The Lex Files

Dad’s Night In

Last night, Lauren enjoyed a Moms’ Night Out. (The nice thing about said Moms’ Night Out is that it’s with a group of moms whose husbands all participate in my occasional Dads’ Night Out.) The ladies enjoyed a meal at a newish Italian restaurant, where I presume they spent most of their evening talking about how wonderful their husbands are. And handsome. And hilarious.

Of course, when Mommy has a night out, Daddy has a night in. That meant I got to have solo duty on (most of) Anya’s dinner, and all of her post-dinner play, plus the getting-ready-for-bed-routine, and the actual going-to-bed-routine.

I’m a fan of this process, of course. It’s a blast getting extra 1-on-1 time with Anya; we just don’t get that much during the work week. Bonding as a family is wonderful fun, but 1-on-1 time is an excellent treat that’s special in its own way.

Of course, once Ani is sleeping soundly, Dad’s Night In kicks into a different gear. That’s when I break out the booze, the smokes, and the debauchery. By which I mean, “Watch Movies That Lauren Has Absolutely No Interest In Seeing.” Last night’s: Tenacious D: In the Pick of Destiny.

TDITPOD, as I call it, was much better than I expected, a brilliant mix of stupid comedy with ridiculous comic acoustic rock. You know, like The Godfather.

Losing Isn’t Everything

During dinner, Grandpa Marty (my father-in-law, who’s bacheloring it up this week as his wife is in Florida) came over to visit us — especially Anya. After dinner, some playtime, and a path, Anya headed up for nursing and bedtime.

Marty and I headed to the basement for some Boccerball, an amazingly, bizarrely fun table game given to me by my parents for my birthday late last year.

Marty soundly kicked my ass in our first two games, 5-0, 5-1. Our third game, I led 3-2, but we were rained out: Anya went to sleep in her crib, and Lauren let us know that the noise from the basement really carried (courtesy of the vents), and you could hear everything we were doing in her room. We figured better safe (no crying cranky baby) than sorry (yes crying cranky baby).

Marty, Lauren, and I then played a few games: Wise and Otherwise, which Lauren won convincingly. Then UNO, which Marty crushed us in. Lauren (unhappy to have her winning streak come to such an abrupt end, perhaps!) bailed on us at that point, at which point Marty and I played a few games of Texas Hold ‘Em. I won the first one for no money, he won the second two games played for $10 apiece.

Then we played the card game Malarkey. In a nail-biter, I managed to win that one. Barely.

Marty went home — it was 11pm. Lauren had gone up to bed about five minutes before our final game ended. She was still awake as I came into the bedroom, and without explanation, I challenged her to a best of 3 set of Rock Paper Scissors.

Lauren, hesitant but loving, agreed. We both threw scissors first. I threw scissors again, to her paper. Then I threw paper, which covered her rock.

I had to make sure that I can still be a winner, and that my minimal victories this evening weren’t flukes.

Happy Birthday to My Wife

It’s my best friend’s birthday today. On occasion, I’ve posted lovey-dovey birthday messages on this very blog, full of affection.

But Lauren doesn’t read my blog. So I gave her lovey-dovey messages in person instead. And I’m using today’s blog space to passive-aggressively chastise her for not reading the genius that is The Lex Files.

Anya and I gave Lauren a treadmill. (No, I wasn’t sending Lauren a message… Unless the message you mean was: “Yes, I love you enough to get you the expensive present you wanted so much.”)

My niece Liat would rather I be doing something more fun than writing this blog post.

Unfortunately for Liat, though, she doesn’t get a vote.

Life in Tucson

Life in Tucson is not identical to life in New Jersey. According to the Internet and my mother-in-law (two vast stores of useless and useful information), our east coast home has been literally freezing while Lauren, Anya, and I enjoy Tucson’s 80+ degree weather.

Many elements of Tucson life are identical for me to NJ living. Working from home is pretty much the same regardless of which state I’m in… Though working on the same time zone as my coworkers does have its perks.

Taking care of Anya is definitely different; we don’t have our full arsenal of babycare tools at our disposal. But she’s such a happy girl, even when sick, that it hasn’t been too tough.

Merry 2007

It’s been a good year for the Friedman family.

We sold a condo and bought a house. We moved from the west coast to the east coast. We made, and later had, a baby. Lauren and I have each changed job titles… twice. I won a $5,000 video contest and scored a free TiVo, and free baby clothes from TiVo to boot.

2006 has been one hell of a year. And with our family of 2 + dog becoming a family of 3 + dog, and my work being more promising/engaging/rewarding than ever, and our home becoming ever-homier — I think 2007 is poised to dethrone ‘06 as the best year ever.

We’ll see.

Things I make that I am proud of.

I am very proud of this, of course:

I am less proud, but still very proud, of this:

See more photos from the week of October 22nd.

More baby photos!

more photos of Anya

Announcement…

Introducing Anya Haley Friedman!

More on Lex, TiVo, the $5,000, and my baby on the way

Listen.

As I’ve mentioned repeatedly in recent days on this blog, I made a video for a website contest. I won a couple hundred bucks. I’m now a finalist in the contest to win $5,000, voted on by users.

One of the other four finalists is a guy I’m friends with who’s back in LA. I’d love to have had more time to hang out with this guy; he’s a good, smart, fun one to be around, and I wish him all the best. Of course, his movie that he’s a finalist with he didn’t make himself — he just linked off to it. And that’s allowed — but it’s certainly less effort than the hours I spent writing and recording the TiVo song.

He’s come up with a clever way to get people to vote for him. He asked people to “digg” his story (submit it to the social news filtering site digg), and in exchange, he’ll give $100 each to 10 diggers.

That’s noble.

So here’s my spin on his brilliant plan. If you and at least 29 other people digg MY blog’s plea for users to vote and I do win, I’ll donate $500 to a charity suggested by one of the diggers. That’s less money than my friend is giving away total, but it’s a more meaningful sum for a more meaningful purpose than the $100 piecemeal gifts. And frankly, I have a baby on the way, where my friend doesn’t.

So, to help me out:

1. Vote for my TiVo video at Answerbag
2. Digg this post
3. Tell your friends to do the same.

Cheers — and thank you!