Joe Shlabotnik Is My Hero

Old Greek Dress

2009-07-10T19:11:33Z

1973

2009

As is the tradition, we spent the Fourth of July weekend up at Sue's grandmother's cottage on the ocean in Maine. It's much the same every year, only this time Violet was able walk around and play in the cold, cold water. She was initially shocked at just how cold the ocean was, but quickly warmed up to it (ha!), and certainly outlasted our tolerance to it. Funny how a cold ocean doesn't seem to bother kids as much as it does adults. Even when it was foggy and 55 degrees (and that was probably warmer than the water temperature), there were children brave and foolhardy enough to splash around without wetsuits. I got extra chills just looking at them.

Sue's grandmother had a surprise for us. She pulled out a dress that she bought in Greece when Sue was a baby, and dug out a photograph of Sue wearing it in front of the cottage. So of course we had to re-create the photo with Violet (shown here). We're keeping the dress in case the cottage is still in the family when we have a granddaughter. Check back in thirty years.

(For now, here are more photos of our trip to Maine this year.)

Daily Twitter Tweets

2009-06-29T22:00:02Z

11:04 Violet and an upside-down friend: flic.kr/p/6AmpVL #
17:41 Touchdown, Violet! flic.kr/p/6AzFxs #
17:48 Blue Smoke for dinner tonight - I'm already salivating... #

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Daily Twitter Tweets

2009-06-29T21:48:29Z

11:04 Violet and an upside-down friend: flic.kr/p/6AmpVL #
17:41 Touchdown, Violet! flic.kr/p/6AzFxs #

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Father's Day

2009-06-21T20:30:46Z

Violet Is Walking!
Originally uploaded by Joe Shlabotnik

What a nice Father's Day present - Violet finally took some steps today! She's been *so close* for over a month now - walking holding on to the furniture or our hand, even taking one tentative step here and there - but we were beginning to think she wouldn't be walking on her own until the fall. It might still be a while before she'll walk without us goading her on. But that's okay; now that we know she *can* walk, we can relax and let her crawl around some more so she's easier to keep track of.

Daily Twitter Tweets

2009-06-18T05:03:34Z

22:54 Testing this new Flickr-to-Twitter button... flic.kr/p/6xkwKc #

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Daily Twitter Tweets

2009-05-22T05:07:45Z

15:58 Song that began playing on my iPod as I entered the nature trails in Forest Park yesterday: "Nature Trail to Hell" by Weird Al. Honest. #

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Daily Twitter Tweets

2009-05-14T05:03:32Z

14:55 3 miles in 22:22 today, 4 miles in 30:02 two days ago. Need to do a lot better if I want to run a 45-minute 10K in a month. #

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The Name Game

2009-05-12T01:53:58Z

One of 1,797

The Social Security Administration has just released their list of the most popular baby names in 2008:

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/babynames/

Violet has gotten more popular in recent years, ranked the 184th most popular girls' name in the U.S. in 2008, up from #229 in 2007. And that's up from total oblivion in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, when it almost never even made the top 1000; 1999 was the first time it cracked the top 900 since 1968. Which explains why I've never met anyone named Violet before. It's the name's highest rank since 1937, but still below its peak popularity in 1919 (when it was #74).

At the rate the name is gaining in popularity, it could be a top 20 name by the time Violet gets to elementary school. Which is kind of what we were trying to avoid - we were looking for something classic, not too crazy, but not too popular. Perhaps we're bigger trendsetters than we had thought.

A name that might better fit that bill these days is Susan. Poor Susan. The second-most popular girls' name back in 1957 and 1958, it was still #24 the year my wife was born, but dropped out of the top 100 in 1985. And now? It's a pitiful #712. What the heck is wrong with Susan? Does it deserve to be less popular than Shyanne, Destinee, Yaretzi, Paisley, and Payton? (Payton? Who names a girl Payton?)

As for Peter, it's a semi-respectable #183 for boys, not nearly as popular as it used to be, but not dropping off into oblivion. Yet.

(PS - Violet is two places below Brooklynn. Brooklynn? Come on people, even with one n that's just... I mean... Brooklynn? Really?)

Daily Twitter Tweets

2009-04-27T05:05:38Z

09:26 got up at 8am and ran 20 minutes (2.63 miles) for the first time this year. #

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Sporks!

2009-04-15T21:20:56Z

At Night The Sporks Pick On Me

Everybody hates sporks.

Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream

2009-04-14T19:07:45Z

Visions Of Sugarplums?

Two strangest dreams, actually. In one, Mario Cuomo was giving a speech in my hotel room (at some fancy resort - we were there with friends). He brought his own lectern and everything. I got annoyed with his being there and we got into a big shouting match. It wasn't about policy; I just wanted him to go. I was quite riled up. I think I managed to get to the steam room eventually, but that's less strange.

In the other, we were hosting a dinner party (it wasn't our house, but it was - you know how dreams are), when Sue brought out a big box of pregnancy test sticks. All the women (and one guy - to be funny, I guess) took the test and everyone announced that they weren't pregnant. (Nobody had left the table, but the tests were taken non-explicitly and without peeing - again, you know how dreams are.)

I wonder what babies dream about. Nothing makes sense to a baby; do their dreams make even less sense than that?

Daily Twitter Tweets

2009-04-11T05:03:12Z

23:11 is not sure why he needs Twitter if he already has Facebook. #
00:16 @kenlee99 But I already keep my Facebook message updated! #
00:20 @ptonreunions Here's an event to add to the schedule: Beer! Thursday through Saturday! I'm attending :-) #

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Professional Photographer

2009-04-10T18:12:28Z

Niagara Mohawk Building

I'm now a professional photographer!

Technically speaking, that is. I just received a check from Langenscheidt Publishing, who is using my photo on the cover of their latest Syracuse street map! I've had lots of people use my photos on their blogs, I've had one used in a small magazine, but this is the first photo I've ever gotten money for. And I like it. (Langenscheidt is much nicer than other companies I know.)

Now if I could find someone to pay me for every photo I take, I could retire comfortably. Any takers?

Ice Ice Baby

2009-03-24T22:06:02Z

The Devil's River

Next time I go ice skating, remind me to never accidentally fall through the ice.

One of the fun things we did while we were up in Tremblant (photos here) was go to the beautiful Scandinavian Spa for an afternoon. It's a complex of outdoor hot tubs and cold tubs, and indoor steam rooms, saunas, and warm "relaxation rooms", with full spa services offered if you're in the mood (we both got massages - my second one ever). The idea is to alternate between warm places and cold places, for an authentic Scandinavian experience. It's supposed to be good for you, they say, and it's definitely fun.

If the 57-degree plunge pool or waterfall isn't enough for you, there's the option to take a dip in a hole cut in the ice in the Diable River. And how often do we get the chance to do that? We just had to give it a try. After all, it was by far the warmest day of our vacation (a balmy 25 degrees - that's Fahrenheit, my foreign friends).

Well, getting in is surprisingly easy. By the time I was up to my waist, though, my feet were telling me to get out. Very insistently. The bigger surprise was then the searing pain about ten seconds after getting out - there were about 30 seconds where I doubted I'd ever be able to stand again.

Yet I survived, and so did Sue. And then I had to do it again because Sue somehow didn't get a good photo of me in the water. And what's the point of doing it if there's no proof? People ask me how Sue can put up with all the photos I take - well, I'm willing to suffer for my photography habit, too!

There was no suffering the rest of the day; if we hadn't had to get back to our hotel to pick up Violet from daycare by 4:30, we could have stayed there warming and chilling (literally and figuratively) all afternoon into the evening. But not in the river again. We got our story and our photos and that's enough.

Violet Is One!

2009-03-09T02:53:11Z

Happy Birthday, Violet!

It's cliche to say "I can't believe my baby is one year old already!" so I won't. I don't actually feel that way. On the contrary, I'm amazed that she's *only* one - it feels like she's been around forever. Yet paradoxically I'm still surprised that we have a baby at all. Even after a year, it feels normal and not normal at the same time - like we're Violet's parents, but we don't feel like parents. You know what I mean? Other parents of one-year-olds might.

We didn't do anything spectacular for her birthday - my parents came up from Florida, my brother and his family came down from Westchester (twenty minutes away), and our neighbors came from next door. Some cake, some champagne, some presents, and boom - Violet is officially one.

She's pulling up and sitting down, doing some cruising, and loves climbing stairs (but can't come down - fortunately, she's usually good at knowing not to come down). She's not walking or talking yet, but it really seems that could happen any day now.

Last week she went to her first foreign country - we drove to Canada to go skiing at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. It was our first ski trip in two years, and our first with the baby. And it was fantastic. We picked Tremblant mostly because the daycare situation was ideal - our hotel was right at the lifts, and the resort's daycare center was right inside our hotel. Plus with the pedestrian village, it was easy to walk her around at night for dinner and some window shopping. She didn't mind the 5-degree weather at all. Without any wind, it wasn't as bad as it might sound.

Violet loved being in daycare. Perhaps too well - other babies were crying and clinging to their parents; Violet just zoomed right off in the morning with nary a glance back. I guess that's good. She probably picked up a few words of French there, too. Maybe. She didn't seem to understand "ne mange pas!" any more than she does "don't eat that!".

Sue was worried that a two-year hiatus would make her skiing pretty rusty, but we needn't have worried. We got right back into it, and didn't fall once. It hadn't snowed in a long time there, so the trails were quite icy and slick. Which we got used to. At least it's less tiring than pushing through snow (or slush, which was the conditions in the 65-degree weather when we were at Tremblant six years earlier).

It'll be two or three years before Violet is up on skis, so we have time to prepare - as much fun as it will be to ski with her, daycare has got to be easier...

(PS - photos of our ski vacation can be found here and photos of Violet's birthday and other March photos can be found here. As of now, I have tons more photos to upload to each set, so feel free to come back often in the next few weeks...)

50 Things

2009-02-09T19:29:59Z

I've been tagged so many times in that "25 Things About You" Facebook meme that I decided I'd put twice the effort into it. So here goes:

1) I don't remember what my earliest memory is.

2) I didn't get off the bus after my first day of kindergarten. I thought the bus driver would drop me off in front of my house. When I was the last kid left on the bus, he had to take me back to the corner where I was supposed to get off, and my mother was still patiently waiting for the bus to come back.

3) I don't think my mom was too worried; she saw me wave to her when I didn't get off the bus the first time.

4) I moved halfway through kindergarten. At my new school, I spent half of my time in a first-grade classroom. When I started first grade, I spent half the day in a second-grade classroom for about a month. Then it was decided to just keep me in second-grade all day.

5) As a result, I graduated from high school before I could drive (3 days shy of my 17th birthday), and from college before I could buy alcohol (13 days shy of my 21st birthday).

6) Also as a result, I lucked out in fourth grade, when our tiny school became so crowded that it was decided that fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders would only go to school for four hours a day, in alternate shifts. That's when I became a "latchkey kid". I did fine; I still think that eight-year-olds are perfectly capable of being left home alone.

7) And while all my classmates are turning 40 this year, I'm not!

8) I wasn't one of the "popular" kids, but I wasn't unpopular, either. I think I was well-liked.

9) I never went through a "girls are icky" phase. I wasn't shy around girls, but I was painfully shy about asking them out. My list of unrequited crushes is painfully long. I went to every junior high school dance, and spent nearly every minute with my back against the wall mustering up the courage to ask some girl to dance, but only ever mustered up the courage once. I think I was too nervous to say anything to her while we danced, and after we danced, too.

10) As far back as I can remember, my younger brother has been as big or bigger than me. I got used to being mistaken for the younger brother myself, though I never much liked it. The only other person I know who had a bigger younger brother growing up is Chris on the T.V. show "Everybody Hates Chris". I feel for him.

11) I get along with my brother - and my parents and in-laws - just fine.

12) I wish my parents hadn't moved to Florida.

13) I like having a very small family. Less drama.

14) I hate bananas. The smell and the taste disgust me. It's probably the only "normal" food I can't abide. (Is Roquefort cheese a "normal" food? I can't abide that, either.)

15) I'm not a very picky eater otherwise. I feel sad for people who are picky eaters. There's too much good food out there that needs trying.

16) I was definitely not good in sports in school, but at various times I was on soccer, baseball, volleyball, and track teams. Track was my best sport; I managed to get a varsity letter in it. I probably could have been even better if I weren't so lazy (see #34 and #35).

17) I got back into running in my 30s. 4-mile to 10K are my favorite distances. I've done one half-marathon, and even though I had a decent time (1:40) and I felt good afterward, I don't quite feel the need to do a full marathon.

18) The only class I got an A+ in in college was Statistics. I don't think you need to know how many B-s and Cs I got.

19) I did get straight As in grad school. I understood the subjects better the second time around. Plus there were fewer distractions.

20) I met Sue in college; I knew pretty soon after meeting her that she was the one I was going to marry. It took a few months for me to convince her of that, though.

21) Sue and I did not live together before getting married. I think we're the only ones. We never even lived in the same state between my graduation from college and our wedding five years later.

22) I've never once tried an illegal drug. I once took a puff of a friend's (tobacco) cigarette as a lark. But I do like my alcohol.

23) I still haven't been to all 50 states. I'm missing Alaska, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and North Dakota.

24) I don't understand tattoos. Nor do I like them.

25) I'd go back to any part of my life and live it over again. There are some things I'd want to do differently, but it wouldn't be so bad if it were exactly the same.

26) Being a father is much easier than I expected it to be. Perhaps it's because we have a very easy baby. Perhaps that's because we're such good parents.

27) But as much as I love Violet, I don't regret not having a baby sooner.

28) I don't dislike cats and dogs, but I don't want any in my house. If Violet ever wants a pet - or a tattoo - then too bad for her.

29) I wish I were better at foreign languages. I'd love to be fluent in Spanish and French, but that's not going to happen unless I live in a Spanish-speaking or French-speaking city for a year.

30) I don't expect to ever live anywhere but New York, though.

31) If I were to move from New York, I'd miss my friends. But we could still keep in touch on Facebook. What I'd really miss is all the amazing food. You can't Facebook a saag gosht.

32) There are far too many places in the world I haven't been, but so far I'd say the most beautiful city in the world is Venice; my favorite building is the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone Park; the most breathtaking scenery I've seen is driving north from Jackson Hole, Wyoming into the Grand Tetons; and the best wildlife experience is watching the penguins come home for the night in Wilson's Prom, Australia.

33) I'm a big Peanuts fan. I'm thrilled that they're reprinting every single comic in 25 nice hardcover volumes. I'm going to buy them all in English and in French. And in Spanish, too, if it ever comes out in Spanish.

34) I took piano lessons from when I was 6 to when I was about 13. Then I played piano (and saxophone) for our high school's jazz band. You'd think I'd be better at playing the piano than I am, but I'm too lazy to practice hard enough.

35) I've always been kind of lazy and kind of a procrastinator. It's taken me weeks to get around to making this list.

36) I'm not great at remembering names and faces, probably because I have way too much of my brain given over to remembering song lyrics.

37) My favorite ice cream - the perfect ice cream - is Breyer's vanilla.

38) I'm glad I've taken so many photos over the years; there's so much I would have forgotten if I hadn't. Sometimes I wish I had taken even more photos. I'm making up for lost time now.

39) I like when people leave comments on my photos up on Flickr. Hint, hint.

40) I'd like to write a book someday, but so does everyone.

41) Everyone also wants to be in a rock band, too. I was in one. We played at friends' houses, and a bar once, but it was too hard to keep it up while we all went off to college.

42) Sadly, my chosen career has far fewer groupies. But I love that I can work from home.

43) I am a terrible drawer (as in someone who draws, not as in something that holds silverware. I guess I'm okay at holding silverware.)

44) I am an inveterate pack-rat. I save way too many things that probably don't need saving.

45) I think I'm an okay singer, but I could be wrong. I know I'm not the next American Idol.

46) I don't like my speaking voice. I cringe when I hear recordings of it.

47) I know I've been very fortunate in life. I also believe that one does make one's own luck, or at least a good part of it.

48) I grew up near the beach and I love the beach to this day. I'd go every summer weekend if I could.

49) And I'd go skiing every winter weekend if I could. I learned to ski while I was in grad school, and I immediately regretted not learning when I was younger. That will be one of the things I'd change when I go back and live my life again.

50) I'd also ask more girls to dance.

Wordle

2009-01-25T05:53:07Z

My Words

Okay, this is cool. Enter your LiveJournal URL (or any blog URL, or any text) into Wordle and it'll create a "word cloud". That is, an image of the most commonly used words, where the larger the font, the more often the word is used. The colors, fonts, and orientation are infinitely customizable, too.

I don't know how many entries it goes back, but I'm not surprised that my biggest word is "Violet".

Welcome To 2009

2009-01-08T22:43:55Z

Violet (Ten Months)

In the month since I last posted, we drove down to Florida for Christmas at my parents' house, and I went out for New Year's Eve while Sue stayed home sick with a bad cold. There were regular updates on Facebook and Flickr and Geni and my other blog. Some work, some sleep, a bunch of nights of LittleBigPlanet on our new PlayStation 3, and there, you're all caught up with my life.

Now to catch you all up on Violet's life: she's ten months old today! Within the past week she's become able to stand holding on to things (though she won't pull up - we have to put her there), and two days ago she got from her stomach to her hands and knees for the first time, and then to a sitting up position all by herself for the first time. She still won't crawl, though - she prefers to get around by rolling, which greatly amused all the other moms at a playgroup that day. From one end of the room to the other, as long as the path is clear. I have to admit it is kind of funny to watch, yet it seems rather normal to us. You mean to tell me that all babies don't go through a rolling phase?

She's still a very good eater, she's beginning to take some sips from a cup (but useless at a sippy cup), and she has no stranger anxiety whatsoever. When in a restaurant, it's hard to get her to eat because she's too busy smiling at the waitresses, who more often than not positively moon over her. Her sleep schedule is two or three naps a day, in bed between 10 and 11pm, then up between 8 and 9am. Maybe once or twice a week she'll get up crying around 6ish; fortunately putting a pacifier in her mouth puts her back to sleep instantly. Even more fortunately, she slept in until 10am both days this past weekend.

I've had dozens of people tell me she should be a baby model, though it's hard to brag because it's impossible to tell who's being sincere and who's merely being polite. I should carry around a polygraph....

Magic Kingdom

2008-12-05T20:35:28Z

Magic Kingdom

We've been to Magic Kingdom a bunch of times before, but we never noticed before that most of the rides are designed so that a baby can easily be brought on. Without a baby, I guess you don't pay much attention. But when you're traveling with a baby, and you see all the other babies on line, it becomes obvious. It was a pleasant surprise.

So Violet's first theme park ride was Snow White's Scary Adventures (which aren't that scary), and she seemed to like it enough. Ditto for Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, It's A Small World, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (which is a laser target-shooting ride where she could play with the lever that spun the car around, thus ruining daddy's aim). She sat patiently through the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor and Mickey's PhilharMagic. But I think her favorite ride (judging by her bouncing and laughing) was being pushed around the park in her stroller.

She didn't even mind the lines, of which there were plenty, it being the day before Thanksgiving. We spent over 12 hours at the park and didn't get to do everything, but at least it was a gorgeous day, and Violet behaved perfectly throughout. Sue's parents live half an hour away, so there's no question we'll be back to do what she missed the first time.

The rest of the week we pretty much did nothing except eat turkey, play bridge, and drink lots of wine. Which was fine by me.

Also, Violet was a perfect doll on the plane, so we were worrying about nothing. Though airport security was still a pain in the ass. They made us take Violet's shoes off. But then didn't blink at the 8oz bottles of formula we brought through. I don't understand them at all.

(PS - Here are photos of our day at Magic Kingdom if you want to see...)

On A Plane

2008-11-25T19:01:26Z

Portable Violet

This evening we're going to be at Sue's parents' house in Orlando. Which means in a few hours we're going to be taking Violet on her first airplane trip. We've gotten all the advice we can, now all that's left is for you to wish us luck...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Grandpa

2008-11-24T04:48:31Z

I'm almost two-and-a-half,
my grandfather is almost 51-and-a-half.

My grandfather died 25 years ago this week. I was 13, he was 62. So I definitely remember him; sadly my memories of his poor health for the last two or so years of his life crowd out everything else. He had a stroke, lost a leg to a blood clot, was able to mostly live at home, but was in and out of hospitals until he passed away.

He and my grandmother (who died five years later) smoked a lot, which is oddly comforting, as in my mind it fully explains why they died so young. I need that, because my dad is turning 60 in a few weeks. He doesn't smoke and thankfully he seems to be in good health. I can no more imagine him sick and wheelchair-bound than I can imagine him sprouting wings and flying to the moon.

Yet I don't dare ask about how my grandfather seemed when he turned 60; I don't think I want to know.

I'll be seeing my parents tomorrow, and I'm thankful for that.

Eight Months

2008-11-08T21:05:48Z

Pouty Tiger

Violet is eight months old today! She's sitting up quite well (if we place her that way), but isn't even close to standing, and while she can roll from her back to her front pretty easily, she seems to have forgotten how to roll back to her front. So after a few minutes on her front she'll complain until we rescue her.

She definitely recognizes her pacifier and her bottle and knows what to do with them - she'll hold the bottle herself with no problem (though if she's sitting up, she'll only suck air), and she can find her pacifier if it's anywhere within reach and put it in her mouth the right way. She happily eats from a spoon (though a bottle is still much easier for us) and can feed herself a cracker. She was never much of a spit-upper, but now it happens almost never. And she's just barely getting her first tooth (finally) - a bottom incisor that we can't yet see, but we can feel.

We're really happy that she's quite consistent at sleeping 10 hours a night. Sometimes nine, sometimes 11. Usually from about 10pm to about 8am - it's a wonderful schedule.

(PS - Sorry this isn't the most interesting post for you all to read; this one's mostly for me to look back on to remember what she was doing when.)

(PPS - she's nine days shy of eight months in the photo, but I love this photo!)

Election Results

2008-11-03T23:59:53Z

Ooh, scary...

Violet won her first election! "Scariest Costume" at the baby Halloween party we went to this past Saturday. Well, she did run essentially unopposed in the category - most of the thirty or so other babies were ladybugs and turtles and ducks and flowers and adorable things like that. Here we thought we were being lame in just buying a skeleton sweatsuit for lack of energy to think of anything better, yet it turns out it's quite the unique idea, especially for an eight-month-old girl. I probably should have guessed that.

Cute Halloween photos here!

Princeton-Harvard Game

2008-10-30T21:24:49Z

East Pyne

Well, Violet didn't go to her first football game after all - the weather was too wet and windy to be stuck sitting in the stadium all day (watching our team lose, as it would turn out), so Sue and I and two intrepid friends decided to skip the game and wander around campus instead.

Our first stop after brunch was the check out the tailgates, which surprisingly, none of us had been to before. As undergrads, we were always marching around with the band before football games. And as alumni, we'd be having brunch at our eating clubs before the games. But apparently people do tailgate, even on miserable rainy days. Who knew? One family even had erected a massive tent the size of a small wedding reception, stocked with wine and food and blaring 80s music to compete with the 311-sounding band across the field.

The game had already started when we left to go check out the new Frank Gehry-designed Lewis Library, which none of us were particularly big fans of. But it's miles better than the new Butler College, which somehow manages to be uglier than the hugely-unloved buildings it replaced. Couldn't Meg Whitman or someone have donated another $25 million for something better?

Fortunately, the ice cream at Halo Pub was still satisfying, as was the spread at Cloister Inn for dinner. And Violet was a perfect doll all day; she didn't even complain when I spilled red wine on her at Cloister. Nor did she complain when we were stuck in horrendous traffic on the way back home, but she didn't need to - I was complaining for all of us.

(Full set of pictures from the day here.)

The Portable Baby

2008-10-22T16:21:08Z

Wine Tasting

Violet is easy to take places - she's done remarkably well in restaurants and cars and parties and caves and zoos and weddings and amusement parks. At the wineries this past weekend she was a big hit; everyone loved her. Now we're hoping our luck holds as we take her to watch Princeton beat Harvard this weekend - it'll be her first sporting event, and probably the first time we have her out in chilly weather for a good length of time. We're apprehensive about her first plane ride (to Orlando for Thanksgiving) - she's become very restless in our laps and it's been months since she's fallen asleep in our arms. Perhaps we're not as comfortable as her bouncy chair or the floor. And we still plan on taking her skiing this winter - she won't be skiing of course, so it'll be her first time in some sort of day-care arrangement. So far she likes strangers, but who knows what she'll be thinking in two or three months?