July 2010
11 posts
Goal Celebration
You’ve no doubt seen the “going fishing” move on the dance floor…but how about to celebrate a goal on the soccer pitch…
New Town To Do's
When we moved to NYC, we often shared over our first few months the many “firsts” we experienced in the city. Every daily task seemed new and exciting.
Now that we’re back in the land of convenience known as NC, we’re finding that we grew so accustomed to doing things the difficult way in NYC that we’re equally as mesmerized by the differences down South.
On...
Sleep Study
Miller’s always been a great sleeper. And for that we are VERY grateful. In NYC, he’d often fall asleep right away at night and for naps. Since our apartment was so small and he slept in the closet attached to our bedroom, we never invested in a monitor - we simply heard him if he was upset, and were right there if needed.
Now that we’re in NC, we found that a monitor was a...
We got Wheels!
As you can probably tell from the dearth of posts recently, it’s been a bit crazy as we’re settling down in Durham. We’ve been asked a lot lately “are you settled yet”. And the answer is the same - yes, and no.
We are indeed fully moved into the house in the sense that we’re completely functional. But we haven’t even begun putting stuff on the walls...
Vamos Espana!
Sadly, the World Cup is over, with Spain reigning as deserving champions. For the grand finale yesterday we dressed Miller up in his “Spain shirt”, a cute little shirt he received before moving from NYC from our wonderful next door neighbors Ellen and Jake. In case you can’t tell, the shirt features a bull who, fittingly, has a pacifier. I have no idea what the Spanish phrases...
Miller Crawls!
July 4th was our country’s 234th birthday. And it marked 7 months since Miller was born.
On this momentous day, Miller celebrated by doing his very first crawling. Or scooting. Or whatever you call it. The little man is enjoying his first tastes of mobility, as you can see in this little video.
Miller Crawls from Zack Mansfield on Vimeo.
Moving Beard
Longtime blog readers will remember 2 years ago when I was pretty excited to unveil a photographic spectacle which could only be known as “Beach Beard.”
Beach Beard, circa 2008
Since I’d always been a little late to the facial hair party, the novelty of letting the little hairs grow out for a few days during vacation was too, well, a fun little novelty. I subsequently...
Independence Weekend
Well, the long awaited and much dreaded physical act of moving has come and gone and by virtue of these words brought to you via the world wide web, it’s safe to say we somehow lived to tell of it.
I will spare all the gory details - of not beginning to pack boxes until Sunday afternoon for a Tuesday move, the sale of air conditioners on Craigslist leading to an almost 90 degree apartment...
June 2010
19 posts
New York, Just as we Pictured It
A little less than 2 years ago, Tracy and I packed up a moving van and moved to New York City. On Tuesday, we will be pulling a moving van out of the city on our way back to NC. For now, we won’t focus on the details of the move. Instead, we’ll look back at our time spent in the city. I wrote a bit of a memoir piece which I share below - I hope you enjoy.
...
Buddies
Got this picture sent to me today. Tracy met Jordan in the Park and they had fun with Miller and Austin.
Funny what six months will do, huh?
Where were you?
When Landon Donovan scored the goal in stoppage time to send the Yanks through to the 2nd round of the World Cup.
I was screaming and running around my office.
These folks were at a bar in Lincoln, Nebraska. By now you’ve seen the goal plenty of times. I like watching these fans, sitting in silence for the first 45 seconds as the time ticked by. Then a half chance for Algeria. Save....
Weekend Update
It seems we are trying to pack as much as possible into every day, especially on the weekends. This weekend was no exception, as we enjoyed a variety of fun activities and the awesome sunny weather.
Friday night we took the Metro North train to Connecticut where we had dinner (or a “barbecue” as those up here call it) with my co-worker Brad (aka Cosmo) and my former boss Brad (aka...
Game Day
Today at 10am the US plays tiny Slovenia in its 2nd World Cup game. It’s hard to downplay the importance of the game - if the US wins, we have one foot in the door on the way to the 2nd round. If we tie, everything is still up in the air. If we lose, it’s all but over.
I’m stoked. And then I found this unofficial World Cup anthem by “Weezer” that they created...
Last Week Pics
We’ve taken a bunch of really fun pictures in the last week. Like this family shot from last night as we enjoyed one of our favorite neighborhood spots, Blockheads
There’s a few more good ones in this slide show:
Still in his jammies...
and yet he’s trying out a swing for the first time…
Spain is really good
This 1 minute video showing the 2nd goal in Spain’s 6-0 drubbing of Poland in their final World Cup tuneup is a good representation of why they’re my pick to win the World Cup.
Personally, I love the 2nd to last pass the most (the lift, over the defenders heads to the streaking forward before the goal. Beautiful football.
NY Moment
We used to have tons of “New York Moments”, and it seems a lot have to do with getting household items back to the apartment (which is always an adventure as a car-less family).
Like the time I carried the microwave box in the rain, onto the subway, and back home.
Or the time we bought a sitting chair on Craigslist and somehow fit it in a taxi to get it home.
And, of course,...
3 days
until World Cup 2010 South Africa kicks off
4 days until US-England on ABC (2:30 EST), which promises to be one of the most viewed soccer games in US network TV history.
For those of you interested in jumping on the World Cup/soccer bandwagon, USSoccer.com has been doing awesome video segments everyday from S. Africa called Studio 90. Here’s one of the recent segments about the...
Brizcariz.com turns 1
A little over a year ago I started exchanging emails and late night HTML/CSS coding conversations with my good buddy Brent Carothers. He was interesting in dipping his toe into the murky waters of blogging, but wasn’t quite sure about the whole thing, even as he was buying a URL and putting up his first post.
About a week after his blog was born, I linked to BrizCariz.com and gave...
Half Birthday!
We posted a quick picture earlier today at 8:34am - literally 6 months to the day when Miller was born.
It seems we are living out the cliche because time has been flying. Earlier this week we spent an hour and looked through a bunch of pictures from the last six months. Though it seems like yesterday we were at NY Presbyterian Hospital, the pictures of Miller seem almost like they’re of...
Peek a Boo
Miller absolutely loves any and every variation of covering his eyes and then suddenly removing the barrier to allow him to see again. We happened to catch him enjoying a little Peek a Boo time and it’s so much fun to see him laughing and moving his legs like crazy.
Miller Peek a Boo from Zack Mansfield on Vimeo.
May Days
Oh the joys of the long weekend!
Tracy and I were talking the other day about how the 3 day weekend for Memorial Day has to be one of the most underrated holidays of all. Memorial Day does, after all, serve as the ceremonial kickstart to summer. And though we don’t look forward these days to summer vacation from school, summer does still mean things like the crisp coolness of a swimming...
May 2010
17 posts
US World Cup Team Visits the White House
USA! USA!
Brooklyn Half
Last November I had the experience of a lifetime in running the New York City Marathon. It was the culmination of months and months of training and totally lived up to the billing as one of the best experiences of my life.
During the training for the Marathon, a funny thing happened - I realized I actually quite enjoyed running for long distances. The miles and miles traversed in the Park were...
coffee bag totes
As many of you know, I spend the better part of every day working with entrepreneurs who are starting or running businesses. Getting to see ideas put into action and (hopefully) turned into successful businesses is invigorating and something I’m really passionate about. The vast majority of the companies I work with are technology-based or technology-enabled and are often looking to raise...
Photo Shoot
Yesterday Tracy and Miller met up with Tracy’s friend Layne, who was in town visiting some friends. Layne was a student at Chapel Hill High School when Tracy was a Young Life leader there and is now a very talented photographer. In addition to catching up on life, Layne took some photos of Miller that are awesome.
Sailboats in the Park
Someday I’ll tell you about sailboats in the Park.
I’m sure you won’t believe me at first, mostly because I’m your dad and I have a tendency to take some editorial license when telling stories from the past. But then I’ll tell you all about sailboats in the Park. And you’ll know it’s true.
I will tell you about today, when it was just the two of us because Mommy was out of town visiting...
Daddy Day Care
This weekend marks a momentous occasion in Miller’s life - his first “guys weekend” without Mom.
You see, Tracy boards a plane bound for Dallas in less than half an hour, where she will spend the weekend visiting her great friend Heath along with several other of her college roommates. Though it was a little hard to leave “her boys”, Tracy left us well stocked with...
They Built Sioux City
on Rock and Roll
This is unintentional comedy at its finest. Hat tip to Eller for the link.
Metz (and the Overlook) gets some press
Great buddy Andy Metzler of Overlook fame was featured in the Kansas City newspaper for his extensive community service work (which also earned him a special seat at a game for his beloved Kansas City Royals).
Two things I love about the article - Metz gives a shoutout to the Overlook in his “Best Vacation Ever Taken” answer. And he settles once and for all his allegiance by...
Friday Photo Fun
As one of my college professors used to say at the end of class
“The sun is shining, the sky is blue, it doesn’t get much better than this”
On this Friday with the sun shining bright, I have to agree. For no other reason than because we captured these great pics over the last few weeks, I present some Friday Photo Fun.
Google's Chrome Browser is fast
A couple months ago I switched to using Google’s Chrome browser almost 100% of the time. I found it to be faster than Firefox and an overall better experience.
Based on the above Google Analytics stats for the last month’s worth of visitors to this site, it seems half of you are using Internet Explorer with only a handful experiencing the web via Chrome.
The folks at Google...
Spring has Sprung
As the calendar turns to May, I believe we’ve (finally) turned the corner here in NYC and are in for warm weather for at least a few months. This weekend it felt more like summer than spring, but we made it out to the Park on Sunday for a picnic with friends from church.
We enjoyed playing around without a need for jackets or blankets!
And Miller had fun hanging out with his friend...
Jensen is 3!
This is a day late but my tardiness shouldn’t be misconstrued as a slight against the lady of the day. That young lady is a year older as of yesterday, when our niece Jensen turned 3.
I remember distinctly the day Jensen was born…I was sitting at my desk at work when I got a call from my brother-in-law Jason. I was expecting him to tell me that Jennifer was in labor and the baby...
April 2010
17 posts
Half Marathon Girls
A little over a month ago, our good friend Summer Ellis asked Tracy if she would be up for running a women’s half marathon. One of Summer’s friends had registered but was no longer able to run, so Tracy took her entry number.
With only 4-5 weeks to prepare, Tracy was a bit nervous about the race. She had run one half marathon before - but that was in 2005. And then there was the...
WatchMiller knows what time it is. It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time.
