Time Flies

Time Flies, even when you're not having fun.

It's been... almost 2 years since I last posted. How lame of me? I suppose there MIGHT be someone that still checks this, so if that's you, this is for you.

Since my last post a few things have happened to me. I lost my job in November of 2008. Ezra grew up (who knew THAT would happen) and is now 4 years old, in preschool and already collecting pennies to go to college. I am back at school. My mother-in-law, grandfather, uncle, great-aunt, grandmother-in-law and aunt-in-law have all passed away. And our home has depreciated to a point under what we owe (I think). Overall, it has been a rough two years.

Last summer (2010) we did manage to make a trip out to Chicago and Davenport, IA to visit my wife's family. This was the first time in over 15 years that my wife, her two brothers, and their dad were all in the same place at the same time. We have a wonderful trip and a great time. Being unemployed allows "free-time" to take long trips like this. Love it!

My Granny had a stroke a few months ago. She's doing well recovering. Not completely recovered in her speech, but she is back in her assisted living apartment and doing pretty well. With luck, we will be able to afford to go there this summer for a visit and introduction to Ezra.

School, I went back March 2009 after my job prospects were looking very grim. Even still, I looked for jobs while I was there. Sadly, I've seen little return from the hundreds of resumes I've sent out. Since then Allison and I have decided that we'll let school take a focus and finish my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. March of 2009 I went back to Clark College to finish up all the pre-reqs. I had a good time there, made some new friends, and learned quite a bit. I got through all the calculus series and I did it with an A. I feel good about that.

This academic year (Aug 2010) I started at WSU. The courses there are much more rigorous than at Clark and I've been LOVING it. Most of my classes are centered around Computer Science so I get a lot of programming in. Overall I really love that part of my class, even though some times it means I'm up until wee hours of the morning trying to meet the deadline. During this time one of my professors mentioned the WSU had an IEEE student organization on campus and he invited us to participate. I asked him for more information a couple of times. After asking him the third time he sent me a message requesting I attend some training for club officers at WSU, having nothing else to do that day I went ahead and attended so that the club could exist. Well, that even somehow thrust me into the position of Chairperson/President of the club. Who knew? Ah well, it'll be a nice resume builder and so far I've been enjoying the post and trying to make it succeed.

So, what's in store? I graduate in May of 2012. Ezra will continue to grow up, darn kids. Allison will continue to be a loving and faithful wife, and.. who knows what else? Maybe I'll remember to come here and post it so you all know too.

Thanks for Reading
CV

A Whole new World

Ezra is walking. The child is in to EVERYTHING. If it is within reach of his little fingers, he'll reach for it, grab it and walk away with it.

He still doesn't like shoes though. We've been trying to get him to wear his shoes and walk with them, but he doesn't like it. He wants to play with them, as long as they are not on his feet. Silly child.

We took him to the zoo a couple of weeks ago, I think Mom had more fun than Ezra did. He had fun with the goats in the petting zoo and really liked doing that. However, the elephants scared the pants off of him. Since it was Packy's birthday, the place was packed and there were people walking around in elephant costumes taking pictures. We brought Ezra to take a pic with Packy, Mom got about 10 feet away, Ezra started trembling, a couple more steps and he was outright bawling and clawing to get away from Packy. Poor kid. We didn't get a picture. )c:

Work is... work. Some days I hate it, some days I love it. But it's work. I work to live, not live to work.

I picked up Mario Kart Wii, and LOVE IT! If you know me, and have my Wii number, and also picked up MK Wii, get a hold of me, we'll Wi-Fi play.

And... that's my update for now. I'll write more later.

These are not the droids you are looking for

So, I don't really have a lot to say here. Ezra's walkingish. He still is a bit insecure about walking alone, but does fantastic if he has something to hold on to such as a walking train or Dad. He'll be getting into many things soon enough.

So, we got a reasonable tax refund this year, it was enough to pay of 3/4ths of our credit card (which was 80% of our CC Debt from moving into our house). That's exciting for us, we're getting close to debt free YAY!!

Also, I've been enjoying and playing Risk, of a sorts. This guy created a great Risk-like Webbased game that I tend to pass free moments on while at work. Feel free to sign up and play with me. I'm CandaVespin there.

Level 1 Monkey

So, Ezra recently had his first birthday. We had a lot of fun and he did great trying to eat his cake. Allison has been wanting to get out and take pictures ever since. This weekend we got that chance.

We went out to a tech center where they have a lot of creeks and ponds and some nice waterfalls to take the pictures. We were blessed with wonderful weather and I managed to snap some great shots. I also got to play with my camera and use some of the color accent features. There was some more stuff I wish I had done, but, meh, can't remember everything I guess.

So, here are the pictures of my now Level 1 Monkey. He's growing up quickly and poor Mom just can't stand it. My absolute favorite picture of the bunch is this one :





Hope you liked em. More to come when I get them uploaded.

I have pictures. Really!!

So, I guess it's time for my monthly posting.

The move at my work is complete. I'm finally at a reasonably regular schedule for work. It definitely makes things a bit easier for home scheduling. It was quite a task, but I'm glad it's done. And our new office is so much better. No MOLD for one.

Ezra is getting big. He's trying to walk. He'll get himself behind his little push train and he'll walk behind it. He's now crawling too, real crawling with his belly off the floor instead of his old army crawl he would do. With his new mobility he's getting into EVERYTHING. Thankfully we have taken the steps to baby proof the area that we designate as "baby safe" and his play area, which is our living room / kitchen area. All of the cabinets have magnet locks and I will be installing some catches on a couple of drawers this weekend. Ezra still has one cabinet and drawer that will be "safe for baby" and we'll let him get into them. The idea is that if he has access to those drawers, he won't really try to mess with the others. So far it's worked quite well.

Ezra's birthday is also coming up. A week from tomorrow. Allison is getting frantic making preparations and is excited and chagrined at this upcoming festivity. I think she's sad that he's growing up but happy for it at the same time. Mothers, what can you do? We're going to keep it small, inviting over a couple of Ezra's friends. I'm sure it will be fun for the boys.

So, I guess I'll work on getting pictures posted up here real soon. I'll definitely get some from his birthday party. I think we're getting two cakes, one for him to "play" in and experience and another for eating. Once I get them uploaded to picasa I'll make sure to link them here.

Cheers for now.

Poor November

I missed posting in November so, I'm going to give ya'all a quick update on what's been going on. Sorry, no pics this time. )c:

So, as some of you may now my company is moving from one office in Downtown Portland to another about 10 blocks away. Unfortunately this has caused a HUGE amount of work for me and two of my colleagues. Incidentally that means I've worked at least 60 hours / week for the last three weeks and that will likely continue into next week.

So, I'm very very tired. Very very busy. And I miss reading about what folks have going on in their lives.

A couple of noteable things (will expound on a couple of them more later)
I went to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert this past Sunday. I gotta say it was the best one I've been to yet. Allison and I have seen them two other times and each time they get better and better. If you ever get an oppurtunity, have a listen. Most notable and recognizeable songs they do are "Wizards of Winter", "Christmas in Sarajevo", and one of my favorites "Old City Bar". Wizards in Winter spread around the internet a couple of years ago like a virus when some guy went out and lit up his house and synchornized all of the lights to the music. It really sounds like something Chris might have tried to do back in High School (c:

I started a "Facebook" page. I have a few friends. Rachel and Mike are two of them. No one else from High School wants to be my friend. You all suck!!

Ezra is standing like a champ. He's pulling himself up to a sitting position whenever he wants, and he's beginning to try to wiggle his way down the couch while he's standing. I anticipate that he may be walking before his birthday. Sadly, this work schedule means I haven't seen him hardly at all in the past few weeks, so I also miss him. When I get new pics downloaded off our camera that my wife has taken, I will share. I'm really looking forward to Christmas and watching him open his presents. Though I think he'll be WAY more interested in the wrapping paper than he will be in his new toys.

So, that's, for me, a pretty long post about what's been going down in my house and life. I'll catch up with ya'all as soon as my life and work calm down.

Cheers!!

Two posts in one month? Preposterous!!

OK OK. Maybe not that preposterous. Allison and I took Ezra out to Joe's Farm in Vancouver a couple weekends ago. We had some fantastic weather and such great fun. Took lots and lots of pictures (61 or so) and I'm here to let you all bask in their cuteness. Ignore the fat guy holding the baby, he's just there as a prop to make the baby look cuter.

I think Ezra had a lot of fun, but Allison I think had even more fun. Anyway, here are the pics.

Ezra at Joe's Pumpkin Patch

No Pets.

So... I go off to DEQ to get my car checked so I can complete my registration. I drive up to the lane and I see a sign "No Pets." Normally I wouldn't give these kinds of signs a second glance. But take a look at this one.


So I think to myself. OK. No pet dogs, sure. I can go with that. And why not, I'm sure SOMEONE out there has a pet snake and might bring it with them on a car ride to DEQ. But then I look at the right most picture. And can't, for the life of me, figure out HOW or WHY anyone would not only HAVE a pet rhino, but why they would bring it to DEQ with them. What the heck kind of car are they driving?

So, I drove off a bit perplexed. I would really really like to meet the person that brought in their pet rhino and caused this sign to be created. They've got bigger balls than me, that's a certainty.

You must stop at all Red Lights (Optional)

At least that's how drivers manuals must read for some people.

Imagine this, you come up to a red light, you see crossing traffic proceeding. So you know that the people across the road from you also must have a stop sign. Your light turns green. Logically, the people in the left turn lane across from you have a red light. Yes?

Well, this was a situation I drove up to a couple of days ago. I drive up to the light in the situation described above. Across from me in the left turn lane (oncoming) there are three cars lined up. Seconds after I came to a full stop at my red light, my light turns green. The instant that it turns green I see the second car in the left turn lane drive around the first car and make his left turn. Somehow this driver must have gotten a different drivers manual than I did. I swear mine informed me that I must stop at ALL red lights, and may only proceed through them if they blink or I am turning right.

The traffic I see every day amazes me. I swear, drivers seem to forget the laws of the road when they are an inconvenience to them. I can't believe that they have so little regard to the safety of themselves or the people around them that they willingly and blatantly ignore the law. *sigh*

Don't hurt me Erin!

Erin says I don't blog enough. Rachel says even she's blogging more than me. *sigh* Erin threatened me with severe beating, mentioned a whip, but thought it was too kinky. So, here is a blog to catch up on about 2 months of activity.

My mother-in-law came out for a week. Overall it was a pleasant experience. Truth be told, I actually didn't mind having her out here. She helped around the house and watched Ezra one night so Allison and I could go out for a movie. It was very nice.

Last weekend was my 10-year High School reunion. I had a great time. I think the best times for me were just hanging out with Kenny, Erin, Rachel, Matt and all them folks and just shooting the breeze or playing a game. Even Kenny beat me on almost every Wii game we played. The reunion itself was, smaller than I had hoped. It just felt like all the "popular" kids were the ones there. I did get to reconnect with a couple of old friends and look forward to trying to keep in better touch with them in the future.

After the reunion we drove up to Spokane to visit my cousin Trevor. He recently had a little boy, Andrew, who was 9lb 4 oz. Allison kept exclaiming about how Ezra was never that small. Or at least not that she could remember. It was good to see him again, watch a movie, have dinner and meet all of his kids.

The actual trip was not too bad. Ezra did really well for long periods in the car. He slept sometimes, played with his little padded book sometimes, or just looked out the window. He didn't really cry at all during the trip that I can recall. He saved that for at night while we were not at home. As soon he got home, he went out like a light and stayed out ALL night.

As usual, I have pictures. I'm actually going to leave you with two slideshows below. One is old pictures of Ezra for everyone to catch up on, and another is for pictures that we took from our trip to the Tri-Cities and Spokane. Enjoy!