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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
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After Legoland we stayed overnight in San Diego and Papa took us all to the San Diego Zoo the next day. We had a great time seeing all the animals and Carter really seemed to enjoy it (when he wasn't sleeping). It would have been even more fun with Ryan there, but his teacher wouldn't let him miss class that day.
Carter and I at the zoo entrance
Carter and his cousins at the zoo entrance
We visited Nanny's koalas and actually found one awake!
So here I am in the 12th floor office where I work, and I feel/hear some thuds. It feels like someone is walking really heavily outside my office door. But then no one passes, and the room starts to sway. And sway some more. Oh, and more swaying. I actually got dizzy because we were moving so much up here. I've never been anywhere but ground level during an earthquake, and the last one I felt was Northridge in 1994 (the last one I felt, but not the last one I've been in. We were out camping with Scouts once at a Marine base and right on the epicenter of the Hector Mine earthquake when it hit in the middle of the night. However, we were so wiped out from our day that no one but our leaders woke up when it rolled through.)
The news reports say it was a 5.4 magnitude. With all the movement up here in my office it felt bigger than that, but I'll believe the people who know better.
Katie and I were in contact with each other online when it happened, and she and the baby were both fine in her ground-level office building. Carter slept right through the quake. At least we know where he got it from.
Carter and I went to Legoland last week with my parents and my sister and her family. We had a great time and my four year old nephew was especially sad when it was time to go. The only thing that would have made it better was if Ryan could have been there, but he wasn't able to get the time off work. Here are some pictures from our fun day (and even more can be found in the set on Flickr:
Carter and I with my parents at the Legoland entrance
Randy, Randi Nicole and Karen on the boat ride with the Taj Mahal in the background.
The awesome train that was built by our friend, Gary.
Walking down the Las Vegas strip
Carter and the Popes in New York City
Racing cars in Daytona
My mom and Carter before the show "Journey to the Lost Temple"
Chase and Callan starring in "Journey to the Lost Temple"
Popes, Carter, and Grandma hanging out with SpongeBob
My mom, Carter and Randi Nicole with Indiana Jones
Randy, Randi Nicole, my mom and Chase on the Safari ride
Callan in driving school. He got so excited about this ride when he saw the group in front of him get drivers licenses after the ride.
Last weekend Katie, Carter, and I went to the wedding of a buddy of mine. Bruce is a pal of mine I met a few years ago and we've flown to Lego cons together. Bruce and his bride Melisa had come to our wedding reception, so we were looking forward to attending theirs. We went with a mutual friend of ours (Gary, Dad! The rockstarof Lego!) who was DJing the reception with his wife Hollie.
The wedding was in Woodland Hills, so we had a little bit of a drive (after a local Lego club meeting no less. It was a very Lego packed nerdy kind of day.) It was at a Catholic church out there, and the wedding itself was, from what I can tell, very traditional and ceremonial. Since Melisa is Mexican, much of the ceremony was in Spanish.
I cut in to dance with Bruce during the "money dance." I don't think the girls in the background were happy with the interruption.
Woo!
Oh yeah, Carter eats glass, too.
And finally, 80's Rocker Guy. This was a member of the band we first glimpsed onstage setting up early on in the evening who had a style so far removed from the rest of the band we weren't sure if it was a joke or not. He is for reals. Getting a photo with him was icing on the cake.
What are the four C's? Carter, cereal, carrots, and cars. Carter's been on a new diet in recent weeks. He's been getting a small bowl of rice cereal for his evening meal for a few weeks now, and it took him a few tries to get used to this whole "spoon" thing. He sure seems to love the (semi)solid foods he's getting now, because he lunges at the spoon every time it gets within eyesight.
Going for the gold
More recently, we started him on carrots. Suffice it to say, he loves making a mess out of this meal also.
And finally, the last "C": cars. We bought a new Lego set recently, a neat convertible car that Katie and I wanted. I put it together and then decided to have some playtime with Carter. I thought we would just roll it back and forth a little bit. Carter had other ideas.
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Saturday, July 19, 2008
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We apologize for being blogging slackers and promise there are great pictures waiting to be posted. Our mission is to get as much up this weekend as possible. Most of the pictures we have are of Carter, so that should make everyone very happy. My sister and her kids are here visiting from North Carolina for a couple weeks and her husband arrives here on Monday. Tuesday we're driving down to Legoland for the day and then staying overnight in San Diego so we can go to the San Diego Zoo on Wednesday. We're sad because Ryan has to work on Tuesday, so he'll be missing the Legoland fun. I'm not sure who would enjoy Legoland more; Ryan or our 4 and 7 year old nephews. Speaking of Lego...a large box of Lego was shipped to my parents' house the other day and our nephews were so excited about it. They couldn't wait for Ryan to come over to open it. Our niece, Randi, also enjoyed the Lego when she found out there were pink bricks.
We're very behind in our blog posts. Our apologies to the 2315 4 of you who check this blog on a frequent basis to see what exciting things are all "the haps" in our lives.
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My first Father's Day was awesome. Katie already wrote a little bit, and we keep meaning to take pictures of the goodies I got, but it's apparent by now we're never going to get around to it.
I got the original Indiana Jones movies on DVD from Carter, as well as a Lego sculpture that says "#1 Dad." I think his mom helped him with it ;) Katie got me a Lego set, money to spend on parts for projects we're working on for BrickCon in October, and Batman Begins and Superman Returns on DVD (neither of which she had seen before!) Way to start off the Father's Day gift giving with a bang, guys!
PS: Oh yeah, and the Bakers got me Oakley sunglasses with Bluetooth attachment. Just in time, too: California law requires drivers to use cell phones hands-free, now.
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Click me!
Ahhhh, the infamous green shell. In the earliest Mario games, Koopa Troopa (they looked like turtles) walked around, and if you ran into them you died. But by making Mario jump on top of them, they turned into shells that would then bounce around off of objects: again, if they hit you, you died.
Original Koopa Troopa alongside a more recent incarnation
The useful thing about the Green Shell was that you could jump on it and direct it at enemies, which would then strike them and knock them out. Hitting a sequence of enemies would result in higher points and a 1up life reward. This leads to the truly awesome "turtle tip trick," which is a popular and famous technique used in the original Super Mario Bros game to obtain 999 (infinite) lives. In more recent games like Mario Kart, the green shell is an item you can throw at people to strike their kart.
So, why am I giving you all this background on the Green Shell? Because I have one.
I attended the Anime Expo on Saturday at the LA Convention Center to help do some video work for one of my teachers. Even got to wear a press badge and everything. Before working, however, I had some time to kill, so I walked around the main floor of the con. At one store I found this plush green shell that made game-accurate sounds effects from the game, and wanted it almost immediately. See, this item was only ever available in Japan, and importing one would cost a bunch. But this store had them on sale for under retail price, and I even talked them down a couple dollars and they dropped the tax. Katie was skeptical about my purchase as I told her about it over the phone, but when I came home with it and the fun ensued, she was convinced: this thing is awesome!
Carter agrees.
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Our Biggest Loser competition hasn't been going so well. Communication is almost nil, a couple people dropped out, and instead of shedding weight Katie and I have gained. So this past weekend we finally resolved to get with the program and be serious about our weight loss, get back on track, and meet our goals. We will post new updates here about the latest phase of our battle of the bulge. Our goal date is October 1st, just in time for our trip to Seattle.
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Is Lost back yet? I miss it already... Good thing we've got The Mole back to comfort us for a little while.
