Crossfit

I need to type fast - I had three margaritas and half a bottle of wine last night and I need to be at the Rosedale Ride in about 15 minutes. So why am I thinking about Crossfit now? For to the same reason: living healthy and living life keep colliding all the time.

My journey toward living healthily started a little less than one year ago when Jo invited me to start working out with her at the Hills. She had a coach and I told myself that I would see what the coach made me do and in about 4 weeks I would be my own trainer. By the way, I hated the idea of working out or running. A few months after I started going to the Hills, Jo's coach moved to Crossfit - first as a client and then as a coach, and we followed her there.

Last night Jo and I met Jen, our coach, for a few drinks. This is Jen at work :-)

Crossfit seems a bit like a Macintosh. It works. It isn't cheap. It's faddish.

At the end of last summer I went back to the Canadian Rockies to hike. With a few months of working out under my belt, the hiking felt great. I was literally running up the mountains. At the end of the year, Jo suggested that I look at the upcoming Crossfit Challenge. I joined - and about 8 weeks later I had reached a different level of fitness.

When I posted some updates to Facebook, Sharath asked what it was that got so many of us working out so suddenly at this point in our lives. I started it because my weekly soccer and squash games weren't enough to keep my fitness level in place. I have a family history of diabetes. I am married to an amazing woman who is 14 years younger than me. And there's Vivian and soon another one in a few short weeks. So there's the motivation to cheat death for a little bit longer. Yes - I am painfully aware of the fact that I could be hit by a truck tomorrow.

Then there's an even more basic reason - vanity. Almost everyone who I know and has seen me in the last month has commented on how I have lost weight. It's a bit scary to know that a little Lindsay Lohan is hidden somewhere inside me.

And then there's the faddishness. Philosophers say that religion and patriotism meet the very basic needs of humans to belong to something bigger than themselves in time and space. Not having those needs met, I turned to Crossfit....

But I'd like to think I like Crossfit because it works. Advertising and politics drown us in ideology. We do or buy things because we think we should. Every once in a while, we are pleasantly surprised when something works as advertised. I joined Crossfit to feel fitter. I feel fitter.

Jo, Jen - thanks. It sure would have been a lot harder without the two of you helping me. Vivian - the list gets longer: eat well, watch less TV, believe in reason, stay healthy.

Gotta go ride.

Are You All Having Babies Today?

A couple of weeks ago we called a local hospital and reserved two spots on their tour of baby facilities for expecting parents. We walked into the hospital lobby 5 minutes before the tour was scheduled to start and it felt like we had entered an altered reality in which everyone was pregnant.

In the five minutes that it took us to get started, most women visited the restrooms at least once. Then we got into the elevator and by the time we got off two floors later, all the women were fanning themselves vigorously and wondering why it was so warm. When we entered the mother-baby unit, we walked past a waiting area where some one asked us "Are you all having babies today?". Some of the guys laughed. One of the pregnant women replied: "Yep - we all got married in a mass wedding at the same time exactly 9 months ago". Which was funny mostly because the other women had dour expressions on their faces during the entire tour. I thought that if a comic was in need of a particularly hard audience to sharpen his or her comedy skills, a group of 8-month pregnant women would be a nice challenge.

Baby Shower

Jo and friends had an evening of spa/dinner for her baby shower tonight. Vivian was perturbed at first when she found out that she and I weren't invited. She said we'd give our own baby dolls a shower at home though we tried to explain that a baby shower didn't explicitly involve either.

I babysat 7 kids at home with plenty of help from Essy. Things went smoothly with two movies, brownies, and popcorn.

T minus 22 days. Hard to believe that the next one is almost here. I'm mostly glad that nothing happened during my day-and-a-half trip to California yesterday.

Baby Wagon

We started looking for a fam wagon recently. Vivian got into the spirit of things by test driving everything. In the picture below she's checking out a Nisan Murano. She's been quite concerned by our lack of urgency in getting the matter resolved. Several times while driving around town she's casually pointed out that several of the cars in the traffic around us would be big enough to carry the new baby.

We settled on a Subaru Outback. When I asked if she wanted to go with us this morning to pick it up, she opted to stay at home and play with Cara and Holden instead. Here's a picture (from the Subaru website) of what we got.

Cover Picture

This was the cover picture from now till when Evan was born.

Texas Humpty

Do you people up in Nebraska celebrate Nebraska Independence Day? What about in Rhode Island? For Texas Independence Day, Vivian learned the Texas version of Humpty Dumpty at school. Here she is, in her bandana and all.

Looking for the next "cover" picture

The picture that follows the title of this blog was taken during Vivian's 2nd birthday. It's over a year old. I'm having a hard time finding a replacement. I tried one a few weeks ago but Jo made me take it down because it looked like it was "on a milk carton" according to her. Here are some choices, including the milk carton one. See if you can spot it and recommend one I could use as the next "cover" shot. Thanks.

Conversations

On Friday I stepped out of the house for 30 seconds to drag the trash to the curb. I walked back in to an awkward silence in the living room. Like they had been talking about me. I looked at Jo and then Vivian who blurted out:

"Daddy - we were having a conversation about you".

I asked what was being said. She replied:

"I told Mommy that you were being a little mean to me. But you are my Daddy, so I still love you".

We couldn't get any more information out of her as to why or how I had been "a little mean". But I was impressed by her lucid comments and vocabulary. For a girl who still calls Pablo "Plablo" and music "muskit", she's learnt a lot of big words.

Happy 3rd Birthday

Vivian has waited breathlessly for a long time. "Is it February yet?" she'd ask.

Finally it was. Uncle Alu and Aunt Michelle braved closed airports and came in from the east coast. Brandon and Holden drove in from San Antonio and Houston. The cousins arrived from New Braunfels. The neighbors came. And so did a few friends from Vivian's class. It was a party at Gymboree - with a parachute and Jimbo and bubbles and a soprano Gymboree party leader and all. My highlight - Mona's fabulous decadent chocolate cup cakes. Jo stopped me from OD-ing on my third.

My favorite pictures: the expression on Eleanor's face in the picture where she's looking at the cup cakes, and Holden doing a great vampire thing with a little help from the camera's red-eye enhancing feature. "Come here little girl...".

The party carried on at home where Vivian got to open her loot. She loved every single one, but soon got engrossed in a book (she isn't much of a reader - only seems to do this at her birthday parties).

On Tuesday, the day of her birthday (the party at Gymboree was on the Saturday before), Ms Mary had a small celebration for her at school which she loved.

And that evening, when we asked Vivian where she'd like to go for her birthday dinner, she predictably said "I want to go to Musashino" - where the waitresses got her a large bowl of ice cream with a candle in it. For the girl who waited all year to blow out candles on her cake, I think she's satisfied.

Happy birthday sweetheart.

Snow

Isn't often that it snows in Austin. When it does it's time to go out and make snowmen and pick a snowball fight.

As you can see, Vivian was pretty good at it. Except when Mommy hit her in the mouth point blank with a snowball. All's well that ends well with a hot cup of Ghirardelli's.

Trampoline

Jo and I (read "Jo") gave Vivian a trampoline for her 3rd birthday. We (read "Jo") finally got it assembled out in the back yard. Vivian now wants to go jump there as soon as she wakes up. I took my camera with me when we went out there this morning.





She's already got rules. "Daddy - come inside and sit. Don't jump when I jump. You are too big". And when she's done "Daddy - can we drink some hot chocolate? I am cold".

Life and Death, Again

Vivian and I are driving to a certain DQ in Kyle where she is going to be handed over to Carol for a fun-filled 24 hours.

"Daddy - why does Ava have two mommies?"

I think it's another one of those - why does she get two mommies and I get stuck with a mommy and daddy type discussions. I reply that kids can have 2 mommies or 2 daddies or 1 mommy and 1 daddy or just one mommy or just one daddy among other possible combinations. She wants to know where Ava's daddy is. I honestly say I don't know. Vivian eyes light up and she says she know who Ava's daddy is. I ask. She replies:

"Pastor Scott".

I am surprised. After I recover, I tell her that Pastor Scott is certainly not Ava's daddy, and she shouldn't go around saying that. She nods. Then she goes back to my numerical example and says that Simran has only one mommy and no daddy. "Where is Simran's Daddy?"

I'm about to merge into I-35 traffic at William Cannon. I mumble that he's not with us anymore. She presses for more information. I trot out my "y'know how trees and flowers die? People die too."

Silence for 5 seconds (that almost a record for Vivian). Then

"Are you going to die Daddy?"

"Yes."

"Am I going to die?"

"Umm - yes - but it's nothing to worry about. It's the most natural thing. Let's come back to this when you are a bit older because it will make more sense then".

Fast-forward 5 days. Yesterday, we are at the Shah's. I recount the first part of this story to a dinner table crowd of 10. Vivian picks up before I reach the end. She cheerfully announces:

"Daddy is going to die."

Then she spreads her hands out and opens her palms to include everyone at the table:

"And all the Shah's are going to die".

I whisper in her ear "Honey - dying is like poop - it's normal but we don't talk about it a lot". She nods and changes the subject.

"Purple is my favorite color".