beautiful and ugly construction
While looking for baby furniture yesterday Lori and I took a trip by the new Arizona Cardinals stadium. It's supposed to be a feat of engineering and an amazing place to see a football game. However, it's about the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life. It's HUGE with bubble like rounded corners, with the entire thing being covered with a reflective metallic. Go see it, you'll be amazed how they could build something so horrendous. And on the bright side of the construction world, our house has a foundation. Yeah, I already mentioned that, but now I've got the pictures online. Check out homes to the left, then click on Maricopa to see the progres. They delivered more wood this week, patched the cable tensioning holes and that's about it. I expect they will be framing this coming week. It might actually look like a house!
matt and 18,662 of my closest friends
On of my co-workers Matt is in town this week, and he and I made it out to my first Diamondbacks game of the season. Matt and I worked together as the only two members of a department for over two years, and now he and I report to the same person (Director this time) again. Despite being in the same departments for over 2.5 years I really haven't had much time to hang out with him outside of work, so it was a good time.
The most amazing thing happened while we were at the game. The Diamondbacks won. Maybe I'll make Matt move from Michigan to Phoenix so he can be a good luck charm? It was actually a pretty exciting game as well. Unfortunately there were only 18,664 people on hand. The smallest attendance of any Diamondbacks game in history. Good thing we were there or it would have been even less.
marriage and sunburn
Well it finally happened. I exercised for three hours this past week. Not very impressive you might say? Well, it's the first time this year, and I'm proud of myself. This morning I lifted weights to continue the trend.
On Saturday evening Lori and I went to Eddie and Denise's wedding. It was a great wedding, and we got to spend quite a bit of time with Dan and Marcella. Eddie and Denise looked to have a great time, as well as their families. The wedding was out at the Ocotillo Golf Club in Chandler, for those familiar with the area.
On Sunday I got some yard work done and then we went shopping for some baby stuff while Lori cooked a roast in our new crock pot. The food was great, it's been a long time since I've had anything from a crock pot, I'd forgotten how good it was. Potatoes, carrots, celery, and beef. What more could you want in a Sunday dinner while watching the Sopranos?
The only part of the weekend that wasn't great was that I managed to sunburn myself. It's minor for the most part, except for an annoying one on my lower back which is getting irritated by my pants. Tomorrow won't be any better when I have to dress up and present information to the US Army. It's a bit scary when they come to me for advice on technology.
Today I got a great gift from Lori, a new camera. She teamed up with Chris' geek expertise to find me a great one. It's the Canon PowerShot A700, with a 6x Optical Zoom and 6.0 Megapixels. A great upgrade from my 3x Optical Zoom / 2.1 Megapixel Olympus from 2001. I have taken a few random pictures around the house tonight and put them up at; http://www.disturbed.org:8888/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=11422 for your viewing pleasure.
The only thing I'm not used to is the camera doesn't work as a standard USB drive, so I must use photo software to interact with it. I've always avoided iPhoto because I thought it was a pain to export to gallery, but after finding iPhotoToGallery it's actually easier *to* use iPhoto. I was quite impressed. A couple clicks and it's on my website. Isn't technology grand?
We had our latest appointment at the doctor for Lori today. She and the baby are doing well, and everything is looking great. We're still on time for an 8/29 delivery, and all the tests are clean. Last week we did our first registering for baby gifts at Target, which was an interesting experience. We're going to go through Babies 'R Us next. I think the lists will double as our own shopping list of things we need to get ourselves. So far the clothing is shaping up pretty well, between parental gifts, and what we've purchased ourselves.
Alright, time for some sleep.
ultrasounds pictures
There she is, take a look!
work, school, lori, cars, new jersey, girls, and house
I've been a poor blogger lately, so it's time to make up a bit of ground in a whirlwind update.
First of all, work has been stressful lately. I finally filled the open position I had only to have another one of my employees taken away temporarily to help another department. So hopefully in mid-May I will actually be able to catch up on some work. I did my first employee reviews, which came with mixed emotions. I think they're a really important part of helping people to improve, but on the same note, it can be difficult to critize someone's work for a year where they were you peer most of the time. In the end I think they went well, but I can always do a better job of providing feedback next year.
School was busy in my last class and I barely pulled out an A (90.0%), but I finished and now I get to take a break. I have been giving myself 3 weeks between classes, but this time I get 5 because I don't want to be in class while I'm in London.
Lori and I are now living together, in what has been an interesting time for her. She's never lived with anyone she's dated, and I'm trying my best to make it easy for her. I know there is a limit to what I can do, there will be an adjustment period now matter how smooth I can make it.
I bought a 2005 Explorer a couple weeks back to act as a "family car". I added gadgets and electronics to it aftermarket, and it should prove to be a comfortable vehicle to use while driving to and from Maricopa on a daily basis. It should be a great car to take on trips as well. The old Explorer Sport is for sale if anyone is interested.
I spent a few days in New Jersey last week for work, providing training and getting in some face time between the marketing organization and engineering. With everyone being so busy, it was a great opportunity to slow down and have some real conversations, complete with a marker board. The trip was pretty uneventful except for almost missing the flight home.
The next day I got to experience something I will never forget. Lori and I went to the ultrasound to check on the health of our baby as well as find out the sex. Seeing it move and seeing it's arms, legs, head, etc.. on the screen were something I can't even begin to explain. Our baby girl is perfectly healthy, and outside of her wanting to hide from the camera, there were no issues.
So I have no idea about girls and am going to have plenty to learn. Pink clothes, dolls, and tea sets are a new world to me, but I'm looking forward to the experience. I can't wait for her to be here.
This past weekend we drove out to Maricopa to take a look at the house and they were working on the foundation. The plumbing had been dug and the form assembled. I imagine they've poured the cement by now. We'll have to drive out again and check it out.
apple timeline
One nerdy post to the next. There are about two people who read this blog that will actually care about this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Apple_Macintosh_models