Wii had a Fun Time at David's Birthday!

At about half past midnight many years ago, our son David Daniel was born. We were hoping that he would be born the same day as my father, but he held out until the wee hours of the following morning.

Of course, that was central time. It was still my Dad's birthday Hawaii time!

And in the decade since David's birth, he hasn't taken off a baseball cap since...



And as is our custom, each of us selects the "cake" of their choice - David's being a chocolate cream pie, of course.

To make matters even more confusing, we celebrated with a birthday breakfast, then sang happy birthday over the pie, only to put the pie back in the fridge for a lunch-time snack.

Why all this birthday confusion? Well, for the last two months the kids have known that on David's birthday one of his presents would be so special that it wasn't just for him - but for the whole family. And we wanted the whole day Sunday to play with it!

But before we go to that, David's first birthday present was to finally receive his personal checking account from the Bank of Bicoy...



This is a life lesson we started with Alyssa and are now continuing with David. Until this age, the kids receive a small allowance of a dollar or three a week, mostly to be used for fun stuff (and to contribute to birthday gifts for friends and family).

When our kids turn the right age, however, we open them a real savings account at a bank and a pretend checking account with the Bank of Bicoy.

Cari set up a budget for pretty much everything David would typically need over the year. How many new pairs of jeans he will need. How many shirts. New shoes, sandals, and socks. Haircuts, school supplies, and presents for birthdays, Christmas, mother's day, and the all important father's day.

She even built in money for activities like little league baseball and just plain ol' fun stuff.

Once that budget is set, we contribute 1/12th that amount into a savings account for David every month - and he can spend it however he wants. He can spend all his money on comic books and video games if he wants - but when he outgrows his jeans and he has no money left, too bad. He has to wear those high-water pants until the next regularly scheduled deposit. Just as one day as a grownup he'll have to wait until payday.

If he uses all his money on that really cool new jacket and he has no money to register for baseball, tough luck.

The goal, obviously, is to teach the kids to prioritize things, save money, and to recognize that money isn't a limitless resource. It also has the added advantage of never having to hear your kids say, "Can I have that?" when you're at the store. The answer is always, "It's your money." If they run out, too bad.

The good news is that if he's thrifty and buys his jeans on sale to come in under budget, he gets to spend the savings on fun stuff for himself.

To take the learning a bit further, we set up the Bank of Bicoy - which is a pretend checking account from which he "writes checks" to pay his bills as needed.

It's a lot of work on our part, but it worked well with our oldest Alyssa. She HATES spending money and has an aversion to shopping.

We love that.

Alyssa did such a good job shopping at sales and saving her money that she actually was able to buy a brand new ipod earlier this year, entirely because of her own good budgeting.

Finally, however, after the Bank of Bicoy and the other gifts, David was going to get to the big birthday present.

Grandma Betty and Grandpa Bernie sent Christmas money last December which, when combined with a change jar to which everyone in the family contributes, we were going to splurge and buy something completely ridiculous for the kids. Unfortunately, the gift on which we were going to use that money at Christmas was sold out everywhere. We searched high and low all December to no avail - and in fact even now in March Cari had to wait in line first thing in the morning at Target to get one of the only 24 units that were available this month.

It's really a gift for all the kids, and David's birthday presents from us were going to be all the anxillary things around the main gift. But we thought it would be fun to open on David's birthday.

What is it?

Well, we told Nalani and Malia that it was going to be spaghetti. And of course they went and told their brother David.

David, in turn, didn't believe his sisters, even though they ultimately proved to be at least partially correct...



Look above at the enthusiam on David and Alyssa's face after they finished opening a wrapped present consisting pasta and spaghetti sauce.

Then compare that reaction to the screams of the kids when they opened the real present...



Yes, it's a new video game system.

The brand new and best-selling Nintendo Wii.

Why is this video game system so darn cool? Look at the picture of David playing golf below...



You control the Wii with a wireless motion-sensitive remote. In the case above, David swings the remote as if it were the handle of a golf club and the character on the screen follows his exact motion.

Here's another scene in which David is throwing a virtual pitch and Bretty is swinging his virtual baseball bat...



The harder David throws, the faster the pitch. As Bretty swings his bat, so too does his character on the screen...



And this is just a simple game to teach you how to use the motion-sensitive controls. You'd be amazed at how much fun the Wii really is! That's why it has been impossible to find until just a few weeks ago - but we now finally have one!

Happy Birthday & Merry Christmas to the Bicoy kids!

A New State: North Carolina

Okay, maybe it's not exactly a "new" state, but until yesterday, it was a state to which I had never been. So now here I am, bored out of my mind in North Carolina, but at least I can add one to say that I have visited 39 of the 50 states.

On the way across this huge nation of ours, I had a layover at O'Hare in Chicago where our pilot pointed out the prototype of the largest commerical passenger jet in the world which is touring America...



The European made Airbus 380. Although it doesn't look that big from afar, it's wingspan is as big as a football field. It's here in the United States for airline executives to see, but thus far no major American carrier expressed any intention to order any of these monster airplanes.

Anyway, getting back to my trip, I hadn't been to O'Hare in a number of years. When I was in college at Tufts, I would regularly fly through Chicago on my way home from Boston to Honolulu. And during those trips, I would transfer from a relatively small plane from Boston to a much larger one for the direct flight to Hawaii.

That meant I had to go through a tunnel from one terminal to another - something I had not done for many, many years.

But yesterday I got to visit the "doodledoodledoodle" tunnel in O'Hare. "Doodledoodledoodle" is best pronounced when sung aloud repeatedly as alternating ascending and descending scales. That is the sound that coincides with the blinking lights in the tunnel between terminals at O'Hare...



I always loved going through this tunnel numerous times a year almost some twenty years ago. Ah hah, my fascination with all that colorful neon was foreshadowing my future home in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada!

Upon my arrival in Greensboro, North Carolina, however, I quickly realized that the fancy parts of the giant O'Hare International Airport simply did not exist in Greensboro.

While we used a jetway in Chicago when boarding our plane, getting off was a little more old fashioned...



Of course, after walking down the steps off the plane, we immediately had to walk up another stairway to get into the terminal...



As you can see in the picture above, the guy in front of me wasn't pleased with having to walk down and up all those stairs. At least on Molokai there weren't any stairs!

I am in Greensboro to meet with other foundation executives from across the nation to discuss weighty, important and pressing issues facing our field and our nation...



Just pretend you don't see the goofy guy on the top right of the picture. Actually, I'm here for a meeting of the Committee on Inclusiveness which promotes inclusive practices at foundations, which is important work. It's just that while we taket he work very seriously, we don't take ourselves very seriously - which is probably just the way it should be!

Well, the worst part about having a meeting in Greensboro is that it eats up three days for us pacific time zone people. Because it is such a small airport, there aren't any direct flights from the far western states. So that means unless folks like me want to spend the night flying, we have to fly in on Tuesday for an all day Wednesday meeting, and then cannot leave until Thursday.

That part really stinks because it consumes three of my work days to participate in only one day's work. While this is important stuff we're doing here, I hate wasting all that time.

So anyway, I decided to spend this evening searching out a nice but unique restaurant at which to have dinner. I figured if I was going to come all this way, I didn't want some local diner - I wanted to sample some real local delicacies.

The hotel concierge pointed me to an area in which I would find "a number of wonderful new restaurants" that have opened in the last two years.

I guess in Greensboro, you don't realize that you can find places like this...



...Mimi's Cafe on every other corner in a big city.

And last time I checked, P.F. Chang's isn't exclusive to Greensboro...



Nor is Macaroni Grill...



I thought I found a neat little outdoor cafe with umbrellas...



Only to realize it is a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Shop.

Finally, I found Flemming's - a nice steakhouse complete with valet parking and a unique atmosphere...



I was talking to my wife on the phone who was back home sitting in front of her computer at the time. A quick google search on her part revealed that there is a Flemming's Steakhouse about four miles from our home in Las Vegas.

So finally I gave up and at decided upon something uniquely Greensboroian...



Chick-fil-a. Home of the...



Okay, maybe it's a fast food joint, but at least it's one that can only be found in the south. I figured if I'm going to eat something I don't really want, I might as well save the Nevada Community Foundation a few bucks on my meal tonight.

Of course, the homogenization of America isn't limited to restaurants.

Every time I travel on business, I bring back a gift for each of my kids and a jewelry box for my wife. Ideally, I want to find things that are indicative of the place I'm visiting - it doesn't make a lot of sense to bring back something that they could have purchased back home just down the road.

So I also asked the concierge to point me in the direction of a funky or interesting shopping area where I could pick up some gifts for my family. He sent me to a literally brand new outdoor center of shops which is the gem of Greensboro.

Here you can find "unique" places like J.Jill and Talbots...



and Foot Locker, Lane Bryant...



And of course Barnes & Noble and Old Navy...



Not exactly original Greensboro shops. In fact, every single store in this open air uptown-type shopping is part of a major retail chain. The only thing I had never heard of was Harris Teeter - their grocery store. But even that is a major southern grocery store chain.

At first I thought how sad that the funky, original and unique stores can hardly be found anymore.

But then, I did find this in one of the chain stores I visited today...



Anti-bacterial, hand-washable, quick-drying women's travel underwear that can be worn every single day for 42 consecutive days.

Maybe there are some cool things about corporate America after all.

It's March... Go Jump in the Pool!

That had a very different meaning when we lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin (temperature there as I write this... 26 degrees).

In Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada, it was a balmy 87 today with an expected high of 90 tomorrow.

And so our son Bretty christened the pool for the next eight months of warm swimming weather...



David was quick to jump in as well...



Kekoa was supposed to wait so we could catch him in the air, but he was just too excited to pause and all we caught was the end of his jump...



Even Malia and Nalani couldn't wait to launch the pool season...



Pretty much the whole family was having a grand old time, then we realized that someone was missing...



So a'knocking we went on the bedroom door of our eldest child.

She enthusiastically welcomed us...



Expressed her great enthusiasm at joining us in the fun...



And quickly joined her brothers and sisters in the pool...



Ah, ain't life grand?

Mr. Bicoy Goes to Washington

Okay, maybe it's not that dramatic, but it did make for a fascinating day.

I've worked briefly in the United States Capitol when I was in my very early 20s. I've visited this place many times as a tourist both with and without my family. Today, however, I played lobbyist.



My mission today was to visit with both of Nevada's Senators and all three of its members of the House of Representatives to appeal for some legislative changes with regard to charitable tax law.

Ah, the joys of the minutiae of the charitable provisions contained in the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

I was hoping to post a picture or two from my visit to Capitol Hill, but these legislators are so ridiculously busy that meetings occur in the most unusual places. One Congressman was in the middle of a committee hearing, only to step out so we could meet in a shared staff room right off the committee room. Another Congressman was in the middle of a series of votes on the floor of the House of Representatives. That meeting occured standing in the hallway right off the floor of the House.

The most interesting thing is that this is completely normal business around the Capitol building. In each case, a number of other members of Congress were nearby also holding meetings standing in hallways or in the corners of some borrowed room.

We had only 15 minutes or so each time so using any of it to awkwardly find a place to pose for a picture seemed a waste of time.

And thus, my visit to the Capitol itself went pictureless!

The good news is that on the walk from the hotel to the Capitol, I did find some interesting things.

For instance, I passed the headquarters for the Environmental Protection Agency...




It's hard to see, but on the doors in the upper right corner of the picture above, you'll see a sign bragging that, "This building runs on GREEN power."

Ironically, directly across the street from this entrance to the EPA is this building...



The Internal Revenue Service.

I suspect that the IRS is really the "green power" running the EPA's building.

I was also saddened to know that in this political environment of partisanship and accusing your critics of working for the terrorists that independence is broken...



Or at least the Independence Street sign is broken.

Then again, it appears that American history is at an end anyway...



Well, the National Museum of American History is closed, after all.

Last night I did walk through Chinatown and although it's really obvious in retrospect, I was surprised to see how much was written in Chinese. That includes street signs...



A sub sandwich shop...



A Starbucks...



And my personal favorite...



Yes, authentic Texas Barbeque for the Chinese community!

What other nation's capitol would be so welcoming to those who are different? Ya gotta love America!