Field of Dreams

I’ve got retirement on my brain.

Mostly because my mom retired this year and we just celebrated with her, family, and friends. But…also a little bit because I’ve been planning for retirement since 1996 and been obsessing over it ever since.

Take a trip down memory lane with me. My first ever retirement plan was to hit the Maryland Lotto and retire at (or before) age 30. One needs to reach the ripe age of 17 before purchasing a lottery ticket in Maryland. Oh, I counted those days all the way down to my 17^th b-day. When the day finally arrived, I drove straight to the 7-11 in Damascus and bought as many Lotto tickets as my birthday cash could afford. The money I won was “reinvested” immediately which led to compounding losses and eventually…no more cash. As it turns out, the lottery was not a good retirement plan for me. I haven’t given up on that dream entirely but I’ve augmented it with mitigation strategies including the Virginia Lottery and a career.

  

With Plan B well underway, I’m free to think about the more operational related pieces of retirement. I like to refer to this part of the dream as “FTB” or soccer (f)ield, (t)urnstile, and (b)arn.

1.     Soccer Field: Kinda like Groundskeeper Willy meets Ray Kinsella from Field of Dreams. I'll spend my mornings tending to the (full size) pitch. In my minds eye, it’s freshly mowed, painted and has the professional style goals where the nets are tied behind the goal forming a perfect ready-to-billow canopy.

2.     Turnstile: the Red Sox hold spring training from early February to early March each year (currently in Fort Myers, FL). I’ll spend those 4-5 weeks each year exploring a second career: as one of the ticket checkers at the turnstile gates.

3.     Barn: I want a barn to house a wood-shop real bad. Ha! I’ll build furniture in my spare time.

 
Even more important than FTB though, I hope to be surrounded by friends and family. That’s the real dream. Which is what we did with Mom this weekend. So enjoy the retired life, Ma. You’ve earned it.

Our New Addition

For the last week or two of Ali’s pregnancy we spent every day wondering if today was going to be the day. Not knowing turned us into loonies as we began trolling the universe looking for signs. Our car was nearing the 100k-mile mark. As the miles passed by, the odometer screamed increasingly louder – signaling to me the impending reality: Baby’s on the way.

Eventually, 100,000 miles came and went. Our best guess came and went. Baby’s due date came and went.

The 283^rd day of the pregnancy (40 weeks 3 days) was a Sunday. At this point, we felt like we were on borrowed time. Which meant that both Ali and I were working lots of extra hours and trying our best to get ahead of our workload and put ourselves in a good position to take extended leave.

Ali was doing email at the computer desk and I on the couch round about 5p when she turned to me and said, “my stomach doesn’t feel real well.” And that was it: the beginning of labor. We didn’t know it yet but we were in for an exciting night.

Around 6p, Ali still wasn’t feeling well but the feeling would come and go. She was the first one to wonder aloud, “do you think this is…labor?” I’m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty sure I responded dismissively from behind my Outlook, “Darlin’, if it were labor, there would be no mistaking it.” Then, back to my email. Ha! My bad!

By 7p, there was no mistaking it. We settled-in and waited for the one thing that I clearly recall from the parenting classes: 5-1-1. Money well spent! At 1a we called the doctor and doula. The doctor said, “how’s about you bring her into the hospital and we’ll try to figure out what’s going on.” I wondered quietly to myself, “they didn’t teach how to interpret these symptoms in medical school?”

Labor bag? Check. Overnight bag? Check. Clean the house so that Matthew will be comfortable while dog-sitting? Umm…not so much. Very sorry about that one, Matthew. But thanks for taking care of Jake!

It was pouring rain on our way to the hospital. We walked from the parking garage to the emergency room and stopped twice for contractions. Once we got into the emergency room, no one had to say a word. They just smiled knowingly and pointed towards the Labor wing.

Ali was a champ. All. Labor. Long.

I can’t sit in one position on the couch for more than 30 minutes. Ali held terribly awkward positions for 4x that long and by the time Baby arrived at 7:42am on Monday, April 20^th, I was convinced that balancing upright on epidural-ed legs is her superhuman power.

Baby weighed-in at 7lbs 11oz. We haven’t made the final decision on his name so he’ll have to be “Baby Mills” for a little bit longer.

Shortly thereafter, the new mom, the new dad and their new baby were moved into a Mother/Baby Room. Our emotions were all over the place (in a very good way). By this time the rain had stopped and the sun was welcoming all of us to a new day and the next chapter of our lives.

It turns out the it's a slow day in the Labor & Delivery Unit (and that news travels fast). The nurses and doctors have been pouring into our room to see and hold the adorable new baby with red hair. :-)

A Winter of Green

We’ve got a boatload of ‘firsts’ ahead of us so before reality sets in; we’re taking a few days to escape the normal rush of things. It’s winter. Let’s head for the mountains!

This winter has thrown me for a loop. December came and went. January has arrived and we’re yet to get any material amount of snow. Doesn’t Ol’ Man Winter know that my electric boots were made for walkin’?! And that’s just not what they’re going to do unless temperatures dip below chilly here in the DC Metro Area. Get it together, Winter. Get it together.

Fortunately for me, Wintergreen Ski Resort has enough snow making potential to cover a football field with 37’ of snow in 24 hours. We visited from Thurs-Sunday and spent most of our time enjoying Jake and each other’s company. The weather was all over the place. It was clear on Friday, nasty on Saturday, and rainy on Sunday.

I skied on Saturday, which was the perfect way to test my new GoPro. The GoPro is a lot of fun. I need to keep in mind, however, that it captures all of my moments: good and bad. …like the moment at the end of the video when I get lost on the mountain. Left? Right? Map. Right? Left? Map. Oh forget it…

The surface was good but the story of the day was the visibility (or lack there of).

We had a lot of fun. It was tough at times for Ali to get around but she managed real well. We’re happy to be home in our own bed and ready to take on the year ahead of us.

Operation: Rolling Pitter-Pat

Having just discovered the gender of our baby, the Doc wrote the secret onto a piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope. There it would keep until the Baker converted the news into confectionery intel. Like concentric circles, here's how our closest peeps learned of our (forthcoming) baby boy!

Taking the envelope from the Doc's office to the Bakery was torturous. We had to force each other to leave the envelope unopened. After a few days, the cake was finally ready. I went and picked it up alone. Of course, the Baker-lady who brought me the cake knew the secret. She laughed and joked knowingly while I quietly freaked out a little bit. Ali and I had our own little private reveal party on Oct 28th. We cut into the cake and...BLUE!

I "disclosed" mom on a Sunday early in November. We had to force the issue a bit. Grammy-to-be was having the kitchen remodeled but the construction schedule had been totally blown. This created a big dilemma since my idea was to put a balloon in a gift cleverly disguised as a house/remodel warming gift. As the construction schedule got longer (and longer), it started to encroach on the whole-family Thanksgiving announcement. Eventually, it couldn't delay any longer so I forced the issue. She cried when she opened the gift and sooo...success!

We told our immediate family on Thanksgiving via t-shirt message. Ali and I wore t-shirts made with a status bar and read, "Baby Loading. Please wait..." Once we took off our jackets, boom! The secret was out. Ali was showing at this point and there was no hiding our secret any longer. Oddly enough, I can't find a picture of us in our t-shirts. Sorry, world. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Got a few extra hours? Search for 'gender reveal ideas' and...there goes your afternoon. Don't forget to finish my post though... There are so many creative ideas out there. It's impossible not to get caught-up in the excitement; instantly wanting to do some ridiculous number of them (and do something totally unique - which is way more difficult than it sounds)

The Day Ali's Been Waiting For

San Francisco has it's pluses and minuses. Pluses, for example, include the year-round weather, it's the center of the Tech universe and boasts convenient proximity to destinations like Tahoe, Sonoma and Carmel.

It has it's downside too, though. The hipster population density, homeless situation and cost of living are all frightful. Aghh! The later means that apartments are modest in size by American standards. In total, our Nob Hill apartment had 1 bedroom and was less than 550 square feet. It was also the most expensive apartment we've ever rented. It meant that we needed to be a bit creative and always put things away.

Truthfully, we loved that apartment. Not as much as Back Bay but close. We both walked to and from our offices (uphill both ways - seriously). The Victorian architecture and Cable Cars reminded us daily that we were living a special adventure. We had convenient access to everything we could ever need. There was hardly a reason to own a car.

In Maryland, things are different. When Ali & I were looking at apartments, we were amazed at the amount of space (and cost) of what we needed. I never thought I'd say this but...wifey, go buy more stuff! We have more space than we know what to do with!!

Anniversary Getaway

It was 4 years ago Thursday (past) that wifey and I took the plunge into matrimony. What better reason than an anniversary to get acquainted with the Virginia wine scene!?

We called The Inn at Meander Plantation ‘home’ for the weekend and really enjoyed it. Part of the fun was trying to keep Jake out of trouble. The young lad wanted nothing more than to go investigate ALL of the other animals on the plantation. We were on constant watch while walking around the grounds – if it wasn’t the horses that kept us on our toes, then it was the skunk, fox, rabbit, groundhog, or other dogs.

We stayed in one of the little shed/hut things that weren’t attached to the main house. The horse pasture was directly behind us. You can see the fence in the background of this picture. This is where the horses (Lightfoot and Gizmoe) would say, “hello” to us each morning.

 
We visited two fine establishments while in Virginia wine country. The first was the Belmont Farm Distillery (my choice). This was really cool in an ol’ moonshiners-sort-of-way. In fact, this place is just a little bit famous for being in the show, appropriately titled, Moonshiners.

 
This place was cool. Whether deliberate or not, it feels like they’re doing something not entirely legal. They are, however, quick to point out all of the various ways that they’re complying with VA ABC rules and regulations. We brought home a bottle of Kopper Kettle Whiskey, Virginia Lightning Cherry Whiskey, and a mug. Who doesn’t need one more mug??

Of the wines that we tasted while in VA, we liked the Cab Franc from Old House Vineyards the most. We stopped by that vineyard on our way out of town. There will be no pictures of the Old House Vineyards posted today – they’re earned a place on the ‘jerk’ side of the room. …we still bought their wine though.

Jake's New Digs

It's hard to say who's adjusting best to our new home best. Truthfully, we're all feeling a little bit nostalgic and thinking, wow...this is a whole lot of suburb. Jake and I were walking around the neighborhood last week. We came to an intersection, I looked up and remarked that we were at the intersection of Pleasant Drive, Pleasant Circle and Pleasant Way. Jake confirmed. We looked at each other knowing that we should move along before the universe lurched and swallowed us into the permanent void.

There's a small dog park near our Apt but, in defiant fashion, we prefer the people parks! Our 'go-to park' is Needwood. The streams are enough for Jake to wade around and cool down. We had storms recently so the water levels are higher than usual.

We've taken note of many 'Dog Must Remain On Leash' signs. Surely, they aren't serious about that? Don't they know that Jake's in town? This one's taken at Black Hills. It's really weird that I grew up frequenting these places...only to return in my 30's.

Needwood is a squirrel rich environment. Jake approves. When he's not chasing the tennis ball, he's chasing a squirrel. Sometimes he does both simultaneously.

And, of course, the Deleware beaches. A big "Thanks!" to my Aunt and Uncle for letting us stay for a weekend in their DE house.

I hope Jake's enjoying the new home. I bet he's missing his SF pack a bit but we're trying our best to find him a new one!