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!

A Long Time Coming

You've asked for it, so here it is. An Update!!!

First, a little slideshow of pictures of the family.



I've mostly just been working. Been busy with that, planning for different things around that. I get to play every now and again, but not as often as I'd like. I am still active in the guide program, I got Canda to Level 70, and I'm just enjoying life.

I'm really looking forward to my 10 year re-union which comes up this August. Allison and I have planned to go. We also would like to try and go to Spokane to visit with my cousin Trevor and his family. We have not been there since they got married. We'll see what happens.

We also celebrate our 5th Wedding Anniversary this month. We're planning to go to Cannon Beach and will have lots of pictures to bring back.

Hope you enjoyed this short update on our lives, and the slideshow of some pictures of us.

Better late than never

Back when I was unemployed I signed up to attempt to be a guide for Everquest 2. Sad to say it did not happen while I had oodles of time to devote to it whilst looking for employment. I waited nearly 8 months with no kind of correspondence at all, not even anything letting me know they received the application, which had to be submitted via alternative means.

So, I come home one day and take a look at my email. Low and behold, there is the invitation to join the guide program. It is semi-ironic that this email would come shortly after I start a new job, am staying up late late nights dealing with a child who wants to sleep during the day, and just overall not having a whole heck of a lot of time. Oh well.

I went ahead and accepted the offer and start my "training" in the coming weeks. I'm really looking forward to finally having the opportunity to give back to the EQ community after spending years enjoying just playing the game. Who knows how long it will last, but at least now I will get the benefit of not having to pay my monthly for the SOE Station pass, which is now going up I might add.

Oh yeah, I can't tell you what server, so don't ask! And even if you find it, I won't tell you my guide name, and even if you somehow figure THAT out, don't ask me for any favors cause I won't help you!!

HAPPY BABY!!

I managed to capture some really good pictures of Ezra over the past couple of days. We have one happy baby!!

Peek-A-Boo Daddy!

I see you!!

You're so funny.

I really like these pictures. I'm looking forward to watching his expressions grow and his personality flourish! Being a Daddy is fun!!!

An unexpected oppurtunity.

This post is long overdue, I really should have had this news up a long time ago... but here it is.

February 11th, I'm at my job with HP doing the whole printer testing thing. I'm hating the hours but it is an extremely low stress job and things are going well for me. I wake up that morning to a phone call, it's from a company I interviewed for as an IT Technician - Network Ops d00d back in October/November. I hadn't heard from the company for so long that I just forgot about them. Anyway, they ask me if I'm still interested in the position. What I remember of it was that they offered a lot higher salary range than what I was currently making so I said "Sure"

That afternoon, after I had already left to go to work, they give my wife a call and arrange for a 2nd interview the next morning. I arrive at the interview ready for a beating. Well, it was extremely mild beating. I almost felt as if the interview was really more of a formality than a real interview. Either way, I was happy about it when I left. They asked me what my salary requirements would be and I offered them what I thought to be a pretty high asking salary for a Jr Network Engineer.

Tuesday afternoon, 10 minutes before I'm walking out the door to work, I get the phone call. They offer me the job, and they offered me the top end of the $2k salary I requested. I guess I didn't ask for enough money. Naturally, I accepted the job even though now I will have to pay Oregon state income taxes and drive into the horrible traffic into downtown Portland.

So, as of March 5th, I am working as a Network Ops d00d for Encounter Collaborative. So far I love the job and am really enjoying working with the folks that are here. At the very least this will be a tremendous resume builder and may eventually lead into a job in development.

As to my blogging, I'll be getting more pics of the kiddo up hopefully later this week.

Cheers!

Bassinet Blues

Finally the child will sleep in his bassinet. Allison and I have been taking shifts staying up with him so that we can both get some sleep. He just does not like sleeping in his bassinet. Last night he finally decided to sleep!


Allison fed the little rugrat and out he went. He does not like sleeping on his back though. We do like everyone tells us, put the kid on his back, and within minutes he's rolled himself over onto his side. I managed to snap these pics of him sleeping like Daddy with hands under his face.

Stupid Drivers!

I cannot believe how inattentive some drivers can be. We had just left a Dr. appointment for Allison and were on the way to the pediatricians. We decided to stop at Taco Bell along the way and get some grub since we were not expecting to be home anytime soon.

Anyway, I pull into the left turn lane, blinker on, and am waiting for oncoming traffic to let up enough for me to enter the parking lot. As I am doing this another lady is getting ready to turn right, out of the parking lot, to merge into traffic. Well... it didn't quite go that way.

As soon as I started turning towards the driveway, I see the other driver begin to move slowly, I thought they were going to do the traditional, skoot by the back bumper move to sneak into traffic when they really shouldn't. I made eye contact with the driver, saw them moving, thought everything was fine, for a moment. Next thing I know, this driver is coming right at my front passenger door. CRUNCH!!!

Allison shrieks as the other driver hits our truck in the right passenger door and front fender. Overall it was a slow impact and just barely shook the vehicle, but it was fast enough to cause at least $1k worth of damage. So, I stop the vehicle for just a moment in the road, the other driver backs up, we get out, I tell her we need to move out of the road so we both move into parking lot.

I'm thinking to myself "This isn't too bad, just call the insurance companies and it'll be resolved" Why is life never that easy? Turns out the other lady had no insurance, and she told me she could not afford to pay and it had just lapsed. Wonderful! She then starts to hint and allude to "wanting to just take care of this" I'm assuming to not get the authorities involved, call insurance, etc, etc. Well, that isn't happening. First, bcause it's against the law, second because how am I to expect her to pay me for the damages if she can't pay her own insurance?

So, I tell her the police are on the way, she boogies on out. Police arrive, are a bit surprised the other driver left but placated enough because we exchanged information. He tells us he doesn't want the information and hands us an accident report. I take that home and begin filling it out with the information the lady provided to me. We're almost done!

Not quite, the lady calls me the next day begging to "work this out." I don't think she was particularly pleased when I told her I was legally obligated to report the accident and that she was as well. Oh well, I am not going to pay for the choices and mistakes she makes in life. I feel bad that she might be struggling financially and all, but I'm also not going to pay for her mistakes in life.

So, all in all, nobody got hurt, the baby's car seat didn't budge, mom got a little frazzled and we're going to have to get the car fixed. It was an adventure, but not one we could not recover from easily. Just going to have to take the time and deal with the insurance company for the next month or so. Sorry I do not have pictures to post of the damage, it was pretty minor and I didn't want to bother with it. I know, I'm lazy!

A New Baby Boy!!

I promised pictures of Ezra for everyone. Here are the details.

Ezra Henry
Born 02/01 at 3:47am
9lbs 8oz
22 inches in length (and a 15" noggin)