nonstick weblog

We just got back from Trick or Treating. There are about 7 houses in our cul de sac that had a welcoming Halloween glow. By the time we got to the 7th one, my kid was a pro. Door opens. “TwikTwee.” “Oh, how adorable. Have some candy.” Grabs a handful. “Dangju.” Next house. Repeat.

There were some kids that were trolling our street the same time we were. A wild pack of 11 year olds. We tried to stay out of their way, but they caught up with us. We were standing at a door, waiting for it to open, 2 of the boys stepped past me and my husband and in front of my kid. I was livid. One of the boys behind me murmured “That’s not cool.” I said to the rude boys, “You cut in front of a 2 year old.” That’s right, I shamed them. They were essentially taking candy from a baby. But my kid wasn’t even behind the boys. She had slipped past them and was in the house waiting for candy. That’s right, don’t just stand their indignant, like your parents. Reclaim your rightful position.

It’s Halloween. Boo! We dressed my kid up as Pebbles Flintstone and brought her to daycare. There was a littel parade and then a party. When we first got there, it was mayhem. And it did not improve. Elmo was crying into his crackers. Superman was crying while waving around a toy car in each hand. Batman and Batgirl were running around like they were blind, knocking over superheroes and monsters. And Pebbles was refusing to go to the potty or put on her “hair”.

I think that Halloween is more for the parents than for the kids at this age. They don’t get it. They don’t know what is going on, just that it’s different and perhaps special. So typically well behaved children become raving monsters. We got some good pictures though. Pebbles sitting my lap crying. Pebbles holding hands with Piglet. The back of Pebbles’ head because she refused to look at the camera…

My husband and I just got back from dropping off my kid at day care. We brought her to the Dr this morning for her 2yr old exam. We really like the pediatrician, Mitzi Conover, but today she was dressed as a pirate and my kid didn’t know what to make of her. Unfortunately, this visit included 2 shots, immunization and flu. The kid was not happy. After she got the shots, she kept pointing at the nurse like she wanted us to run the nurse down and hurt her back. Instead of telling her it will be all right and won’t hurt for too much longer, my husband tries to explain to her that it was medicine and that it will help her feel better later.

This kills me. Sometimes I want to tell my husband that she is two. She may seem like she can understand and absorb everything, but she can’t. As soon as we got into the car, she started whimpering and whispering “medicine”. That’s great. I feel sorry for the next person who tries to give her any medicine and calls it that. She has a memory like an elephant. She will not respond well. Even if the medicine is grape flavored.

There is this tradition here that people get Booed during the Halloween season. I don’t know if this phenomenon exists anywhere else. It certainly did not in the neighborhoods I lived in in San Jose or Oakland. What happens is, you hear the doorbell, wonder who it is at this time of night, and find, not a flaming bag of poo, but a treat and a note.

The note essentially says that you have been visited by the Halloween spirit and to enjoy the treats, post the “ghost” in a window and Boo three other people.

I was really excited to be Booed. Makes me think I might be able to forget that I am hundreds of miles away from friends and family. There is a problem though. I don’t know 3 people who have not already been Booed. I can pick a house at random that does not have the ghost displayed, but what if they don’t celebrate Halloween? What if they are that family that hides in the dark as trick or treaters ring their doorbell. What if the family is offended because they equate the Halloween spirit to Satan? Hmm. I will have to think about this. I don’t want my famous zuchini bread to be mistaken as food of the devil and tossed.

We got our Toys R Us Big Book yesterday and I was pouring over it. There are so many cool toys I want to get for my kid. Well, really, I just want them. But I need to watch the budget.

The Little People stuff always draws my attention. Then there is the dress up stuff. Ooooh. Then there’s the kid karaoke set. I really think my kid is destined to be the next hapa Britney, sans babies at 24 and K-Fed.

The thing that stops me from hopping into the car and buying everthing in sight at Toys R Us, aside from finishing this blog entry, is that my kid has an attention span of 5 seconds. I buy her stuff that she thinks is great for about 5 seconds. Then it goes into the bottomless toybox until she rediscovers it months later to love it for another 5 seconds. Heck, she spends more time playing with the boxes the toys come in.

Predicament. Predicament. Do I want to spend $50 bucks on the Little People Preschool so that it can gather dust with the Little People bus and speed boat that I got for her 4 months ago? I know. I will dig out some toys she hasn’t seen in a couple of months and just wrap those for Christmas. She likes ripping the wrapping off best anyway.

I and a couple of colleagues have been doing 2nd round interviews for an open position in our group. The role is for a Sr Mgr with 8 direct reports and ownership of a number of key global programs.

It has been quite eye opening. It’s a pretty grueling process. As an interviewer you have to talk to so many people, that they just become one face (Or voice. We are Sun after all). You have to evaluate each candidate from a number of prospectives, as their peer, as their direct report, and as their manager. Would I want to work with him, for him and how would I need to manage him? I need to take into consideration whether this person will succeed It’s really interesting.

I’m really glad my boss gave me the opportunity to do this. I had told him that I wanted to be engaged in more strategic activities and thinking. And he is allowing me to flex that muscle in small, but significant ways.

Our neighborhood association has been battling this huge local developer for the last year. It started when the neighbors on the road above us noticed that the concrete barriers and gate used to cut off the end of their cul de sac from the road it dead-ends into had been moved. Then over several days, concrete mixers and all manner of trucks turned our main road into a thoroughfare to get to this new development on the backside of the neighboring gun club.

Our neighborhood association went to the city to complain. Developers had already tried to do this a few years ago and our city set up the barriers to deter them. The construction folks want to use our road because the alternative is Gun Club Road which requires an almost 180 turn to get onto from the main road. Also, I heard that the developer didn’t want to pay the Gun Club a fee to use their road.

It has gotten our whole neighborhood up in arms. The developer wanted to reconnect the roads so that the owners of these new luxury homes would not have to navigate the heinous turn. But this would be at the expense of our neighborhood. A) the value of our houses wpuld plummet and B) our kids can’t play in the street anymore. There are about 100 households in this neighborhood and that creates more that enough traffic.

So the battle continues. There is a city council meeting in a few weeks to finalize the decision to close off the road permanently and give the strip of property, about 400 sqft, to the two houses adjacent to it. Hopefully, there will be additional barriers.

This is the first snow of the year for me. We are at about 5000ft. It’s been snowing higher up for a while. So the UPS guy thought I was nuts when I came to the door and got all excited when I noticed the snow.

When you have a kid, your conversations with your SO become about poop. It gives the term “potty mouth” new meaning. During the first few months, it’s all about color and consistency. You can tell from the poop how the kid reacts to what you eat, if you’re nursing, whether the kid has a cold, or whether the kid is dehydrated.

The poop conversations have dwindled since the first few months. Now, it’s an occasional question, “Did she poop today? I don’t think she pooped yesterday.” to diagnose constipation and the favorite, “Did you give her raisins this morning?”

Lately, the poop talk has kicked up a notch. She’s potty training. “Did she go potty?” “Take her to the potty.” “She pooped in the potty. Good job, Mui!” and my personal favorite “Did you make sure she wiped? Baby skid marks…” The great thing is, we don’t wince at the poop talk. It’s part of our lives now. I wonder when and whether it will ever end.

My husband and I went to watch David Sedaris last night. He was hilarious. At first I was disappointed. He was reading aloud some essays he had written. And to be honest, I can get that on CD or This American Life without having to fork out over $30 a person and get a babysitter. But then he went into some personal stories and took questions.

He has a really interesting life. Moving around at whim. I think he currently lives in Normandy. He talked about the Philipines and about Tokyo. It piqued my interest as we are thinking about visiting Tokyo next year. Well, now it’s sealed. David Sedaris loves Tokyo and, now, so must we.

During question and answer period, there were a few good ones and a few duds. There are always questions that you want to ask, but you know they are stupid. So you are relieved when someone else asks them, so you can a) know the answer and b) look down on the person who asked the stupid question. Then there are those questions that you would never ask, because you would never think to ask them as they are just too stupid. Really people ask these questions because they want to showcase their wit, not knowing that their wit is better left at home. One woman asked David (he’s David, now) whether he still wears green tights during Christmas. You could hear his eyes roll when he answered, “No. No, I don’t. In fact, I don’t own any tights.”

One good question was how his mother reacts to his impersonations of her. He said she doesn’t, she’s dead. He also explained that he would never provide that answer if she were asking him face to face, not wanting to embarrass her. He would say something like, it’s not an issue.

The question I had was does he run into people who, because they have read his books, feel they know him. Unfortunately, by the time I had crafted it and gotten enough nerve to raise my hand, the Q&A session was over. So if any of you out there meet David, please ask him this question and let me know.