TGIF

Thank god it’s Friday indeed! Well I wish I could report that Devin is 100% better but that just is not the case. He is still coughing and it taking a ton of medication. Denise did load everyone up today and dropped off the prescriptions at 1030 hrs. On my way home around 1700 she called to see if everything was ready for pickup and Rite Aid told her they needed another “couple” of hours to fill the prescription. She took their heads off on the phone and they said “in hour”. So I came home wasted about an hour and a half and then headed on in to Rite Aid. Guess what. They DID NOT have the prescription ready and I had to wait until they finally filled it! I am not sure what the heck their problem is but we have just about the worst pharmacy you could imagine here in town!

Desirae really wanted to hold her little sister today so we set her up in the beach play mat and delicately placed Deanna in her arms. She held her for a while and we finally took her back just because Desirae was having a hard time supporting her head. It is wonderful that Desirae is really starting to get attached to her little sister.


Denise took this video clip yesterday (I think) of Deanna “squeaking”. You might have to turn the volume up to hear it but it is pretty funny nonetheless.

---

Special Note - You may have seen me mention in a temporary post about a visitor from Twin Peaks California. Well, for some reason it appears that our cable modem connection is showing up as Twin Peaks. I do not understand why this is - but I tracked back the IP numbers that were logged and they are from our router here in the garage. This is good news for some (you viewing this now) because I was seriously considering taking this entire site down or moving it to a password protected site (which would be a royal pain -and expensive). Anyway - so all is well and I will continue to monitor the traffic logs to see who is visiting the site

Devin to the doctor...

Devin had an asthma attack this morning that was fairly significant. Denise was able to get him under control for a while with a breathing treatment and his inhaler. So I ended up heading into work. When I called back to check on him he was getting worse and Denise was successful in getting him a same day appointment with his doctor. So I came back home and for some strange reason Denise took Devin and Deanna to the doctor and I stayed with Desirae here at the house.

When Denise got to the doctor they gave Devin another breathing treatment and some steroids. That did the trick to bring everything under control and get him breathing (and talking) correctly again. However this did take a bit of time and Denise was in town for a good portion of the day.


Since I stayed with Desirae we went to lunch at Ramons (which she didn’t really eat anything) and then went to the park. I didn’t think anyone else would be there but after a few minutes someone else did show up and Desirae started to play with the other little girl that was there. I did capture some video of this and Desirae really wore herself out. The funny part about all of this is yesterday she was wearing me out playing tag in the park. I do not think she ran as much as she did yesterday but maybe it was all the work from yesterday coupled with today that just drained her energy. When we got home she curled up next to Denise and fell asleep.

The other interesting thing for today is a dump truck hit a power line and took down about 13 power poles. This took out power to a good portion of the city - including our house for about an hour - and has left Rite Aid still without power. So for now I am unable to even drop off the numerous prescriptions that Devin was given today. I will have to try again later to see if they finally open - but since the pharmacy closes at 1800 hrs I don't think I am going to make it for today. When I went out to check we also have an apartment fire burning right now so all the emergency services vehicles moved off the power pole problem and down to the fire. Talk about a busy day!

A day at the park

Today was Denise's doctor appointment so I took the day off so I could stay home and watch Desirae. Today was also the day Denise was suppose to meet the other mom's at the park for all the kids to play. Since I was here I was called into action, taken off the bench, and moved up to the front row... OMG what in the world did I get myself into...

Anyway it was actually pretty good and there were a lot of people there. At least in comparison to what Denise normally says the turnout is. Desirae's normal friends weren't there (at first) so she was really having a difficult time finding anyone to play with her. I kept telling her she just needed to go up and talk to the other girls and say hello and ask if she could play too. That took a while and she finally did get the courage up to say hello - and when the other kid said hello back everything was just fine.

One of the other little boys that were there decided he was going to chase the other kids around while growling at them so all the girls kept running from one play structure to another screaming their little heads off running from this little boy. I guess that is what he was going for because he never did get upset that everyone was running away from him.

Toward the end just when we were getting ready to leave one of Desirae's friends showed up so unpacked and stuck around for a while. After that we packed everything up, headed to McDonnals for a nutritious lunch, and headed home!

Getting there...

We are getting there... Meaning that we are getting closer to a bit of normalcy around here. Deanna is still nursing a lot during the night and she is starting to demand more attention throughout the day but it isn't too bad right now. I think Denise is really getting into the grove and hopefully by next week everything will be much better.

Not much else is going on around here. I have been focused on work and it has been fairly distracting for the last few days along with everything that was happening last week. I THINK everything has stabilized so it should start calming down. The main problem I am having right now is juggling my current task with my real job. Kind of frustrating...

I am starting to make the move to Adobe Photoshop CS2 and I loaded the "tryout" version to get familiar with it. I thought INCORRECTLY that it would be Photoshop Elements 3.0 with extra features. The basic look and feel is similar however things are not were I would expect them to be. There is a lot more control and options - I just have to figure out where those options are.

Denise received a "note" in the mall today from the furniture store say "hello" and just letting us know if we want to spend any more money with them to not hesitate to call. The entire furniture thing is really weird considering we bought the darn thing off the internet. I think if we lived in a real town and could get someone to watch the kids we would have went to real stores to see things. But with us being basically an hour from town and then dealing with 3 kids and the nursing it would have been a nightmare. Anyway I am looking forward to the new table and I think it is going to be really nice.

Oh - i know I didn't post anything yesterday - it is just that I have been very tried and just haven't been able to put anything together to post. I have been really good about posting daily and I will try to maintain that in the future.

More studio work...

I finally finished the pictures to place over Denise's sewing machine and craft stuff in the office. The frames have been empty for about a week and today was the first time I could really set everything up to get the pictures I was looking for. I got what I was looking for and it has turned out the way I had envisioned. Below are the individual photos that I took today - that are framed in the image above.



I did make it out for another round of 600 yard shooting. We didn't have the shaving cream cans this time (because we couldn't find them for some reason). However we did have that big steel armored piece of metal and some bowling pins. So we zeroed in on the steel which made it much easier to see where the rounds were hitting and make the appropriate adjustments. Kris hit the bowling pins first knocking one behind some rocks and the other one feel on it's side. I did manage to hit the one on it's side. Being able to hit these targets as 600 yards is a REALLY cool feeling! We also did this from the prone position (as in the photo) since Dave wasn't able to make it out (and he has all the benches!... Benches, Benches, we don't need no stinking benches...)

Next week - if we make it out there - will be from either 800 yards or 1000 yards. We have a spot scoped out and it should work fine. The only problem we are getting into now is that we are so far out that people coming up to the hill don't realize what we are doing. We seem so far out that people don't think we are actually shooting at anything up there. We even had a problem like that today. After we setup the targets and drop down to our 600 yard spot we looked back at the hill and there was a truck on the side with two people out walking around. I yelled out to them and they left. They were actually coming our way but for some reason once they got closer they decide to turn and go the other direction... I think that is the one bad thing about living in California is that most people don't think... I don't think they figure we had an arsenal and were probably coming over to complain about us yelling at them. I figure that because when the got closer I waived (and not with a gun in my hand, it was on my belt, in the holster) and they just kinda waived back and looked a little uncomfortable, and drove on...

Heritage Days???

Okay, so today was supposed to be the Heritage Days festival at the park here in town. I know it took us a while to finally get out of the house and on our way there so we arrived late, but there was like nothing there. It was really disappointing. We basically walked around the perimeter (I just love that word) and headed out in about 15 minutes. I think we had this event confused with one of the other events the city puts on.

On the way out we did come across this booth that happened to have those dream catcher things. So we bought one for Devin and Desirae. We forgot to get more money before we went otherwise we would have bought another one for the office, but alas we didn't.

The other plan for today was to go into town and purchase a replacement UPS for the iMac. The old one I had on the computer was small and it died. I could have just replaced the batteries, but I wanted to get one with more outlets and a longer run time. I figure I may still replace the batters and then put it on the wireless router in the garage. This one should run the computer for almost an hour and it will accept another battery pack that will extend that by another 60 minutes or so and it also connects to the computer to track run time and automatically shut down when the batteries are about done.

Okay - so I thought I was the paranoid one of the group. However, some of my friends from work brought up a VERY good point about how wonderful people are in the world. As a result I have removed my profile from public access and will refrain from at least posting where in the world I actually am. In keeping with this subject we are a conservative, right wing, gun totting (and we know how to use them) individuals who would have no qualms about putting a well placed 230 grain 45 ACP jacketed hollow point in someone's head that decided to pay an unwanted visit. Oh, and my wife is the better shot...

At a loss...

This was very long and arduous day and I am finally sitting down at the computer very late. So there really isn't much to report for today.

Denise did order that table and chairs so the ball is rolling on that...

Otherwise I am going to shut down for tonight and I will edit the pictures Denise took today and post as required tomorrow.

Flower search...

Denise took Desirae to play group today, but it was a very small turn out witn only one other person showing up. I don't know the name of the other little girl, but Desirae was glad to see her and they played for a while. Here in the picture they are picking flowers for their moms.

Denise did talk to the furniture store today and got some more information for the table. I think we are going with that one I mentioned yesterday and I think she will order it tomorrow. They do have bar stools that match but it really sends the overall cost of this over the top and I don't think it is a good idea. So we are just going to go with the table, 8 chairs, and a table pad. It sounds like it is going to take 6 ~ 8 weeks for this to be made and shipped out. So we get to make the selection and then wait... Wonderful...

She's back... Kinda...

Well, today was much better than yesterday and hopefully tonight be also be better. Denise was able to get some sleep today and Deanna decided that she didn't have to be held the ENTIRE time today. We think that Deanna is just getting settled in her new routine so hopefully everything will stabilize soon.

The only thing we did this evening was watch Team American, World Police!. I don't think Denise thought it was as funny as I did, but I thought it was hilarious. The movie is completely stupid and all characters are marionette puppets but it was really well done.

Oh, the great table search continues. I thought we had decided to do that one from JC Penny, but I think Denies has found a different one what she wants. She might order the Sunset Trading Essex Double Pedestal Trestle Table tomorrow. It is a bit more than the other one, but it looks like it will be much nicer too. She will get more information tomorrow when she calls them...

Ok - now what...

The main problem for today is that I had some work I had to get done when I came home so I was not really able to do anything for the blog today. I did post process the picture above, which was from the "photo shoot" this weekend. I think this picture is appropriate for tonight because Deanna was VERY crabby all day today and would not let Denise put her down. So Denise was extremely tired when I made it home and wasn't too happy about me having to spend hours in Word.

Denise did make it up to K-Mart today and ended up buying some clothes for the kids. It looks like she got some good stuff and just about everything fit so only a couple of items need to go back.

We have been unable to work with Devin over the last couple of days so we have had no additional progress from last week. Work isn't helping and Denise's road trip didn't either.

Anyway this is a short one and hopefully I will have more time tomorrow.

Home studio...

I tried out my "home studio" equipment today with a better backdrop. We did this again in the living room (just more room there) and hung a burgundy sheet from the window (with the blinds and everything closed). I put the flashes at angles and shot away. The image is tad fuzzy but for the first REAL test of the equipment I think it turned out okay. I am going to have to practice some more to get a better understanding of this lighting stuff though.

---

600 yards...

We finally made it out to our little range to do some shooting. Kris brought out a few cans of shaving cream and some compressed air. I must admit he was the first one to hit these tinny targets from a distance of 600 yards, but I did FINALLY hit mine. I cut the video down so I was not shooting that fast and if you look closely you can see the contrail of the bullet lobbing into the target. In reality we were shooting targets there were 10" high and 3" wide from 600 yards. So at 600 yards a Minute-Of-Angle (MOA) would be 6" so that's a pretty tuff shot. For the most part our rounds SEEMED like they were in that 6" circle - it was the 3" that was killing us.

Goin' down below...

So, after much research we decided to go down to Canoga Camera to purchase Denise her new point & shoot digital camera. We did get her the Nikon S1 which is REALLY SMALL and pretty cool. They also had it for that lower price of $299 so I didn't have to mail order it from B&H Photo in New York. Plus the guys down at Canoga are very nice and helpful, and they also don't treat you like an idiot. I mean, I know I am an idiot, I just don't want to have someone point it out for me!

On that note I also purchased another flash unit (Nikon SB800), 2 light stands, and 2 umbrellas. I was going to just get some of those Lumiquest SoftBox kits, but after talking with the guys down there they recommended the umbrellas and the cost was almost a wash. So, when we got home (which was late) I setup the equipment and took these photo pictures of the kids. The background is bad, but I think the lighting is GREAT!.

We were really gone for much longer than we had expected and part of that was because of dinner. We stopped in Palmdale on the way back and hit Sizzler. We figured the salad bar would be good (which is wasn't) for the diet (which it was). Anyway we did our thing there and then just headed home. We played with Denise's new camera until the battery finally died and the first picture was from her new camera.

Deanna was really good during the entire trip and didn't get too fussy about anything at all. Denise did have to feed her, but it coincided with our Canoga stop and dinner stop so it worked out well. She also slept the entire time during dinner so at least Denise didn't have to run off during the middle of dinner to feed her.

It was a lot of fun and a good road trip. We almost tried to stop at a park down in Canoga, but we would have been the odd ones out and decided that probably wasn't such a good idea. At least now we should end up with more photographs of the kids doing, well, eh, kid stuff!

• NOTE - Something is going on with blogger and I am not sure what it is. Earlier today the entire site was down and I was unable to post anything to the site. They obviously have it up and operational now, but it has really been flakey. I truly hope that they don't bomb out and loose everything!

I think the ball is snowing...

I think we have passed the threshold. It appears as though Devin is really working toward walking. As you can see in the video clip above he has now walked from the hallway into the dining room over to the bar. In this video clip he does touch a chair, but he did it before going straight to the bar. When he did it the first time Denise was on the telephone with her brother Brad and it freaked her out. She didn't know he was practicing again and he just walked into the room over to the bar.

Devin has also said that he does not mind if we tell FAMILY so with that I think it is okay for anyone who wants to mention it to him (that's family). We are all VERY excited about this new development and it will be interesting to see how things progress over the weekend.

The really funny thing about this is that the week after Deanna was born Devin's physical therapist Karen said that her goal for him was to walk 14 steps before Christmas. I guess that we need to set a new goal now!

I know everything over the last couple of days has focused on Devin but this is a MAJOR development and deserves the attention!

---

I am not sure what happened, but all the photograph links have been broken, so anything stored on the Blogger site is dead right now. I am not sure what happened and I hope they will fix it soon!

---

Photo update - not sure when they fixed it, but it appears as though all the pictures are now working again. I have checked for a status update on blogger.com but have not found anything about the problem

What just happened here...

First - please do not mention this to Devin. He was very freaked out by the fact that he walked as far as he did. He did not want us to tell anyone about this, show them pictures, and definitely not show any video. But, as you can see from the video, Devin walked down the hallway, turned the corner and and got in front of the television before he fell. If you watch the video closely you can see the look on his face when he realized what he was doing. Denise said that he got really upset for a while and she really had to talk him down. I still haven't figure how why he was upset but we don't want to do anything to jinks this. Anyway - it was really amazing to see!

I think nothing else really compares to this today and nothing else needs to be said...

What? I'm doing a blog here?

Okay, so here's the deal. I got home SUPER LATE today and didn't really have enough time to develop any content for the blog. This basically means that I did not have a chance to take any pictures or try to document something when I got home.

However, even with that said Devin did REALLY well today! This morning he got dressed very quickly and really helped both Denise and I out this morning in doing that. I had to leave a bit early for a meeting and I did not have the time to ride him about getting dressed. He was up and out in the living room ready for his shoes and braces extremely quick! He also was given another "gold star" and this is the third day in a row. So, it is possible that the other issue is back on track and we won't have to worry about it any more.

Dude, I'm crashing a Dell - Alright - so you are probably wondering what happened today... It wasn't anything major or anything wrong just a friend needed some help backing up and restoring his daughters computer for college. It was pretty well messed up and limping along. Even with that we were able to backup all the documents, pictures, music, and video files and then begin a "wipe and reload". I was not able to stay until everything was done, but I was there long enough to back everything up and see a fresh copy of Windows XP boot up. (I am so glad I own a MAC, PC are just a major pain!@!!!) With all this I didn't get home until nearly 2100 hrs. Depending on how the restore went for him I may end up coming back to restore all the documents...

The mobile

First, we are still getting everything together and although the changing table is in the dining room that is just for convenience. Denise finished putting together the mobile for Deanna's crib. Since we do not have the crib up and operational she decided to put it on the changing table. Deanna also lost the scab on her belly button so Devin was trying to get a good look at that.

Denise also tried something a bit different today (and I didn’t get a picture of it) she basically wore Deanna all day. This worked out really well and kept her (Deanna) awake for a good portion of the day. Hopefully with Deanna being awake so much she will sleep really good tonight! If this works, I am sure Denise will try it again and I will be sure to get a photograph of that.

I did get an email back from Nikon today saying to send the lens in and they would check it out and depending on the work needed it would be anywhere from $48 to $198 dollars to tune it up. So I will probably try to get it sent in either this week or next. So that might be interesting!

I'll have the...

There are so many choices I don't know what to pick! We had to go into town today after work so I met Denise and the kids in Lancaster. After we finished what we needed to do we headed over Red Lobster for dinner. It was a bit more traveling than we really should have done and Denise was spent when we finished, but it was nice to have a good dinner. I am still sticking with the diet thing and I tried some salmon (I have never had that before) and it was pretty good.

Oh, Devin is dirty (on the arm) because he and a friend decided they are going to dig a hole to China. They started today and they hope to make great progress tomorrow. Jayde has said she will bring snacks when the hole is finished, and Devin said that mommy and daddy are invited to go down in the hole... Great - am so looking forward to that trip!

Denise and Desirae did play with the kid-map for a bit of coloring which was pretty cool. Deanna was pretty good and let Denise eat before getting too fussy. Unfortunately Denise was really trying to eat fast to finish before she had to nurse Deanna again. Normally she "KNOWS" when it is time for Denise to eat - but this time she stayed out. We hung out at Circuit Cit when it was time to feed her though and that worked out okay.

While at Circuit City I did check on that camera Denise wants, the Nikon S1, but their price was way-too-high and I think I will just order it for her from B&H Photo. B&H is $100 cheaper than Circuit City so I think it is worth it to just do the internet thing.

OBTW - I REALLY like that new(used) Nikon 20mm 2.8 lens I got off eBay. It is very sharp and is a nice lens. I may have mentioned before that I think I will send it to Nikon for a once over (the focus is a little loud in the autofocus mode) but Nikon wouldn't answer the phone (well, it answered, but not by a human). Most of the pictures from the last few days have been taken exclusively with that. I have also been using Imagenomic Noiseware in Photoshop Elements 3.0 (MAC) and it has been working VERY well. I have been shooting the photos at ISO 1600 and then running this noise reduction software on it and I think they look GREAT.

I haven't forgotten about the video - I just haven't had the time to edit anything else and get it online... Hopefully I will have something new before the weekend!

And that's why we need a bigger table...

So we had Michelle, Fred, Sarah, Aaron, Rachael, Caleb, Mary, Justice, Devin, Desirae, Denise, and I all at dinner tonight. As you can see it was a pretty packed house and I had to even move the changing table and bring in a folding table from the garage, and we still had someone at the bar. That is A LOT of people and a bit unwieldy to make work. But we did it though. That was a lot of food that we went through too... Good thing we just came back from Costco on Friday... But now we need to go again!

Well they came to pick up Sarah today though we didn't know if they were going to make it. There was talk that if things got too hectic for them they might not make it today. After multiple telephone calls with no response they finally just showed up. But that's kind of how Michelle likes to do it - generally they call when they are in the drive way - I just had the garage open. You see, the gig is up, I know the plan!

Anyway it was cool having Sarah over for the last few days and she did help out a bit too. It was also weird to think that our kids will get that old!

I had planned on doing a shooting event today, but I completely screwed up the plans for that so it all fell apart. It is just as well though, I was looking for an image of a looter with a television that I could use as a target and I hadn't found the appropriate one yet. Well, I have another week so maybe I will find one before next weekend!

To the SUPER WAL-MART

Off we go into the Super Wal-Mart, down our funds go into the store... (Think of the Air Force Song when you read that). At any rate we made it to the brand-new Super Mal-Mart located in sunny Palmdale California. If you don't know what a SWM is, basically it is a Wal-Mart with a grocery store attached. It was kind of a let-down as I was expecting something, well, more SUPER! All in all it was a pretty nice store though.

Our frame search did not go well, I was hoping to get at least 3 frames matted for 11x14 and all they had was one. I was very disappointed in that, but considering how much that would have cost I guess it is a good thing. I went ahead and got the one frame and two other that hold 3 4x6s each - so I am going to create a collage to place over Denise's sowing stuff. If I arrange it right I think it will look pretty cool. I will just need to take some more photographs to get enough imagines and figure out what I am going to do for the 11x14.

Unfortunately Devin was in a MAJOR mood when we went to lunch and as a result he was told that he would not get anything for his tooth pulling efforts. We had hoped that the threat of loosing the "present" would be enough to calm him down, however it just didn't work. We may still try to figure out something to do, but for now that is ON-HOLD.

The one weird thing about being in wal-mart is we ran into a lot of people we knew. We ran into the Willson's (their blog is here), along with Rosie (and her husband), and we saw other people that we work with. It is just kind of odd - I guess everyone had the same idea - to check out the new store!

We also picked up the new Epson R1800 printer at BestBuy. So, I now have the old printers off the desk and file cabinet and the new one in it's new home. I have yet to print a large format print with it. I have to figure out what I am going to do for that 11x14 frame before I print the large stuff! So far it seems like a really good printer - and the 4x6 prints look like the R800 prints.

We also ran by Sears to buy the new baby crib bedding. They had ONE of the packages that Denise was looking for so she gobbled it up. As soon as we get the crib in it's place and everything put together I will post pictures of that as well.

Today was a pretty long day and we didn't get home until late. So I did not get a chance to take any more video or work on any other photographs. Maybe tomorrow!

I don't know...

Oh no it's Friday!!! Wait a minute - that's a good thing... Anyway everyone, except maybe Deanna, is happy that it is Friday... The main Costco and grocery store run was completed today but we may go into town tomorrow to check out the NEW Super Wall Mart and hit BestBuy. We still haven't figured out what we are going to get for Devin for pulling his own tooth out. I think he is thinking MUCH larger than we were expecting - but we will find something tomorrow. I also want to purchase more frames to get some more pictures up on the walls.

Anyway - I am beat - so this is going to be a short one. I did try to edit my "rabbit" video but I just couldn't bring it all together. I need a bit more footage and some more time editing before it is ready to post.

I HATE SCORPIONS!!!

Okay, so like I was minding my own business putting away the dishes and getting ready to start making dinner (I know, I know, that a completely different story) when I pulled out A BOWL from the cabinet IN THE KITCHEN and was "greeted" by Mr. Scorpion. Oh ya I dropped the bowl! I MIGHT have even screamed like a little school girl - but luckily no one else was around so we can just keep that our little secret! You know it is times like this that I wonder why I haven't taken up drinking... So I took Mr. Scorpion and introduced him to Mr. Steal Toed Boot. They got along amicably...

On a less stressful note Sarah (our niece) wanted to come over and help out with the baby for a few days. Since Denise was heading into town for Devin's weekly physical therapy appointment she arranged to meet Aunt Michelle at Costco for "the exchange". (I can't help myself it just sound funnier that way). Anyway, so she is going to stay until Sunday when Michelle will come and pick her up. Hopefully she will be able to watch the children so Denise can get some sleep during the day.

With the long trip today Devin got a really late start on his homework. He did get everything done but it took a while to complete. Denise also reported that he did a really good job today at his PT appointment. His normal therapist Karen hurt herself so he had a alternate person conducting it. For the most part Devin has been working pretty hard on this stuff... However, his motivation is that I told him we would discuss getting him a pet if he could walk with one cane... So he is working toward that...

Moving the car seats...

In preparation for Devin's physical therapy appointment in Bakersfield tomorrow we rearranged the van to hold all three kids. It really worked out better than I had expected and Devin was even able to get into the van and his seat by himself. I really didn't think he was going to be able to do that!

Devin also lost, well actually he pulled, his next tooth today at school. They were kind enough to place in it a little envelope and send it back home with him. I know I should have gotten some photographs of that but I forgot. I had told Devin earlier today that if he pulled it himself I would talk to "mommy" and we might get him a special present for pulling it himself. So we may just make a trip to Lancaster this weekend and pick him something for "saving" us the pleasure of having to pull it for him... That's pretty gross if you have to do it.

Anyway Desirae had a play group day - but again there was no camera. It didn't really matter though because Desirae was not really in the mood to play today... Maybe need week we can get some pictures or video that will be worthy of posting!

---

Deanna Lookin' Around... And not sleeping...

Back to work - again

First off - today was back to work so it was a pretty long day. Denise and the kids did fine today and everything went well at home. I am pretty well exhausted so I am not going to write much - and I basically just crashed when I finally got home.

This was kind of a neat shot - all the kids were "playing" together in the office. It didn't last too long before Devin and Desirae started to argue - but at least they played long enough for me to take the picture. Good call on Denise's part for seeing the moment and getting me to take the picture.

Oh, m wide angle search, finally came to an end today when the Nikon 20mm 2.8 AF-D lens arrived today. Well, really it arrived at the post office and I had to go pick it up. That was an ordeal and I ended up waiting there for an hour to finally have the truck come back and for them to off load the package to give it back to me. I was beginning to think they were going to say it was too late and they would just deliver it tomorrow. Everything seems to be in order and both shots were taken with the new/used lens.

Anyway - I had much more planned for today's entry - but I have just run out of steam... So maybe tomorrow...

---

Video Clip - Hiccup

The great table search begins...

I may have mentioned this before, but we are looking to purchase a new larger dinning table. We have our "eye" on this one listed in the JCPenny catalog Ivy Lane Dining Table. Denise is calling JCPenny because in the mailer we received it stated that the size was 90" and 108" with the leaf, however the web site says 78" and 90" with the leaf. Either way it doesn't matter, but we would really like to know before we buy it. I did try to see if they had the table at the store but they didn't have any tables. We won't commit until we get all the particulars. I kind of hope that it is 90" with the leaf - that way we can keep the leaf in it and have all the chairs at the table.

Denise keeps catching me when I am asleep. I was laying down and Deanna was getting a bit fussy so I put her on my chest. We both basically zonked out for a bit. Well, Deanna was zonked out pretty much the entire day. Denise left her in our bed this morning and she slept, soundly, for well over three hours. It was really kind of surprising because we haven't experienced her sleeping that well at night yet! It figures... Sound be interesting tonight.

---

Another Video Clip



Devin and Desirae were playing, and I actually had a bit of a charge left on the charger and was able to take this little video clip. They were having a blast playing around today.

It's all about Desirae...

I think the attention vacuum of Deanna is getting to Desirae. She has really been after both of us to play with her and do things with her. And there isn't a amount of time that is enough - it would have to be constant for many hours to make her happy. We are both trying to spend more time with her and it is helping. At least she isn't taking it out on her sister (yet). She has really enjoyed playing with these blocks and the two dogs and doll. I generally am the yellow dog, taking various names with the current one being Lenny.

I did spend a LARGE amount of time trying to get the video blogging thing to work. I "THINK" I finally have it figured out and everything is working right. If it is you should be able to see a small video clip of Devin holding Deanna on Saturday's posting. With it working I think I will keep the video camera charged up and ready to go, so expect more than just pictures in the future!

We also did some more rearranging around the house and got all the crafty things out from in front of our double doors in the master bedroom. That was REALY nice to get that up and with Deanna coming a bit early it had put certain things off that we had planned to do. We still haven't moved the book cases into our room but we MIGHT do that tomorrow.

Well, with all the head beating (on the table) from the video clip I need to go to sleep. I am actually posting this at 0008 hrs on Monday - so it is a bit late - and I will roll back the date/time so it shows up on the correct day!

So with that... Good night!

A quiet day...

Well today was a quite day around the house. Not much was accomplished other than moving some pictures on the walls and hanging out with the kids. We are continuing to try and redecorate around the house and neither of us are sure we like all the changes. Today we moved the main large print we had in the living room into the dinning room and placed 6 framed 8x10 photographs in the living room. The pictures are nice, I just don't know how well it is going to work in there. We also hung three smaller 5x7 framed prints in our room - and I think that turned out pretty good. It is just difficult to change things when they have been a certain way for almost 5 years.

We didn't even make it outside... Well that isn't entirely true, I did go to Fast Trip for some eggs for breakfast this morning! I am not even going to go into the gas price ordeal but that was just crazy...

Deanna was pretty active today so hopefully she will sleep good tonight!

Oh I did decide to backup my entire photo collection, all 56GB of it to DVD. I thought I needed a complete copy of everything on disk to go along with the external drive that I have the system copy to every night. I figured it would take an hour or so... Well, I started at 0958 and it FINALLY finished at 1730... I could not believe how long that took to burn 15 DVD+R. I will NOT be doing that again - and I think next paycheck I am going to seriously check in to buying another external drive that I can keep in the safe. That was just ridiculous!

I also connected up through iChatAV with an high school buddy of mine and we chatted for a while (probably a long while, I think we were both getting the evil eye from our wives). It was really neat to actually "talk" to him and iChat works REALLY good between iMacs. Even though we haven't see or talked since high school we have been keeping connected via email, text chat, and blogs so it wasn't like we haven't "talked" to each other for ... eh ... 16 years... Computers are a pretty cool thing when you think about it that way.

---

This is a video Test


I am trying to figure out how to add video clips into the blog. This should be easy - but it is appearing more difficult than first expected... You should see a small video clip of Devin holding Deanna.

OMG the week is over...

Well this week is finally over. I think we are finally settling in to our new routine and figuring out how everything is going to work. The biggest problem is still just getting enough QUALITY sleep with Deanna. At night she makes a bunch of noise that really keeps us up. But she seems to be doing REALLY well and she doesn't really cry too much, generally when she is hungry and no one (Denise) hasn't dropped everything to try and feed her. But as soon as she assumes the position she calms right down.

I also got the changing table cleaned up and setup in the house. It is really going to help and I also didn't realize just how low the bassinet was and how hard that is on your back. Now we just have to figure out where we are going to put the crib -and when we are going to put Deanna in it. All the logistics!

Next week going back to work is going to be really strange and will probably be harder on Denise. I don't think I am any great helper, but I we have been able to tag team things to get things done around here and to take turns getting some rest. So hopefully it won't be much of a problem. At least next week is a short week so it will only be 4 days. I just hope I am not scheduled to work OT on that weekend... Will just have to wait and see...

Denise received flowers from the Mom & Me group for the birth of Deanna. There were REALLY beautiful, and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to photograph it. Denise really loved them too! So THANK YOU to all the nice folks that put that together - and to Angela for delivering it!

---

I just can't help but comment all the news that is coming out of the affected areas from hurricane Katrina. I can not believe - well I would rather not believe - what those thugs are doing to people down there. If the news is correct, which in this case it probably is, the terror that is ongoing down there is despicable. I heard an interview from a surviver down there that said that the military (guard) or police should really make an example of these people to shut it down. I really wish they would do something along those lines. Generally you hear stories of people coming together in situations such as this, but I guess we have never had a complete loss of major cities before... Just sad, very sad!