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.

Having a great time at Avenue Q at the Orpheum Theater here in the city. Great delayed Xmas gift from Dre

Happy birthday Sophie! We are having fun at Jake’s best friend’s 1st birthday. She is sitting in her new chair while Jake attempts to scale the bookcase

Pretty nice little Sunday.  Started out with Jake sleeping in until 6:30 which was a big win after many days of pre-6am “talking”.  The weather in the city was amazing this weekend, especially for an early February day.

• I was able to hit a bucket of balls at the Presidio.  Not too shabby when its almost 70 degrees at 9am
• The Millers came over for a pre Super Bowl lunch to hang out on the deck and take in some sun.  It was almost uncomfortably hot out there but we found some shade and killed a couple of bottles of bubbly
• The day finished up at the Koidin’s with Super Bowl viewing, snack, and LOTS of kid activity.

Off to Boise for a dose of real Winter - supposed to be in the 20’s this week.  At least I’ll have the warm memories of this great Sunday close at hand

In a quick break from my normal “here is what we did on Friday evening” blog post, I thought I throw out a deeper thought that has been on my mind over the past few months.  I was trying to figure out why I am becoming more liberal from decades of being rather staunchly conservative.  Data suggests people get more conservative as they grow up and maybe California is just wearing on me but I have a different option: Jake has changed it.

The overall premise of this has to do with wealth.  I am believing more and more that wealth provides protection and isolation from political decisions.  Rich people don’t have to care about welfare policies, health care for the uninsured, public schools, etc because they don’t interact with those services.  Its an overly simplified stereotype but I think you will find some truth in it

Andrea and I have been very lucky over the course of our professional lives to have worked hard, been in the right place at the right time, and capitalized on opportunities to not have to worry about finances on a day to day basis.  In a way, that gives us some isolation from many of the political topics of the day.  One thing we do not have nor are on a track to achieve is “generational wealth”.  I am 100% sure that Jake is going to have to work for a living.  We hope he achieves more than us (as any parent does) but in all likelihood, playing the odds, he will have a happy middle-class life.  This makes me think about how the politics of today will impact him.  I want him to be able to stay on our health insurance until he is 26 and have some support if times get rough (and we are not around to help him).

There is very little on the conservative platform today that aligns to that.  I would say that the platform is doing everything it can to help me achieve my own generational wealth status (which is hard to scoff at) but very little to help Jake if we don’t get there.  He will be taught self sufficiency, hard work, and all of those great capitalistic values but I will also teach him that luck and timing play a non-trivial roll and to be aware of that before thinking less of someone who hasn’t achieved as much.  I guess these things are weighing on my mind more and so I have started to become more liberal hoping that we have services in place to be called upon when needed and I am happy to pay for those with my tax dollars today.  Now… I don’t trust the idiots we send to Washington to efficiently spend my tax dollars but without an alternate plan, it seems better than betting on the tiny percentage chance that Jake will never need a public school,  or job assistance, or public transportation.

I would be all for more local ownership and support structures giving us a tighter bond with how our tax dollars are spent.  Maybe I’ll work on that over the weekend or maybe I need to stay heads down on my own work, bill out more hours, and get a little closer to that generational wealth thing.  

Thanks to Andrea for posting a bunch of pictures from our week long holiday activities.  Was a great time having my parents out for an extended visit and to see Jake enjoy his first Christmas

After having lost to Randall in a hard fought match last GGT, I am having Jake manually test every one of my new golf balls ahead of this year’s trip. I wonder what a fine coat of slobber will do to the ball flight…?

Andrea and I hosted our first full holiday in the house (took us over 2 years for that) and it was a hit.  This was also Jake’s first Xmas and even though an 8-month old really doesn’t understand the whole concept, he cleaned up with presents and loved all the new things that could go directly into his mouth.  Dre, my mom, and Renee prepared a fantastic dinner with all of the traditional trimmings.  We’re already looking forward to next year

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care and we just hope Jake is too young to pull them down.  My parents got into town on the 22nd and we have been having a great time cruising around the city before the rains come this weekend.  Amazing dinner last night at Spruce and even got to see Scotty Fausel for dessert before he headed up to Sac-town.  We are all looking forward to Xmas morning

Most people who know me know that I am a total sucker for Xmas. The real start to the season for me isn’t Black Friday but the day we get our Xmas tree.  Having been in the city for just over 10 years, the annual tradition is to grab my friend Scotty Fausel, head to the Marina Middle School, and fight the crowds to pick a winner.  This season we chose a 9’ noble fir that fits perfectly in our front window (side note, Jake is pretty confused with this giant tree in his play area).  Let the season begin! 

We had a great time with Andrea’s family up near Sacramento for Thanksgiving.  Her whole family has been Giants fans for multiple generations so to keep the World Series celebration going just a little longer, the theme for the day was Giants Pride. Our hosts (Sue & Sean) put together a great party including a challenging Giants trivia game which even with my best effort, I was only able to muster a 3rd place finish.  The real winner was Jake and his new hat.

I normally get to play golf with my dad and uncle over Thanksgiving but this year we stayed in CA so I am playing with my friend Jason’s dad and his uncle. Nice of them to let me join their group (but it isn’t quite the same)