Day 2: What else can you do in a day?

After a late-night we slept in a little and had our second Jamba Juice in 8 hours for breakfast. Yes, knowing what we had for a late night snack and breakfast is important. We headed to Columbus Circle via the subway and emerged to all the fanfare that surrounds Earth-Day. How fitting, we visit Central Park New York on earth-day. Also being memorialized but less popular is the day Armenians remember the genocide by the Turks. We saw a ceremony for that in Times Square on our way to the park. Also across from the genocide commemoration was the infamous Naked Cowboy serenading all comers. Only in New York I can presume.

We emerged from the earth out into Columbus Circle only to be welcomed by HSBC employees trying to give away compact florescent lightbulbs. I didn’t want one because I didn’t want to break it hauling it around for 3000+ miles. But I watched the people beside me refuse as well, and they were locals I am sure of it, no cameras, maps, books or strollers with two kids in tow. You would think that in the epicenter of all things liberal, people would be carting off these compact fluorescents by the wheelbarrow so the Earth could be saved. It wasn’t happening, I watched for a few minutes and the only conclusion I came up with is if you want to hand stuff out in New York you need to put it in a bag and leave it on the corner. Or perhaps could it be that savvy urbane people never take something for free because nothing for free is worth having. So in this vein we preceded across the south side of central park to the east side. To what is some of the most expensive real estate in the world. 5^th Ave. Home of Tiffany’s Cartier and even Apple. Who would have thought even 10 years ago a computer store could ever grace a place like this, somehow they have pulled it off.

Our first stop was of course Tiffany’s Ashlee had to go, plus she was not as impressed by central park as she thought she would be. The trees weren’t full of leaves and the grass had not yet quite recovered from the ravages of winter. To her it was not as pristine and lush as the flagship park of Salt Lake City, Sugar House Park. In my opinion we just came too early in the year to give it a fair shake. But honestly I don’t think we could have had better weather. Low 70’s maybe high 60’s and lots of sunshine. Perfect for walking, and we did a lot of that on this day. From Tiffanys back across to 7^th avenue to the famous Carnegie Deli.

We had the most insane sandwich I have ever seen. It’s on the menu and it’s called the Woody Allen. Half Pastrami Half Corned Beef, and all heaven! It even came with two slices of Rye bread, but I’m not sure what they were for. Ashlee was amazed by the quality of the meat but she could not believe the cheesecake. It was truly decadent, Lance was thrilled by the platter of pickles they gave him and we were stuffed within 20 minutes of arriving. On our way out we were stopped maybe 5 or 6 times by restaurant patrons and staff all admiring Renee, people in Manhattan seem to adore babies.

So about a block away from the deli we had our first problem of the trip. A total blow out, and I don’t mean a tire. As I mentioned before we had Jamba Juice two times in 8 hours. There are consequences to theses kinds of decisions. Unfortunately, Lance paid dearly for those decisions. It was a total mess, I will spare you the details, but I will mention that the stroller did have to be dismantled down to its raw frame.

We had to walk all the way back to the hotel, and we made a full recovery. We set back out and caught the last Gray Line bus making the Downtown Loop. I am so glad we did. The guide for this trip was awesome, we learned so much from him and he was also entertaining, especially while he was showing off his French vocabulary so some of the other Eruopean tourists on the bus. He showed us the good and the bad and really conveyed his love of the city he calls home. We were in love with New York by the end of the Route. So much so that we stayed on the same bus and took the night time tour and saw the city at night. We got a little cold but were in good spirits. After 5 or so hours on a bus we were ready to get off and have dinner. We found a late night restaurant that was probably Ashlee’s favorite for the trip. A little French bistro that had a lot of atmosphere and great food. We walked back to the hotel for our last nights stay in the Big Apple and crashed… hard.

Day 1: The Red Eye

We booked out flights with JetBlue, which I believe is the best bang-for-your-buck value out there. The only JetBlue flight to NYC leaves SLC around midnight which has its pros and cons. Pros are: You aren’t wasting a whole day at the airport. You can sleep on the plane. You arrive very early before the rush at the airport. The flights are cheap. Cons are: You waste a whole night of rest. Nobody can sleep on a plane, no matter how much legroom you have. There is always a rush at JFK airport. Flying is always expensive. In fairness the JetBlue flights are the next best thing to business class flights. We paid less than $280 round trip. The bummer is we did have to buy a full price ticket for Lance, but at least we got a whole row of seats to ourselves.
We arrived at JFK and I had arranged a private driver to shuttle us to Manhattan from the airport. We had 10 bags and the kids car seats so we needed more than a taxi. He took us to our hotel that was truly in the heart of Times Square its called the Renaissance Hotel, and my neighbor friend Dave hooked me up with a sweet deal. This hotel was awesome! We were on the 24th floor and had an awesome view. We checked in our room and went to the hotel restaurant on the lobby floor and had breakfast, then we went back up to our room and slept. We didn’t really want to but we were too tired to enjoy ourselves.
We woke up at 2 and went downstairs and got on the Grey Line bus. This is truly the greatest way to see NYC for the first time. Our first tour guide was the low talker from Seinfeld, so we got off the bus early and checked out Greenwich Village. We ate a late lunch at a little noodle shop and walked around for a few minutes. Then we got back on another bus and headed down to Battery Park.
We decided to get off at the World Trade Center site. I was not prepared to the emotions I had while I was there. It was truly moving, and the reality of that tragic day hit me again more powerful than any time before. Happily they are starting the construction on the new Freedom Tower, maybe our next trip to NYC will be for the opening of that new tower that is to stand 1776 ft tall, I anticipate the triumph, jubilations and sorrow of that future day.
From the WTC site we walked to Battery Park and looked out on the harbor at Lady Liberty. I had wanted to do that ever since I was 7 years old. It was beautiful and as the sun went down on the first day of our trip I felt like the trip and expenses were already worth it. To see the same sights my grandparents saw when they immigrated to America from Switzerland more than half a century ago was priceless.
We then proceeded on a long walk to the South Street Seaport, which was beautiful but ultimately disappointing. The first restaurant we went to seated us immediately but we did not see a waiter or even a bus boy for water for over 20 minutes, even after a request after the first 10 minutes. We got up and left and went to another café a block or so down. The food was mediocre at best comparable to airport counter food.
We finally got a hold of our friend Kirk that was going to meet us back at our hotel. So we headed back to Times Square via the NYC Subway. That’s a load of fun with a double wide stroller and two infants. We had to look like hayseeds, and that’s mostly because we are. Times Square at night is truly a sight to behold, we walked around and finally indulged Lance with a trip to the Toys R Us store, which was really the coolest toy store I had ever seen. Kirk met us there and we walked back to out hotel.
While we were at the hotel Kirk told us all about his personal thoughts on the city. He had a great insight he shared with us. I cant remember verbatim but it was something to the effect that although while you are in the city you are never more that 20ft. away from someone, you can feel absolutely alone and lonely. The anonymity of walking around so many people you don’t know, who don’t know you, can drive you insane. And some people snap! They want others to notice them so they yell or do something weird, and sure enough people notice you. I guess that could feel good to someone who is desperately lonely. It explained to me the crazies we saw riding around the city yelling, waving, dancing and freaking us out. They just wanted us to look at them, and we did.
We followed up Kirks visit with a half block midnight run to Ray’s pizza which was just incredible. Then we went to bed ready to see the city again.

We just had to get out of Dodge.

So me, Ashlee and two kids decided to take a trip. Using my powers of persuasion we came up with the destinations of New York City and Washington DC. The real reason for the trip was to visit my sister who is currently living in Charlottesville Virginia. Her husband Ben is graduating from The University of Virginia Law School. They will be relocating to Rochester New York in September. I wanted to visit them there because I love Virginia and Ashlee had never been. So rather show up for Ben's graduation and get lost in the scheduling of that major event we decided to make a little trip out of it for ourselves and see some of the sights. I have been to the DC area a few times myself and I really thought Ashlee would love it. I wanted her to see a few of the things that I think make our country great. We chose adding New York to the trip because we just don't ever get the chance to visit that part of the country and if we didnt make the effort it would never happen, plus we missed out on the trip my parents took to NYC with my siblings in 2005 (Ashlee was pregnant with Lance). So the next few posts are going to chronicle the trip we took.

Racecar spelled backwards is racecaR

Will my son ever know who Jackie Stewart is?
Maybe the more important question is, will he even care? I can only speculate and say that I really hope so. If I was asked the latter question a week ago, I would have said no. But names are funny things, they can remind you of other things, and then it’s like scraping the proverbial iceberg, you can barely see what is really there.
Last week-end I had an impulse. Somebody I do work for, races autos for a hobby. I invited myself to go watch, knowing Lance my son would be interested, I figured it would make a good enough excuse for my wife to let me go if I took him. He LOVES cars, Cars is his favorite movie. He is less than three and can rattle off the 20 or so individual characters that make up the cast of that movie. Then I decided to call my Dad. I thought he would be mildly interested, at the least he would feel guilted into coming just to spend time with his son and grandson. I only say this because nobody wants to hear the lyrics of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" and fell like they can totally relate. He obliged to take the time out of his very grueling schedule to make the 150 mile round trip. Notwithstanding we were going somewhere none of us had ever been to. The only thing we were going off of was a half completed website describing the venue of this racing facility out in Tooele Utah. But the three of us love cars and seeing them race. Don't we?
A little background… My Grandpa Bruford, was not the idealistic grandpa every kid thinks of. Instead, my Dad’s Dad "The Colonel" as family members call him today, was a retired career Marine, battle hardened on the island of Guadalcanal during WWII. A Veteran of three wars, he said very little and drank a lot. He was always kind to me, but sadly not to my four other siblings. Apparently per family converstions, he also wasn't so nice to any of my nine cousins either, with the exception of my cousin John, who was his first grandson, and I guess since I was lucky enough to be The Colnel’s first grandson from his only son, (making me the family namesake) I was in the club. The only graduations he ever went to were John's Law School commencement and my High School ceremony (that is another entry for another day), come to think of it, he didn't make it to my Dads college graduation. I digress....
I do remember though with great fondness riding around in red a hand built go-Kart that The Colonel built. Without looking at a picture I can recall the cart. It looked like half a barrel was used for the hood and it made room over the floorpan for the drivers and passengers legs. The seat was a wide green bench covered in military green vinyl the kind of stuff cheap poolside furniture was upholstered with. There was a cotton belt to go across the lap of both passenger and driver. A white steering wheel and on the side I think was a handbrake of somesort. If memory serves me there was a bell attached to a pull string to act as kind of a horn. Behind the seat was the spray painted lawn mower engine and drive train. The tires were maybe 9 or 10 inch pneumatics. On the hood of the cart I could find my name hand lettered in paint contrasting against the red background, my name, along with the other names of my cousins and siblings. It was our cart, the coolest gift I probably never thanked somebody for. I wasn’t old enough to drive but loved the ride. My dad and my cousins Chris and John could drive me around and I was thrilled every time. I vividly recall the anticipation of waiting in the driveway for my turn and going down the hills of that neighborhood in Bonita California. It’s vague but I seem to recall John claiming he was the great Jackie Stewart, famed Grand Prix Champion, as we descended on the hills at breakneck speed with a lawnmower engine behind us revving close to the redline. On those weekends, during those rides, my cousin John was my Jackie Stewart. Interestingly John and I both share the middle name Stewart, as does my Father and Grandfather, and now my son Lance. It’s a memory like that that I can share with him that makes me say “ Yes definetly my son will know who Jackie Stewart is. But I can only pray that I will be the kind of father that will inspire him to care about that memory too.

New Life

Wellcome to this world Renee Ashlee Bruford !!!

Well Ashlee and I had our second child on January 26th, 2007. Yeah 26 days too late to get that extra tax benefit for 2006. I could have used it too. You can see some of the pictures here . She is a cutie and very much looks like her older brother Lance. She is so much different from her brother because she can actually nurse for a whole meal, and sleep for more than an hour at a time. Also she doesn't fuss much and she looks so cute in her little outfits that her grandmothers and friends gave her.

It's my Dad's birthday!

Happy birthday Dad!
My Dad isn't as old as you might think. He isn't even 55 yet. He and my Mom had me at 21 years old. On top of that they had their 5th kid by the time they were 29... Thats crazy! My Brother Tyler is 29, he's not even dating anyone. It's downright hilarious to imagine my brother Tyler right now with 5 kids and a wife. I didn't have my first kid till I was almost 29. What was in the water back in 1975?

I think my parents were 30 when this photo was taken. My Dad's birthday is a reminder to me on how hard I am going to have to work for the rest of my life, I'll be 85 before I ever inherit anything!

The First Post... again.

I tried a couple of years ago to start a blog. Yeah one entry and that was that man. So here I am again blogging (I really hate that word). Why? It's mostly because I am now responsible for getting some content pod-casted, and I noticed that blogging was by-far the easiest and cheapest way to accomplish this. I also read an article on how some bloggers are making an income on just having a web presence. Like the one that is done close to where I live. Dooce. I have no idea why people love the site so much. The writing is ok, but not that captivating. I have some other friends that blog like TDK (like a male version of the Dooce chic, but better).
I am sure people are not interested in me at all, but could be interested in some of the things I come across. So I guess I will share, and if you don't like it that’s cool, if you do, even cooler. I won’t make any money from this blog and I certainly don't want invitations on finding out how I actually can (presumably by spending a lot of my own money to go to a seminar, and find out how to host seminars on making money with your blog. Its the oldest trick in the book, I fell for it once when I was like 15, glad I learned then and not later on with a lot more money at risk).
You will see that I use parenthesis a lot and spell check never. I don't have ADD, but I do think in tangents all of the time. I am not a writer by any means ("obvious" you say). Although, I am a thinker (thank-you Glenn Beck) If that were true, I would have come up with something else just as clever to get the same point across... Hey, I just did.
I enjoy humor and wit, and I try to avoid depressing chatter, but not depressing topics. I think topics that depress us are important to discuss, and challenge us to temper our optimism.

Here is a little Bio, in case you wanted to know something about me:

Born in 1975 in Los Angeles, California (please never say Cali, or "The O.C.", so-Cal is OK but I coined lo-Cal a while back just to set myself apart from the Cal pride people from places like 619 or 714).

My family moved to San Diego when I was 5 and I was there all the way through High School. I liked it a lot. I am a member of the LDS faith and served a mission in Porto, Portugal from 95-96. I came back from my mission and got a real job and realized that San Diego was not going to be the place I would want to live and work, mostly because of the rat-race I was living in, commuting to a job 15 miles away and spending over 2 hours a day making that commute. Around the time I was making that decision, I met my wife. She was going to grad-school in Utah, and I had a lot of family/connections there, plus I had ambitions to go and finish School at BYU. That, much to the dismay of my father, never happened.

I began my career in IT, and have never really looked back. While my wife has both a Bachelors Degree and Masters Degree, our earning power was about equal. I lost the vision of the "value" of a degree, notwithstanding the value of an education; I have since declared myself an Autodidact. If I were to go back to college it would be in the singular pursuit of a JD.

So here I am a married man, with an incredible son (more about him later). I am also excited to be having a daughter in a few months. Family life is the greatest thing I can ever hope to be successful at. I have my challenges but I am excited to carry on and improve.

I was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2005, but have been in remission since my radiation therapy. That was a low point, but not the lowest in my life.

I enjoy family life, spending time with them. I don’t have a lot of free time to dedicate to hobbies. I probably can’t just pick one and stick with it anyway, too many things fascinate and compel me. I am good at what I do for a living and that is very satisfying. I have wonderful clients and they inspire me to work hard and deliver my best to them.

I like to travel, but seldom do lately (little kids make it almost impossible). I like sports, but unfortunately never participate in any at this point in time. That needs to change, really soon too.

So enough boredom for you, I will try to post again soon.