The crib maker

This is Tony. Not only is he the husband of my hot pregnant wife's sister, he will also be very kindly making us a crib for our impending offspring.

Today we went to the wood store to get the wood. He recommended Poplar, who were we to disagree? Britney wants to paint it white when it's done, so apparently poplar is good for that, not as strong a grain.

Thanks Tony. Now the question becomes, how will we get it to LA. Looks like we'll be making another trip.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Steve at his desk

Steve Steele, Britneys dad, checks the news. We've been staying with Steve and Nancy, his wife, for our little christmas break.

Yay Christmas!

Steve and Nancy served a mission in Russia, so they're always interested in the news there.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

in the news

This is my hot pregnant wife. She is currently incubatting our little girl, to be named Zoey , unless otherwise decided. Though a name change is unlikely.

Yes, internet, I'm going to be a dad! And I am super psyched. We're expecting her early in March. Its fun since she'll have 3 girl cousins and one boy all close to her age, not to mention all the friends coming out of my friends at right about the same time.

YAY KIDS!

You may be wondering why she is standing in an empty room. Sadly, this is not her portfolio picture for Americas Next Top Pregnant Model. It is, however evidence of some great news : my brother got a job here in LA, and he's coming down at the first of the year to work, with sarah and izzie soon to follow.

And, I tried posting this with my new blackberry, but blogger was having some sort of issues. I opted for not the iphone, we'll see how it goes. So, that's fun. more news to come!

Mustache time?

is it? is it that time again?

i am caused to reflect by this article, forwarded to me by a friend, and fellow occasional mustache enthusiast. from that article, i was forwarded to what may be one of the most important awards to be presented this year. . . the Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year. i dont feel i particularly qualify, but what inspiration! GOULET!

CYBORG!

is it the future, or an abomination? i saw this article a while back, and found it fascinating. that's all i can really say.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080813192458.ud84hj9h&show_article=1

I'm on Youtube, what's next?

so, last week i delivered the final video to Nettwerk, the record label . . . finally. no pun intended. i asked them what their intent for distribution was, and they said all of the standard outlets, which is way cool, cause maybe my video will be on TV!

over the weekend, a friend said that they had watched the video on YouTube, which i thought was unlikely, because i hadn't posted it there, but maybe someone else had? so, i searched for it today, and HERE IT IS! on youTube!



now, you may be inclined to wonder "why is that such a big deal" ? well, good question, and i answer you dear reader: this is the final version which i delivered to the label, not one that i gave to anyone, or posted anywhere else, which means that they have begun their distribution! sooo . . . watch for it on your nearest favored music video outlet :)

In The News

hey, one of my favorite blogs for checking out cool stuf, no fat clips, put my video up! that's awesome. and, ok, yes, i did send it to them anonymously, but i wanted to see if they would think it was cool enough. cause, you know, who doesn't need a little ego padding? :)

right now, at 5:28 pm on thursday, it currently is at the top of the page. it might not be by time you get there, they post a lot of stuff all the time, but scroll down, if you want, and you may find it.

or, you can just watch it here



they also posted a friend's excellent PSA a little while back. it's really cool, check it out.

in other self serving news, if you google my name and the weepies together, you can see a press release and other blogs that have liked the video.

She's the One

my wife is fantastic. have i told you that? what, you didn't know i had a wife? well, i know that's not true since, the fact is, if you're reading this, you probably know me personally, however, in the off chance that you were forwarded here from some other blog, perhaps by a mutual acquaintance, allow me to elucidate.

well, internet, remember this one post? its time for a follow up. why have i waited so long? you may be inclined to ask, and for good reason. but really, i don't know. maybe everything got crazy, and all of my good intentions were brushed to the wayside. maybe i avoided it for fear of an inability to articulate my feelings, or maybe for a fear of actually just articulating them (sometimes that's hard, you know?). maybe i thought i would wait till we had some pictures posted, and then let my procrastination get the best of me. no matter what the "reason", there is not a good one. this story is long overdue.

so, lets start at the beginning, or is it the end? i suppose its both.
on March 15, 2008, i married the girl of my dreams in the Salt Lake City Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

at the thought of the day, i am struck instantly by a myriad of images associated with the event. Thoughts, feeling, emotions, it's overwhelming.

the day started in a relatively relaxed way, due to the fact that my (obviously) inspired wife to be scheduled our sealing for 1:30 pm. so many people talk about their wedding day being a blur, that they barely even remember it, that they can't even remember who was at their reception. i think that's a terrible shame. i feel like i remember everything about the day, and i attribute it all to the fact that we didn't have to rush to make our sealing time in the morning. starting the day off right made all the difference.

i got to the temple, it was busy that day, and after changing, getting a little advice from one of the Temple presidency and getting pointed in the right direction, met Britney and we waited in the celestial room until it was our time.

i don't think i ever remember a celestial room looking so beautiful. even when we were in it, just a few days before, it didn't resonate with such light and color. i think i must have almost cracked my face, i was grinning like an idiot.

we got sealed in a very straight forward and efficient little ceremony. it was so exciting to be there with my future wife, hearing the sealer pronounce us husband and wife. it was great to be surrounded by family and friends.

after the sealing, of course, it was picture time. Salt Lake had sported beautiful weather the days previous, so we figured we were in luck for a nice day of pictures. boy were we wrong. sure, the sun was out (sort of), but it must have been broken, cause even on the times it peaked out from behind the clouds, it was generally ineffective.
of course, then it started snowing. no, i mean hailing. like, you know when you get a fountain drink from some places and they have that ice which is bigger than snow cone sized crystals, but smaller than regular ice, and then it gets a little melty and gets all compact in the bottom of your styrofoam cup? yeah, hail like that.

so, we tried to bust out the group shots as fast as possible. our photographer was fantastic. she must have eaten her weaties that morning (or . . . you know, her speed) because she was like a 7 year old who forgot her ridalin. which was actually really helpful, when you're trying to get pictures that include 7 year olds, and adults with the attention span of 7 year olds.

so, the group pics whent well, everybody left . . . and then it really got cold. yeah, we thought it was cold before, but, you know, we were wrong. it got frozen hands people crying due to exposure cold. (no, not me, i wasn't crying. i'm a real man, and real men never cry, right?).

luckily our photographer only needed us in the freezing cold, for, like 7 more hours, so we finished up, got some nice shots, and were off to the reception. where we took some more pictures.

and had a party!

and it was a fantastic party. Britney had organized everything: the decoration of the place, the cake, the food, the Mariachi band. yes, the Mariachi band. yes, they were real. yes they were awesome.
the food was awesome too. we had little pulled pork sandwiches. little barbeque beef sandwiches, little key lime pies, churros - so much good stuff. apparently, the 2 hits of the evening were the brazilian limeaide and the stuffed churros. i dont remember if i had any limeade, but i know i missed the stuffed churros, which is driving me crazy because whenever anybody talks about our reception, the only thing they can talk about is the stuffed churros! if they were so good, why didn't anybody bring me one!? oh yeah, cause everybody was too busy eating them. there was a line all night at the churro stand. i didn't understand it at the time, but now i get it. i guess . . .

oh, and we had the best wedding cake ever. ever. sorry to everyone else, in the whole world, our cake beat yours by a mile. you can cry about it later, but its true. and, it looked cool too. we even took the lemony top to our cake with us when we left and ate it for the next 3-5 days. oh man, it was so good. i wish i could eat some of it right now. of course, it might also have been the beginnings of my 20 lbs of excess baggage. . . . but it was so worth it. . . mmmm . . .best cake ever . . . .
well, the evening went well. so many people came. it was so excellent to be surrounded by family and friends for the big day. that's whats it's all about, being able to celebrate the momentous occasions with family and friends.

so, we took off from the party, spent a couple of nights at the Grand America hotel in Salt Lake, and we were off to Hawaii for a week of relaxing on the beach. . . sort of.

Hawaii was great. we were on Kauai, the north most island. we weather wasn't too rainy, so we were able to to so much stuff. we went diving off of the forbidden island (a natives only island, just off the north west off Kauai), saw some sharks, dove through some killer arches. we went horseback riding, snorkeling, up to Waimea canyon (the "Grand Canyon" of Hawaii), sat on beaches, took loads of pictures, and ate seriously tasty apple turnovers from Yumi's. we ate alot of great food, and just had a great vacation.
it was all over too fast, and before we knew it, we were off to VA for a quick weekend open house with my folks, and then we were back in Santa Monica. i went straight back to work, and Britney went straight to work turning out little apartment in to a home. she's done a fabulous job, none of our friends even recognize it as the place where Andy and i used to live.

so, that is the short version of the story of the beginning of this new life, and the end of the old. i'm going to have alot more to say about my excelent wife, and our adventures now that we are married, so stay tuned.

Megan got married

so, last weekend Britney and i boarded a plane for the Right coast to witness the matrimony of my littlest sister, Megan. We hung out in VA with the family, had a wonderful time, and the wedding day was fantastic. luckily, my lovely wife got me a D40 for my birthday, so i was able to take 7 hundred billion pictures, as opposed to my usual couple of rolls of film. so, now i've got to sort through them, or just post them indiscriminately for your perusing.

did i mention that i turned 30? yeah, i also haven't written a word about actually getting married - sorry babe - we'll get to that soon.

one of the wedding weekend highlights was taking Mason, my recenly acquired nephew (you know, acquired by marriage. . . me being the "new") fishing in the backyard. he is still developing his fishing attention span, but has found his rock throwing attention span to be quite sufficient.

Mason caught the most fish (2), Britney the biggest fish, while i came in with the award for littlest fish, barely bigger than the bobber i used to catch him. i don't even know how he got the worm in his mouth. he wont have to eat for a month.
other highlights included seeing my brother Matt's new (old) '68 El Camino on blocks in the driveway (my mother was thrilled, she loves it when we, as a family, display our occasional redneckness. pass the Mt. Dew.), Tony's pizza on the back porch with Jojo's family, watching Avery freak out about the dogs, shooting skeet, burning meat on the charcoal grill, and the bumpiest roller coaster-esqe takeoff i have ever experienced in a plane.
anti-highlights include sitting on the runway at Dulles for an extra hour and a half, thus missing our connecting flight, and "getting" to stay the night in Chicago on our own dime. but, hey, a hotel is better than a cot in terminal A, right?

and, now we've been back for a week, Britney's tired (for reasons to be discussed in the future), and i'm just animating some bugs, robots and servers. luckily it hasn't been too hot here, in the last couple of months, and when it is a little warm, we have a nice new window unit A/C. thanks Frank.

Hideaway

well, its been a long time since i've posted. i kept waiting for time to write that perfect post. one that would describe everything that i've been doing . . . but, reality has struck, and that time will never materialize. which is sad.

so, due to my procrastination, i feel like i've missed lots of opportunities to share fun stuff. oh well, time to move on. i dont want to miss any more opportunities, so i will begin again to share "fun" stuff starting now, with a little video i made for a contest. hope you like it, hope it wins :) .

Hideaway, song by The Weepies.

Dear The Internet,

i'm sorry i've been neglecting you. its just that, i've had a lot to do. i wish i could tell you all about it right now, but, i'll have to give you the full story later. for now, a snapshot.

Blue Delorean

i've been updating my website.

its been a little slow, and there's not much to look at, yet, but its on its way . . .

I Hate Sending Flowers

well . . . maybe thats a bit of an erroneous statement. well . . . maybe not.

i like GIVING flowers. i just dont like SENDING flowers? "But, Mike," you may be inclined to wonder, "what does that mean?"

well, i have tried to send flowers to my lovely financee several times. and, she always loves them. and i feel great! i'm so glad i could brighten her day just a little but blowing some cash on something useless. after all, that is sort of like art, right? at least, according to Victorian philosophers and art critics everywhere (art being a useless item meant to look pretty. . . art for art's sake.)

i am always glad to find out that the flowers actually arrived at the time and place designated. and went to the right person. and brightened her day. and i'm glad i did something "right" (because, lets face it, i'm a a guy, and we gotta do what we can :) ). and i sit back and bask in my own awesomeness, feeling proud, and maybe a little cocky, and then she sends me the picture of the lovely blossoms.

and then i deflate.

why, you ask? i mean, it sounds like everything was nearly perfect, right? well. nearly. except that almost every time i send flowers from an online retailer, they are wrong. sure, Britney is appreciative, and i'm sure she feels all the feelings i would have hoped she would feel from the thought of me sending flowers. but SHE ALWAYS GETS THE WRONG ONES!

but, at least she got flowers, right? i mean, its the thought that counts, right? well . . . . almost.

you see, how can i be sure that she felt as loved as she could have, if she didnt get the flowers i intended. take, for example, exhibit A (or "why i hate FTD"):
notice the little roses in the top right corner. britney got those from me one day, back in , i dont know, septemeber or something. and, you're thinking, whats wrong with those, they seem nice. and sure they are, but notice the big flower dead center in the picture. yeah, thats what she was supposed to have gotten.

whats the problem, right? oh, well, 2 things. for one, the big flowers are Hydrangeas. not roses at all. they delivered flowers that were not even remotely similar. the second problem HYDRANGEAS ARE HER FAVORITE!

so, am i to assume that, though having received some admittedly nice flowers, her emotional response would have been the same as if they had been her actual favorite flowers? and, am i to just be ok with the fact that she got some flowers, even if they weren't the ones i paid for?

way to go FTD. it wasn't even a holiday. how could you screw that up?

they screwed up another order too, but i cant remember what that was. oh, yes i do. at Halloween they had a special orange rose bouquet. so, i thought, i love Britney, and Orange is her favorite color, i'll send her that, since we live far apart, and it would be fun. well, she didnt get Orange roses. she got some crappy little red ones that were already browning when she got them.

nice.

yeah, i called them. they gave me, like, a 5% refund. now THAT's customer service. they said it had something to do with their right to substitute an equivalent flower, based on availability or something. well, thats bullshit. if you're advertising a special arrangement, and someone orders that specific one. . . .maybe there's a reason for that. maybe. . .

consider, for example, exhibit B:

these are the flowers that Britney got for valentines.
they're lovely, right? sure. but does that arrangement look like this one?
admittedly, i was a little late this year with my flower ordering. i ordered on wed. (the 13th) for a thursday (the 14th) delivery. however, i found this bouquet on a website, and wanted to send it, it was perfect, i thought. exactly what i was hoping to "say". sadly, the site said it would not be available for a next day delivery. so, i figured that would be the same for all of their flowers, so i navigated to a different site and, to my excitement, found the same bouquet, which COULD be delivered next day!

i ordered a very specific bouquet, with the very specific promise that it could be delivered as i ordered it.

well, i think you get my point by now. . .

i think that flower delivery places take advantage of distance separation to screw people. i dont know the monetary value of the bouquet recieved. i mean, it could have been worth more than the one i ordered, so they felt justified in sending it instead of my intended selection. i probably would never have known, if digital media hadn't made it so easy to share images. but, i didnt want a more expensive bouquet. i wanted the one i ordered.

flowers, to me, have a specific language about them. maybe that is something that has been brainwashed into us by flower companies, but i dont think so. historically, flowers have always had meaning (or here) Red roses for love and passion, pink or yellow Roses for friendship (i guess depending on the time period), Edelweis denoted a real warrior, etc.

these days, flowers have different or no specific meaning at all (is that a societal commentary in and of itself), except for what you give them. if i wanted her to think i didnt know her so well, i'd send her a bouquet of purple flowers (not her favorite color). if i wanted her to think i was cheap and still in middle school, i'd send her a couple of lame carnations. so, for me, when i want to send the girl i love the flowers that she loves the best, by either type or color, i have a reason. and the places that have been claiming to help me in that regard have nearly always let me down. in exchange for ludicrous sums of money.

except for one place in Lindon, UT, that i couldn't locate, and who's URL i thought i had saved. they got it right. and same day delivery to boot. i wish i could plug them. (that would also be a good illustration or, or parallel to my feelings about chain vs. local restaurants. . . interesting. . .)

well, luckily, Britney and i will be in the same place forever soon enough, and i can just BRING her the flowers i intend for her to recieve. then she'll know exactly what i'm trying to "say". maybe :)

but dont give your money to FTD or Orem Floral (i even tried to call Orem Floral on the number they included in my confirmation email, but all i got was fax machine noise. nice one guys.)

23 or 28 . . . it depends on the circumstances

23

that is. . . assuming that i am of average build, average reach and a little above average height, and that these are just all regular 5 year olds that haven't had their naps or something.

after discussing it with kyle, and considering the question with certain caveats, such as:

are they zombie kids?
are they all severly ADD?
have they all peed themselves withing the last 5 minutes?
do they want to kill me?

and kyle pointing out that you have to assume all of the above, and that "you have to fight there mothers next," i retook the test and found out that i could take 28.

i feel pretty good about that. i would like to thank my one time Taekwondo teacher for helping me up my chances by teaching me the effect of the round house kick.

Thanks Johnny O.

Where Do I Start?

its the new year, where do i start? i mean, after such an eventful holiday time, it seems almost anticlimactic writing on the internet. . .

and WHY was it eventful, you ask?

well, i went to 3 different states, visited the capitol of the free world, celebrated the birth of Jesus spiritually and secularly . . . oh yeah, and GOT ENGAGED! yeah, thats right. dope.

well, the reality of it is that, if you're reading this, you probably already knew that that had happened, but, as articulated by Kristen in email, and by everyone else:

1. How did you propose? (and am i ever going to see pictures?)

2. What does the ring look like?

3. Are you actually going to manage to get the SLC temple reserved in two months? Isn't it kinda crazy?

4. What is it, exactly, that Britnee does?

5. Are you going to blog this?!

so, i answer your questions:

1.) it has been a family tradition to have family and some family friends over to the house on Christmas Eve for dinner and a little program. at some point, we all started receiving pj's on Christmas Eve, in what was, i'm sure, and attempt by my mother to have us all look presentable in the inevitable Christmas morning photos.

at some point, in the last couple of years, the parents have stopped getting us the pj's, because jolly old Saint Nick has been showing up at the house to distribute them to the kids.

well, this year, Santa had a special final gift for one young lady. he proposed for me (since i was scared), and brought me the good news - SHE SAID YES! which was kind of amazing, since she was asked by a fat guy with a beard in front of a bunch of people - and you know how much she likes to be the center of attention. oh, you dont? well, lets just say about as much as having honey poured over her body and being lowered into a hive of red ants.
2.) the ring is/will be a non standard type of setup, consisting of 4 bands - three thin and one fat. two of the thin bands will be yellow gold, one rose gold, with various diamonds set flush. the fourth band will be fat and white gold. all gold will be brushed.

one of the gold bands is the band that i used for her place holder/initial engagement ring. it looks hand made (and is, i guess), and has 3 organically spaced small diamonds.

since its so custom, it has to get made, so i dont have pics of it yet, cause, you know, its getting made.

3.) yes. in fact, its already done, for one of our prospective dates. when we have the real date, you'll know.

4.) Britney (watch that spelling :) ) is currently an account manager for Logoworks, where she interfaces with clients. she is excited to quit this job.

5.) yes.

so, there you have it. complete with pictures of me in a fat man suit.

Britney came to VA for Christmas, then we went together to AZ to hang out with her family for a couple of days. Then to UT for a couple of days cause Britney had to work but i didnt.

speaking of work, i am no longer working at Digital Domain, but have been given a staff position at Asylum, which is the best place i have ever worked. ever. they gave me a beanie today. just cause they're like that.

i started there yesterday. guess what my first task is, post Speed Racer. . . . cant guess? ok, i'll tell you, its prevising a car commercial! good thing i've had months of training :).