Silicon Valley Moms Blog

Sometimes, It’s The Dads That Know Exactly What To Do

You know, sometimes dads have just the right touch at the right time. While most of the time I believe that my husband (and many dads in general) has this amazing ability to tune out the whining and cries of our girls that I could never master, other times, I’m simply in awe at his patience and knack for coaxing smiles and giggles from an otherwise belligerent, on-the-verge-of-a-tantrum preschooler.

Take the other night for instance. One of our 4-year-old girls did *not* want to go to bed and did *not* want to have anything to do with the bedtime routine. So at toothbrushing time, when she wouldn't open her mouth, my husband proceeded to brush her nose. Now THAT got a reaction and an open mouth...albeit full of giggles. It’s a story my girls tell me all the time. I have been in that same situation several times and admit that I usually let my impatience get the best of me. I’ll switch over to getting on with the bedtime tasks with my other daughter which, for the most part, results in my first daughter screaming that she wanted to be first! And forcing her way into position to demonstrate her point. Ugh!

New meaning to the word "Homecoming"

When I walked in the door after a 10-day trip away from my family, the first thing my spouse said to me after a kiss hello was “We’re out of bread.”

With a grocery store within walking distance of our house, a fully stocked fridge upon my departure, and ten days away from my family, really?  That’s the first thing you want to say?  How about a “honey, how was your trip?” or “Supplies are low, but I’ll run up to store tonight for you – you’ve been traveling for 15 hours.”

I know being the parent who gets left behind while the other spouse is traveling, isn’t easy.  It’s hard to be the one that has to hold down the fort.  But good grief is it really that hard to go to the store to pick up a few items?!?

Send Him Out to the Ball Game

Tonight, I sent my husband out at short notice to a Giants baseball game.  TypePad kindly gave tickets to the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, and I was the first one to grab them.  I've learned after several serious relationships and now approx. 8 years with my husband that it's good to encourage a boys' night out, and I knew he wouldn't plan one himself.  He just started a new job on Monday, he has a ton of things to do around the house, and his mother is coming to visit next week.  (Oh no, please don't let me start thinking about that yet...)

So off my husband went to the ball game with a friend, and he had a great smile on his face as he left, which to me meant I did a good wifely deed.  Yeah, sure, I thought about getting a sitter so I could go too, but I spent all day yesterday in San Francisco celebrating with a close friend who is going off the pill to start trying for a baby, and doing "research" for SFBayStyle articles (checking out stores and restaurants counts).  I spent most of today in San Jose covering a fashion show fundraiser for the Ballet San Jose School.  I had spent maybe 2 hours with our daughter in the past 2 days, so I thought it might be nice for us to spend an evening, just the two of us, even though we will be together most of the next few days.  And really, we all need to get out and have some down time.  I think it's important for a healthy relationship.

Family Necklace

About a month and a half ago I was watching Oprah. Don't laugh!  I'm sure you have your vice too.  Mine happens to be Oprah. And Dr. Phil And American Idol. And What Not to Wear...

But I digress.

In the Oprah episode I'm speaking of, Oprah interviewed Seal and his wife Heidi Klum.

"Whatever," I though, "I know nothing about them, and I'm not too interested. But then they began talking of their love for each other, their kids, and their priorities.  And somewhere during that show they displayed their family necklaces.

Family necklaces. What a cool idea!! My husband and I got talking. We wanted a family necklace too.

The 2007 Blogging Wife

Just another Silicon Valley blogging couple - Beth B.'s husband Neil came to visit for dad's day.

On family vacations when I was a kid, my Dad used to get a kick when my Mom would pick up the check and pay all the bills. This was New England in 1970s. Waiters and hotel clerks seemed to be uncomfortable with a woman holding cash while her family walked out the front door.

So now, decades later and on the other side of the United States, I experience a similar perverse pleasure watching my techmama do all the home IT tasks that I always thought would fall to me, the Electrical Engineer in the family. Beth is the one calling PacBell when the DSL goes down and replacing the router when we decide it's all working too slowly. I intentionally wander the isles at Best Buy and watch her drill the salespeople on the finer points of cell phone Bluetooth headsets. Usually, she gets a better reception

Are the Presidential Candidates Good Fathers? And does it matter, anyway?

Recently there was some great, healthy (and entertaining) debate on this blog about presidential candidates and their parenting.  The basic premise was that the candidates’ wives may not be good mothers because they have their young kids on the road and in front of the media for the election campaign.  Sprinkled into the discussion was also the notion of having limited family time due to illness or other unfortunate circumstances.

Implied in the discussion was that the candidates themselves (husbands) get a free pass in terms of being fathers.  Ironically, the "mommy blog" was much more critical of wives than of husbands.  Don't fathers have responsibilities to the kids as well?  If so, is it equal responsibility to the mothers?

Being a dad in the silicon valley, I am intimately familiar with long work schedules, constant distractions, and work-life balance issues.

Problem Solvers vs. the 9-5 Drones

Living and working in Silicon Valley was a very delicate balancing act: on one hand work was empowering and in most situations my colleagues were open to new ideas and had a real desire to change things for the better. But it was frequently difficult to tear myself away from work in an evening to see my kids before they went to bed, or to avoid firing up the laptop on the weekends in order to spend time with my wife. Problem-solving becomes infectious when you are surrounded by other problem-solvers; at times I am sure I resembled an addict waiting for my next fix –well, why not, we were changing the world weren’t we?

Twelve months ago we moved from the Bay Area and back to the UK in order to be closer to family. (The other alternative was Florida but that place is just too damn hot for an Englishman! Besides, I have a fear of hanging chads.) It was when I re-entered the UK job market that I received my rude awakening…

Another day in the life spent preparing 3 and 4 year old boys for a career in professional soccer

“Do you guys want to play soccer?”. Both K and D say “Yes!”. Like they have a choice, since they are named after the only truly talented and creative English soccer player to ever play the game (Kevin Keegan), and the best American soccer player (Landon Donovan). (Hint: We used the player’s last names…….). We try to push past our two dogs, Pele’ and Pelota, and up to their bedroom where we choose between soccer uniforms representing Pachuca, two different Chivas uniforms, USA national team, Liverpool (K. Keegan’s old team), Corinthians, Figurense, Sao Paulo, Juventude, Brazil national team (Ronaldinho or Ronaldo), Barcelona (classic Ronaldo jersey from 7 years ago), Real Madrid, the white Santos uniform, or the black and white Santos uniform (Pele’s old team). Fifteen minutes and one potty break later, the boys are ready to joga bonita.

Now we need to find their soccer cleats, but we need to pour out the sand from their shoes first. Clapping them together like erasers at the blackboard does the job, and we are ready to double-tie our way to the soccer shoe stability. K is all over doing this on his own, but in a rare retraction from his “I can do it!” stance, D allows me to take care of the complicated procedure for him.

Testosterone Day

SUMMARY of Testosterone day on the Silicon Valley, Chicago and DC Metro Moms Blogs

Alec Baldwin: Driven to the Edge by Parental Alienation?

After some days where I rush around all morning (with my husband's help) getting the kid's ready for school, make their lunches, then go shopping to get the foods they liked stocked in the fridge, stop by a store to find the right slim cut pants that fit my son, quickly go into the party store to get summer outside toys like chalk and bubbles, run into the house to finish signing the kids up for summer school, call their mother's friends to confirm playdates, try to fit in some time to do my own work at home, pick them up from school, play outside with them until I have to cook them dinner, work with my hubby to get them ready to bed and read stories - and then they get mad at me because I could not help them put together their transformer car thingy toys (that always falls apart) - well, I am close to completely losing my temper. One time I even started to say "you are being a p...." (pain) to one of my sons. Instead I said "pan" and got a very confused look.

When I read in the New York Times today an article ("I'd Like to Get Off The Stage Right Now") that discussed the message Alec Baldwin left on his 11 year old daughter's phone calling her a "rude, thoughtless little pig", I had to think for a second on what I found the most offensive. Was it that he called his daughter a "pig". Was it that he left it on her answering machine? Was it that someone actually leaked a conversation of a divorced dad pushed to edge because his daughter would not call him when he asked? Was it that, as a parent, I wished Alec Baldwin could have the chance to work on the relationship with his daughter in private? Was it that the apology to his daughter was public on his personal website?  Or was it that in the digital age acts of desperation are being recorded for the world to see?

I don't know any parent that has not been pushed to the edge of frustration at one time or another. One of the hardest things I find about being a parent is that you always need to be a role model, even when you are mad, frustrated, alienated, scared, tired, sick (shall I go on).....

I also come from a divorced family but I was lucky that my parents handled the angry details behind the scenes, and that I have a great relationship with both parents. My Dad lives a flight away from me and has also been frustrated that I have not returned his calls at times. But instead of calling me a name, he leaves me a heart-wrenching "why don't you return my calls, are you mad at me?" message. Guilt is an effective tool; knowing that he is spending his day wondering if I am mad at him will always push me to return his call. He is also very supportive that I am a busy mom and apologizes when I finally do call him.

In the end I feel parents need to watch what they say, even if it means calling your child a "pan" in a moment of frustration.

Beth has a personal blog called "Techmamas" where she discussed the top ten ways alienated Dads can communicate with their kids.

Related Link: Strollerderby posted on April 21: Alec Baldwin Apologizes, Blames "Parental Alienatoin" for Outburst.

Thankful for Dads that Cooked Thanksgiving Dinner

My sister-in-law and I were sitting in their living room on Thanksgiving eve, playing with the kids, when we both realized an amazing thing: We had not lifted a finger to prepare any food for dinner. Our husbands did the shopping and all the cooking while we kept the kids entertained. I took my boys to the San Francisco Zoo (which is actually open Thanksgiving Day) and my sister-in-law took her boys on an outing.  Is this part of a growing trend or are we just lucky to have husbands that enjoy cooking? Or is this a strategy for segregation of duties since my sister-in-law and I both do not enjoy cooking?

Before we had our delicious boys, my husband and I were a great cooking and entertaining team. We enjoyed planning for what we would serve, having wine while we cooked dinner together and then serving our guests. Some people can cook lavish meals with kids, but I have not been able to. All the distractions make it hard for me to have the same interest in cooking.

I was pleased to find out that my husband enjoys cooking. He uses his engineering background to master recipe measurements and his marketing to add creativity to the dishes. My brother-in-law is a lawyer who uses his talents to fine tune the art of cooking a juicy turkey and making incredible stuffing.

Excuse me for being mushy, but I feel very thankful to have a husband and brother in-law who participate in family events with such enthusiasm. As Mary Tsao adorably demonstrated in her post "Guilty Mommy Doesn't Live Here Anymore", all Dads that cooked Thanksgiving Dinner should give themselves a big pat on the back! And Moms should also give themselves a pat on the back; for all the cooking, caring for kids and entertaining they did on Thanksgiving and every day.

RECAP!!! TESTOSTERONE DAY ON SILICON VALLEY MOMS BLOG

RECAP, RECAP, RECAP!!!!

"What, blogging again?" We Silicon Valley Moms bloggers hear that phrase a lot these days from our husbands, when they track us down to find out why we're ignoring the kids screaming. (We can tell the difference between "kid who is bleeding" and "kid who is a drama queen" in our sleep, we don't have to leave the keyboard to check.) But we decided we'd hand over the keyboards to the dads (and maybe they'd get off our respective cases). We've asked them to tell us what they think about our blogging on Silicon Valley Moms Blog, about what it is like to be the spouse of a Silicon Valley mommyblogger or what are their challenges as dads raising kids in the valley?   On Monday, October 9th, we let them say it right here, on our blog. 

Here is the recap!

• Mike on Simple Pleasure Scorecard
• David on Me and Lia on the Lanai
• Neil on High Tech Treasure Hunting for Dads and Kids
• Brian on Organized Chaos
• Frank on Single and NOT in Silicon Valley
• Curt on Groundhog Saturday

Single and Not in Silicon Valley

When I first moved out to Silicon Valley over 25 years ago, I was young, creative, and single. I was full of optimism about the technology possibilities, full of energy, and reveled in the sunshine and lack of Winter.  I moved around a bit, from a Los Gatos apartment to a San Jose suburban home to a townhouse with a view in Cupertino and even in a shared group house in the Ladera hills.

The tech life was certainly fulfilling, but the social life was actually miserable. I didn’t have much chance to meet anyone at work, and as for the club and bar scene, well, let’s be kind and say I was really lousy at being single. Although I had my share of encounters and relationships, none of them worked for very long, and all of them left me very lonely. I did learn a few things, however, especially about what did and didn’t work, and ended up a list of things that perhaps would make the right partner for me.

And it was a surprising list. Gone were the shared love of science and technology, the expression of creativity, what was essentially my mistaken thought that I needed to find someone like me. Much more important were a need for mutual sharing and skills at listening, and a value for the importance of family and commitment.

It was on a long assignment to Texas that I found someone who had those qualities, and since I had this list in the back of my mind, I knew it very quickly.  Of course, we moved in together and got married, and after our honeymoon around the world, I dragged her, kicking and screaming, back to California and Silicon Valley.

Our first trial was the housing market. In Texas, we had a Texas sized house, and had room for everything and more. But, 10 years ago, the housing market in the Valley was brutal. We were parked in the limbo of relocation housing, enduring weekend after weekend of open house visits and crowded bidding wars on places a fraction of the size of the place we left behind. Our bids were always too late or a dollar short, until we saw a place in Palo Alto and got our offer faxed to the owners just a couple hours before the next bid came in.

Being married here is a lot different than being single. Although I can’t just take off for a nude beach on a whim like I used to, those beaches were really too cold to be comfortable, and it’s so much better being together. Especially when some of those life events, like the death of parents and grandparents, come along, as they eventually will.

And, speaking of life events, now we have a son, a wonderful son, adding even more love to the mix. And when it takes weeks of planning to simply be alone, loneliness is a far and distant memory. Having a child also means: School! The schools are good, for sure, but I am still amazed at the thought of pre-schools that cost more than a year at college cost me. The attitudes and ambitions of parents in this competitive environment also continue to amaze me, and I wonder about the future of the community. It keeps us on our toes, that’s for sure. But, challenging though it is, it sure beats being on my own in Silicon Valley.

--Frank S.

Organized Chaos

It’s another day in the Pelton house. K wakes up screaming in the middle of the night that he has to go potty. I get up and help him down his bunk bed ladder, into the bathroom and wait for him to tell me “I want to sleep with you guys”. I silently agree, pick up my beautiful son (a.k.a oh-my-god-you’re-cute I), and begin the slow Helen Keller walk carrying K through a house that is dark from an absence of light. I have learned to never check to see what time it is because it just reminds me I will be tired the next morning from waking up in the middle of the night. After managing not to step on Legos, toys, dogs, toy dogs, toothbrushes (no, I don’t know why there are on the ground either) and the evil heating grate near my bed, then quietly rewarding myself for not accidentally hitting K’s head on a doorframe, we arrive at my side of the bed. K is slowly laid on my side of the bed and is asleep before I can lay down next to him. I slide into bed, hoping not to wake my wife Nicole, and begin my effort to try to sleep the sleep of a good Christian, whatever that means (ed. it’s from one of our favorite movies, “Like Water for Chocolate”). My adopted role as an expatriated Catholic catches up with me, though, because sleep does not returns for at least an hour and I awake exhausted. D announces the rise of the sun as he enters (stage left) into our bedroom and informs us that he wants some chocolate milk and to “watch a little bit of tv”. The day has begun.

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After the organized chaos that is Nicole getting K ready for preschool, they leave the house and D and I lapse in our morning pattern. I try to get more sleep, check my email for replies to emails sent days and weeks ago, watch Dora, Diego, Backyardigans, Wonder Pets and/or Blue’s Clues, and play with my beautiful son (a.k.a. oh-my-god-you’re-cute II), all at the same time. My deviated septum allows me no rest, even with plenty of sleep, so it takes me awhile to get catch up to pace and attention span of a 2 ½ year old. I usually spend this time of the morning in suspended animation, caught off guard (again) about how much I love my son and how just holding him in my lap can be so peaceful while we watch Dora work through her day with her co-dependent monkey. Time for breakfast and the wonder of coffee from Africa.

High Tech Treasure Hunting for Dads & Kids

As my wife has explained several times in her blog entries, we have an almost 8 year-old boy and twin almost 4 year-old boys. The inside of our house looks like the 1971 Pontiac GTO in the high school parking lots of our youth. There are some worn seat covers and the paint job has patches of white plaster and dents that remind me of bondo on a fender. So in trying to come up with a fun hobby to spend time with the kids, the number one objective was something where they explore outside the house rather than jump on the furniture and glue themselves to the floor inside the house. A friend recommended geocaching and it has proven to be a fun family treat.

Geocaching is organized treasure hunting for all ages with treasure boxes, or “caches”, of varying sizes hidden in public areas (not private property) all over the world. The GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates of these hidden caches are documented on the geocaching web site.  It was started in May 2000 with the first cache hidden in Beaver Creek, Oregon. Today, there are over 33,000 people worldwide who have registered on the geocaching website. With more than a quarter of a million active geocaches in 222 countries, there is no shortage of potential family treasure hunts. Many of the hidden caches are easy to locate with a standard GPS device (I purchased mine at REI in Redwood City) but there are caches accessible only by airplane, kayak or with scuba gear if you feel especially adventurous.

What makes this an especially great activity for parents and kids in the bay area is the sheer number of hidden geocaches in our own backyard. So far, my kids and I have uncovered 16 of these hidden prizes in neighborhoods all over Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Redwood City. Our first cache was in downtown Palo Alto.

Some of our next discoveries were at a park in Redwood City with a World War II tank, near the ducks outside the Menlo Park library, in a sculpture near the Palo Alto main library, on a walking bridge over highway 101, two in Suburban Park, three in different parks within Menlo Park  and one on a bridge over San Francisquito Creek. Yesterday, we found one in a neighborhood tree. We are having trouble finding the one located in Holbrook Palmer Park and in the underbrush of Flood Park.

All in all, geocaching has been a great way to get the kids out of the house and “searching for hidden treasure” in their own back yard.

-Neil B.

Me and Lia on the Lanai

I called my wife Pamela (that's Pamela Hornik, not Pamela W.) last Thursday from Hawaii to excitedly tell her about my lunch. 

"You wouldn't believe it.  They pulled out all the stops.  The resort had set up a lunch on this atoll literally sitting at the ocean's edge and their chef had prepared a gorgeous meal for us.  It was unbelievable.  We were greeted by a conch blower, chilled wine, and this stunningly beautiful view."

I was catching my breath to further sing the praises of my ocean-side luncheon when Pamela interrupted me.  "We?" 

The implication was pretty clear.  But I'm a little slow at times.  I took her question to be informational --  with whom was I eating lunch?  "The hotel set out the lunch for me and Lia." 

"You had an ocean-side lunch with Lia?"  Ok, I'm slow, but I'm not crazy.  This time I got it.  The real question was "who was chaperoning you during this romantic lunch under the Hawaiian palms?" 

"No. No.  We had lunch with the sales rep from the resort.  We spent the whole time talking about...."

I was ready to falsely denigrate the food, the view, the company, but it was too late.  Pamela dismissed the whole topic of conversation with an "Uh huh."  It wasn't a satisfied "uh huh."  It wasn't "Uh huh, I see that you were merely having a business lunch and I'm so glad that you were treated to such a pleasant luncheon."  It was an annoyed, there's not a thing I can do about it so I don't want to hear about it any more, sort of "uh huh."  We moved on to a discussion of the kids but the phone call was really over at that point.  She was done with me.

"Ok, I'll talk with you tomorrow.  Love you."

"Bye." 

Ouch.  What ever happened to "love you too"?  I suppose it shouldn't surprise me.  Pamela hasn't exactly been excited about this trip from the very beginning.  Maybe it's the way I sold it -- "Hey Pamela, I'm going to be out of town the fourth through the sixth of October.  Lia and I are going to check out the Four Seasons in Maui."  Here's a little hint for you husbands out there.  Announcing that you are going to Maui to check out the Four Seasons with a woman who isn't your wife is not received with a huge amounts of enthusiasm from the woman who is your wife.  Live and learn.

In my defense, Lia is not, in fact, my girlfriend.  Lia is a business colleague.  She and I are in the process of planning a technology conference and we went to Hawaii to chose a venue for that conference.  I think that may have been different had we been planning a conference in Akron, Ohio.  "Hey Pamela, Lia and I are flying to Akron to pick a location for our conference" has a very different ring to it than, "Hey Pamela, Lia and I are flying to Maui to pick a location for our conference."  It turns out that pretty much any words that come after "Lia and I are flying to Maui" become inaudible to the wife brain.  Perhaps the words are drowned out by the sound of blood rushing to their heads.  Whatever the cause, the "here's why it is OK that I'm flying to Maui with Lia" thing pretty much fell on deaf ears. 

I am writing this as I fly back from Hawaii.  Pamela has been an incredibly good sport about the whole "flying to Maui with Lia" thing, so I'm going to try hard when I get home to be nonchalant about my stunningly fabulous stay in Hawaii.  Maybe I'll pick only the best hundred or so photos to show her.  You other husbands out there could learn a thing or two from me.  It is all about sensitivity.  Sensitivity and understanding.

(For other ramblings about life in the Hornik house, see David's blog SaysMe!  For his business ramblings, check out VentureBlog.)

Simple Pleasure Scorecard

Women enjoy simple pleasures.  By simple pleasures, I mean doing small things for oneself purely for enjoyment.  My wife, for example, gets her nails done, goes to the spa, buys new clothes, does my laundry (I may have added that one), etc.  These simple pleasures can turn a stressful and otherwise bad day into a good one.  I recall enjoying simple pleasures at one point in my life.  I am a pretty simple guy – it doesn’t take too much to make me happy.  Is it really possible that I don’t partake in anything that gives me simple pleasure anymore?

xxxxxxx

In order to fully explore this, I will create a simple pleasure scorecard.  Feel free to keep score at home.  Each simple pleasure will get a 1 or a 0.  A 1 indicates that it is a simple pleasure I still enjoy, while a 0 means that the simple pleasure is no longer a part of my daily life.

xxxxx

Who's the boss?

Daddy: "D, who's the boss? Daddy or D?"

D: "Momma boss."

Daddy: "D, is Daddy the boss?"

D: "No."

Mid-Life Crisis, Silicon Valley Style

My husband is a very practical man.  His ancestors were Mennonites. The Mennonites are like the Amish gone electric.  They are horse and buggy people who eventually bought cars, but generally eschew worldly possessions and new-fangled gizmos.  They are simple, frugal folk and pacifists.  They make excellent cheese.  My husband normally has every penny accounted for and questions my $1.99 purchases from Target with "Is this something we really needed?" 

So, imagine my surprise when he sent me the following e-mail:

Glennia:

Forewarned is forearmed: I have seen a description of a new sports car, and ... I want it!  It's the Tesla. An Electric Sports Car. Based on a Lotus, but with batteries developed for use in laptop computers.  This isn't yet for sale, but the company has emerged from stealth mode this week, and I have to confess, I'm interested...

So, we would need to weigh the whole financial impact, the potential resale value, and the other things on our wish list.  If we went ahead, I'd be replacing the Prius with this; but the Prius is getting old, and it needs to be replaced sometime anyway.

So, I thought I ought to let you know. I'm interested, I've signed up for the mailing list, and when they start actually selling these sometime in 2007, I may want to get in line.

Love,

F.

A sports car?  Really?  My husband is 6'4" and would need to sit in the trunk in order to drive a Miata.

I became concerned. I replied immediately:

F, Are you having a midlife crisis? Is there a blonde stashed away in Modesto I should be worried about?  If so, I'm taking the kid and the Lexus and you can keep the waterbed and the cactus.  Please write me a check for the value of half of all your worldly assets and send it to my brother's house in Texas.

In the past year you have promised me a new bed and bedroom remodel/paint job. I'd also like a new house, since this one is getting old and is kinda small. 

G.

P.S.  The Lexus is much older than the Prius, so if anyone is getting a new car, it's me.  And, where would you put the carseat?  Answer me that, Batman.

At home that night, he explained to me that "the cool thing about this car is that it runs on laptop batteries."  Laptop batteries?  This man is definitely suffering from memory loss or early-onset senility. I recall all too clearly a 13-hour flight to Tokyo in which his laptop battery crapped out in the middle of Elmo in Grouchland, causing our then-2 year old to melt-down, sob uncontrollably for the remainder of the flight, and kick the bejesus out of the poor lady sitting in front of him.  If a laptop battery can't make it through Elmo, how on earth could it be expected to get you to Fresno?

He then explained that it was not one laptop battery, but a whole daisy-chain of super-charged, high-powered uber-laptop batteries all bound together.  So, my question was, if they're all linked together, and one craps out, then does the whole thing fail? Like Christmas tree lights, where you can't figure out which one is the lemon and have to throw the whole thing out?  Or would it still work but the radio would go off, or the AC would shut down, or the windows wouldn't roll down anymore?  He pondered this for a moment and said, "I'm sure they've figured that out.  Laptop batteries are much better than they used to be."  The photo of the battery-powered engine made his little geeky heart go flippity-flop, more so than any Maxim bimbo.  At least I didn't need to call my lawyer.

Seriously, I'm all for green living, and really liked Valerie's post about the the Electric Car movie and how we all need to take heed.  I think for our planet to survive, innovations like this need to be supported.  A few years ago, I went to a conference with people from different industries talking about research and development trends.  A representative from Ford got up and revealed that they have been doing consumer studies since the '70's on what people want in a car.  For 30 years, "Fuel Economy" has ranked about 17th on the list, far behind "more cup holders" and "place to park your change" and "thingie to put your sunglasses in." 

According to the Ford representative, the number one thing people wanted was reliability, followed by design.  So basically, people want anything that looks good and will start when you crank the key. Consumers evidently didn't care how much it gas it takes, or the fact that fossil fuel resources will be depleted in ten years or that polar bears are drowning from the polar ice caps melting due to global warming.  Japanese companies had similar marketing information, and basically came to the conclusion that, "Consumers are stupid" and built hybrid cars anyway.  People here in The SV lined up to buy those Japanese hybrid cars.  We waited six months for our Prius, and it's been a really fine car. 

I guess if my husband really wants a Tesla, I could be talked into it.  Doing our part against global warming and all that.  Supporting our local economy, since the company is the only auto manufacturer in Menlo Park.  Plus, I would look cute in it -- red is my color.  I can just imagine myself zipping down 280 with sunglasses, hair flying in the wind, and the radio blaring Il Divo, the middle-aged woman's equivalent to a swoony boy-band...Now who's having a mid-life crisis?

Glennia's blog is The Silent I where she writes about her adventures, both foreign and domestic.