New Computer

I can't live without a computer for too long so I quickly started shopping. We have a partnership with Dell at work so I can get discounts on Dell PCs. I started shopping online and found one I wanted for about $600.

I wanted to go to Fry's to check out what they had too so Kelly and I went there this afternoon. We found the Gateway DX4200-11 which was the same price as the Dell but it had better specs so we went ahead and bought it.

Here are the specs:

• AMD Phenom x4 9550 Quad-Core
• 6GB DDR2 RAM
• 750GB SATA HD
• DVDRW
• ATI Radeon HD 3200 256MB
• Windows Visat Home Premium 64bit

After about 2 hours of moving in, I'm using it right now and I love it.

Red Ring of Death

I don't know what's going on with all the electronics around me but my Xbox 360 quit working today. Maybe I have some kind of electrostatic field emminating from my body that zaps electronics.

I sat down to play some Fallout 3 and about 5 minutes into the game the Xbox froze. I restarted it and then about 4 minutes into the game it froze. I tried another game and about 3 minutes into it, it froze. Then it would just freeze on the menus. Then it would freeze on the startup screen. And finally, it wouldn't boot at all and I got the dreaded red ring of death error.



I took it back to Best Buy, hoping they would be able to replace it, but it was past the end of my product protection plan. I had to contact Microsoft and request a repair. Since the warranty against the ROD is 3 years it was still well within the time limit. The only catch it you have to ship ot to them and have them repair it and send it back. This can take several weeks.

They say, if you love something set it free and if it returns to you, love it forever. So I boxed it up and set it off to the repair center. I miss it already.

Computer Kaput

Our home computer died this evening.

I came home today and tried to get on the Internet. It was running really slow so I restarted it, only it didn't come back on. I don't know what the problem is but it is most likely the motherboard since it won't even post. Luckily all our pictures, movies, and music are on an external 500GB USB drive.

I suppose it was time its time to go. It had a good run and lived a long, full, life.

Adios amigo.

Week 19

Kelly is getting over being sick. She's had a sinus infection, runny nose, sore throat, coughing, etc. She's had trouble sleeping and it pretty much sucks. She's getting over it now but this last week hasn't been fun. There's almost nothing you can do about it when you're pregnant. She's been taking a lot of vitamin C, eating a lot of soup, drinking a lot of water, using a humidifier, and Vick's Vapo-Rub. All of this seemed to help and she's almost well.

My 35th Birthday Party

On Saturday we had a bunch of friends and family come over for my birthday.

Several friends helped out with the food and we made fajitas, spanish rice, refried beans, queso and guacamole. I filled the ice chest up with beer and we had about 20 - 25 people come by. It was a great time. We had the Rockets game on and after that we ordered the UFC fight. I had a cake, everyone sang Happy Birthday, we played beer pong, darts, and Rock Band. It was exactly how I wanted to spend the evening. It was a really great time.

First Home Brew - Part III

On Saturday I tried out my first batch of beer. It wasn't very carbonated and there wasn't a head on the beer when I poured it. It tasted a little sort of like cider. According to this article, I may have put too much sugar in the bottles. I thought I followed the instructions as best I could, but it's not drinkable.

Hopefully the second batch of Ocktoberfest will be better. I think this time I'm going to use smaller bottles, dark glass, and make sure I get the sugar amount exactly right this time.

Week 17

The good news is everything is fine, but the bad news is we can't buy any pink or blue stuff just yet.

Today we went back to see Dr. Jackson. There was a possibility that we might find out the sex of the baby this visit, but we weren't able to. It's still a little too early to tell. We go back February 10th for the level 2 ultrasound. This type of ultrasound shows a lot more detail. I didn't expect we would to be able to tell because most of the books say you can't tell the sex until about the 20th week. Even though it was too early we were still hopeful.

It was pretty disappointing, but the great news is everything else is fine. Kelly's weight and blood pressure are fine, and we haven't had any concerns. The AFP screening came back fine which is really great news and rules out a lot of possible problems. Also recently Kelly has really started to feel some movement from the baby.

The picture from the ultrasound isn't very good and doesn't show anything but the head which is 45mm (1 3/4") from ear to ear. But when the ultrasound was moving around we were able to see the head, arms, legs, spine, and heart. The doctor said everything was fine and we also got to hear the heartbeat really well this time. It sounds like a little hummingbird.

Aren't we spoiled by technology? A few years ago most women didn't have ultrasounds or know the sex of the baby until it came out.

Cheech & Chong

Our friend's Chad & Melanie called us Friday to invite us to go with them to see Cheech & Chong on Saturday. I missed them when they did a show here on Halloween, so I was stoked to get to see them this time. Melanie gave Chad 4 tickets to see them for Christmas. It was real nice of them to ask us to go. They played at the Verizon Theatre downdown, so we ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe right next door before the show.

It was a good show, they did a bunch of skits and some old material. The show was about an hour and a half and I got a tie-dyed concert shirt.

Cheap Beer

By the time I bottled my first batch of beer I wanted to have the ingredients to make a second. The kit only came with one recipe. I looked online and the normal brew packs that come in all different flavors and make 2 gallons run about $13. I remembered seeing a variety 3 pack at Bed Bath & Beyond so after dinner a few nights ago, Kelly and I stopped by the BBB by our house to check.

They had two left and they were $30 each. They come with a pale ale, a wheat beer, and a Oktoberfest. That's a better deal than online, so I got one. I also had a $10 off coupon on $30 or more that expired that day.

When I went to check out, it rang up as 1/2 off! So I got the other one too. So what would have cost me $78 online, I was able to get for $20. Nice! I think I'll try the Oktoberfest next.

First Home Brew - Part II

Its time to bottle my first batch of brew. On Friday it had been it fermenting for 10 days. First I got all the bottles together and rinsed them out. Since I had two gallons of beer to bottle, I gathered up all the bottles I could. If I was going to use glass bottles, I would have to get metal lids and a capper. I'll get that stuff eventually, but this time I'm just going to use old soda bottles. The instructions say this is okay. In order to test if the beer is ready to bottle the instructions say, "Taste it. If it tastes like flat beer, then its ready to bottle. If its sweet, let it ferment longer." I tasted it and it definateley tasted like room-temperature flat beer.

The first step is to sanitize the bottles, this is done by putting the rest of the no-rinse power in a 1 gallon container and mixing it with warm water. Then you fill all the containers half way, shake them up, and let them sit a while.

After you drain the bottles, you put a measured amount of sugar in each bottle. This is what will make the beer sweeter and cause it to carbonate.

Then you fill each bottle almost all the way full using the tap from the fermenter.

Then you screw on the caps (provided) and turn it over a few times to make sure all the sugar dissolves.


Viola! I have two gallons of beer. Its actually pretty clear. The instructions said that there might be some sediment in it from the yeast, but i didn't see any of that. Below you can see the writing on the opposite side of the bottle and my fingers.

Now I have to condition the bottles. Now I just have to set them somewhere out of the sunlight at room0temperature for a week. I chose the bottom of the pantry. In a week they will be carbonated, and I'll put them in the fridge to cool.

Waiting is the hardest part.

First Home Brew - Part I

I've been wanting to try to brew my own beer for a while. I typically go overboard on paraphernalia for new hobbies so I wanted to start small with this one, try it out and see if I like it before I spend too much money.

On Tuesday I broke out the new Mr. Beer Deluxe Edition Beer Kit that I got for Christmas. I assembled the fermenter and laid out all the stuff.



It seems really simple. Alot of the work is already done for you and comes with a "High Country Canadian Draft" recipe which is described as "extremely pale in color and bold in character. An exceptionally hop accented beer, it is preferred by those who demand that extra "Kick". This beer brews up clean and impressive." It takes about 2 weeks and makes 2 gallons of beer.

The possibilities are endless on what you can brew, but I'm going to just try the simple basic stuff for the first time out.

Step 1 - Sanitation
You put some water in the fermenter and you dump a little package of this no-rinse sanitizer in there along with all your utensils.

Then you let it sit for a few minutes, drain a little of the water onto a plate and take all the utensils out and put them on a plate and empty the fermenter.


Step 2 - Brewing
Put a gallon of clean water in the fermenter. I used Kroger purified water. The second hardest thing to do in the whole process was take this picture while trying to pour the water.


Then you place the malted hops in some hot water so it will pour easier.

Then you put 3 cups of water in a pot and start adding the booster. The booster is the sugar that the yeast is going to turn into alcohol and CO2.

This part was a little hard too, because the booster kept clumping up. It was hard to get it to dissolve in room-temperature water, but that's what the instructions said to do. It said to wait until it was dissolved before heating it to a boil.

Then open the can of malted hops which is thick, brown and syrupy and smells remarkable like a brewery.


Then you add the malted hops to the booster mixture. This is called the wort.

Then you pour the wort into the fermenter and spill some all over the counter, the fermenter, down the kitchen cabinets and on the floor (optional).

I guess I need a big funnel or a pot that's easier to pour out of. After I got that all cleaned up, it was time to add the yeast. I think the owner of St. Arnold's put it best when he said, "basically the way yeast works is it eats sugar, pisses alcohol, and farts CO2."

Dump them in the fermenter and mix it up.

Then screw the lid on, set it aside and wait a week or two.

It begins to bubble and you can see the CO2 being made. Tomorrow it will have been in there a week, so over the next few days I'm going to get some bottles together and proceed to the next step of conditioning.

Holidays 2008

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We had a great time visiting with friends and family. I was off work from Dec 19th to Jan 5th.

Kelly and I exchanged gifts Christmas Eve morning. I got Kelly a nice purse. Kelly and I spent Christmas Eve day at my mom's house. We had a pot roast and exchanged gifts. We got some blankets and some stuff for the house and took Abigail to visit too.


Christmas Eve evening we went to Kelly's mom's house and had fajitas and exchanged gifts with her mom, aunt Faye, and grandma. We had a good time and I got a home brew kit that I'd been wanting and Kelly got a bunch of maternity clothes. Peggy's house at Christmas time is a sight to see. It always looks like a Christmas bomb went off.


Christmas day at lunch we went back to Kelly's mom's house where she made a spectacular prime rib dinner. We exchanged gifts with her brother Jason and sister Amanda and their kids Tyler and Trent. Tyler is 8 years old so we got him some Hot Wheels. I really wanted to play with them, but we had were on a tight schedule and left to go to my dad and stepmom's.

We wanted to make this our last stop because we always end up staying up late and drinking* and playing games with my step sister Shannon, her husband Brad, her cousin Jessi and Jessi's boyfriend David. We exchanged gifts with everyone and I got a huge 152-quart ice chest, Kelly got a massage gift certificate, and we got a fondue maker. I also made some wassail. Here is the recipe:

For New Years we went over to our friend's Jennifer & Roman's house. We hung out with friends and they had tons of food. We drank* and shot fireworks and then played Catch Phrase until the wee hours. That was lots and lots of fun.

On Friday we went to Moe's to see the Bellamy Brothers with some friends. My mom came out and we had a great time drinking*.

On Saturday we met up with some friends for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and we decided to make an evening out of it so everyone came back to our house and we played beer pong and drank*.

I went back to work today which was a bummer, but I got to spend my vacation exactly like I wanted to. On the days we didn't have stuff planned I laid around in my pajamas on the couch and played video games. It was the perfect staycation.

* - Not Kelly :(

Missed Appointment

I was going to take Kelly to the doctor’s office to do some blood work on December 29^th, but we slept right through it. We rescheduled it to this morning. Kelly went and they took a vile of blood. I don't know what it was for.

We go back January 13th for the anatomical ultrasound. That might be when we get to find out what the sex is.

Dumb Name for a Restaurant

I ate here last week because I likes my pitas EXTREME! Actually, the people working here don't look very extreme. If I owned an EXTEME Pita, the following would be required of my employees:

• Mohawk
• Evenings consist of BMX, skydiving, mountain climbing, windsurfing, surfing, snowboarding, bungee jumping, etc.
  
• Minimum of 5 tattoos
• Minimum of 3 piercings (2 face, 1 other)
  
• Each pita would be served with "horns"
• Ollie off the grill
  

Close Call

When we came out of the doctor's office today we approached our car. I heard Kelly say, "Are you fucking kidding me!?" In an already cramped parking garage, someone parked a foot into our parking spot.

It's a miracle they didn't hit our car. It is literally 3" away from our car. There was absolutely no way to get in on the driver's side. Kelly was standing outside the car flipping out and weighing our options. Should we leave a nasty note? Wait for the owner to come out to confront them? Report them to security? Key their car?

In the middle of trying to get in our car from the passenger side, climbing over the console and deciding what to do about the situation I noticed that someone was sitting in the passenger seat of this pickup! Now our options expand to knocking on the window to tell her to move her car.

Upon closer inspection she looked to be about 95 years old so its doubtful she could drive a car. And in all likelyhood would probably die of heart attack if an angry stranger beat on her window in a parking garage. We decided to leave her be and carefully backed out of the spot. I would have reported them to security, but I couldn't find a security guard. I got their license plate so maybe I'll perform a not-so-random act of unkindness at a later date.

(the red in the picture is not from taillights, its reflection from the flash)

Week 13

This past week Kelly has been feeling really good. At the 12-week mark she started feeling a lot better almost overnight. She has more energy, practically no nausea, and a healthy appetite. She's also started feeling some movement in her belly. She says it feels like a little flutter. I've tried, but I can't feel it yet. When I listen I can hear little squishy noises.

We went to see the doctor today. The first thing the nurse asked was if Kelly had felt some fluttering yet. Check. We found out that I have type O+ blood. That means that Kelly will need Rhogam at 28 weeks and then again at delivery. We didn't need an ultrasound this time but we did get to hear the heartbeat. We were able to hear it really well which was exciting.

Everything is going well. Kelly will go back just for some bloodwork and AFP screening on December 29th. Then 2 weeks after that on January 13th we'll go back and do a level 2 ultrasound where we run down the checklist of organs and find out the sex. This ride sure seems to be going fast!

Dr. Jackson said, "It sounds like you're having a girl." He determined this by a very technical scientific method which, when explained in laymans terms, went something like this.... "cause you're wearing red." Plus a fast hearbeat typically means a girl.

Actually that goes along with what Kelly and I think too. A long time ago a psychic told me I would have two daughters. According to a couple of Chinese Gender Predicting Charts we're going to have a girl. There's a old-wives tale that says if the father doesn't gain weight during the pregnancy (which I haven't yet) then its a girl. Another old-wive's tale says that if the mother's weight gain is in the front (which it is) then its a girl. All this is bullshit but, who knows?

Cognitive Ability

It’s obvious when you’re pregnant that your body goes through drastic physical changes. What I didn’t know was the equally drastic mental changes that are occurring. We experienced this first hand yesterday.

I arranged to leave work yesterday in time to make it to our 3:30 doctor appointment. Kelly picked me up at my office and we rode together, parked, went up to Dr. Jackson's office and got there exactly at 3:30. We stepped up to the window to sign in.

There was no clipboard so Kelly asked the nurse, “Where’s the sign-in sheet?” The nurse looked as us a little funny and asked, “for who?” We said, “uh… Dr. Jackson?” “Dr. Jackson doesn’t see patients on Mondays. Isn’t your appointment tomorrow?” She asked, still looking confused. Now we’re all confused. Kelly says, “I thought it was today.” The nurse, already knowing the answer, looked it up on the calendar. “Nope. Tomorrow at 3:30.” “Alright, we’ll see you tomorrow.”

Kelly just got the days mixed up. We’ll try again today.

I’ve charted what I’ve observed so far with Kelly’s situation. On the Cognitive Index scale:

• 1.0 is normal
• 0.9 is forgetting phone numbers
• 0.8 is spilling drinks and bumping into things
• 0.7 is confusing dates

Notice the decline around week 13. Zero, by the way, is full retard.

...and as Robert Downey Jr. says in Tropic Thunder, "You never go full retard."

Las Vegas

I forgot to post anything when we got back from Las Vegas.

Back on November 13th, Kelly & I went to Las Vegas with our friends Chad & Melanie. They were getting married and Kelly was the Matron of Honor and I was the Bast Man.

When we got married in Vegas, Kelly saw miserable pregnant women walking around and swore that she would never go to Vegas while she was pregnant. We made plans to be in the wedding before we found out we were going to have a baby so we went anyway.

Kelly didn't have a very good time since she couldn't drink and most everywhere you go smells like cigarette smoke. Also the accommodations weren't that great. We stayed at an add-on room at Tahiti Village which is a timeshare that Chad's mom owns. It would have been okay had we had a full suite by ourselves but we saved some money by splitting a room with Chad & Melanie. However, when we got there is was a one-bedroom and we had to sleep on the fold-out couch. That kinda sucked. The second night we got our own room at a hotel next door. We should have done that the first night. Also, the condo where we stayed was a little far away from everything so we ended up spending on cabs what we saved on the room.

All-in-all, not the best trip to Vegas, but the wedding was nice.

If you go to Las Vegas between now and next year you'll notice a huge construction project in the middle of The Strip called CityCenter. Located between Monte Carlo and the Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip. This is the largest (most expensive) private construction project in the history of the world! It will take a proposed $7 billion and about six years to develop this modern marvel.

Next time we go we'll get a normal room on The Strip... and Kelly won't be pregnant.

Here are some of the pictures.

Wedding Photos

I was just reminded that we don't have any of our wedding photos online, so I’ve uploaded some of our wedding photos on Flickr.

Week 11

We went to the see Dr. Jackson this morning. We briefly heard the heartbeat for the first time today. He did an ultrasound and the baby still looks like little gray blob. The picture on an ultrasound is not as detailed as a vag probe so we didn’t get to see hands and feet like Kelly did in the ER, but it’s more comfortable. Dr. Jackson joked, “Hey, cute kid!” Everything is normal and we go back in two weeks.

One of the ladies I work with sent me an article called “Poppy seed to Pumpkin: How big is your baby?”. It shows average baby size by week of pregnancy compared to fruit. The baby measured 31mm from head to butt which is about 1¼ inches. If you include the legs (which were curled up) that’s about the size of a fig. Three weeks ago (s)he was 15mm. The baby has more than doubled in size since then.

Kelly has an A Negative blood type. I don’t know what my blood type is, but if I have a positive blood type then the baby may have a positive blood type. If that’s true then if any of the baby’s blood mixes with Kelly’s then her body will make antibodies to fight the blood. As a precaution, Kelly got a shot of Rhogam which will prevent this. They took blood from me today to test my blood type. If I have a positive blood type then Kelly will need a shot of Rhogam every 12 weeks. No big deal.