2009-2010 365

Sept 1st 2010

2010-09-01T20:28:00.001-07:00

I began assembling the five panels up tonight. My back was hurting and I was home alone, so I used temporary supports to hold everything in place.

I also used my metal vice to start bending the metal tie down straps. This is how they attach to the gazebo on the inside and outside. Now those bolts I put in make sense!

After four of the five panels were up, I snapped this picture with my iPhone. Looks good!

Aug 28th 2010

2010-09-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

Without this little finger plane, I would have had a lot more challenges building this. This little Stanley saved my neck. Without it, my dado cuts would have been far more challenging to finish. Plus there is something profoundly satisfying with working with hand tools.

Aug 25th 2010

2010-08-25T21:10:00.001-07:00

Update on the gazebo. Working on the fourth panel now. Slowly getting there!

Aug 18th 2010

2010-08-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

First panel finally done. It's a lot more work than I anticipated.

Aug 14th 2010

2010-08-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Initial cutting done for the gazebo panels. Sorted by panel and arranged on the deck.

Aug 5th 2010

2010-08-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

Does that look like $850 of cedar? It is. Dang lumber is expensive.

Aug 4th 2010

2010-08-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today a few things happened - I had my second full day off from both jobs since Memorial day - that was nice. I snapped this picture of Lydia watering the fruit trees (if you look REAL close you can see our first red apple on the left!) - she is listening to Homer's Odyssey on her headphones.

And Jill had her eye exam. Looks like her eyesight is still good enough! So she keeps driving for a couple more years.

We bought a new bunk bed. I was originally going to build, but just don't have the time. Will pick up on Friday. I also got M.I.A.'s new album which I'm thrilled about :)

I finished staining the deck. Tomorrow I start the long gazebo process. I can only afford half the panel wood. The wood for the "walls" or panels of the gazebo will be between $800 and $850 it turns out. Cedar is EXPENSIVE! And that's with a 10% off coupon. Dang.

Aug 3rd 2010

2010-08-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

I went through three sheets on the belt sander working on the table. I was covered in sawdust. I actually took this picture AFTER I had taken the leaf blower to myself and gotten most of it off. Then I stained the table.

August 2nd 2010

2010-08-02T20:41:00.001-07:00

Today I used the hammer drill to finally attach most of the outlying lighter toned boards to the concrete blocks underneath. Then I put a coat of semi-transparent cedar-toned stain down. It's a lot of work! This picture was taken when I was half done. Tomorrow night, if it's dry enough, I'll put coat #2 on.

July 31st 2010

2010-08-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

When I built the deck, I saved some scrap boards. I'm sure some of my neighbors wondered why I had a small stack of wood on my front porch, but I needed them to be outside but not get rained on, since I didn't waste any finish on it. I took those boards and drilled holes in them. Then laid them across the gaps and centered the anchor bolts with them. Poured the concrete underneath and so those scrap boards held the bolts at the proper height.

I also used a belt sander to round off the corners of the table. I found that my perfect little 45 degree angles caught peoples pants legs as they were sitting down. So round off they were - this is stage one. After Jill inspects it all, I'll put on finer sandpaper and finish it.

I also poured concrete in the center portion of the deck finally. I had gotten Jill some beads ( went with Christmas colors that also remind me of M&M's) and she made our "J-P" logo into the concrete. Jill came up with this symbol when she was just a sophomore in high school, so it's been part of our relationship for almost as long as we've been together!

July 30th 2010

2010-07-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

Worked on the deck tonight. Removed the edge boards and excavated post holes. Will pour concrete tomorrow and set anchor bolts. Metal "L" straps will then attach to the anchor bolts. The upper part of the "L" strap will go up the outside of each corner of the gazebo's support corners.

By the way, the gazebo I'm building is based on this one, minus the seats (since my table will be in the middle):
http://www.woodsmith.com/plans/gazebo/exploded/

July 24th 2010

2010-07-24T13:15:00.002-07:00

I moved the table off the deck and pressure washed them today. This Thursday-Friday I'll refinish the deck and sand down the table for it's completion - all in preparation to build the gazebo on top.

July 21st 2010

2010-07-24T13:15:00.001-07:00

My wife looking awesome. But she always looks awesome.

July 17th 2010

2010-07-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

Sophia's birthday party! She had a lot of fun.

July 15th 2010

2010-07-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

The kitties like to snuggle in a Yin-Yang style curled around each other.

July 7th 2010

2010-07-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

Alexander and I built this scratching post for the kitties today. Xander did all the rope work and nailed it to the 4x4. And he helped me attach it to the base. A wee bit blurry because it's an iPhone pic and the light wasn't super.

July 5th 2010

2010-07-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

A couple of catch up pictures!

Possibly the best father's day present ever. A wonderful note from one of your children. AWESOME.

Peter wanted ear plugs for 7/4 festivities. Unfortunately, one of Lydia's dove's passed away that night - most likely from fright from the loud booming.

But the next day, we got Cougar and Mittens. Mittens is the gray cat. They are 8 weeks old and slowly getting used to suddenly being around a whole flock of children.

June 19th 2010

2010-06-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

Peter just comes walking in the house. Doesn't say "look what I found" or anything. Just walking around. I thought he was playing with a stick. Nope. A snake. It was kind of cute.

June 3rd 2010

2010-06-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight was one of those rare treats - not only was I not working but it was a pleasant evening. Sophia is trying to earn points and wanted to mow the lawn. She mowed the entire front herself!

Then we all target shot in the back yard with the pellet shotgun. Even Peter! Alexander got the hang of loading it and we all had a great time.

Then it was s'mores time!

May 24th 2010 pt 2

2010-05-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

The conclusion of a wonderful four days off from both jobs :)

May 24th 2010

2010-05-24T13:51:00.001-07:00

This morning, we wanted to do something special with the kids to reward them for being so good to Miss Pam, the Jenkins and Miss Dot while we were gone. So we woke them up early and drove the nearly one hour to the Edmonds-Kingston ferry terminal. Just to the north of that is a diving park and since the low tide at 9:00 am was a -.2, it was a decent enough low tide to see sea critters. We caught crabs, saw starfish and anemone's, ALMOST caught an eel and got sand in lots of places. It was a really fun two hours followed by a lunch at Arby's!

May 23, 2010

2010-05-24T13:38:00.001-07:00

On Sunday, our day started out with a wonderful breakfast at the Harrison House. Fresh fruit, homemade granola cereal, grits with salsa, fresh lamb sausage and a poached egg on top followed by a really good coffee cake. After that, we drove back to Roche Harbor for our 3-hour 9+mile Kayak tour. Started out by snapping a picture over my shoulder of my bride gearing up. Jill had control of the rudder in our kayak.

Just outside of the harbor, we saw this bald eagle watching the water. Later he/she was seen soaring majestically over the water.

The guide spotted these two sea lion's sunning themselves on a rock. They have to sun for 8 hours a day or they have trouble digesting their food, which weakens their immune system. No humans are allowed within 100 meters of a sunning sea lion in Washington state, so we had to be careful not to drift too close.

One of the cool things I call "tree sculptures" from the wind.

I snapped this photo of the rest of our group. Four other tourists and three guides.

Our lead guy was fascinated by the fact that my Pentax is waterproof, so he asked if he could take a few shots with it. He snapped this photo of us. This was before it got real sunny and I found out I should've listened to my wife and applied more sunscreen. See those large patches of skin on either side of my widows peak? Yeah, they are red today.

After the kayak trip was over, we ate at the Roche Harbor cafe. I had a delicious Asian salad while Jill had what she declared was the best fish and chips she's ever eaten. The halibut was lightly battered and fell apart in your mouth. The fries were crispy in a way we've not had before. YUM.

Afterwards, we drove down the west side of the island, hoping to see some whales. Alas, we did not, but I took this neat photo of a lighthouse. I thought I was focused on the lighthouse but I'm pleasantly happy with the fact I wasn't.

We then drove to Friday Harbor to get in line for the ferry. Had some ice cream and Jill had a Chai latte while we waited. And I fell asleep. Ferry ride home where we played Pente on a table and each won about half the games and we giggled a lot. Ate dinner at a burger place that brings your food out to your car. Then got home exhausted around 9 pm! What a fun weekend!!

May 22 2010

2010-05-24T13:19:00.001-07:00

Our 20th Wedding Anniversary!! YAY!

Jill and I left early so we could drive north to Anacortes, WA and catch the ferry over to San Juan island. It was a beautiful day. We enjoyed the time to ourselves and knowing that the kids were well taken care of in our absence led to a very relaxing trip. We took the ferry over, enjoying the beautiful views of Orcas and Lopez island and then the marina of Friday Harbor on San Juan. We ate a delicious lunch at the Bluewater Grill and then wandered the marina. We met Popeye, the female one-eyed resident Sea Lion. Very friendly!

We also saw some other sea life amongst the beautiful yachts. Some anemone's clinging to the docks, lots of jellyfish and some scavenger shrimp. We also saw a lot of stunning boats, yachts, you name it. And that sea smell and sounds and views was so nice.

We drove to the north end of the island, first stopping by English camp. Way back in 1867, the US and Britain were on the verge of war over the islands and the British had setup their soldiers on the north half while the US soldiers occupied the southern half. We decided to visit the English half on Saturday (never did make it to the American camp). We got out and there was an older gentleman taking a picture of his wife at this sign with his cell phone. He asked Jill to take a picture of the two of them together at the sign. Turns out, he MADE that sign 25 years ago. He was the stone mason who put it all together. And his wife? They were newlyweds - she being 103 years old and blind. He called her his "lovely lady". He took her arm after she felt his stonework and carefully walked her to the car. It was very sweet!

The original English gardens are still maintained, although most of the buildings are long gone. They did have a photograph of the English gardens, with that guard house in it and a tall masted British ship moored to the now-gone dock. The picture was from the 1870's.
We then went to Roche Harbor, a resort on the north end of the island where you can look SOUTH to Canada. Roche Harbor used to be one of the top lime producing plants in the US, so the old brick work was all still there. I took this nice picture of my beautiful wife. Then she suggested the picture of the kilns.

We ate a REALLY delicious dinner at a restaurant called Pablitos Taqueria, which advertises "Gringo Loco" style food. Oh man was the lamb curry awesome. Then we spent the night at the Orcas room of the Harrison House Bed & Breakfast. NICE. We didn't get to use the private hot tub - it hadn't heated up - but we very much enjoyed the night nonetheless!! Here's the sunset from our balcony.

May 19th 2010

2010-05-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

I won't be near a computer this weekend, so I'm going to post a few things today.

Yesterday? 30 years ago, Mt. St. Helens erupted. Boston Globe has a superb photo essay online:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/mount_st_helens_30_years_ago.html

Yesterday? 19 years ago, my sister lived her last full day on Earth.

But before I go there. 20 years ago this weekend, Jill and I got married :) It was a wonderful time. Man, we look young.Here's a picture of all but one sibling. Jill's brother Dan, sister Lindy and my sisters Carrie and Laura. My brother Brian couldn't come because it was finals week at the University for him.

Here's my sister Laura lighting the candles. Laura is expecting her first baby, Wyatt, this July! Carrie is up in the choir loft because she had a special role in the wedding - reading the Corinthians passage.

One year later (19 years ago today), we spent our first wedding anniversary back in Missouri identifying Carrie and burying her. My heart still weeps. To think what could have been and what is not. We miss you Carrie.

May 6th 2010

2010-05-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

The benches in their quasi-final resting place. I have some cleanup to do on the edges of the lower patio and then the southern bench can move a little further away from the fire pit thingy.

5/5/2010

2010-05-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

It is always a balancing act deciding what to do with ones limited time. And sometimes we put things off and it comes back and bites us. I feel extremely guilt ridden over something I kept putting off and now it's too late. The reason why I'm writing this here on the blog instead of directly on Facebook is that it relates to this blog in a way.

When Jill came back from her nice visit to Colorado, I put off downloading the pictures off her camera. Just didn't take the time. And the kids took a lot more pictures - including some great spring shots. And I kept putting it off. I've taught others how to download pictures, but I haven't "trained" them - so it's not something that is remembered. It falls to me. And I failed.

Because the camera glitched this morning and wiped it's SD card clean. Several months of memories recorded gone. I cannot accurately explain how horrid this makes me feel. It is my fault, primarily, and I do not like it. I screwed up and procrastinated and the results are not repairable. I cannot recreate the trip to Colorado. I cannot recreate spring. I cannot recreate anything that was on there.

The depth of my sorrow is...well...deep.

April 28th 2010

2010-04-28T21:11:00.001-07:00

I finished! Beautiful weather this evening allowed me to take a few hours and finish the benches. I had the kids pose on them. In the background, you'll also see the other project I worked on - the upside down planters. Have two tomatoes, one cucumber and a strawberry one. In the foreground you see my badly in need of mowing lawn. :)

Apr 27th 2010

2010-04-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

Still not back into daily postings of pictures. BUT, I did pull out my SD card from camera and wanted to share some pictures. I'm STILL working on the bench and still trying to locate a source for my maple for the kids beds.

Why am I still working on the benches? Let me give this past Sunday, Apr 25th, as an example.
I worked at the retail job from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. I had lunch from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm, so I drove home, popped a frozen dinner into the microwave and worked on the benches for 35 minutes. Then put everything away and slammed down lunch. I got home from Fred Meyer exhausted, but worked on the benches from 5:15 pm to 8:00 pm with a dinner break. Then I worked on a client for Ultimate Software from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm. Seven days a week, pretty much, I work 8:00 am to 11:00 pm. With a couple of nights off once in a while - and then hopefully it doesn't rain. **sigh**

Anyway, here is a picture from April 16th. I had cut the top and legs to length but hadn't cut the dadoes, routed the edges or stained anything yet. It was foggy!

Later in the day. Dadoes cut (using a circular saw). Getting ready to use the router on the edges. This is what I SHOULD have done when I built the table last year.

April 20th. The top and legs are partially stained and now I'm beginning the assembly with the spacers. Drill them the center ones with deck screws. The outside ones (shown below) are put in with 6" lag bolts. A LOT of lag bolts. A lot of work.

April 25th, gang drilling of the holes. I did complete the assembly of the legs and the cutting of the stretchers this day, but the picture came out blurry, so we've just got this one to go on:

Tonight I have off from Fred Meyer. All the remaining pieces have been cut to size and have had the dadoes cut and edges routed (my lunch projects last two days). Now I have to stain the last pieces. Tomorrow night, if it's not raining and if the oil stain is dry enough, I'll do final assembly and be done! If not, then I think Sunday evening is my next free time slot longer than 45 minutes.

To finish off, I had one kid picture on my SD card. A flash picture of Lydia :)

Apr 12 2010

2010-04-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight I began a project. I'm building two garden benches for the fire pit area. I got the plans out of Wood Magazine and their promo picture is this one:

Unfortunately, I have no more time to work on it until Friday evening. But, I did get quite a few pieces cut tonight!

April 11th 2010

2010-04-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

I have not been good at my 365. I have hardly taken any pictures!

Today, I replaced the lighting fixture in the girls room and painted all the outlets/covers bright yellow. Also worked out in the yard for a bit. So a productive day! Leaving for work soon and then tomorrow morning, my wife and two of my kids go visit Jill's family in Colorado for a few days. I'll miss them!

March - part 2

2010-04-02T13:50:00.001-07:00

Part 2 of the Pentax pictures

March 19th - Daffodils and Hyacinths

March 24th - I got in a 50mm fixed lens for my Pentax. I tried it out on Kathie Oliva's latest custom mask then on Peter.

March 26th - project time! Working on the future room for the girls. First step - painting it. The colors they chose were a light green for the walls and a darker green for the ceiling. I used a Black & Decker Deluxe sprayer. I would recommend instead getting an airless sprayer. It gave good coverage when it worked, but occasionally just splurged a glob onto the walls. And sprayers really mist the room up and use a lot more paint. But the finish is really nice.

April 1st - I got my replacement motherboard and SAME PROBLEM! So I spent hours on Google (called Topeka on April Fools Day!). It took a lot of work, but I finally got the new system rocking and rolling. Now I'm considering backing up the hard drive and settings and reformatting and starting with a fresh hard drive/setup. Changing the hardware wiped out my registration for Windows and Microsoft Office, so instead of registering Vista, I'm thinking of just starting over with Windows 7. But that's a lot of work and I work all Easter weekend :(

March - part 1

2010-04-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

This is the first of several blog posts - I'll split it up with only 6-8 pictures per posting. I finally got my computer working! At first, when my computer went down, I tried keeping up on my picture per day. It wasn't easy without the accountability of posting daily (or nearly so). So instead of trying to post each day, I'm just going to pull the most relevant pictures off each camera starting with my K10d. I have 14 pics to show, I believe.

March 4th - before northern iowa (who shall remain uncapitalized) did their horrible deed to Kansas, we were still hopeful. This is our kitchen window.

March 5th - I liked this picture of pot stickers.

March 7th - a storm knocked over our greenhouse. Our little baby plants didn't stand a chance.

March 10th - a nice Peter picture.

March 12th - a storm destroyed one of my outdoor lamps. Then it hailed like crazy.

May 16th - my first attempt at rebuilding my computer. Turned out the motherboard was shorted out. First picture is the empty shell while the second is with the motherboard and everything installed.

Interruptus Maximus

2010-04-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

UGH! I am actually quite upset. The replacement motherboard for my computer came today. I VERY carefully assembled the computer - just the minimal parts needed to get into POST and SAME EXACT ERROR. Two weeks I waited for this motherboard. And I got the same bloody problem.

Computer powers up, less than half a second later powers down. Cycle repeats every 3 seconds. I'm having a hard time even googling this problem. I've swapped out the power supply - same problem. I assembled the motherboard on a cushion with no metallic contact - same problem. I swapped out the RAM - same problem. I swapped out the chip fan - same problem. Only thing I can't do is swap out the Intel i5-750 chip - I don't have another P55 slot chip.

This is freakin' beyond frustrating. FOUR WEEKS I've been down. Who knows how long now. If I return all the parts to NewEgg and buy a Dell, I'll take a couple hundred dollar "restocking" hit and that means I'll have to buy a smaller, less powerful computer. But what do I do? How do I fix this? UGH!

365 Interruption

2010-03-09T12:34:00.000-08:00

For those that read my blog directly instead of on facebook, you might not know that my computer has "issues". I'm still taking a picture of the day, but my computer is now at Staples while they try to figure out why it shuts down all by it's self at rather inopportune times. Since my picture edit programs are on my computer, I'm on "pause". Once I get my computer back up and running, I'll update the blog.

Day 62 - Mar 3rd

2010-03-03T14:54:00.000-08:00

I debated on showing this. Do I dare show my overweight, hairy chest to the world? Yeah, I owe my family that much. They need to know even if it turns out to be nothing. This picture is a cropping of a blurry iPhone pic taken by the nurse an hour or so ago. I cropped it to spare everyone seeing the rest of my bulk. And yeah, those are EKG wires. Didn't yank out too many hairs when they were done.

Last Tuesday mildly and last Wednesday more defined, I had some issues at FM during most of my shift. Chest pain, shortness of breath, sweaty, tingling in the arms, tightness of the jaw, elevated blood pressure and heart rate. They alleviated a lot once I was off work and changed out of the jeans.

It could be due to stress, it could be due to weight (I gained way too much over this Holiday season) and it could be cardiac. If it's the latter, we need to deal with it asap. The doctor laid it all out for me very succinctly and bluntly. So today I had blood work and an EKG. I have to go back for a fasting blood work then they are going to do some nuclear EKG or something where they inject me and look inside for areas of the heart not getting good blood flow.

Scary? Yeah. It is. I'm convinced it's weight and some minor artery blockage, but we'll await the results of the tests.

Day 61 - Mar 2nd

2010-03-03T08:20:00.000-08:00

Went to a long dental appointment today. Wants to replace all my silver filled molars with crowns because they are starting to crack. I have a limit of $2500 a year and it will cost just shy of $10,000. Oh my. I think I'll spread this out...

iPhone photo

Day 60 - Mar 1st

2010-03-03T08:19:00.001-08:00

Our daffodils are in full bloom!

Day 59 - Feb 28th

2010-02-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

Peter snuggling with mommy watching those darned Canadian's score another goal against the US hockey team. Come on USA!

Day 58 - Feb 27th

2010-02-28T13:27:00.000-08:00

Peter had his birthday party today. It was a lot of fun and the weather cooperated. During the present opening, the kids kept scooting in closer and closer and closer - it looked like a rugby scrum!

Day 57 - Feb 26th

2010-02-26T12:36:00.000-08:00

Peter's 4th birthday!

We have a tradition in our home of using just newspaper comics to wrap gifts. And we encourage the kids to do the wrapping themselves. Peter thoroughly enjoyed opening his family gifts today! Tomorrow is his birthday party with his friends.

Day 56 - Feb 25th

2010-02-26T11:37:00.000-08:00

Thursday night - the boys and I did a little running around and I snapped this photo of Alexander getting in my most awesome vehicle. That's right - I'm a proud owner of a much maligned Pontiac Aztek and I love that car. I don't actually know of any vehicles I would trade it for right now.

Day 55 - Feb 24th

2010-02-24T15:23:00.001-08:00

I stayed up too late last night watching the women's short program at the Winter Olympics - I was thrilled I caught Rochette's performance and sad I missed Kim Yu-na's. I have to say - I thought Rochette did a fantastic job. And I don't know if anyone else noticed it or not but out of respect for her grief, the announcers said NOTHING during her performance. I don't think I've ever seen that at the Olympics. They let her honor her mom without interruption.

All that to say - I slept in too late. I usually get up at about 6:30 - 7:00 am and take a shower, check personal email, etc before starting work at 8:00. And I had a conference call at 8:00. So when I woke up just a few minutes before 8:00, I tossed on my robe and rushed to my office - YAY for working from home! Over lunch I took my shower and got cleaned up. I had an 18-hour old whisker-beard I had to get rid of that's just starting to show in the pic.

I lit this with only the small window to my right and a white sheet of paper held at arms length to reflect a little light on the left side of my face.

Day 54 - Feb 23rd

2010-02-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

One of Lydia's new pet diamond dove's. This is the chubby one. They were not very happy about me photographing them and kept moving around in nervousness. So I had to take quite a few pictures to get a few good ones.

Day 53 - Feb 22nd

2010-02-24T15:20:00.001-08:00

Due to an unusual circumstance, MY photo of the day was really out of focus. So I'm taking an unprecedented step here - I'm posting a picture that was not taken on this day. I wasn't going to post anything, but I found these pictures on Jill's camera from Feb 20th's horse riding lesson for Maranda and thought I'd share them.

Day 52 - Feb 21st

2010-02-21T16:04:00.000-08:00

I had a project today. Down in our fruit tree area, when we first planted it I made a critical mistake. I planted four strawberry plants. They've since grown to cover the entire 60 plus foot long area and produce an enormous amount of strawberries, but they keep creeping and have gone up to the walkway above them. And there is no where to walk in the fruit tree area without stepping on them.

So today I started the process of making a walkway. I'm just laying down newspaper and covering it with bark. It's a short term solution, but I got the bark for a bargain, so might as well use it!

Peter came by while I was doing this and saw me start to shovel onto a newspaper that had a picture of Lindsey Vonn on the cover skiing. He was very concerned and asked me "Daddy, you don't like the Olympics anymore?" (We've been watching a lot of them) When I asked why he said that, his response was that I was "burying the Olympics". It was pretty cute.

Day 51 - Feb 20th

2010-02-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

Lydia today got to claim a reward. Last year, she hit a major goal in school and she was rewarded with a pet. So today was the day - the Woodinville PetsMart had Diamond Dove's in stock, so we went down and bought the gear and their two dove's. Lydia is quite happy about it - even if it's not reflected in the picture! Once the doves become acclimated, we'll snap a picture of them.

Day 50 - Feb 19th

2010-02-21T15:59:00.000-08:00

I have always had a fascination with walls. Funny as it sounds, I originally went into Architecture because of a photograph of the exterior walls of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House. I could look at that house all day long and not get tired of it. So on Friday, my eye caught the lower of my retaining walls and I enjoy this view, so why not share it?

Day 49 - Feb 18th

2010-02-19T10:40:00.001-08:00

Had a little bit of excitement last night at work. See that empty spot in the upper corner? That's where a KitchenAid mixer used to be. One of my coworkers, Joe, spotted a jittery suspicious looking guy carrying it by the spider tag and walking towards the door. Sure enough, he doesn't even slow down, just runs out the door. Spider tag goes off - loudly - and Joe follows to watch. Easy enough to follow - the spider makes a lot of noise. Guy runs across the highway - the box is heavy - across the railroad tracks and into the bushes separating the railroad tracks with an apartment complex. Joe is on the phone with the police the whole time.

Guy stops to smash the spider tag with a rock or something. It's wailing is giving him away. But, it allows a few officers to position themselves for when he comes out of the bushes. He's ditched his coat and the merchandise in the bushes, but he's easy enough to identify - he's exhausted for one thing and another he's high as a kite on something. Turns out he's got 4-5 outstanding warrants for his arrest. Bring in Joe to identify. Bring in the dog to sniff the suspect - dog goes into the bushes and finds the coat and merchandise with his scent all over them.

Buh-bye suspect.

Day 48 - Feb 17th

2010-02-17T12:44:00.000-08:00

These are the three books I was reading currently (I always read more than one at a time). I finished Anne Rice's book last night. I'll talk briefly about the other two before moving on to Rice's book. This is going to be a long post. And, once it replicates from my blog to Facebook, I may lose a friend or two over it. If they read this, that is.

Grave Matters is a fascinating book on the modern funeral industry and the alternatives out there. I've always been a bit uncomfortable with how removed American's are from the death process, but the first couple of chapters blew my mind. I highly recommend this book AND I highly recommend EVERYONE, regardless of age, share with your loved ones what you want to happen to your body after your death. Jill's parents did this and I think it was a wonderful thing.

The Spartacus War I got after watching the first two episodes of StarZ Spartacus: Blood and Sand online. Sadly, I don't believe the subsequent episodes will be free because I thoroughly enjoyed the first two! Not for kids or the lighthearted, oh no, no, no. Think 300 but more of everything. Anyway, this book is fascinating because it covers the real gladiators - not the hollywood version. The matches were a lot more structured and similar to modern boxing/UFC matches ... just with the possibility of death. Plus I just so thoroughly enjoy history.

OK, on to Anne Rice's book, Called Out of Darkness. I'm going to talk about religion and politics, two areas I've usually avoided in my blog. I live my life, I have my beliefs and in general I do not try to project them on others - especially since my beliefs seem to run counter to BOTH what Christians and non-Christians practice today. And this book was simply superb. The last several chapters captured my feelings on Christianity almost to a "T" albeit from a Catholic perspective rather than a Protestant one, but that difference was rendered nearly invisible.

First the author. I've always enjoyed, and still do, Anne Rice's books. I've read roughly half of them (including all her pen name books) and really engage with her more visual and auditory rather than literary style. Her struggles transcend the metaphysical world her pre-Christian phase encompassed. They reflected the eternal struggle between existence and greatness, between love and loathing, between frantic and languid. She writes, oftentimes, like I think. Making leaps in continuity, stream of consciousness, organized chaos resulting in seemingly opposing yet concurrent thoughts.

Now this book. And a revelation. Jill and I became "born again" Christians in 1992 - approximately one year after my sisters death at the hands of a drunk driver. That's an intensely personal story that I'm not willing to write down yet, but will tell in person if I am asked. We joined a large mega-church and for a while embraced the rather conservative, evangelical line that is well known in the country. But I always had uncomfortable moments with it. We have gay family members and we have gay and bisexual friends. We have "liberal" friends and family. We know single moms, some of whom never married. And the love of Christianity that is resplendent throughout the gospels was often sorely lacking in the church when it came to these people. Would an "outed" gay, bisexual or liberal person be allowed to actively participate in any conservative church? I cannot see it.

As time has moved on, I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the standard conservative lineup. I still believe in some items, but the rampant and often unintentional embracing of Friedman economics, the "hinge" issue of abortion (by that I mean that if anyone does not unilaterally oppose abortion then their entire platform is meaningless), the hypocrisy of all politicians and many religious leaders, the continued sense of inequality amongst all fellow humans and many more have slowly driven a wedge between myself and blind obedience to a party line.

Especially when I compare it all to the gospels. I see no support for big business and disdain from government or social issue in the gospels - rather I see a sense of community and sharing. Jesus treated men, women and children of all stripes equally. Did he condemn? Certainly - oftentimes hypocritical religious leaders were a target. Acts 2: 44-45 and Acts 4:34-37 have been used to support socialism, although I think that is taking it a bit far. In the gospels, I see Love. With a capital L. I see a savior who lays his palm lovingly on the cheeks of anyone who seeks him, regardless of their circumstances, their lifestyles, their gender. And I don't often see that in the Church setting. That has driven a wedge - not between me and God but rather between me and churches. That is why I seek out churches that use expository teaching - that's what I love and that's what feeds me spiritually.

Anne Rice says it so much more eloquently than I. The first two thirds of her book are her growing up as a Catholic girl then losing her faith and living for decades as a committed atheist. Then the last third is her "conversion" back and her journey since. It's a remarkable book and the last couple chapters are her thoughts on Christianity and it's place in our lives and relationship with people. I simply cannot recommend it enough - her thoughts are how I think of Christianity. All I can say is if you are not rigid in your beliefs, read it. Plow through the book if you must. And if you wish, let me know your thoughts.

There is more I could say, but I feel it would be belaboring the point. I've been considering how to write this post for a long time, but each time I compose it in my head it was different, so I just wrote it. And now I shall stop.

Day 47 - Feb 16th

2010-02-17T12:41:00.000-08:00

We've been doing TheGroceryGame.com for years. Jill's sister first told us about it. It tracks the coupons you get in your local Sunday paper as well as the local ads and matches them up to give you the best deal. We routinely save 40+% off the regular price, but this weeks was really good at Albertsons! If anyone signs up for TheGroceryGame, refer us - philnjill at hotmail dot com. (Putting it that way so the spam bots have less chance of snagging our email address). Referrals get a month free, I think.

Day 46 - Feb 15th

2010-02-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

Lydia has a couple strengths illustrated here.

First she (and Maranda) are both highly skilled at Microsoft Word. They can do some amazing things with that program! Setting up columns, creating graphs, inserting and manipulating images, inserting form controls. Those two are good at it. Not too long ago, Jill had a copy of a math page and Lydia duplicated it in no time in Word - it was quite impressive.

Second, Lydia has a natural inclination to teach. So we encourage that. She created a two page "quiz" for Sophia testing her math, reading, writing and comprehension. It was well done! And Sophia enjoyed doing it because she loves doing school work and is really blooming on her reading.

Day 45 - Feb 14th

2010-02-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

Pure Valentine's Day unhealthy deliciousness.

Day 44 - Feb 13th

2010-02-13T21:28:00.000-08:00

Jill and I went to a wonderful Valentine's dinner tonight. It was really a nice time and the food was sumptuous! I snapped this picture of the centerpiece.

Day 43 - Feb 12th

2010-02-13T10:09:00.001-08:00

Our big task for today? Family pictures. And yes, we ordered some for each family member :) Many of them came out well - except for the ones that emphasized the lack of exercise a couple certain people have...

I liked this picture I took - the girls are posing for their all girl pose while an increasingly tired Peter clutches a bear prop.

Afterwards, we went home and watched the awesome opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. But we finally had to shut it off because we were all so tired. We watched it through the "mountain" sequence.

Day 42 - Feb 11th

2010-02-13T10:05:00.000-08:00

I've been really buried at work for over two months. Every spare moment, it seems, has been spent on clients. So I took two days off to relax, sleep in and get some things done. Including my car battery. My battery has been giving me fits for a while but I've simply had no time to spare to change it. I discovered that whomever designed the battery compartment of my car had long, skinny hands, four different contortionist socket sizes and a rather sadistic streak. It took a long time to extract the existing battery. Then I put in the new, very powerful battery. And I still don't think I've got the negative terminal hooked up properly. And the bracket that holds the fuse box snapped when I was reattaching it, so I have to deal with that soon as well!

But the car actually starts and does so in a way it hasn't in quite a while, so that's nice!

Day 41 - Feb 10th

2010-02-13T10:01:00.001-08:00

Due to my mom being in the hospital in December, she couldn't get out the Christmas presents then. We received them this day and it was a blast - Christmas in February! One of the gifts was a microphone that "chipmunked" your voice - they've had a lot of fun with that one! She sent some winter gear - which we were really hoping to use this Friday, Feb 12th, to go to the mountains and go tubing, but the weather just has not cooperated! While the rest of the country is giving their snow shovels a workout, we aren't! The weather up at the pass? Mid 30's, raining and wet mooshy snow. Blah.

If we get a good cold snap some weekend, we'll try then. I'm keeping my eyes open!

In the meantime, thanks mom! The gifts were well appreciated!

Day 40 - Feb 9th

2010-02-13T10:00:00.001-08:00

Lydia found a birds nest in one of our flower beds.

Day 39 - Feb 8th

2010-02-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

Peter likes holding long conversations on one of our old cell phones. He dials the number and chats away. It's pretty darned cute.

In addition, here are a couple pics the kids took the last couple of days of them being goofy.

Alexander, in a box, with a boot on his head.
Lydia in a redone swingset hammock enjoying the BEAUTIFUL day we had on Monday.

Day 38 - Feb 7th

2010-02-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

We gave the kids a 72-spot rack for seeds. They split it three ways for the three older kids, planted seeds and put them in the new greenhouse.

Day 37 - Feb 6th

2010-02-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

Prepping for taxes. We ended up donating a lot - we had purged a lot of the infant stuff in 2009. We typically donate to the Community Services for the Blind because they pick up on our porch.

Day 36 - Feb 5th

2010-02-09T08:36:00.000-08:00

Finally got my SD card reader situation figured out - I bought a new reader.

Our spring flowers are in bloom. Blizzards on the East Coast, early Spring on the West Coast . I applied a vignette and minimized the midpoint in Photoshop to focus on the crocuses.

Day 35 - Feb 4th

2010-02-04T14:27:00.001-08:00

Lunchtime project: assembling the greenhouse. I've wanted a greenhouse for a long time. McDaniels hardware had a fantastic sale - only $30 for an $75 greenhouse. The kids are excited. Below are assembly pictures Lydia took.

Day 34 - Feb 3rd

2010-02-04T14:25:00.000-08:00

Lunchtime project: replacing the burners on the grill. Covered by warranty! Shiny! Then in the evening, I found new flavorizer bars and grates for half price from Ace Hardware closeouts. Woot!

Day 33 - Feb 2nd

2010-02-02T20:36:00.001-08:00

Lydia snapped these pics with Jill's camera - Maranda cooking lunch and the beautiful day out our back door.

Day 32 - Feb 1st

2010-02-02T20:35:00.001-08:00

Maranda is getting used to her new braces.

Day 31 - Jan 31st

2010-02-02T20:34:00.000-08:00

Lydia had her friend Roo spend the night and when I drove her home, I snapped this photo of their canoe in their playground.

Day 30 - Jan 30th

2010-02-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

This past week, Maranda got braces. Before that, they took a mold of her "as is" teeth. I find this mold endlessly fascinating.

Day 29 - Jan 29th

2010-02-02T20:32:00.002-08:00

We went to a "family fun" event on Friday. I snapped this pic of Peter with my iPhone after he put together this puzzle by himself.

Day 28 - Jan 28th

2010-02-02T20:32:00.001-08:00

I accidentally erased this picture! I'm having trouble with my SD card reader. And I lost this picture :(

Day 27 - Jan 27th

2010-01-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

Two pictures today. I was photographing Jill cutting Kiwi's when Sophia came down the stairs very happy. So I'm showing both.

Day 26 - Jan 26th

2010-01-26T21:15:00.001-08:00

I've always liked the view out our master bedroom - both in light and at night. So I took a picture of it tonight.

Day 25 - Jan 25th

2010-01-26T21:12:00.001-08:00

What is this, you ask? This is the temperature gauge for my grill. We paid $500 five years ago for this nice Weber Genesis Gold C grill. But it's been having a lot of trouble lately - the igniter is stuck, half the burners no longer work. I was considering buying a new one - we just put four models on clearance at FM and they are fantastic prices. But I decided to search online for the replacement parts to price compare to determine: repair or replace.

Except I couldn't find my manual. So I called Weber to see if they could send me an electronic copy or give me the part numbers. And BINGO! When I had purchased the grill, I had registered it with them. And it has a ten year warranty. The only part I needed not covered was the igniter. So for $19, they are sending me new parts to get it up and running.

A LOT better than buying a new grill!

Day 24 - Jan 24th

2010-01-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

I was at Fred Meyer and Jeremy and I needed to go out to the trailers out back to begin unloading patio furniture. The grocery delivery guy had dropped this in the middle of the road and left it! It's really dark back there - this is a time exposure with me holding my iPhone against one of the trailers so it didn't get any shake. Fortunately, it was a low traffic night. Cars sometimes blaze around the corner and if one of them didn't see that in time - it would've been unpleasant. Jeremy admonished the driver to put it to the side next time.

Day 23 - Jan 23rd

2010-01-26T21:07:00.000-08:00

This is the door hardware in our home. I love them BUT when one falls off, I'm left scratching my head how to attach it again. Someday I'll figure it out.

Day 22 - Jan 22nd

2010-01-22T17:09:00.000-08:00

Lydia!

Day 21 - Jan 21st

2010-01-22T17:08:00.001-08:00

We had guests over for dinner Thursday night and this was what was left :)

Day 20 - Jan 20th

2010-01-22T17:04:00.000-08:00

Lydia snapped this picture and I really liked it. This is the one I snapped for today, but hers is better.

Day 19 - Jan 19th

2010-01-19T13:02:00.000-08:00

It has been so temperate here lately. I took a walk over lunch because it's in the 50's with a light breeze. Beautiful weather. Unfortunately, the several hundred bulbs I planted in the fall did not get as long of a dormant time as they needed and are all coming up. I hope they survive! These guys shouldn't be blooming for a few more months and instead are going to expend all their energy in January!

Day 18 - Jan 18th

2010-01-19T09:34:00.001-08:00

I was going to the second job and saw this cute car in the parking lot. I haven't seen too many of these in our area! It's a bit blurry, sorry about that.

Day 17 - Jan 17th

2010-01-17T15:40:00.001-08:00

It's tough sometimes to get Sophia to sit still. She has a six year olds energy and likes to move. I asked her to stand still while I snapped her photo as she watched her brother playing Indiana Jones Lego on the Wii. This was the "stillest" photo I got!

Day 16 - Jan 16th

2010-01-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

Raindrops on an evergreen.

Here's a fact. When I was in third grade, I wrote a story called "If I were a raindrop". It got published in Wee Wisdom magazine. I still have the certificate and copy of the magazine somewhere...

Day 15 - Jan 15th

2010-01-15T20:37:00.000-08:00

Jill had another eye doctor appointment today. It was in Dr. Barnebey's new office which was very tastefully decorated by his wife. This nifty centerpiece greeted you on entrance. Jill's infection seems to be gone, but her pressure is still way up. I'm keeping my eyes on her eye, though, because we thought her infection was gone before and it came creeping back.

Day 14 - Jan 14th

2010-01-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the annual weighing and measuring. Here are the stats:
Maranda grew 14.5 pounds and 2-1/2 inches. Teenage growth kick in! She's about 4 inches shorter than Jill.
Lydia gained 3.5 pounds and 2 inches.
Alexander gained 1.5 pounds and 2 inches.
Sophia gained 5.5 pounds and 2-1/2 inches.
Peter gained 3 pounds and 3-1/4 inches.

Day 13 - Jan 13th

2010-01-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

I've been super busy this week - doing multiple trainings of clients per day. In between I'm also helping out with a friends laptop. I think I can fix most of it's issues but some are hardware driven and are a lot tougher to do anything about. Meanwhile, I can try to clean up the software portion. She wants to know how much I'll owe her and I'm really terrible about that end of things!

Day 12 - Jan 12th

2010-01-15T20:31:00.001-08:00

I would love to have a big, huge green house. It's a dream of mine, truthfully. We sell this one at Fred Meyer and more than once I've ventured outside into the back yard thinking "where could I put it......?"

Day 11 - Jan 11th

2010-01-15T20:30:00.001-08:00

I got a little behind, so I'm playing catch up. On the 11th, Jill had a friend over and Maranda was watching the baby. Since the baby kept giving me odd looks, I decided to record it!

Day 10 - Jan 10th

2010-01-10T13:31:00.000-08:00

The kids are playing outside because of the beautiful day we are having. I liked this photograph of Alexander.

Day 9 - Jan 9th

2010-01-09T13:56:00.000-08:00

I was taking down and putting away the Christmas tree when I got the inspiration for this photograph. Jill's folks used to live and work in the Washington, DC area and in 1997, began giving us the White House ornament of the year and they've continued to do so every year since then. They are beautiful, delicate ornaments with a historical insert that always teaches us something. It's become one of those traditions we look very forward to each year! These beautiful ornaments are treasured by our family.

This years ornament celebrated the second term of Grover Cleveland - the only President to serve two non consecutive terms. His second term saw the first time a Christmas tree sported electric lights in the White House.

Day 8 - Jan 8th

2010-01-08T23:17:00.000-08:00

Today's picture is a little different than I've ever posted. Some people know that for years - almost a decade now - I've done side work of taking product photography. A friend of mine, Jason, started a business in 2009 focused on two of his passions - which are reflected in the name of his company "Zombies & Toys". Jason recently came out with his first exclusive - a set of red glow in the dark little zombies from October Toys. He asked me to photograph them for him and I was happy to oblige. Then I created a four picture collage to show all their aspects. Glow in the darks used to pose a huge challenge to me until I experimented with manual focus, +2 exposure compensation, F8, 100 ISO and a good black light.

Day 7 - Jan 7th

2010-01-07T16:19:00.003-08:00

I snapped this quick picture of Peter eating a peanut butter and honey sandwich. There was a lot of sticky fingers. I loved the natural lighting on him. It was a beautiful day today in the Northwest.

Some cute Peter-ism's lately - he calls the Merry Maids the Mermaids. "The Mermaids clean everything!" Unfortunately, Jill canceled them in December because of upcoming braces expenses. Peter also has a unique line for a Christmas song. He doesn't grasp what a Pear Tree is, but he knows something else. "And a partridge in the pantry!"

Bonus picture - one of his siblings took this cute pic with Jill's camera earlier. Our little boy is almost four!

Day 6 - Jan 6th

2010-01-07T16:17:00.001-08:00

I took this with the iPhone at Fred Meyer. Our kids love Schleich's. The older two make a bee line for that section whenever we go there. And, of course, horses are their favorite. They know which ones they have, which ones they need, what the names are, their attributes, etc. They have...a lot.

Day 5 - Jan 5th

2010-01-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

I took down the exterior decorations but haven't had a chance to put them away. I've been working too many hours. But here are some of them, coiled up on the front porch.

Day 4 - Jan 4th

2010-01-07T16:14:00.001-08:00

Jill's eye is reinfected now. And her pressure is way up. I took her in to see her wonderful eye doctor, Dr. Barnebey, in downtown Seattle and we brought the three youngest with us. Alexander in particular was fascinated by the building under construction to the North. Peter was organizing the Little Golden books by the colors of the back cover. He put her back on the eye drops, except cut down the steroid one, since that's the main culprit in the pressure build up.

Day 3 - Jan 3rd

2010-01-07T16:12:00.001-08:00

My dad came up to help my sister with some cabinet work in their house over the weekend and they got to come over on Sunday. Hadn't seen my dad in too long. I don't get to see either of my parents very often. Anyway, the kids enjoyed talking to him - especially after I revealed that Grandpa Phil used to work in a zoo. THAT got their attention.

Day 2 - Jan 2nd

2010-01-07T16:09:00.000-08:00

Jill's folks gave us a Costco membership for Christmas. I haven't been in a Costco in a long, long time. The one nearest us is well built with wide spacious aisles but not nearly enough free samples on a Saturday :) We spent...a lot. But got a lot. I tell you, those packers at the register know how to Tetris in your packages so they all fit in your cart really well. Why is Jill shielding her eyes? See day 4.

Day 1 - Jan 1st

2010-01-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

I decided to continue it. I was debating not doing a 365, but rather a 52 - posting once a week with highlights. But I then realized that the days just go by and chances were high that on Saturday I'd realize I hadn't taken any photographs. Besides, my family wants me to continue. I got two nice comments on Facebook and two from the blog encouraging me to continue. So...I will.

On Jan 1st, my sister, Laura, and her husband, Karl, came over. It was a great visit. They had their dog, Henry, with them. But I snapped this picture to show that Uncle Karl is significantly taller than our kids :)

Day 361 - Dec 31st

2010-01-02T22:20:00.001-08:00

This clever little bird was walking along and when he felt something, he'd dig in his claws and give a quick hop backwards - digging up the rubber mulch in hopes of catching whatever was down there. Eventually he ate something.

Day 360 - Dec 30th

2010-01-01T11:23:00.000-08:00

Jill's eye got re-infected so we had to get her to the doctor right away. It was really red and super light sensitive. We have to go back on Monday for a follow up. Since we were a squeeze in at the last minute, we had to hang out for about 2 hours in the lobby.

Day 359 - Dec 29th

2010-01-01T11:22:00.001-08:00

I was wondering around thinking what to photograph when I saw one of Alexanders creations. He's really quite good at taking Lego pieces and creating something unique.

Day 358 - Dec 28th

2010-01-01T11:21:00.001-08:00

I got home late at night from the second job and realized I hadn't taken a picture. I saw the Christmas tree in the dark and though I'd try an iPhone picture of it. It didn't turn out that well, but it was the only pic I took on my Uncle's birthday!