Fascinating post on why progressives lose elections. This reminds me a bit too much of my own experience in sales. I used to believe that people bought based on facts, hard experience has taught me otherwise.

Sure, sure one isn't supposed to talk about such things but hey - I just saw Robert Redford by my dentist's office! I can add that to my sightings list which includes

• Anthony Edwards - airline club/LAX
• Al Pacino - Toys R Us
• Jon Voight - LAX
• Pierce Brosnan - LAX
• Dick Van Dyke - Best Buy
• Ahnuld - several times in/around Santa Monica
• Slash - bicycle shop
• Lyle Lovett - motorcyle dealership (he later purchased it)
• Scott Bakula - LAX
• Dennis Hopper - art gallery

and probably some others that have slipped my mind. No biggie overall, but still - Robert Redford!

Interesting piece on L.A. schools (and attitudes towards low income students generally)

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh030106.shtml

If liberals care about public schools, and about low income people in general, why are schools in a liberal Democratic stronghold so darn bad? I don't have the answers, but the article raises some great points.

Many affluent liberals in the L.A. area shell out approximately 20k/year for private school - why not spend the same time/attention on our local district?

A note to some less experienced employees:

Yes you are smart, and yes, you are knowledgeable. But you don't know everything, or even everything about the things you think you are expert in. Before opening your mouth and inserting feet, you might pause to consider that maybe, just maybe, someone else knows how to do their own job, and suggesting otherwise is not endearing.

Just a tip.

Right now, I'm reading the Cryptonomicon, an interesting book all the cool kids were reading a few years ago. It's the best story about cryptography, warfare and cross generational treasure hunting I've ever read. The sad part is everyone else has moved on.

Ditto for Freakonomics, Blink, and just about everything else I've read recently. I used to stay quite current with books, but now not so much. I'm sure part of it has to do with being the father of a 2 year old, but it also has to do with the way I get books these days. As I learn about a book that sounds interesting, I add it to my Amazon wish list. Then once a year for Christmas, I send a list of those books around, and I hope I get some. So in general, I don't even bring a book in my house until many months after it has been published, and I usually don't read it until many months after that (in my annual pre Christmas book reading/shelf clearing frenzy).

I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to break this cycle, but I am going to give it some thought.

MAC 3 Stroller - Avoid if you can

My wife and I bought one of these about 18 months ago, and at first we loved it. It was easier to handle than a "real" jog stroller, looked nice, and was easy to fold. Unfortunately, as the review notes, the design/build quality leaves something to be desired. Screws have fallen out (no locknuts or similar fasteners), we've had several flat tires, and the thing almost never tracks straight.

The official Maclaren site doesn't even list the stroller anymore, which is probably for the best.

Whew, big Day for Max today.

1. Playdate at the park - swings, trucks, swings, sand, swings and more swings. Yes, he does like swinging. If you take him out too quickly he yells, points at the swing and arches strongly in its direction.
2. We went to the public library! No books for Max though, he likes to eat them as much as look at them right now, and I think the librarians would frown on that.
3. First time we played with crayons. In this case play = eat, but only after trying to scribble a little bit. It was rather amazing how quickly he got the crayon in his mouth. Mmm, crayon.
4. First time we ordered Max his own dinner at a restaurant. True, it was a horrible little cheese pizza, but that didn't seem to bother him any.
5. We watched planes take off and land at the Santa Monica airport. The highlight had to be watching two Great Lakes biplanes take off one after the other - one of the passengers even gave us a wave!

Hey blog, long time no see.

So much to say, and apparently little inclination to say it.

1. The Boy is great. He's so happy and gregarious I'd question his parentage (If I didn't know better) He's just started to move, sort of an infantryman crawl where he drags himself along by his arms. When he tries to crawl, he just pushes himself backwards - I'm sure he'll get his limbs synchronized soon, then look out.
2. The company is good. We're making money on a consistent basis, and growing at a decent clip. Now we're having trouble finding good people...
3. Life in general is good. Wife is healthy and happy, as am I. We're a bit boring, but really, that's not news eh?

Not much in the way of cuisine hunting lately, guess I'd better get moving. I'm having Moroccan this weekend though, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

9 lbs. 6 oz! Delivered by C Section. More details later.

Still blogging from hospital.

Wow, way way better nurse after the shift change, she is a real pro. Not too talkative, but at least she's doing her job well, to our untrained eyes at least.

No significant change recently, we are at 6cm, but are due to be examined soon. We'll cross our fingers.

Dandy.

She hasn't been turned in two hours, I got the wrong meal, her IV bag ran dry, and worst of all the doctor is over an hour late.

I can't wait to get the comment card.

Second breakfast was about as bad as it looked, lunch looked and tasted slightly better. Not going to be any culinary highlights during this hospital stay.

At about 11 a.m., her pain got so intense we had the doctors put the epidural in. Our was administered by a Russian doctor who seemed extremely competent, but was almost unintelligble. It was rather hard to understand his jokes and small talk as he took a rapid fire medical history and performed the procedure.

The procedure itself was rather exciting, mostly due to her IV tube becoming clogged. This meant a new line had to be inserted, which would ordinarily be no problem. Unfortuately, while our nurse should have done this before the doctor started he didn't. To make matters worse, last night's nurse had secured everything too, well - securely. I had to jump in and help the nurse while he tried to make the new connection and move the tubes. I was removing tape, unscrewing stuff (I have no idea what it was), applying pressure here etc. I think the highlight of the event was when I got bled on. I felt like a real pro.

She is trying to sleep now, but it is difficult under the circumstances, and she's not the best sleeper anyhow. I caught another hour's worth after lunch, but she's just been resting. She's hooked up to a blood pressure cuff, and a pulse monitor on her finger. She finds the pressure from both a bit annoying, and particularly dislikes the cuff inflating itself every so often to take her blood pressure. Completely understandable.

She was on oxygen for a bit, but we're not completely sure why. The doctors and nurses seem to tell us less and less as we get farther into this, and I'm not sure how big a stink to make about it. I awoke from my nap to find the doctor and nurse discussing something, and next thing you know - O2 mask. We feel like we are headed for a C section - which we were trying to avoid.

More later - I have to go make her feel a bit more comfortable.

Her water just broke! I wont go into any detailed discussion about it. If you are curious, I'd try Google.

Surprise, they just brought me what Hobbits might call "second breakfast". Looks slightly gruesome, but i'll eat some anyhow I'm sure.

Bleh, that was just fuel, but the price was right - 1.73.

She's not feeling so great, still a bit hungover from the morphine, and her left side is sore from sleeping on it last night. Turning over to the other side is a bigger ordeal than you might think, but she managed. Started the second, more potent drug to induce about 20 minutes ago. This also means no more eating or drinking for her until after delivery. The drug is administered via IV and has Dextrose in it for some nourishment. Luckily she got down a Luna bar this morning, but no coffee. I imagine the caffeine headache that's looming will be basically unnoticed in the coming excitement.

Been awake for about an hour now, she's been up for 30 minutes or so and feeling woozy from the morphine. She isn't crazy about the after effects of the morphine, but I doubt she'd have slept so well without it. As it is, she probaby got 4 solid hours, and 2 fitful. I'm at about 5, which should be plenty.

The nurse just recommended the breakfast burritos downstairs - I'm on my way.

Just had a visit from the nurse. She "repositioned" the Cervidil, looked painful. She was also kind enough to remove the monitors for a while, though they'll have to be reattached later. Some good news, the baby's head is on top of the cervix, and the cervix is feeling thin.

Think we're going to try and get some sleep soon.

Just saw J & J from our childbirth class and they looked exhausted, she just delivered next door. Oddly enough, we watched her contractions and her baby's heartbeat on the monitor in our room. Small world.

My wife is holding up well, and truth be told, has for almost the whole preganacy. Every so often now, she stops talking and gets a look of pain or concentration or something else entirely. After a bit it passes, and she's back to normal. She's definitely planning on pain medication during labor, so hopefully none of this process will be *too* painful. Easy for me to be somewhat detached from the contractions - I'm not having them.

Among the many supplies in the room are something called "chux". Anyone have any idea what those are? It just wouldn't be any fun asking the nurse.

Just finished dinner from Izzy's deli on Wilshire. Her - 1/2 Turkey Salad Sandwich, cup of matzoh ball soup (plus fruit salad and green salad not touched). Him - Tuna melt with cheddar, fries, bit of slaw (also not touched). The spawn is so big that he's mushed up her stomach to point that she just can't eat too much. She just told me she's topped off, sounds like a car.

Just had a nursing shift change. From a good nurse to a great nurse, things are lookin up. :)