Will's First Business Trip

As you know, Will is a first-class world traveler. The kid had a passport and frequent flyer number before he got his health insurance card. After traveling for moving purposes and leisure purposes, he has now traveled for business purposes. That's right, Will accompanied me on a business trip to Syracuse, NY. Here he is, looking very serious and business-like, ready to make a deal.


As you can tell, it is fairly bright in Syracuse during the summer months. Fortunately we were able to pick up these nifty sunglasses in the middle of upstate NY, half way between Syracuse and Rochester where we had dinner with Jen, Scott, and Calla (who is a week younger than Will). It was awesome... in my current southern California lifestyle, I had forgotten how "authentic" it could be to eat at a Truck Stop. I guess there are Truck Stops here in California, but I have not run into one in my suburban paradise. The restaurant in the Truck Stop was called the Iron Skillet. This is because everything was served in... you guessed it... Iron Skillets.


With this trip, Will has now taken 8 airplane flights. They have taken him to 2 countries and 5 different states. The list currently stands at:

Countries

• Japan
• United States

States

• Virginia
• California
• Illinois (but only at O'Hare Airport, 2 times)
• North Carolina
• New York

Where to next? By the time he turns 3 months old, Will's state count will be up to 6 (Michigan trip over the 4th of July including another stop at O'Hare). By the time he is 6 months old, his state count will be up to 8 or 9. While this doesn't compete with the amount of travel he did before he was born (6 countries, 14 states), he's quite the little traveler.

Oh yeah, if anyone knows of a place that sells tiny little neckties, let me know. I'm sure Will and I will take another business trip soon.

Happy Father's Day to Dan!

Dan is celebrating his first Father's Day with his new son and with his dad. We traveled to Charlotte, NC to hang out for the weekend. One of Dan's fatherly tasks was to introduce Will to swimming. As you can tell, Will was quite unsure about this idea. This was Will being ok in the pool.


However, it was a bit cold and we will have to try again once Will is a little older (angry Will picture not shown).

Best Wishes to Dan as he continues to get used to this idea of being a dad! He has done a great job so far.

The World Cup

The guys in my life have decided to watch The World Cup. Yes, all of it. This is possible due to the magic of TiVo. Here, Dan and Will watch the TV here in California (for the recorded English version of a World Cup game). Also pictured is my laptop which is connected to the TiVo connected to the Slingbox back in Virginia. Displayed on it is the same game, but with the commentary in Spanish.


We are such a bad influence on this guy. He's learning about being a couch potato before he learns how to crawl. But what do you expect from parents who have 5 TiVos (with one on the way)?

Good News Everyone

It looks like I will finally be able to live with a cat. I had heard this company was trying to make a cat I could live with a couple years back, but they've recently adjusted their tatics. Instead of splicing the genes, they are going to use selective breeding to reduce the amount FEL D1 produced. Hopefully, these cats will end up being priced below $500 about the time Will decides to stop grabbing things. Anyhow, here is the link.

Secretly A Red-Head

That's right, my hair is now red, burning bright for all the world to see. How did this happen? Well, it is related to my 30th birthday activities. On my birthday, Wednesday, May 31st, I enjoyed many activities. First, I went to the hair salon. I needed a hair cut anyway. While I was there, I told my stylist, Bruce, that I wanted my hair lighter. We decided to go with 2 shades lighter. You would think that 2 shades lighter than dark brown is light brown, right? Oddly, no, it is red.

Dan Petting Will's Head
Angela With Red Hair

After the whole turning my hair red incident, Will and I wandered around and we bought some stuff like tennis shoes and a couple of summer shirts that actually fit me. Will doesn't really make that great of a shopping companion, he gets hungry at random times, but as we just moved to the area, he will have to do. Later on my birthday, I got a chance to start up exercise again when I re-joined Curves (no Curves in Japan, I had to quit for a little while). After exercising, I re-consumed the calories that I burned by going out to dinner with Dan. I had cheese fries and "The Chocolate Thunder from Down Under." It was awesome. Not fancy, but it included two of my favorite foods: cheese fries and chocolate (served separately, of course).

How else did we celebrate my birthday? Yes, we had the birthday grilling extravaganza on Sunday, May 28th. Well, sort of an extravaganza. Kind of a small extravaganza. We had 4 people join us for the birthday stuff. Scot & Tammy and Neal & Kailey. We even had a small grill and a small cake for the event. Dan grilled the food on the balcony while we hung out in the comfortable air conditioning. The only thing we didn't go small on was the ice cream toppings. We had 7 different toppings. Mmmmmm...

What kind of gifts did I get for my birthday? There were 2 categories: tasty things and techie things. In fact, right now I am drinking the tasty wine that Neal and Kailey brought while eating the Godiva truffles that Robin sent me. Mmmmm... Plus, the neat thing about the tasty things is that they are consumable and help us in our effort to reduce the amount of stuff in our lives. I did receive one specific gift that will be with us for a while. I love board games. Especially crushing my opponents while playing them. Liz got me a laser board game! How awesome is that! Ok, not quite as awesome as sharks with lasers on their heads, but still awesome.

After the Birthday was Over
You might notice in the picture above we are out and about, somewhere near a stone wall, with Will hanging out, munching on his Baby Bjorn carrier. Are we touring a stone wall in San Diego? Um, no. While we actually live near San Diego, we seem to be spending more time in the Los Angeles area hanging out with our friends who we met over the winter of 2004/2005. This past weekend we went to the Getty Museum.

Will enjoys his Baby Bjorn carrier. He can either face towards the person carrying it and go to sleep, or he can face outwards and see all of the art. Don't worry, we filmed a video of Will contemplating art. Feel free to stop by and watch it. Perhaps we will eventually upload the videos to our ftp server.

Will Facing Towards Dan

Will Facing Outwards

Documenting Will Contemplating Art

Because part of the Getty involves the outdoor gardens, Will finally got a chance to wear his sun hat...

Will Protected from Sun

Baby Birthday
Besides myself, Will also "celebrated a birthday." He turned 2 months old on June 6, 2006. As an update, he is now larger as shown by this bouncy chair measurement.

And look! He smiles now. He has been smiling for a little while, but whenever we would take the camera out to capture the smile, he would look very intently at the camera. We have only recently captured a few smiles.

As for the statistics, on Tuesday, June 6th, Will weighed 14 lbs 7 oz and is 24 1/4 inches long. That puts our giant baby in the 97th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for length. So, yes, he is still huge.

Back to Birthday Stuff

I did enjoy my 30th birthday. If you weren't able to make it, perhaps we will see you next year when I celebrate my golden birthday. That's when I turn 31 on the 31st of the month. Where will it be? As you know, we are unsure where our adventures will take us. We will let you know.