On sleeping babies

My brother had an amusing post on his blog about babies sleeping (or not) through the night. My wife and I have joked about this as we've waited for my sister, who is expecting to adopt a baby in the imminent future. I quipped that with the first baby, you have a baby monitor so you can know when s/he is fussy and attend to the baby's every need. While we were too poor at the time to afford a baby monitor, I remember waking our first daughter up in the night to change her wet diaper because the nurse told us she should be changed every few hours. Everything must be carefully sanitized before baby touches it, and every evening is spent talking or reading to baby and complimenting your spouse on what a gifted and beautiful offspring s/he produced and making parenting plans for how your child will get into CalTech/Julliard/West Point and eventually change the free world.

By the fourth baby, my brother and I at least both run the fan at night because we know the little one is crying and we don't want to be bothered. Diapers are okay unless leaking or smelly, the "changing table" is whatever spot is near at hand, and the ten second rule is well in play for anything baby might stick in his mouth (including, last week, the live snail that crawled across his path). Story time is as likely to be done by older siblings as by you, you're feeling good if all of your kids are dressed when they leave the house, and when you consider his cognitive development, you proudly proclaim that your child is not in the left tail of the bell curve.

Meanwhile, our oldest is trying at the same time to grow up (she's been calling herself 10 for months now, though it's not her birthday yet) and enjoy the easy life of kid-dom. On the other hand, my wife and I are trying at the same time to maintain her childhood and encourage her to be more responsible and help out more with family chores, so we're all in the same boat. Now where did I put that parenting manual they gave us when she was born? Oh, yes, here it is.

More (free) UPB Concerts

My wife's brass band has a series of free concerts in the park beginning this Sunday and continuing every Sunday evening in June. The concerts will be held at North Park in Provo, at 500 N. 500 W. and begin at 7:00 pm. If you like brass music and live nearby, come hear what is arguably the best brass ensemble in this part of the country for free.

How not to get a job

We've been interviewing candidates for an opening on our team, and I've participated in some of the interviews. I was almost sad I didn't meet with one guy yesterday, though, as he showed up to the interview with mismatched shoes--one black and one burgundy. Now, lest you think this was some, "Pursuit of Happyness" moment, the guy is a gainfully-employed attorney who was otherwise dressed just fine. He just happened to wear mismatched shoes, one slip-on and one lace-up, no less.

My only question had I interviewed him would be, "Why should I think that you'll pay more attention to to the language you put in our contracts than to the clothes you wore to this interview?" I don't think I'm vain or brand-conscious when it comes to clothes, but come on.

Of course, this guy was no worse than the other candidate yesterday, who had no idea what the job actually entails and seemed genuinely confused whether this was a sales job or a legal position. Luckily, we've already seen several strong candidates, so it's more a matter of narrowing the list at this point. And that's something to keep in mind when you interview for a job: most of the time, there are several good candidates on paper, and they're looking for a reason to exclude you, not to hire you.

An uncle again

My sister called last night with the very happy news that a birth mother has picked them to adopt her child. The woman is due on June 1, but she doesn't know yet if it will be a boy or a girl, since she hasn't had much prenatal care.

Anyway, I was so excited for them, and I'll be thrilled with either a niece or a nephew, as will they, I'm certain. I was happily yelling out to everyone in the family while I was still on the phone with her. So now we all have a few weeks of anxious waiting and praying to see that everything goes well and the birth mother stays with her commitment. I'm sure they will be good parents, and I truly believe this woman is making the right decision, based on the little I know about her circumstances.

UPB Concert

My wife had her season finale concert last night. She plays in a British brass band, and they are quite good. Last night's concert also featured a (bag)pipe band playing with the band on some of the numbers, as well as some Irish dancers. The total performance was outstanding. For a Scots-blooded brass lover like me, it was one of the best concerts I've ever attended. I was particularly moved by the arrangement of Amazing Grace with the pipes and band together. I don't care how "evangelical" that hymn is. I think it belongs in the LDS hymnal.

I'm really glad my wife gets a chance to play in a high-level ensemble again after taking so many years off while we struggled with money and schooling.

Nephew

I'm happy to report my nephew is doing better and checked out of the hospital this afternoon. Still, he ended up staying here with my brother while his wife flew home with the rest of the family. He simply was not in good enough shape to make the trip.

Sick nephew

My brother is finishing up his visit to Utah. He's had a lot going on, but it has been nice to see him. It made me wish he would move his family back to Utah. I'm sure our kids would all enjoy seeing more of their cousins, too.

Unfortunately, his two-year-old has come down with some pretty serious flu-like symptoms. He got sick while they were at Zion National Park. They're back at my parents' house now, but little L is in the hospital with dehydration and fever. My brother has had to change his flight to stay with L while the rest of the family prepares to fly home.

That also means that only my oldest nephew, E, will be coming to my wife's brass band concert tonight. She plays in a British brass band, and they have their last concert of the fall-winter season tonight. E plays trumpet in middle school, so he should enjoy hearing a semi-professional brass ensemble, but it's too bad the rest of the family will miss it. I'm really looking forward to it myself. I'm happy my wife is playing her trumpet again after taking so much time off as we had babies and struggled through school.

Major transaction

Well, I've made it through another quarter-end. When you support sales at a public corporation, the quarterly ebb and flow is huge, and our quarter just ended. Every quarter, I worry that I'll get down to the last week or two and have a huge deal pending, and that's just what happened this time. We had very high-level executive involvement, a high deal value, and a very complicated agreement all coming to a head with just days left in the quarter. In fact, this thing went down to the very last day before it got signed and we got a purchase order. I don't want to be a tipster in violation of insider trading laws, so I don't want to talk about the deal specifics, but it was a big deal for me. It's probably not material to the company, since the revenue is mostly deferred, but it was very strategic and should really raise my profile here. It's also a good argument to my manager that the time is right to promote me from my current band to the next band, which would be the highest level I could go in the organization without having a director- or assistant GC-level title (essentially the top of the "staff" ranks).

I was discussing my deal with a colleague the other day, and we agreed that it's good to work on some--but not too many--of these deals. If there were never high-visibility, high-pressure deals, my job could get old after a while, and we would feel unfulfilled and leave. On the other hand, this has been draining, and I've had some tense late evening and early morning meetings. If I had to do this every quarter, I would probably get burned out and leave--or at least, it would take a lot more money to make me do this all the time.