So, we had an interesting weekend. Heidi’s sister threw a house warming party. Her husband could not attend, however (?). The party was nice. Heidi made some badass wraps: salami, cream cheese, and green peppers. Damn good combo. Also made some froo froo strawberry shortcake thing. Yuck! I suppose if you liked that sort of thing it would be good. Anyway, all things were goin along just fine, then one of the little boys there comes screaming into the house. There’s blood all over his shirt and he’s holding his face just balling. Seems he peeked over the fence and got his face bitten by the next door dog… :( Poor kid. It JUST missed his eye but the bite was pretty deep. The best part is when the owner was asked about shots, he said, “Nope. He hasn’t had any shots…” I mean come on! That’s not very responsible! Sheesh! Unfair to the dog who now may be put down depending on the outcome, and definitely not fair to the child — let alone the neighbors. Some people!!!

My cousin’s graduation party was this weekend as well. Very kewl shindig — as usual. My uncle, I swear, is the most amazing chef on the planet. The food was downright orgasmic. Was a great time. Rhys got to meet much of his family on my side and was just smothered with affection. hehehe We had people we didn’t even know coming up to us and showering Rhys with attention. Amazing how many people followed the twins on the site. Still puts me in awe to think of it. Sure made it much easier to bare the hell we went through. I’ll be eternally greatful. So, the party was a roaring success aside from the freakin bartender who snapped my credit card in half!! SheesH! Wasn’t truly her fault, as the card was on its last leg, but at least say sorry or something. Not a peep… I hate that. Because now I don’t want to tip her, but I know I will be back for more drinks and she’s the only bartender in the place. :( That’s ok tho. Maybe she did me a favor and it will curb my spending habits. ;)

Lastly, my new palm is great. Great, except for the shitty ass camera Palm decided to slap into it. It’s damn near close to a perfect palm. But NO! They have to screw up the friggin camera. Bastards. My last palm — the predecessor model to the new one — had a beautiful camera in it, tho it was a lower resolution. It was clear, and took well in low light. Low light now for the new palm pretty much renders the camera useless… If you are thinking of buying a Palm Zire 72, wait till the next model comes out I say. Way to go Palm! You really shit the bed on this one!

The big news around these parts is Rhys is finally off of oxygen! Err… Off of supplemental oxygen that is. ;) Here’s a recent pic for ya!

We’re both very happy to see our little sprout without a tether, but at the same time we’re still very nervous. If things remain well for a week, then I will be happy. Tonight I think we will be both checking on him quite regularly throughout the night.

No other real big news around here… I’m pretty wiped out, and at a loss for what to talk about, so I wont ramble. ;)

Take care out there. :)

Well, things seem to be settling in a little bit for us. At least from my point of view they are. I wouldn’t say we’re in a routine yet, but it’s feeling more and more like it. I’ve been able to get more done around the house, and even have some time to relax. Now to get weekends off and I can start getting out and exercising again.

Rhys-man is getting bigger and bigger. He’s doing quite well, and I suspect the next time I write — or shortly thereafter — my little man will be off of oxygen for good! Right now he’s on meds to help with the reflux. Just like in the hospital. But it seems to be helping out quite a bit!

Guess what I found the other day!!! Linguica! Yep! That’s right! The elusive portuguese sausage! The last time we found some here, it was absolute crap. This time it tasted just like it did on the islands. Oh sweet heaven! So, Heidi and I purchased every last package from the store. :) My mom also requested we get her some. :) Now all we need is some fresh Kona and we’d be having breakfast Hawai’ian style every morning. :)

In other news I just purchased all the equipment I need to get our home network in tip top shape. So, we’ll have four machines: Saturn – my Gentoo Linux box, P4 2GHZ; Venus – Heidi’s XP Machine P4 2GHZ; Mars – Our Gentoo file server 1.8GHZ Celeron; Pluto – Our Gentoo firewall P2 400Mhz… It’s gonna be fun I tell ya! Some people have project cars…. I have a project network. :) Can you say luser? So, after setting those up, I’ll have a spare P2, Mac G3 and Mac G4… Also enough random bits to throw another machine together, tho I can’t say what it’d amount to. The only other machine in the plans is a Gentoo PVR for the living room. :) Muhahahah.

So, anyway, those are the things in our life… Here’s a pic of Rhys!

Lastly, here’s a commercial I found. It’s hilarious because if you crank the volume up you can hear one of the crew members cussing someone out in the background!! It’s real faint tho, so turn it up! Cool Commercial

So, where are we today? Let’s see. Have I ever mentioned some of the things that bug me at work? No? ;) Well, let me mention one tonight… If there’s one thing that sysadmins hate across the world, it’s when you ask a user “What was the exact error message?” The response usually starts like this, “Well, it was something like….” I can’t tell you why this annoys the snot out of us. I can’t say that it’s even fair that it does, but Jesus Happy Christ it really gets under my skin. Start your response like this, “I didn’t write it down, but…” How is this better? I don’t know. It just is… Everytime I encounter this situation my blood boils… But then I think about the poor mechanics that I have to deal with when I say, “Well, it’s kind of a clunky sound…” hehehe Same same… I’m such a dork…

I’m officially obsessed about racing bikes now… Thanks a lot to Mark and WW! Heidi got me Sport Riding Techniques by Nick Ienatsch and sealed the deal. :) I’m hooked. She did this even though she is truly against me riding. :) She just wants me to be happy. :) Do I have the best wife on earth or what! So, my Honda dealership here gives away Track Days up at Firebird when you purchase a new bike! Muhahahahha! I can’t wait! Now, if someone could just get me a winning lottery ticket… I don’t need a big one, just a nice small one would be fine! :)

Rhys is doing great! Well, nice and steady anyway. He’s smiling more and more. He’s still on oxygen, but I have a feeling it won’t be much longer. His reflux seems to be getting better. He’s more alert and tracking things with his eyes now! He’s soooo cute. :) I can’t wait until he is old enough to really appreciate things. All things in time. It’s hitting me more and more just how tiny he is. He’s a 5 month old… But, he looks like a 1 month old… And, he should look that way, it’s just strange to get used to… You can’t help feeling he is behind in some way. You really have to step back and adjust your thinking.

On the horizon, I have an MCP Cert to get and a day shift to finally get onto. That and I have to get my bike!!! :) hehehe

Take care out there!

I wanted so desperately to buy myself a bike for my birthday today, but that would have been foolish… As Heidi put it, “If you go into the showroom today and ride out on a bike, you’d better just keep on riding!” :) I’ll get my bike eventually, I know, but it will be another couple months at least. Still have too many loose ends to tie up…

In lieu of a bike, I received a book on sport riding. Goes into lots of things I learned from the MSF, and much more. Lots of things relating directly to track skills. Would be nice to get on a track! I also got River’s Edge. If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s a must see. :) Finally what self-respecting Filipino would not include good food to celebrate a birthday. I got a Texas Sheet Cake from mom, and I’m just throwing in the veggies for my double batch of Pork Sinigang! This is the best batch I’ve made yet. Even beats mom’s! :) Oh, and yes Charity, I will save you some. ;)

Off to pour some scotch and relax. :) Take care out there. :)

So where are we now? Things in our neck of the woods are pretty much the same. Rhys smiled for the first time yesterday! I was at work when it happened. But, I’ve seen a picture of him smiling before, you wonder? Well, this was the first (we suspect) smile which was not gas induced. :) So, that’s the real big news. Also, he’s back on track with weight gain. He was having some issues for awhile there. He’s sitting at 8 lbs 7 ozs.

Other than that, the only real news to report is I will be making another quit attempt on Wednesday. Wish me luck on that one. One of the major incentives this time around was when I got life insurance. The price difference is insane! Damn smokes!!! Getting life insurance was also the first step towards getting a bike!!! Yippieee!! Hopefully soon I’ll be on two wheels again! I’m dying to get back on the saddle! Oh, and I bought a bit of stock in a canadian diamond mine. I hope it does something good for me!!! :)

Take care out there! Oh, and here’s a picture of a product I found in the grocery store… Yet another example of poor product ideas. :) It speaks for itself… View image.