Summer 2008 Slideshow

With my new PC, I find it a lot more convenient to blog since we have all the media stuff in one place once again -- so I've been on a tear here, trying to make-up for my weak-sauce posting frequency. Hopefully my small but dedicated readership can keep up!

I made the Summer 08 Slideshow tonight. Watching it, I guess I don't feel too bad about slacking with the posts. We did a LOT over the last few months. I didn't even relize how much less stressful life has been, but I guess it has. Kinda like when you have a cold, and you don't notice when it's finally gone... it's like that.

Enjoy the show.

Summer 2008 Slideshow

Legos and iPhones

Cool new app on on my iPhone called Voxie lets me do voice recordings. So I got one of Andy today talking about his Legos and why he likes them.

Click here to hear Andy talk about Legos

Along the lines of amazing innovations like Legos... Thos of you who know me, know I'm a gadget guy, but I gotta say, the iPhone is by far the most awesome peice of technology to hit the planet since the PC. It's really amazing to have the Internet at your fingertips wherever you go, and the open source app development is making for some very useful capabilities. I highly recommend it to anyone.

Top things I use my iPhone for other than making phone calls:

Driving Directions - Integrated GPS and Google Maps
Text - Keeping tabs on my homies during a boring meeting
Music - Integrated iPod
Flashslight - iPhone Flashlight works great late at night
Alarm Clock - The Phone is now my default alarm clock, with lots of different preset times
Calculator - I know, I still do some math in Marketing
Email - Both work and home emails (Try to stay away from this as I need to de-tether)

Thankgiving Sing

Katie had her Thanksgiving sing in class today. Mommy brought the video camera so I ripped a little clip for you guys. While I realize that watching other kid's school performances are often similar to going to the dentist, I tried to keep it short so you get the highlights.

Video of Katie's Thanksgiving Sing

an Oldie but a Goodie

Found this file of Katie singing one of the songs from The Little Mermaid when I was cleaning up the hard drive. Ill add a photo here from the same era to complete the experience for you. I think we took this when we were at a playground in Santa Barbara.

Click here to hear Katie sing The Little Mermaid

Turkey-Head

Andy just had his Thanksgiving "sing" at preschool. As you can see, the little guy wasn't too pleased with the wardrobe element. He was very nervous about having to get up in front of the school and sing the Thanksgiving songs with his class, but his mother bribed him with some pizza and video-games. This gave him the needed motivation and confidence to belt it out like the best of em.

sandpics 2.0

Updated to the new blogger template. Fixed the slideshow links, try em out and let me know if they work.

Adventure Guides

Katie and I have started the Adventure Guides program.

Its the same thing as the old Indian Guides program, and it's set-up for fathers and kids to spend time togehter, kinda like the scouts. I have been really looking forward to this thing since I had such a great time at it when I was a kid. The program asks each person to name themselves with an American Indian name. Katie's name is "Fluffy Fawn" and my name is "Big Buck"... (try not to laugh too hard)

So anyhow, we went up to Warner Springs for our first outing a few weeks ago. Its a really neat place with a natural hot spring. While there, Katie got to ride a horse for the first time. Of course she asked me to buy her one when she was done. I told her to talk to her Auntie Tanya to find out how much work it is but somehow I don't think hat's going to discourage her.

Pretending to be July

It has been spectacular in San Diego weather-wise. We have had these amazing clear days, perfectly still, with 80 degree weather. Yesterday, Andy and I went up to the top of our little mountain here, to the memorial on top of Soledad. you could see so far it was overwhelming. I could see Orange County, Catalina, San Clemente Island and clear to Mexico past Tijuana. It was one of those special days that I will definitely remember for a long time.

The memorial is also a special place, there are thousands of plaques of solders from all branches of the military, young and old dating back to the turn of the century. Again, overwhelming to think of the span of time and people who have fought for this country and its beliefs. Andy was mostly concerned with where these beople were buried. He has seen my dad's resting place and thought the same thing was true here... I had to exaplin to him that this was just a place for remembering those people, and that they were laid to rest elsewhere.

Andy seems to have a special insight when it comes to history and people who are no longer with us. He is always asking me about my dad, and my grandfather, our relationships, and the things we used to do togehter. When he sees me doing things, he often asks, "Did Papa teach you that?" I realize his grasp of this stuff is limited, but it brings me a great satisfaction that he is curious about it. Helps me feel like those people are continuing to live-on in ways that I hadn't anticipated. I guess I didn't have that same interest as a kid and it's great to see improvements on the gene pool.

So later in the day we headed down to the beach. The water was a miraculous 80-something and we set-off to climb around in the tide pools. The kids are getting big enough now to where they are climbing on the rock and gettting pretty adventureous. We saw lots of starfish, sea anenomes, hermit crabs and the like. Katie is definitely the little oceanographer of the family -- she sticks her fingers RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of those giant anenomes and squeals with delight as they close-up and suck on her finger. Man, even I'm not that brave...

Halloween!

Here are the goblins from this year's Halloween. Katie was a flapper (and so was mommy!) Andy was Wolverine from the X-men. Daddy was a disco country rock star. We trick-or-treatred here in LaJolla. Fun as always!