Great Sunday night dinner with the Millers. Dre made meatloaf, Josh made mac-n-cheese, and I made Manhattans. The great food and company softened the blow that they are leaving the city for bigger homes and warmer weather

Fun summer trip to Sonoma.  Most of you know that July in San Francisco is pretty foggy and cold so we snuck up to Sonoma for a couple of days to experience real summer.  On the way up, we stopped at Train Town which happened to be across the street from the resort where Dre and I got married.  From there it was off to the Sonoma Mission Inn for some R&R, pool time, and great food.  Was fun to see Jake start off very cautious and concerned with the pool situation but when he saw other kids playing (and they came up to play with him) he loved it.

Having an undergraduate degree in Economics allows me to claim expertise the same way a low handicap golfer can claim he is as good as the pros.  Regardless, I know enough about it to make marginally intelligent comments on how people who choose to view economics through the lens of biased political rhetoric always seem to get it wrong.  A common point is tickle down, supply side, or voodoo economics - they are all basically the same thing… give all the money to the top earners and they will buy lots of things, invest in companies, hire workers, etc which injects money back into the economy.

My company had an great quarter and we rewarded our owners with a generous shareholder distribution.  How did mine get spent?

• Taxes - 39%
• Personal savings - 21%
• Jake’s 529 (college) - 14%
• Pay down margin account (debt reduction) - 14%
• Actual spend on stuff for me and the family - 12%

Not much is “trickling down” from me into the economy and I bet I am the norm.

-sb

My grandfather, Marty Barrett Sr, passed away last week at just over 90 years and it has made me think about a number of things.  One item in particular that has stuck in my mind these past weeks as his health was clearly failing is his definition of patriotism and its application to my generation.  As a young man, he joined the Navy when his country called, learned how to fly, and was off to the Pacific on an aircraft carrier giving his life for his country.  Did he waver and say things like “I’m not sure I trust those guys in Washington or the Admiral of my ship to make the right calls with my investment (life) so I think I’ll sit at home and complain”.  No, he was willing to give his life for his country and luckily didn’t have to.  After the war he married, raised four kids, and got to see multiple great grandchildren.  Quite a life and one we should all asipre to

Fast forward to 2011 and what do we see?  A tiny fraction of the population willing to fight our wars and the rest of us at home bickering about…. well… everything.  Our country is in real financial distress but all we do is send spineless Democrats, arrogant Republicans, and clueless Tea-Party politicians to try to fix this (seriously… I wouldn’t let Sarah Palin be Jake’s nanny much less run our country).  I think its time to look in the mirror and ask what you are doing to help fix it.  The answer is simple and something every responsible adult knows - to fix our country’s balance sheet you need to cut spending AND raise revenue.   Going back to tax rates under Clinton AND to have social services reduced should be seen as patriotic.  You are helping the country through a tough time.  We have been at war for 10 years and yet we have been asked to sacrifice nothing (nor have we offered).  Bush cut our taxes and raised spending (arrogant) and Obama hasn’t done anything meaningful to fix it (spineless).

Next time some talking head on CNN says “no new taxes” or “no spending cuts” let’s question his or her patriotism and ask what they are doing to help our country as opposed to their own career. It must be awfully hard for our grandparents to see how we talk a big game of patriotism and pride in our country yet we do very little in the form of sacrifice to help it.

Happy 4th of July.  Thanks to Matt’s coordination, we hosted a little get together on Saturday and had a great time catching up with friends and their kids.  The Bains and Levys made it up from Palo Alto so we got to see Wills and Oliver as well as meet Lea (7 weeks old).  We were so lucky that the weather this weekend in the city has been amazing.  It could easily be in the high 50’s and foggy but we are seeing sunny and 70’s so the deck was a perfect venue (until it got too cold).  The hit of the party may have been Jeremy’s smoked brisket (which he got up at 3:30am to start prepping) and his amazing Carolina-themed, mustard-based BBQ sauce… so good when it hits your lips.

We all had so much fun that by 7pm, we were exhausted.  Pretty sure Dre and I crawled into bed before 9pm and were fast asleep soon after.  I think Alex captured it in his post last night

A truely excellent Father’s Day (weekend).  I did a terrible job snapping pictures to capture the good times but was able to get a quick one of Jake at the park yesterday.  Thanks to Andrea, Jake, and the good weather gods for a great weekend

• Fun with the Fausel’s on Friday evening here at our place
• Great steak dinner at home Saturday night
• Golf with Josh Miller on Sunday morning (shot a solid 1-under on the front and… ummm… played more like Tiger than Rory on the back)
• Some solid park time with Jake in the afternoon
• Finished it up with Andrea’s lasagna for dinner Sunday night

Was perfect!

A trip to the zoo with friends.  Most of us who live here in the city love holiday weekends because people leave SF in search of warm weather.  Knowing that there was pretty much no warm weather in all of Northern California, we chose to stay put and enjoy some time at home.  Although still a bit chilly, the bright sunshine on Sunday was enough to get us together with the Downses, Koidins, and Millers for a trip to the SF Zoo.  This was Jake’s second trip but really the first one where he could enjoy it - especially now that he can walk around.  It was great to see the kids hang out together now that they can all pretty much get around on their own.  Glad we got there around 11am because by the time we left before the afternoon naps, the line to get in was ridiculous (now we know)

Weekend with the Kuznickis and a fun Mother’s Day.

My friend Jon from UofM was in town this weekend with his fiancée Stephanie at the end of a week off cruising CA from San Diego up through Wine Country.  Was great to catch up, chat about the upcoming wedding, and let them get a glimpse into our lives with Jake (don’t think we scared them nearly enough).

On Sunday we had a few friends over for Mother’s Day to hang out and catch up.  The kids are growing up so fast, its amazing how much has changed over the past year when Jake was only a month old.

We spent this past weekend in NYC and had an amazing time. Not only was it (obviously) Jake’s first trip to the Big Apple but also Andrea’s so it was super fun to see it through her eyes.  Here’s the breakdown of the long weekend…

• Wednesday - fly all day but thankfully we got Jake his own seat or it would have really been miserable.  Thanks to all of those Boise trips, we stayed at the Hilton-owned Waldorf Astoria which lived up to all expectations.  Took us 45min to check in since Obama was there and security was a little tight.  Fun fact - the Waldorf is the only hotel in NYC where President’s stay since it is the only hotel with underground parking so getting into the car is secure.  The nice folks at Reception gave a a beautiful suite - key when dealing with a baby and a crib
• Thursday - managed to sneak out for a nice morning walk around Midtown including Rockefeller Center before the rains came in.  My parents arrived so we gave them our room since they would be shouldering the baby duties and we were given one of the rooms within the Presidential Suite (there is a compound of 3 rooms inside a secure door - we got the small one but it was still great).  Thursday night we went to see “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and it was excellent.  Daniel Radcliffe and the cast were really good and the show had a Mad Men vibe to it.  We finished up the night with a late dinner at a great place, Aureole, on the way back from the Theater District to our hotel
• On Friday we got out and enjoyed and amazing NYC Spring day.  Was a treat that our friends the Downses were also in town so we met up with Daisy and played with the kids in Central Park.  Later that evening we met the Downses and their friends in the West Village at Spasso for dinner and grabbed drinks with my cousin and her husband
• Saturday was set aside as family day so we had lunch with my Aunt & Uncle, cousin & her family, and my parents.  Was a quick visit but they hadn’t met Jake yet so that was fun.  I also snuck in coffee that morning with Garth Patil who happened to be in NYC doing some contracting work.  Saturday night we stayed in and prepared for our 6am (3:45am wake up call) flight back home.
• Sunday was a blur.  From the flight where Jake only slept 40min to the full day back in the city catching up on sleep and house stuff, we clearly need another vacation a little more restful than a cross country trip to our busiest cities.  Even so, we wouldn’t trade it for anything as we all had a great time

Thanks again to my parents for coming up to the city and spending time watching Jake while Andrea and I got time to cruise around.  Was great to see them and let them spend quality time with Jake.

So fun to see Sophie in NYC while we are in town. Jake is having a blast with her on the steps of the Met

Busy weekend around the Barrett house.  Matt, Jeremy, and I finally cashed in our LivingSocial coupon for a 2hr bartending intro class (must reach thermal equilibrium!) while Andrea and Jake went to a friend’s house to take a photography class focused on snapping baby pics.  After rushing home for a quick change, we met the Downses, Koidins, and Renee out at The Brixton for dinner (the pork ribs were great) and then off to Bimbo’s for to see Foreverland.  Today is a recovery day although we managed to walk down to the Union St Easter Fair so Jake and his friends could be terrified by the Easter Bunny - good times!  Thanks again to cousin Jenny for spending the evening with Jake so we could get away for a few hours.

Happy birthday Jake.  We had a great time celebrating the little guy’s bday this past weekend knowing that I would be out of town for his actual bday (yup - worst dad of the year).  The Koidins and Scotty Fausel came by to help throw back a few cupcakes and watch Jake try to take down his own.

Its pretty nuts to think that he is already a year old which means Andrea and I have survived and possibly even thrived as new parents.  Everyone knows I was terrified of everything we’d have to give up to have a kid.  Like many before me, I realized that you aren’t giving up… you’re trading up.  It didn’t hurt that he was a super easy baby, sleeping through the night at 9 weeks, good eater, and generally happy kid.  Thanks to all of our friends (especially the Downs, Koidins, Schwartzs, Perkins, and Millers) who paved the way and let us learn from them.  Hope we can pay that back to others while we look forward to year #2

Our friends, Alex and Kim, had the TripIt crew up to their house in Napa this weekend for a celebration of the company’s sale.  The house has been in Alex’s family for many years and it was a great place to hunker down, watch the storm, and sample a bunch of great wines provided by The20.  As you can see some one of the pics, the storm was no joke so getting home this morning was a bit of a challenge when the only road out of their neighborhood was blocked.

We hosted a kids hair cutting day this weekend at our place.  Dre’s sister, Kim, is a stylist up in Sacramento and came down for the day to snip away at all the kids growing locks.  Its a pain in the neck to do this here in the city so all the kids came to take advantage of it.  We had one incident when Jake decided he wanted to grab the shears from Kim’s hand but overall it went great and was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon 

(sorry we missed a picture of Hannah’s cut but trust us, it looks great)

I’m fascinated by the way gas prices have risen back to the high levels of 2008 but no one seems to notice.  I think it is like the “boiling frog” story where if you drop a frog in boiling water (gas prices 2008) it jumps out but if you put the frog in room temperature water and slowly raise it to a boil, it will just sit there and die (gas prices 2011).  Because of the gradual but steady increase, we have missed the fact that gas in San Francisco is now over $4/gallon.