The executive decision was made last week for the entire marketing department, of which I am part, to skip work on Tuesday and head up to the Pyrenees for a day of much-needed snow fun.

7am, rise and shine!

24 of us went skiing that day, but 14 of us decided to head up the night before and have a pajama party at Aurelia’s cabin in the mountains. And what a good idea that was! I see these people everyday at the office but, after a year and a half, I didn’t really know many of them. Ages ranged from 20’s to 40’s but it felt like we were back at university. We all stayed up a little too late playing drinking games and team-building exercises (in that order).

I spent most of the next day with the four other snowboarders of the group but, while all 24 of us were together, everyone was surprised at how fast we were able to bomb down the mountain. Usually with large groups you inevitably find yourself stopping and waiting every 100 meters for the few slow-pokes to catch up but this wasn’t the case at all. Pretty much everyone had mad skillz. That and the variable sunshine and choice snow conditions made the day a wonderful success.

As I discovered a couple of years ago, I enjoy bringing my camera with me on ski trips. Not so much for the off-piste antics, but more for the swooshing and slaloming. I like filming other people while I snowboard down the mountain at full speed – the fear of slamming and losing my camera under a mound of powder adds that extra little bit of adrenaline that is the cream in my coffee. I posted all my photos to the company server so everyone could see, but I didn’t post any of the videos. I wanted to edit them together into a pretty little package first. So here it is, my latest ski video:

Don’t you hate it when you download an entire new TV series that you’ve been meaning to watch for a long time (like The Sopranos) only to find that, after enjoying the first few episodes very much, episode four of the first season winds up being encoded with Windows Media Audio, the only frickin audio codec not supported by your Palm TX, meaning that you have to watch back-to-back episodes of Peep Show on your commute to work (which isn’t all that bad, really) while your wife plows through the entire first season before you finally discover how easy it is to re-encode videos using DeVeDe on your home Linux box? I hate that!

Upon her arrival home from a trip up the coast with Emily to visit some friends in Vilassar de Mar today, Jan said to me, “I have some bad news.” (Don’t ever do this to anyone, by the way. People’s imaginations are too fast and erratic and they usually get more upset than they have to.) Anyway, Jan continued, “We lost B-B-B today.”

He apparently jumped ship from Emily’s pushchair somewhere between our friend Rebecca’s house and the train station. Jan retraced their footsteps and scoured their path, but it was to no avail.

I was surprised to note how upset this news made me feel. B-B-B has become Emily’s bestest friend in the whole wide world recently. Not only do they sleep together, but Emily regularly tries to dress him in her clothes, push him around the flat in her pushchair, put diapers on him, apply skin cream to his belly, and kiss him tenderly. Jan was noticeably upset, as well. Emily seemed fine. For the moment.

I quickly tried to contact Lucy in England to find out where she had bought him in hopes that I could run out and get a new one before bedtime. After I realized that I didn’t have her phone number, I sent her an email, left her a message on Facebook, and called all of her friends in Barcelona looking for her phone number. No luck.

As she does every night when preparing to go to bed, Emily told us she would be ready to sleep once one of use retrieved her Big Brown Bear for her. Jan and I nervously looked at each other and quickly changed the subject. Winnie The Pooh came out and took Emily’s mind off of B-B-B for a while with an impromptu game of tickle war. We later handed her a different bear and she reluctantly accepted the switch. For now.

This isn’t over yet. I can feel it.

I hope you enjoy this little video half as much as Emily enjoyed that delicious pot of strawberry yogurt.

Meow!

Happy 384 month birthday, me.

I am currently celebrating by spending some quality time with Emily after having chased a very reluctant Jan away for the weekend. Yes, my wife is currently on a ski holiday in Andorra while I spend a record 48 hours alone with our daughter.

I may be a bit worse for wear, but I haven’t really changed all that much since this time last year. Maybe a bit slower, a bit duller, a bit more conservative, but at least I still look more or less the same. I can’t say the same for this little weed:

One year ago:

Today:

What a difference a year makes! It seems like a lifetime ago…

I’ve comfortably settled into my new job at HP and managed to achieve the right balance of technology and art. I’m still doing the acting thing on the side and landing some very interesting jobs. I’ve even combined the two by getting an acting gig at HP!

There was that period where I almost lost my job, but my amazing manager Nuri stepped up to the plate for me and all was well. I was very sad to see her move on to another department later that year.

There’s no point in working hard if you can’t play hard, so Jan and I made sure to do our fair share of globe trotting. With Emily in tow, we relaxed in Andorra, discovered the joie de vivre of Paris, visited family and friends in England, and went coast to coast in The States. Sarah says we should calculate Emily’s air miles. I’m working on it.

This was also the year that I finally ditched Windows and the year that I got braces. Hurray!

We of course had our rough times, as well. I hurt my back before the summer and spent the following six months somewhere between serious discomfort and collapsed on the floor in tears. That sucked. Seriously. And nobody likes seeing an eleven month old in the emergency room hooked up to an IV drip. But we all managed to pull through.

Most recently, I’ve decided to end my multiple-year hiatus from the world of theatre and direct a new play. Rehearsals start next week and we open on June 12. Watch this spot for more news.

Without a doubt, though, the most wonderful part of my past year has been watching our little girl grow up and celebrating each and every little milestone.

The November election is a long ways away. So, here: my pal Matt made you a little cheatsheet!

Happy 17 month birthday, Emily.

Emily destroyed the Altar to Femininity this week. No, that’s not a euphemism. Jan and Emily go to belly dance class on Mondays and there’s this whole alternative / Indian / incense burning / spiritual vibe going on there. They have an Altar to Femininity set up in the corner of the room which consists of some cushions, some candles, a pedestal, and some mirrors. Emily trashed it. She wanted to make a pillow fort.

This delightful little anecdote is really just an introduction into what has developed as a theme this month: physical challenges. Emily is all about fearlessly pushing her physical limits. Trust falls, the continuous schlepping of heavy packages around the house, and jumping of of high furniture all make this little girl smile. Just last week, we watched in awe as Emily pushed her diminutive red plastic Ikea chair across the living room until it was flush against the side of the sofa. This tiny toddler who still walks into walls when she’s tired proceeded to scale the aforementioned chair, reach over and firmly grasp the large sofa cushion with both hands, haul herself up and over the arm of the sofa, and then launch herself from a kneeling position only to flop gleefully face first in the center of the couch. She smiled, rolled off the couch, and did it again. Twelve times.

Other than flinging herself perilously from high places, a few more of Emily’s favorite things are running up to walls with her arms extended and then bouncing off while shouting “boing!”, hanging out with B-B-B, dancing (watch out for those flailing arms), spinning to dizziness, taking things apart with a screwdriver, being chased down the hall by anyone who declares “I’m gonna get you!”, emptying the contents mommy’s handbag, and wrapping things around her neck. As one would imagine, this last one can be fairly troubling at times. We’ve tried our best to discourage auto asphyxiation at the hands of lamp cords, belts, handbag arm straps, and USB cables, but we find it rather amusing when Emily sneaks off to our bedroom and roots through our wardrobe only to appear a few minutes later with every last article from Jan’s underwear drawer cleverly wrapped around her head.

Reverse Striptease

I’m enjoying this whole verbal communication development thing so I’ll continue maintaining the popular Emily’s Communication Breakdown table so you can all play along at home. There are so many things that Emily says that I cannot in good faith include in this table because I either do not believe she understands what she is saying or I have not heard her repeat the word enough times to consider it part of her established lexicon. For example, Emily will watch her Baby Einstein video and repeat almost all of the vocabulary words that are highlighted. I’ve heard her say “tractor” every time that segment comes on. But I will not include this or any other word unless freely demonstrated in the wild without prompting. Without rules you have chaos. Also, Jan said she heard Emily say, “ring” the other day, but until I hear her say it, it’s not making the list.

Bomb Squad

Since no self-respecting 17 month old would be caught dead on the interwebs without having her very own music video, cousin Marli has stepped up to the plate and flexed her newfound editing skillz for our nostalgic enjoyment. Thanks Marli!

Work has gone totally ape shit this week and promises to stay like that for another month or two. Something about HP buying out all their competition in the large format printing world and then sticking me with the task of integrating the tech specs for all their printers into our portfolio. Fun!

And it’s hard to concentrate at work when my phone keeps ringing every couple of hours with a new person interested in auditioning for the play. I’m not complaining. I’m ecstatic! Things are starting to finally shape up and that pin prick of light on the horizon must just be the end of the proverbial tunnel. Hey, I may actually get this thing off the ground this time.

I have to admit that I am totally stoked about auditions this weekend. The only thing better than auditioning for a play is auditioning other people for a play. Not to mention the ensuing spreadsheets depicting all the different casting possibilities. My only regret is that I have but one play to cast. No wait, I have two!

I have recently stumbled upon an old theater pal from university thanks to the fanciful intricacies of the interwebs (hi, Josh!) who says that he, too, is directing a production of The Actor’s Nightmare this season. Not only that, but his first plan was to direct The Marriage of Bette and Boo which, as you all know, was the first play that I directed here in Barcelona. This romantic thought forced my stare to wander over to the bookshelf beside my desk where sits a fantastic framed memento of said production:

click for super-big autographed version

I love the theater. I love performing and directing and producing. The set building, lighting design, intermission music selection… heck, I even love designing the posters. Some of my fondest memories are from theatrical productions and there is no doubt that most of my bestest friends in the world (my wife, included) were given to my by the gods of theater.

Here’s hoping auditions go well this weekend and that I find the perfect cast of really awesome people to share the next few months of my life with.