Auto Reply - Out of Office

I get an auto reply – out of office responsive email message from someone at least a couple of times a day. At first I thought it was because I started working for the State of California – and some state worker is bound to be out of the office every day. As more time has passed, I’ve noticed that more and more people “on the outside” are also having their server's fire off these auto reply messages.

I have one friend (who shall remain nameless) who honestly is out of the office at least 2 days a week. Get a blackberry already. If you are so important that you need to be out all the time, don’t tell everyone that you do not have access to email or voicemail.

I also figured out that some of my fellow state workers who are using this message on any given day are actually not out of the office. They are here, seemingly working away; they just don’t want to be bothered by email. Or they forgot to turn off their out of office message. Regardless, this is one idea I am starting to put more thought into!

For my next aut oreply message, I am considering this:

Subject: Auto Reply – Out of Office

Message: Sir/Madam: I am not available to receive your email message at this time. When I return from my sojourn, I will consider responding to your message. Until then, Cheers!

Oh, and I’ll be out of the office on August 29, 2008 without access to email or voicemail….Cheers!

Sorem is Norwegian

I have three blood first cousins (two on Dad’s side and one on Mom’s) and four step cousins (all on Mom’s side). I also have a bunch of second cousins on both sides of the family. Of course I have many third cousins as well – although other than the one I know of since she’s also my first cousin, I cannot remember meeting one.

A couple of years ago, one of my father’s long lost relatives from Norway contacted me over the internet. Her name is Mette-Marit Sorem Granerud (she retained her maiden name, Sorem). I believe that she found the blog and then got in touch with me thereafter. We have had a nice correspondence over the years and she has a beautiful family. Not so long ago we figured out that she and my father share Great Grandparents, making them second cousins. Of course that makes me and her children third cousins.

Sorem Granerud Family

Mette-Marit lives with her family in a town called Alta, Norway, in the far far north of Norway, about 70 degrees north latitude. No sun in winter and all day sun in summer. This is not far from where we believe my Great Grandfather, Hjalmar Andreas Sorem, Sr., lived before coming over to the United States and Chicago, Illinois. That town, Tromsø, is also in the northern part of Norway. Both are definitely on the list of places to visit someday.

It turns out that her daughter, Anette-Marie Sorem Granerud, spent a year as an exchange student in Blue Springs, Missouri (sound familiar fans of David Cook) a few years back. Her “brother” from the exchange program was getting married in mid July and she decided to make a trip of it with a friend of hers named Lone (said – Luna). Fortunately for us the trip included a west coast swing and a stop in San Diego. Excellent.

Late at night on July 14, 2008, Anette-Marie and Lone arrived in San Diego (after flying in to Las Vegas, seeing the Grand Canyon, driving up to San Francisco and then coming down the coast to Los Angeles and then San Diego). Anette-Marie called me Tuesday morning at work and said they were in a hotel right in downtown. I arranged to meet them for lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery, just a couple blocks from their hotel. I arrived a few minutes before they did and started to secure a table. Then Anette-Marie and her friend Lone arrived. Anette-Marie is in her early 20’s – and just finished up an apprenticeship program as an electrician. She is currently working wiring houses in Trondheim, the second largest city in Norway (after Oslo, the capital). We had a great lunch, talked about their travels, our families, foreign languages and much more. It was a delight to make a connection back to one of my homelands.

They wanted to visit Mexico and then also do some dress shopping (for the wedding). I directed them to the trolley (not that they needed my help mind you) and gave them some written directions to downtown La Jolla. We arranged to meet the next evening at the World Famous San Diego Zoo. It would give them a good chance to see the kids in a fun environment and to see some animals they don’t see at home.

We met at the zoo, but unfortunately Lone had lost her wallet somewhere in La Jolla. They decided to go back and look for it while we started our zoo adventure. Unfortunately, they had no luck in finding the wallet.

Once we met up again, they met Robin and the boys. The boys, particularly Andrew, were shy at first, but they came out of their shells quickly enough. Both Anette-Marie and Lone obviously had some significant experience with kids and were picking the boys up, showing them things, holding their hands and the like. It was endearing. We spent a little while trekking over to the panda bears (sleeping) and then searching for something to eat (no luck). We did get a great picture of both Anette-Marie and Lone in front of the sun bear exhibit.

Anette-Marie & Lone in Front of Sun Bear Exhibit

Anette-Marie, Andrew & Noah

Lone & Noah

The boys were starving so we decided that we would take off for food and then to head home while they would continue to tour the zoo until closing time. Since their flight left the next morning at around 6am, their original plan was to forego a hotel. We told them we would happily put them up. So we gave them directions and said for them to meet us back at our house after they were all done with the zoo.

We got home, put Andrew to sleep and were about to put Noah down when Anette-Marie and Lone arrived. Mette-Marit had sent gifts for the boys (two here and one to come) – three Norwegian moose named Elgar. The cute little stuffed moose came all dressed up in either sweaters or Norwegian national soccer uniforms. Noah loved his and is sleeping with it every night now (as a part of his cadre of nighttime animals). Andrew also likes his Elgar. The whopper gift though was a large picture of a wedding in Chicago, Illinois of one of the Sorems that we think dates back to the turn of the century. We have now brought it up to my parents and we are doing what we can to try and figure out who the people are in the photo. It was very very sweet of Mette-Marit to send and for Anette-Marie to bring it over to us. Thank you!

Noah with Elgar

Old Sorem Family Wedding in Chicago

We stayed up until after midnight talking and getting to know both Anette-Marie and Lone. Most interestingly, Anette-Marie told us that there are just 39 people in Norway with the surname Sorem. There are another 10 in our family here in the States. Best of all, we now have an open invitation to come to Norway. Hopefully we can use it!

When Andrew was born, my Dad gave him a Norwegian nickname – Laars. Of course, he also gave one to Noah when he was born – Odin. Over the years my Dad has threatened to give other nicknames to our future children as well. In fact, Baby Boy Sorem #3 is currently referred to as Thor. We shall see…

Since we were pretty confident that we would get a different pronunciation from a true Norwegian, we asked Anette-Marie and Lone if they would mind giving us pronunciations on all of the names on video. Thankfully they agreed - here is the Video Link. They also agreed to teach us how to pronounce my grandfather's name, Hjalmar, and my sister's name, Karin, in Norwegian - here is the Video Link.

From San Diego Anette-Marie and Lone were off to Blue Springs, Missouri for the wedding of Anette-Marie’s host brother and then on to Houston, Texas (in the “Lone” Star state) for a couple of days and then New York City as well. Quite a trip! We were delighted to be a little part of it! After all, Sorem is Norwegian!

Robin's New Allergy

I do not know when, but it has happened. Robin has a sneezing attack nearly every time she starts talking to me on the phone. Like clockwork, she says hello, starts into a conversation and then it comes. “Hang on; I’ve got to sneeze . . . HaaaaaChooooo! HaaaaaChooooo! HaaaaChooooo!”



It’s not the smell of me or the sight of me, no. Just the mere thought of me causes Robin’s allergic reaction. I wonder if the other times she has sneezing attacks it is because she was just pondering something about me. Who knows?


Robin’s new allergy – Evan. Lovely! Of course, you would probably become allergic too if you had to spend this much time with me….

Andrewisms and Noahisms

I have previously posted two blogs of Andrew’s funny sayings, Kids Say the Darndest Things and Andrewisms Part Deux. We are now back with the third installment of Andrewisms along with the first installment of Noahisms. Since this is the first time for Noah, we’ll start with his.

* 12/24/2007 - Just as they were arriving home from a trip out, Noah turned to Andrew and said, "Andrew, you're my best friend." Andrew looked back at Noah and said, "Yeah."

* 5/2008 - Lately Noah ends each statement with the word “right?” This is all designed to get you to say yes so that you are affirming him and so that he’ll get what he wants.

* 6/28/2008 - All morning, Andrew was wearing a medal he got from some sport or another. Noah had been coveting the medal. Out of the blue, while Andrew is printing up something on the computer for Noah to color, Noah comes out of the bathroom wearing Andrew's medal, chanting something and marching away from all of us in the office. I did not understand what he was saying at first, but when I looked at him, it was clear. He was chanting over and over, "I've got a shiny new medal, I've got a shiny new medal, I've got a shiny new medal."

* 8/13/2008 - Noah, Robin and I were watching 2008 Beijing Olympic Springboard Diving when Andrew was up visiting with Nana & Grampster. Noah was very excited about springboard diving. We asked Noah what they were doing and he said, "They jump, jump and then they splash."

And now for the Andrewisms, the kid has been active.

* 12/8/2007 - We were up in Los Angeles visiting family. Andrew is driving back with Robin’s Dad, Papa, to his place to light Chanukah candles. Papa asks Andrew, “Are you going to get something at Disneyland tomorrow?” Andrew responds, “I can’t; I don’t have any money." Papa says, “If you need money, then you have to get a job. Do you want to get a job?” Andrew replies, “No, I’m allergic.”

* 1/12/2008 - We are driving in the car home from somewhere. Andrew is in his usual spot in the back seat next to Noah. Andrew says to Evan and Robin, "I am giving Noah a foot charm." We inquire why. Andrew says, "Because Noah did a good job listening to my directions."

* 3/5/2008 - Andrew and Noah are playing Cariboo in the Family room. Robin and I both notice that Andrew is dancing around like crazy, indicating that he needs to use the restroom. Andrew finally decides that he is going to go and he says to Noah: "Noah, I want you to pause the game." He uses the word pause the same way he does when he asks us to pause the TV so that he doesn't miss anything (a la TIVO).

* 4/2008 - We always give the boys fruit after they have eaten their other foods. One evening, I had cut up some fresh mango for the boys to eat. They frequently eat dried mango (Thanks Costco!). When I set the sliced fresh mango before Andrew, he said "No Daddy, I don't want wet mango."

* 6/9/2008 - While driving in the car, Robin asks Andrew if he is excited that Kindergarten is almost over and that next year he will be going on to 1st grade. Andrew responds saying "no, I'm not excited. I like my class and I don't want a new teacher."

* 7/16/2008 - While riding in the car, Andrew was explaining information about the planets to Noah. When he got to Pluto, he said "Noah, Pluto is not a planet any more, it is falling out of space."

* 7/30/2008 - Andrew asked Robin if he could see a picture of the baby. Robin showed him one and then Andrew said to me "Daddy, I’m getting old." I asked Andrew, "What does that make Daddy?" Andrew replied "Oh Daddy, you are way too old."

* 8/5/2008 - Andrew opened one of his birthday presents first thing in the morning. It was a new Rex (from Star Tours). Robin asked Andrew if he liked it and Andrew said "Yeah, it's pretty good. Good job Mommy."

To cap it off, I took Andrew to a Young Tinkerers Camp down at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Museum in Balboa Park for a week this summer. From what I gather, he and Nathan Pollock had a blast! While we usually listen to a little music (his current favorite song is Yesterday by the Beatles) and chat as well, one morning we talked the whole way down. Here are the highlights:

* Andrew decided that he wants to have his birthday party at the ceramic place. He really wants to do swim, but I told him that he can't have very many friends if he does that. So he wants ceramics. He definitely did not want miniature golf. Ultimately we are going with the swim party….

* Andrew wants to go to Red Robin for his first little birthday party. Maybe they will give him a chocolate shake. He'll share with Mommy, Noah and Daddy. He wants everyone to sing happy birthday to him.

* He wants a big big big piece of cake for his birthday. Other kids who are 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 can have a big piece too, but not as big as his piece. He wants the biggest. Kids who are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 have to have a small piece. Really really tiny. But Noah can have a little bit bigger piece.

* Then we got into this huge discussion about who sings the song Yesterday. He thought it was sung on American Idol. He wants to watch American Idol so we can see who sings it. I had told him previously that two people wrote the song - John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but that John Lennon had died. He remembered that from a previous discussion. I then told him (incorrectly) that Lennon & McCartney wrote the song, but that Lennon was singing the song that we were listening to (it turns out that Yesterday was written and performed by McCartney even though it is credited to both Lennon & McCartney). Andrew then said, “But he's dead right? How is he singing it then?” Then I had to go into a whole discussion of how we bought a CD that was a recording the song from a long time ago. He asked how it was playing on the iPod. That launched a whole discussion of how we got a recording on CD, we put that on the computer and then we downloaded it to the iPod. Then he asked “What does download mean?” I tried to explain. Not sure he's got it yet, but he's smart - he'll figure it out.

What a treat it is to watch both boys learn….

Ping Pong Sister

A long while back, I wrote Go West Young Woman about my sister Karin’s move from New York to Los Angeles. Well, for those of you on the east coast, the serve has been returned and it is game on. In April, Karin took a great job back with Fisher Price in the Big Apple. She’s moved into a new place on the upper west side and she seems excited about the job and the transition.
Of course we miss her. But we saw her up in Oregon for Erin and Jesse Ellison’s Wedding (post coming soon), for a little bit in San Diego thereafter and again for the Slade Family Reunion (post coming soon). For a bonus, I will get to see her in late August in New York (for Robert Hassimi’s wedding)!

I guess there is a reason they call it Back East – that’s where Karin is now… Care to try and return the ball folks? We shall see…

Bunk Beds and More

At long last the boys now have bunk beds. We ordered the bed back at the beginning of the year, but it took forever for it to get here. The bed arrived on April 26, 2008 and the boys have not been the same since. They LOVE sleeping in the same room together. Andrew is the master of the top bunk and Noah the master of the bottom. They both look forward to Friday and Saturday nights when they get to stay together on the bottom bunk. There is no question that getting both of them to go sleep is a little more of a challenge, but they are starting to get the hang of it. Our best strategy is to put Andrew to sleep first, have him fall asleep and then lay Noah down. It is usually not very much fun for Noah to try to talk to an already sleeping Andrew. On the nights where we put them to sleep at the same time or together on the bottom bunk, rarely do they get to sleep with their nightlights. We take them away one by one if they are not quiet and once all the nightlights are gone, they USUALLY don’t talk much and they just end up going to sleep. Very nice!

We got a twin over full bunk bed so that we’d have an extra larger bed for when guests come. So consider that your invitation to pay us a visit! We actually had our first visitors pretty recently. Nana and Grampster came down for a quick visit before heading to Orange County for a wedding and then Laughlin, Nevada for some relaxation. The bed came in very handy!

We got a couple of shots of the boys with the bed just after it was setup.





We also got a few pictures of them several days later in their new ORANGE PAJAMAS. These were handmade right here in the USA by Nana The boys love the new jammies. The jammies say "Orange Pajamas" right on the front - it's a little hard to read on these pictures, but it's very cool!





When the boys were born, Auntie Karin gave each of them their very own handmade blanket. Andrew liked his, but Noah LOVES his. Noah got a LARGE Bison stuffed animal from Nana and Grampster for his 3rd Birthday. He LOVES his Bison about as much as he LOVES his blankie. Lately he has been taking to laying around with both his blankie and his Bison. We got a cute shot of him relaxing and LOVING both of them.



Best of all with them sleeping in the same room is listening in to them talking together before settling in. One night, Andrew slowly and methodically tried to teach Noah all of the colors in Spanish. The exchange went something like this: Andrew: “Noah, white is blanco, say blanco Noah”; Noah: “Blanco”; Andrew “Good Noah. Noah, red is rojo, say rojo Noah”; Noah: “Rojo”; Andrew: “Good Noah.” I think Andrew took him through about 10 colors. That was our bedtime music.

T-Ball Expectations

T-Ball conjures up nice images of simpler days running around a field, trying to concentrate on hitting a stationary ball, and trying not to let the ball hit by the other teams ringer go too far overhead. For me, T-Ball was fun and a key building block for a lifetime love of baseball.

I always wondered if it would be something my kids would take up and love like I do.

How else to find out than to start the introduction? Last year, we signed Andrew up for Carmel Valley Youth Baseball. He said he was willing to give it a try and I thought it would be a good way to introduce him to baseball. After all, he has tossed pinecones into a creek and threw a snowball into a camera with a lefty’s touch. Not to mention his Uncle Alan Sorem played semi-pro ball as a lefty pitcher a few years back. Who could know what the future may hold?

Last year Andrew played on the Mets and this year he was on the Royals. The Mets sponsor was a local sports radio station. The Royals sponsor was something called Advanced Whole Horse (I’m actually afraid to ask what it is in the business of). Andrew even improved his batting grip year over year. Here are the official pictures from year 1 and year 2 of T-Ball.

Andrew as Mike Piazza (Sort Of)

Andrew as George Brett (The Righty Version)

After a season and a half, my goals for Andrew are quite modest. A little different than MY dreams of a future left handed pitcher for the San Diego Padres. I am hopeful that Andrew will take away the basics of sportsmanship, respect his teammates and the equipment, get a little exercise and enjoy himself. While the revised goals were not met in a day, we worked on them and made some progress.

Andrew, as I am sure you can tell from all the entries, has a mind of his own. Thank goodness. But at the same time, I’m not sure he is yet fully programmed for team sports. He actually does pretty well when his team is up to bat – he waits his turn and he hits the ball and runs the bases (with appropriate reminders about where to go). It’s in the field where the challenges truly present. Most of the other kids can stay in position and generally pay attention to the game. Not so much for Andrew. I spent many a Saturday sitting or standing right behind him and continually reminding him to watch for the hitter (I don’t want him to get hurt after all) and to stay in position and not to pick up the cones or kick them over or run to the fence to see if he can find ladybugs. For someone who (through much effort from my father the coach and my mother the scorekeeper) now understands the game, it is trying not to be able to impart it quickly to Andrew. But all worthwhile endeavors take significant time, effort and energy. Much like Andrew.

I took the SLR out to one of the early games this year and got a few photos of Andrew in action. Here goes.

We're Still Working on Grounders

Check Out that Focus

Fleet Feet

Casey at the Bat !!

Run Forrest, Run....

Usually after innings are over, Andrew will be good for a hug for his Mommy.

He also seems to be getting the concept of sportsmanship at the end of the game all right.


Of course he understands snack and he’s always looking out for his little brother Noah.


We’ve got a ways to go, but I’ve now got a better eye on the long view. And now we have started soccer. That seems to be going a lot better. We’ll see…..