Games

Jason has been playing board games his whole life - first with his family and now with a group of board gaming friends. I join him and his friends sometimes at Thursday or Friday night games. More often (which isn't all that often), I join him in a game or two at home. Game nights are pretty special and we've met some of our closest friends there. Life in Colorado Springs just wouldn't be the same without these characters. While Jason looks forward to game nights all week for amazing game playing and some socializing - I look forward to it for the chance to visit with friends.

Jason's love of games is lifelong and will be a hobby well into his twilight years, I imagine. The core of this love is for strategic board games (e.g. Carcassonne, The Traders of Genoa, San Marco) where you essentially problem solve in a competitive manner. In a way, I think his strong, focused mind needs an outlet like this. He incorporates statistics into this hobby, ranking games, recording winnings, and other types of game-related mathmatical wonders. He records a lot of this on his favorite website - www.boardgamegeek.com. You can check out his profile at this link http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/smilingra

The interesting thing is that I also have a profile on the website under kleveille. If you check it out, you'll see I registered on the website a full year before Jason ever found the site. Hmm...maybe I'm more of a gamer than he gives me credit for! ; )

My love of games started with the games store we found in my neighborhood in Boston, Harvard Square. The place is called The Games People Play and is still my favorite local games store. We have a games store here in Colorado Springs called Compleat Games and Hobbies. There is something special about browsing through the boxes of games, envisioning their themes coming to life.

Jason recently found a New York Times article that describes his gaming life pretty well - especially as it pertains to game night. Here it is: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/nyregion/long-island/05Rboard.html?pagewanted=1&_r=4&emc=eta1

The photos are of two different game nights - one at Jenny and Jose's and another at Thursday night's games at Doug and Beth's. Another photo is of playing a game with Jason's family over Christmas. The frowny face photo of me is because Jason beat me by ONE point when playing The Underground. Bummer!

Our Trip Back Home

Joseph and Mom recently visited Grandma Gorgeous in Karen's Indiana hometown. We had a great time! Here is a little rundown of the fun we've had and all the special people we've visited:

• Chicago - all 3 of us went back to Karen's favorite city to visit several friends and relatives as well as just enjoy the city. We went to the awesome Lincoln Park Zoo where Joseph enjoyed looking at the penguins and the seals. That's about all the animals he really looked at - the penguins enjoyed looking back at him! We then went to the indoor botancial gardens next to the zoo. This is housed in the most beautiful Victorian greenhouse hosting year-round tropical plants and a rotating show of orchids and spring flowers. We enjoyed several dining experiences including Cornelia's (a nice Boystown restaurant who had the cutest server, Owen, and very nice people there who didn't mind Joseph's early evening meltdown). Ann Sather was the site of the most decadent brunch - it's a Swedish place offering huge, fluffy, warm cinnamon rolls, Swedish pancakes (crepes) with ligonberries, potato pancakes, and other unique food. We also went to R.J. Grunt's right along Lincoln Park - this restaurant was one of Karen's favorites when she lived in that neighborhood and it is home of the tastiest burgers and a super salad bar. It sure isn't easy to fit into packed restaurants and the busy zoo and botanical gardens with a stroller, but we made it with lots of help from Grandma! It's not ideal living in the city with a baby, but it sure is doable and fun! Little Joseph was pooped out from our trip because there was so much to look at and listen to in the city.
• Dawn - Karen and Jason's friend from Notre Dame and Boston. Dawn and her roomie were so sweet to let us stay in their GORGEOUS loft apartment just down the street from Karen's old neighborhood. It was a cozy respite from the busy city. I'm impressed with the smart multi-use building occurring there, offering great parks, fairly spacious living, and secure access while living in the middle of the city. We had a great time with Dawn, discussing all sorts of meaningful topics up until past midnight as well as enjoying the city and restaurants. Dawn just cuddled little Joseph so close - a natural mom.
  
• Denise - Karen's friend from Notre Dame and we lived in the same building on Clark Street in Chicago for a year. Denise is 9 months pregnant and ready to have her little one. Can't wait to see the birth announcement. Denise's family is beautiful, with her little 3 year old girl Mackenzie and her theater technician husband Brian. We enjoyed her 1920s home with it's beautiful wood, stained glass, and other fun quirks like our home.
  
• Bridget - Karen's friend who was a resident assistant with her at Notre Dame. Bridget is such a fun friend, always having something interesting to talk or reminisce about. Her hubby and 2 kiddos weren't able to come from outside Chicago, as we met late for dinner and then headed to a bar with Dawn to watch March Madness while Grandma stayed with sleepy Joseph.
  
• Great, Great Aunt Helen - Karen's great aunt who lives north of Chicago. We haven't seen her since the wedding - my, how time flies! She said she thought she'd never get to meet our little Joseph, but what a surprise to get to visit. She is peppy and thoughtful as ever - Karen loves to visit with her. Grandma and her got to catch up too, as she is Grandma's Aunt Helen. We didn't get to see cousin Stephen Jr. since he was at work, but we got to meet his sweet dog, Nigel.
• Godmother Jill - Karen's best friend from childhood. We had a great time with her 4 kiddos playing at parks and the nearby state park, Potato Creek. We explored the (closed) beach as the kids hunted for snail shells (they found about 20!) and then the kids got to have an adventure off the 2 miles of bike path we walked along when they explored the creek. They crossed over the creek several times using fallen trees. They slid down the river banks on their rumps. Karen was impressed that Jill has the same philosophy on play - "Messy is fun, fun is messy." Jill took Karen out for her birthday to The Vine and The Office for drinks, where they got to visit with high school friends Shanda, Vito, and Mark.
• Uncle Andre - Jason's uncle who is a priest at Notre Dame. He had fun holding Joseph while Joseph absorbed everything about his great uncle by staring intently at him. Joseph adored the "toy" around his great uncle's neck - his Holy Cross pendant. Uncle Andre always has fun stories and holds a lot of the history of the Leveille family. Such a gem! We always love getting back "home" to Notre Dame as well - this was the first time our little Irishman was at Notre Dame aside from the time he was a sparkle in Mom and Dad's eyes when they dated at Notre Dame. Go Irish!
  
• Mom's Friends - We had a great time visiting with Mom's friends John, Don, Lori, Zane, and others at a birthday party for John and then seeing our long-time neighbor Judy.
  

Whew! It was a busy trip! Here are some photos:

Second Photo Shoot

Joseph and Mommy went to Sears today to get some 6 month photos taken. Joseph had fun lounging as a nudie rudie, hanging out in the bath tub, playing in a mirror, and playing with his toys that Mom brought along with us. Let me know if you're interested in any of them, as I ordered some prints because they're just too cute.

Joseph turned 6 months old yesterday and just about sitting up on his own. He fell over while sitting and turning to look over his shoulder (oh, the contortions us models have to make!), but he's getting there. He's drooling all the time and has a bit of a cold...Mom's learning what it's like to have little ones who DON'T want their noses wiped for them.

Mystery Shopping

I've recently begun mystery shopping as a hobby. I'm an independent contractor for two companies to visit retail establishments (restaurants, gyms, stores, spas, hotels, etc.) and evaluate their customer service while purchasing their product or service as a secret shopper. When I get home, I write a *very* detailed report for the client that takes a couple of hours. I get compensated a bit for the work, but it's mainly just fun for me. It's a way that I can keep busy, try new places, put my two cents in for customer service (a passion of mine), and write detailed reports (remember, I'm a nerd - happily!) I'm also keeping my resume current by doing this, as this is loosely related to my quality assurance, assessment, and auditing work that I did as an analyst.

So far I've evaluated a gym, a very nice restaurant up in Broomfield, and a family style restaurant here in the Springs. I enjoy it! I get to take Joseph along with me sometimes, too, so it's an easy thing for stay-at-home moms to do. I don't recommend it to others for the money, though...you've got to enjoy the report writing and not mind the time it takes overall.

One of the companies I work for does this for higher end establishments. I've been trying to convince Jason for us to take one of their cruise or Las Vegas assignments. We'll see if I can convince him! How fun would that be!?

A couple nights ago I dreamt about a very cool application of Jason's array controllers that he designs and builds at work (of course with his team). I thought how it could be used to assess electric demands and allocate energy supply, thereby bypassing or combining some of the work done by system operators and power companies. In my dream, we were applying it to small-scale operations (manufacturing sites) as well as large-scale applications (like the whole Colorado Springs community). It was a way to balance demand and supply of electricity, contributing to energy conservation. It's actually a viable solution - and maybe a new market for HP!

I told Jason all about this dream and idea - he told me I need to take another mystery shopping assignment... ; ) I love being at home, but my mind does need an outlet for these ideas! Anyone wanna help me design a business plan for the energy allocation idea?? (just kidding...kinda.)

The Oscars

Our friends, Kari and Stephen, host the best Oscars party each year. Kari is the sister of Kurt, of Kurt and Amy, of Peace Corps fame. We've been invited to this party for the past 5 years now and we just love it. There's a red carpet and everything. Kari puts together prizes for the best guesses for the award winners as well as the best costume. Everyone has to come in costume - either a character from a movie (a nominee is preferred), in formal wear, or in red, white and blue. We choose to come as characters each year. This year Joseph got in on the act - he went as Wall*e. You can't tell 100% from the photo, but the costume is all authentic. Trust me. ; ) It even has a solar power indicator. Jason was the gameshow host from Slumdog Millionaire, and I was Latika from the same movie. We had a blast! We were joined by Milk and his boyfriend, Robert Downey Jr. from Tropic Thunder, and Kung Fu Panda.

EEG

Just yesterday, little Joseph had to have an EEG to monitor his brain waves. He sometimes has tremors when he's startled. Our pediatrician thinks the tremors are benign and linked to familial history on Jason's side, but we collectively decided to have him evaluated just to be sure. Especially since he had the curled up arm and wrist after birth.

The little guy was so patient and brave during the EEG! He had about 30 wires attached to his 95th percentile head, and then it was all wrapped in gauze. None of this hurt him at all and Mom held him the whole time. He let Jarod, the tech, attach everything over the first 20 minutes or so - during that time he ate a bit and just watched what Jarod was doing. Then came the gauze and Joseph was not too happy. So he fussed for about 1 minute, then fell asleep. This was perfect, since he had to then be still for 30 minutes while his brain waves were monitored. Mom was so proud of having the best baby ever to have had an EEG!

During the test, Jarod flashed strobe lights at Joseph's eyes. At the end of the test, Jarod and I tried to devise ways to have the tremors appear, since nothing out of the ordinary happened during the test so far - and they need to see the tremors in order to evaluate what is going on. Just at that moment, Joseph stretched and woke up...right on cue! So Jaron played the BEST game of peek-a-boo with Joseph, trying to startle him a bit. Nothing abnormal happened. Then I suggested blowing a table fan in Joseph's face - Joseph doesn't understand wind yet and this often sets off the tremors. It worked - tremors occurred. But the brain waves looked ok - nothing like epilepsy or something serious. We'll get a formal evaluation from the doctor in April, but things are looking good for the little guy.

Moms in Motion

So I haven't been great about blogging, but I'm getting exciting about posting more and finally inviting more friends and family to view it. Apologies up front for the lack of postings ;)

But today's blog entry is not about postings - it's about Moms in Motion. This group of ladies and I bonded while taking prenatal aqua aerobics class. All of the babies are about the same age, ranging from 6 1/2 months down to 10 weeks. We have kept in touch and have had two play dates with our babies. This last one was at our house on Saturday and the babies finally were more interested in each other. Take a look at the photo of Joseph and Spencer checking each other out. So cute!

I'm looking forward to watching these little ones grow up!