Bento Box W

Thoughts of Fall

2009-09-07T22:58:00.000-07:00

A melancholy time as a kid - having to go back to school, the weather getting too cool for those sunny afternoon swims, days getting noticeably shorter. I guess the brunt of it was the freedom given up for education. I was never good at getting up to be at school before 8.

Nowadays, though, how different it is. The start of the NFL season means that ski sales are underway, the Great American Beer Festival is right around the corner, I don't have to worry about hot days doing yard work for another seven or eight months, and it's getting to be time to wax the snowboard. How glorious the fall can be if given the right incentive to cheer for winter.

Before too long, I will once again have to think of this time of year being "back to school" time as the daughter reaches school age, but for now I savor the good things that come of the colder seasons. I can also take time to savor the sheer cuteness of those toddler days:

I've gotten to the point now where blogging as a parent, I realize that most of my audience has done this before, probably more than once. So I kind of feel that whatever I say about parenting has already been felt and expressed elsewhere. I do want to say, though, that I am honored and privileged to be able to spend so much time with such a child. I'm glad the first year and a half isn't something that I missed out on. What a great time it is.

Too late to be writing. It's a "school night", and I should have been asleep a couple of hours ago. I hope everyone had a great long weekend and gets an even better short week. Cheers, and good night.

1 and a 1/2 as of the 4th of July

2009-07-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

Little V is 18 months as of today and hopefully this video will express how amazing this one is. I know every parent thinks their kid is the smartest, cutest, most amazing but I really do think we got an amazing baby in Little V. My brothers have said they didn't know the ABC's going into Kindergarten and yet my little V has really started to recognize letters on signs and by my signing them to her.

Little V is growing

2009-04-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

Hey there everyone who watches our blog. Update on V on 4/20 she went poop in the potty. I thought maybe it was a fluke and wanted to wait until poop number 2 before telling people. Today she also pooped in the potty. She will say aaa poop and potty. I just have to make the time to take her to it and just like that she will do it. I think it must be a world record for the first time ever, a 15 month old will tell you that she is going potty and is willing and able to go in the potty for us. So not that everyone elses child is not amazing but we, the proud parents, are thinking we have one of the smartest ever. Also we went to the park today and this is a photo from us swinging. Love to all of you.

One of my favorite places

2009-04-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Well, with the relative drought we had between about February 1st and late March of this year, there wasn't much to talk about in regard to my snowboarding habit. I have, however been up a few times of late and have had some great experiences.

Copper Mountain offers a great array of terrain for snowriders. With the bunny hill safely tucked away at the northwest end of the park, Copper's claim to fame is its "naturally divided" terrain that segments its mountain(s) into different areas frequented by riders of different abilities. One of my favorite spots is located in the "saddle" between Copper Mountain proper and its neighbor, Union Peak. From this saddle, you can get to almost every lift on the Mountain with maybe two or three exceptions.

To the west of the saddle are Union Peak and Union Meadows on the front side of the mountain, and Copper Bowl on the back side. Union Peak offers a short but steep hike to a short black run down a wide-open face. Copper Bowl is a wide ridge of steeps, deeps and cliffs. Not for the acrophobic as you're staring down off of the top of one of Copper Bowl's snowy cornices. Copper Bowl also offers access to Tucker Mountain (a short but worthwhile hike to the mountain seen in the first picture above). Tucker is north-facing and not heavily traveled, so is usually good for a fresh line through deep snow. The third picture above looks down from the top of Copper Bowl.

Below the saddle on the south (back) side of the mountain is a great set of short black runs underneath the Blackjack lift. People often skip these runs in favor of the other lift on the back side of the mountain heading toward Copper Bowl. A perfect opportunity to run quick laps through what usually amounts to some very nice powder. Atop these runs is where the second picture above was taken.

Below the saddle on the front side of the mountain is a nice short tree set at the south end of the Lower Enchanted Forest, and a virtual playground of short, usually very powdery, green runs under the R lift.

All in all, great days over the past few weeks at this, one of my favorite places. Happy spring everyone!

A couple of too cute videos.

2009-03-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been sooooo long. We have just gotten over our first ear infection and life is settling back into a normal routine. V still sleeps about 10 to 12 hours a night and 1 or 2, 2 hour naps per day. She is taking a few steps but not walking really. She is however making her brain grow with all of that sleep. She is saying a lot of words, signing some and just cute as cute can be almost 24 hours a day. Sorry about my singing on the videos. Love Us.

V is 1 and growing....

2009-01-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

Well as Kevin has said in his post we had the holidays and birthdays over the last couple of weeks. V is now with a cold. Imagine that a one year old doesn't know when to sleep and after a couple of weeks of lack of routine, she is sick but even so she is adorable and a very good baby. She is not a baby anymore but she does recognize herself as a baby and a pretty baby at that. Of the 30 words are Baby and Pretty, Bubble and Bath, Dog and Kittah (just like we say it), yeah, and no, plant and button. She is amazing in the way she learns so quickly and looks at me if she doesn't understand. But why Momma? So she is sick but still a very happy child. The cold will pass and she will soon learn to walk not just stand. We got a lot of wonderful toys for Xmas and Bday, including a little table that plays about a hundred different songs and sounds. I have also posted a picture of what I believe was her second word. First she said Dada then she said Dog. She called all animals dogs for about 3 months and has now figured out that fish are different than the dogs and cats are cranky when you get up in their face. So here is your dog until you can really ask. I love you V and am so proud to be your momma. You are the most amazing, smart, beautiful, wonderful being in my little world.

Happy, Happy, Happy

2009-01-04T18:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays, everyone. 2008 drew to a close with some relaxing time off - visiting friends, hanging out with the family, snowboarding, and plenty of Wii. Most enjoyable.

Happy New Year! We brought in the new year by staying awake until just after 12. I thought that was quite a feat considering this was our first New Year's Eve with a daughter. But then I got to talking to friends at work, friends around town (with and without children), and found that we night owls may be the exception to the rule anymore. Sounds like a lot of people didn't even make it until midnight. One co-worker was sick, made it to about 9:30. Talked to another who lost the battle to sleepiness around 11:30. Still more friends who decided to ring in the new year either softly, quietly, or asleep. Our only complaint for the evening was "New Year's Rockin' Eve" on TV. What tripe. Music was awful. Ended up watching reruns on some other channel. Better than the bad music of New Year's Eve was the good company of the 3rd and 4th. Many celebrations at once:

Happiest of all: Happy first birthday to our beautiful daughter. She is amazing in so many ways. Sure she does all of the cute baby things: she's starting to stand, she's talking (understanding and at least partially-saying about 30 words now, holy crap) ... (sorry, she's not actually saying "holy crap", I was just thinking "holy crap, it's amazing to hear her talk, it's amazing that we're really starting to communicate with her and she's really starting to communicate with us"), she's walking with the help of adults, she's growing, she's crawling fast and getting into things that she shouldn't. But that's not what I find amazing. I find it amazing that she brings smiles to strangers' faces, she gets comments from passers-by about how cute she is, she looks at us when she doesn't understand something and really tries to figure it out, she has her moments of discontent but usually has so much fun doing everything she does, and she brings so much joy to our family and friends. We're lucky to be your parents, Li'l V. Thanks for a great first year.

A better world

2008-11-14T15:16:00.001-08:00

As a relatively new parent, I'm more and more concerned about the future of our nation and our planet. Often I've seen the politics of this nation as a facade, a distraction, a game that the power elite play in order to keep our minds off of the real issues - inequity, millions nationwide and billions worldwide not having access to necessities, those in power struggling to maintain power. As such, I've felt for a long time that monikers like Democrat and Republican are nothing more than contrived labels designed to force us to opine about issues that shouldn't even be political.

But with that being said, I think there is little doubt that this country has "declined" in just about every sense of the word over the last eight years:

Unemployment has risen, "real" income has decreased, education has suffered the consequences of outdated policies and procedures (probably for longer than eight years), health care has become ridiculously complicated, and Constitutional Rights (whether you'd agree with the intentions of the Federalists or the Anti-Federalists) have been chipped away. Violence has begotten violence. Anger and deviceveness have flourished.

I think voters in this country showed in the 2008 election that a vast majority of the nation believes that much of this is due to poor leadership in Washington - mostly the current presidential administration. In 2006 we (voters) cut into the absolute power held by the Republican party, but that only slowed the pace of destructive agendas.

On November 5th, 2008, for the first time in my voting life, I witnessed what appeared to be real, unbridled, widespread exuberance as a result of an election. People were motivated and smiling. People looked hopeful and happy everywhere I went. Granted, I do live in a large city that traditionally leans to the left, but I can't say I ever noticed Clinton's election bring this much enthusiasm to our nation. The mood was not about Democrats beating Republicans, not about Bush's term coming to a close (well, maybe a little bit about the fact that McCain would not be around to continue the neo-con agenda), but more about people finally believing they elected a president of sound mind who has America's (and the world's) best interests in mind.

Obama is not the exalted individual that many make him out to be - he said he wouldn't take PAC money for his campaign and then later did. He spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on his presidential campaign. Like most presidents of modern times, he had to stop attending to his (important) job to focus on his campaign for almost two years. Obama is still a politician through and through. And like other presidents, he forgets his place in the Executive branch, talking about pushing through agendas when such subjects should instead be handled by our congress. But he is a politician who knows how to appeal to the mainstream. He is a politician who tries to bridge gaps and break through polarization, working to find common ground. He's by no means perfect, but for the first time in my voting life, I do believe he could be the most qualified for the job.

I hope that we and he can bring about the changes that have been promised. I hope that this world will be a better place in eight years. I hope this begins the path toward the next stages in human advancement - being able to live in harmony with our environment, being able to live in harmony with each other, providing equal opportunities for anyone who's interested. As we stand right now, we have to dig ourselves out of a hole. (Finally) coming full circle to the beginning of this post, I'm concerned about my daughter. For her to live a complete life, she'll need the following (in this order):

Clean Air - You can't last more than a couple of minutes without breathing. I hope new environmental policies will work toward this end.
Clean Water - You can last a couple days without it, but same story on the environmental policies.
Food - Can last a couple weeks without it, but best to ensure that food is of the highest quality and is raised / grown with the health of people in mind. I don't think that has historically been important.
Shelter - Improve the economy, most everyone should have adequate shelter.
Health Care - We're nowhere close yet, hope something gets done along the lines of universal health care.
Education - So she can continue to make the world a better place for the next generation.

I hope this election year becomes a catalyst for us to act, to evolve, to better ourselves. I hope we can believe the promises. But at least I finally have hope.

(Sorry for the ridiculously long post. This actually just started out as me noticing I hadn't posted in a while and turned into this big political rant. Yikes.)

10 Months Today!! Yeah!

2008-11-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

I am the cutest thing in my parents world. I am saying Momma, Dadda, Down, Yeah, No No No No No, Pink, Again (More like Gin) and I am signing Milk and More and one more in the video. Momma is so proud of all of my achievments in just 10 months. I am growing out of clothes faster than she can put them away. I already wear 12 months and some are just getting too small, like when momma tries to pull them back off my head! My only complaint hear is: they never ever feed me enough. I want more more more. All in all life is good in the A hood. Peace out loved ones. I am learning your faces through pictures already. Sorry for mommas blabbing on the video but I sure am cute.

Pictures from the trip. Explanation in previous post

2008-08-21T23:03:00.001-07:00

Story of our trip in the previous post. Had trouble posting pictures because the I.T. guy was fooled by the "Add Image" window being behind the main blogger window. I.T. Guy loses 4 nerd points for getting fooled by Google. Enjoy the photos. We enjoyed taking them and posing for them.

Many many miles, and finally home again

2008-08-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

For me it started August 7th, when I left for Las Vegas on business. In the Las Vegas Hilton lingered the stale aroma of smoke and peanut butter and banana sandwiches - perhaps not too different from a day some 40 years ago, when Elvis Presley stepped foot in those same hallowed halls. I guess that's a nice way of saying the place smelled funny, the shower fixtures were probably put in before Elvis left the building, and if it were my dime, I'd head back to the Stratosphere. Of note, though, I'm pretty sure I saw "Jaws" from those old James Bond movies as I was checking in. Pretty distinctive looking guy.

Arriving back home on Sunday night, we relax before a big day of driving on Monday. It was now time for our first vacation as parents, and even scarier... our daughter's first road trip. By my best estimates (actually Google's best estimates) our trip took us over 2300 miles through four state capitols and six states (actually seven if you count the wrong turn we took that briefly landed us in Michigan).

Had a great time in Chicago and then at the beach in Indiana (yes, the beach in Indiana) with family and friends. Visited Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, ate deep-dish Chicago pizza, partook of some delicious 14-year-old single-malt scotch, and waded along the southern shores of Lake Michigan.

For some reason, I'm unable to continue to add pics to this post, so I'll continue with my long-winded story and post pics in the next posting.

Where were we? Ah, yes, leaving Indiana to drive back up through Chicago to the outskirts of Milwaukee. Note to self: Never drive back up through Chicago. We got from the Indiana line almost to downtown with little or no incident, and then we hit traffic - not exaggerating, 35 miles of traffic. Finally, just south of Wisconsin, we broke free.

Next on the agenda was the Milwaukee Irish Festival (curiously co-sponsored by the Milwaukee Scottish Arts Council) where we had a great time with the Killer Leprechaun, his twin brother Zamfir who looks nothing like him, and their older brother who we'll just call Larry.

From there we headed west again, stopping in beautiful Nebraska to visit some friends. No kidding, beautiful Nebraska. If you ever get a chance to stray off of I-80 north of Lincoln and West-by-northwest of Omaha, I'd recommend a visit to Fremont, NE. While you're there, check out the lakes and the cliffs on the banks of the Platte River. We checked out Hormel Park, a nature preserve brought to you by the makers of Spam. Ironically, we were told that Spam costs the same in Fremont as it does in any other town across the U.S.

Fremont was our last stop before Colorado. We made it 2300 miles in a car with very few complaints from Baby V. I guess she's inherited the much-coveted road-tripping genes. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pictures if you happened to read the next post first. Thanks to everyone we visited on the trip. We appreciated the hospitality everywhere we went. It was great to see everyone and finally get everyones' updated email addresses. We'll now be forwarding you some chain letters telling you that you're our best friends and threatening eternal bad luck if you don't forward our message to 10 of your friends within the next hour. If you do, however, decide to forward our messages, "something incredible will happen". I knew this guy who knew this lady who had a cousin whose mother-in-law forwarded this message, and she won the lottery three days later. It's true. I read it on Snopes.

5 months as of today.

2008-06-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

I don't have too much to say just a few pictures to post. Some of our favorites and some new ones. Much love to all.

Four Months and Still Growing

2008-05-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

I have taken my time to post this knowing everyone wants to see it but also being very busy with my baby girl. It is official she weighs in at 13 pounds 4 ounces and is 24 1/2 inches long. That makes her 62 and 76 percentile for height and weight. Her head is 16 1/2 inches and makes it 85 percentile. So her big head can only mean one thing. She is very smart. She is smart, happy, growing and thriving. We are on the other hand, tired, and don't have much free time. In all of this I would say just so very happy to be first time parents and loving that she is soooooo perfect in everyway. Oh yeah she got to start on cereal yesterday too, so the sleeping through the night should be happening very soon.

How would Jesus drive?

2008-04-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

I didn't know whether to call this "How Would Jesus Drive" (HWJD), or "It's a Jeep thing, Jesus wouldn't understand".

So I was on my way to work today, driving in the middle of three lanes admiring a tricked-out Jeep in front of me. It was lifted, had fat tires, and a roof rack that could carry all the fixins for a weekend camping trip. We're at a red light in the middle of three lanes when the light turns green. We get through the intersection, and are within about 300 feet of where the right lane ends. All of a sudden, another equally tricked-out Jeep (this one is yellow with a big snorkel) steps on the gas and launches out into the soon-to-end right lane. He passes me and hops back into my lane just past where his lane ended. He had to squeeze me out of the way in order to get in front of me as he did. Naturally, I honked. Naturally, he flipped me off and slammed on his brakes. In addition to the snorkel and the sweet yellow paint job, this second Jeep had one other distinguishing feature: a cowbell with a cross painted on it hanging from the trailer hitch.

My first thought was that this guy was trying to get ahead of me so he could catch up to his 4x4 brother and they could share a "Jeep thing" (and possibly phone numbers). But I don't drive a Jeep, so I didn't even try to understand. Bottom line, it didn't look like they were together, so the guy was either just passing me to be an ass, or he wanted to rub his "Jeep thing" up against something that looked similar. I guess the real bottom line was that this guy was advertising his righteousness while driving like an idiot. How would Jesus drive?

Mom's First

2008-03-10T16:35:00.000-07:00

There are so many firsts for me. The main one today is my first child. Her name is Little V and I think she is the cutest thing in the world. I am proud to show her off to all of my friends and family. Things were more than a little rough to begin with but now things are A OK and I am proud to be her Mamma. So this is also a first in that it is my first blog about Little V. Hope all is well for you and yours. I tried this one time a couple of days ago and wouldn't you know it, it wouldn't work for me. So here is try # 2 and the next first. Smiling with just a little coaxing.

you run and you run to catch up with the sun...

2008-03-03T19:53:00.000-08:00

Time to blog? Looking back to the last post, and knowing that our daughter is now eight weeks old, I'm feeling like a slacker. I finished the previous sentence over an hour ago, then had to attend to some baby time... exactly what I was going to write about. Parenting does take some time... time otherwise spent goofing off on the computer, I guess. I have to give it up for all of you parents out there, especially those with more than one kid.

Also wanted to pop on and add links to friends' and relatives' blogs. Would have written more, but it's getting to be bed time. My daughter and I have a busy day at work tomorrow.

Peace. More in the future.

28 days old and dreaming

2008-02-05T22:54:00.000-08:00

28 days of life, 20 hours per day of sleep. What do you dream about?

How do you define consciousness? Do you follow rational thought and believe that, "I think, therefore I am?" Do you believe that the world has to be experienced through the senses as the empericists do? Is our consciousness the sum total of all of our experiences?

Western psychology calls the infant's mind a "tabula rasa", or blank slate. It is a mind devoid of judgment, opinions, and prejudice. Eastern philosophy would refer to this state of mind as "the uncarved block", or (coincidentally enough) the p'u. It is the state of mind that Taoists and Zen Buddhists strive to return to in life, but which we all possess at birth.

Why is it so cute when she stretches, gets startled, sneezes, cries (sorry Little V), burps, or sleeps? Because it's just what she does. Her only motivation is for comfort - she's just doing what she has to do. Maybe it's so cute because she's teaching mommy and daddy about what the essence of life really is - a good nap, a good stretch, a good meal (and the of course the consequences thereof).

Just be, Little V.

...and so it begins

2008-02-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

At long last we have given into the pressure of the "blog-os-peer". That's right, Bento Box W has now been served. For those unfamiliar with Japanese cuisine served here in The States, a Bento Box is a chef's special, a combo platter, often containing a diverse array of samplings from raw tuna to tempura fried sweet potato... from octopus salad to miso soup... from california rolls to red snapper... mmmmm... red snapper... allglglglglhglhglhglhg. But I digress.

Here at Bento Box W, we strive to bring you an eclectic mix of posts, from baby photos to snowboarding; from Winnie the Pooh to Star Wars; from family fun and vacations to the least boring of our daily activities.

So let's start with a delicious appetizer of baby photos. We're starting this way for a few reasons:

We have this new baby. Her name's Vanessa. She was born January 4th, 2008 at 5:42 PM. As her proud parents, we think she's darn cute, so what better way to start a blog? Actually, Vanessa is perhaps the biggest reason we were finally persuaded to start a blog.
As Vanessa as born while Colorado's great Rocky Mountains were getting pounded with snow, Kevin (dad), has no snowboarding pictures to post.
Jill (mom) signed a waiver when she was pregnant absolving herself of all responsibility for anything. Citing "pregnancy brain", also known as "placenta brain" in the Greater Midwest, Jill has requested absolution from decisions, placement of items, directions, schedules, and all forms of documentation. This includes blog posts. Therefore, those looking forward to posts about Winnie the Pooh, the glory of cottage cheese, super-soft stuffed animals, celebrity dirt, and internet deals will have to wait.

Welcome to the world, Little V. We'd hoped someday you'd join us. Thank you for making your way into our lives.