My Dream Van

Many, many years ago... Jana, Lupe and I spent 3 months living on the beach in Baja Mexico. We had a pop-up camper on the back of my 4x4 Toyota pickup. It worked well... but THIS is the ultimate Baja van. Ooooohhhhh, i want it!

Cub Scout Cake

Cub Scout Cake
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Lunch with Kristin

Lunch with Kristin
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

39 miles...

39 miles...
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

39 more miles and our car is worthless. Jana has hated this car from
the beginning - she wanted a minivan. A minivan?!?! I test drove 8
minivans, then tried a used Lexus... and there's no comparison. It's
been an expensive car - two transmissions later - but it's fun to
drive, and it's safe for the kids. (can you tell I played that card
several times?)

Oh well, I guess we'll drive it till it breaks... again. And NO, the
next car will not be a minivan. ;-)

Poker night

Poker night
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Palm Springs Tonight

Palm Springs Tonight
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

San Fran Bathroom

San Fran Bathroom
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Treasure island

Treasure island
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

One wrong turn and I ended up on treasure island! Nice view of the
city, though.

At the airport bar

At the airport bar
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

At the airport bar waiting for east coast polls to close... Will I be
drinking in celebration, or to numb the pain?

Outdoor scary movie

Outdoor scary movie
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Our back porch... Zombie movies!

Parking lot

Parking lot
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

We let all the bikers park in front of our office... It's getting a
little crowded.

Will.i.am at blackberry conference

Will.i.am at blackberry conference
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

We all clapped when will.i.am said "blackberry is dope, for real." He
was a fun speaker, and a welcome change from the ordinary exec speak.

The Post Alley Blend

The Post Alley Blend
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

A few weeks ago Tracy bought a coffee machine for our Post Alley
office. Today I finally noticed the blend.

My height-adjusted desk at work

My height-adjusted desk at work
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

I'm back at work, feeling great, glad to be out of bed! It still hurts
to sit for more than 15 minutes so I stand...

- - - - - - - - - - -
Andy Kleitsch
Billing Revolution

I guess dancing was a bit much

Going in for back surgery. Finally.
Originally uploaded by B-TownMom

The past seven days have been a blur of pain meds and naps... it started at Elsa's wedding last weekend...

Saturday, Dancing at the wedding:
My ruptured disc was finally feeling better... I should have spent the entire night siting in an ergonomic chair relaxing - but no - after a few drinks i was square dancing with Jana. At times it felt like slam dancing... we immediately agreed to take some form of dance lessons, cause "dancing shouldn't hurt".

Ohhhh but it did...

Sunday: soooo sore.

Monday: A dead-spot appeared on my left bum, about the size of a quarter.

Tuesday: Flew to San Francisco and back for business meetings. Popping pain pills - pain shooting down my leg.

Wednesday: Left bum is numb, numbness going down leg and into foot. Doctor orders a late night MRI.

Thursday: MRI worse than before. A quarter sized chunk of disc is crushing the nerve - operation a must. Doctor starts operation at 8pm - takes longer than expected.

Friday: Discharged from hospital at noon.

And who knows what day it is now... :-) The last few days have been a blur. I've been taking pain pills, getting lots of rest and working when awake... that's all for now... time for bed!

Hike with Karsten

Hike with Karsten
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

A hike with Karsten tonight, on the way to grandmas.

On the road again

On the road again
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Just me and my trendy beverage enjoying our time together before a
flight to Portland.

Im kinda looking forward to my flight cause Horizon offers free wine
on their puddle jumpers. I can guzzle two glasses of merlot in 10 min.
Good skill to have.

Damn traffic

Damn traffic
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

First there was fog in SF, flights all one hour late, now stop and go
traffic on the 405... Will I make it to my meeting on time? Ugggg.

Shock treatment

Shock treatment
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Getting a good shock in my left butt cheek as I type this...

- - - - - - - - - - -
Andy Kleitsch
Billing Revolution

Feeling no pain

Feeling no pain
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

I'm blogging from the recovery room. Just had a shot in my spine, some
Valium and other narcotics... Feeling woozy, and a have the munchies.
They gave me a diet coke and chocolate chip cookies. No photos were
allowed on the operating room, shucks!!

Kurts wedding

Kurts wedding
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Down at the cove, where Jana and I were married 13 years ago.

The last 72 hours

I've been touring San Fran for the last three days, pitching investors, popping pain pills, going to bed at 8:30, and missing Jana and the kids. My license has expired, so I was felt-up by the airport security guys. Upon landing (moments ago) john called from the office, water is dripping near the white board... Ugh! But overall, I had a great trip, met some wonderful investors/partners.

Karsten and Magic

Karsten and Magic
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Magic tricks on the beach at the Three Tree Point Fishing Derby.
Karsten has a bird on his head. He loved it.

Neighborhood Raft

Neighborhood Raft
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch
A few neighborhood kids were pounding nails into their raft as they floated towards the point. I yelled "I'll call the coast guard in an hour!" they didn't seem to think that was funny.

In other news... My sister stayed with us last night. She performed three physical therapy sessions on my back in 24 hours. I think I'm feeling better, but it's tough to tell, pop another pain pill, ice pack, relax. I'm getting a spinal shot this tuesday or the following tuesday. The doc said I could watch the needle enter my spine on a tv screen... I wonder if he'll let me take a photo with my iPhone? :-)

My first time

My first time
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Bestemor and Farfar have been entertaining the kids over the past two
days - Camp Watagua - complete with sleepovers, tents, mud pies, etc.
The kids are loving it. And were loving the break from mom and dad
duties.

With our new found freedom Jana and I had a long overdue date night
tonight. Thai food chased by a trip to the lovely nails shop next
door. Jana loves having her nails done, and now I understand why.
Tonight was my first time. I had two women working me over, constant
chatter, i was the only guy in the shop. It was great!

Pre-movie battle

Pre-movie battle
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Full battle before the flick! Cool. Karsten yelled "you guys rock!"

Star Wars Movie

Star Wars Movie
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Here we are on opening night!

lame gimp

The wife and kids left town for two days... you know what that means? Party!! Woooo... OOooo... my back!! Ok, maybe I'll just party a little... OOOOHHH!! my frickin back!! Ok, now i know this is serious... The old andy (fun andy) would have made the MTV spring break party look like a warm-up event. I would have been up till 2am with all the other crazy neighbors... but not this time. My back pain has turned me into a person I don't even recognize. I have the entire house to myself and I've been in bed by 9pm every night. so very lame.

I'm getting a second opinion on my back next week. Then, it's probably time to go under the knife. I have been in serious pain for six weeks... i can't take it much longer.

So happy

So happy
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Jana is on a crazy liver purification diet... pure hell for me cause
I'm a terrible cook. But here we are tonight at La Costa! I'm so happy.

Working from home

Working from home
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Sending a few emails from home before i head into the office...

Movie Club

Movie Club
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

A bent hangar, bungee cords, scrap wood, a bunch of screws, and voilà!
The outdoor movie theater was born. It was a perfect night to enjoy
Blue Hawaii drinks while watching Elvis sing love songs in Blue Hawaii.

Egg drop testing

Egg drop testing
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Tomorrow the cub scouts are dropping eggs from the top of the fire
truck ladder. In this photo we are about to toss the egg box off the
deck... the first egg broke, we made a few changes, and the second one
survived!

Run free Lupe

Run free Lupe
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

Today was a sad day. After 14 years, the yellow dog we love so much
passed away.

Lupe beat all odds, ran from the dog catchers, had many loyal friends
and lived a life I admired.

Jana and I are a wreck.

This photo was taken hours before he passed. Karsten feeding Lupe a
dog ice cream treat.

The couch

The couch
Originally uploaded by Andy Kleitsch

goodbye fugly couch

A few months ago Jana bought a fugly couch on craigs list. It spent many months in the master bedroom, and now it's in the driveway... On the way to value village. But I have to give Jana credit, she was tying to save money and use her crafty talent to transform a puke couch into something hip... But sometimes you just gotta throw out the craft project... Oh, I probably shouldn't talk that way about craft projects, I wanna stay married! ;-)

bloggin from the iPhone

80's @ 8 on the 4th of July!

Stop by the boathouse at 8pm on the 4th of July. Like, totally, dude.

Nightmares of an internet start-up

During my start-up in the bubble-era i had some incredible nightmares... people dressed in gorilla suits pushing me off cliffs... ya know, just freaky.

I was getting so many nightmares back then that i kept a tape recorder next to my bed. i'd wake up. record the nightmare. go back to sleep. have another one. wake up. record it. repeat.

I thought about writing a book "nightmares of an internet start-up" - the nightmares would be in comic book style, and then i'd have a few pages next to each comic explaining what's going on in my business at the time.

Well... i had my first Billing Revolution nightmare last night. And I'm starting to wonder, is it just me, or do all entrepreneurs have nightmares?

It's not that things are going poorly at my new start-up - in fact it's the opposite, thing are great! We have money, we're signing big customers - so why the nightmare? Will i get more? Gwod, i hope not.

The nightmare recap:
I was in the valley. running from VC to VC scheduling meetings.
At the third VC office i realized I scheduled all three meetings at 10am the following day.
It was at the third VC office (in the parking lot, where the receptionist would greet all entrepreneurs) where i 'lost it'.
She told me "i'm sorry, the only time Deepak is available is 10am tomorrow"
I threw my hands in the air and let out a big chewbacca yell "uuuuggggggggg!"
I didn't yell at the receptionist. She just understood. she needed to fix the situation.
Without saying anything I went back to my rental car. reclined the drivers seat. put up my hoodie sweatshirt and pulled the stings.
A few minutes later there was a knock on my car window.
"Deepak can see you now"
One of my eyes had swollen shut.
A few receptionists half-carried me to a briefing area.
We talked to a parakeet in a gold cage. The parakeet gave the ground rules "how to pitch to VC's"
The receptionists were rubbing my arms. The swelling in my eye went down. They led me down a corridor.
i felt confident. i felt great. i was a presidential candidate stepping up to the podium. or an actor entering the stage for my first line. or a boxer, about to hear the crowd roar.
When i passed through the curtain i was on the tennis courts.
4 courts in the blazing sun. the courts were dark crimson.
Deepak dressed in all white, was practicing his ground strokes. Deepak looked healthy. We shook hands and we took a seat on the lawn-furniture sectional behind the baseline.
I immediately started telling Deepak about my college tennis days. How we played on the Boston Commons.
Then i noticed the tennis court was liquid. a ripple on the far side of the court headed our way, the swell increased, and knee-sized waves gently broke on our side of the court.
The court was solid again.
Things seemed to be going well with Deepak...
and then i woke up.

The latest from AK

a bunch of one-liners to describe my week:

I've been sick. sleepy. grumpy.
Took a two hour nap on the office couch yesterday.
Bought some Cold-Eeze chewing gum with zinc. yuck.
Lupe pooped on the floor this morning. yuck.
Is was sooo windy, and i was too sick to go. whaaa.
Got more funding for my start-up. yay!
Had a relaxing time in Hood Canal with the fam. zzzz.
Had the best masa-ball soup in the market. Jewish penicillin.
Carpooled with Jana to work.
Karsten got in trouble at school for 'making farting sounds in his armpit'. thank you uncle erik for teaching him that one. ;-)

Great - now my vote won't count

The presidential election came up today during a call with my old neighbor Wendy Wozniak... i told her i was going to vote for Obama. She said "we'll i'm going to vote for McCain, so our votes will cancel each other out!" sigh.

Beer in the brown bag

Jana was deep into her new favorite show Gossip Girl - so i hit the beach with my 40oz Corona wrapped in a brown paper bag. My bag caused quite a stir with the wine drinking beach crowd. "yes, we're technically in Burien, but do you have to use a brown paper bag?" "what's the bag for anyway?" the questions went on... i made my case... the bag keeps my hand warm and the beer cold. pure genius. The wine drinkers were not convinced. Then Pam brainstormed a new twist on the old bag... "you could make coozies that look like brown bags, put them in your freezer, and then you could carry around a frozen-brown-bag-coozie!" .... hummmm... i don't think that's gonna fly in the hood.

my virtual self - was all but dead

Drew woke me from my slow-blog-o-death... my virtual self was almost dead. severely neglected. But, his public ribbing was just enough to kick-start my engine.

OK, SO I'M BACK.... and now for a quick story about puke.

Wow. Sunday night. 4am. blowing chunks. I had clams with garlic, olives stuffed with garlic, ginger soda (super strong), rum, olive and garlic dip, some eggs, a beer... and POW. i blew up.

Revolutionary Meeting Room

We decided to take an alternative approach to the stuffy CTIA conference room... CTIA is a mobile event, so why not have a mobile conference room? :-) Our 2 days at CTIA are packed with meetings - this RV should make our meetings fun, productive and memorable!

And yes, if you need a ride between parties, give us a call. :-)

Cooking age: 21

While cooking dinner last night i realized i have the cooking skillz of a 21 year old. Remember the culinary gut-bombs you made back then? That's my level. My standard meal when i was 21 was a package of instant Lipton noodles (4 great flavors) and a fried plain white chicken breast. BAM! that's dinner. If i felt fancy, i'd toast a slice of white bread and add a dash of garlic salt. gourmet.

Fast forward 15 years... Jana's been cooking the entire time... but my cooking ability has stayed the same age...

damn. i forgot to vote.

This is embarrassing. ridiculous really. and yet, somehow predictable.

I was so busy helping everyone at the caucus that i forgot to check-in with my group and cast my vote!

At the end of the caucus, when i finally realized my mistake, i told myself "ahhh, I'm sure it didn't matter. it was just one vote." So i went to my precinct committee officer and asked about the results of our group... ohhh crap... one more vote for Obama would have changed the outcome of our group! Had i voted, Obama would have won another delegate (and Clinton one less). Crap. my vote does count! next caucus i'll try to remember to vote. ;-)

34th Precinct Caucus Results

34th Precinct - unofficial results:
Obama: 21 delegates (53.8%)
Clinton: 15 delegates (38.5%)
Uncommitted: 3 delegates (7.7%)

Today I helped my buddy Jeff Upthegrove with the 34th Precinct Democratic Caucus. It was great fun. There must have been 400 people.

My job involved running from group to group to calculate their delegate count. It was interesting to see the passion, the arguments, the negotiations and final results.

During the event a woman asked me...

Woman: What's your title?
Me: Uhhh. I'm just a helper-guy.
Woman: That's not impressive enough.
Me: Yes, you do have a point. (then i realized she was the secretary who was taking minutes for the meeting)
Woman: Can you come up with a better title?
Me: Ok, I'm the Precinct Caucus Calculator Administrator.

And yes, that's going on my resume. cause it's official. and impressive. ;-)

I wore pants today

Since my back went out i've been wearing sweats every day. It's a good look. I'm "soccer dad". prepared for anything. sweats rule! Today i was volunteering at the Democratic Precinct Caucus - can you wear sweats to a caucus? Hummm... Democrats are laid back, but i stepped it up - i wore pants. And after 4 hours in pants - my back is killing me! Back to sweats.

Another big milestone happened yesterday - i put on my socks - by myself. that's huge. Jana's most happy about this, she's been on sock-duty for the last week - and that's true love ya'll. Thanks Jana! :-)

midnight run to drug store, with a crazy ending

My back is killing me! It's been out for several days. The pain finally got so bad, i had to do something. So, just before the super bowl i went to the emergency clinic - and now i know - that's a great time to go to the clinic! Nobody was there. The doc gave me some good meds, and i've been eating them like candy. I'm finally starting to feel better, but now i have a different problem... how should i phrase this... pain pills sure can clog-up the system... no regularly scheduled trains are leaving this station!

So a few hours ago i decided to do something about it. Time for a midnight run to the drug store! I started driving... here's where the twist comes in... i rounded a corner on Maplewild and there was a car stopped in the road. On the side of the road was a blonde girl sitting in the dirt. I slowed down - the guy driving the car was holding his cell phone - he leaned out his window and said to me "this girl lives around here, she needs a ride, i think she hurt her foot." The girl was mumbling, drunk, covered in dirt. I was a little suspicious... who are these guys in the car? Are they with this girl? is this some kind of set-up? I rolled down my passenger window, turned down NPR, and yelled "hey, i live around here. do you need a ride? are you ok?"

She said yes, she wanted a ride, but she couldn't stand up - so i pulled over - and with my bad back i was able to pick her up and help her into my car. She was a mess. crying. dirty. in pain, for sure. her ankle was visibly swollen.

she wanted to smoke cig on the way to the hospital. i said sure. may as well give me one too, this is an odd night after all.

she asked if i would stay with her during check-in. I said sure. i felt sorry for her. it was obvious she wasn't telling me everything that had happened. she said she tripped while walking down maplewild... but it seems to me that she was probably thrown out of a car. she was covered in leaves and mud, sprained ankle, dirty scraped knee and she said her butt hurt.

we smoked another cig while waiting for the nurse to call her back. she told me she has three kids, but she didn't have anywhere to go, no money, and nobody to call to pick her up.

Back in the hospital waiting room an old batman episode was playing on TV.

The nurse called her back, i wheeled her to the emergency room bed, gave her a hug and wished her good luck.

I wish i could have done more for her. if she would have told me the REAL story, been honest with me, i probably would have stayed longer and helped more, but i really had no idea what the real story was... and she wasn't going to share it with me, that was for sure.

So i left the hospital, back to the drug store... to solve my other problem.

pain killer fog

I threw out my back over the weekend.

Now, I'm walking around like an old man. sleeping with huge pillows under my legs. i've been scaring the kids cause i've been yelling 'for no reason' while just sitting in a chair. the pain is horrible. it hurts to sneeze. hiccup. fart.

On sunday, just before the super bowl, i went to an emergency clinic and loaded up on pain pills. i slipped into a pain killer fog, and finally got a break from the pain.

Its monday morning. ive had my coffee and pills. time for a nap.

Ohhhh.... we're out of gas.

While driving Britta to preschool today the car made a funny lurch. Humm, this feels like the car is running out of gas... a quick glance at the gas gauge... oh crap!!!

Jana was driving just a half mile ahead of me... i quickly grabbed my cell phone... speed dial jana... straight to voice mail. WHAT?! Dial again... voice mail. crap!!!

The car is really lurching now. I was able to get the car to sputter to snake hill, and we coasted all the way down, but at the bottom, next to the Normandy Park Pool, it was over.
"we're gonna be late for preschool Britta."

With Britta on my shoulders we started hiking to Preschool. It's frickin freezin. blowing 25 mph. i'm wearing clogs. hiking up hill. about a third of a mile.

We had a nice conversation on our walk...
Me: "The car eats gas, and when the car has no gas in its tummy... well, then it wont run."
Britta: "Feed the car some leaves."
Me: "No... that's silly. You know what the car would say? It would say BLAH!"
Britta: "Feed the car some branches."
Me: "Blah!"
... and this conversation went on till we got to preschool.

Teacher Linda was super nice and insisted i borrow her car to get some gas.

I drove her car up to the gas station, borrowed a can of gas, pumped one gallon. Drove back to the Subaru.

Poured the gas in the Subaru. Drove the Subaru back to the gas station, returned the gas can and filled up the subaru.

Then, I drove the Subi to Preschool, parked the Subi in the parking lot, and started my walk back to Teacher Linda's car parked down by the pool. At least the walk back to her car was downhill... but then it started raining, hard, sideways, frozen/slushy/snow rain. greeeeaaat.

f-f-f-freezzzzing!

Saturday: 4am. It was frickin nukin. 40+mph gusts.
Wes gave me specific instructions "call me when you wake up. immediately. no matter what time. i MUST know the wind speed."
We'd been watching the storm approach. waiting. hoping it would peak at 9am. not 4am.
At 4am i thought... should i call Wes? is it light enough to sail?
Ahh, forget it. back to bed.

Later, as the Seahawks kicked-off, the sun broke out, the winds steadied, and i left the Hawks game to catch 45 minutes on my 5.9. Good choice too, since all the hawks action happened in the 4th quarter!

One thing i noticed on Saturday. It was cold. like frickin norway cold. my hands were numb on the second ride out. i tried sucking my thumbs to stop the pain/freezing - no help. So this got me thinking... how cold was it?

The wind was 21mph. air temp 40. That makes the wind chill = to about 30. oh, and the Puget Sound is a balmy 48.

There's a good rule of windsurfing in the Puget Sound... add the air temp and the water temp (40+48=88)... and use this chart:

Over 100... you'll be toasty.
90 - 100... you'll go numb
under 90... shrinkage, instant numbness, loss of brain cells, hallucinations, euphoria!

just a typical new years day

New year's day
Originally uploaded by B-TownMom.

As the King and Queen of Three Tree Point (we're now half way through our year-long reign), we sported the crown jewels, posed with Terry the Polar Bear, had some spiced wine and took the plunge on New Years day. An amazing 20+ people dipped this year! Our local paper, The Highline Times ran this story... Many neighbors turned out to cheer us on. We love the good people of Three Tree Point. :-)