Mi Apellido

I have a unique last name – “Krozek.” Its uniqueness lends itself to both inspired nicknames and creative misspellings.

Let’s start with the nicknames. In the waning years of high school I had a number of nicknames: Zeak (ostensibly from the “zek” part of Krozek), Kro, and Krazy Krozek (my friends were into alliteration for awhile, what can I say). Later on, in college, when I joined my fraternity, I had to go up in front of the chapter and give my name, my hometown, a nickname, and a few points of interest about my life. Needless to say, I never got to the “interesting points about my life” because I chose “Krazy” as my nickname. I thought I was cool…I was young and dumb. I left the room to endless heckling and empty beer cans thrown at my head. I thought that because I was in a fraternity, that the nickname Krazy would be well received, and, perhaps it was even as common a name as Smith or Johnson in the “real world.” I was wrong. I never lived it down.

Nowadays, most people just call me “Kro” and that seems to fit me just fine.

Some of the better misspellings (which, now that I think of it, some have actually transcended “misspellings” and leaked into the “nickname” category) include: Krovek (“Mr. Krovek, we have ways of making you talk…” – say it with a Russian accent for ultimate effect), Korzak, Crowsack, Crozak, and Krozak (VERY common). The funny thing about my last name is that at one point the name was supposedly spelled “Krozack.” Krozack seems much more intuitive. When my paternal grandfather died in the early 90’s we came across his birth certificate and it was spelled Krozack. The mystery of the Krozek spelling died with him.

I have other data points to discuss on this last name thing, but I will close with this (for now): I am a true American mutt. I am Welch, German, English, Swedish and Czech (at least). My ancestors last names included: Barkledge, Wendell, Gustafson, Nestor, and Wilson, all of which are easy to pronounce and common(ish)…and I ended up with Krozek.

Long live Kro.

Blackbird

I sing songs to my kids at night. My kids have very forgiving ears as I have a terrible voice. But, I sing, and they tell me they enjoy it. For the last 3 years I have been singing the same five songs every night. One of these songs is Blackbird by The Beatles. This is a great song, certainly, for its metaphorical significance during the time that The White Album was released and even today, but its simplicity make it equally celebrated amongst us with a poor memory and even poorer musical skills.

David Kim, with whom I work, was telling me the other day that he only sings "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" to his young son because that's the only song he knows. So, David, add Blackbird to your repetroire (and read to the bottom of this entry for my own addition to this simple classic):

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

And then I add a stanza about our black dog, Curly:

Black dog barking in the dead of night
Take these broken paws and learn to walk
All your life
You were only waiting for the moment so you could talk
Black dog bark
Black dog bark
Into the light of the dark night bark.

Kro Picks Places to Go In and Around Barcelona

My wife and I have lived in Barcelona twice. We lived there in 1992 during the Summer Olympics and then again in 2001 when I was finishing up business school doing a semester abroad at IESE. (I went to grad school at Cornell, but then my wife, son, and I went off to Spain for about four months to add a little international flavor to round out the ‘ol education).

Over the years we’ve received numerous requests for things to see and do in and around Barcelona. So…for once and for all, here are my suggestions…

> The Maritime Museum at the end of Las Ramblas. It’s very cool and very under visited. It's a great naval history of Spain over the last 500 years. Ferdinand and Isabella were extremely instrumental in getting the voyages of exploration off and sailing, so there's lots of cool stuff.
> There’s also an “open air” market on Las Ramblas which is cool to check out.
> Noveja Negra (Black Sheep) is a great bar just off Las Ramblas. It’s like 1200 years old or something.
> Campejano is a dive stand-up-only-restaurant in Barceloneta…they only serve champagne (white and pink) and small sandwiches. Throw your trash on the ground when you’re done and just go ahead and get a full bottle of the house pink champagne, it’s cheap and it goes down like punch.
> La Gran Bodega is on Valencia in the E’xample (sp) neighborhood…the best tapas (get the pan con tomate for God’s sake!) in the City if you ask me. Fantastic sangria too.
> Visit the Gaudi stuff too…Sagrada Familia, Parc Guel, etc…but the best Gaudi thing is the apartment building on Paseau de Gracia. There’s a tour of a typical, upper class turn of the century apartment on the top floor of the building. Very cool.
> Dali has a great museum just north of Barcelona in a small town called Figueras – it’s an easy train ride from Barcelona and is a nice day trip. The museum is small, manageable and weird.
> Monserat is an overnight trip (train). It’s a monastery in the mountains…you take the train from Barcelona and then a tram to the Monastery. If you’re there in the off season you should stay in the hotel overnight and listen to the boys choir and the bells. It’s a bit pricey in high season (summer), but very reasonable in low season (winter and early spring). If you’re Catholic this is one of the big pilgrimage places in Spain. There’s a black carved wood Virgin Mary that was reported to have tears coming out of the eyes of this small “statue.”
> Obviously, you could get lost for days in the alleys in “old section” of Barcelona, called the Barri Gotic (Barria Gotica), visiting the Ciutadella (the main church in this ancient walled city within a city) and the hundreds of stores, bars and restaurants – so you’ll want to reserve a full day or two for this too.
> A couple of other nice overnight trips include adventures to Sitges (a BIG all night party destination) or Cadaques (a small fishing village, and the birth place of Dali, near the French boarder). Train to Sitges, but rent a car for Cadaques.

If you have any other questions or comments on Barcelona, just add a comment or two below!

Household Rules

In a house full of kids and animals, it’s imperative to have some basic rules to outline and define what’s proper behavior and to set expectations for the family unit. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to really set these guidelines. Therefore our house is a mess, our kids run wild, we struggle to get out of the house – basically it’s complete chaos.

But, through all this craziness, we have been able to eek out two rules to live by. The first rule applies only to pregnant women and women who are within 6 months of giving birth. The rule is “rest, rest, do your best.” When in doubt, or when Kim is frustrated, when she feels like there’s just too much on her plate (and she’s got this kid in her belly or on her hip), take a deep breath, sit down (lie down) and take a rest. A nap can be nice too.

When the “rest, rest, do your best” rule is enacted it’s time for me to snap into action and take over with whatever Kim has been doing. It’s a steadfast rule in the house and it works well. For those of you expecting a new member to your family, or who have just given birth to a child, try it out.

The second rule is: “You can never have too much fleece.” And I think that just speaks for itself.