Elizabeth's first day in day care

Amy started a part-time contract working on the Lawson HR/payroll system at Catholic Health Initiatives. She's excited for the chance to spend a few days a week interacting with adults, and the extra money will be nice, but we were a little worried about how Liz would react to being without mom for a full day. It turns out she hardly missed mom at all. I'm not sure if we should be relieved or concerned. I thought for sure she would go into hysterics when Amy left her at Kindercare, but she had no problems. Amy said the Liz wasn't even particularly excited to see her when she picked her up. I guess she must be having lots of fun at Kindercare.

Here's what her report said Elizabeth did on day 1:

• Went outside and got leaves and took them inside
• stacked soft blocks
• painted with water colors
• ate well @ lunch
• cryed [sic] while laying down for nap / woke up happy
• put foot braces on at 12:20 took off at 2:20
• colored with markers
• sang and danced

That's a busy day!

Mao: The Unknown Story

I just finished reading Mao: The Unknown Story, a biography of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. It is based on years of research including extensive interviews with many of Mao's inner circle. It's full of intriguing history, especially the close relationship between communist China and the Soviet Union. Ultimately, it's a story of an utterly evil megalomaniac who delighted in inflicting violence and suffering on other people and caused the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese.

Some of the book's revelations:

• Mao was never driven by ideology. The communist party was merely a convenient vehicle by which he could gain personal power.
• The so-called "Long March" of Mao and his band of communists in the 1930's, one of the most overblown myths of Mao's personality cult, was no heroic struggle. Rather, deals made between Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and Stalin allowed Mao's army to proceed. Later in the march, Mao intentionally sacrificed a huge number of Red Army troops under the command of a rival for his power base, Chang Kuo-t'ao.
• In 1946, Mao and the Red Army were on their last ropes fighting the Nationalists in northern Manchuria, where they had only one remaining strong post in the city Harbin. The Nationalist Army was advancing with much superior strength, and Mao had become resigned to abandoning the city and resorting to guerrilla warfare. He was saved at the last minute by a most unlikely ally - the United States. The US put heavy pressure on the Nationalists to call a cease fire - at the very moment Chiang Kai-shek was on the verge of victory. Mao issue an order to disperse the troops and resort to guerrilla warfare on June 3, but rescinded it on June 5 when the cease-fire was declared. According to the author, this cease fire was probably the single most important decision affecting the outcome of the civil war, which of course the communists won.
• The Great Leap Forward, a 5 year economic plan from 1958 to 1963, caused the deaths of 38 million Chinese from starvation and overwork. As if that's not bad enough, these deaths were not the unintended consequence of failed economic policy. Mao caused the famine by selling most of the nation's crop to the Soviets and other allies in order to buy weapons, and especially nuclear weapon technology. Even when made fully aware of the mass famine across the country, Mao pushed to extract even more crops from the peasants.
• The reason Mao launched the brutal cultural revolution in 1966 was to purge his rivals in the party and in the Army, whose influence was becoming a threat to his totalitarian power. Even his closest and most loyal supporters were subjected to torture and imprisonment. Liu Shao Chi, one of the top party members, was imprisoned and tortured for 3 years until dying in prison in 1969. Amazingly, his death was not made public until after Mao's death, because Mao was so worried that it arouse sympathy for Liu.
• Over the course of Mao's rule, 70 million Chinese died at Mao's hands.
  

'Round the World Trip - Revisited

Back in 2002, Amy and I took 6 months off from work and traveled around the world. It was a life-changing experience, not to mention a lot of fun. During our travels we sent emails to friends and family, since this was before I had a blog - before just about anybody had a blog, I suppose. I decided it would be fun to dig up those old emails and post them here. Be looking for them over the coming days. Here is the first one we sent, on February 1, 2002.

New Zealand: week one

We arrived in Auckland on Saturday morning and spent 3
days in the city. Had a bit of trouble finding a room
since it's summer here, but it worked out ok after
some help from the tourist info center. The museum had
some great exhibits on Maori (indigenous people)
culture and history. On Sunday we took a ferry to
Ronitoto island, a 600-year old volcano, and hiked to
the top. Monday we took a cruise out in the harbor to
spot dolphins, and were able to follow a pod of about
20 dolphins as they rode the bow wave of our boat. We
had dinner in an English pub where everyone was
watching Cricket. Can't figure that sport out -- I'll
have to get a book and figure out the basics. We'd
like to catch a rugby match too, but the season
doesn't start til Feb 22, apparently.

Anyone know why NZ toilets have 2 buttons on the tank
to flush? We haven't figured it out yet either. Both
of them seem to do the same thing. Also, they call
bell peppers "capsicum" down here. Took us a while to
figure that out.

We decided to rent a car -- should be about the same
price as taking buses everywhere -- for NZ$28 per day
(about US$12). We drove norht on Tuesday, stopping in
one of the few remaining Kauri tree forests. These
huge trees are thousands of years old, and one
particular tree was 5.2 meters in diameter (that's 16
feet across). The forests here look really ancient,
like something out of Jurassic park -- probably all
the giant ferns. Next, we spent 2 days tramping
(that's Kiwi for "hiking") the coast. Didn't pass a
single person the first day. Had about 6 miles of
beautiful beach all to ourselves.

Now we're at the Bay of Islands, leaving tomorrow
morning for a 2-day sea kayak trip. Having a great
time!! Starting to develop a Kiwi accent of my own,
but that should wear off soon.

5:49 mile

I shaved 6 seconds off last weeks' pace and ran a mile in 5:49 this morning. It was the same course - 4 laps around the track at Green Mountain. If I improve by 6 seconds each week, that would get me to five minutes within a few months.

Grandpa's birthday

Amy and I are lucky to have all of our parents living within a short drive from home. My dad's 68th birthday was this week, and we got them all together at our house to celebrate with a steak dinner. We got a photo of them with the kids, too.

Happy birthday, Dean!

1 mile

How fast can I run 1 mile? I've been wondering that for a while now. After running a marathon at a pace of 7:35 per mile, surely I could run a single mile in 5 minutes, right? Wrong. I ran 4 laps around the track at Green Mountain High School this morning in 5:55. I'll be working on my mile speed in the coming months and see if I can break the 5 minute barrier.

Andrew's oddball ear trick

Andrew does this odd thing with his ears. He's done it for quite a while, but he's discovered that the other kids at preschool get a kick out of it, so now he's doing it more than ever.


It looks painful to me, but doesn't seem to bother him at all. Crazy kids these days.

Halloween 2007

Elizabeth enjoyed her first Halloween celebration yesterday. I don't know if she was real keen on the costume, but she loved the candy!

First steps

Elizabeth has taken her first wobbly steps! After spending the first year of her life with bilateral club foot, 3 months in full-leg casts, and then wearing the Ponseti brace most of the day since then, she's doing great!

World Series tickets

Along with millions of other fans and ticket scalpers, I tried my luck yesterday in the Colorado Rockies' online sale of World Series tickets. Like 99% of them, I didn't get tickets, but instead spent several aggravating hours failing to connect to the ticket vendors' overworked and underpowered web servers. The whole system crashed on Monday so they tried again Tuesday, after the Rockies made the absurd claim that their site was the victim of an attack. The only "attack" was the massive number of fans all trying to buy tickets at the same time.

The vasectomy report

I apologize if any of this is incoherent. I'm still a little groggy from the valium. I just got home from the vasectomy. It's rather strange to be laying in a doctors office with your pants off and have 2 female nurses prep'ing your privates to be cut open. I was supposed to get a valium drip, but the nurse couldn't get the needle in right - after trying 3 different veins. She finally gave up and the doc administered a shot of valium. I quickly felt the drug take over, and next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and it was all over. I was totally out of it during the procedure, and was quite surprised to learn it was done. I was also the most intoxicated I've been in years as I got dressed and plopped into a wheelchair. Amy wheeled my to the exit, pulled up the car and drove me home. Looks like I'll spend most of the next day on the couch with an ice pack on my crotch.

Snipped

I've got an appointment with the doc tomorrow afternoon. Love my 2 kids, but don't want to have any more. So I'm gettin' snipped. The brochure from the doctor says I should expect to spend a couple of days taking it easy. It even has a picture showing a middle aged guy kicking back in his easy chair while his wife serves him food. That doesn't sound like such a bad way to spend the weekend!

Childhood toys

My brother and his friend Michael were in town (they live in Breckenridge) and came over for dinner tonight. Andrew loves to play with his Uncle Erik, and they had a great time wrestling, playing with cars, reading books, etc. I pulled out a box of toys that I had when I was a kid - my mom gave them to us a few weeks ago - and we were taken back to our childhood for a few hours. Some of the toys in the box from my mom:

• ping pong ball gun
• pop gun
• toy airplanes
• fake poop (2 different types)
• rubber snakes
• a kazoo
• gyroscope
• rubic's cube
• handheld ball-in-maze game
• rubber bigfoot figure (Erik said it used to scare him)

Rockies in the World Series!

Along with 50,000 others at Coors Field last night, I watched the Rockies sweep the Diamondbacks to win the National League Championship. It was a great and rare experience. The best part was that Eric Byrnes, the D-backs trash-talking left fielder, got slapped with the 3rd out in the 9th inning to end the game. After the D-backs were down 0-2 in the series, Byrnes said that the Rockies didn't outplay Arizona, rather they were just lucky.

Help kids with club foot

For anyone who would like to help the 150,000 kids born with club foot each year, I now have a personalized page where you can donate to the Ponseti International Association for the Advancement of Clubfoot Treatment.

I recently saw video of a Phillipino girl whose bilateral clubfoot went untreated until she was 10 years old. The Ponseti method corrected her feet without surgery, and without the high expense and likelihood of pain that accompanies it.

When we consulted with doctors at the Children's hospital in Denver, they told us that Elizabeth , at 1 year old, was too old for the Ponseti method and would need surgery. This is all too common with doctors in the US since they either don't know the Ponseti method, or they know they can make a lot more money performing surgery.

Rockies are rockin'

I've never been a big baseball fan, but I've actually enjoyed watching the Rockies in the playoffs. I got a call from a friend tonight who has tickets to game 4 of the NLCS on Monday might. The Rockies now have a 3-0 series lead over Arizona, which means that game 4 could send them to the world series.

Sucky ducts

I've been gradually working on improving my home's energy efficiency. Today's rainy weather made for a good day to stay inside, so I decided to check the ventilation ducts. The house was built in 1971, and apparently whoever did the duct work was a lazy, drunken buffoon. It's surprising that any hot air made it all the way to vents. I went through a hell of a lot of tape and duct sealer putty.

Brace relief

Elizabeth visited her doctor earlier this week and got some good news. Her feet look fine, and she can now wear her brace only 12-14 hours per day (overnight and during naps) instead of 18 hours per day. The extra hours of freedom every day should help her learn to stand a walk pretty soon.

Stock options pay out

When I started working at BoldTech back in the boom days of 1999, I got stock options. When I left almost 5 years later, I exercised some of those options, and it finally paid off. BoldTech was acquired by Perficient a few weeks ago, and I earned nice return on my investment. Not enough to retire early or buy that 40 foot yacht, but a nice bit of cash nonetheless.

Since Amy and I are close to buying an investment property, that money go right into our down payment. What an exciting way to spend my unexpected bonus. ;-)

October harvest

Garden fresh tomatoes in October? Yup. I was out in my backyard picking ripe red tomatoes yesterday. Not only tomatoes, but cucumbers, chiles and even a few raspberries, too. It's a balmy 83 degrees in Denver today. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.