Sam's L33t Journal

This past week was Erica's school break, so we had a bit of a family vacation: Four nights in New York City, four nights in Baltimore. We took the train down and flew back.

In New York, we met up with my Aunt Ellen and Uncle Mark, caught up with my old friend Emmett and his partner Sonia Mae, climbed the Statue of Liberty, ate some great food (including a steak dinner at Keens). Plus I got to take Erica to Brookfield Place (with some evening ice skating), various parks, and the Nintendo Store. Lots of exploring the city by foot, train, and ferry.

In Baltimore, we got to spend a lot of time with Melissa, Elliott, and Simon, and my parents (who were able to schedule their visit to match). Great food (great home-cooked food, plus some amazing meals out at Clavel and Mera Kitchen). A little more ice-skating, unfortunately cut short by rain. But the weather was mostly beautiful. Melissa took us to the Baltimore Zoo, was a lot of fun and a nice walk to and from. We stayed in the same hotel we stayed at on our last February visit, the Inn at the Colonnade at the northeast corner of the Johns Hopkins campus. Was very nice. One unusual feature is that there's a grand piano in the hotel lobby, which meant I also got to hear the piece my dad has been practicing. He's been taking some piano lessons recently, a gift from a family friend. (He's already a talented piano player, so the lessons are not about picking that up in the first place, more a deep dive on technique.)

It's been a hard and busy set of weeks, but this was a very nice break. Back to it tomorrow.

NYC trip went well!

We traveled on Christmas Day (a week before last Tuesday). Our flight was a little delayed, but at least it was a two-hour delay on a 2PM flight instead of a seven-hour delay on a 6:30PM flight. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner at Kristin and Jimmy's house. Julie's parents were visiting as well!

Wednesday, we went to the mall and had an early birthday celebration for Erica with extended family.

Thursday, we went to visit my Aunt Ellen and Uncle Mark. We took Erica to a nearby playground. Then we spent a bit of time wandering near Brookfield Place before taking the ferry back to Jersey City. Then another family event, we all went out for a pasta dinner.

Friday morning, we woke up very early to have breakfast with Julie's parents before their trip home. We took the kids to the Krispy Kreme factory store for doughnuts. We took Erica for a swim in the hotel pool. Then Erica went to have a sleepover with her cousin while Julie and I got a date night. We went to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (which was great!), took the ferry from Hoboken into New York, and went out for a very nice dinner before circling back to the hotel.

Saturday morning, we went out for brunch with Emmett (a friend of mine from high school). Then we took a long walk along the Hudson. Saturday afternoon, we reunited with Erica, spent some time with her in the playroom in Kristin's apartment building, and then we all went out for Indian food at a really good place next door to there.

Sunday, we took Erica ice-skating for the first time, at the Brookfield Place rink. She was really excited about going skating, but when I was getting on the skates I was worried it would be a disaster. She was uncomfortable and it was hard to juggle a crying toddler along with two pairs of skates and shoes while trying to find the right size. The tent for skate rental was super crowded. Fortunately, Julie came to bail me out and get Erica out the door, so we were able to get onto the ice and have a great time. Erica spent most of her time being pushed around on an ice sled, but she did stand up and skate holding onto my hands a bit, and also a bit with a far more talented skater who works at the rink. It had been a really long time since I last went ice skating, and it was fun. Emilia had fun, too, she can skate on her own power now.

Erica was really tired afterwards, especially since the excitement had her successfully fighting off sleep before. We went out to dinner after skating, but Erica had a total meltdown in the food court before falling asleep in my arms. She was cheerful again when she woke up, though. We went for a walk on the boardwalk together at around 10PM, since she was still very awake, then had a good night's rest.

The trip was so very lovely. Kristin and Jimmy were such great hosts, and it was great to spend time with family and friends. Erica especially loved spending time with her cousin Emilia (who she calls "my mee-ya").

Monday, we traveled back to Boston, then celebrated the New Year at the Buttery. Played some games, but punted before midnight. Still got home around 1AM, and then Erica still wanted a bath and eight stories (though she fell asleep close to 2AM in the middle of story three).

Tuesday, we went out for a New Year's Day brunch. Afterwards, Erica was excited about going to the playground, and I'd never seen her fight sleep so hard. We went to the store after brunch because Julie needed to get her computer repaired. Bus timing was good, so we started to walk homewards, with this cycle of her begging to be carried, us suggesting she get in (or trying to put her in) the stroller, her fighting and screaming and insisting she wanted to walk, and then her pressing on at about a mile an hour. And we probably made it about a half-mile in that fashion before she decided stroller was okay after all.

In the afternoon, Julie helped Erica bake a birthday cake. I helped with a lot of the dishes, and spreading the icing.

Yesterday was Erica's birthday. We brought cake to daycare, and afterwards went out for birthday ice cream and sandwiches with some friends. That was great!

The birthday really feels like a significant milestone. I guess Eris is baby Eris no more.

Anyways, I'm back to the grind. The kid has continued to be super late-to-bed. I'm really tired. (Yet here I am staying up late to write rather than never getting around to it.)

My sister is visiting town this coming weekend. And Julie is leaving town early Sunday for more business travel.

Eristic improvements: An obsession with riding the escalator (which she pronounces as a homonym with excavator), a three-a-day Band-Aid habit (that one's not new, but I don't think I'd mentioned that here before).

Yesterday, we wrapped up our NYC trip with a brief stop at the Met Museum, said hi to some Ingress acquaintances (also down from Boston), and took a beautiful train-ride home.

And then I realized that I'd failed to clear out the closet in the hotel room. Argh. (They have my misplaced garments, at least, it's just a matter of arranging shipping.)

Julie is trying to plan some startup-related business travel. Seems like it might be fun, but the logistics are stressful.

There was a big office reorganization at work while I was away (packed up my office just before I left), so today involved a fair amount of unpacking. New space seems good. Same building, different floor, shared office with a window (though the view is not as good as my previous office).

I'm up late now dealing with the backlog of laundry. Bed soon.

Last few weeks both work and home have been good, but very busy. I haven't had the wherewithal to get in more cooking. I need to get to baby-proofing the house quite soon. I caught a brutal but brief cold and am just now almost fully recovered.

One of the reasons things have been so tiring is that the kid is eating a lot. Her usual is ~800 ml at daycare between 8AM and 5PM, plus morning, afternoon, and evening feedings. So over a liter a day, maybe closer to 1.5L. Obviously this is a lot of work for Julie, but it's enough to keep me busy, too, with the logistics of washing and packing bottles and pumping supplies. The doctor advised Julie to pump before feeding the kid to increase milk production. We joke that Erica is now a Board Certified Lactation Consultant (while Erica's patented massage technique is effective, Julie wishes it was a little gentler).

Last weekend, we went to the Ingress event in Brooklyn on Satuday, and helped our team secure a victory. Then we spent the rest of the long weekend visiting family and friends.

This weekend, we're in Jupiter, Florida, visiting Julie's sister. Her parents are visiting as well. So Erica is getting a lot of quality time with extended family (our niece, Emilia, is super-excited to see her younger cousin).

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

A few stories of interest:

The NYC AG has demanded a bunch of user data from Airbnb about those renting out units through the site, presumably as a prelude to some sort of crackdown. Seems like a disaster for Airbnb. They're fighting it as an overly broad request, but also publicly acting as if they assume it's just a crackdown on particularly bad actors, having nothing to do with the fact that vast swaths of their ordinary business is flagrantly illegal (not because it harms anyone, just due to the sort of industry regulation that lightly restrains with one hand and grants a permanent monopoly with the other).

South Dakota has been reeling from a serious snowstorm early and sudden enough to wipe out thousands of cattle. What a crazy disaster.

Federal authorities shut down the anonymous online black market known as Silk Road, arresting its founder for conspiracy to commit money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and conspiracy to commit murder. The story is fascinating from a security and law-enforcement perspective. I wrote about it a bit on ComplexMeme.

Two weekends ago: Whale watching with Julie's lab cohort (quite a sight to see the humpbacks playing), Sunday brunch, saw Headhunters (suspense-thriller about a corporate headhunter who moonlights as an art thief, thought it was okay), gin and tonics made with Ethereal Gin (Batch 5) and Q Tonic, and a dinner in JP.

Last weekend: The American Craft Beer Festival (interesting and tasty), a trip to NYC with Julie to see some shows with her dad (a great small-box production of "The Fantasticks" and saw "The Book of Mormon" (hilarious, brilliant, and about as irreverent and lewd as you'd expect from anything by Parker and Stone)), and a fancy English tea.

This week: MIT commencement stuff!

Yet another badly delayed entry. I blame the DDoS. Though that doesn't account for last week.

My whirlwind tour of NYC was awesome. I really enjoyed catching up with Emmett, spending time with Nikki, and even the shopping. Visited Odin (a nifty boutique that seemed like some sort of curated museum of fashion), Epaulet (similar feel, but not quite as good), Opening Ceremony (felt more like the Garment District except everything was new and designer and cost about a million dollars), Uniqlo (Japanese fast-fashion brand that everyone's heard about), and Onassis (Japanese fast-fashion brand that not everyone has heard about). Bought a few things, but my favorite purchase was my new jacket from Onassis, it looks pretty sweet.

Last weekend involved a pub crawl, spending time with Tara, getting half-stranded in Dorchester, a crazy birthday bash for zombie_dog (including the "transexual punk-rock zombie-movie masterpiece" Wild Zero (the DVD has a built-in drinking game!)), and dinner and ice cream with Olin friends (including David (seramir323), who was on spring break from his work teaching English in northern Japan (fortunately for him, up in the mountains)).

Tomorrow I'm seeing these guys about a suit. This weekend is Bar Camp.

Been trying to get to sleep earlier with limited success. But I seem to be waking up earlier at any rate.