No Mess Zone

From 7 to 11pm last night, we attempted steps 3-6 of home baby preparation. The result? We now have an office (close to) up and running in our bedroom, and the beautifully-painted baby room is now a temporary storage unit for everything we don't know what to do with.

This process feels a lot like moving into to a new house. We like to use the "No Mess Zone" strategy for projects like this. Pick a small area in the house. Take anything that doesn't belong in that area get it out of the way - not put away, just out of the way. Arrange any big furniture pieces in that area and start filling in with the essentials. Think in terms of high priority items and needs for accessibility.

Once that's done, the area becomes a "No Mess Zone". You aren't allowed to put boxes, junk, or stuff you don't know what to do with in that area. If you have something you know you want to put there, then you have to give it a place.

Piece by piece, the whole house becomes a No Mess Zone. In the meantime, when I feel stressed out by moving, I can retreat with a piece of chocolate into a No Mess Zone to regroup. I've found that, depending on how well the organizing goes, No Mess Zones actually have a shelf-life of about 6-18 months. After that, it's usually time to do a little de-junking. And sometimes life circumstances (e.g. new human being in the household) can require major No Mess Zone renovations.

Now, from the safety of my office No Mess Zone, I can finally post the remaining photos of our trip to Italy back in April/May. These photos are all from Venice. By the time we got to Venice, we'd been traveling with the whole family for 2 weeks. Everyone was tired. The pace was slow. And we didn't talk much or really do much other than walk around the streets and canals.

So a few thoughts on Venice, and then I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Venice is now a beautiful and sinking tourist town. Abe's mom described it as "Consumerism built on Decadence built on Decay." Abe described it as, "If you went to an extravagant, Venice-themed amusement park, it would feel a lot like Venice." The buildings were beautiful, but falling apart. We heard more English spoken here than anywhere else. The shop keepers were often Chinese, selling Venetian masks and glass made in China.

Still, there was a surreal and ghostly quality to the city that made it an unforgettable experience.

would you like to take a survey?

I've spent the last few days trying to create a survey to assess outcomes for an educational program at work. I have a set of 5 anticipated outcomes and interviews of program participants that show how people have started to talk about ways those outcomes have happened in their lives. The next step is to map out a set of standard statements that people can respond to in a survey, that are good evidence or approximations of whether an outcome has occurred.

For example, if one of the anticipated outcomes of the program was that people who participated would become advocates of Mint Cookies & Cream ice cream, then I may give people a statement like: "After the program, I talked to my friends about what I had learned about Mint Cookies & Cream ice cream". The behavior of talking to friends is a proxy for people becoming MC&C advocates.

It's an interesting process. And it gets tricky because the statement needs to be descriptive and short, and interpreted more or less the same by every person who reads it.

As I agonize over crafting a useful and accurate survey, it helps to look at other surveys in the field. Today, I took a survey about my recent experience registering at Babies R Us.

I just wasn't sure how to respond to this question they gave me:



("On a scale from 1 to 10, to what degree do you feel you created THE BEST baby registry")

What do you say, as a couple who went to the store about 45 minutes before closing, had a list of about 10 things we thought we'd probably want (we were told to register for 100+), and aren't really into shopping and consumer purchases to begin with?

I think I gave us a 3 out of 10.

I'm interested in what they want this question to proxy. Probably satisfaction with the registry process. But I was satisfied just because it was done. I wasn't satisfied because the customer service desk took 15 minutes at the beginning to explain how we could, essentially, create THE BEST registry possible.

This makes me feel two ways. First, it makes me feel like I have a chance at creating a decent survey because, hey, look at what those guys did that was passable. Second, it makes me feel like people could very well be blogging about my bad survey questions.

if i have to nest, i'm doing it my way (i.e. this post contains a list)

I would have posted my last Italy installment (Venice: Coming Soon!) but our desktop, including its hard drive with all our photos on it, is unplugged in the middle of our office. Along with all the other office furniture. Add in the unscrewed light switch panels, masking tape borders, and 3 drop cloths and it can only mean one thing:

Good bye second bedroom/office space, hello nursery!

We're painting the walls a warm Tuscan Yellow (okay, the actual paint chip is called Corn Muffin, which I find completely uninspiring - see post on Tuscany for our intended effect). Furniture will be Indian Summer (orange-red) or white. Cloths (bedding, curtains, rocking chair cover) will be Sage Green with some of the yellows and oranges patterned in.

Several weeks ago, we put Plan: Baby Readiness into action when we went yard sale shopping for baby things. We scored a glider rocking chair, baby Bjorn carrier, playard/travel crib, and Peg Perego stroller for $115. On an impulse, I also bought a bike. For myself.

Then the ripple effect began.

1. Clean out garage to make room for the bike.
2. Move office stuff into middle of baby room and then paint.
3. Put baby stuff in baby room.
4. Move office stuff into magical holding place while clearing out junk in the bedroom nook to make room for office stuff.
5. Organize junk and put into various logical places in the kitchen, baby room, bedroom and garage to maximize easy access and minimize space.
6. Get office stuff out of magical holding place and put into bedroom nook that is now the office.
7. Beautify the baby room with coordinating colors so baby grows up in a nurturing and stimulating environment.
8. Clean out garage again because there probably is no longer room for my new bike.

My back and my brain both hurt.

la dolce vita (the sweetness of doing nothing)

We closed out our Roman adventures by renting 2 cars to drive to the Tuscan countryside. Being in Europe, the cars were manual transmission. Being carefully trained in a 1992 Geo Prizm in high school, I was one of the few qualified drivers for the Fiat Punto.

After a warm-up drive around the rental car parking lot (oh, that light means the parking break has been on), I was ready for the roadway. Things were jerky but fairly uneventful. I didn't have to drive through Rome, but the winding, narrow country roads, the town piazzas (GPS says turn left, I say that's a 5-ft wide alleyway), and the washed-out, muddy ascents from our off-the-beaten-path rental home to the main road got me very acquainted with negotiating first and second gear.

In the end, everything went well with the car. We did have a slight hiccup one day when we filled the tank with regular instead of diesel fuel. A 2-hour wait for siesta to finish, a ride with an Italian tow truck driver, another 2-hour wait at a car shop in no-where Italy, and $400 later, we were back on the road.

Besides being in a car, here are other things we did in Tuscany.


Lucignano, the nearest town to our lodgings (we stayed in a villa on countryside castle grounds).


Dinner prepared by our Italian cook, Amela, who came 3 out of the 7 nights we were there.


In the Punto.


Some of the countryside.


More of the countryside. This is a small town called Cortona. It sits atop a hill, looking out over the valley. Abe and I spent an afternoon alone there, and it was one of the highlights of the trip.


Us being happy.


Us eating Gelato from Snoopy's. Nutella flavor wins again.


This is a 2-way road.


Many evenings spent by the fire playing Rook.


Abe cooking popcorn over the fire.


Lake near the villa - I couldn't get over how beautiful the clouds were. It rained every day in Tuscany, but usually cleared up in the afternoons. Considering we never woke up before 11am, that worked out pretty well for our schedules.


Kids locked out of the house while parents on day trip. Chris climbed up and through an open window.


Skyline of Florence. We only spent about 5 hours here, mostly hitting the 2 major museums to see Michaelangelo's David and a collection of some of the most famous paintings from the Italian Renaissance. Which was exactly what I wanted to do with only 5 hours in Florence.


We also managed to get some street kebabs and gelato (twice, actually. favorite flavor: half dark chocolate and half caramel).


The duomo.


I loved the colors of the buildings here. Abe and I have taken inspiration from our trip and will paint our nursery in a Tuscan palette (warm yellow walls, red-orange and sage green accents).

when in rome

I'm sure you can find most of these photos a hundred times over on the web, but here are the main attraction of Rome from my lens.

Day 1 in Rome was "Old Rome", which included the Colosseum, Palatine hill, Roman Forum, and Pantheon. We managed to see all of these in about 2 hours. I remember a lot of walking, but not much else. We also stopped by the Trevi Fountain.


The colosseum.


Doric column at the Roman forum.


Capitoline Hill, piazza designed by Michaelangelo.


Inside the Pantheon. I thought the waning sunlight looked like a jellyfish.


Lost on a street downtown while the sun was setting.


At the Trevi Fountain.


Consulting maps (we did a lot of this throughout the trip).

After getting completely lost trying to find a good restaurant for dinner, a local resident shepherded us out of the complex of apartments, onto the Campo de' Fiori, and into small, quiet, and delicious Ditirambo for a choice Italian dinner. Abe's mom was particularly fond of the Gorgonzola-pear souffle with balsamic vinegar. The carnivores in the family laughed at my choice of Calabrian eggplant meatballs, but they were one of my favorite dishes the entire trip.


Dinner.


Abe's parents enjoying souffle.

Day 2 was the Vatican, including the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, and Castel Sant' Angelo. Incidentally, Abe & I had watched Angels & Demons the week before, so I recognized most of the sights more from pop culture than my history books.


Photo of "The Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel, before we were told no photos.


Outside St. Peter's square.


In St. Peter's Basilica.


From the inside top of the dome at the basilica, looking down.


Outside at the top of the dome.


Endless winding stairs we had to climb. Surprisingly, didn't put me into preterm labor.


Brothers enjoying the view from the top of the basilica.


Circus poster and old bikes. This made me feel like we were living in a real city, not just a place for tourists.


Swapping gelatos after dinner. Nutella was by far the best.


Angel on the bridge by Castel Sant' Angelo.


Tiber river, winding through the Vatican.

Day 3 we took things much slower, spending a sunny afternoon strolling and playing Frisbee at the Borghese Gardens. For lunch, Abe & I split off to a pizza shop (driven by hunger, the rest of the family went to the first eatery off the bus stop - Burger King). We at the Piazza del Popolo and watched a great water fight between 2 Italian teenagers. They both had water bottles that they constantly refilled at one of two public drinking fountains on the piazza (we were sitting at the corner of one). At one point an Indian tourist was trapped in between them as they faced each other, juking right and left, with full water bottles in hand. After several moments of them using her as a defensive barrier, and with her looking increasingly worried, one of them paused and said with a shrug, "It's a tragic scene". Then he dashed off to the side and the other boy followed.


Borghese Gallery, part of the gardens.


Street-side pizza.


Reading "Michaelangelo and the Pope's ceiling" at the piazza designed by Michaelangelo.


Walking home.


At the end of the day we said goodbye to Rome with a family dinner at our apartment.

(More on Tuscany and Venice to come later)

il bambino

For the last 2 weeks, the only internet access I had involved leaning out a second story window with an iphone in hand. We spent the last 14 days on a family trip to Italy with Abe's parents and brothers. 4 days in Rome, 7 days in a villa in Tuscany, and 3 days in Venice.

Photos and stories forthcoming.

For now, I'll post one photo by way of official blog announcement.


No, this isn't the result of too much pasta, or even of my extravagant birthday eateries in March. That's 6 months of Baby Genghis Gong. Due August 8. Alternate name suggestions welcome. It's a boy.