I don’t drive much and I like palindromes.  After 5 years my car just hit 22,222 miles. Hurray!

Cirque du Soleil is in town with their show Kooza.  It’s just amazing. Here’s a picture of their giant circus tent.  As the show was starting I realized that Harrison Ford was sitting about 50 feet in front of us.  He narrowly avoided a serious accosting.  He should consider himself lucky that his seat was in the middle of the row, denying me easy access to harass him and run away.

Madi has started smiling.  It’s a good thing as it helps to counterbalance her almost superhuman ability to vomit.

Disneyland is a pretty accurate reflection of the American population at large.  They appear to have a poor handle on the effectiveness of camouflage.

“Don’t worry, I’m a ninja.” You bet you are, buddy.

Ben got invited to ride in the cockpit of the Disneyland monorail.  Having kids gets you into all sorts of exciting places.

This is basically the universal view as a parent.

I sure hope this guy is a podiatrist.

It’s exhausting being 2.

Here’s a merekat.

You are now caught up.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fT3PPp0pWs

Stuffed animals are pretty popular these days.  He really likes his kitty.

I need to remember to not keep the stickers where they are reachable by people under 4′ tall.

I actually like ice cream sandwiches this much too.
\

I used to wear a cape full time.  Now I only wear it on holidays.

The playground is really really really fun.

The look that says “Hey, I’m preppy, prepared for rain, and pantsless.”

Stickers are a great accessory when you have footie jammies.

I’m Superman!

I’m Superman without pants!

Anyway, for those of you that didn’t get dragged over to our house for Christmas, here’s a recap.  Check out all of the pics here.

Ben had a good time getting his presents.  The Hundley was pretty popular.

Opening presents is fun, but not really as interesting as a bagel.

This is Kim’s sister Leigh and her boyfriend Mark.  He got roped into Christmas.  In the second photo you can see the exact moment when we realizes that he isn’t going anywhere for a while.

Ben likes a lot of things, but nothing quite so much as chocolate chip cookies and electronics.  I totally understand his point of view (we generally agree on most things although I think his view on a return to the gold standard are completely misinformed).  

Merry Christmas, everybody!

I have the same sensation thinking about how long I’ve been married.  Kim and I got married 9 1/2 years ago.  I pretty well remember that as a fairly recent event that certainly doesn’t seem like it was almost a decade ago.  At the same time, I can’t really think of what it was like before we got married.

It’s all very confusing.  This must be the downhill slide that happens after 30.

Any way, here’s a picture of Ben at a couple months and one at two years.

We had a field trip- The product team headed out last week to Magic Mountain for some bbq and team building exercises.

Clearly an awesome venue with high quality, professional staff

Andrus called it. Wiley and Max are Doppelgangers.  I suspect Max is the evil one.

The guy in the Hawaiian shirt is Ken.  He’s the MC at Magic Mountain’s picnic area.  He’s had the gig for 14 years.  This is what wasting your life looks like.

Magic Mountain prohibits firearms, pepper spray, knives, and wagons.  Well done.

Ben came to the office- Ben had a field trip to the office on Friday.  Exciting activities included opening doors, closing doors, running, screaming, and saying hello.  He also met Tom (Ben previously assumed that Tom was made up).

Tesla is doomed- I imagine that it’s not ideal to launch an incredibly expensive electric sports car immediately after a market implosion.  Poor bastards.

Welcome to Neo-Tokyo- This building has been going up on my route to work for a while.  Something about the way it rises alone in a state of semi-completion along the Santa Monica corridor makes it feel like Tetsuo should come ripping by at any minute.  KANEDA!

Wiley had texted me for a pick up.  If you know Wiley, you’ll know how sick he’s been lately.  His yet undiagnosed illness is characterized by cycles of uncontrollable vomiting that usually last 3-4 days and end with us taking a trip to the ER when the dehydration really sets in.  It is not cool. (Full details are available on his blog).

Anyway, I was prepped for some hard core puking while I drove since that’s how things go when I drive Wiley lately.  I loaded up Ben and headed out about about 5:30 AM across town to Silver Lake.  I figured I’d take the boy and let Kim sleep in.  That’s where things went horribly wrong.

About 5 minutes on the freeway, Ben pukes.  Everywhere. For a while.  There is no smell quite like semi-digested milk.  Being the good parent I am, I figured we probably had another round or two in our immediate future and continued on to Wiley’s apartment.  By the time we got there, he was covered.

When people talk about having kids, they always tell you how magical and fulfilling it is.  They’re lying to you. Or at least glossing over what it’s really like (I’m not sure if this behavior is some sort of instinctual drive to help perpetuate the species, or if all parents secretly hate/resent the childless).  I find that a lot of parenthood revolves around being wrist deep in things that are awful. And there’s screaming.  It’s good they’re cute or they’d be in serious trouble.

So I pulled up a Wiley’s and had him bring down paper towels.  Here’s where it got tricky.  Wiley is on a vomit bender and has a hair trigger when it comes to smells.  Ben is covered in baby puke which is like the atomic bomb of puke smell.  I had to quickly wipe down and strip the baby while and unsteady Wiley waited away from the car.  Did I mention that parenthood involves being wrist deep in schmutz?

The ride home was surprisingly uneventful.  Thankfully no one decided to grace the car with any more bile.  Now we’re all back at my house trying to keep it together.  Ben is watching Pooh playing with blocks after a bath.  Wiley is sacked out in our bed looking like hell.  I’m drinking copious amounts of coffee.   I’ll be shocked if there isn’t another hospital trip in our future.  Bah.