Chlorine anyone?

Swingin' in my PJs

Here's Nikos' second time on a swing set - he was thoroughly enjoying himself!

Wine Snobs

A few weekends ago while Michael was in town we headed up to Napa. Taki, Nikos and I met up with Adrian and Jen, Mitz, Tony and Kaia. First we went to Tony's winery, Nickel & Nickel in Oakville, where he is the enologist.

Welcome to Nickel & Nickel!

The gang before the tour begins

Tony shows off his lab (which I first called a workshop until Taki reminded me that he wasn't Santa)

Nikos chills in his stroller while we get lessons in wine from Tony. Clearly from his raised eyebrow you can tell he is a little skeptical about Tony's explanations.

Soil samples from the local area

Fermenters in the cellar

Tony taps a barrel (is this the right lingo?) to give us a taste of wine that is not mature yet.

Notice Niko's steely gaze on my wine glass, works like a hypnotist's pocketwatch.

A view of the solar panels that help power the winery.

After our private tour at Nickel & Nickel we drove up the mountain to Kuleto, where Tony's girl Kaia is the hospitality manager.

Our fabulous lunch spot that Kaia selected for us

Not sure what this is but it sure is charming

View of the valley

Infinity pool at Kuleto

Mitz and Taki enjoy some wine poolside

Family picture

Taki, Michael, Tony and Adrian enjoy the day


Nikos, still chillin in his stroller

Mitz strikes a pose


Nikos sucks on his first wine cork


Size comparison (note: this is not a regular-sized bottle of wine)

So as not to disappoint my audience, I took a picture of Nikos in something that he has no business sitting in - hey, at least it isn't a pumpkin.

And I had to include this one that Mitz took from the night before - don't you love his Bambino onesie!

The Untimely Demise of Midnight Felton

So, I'll admit, I usually think of myself as a fairly decent writer, adept at witty banter. Several individuals have told me that my blog entries inspire chuckles and, on a few occasions, guffaws - in fact, one fan even stopped me in the bathroom at CPK to comment on how she enjoys my humor and dripping sarcasm (this is a true story).

However, a recent email dialogue with a friend has caused me to question my cleverness - is cleverness even a word? His writing skills dwarf mine and I feel the need to share a part of our conversation so others can enjoy it as well. Some names have been changed to protect the innocent (okay, okay, I only changed the surname, the pets' names were too priceless and I didn't feel like I had the right to strip the kids from their starring role in this drama.

Shaun's email title to me: Here's something to look forward to...
…Midnight Felton (my 9 year-old’s pet hamster) dropped dead yesterday afternoon…and now I have some very distraught children on my hands...

You’ll love this though…before yesterday, we had two and the kids had a homemade sign on the door of the room where hamsters reside. It said: “Hamster Hide Out: Home of Midnight and Skipper”.

Within 30 minutes of finding out about his hamster, a very sad Jack (the grieving owner) updated the sign to read: “Hamster Hide Out: Home of Skipper The Only Living Hamster In This House”…

my response (not nearly as clever - I know)
So as the parent, what do you do in this case? Make poor Jack learn about heartache and grieve or try and replace Midnight with another hamster?

We’ve been down this road one time before, when Bullseye Felton (my daughter Abigail’s first hamster) entered Eternal Life. That one shook the entire family. My wife was even sad. I, too, was upset but more because apparently, earlier that Spring, I had unknowingly financed a rather extensive surgical procedure for Bullseye. And now the $20 hamster was now dead a mere four months later (editorial note: To this day, I still don’t know exactly how much I paid for that operation. I could never get a straight answer from anyone. The story has become the source of several bouts of laughter among friends and, in the interest of maintaining my marital status, I’ve stopped inquiring about anything related to the incident). Anyway, when that hamster died, we bought a new one (Skipper) an hour after the funeral.

This time, I don’t know how we’re going to handle it. Midnight’s passing leaves a void in young Jack’s life. Unfortunately, this time we wouldn’t get away with just buying Midnight II. Connor has been lobbying hard for a hamster of his own now that he’s reached the legal-hamster age of 7. He will not allow a second hamster for Jack without getting one of his own. I, however, am suggesting pets that live for more than a year and a half. Mind you, I’m not dwelling on the alleged hundreds of dollars that may or may not have been flushed away on the medical care of my little cherub’s first rodent. No, I’m not here to talk about the past. It’s just a little maddening to have to go through this process with broken-hearted children every 6-9 months.

The kids have been pushing hard for a dog but that’s a whole different kettle of fish. Surprisingly, we also have a past dog experience that’s left my wife a bit shell-shocked on that front. Mary thinks she’ll be able to stay strong against the onslaught…I’m not so sure…

And thus ends this chapter of my friend Shaun Felton's life. I hope this makes you laugh as much as my coworkers and I did. Who knows, maybe I will have Shaun guestblog when I am not feeling creative.

X-Rated

I know I still need to post our visit to wine country and a few other things, but this couldn't wait. These videos on YouTube are possibly funnier than the Jerry O'Connell Scientology video. I had seen the Matt Damon version - hysterical - but Mel just sent me the Ben Affleck one today. Love it. Not for the faint of heart or is it feint of heart? I would not recommend you watch these at work.

Watch this one first - I'm f**king Matt Damon and then this one next - I'm f**king Ben Affleck.

Happy Hour and the Return of the Mitz

We capped off a fun day hanging out with Sarah and Marco by meeting up with Taki for Happy Hour. First we went out to the Hob Nob in Alameda, where Taki's old coworkers from Benefit were having a get together. After that we headed back over to Albany to meet our Bison friends at Patrick's restaurant, Bui. We all got together to celebrate the fact that Michael was back from Vietnam for a short visit.

Here Tony tries out the role of Mr. Mom.

Thanks to Tony, we had many, many wine bottles to choose from.


Taki and The Mitz

And just for fun, here's one of the two of them in their hayday. December 2003.

I have to say, except for the bad angle on Taki on the newest pic, they both look remarkably the same. Taki still has the same haircut and Mitz still has that slightly sleazy smile going on.

This one is for Chuck - who I am sure doesn't read the blog but maybe Gina can pass it along? When Taki went to the bathroom (okay okay, in the interest of full disclosure, during one of his many trips to the bathroom) he spotted this ad for Astreya on the back of the bathroom door. Nice. I am the dork that made him go back and take a picture.

Photo Shoots and Hand-Me-Downs

Last Friday was my day off of work (I work all my hours in four days so I have one day off a week) so I got to play Stay-at-home-mom/Maternity-leave-mom and hang out with Sarah. It was a lot of fun. Sarah, Marco, Nikos, Bosco and I went for a long walk and grabbed some lunch. I won't make you suffer through the boring details and if you want to know what scandalous thing happened at Andronico's you are going to have to go to Sarah's blog to find out. And I am not even going to link you there because I still feel bad about it.

Anyway, after we were at home we forced Nikos and Marco into a photo shoot. It's so funny to look at them and think that they are almost the same number of months apart as Jeff and Taki. In this picture Marco is three weeks and two days old, Niko is 1 day shy of 8 and 1/2 months.

Obviously in this picture Nikos is trying to turn Marco's face towards the camera. Can you tell he and Brooke have suffered through many of these photo shoots? He has it down by now.


Here is a picture of Nikos in the same outfit when he was 3 weeks old (right before his first Giants game)!

Mug shots!

We are headed to Aruba this summer and Niko and I need to get passports. Mine is a renewal and Niko needs to apply for his first . Here we see Niko preparing to take his passport photo.

Say cheese!

Nikos awaiting the results. Anxious to see how his photo turned out.

Still waiting.

Let's go already! It's a digital photo. What's taking so long?

For $13 you think this wouldn't take all day. Nice profit margin UPS Store.

Wait for it....

What follows is what you'll see on the evening news if Niko and I ever decide to knock over a liquor store.

A Saint and a Yellow Ring

We started out the morning with swim class - Nikos seems to really be enjoying it.

Here he is before class channeling Mary Magdalene. (sp?)

Working on floating.

At the end of class they get to spend a few minutes playing with swim toys, this time he picked a yellow ring. Of course, once he discovered the string on his board shorts he lost all interest in the ring.

Looks Like We Are Rooting for the Underdog Again

Being a new parent you are under a lot of pressure to raise a well-rounded child full of good intentions. Of course, I want Niko to witness a lot of my good deeds to balance his first memory of margarita salt on his forehead. Details.

Here we are before we entered the fire station to vote. I had to explain to him that the poll workers are not actually firemen (I know, it was pretty heartbreaking for me too when I found out. At least I don't have to worry about looking cute when I go to vote anymore!)

And here's the after shot. I am actually a little bit worried about posting this because I think it may be illegal. I mean, if burning a flag is a crime, and leaving the flag out in the rain is looked poorly upon, surely chewing on it can't be much better.

Go Eagles! I mean...Giants!

Nikos warms up for the Superbowl by watching the Puppybowl on Animal Planet. Seriously, that show is a must watch. I could barely tear myself away.

Here I am pretending that Marco is my baby. Doesn't he look more like my baby than Nikos does? At least with that dark hair anyway.

Marco Cecchin, Reese Grochol, Nikos Romios and Brooke D'Angelo go in for a huddle at half-time.

Moving On...

Thursday, February 7th will be my last day at Benefit Cosmetics. It has been a good run, but it is time to move on. I accepted a Supply Chain Manager position at Method. I start on Monday the 11th and am excited about the change. I am most excited about working in the city as opposed to the gett of west Oakland. The day I gave notice, a father of three was shot to death at the roach coach across the street while waiting for his carne asada burito. The 3rd murder on that block in the four years that I spent at Benefit. But I digress...

For those of you in the city, I'll see you at Happy Hour!

Bath a la Bosco

Sometimes when we don't have time to give Nikos a bath we just let Bosco do the work for us.

Meatballs and Cannibals

This past Saturday Jeff, Sarah and Marco came over for spaghetti and meatballs. Taki decided to make it since Nikos was officially able to nibble on meatballs.

I can't remember why Taki wanted to take a picture of Marco next to the plate of meatballs but I am pretty sure that a bottle of wine had something to do with it.

In a brief respite from sticking anything and everything in his mouth, Nikos takes the time to pose with Taki and Marco.

Hmm. Sizing him up or gazing adoringly? You decide.

Uh oh, the first sign that the little monster is insatiable.

Nikos goes in for the kill.

Still hungry after nibbling on Marco's toes, Nikos tries his hand at meatballs. His expression pretty much says it all.

The new family at dinner.


Here's a great shot of Marco in his toga...er, swaddle. Here the little Caesar is blessing our dinner.