip to Dracula’s Castle
3) Rob gets in a fight with a drunk 60-yr old farmer in a coffee shop
4) Spelunking in a cave
5) Train ride to Vienna just to visit the nearest Starbucks

If we had a blog, you could find out all about each of these crazy adventures. But if we had a Twitter account, our post would have simply been a bullet point, ie “In Vienna, Starbucks… finally!”

Compete or Become Irrelevant

2009-01-26T13:04:00.000-08:00

As my younger brothers and sisters know, I’m way on board the education bandwagon. But my educational philosophy is not that, “every young adult, regardless of economic means, should attend college,” but that “education should be the means by which a young adult should do something to better society and their family… not merely their own selfish interests.” That last point is a little hot – but it is true in the context that children can learn to love and be successful in many skills, trades, and careers if given guidance by their parents, family, school, or other outside influence. Success should not be measured by whether or not you graduate from a 4-year college. I know too many 4-yr college graduates who have $80,000 in loans and no skills. Success should be measured by whether your contribution to society is “net positive.” A 4-year education is not the answer. The answer is acquisition of the skills and experiential tools required to compete in a global economy and bring about positive change in your community; whether those skills are learned via college or trade school, or apprenticeship, or service to the country, etc.

“We had more sports exercise majors graduate than electrical engineering grads last year. If you want to be the massage capital of the world you’re well on the way.” (GE CEO Jeff Immelt to the US government)

I imagine the conversations and rationalizations parents must have with their children, “You must go to college because that's the expected thing to do… I don’t care what you do there, as long as you graduate. A BA in Sports Exercise? Fine. BA in Counseling? Fine. As long as you graduate.” But this thought process is the wrong algorithm. It’s not about what the child thinks is fun, it’s about what is going to advance the child’s skills and marketability in 2009 and beyond. Apart from "fun" are things like "gratifying" and "worthwhile."

Here’s an interesting read from Norman Augustine, the retired CEO of Lockheed Martin. It discusses America’s competitiveness, or lack thereof. It’s easy to read and chalked full of great one liners like, “Once upon a time, if you were born in America, you already won the lottery. That’s not the case for my grandchildren.” And, “When I compare our high schools to what I see when I’m traveling abroad, I’m terrified for our workforce of tomorrow.”

My homework assignment for anyone reading this who has kids is to think about the legacy their children will leave behind. What will they contribute? How will you have set them up for success in life? What lessons have you instilled in them. Tell your children, "do your homework because starving children in China want your job."

Fun, relavent articles to read on this subject:
They're Baaaaack!
Rethink the value of college

A Few Firsts

2009-01-23T12:09:00.000-08:00

Jude is experiencing new things these days. He tried his first rice cereal a few weeks ago. I think he liked it, but his expression may suggest otherwise. He rolled over from his stomach to his back. He also has his first cold. He has the cutest little cough. Poor little guy has been getting very frustrated about not being able to breathe through his nose.

Jude lovin' the rice cereal

Trying to figure out why we keep putting him on his stomach

Caught him in a smile

I Have A Voice

2009-01-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

Ula-ula-ula, wa wa wa. That's how Jude says "Well hello there mom. You look nice today, as do these other large heads floating around me. Hello to you all. Hi there, you and you and you! I've discovered my tongue, haven't I? Yes I have!"

Vanilla Rooibos

2009-01-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

A tasty new treat at the 'bux: vanilla rooibos tazo tea latte. They use whole leaf teas and a fancy silk satchel, topped by a healthy dose of steamed milk. I give 2 thumbs up. A great alternative to coffee :-)

Seattle Boxed In

2009-01-08T14:07:00.001-08:00

We can now chalk up one more extreme weather phenomenon to our life experiences: flooding. At the moment, Seattle is completely isolated from the rest of the country. I don't know if that is a good thing or not to the rest of the country, but on this side of the mountains, it is a strange feeling. I-5 to the south is closed due to floodwater flowing over it, and I-90 to the east is closed due to avalanche hazards. Every route east over the cascades is closed, as is the coastal route. In the meantime, Jeanne drove up to drop Andy and Joanne off at the Seattle airport a couple of days ago, and now she's stuck at our place. We're trying to make her stay as enjoyable as possible, but I'm sure she's homesick. It's a good thing Rachel and I don't need to go anywhere, because it isn't an option! This whole situation reminds me of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" where everyone gets snowed in until the passes clear...

Trans-Texas Corridor Killed

2009-01-06T11:55:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to hear that as of today, the unnecessary, $200 billion dollar, private, foreign controlled, tolled, countryside eating, 50 year construction project that is the Trans-Texas Corridor has been killed. I wrote previously about this project a couple years ago (link here). The universally maligned boondoggle was a centerpiece of the universally maligned Governor Rick Perry. He must be smarting today that his own transportation department unilaterally killed the project.

The project would have spewed 4,000 miles of concrete onto the beautiful Texas countryside (ie, not widening the existing freeways, but building new ones in the countryside). It would have measured up to 4 football fields of concrete in width (visualize that). It would have been funded by tolling - ostensibly in perpetuity - with proceeds sent oversees to Cintra, a Spanish engineering firm.

If this sounds bad to you, you can see why no one wanted it built in the first place. Yes, expand roads. Yes, infrustructure improvement is needed. But not a new freeway system that rivals that of Brazil's, on top of the huge whopper of a freeway system Texas already has.

Political side note: In 2006, Rick Perry won a plurality of votes, not a majority. Texans from Brownsville to Amarillo had 4 viable candidates to chose from, not the typical 2. Kinky Friedman, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, some Democrat guy, and Rick Perry. All of the other 3 candidates ran as anti TTC and anti-Rick Perry. But in the end they beat up on each other and Rick Perry grinned his way back to the governor's mansion. For anyone who cares, I'm endorsing Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor in 2010.

My Chai Syrups

2009-01-02T13:12:00.000-08:00

I'm writing from Bend, Oregon, where Andy, Chris and I just took a tour of My Chai's small, nascent production facility.

A few months ago, we visited Satellite Coffee in Tacoma. Pat (the owner of Satellite) is almost aggressively passionate about his coffee, syrups, and products. He told us about his syrup provider down in Bend, OR. We were interested and we bought a half-gallon of vanilla and split it with Chris and Jeanne. Fast forward to this weekend. We're in Bend, and Jeanne wants to find the syrup to buy more, but we forget the name. Plus we know it is a very small company and most likely isn't open to the public. Andy and Jeanne researched and called some local coffee shops to find My Chai's name and contact info. Andy gives them a call, and talks with Bapi himself (owner). Bapi is a pleasant fellow who asks, "how did you get this number? You're not a coffee shop? You just want to buy a couple bottles? Well, okay, I happen to be in the office today, but I'm only going to be here for another hour, so hurry over. We're not open to the public, so give me a call and I'll let you in the front door." We met Bapi - he showed us the original 5 gallon pot where he started crafting his chai and flavored syrups. Then he showed us the 20 gallon pot he used when production was in his apartment, then he showed us the industrial-size sink he wielded together to turn into a pot because 25 gallons was becoming too small. "I couldn't keep up. Once people discovered the syrup, they wanted more and more. I still can't keep up with demand. I sell to 400 stores and more every day, but look around - I have no inventory. Also, I refuse to take anyone's money, so all of this equipment and supplies are paid for in cash." He showed us the big 1000 (2000?) gallon drum that he's using now, and explains that he's moving into a bigger facility in Salem, OR where he can hopefully impress some bigger customers to start producing under their brand.

What a great little shop. My Chai is definitely going places, we're excited to have gotten a behind-the-scenes warehouse tour before it gets too popular. Bapi is a great guy. He's a former software engineer who, one day, decided he wanted to do something different. He's very excited about his product. He laughed when I told him where I work, but was very gracious!

Inclement = Bitter, Nasty

2008-12-23T12:21:00.001-08:00

I have used the word inclement for many years, not really knowing what it meant. Is it a happy euphemism for "rainy"? I don't know. So finally I thesaurus.com-ed it and discovered that it means "Bitter and Nasty." That makes a lot of sense, but why don't we call it what it is? If my flight gets canceled, I would rather it be because of life-threatening "bitter and nasty" weather conditions, not because of something that sounds like a geriatric medical condition. Think about it...

Snow Days

2008-12-21T18:04:00.000-08:00

It has been snowing non-stop in Tacoma for the last two days. Everything is beautiful and white! We took Jude out into the back yard so he could experience his first snow fall. Rob had to throw snowballs at Jackson because he knew it would be more acceptable than throwing them at Jude. He can wait until next year for that.

Jude's first time in the snow

What a cute little snow bunny

Here are a few photos of the street in front of our house. (Snow1, Snow2, Snow3) We've probably got about a foot of accumulated snow. Rob enjoyed driving up the street, swerving in the snow to Starbucks (by himself, without Jude). He said it was like driving in a snowmobile. (Jeanne said Chris and Josh had the same idea down in Portland). Speaking of which, we've seen our neighbors literally driving their snowmobiles and skiing up and down the streets in the area. What a fun and strange change from Texas!

'Tis the Season ... to Have a Baby

2008-12-17T00:12:00.000-08:00

Ho Ho Ho, Kids!

And congratulations to Chris and Jeanne. Their ETA is June 17th. And congratulations to Tim and Sara on finding out they're having a boy. Their ETA is March 30th. Anyone else want to announce anything?

Oh Christmas Tree

2008-12-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

We finally got to use our roof rack! It's only been a year since we got it...

Here's what the tree looked like afterwards...

The Things Kids Do To You

2008-12-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

I have an altered perception of reality now that I am the father of a three-month old. Everywhere I look I see children. And they're all cute. In the mornings I walk by our company's daycare center. I call it the "baby terrarium" since the facility is encased in windows to the public on one of its sides. You can view inside and watch a half dozen bald headed babies sitting in a circle waiting to plop over on their sides at any moment. It's adorable. Then again, I also see pictures of little kids in the wrong place at the wrong time in this world - whether they're hurt on the streets of Pakistan or in suburban Cincinnati. I see them through different eyes these days, and it's terribly painful the things forced upon them. I picture Jude when I see them; it hurts. I don't mean to be a downer ... all I'm saying is, you see children in a different way when you have your own child.

A few years ago, a guy said to me as soon as I had children, I'd vote a certain way and move to the suburbs like all the other parents. I don't think I'd go that far (I'm still anti-suburb), but I do agree that your perception of life changes when you're the guardian and "god" to a little human.

Socialism. The New Consumerism

2008-11-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

Consumer spending just may be the thing that takes America over the cliff to socialism. The stars are aligned. After 8+ years of single-party dominant control of the three branches of government (6 years in legislative, 8 years in executive, and 219 years in judicial), the American people are already beginning their cognitive transition.

Consider these seemingly unrelated sub-plots (like a Tom Clancy novel!):

Today there are 8,430 FDIC insured banks in America. Over 8000 of these banks are pretty small and you’ve probably never heard of them. Some have failed or have been forced to consolidate, but study this frightening list of big banks and institutions that failed or were forced to merge or accept government supervision: Countrywide Bank, Washington Mutual, IndyMac, Freddie, Fannie, Merrill Lynch, Bear Sterns, Wachovia, Lehman Brothers, National City, AIG. Those are not small main street banks. Those are the biggest of the big banks (and financial services co’s) in America.

Small banks, statistically speaking, are doing fine. Why? Their biggest credit exposure: commercial real estate. And they offer the same level of FDIC insurance to you as “big safe 100 year old Wall Street banks.” Meanwhile, consider the biggest of the big banks’ exposure: multi-billion dollar credit default swaps, equity derivatives, collateralized debt, securitization of all sorts of bizarre consumer debt, LBOs, SIVs, commercial paper, and credit cards. When Argentina defaults on its debt again (just a matter of time), the big banks will be hardest hit because their globally diversified portfolios have fingers in risky sovereign debt as well. Following this logic, last week we hear about Citibank losing investors. Investors see few deposits and few tangible assets compared to their illiquid assets (worthless assets), liabilities, and ever-increasing allowances for bad debt.

The biggest institutions are the riskiest. Therefore, expect investors to catch on and to see more failures in the largest names of finance. This includes banks (like Citi, Morgan Stanley), credit providers (like American Express, GMAC, GE), and insurance companies (like Met Life, Hartford, Prudential, Lloyds).

Our current situation can be traced to just one bankruptcy (Lehman Brothers on September 15th). Imagine if some of these other firms declared bankruptcy. Due to the miracle of credit default swaps (my favorite derivative), trillions of dollars of “default insurance” will be paid on the few billions of dollars of debt that those companies held. Then as those “default insurance” companies go bankrupt, the remaining “default insurance” companies will go bankrupt, until no large banks and insurance companies exist!

Still following? … Okay, so imagine you’re the government, and you saw what happened when you let just one “too big to fail” bank fail (Lehman Brothers). You’ll say, “We can’t let any more financial institutions like that go bankrupt, or the country will be sunk back to the stone-age.” Remember, as the financial system goes, so go jobs, so go bankruptcies, so go prices, so go tax revenues, so goes the ability of the country to pay off its debt, and so goes the US Bond (the “risk free rate” is now very risky). World financial markets melt, WW III shortly thereafter.

Faced with two bad options, what would you do? 1) Begin the large-scale takeover of American industry (starting with finance and insurance, then auto, then housing, then retail), or 2) Allow the US to go bankrupt like Iceland. Now note the first paragraph of this blog post: If ever there was a political party to chose option 1, it is the incoming administration. So the chess board has already been set. It’s just waiting for things to fall into place. Republicans will initially fight it or passive-aggressively “find it interesting that our country is moving closer towards European-style socialism,” but their initial hesitation will be weighed against the tidal wave of increasing job losses and bankruptcies (each contributing to the other in a really vicious circle). It won’t be long before hospitals and health care companies (like Humana, Aetna, Kaiser) go bankrupt as health care subscribers default on their health debt. The government will gallantly ride to the rescue of consumers, socializing the health care industry, and providing us with pretty decent health care. Incidentally, our aggregate average life expectancy will probably increase, but you’ll hear sad stories about how the government declined to pay for an 85 year-old’s $1M lung transplant.

In the near-term, personal bankruptcy will not be a social stigma, but an accepted reality. It will be really hard for Americans to lose their “stuff.” Heck, it will be hard for me to lose my stuff. I love my stuff. I love my house and my new dishwasher. But we’ll all get used to the brave new world order. Don’t worry, as long as you have your health and your love ones. We can all live off of soup and bread for a few years :-)

Monogrammed Baby

2008-11-22T10:44:00.001-08:00

Jude promptly spit up after these pictures :-)

New Dishwasher

2008-11-19T21:23:00.000-08:00

Nothing major to note, just that we have a dishwasher and garbage disposal installed, thanks to Bob B. and his mad carpentry/electrical/pluming skills. We had gone about 7 months without a dishwasher (and 1.5 years w/o a disposal), so this is very big and exciting for us. (Photos soon)

Oh... and yes, we were following the election (Nov. 1st was our last blog post). And yes, it was very exciting and noteworthy! Here's a great political poll tracking website for future reference: five thirty eight.

Halloween Pictures & Dr Visit

2008-11-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

Jude had his two month pediatrician visit this last week. He got his vaccinations and let out one big yell before falling asleep for the ride home. What a good baby. We also got some stats on him:
Height: 23 1/4 inches
Weight: 12 lb 8 oz

Jude at 2 months old - full body shots

We had a low key Halloween. Jude was way against having his picture taken. But the next day, he was all smiles!

Our little pea in the pod

A few more pictures:
Close up of our little pea in the pod
Jude got a little sleepy

Saturday, November 1st. Jude is nine weeks old today and he likes to smile in the brief periods of time between eating and sleeping. It's hard to capture his really great smiles though - I think he knows the camera is going to flash bright lights at him.

9 weeks old and smiling

Another cute picture of Jude

Fall Fun and Corn Mazes

2008-10-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

The leaves are turning, the air is cool and crisp, and the sun is still out. It is the best time of the year. We celebrated last weekend by taking Jude through his first corn maze. He did well and only got turned around a few times. He also learned a little bit about finance along the way... (sound odd? It's true, we found a corn maze that focused on financial education - Rutledge Corn Maze).

Jude getting ready for the maze - fueling up.

Rob and Jude at the maze entrance

Rachel needed a coffee break after the first half of the maze

Rob asks Jude about FDIC insured deposits (this was a trick question because they just raised the limit from $100k to $250k)

Smiling Jude

2008-10-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

Jude has been smiling since we brought him home from the hospital, but usually he is either asleep or experiencing some gas... Yesterday Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Chris came by for a visit. After Jude was fed, Aunt Jeanne held him for a while and he looked into her eyes and started a smiling session that lasted for a good ten minutes. I captured a few of them once I came to my senses and grabbed our camera.

How Far will the NYSE Drop?

2008-10-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

To 6,900 points (6500 - 7000 range). I'm going out on a limb, I know. Call it overly-simple technical analysis or just the law of averages, but if you draw a straight line over the very long term of Dow Jones returns (starting from the 1930s), the expected return for the stock market today should be around 6,970. That also means that all things being equal, the Dow should be at 7,318 on October 10, 2011. That's a little under 2% growth annually. Granted, that's not likely to happen, but if you think it might, then you're better off opening an E-Trade checking account and letting your interest growth with FDIC insurance.

A special shout-out to my sister Angela, who's really smart but thinks math is boring: you can predict the future with math! The equation I used above is a regression, here's the equation it gives you: y=.3185x-5682.85. x=the day you want to predict what the stock return will be (I think 1=1/1/1900, today is 39733).

Then again, if you start the line at June 29, 1959, then the market should drop no lower than 8,451, so you never really know...

J. at One Month

2008-09-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

Little J is one month old. He is healthy and full of personality. A parent can’t ask for more than that!

Jude can also be a little fussy. But he's so cute so you can't be annoyed for too long. Rachel thought both of our faces explained the situation pretty well :-)

We’ve walked a lot in our BOB stroller. Starbucks is a mere 8 blocks away, and we’re training Jackson to sit in that empty stroller space that Jude isn’t yet utilizing.

Four Generations

2008-09-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

Last week the Mardock extended family briefly gathered for a rare and wonderful "Generational Photo." Below (from Jude's perspective), is grandpa, great grandpa, dad, and little Jude. Also in the room was great grandma, grandma, and mom.

CDSs Part II, From $0 to $62 Trillion in 7 Years

2008-09-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

Eight years ago, we survived the millennium bug, Bush won due to inefficiencies in the electoral college system, and credit default swaps were a thing of fiction. They simply didn't exist. Today, they amount to over $62 trillion. To put that number in context, I graphed CDSs next to the paltry US Gross Domestic Product, and also next to the total market capitalizations of both the US stock exchanges, and the aggregated world stock exchanges. Said another way, the stock market capitalizations represent every stock of every company listed, times the number of stocks outstanding. And yet, CDSs - instruments that most people have never heard of - insure an amount six times greater than the US GDP, and more than every stock market in the world put together.

Data (comma delimited, in millions)
,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007
US GDP,9817.0,10128.0,10469.6,10960.8,11685.9,12421.9,13178.4,13807.5
NYSE + NASDAQ,15131.6,13766.3,11009.8,14173.1,16240.5,16914.6,19286.2,19664.5
All World Markets,31125.4,26904.9,22809.6,31325.8,36863.3,40974.1,50791.7,60874.4
Credit Default Swaps, - ,918.9,2191.6,3779.4,8422.3,17096.1,34422.8,62173.2

US GDP Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis (link)
Credit Default Swaps Source: ISDA (link)
Equity Market Capitalizations: World Federation of Exchanges (link)

Credit Default Swaps: 89 Times Bigger Than $700 Billion

2008-09-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I took an interesting course called “Credit Risk Management” where we learned how to calculate some of the more arcane derivatives such as interest rate caps, floors, and swaps, and credit default swaps. It's an extremely fascinating science in risk mitigation.

Credit default swaps (CDS) are a risk mitigation technique. A CDS is an insurance policy against bankruptcy. More specifically, an entity enters into a CDS contract to insure against another entity’s debt (credit) becoming worthless. To calculate a CDS, you must know the entity’s probability of failure and probability of survival for each period of the CDS contract. Throw in t-bill yield curves, future rates, spot rates, discount functions, and you can begin to calculate the basis point spread (margin) between what the debt (bond) is currently trading for, and what you think it “should” trade for given its bankruptcy risk.

A scary document from the ISDA (here)

According to International Swaps and Derivatives Association, the notional value (essentially, the face value or underlying value) of CDSs was $62.2 trillion and growing rapidly. Said another way, if all the companies listed on the stock market went bankrupt tomorrow, someone (like AIG, or now the American people) would have to pay out $62.2 trillion dollars even though the entire worldwide stock market is valued at between $20 and $30 trillion. By comparison, the mortgage market – which has caused the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression – is a mere $7 trillion and falling. (Source). Another scary number on that ISDA document: $382 trillion – the notional value (the underlying value at risk) of all interest rate derivatives outstanding. On their most basic level, think of an interest rate derivative as the transaction you went through to fix your variable mortgage or student loan. On a whole the derivatives market is around $450 trillion dollars (or 12 times larger than all the economies on earth put together).

So what happens when that $450 trillion starts sloshing around? What happens when an interest rate lowers or raises higher than expected, or when mortgage backed securities go belly-up, or when major companies begin to go bankrupt? I can’t think of anything less than economic catastrophe. We're already seeing companies that pay out CDSs beginning to go bankrupt, and the SEC declared no short selling financial stocks to keep other companies that pay off CDSs from going bankrupt like AIG. AIG was the largest backer of CDSs. Check out an article from February of this year (here). Then follow that up with an article from last week (here). People spoke about AIG’s exposure to CDSs earlier this year, and sure enough, AIG went bankrupt this month.

I encourage others to read more about CDSs, about AIG, and about the dollars associated with these derivatives. It makes you quickly realize that President Bush’s $700 billion is 1) directed precisely at the derivatives market, and 2) grossly and incomprehensibly under funded. $700 billion is 1/645th of $450 trillion. Now I realize what Bush, Bernanke, and Paulson mean when they say: “There is a much greater risk to doing nothing.”

10,000 Visitors and Counting

2008-09-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

It seems only yesterday we started this blog. But lo and behold, the official "site meter" at the bottom of this page registers 10,300+ visitors. Wow! To be fair, probably a quarter of those are me...

To Politick or Not?

2008-09-12T08:48:00.001-07:00

I'm tempted to interject a few political jabs from the "independent voter" p.o.v. It is, after all, the height of the election season. But how to do it cleanly and insightfully on this blog dedicated to family? Any suggestions? Yes? No? Here's an example of something I'm dying to point out: Sarah Palin said Georgia should be a NATO member, and that she would then attack Russia if Russia invaded Georgia. Sarah Palin would go to war with Russia. Russia, a super-power with as many nuclear missiles as America. Russia, a fiesty country of 150 million people with a long history of distrust towards America. Russia, who for the last 20 years we've had cordial relationships with. Georgia, a pleasant little country the size of West Virginia with a population the size of the greater El Paso area.

To bring it home a bit, I think of that Sting song: "I hope the Russians love their children too." I know I love my little fuzzy headed, Precious Moments(tm)-eyed bundle of joy. Am I prepared go to war with Russia because a sub-clause of an antiquated alliance of nations formed solely to defend against a dead Soviet Union says we must attack? Heck no. I don't think of myself as an effete non-patriotic independent wacko, but the continuation of aggressive foreign policy from the GOP has me a little on guard. The Russians insist they are being "swift boated." They say they were protecting people from a Georgian offensive and that we don't see the whole story. Whether or not I believe Russia's side is irrelavent. What is relevant is whether or not we would attack Russia based on incomplete information. What is relevant is the shift in America's foreign policy that has now made such a possibility worth discussing. The GOP's tough talk on protecting the world by military force, and their cavalier attitude towards invading Russia if something similar happened to Georgia (not mentioning the differing geopolitical points of view of the situation) has me concerned about the possible perpetuation of the GOP's current foreign policy platform.

Little Jude

2008-09-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

Little Jude sleeps 20 hours a day, whines and squeeks several times an hour, poops about 4 times a day, and smiles (aka, stretching his face muscles) about 2 times a day. He's the cutest thing we've seen in a while. Rachel and I are constantly impressed with the little sweet spirit that we brought into this world. Last night at Chevy's (chain tex-mex restaurant), a waitress came over, told us her brief life story, and continued to recommend we have more kids, because "people who have cute kids usually only have one kid... and that's going to be really bad for America's future, if you know what I mean." (note, that is verbatim). Today at Costco, the 80-year old lady serving potato salad samples told us 1) that we shouldn't take Jude out so early in his life, 2) take care of your wife because she's no doubt in great pain, and 3) "back in my day child birth was a horrendous experience; we had to stay in the hospital for two weeks ... we used lots of ice packs." (again, that's verbatim).

We really do appreciate all of the suggestions. We may or may not use them. But at the very least they make good potential blog posts and topics of conversation.

Jude is a cutie. We're already sad that his first couple of infant weeks will quickly pass. But we're also looking forward to the next stage of development. And eventually, for the time when Jude and dad can play checkers.

Jude Has Arrived!

2008-08-31T20:06:00.000-07:00

This labor day weekend was the best labor weekend ever!
Introducing Jude - the live version: 8 lbs 10 oz, 20 inches, full of hair, and super cute.
We are very, very excited. Rachel is doing great. It's a very exciting time in our lives.
Here are a few pictures of the blessed day.
More fun news soon.

Visually Displaying Information

2008-08-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing a presentation to my co-workers covering findings from an Edward Tufte lecture I attended last month. Tufte is best known for popularizing the visualization of quantitative information. Below is the classic Joseph Minard graph drawn in 1861. Due to its age, its impact, and its detail, many call this the best graphical depiction of information ever drawn. I've seen "flashier" graphs than this, but I agree that this is very deep and very rich. It tells the story of Napoleon's ill-fated 1812 march to Moscow. The tan line indicates Napoleon's charging army, while the black line indicates his retreating army:

Tufte describes it as follows:
"Beginning at the left on the Polish-Russian border near the Niemen River, the thick band shows the size of the army (422,000 men) as it invaded Russian in June 1812. The width of the band indicates the size of the army at each place on the map. In September, the army reached Moscow, which was by then sacked and deserted, with 100,000 men. The path of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow is depicted by the darker, lower band, which is linked to a temperature scale and dates at the bottom of the chart. It was a bitterly cold winter, and many froze on the march out of Russia. As the graphic shows, the crossing of the Berezina River was a disaster, and the army finally struggled back into Poland with only 10,000 men remaining. Also shown are the movements of auxiliary troops, as they sought to protect the rear and the flank of the advancing army. Minard's graphic tells a rich, coherent story with its multivariate data, far more enlightening than just a single number bouncing along over time. Six variables are plotted: the size of the army, its location on a two-dimensional surface, direction of the army's movement, and temperature on various dates during the retreat from Moscow."

Below is another good example that he points to from the New York Times. Despite the message it's trying to convey, it does a good job of graphically telling a story. It's causal and explanatory, it includes sources, and it makes you want to learn more:

Jude: Almost, But Not Quite, Here

2008-08-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

As of today, Rachel is still quite pregnant with little Jude. According to the doctors, Jude is bigger than the average tyke his age. That fact has Rachel and me worried, so we're hoping and praying for a smooth delivery. We are happy that we found Swedish Hospital in Seattle, the poshest place in the Northwest to give birth. Sure, Swedish has the best doctors, the best facilities, a top intensive care unit, and one single dedicated nurse. But the part that I'm most impressed by is the jacuzzi tub. It's like the W Hotel of hospitals.

On the home front, Jude's room is full of man goodies: a manly crib, manly diaper changing table, a real masculine baby monitor, and a bookshelf full of man-centric baby books like "Excuse Me: A Baby Book of Manners," and "Little Johnny's Pocket Book of Nano-Sciences." Oh yes, we're ready.

Rachel is taking a couple of months off from her work (that's all that America has determined a mother needs), and Rob is taking a couple of weeks off to bond as much as I can before Corporate America demands that he (I) return to work. Little Jude: when you're old enough to read this, we're sorry if our busy lives caused you to be strange. At least we don't live in a country like the UK where mothers get about 9 months longer to bond with their children, because, you know ... they pay higher taxes.

Catch up Post

2008-08-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

During the months of July and August, Rachel and Rob kept themselves as busy as they could before Jude's blessed arrival. A few weeks ago, our very great friends, Katherine and Jerrod visited from Houston. Even as I write that, it sounds impressive. Thanks, Jerrod and Katherine, for flying across the country just to visit us for the weekend. We really miss you guys! It's always taking visitors around because we get to see all the best parts of Seattle over again. We saw Snoqualmie Falls, the underground tour, the Pink Door, Macrina Bakery and Bakery Nouveau, Pike Place market, and about half a dozen coffee shops.

The next weekend, Rob's sister Angela came to stay with us for a week. Again, we saw Pike Place market, drove around the area, she went to work with Rachel, and she spent a day at work with Rob (me). That Saturday, the Steele's came down from N. Seattle for a BBQ.

The next weekend, Rob and Rachel drove from Tacoma to Portland, picked up Chris and Jeanne, and drove down to Sunriver, Oregon. All on Friday afternoon! It was a long trip. Actually it reminded me how old I'm getting, and that in the future such a trip should be reserved for a 3-day weekend! But once we arrived at Sunriver (around 1am-ish ... thanks for driving Chris), we visited with about 30 relatives on Rachel's side, hung out in the hot tub, rode bikes, and breethed in fresh pine mountain air. I love that area of Oregon. I could definitely spend a couple of weeks rafting, hiking, and biking. As soon as Little Jude gets bigger, he and I shall do extreme sports together... oh yes, we shall...

Special props to Josh B. - the man of the day for two reasons. Most importantly, for bringing Rock Band, where I could karaoke and jam on a fake guitar, fake bass, or a semi-fake trap set. The whole time I jammed, I couldn't help but think of that one Guitar Hero episode of South Park. The other reason Josh was the man of the hour was because he left from Sunriver for Sacramento. Yes, we lost another Bellamy to a distant land. First Andy and Joanne to Tampa, and now Josh to Sacramento. Hopefully Josh will find his way back up to Portland in the next couple of years. But in the meantime, flights between PDX, SEA, and SAC are pretty cheap.

Angela came up from California to spend a week with us. Also shown is cousin Andrea

Jackson the entertainer

Jerrod & Katherine came from Houston just to visit us. Pretty sweet

Rachel and Jude posing for a photo in Sunriver

Josh riding the cruiser in an upright position in Sunriver

Rob, Natalie, and Josh working on our mad Rock Band skills

Rachel and Jude!

House Pictures; After

2008-07-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a few "after" pictures... but we'll definitely post more. They don't really do it justice. We've moved more furniture in since these were taken, but it gives an idea of the progress we made.

Living room. The ceiling use to have the "popcorn ceiling" texture, but Rob put on the space suit and gas mask and scraped it all off in one long evening (yey, me!). Evidently the fireplace use to have an insert (a big metal wood stove-type device), but one of the previous occupants took it out and left it a big void.

Hannah and Christina doing what they do best :-)

Dining room with new chandelier. We have great evening sunshine in this room.

Jude's "pink" room - we have a fun crib set now, more pictures later. Rachel bought a great orange-ish, brownish set. And we also have the Harrod's teddy bear from Rachel's trip to London.

Kitchen: I know it may not "seem" much to look at, but we did a huge amount of work (mostly Rachel, Linda and Jeanne ... and Josh and Chris). Jeanne re-textured the gross space left behind when Josh took the cabinet off from above the fridge. Soon we hope to have a new fridge and stove sometime in the next year or so.

Kitchen again

Our new "kitchen nook" area. We mostly eat here. This kitchen is about 2x the size of our last cute rental house kitchen.

House Pictures: During

2008-07-14T22:10:00.001-07:00

Here are some of our work party pictures. These are mostly from the 2nd weekend. We forgot to take pictures on the 1st weekend. There's no way we could have done this all in two weekends without everyone's help. We don't have pictures of Josh and Jeremy (our British friend), but they were definitely there and helping out.

Mom & Rob sanding cabinets. The process for each cabinet door and cabinet frame: 1) course sand, 2) fine sand, 3) pre-stain, 4) 1st coat lacquer, 5) 2nd coat lacquer, 6) sealer. Props to Linda, Rachel and Jeanne.

Chris, the master pin-nailer

Dad enjoying a momentary respite from painting the dining room

Dad working into the evening - he just moved everything in a few minutes earlier but thought a break was for wusses

Angela helped Jeanne paint the inside of the cabinets - they used to be blue and pink!

Jeanne working hard on the kitchen cabinets

Dad painting. I also included this picture to show the fabulous chandelier included with our home.

House Pictures: Before

2008-07-14T22:02:00.001-07:00

Here are a few long awaited before, during, and after photos of our new home in t-town. First, before. The house was built in 1925, so there have been lots of previous occupants who did a real great job of "personalizing" the place. If you think this blue paint is "unique," you'd be even more impressed by the key-lime green underneath it.

From living room looking into dining room. Note the rough patch on the left side of the wall. Imagine that rough wall patch scattered throughout the house. Why would they be all over the house? Your guess is as good as ours. But it's because of those patches, and numerous other strange wall issues, that we had to call in professional wall texturers to smooth everything out.

Busy dining room with old chandelier. We still have the chandelier in the basement if anyone wants it. Let us know soon before it goes in the trash.

Dining room again - looking into the living room area.

Jude's pink room. It looks much better with the neutral beige/latte tone.

Old orange kitchen with plastic nobs! Now you can see why Rachel felt it was an imperative to "just do something" to the kitchen. Imagine that picture circling 360 degrees and all around you is orange cabinets and big white nobs. Not a relaxing way to make a meal.

Blue living room. We tore out the shelf above the window. Why? We just haven't been around long enough to accumulate so many knick-knacks.

America's # 1 Killer: Chocolate Cake

2008-07-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

America, nay, The World is under a threat bigger than terrorism, war, global warming, AIDS, and BPA leaching from Nalgene bottles. The biggest threat to mankind is chocolate cake. Every year more citizens of this world fall victim to its yummy, decadent succulence. We've always known that heart disease, obesity, and type II diabetes together account for more American deaths than all other ailments combined. But we're now seeing the sinfully delicious killer strike more and more of the most vulnerable youths and elderly in places as far away as Holland, Bavaria, Oompa Loompa Land, and China.

My friend, Todd, chooses to ignore the peril of chocolate cake. He believes free will allows us to choose between eating the cake or ignoring its lascivious allure. Don't listen to people like him. Their fallacious spin doctoring is mere argumentum ad ignorantiam and they will try to confuse you by appealing to your lust rather than your sensibilities. Don't be ignorant to this man-made travesty. End this arteriosclerotic menace before it strikes you and the people you love.

Like Jiffy Pop

2008-06-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

June really flew by! Amazing... Rachel is a little more pregnant (her belly looks like Jiffy Pop - Jude must be playing a game of hacky sack in there), and we moved into our new home in North Tacoma. We closed around the middle of the month but immediately began the following major projects:

1) Scraped the popcorn ceilings in the living room and dining room
2) Textured all the walls in the downstairs (professional texturizers)
3) Painted all the walls and ceilings in the downstairs (3 coats total)
4) Resurfaced all the kitchen cabinets and installed new hardware
5) Installed washer and dryer
6) Moved everything into the house!
7) Am I missing something? I dunno, but just thinking of all of that makes me tired. We've been installing curtains, buying extra furniture, spraying down the outside of the house, pruning the arboretum that came with the house, taking trips to the dump... it's crazy.

We could not have done this without the following special hard workers:

Mom (Linda)
Mom (Carol)
Dad (Bob)
Chris*
Jeanne*
Josh
Andrew, the traveling Brit that Mom (Linda) met on the Amtrak train somewhere between Klamath Falls and Eugene. Very funny... I may write a special story about Andrew.
Angela
Hannah & Christina (they helped eat our food :-)

*Chris and Jeanne had so much fun the first time that they took 2 days off and came back the next week!

We'll definitely post photos in a few days. It's fun to see the before and after "greatest generation" style make way for the "gen x" style.

A Sunny Day in Seattle

2008-06-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

We took advantage of the sunny weather the other day by taking Jackson and Jude to Lincoln Park (in West Seattle). Behind me is the Olympic Mountains. Rachel and I really need to get over there, but between Jude and moving into a house, such a journey might be delayed by another summer. (the Hoh Rainforest must wait...)

Rachel looking adorable and coy on the park bench.

A close up of Jackson, Jude (at 6 months along), Puget Sound, and the Olympics. We're really going to miss W. Seattle!

Danelle's Wedding

2008-05-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Rob's sister, Dani, on her marriage to Adam. A couple of weeks ago, on a beautiful sunny day in Portland, the various families on Rob's side got together to celebrate and festivitize Dani and Adam. Dani's life story is almost Oprah-worthy. Truly inspiring. We love her and wish her and Adam the best in their new home in Longview, WA.

Mitch, Matt, and Nick entertaining guests as they arrive at the rehearsal. Rachel took this photo after telling them she wasn't going to take the picture "until you actually smile." This picture is probably my favorite. I can't help but smile.

We're excited to have a real picture (not a hand-out photo). And Rachel is doing very well, thanks for asking. She's six months along with little Jude and looking more like 3 months along!

A really great family photo courtesy of Adam and Dani's photo album. This is most of the tribe, but believe it or not there are more missing.

New Home

2008-05-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

Rachel's mom once said you should separate major life changes by at least two years. But we think that's way to slow. Here's a link to the house we're buying. It closes June 10th.

Ode to Nau

2008-05-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

I'm very sad to hear the news that upscale-urban outdoor retailer Nau has closed up shop only a year after opening. My good friend let us know on Friday that his job at the home office and all of his colleagues' jobs had been completely dissolved with less than 48 hours' notice. My friend introduced Rachel and me to Nau several months ago, and I immediately found their clothes to be perfect for my slender frame. Since then I've been one of their biggest patrons. As I look down at my extremely well manufactured Nau jacket and wool pants, I don't understand how the investors would allow Nau to simply stop production. It just doesn't make any sense. Where will I go now? North Face is so pedestrian, and all those clothing stores in the mall (ala Banana Republic & J Crew) have no personality and are made of extremely poor quality fabric for pear-shaped men.

Quick Nau highlights: start-up, investor money, lots of press, cult following, credit crunch, investor money stopped (huge missed opportunity & super dumb non-visionaries), cash flow = $0, 48 hour termination notices, very sad patrons, like canceling Seinfeld after the first season, big gap in the apparel world.

Tally-ho, Eh!

2008-04-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

Last week Rachel was in London and Rob was in Vancouver. Yes, I know that seems strange since, a) we're no longer world travelers, and b) Rachel is five months pregnant. But, a) "it is what it is" (voted by USA Today as the #1 cliche of 2004), and b) we really had no choice. So we boarded our little Jackson, said our farewells to each other, and went our separate ways.

Rachel spent the 9 hour flight in business-class luxury - a necessity given her medical issue (child in belly). She arrived well-rested at Heathrow on Sunday morning, checked into a Sheraton near Trafalgar Square, and began a really enjoyable work-week. Besides meeting folks from the London office, Rachel reports eating lots of great food, including Starbucks, Pret a Manger, and Wagamama. Those lucky enough to live in American's Northeast already have access to those last two restaurants. Rachel was impressed by the healthiness and freshness of food in London. Whole juices, fresh veggies, and scrumptious meats seem to be more common over there than over here. We hope the trend makes it over to this side of the pond. Rachel reports hearing of some football matches in the area (Chelsea and Arsenal) and she made the time to find me (Rob) a snazzy slim-fit dress shirt with French cuffs... so of course she also had to get me a pair of cuff links. And I admit I'm very hooked to the English dress shirts. I've already found the company's website, priced it out, and am collecting my next order (Let me know if you want to go in with me on the "4 for 100 GBP" deal). Rachel also visited the Tower of London, where she took the following pictures:

Tower of London

Nice Flowers somewhere near St. James' Place

Tower Bridge

The day after Rachel's flight to London, Rob hopped in a taxi to Seattle's train station. Yes indeed, I took a train up to Vancouver. A new experience for me here in America. The Amtrak between Seattle and Vancouver was about four hours - roughly the same as driving to Vancouver, but without the long delay at the boarder. Once in Vancouver, I checked into the Kimpton and got to work for the next few days. Unfortunately I don't have as many snazzy stories as Rachel. I was slightly disillusioned from my long-held notion that Vancouver was sort of part of America. I heard my share of "American's take all of our energy" and "Canadian cattle was banned for two years!" and "America is our biggest trade partner" and the likes. I realized then and there that while Canadians act similarly to Americans, their world-view is probably more closely aligned to the British and even the Romanians than to Americans.

Did you just say Religion? Probably not, but I'll mention it anyway: I was impressed by Canada's personal convictions towards their Christian faith. When I explained my bizarre childhood of moving over 40 times (my dad was a church planter - someone who starts churches in new communities and shepherds them for a year or two before moving to another community), several different people started talking about the churches they attend, their parents who are pastors ("I'm a PK too!") and their brothers who are youth pastors. The fact that Canadians tend to view faith and Christianity more similarly to Americans than do the British or Romanians added to my metaphysical "what does it mean to be Canadian" dilemma .

While I sit and ponder the meaning of all of it, below are a couple of simple photos from my camera phone:

Downtown Vancouver (aka, Metropolis from Smallville)

Inukshuk statue (you'll see this in the 2010 Winter Olympics)

Springtime At Last

2008-04-12T22:38:00.000-07:00

What a remarkable spring day - the finest day in Seattle since around October of last year. At last, the winter has passed! We made it! It's been a tough time these past five months, but today Rachel and I donned our short sleeve shirts and headed to Alki (northern tip of W. Seattle. We live in W. Seattle). Here are a couple pictures from our part of town. This is what our family and friends miss when they don't come visit :-)

Obligatory hold-out photo. We really need a camera tripod!

Little J loves the spring and summer. He's been packing some weight over the winter months due to our great antipathy towards walking in the winter rain.

Rachel with a teeny tiny view of the Olympic Mountains in the back. Over the summer we'll have more pictures of the Olympics and Cascades.

Another fun view of the Seattle skyline from W. Seattle. When Jackson and I ran to the end of the dock, he just about jumped in.

Just for kicks, I added this super cute photo of Rachel trying on an outfit for her trip to London. She totally looks like an Austin Powers stand-in.

Introducing Jude

2008-04-08T20:22:00.000-07:00

Something big is on its way. Day by inexorable day, it grows bigger, stronger, more masculine, and less like a sea monkey. The “thing” is Jude Michal, our T-minus 21 week old little tiger taking shape inside Rachel’s cute little frame. ETA is 9/3/08. Those closest to us may already know, but today we’re announcing to the world the upcoming birth of our little baby boy.

The 411: Several months ago, Rachel admonished that while it felt like the time was right to start a family, my job – which literally required 90% travel – precluded us moving in that direction. Not only did I heed Rachel’s warning-slash-suggestion, but I did it quickly! About two months later I started a new job, and little “J” began his journey into this world. Over the next couple of months, we kept our little guy a secret from even our parents until nearly the end of the first trimester.

The last few months of our youth now quickly trickle away, but we couldn’t be any more excited. We’ve lived overseas in China and Romania, had a fantastic adventure in Austin and Houston, graduated from business schools, found exciting jobs up in Seattle / Tacoma, and we are now ready to take on the challenges and joys of parenthood.

Next week Rachel is taking Jude with her to London (Rob’s in Vancouver, BC the same week but that’s not as exciting). While in England, Jude will enjoy fish n chips, Pret a Manger, Starbucks (of course), and perhaps Jamie Oliver’s restaurant.

Our friends and family can be sure of more fun news and information as it occurs.

Coming Soon: The Next Big Thing

2008-04-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Introducing Jude, the next major topic of conversation in the Mardock family. Details to follow shortly.

Update: More details coming soon. We're very excited to have something new, unique, and exciting to talk about on our family blog. 7 out of 10 people will agree that it's a bigger deal than our Yorkie, Jackson.

1 Year Older, 2 Years Wiser

2008-03-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I turn 30 and old. Wo is me... Sigh... But enough of my pity party: here are two fun events from the past couple of weeks:
1) Star Wars Party
Chris is even older than I am. For his midlife moment he chose a Star Wars themed birthday party. Guess which characters we are. As always, Rachel looks cute even wearing a drape on her head and lipstick dots on her cheeks. I was trying not to smile, hence my goofy smirk.

Darth Maul Dip (we also made Bubble City Salad, Double Darth Dogs, Han Burgers, and Tie Fighter Somethings... Many better pictures available on Chris' blog)

2) Family Reunion in Medford
Rob and Rachel at Jeff & Desi's wedding. The family had a fun time reconnecting, including a special visitation from Andy and Joanne, in Oregon from Florida.

4 girls getting ready, with rare appearance by Joanne

We also visited Mitch, Kel, and the kids in Dallas (OR) but once again neglected to take meaningful photos. Just one snapshot of Kelleigh hopping into her Jeep ... not really "worth a thousand words."

1999 Flashback

2008-02-29T22:00:00.000-08:00

Some fun OLD photos we found of our trip to China back in 1999:
Rob @ Tienanmen
Rachel in Xi'an
Group Photo with Buddha
Pictures borrowed from our sponsoring program, CCCU's CSP.

These photos go way back to the pre-millennial days when Rachel and I were just considering ourselves a couple. Very exciting and frightening at the same time. At the end of the semester, we figured if we could survive a relationship in China, we could survive a relationship anywhere. And that theory was strangely accurate: making a relationship work in the USA was so much easier! During the trip to China (Fall 1999), we spent most of our time in Xi'an, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. We visited many other cities along the way.

Our favorite moments in China (in no particular order):
1) Top of the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai
2) Trekking around Xi'an on the famurs "City Wall" (you're not suppose to go around the whole thing , but we did).
3) 37-hour train ride from Guangzhou to Xi'an
4) Horseback riding in Gansu Province
5) Tai Chi lessons (cloudy hands!)
6) Street food vendors (hepatitis on a stick)
7) Beijing: Great Wall and Rachel's 21st birthday bash (same day)
8) Beijing (Continued): Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Ming Tombs, Silk Alley (which is now lame. No more "authentic" North Face copies. Now they're flagrantly "Noryth Face.")
9) Xi'an's Old District / Muslim Quarters / Terra Cotta Soldiers
10) Starbucks in Beijing. You wouldn't understand unless you lived in a developing country with little familiar around you, then one day seeing the blessed Green Mermaid in a window across the street after being away from home for 4 months.

Temporary Space Filler

2008-02-28T12:11:00.001-08:00

Here are the only thoughts going through my head at this time:
1) My wife is really cute and smart. She works hard and I cherish the brief four hour window we see each other between 6:30pm and 10:30pm. I love getting ready for the day together (between 6:25am and 7:15am). And I look forward to us seizing the weekend with a trip to the mountains, downtown, Oregon, the beach, or even to a humble local coffee shop.
2) We like Jackson, our little 8-lb bundle of energy. No matter how long or tired our day was, Jackson always greets us with a supercharged tail wag, a few hops of excitement, and a low growly-gurgly roar.
3) I don't like to write about myself.