Soccer Dads

Above: Zach and me waiting for our grub.

Zachary recently started to learn how to play soccer, Paul and I took him to his second Soccer meet and he was very reluctant to join in with the other kids in the soccer group. Zach seems to not t enjoy organized sports, he loves kicking the ball in a non-organized settling but he gets a little shy when involved in an unfamiliar group. Anyway, we watched Zach learn how to kick the ball around, which he already seemed to know. It was fun seeing him in his soccer getup and running around the field.

Above: Zach getting ready to play on the field.

Above: Fancy foot work!

After soccer, we headed over to the park across the field and Zach had a ball playing with other kids and enjoying the recreations.

Above: Strong man Zach moving the jungle gym.

Above: Where's Waldo?

Above: Me likey bouncy me likey bouncy!

We all were hungry after being active all day and decided to get some grub at good ole Mel's Diner! Love this place. We enjoyed some good diner food and milkshakes! YUM-O!

Above: Zach and Me.

Above: Chow time!

Above: Zach enjoying his delicious Oreo Milkshake.

More photos below of Zach playing Soccer

Life Line

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are brilliant!

Sarah Palin is one heartbeat away

Jack Cafferty sums it up perfectly - "If Sarah Palin becomes vice-president of the United States, she will be one heartbeat away from being the President of the United States." Palin has no clue what she is talking about in this interview with Couric. I have been hearing that so many people are voting for Palin/McCain (Palin has been putting her name first when speaking) just because Palin is a woman and they can relate to her!?! Are you kidding me!? You're going to vote for Palin because you can relate to her sex and that she is just as inexperienced as you in politics. People need to get their heads out of their asses.

Madonna Hard Candy Tour 2008

Here's a sneak peak of Madonna's upcoming tour that Paul,Ryan, Will and I will be attending on November 1st!!!! I want to be doing this at 50! Ryan I know your tempted to look!!! :-P

I'm Voting Republican

Mad Men

I always thought that someone should write a television show that was brutally honest about the world of advertising. I am going into my 7th year in the advertising business and it’s a very interesting genre of work to be in.

Thankfully, someone did have a decent idea and plot about an advertising show. Mad Men debuted last year on AMC and was an instant hit. The show is about to finish up its second season and it just won and Emmy for best Drama.

I have to say I think this is one of the smartest shows on the tube right now. The first season starts off in early 1960s and the second season is going through 1961. The cultural references are great and very interesting to see how advertising was working during the Kennedy/Nixon election, the concept of are condition in homes and the ground braking copy machine in the work place! It’s great to follow cultural events with advertising. They even mention Joan Crawford and how all men love Joan Crawford and how women were finding her unappealing to look at.

Above: The main characters in the drama series "Mad Men."

One of the things I noticed is that even though this drama is set in early 1960s advertising, it really isn’t far off from current day advertising – not in the way of technology – but in the male/female dynamics. For instance – the show is very male dominating with all men as creative leads and copyrights and the women are all secretaries. I work in an agency that has all male copywriters and one female junior creative out of a sea of men. Men excluding a few departments head most of the senior levels in the agency. Advertising is still a very male dominating business.

Another thing I love about the show, it is showing a female character named Peggy working her way up through the advertising chain. Peggy starts off as a piece of meat on the show – a women in a pool of secretaries that gets an "in" when she by chance happens to speak up, she made an opinion on a creative execution and then she is promoted to a female junior copywriter on the show – unheard of for that time period. I love that part of the show. You can go to school for year sand years and try to get into advertising – you may succeed - you may not. Advertising has noting to do with your educational background. It’s based on talent, forward creative thinking, drive, ambition and communication skills. You cannot teach anyone those things, they are all inherent traits we have – you’re either good at them or your not.

Above: John Hamm plays the secretive and handsome "Don Draper" on Mad Men.

I stumbled into advertising in 2002 working as a caterer for an ad agency in Boston. I didn’t know shit about advertising but I showed some skills – I feel my biggest skills are communication, ambition and drive. I’m pretty creative too, but that’s not where advertising took me. I got my foot in the door as a junior traffic manager and worked my way up to my current position as a project manager. Project management can be applied to more than just an ad agency but a variety of companies and varying project types.

Advertising is really the devil. I kind of like working for the devil.

Counting Crows / Maroon 5

Last night Paul and I went to the Counting Crows and Maroon 5 concert that was in Concord CA. We have both been looking forward to this show, more so Pal - he's a huge Crows fan - but we both really the music from both groups. I favor Maroon 5 more.

Going to a concert on Thursday night is rough, Paul was gone fro three days in Portland and just flew in last night before the show and I have had a grueling past two weeks at work on top of going to work sick because I am so busy I cannot afford to miss a day of work. So we were both pretty tired and left the house late.

Above: Me sooooo tired at the concert.

We both had never been to Concord CA or to the venue that was hosting the concert - Sleep Train. We both decided that we would never go back to this venue for a few reasons - it's in the middle of nowhere Hoboken town and the organization on the parking was brutal - it left us in miles of traffic and we missed half of the Counting Crows performance.


What we did see of Counting Crows was impressive, I enjoyed seeing them live and my favorite song they sang was "Miami."

It was pretty chilly at Sleep Train but the venue was huge! We were both shocked at how many people were outside for the show and how nice the establishment was. We waited about 1/2 hour and then Maroon 5 took to the stage. They were awesome and the lead singer, Adam Levine, looked super hot.

He was looking anorexic about a year ago on TV but he gained some weight and looked very healthy. They played all of their hits and it was a great show. We did have to leave a bit early before they finished forecasting that the traffic would be crazy, so we missed a few of their hits - kind of sucks you have to do that but we would have been home after midnight if we stayed for the whole show.

All in all - great show, great music!

Zebra to Zebra

Last weekend Paul and Zach went to the zoo, here are some great pictures from their outing!

Family 2008

Above: Iggy, Carrie, Superman Zach, Paul and Me.

Zachary is in his last year of pre-school before he heads of to Kindergarten in Sept 2009! He missed the cut off for this fall since he turns five years old in January. So, he will be ahead of his classmates come September.

For his preschool, which he insists on having me call his "work" - ever since I took him to my agency for a day he has been referring to his school as work. I always ask him what he did at school toady and he said recently, "I was in meetings all day with Angelo (his co-worker) and all we did was talk and write stuff down. It was boring!" HA! I love it - he was in a few of my work meetings and that was EXACTLY what was going on.

Anyway, a photo of Zach's family was needed for his "work" to hang on the wall and we took the above photo. I love this photo!!!! Everyone looks so happy and healthy - the way a family should be:-)

How Great is This!

Above: I took this picture of the car diving in front to me - he was a middle-aged guy with a huge smile on his face!

On my way to lunch earlier this week, I saw someone driving around with " Just Divorced" written on the back of their car!! I couldn't stop laughing. So many people drive around celebrating marriage, it's nice to see divorces are celebrated too!

So YOU Think YOU Can Dance?

Zach loves to dance! Recently, we were all hanging around the house listening to music and Zach started dancing. We just found out Zach was asked to be the ring bearer for his cousins wedding in June. SO this is good practice for Zach to get his moves down so he can dance at the reception!

I also think we should audition Zach for the reality show, "So you think you can dance!" or in the remake of Risky Business! He's a star in the making!

Portland Paul

Above: Paul at the Seattle World Series a week before he started his new job.

Congrats to Paul on his new job based in Portland!! I won’t give too many details about his job or company (we all know about the crazy on the Internet), but I will say Paul is very happy with his new job and he gets to travel to Portland on a fairly regular basis. Paul will also be working from home a lot too, so he will be able to keep our place nice and tidy!! :-P

Above: Great photo of Zach with his completed United States puzzle!

Zach spend some time with me this week and he was asking where Daddy works now. Zach has a puzzle of The United States, which he is very good at putting together. Geography was my favorite subject in school and I learned all my states by the time I was in Kindergarten with a United States puzzle. My goal is for Zach to do the same. He is off to a great start and has easily identified about 10 states on his own. I was showing Zach where Portland, Oregon in relation to San Francisco and he replied, "Oh, that's not THAT far away!"

Experience

The election of our lifetime is approaching and I love how things are really looking up to have a Democrat back in the White House, but to also have the first African American President! It's going to be a historical moment and Obama is what this country needs right now. The more I hear Obama speak I am just inspired and impressed by him and his down to earth wife. They are real people who went through real problems that we all go through.


You know everyone is talking about experience for Obama and Palin. Is that what we are basing this election on, "experience?" I mean look at all the "experience" George W has and where did that lead this country? I think people need to stop focusing on experience and start getting down to what the candidates believe in and how that will shape our country for the future. We all go through life entering situations lacking experience like, raising a child for the first time, starting your first job, having sex, trying something you’ve never tried before like a sport. All those things we go into life “green” and sometimes you fail miserably at it but many people just have the knack to succeed at those things without every having prior experience.


I couldn't think of a worse person to have as a vice-president than Sarah Plain. Her sex has nothing to do with it; I am a huge Hilary fan and still am. Palin first off is against abortion - so she wants to take rights away from women and their choice to do what they want with their bodies. God forbid a woman should get raped or have a health scare and cannot get abortion due to a law passed by Palin. Another serious question to ask yourself - is Palin REALLY suitable to be the vice-president? John McCain already has one foot in the ground and that tumor on the side of his face is getting larger - there's a really good chance McCain will die in office and Palin would be the President of the United States!? Are you fricken kidding me?!?!?

The truth will come out about Palin, there are numerous rumors surrounding that she never gave birth to her down syndrome baby but it was in fact her older daughter that gave birth to the child. Many report that Palin never showed signs of a pregnancy and mysteriously left to have the baby in private when she was only six months pregnant. Too much drama around this woman - we don’t need distant relatives of Britney Spears in the White House - we have enough drama already in the tabloids.


The icing on the cake is Palin is being sued by my favorite music group Heart. Palin labeled herself "Sarah Barracuda" (yea right) and she took it upon herself to use the hit song "Barracuda" by the group Heart. Thankfully, Ann and Nancy Wilson are democrats and are not supporters of McCain/Palin and ordered the dangerous duo to cease and desist using the song or they will be sued! Right on Heart - you girls just prove how awesome you really are. Click on the link below to read the news story.

Heart Lashes Out

Obama all the way baby!! Pailn please go back to the PTA!

Cloning Snoopy

Above: Best buddies, Zach and Snoopy, when we first moved out to SF in early 2007.

As Zach is getting older he seems to be growing closer to a certain friend that has been part of his entire life. Paul and Carrie bought a little dog called Snoopy before Zach was born - Snoopy is a cute beagle who has enjoyed the journey from Boston to San Francisco with all of us. When Zach was a baby, Snoopy amused him and now that he is getting older he has really grown close to his dog Snoopy. It's really cute to hear Zach talk about his dog Snoopy and how happy he is when he is with Snoopy.

Above: Snoopy and Zach this July (photo taken by Nanny.)

Above: Zach and the cloned "Snoopy"

Recently, we were at Walgreen’s and Zach saw this lifelike stuffed beagle that looks very similar to Snoopy. He was so excited about it and wanted it but we were in a rush and have been trying to weed out the hundreds of toys crammed in Zach's room, so we didn’t get it. Zach talked about how he wanted the stuffed dog to have at Daddy's house so he can sleep with Snoopy at night. Cutest thing ever! So today, I picked Zach up at school - with the stuffed dog:-) I had to get it for him!!



So, last night Zach carried Snoopy all over the house and feed him, made sure he was cozy under the blankets AND gave Snoopy the royal treatment and wanted all of his other stuffed animals off the bed so only him and Snoopy were in the bed. It was so touching to see that Zach misses his dog when he is at our house but now he has this "clone" of Snoopy that fills that void for him. I swear, just when I think this kid couldn't get any cuter - he just comes up with something even cuter!

Above: So cute!

Happy Birthday Times Two!

Happy birthday to TWO people that were born today, both are amazing people that I honored to know.

Above: My cousin Nicole (isn't she gorgeous) and her youngest son, Cooper.

The first being my cousin Nicole who I wish I could spend more time with but she lives in Massachusetts (sigh). I am coming out to Western Mass in December so I am going to drop in and say hello:-) Not only is Nicole beautiful, smart, funny, awesome (as she should be because she is my cousin) but she is also really the only family member currently that I connect with. She is one of the only people I talk to that has known me since I was a child. Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying your day!!! I will see you this December. Love ya!

Above: Birthday Boy Patrick!

The second is one of my very best friends that I feel like I have not seen in forever. I met Patrick in 2004 and I knew right away when I met him we were going to be great friends. Patrick is the most generous person I have ever met and I have shared a lot of "growing" with him. We both overcame certain things together in life and I am thankful for his friendship. I will see you this December. Love ya!

Theses two people are people that I am hoping, in the future, I can spend more time with when we move back to Boston. These are two people I want in my life until the day I die.