A Few Pics

Training Hayley for Night Duty

Elliott as Zoolander

Their first bath

Zonked

Over Night Marathon and an ER Visit

We had another long overnight struggle of trying to catch some sleep in between Braxtyn and Elliott's feedings. Neither of the babies would cooperate and sleep at the same time. They also didn't seem to get enough during their feedings. As soon as we thought they had enough and they were content, sleeping in our arms they'd wake up and start whimpering for more. I was trying to run some tests for work as well during the night so it was crazy busy. Hayley also didn't help matters waking up a couple times.

Anyway, about 7am, after we thought we were ahead of the battle with both babies sleeping soundly, Jen had a clot dislodge and she started bleeding really bad. She called the hospital and they had her on hold forever, but eventually they told her to get to the ER ASAP. They also said if she felt faint at all to pull over and call 911. After hearing this I immediately had scatter brain. I was trying to figure out what to do with the kids, what to do with my lab session, and wondering who to call to watch the kids or if I should stay home and have someone run Jen to the hospital. Our project at work is pressed to get done and lab time is super tight so I didn't want my session to run over and waste anyone else's time. But immediately that became the lowest priority. Next was trying to figure out who to call. I tried Ali, who lives in our apartment complex, but she didn't answer. Then I thought about calling other moms in our apartment but I figured they all had kids that were sleeping and they'd probably have a hard time getting here. So I called Chad and he was fortunately on his way to work so he was able to swing over. I was still trying to decide if he should run her to the ER or if I should watch the kids. He doesn't have kids or any experience taking care of kids so I was nervous that all the kids would wake up at once and overwhelm him. But since the twins have been sleeping through the morning like clockwork I decided to run Jen in.

We got to the ER and we had to give our information at three different desks. The last desk we got to there was absolutely no urgency at all. My head was spinning with thoughts of "My wife is bleeding to death and you guys are picking your arses!! Get your lazy butts over here and take care of this" We finally get to give them our information and pay our co-pay and we end up waiting in the waiting room for another 25 minutes. Apparently the lady on the phone made this sound a lot more serious then what it was. I don't know I guess. I just hope I don't have to rely on that hospital to save my life. The doctor examined Jen and she had an ultra sound to check for any signs of missed afterbirth and blood work done to make sure she had enough oxygen and what not to make it through. She had to wait 2-3 hours for her ultra sound and blood work so I went home to check on the kids and Jen caught some ZZZZ's in the exam room. Thankfully Jens bleeding got a lot better. She had to monitor it close for the next 4 hours and if it didn't reside we were to head back to the hospital for a blood transfusion.

I'm thinking all the times Jen got up and down from the rocking chair and bed must have caused the bleeding. Darn kids. Today we're trying to keep them awake from 6pm until 9ish. I gave them both sponge baths when they were about to fall asleep to shock their systems. That actually work pretty well. We're off to bed, hopefully we get a few hours of sleep.

Up All Night Sleep All Day

Anyone have any ideas on how to switch the twins schedule to a day schedule? The twins are great sleepers, sleeping 8-10 hours during the day. We were up a good 6 hours last night. Every time we thought they were ready to put them down they'd wake up a few minutes later. Oh well. Here's some pics.

Weekend Recap - What was sleep again?

Needless to say the twins did not pick up Hayley's demeanor so far.  They have however developed very powerful lungs and they are making themselves known to this world.  We have been getting about 2-3 hours of sleep a night.  With Jens mom here we've been tag teaming between the twins and Hayley.  The twins are spending about 7-10 hours sleeping during the day and at night they'll pretty much only sleep if we're holding them.  Hopefully it'll get better in the following days.  Hayley has been handling it pretty well.  She's woke up a few times when the twins are screaming but so far it hasn't been to bad.  

Anyway, here's a quick video from the hospital.  Enjoy!! 

The first 24 hours

Although the doctors and nurses deliver babies for a living the room seemed like organized chaos. The room was small and there were 2 doctors delivering the babies, one nurse for each baby, one nurse for each doctor, an anesthesiologists, and a pediatrician was called in during the delivery of Elliott since he was being delivered breach. Everything was normal with Braxtyn. I was a pretty anxious because I wasn't sure how developed his lungs were. The two doctors working on the delivery were getting phone calls every couple minutes to attend to another birth so there was some tension with them trying to get done as soon as possible. When Braxtyn was born it took him a while to cry and the crying wasn't that loud. (As compared to the incredible pipes on Hayley when she was born. When Hayley screamed she made me wonder what the heck I was getting into, I'll go insane if I have to listen to that.) So for the for few minutes after Braxtyn was born I was watching him close as the nurse was working on him.

In the mean time I was missing what seemed like panic going on trying to deliver Elliott. One doctor was using the ultra sound trying to determine where he was. As soon they realized he was breach they started the breach extraction before the birth canal shrunk. While one doctor was pulling on Elliott's legs the other was pushing hard on Jens stomach, guiding Elliott out. That was kind surreal in itself. At this point the doctors are working in panic mode and the world has stopped around us. With all the trouble they were having, Jen and I were thinking "Why are we going through this, why didn't we do the C-Section?" The pediatrician came into the room and asked why he was there. One of the nurses said "because they're doing breach extraction" to which he replied with a facial expression of "Why the hell are they doing a breach extraction and risking the babies life?" He saw me looking at him and just kind of calmly walked to the other side of the room and put on his gloves. So now the panic mode in me is through the roof. I turned back to the action and I started praying hard and the constant argument in my head about whether God intervenes with our lives while we're on earth was gone. At this point Jens doctor, who is pushing on her stomach is barking orders to the other doctor on positioning and which way to pull. This went on for what seemed like forever but eventually the nurses started cheering and the doctor showed Jen and I the baby.

The panic in both Jen and I was not gone yet as Elliot hadn't taken a breath and his color was a darker red then Braxtyn's was. He wasn't crying and to me he looked like he was struggling. But the pediatrician took a look at him while the nurse was cleaning him and he started to leave. I asked him if everything was OK. He smiled and said we have two very healthy babies. I was relieved after that. Elliot then started crying so I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures.




Lost in my pictures taking and checking out the twins was the two doctors still working on Jen. I'll leave the gross out but she was losing a lot of blood and it looked like the doctors were struggling to get it under control. But they were a lot more calm then when they were trying to get Braxtyn out so I didn't think much of it. Jen was shivering uncontrollably. The doctors got everything under control and we headed back to the delivery room to wait for a recovery room. Jen got to hold both babies on the way back to the room as well which was awesome.





Everything was good waiting for a recovery room. The nurse gave the babies a bath and their first shot. Which they didn't cry much. I called family to spread the word the world is getting more trouble makers. Jen and I waited up for the new room but it was taking a long time so after an hour or so we tried sleeping only to have the nurse come and and tell us they were ready to move us. On the way to the new room we set off an alarm because the babies got to close to an elevator and the hospital was shut down until our information was verified. That was interesting, they attach electronic monitors to the babies and if they get close to an exit a hospital lock down gets enacted and nobody is allowed in or out.

After getting settled in our new room the babies took turns crying and needless to say I wished I would've slept in the delivery room waiting to move cuz I was soo tired. We finally broke down and gave them formula and that put the twins to sleep for the next 12 hours which let Jen and I catch up on sleep.

Jen got a surprise as her mom flew in from MN. Ali and Hayley picked her up at the airport. After Ali, Ryan and Hayley showed to visit Jens mom walked in a few minutes later. Jen was so surprised she almost cried. It was pretty cool. So that pretty much wrapped up the day. Later I went home to watch Hayley over night and I let Grandma stay with Jen and the twins.

Babies are in

Jen woke me up around 9 to call the nurse. After a quick doctors visit we were off to the operating room in case Jen needed an emergency c-section. Baby A was born at 10:06 pm, he was 7.14lbs. Baby B was born 11 minutes later via breach extration. Names are Braxtyn Avery and Elliott Lyn.

Still slow going

I just got back from having supper with Chad and Hayley. Jen requested an epidural before I left and its in and working. Her needed pain relief is a good sign that the contractions are getting stronger. Nobody is estimating a time though so I'm guessing we still have a while.

Slow Going

It's slow going. Jens contractions a not increasing in frequency. The nurse has been increasing the pitosin levels every half hour. I'm thinking another 7 hours. We're both trying to take a quick nap.

so it has begun

The doctor has finished her exam and Jen had a second thought about a c-section but she ultimately decided on a natural birth. Baby a is head down and baby b is breach so there is a slight risk baby b might be taken c-section. We'll see.

I'm off to grab some lunch.

At the hospital

We dropped Hayley off and we are at the hospital waiting for the doctor. This is my first post from my new iPhone. The iPhone is awesome!!!

Heading to the Hospital

Jen called the hospital and they said to be in around 8:30am. We have 4 different friends set up to take shifts watching Hayley. Hopefully she's alright today and tonight. We've really never had anyone watch her overnight except her grandma.

Happy B-Day Eric - AKA The Duck Commander

Date Set

Jen went to the doctor today and the big day has been set for Wednesday. Thank goodness cuz if a date wasn't set Jen was ready to throw down. Her legs and feet are about twice the size of mine. I've had to help her get socks on and it's a chore. She's been wearing most of my cloths lately. With that being said after the twins are born sleep is going to be a luxury.

Feeding Ducks

Next Assignment

Work in my home state of MN has been pretty slow as of late. So slow in fact I was told to find work else where. The only position I could find that seemed remotely interesting was in Taiwan. So I've accepted a position there for the next 6 months. It could get extended up to a year depending on the workload. We'll see I guess. It's going to be weird raising kids in a different country, especially one where nobody speaks English. But it's going to be great opportunity to see another culture and learn a new language.

[Update] - April Fools!! I pulled a Ben this year.

It's April and Snowing in MN

So far this year the best part of my rotation in CA is this pic taken today by my sister-n-law.

vs today in CA

Yeah, I really don't miss that crap. I'm really not a snow lover as you have probably guessed.

Goodbye Grand Prix

The Grand Prix has been frequently beeping to inform me that the car needed an oil change. I wanted to keep the car until my rotation was over but the beeping got to annoying, and I might feel a little guilt if the car lost some life from not changing the oil for an extra 2 months. So I went in to trade it hoping to get another GXP but the Avis computers were down so they were doing everything with paper. At this point I didn't want to deal with it so I told them I'd take a Grand Prix or a Chevy Impala. So now I'm driving an Impala with a 6 cylinder. The car is so slow it sucks. I feel like I'm pulling a 2 ton trailer behind it, and to think I used to think it was fast compared to my Mazda 6. It's going to be real painful driving that when I get back.

The Send Off

Jens mom and Tina went back to MN yesterday. Since she's been here Hayley has refused to nap and she's been waking up early everyday. One of the mornings I went to get her and she flipped out cuz she wanted grandma to get her. You could tell Hayley was so alert to grandma's visit and she didn't want to waste a minute sleeping. Funny stuff. Anyway, on our way home from the airport Hayley zonked out. We got home about an hour later and she didn't wake up for another 2 hours. She was pretty much out for 3 hours. Hopefully she gets back to her normal sleep schedule.

Weekend Recap - Jens Mom and Tina Visit CA

Jens mom and Tina came for a visit while Tina is on Spring Break. Everyone has their fingers crossed that the babies will make an early appearance. So far it hasn't happened. Jen is going in for a stress test tomorrow and the last time the nurse said that if the swelling didn't go down in her feet they might have to do something about it... we'll see what happens since the swelling has gotten worse!! (She's got some big feet and it doesn't look at all comfortable)

We did the usual when we get visitors and a few extras - San Fran, Golden Gate, Zoo, Big Basin, and Gilroy Gardens. The drive to Big Basin was the most brutal drive, we had about 20 miles of hair pin turns on pretty much one lane road. On the way back we saw a biker down around one of the turns. We sat there for about 5 minutes wondering what to do as there was already a crowd around him and there was no cell phone coverage there. Finally the guy got up with some help and they moved his bike out of the way so we could around. I felt bad for the guy since he just biffed a sweet looken Harley. At least he seemed ok. We saw a cop a few miles up and told him about it so hopefully all is good. Some advice if you come across and accident in a remote area, try and write down the exact location. I felt like a moron trying to explain to the cop where it was cuz I really had no clue how far I had driven.

Anyway, here's the video of the week. I'm shooting for a minute or less a week. I left sound out, I'm not really sure if playing music with it is better or worse since my taste in music is terrible.

Weekend Recap

At one time I was going to start a video podcast of mountain biking around here but I didn't want to buy the helmet cam and supporting equipment. I'm thinking instead I'll start a video podcast of the kids growing up so they have something to look back on later in life. I plan on adding a feed to it at some point in time but for now I'll just make the videos. I'll be playing with different formats for these video's in the future and experiment with music as well. This first video has some pretty long scenes that will probably make it boring. This podcast has music because there's hardly any dialog. So here's the first in hopefully a long running series of video podcasts.

Weekend Recap - Twins update

The twins are 5lbs apiece which is above average for one baby at 33 weeks. Jen wouldn't mind if the twins were born today. She asked about being induced around 36 weeks and CA law forbids it before 38 weeks without an Amnio. So she's gotta live with a sore back and all for another 6 weeks or so.

We didn't do much else over the weekend. We enjoyed the great sunny weather as usual. We bought some kites and went to a park with Hayley but it happened to be the one day of the year the wind wasn't blowing.

Happy B-Day Ginger

err - Sorry I'm a day late.

Hope you have fun in FL.

Weekend Recap

Not much happened this weekend other then enjoying 65 degree sunny weather. We decided to buy a new camera that takes better video then our Kodak. We use our camera for 30 second videos quite often so our new camera is much better at taking video. We also wanted a thinner camera as our Kodak is huge. We ended up getting a Canon SD750.

MN Budget Deficit

Keeping up on MN politics and taxes, the latest coming out of the state is a billion dollar projected deficit fresh off the heals of a veto override of a 6.6 billion transportation bill. Now I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of our legislatures but I hope they'd take note to what's happening in CA. California is one of the most gorgeous states and most desirable places to live in the country. However, because of the higher tax rate, the wealthy citizens are moving out and the wealthy contribute a larger percentage of the tax revenue. Now CA faces a 14 billion dollar deficit this year.

The source article states:

"When California faced a Mount Everest-sized $14 billion deficit in 2003, one of the major causes for the red ink was the stampede of millionaire households from the state," says a report called "Rich States, Poor States" by economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. "Out of the 25,000 or so seven-figure-income families, more than 5,000 left in the early 2000s, and the loss of their tax payments accounted for about half the budget hole."

Raising taxes seems like a logical solution to fixing the budget, but like CA, many of the wealthier citizens might take their tax money an move out.

Jumpcut

Sven sent me a video he made on Jumpcut. I've never heard of it until now. Basically it's an online movie maker.

This is video created with Jumpcut just after I figured out how not to fall and before the weather got to bad.

Lake Tahoe - Kirkwood

Yet another item to check off since I got to CA. A group of us from Lockheed and a Yahooligan went to Lake Tahoe skiing. It was a blast. The morning started out with 4 of us meeting at Chad's to drive to the Sports Basement and catch the Bay Area Ski Bus there. We got there and went to check in and the guy said I had the wrong pick up location. Chad and Paul signed up a few days before I did so that location filled up before I signed up. So while I was wondering what the heck to do Sven noticed he was at the wrong location as well. Chad was nice enough to let us take his car to the right location and thankfully our bus left a half hour later. But we got there 30 minutes earlier since our driver didn't take a wrong turn

I haven't skied since 1993 and I found out quick that skiing a few times at Powder Ridge doesn't prepare one for skiing Tahoe. My skiing abilities were basically ski down hill until I was going to fast and then hit the snow plow to slow down with no ability to turn. Well these abilities don't bode so well on a real mountain. We hit an easy first run to get the snow plow feel back. Under normal circumstances I would've taken a few more runs down the hill to maybe figure out how to ski for real, but I was with Sven who is pretty awesome at snowboarding so I didn't want him to get board so we hit a few runs that led us to the other side of the mountain for some much longer and steeper runs. Every run we hit was a little steeper and longer but the snow plow was working just fine and there weren't a lot of big turns so I was fine. Then we hit one of the longest runs on the mountain, not to mention it was really steep. As we were riding up the lift I started getting nervous as this lift just kept going up and up and it got real windy and at the top our faces were getting pelted with snow/ice. It was at this point I wish I would've ponied up $40 for a pair of goggles. The Oakley's weren't cutting it. We hit the end of the lift and I stood up to get off and the chair hit the back of my knees and I sat back down. Now I'm 5 feet in the air starting to head back down the mountain so I jump off and lost a ski.

So I get my composure back and I'm ready to start down the hill. At this point it's learn to ski or ride down on my arse. I spent more time on my in the snow then I did on top of it. I was fortunate Sven was with me and every time I'd lose my ski's after a fall he'd get them and jump back up the hill to give them to me. He wasn't much of a skier but he was trying to give me tips and he noticed a skier shifting his weight to the outside leg on turns. I had been putting all my weight on my inside leg and i couldn't get my other ski around so this was a huge tip. A couple tries and falls later I had it down. Sven said it was really impressive how I improved by the minute. The rest of the day was awesome until the last run which I tried a black diamond. I think I would've been fine but I couldn't see a thing, it was a friggen blizzard and total whiteout conditions. After falling about 6 times I rode on my arse until we got far enough down that the trees blocked a lot of the wind and snow so I could see. After the run we called it a day.

Click here for some pics of from the day.

Race Day

You're thinking the Daytona 500 right? Unfortunately I couldn't watch it since I had lab time at work. Which bummed me out since I wanted to see how Junior would do on Gordon's team. I arrived to work to find the usual parking lot I park in blocked off and full of cones. WTF there's friggen race track set up and screaming rice burners hitting the track. How safe is that I wondered. These cars are racing 10-15 feet from light pulls. Then I thought about asking if I could take my rental out on the track. But I'm probably one of the worst drivers ever so I decided against it. Most of the cars were 90's looking, the Fast and the Furious wannabes, but there was a newer looking Corvette, Mazda RX8, and I think a Lotus. I was late for my lab time so I couldn't watch that long but it was cool from what I saw. It looked like each car got two laps and they they had to get back in line. They had a dude taking times and all.

So does your employer let you turn their parking lot into a race track on Sundays?

9-1-1 is busy

Friday Jen and I were heading to Blockbuster to get some movies. I was in the second lane from the right on a four lane expressway. There was an Explorer a couple car lengths in front of me one lane over and I noticed it starting to drift into the far left lane and BAM it nails the car waiting for a left turn signal and veers sideways into my lane. I slammed on the breaks and maneuvered away from the car and the debris left from the accident. For a second I thought the driver was going to just drive away but he/she eventually turned into a parking lot. I'm not sure why they just didn't pull over to the shoulder but whatever. By this time I'm past the accident and there are a lot of cars behind me so I didn't stop. I called 911 and got a recording asking if it was an emergency to which I replied yes. Then I got another recording saying that all lines were busy and to wait until the next available operator. I waited for a bit and by this time I figured someone else had gotten through or something so I hung up. I couldn't believe that 911 was busy. I wonder how often that happens and if anyone has died because of it.

Twins Update

Jen had another ultra sound today. All is great. The twins are 3.3 and 3.4 pounds. Jen checked what the weight is supposed to be and they're supposed to be 2.5lbs so they're growing really good. The babies are getting big enough that it's really hard to see them in the ultra sound. I thought as they got bigger one would be able to see the features better but it's opposite. The scan only covers a small portion of the baby.

Now we need names. I'm thinking Eric and Al after my brothers but Jen isn't going for it. All the names we pick are taken by the family or they're pets of the family.

Super Awesome

With Jen pregnant and not feeling the best we ended up just hanging out at the apartment to watch the Super Bowl. At half time I paused the game with our Comcast DVR and we went to Target grocery shopping. When we got back I started the game again and during the fourth quarter with the Patriots driving the DRV skipped to the post game celebration. I was so mad that I missed the last two drives but on the other hand I was happy the Giants won. I was a Patriots fan until last year when Belichick wouldn't acknowledge Payton Manning when he tried to shack his hand. All year I wanted the Pats to lose at least one game. I figured they'd win the Super Bowl but as long as they didn't go undefeated I wouldn't care that much. To stomach having to hear about them year in and year out would suck. But now that they've lost it moves the Vikings '98 season as the 2nd best team to not win a Super Bowl.

The Grand Prix

One perk of this off site rotation is having a rental car. If I don't like the car I can trade for a different one at any time. I pay for the car with a CC and my employer pays me back so it looks like I'm spending a lot of money on rentals, so now every time I get a top of the line model car. The rental I have now is by far the best car I've rented, a 2008 Grand Prix GXP with leather seats and satellite radio, it's top of the line. It's got a 300hp V8 and it's figgen fast. I love it and I wish I would've bought it instead of my Mazda 6. Although it only gets about 20 mpg with my driving compared to almost 30 with the Mazda. I think the extra power on the freeways here is totally worth it. Satellite radio is great too, but I wouldn't get it if I had to pay for it.

Here's the list of cars I've rented in order of favorite to least favorite:
- Pontiac Grand Prix
- Chevy Impala
- Chevy Malibu
- Dodge Charger
- Hyundai Elantra
- Hyundai Entourage
- Chevy HHR
- Mercury Grand Marquis (this car was so big I couldn't reach the radio without having to lean forward)

Potty Training

Hayley's potty training has consisted of buying her a potty chair when she wanted to try it a few months ago. We thought it might be easy since she was all excited about getting her potty chair. After she tried it a few times she lost interest. We tried to get her to use it a few times here and there but she never wanted to. Tonight after her bath she wanted to sit on it, I just figured she'd sit there and get up a few minutes later like normal so I didn't really pay any attention. When she got up she said all done and we got her PJ's on her. I went back to check just to see and sure enough she went #1. Hopefully she continues to want to use it. It'll rank as one of the easiest potty training efforts ever... knock on wood.

2 blocks from our apt

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22767192/

2007 - Cali Recap

A quick run down of what we did in California during 2007.

Walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and hung out in San Fran on multiple occasions.







Visited Muir Woods home of one of the last groves of huge Redwoods.



Went to an A's vs Twins game in Oakland



A couple visits to cliff side beaches at Stinson Beach.



Toured the tourist trap Sausalito where Matt found a new friend.



The Winchester Mystery Mansion in San Jose. Where the widow of Winchester thought she was haunted by the spirits of all those killed by the Winchester rifle. To ward off the spirits she never stopped adding on to the mansion.



The Monterey Bay Aquarium.





17 mile drive





Alcatraz





Gilroy Gardens





San Fransisco Zoo, the one where the tiger escaped.





Swimming at the apartment





The Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose



Fairy Land





The pumpkin patch at Half Moon Bay

Weekend Recap - Playoffs

Watching the NFL Playoffs was the highlight of the weekend. The Colts losing was so dissapointing as well as the Pats winning. It was just an all around crappy weekend for football. It would be so awesome if the Pats don't win the Super Bowl. In fact I'd probably cheer for the Packers if they play the Pats in the Super Bowl.

Jen and I also had dinner with a couple that has a girl Hayley's age and nine month old twins. It was pretty interesting hearing their stories. They said the most annoying thing about having twins is everyone in public asks them "Are they twins?".

Happy 30th Jen

Twins Update

Jen had another ultra sound and everything is going great with the twins. They both weigh 1 lbs 10 oz which means they are both getting enough nutrients. It was also confirmed that they are boys.

Christmas Shopping

I have yet to buy one present for the family. Working in a different state puts a big damper on Christmas, no tree, no gifts under the tree, lights, decorations, etc. I don't know what to get my wife. I asked her what she wants and she doesn't know so I told her she's getting an iPhone if she doesn't pick something. We've been going through this for a couple weeks now so I'm thinking she really must want an iPhone cuz she picked a gift yet. Getting Hayley gifts here in MN sucks because we can't bring them back to CA, so we're stuck with deciding if we should wait to get her gifts until we get back to CA or get her some here and letting her play with them when we get back.

Anyway, have a Merry Christmas.

Super Mario Galaxy Saves the Wii

Going into the holiday I was thinking of selling the Wii. All the games I've rented haven't been that great and except for tennis, baseball, and golf the wii-mote hasn't really had a great use. I rented Madden and I didn't like the passing configuration at all. I'd much rather play Madden with a game pad. With the demand for the Wii I was thinking I could sell it with the extra wii-mote and games and make enough money to buy an xbox 360.

Before heading to MN I read an article that said Super Mario Galaxy was the highest rated game of all time. Intrigued, I thought about buying it but I put it off to think it over. Eventually I bought it and tried it out. If this game didn't pan out it would've been the last game I bought without renting it first. The game has about 15 minutes of dialog at the start which was disappointing cuz I thought it was going to be like that throughout the entire game. However, as the play wore on this game turned entertaining as the it galaxies start out simple and teach the controls along with achieving milestones. The farther into the game you get the harder it gets.

I'm really impressed with the creativity that went into this game. There are so many different features to this game. Both the num chuck and the wii-mote are used extensively and both can be used for totally different functions at the same time which makes quick thinking a must.

I'm happy with the game and I'm not thinking of selling the Wii now. Hopefully the Mario Cart lives up to the hype as well.

Heading Back to MN

Enjoy the holidays all. I'm heading back to MN until after the New Year, and I'll have limited access to the Internet so there will be little activity on the blog. (I know at least one reader that will miss it)

911 Challenge!!

For the last three weeks we've been hitting up University Chicken. It's a college sports bar so we're pretty much the oldest bunch in the bar. They have an assortment of food, but they are best known for their wings which are friggen awesome, as long as the sauce is at the lower half of the scale. (shown above) Last night we saw two attempts at the 911 Challenge. The rules of the challenge are:

1. Sign Waiver and admit you are an IDIOT for attempting the 911 Challenge.
2. Eat 12 911 Global Thermo Nuclear Wings the to the bone in 10 minutes or less.
3. Nothing else to eat or drink while taking the challenge.
4. No napkins allowed during the challenge.
5. Lick fingers clean after eating the last wing.
6. After licking fingers clean, wait 5 minutes before eating or drinking anything.
7. The Most Important Rule: Participants — wash hands very, very, very well before going to the bathroom or rubbing your eyes (think about it)!

Winners get a T-Shirt and their picture put on the wall. After watching the two attempts there's no way I'd even think about attempting it. The wings are in so much sauce that the wings have to be fished out. The sauce is basically a deep dark brown thick mud. It doesn't look edible at all.

Two guys tried it first, both of them downed the first wing in about 20 seconds. contestant one continued at the same pace on the second wing, contestant two had to take a second before starting on the next wing. Contestant two finished the second wing and chocked a bit. The crowd around him started call for a garbage. He got about half way through the 3rd wing and started dry heaving. Now if that were me I'd quit right there, but he kept eating cheered on by the entire bar. After finishing the 3rd wing he took about 20 seconds off, he kept looking at the 4th wing and bolted for the door and threw up outside, disqualifying him so he was out. Contestant one was now on his 4th wing and I think he just quit after seeing his buddy bolt for the door, he seemed to see his fate if he continued forcing them down.

About 30 minutes later we saw another attempt. The guy brought out 4 tubs of wings for what I thought was 4 guys, but the guy put them in front of the 4 girls sitting at the table. One girl ate one wing and she was done. The other three were working on their 4th wing when we left. Over 5 minutes had past so there was no way there were going to finish the challenge. But I was impressed that they were able to eat 3 of them and who knows how many more.

Wild vs San Jose

We hit the Wild vs Sharks game tonight in San Jose and it was the boring game ever. The Wild skated like they had lead sleds in the arses, it was so pathetic. They turned it on a bit in the final 10 minutes of the third period but by that time they were down 4-0 so it was pretty much over by then. There were a couple fights but none of them involved Boogaard so that was a bit disappointing. I see in the box score that he didn't have any minutes and checking the injury list he's listed as day to day.

It was my first pro hockey game so that was cool and it was affordable ($26). I don't think you can get anything under $50 at the Excel Center. The HP Pavilion is a great arena as well. We sat in the nose bleeds but we could still see the game.

Big Screen Repair Success!!!

I finally broke down and decided to fix my big screen. A guy from work was nice enough to drive down from San Fransisco to help out. Mike had experience soldering but not much experience replacing chips. I opened the TV up and wrote a diagram of the circuit boards and all the connections free hand and labeled where each connecting wire should go, and any wire not labeled, I labeled myself with tape and a sharpie. Mike laughed at me a bit for being so cautious but I figured it would make a good check list when we were reconnecting everything to make sure we didn't miss any of them. We spent an hour on the first chip trying to remove the solder on the chip. Finally Mike figured out that he could melt the solder and push the pin through with the soldering iron. After figuring this out the second chip took 5 minutes to remove. Then we use the wick to clean up the solder from the empty holes.

Inserting the new chips wasn't that easy as the pins (20 of them) were really flexible and they didn't match up perfect so it was another 15-20 minutes to get the chips in. After being super careful reconnecting everything I plugged the TV and turned it on. There was no smoke so that was awesome, the 10 seconds or so waiting for the TV to warm up was intense. Did the fix work or not. The TV came up in setup mode and the picture looked terrible... but I made some big adjustments to the conversion when it went out in the first place so I reset the conversion and whoohoo!! the picture was perfect. A couple high fives and some fist pumps followed. I was so happy I saved a $500 repair bill. In all I spent $10 on the new chips, including another $5 for shipping, and another $50 or so for the soldering iron and solder. I bought a battery operated soldering iron which didn't have enough wattage so I ended making another trip to Fry's for a plug in soldering iron. So I could've saved $15 had I bought the right soldering iron.

The entire repair took about 2.5 hours. I probably wouldn't have figured out soldering myself had Mike not been there, so I owe him a big thanks and a lunch or two. He soldering the first chip in less then 2 minutes. He let me attempt the second chip and then cleaned it up after I was done. I'm pretty confident if I had to do it again, I could get it done in under an hour. I'm happy I got the experience of fixing it, not only did I get to try soldering, I got to see what the inside of a projection TV looks like.

TV Parts Are In

The parts for my Big Screen arrived today. Now I'm kind of getting nervous about cracking it open. I need a soldering iron and crap before I can proceed. Maybe I'll have myself talked out of it by then.... If I actually go through with it I'll video it and post it online for others to follow.

Comcast Crap

So not only is my only TV on the fritz, my Internet isn't working. I called Comcast last night and they said I have a bad modem and I should bring it in to get it replaced. They close at 6 and it was 5:50 so I had a night without TV and Internet. I've never been happy with Comcast since we got to CA. Their PVR box sucks, the picture isn't that great, and the Internet is hit or miss. But this was all fine for the most part cuz I was only paying $70 for it, not bad since we have a few premium channels with it. Our last cable bill was doubled since our initial year is up. So now we're supposed to pay $140 for crappy service, I don't thinks so.. and I top of it, Chad and Paul, who got the same Comcast package as us, at the same time last year, didn't have their rates raised. So I guess we won the Comcast "Raise the Rates" sweepstakes. What a friggen joke.

Weather

It's raining today and the forecast for the rest of the week has rain just about everyday. It could be worse though, we could have a blanket of 5-10" of snow with high temps reaching only 20 degrees like back in MN. I'll take this 50-60 with rain any day. Although I hope the snow is still around when I go back so I can build a snow fort with Hayley or go sledding somewhere.

!#@#!@#!@# TV is on the frits

After an afternoon of watching football I decided to hit Fry's. That place is crazy messy, all the displays were out of order and nothing matched to the prices listed next to it. I was surprised cuz Fry's is normally good about keeping the store organized and clean. I walked through the game section and an alarm went off in the Apple section. I looked around and nobody was responding. I also went to check out a video camera that I could attach to my helmet when I'm mountain biking and another alarm when off in the isle next to me. Again I looked around and nobody responded. Either this place is way understaffed or they're that busy.

When I got back home I turned on the TV to catch the NFL highlights and the picture is totally messed up. I spent about an hour trying to align the guns with the built in adjuster, switching inputs around and what not. This wasn't working so I went online to find the problem and it's sounding like a convergence problem that requires a couple resisters and two STK packs. Whatever the heck that is. The forum also said that it will cost around $350-$500 to have a repair guy fix it. For FAACK sakes, I can buy a new 32-36" LCD for a few hundred more. I also read a quip that said "this is common after owning the TV for 5 years", which is about the age of mine. So I'm going to have to replace this stupid part every five years at $500 a pop. Are you friggen crazy!!! arrggg. I'm so mad.

While researching this I found a blog with this guy posting about how he repaired his TV. He has a Panasonic 47" which can't be that different from a 53" so I'm tempted to give it a shot. If I mess up the TV, I'll just buy a new one. (A little anger may ensue as well) If I can fix it myself it should cost around $50. I guess I could ask around work to see if there's an engineer with some soldering skills. I'll smolder on it for a while.

ABC's

Turkey Day recap

The Thanksgiving break was awesome. Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite dinner of the year. A couple days before Thanksgiving Jen told me that she got an email that said we weren't having turkey this year from my sister. Man was I bummed for a few days. Later on Jen reread her email and it said "not to bring buns cuz my sister was making popovers" not that we're having popovers instead of turkey. Whew, crises avoided. One perk of being married is getting two Thanksgiving dinners. Thanksgiving has been dedicated to my family since it's the only day my family gets together. Since Jens family is more flexible we normally have dinner there on Sunday. This year we had it on Friday so I was a little stuff from the day before but it didn't stop me. What can I say, I love turkey.

So after having a great Thanksgiving I left my wife and Hayley back in MN so she could hang out with the family. I'll be heading back on the 14th. We probably won't make it back to MN until my rotation is done here with her being prego and all. Now what to do with all this free time. What else.. Game!!! and a little mountain biking this weekend. I was looking at getting a helmet cam. It would be cool to take some video of the trails here.

Audible Books

Walking through the book section of Target last weekend I spotted a book that sparked my interest. "Where Have All the Leaders Gone" by Lee Iacocca. I was tempted to buy it but I figured I'd never have time to read it. Back in college we studied what Lee Iacooca did with Chrysler so I've always been intrigued by him and I think he's a great leader. Later on after we got home I started thinking about the book again and I went on Amazon to see what the price was, but I talked myself out of it again. Then I remembered the Audible Book option, since I listen to my iPod all day at work this is a great option for me, so I searched iTunes and found it. So instead of listening to podcasts for a few days I've been listening to this book. So far it's been a pretty good book, (or narration). When it's finished maybe I'll review it just to get some notes from it.

Weekend Recap - C&C Tiberium Wars

Every other Friday Jen attends Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) meeting, that includes daycare, which gives me about 3 hours of free time. Normally I get up and get Hayley ready and then go back to bed. This time I stayed up and played Tiberium Wars, the next installment of Command and Conquer. I installed it and had it ready to go Thursday night so I wouldn't run into any issues come Friday. The three hours that Jen was at MOPS flew by and it felt like I just started playing when Jen got home. The game is great and I can't wait to try some online play.

Friday night we went to a good by grill out at Michelle's. Michelle's apartment is our connection to downtown San Fran so it's going to suck not having her around. The rest of the weekend we didn't do much. We pretty much sat around the apartment and took Hayley to some parks. I did get to watch the Vikes since they were playing Oakland. Man both those teams suck, 4 turnovers and the Vikes still win.

Softball

Softball wrapped up last week as we got blown out of the playoffs. The game started out pretty rough with a 5-4-3 double play. That pretty much set the tone as we couldn't hit or play defense. We gave up 8 runs in the bottom of the first and we never made it a game the rest of the way. We took third in the regular season and this team is the only team we got 10 run'd. We actually almost beat the first place team so going into the game I though we'd be more competitive since most of our team was gone the first time. But it was a fun season and we did pretty good considering we threw a team together that's never played together.

Macworld

Last year I wanted to go to Macworld but I didn't really have a clue where it was or the process of getting tickets and what not. It would be awesome to see Steve Jobs in person giving his keynote. Since I'm extending out here I'll be here for another Macworld so I started checking into. Pricing starts from $25 for a exhibits only pass, on up to $1695 for a Platinum pass. In order to see the keynote you need at least a User Conference Pass at $229. However, with the User Conference pass the keynote is first come first serve. I've seen video of the mad dash to get seats and I'm not sure it's worth the $200+ to gamble on attending the keynote. Maybe I can win some tickets on the radio or something or with all the hype pretty much gone from the iPhone buildup, maybe nobody is interested in going this year.

Hopes Dashed

Sunday started out great, I got up, had breakfast, had a few cups vanilla cappuccino creamer with a dab of coffee and we headed to local sports bar to watch the Vikings/Packers match up. All week I was excited cuz Bolinger was starting and every time he plays we seemed to move the ball. I figured the Vikings had a great shot to win this game behind Peterson. We got to the bar and just before the game started we found out that the game wasn't on since it was being televised locally. (ahh so a sports bar doesn't have local channels??? Way to go) So then we scrambled to a co-workers house to watch it on his 60" inch projector. I should have seen this as an omen and not watched the game.

Just when I thought the Vikings might be turning corner they go and get shutout. Worse yet, they get shutout by the Packers. This team is hopeless. I was so mad yesterday that I was going to create a new web site entitled www.FireChildress.com, but unfortunately someone has the address reserved. Who knows if a web site will actually show up or if someone reserved the domain name in order to make money. It sucks being a Vikings fan when they have a one of the worst front offices in sports history. From their owner to the GM to the coaches, this team is full of hapless morons.

Jennie-O Funnies

Twins Update

Jen had an ultrasound yesterday and everything is looking great. We also found out we're having boys so it looks like the in-laws will have a couple extra farm hands.

Jericho

Jen and I finished watching season one of Jericho last night. I heard that it was a good show on the radio but I never got into it last year when it was on TV. When the show was cancelled and the online community got together and successfully petitioned CBS to keep the show going, it sparked my interest. A few weeks ago, season one was released on DVD so we rented the it

The show is about the survival of the town of Jericho after a nuclear terrorist attack on 20 or so large cities in the US. This is one of the better shows I've seen and I can't wait for season two. Had the show been cancelled, it would've sucked not knowing what happened after the big cliffhanger. I was reading some of the fan posts and it was in the same time slot as American Idol so that's likely the reason for the bad ratings. Many viewers watched Idol live and TiVo'd Jericho, which brings up the point of how to handle ratings in the era of DVR and the Internet. Season two is going to be an abbreviated season of around 7 episodes, hopefully the show gains a large following so the network makes a season three.

Earthquake

I've experienced everything I wanted to in CA after tonight. Jen, Hayley and I were at a Halloween party when we started to feel a vibration that turned to pretty good rattling. At first we thought it was just kids jumping around but after a couple seconds everyone realized it was an earthquake and a semi panic broke out as everyone went for their kids and started heading out the door. In all it lasted about 5-10 seconds. We went outside and the water was splashing all around in the pool. It was a pretty cool experience as soon as we realized everything was all right. The Earthquake measured 5.6 but we were about 10 miles away from the Epicenter. Read When we got home and turned on TV and the news had broke into all major networks, kind of like the first big snow storm in MN.

Extend or Not

A couple days ago we got an offer to extend our rotations here in Sunnyvale. It's been a tough decision and I'm still not certain on what to do. With twins coming we really need the extra money. With the market the way it is we're probably going to end up taking a loss on our house... but we really could make it work there, albeit a little cramped. So is the extra money worth staying here and missing family and having the twins here in CA.

A little ink and some creativity

What happens when you leave a toddler alone with ink stamps for a 5 minutes?

Next Race - Silicon Valley or Golden Gate

Since finishing the San Jose Rock-n-Roll half marathon I've been itching to get out and race again. My legs feel fresh again after a few days rest and I had no trouble running for an hour tonight. In fact all week I've been thinking of racing again and how I can work to improve my time. There are two races coming up on November 4th, Run the Golden Gate, and the Metro Silicon Valley Marathon. The Golden Gate marathon would be cool since the route goes over the Golden Gate bridge and back, but it goes up to Vista Point which is a pretty steep climb. Chad said there's probably no way I'd break my 2 hour time on this race. It's also a big hassle getting to and from San Fran so I'm kind of leaning towards the Silicon Valley marathon. However, the experience of running a race over the Golden Gate Bridge would be pretty cool.

The Silicon Valley marathon includes both a full marathon and a 1/2 marathon, which is intriguing since I kind of want to run a full marathon sometime in my life. With Jen expecting twins this might be my only opportunity for a long time to run a marathon, and I'm probably not going to be in this good of shape after the kids are born. So I'm kind of mulling the idea of running the full course. This weekend will be my deciding factor. If I can run 15-20 miles without killing myself I'll run the full marathon, if not I'll settle for a 1/2.

Race Day

It was a great day to run my first 1/2 marathon this morning. Temps were in the low 60's with little wind. I stayed up a bit late last night so I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked and I had a slight headache to start the morning. Nothing 6 Advil couldn't handle. Chad and I got there around 7:00am and warmed up a bit as well as finding Joe. I started training for this with a goal of beating 10 minutes a mile. Early last week Joe mentioned that he would be happy getting a time under 2 hours. I mulled that over and decided to shoot for the same goal. My best practice time was 2hrs 15min, just over 10 minutes miles so trying for under two hours was going to be a stretch. I normally don't run with a watch but I decided to today so I could tell how I was doing mile to mile.

I had a 10 minute mile to start and I was pretty upset by that, but by the end of the race I was running at a clip of approximately 8 minute miles. I was surprised at how strong I got towards the end. I've always faded in practice but running in the crowd gave me a boost of energy. Another big boost was getting water every mile. I've never run with water before so after today I'm going to change that.

The race was pretty cool, there were garage bands about every two miles playing music of all different types. The crowd was pretty thin in areas but I wouldn't' know better since I've never run a race before. Chad said that in the Twin Cities it's wall to wall fans through out the race. After today I'll definitely run a lot of 1/2 marathons. As far as a full marathon goes, well I might give it a shot someday but for now I'll stick to the 1/2's.

I ended up getting in under 2 hours with a 1:57:44 time. I thought that was pretty good but I guess for my age group I got in just under the 50 percentile. Next time I'll shoot for the top 40th.
Chad finished with a 1:48:23 time - full details here
Joe finished with a 1:47:49 time, just barely beating Chad - full details here

My results:
Place Overall: 2415 out of 8787
Men: 1778 out of 3985
M 30-34: 261 out of 587
AgeGrade: 49.70% Place: 4111
FINISH: 1:57:44 pace: 8:59
5k: 29:13 pace: 9:25
10K: 57:00 pace: 9:11
10Mile: 1:31:00 pace: 9:06

Hayley and I after the race.


Chad, Joe and I

Baby News ... X2

Just wanted to pass along some baby news. Two weeks ago Jen went in found out she was having twins, however, the doctor didn't see a membrane separating the twins, a condition called "monoamniotic twins" which would've been really bad news. The doctor said it's common that a regular ultra sound won't pick up the membrane cuz it's so thin so she scheduled a High Resolution Ultra Sound which we had today. The tech found a membrane in about 10 seconds which had Jen and I almost jumping around the room in excitement. Both babies looked healthy and they had healthy heart beats. They are about 12-13 weeks along and their due date is April 23rd. The tech thought they were probably identical cuz she only could see one placenta but the doctor would know more. Click on the picture above for a larger image. The babies are in the bunk position, meaning one is on top and the other is on the bottom.

Heading back to MN

My flight leaves in a few hours so I'm sitting around waiting. This weekend we'll be hammering out details on our house on what we need to do to get it ready to sell. Looking back I wonder if we shouldn't have just broke down and purchased a bigger house to start with. With the housing market the way it is we'll probably be stuck for a long time. It's a great location and we haven't had to stretch to make payments so I can't complain to much.

The ducks are a flying and it's going to be hard to be in MN and not out with the brothers hunting. I haven't been out for two years now so the itch is getting worse. My brothers have new dogs so I'm curious to hear how they do. Besides hanging out with my brothers, dogs are my favourite part of hunting. I would hunt just to watch the dogs work.

Wii Weekend

Since Jen went to MN on Friday I've played about 30 hours of Wii sports, mainly bowling. The Wii is cool but the remote is deceiving because it really only needs to move 6 inches for any game. I can rest the remote on my knee while playing tennis and just flick it 2 inches to hit the ball. Bowling makes absolutely no sense. I throw the ball exactly the same every time and the ball never ends up in the same spot. After about 100 games I figured it out that if you flick the remote sideways instead of straight you'll get a mean hook and major pin action, so it's way more forgiving when missing the pocket. Golf is fun but playing the same 9 holes over and over gets pretty boring. Boxing is dumb cuz the remotes don't work worth a crap. Baseball is ok but you only pitch and bat, fielding is done by the computer. It's fun to play home run derby and that's about it. I'm can't complain though, Wii sports was free with the Wii and it's provided hours of entertainment.

I was looking for a game to buy but I don't want to pay $50 for a game that I haven't tried. I have 2 free rentals a month from Blockbuster but they are always out of any game I'd be interested in renting. I'm almost to the point of trying game fly but I'm to cheap. I stick with Wii Sports for the time being.