June 30, 2007

Trip to MN (Day 1)

Today Rachel and I traveled 682 miles from Kennewick, WA to Billings, MT (where we are located while I write this post) on our way to Minnesota for my sisters wedding. Chris needed to be changed twice and fed three times while on the road so the stops weren't as frequent as I thought they would be. Since any pictures we would have taken would have been from the car, we didn't take any so I don't have any to share. On our way back we expect to stop in Yellowstone National Park so you can expect some good pictures then.

Tomorrow we are planning on reaching Fargo, ND, which will involve about another 12 hours of driving, then a pickled egg and beer is in store at Laurmen's (if the place still exists).

Congratulations are in store for our friends Craig and Louise who had their first child (Laila Tai) yesterday.. w00t!

June 29, 2007

Poor Little Mister

My poor little guy is sicky. He's not super sicky but I think he caught a little of what I had last week. He's got a very runny nose which helps him sound worse than he is since he's really not breathing through his mouth yet and his eyes are kinda puffy. I'm doing everything I can to make him comfy which entails a lot of snot sucking through the suction bulb. I just feel bad because we are leaving on our road trip tomorrow which won't be fun for him if he's not feeling good.

June 27, 2007

Anniversary Follow-up

Rachel and I had a great time last night. Anthony's had great atmosphere, however both of us share the opinion that the food and service at the Bonefish Grill was better. Also the noise in the restaurant was annoying. You can actually talk to each other at Bonefish. Rachel went with a traditional third anniversary gift that involved leather (a belt for all you twisted minds out there) and I got her a knife set that she has been wanting for a long time.

Our thoughts go out to our friends Craig and Louise who are in the middle of labor with their first child. I hope things progress quickly as from what I have heard it has been well over 24 hours now.

June 26, 2007

Third Anniversary

Today is our third anniversary. Grandma Nancy was kind enough to babysit tonight for a couple of hours so that Rachel and I can go out to dinner. The plan as it stands is to head to Anthony's in Richland as we have never been there before.

June 25, 2007

First Haircut...for the lawn

The backyard got cut for the first time. It was well past rooting and was about to go to seed so it just had to be done. With that out of the way, Rachel and I realize we need another trash bin to deal with the waste that will be generated each week (diapers take up a lot of room too)!

Let's see, what else...oh I attended another toastmasters meeting tonight. I have been traveling so much that I haven't been able to attend. Rachel has been dealing with adjusting to life with Chris so hasn't been attending either (bad Rachel, no cookie).

Tomorrow is Rachel and my anniversary and I think the plan is to have our first babysitter (Grandma) and have a couple hours alone for dinner at some place yet to be decided.

For the heck of it here is a couple fun pictures. The first is Rachel in the baby section at Borders for the first time when she figured out she was pregnant.


As you can see from the next picture, she wasn't too fond of being found out and her picture being taken.

June 24, 2007

Projector Mounted!

Between Chris waking up and making noise and Rachel not feeling good and coughing like crazy, I was up this morning before 6:00 AM (way to early in my mind). I decided today would be a good day to get some work done on the theater before we head on vacation to Minnesota this next week.

Mounting the projector involved climbing into the attic 5 times, building a crazy mounting bracket and dragging insulation all over the house (which I'm sure made Rachel happy).

I didn't take Gar's advice, which was
Gar (6/12/2007 1:50:19 PM): Wear shorts, a tank top, and no mask. Do it at 6pm too please.
Gar (6/12/2007 1:51:12 PM): so hot that shorts do nothing, except allow insulation to stick to your sweaty legs and itch for weeks.
Instead I did most of it around 9:00-11:00 AM, by the time noon rolled around it was blazing hot up there and it would have been a most unpleasant experience. Now that I'm intimately familiar with the attic I hope that running cables for the audio equipment will be a lot easier than mounting this silly projector!

Projector: Mitsubishi HD1000U

June 23, 2007

Home Theater - Phase 1

Phase one of the home theater is finished. The speakers are unboxed and the projector screen has successfully been installed. This was a giant pain in the ass, although the end product turned out good there was way to much measuring, leveling and some more measuring involved!

Here is some spec's.
Screen: Da-Lite Cinema Contour with Da-Mat finish
Front Speakers: Polk Audio RTi8's
Center Channel: Polk Audio CSi3
Subwoofer: Polk Audio PSW505
Surround & Back Speakers: Polk Audio RTi4's

Pictures:
First picture of the new screen on the wall.



Another one but this time with the speakers setup
(still need to run the wire though)

Dutch Bros.

I'm so EXCITED!!! The Dutch Bros. stand finally opened this weekend. This morning Adam and I drove down Clearwater Ave to get our free cup o' joe. This totally makes my LIFE... since I don't have much of one. I've been missing the magic Dutch Bros. brew ever since we moved back here from OR and I can say without a doubt I wasn't disappointed.

June 22, 2007

What the Heck!?!?!

So I went outside this morning to bring in the garbage and check on my flowers... maybe even pull a little bermuda grass from the lawn and what do I find.



Somebody better be able to explain this to me. Cherry coke handcuffed to my cherry tree...

June 21, 2007

Speakers, Projector and Screen have arrived!

In you were not in the know, Rachel and I are working on building out our upstairs "bonus" room into a home theater. This week while I was in Cleveland, OH the projector, screen and speakers were delivered to the house. The UPS man was kind enough to leave many dollars in equipment on the front porch in the middle of the day and not even ring the bell. Even if signature is not required he should have at least rang the bell. Luckily Rachel is strong and hauled in the boxes herself. What a jerk that UPS guy was!


Here is a picture of everything in boxes. I am not even home yet, so you are seeing them just as I have!