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Today Jessica and I celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. Actually, to be more specific, today is our anniversary, but tomorrow night will be the celebration. More on that coming shortly. When I think about this being our five-year anniversary my natural reaction is to say “Wow I can’t believe it’s already been five years,” but when I stop and think about all the major life experiences we’ve had between now and then, it’s actually hard to believe that its only been five years. To drive that point home, here is a list, in chronological order, of all the major life experiences we have experienced together during our first five years of marriage:

• Got married (04/03/2010)
• Moved from Seattle to San Diego (05/2010)
• I changed careers from bartending to software development (10/2011)
• Ava was born (11/25/2011)
• I enrolled in college (01/2012)
• We moved from San Diego back to Seattle for my contracting job at Amazon (12/2012)
• I was hired for a full-time position at Amazon as a Web Developer (02/2013)
• Elise was born (07/14/2013)
• We bought our first house (06/2014)
• I graduated from college (06/2014)
• Enzo was born (01/28/2015)
• I left my job at Amazon and started at Microsoft as a Software Engineer (03/02/2015)

Needless to say this has been the best five year period of my life. Although Jessica and I certainly have many amazing years and life experiences ahead of us, it’s safe to say that we will never have a more momentous five year stretch than we did to start our marriage. How could we? The birth of our three children alone would have secured that for us, but when you add in all the rest, the case is closed. That being said, I’m ready for things to slow down a bit, however I think the joke’s on us because it’s doubtful that anything will be slowing down anytime soon. As the kids continue to grow we seem to find ourselves becoming busier and busier all the time. I wouldn’t have it any other way though.

So now the question becomes, how do we celebrate such an amazing five years? Well nothing we can do would come anywhere near signifying all that we’ve been through, so simply going shopping, then out to dinner, then catching a Sounders soccer game will have to suffice.

A few years ago Jessica made the comment that she would really like a diamond band to go with her wedding ring. To give a little back story, the ring I picked out for her (on television none the less) has two bands that fuse into one, and I remember the salesperson at the jewelry store saying that you didn’t really need a separate band with this ring, due to its design. When I presented Jessica with the ring she was thrilled and didn’t care about a band, but down the road she decided that it would be nice to have one. She wasn’t in any hurry to get it, but at that moment I decided that I’d get her a nice band for a special occasion. Well, this is that special occasion, so the first thing we’re going to do tomorrow afternoon when we head out is visit the same jewelry store I got the ring from and pick out a nice band to match it. She has waited much longer than necessary and I’m so excited to get it for her. She more than deserves it, and I love the symbolism of giving it to her for our fifth anniversary.

After that we’re going to walk from the jewelry store, which is in Belltown, down to Pioneer Square for dinner. I’m not exactly sure where we’re going to eat but we’ve talked about Il Terrazzo Carmine’s, which is one of our favorite restaurants in Seattle. It also happens to be where we had dinner for my bachelor party. Regardless of where we eat I know it will be great. No matter what we won’t have to deal with small children climbing all over us, or holding a baby with one hand while eating with the other. Eating out has always been one of our favorite things to do together, so I’m definitely looking forward to it.

After dinner we will walk over to Century Link field to see the Seattle Sounders game. I’ve only been to one Sounders game before this, and this will be Jessica’s first. Surprisingly enough we haven’t been to that many sporting events together. Up until now we’ve been to a few Padres games, an SDSU basketball game, and one Mariners game. That’s it. We tend to go to concerts more than anything, but there weren’t any good shows in town this weekend, so the soccer game seemed like our best bet. The last game I went to was a blast, so I have no doubt this will be the same. It’s a completely different vibe with a much more international feel than you’d get at most other sporting events. I’m just hoping for decent weather. This will be our first time away from Enzo, but we’re not worried. Everything will be fine, and we both very much deserve a night out together. I’m really looking forward to it.

I read an excellent book on the bus this week that I would encourage anyone to read. It’s called ‘The Last Lecture’ by Randy Pausch. Last week I read a book on the bus called ‘The Council of Dads’ by Bruce Feiler, which was about a guy with young twin girls who finds out he has bone cancer. He assembles the Council of Dads as his ‘replacement’ should he not be around to raise them. It was a good book, and I’m glad I read it, but it wasn’t great (I gave it 3 out of 5 stars on GoodReads). My plan after finishing that book was to switch back to another rockstar biography, but at the last moment I had a change of heart and decided to read ‘The Last Lecture.’

I must admit that I knew nothing about this book when selecting it. It had been recommended to me by my tattoo artist in San Diego (of all people) several years ago, and although he told me the premise of the book during one of our sessions, I was in too much pain to remember any of it. All I remembered was the title, so there it went onto my ‘to-read’ list, and there it has sat for over four years. Since I had a copy of it on my kindle, and I could see that it was a very short book that would only take me a couple days on the bus to read, I decided on a whim to read it.

I hadn’t gotten more than one paragraph into the book before I realized that the premise of this book was almost identical to that of the last book I read. Randy Pausch was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University (the best computer science school in the U.S.) who was married with three kids, the oldest of whom was 5. He contracted a terminal case of pancreatic cancer and was only given six months to live. At that time, Carnegie Mellon was doing a popular series of lectures by various professors called ‘The Last Lecture.’ They were named that because they were the last lecture of the semester for a particular course, and were generally meant to be a little less academic and a little more inspiring. Well, Pausch knew his time was limited, so he decided to take that concept to another level, and literally give his last lecture, which was titled ‘Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.’

I can only say that the book was absolutely outstanding. Certainly one of the best I’ve ever read. It’s a bit emotional, and I must admit that tears came to my eyes several times while reading it, but I’m so glad I did. From my perspective, whenever Randy mentions his wife and kids, I end up picturing Jessica, Ava, Elise and Enzo. We he talks about his kids growing up without their father, I can’t help but think about losing my own father at a young age, so there was a very personal connection there. The lecture he gives, and the subsequent book he writes, were his way of passing a bit of himself on for his family to hang onto. I couldn’t help but make the connection between what the lecture and book meant to him, with what this blog means to me. Considering that all the memories I have of my Dad are from my childhood, I have a deep fear that my kids will somehow end up going through that same experience. This website helps alleviate that fear by ensuring that my kids will know more about their Dad than I did about mine, for better or worse.

When I told Jessica about the book while making dinner one night this week she said “Wow you’ve been reading some sad books lately,” and on the surface I know it looks that way, but my response was that the book wasn’t sad, it was inspiring. There were so many life lessons in this book I can’t even begin to explain it. Just do yourself a favor and read it. You won’t hear this kind of recommendation from me often, but I promise it will be worth the 3-4 hours you invest in it.

Although I’m eager to get into another book on my bus trips, I’m going to pause for a few weeks to focus on studying some new programming languages we’re using at Microsoft. I love reading, but I actually really enjoy studying as well. I know that’s weird to most people, but I love the experience of gaining knowledge, and I must admit that I’m riding a wave of inspiration caused by reading Pausch’s book.

Speaking of riding the connector bus, yesterday was the first time in just over three weeks that I actually drove my car to work. In that time I had only put 50 miles on it, so the benefits of the bus are crystal clear. I drove to work because I had a dentist appointment at 5:00 and there was no bus schedule that would get me there on time. I actually had a funny experience at the dentist that I’m still thinking about this morning.

I was at the dentist to get four fillings on my lower molars. When the dentist greeted me I noticed that he didn’t have an assistant with him, which was unusual. He later commented on this by saying that his assistant called in sick today and he was working solo. Before he got started he asked me “When was the last time you took a nice vacation? I’m not talking about a trip to visit family, I mean a nice, relaxing, tropical vacation.” I had to think about it for a minute, but I told him it was the cruise Jessica and I took with my Mom’s company to Mexico. That was the only tropical vacation we’ve ever been on, but it was a ton of fun, and I even got to hang out with my all-time favorite baseball player Orel Hershiser. I told him a bit about the trip, and even specifically said “it brings back good memories,” but in the back of my mind I was wondering why he was asking me this. We chatted about cruises for another couple minutes, then he got to work.

He told me that the cavities I had were very small and wouldn’t require much drilling, so he was going to get started. I responded by asking “without novocaine?” He said “I don’t think you’ll need it, but if you feel any discomfort just raise your right hand and I’ll stop immediately.” Instantly I realized what his angle was on asking me about my last tropical vacation. He was trying to put me in a calming state of mind because he knew that he wasn’t going to numb my mouth for the drilling, and he also knew that I would probably be a bit anxious about that. Call it a sort of mini hypnotism if you will. I had to silently applaud him (since he was working in my mouth) for the mental trickery he had just played on me. I wondered how many times he had done this to other patients, and I also wondered how many other patients caught onto what he was doing.

As I sat there in the dentist chair I realized that the entire experience isn’t all that different from sitting in a tattoo chair, and considering that I’ve spent about 24 hours of my life in tattoo chairs, enduring the worst pain I’ve ever felt, I knew this would be no big deal. As they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so regardless of my dentist’s hypnotic intentions, I knew my own experiences of dealing with pain without moving would serve me well.

As it turned out, I hardly felt a thing and was actually relieved that he didn’t numb my mouth because I was hungry and looking forward to having dinner when I got home. More than anything it was a funny experience at the dentist (which doesn’t come around often) that I won’t soon forget. All that being said, had he struck a nerve in my mouth I would have been more than happy to raise my right hand and get the shot.

So, back to our anniversary. Here we are with our first five-year stretch complete, ready to begin our second. We’ve seen many of our friend’s relationships fail, or at least face significant trouble, but we’ve been one of the lucky ones. Jessica and I talk about this often, and we usually attribute it to the fact that we both came close to getting married when we were too young, but luckily we didn’t follow through with it and ended up waiting several years until we were truly ready. By waiting until we were older we were both so much more in tune with what we were looking for and what was important to us. Should one of our children come to us with the idea of getting married at a young age, I hope they will learn from our experiences and not rush into anything. I would tell them that marriage is one of those things that is much easier to get into than it is to get out of, so please don’t be in any hurry. There are too many life experiences you deserve to have before getting married. Hopefully you will each take your time and end up finding a person that compliments you as well as your mother compliments me.

Jessica, as I said at the beginning of this post, this has been the best five years of my life. Thank you for being the amazing wife and mother that you are. Thank you for your sensibility, for your responsibility, for your ability to stay calm in strife, and for you willingness to accommodate my ridiculous fascination and devotion to hobbies like playing guitar. You’ll never know how much I appreciate the way you not just let me, but encourage me to be myself, at all costs (both literally and figuratively). Here’s to many more good years and anniversaries, to countless good times as well as our fair share of tough ones. Our family means the world to me and I’m so grateful to be able to share our lives together. All my love.

Today was a really fun day. A couple weeks ago while visiting at Kristy’s house we were invited to go roller skating at a local rink today. Apparently this has become Madi’s new favorite activity, and although we weren’t exactly sure how the girls would take to it, we decided to give it a go. Neither Jessica or I have been on skates in at least 25 years, but we both thought it would be fun to get out there. As it turned out, everyone had a lot of fun and got a good workout in the process.

I used to play street hockey on rollerblades as a kid, plus I have fond memories of rollerblading on running trails with my sister Dana, but as I just mentioned, its been quite a while. Well, as it turns out, it’s not much different from riding a bike. Although my stride and balance were a bit compromised at first, it all quickly came back to me, and the same can be said for Jessica. Before we knew it we were both cruising pretty quickly around the rink. We even held hands and did a ‘couples skate’ for a while. The whole thing had a definite 70’s vibe to it, but we had a blast.

More importantly, we were excited to introduce the kids to roller skating in hopes that they would enjoy themselves. We weren’t expecting Elise to get out there, but we were wrong. We started off the morning with a big breakfast in order to provide plenty of skating fuel. We’ve been telling Ava for a few days that we’d be going roller skating this weekend, so this morning she was super excited. She kept saying “I love roller skating” during breakfast, even though she had never actually done it at that point. We started Ava off on skates right away when we got there, but she wasn’t really into it. She struggled with her balance and quickly got frustrated.

Since Jim, Brenda, and Kristy were seated with Elise and Enzo, we took Ava over to them to play air hockey and video games while Jessica, Madi, and I went skating. A bit later Ava gave it a second try, but the outcome was basically the same as her first try. Even though we had a rolling frame for her to hold onto, she was intimidated and wasn’t having fun, so we took her back to play some more with the rest of the family. Later, while Jessica and I were taking a break, we decided on a whim to let Elise give it a try, so we put Ava’s skates on her and took her out there. She did surprisingly well and seemed to be having a really good time. Not surprisingly, seeing Elise out there having fun on her skates made Ava that much more motivated to go back out for round three.

As it turned out, the third time was a charm because Ava really started getting the hang of it. She held onto her rolling frame and did several laps around the rink. At one point we even went into the center with everyone and did the hokey pokey dance, which Ava really got a kick out of. I was surprised that even though I didn’t know hardly any of the songs they were playing, Ava actually knew the words to a couple of them. She was totally singing along and skating. I’ve never felt so old and outdated!

Ava was having so much fun out there that getting her to come in for a break was quite difficult. One of the funnier moments came when they announced that everyone had to exit the rink so they could do a ‘speed skate’ session. By that point I felt quite comfortable on my skates, so I decided to participate. I started flying around the rink, but after two laps one of the employees flagged me over to the side. When I got close to him he said “Sir, this is for girls only.” Needless to say I was pretty embarrassed, but in my defense, I wasn’t the only guy out there who didn’t get the memo. The next speed skate session was for guys, so I got my fix.

Based on how much fun everyone had I think its safe to say that we’ll be doing this again soon, so we owe a big thank you to Kristy, Madi, Brenda and Jim for bringing us along. I’m definitely looking forward to the next time.

After skating we went to Costco for our monthly trip. The girls were exhausted, so by the time we were halfway done with our shopping both girls had passed out in the cart. It was actually pretty cute, causing multiple strangers to stop and comment. Our whole monthly Costco shopping experience thing is actually really funny to me. To an outsider watching us shop we probably look like a family who lives out in the middle of nowhere and has no choice but to stock up on everything. We’ve gotten to a point where we need two carts just to get everything we need, and we’ve got everything from clothes to groceries, dog food, paper towels, you name it. We buy everything there, mainly because its nearly impossible for Jessica to go shopping with all three kids on her own. It’s just too much for one person to handle, and now that I’m working more hours the last thing we want to do is go shopping as soon as I get home from a 12 hour day.

Jessica and I have a little game we play while waiting in line to checkout at Costco where we each guess how much the total will be. Sometimes we’re incredibly close, and I still revel in the time that I came within one dollar. I was cracking up this time though because not only did Jessica and I make our own guesses, but so did the two Costco employees who were ringing us up and boxing up our stuff. I kept thinking to myself, you know you’ve got a lot of stuff when the Costco employees are guessing how much you’ve spent. It’s just better this way though because we won’t have to go grocery shopping for a month, which leaves Jessica one less thing to worry about when I’m away.

As the title of this post suggests, today Enzo turned two months old. A couple days ago he went to the doctor for a checkup, and we were pleased to hear that he has already gained four pounds. That may not sound like much but at his age its actually quite a bit. When you consider that he was 8 pounds at birth, you realize that this is a 50% weight gain for him. The doctor was very pleased with him, however Enzo wasn’t so pleased to receive three shots during his visit. It’s all good though; he’s doing great and growing fast. He’s also starting to show some personality in the form of the sweetest little smile from time to time. I’ve been looking forward to that since the first time I saw him.

The girls are also both doing great. Ava is keeping busy with day care, art class, music class, and soccer. I’m sure it won’t be long before Elise’s schedule is just as busy, but for now she seems quite content to stay home and cuddle with Mommy or Daddy as much as possible. She’s usually more than happy to sit with me and watch concerts on TV. This morning while watching a bunch of amazing guitar players she looked at me and said “I like guitar.” Obviously I was thrilled; then she proceeded to say the same thing over and over. Maybe we’ve got a little musician on our hands. Either way I just love how willing she is to curl up on the couch with me. Ava generally doesn’t like to sit still for long so its nice to be able to spend that kind of time with Elise.

This was a big week at work for me. On Tuesday we launched a new service called Azure App Service. I was the main developer responsible for creating all the web pages describing each portion of the service (Web Apps, Mobile Apps, API Apps, and Logic Apps), and everything went off without a hitch. The launch was super successful and our team received lots of praise from some very senior managers for the work we did. It felt great to make an impact like this so quickly, but as expected, there wasn’t much time to sit around and revel in our victory. We’re already onto the next big project, which is full of several unique challenges of its own.

I’m continuing to enjoy taking the Microsoft Connector bus to work everyday. I’m getting tons of reading time in, meaning that this week I was able to finish ‘Strange Beautiful Music’ by Joe Satriani, then switch gears and read a book called ‘The Council Of Dads’ by Bruce Feiler. The title caught my attention, for obvious reasons, but the subject matter was a bit heavier than I was initially expecting. It’s the true story of a father of young twin girls who finds out he has bone cancer in his left leg. Facing the grim possibility that he may not be around to raise his daughters, he decides to assemble what he calls ‘The Council of Dads’ to help raise them. Each ‘Dad’ was selected to represent a particular quality of their real Dad. Based on my own personal experiences I was able to relate to the story, so it was certainly worth my time. It’s not the type of book I normally read, so most likely next week I’ll get back to something more familiar like another rockstar biography, but its nice to switch things up from time to time.

Since today was such a busy day for us, tomorrow looks like it will be the exact opposite. Our good friend Laurel is coming over to visit, so that should be nice. The girls love playing with her, and we’re looking forward to hearing about her recent travels. I’m hoping to wash the cars, mow the lawn, and of course get some quality guitar time in. Here’s some recent photos of the kids, including Enzo’s second monthly photo.

Enzo at 2 Months

Opening some early Easter gifts

Ava and Uncle Jim

For the first time since June 2008, I don’t own a motorcycle. Yesterday I sold my 2007 Honda 919, and strangely enough, the guy I sold it to lives in Fairwood, which is the neighborhood I grew up in. It seems fitting that my bike would end up in the area where I grew up. I made the decision to sell my bike several months ago, but decided not to sell it until now because I figured the chances of selling it in the middle of winter in Seattle would be slim to none. I received a fair amount of interest in the bike, but as it goes when selling anything on Craigslist, you have to deal with lots of flakes before you find a legitimate buyer.

It feels weird not to have a motorcycle, mainly because of all the memories Jessica and I have created going on rides over the years. Whether it was riding my first bike (a 1982 Yamaha Seca 650) through the mountains and into Eastern Washington, or the long rides we took on my 2008 Yamaha FJR 1300 to Hurricane Ridge, Seattle to Reno in a single day, Reno to Las Vegas, Vegas to Los Angeles, L.A. to San Francisco on Highway 1, or when we rode it from Seattle to San Diego in preparation of moving there shortly after getting married in 2010. Even after I traded in my FJR for the Honda 919 we had fun riding around San Diego and La Jolla taking in all the amazing scenery. So many great times were had going on rides, but there was one thing we had in common throughout all of them – it was just the two of us.

Once we had Ava it seemed pretty obvious that going on motorcycle rides was going to be a thing of the past, and that feeling only became more and more of a reality as our family continued to grow. It quickly got to a point where the only time I would ride the bike was when I was commuting to and from work. It’s not like I’m going to ditch my family on the weekend to go for a motorcycle ride, so for now getting rid of it was the right thing to do. I was a bit sad to see it go, but I fully plan on owning another bike somewhere down the line when the kids are pretty much grown up. By then we’ll probably be that old couple you see touring in style on a decked out Gold Wing. Something to look forward to I guess.

The good news is that I was one of the fortunate ones who never got in an accident and never got hurt on their bike. I never even used to worry about that kind of thing, but over the past year I couldn’t help but think about the danger I was placing myself in. I’ve got a lot more to lose now than ever before, and as I’ve said many times since having my first child, becoming a parent makes you more aware of your own mortality than ever before. I couldn’t stand the thought of getting injured (or worse) and putting Jessica and the kids through an unnecessary hardship. It just wasn’t worth it.

In other family news, everyone is doing great. The kids have all gotten through their colds and runny noses, so that’s a relief. I haven’t been able to go running all week due to a bad shin splint in my left leg. I’m also having pain in both of my knees, so I can’t help but wonder if this is the right form of exercise for me. I already made the decision that I’m not interested in running road races or anything like that. My only goal is to get consistent exercise, and I’m worried that the constant impact on my joints might be doing more harm than good. I’m starting to explore some other options for exercise, and since Microsoft gives me an annual fitness reimbursement allowance, I think I’m going to get a rowing machine. I like the idea of getting more of a full-body workout that includes lots of cardio with little to no stress on my joints. I couldn’t believe it when I found out about the fitness reimbursement allowance Microsoft gives us, mostly because Amazon would never do something like that, but I’m very appreciative of it and can’t wait to start using it. Microsoft’s commitment to the health of their employees is just one of the many nice benefits that come with working there.

Speaking of work, I just completed my third week and everything is going great. We’re getting ready to launch a new service this week called Azure App Service, and I built all of the web pages describing each part of the service. I’ll put out a link to the pages I built once the service goes live this week. There’s still a lot for me to learn, and it will continue to be that way for months, but I’m really enjoying it and am happy that I made the move.

Last week was also interesting because I started taking the Microsoft Connector bus to work everyday. They have a pickup about 5 minutes from our house, meaning I’m putting practically no miles on my car and get to spend an hour each way reading my book. I quickly finished my Stevie Ray Vaughan biography and started a new book called ‘Strange Beautiful Music’ by guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani. Looks like I’m going to start cranking through the books, so its good that I have quite a few queued up to read. The only downside to taking the bus is that I’m gone for a full 12 hours each day. Because of this I’m thinking that I will start driving my car on Wednesdays. This will allow me to go into the office a bit earlier, and then leave earlier. I like the idea of splitting up the week and getting more time with my family on Wednesday nights.

There isn’t too much else to catch up on around here. This weekend has been pretty relaxing. Yesterday I took Ava to her third soccer class, which she enjoyed very much, then we attended a birthday party at an indoor trampoline place and the kids had fun bouncing around. This morning we ran a few errands, which included a trip to Home Depot to start looking at flooring, paint, and a few other things related to some house projects we plan on doing this year. We found some bamboo flooring that we’re pretting interested in, so we’ll have to do some research on that. Time to get off the computer and help Jessica with a few projects around the house. Here’s a few recent photos of the kids.

It was another busy weekend for our family, and for me personally it was one to remember because I made the final addition (at least for the next 5 years) to my guitar collection. More on that in a bit, but first, lets talk about all the fun stuff we did with family and friends, as well as Ava’s second week of soccer.

Friday night our good friends Leon, Jodi, and their son Miles came over to our house for dinner. Leon and I have been buddies for about 15 years (going back to my early days at El Gaucho), and although we have both lived in various places during that time (Him in Costa Rica, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Minneapolis. Me in Las Vegas and San Diego), we have always remained close. Fortunately we both ended up back in Seattle at about the same time, and his son Miles was born only 3 weeks before Elise, so getting our kids together to play seems like a no-brainer.

Since I had to work all day on Friday and I knew there wouldn’t be time to get home and make a fancy dinner, I decided to keep it simple by making spaghetti and meatballs. I made the sauce the night before and let it simmer all day until dinner on Friday. It was probably the most reduced (and darkest) tomato sauce I’ve ever made. I thought it was pretty delicious, although I burned the meatballs a bit in the skillet. We also had salad, and Leon was nice enough to make a homemade apple pie, as well as pear sorbet for the kids to enjoy. Most importantly, we all had a great time hanging out. Jessica and I don’t have that many ‘couple friends’ so getting some quality time with them was really nice. Plus the kids had a blast playing together. The funniest part of the night was when Ava opened the front door during dinner, and without anyone noticing, all the kids wandered outside. Luckily Jessica noticed the door open pretty quickly and we rushed outside to find all three kids playing in the driveway. It was pretty cute.

Saturday morning I took Ava to her second soccer class. She was excited to go from the minute she woke up that morning, and by the time we arrived at the field she could hardly contain herself. Unlike our first week when the weather was beautiful, this week we had to deal with lots of clouds and rain, but she didn’t care one bit. We worked on dribbling again, and like last week we got to score a couple goals. I took several short video clips and merged them into a funny little montage of her in class, which can be found on YouTube by clicking here. I’m just glad she is enjoying herself and getting exposure to new things. Hopefully this will continue to be fun for her, but if not there are plenty of other things we can try out as well. Seeing her so happy out there is what its all about, so I’m already looking forward to her next class. The rest of the day Saturday was pretty relaxing for us. We didn’t do much besides hang around the house and watch movies. We knew Sunday was going to be a busy day, so we were all content to have a relaxing Saturday at home, particularly with the weather the way it was.

Sunday morning the five of us headed out at 10:00am and went down to Kristy and Madi’s house in Des Moines. Although the weather wasn’t ideal on Saturday, it was actually considerably worse on Sunday. It was pouring pretty hard, so we had no choice but to stay inside throughout our visit. Earlier in the week Kristy and I had kicked around the idea of taking the kids to a park, but that just wasn’t an option based on the weather. It didn’t matter though; we all had a great time catching up and watching the kids play. Jim and Brenda arrived shortly after we did, and they were very excited to finally meet little Enzo. Brenda obviously has the grandmother’s touch because he slept so soundly with her for quite a while. As always, Madi was great playing with the girls, and Jessica and I were happy with how well they listened and behaved. Ava is also eating a lot more now, which makes me happy. The poor thing was sick for a couple weeks straight, and she lost three pounds. That may not sound like much, but it’s 10% of her body weight, and it was noticeable. She really seems to have her appetite back, and we’re constantly encouraging her to try new things.

Elise seems to have made a full recovery from the cold that was ailing her last week, but poor little Enzo is still dealing with a lot of chest congestion. He gets so much phlegm in his chest and throat, but doesn’t know how to deal with it, so more often than not he swallows it, which ends up upsetting his stomach and causes him to throw up. Unfortunately Kristy found that out that hard way. He was coughing so hard the other day that Jessica had to hold him upside down and hit him on the back several times just to get everything out. Hopefully this won’t go on much longer, but there isn’t much we can do for him. He’s certainly not big enough to be taking any medicine, so we’re trying some naturopathic approaches recommended by my sister Dana.

Jim and Brenda are getting ready to head to Las Vegas on Wednesday for a visit with my Mom, Bob, Sandy, and Terry. This is technically their second trip to Vegas, but the first one was all about Aunt Lisa when she was hospitalized, so this will be their first ‘real’ trip to Vegas. I’m excited for them, and I know my Mom is really looking forward to it. As usual she’s been killing herself trying to get the house ready for visitors. Obviously this is completely unnecessary, but she can’t help it; I just hope everyone has a nice time. They’re going to see Elton John on Wednesday night, and Jersey Boys on Friday night, so it should be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to hearing all about it once they return.

The plan after leaving Kristy’s house was to stop by a music store in Seattle called Dusty Strings so that I could order a custom guitar. I had it all picked out in my head; I was going to order a relic’d Bill Nash Stratocaster. When I say relic’d I’m referring to a popular trend in new guitars where you’re getting a new guitar that looks and feels like a vintage guitar. They’re a bit beat up and worn in, but they feel and play amazing. Bill Nash is a local guy down in Olympia who is recognized nationwide as one of the premier relic guitar manufacturers. I had my mind set (or so I thought) but while I was waiting for help, I started playing a different relic’d stratocaster that was hanging on the wall. It was made by a company called King Bee guitars, and although I wasn’t familiar with them, I instantly fell in love with the guitar.

I spoke with a sales guy about the idea of ordering a Nash, but what I thought was going to be a 2-3 month wait was actually going to be more like 6-8 months. I would have been willing to wait, mainly because I had to promise Jessica that I wouldn’t buy another guitar until my 40th birthday (which is about 5.5 years away), but the King Bee was just so nice that I couldn’t justify waiting so long for the Nash when I had the perfect guitar already in my hands. I realize that most people reading this probably think I’m crazy and can’t understand why I would need another guitar. I can’t really explain it other than to say that I just really love playing them, looking at them, and obsessing over them. Each one feels different, plays different, sounds different, and looks different. From a musical perspective, the kind of music that I’m devoted to playing is Texas blues, and my main inspiration is Stevie Ray Vaughan. One of the primary characteristics of that sound is that they play stratocasters with single-coil pickups. I was able to justify it (to myself at least) because I don’t have a guitar with single-coil pickups. All of my other guitars have humbucking pickups, so I can’t get that Texas blues tone that I’m looking for. When I looked up King Bee guitars at the store yesterday, I loved the fact that the guitar, and the single-coil Amalfitano pickups in the guitar, are all hand-made in East Texas. When I plugged it in I couldn’t help but grin because it had the exact tone that I was looking for. Plus, from a looks perspective, its a classic design: Olympic white with a maple fretboard. This style of stratocaster became famous when Jimi Hendrix played one at Woodstock.

Although I was thrilled to be going home with a new guitar, I knew there wouldn’t be much time to play it last night. We needed to give the kids a bath, run to the grocery store to pick up dinner, plus I wanted to work out and shower. I had just enough time to get the guitar mounted on the wall, then spend the rest of the night relaxing with the family and watching a movie. At 5:30 this morning I eagerly jumped out of bed and went downstairs to play my new guitar for 45 minutes before getting ready for work. I took the Microsoft connector bus to work for the first time this morning, which gave me plenty of time to continue reading my latest book, which is a biography on Stevie Ray Vaughan. I opened up to the page where I had last left off, and immediately read about a time when SRV was at some big music event and saw Prince sitting at a table surrounded by bodyguards. Stevie snuck up behind him and whispered in his ear “You may be the Prince, but I’m the King Bee.” I had to smile based on the realization that I had definitely purchased the right guitar.

Here’s a few recent photos of our family. Hopefully you enjoy the video collage of Ava’s second week at soccer. My favorite part is when they’re all huddling together and the coach is talking about teamwork. When it comes time to do a team cheer, Ava may not know what she is supposed to say, but she’s still the loudest one. Then, when they’re supposed to go give the other ‘team’ a high-five, she just runs off on her own in the other direction. She’s hilarious.

Aunt Brenda and Baby Enzo

Sleeping Beauties

Ava the Artist

Elise having breakfast

Enzo, just hangin’ out

My new King Bee Strat

Well I survived my first week at Microsoft. It wasn’t exactly an easy week, mainly because there is so much for me to learn, but overall I’m very happy with how things have started off. I like my team, and I really like the fact that I’m working on a big website. For comparison’s sake, all of the projects I’ve worked on over the past few years at Amazon and Scrollmotion were applications (web and mobile), so this is a bit different, but in a good way.

Although I’m going to try to keep the comparisons between Microsoft and Amazon to a minimum for now while I get up to speed, there is one observation that already seems fair to make: my new team at Microsoft is more organized than my old team (and the other teams I worked with) at Amazon. The general process my new team uses is to have a weekly meeting with the engineers (towards the end of the week) to discuss what each of them will be doing the following week. When you come in on Monday morning, all of your tasks for the week have already been assigned by a project manager in an online tool. Each task has a priority level associated with it, along with an estimate of how long the task should take to complete. Obviously new things can pop up throughout the week, but for the most part, this is what you’ll be doing this week, so you can plan accordingly. Further, time has been allocated for certain engineers to review your work and provide feedback. I love this format because its so much more organized than what I became used to at Amazon.

At Amazon my team didn’t have a project manager. My new team has three. Work wasn’t tracked very closely, and priorities were always an estimate. Plus they never allocated time for code reviews and feedback. Consequently we would regularly have ‘fire drills’ where something urgent needed to be done immediately. This led to lots of peaks and valleys in terms of your effort, and there just wasn’t a lot of foresight. Obviously I can’t speak for the entire company, but that was my experience both as a full-time employee, as well as when I was a contractor.

I love the fact that I know exactly what I’ll be doing each week, and what my priorities are. There’s no question that a lot is expected of me, and I’m planning on working considerably more hours now than I ever used to, but that’s the tradeoff I was willing to make. For example, yesterday I worked 12.5 hours in order to stay relatively caught up. This means that I put in 50 hours my first week, but that’s fine because its exactly inline with what I was expecting. Like Amazon, the bar is very high at Microsoft, but unlike Amazon, no one really talks about it; its just implied. At Amazon they constantly toot their own horn about how high their bar and standards are. At Microsoft its just a given.

Enough about work. This morning Ava and I attended our first Saturday morning soccer class. The class is held at a nice park about five minutes from our house, and its designated for very young kids like her, as well as their parent(s). Its only a 30 minute class, and its entirely focused on the fundamentals. Today we practiced dribbling the ball (aka Little Kicks) to various landmarks on the field. At the end of class each kid gets to dribble up towards the goal and give it a Big Kick to score a goal. It may be too early to tell but my initial observation is that Ava’s biggest challenge will be paying attention and staying engaged. From a physical perspective, I couldn’t believe how well she did. She seemed to have a lot of natural talent, and I don’t think I’m just saying that because I’m her Dad. As long as she’s enjoying herself I’m happy.

I accidentally made the mistake of parking the car next to the kids playground, so getting her engaged in the soccer class was a bit difficult at first. Throughout the class she kept asking me if she could go play at the park, so once we were done with soccer we headed over to play on the jungle gym and go down the slides. Soon enough most of the other kids arrived to play, so I got a chance to chat with a few of the parents. There was one little girl in Ava’s class who was all decked out in a full Adidas soccer suit, complete with shin guards and cleats. Personally I thought it was a bit overboard, but after class I chatted with her parents for a bit and found out that her name was also Ava, she’s three months older than our Ava (although much smaller), and they live fairly close to us. I remember as a kid that my parents became friends (or at least friendly) with the parents of other kids that I played sports with, so I’m sure that will be in our future soon enough. The class goes for another five weeks, then we’ll have the option to move up to a new class.

It seems like everyone has been sick around here lately. A couple weeks ago Ava had a bad stomach flu that lasted about a week. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, but she powered through it like a champ. We thought we were in the clear with her, but then this week we got a new surprise. Wednesday night around midnight I woke up to the sound of Ava screaming and crying. I went into her room to check on her and saw that she had a very high fever. Jessica came in to take her temperature but then realized that our digital thermometer was broken. I got dressed and jumped in my car to go buy a new thermometer. I went to four different drug stores but all of them were closed. Finally I was able to find a Safeway nearby that was still open, and luckily they had thermometers in stock. When I got home and took her temperature, it read 103.8. This was very concerning so we called the on-call physician at her doctor’s office and explained what was going on. He told us to give her some children’s tylenol, keep her well hydrated, and keep a close eye on her.

The next morning her fever was gone so we thought we were in the clear, but then that afternoon around 4:00 I got a text from Jessica saying her fever was back and was up to 104.6! This was pretty alarming, but she said they were already on the way to the doctor’s office. I left work about 20 minutes later with a plan of meeting them at the doctor’s office, but traffic was so bad that I was still 15 minutes away when Jessica called me at 5:15 saying the doctor had diagnosed her with an ear infection and had prescribed her liquid Zithromax. Today is her third day on antibiotics and she seems to be back to normal. We’ve still got two more days to take it, but that should be about it. Unfortunately now Elise is sick, plus Jessica and I woke up this morning with sore throats. It’s always something, but at least Enzo hasn’t come down with anything.

Jessica injured her ankle, most likely from running, and hasn’t been able to go lately. She’s been doing yoga at home instead but is hoping to get back out there once her ankle heals. I’ve still been going running regularly and am enjoying it. I’ve come to the conclusion that running is the exact opposite of drinking alcohol. With alcohol, you feel good up front, but later you feel like crap. With running, however, its the other way around. You go through the hard part up front, but then later on you feel amazing. The only issue I’m facing right now is that with me getting home from work later than what I’m used to, its not always going to be feasible for me to run in the evenings. I guess tonight is daylight savings time, so that should help me out a bit, but still, after I’ve been at work all day I’m looking forward to coming home and spending time with my family.

Consequently I’ve decided to start running early in the morning before work. Tuesday morning I got up at 5:30 and went on a 4 mile run. It was only 25 degrees outside and I didn’t have gloves on, so by the time I reached the entrance to my neighborhood my fingers and ears were numb. It took about two miles before they came back to feeling normal again. By the end of the run I was going by cars parked on the street that were completely frozen over and I was confused because to me it had warmed up considerably, but obviously that was all due to the run. As it turned out it was still only 27 degrees.

Even on the mornings that I’m not running, I’m committed to getting up at 5:30 because it gives me some quiet time to take a guitar lesson online, practice guitar, or read. The early morning is pretty much my only time to do my own thing, so I’ve come to embrace it. The flip side to that coin though is that I’m exhausted by 9:00 every night. I think its worth it though.

I know that was a long update but its been a very busy week. Oh one more thing; Jessica and I bought plane tickets to go to Austin, TX in November. We’re going the week before Ava’s birthday because Amy and Tom will be in town to watch the kids. We’re looking forward to checking out a new city, seeing some live music, eating out, etc. I told her my only requirement was that I get my picture taken with the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue. Other than that I’m wide open. I’m currently reading a biography on SRV and its turning out to be quite the story. We’ll be there for five days, four nights. Neither of us have been to Austin before, so it gives us something to look forward to. Here’s a few recent photos of the kids.

Today was a significant day for me for a variety of reasons. As the title of this post suggests, today is the 20th anniversary of my Dad passing away, but on a more positive level today was also my first day at Microsoft. Strangely enough, March 2nd was also my first day working at El Gaucho back in 1999. When you consider the fact that the only reason I got the job at El Gaucho to begin with was that I was Elmer Pellegrini’s son, it makes things even stranger. I’ve been looking forward to writing this post for a while, mainly to pay tribute to my Dad, but I’m going to save that for last. First, here’s a breakdown of my first day on the new job.

I spent the first half of the dat at NEO (New Employee Orientation). As you can probably imagine, there is a lot to go over when joining a big company like Microsoft. Although the orientation is very similar in format to the orientation I attended at Amazon two years ago, there is no question that today’s orientation was much more interactive and fun. They really went out of their way to make sure that everyone was engaged and enjoying their time, while simultaneously gathering all their much-needed information about their new role. I came away from NEO really impressed with Microsoft; the benefits they provide to their employees are world-class, and the commitment they have towards making positive change in the world wasn’t lost on me. It was definitely a good experience, and a very nice way to start my career with Microsoft. I’m sure that is exactly how they intended it.

After NEO I met my manager for lunch. During that time we got to catch up, talk about the team I’m joining, my new responsibilities, and get to know each other on a more personal level. He mentioned having kids, so I asked him how many kids he has. Usually when people ask me this question and I tell them that I have three kids they say “wow!”, and that was exactly what I said when he told me he has seven children! Seven kids is no joke, plus he mentioned that his wife is out of town right now due to a health issue with her Mother, meaning he is caring for all seven of them on his own. That’s impressive.

After lunch we headed back to our building and I was able to start setting up my desk and computers. There’s lots of software to install, accounts to create, etc. I spent about four hours working on all of this but I’m still not done. Looks like I’ll be basically done with all of my setup work tomorrow morning, meaning I should be able to start working on assignments sometime tomorrow afternoon. I also got a chance to meet all of my teammates today; everyone was really cool, and one of them is ex-Amazon, so we chatted about that for a bit. There’s another engineer starting next Monday who will be sitting right next to me, plus there are two other guys on the team that started within the past month, so we’re all basically in the same boat. I’m glad to not be the only new guy on the team, and I’m excited to get to work with such a talented group.

The best analogy I can make to my day today is that it’s just like the first day of school. You don’t know where anything is, and there are lots of unfamiliar faces. In our case, the Microsoft campus is enormous; there are over 100 buildings on the main campus alone! Because of this you need to either drive or take a shuttle in order to get across campus in a timely fashion. One of the things that stands out to me immediately regarding the difference between Microsoft buildings and Amazon buildings is the quality of the decor and furnishings. Microsoft is a high-margin business, and because of that they can afford to spend extra money on fancy artwork, beautiful furniture and lounge seating, huge cafeterias, etc. Amazon is a low-margin business and they simply can’t afford to do these types of things. Don’t get me wrong; its not like the Amazon buildings are a dump. Far from it, but they don’t go the extra mile the way Microsoft does. Luckily we are encouraged at Microsoft to bring our families to campus for things like lunch, family movie nights, etc. I can’t wait to bring Jessica and the kids there to show them around. Based on her experience with interior design I’m sure Jessica will appreciate it even more than I do.

Obviously when you start any new job there is a ‘honeymoon phase’ that lasts for a while, so it’s going to take me some time to give it a realistic comparison to Amazon. Right now everything is a bit over-the-top and impressive. I’m certainly not under the delusion that everything will be perfect at Microsoft, but I can say with confidence that I’m happy with the decision I’ve made, and I’m already proud to represent them. Plenty more updates on this coming soon. Coming home from my first night was also a nice treat because Jessica prepared a delicious Seared Ahi Tuna dinner with roasted Brussel Sprouts and Mashed Potatoes. We enjoyed dinner with some nice local wine (after all it is Washington Wine Month) and I got to tell her all about my big day.

Now I want to pay a little respect to my dear old Dad. In one respect it’s hard to believe that he’s been gone for 20 years, but when I really think about all that has happened in my life since then, it makes perfect sense. At this point I’ve lived considerably longer without him than I did with him, yet all of his little sayings and stories stick with me. One thing he always used to tell me was “Stay focused on what you’re doing. Don’t think about playing baseball when you’re in math class, and don’t think about math class when you’re playing baseball. Presence of mind and awareness are very important.” Another thing he always used to tell me, which was probably my favorite of all his sayings, was “Moderation is the key to life. Too much of anything is no good, but a little bit of poison won’t kill you.” As a kid I used to wonder why anyone would ever intentionally take poison. It wasn’t until I got a bit older that I truly understood what he meant.

One of my favorite qualities about my Dad was the way he always put other people first, even people he didn’t know. For example, we would drive to the grocery store and he would intentionally park in the back of the parking lot even though there were open spaces up front near the entrance. When I would ask him why he didn’t take the spot up front he would say “Leave that spot for some old geezer that needs it. We can walk.” Meanwhile by that point my Dad was in his 60’s and could easily be considered one of those old geezers he was referring to, but he didn’t see it that way.

Another time, my parents went out to dinner at the Metropolitan Grill to celebrate my Dad’s birthday, and my Dad wore a beautiful new tie that my Mom got him as a birthday present. While they were out they ran into some friends, and one of them said “Elmer, what a beautiful tie! I’d get married in that tie.” Well, my Dad took the tie off right there on the spot and insisted that he take it. I asked my Mom if him doing that upset her but she said no, you couldn’t be upset with him because that’s just the way he was. He was generous to a fault.

It seems like every time I meet or speak to someone who knew my Dad they always have something very nice to say, or a fun story to share, and hearing all those great stories always makes me feel really good. He truly was one of a kind, and although I don’t have any regrets about our relationship, I certainly do wish we’d had more time together. I never got the chance to spend time with him as a grown man. I’m sure there are plenty of stories he would have shared with me once I’d grown up that simply weren’t appropriate for an adolescent boy. Now that I’m all grown up and married with my own kids I would love nothing more than for him to be able to meet Jessica, Ava, Elise and Enzo. Unfortunately he was only able to meet Kallan, his first grandchild, before passing away a month later. I know he would be proud of everyone though. He always used to tell me that all he cared about was that my Mom, my sisters, and I were all happy and healthy. Nothing else mattered to him. Considering the love and compassion he showed to complete strangers, you can only imagine how he felt about his own family. He always used to tell me “Don’t do what I do. Make something of yourself and do better than I did.” I know he would be very happy with how the lives of all his children have turned out. We each have families that we love more than anything, and for my Dad, nothing was more important than family.

Enzo at 1 Month

Today our sweet little guy turns one month old. It’s a bit hard to believe that he has already been here that long, but as Ava’s first pediatrician in San Diego told us years ago, “the days will seem long but the months will fly by.” He was right about that. So far our initial observations of Enzo are that he is perfectly healthy and growing fast. He seems to spend more and more time awake every day, however the majority of his time is still spent sleeping and eating. In his case, no news is good news, and that’s pretty much where we’re at. He has had a couple checkups so far and everything looks perfect, so we’re very thankful. I can’t wait to see him smile for the first time, and I love holding him and watching him look around to examine his surroundings.

One thing I can say for sure about Enzo is that he is the loudest nighttime baby we’ve had. He grunts, snorts, and moans all night long. It’s probably fair to say that we got off easy with Ava when it came to sleeping, but Elise and Enzo have been more of a prototypical baby in that respect. Ava was sleeping through the night by the time she was a month old, and I remember feeling at that time that all the hype you hear about sleepless nights with babies was totally overblown. The reality was we just got lucky with Ava when it came to sleeping, and even today she continues to be the heaviest sleeper of the bunch.

Now that Grandma and Grandpa have been gone for a bit, the rest of us have had a chance to get into a normal groove, and things are going well. The girls have adjusted nicely to having a baby in the house. The weather is starting to get better and Spring is just around the corner, so it feels like we’re on the up and up. Ava is transitioning from her weekly art class to a weekly music class (which makes me very happy) and she seems to be enjoying it so far. Very soon she and I will also be going to a soccer class on Saturday mornings. I love the idea of exposing each of our kids to a variety of activities and seeing what sticks. The main thing for me, particularly on the weekends, is to get up early with the girls and keep them occupied so that Mom and Enzo can sleep in. There is no question that Jessica has it much harder than I do when it comes to caring for Enzo in the middle of the night, so I want to do whatever I can to take some of the load off of her.

Yesterday was my last day at Amazon. I was looking back through old posts on our website and realized that my career as a full-time employee at Amazon lasted exactly two years and two days. Certainly not as long as I expected, but as I’ve said in the past, everything about my time at Amazon happened faster than I expected, including my exit. I’ve heard many people at Amazon say that one year at Amazon is like two years anywhere else; this is because of how fast you work and how much you’re expected to get done. I personally hardly ever felt like we were under unrealistic expectations, but I also like to stay busy as often as possible. There is no question that I gained a ton of valuable experience and knowledge during my time there, and I’m very excited to apply all of it towards my new role at Microsoft.

My final day was a good one. There was no work for me to do, so I spent the day meeting with various people that I’ve become friends with during my time there to talk about why I’m switching jobs. The response I received was 100% positive and everyone agrees that I’m doing the right thing. I think the thing that felt best about my departure was that not only would my own team welcome me back anytime, but I was also told by two other teams that they would also be happy to have me should things not work out at Microsoft. It felt really great to hear that, and by no means would I ever discredit the thought of someday returning to Amazon. They are a world-class company whom I was always proud to represent, so who knows? It’s important to me never to burn a bridge, but for now I will continue to be a loyal Amazon customer, while my professional focus shifts entirely towards Microsoft. I’m really excited about this new opportunity with Microsoft and can’t wait to get started on Monday. Plenty of updates on that coming soon.

Today should be a fun day for us; we’re doing our monthly Costco trip later this morning, and having our friends Laurel, Solana, Josh, and their son Ronin over for dinner this evening. We’re doing kind of a potluck thing, but Jess and I are making tacos, so that should be fun. I’m also hoping to squeeze in a run somewhere in between. Jessica and I have both been running for the last few weeks and we’re enjoying it. I used to run at the athletic club when I lived in Las Vegas, and after a while I got to a point where I could run 10 miles without stopping, but then I tore my meniscus and gave it up. I’ve been wanting to get back into it for a while now, but decided to wait until after Enzo was born because I knew Jessica was also interested in running and I didn’t want her to feel excluded.

Although we don’t run together (because someone has to be home with the kids) we’re both enjoying it, mainly because it gives you a chance to get away and clear your mind. When I first started running, the route I was taking was only 2.25 miles. I would get home exhausted, but after a couple weeks I found myself taking a route twice as long and finishing not nearly as tired. I’ve found that running is entirely a mental battle, and that’s actually my favorite part about it. I learned from a Navy Seals book I read a while back that the mind will always give out before the body does, so I will sometimes remind myself of that when necessary. One thing I’ve learned about running is that its best to keep your mind occupied with something other than running. Never think about how far away the finish line is. You see a lot of people out running with headphones on, but I have headphones on all the time at work, so I prefer not to wear them when I run. Instead of listening to music while I run, I think about music. Specifically I think about music theory and how it pertains to the guitar fretboard. I’ve found that this works well for me because music theory is complicated and requires a fair amount of concentration. If my mind is focused on the intricacies of music theory and guitar, that means that its not focused on the run, meaning that my body gets into a comfortable pace and before I know it, the run is complete. The best part is that I’m simultaneously becoming a better musician while I exercise. It’s all about finding something that works for you.

Jessica will be doing Enzo’s first monthly photo later today, so I plan to include it on my post this Monday. Monday is a big day for me (for a variety of reasons) so I’m looking forward to writing another post that night. Happy weekend!

Yesterday morning Amy and Tom flew home to Colorado, meaning the five of us are officially on our own now. Amy had spent about a month with us, and Tom came to join her for the final week of her stay. As always, they were both extremely helpful in so many areas. Whether it’s watching the kids, helping out with projects around the house, or taking care of a meal, they always go out of their way to make things a bit easier for us; obviously we appreciate everything they do very much. It’s funny because I don’t remember being this focused on the fact that we were ‘on our own’ after Amy left when either of the girls were born. Maybe its different now because the kids officially outnumber the parents. I guess that has to play a part in it. I’m not worried or anything; we’re going to be just fine, but I have to acknowledge the fact that it really does feel a little different this time around.

Last week was a really busy week for me, mainly because in addition to working my normal schedule at Amazon, I also bartended at El Gaucho on Friday and Saturday night for their Valentine’s Weekend Cabaret shows. We did one show on Friday night and two shows on Saturday night, each of which was sold out. It had been a full year since I worked a bartending shift but it was cool; I had a lot of fun seeing my old friends. I must admit though, I’ve gotten pretty used to sitting at a desk all day, so being on your feet running around for 10-12 hours straight with no break wasn’t exactly easy. I was exhausted after each shift, but I’m glad I did it. I spent so many years in that industry that a part of it is forever engrained in me. Although I couldn’t see myself going back to it as my full-time career, I still love being able to go in every now and then. It’s a nice social outlet for me.

Tom and I spent the day on Sunday doing maintenance on Jessica’s van. There was nothing wrong with it, but it was due for service. Between the work I did on it by myself a couple weeks ago and the work Tom and I did on Sunday, we basically gave it an entire 100,000 mile tune-up. We did new rear brakes, all new spark plugs, serviced the battery, replaced the PCV valve, replaced the cabin air filter, and inspected a ton of other things. I learned a lot in the process, and it feels good to know that you’re doing good work while simultaneously saving a significant amount of money compared to having it done at a shop. I need to do some similar work on my Acura and now I know how to do all of it, so that’s pretty cool.

Monday was also an interesting day for me because I put in my notice at Amazon. Plenty of you who read this blog already know about my new job opportunity with Microsoft, but I guess now is as good of a time as any to say publicly that I am leaving Amazon to join Microsoft as a Software Engineer on the Azure Web Team, which is the team that owns Azure.com. I wasn’t unhappy with my job at Amazon at all, and I certainly wasn’t out looking for work, but a recruiter from Microsoft found me on LinkedIn and presented me with an opportunity that I felt like I had to act on. After speaking with the hiring manager I got pretty excited about the opportunity and decided to officially apply for it. The interview process was very difficult, and I honestly didn’t feel very confident about it when it was over, but to my surprise, they decided to offer me a job.

One of the most appealing things to me about this position is the fact that my title will be ‘Software Engineer 2’. As you may already know, last year I received a degree in software engineering. Getting that degree was a lot of hard work, particularly because I was working full-time while going to school, so it feels great to validate all of that effort with a corresponding new job and title. When I think about my long-term career growth, I feel better about moving forward as a software engineer than as a web developer. Another major benefit to taking this job is that Jessica won’t have to go back to work, or at least not on any type of regular basis. It’s likely that she would still work the occasional private party, just like I did last weekend, but that’s about it. This takes a lot of pressure off her and allows her to focus more on the kids, at least for now. As previously mentioned, having a third small child in the house requires a lot of adjustments, so I’m glad she doesn’t need to worry about work for now.

The act of putting in my notice at Amazon didn’t go exactly as planned. My manager was shocked (which didn’t surprise me) and he actually went out of his way to get me to change my mind. He confided in me that, although I wasn’t supposed to find out until April 1st, I have been approved for a promotion to a Web Developer 2 role. He contacted Human Resources to find out what my new salary would be in hopes that it would persuade me to stay. I wasn’t expecting all this, and it certainly felt good to know that I had earned a promotion, but in the end I felt that backing out on Microsoft would have been unethical. I asked him for an evening to consider my options, then later that night I wrote an extensive email explaining my decision. Obviously I would never want to burn a bridge, so I was happy to hear that I had his blessing and that I was leaving on good terms. There is no doubt in my mind that I’m making the right move for my family, as well as for my career. Plenty more updates coming soon on this once I get started.

Our first day without the help of Grandma and Grandpa was an interesting one. I worked from home so that I could be there for Enzo during his little procedure. We had a normal evening at home, but then Ava started getting sick in the middle of the night. She threw up five or six times throughout the night. The poor thing couldn’t even keep juice down. I went to the store in the morning and got her Pedia-sure, Pedia-lite, saltine crackers, and bananas. Unfortunately the timing of all this is poor because I’m going to a concert this evening with a friend of mine. I bought the tickets a month ago, mostly because Jessica encouraged me to do so, but then all this happens and of course I feel terrible to leave her alone for the entire day with the kids considering that Ava is not feeling well. I checked in with Jessica throughout the day and she said Ava was doing better; she was able to eat and keep everything down. I’m not sure what the problem was but I hope it was short-lived.

Now that we’re on our own I’m sure we will all get into a regular routine pretty quickly. Elise is still having sleeping problems, so it has become a nightly occurrence for her to crawl into bed with us at some point. More often than not I wake up with her wrapped up in my arms. It doesn’t bother me having her there but I’m worried that we’re encouraging bad habits which will be difficult to break.

Speaking of our bedroom, one of the projects Jessica and I worked on while Amy was in town was painting our bedroom. We spent time looking at paint swatches from Sherwin Williams and ultimately settled on a grayish-brownish color called ‘Flexible Gray.’ Well, lets just say that its much more flexible than it is gray. Once we got it on the wall it quickly became apparent that it was actually more of a cross between pink and purple than it was between gray and brown. I have to be honest by saying that I really don’t like the color, especially for my bedroom, but I can live with it. More importantly, we learned a great lesson, which was that you always need to get a sample of the paint and put a few brush strokes of it on your wall at home in order to be sure that you really like it. Later this year we plan on painting many more rooms throughout the house, so it was good to learn this lesson early on.

That’s about it for now. Here’s a few recent photos of everyone.

The girls wearing their Team Hagy shirts in support of our friend who is fighting breast cancer

Best Friends Forever

Superbowl Sunday

Baby Enzo

It’s hard to believe, but Enzo has already been home for a week. As I write this, it was exactly one week ago to the minute that he officially entered our lives. So far everything is going excellent. He had his first checkup on Friday and everything was spot on; we won’t have to go back for another checkup until next week but there is nothing to be concerned about. He is a very happy, healthy little boy.

Here’s a few observations that I forgot to share last week on my initial post about him: like his Mommy, Enzo was born on the 28th, and like his Daddy he was born on a Wednesday night. Like both of his sisters, Enzo was born on an odd-numbered year (Ava was born in 2011 and Elise was born in 2013). Like Mommy, Daddy, and Ava, Enzo was born at the end of the month, and like Mommy, Daddy, and Elise, Enzo was born on an even-numbered day. My mom took the liberty of plugging all the kids birthdays into a website and found out that Elise and Enzo are 34 days closer in age than Ava and Elise are. I’m sure no one is more acutely aware of that than Jessica.

Although it may be too early to tell, we’re starting to get the impression that Enzo will be our most laid back and easy going baby. He probably gets that from Daddy, who prides himself on such qualities. He hardly ever cries or fusses unless he is hungry, or we’re changing his diaper. Earlier this evening we gave him his first bath and even that didn’t really upset him. It was a far cry from Ava’s experience with her first bath. I’m sure our old neighbors still haven’t forgiven us for that one. Maybe he’s trying to make it up to Jessica since he was her most difficult pregnancy.

We’ve been fortunate enough to be able to visit with several family members and friends over the past week. Dana, Brad and Anna came over for a visit on Saturday, then Kristy and Madi came to meet him on Sunday morning. He slept through most of it, but he certainly never fussed about being passed around. We definitely have a lot more introductions to make, but all in due time of course. Right now it’s all about everyone adjusting to having a new person in the house. The girls are both dealing with it in their own ways, but overall they’re doing really well. It doesn’t help that we’ve all been a little under the weather this week, but all things considered we are quite pleased with the transition.

Today is my last day off work. Part of me is sad to be going back to work already, but I’m not exactly used to being home all day everyday, so getting back into my routine will be a good thing. At least I’ve only got two work days this week before the weekend. Luckily for us Grandma Amy is still here for about 10 more days. As previously mentioned, she has been extremely helpful. Anything Jessica or the kids need, she’s on it. Doesn’t matter if it’s house cleaning, fixing meals for the girls, running errands, whatever. We’re so lucky to have her, and I enjoy her company. Since Jessica is often resting with Enzo, it’s so nice to have another adult to converse with; especially someone who is so familiar with what is going on in your world.

Grandpa Tom should be out sometime in the next week for the final leg of Amy’s stay. I’m looking forward to his arrival so we can do some work on Jessica’s van and my car. A few days ago I changed the van’s oil and filter, replaced the air filter, replaced the windshield wipers, and rotated the tires. I still need to replace the PCV valve, cabin air filter, and spark plugs, but I’d like Tom’s help with that stuff. I want to do a lot of that same stuff on my Acura as well, so it will be nice to have an extra set of hands around.

Tomorrow night I’m taking Jessica out for her long-awaited sushi dinner. We’re just going to a little local place that was advertising on Groupon. We’ve both been looking forward to it for quite a while so I hope its good. Other than that we don’t have a whole lot going on. We try to make a point and get the girls out everyday for some activity, but we usually just play it by ear depending on the weather.

Plenty of updates coming soon, but for now here’s some recent pics, mostly of Enzo.

Our first walk as a family of five

Taking a nap with Dad

Up close and personal with Enzo

Enzo’s first bath

Hanging out after his bath

Well, she did it. Again. Jessica and I always make it a point to praise the girls for their toughness when they fall or somehow hurt themselves. Well by that rational I think its fair to say that Jessica deserves the utmost respect for the incredible toughness and dedication she displayed today. I can’t really put into words how proud I am of her, or how much I appreciate all the sacrifices she continues to make for our family, but that certainly won’t stop me from trying. For the third time, Jessica has brought a child into this world, and for the second time in a row, she did it completely naturally without any drugs or pain killers. Of the five years we have been married, she has spent about four of them pregnant, meaning she has dedicated not only her whole life to our family, but her body as well. To say I’m thankful for this would be an insulting understatement, but I suppose its a start.

Before I get into the details of how our day went, I’m going to backtrack a few days to tell a funny story about Jessica’s baby shower, which was held by our next-door neighbor Cara on Saturday afternoon. Since Jessica and Amy were going to be there for several hours, I decided to take the girls out for a day of fun. We started off at the park, then we went to Alderwood Mall to play, shop, and walk around. After leaving the mall we went to lunch at Taco Time, and I specifically made sure to eat at the restaurant because I knew the girls would make a mess, and I also knew that some of the ladies at the baby shower would be coming over to our house afterwards and I didn’t want the house to be a mess.

After finishing lunch the girls and I headed home, and I’ve got to admit I was feeling proud of myself. I had just taken them on a 3 hour adventure and things went so smoothly. They weren’t even dirty so I didn’t have to rush them into the bathtub when we got home. Since no one else was home when we returned, I decided to put on an episode of Thomas the Train for the girls to watch so that I could spend 5-10 minutes finishing the chapter in my new book. As the old saying goes, ‘Silence is golden’, but whomever came up with that statement must not have had young kids, because little did I know that while I sat on the couch reading my book and thinking that the girls were quietly playing behind me, they were actually making an enormous mess.

A few minutes later Jessica walks in the door with several family members and friends, and immediately yells out my name with a panicked look on her face. I say “what?” and turn around to see that in the five minutes we’d been sitting there, Ava and Elise had dumped almost all the dirt out of a potted holiday plant we’d received as a gift all throughout the kitchen. It was everywhere! All over the dining table, the window sills, the chairs, the floor, etc. They were having a grand old time playing with all this dirt, and I was completely oblivious to it, even though I was only sitting 10 feet away. An of course I had to discover it right as a dozen women come walking in. It was such a classic Dad moment that I will probably never hear the end of. Apparently Jessica had just made a disclaimer saying that although the house was clean when she left for the shower, she couldn’t guarantee anything since the girls and I were home alone. Everyone got a huge kick out of it, but I was obviously pretty embarrassed. Oh well, it made for a funny story that will probably live on forever.

Now onto more important things. I’m going to try to recount everything that went on today with an appropriate level of detail. Jessica and I went to bed last night a little after 10:00, and although we both fell asleep quickly, she ended up waking up around 11:30 due to contractions. She didn’t know it at the time, but this was the beginning of her 19 hour labor with Enzo Michael Pellegrini. She had semi-regular contractions for the next few hours, meaning she got very little sleep. I woke up at 3:30am and realized what was going on, so pretty soon I started timing her contractions. They were coming about every 10 minutes so our hopes were high that this would be the day.

Around 6:00am we went downstairs for coffee and breakfast, then a little later we decided to go for a walk. This had become a tradition for us when she is in labor so it seemed like the right thing to do. At this point Dana was on her way over to our house to watch the girls, but they (and Amy) were still asleep. What was supposed to be a short walk turned into a very long one (about 3 miles) but Jessica was feeling good and the movement made her contractions easier to deal with. By the time we returned home from our walk an hour later, Dana was waiting for us in the living room while playing with Elise.

At this point the contractions started slowing down and soon Jessica was feeling pretty bummed out. It was looking like another false alarm, and she wanted nothing more than to have this baby and be done with it. Luckily she had a regularly scheduled appointment this morning at 11:00, so even though things were starting to look a little grim, we decided to follow through with the appointment and see what the midwife had to say. Amy and Dana stayed home with the girls while I drove Jessica to her appointment. On the way there her contractions started getting more regular, so there was hope for us once again.

The birth center was very busy when we arrived, so we had to wait a bit before she could be seen. Once they checked her out they gave us the good news we were hoping to hear, which was that she was definitely in labor and today was our day. They also offered to break her water for her in order to speed things up, so Jessica gladly accepted. After that they told us to go get a bite to eat, and go for another walk. We followed their orders, but it didn’t take long after the water was broken for things to start speeding up quickly. By the time we finished lunch and walked down the block she was having contractions every 2-3 minutes, and they were getting more and more intense with each one.

At this point we called Amy and said you better get down here, so Dana was kind enough to load everyone up in the van and give her a ride. We didn’t want the girls to see Mommy in labor, so after dropping Amy off, Dana returned home with Ava and Elise for a fun day at home. Basically Jessica had labored for 12 hours before they broke her water, and then the real fun began. I’m just glad that Amy was able to be there all day with us because she was such a big help.

As many of you already know, this pregnancy has been pretty tough on Jessica, and unfortunately labor was no exception. Based on her experience with Elise, we thought we’d be delivering within about 3 hours, but that wasn’t the case. After breaking her water at 11:30am, Jessica went on a painful crusade that lasted another 7 hours before Enzo finally decided to make his appearance. Again, her toughness was remarkable. She later said that when you reach your mental breaking point its so difficult to keep going on, but she powered through it like a champ. The woman in the room next to us was screaming at the top of her lungs all day, and I’m certainly not judging her for this because I can only imagine what it feels like, but the difference between her and Jessica was like night and day. Even the midwives couldn’t believe how tough and strong she was. She doesn’t yell or scream at all; she has this incredible ability to internalize her pain and deal with it in ways that most people would be jealous of.

Long story short, Jessica powered through so many contractions before giving birth to our son Enzo at 6:19pm. Unlike her delivery with Elise, which was in water, Enzo was born in bed with Jessica on her side, with me helping the midwife by holding one of Jessica’s legs up while she commanded Jessica on when and how to push. Obviously this was a very emotional experience for all of us, but all I can say is that seeing your child come into the world is an experience that you’re extremely lucky to have, and one that you will never forget. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience this 3 times now, and for that I will always be grateful. He ended up measuring in at 20″ in length and weighing exactly 8 pounds.

Although giving birth naturally is incredibly painful, the flip side to that coin is that she was back to normal almost immediately after giving birth. Watching her transform back into her normal self in such a short amount of time was truly amazing. At that point there are so many endorphins kicking in and so much adrenaline pumping through her veins that she actually seemed quite chipper and unaffected by what had just occurred. I could tell she was relieved to have it over with, and although I was having a hard time containing my own emotions, the fact that our family was now complete and such a major chapter in our lives was coming to a close was certainly not lost on me.

Luckily for us everything with Enzo was perfect, as it was for Jessica, so we only had to stay at the birth center for two hours after he was born, which is the legal requirement. Most of that time was spent making phone calls and sending text messages to our loved ones. We were all pretty hungry so Amy and I ran across the street to a Mexican restaurant to get some takeout. I had a bit of a scare while I was sitting there waiting for our food because I overheard the hostess saying that there was an ambulance outside taking someone from the birth center. I looked up and saw what she was talking about, then just about had a heart attack as I sprinted out the door and across the street to see what was going on. When I arrived they explained that nothing was wrong with Jessica or Enzo, and that the ambulance was there for the woman and child from the room next to us. Unfortunately things hadn’t gone as smoothly for them as it had for us and they needed some extra medical attention. Obviously I wasn’t happy to hear this, but at the same time I couldn’t help but feel a major sense of relief.

I want to send out a HUGE thank you to my amazing sister Dana for all her help today. She took the day off work to care for Ava and Elise throughout this whole experience and we are so grateful. You’ll never know how much we appreciate it. I also need to give my deepest thanks to Amy for everything she continues to do for us. This is a major transition for us and I seriously don’t know if we could do it all without her. In both of their cases I know that they are very happy to be able to do everything, but that doesn’t change how much it means to Jessica and I. We’re so lucky to have such an incredible family and support system.

I’ll never forget Ava’s reaction when we arrived home with Elise a year-and-a-half ago, and the same can be said for Ava and Elise’s reactions tonight when we got home with Enzo. The look on their faces was priceless. Elise just couldn’t get over the fact that there was a baby in our house, and both of them instantly gravitated to him. There is no question that both of the girls are going to have to adjust to having a baby in the house, but I know we’ll all be able to make that adjustment in no time. Jessica said multiple times this evening that even though this was a tough pregnancy and a tough labor, it was all more than worth it in the end. Seeing all three of our kids together in the same room at the same time was really special to me, and I couldn’t help but say to myself several times over “I have three children.” Even though you have all this time to prepare for it, there is something to be said for seeing them all together in the flesh for the first time.

As one would expect, Jessica was beyond exhausted by the time we got home, so as I write this, she and Enzo are fast asleep beside me. These next few days are going to be full of adjustments for everyone in our house, which again is why having Amy here is such a big help. It dawned on me this afternoon that this would probably be the last time I’m ever in a birthing room. I wouldn’t expect either of my daughters to want me in the room when they are giving birth, which I completely understand, so it was important to me that I really soak it all up and not take anything for granted. Having a child makes for a special day that you will never forget. These are the great days of your life, and its what you live for, so I couldn’t be more thankful to have been able to experience this three times over. Our family is complete now, and tomorrow we move onto the first page of another new and exciting chapter. Not only do I have three children that I love more than life itself, but I have the best wife in the world who is not only my spouse, but also my best friend, confidant, and motivator. I don’t know what more I could ask for, but I will always be thankful.

Laboring in the tub a couple hours before Enzo’s birth

Holding my son for the first time

Grandma Amy holding Enzo for the first time

Enzo getting weighed

Ready to go home

Meeting his sisters for the first time

Elise giving Enzo a kiss