And had lunch with her and 15 of her closest friends. 
Actually I had one meeting with her back when I was in Strategic Partnerships but today’s lunch was a really cool event, very informal and was nice to be able to just sit and talk with the CEO.
So, Meg and Pierre all in one week.
Seeing Scott Randall (founder of FairMarket) last week got me thinking about the past. Then Outlook started pinging me about several launch anniversaries so here is a quick recap spanning pre and post eBay acquisition:
It’s amazing that we’ve been eBay employees for 3.5 years and have been living in CA for almost as long.
I only mention this because Hima thinks I have a man crush and I know she’ll laugh when she see’s this 4 second meeting rated a blog post.
I was hoping that the judges on American Idol would step in and throw a towel to the center of the stage when Sanjaya sang.
And PS- please stop telling people they look good when their song sucked. No one goes on Next Top Model and tells them they sang well but look like death warmed over.
I was watching The Real World Denver this weekend and one of the guys gets arrested. Sure, the production and all the commercials makes you think the guy gets arrested for abusing his girlfriend but in the end it is for public urination and disturbing the peace.
The pain this guy expresses about how he’s going to be portrayed to the public is real. The fact that he drank too much and was in the wrong with his girlfriend is also real. But the “best” part of the whole show was how he owned up to it and called to prepare his family for what was about to be public knowledge.
His father was awesome. The lecture he dished out was what everyone in that position should do and the way his son took it was also spot on. Too often people come out with this, “My child right or wrong!” attitude which isn’t logically or helpful. Yes, love your child but when they do something wrong you need to do what is right. The thing that comes to mind is always the guy that kills someone and the family acts like their baby couldn’t ever have committed such a crime. I’ve seen a few folks come out and declare their sorrow and remore for those hurt by their family member but sadly those instances are the minority.
Anyway- in this case the father called it like it was. The hardest part (in my opinion) was when the father said, “This is always going to be with you” and then started role playing the future. “Mr Senator, what’s this on your record? Mr President, can you tell us about this incident in 2007?” It was a perfect encapsulation of the hope and dissapointment of a parent. Listening to his dad’s dissapointment appeared to hit that guy to the core.
Parenting scored one on this reality episode.
If you don’t like Scrubs I have to think you’re not human. My opinion but there it is.
Here is a link to the site for Bryanna’s Bill which was started in an effort to pass LD 658 which would require insurance companies, doing business in Maine, to cover the cost of elemental formulas for children who are unable to consume a natural, life-sustaining diet due to various allergies or diseases.
I started BB*PHI in an effort to help other families in Maine. Our daughter Bryanna was born in January 2006. Although she was a very happy child, there was something wrong. At three weeks, she broke out in severe weeping eczema and hives. She would vomit after every feeding as well as throughout the day and night (sometimes hours after nursing). She had persistent diarrhea. She gained weight very slowly. Bryanna is our first child, so when her doctors told me she was fine and a “spitter”, I took them at their word. I was nursing and was told over and over that it was the best possible thing for her. At three months she had her first instance of facial swelling. I started researching and found that something I was eating could be causing these reactions. For six weeks I stopped eating the seven major allergens (dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, seafood, peanuts and tree nuts). She was not getting better. Finally, at the age of five months, she was diagnosed with life threatening dairy and egg allergies. Her allergies were so severe, that if dairy comes into contact with her skin it will immediately cause hives and swelling.
Once doctors determined the extent of her allergies they put her on an elemental formula called Neocate. After three days on Neocate, Bryanna was like a new child. No more vomiting, diarrhea, and all-over hives. Her eczema flares had quieted down and there were no more incidences of facial swelling. In one month she gained one pound (16oz). Prior to having Neocate, she was averaging about three ounces a month. When she started on solid foods at seven months, Bryanna ended up back in the same boat. Almost every food we tried caused a violent physical reaction. She would begin vomiting and continue to do so for over three hours. It is heartbreaking to watch your child suffer knowing that there is nothing you can do to help. After two months and five severe reactions, doctors took her off all solid food until her 1st birthday, and increased the amount of formula she was to be given to compensate. We live in Maine, but until June 2006, my husband worked for a Massachusetts-based company and our Massachusetts insurance policy covered the cost of Neocate. At the time we didn’t realize that Massachusetts is one of only six states that require insurance companies to cover the cost of elemental formulas (MA Chapter 176A: Section 8L). My husband then got a new position in Maine and our insurance switched to a Maine policy. The insurance company told me that they did not cover the cost of infant formula unless it was administered via a feeding tube or mandated by state law. Despite having a doctor’s prescription and letters that had been written by two Pediatricians, two Pediatric Allergists and a Pediatric Gastroenterologist, they insisted they would not cover Neocate. Since Bryanna can drink the formula in a bottle or cup and we refused to put her through unnecessary surgery to have a tube inserted in her stomach, they denied our claim.
Read more here.
We were up in Napa Valley today and took a tour of Rubicon Estate Winery (used to be Niebaum-Coppola) and the tour had quite a bit of history to it. At one point they were telling us how the founder, Gustave Niebaum, was something of an evironmentalist. Granted, Gustave made his massive fortune in the fur trade.
Two of my friends left today to take on different jobs. Danny is going to a startup so I won’t tell anything I know about that and Aloke is heading to Apple to work on the iTunes store.
Good luck to you both!