J C G

Here he is. I only took one photo so that is the one you get. He looks more like a little man than a baby. Blond hair, blond eyelashes, blond eyebrows, blue eyes - a true Svz baby. He still looks like papa J though.

J is doing surprisingly well for having a child cut out of her abdomen yesterday. She was up walking today. Though last night she did threatened to kick my mother and I out because we were making her laugh to much and that hurts. If so we will bring her pain all week. They are keeping her at the hospital until at least Friday but more likely Saturday.

lil'J is very cute, his head is not deformed at all since she didn't squeeze him out - which made him incredibly pleasant right away. My mom took a million pictures and if she ever gives them to me I will post more.

How to spend a vacation…

1. Do nothing, even when homework is piling up and your thesis is looming large. This marks my third and final week of vacation. My boss was continually forgetting I am going to be gone. Last week she was shocked when I told her I would be out this week. It has only been planned since August so how was she to know? I fully intended to be productive and Sat I got as far as cleaning my room and doing some reading. Eventually I just gave in to nothing.

2. Visit your sister - she is having her first child. My mom wanted to wait until Wednesday but there was no way I was going to get research done at the library and help out after driving all day Wednesday and being there Thurs and Fri with Dad, C and G arriving for the weekend. Mom was persuaded - Tuesday would be the day. Me being me, flying somewhere every month this year, I decided that driving to Utah just was not going to cut it. So I booked one-way flights to Salt Lake and a rental car.

Insert stories about K and Salt Lake car rental companies. In Feb when I flew out to “do research for my thesis” I booked the cheapest rental rate and got a 2008 Ford Mustang. In June when I flew out to help J move I booked the cheapest rate and got a Jeep Grand Cherokee (which was helpful as J and I did a bit of shopping for the apartment). The rental for this upcoming trip will be a surprise - even I was totally blown away with the rate - $8.74/day that is $35 for four days, that is nuts and I didn’t even go with the economy rate. So while I indented to do nothing the week will be full. The drive back to California on Sunday sure will be interesting and a fitting end to a vacation.

3. Become so exhausted you will need a vacation after your vacation. Sadly no such follow-up vacation will occur. On Saturday 20 lawyers from Brazil landed in Sacramento and will be in Davis for two weeks. I will miss the first hectic week. Along with a reception the Dean of the Law School is putting on for our LL.M. students. The problem is that though the Dean hosts the reception all he does is show up, I ordered the food, planned everything, and then left it for my assistant and another colleague to put on. Am I nervous – I will worry about it when I get back and if nothing goes wrong I won’t worry at all.

Hopefully the nephew arrives tomorrow!

Birthdays

B turned 21 on the 11th and J will soon be having the actual birth day of the newest addition to the fam. Thus I have been reflecting on birthdays. I fondly recall my 21st birthday and the rousing
Happy Birthday song sung in Chinese. I can still sing it today, to the delight of my Chinese speaking students, friends, and once a visiting VIP from China who had come to meet with the UCD Chancellor. The most recent use (actually it is not the most recent use because I recall singing it for L and B while in Atlanta) was this summer at a party given for the international students I work with by a German woman who's husband used to be a professor at the law school.

At this party a group of Brazilian students and a group of Mexican/Chilean/Venezuelan students decided to have a sing off. They gathered everyone and each group had to sing a song in their language. Being completely outnumbered us Americans were probably the worst performers - actually we let our boss sing by himself. After several rounds a Turkish student tried to get Jia Yin, a timid student from Bejing, to sing in Chinese - she protested. Coming to her aid I rounded up two Taiwanese attorneys and another mainlander -we sang a rousing round of 'happy birthday to you'. I was quite please upon realizing we were singing what was probably the only song that would be unquestionably recognized -we finished to thunderous applause.

Want to know how to make a birthday memorable - sing in Chinese!

Big Brother

Last week I began participation in a pilot program for AAA. I am thrilled about $100 in gas cards and %5 off next year’s insurance charges and the other fun stuff to come my way. I don’t even mind the round black GPS container affixed to my dash. I am, however, a little concerned that ever movement of my car is being monitored. Granted there are numerous benefits:

1. there is a button and speaker in my car so that AAA is just a push away
2. with the GPS they will know exactly where to send the service truck (let’s hope I never have cause to use this feature)
3. I can login to the web site and see the exact route my car traveled that day, how long the trip was and at what speed I was traveling
4. I can set up alerts so that I receive a text message or email every time I reach or surpass a certain speed (this feature will not be activated)
5. I can receive a text or email every time my car goes outside a preselected area (a Geofence)
6. I can also view my speeding history to see if at any time I have exceeded the maximum speed limit I selected
7. At any time I can login and see where my vehicle is located

Now all of these features would be fascinating if I was stalking myself, there are in fact many scenarios where some or all of this information could be very helpful. But I can’t help wondering where all this information is going to go. Do I really want to receive 50 text messages every time I get on the freeway and exceed my selected speed limit? If I set the limit at 90 will that be a red flag for the pilot observers? All I can say is that I am glad that as a 16 year old my parents did not put one of these into their cars-although looking back it may not have been a bad thing. In fact during the 90 minutes I waited for the thing to be installed almost every other participant mentioned how great this will be for keeping an eye on their kids. My issue with this is –are they going to hold themselves the same standards (especially as regarding speed) as they hold their children. One can hope.

Quote from the memo: “…we believe this technology has huge potential as a safety device….[you] can view driving reports that can help [you] improve [your] driving behavior. But a lot of what we’ll use this for is still to be determined….”

The Wonderful World of Disney

Last weekend I was able to spend three and a half lovely days at Disneyland. It is the first non-work related travel I have done in a while. It was lovely, though incredibly hot. I checked the forecast everyday for four days before departure and it was way off. The trip was full of adventures and unexpected surprises – like a 50 minute massage at the Grand Californian Hotel. My parents were in Anaheim for some of the weekend, on a totally unrelated trip, we got to do quite a bit together. My dad was brave enough to spend almost all of Saturday with C and I. Another fantastic feature of their being there was that they drove down, so even though we flew they we still kind enough to drive us to Walmart on the first night of our visit for a quick purchase. The best part was I did not receive a single phone call from the office nor did I check my email during the trip. Fantastic!