Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas at home

First, plenty of new pictures and videos uploaded to Flickr (http://photos.TrueBits.net) , most in the Christmas 2008 and Sophia 2008 albums (not much time to organize ... also, mostly they overlap, most pics are in both sections).

Christmas has been good, though slightly stressful. We hardly have company at all, and we're hosting both our families plus a new baby for 4+ weeks... the help is probably a great (and bad in some ways, but mostly good) thing, but since we are largely house-bound due to needing to take care of a newborn, the place can start to feel a bit small at times. It's both a blessing and curse that my parents both only speak English and her parents both only speak Portuguese. Unfortunately for her, she's the only one who speaks both, so must get stuck as a translator a lot... I can speak and understand a little, but not enough to be particularly useful. And Sophia only speaks the language of cries and grunts so far, along with Danny and Lacey who just growl and bark, and Nia who just sort of meows and mrows.

But overall things are going better than I thought, and I'm sure we are going to miss this once everyone leaves. My parents leave Jan 2, in just under a week, her father leaves mid-January, but her mother stays until March, so we'll still have some help with the baby for a while, which will be good.

Anyway, Happy Holidays and all that, to anyone who happens to read this around them...

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Sophia - quick pics



Still in the hospital, severely limited by their WIFI capability, our time schedule, and Karen's iPhone capabilities (which has full network access via the air 3G connection, but limited by the iPhones capabilities). But I've smuggled out 2 pics, hopefully!

I believe clicking will give the full 1024x768 version, and if you want the full 4000x3000 12MB version, just email or ask and I can give that... plus a lot of other pics we've of course taken.

Sophia Meyer

11-24-2008 - 10:36pm PST
20 inches, 6lb 12oz

Everyone doing well!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Twitter

Ok, the idea of a blog is great.

The reality of a blog usually turns out to be an explosion of updates at first, followed by less and less content less and less often, until it finally fizzles out completely.

I'm trying another approach, while still maintaining this as a blog... soon my existing cell contract will expire and I plan on upgrading to a phone and service that will also make keeping this updated really easy...

I'm going to start using Twitter. http://twitter.com/JMnITup

Basically, it's similiar to a blog, where the updates are more like micro-status updates vs novels. Figured I'd try that out as a means of keeping up with people who try to keep up with me, but who aren't able to because I'm too far away, busy, and/or anti-social. :)

So yeah, feel free to follow it: Ok, the idea of a blog is great.

The reality of a blog usually turns out to be an explosion of updates at first, followed by less and less content less and less often, until it finally fizzles out completely.

I'm trying another approach, while still maintaining this as a blog... soon my existing cell contract will expire and I plan on upgrading to a phone and service that will also make keeping this updated really easy...

I'm going to start using Twitter. http://twitter.com/JMnITup

Thursday, September 11, 2008

31... yay!

Well, 31 and a day, I guess. Wow, that sounds so old. I don't feel any different, though, so whatever. You can say I'm over 30, but I say I'm 25!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Indian Motorcyclist

I want to make a horrible joke about a tech support call, but I won't.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Dr. Horrible's Sing-along blog




http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

Be sure to mouse over the clip once the actual non-advert part is playing and change it to 'Watch in Hi-Res (480p)', it looks and sounds a lot better.. then full-screen if possible... I'm just saying...

Just thought I'd add a post, since I haven't done that for a while... and while doing that, I'd recommend watching "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along blog".

Now, as a warning... it's kind of campy superhero stuff... it's amateur (in theory)... and... well... it's a musical. However, you should still watch it, all the way through Act 3, even if 1 doesn't catch you.

At first I almost stopped, but by the end, was pretty impressed.

Oh, did I mention it was by the guy largely behind Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and a couple other cult-favorites, Joss Whedon? At this point, just about anything he creates is going to become a cult favorite, of course, but... there's good reason for that.

If you DO actually read this, I'd be interested in hearing reactions to it... am I just a freak for liking it (quite likely), or is it really as good as I've decided it was?

Also... Doogie Howser has grown up into an evil super-villain.. how can that go wrong?! DH = Doogie Howser = Doctor Horrible ... coincidence? I think not!

And, if you are too lazy to figure out how to see it, here's a quick and easy link.. however, I liked it enough I bought it, with like.. you know... real money.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

Friday, May 02, 2008

First Ultrasound

We got our first sonograms from the ultrasound yesterday. Apparently Karen is carrying a little Teddy Graham in her belly! (Teddy Graham commercial for comparison - look at the little cookies, not the giant dancing bears. :p )

Oh, also, it danced and waved at us... REALLY!

Final due date estimate is December 3, 2008.

Video of a little part of the ultrasound ... the first couple seconds, you can hear the heartbeat faintly... over the sound of the camera's zoom mechanics. *sigh* Well, next time I'll be better prepared to catch it.













Friday, April 25, 2008

News

Ok, so yeah, as my parents keep noting, I don't maintain this enough to keep them in the loop. I guess there are a few things that need mentioning.

Next weekend is the 2008 White Dragon Tournament, so lots of work going into preparing for that.

We just got a new car, swapped the 2001 Hyundai Elantra for a 2007 Suzuki XL7.

Danny and Nia are still doing good.

We are making some big changes to our house, converting a big open area in the upstairs into a room by adding a wall and closet, redoing our kitchen cabinets and countertop, and moving internal furniture around.

Hmmm, what else.

Oh, right, and one other little thing. I guess it's been a while, but I came home on April 1st, and after a very brief talk about how sweaty I was after my workout, Karen showed me this:


So it was April 1st, right, and she's looking at me waiting for a reaction. Terror gripped me in an instant, trying to figure out if she was serious or it was a joke, and what the 'correct' response was. I think a long pause and a blank stare followed by "really?" is what I went with, which she followed up with "no, actually I just went out and bought a gag test"... again, I couldn't tell if that was sarcastic or true. Women can be cruel. :)

But in the end, it was true. And honestly, it wasn't really unexpected, we were planning on really trying about a month from that point, it was just surprising it was so quick and at that point... we were going to wait since we didn't want a December birthdate, since having a b-day close to the end of the year always seems to downplay it a bit. *shrug*

But looks like that's what we got, and really I'd rather have it come easily than desperately try for years with no luck. I WAS looking forward to a LITTLE more working at it, but ah, well. The one time we laxed a little on being careful was apparently enough. :p Does give us a pretty exact date of conception, though.

Our current official due date is December 4, 2008, but we're having an ultrasound this Thursday, which may change that date a little at that point.

test pic from phone

This is a picture test from my phone

Testing publishing from phone

This is just a quick useless post from my cellphone to see if it works. IF YOU CAN SEE THIS, IT DOES. NOW, WHY DID IT GO ALL CAPS? I'M NOT RETYPING ALL THAT. :P

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Still alive

For the record, we are still alive, didn't burn in the fires months ago, as you (the 3 of you who might hit this page) might think from my lack of follow-up blog posts.

As I've said before, I'm going to TRY to post more often, but as I've proven before, that is probably an overly optimistic goal. Maybe I should try setting a more achievable goal... like, I must post at least once a month! :) I'll work on that.