Farewell to 2008

It was a momentous year . . .

As 2008 began, Anders was about 75% baked. Little did we realize what we were getting ourselves into.

In late January, we flew out to Palm Springs for a babymoon weekend. The reason Sigrid chose Palm Springs was its proximity to the Salton Sea. Not too many women would say, hey, I'm pregnant; let's go visit a bizarre, accidental man-made sea that periodically spits out millions of dead fish! Sigrid, needless to say, is not your typical woman.

By the end of March, with Anders's due date just three days away, we were ready to meet the little guy. He had other ideas in mind.

Well, he didn't deign to join us on his due date. Or the next day, or even the next week. But on April 12, nine days past due, Anders finally said hello.

The next few weeks were a blur. Late nights, doctor's visits, and all that, yes, but what I mean is the mad scramble to get Anders a passport, so that we could go to Niya and Kofi's wedding, in Victoria, on May 10th.

In June, I said goodbye to 4½ years as a Google lawyer, and said hello (again) to the non-profit world, taking a job with the Electronic Frontier Foundation as a Senior Staff Attorney. Instead of a 90ish minute commute via the Google shuttle, I was riding my bike to the Mission.

June, July, and August flew by, and in September, we bought a new house! It's a 1915 beauty in Noe Valley, and we love it.

In October, the big news was that Anders learned to sit up.

. . . oh, and we also got out for a now-rare adult-night-out to see the Milk premiere. Very moving stuff.

In November, we elected a new president (by "we" I mean the whole country, though Sigrid and I did help). Yay!

(Photo: David Katz/Obama for America)

Anders was so excited about Obama, that he learned to crawl.

Since then, it's just been more, more, more. And now, Anders will wave bye-bye to 2008.

Here's to a wonderful 2009!

Martinis

Sigrid bought me a couple of gins for Christmas: Leopold's and DH Krahn. This brought our gin collection to eight, and that's not including the genever, though genever is gin-ish. It's sort of pre-gin—what gin was before gin became what it now is.

Anyway, my mother-in-law asked me for a martini, and I poured her one, but I also poured a martini tasting. Eight miniature martinis, in an eclectic collection of (mostly) miniature glasses. Any color you see in any of the martinis comes from the glasses, not the gins.

I had been involved in something like this once before, with five different gins, so I knew that in a side-by-side comparison, it's really quite remarkable how different the gins taste.

Hendrick's

This is one of my favorite gins to order at a bar. It's more commonly found than some of the other gins here. It's Scottish, and its signature botanical is cucumber. It's on the lighter side.

Beefeater

Beefeater is, to my mind, the most gin-like of these gins. It's an old-school London gin. It was my dad's gin, at least once he felt he could afford to drink something other than Gordon's. It has the strongest juniper taste of any of these gins.

DH Krahn

This distillery is in Mountain View, where I worked for 4+ years as a Google attorney (and where I often worked with an outside attorney with the initials DHK—no relation to DH Krahn, at least as far as I know). This gin is, like many newer gins that are busy trying to woo the vodka fans of my generation, light. Crisp. Clean. Not bad, but not so very gin-ish. I'm curious to see what my vodka-drinking friends think of it.

Sarticious

Perhaps the most distinctive of the gins I own. Made in Santa Cruz. It tastes like Christmas to me; it reminds me of holiday ales. Lately, I've been making Bronxes (3 parts gin, 2 parts sweet vermouth, 1 part dry vermouth, 3 parts orange juice, and a dash of bitters) with Sarticious.

Leopold's

This gin hails from Ann Arbor. Or at least it used to—the distillery recently up and moved to Denver. But my bottle hails from Ann Arbor. Another light gin, the Leopold's has delicate citrus notes. Chill it well, and it's a wonderful sipping gin.

Junipero

The hometown kid, distilled right here in San Francisco by Anchor (as in Anchor Brewery) Distillery. A very classic gin.

Old Raj

Old Raj's calling card is saffron, which is what gives it a yellow tint in the bottle. And perhaps it's what gives it its flowery afternote. But its punch comes from its alcohol content—110 proof.

Damrak

I'd say this is the second most atypical gin of the bunch, after the Sartitious. It's smooth and fruity. Worth a second taste, to make sure you understand what's going on in there.

Merry Christmas

Anders's first Christmas—you'd think I'd have taken a bazillion pics, but actually not so much.

We didn't get a tree this year, because the task of childproofing it seemed too daunting. But we did get a wreath at the Farmer's Market.



Anders opened his first Christmas present in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. It was a set of dishes. You know, for eating. Or, as it turns out, for playing.


That evening we moved our big childproofing fence (technically it's a dog fence) to the front room so that we could have a fire, which Anders thought was quite cool.



Once the Christmas Eve gifts had all been opened, we dressed Anders up in his Christmas jammies and let him play with his loot.



One of his coolest presents was a drum. Anders thought it tasted great.

He's ticklish

I've found an unusual way to tickle Anders.


(Sorry for the odd halo look to the video—some weird interaction between iMovie and YouTube, I think.)

The wave

Ok, so he probably doesn't yet know what waving is supposed to mean, but lately he's really into doing that little kid wave, opening and shutting his hand (usually his right hand, but occasionally his left).

hippity hoppity

Oh, the things parents do to babies.

Anders seems to have some doubts about this outfit.

But it's very cute.

The bunny rabbit is sniffing for food.

More bunny cuteness.

Dessert

Sometimes Anders gets to feed himself some banana at the end of a meal, for dessert.  A lot ends up on the floor, his high chair, or in the bib.  But he actually does consume a fair bit.

And he absolutely loves it.  This squirmy kid can spend eons eating banana.  Ok, not eons, but the dessert below lasted for over a half hour.

A Boy and his Car

Boys, they do love their cars.

Whether it's simply admiring the beauty of a lovely chassis...

...or revving the engine...

...it's always a hoot!

Of course, later Anders will have a car that doesn't sit in the middle of the family room.

Alternative teething food

Speaking of teething biscuits, here's an option we were using before.

What's that boy got in his mouth, you ask?

That's right! A radish! And as you can tell, he's not just sucking on it.  He's actually scraping bits off with his teeth.  I don't think raw radish is standard baby food.