Paddington, London ...

Back again at the Paddington Hilton sans family and it is just past midnight. The trip is becoming pretty routine for me after 4 trips in the past 3 months (3 of them in the last 6 weeks). Dropped off at SFO on a Sunday at 5:00 PM, Ambien at 6:15, flight at 7:30, asleep by 10:30 and arrive next day at 2:00 PM local time. Heathrow Express by 2:30 (I don't check bags), Hilton at 2:45 and meetings starting at 4:30 PM and last until 10:00 PM. Bed by 1:00 AM and wake up fresh to start work in London by 8:00 on Tuesday morning. Well ... you get used to it.

Thought I'd blog since I'm not tired yet. Must have slept too much on the plane. All seems to be going well at home. Tania visited the rheumatoligist today. No diagnosis but they gave her cortizone shots to help with the pain. Awaiting test results for fifth's disease, which should arrive any day now. Fingers crossed that is the diagnosis so that we have some idea why she has been feeling so bad.

But she claims to be feeling at least 5% better. Maybe that is because she is finally getting some sleep. We had a night nanny come in on Friday and Saturday nights so Tania got 2 night's rest. Was well worth every penny. Any expectant or future mothers take note! And if you live in NorCal we have just the lady for you! Tania also put Andy on a strict feeding / sleeping schedule as presribed by Gina Ford (aka "the Baby Nazi") in her best selling UK book (on Amazon at http://snipurl.com/ContentedBaby) and website http://www.contentedbaby.com/. We had originally sworn never to succumb to her methods but after hearing that so many of our friends did well on Gina Ford we thought we'd give it a go. Day 2 and already noticing a difference. Too early to call it but Andy slept 5 hours for the first time ever last night. Coincidence? But we are only planning to stick with it for a few months until Andy is old enough for us to fall back on our old favourite methods of Tracy Hogg (Amazon at http://snipurl.com/BabyWhisperer/ or website http://www.babywhisperer.com/. It has really proved to be the perfect baby method for Tania and me and for our lifestyle / values.

And more of a sign that life is returning to normality, we had a foursome date night on Saturday evening with Tania's parents. We visited one of Palo Alto's local gastronomique (said with my best French accent, which isn't very good) restaurants called Bisto Elan (http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/09.28.00/dining-0039.html), which if you're ever in the area is fantastique. I started with the very politically incorrent foie gras - I think the waitress gave me the evil eye as she told me it was planned to be outlawed by 2009. Fuck it - it was on the menu so give it to me!!! Kay had lobster, Myron an artichoke (sort of) salad and Tania had the very adventurous green salad. See Bass, Gnocchi on Fava Beans and Scallops for main course and we EACH had desserts, which were the highlight of the meal. Split a bottle of wine (both ladies drank!) and some port for dessert. No wonder I didn't sleep very well that evening. But we all felt human for an evening. Then I got home and decided to try and get all my new speakers and receiver wired to the tv to have surround sound. Just a 5 minute project, right? Tania wasn't impressed. Oh well, I guess boys will be boys. Sorry, honey!

So that brings me to today. Now it is 12:30 AM and I have to give a PowerPoint presentation to investors in London tomorrow. I guess I should get to bed. See ya.