Category: Life Updates

A big chunk of the amplifize crew came over last night to the house. It was our first big dinner party, and we had a real blast. I cooked kofte, rice, and shepherd’s salad. Doruk got lots of wine. The night was spectacular.

The babies helped me cook. Luka is really into cooking, which I think is quite cool. Amelia is quite into being the center of attention 🙂 So it goes. They helped me mix up food in the food processor. Pushing buttons is a delight for them. Which I find genuinely fascinating. Then they shaped the kofte as well. It was going really well until Luka started eating the raw meat. So it goes.

Then babies slept, and the adults had fun. Heather and Brock. Mary, Mat, and Reese. Doruk and Hanna.

It’s funny how a digital family can come together in real life, and mix the two worlds together so well. Some stories start from amplifize articles. Others are about our real lives – problems at work, with the cats. The familiarity is fantastic. So is the genuineness of the moment.

amplifize was not (and won’t be) a commercial success, but I’m really happy with what it’s brought in my life. Fantastic friends. Great conversations. And a smile to lighten up the day.

This was a good week.

On Friday I had lunch with Dave Sloan. I’ve inherited a lot of friends in San Francisco from Micky since she’s about 10,000 times more social. There are some where I think… Hmmm. Random. We would never have met otherwise. With Dave it’s more like, yup, I get you. We’re homies. I can’t tell you why. But he’s great to hang out with. We had lunch at Tin which is a favorite of Isaac W. as well. I ate my weight in pho, and it was awesome.

And then this week wasn’t so great 🙂 the kids were sick, and I was constantly covered in throw up. Not a good look.

Micky and I ran away Wednesday night and had a killer date night (another win).

And… I’ve restarted the piano project. I have keys, and now I need to rewire the piano to work with the new setup. Let’s call that a draw 🙂

All in all a pretty good one. Here’s to the next one.

We just got back from Manas’ house. He bought it one year ago, and he was throwing a warming party of sorts.

Since Doruk is in town, Doruk, Hanna, the babies and I piled into a car, and made our way down to San Mateo. On arriving, the babies immediately ran into the backyard, and met Simba – Manas’ 2-month old puppy. That poor dog had no idea what he had in store.

After chasing around in the backyard for a while, we made our way inside to see the house. The babies (and Gustavo’s kids as well) kept Simba busy as the rest of us toured the house.

It’s a really great place. Nice kitchen. Plenty of rooms. And the vibe is very Manas and Vibhuti. I think that that’s exactly what you want in a house, and they nailed it.

Then came the food…

First, some background. I’m not very nationalist, but I do give my brown brothers from another subcontinent a tough time. That said, and all claims that the food they cooked was Turkish aside, the food was AMAZING.

Amelia had a bunch of this potato cake like thing. They both had the chapali in droves. I made them a bit of vegetable soup, and they were good to go!

At this point poor Simba was passed out on the kitchen floor.

The company was fantastic. The conversations were good. It was a genuinely wonderful evening.

At the wonderful home of Mr. Manas.

Even though their flight got canceled, and they were delayed for 4 hours, Doruk and Hanna have made it to town. The babies are sleeping, and missed seeing them, but I fully expect Amelia to catch up quickly in no time at all.

Over Thanksgiving, and then in January when he flew out for the weekend, I could already see the bonding between Doruk and Amelia. I think on this trip the bonding will be at a whole new level, and then of course Luka will get in on the action as well.

The game plan is mainly to stay low, have fun in the city by the Bay, and just hang out. It’s gonna be awesome

Today I got to go out with a really great person for lunch. He’s got a huge smile; he laughs all the time; and he’s a big reader of my blog. What more could you ask for in a person 🙂

I’ll hide his identity as he’s giving up some sense of Internet presence in 2014, but I’m going to make a point of every few weeks leaving the office, and meeting folks for lunch. If it goes as well as today, then that’s the exact energy I want to keep me going through the ups and downs of the day-to-day cycle.

I’ll share one quick story. It took us a few times to nail the date. He told the hostess (who he knows well) about my New Year’s resolution around french fries, and so she had a poster ready which read, “Free French Fries for Melih Onvural all day!”. I just laughed, and laughed. The hostess said to me, “Don’t worry. I have a genetic co-dependence. If you eat fries, then I’ll eat them with you”. I had to breathe out of my mouth because everyone had french fries. We’ve set a date for January 2nd, 2015 to head back, and eat at least one plate of fries. It’s going to be amazing!

Thanks for the hour of smiles. It was great for me. I hope it was great for you.

My buddy James has 21 goals that he’s trying to accomplish before turning 30. I spoke about it in the blog post where I introduced his blog. I realized that I wanted to make a list too, but mine is much, much shorter.

My goals before 30 are:

• Get down to 175 lbs
• Get promoted
• Fall more in love with Micky, Amelia, and Luka than I was at 29

That’s it. I really do think three decades will have been well executed if I pull off these three goals. But damn if two outta three aren’t going to be hard as hell…

So I’ve fallen epically behind. I’ll catch up tonight, and then get back to it, but it’s not going to be pretty

This week has been a blur of working late, waking up early, doing chores around the house, and feeling like there isn’t enough time. I don’t have any photos that I’ve taken, or stories that I really want to share. I want to make sure weeks like this happen rarely, but I’m worried that there will be more rather than less of them.

My one fun data point is that I bought a new exercise game for the XBox. It’s called Your Shape Fitness, and I think it’s going to be awesome. So far, I’ve done some warm up stuff, and a few of the hip hop classes. I’ve definitely forgotten how to move… and so it’s going to be awkward 🙂

However, I’ll get back to it, and I’ll make some magic happen I hope. Kids sleep. 30 minutes a night. Before you know it, I’m sexy again.

Until then, here’s to a week that’s less chaotic.

Holy shit, another week has passed. The big life event was, obviously, moving. It’s been awesome. Today we finally got people to pick up the last of the boxes, and the room just opened up. I’m going to let the photos do the talking, because honestly I’m too tired to do it 🙂

What a week!

Micky was out of town. The nanny got sick. The babies just grew up before my eyes. And we finally got rain in the Bay Area.

The rain meant that today was a day to paint at the new house, and have a lazy Sunday morning. We really need a king-sized bed to pull that off with 4 of us, and we’ll get there.

Amelia is doing a lot better at swimming every week. Luka is still scared shitless. I don’t know what to do except stop his lessons for a semester, and let him forget it all. Then maybe he’ll be excited about it. He’s so damn funny though. He’s desperate to be with her; emulate her; and be her best friend.

At his 18-month checkup, Luka clocked in at a solid 35 1/4″ tall, and 30 lbs 12 oz. He’s huge for an 18-month old. I don’t think he knows it though because Amelia is still bigger, faster, further ahead.

I nailed my books for January, and now I need to find a book for February. I don’t think reading to the kids counts, but we’ve found some great new ones lately. My challenge is that I really want it to be an eBook, but the public library’s main provider makes eBooks that are iPad compatible difficult to get. So it goes. Everyone has to make their money.

Anyway, this was a really great week. Here’s to many more like this one.

Our 5v5 Futsal season ended last night with a 4-6 defeat in the first round of the playoffs.

For the first time in a long time, we went up 1-0. Christian laid a gorgeous ball across the mouth of the goal that JTsai(??) scored. They made it 1-1 on a bad decision in goal, but that’s okay. The folks who played goalie did a great job. It’s a hard gig, and the fact that we don’t have a full time goalie really did us in this game. Oh well…

Then they went up 1-2.

We tied it 2-2 on a goofy goal. They did a pass back where the goalie came forward and the guy passed it behind him. CBrew ran after the ball, and when it hit the post he nailed it into the back of the net.

2-2 at halftime.

In the second half, the jumped out quickly on us. It was 2-4 before we knew it. I helped us crawl back in with a pretty left foot shot on a quick turn around that surprised the goalie, and was really well placed. In another lifetime, I was clearly a forward 🙂

Then I completely screwed up, passed across the middle, and gave them an easy one. 3-5 🙁

We made it 4-5 on a great chip from Christian to my head. I didn’t hit it level (as the goalie’s arm was there), but instead pushed it up and into the top of the crossbar. 4-5 with just a little bit to go.

Then, they got a really fluky goal to make it 4-6.

Game. Set. Match.

TokSoccer is retiring for a season while we nurse injuries, and find a good location for everyone who plays. Until then, I’ll find my soccer fix somewhere else 🙂