D is for Ducky Cake

C is also for Cakes...

Here are a few of the cakes I have done, my wife helped me with Santa's Train and the sheet cake.

C is for Color

I find color to be a very intriguing thing. Everything we look at has some sort of color. When we look at something the color can make us like or dislike it almost immediately. We can use the color of fruit, like bananas, to tell if they are ripe, over ripe, or not ripe at all. If we are shopping for furniture we can love one sofa and hate another and the only difference between the to could be the color. There are some colors I love and some that I hate, and that is true for all of us.

I hope you enjoy the picture I have chosen for C, it is one of my pictures of the Sundial Bridge that I have collaged. It is my favorite picture that I have taken of the bridge and, I think, it really took well to the style of collage that I did.

Laugh if you must.... (my wife did)

I am setting aside my first knitting project (my PoA scarf) for the Knitting Olympics, and I am going to make a different scarf. My wife laughed at me because I like to give her a bad time every so often about her UFO's, usually only when she points out this, that and, the other project she is doing, and now I am going to have one. She pointed out to me that she only has a couple items on the needle right now, and I will give her that... but then that is only her knitting UFO's, she really does not want to talk about her quilting/applique UFO's. Lets just say, that she has moved those out into the garage to make some room in the house when we combined offices. So she can laugh all she want's about my one UFO (scarf), and I will just keep on laughing about the rest of the UFO's around here.

PoA Scarf Project Update

Well I guess I fall under the usual new knitter category. My stitches are to tight, but I can't help it... as my wife will attest to, I can be a little OCD (obsessive compulsive) at times. I don't feel like I can make my stitches the same if I don't pull the yarn snug as I am going along, so the pattern I am following says I should have 6 rows per inch and I have 7 rows per inch so when I reached the specified 27 rows I was nearly an inch short so I am knitting a few extra rows so that the large bands of Burgundy will be 4.5 inches. The pattern says my width should be about 9 inches wide and I am somewhere between 8 and 8.5 inches wide so it will be a little narrow but I like the weight of the piece, only time will tell if it is going to turn out to be too stiff If all else fails I guess I could always felt it and make it into a soda can cozy. I will take a picture of it once I get a little further into the project.

B is for Books...

I love to read Sci-Fi/Fantasy books so I could think of nothing better to photograph, for the letter B, than a few fo my favorite books. I am currently in the middle of reading Knight of the Word by Terry Brooks, who is currently one of my favorite authors. If I could I would have a very large Sci-Fi/Fantasy library.

XBox 360 please...

We have been calling for the last few weeks to all the stores in town, that sell the XBox 360, except the game stores because they all still had reserves to fulfill. Well Friday my wife called in the morning, twice, to each of the stores, once when they first opened and, once after 11am to give them a chance to have received one via UPS as well... No Luck.

Well I got off of work early Friday, because I had worked extra the day before, my plan was to go play disc golf if it was sunny out, but it was raining as usual so I sat down on the couch to do some knitting instead. Stacy decided she wanted to give one more try on the phones. On a whim she decides to call one of the game stores, and they did not have any, which we were not surprised about, but they said they had fulfilled all their reservations, so the next shipment they received they would be selling first-come first-served. So I suggested we try one of the other game stores... of course at this moment it is about 3:45 and I am sitting on the couch "tinking" because I messed up a knit stitch on the GoF scarf I am making. Stacy makes the call and asks if they have any XBox 360's available and as I tink another stitch I hear her say "Excuse Me?!?" and I dropped my knitting and grabbed for my coat, I was half way to the door before she was off the phone, it was first-come first-serve they could not hold it for us. She grabbed our XBox 360 savings fund and we were out the door. When we got to the mall I drove straight to the closest entrace to the mall to where the store was, and Stacy took off running almost before I stopped the car. I found a parking spot and by the time I got into the store it was on the counter and being rung-up on the register. We finally got it!! After that all we could think about was XBox 360 so we went to Toys-R-Us since they were closing and we got a game at 40 percent off and some accessories at 20 percent off. And then we went up to Best Buy bought the extra wireless controller with the gift card we had and we stopped at Costco for a quick bite to eat and a glance at their 360 games and then we were on our way home, to lay hands on the actual 360, not just the box...

...and then the weekend was over and we had to go back to work.

A is for Adoption…

I was adopted twice...

My parents adopted me first way back in 1970. I was put up for adoption with the Children’s Home Society of California because my birthmother wanted me to live in a “stable two parent family”. My adoptive-parents wanted another child and when they heard about me they decided they wanted me. I love my parents, and I would never trade them for anyone else, although I would like to know more about my biological family.

My parents were Christians so I was raised in the church but I came to know Jesus as my personal Savior when I was at camp one summer. At that moment God adopted me as his child, now that is the best adoption anyone could ask for. That is why my image for A is a cross, it represents my adoption into God's family.

Ok now… Fast-forward a few years, to when I was in my twenties… well I fell in love with my beautiful wife, and as it turns out she was adopted as well.

Now it’s our turn… it is time for us, to pay it forward… we are now looking to adopt as well.

New Sounds

My wife and I have been attending Neighborhood Church of Redding for the last few years. I went to my first meeting, today, to learn how to run the Mixer for our Church's new service called The Well. I have run sound before, but never on this advanced of a mixer. Thankfully they will be giving us a chance to learn before we are let loose on it all by ourselves. I sat in the booth for our churches Celebration Service, after the meeting. I am glad I am not being "thrown" at that mixing board. I will probably get to use it someday but, WOW... I mean compared to that one, the mixer I am going to be learning now, is like... half as complex, in comparison what I have used in the past.

Knitting

Well I started knitting in the past couple weeks, I was kinda forced into it, because my wife did not want to make me a Harry Potter scarf. Well to be totally honest I wasn't really forced. I mean no one is holding a gun to my head and if I pushed enough she probably would have made it eventually, but I decided that I want to do something other than just sit like a bump on a log when I am watching TV. I couldn't think of anything better to do so..... My wife got Santa to bring me yarn and a pair of circular needles for Christmas.

I have not gotten to far on my project yet, but of course this is all new to me. I mean I have helped my wife understand how to do some techniques in the past, but I have never really done it myself, so it is taking me a while to get going. For my first project I am learning to knit on circular needles using the "Magic Loop" technique. Why, you are probably asking, if you are not going start on straight needles, would you doubly compound your learning curve by adding the "Magic Loop" technique? Well, the pattern I am following for the PoA/GoF Harry Potter scarf calls for knitting in the round on 16" circular needles, and no one in Redding has anything smaller than a 26" circular needle in aluminum. So since I have already decided I like aluminum better than bamboo I am stuck for now, however there may be a trip to Chico in the near future. My wife would like that even if the excess cable wasn't annoying me and in turn her, as I am sure she would love to go to a "real yarn store".

Mugglecast and more

We just listened to our first Mugglecast on iTunes tonight. "The first podcast of 2006" It was fun to hear the theories that other people have. There should be a new one out tomorrow I think.

My Nephew just turned 11 so we got him his own PDGA approved disc. Now when he goes out with us he has his own disks. I think he will be able to play with these better than the ones that he borrows from us. It’s great to see him enjoying something other than just video games.

Speaking of video games we feel like we have waited long enough we cant wait to get our hands on the new X-Box 360. But all that we have available to us right now is the core system and we want the system that includes the hard drive. What’s the point of the core system anyways I mean it is not backwards compatible without the HDD and you cant do online gaming.

Happy New Year!!!

Well it is a new year and a time for new beginnings. I have been absent from my blog for quite awhile so I am going to put on my New Years Resolution to blog at least once a week.

New Years Resolutions

1. Go to the gym at least once a week.
2. Swim at least 1 mile each month.

(I stopped swimming in November when the gyms heater went out over a cold weekend and started using the weight-room)
3. Blog once a week.

Swimming

Well I am swimming several day a week now. I reached 21% of my goal right today. I try to swim a mile on Sat. and Sun. and I am up to about 800-900 yards in the morning during the week. I a shooting for 100 miles. I am guessing it will take me about 6 more months or so, as I dont swim every day.

The Gate of Bones

I really like Emily Drake's The Magikers. However I don't think her editor is very good. If her editor was better I would enjoy them even more. There are just a lot of spelling errors through out the entire series. Otherwise they are really quite good.

Eldest was awesome!!

Wow! I have to say that was awesome! Now what do I read till book three comes out? Well I guess I will have to reread The Magickers as The Gate of Bones should be coming out in paperback soon.

Inheritance

Well I just finished rereading Eragon by Christopher Paolini. If you like good Fantasy stories, like Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Riders of Pern series, you will really love this series. I can't wait for book number two, Eldest, to come out... Just two more days.

The Sundial Bridge

We recently had world renowned Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava design and build a foot bridge in Redding. It is a really cool looking bridge. I have taken many photos of it. So when we had some really foggy nights in January this year I decided to take some pictures of the Sundial Bridge at night. Here is one of my favorites. As a matter of fact I have printed it as an 8x10 (It looks really cool framed) .

The Beginnings

Well I am a man of few words, as my wife would tell you. I like to listen before I speak. This is a chance for me to break out of my habits and put some ink on the page (so to speak). But look out cause once I start I may not be able to stop.