Holga

so, for mothers day I got Britney a Holga. Like any good husband, I then promptly took it out to take pictures. Britney has taken some too, when she uploads them, i'll post a link.

*edit* britney's pics here

Dodger Dogs

went to Mormon night at Dodger Stadium. we sat in the all you can eat section near friends, ate dogs, watched ball, and had a generally excellent time. Britney posted nicely about it, but i couldn't help but mention it. mostly cause i wanted an excuse to post a picture of my baby girl :)

Madeline

went up to Utah for Madeline's blessing. who can believe that Dan is a dad? probably the same people that can believe that I am.

i've got more pictures here. britney has lots of great ones here.

The Happenings

well, lots had been happening since the last we spoke. we've had mothers day, fathers day, i turned 31 , every event made the more wonderful by my lovely wife and beautiful daughter. . .. we've been visiting, we've been visited. work has been happening, projects around the house and otherwise have been nearing completion, and Zoey gets bigger and more fun every day.

WINNER!

that's right.  after a couple of hours an one minor bit of trouble shooting, i am now typing this on the machine you see pictured above.  thanks to "mechdrew" at the MyDellMini forum, and nearly idiot proof instructions, not to mention the files i needed to make booting to my USB drives work, i now have a Hackintosh Vostro a90.  

i even uploaded my picture from the SD card in the SD card reader.  just one of the many (mini?) reasons to build your own.  (no, Britneys new Macbook doesn't have an SD card reader built in, how about THAT!?)  and it only cost about $350.  250 for the netbook from Dell Small Business, and 100 for OSX on Amazon. 

has my inner geek been satiated?  sure.  for now.  untill i upgrade the ram to 2gb for, like, 25 bucks.  BOO YAH!

Mini Monolith

It's here!

The a90 has arrived looking sleek in it's all black case. I took I to work to test out the Ubuntu OS that came pre installed, and let's be honest, it's not bad for a Linux OS. For a fleeting moment I even considered giving it a go. Yeah, untill I tried to play a quicktime on the computerweb (Linux and QT don't get along. Odd since OSX is built on a Linux kernel). Thus, my resolve is solidified, OSX here we come!

Tonight, we'll see how good I am at following directions . . .
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Yeah, that's the real deal

oh man . . . oh man . . . oh man . . .

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Obsessions

well, what's up internet. i've got a couple of new obsessions -

1 - making my baby smile

2 - squirrel suits
3 - hackintosh

Britney is better at 1 than me.
Squirrel suits are apparently hard to come by, for a one day rental in LA.
and my inner geek is freaking out beacause i have to wait a month for my Vostro a90 to show up. thanks Dell . . .thanks for NOTHING!

Fixit Week, pt. 1

Check it out-thanks to the generosity of my brother (Chris donated the faucet) and the help of my father (it was definitely a two man job) , Britney got a new kitchen faucet!

The hardware is really nice, the assembly was relatively simple, and it was a great excuse to get a new tool! Hooray!
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mi amigo, Rob, needs your help

dear kind friend,

my man Rob has made it to the finals in a contest of creativity. if you would be so kind as to go here: http://www.melrosemaccontest.com/vote.php and vote for his song, #7 "So Close" , you would be a kind friend indeed.

if he wins he gets a bunch of gear to enhance the production of more creative endeavors.

thanks you,
me

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITNEY!

well, it's been a big year, and here you are at the anniversary of your birth. i hope today is cool for you, since i had to go to work instead of hanging out, and i cant throw you a big party. maybe next year?

here are some pictures of you that i love, from the last year (plus one from a little before).




HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

you are super cute, and i love you :) <3

Bake Master

Luckily for us, Britney's sister Kim came to help with the baby for a couple of weeks. "lucky why?" you ask? Well, not only is she the mother of 4 (loads of practical experience) , she is super helpful around the house, she's not bad for conversation, and she apparently loves to bake us treats, as evidenced by the above picture.

Shown here she is baking some super tasty smores cookie bars, that Brit found on Jill's blog (billiej.blogspot.com). She also made some killer stuffed cupcakes. Raspberry mouse is delicious. I probably are a dozen of them myself in, like, 2 days.

Last time she was here she baked some excellent coconut cupcakes. Mmmmm . . . Coconut. . .

Needless to say, i'm going to have a hard time shedding my excess 30 lbs. While she's around. Thanks Kim!

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March 15, 2009

an historic day. today, Britney and i have been married for one year! i can't believe it. what a crazy year. who would have thought that i would be married AND have a kid, all within the year? not me, that's for sure, but what great blessings!

to celebrate, Brit and i went to Hustons last night for dinner, and spent a whole hour and a half out of the house together, alone! that was huge, since the last time we did that was . . . um . . . yeah. (i dont count the times of being with fetus as "alone" :) ). we both sort of procrastinated the doing of something for each other, but i suppose it was due to a worthy distraction. we were laughing about not having done anything for each other, but in the end, we both agreed that little Zoey was probably the best present we could have recieved.
in other news, at Britney's bequest, i painted this little triptic for above Zoey's crib. i got that and a whole lot of other things from my "list" finished up this week, including fixing my and Dan's beach cruisers, which brings our total number of functional cruisers in the garage to 3. equal to the total number of actual cruisers in the garage for maybe the first time ever. not that they needed much fixing- a flat tire and some broken spokes-but who has the time, right?

Zoey also had her one week Dr's visit. She was back to her leaving the hospital weight of 5 lbs, after having droped the expected couple of ounces to 4 lbs 12 oz earlier in the week. she gets cuter every day.

now, as i get back to my list, i just need to find a campsite in Yosemite in July (may be impossible), get people some gifts (probably possible), and find a million dollars (improbable). i guess i'd better play those numbers on the back of the fated fortune from that cookie. . .

WOO HOO! IT'S OFFICIAL!

i'm a DAD!  and it is cool.

on March 5 at 12:20 pm, little Zoey entered the world and made us a family.  She weighed in at 5 lbs 3 oz, 18.5 inches long.  The delivery went well enough (easy for me to say), after the pushing had started, though getting there was a little rocky due to Britney's extreme needle phobia and some adverse chemical reactions - magnesium makes your skin feel like it's on fire, and if your epidural works too well, and they turn it off for a while, there is a chance that it might not work that well when they turn it back, and you'll have the full experience of a natural birth on half of your uterus.

But, all in all, everything went fine (but what do i know, being the moral support/annoying camera guys is the easy part), i got to cut the cord, and watch the birth.  And, by the way, watching the birth is TOTALLY AWESOME.  i've heard that it grosses some people out, but . . . seriously.  if you get the chance, i highly recommend it.

so, now we've been home for a couple of days, working out the eating sleeping schedule.   i have embraced my roll as diaper changer, Brit has embraced her roll as lunch box and we're just having an over all good (if sometimes sleepless) time.  

Coming Soon

Today we got little Zoey's last ultra sound. As long as nothing drastic happens (which is unlikely) Britney will be induced next wednesday, and our girl will be here on thursday!

Yeah, it's crazy and awesome. The anticipation mounts with every Dr. Visit. I think that it's harder, in some ways, to know the day that your baby will arrive. Harder to wait, that is.

Who's ready!? This guy!

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How long would you wait for free

Breakfast? Lunch? This is the line at my local Denny's for today's free Grand Slam promotion. Is the novelty of a free $5.99 meal really worth a 2 hour line wait? Not for me, but maybe you didn't have that much to do today. . .

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Go Clippers

So, my brother got Clippers tix from work today, and I got to go to the game, where I am currently writing this. Go Clippers!

The stadium is not quite filled to capacity, but what can you expect from a Monday night Clippers game?

The tix are awesome, cause they are in the VIP section, where you can order food and they'll bring it to you in your squishy seat. Sadly, my burger was not as awesome as my seat, but probably not as bad as the Clipper who Chris just watched miss 14 free throws in a row during second half warm up. Why isn't the stadium full?

I love free game tickets. I wonder where the mega gan is. Did Mark Cuban buy him after all?

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Now in Stereo

So, I just made this rig. Wait. Let me rephrase that. Chris and I just made this. And, let's be honest: it was a lot Chris.

Let me elaborate. I came home from work wanting to make a rig to see if I could shoot something in stereo with 2 HV20's. Admittedly, this thought was dreamed up by Piotr, but it seemed like a good excuse to shoot a test shot that I've been wanting to put a 3D character in. So, I took it upon myself to build a rig. When I got home, I asked Chris if he wanted to help, and, of course, he did, so I unfolded to him my wood based idea. Luckily, this resulted in 2 thing. Chris pointing out that it would be cooler if it was made of metal, and he becoming excited enough about it to really take the lead in its new meticular execution. Also lucky : Chris has loads of tools that I don't have, making metal work in the garage feasible.

I can't wait to see it the test footage I made tonight worked, and if the footage I will shoot tomorrow will work.

STEREO!


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Ice Cream Sundae Wednesday

Thanks work! A nice mid week treat. Wait, is it wednesday already?

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the Table

so, speaking of furniture, i present you this fine specimen of hand wrought oak.

my father is a worker of wood. he makes really fine furniture. he has made me tables, shelves, a cedar chest. and now, the best thing he has made me: this fine table.

i dont know when my father decided to do this. maybe it was a long meditated decision. but i do know it was at least made when my brother, the first in our family to take the plunge, got married. at his reception my father presented he and his wife a very fine piece of work, a gift - an oak table. i then realized that this was setting the pattern, and was excited that i would, one day, receive my own table.
this table is representative of our family tradition of eating, conversing, and generally living around our kitchen table. the table has long been a center of family life, and this has held true in my family. a symbol of home and time spent together. my father now gives each of us kids one when we get married. each of them is unique.

ours is small, but has a leaf, since we are likely to live in a small place for a long time, but will need the expandability in the future. one of the most interesting features of this table was its modular nature. my dad made it so it could be easily shipped and easily assembled. and even after assembly, it has a 2 sizes: with and without the leaf.
this is the best wedding present i could have asked for. i was super excited when it arrived, and i couldn't wait to put it together and have our first meal on it. it fits perfectly in our house, and i'm excited to carry on the tradition of family dinner and living around the table.

thanks dad!