Just googling around...

Not sure if I should feel happy or depressed that a Google Image search on "Carl Gomberg" doesn't turn up a single picture of me. Plenty of pics of friends from Facebook though. And my Twitter avatar:

Yahoo Image Search just turns up a pic of my son and the pugs dressed for Christmas/Hanukkah 2007.

Only Bing pulls up an image of me. My old Facebook profile pic.

Go figure that Microsoft would actually get it right in this instance.

Reflections on 2008

Once again, in no particular order:

- It's possible to own a house for a year and still not be moved in

- Charlotte is roughly the same latitude as Santa Barbara

- I don't miss San Diego half as much as I thought I would

- Landscaping is expensive... Hardscaping more so... Day Care, don't ask...

- "Recession" is a four-letter-word

- Your child's smile erases the day's hardships in a nanosecond

- Pugs will pretty much eat anything

- Amazingly, fried pickles are really good (though I understand it depends greatly on where you order them)

- Facebook is both the coolest and most annoying thing on the internet

- Once again, I need to lose weight

- My life is rich with memories, but I'm also buried in crap

- I blog, therefore I wonder who reads

- It is possible to know too much about UPC standards

- 80s arcade games are hard to find

- I think there were 2 weeks this year when Connor wasn't sick with something or other

- A grown man in a full pirate costume will get more stares at the neighborhood Halloween Party than the guy in the Spongebob costume (I was the pirate)

- A grown man in a full pirate costume will be largely ignored during Pirate Weekend at the local Renaissance Festival (I was not the pirate)

- All the crazy drivers come out during the holidays

- I can't believe it's already been another year...

Happy Howl-oween

Bonnie & Clyde Turned 2 Today!

Misha stopped at PetSmart and picked them up some new toys with sound chips inside. This is a rare treat for the pups, because they love toys with sound chips and they go nuts when the toy starts barking or quacking or laughing or playing music really loudly...

Yeah, it's a rare treat...

Big week for Connor

Connor had a very big week this week.

He was watching me the other day as I was drinking a glass of water; staring intently at the glass as I raised it, drank, and lowered it, then staring at me until I drank again. So I asked him if he wanted some and put the glass down near him. He pulled it in and I guided the rim to his mouth and he started gulping at the air until I was able to tip the glass enough to get some water to him. A little sputtering, but I was quite astonished by the whole event and how he's really starting to try to mimic us.

Connor also found his feet this week and he's starting to sit up with less support. If you put him in his very reclined buzzy chair, he ends up looking like he's doing crunches, trying to sit up.

We also went out to Bark In The Park this weekend which is a half day event sponsored by the Mecklenburg County Park & Rec. (LA's in LA County, San Diego's in San Diego County... Charlotte's in Mecklenburg County... go figure) We took the pugs and the stroller, but we had to park so far away from the park in the lot of a local church that by the time we had walked back to the park both the pugs and I (pushing the stroller) were ready to go home. But we stayed long enough to see Pam, our friend and realtor, who was there working a booth to help a friend. It was quite an event, and I'm sure one day we'll go back and have a lot of fun once Connor gets older, but not for several years.

BTW: I've been promising you some photos. Here's the latest batch that we've put up online.

I'm excited to see what the coming week holds.

Happy Holidays!

Wow, this is quite a ride.

Connor's almost 3 weeks old and I can't remember the last good night's sleep I had. Of course, the truth is that Misha's been up in the evenings more than I have, but I like to think I do my share by rotating with her whenver possible.

Also, he's mostly been a little angel, causing only a few completely sleepless mornings (defined as midnight to 6am) and pretty much keeping to a standard, albeit frequent, schedule of pee/poop, eat, pee/poop, eat (top off), sleep, repeat.

We even found time to take this holiday photo while he was taking a nap. It would have been fantastic to have had his eyes open, but it was enough to try to get the dogs to stand still and not shake off their antlers.

So a wonderful season of happiness and a prosperous new year to all of you out there.

To SUV or not to SUV

With 2 pugs and a baby on the way, we're going to need a bigger automobile to cart everyone and their stuff around town.

But the question at hand is: SUV or Minivan.

Now before you slap me and scream "why would you even consider a Minivan?!", let me play out the logic here.

1) SUVs come in all sizes and prices from small and cheap to large and pricey. Minivans usually start at the lower end of the SUV price range.

2) Small SUVs can only carry 5 people with limited cargo space. Large SUVs can carry 7 people, sort of, and have more cargo space, but not much with all 3 rows set up. Minivans can carry 7 people more comfortably and more cargo. Most minivans have more cargo space with the seats taken out than the entire cabin and cargo areas in a Large SUV.

3) Large SUVs have low MPG numbers. Minivans have MPGs closer to smaller SUVs. Gas is expensive. (In case you hadn't noticed...)

Yes, they're soccer wagons and grocery getters, but you can't argue that a minivan is more practical than a SUV. Besides, I've always seen SUVs more as gas-guzzling status symbols than anything else. How else can you explain the lifted compact station wagon that is the Lexus RX? (ok, so they've made it larger since the first model... but it's just fun to pick on.)

So, I guess we're pretty much going to go with a minivan unless someone knows of some redeeming SUV feature that might sway our opinion. Any suggestions on the different makes of minivan would also be appreciated.

So hop to - it all 3 of you who read this little blog of mine - and help a dad-to-be out. ;)

Happy Halloween!

Bonnie & Clyde Turn 1

Today was Bonnie & Clyde's first birthday. We picked them up some new toys. A birthday cake that plays "Happy Birthday". Loudly. Twice. And a parrot that sings s song that sounds a lot like a certain dancing hamster.


They went nuts for both of them, chewing away happily. Growling because they wanted the toy that the other was chewing on. Chasing all around the house with "Happy Birthday" playing from room to room (complete with an amusing doppler-like effect). And eventually forgetting about them completely to go and play with a toy they haven't looked twice at for over a month. At least it wasn't a cardboard box.

(Bonnie's version of "CHEESE!")

Busy... busy... busy... repeat...

This blog was a great idea until I got a job. Now I’m trying not to remember how long it’s been since I last updated it.

So what’s been happening?

I've been working
Turns out that the Business Analyst position is pretty close to being right in line with the work I was doing at my last job, so I’ve been doing a pretty good job getting up to speed on their systems. My health care background has helped help tremendously.

The good news is that I’m now earning an income and we can start saving money instead of living check to check and trying not to dip into our savings so that we have a nice chunk of change to plunk down on a house. The bad news is that this saving period won’t last long because we can also now start looking for that house.

I’ve been at the job 2 weeks now and already there are a pile of projects on my
desk that threaten to become overwhelming. Needless to say, I haven’t had time to
update my blog from work (nor would I, boss). ;-)

We’ve been house hunting.
As mentioned above, we've begun the arduous task of hunting for a house. There are a ton out there, but unfortunately, nothing that remarkable. Sure, the homes are more affordable here, but when you get down to it it's the same as anywhere else. The nice neighborhoods with the good schools are all expensive and the closer you live to the city, the more you're going to get for your house.

A few houses looked promising this past weekend, and it's a good thing because it feels like we've been through about 50 already. One was move-in ready, beautiful, but had a smallish lot and very small backyard. It was also a full brick facade with vinyl siding around the sides and back... which is a peeve of mine since I'm of the opinion that if you're going to do brick, do brick. Siding with some brick accents? Ok. Full brick front with siding? Not so zesty.

The other house was larger, older and sitting on 1.5 acres. Wow, talk about a huge lot. The home was semi-remodeled in an awkward way with a modern full bath downstairs and a country-style kitchen. The rest of the house was original, which was a shame because the master bath was hideous and would have been the first thing we'd re-do before even moving in. The price was a bit high, but it was on the market for 4 months already, so we figured they would be willing to negotiate.

Trouble is, someone else beat us to the punch and put an offer on it today. I'll look back on this in a few months and thank them, I'm sure, for making the decision for us. It would have been a very nice home, but a potential money pit and we don't really need that with a baby on the way.

We can’t decide on a middle name.
We’ve been trying to decide on a middle name for our impending son. There’s a tradition in my family to honor a relative who has passed on and we’ve had a few deaths in the family since our wedding but we can’t decide on any names based on these family members.

There’s a thought to name him after my grandmother on my mother’s side, but I can’t exactly give a girl’s name to my son and still be able to look him square in the face. My mom countered that we could use her Hebrew name only and that she has her uncle’s Hebrew name, but I'd want to somehow anglicanize that name and it probably would come out strange. Now if we were having a girl, I'd have no problem with Rene as a middle name (which is my grandma's name without the "I"... figure it out, win a gold star...)

We saw Harry Potter 5 and The Simpson’s Movie
Both really good. They managed to whittle down The Order Of The Phoenix pretty well to its major points without leaving you totally at a loss for what was going on like in The Goblet Of Fire. Considering that TOOTP was the longest book, the fact that it's also the shortest movie is quite an accomplishment. I'm actually thankful that they took out some of the story lines (S.P.E.W for one), but a bit miffed that they completely ignored the fact that they left out that the Prophecy could have been interpreted to have been for one of Harry's classmates and not Harry. Then again, Neville and the Deathly Hollows just doesn't sound right.

The Simpsons Movie was everything you hoped it would be, but maybe not quite enough at the same time. Great jokes, great gags, all the characters being the most true versions of themselves possible: Bart skating and defying authority, Lisa concerned about the environment, Homer doing completely foolish things over and over and over and Marge trying to keep the family together through all of it. With the exception of a few CG scenes (and some 3D animation similar to the style used in Futurama) the movie was largely exactly what you'd see on TV, just longer and packed with more jokes. The movie even says as much, mocking you - the moviegoer - for having paid good money to sit there and watch it. You can stay until the very end, but there's not much that's rewarding to be seen after the Simpson family gets up and leaves halfway through the credits.

I’ve finished reading Harry Potter 6
Bring on the Deathly Hollows! In The Half-Blood Prince (who wasn't who I thought he was) Rowling obviously learned a lesson from The Order Of The Phoenix and cut the exposition and tangential story lines to the bare minimum required to move the plot forward. It was welcome, as the book was more tightly paced, but at the same time it felt a bit lacking in the rich detail that she has painted in previous books.

People call TOOTP a transitional book, merely existing to set up the final 2 books of the series. In my mind, that distinction belongs to The Half-Blood Prince. Without giving too much away to the 3 people who haven't read it or haven't heard about what happens from a friend or online somewhere, Rowling pretty much makes the final Harry/Voldemort confrontation we're all expecting in the final book possible, plausible, and ever more dangerous than any to come before.

Can't wait to burn through the final book.

The pugs are in Doggie Day Care
Now that we're at work all day, the dogs have had the house to themselves. After eating one of our dining room chairs a while back, we managed to find a gate wide enough to block off that part of the house so they could have the rest and the outside. Unfortunately, the couches are still in their area.

Day 1 on the job and we come home to a house filled with fluff. One of the back cushions had a stain on it so my wife had thrown it into the wash and left the exposed pillow part on the couch. This was apparently the "kill" signal for our pugs and they did a handy job eviscerating it. It's still sitting in the laundry room awaiting triage.

Day 2 passed without any destruction, but with a fair share of fluff in the pup's poop. At least it was passing through them. We looked into "Doggie Day Care" places where we could drop off the dogs in the morning and make sure they weren't tearing up the house, but at $20/day/dog, even with a pre-purchase discount we were still looking at $600+ per month to do this and decided it was too expensive.

Day 3 and they turned their attention on another couch pillow, but this one was a seat cushion, so in addition to the fluff, there was a firm foam core. This core was partially eaten and there was dog vomit on the floor when we got home. Clyde threw up again later in the evening and then again in the morning. Each time, it was only kibble, no foam. So we were worried that he had a blockage from eating the foam and took him to the vet where they kept him under observation, took x-rays and eventually released him back to us once it was clear that things were *ahem* "moving along".

So $550 later we decided that $600/month was a small price to pay compared to possible vet bills for whatever horrible thing they decided to get themselves into next. The pups were pretty freaked out at first, getting pushed into a room with several other dogs all crowding them as the new arrivals, but they've been there for over a week now and seem to be doing well so until we get a house with a good dog solution (read: a room we can close off completely and securely with a dog door to the outside so they can make) we'll just keep them in Day Care.

So... what's new in your life?

So, yesterday was a rollercoaster...

Lemme tell ya' little story 'bout a man named Carl...

For starters - and the most important part of the day - we had our 20 week sonogram appointment yesterday morning at 9am. We usually go in the afternoon, but figured that if we were one of the first appointments, we shouldn't have as much of a delay. Oh how wrong we were.

At 9:20, the tech called us back to the sonogram machine. We'd brought along a DVD-RW because they had told us that both machines could record the sonogram onto DVD for us but we needed a DVD with RW capability. Turns out that the machine we were on only took VHS, but luckily the other machine was open so they moved us which was nice.

Everything went smoothly, the baby looks healthy and is right on schedule and we found out that we're having a boy! This was a pretty surreal moment; you have to stop calling the baby "it" and assign a gender. Specifically, it's a moment when the reality of the whole experience really hits you full force and you start having more fully formed thoughts about the arrival date and setting up the nursery and getting everything ready and the list goes on. At least, that's how it was for us. And it's a wonderful feeling indeed.

So after all the measurements were taken and the sex determined, it was time to pop in the DVD and record some of the sonogram for posterity. But the DVD didn't work. Try again. Still no go. Turns out that the recorder is a DVD+RW and we had a DVD-RW disc with us. Grrr. Luckily, a previous patient had brought in a box of DVD+RW discs and left some behind so we used one of those. More on this later.

After the sonogram, they led us to a second waiting room where we sat for about 20 minutes and chatted with people sitting around us in various stages of pregnancy. When they finally called us and put us in a room, it was another 20-30 minutes before anyone came in to see us. We met with one of the staff midwives who was originally from Wales and then we were on our way to the appointment desk. By the time we walked out it was almost two and a half hours later.

We drove home and Misha scooted off to work to salvage what was left of the day and I hunkered down to wait for the TWC guy to install digital phone. After our last phone bill from Bell South, the $39.99 flat fee for digital phone with unlimited calling nation-wide didn't seem like a bad deal.

About 2pm, I got a call from a company I've been interviewing with and they extended me an offer. It was generous, with an annual incentive bonus and regular merit increases, good benefits and 401k with matching. Unfortunately, the HR gal had called on my cell phone which has a habit of noisily disconnecting after 3 minutes so she offered to call me back on my house phone. About 30 seconds into the second phone call, the doorbell rang. Doesn't the cable company have the darndest timing? It's either 2 seconds before the end of the 4 hours window they give you, or it's when you're occupied doing something important like trying to accept a job offer or sitting on the can. We agreed that she would call back in 10 minutes and the TWC guy got to work. 10 minutes later, he's still futzing with jacks and jumpers and HR calls back. She suggests that I try her on her cell phone after TWC leaves. Is it possible to blow an interview after they make an offer?

So it's been a good day so far. We're having a healthy baby boy, I've got a job, we've got cheaper unlimited phone. Whoo-hoo! So I call a friend quickly to give him the news and midway through the phone call, it starts to drizzle outside and the phone crackles, hisses and goes dead. 30 minutes later after holding for TWC Customer Service and getting transferred a few times, they tell me that I have a bad jack and that to use the phone I'll have to plug it directly into the modem. Which means that only 1 phone in the house works right now until another tech can get out to the house today. Grrr. But at least we have a phone.

At this point, I decided to scan the sonogram images and pull the video from the DVD to my PC so I can host it online somewhere. Trouble is, the DVD player on my laptop seems to keep freezing for 15 seconds every 10 seconds of playback. Worse, my software can't find the video at all and is creating 0K MPEG files instead of ripping it like it should. Looks like even though we did get some video to record on the DVD, it was faulty somehow and completely unviewable. Grrr. But luckily the scans worked and came out nice.

I ran a few errands and then got home a little bit before my wife. We had decided to go out someplace nice for dinner to celebrate that we knew the sex of the baby and that I had been offered a job. She started looking for steakhouses in the area and I went into the other room to get my shoes and saw our pug Clyde chewing on an SD Card case. No idea how he got this item, but the alarming thing was that it was empty and that I didn't know if it had been empty. Wracking my brain, I remembered that there was a 16MB card that came with our camera and I thought I remembered keeping that card in the case. Worse yet, our dogs tend to battle over toys until one of them ends up with the item and gets sole chewing rights so there was no certainty that Bonnie hadn't eaten the card. So, dinner was scrapped in lieu of (ANOTHER) trip to the Animal ER to get "the kids" x-rayed. Grrr.

Luckily, after another 90 minutes, both dogs came up clean and we happily paid $250 for the knowledge that no surgery would be necessary. We drove home, grabbed McDonalds on the way since it was already 9:45 and we hadn't eaten dinner yet, and caught the rest of Last Comic Standing and went to bed.

Great day, frustrating day, long day, busy day. Whatever, I'm glad it's over. Of course, today's not looking much better considering the chunk of carpet that's now missing courtesy of our little mutts. I should have listened to Nancy Reagan when she said "Just say no to Pugs."

Updates - Round 5

At the time of our wedding, my sister was already several months pregnant. So much so that we had to scramble with less than two weeks left before the ceremony to get her a new bridesmaid dress.

Babies
My nephew Sam was born on February 22nd, 2007. You'd think that 2/22 would be easy to remember, but I seem to keep forgetting. Hey, I'm new at this Uncle thing. The first weekend after his birth, we drove up to my sister's place to see him.

We had the dogs with us which thankfully didn't make things as awkward as we thought. They were still being housebroken and we figured taking them with us would be better than coming home to crap all over the kitchen. Especially with the house freshly on the market.

Bonnie and Clyde played around with my sister's cats' toys while the cats hid in their bedroom and we got to meet Sam. I haven't had much experience with babies, especially recently. (I think the only other picture of me holding a baby was of me holding my sister when I was 4 or 5.) Sam was tiny and my sister snapped a few pictures and before we were ready to go it was time to leave.

Sam's grown quite fast (that's a pic of him in a onesie we bought in May) and my sister's doing a great job being the stereotypically protective first-time mother. I'm sure we'll be just as loving and protective when our turn comes in November.

Yes, shortly after visiting Sam and shortly before our house went into escrow, my wife became pregnant with our first child. We found out the usual way, a few weeks afterwards, after waiting for the little stick to say one way or the other. I was reading in bed when my wife went to check on the reading and though overjoyed at the blessing, her sarcastic humor came out and she muttered "Summer's going to suck". Well, that's one way to tell your husband he's going to be a father. :)

Funny thing is, we had purchased a monitor to track her cycle and let us know the optimal time to attempt... um, baby-making. We'd tried three months in earnest (actually, we were in bed) with no success. Now, with the house on the market and other things in our lives up in the air (ah, more in the next update) we were less inclined to try as hard and managed to get pregnant anyway. Go figure.

Regardless, we're psyched, doing what we can to get ready, making sure she's getting enough food and dairy and going to all the doctor visits. We've had 2 sonogram sessions already (images above and below) with a third scheduled for next week. We get to find out the sex of the baby at next week's appointment as well, so we're really looking forward to that one.

So, any advice for the father-to-be?

Updates - Round 3

After having a blast on our honeymoon, it was back to work which was a mixed feeling. Frankly, I think if I ever take more than three weeks off of a job, I may as well just stay off. Especially if Hawaii is involved. :)

One thing that we'd been wanting to do for a while but hadn't since we knew we wouldn't have the time during the wedding planning and celebration was get a dog.

Bonnie & Clyde
I grew up with Weimaraners and my dad grew up with Weimaraners. My wife's family kept King Charles Cavalier Spaniels and she herself had a Beagle several years back. We were limited by the size of our backyard... erm, patio... and the fact that we lived in a nice-sized, but still relatively small townhouse. Leaving the dogs outside was not an option because there was no shelter and we couldn't install a dog-door insert in the sliding glass door because our backyard was right on a cul-de-sac where one of my previous roommates cars had once been stolen.

So small dogs, apartment dogs were in our crosshairs. Weimaraners, though beautiful dogs, are large and need a large yard to run around and be active in. My father also had a bad run with his final 2 dogs, both of which had multiple medical issues and died long before their time. Beagles apparently eat anything and everything and are highly destructive when left alone in the house. Cavaliers are cute, but my wife had had 7 of them at one time as a kid and that was enough for her for a while.

After much research, we decided on a Pug. They're small, cute in an ugly way that's hard to describe, and supposedly perfect for apartment living. We found a breeder in East County San Diego and drove out there on a Friday night to see her litter. She had 4 left of the original 6: three males and one female.

Our original intention was to get 1 dog, but then we realized how lonely the dog would be while we were at work and figured since they're small, we should be able to manage 2 dogs pretty well. (Yeah, right! I'm praying we never have twins!) I'd always had male dogs and female cats (that *is* the way God intended, right?) so we decided to get 2 males and my wife suggested we name them Han and Chewie after the characters in Star Wars. However, the little girl of the litter stole my wife's heart and we ended up getting a male and a female.

We brought them home and this is the first picture we took of them. They passed out on the couch after the long ride home. It's hard to believe now that they were ever this small.

Naming them turned out to be a challenge. We tried to think of famous boy/girl duos that would fit their personalities. The list got pretty long at times but eventually we settled on Bonnie and Clyde. We get a lot of strange looks when we call to them singly; who names their dog "Clyde" after all, but when people hear both names they generally think it's really cute.

Not to be an over-proud papa, but I have to say that there are some ugly pugs out there and I think Bonnie and Clyde are pretty cute all things considered. They're almost full grown now and rather large for pugs. Clyde had some eye issues that are a whole series of posts in themselves, but he's fine now and not too much worse for wear.

They're a lot of work but a lot of fun. Someone once told us that with a Pug in your life, you'll always have laughter and we have to agree completely.