Ruby Goes to Work
Ruby is joining me today at work. She’s been going through a tough transition of some sort, and having a really hard time with my leaving (both for work, and for play). I thought if she could see what my average day is like, she might have an easier time of it.
So we packed up her coloring, and her worksheets, snacks, books, and a puzzle, crossed our fingers, and headed out the door. The morning went alright. Ruby helped me make some helpdesk visits, and I worked at my desk while she did coloring, painting, and play. There were quite a few questions, but I was more productive than I had expected to be.
At 11 we had to make the popcorn, that was a welcome distraction for both of us, then at noon we ate our lunch. I had never eaten a regular lunch in the Cafe before, it was quite nice. Ruby was pretty quiet for the eating part.
When we got back to my office after lunch, she was all wound up, and not at all cooperative. It was such a dramatic shift from the morning. I was on the phone trying to help someone, and she was singing “I’m going to shake, shake, shake, my wiggles out …” at full volume. When I got off the phone I tried to tell her that that wasn’t okay at my work, but she wasn’t listening. I reached out for her arm to try to get her attention, and she let out a blood curdling scream. Luckily my door was closed.
I told her that I thought it was time to go home now, and she quickly offered an alternative, “I’ll take a nap”. I figured it was worth a try. So now she’s sleeping peacefully on the floor, on a piece of packing foam, with her head on the teddy bear.
Pictures to follow.
Birthday Quotes
Dad: “Ruby, its your birthday, do you feel any different?”, Ruby: “Yes, I checked my feet and they got bigger”
“I’m going to get a HUUUUGE piece of cake ‘cuz its MY birthday, and I’m so excited about it”
“I’m 4 right?’, “Yup” says I, “and then I’ll be 5”, “mmm hmm”, “and then six?” “yes” ”.. and then I’ll be seven right?” “that’s right”, “and then… I’ll be a momma” “good grief”
Ruby Turns 4
Today is Ruby’s Birthday. I am taking the day off and joining her on her Tiny Treks, then we’re all going down to Santa Cruz to the boardwalk for some rides and possibly something sweet. Then back home for dinner and a cake.
Ruby has requested that her cake have chocolate and flour, and sugar, and “some other things”, and real flowers on top. Of course, she will be obliged.
For my part, I made her a collage.
Happy Birthday Ruby!
Ruby Gets a Haircut
Ruby joined me last night for a trip to “The Haircuts”. She was so excited, the whole way up she wondered who would go first, and whether she would get a very short haircut (‘like mamas’). This is the result.
Ruby Protects the Animals
This is an interview that I conducted with Miss Ruby Bradford while she was waiting for her mother to finish fabric shopping. Ruby started expressing her views on wildlife conservation, specifically her desire to safeguard the welfare of the spider monkeys and the pumas.
Unfortunately the genesis was not preserved, but the subsequent conversation paints a fairly complete picture of Miss Bradford’s current leanings on this topic.
The Rose Parade
Tonight was the Rose Parade in Portland. This is a huge parade (which is currently going on outside my window (at 10:10pm). We grabbed dinner at the Deschuetes Pub, and then headed over to S.W Park to catch the warm up of the parade. As the even got underway, we realized that we were about a block too far West, and decided to migrate East a bit so that we wouldn’t miss all the marching bands. The marching bands were especially important because just yesterday Ruby was telling us that she wanted one… at her birthday party. Staying up until 10pm and watching them out on the street seemed to be an acceptable consolation for her (thank goodness). Unfortunately, Miles doesn’t deal well with over stimulation and sleep deprivation, so its looking like another long bedtime for him and Vick.
Good Ride, at Great Cost
I had a good ride today. Tom P. (my boss), and Adrian B (new SETI PI) started out the ride with me from HP in Palo Alto. We made good (but not good enough) time over to Woodside where we met up with Carl P (who graciously waited 30 minutes for us to arrive). We rode Canada road to Skyline, and up Polhemus. Adrian left us at the bottom of the Polhemus loop, and Carl left 8 miles later at Woodside. Tom and I raced back to the cars at HP in what seemed like record time. Now that I’ve done the whole course, I feel quite a bit more comfortable with the upcoming ride. Here are the stats:
- Distance 43.29
- Time 3:35:31
- Avg Speed 12:05
- Max Speed 38.21
- Trip Climb 2,299’
Now for the cost. As I mentioned in the last article, Ruby was not pleased with my night on the town. She was also quite upset about my going on a ride, and wasn’t shy about showing her displeasure in the most creative ways. At Woodside, I called Vick to check in, and things were distinctly not okay. I didn’t really have space to talk, and she didn’t have time, so I pedaled onward, hoping for the best. At the half way point I called again and Vick was in tears. Apparently Ruby had been acting out in every demonic way possible, at one point intentionally smashing her brothers fingers in our bathroom trashcan.
When I finally arrived home, Ruby was peacefully drawing on the workroom floor, and Vick was standing on the other side of the sliding glass door. Apparently, when Ruby heard I was coming home, everything was fine. We had a very calm and loving talk about how her choices impacted our family, and then headed out to Whole Foods to pickup lunch and dinner.
By the time I arrived at Whole Foods, both kids were sleeping. I loaded Miles up on my back (still sleeping) and got Ru into a conveniently discarded cart, and did the shopping. Miles transfered back into the carseat (still sleeping, a small miracle) and then back onto my back at home (still sleeping, a large miracle).
Ruby was back to herself, though quite tired, and fell asleep by 7:30. Unfortunately, our day was not over then. Miles pretty much refused to sleep until 10:30, and Ruby woke twice with night terrors.
Thankfully by 10:45 all of us were in bed and sleeping. I don’t believe that I’ve ever been so glad to have a day behind me. Today is a new day, and we are all looking forward to some family time.
Fire on the Mountain
We woke up to the smell of wood smoke this morning. A wild fire has been raging in the Santa Cruz mountains (where my weekend ride ends). So far its burned over 3000 acres. The ride in to work this morning was a little less pleasant than usual. The thin veil of smoke achieved maximum effect on my lungs as I huffed my way up the hills. I’m not sure if this is going to cause me to cancel my ride this weekend or not.
As soon as we told Ruby what it was, she started singing the Banana Slug’s Fire song. I’m always impressed with how quickly she relates things.
Crazy Day, Great Ride, Tired Dad
I had intended to wake up with the cows this morning and get in a good long ride before the sun started to heat our little green ball up. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans for me. As soon as I fired up my e-mail I noticed something distinctly wrong. The mail server was down. Way down, no ssh, no ping, no traffic through the firewall to it. DOWN.
Normally a server down doesn’t seem so scary, but this thing is built like a tank with more redundancy and power than 10 mail servers would need. So for it to be down, I thought, something really serious must have happened.
Still dead set on getting my ride in, I geared up and headed over to SETI to set things straight. I expected to be about five minutes. When I arrived I discovered that an HVAC failure had brought the ambient temperature up to 102, and the mail server, smart fella that he is, decided to call it quits rather than burn up. I’m actually quite glad that it made that call, because ordering new hardware would have taken quite a bit longer. 5 hrs later I was on the road again.
So now its noon, and I’m thinking “Not too late to ride, I’ll just get on my…” whoosh, I get hit with a wall of heat as I leave the building. “… on second thought…” I called Vick to rendezvous for lunch (I still hadn’t eaten breakfast), she and the Logan contingent were downtown, just finishing up the street fair, and were about to head out for bagels. After lunch we headed home to wait out the heat (which I should mention was quite a bit cooler than the last few days, at 86). At 4 I put Ruby down for a nap, and spotting my window, hopped on the bike and headed out. I had intended to ride all the way to the beginning of the Tour de Cure course, then ride the course, then ride home. That would have been ~60 miles, and seemed like a great idea at the time.
The ride was a scorcher, and fast, and I made some poor pacing choices. This lead to my sputtering out at mile 30. Not feeling too bad about my progress, I gave Vick a call and had her bring the kids out for a hike.
An hour or so later they showed up, and we had a nice hour long hike by the reservoir. Pooped, and happy we all loaded into the car and headed home. Miles and Ru are soundly sleeping, no doubt dreaming of their action packed weekend, Vick is on her way in, and I’m just about to make one last check on the server before turning in myself.