Day After Yesterday

So rebecca’s dad wanted to convert some vinyl to CDs for group of friends….. he was using a turntable plugged into the mac, but since the turntable wasn’t line level, it wasn’t working… I initially told him to find a cheap receiver at a garage sale and use that as a preamp… A bit later in the day, I was at costco with rebecca and her mom, and they had this usb turntable, so we grabbed it for him.

It was easy enough for rebecca’s dad to use right away, included audio software (both simple and advanced), both mac and PC, and USB and line level outputs. It isn’t amazing or anything, but it works. I am going to borrow it and rip a bunch of my vinyl that I have been missing. Should be fun to have all that old chicago punk from my high school years readily available.

the damage is less than I thought it would be in all honesty… evidently she was driving westbound, cruise set at 70mph, in the fast lane… somehow ended up driving into the center median, then bounced back into the westbound lane, facing eastbound, on the wheels.

at some point in time the car skidded/rolled on the concrete (as evident by the fenders, a pillars, etc) and she obviously nailed the passenger rear corner into the grass hard…

My hypothesis is she drifted to the center median, when the tire dropped off, it hooked, she spun around, slammed the rear passenger side into the grass median (as evident by the large amount of damage on the rear corner, and the dirt in the window track, etc), then she must have rolled or skidded or something back onto the street… Not sure. She remembers spinning around both clockwise and counter-clockwise…

But I can’t tell… but overall… the passenger compartment really did quite well… the seats still all moved, the rear seats folded down, the doors opened. they didn’t try to open the tailgate…

they are already working the purchase of another forester…

she is sore, bruised rib, needs some time to rest … but she should be fine…

Check out the baby blog for all the details…

One thing that is cool about owning vs. renting is that you actually get to make decisions on stuff and then make changes.

We recently decided that we were going to spend a little money upgrading our master bathroom. I say master, because it is connected to the master bedroom, but there is little MASTER about it. It is relatively tiny and just not that awesome. It is fine for us, but it could be way nicer. So we decided that we were going to give it an overhaul. Nothing insane, no moving walls around or anything, just some new coverings. We are going to replace the vinyl flooring with tile, the fiberglass shower surround in tile, the too large vanity with a better sized one. We will also replace all the accessories, etc.

The biggest thing is the tub (no pun intended). The issue is we have a space of 60×30 for the tub, which is a standard size, but we want a deeper tub. Rebecca actually TAKES baths, so having a deeper tub would be a great improvement. BUT alot of the nicer tubs are 60×32 and that 2 inches would involve moving a door AND putting the tub REALLY close to the toilet. So we are stuck with 60×30. And finding that 60×30 tub is proving a bit of a pain. But I think I can make it all work.

In observance of earth day (and the fact that the weather was perfect) I redid the backyard yesterday. I pulled up all the old grass, tilled up the dirt, removed the 2 bushes on the side, installed the in ground sprinkler system, and laid new sod. It was hard work, but nothing too complex. And I am really happy with the result. The line for the sprinkler is under the grass, but it is not buried in the garden box. I figure we will likely redo the garden soon, and we can bury it then. And by we, I most likely mean rebecca and her mom. Or somehow involving her mom.

I really like the sprinkler system. I know, it is lame, because we don’t have the much grass. But they rule. They pop up, cover all the grass and the garden, with virtually 100% coverage and nearly zero overspray onto the patio. If is weren’t windy, you could sit there and have the sprinklers on with out worry of getting wet. One of the heads isn’t perfectly straight, and it is pissing me off. Provided it isn’t raining at the end of today, I will be out there cleaning up the yard waste, and I will try to fix it.

But yeah, owning your own place rules. Once the garden and sod are all good, I will take some pics. It will be a great yard for mason too.

the holidays are over, and so it is. Everything went well, but we ran around like idiots visiting family, etc and I would have preferred more time to be lazy and work on projects, etc. But such is life.

We did christmas eve at my parents. It went fine, we were there for 7.5 hours, which is kind of long, but it was nice. Christmas day was at Rebecca’s parents, and we were there for 11.5 hours, also a bit long, but it was nice.

Even though I was annoyed by my change of plans, even though it was never to be, I went to work on wednesday. And sure enough, one of the staff’s hard drives died in the AM, forcing me to quick rebuild the machine. So even if I HAD gotten the time off, I would have been in the office anyway. So it worked out…

On new years we went to the party at kieran’s and it was super nice and chill. I had a great time. Rebecca drove and dropped D and Sarah off and went home. Yesterday we chilled out until we had to go pick up mason, who spent the night at the dugan’s. We got to sleep in until about 12:30. it ruled.

So back to work tomorrow.

So we found out wednesday we are having a second child. Perhaps we will get a girl this time? Nothing against boys, but having one of each would be cool. But 2 boys would be cool too.

So the rough date should be end of august.

I am stoked. It is going to rule.

As many of you know, I drive a loud audi. It is actually probably too loud, but I enjoy it, so I am not feeling too bad about it. Anyway…. last night I drove home from work, as I tend to do, and I parked in front of the house. I parallel parked it in the spot in front of the house, so I was making a decent bit of noise. I parked and got out and as I was pulling out the keys to unlock the front door, it opens and rebecca is there holding a smiling mason. Not used to being greeted at the door, I asked what was up.

Turns out as I pulled up and was parking, mason was hanging out on the 3rd floor with rebecca. Mason pointed at the windows and said ‘daddy’. That is awesome, my child recognizes my car by sound.

The joys of being a father.

so I was thinking I need to blog more on mason more often. Time goes by too quick, and it is worth noting the stuff he does. So without further ado..

he recently discovered pointing. it rules. like in the last week or so… so you can say ‘where is mommy?’ and he’ll point at rebecca. kitty, daddy, etc. it is cool. so now he is posting at everything. it is really funny.

so big… you can go up to mason and say ‘how big is mason?’ and he’ll smile all big and put his arms up in the air. ’so big!’. that is in the last 2-3 weeks. funny stuff.

he is still talking up a storm, not that we can’t understand most of what he is saying. But his first word was kitty. that was about a month ago I would wager. He LOVES the cat. He loves the cat, he loves the cat magnets. he loves the cats in the books. ‘kitty kitty kitty’. it rules.

he is still crawling, army crawl style. he will get up on all fours and bounce around, and will occasionally crawl around for a few steps, but then he is back to the army crawl.

he likes standing but he isn’t super good at. he can’t pull himself up, but in the last week or 3 you can pull him up and lean him against the couch, ottoman, whatever and he can stand there holding on for a little bit. and if you hold him up and walk him around, he will step. he is getting the balance thing down.

So perhaps you chicagoans may have heard in the news the story about an 80 year old man on the south side that was murdered in a home robbery gone wrong… well that was Rebecca’s Dad’s cousin, Bob (Robert Winter if you want to google news him). Apparently, Bob was in the basement, and this dude (Darius Bailey, 20) was walking by and noticed the back door was open… so he went in and started ransacking the place… well, then Bob came up from he basement and was all wtf and they got into a struggle. Supposedly Darius grabbed an electrical cord, strangled Bob, then tied him up, and finished going through the house. He took Bob’s checkbook and car.

Meanwhile, the Dolton police put out an area bulletin thing to be on the lookout for this Darius guy for an unrelated robbery, and a detective happened to notice Darius walking down the street. So he pulls up to Darius, talks to him, and finds Bob’s checkbook on his person. Bob’s car is also like 50 feet away. So the officer starts to take Darius in and sends another officer over to Bob’s house, just to check on him. The other officer finds Bob dead in the front room, cords still around his neck, under a blanket.

So Darius confesses on videotape for the crime and bail has been denied.

Kinda nuts really. This is the first person I have ever personally known that was murdered. And over something so dumb. Bob lived in a modest home and drove an older Chevy Cavalier. He wasn’t flashy or anything. It was just a fluke that this dude chose the house. And wtf why would you KILL an old man? You think you would just run when confronted like that. Now Darius, 20 years old) is going to go to prison for quite a while, over what? He didn’t GET anything, a crappy car and a checkbook?

Stupid decisions abound. It is crazy. We were just there a few months ago for his 80th birthday. Messed up. His memorial service is this afternoon. I could have SWORN I had a picture from his birthday somewhere, but I can’t seem to find them.

so lets play some catchup…

mason: doing great.. talkative (but just no in english) and almost always in a good mood. he is always smiling and can be so easily entertained. As I type this he is scooting around on the floor playing with a piece of paper he pulled off an empty box. Funny stuff. He is pretty social, and he still sleeps really well. We are beginning to ween him and we have started giving him formula as well as the solid foods, and he is all about that. He is also getting big enough that we need to get him into a normal car seat, as we aver overdue. He isn’t crawling yet but he scoots around on the hardwood on his belly, which is fun to watch, primarily because he can only really go backwards.

house: we are making progress on the house, in preparation for mason’s first birthday party, which we will be celebrating on 10/28. We have hung a bunch of stuff on the walls that we had been meaning to get up, and we got some black tile for the basement bathroom. Unfortunately, I haven’t finished pulling up the glue from the linoleum yet, which is a pain, but is coming along. We have a grocery list of stuff that we need to finish though, amongst them is tile for the front entry, which will likely be a slate. Should be super nice.

cars: I have been busy enough that my free time hasn’t been spent at the garage, which is too bad. the jetta is really close to ready… check out that blog for more on the project. The Audi performed very well Blackhawk Farms with the ACCCC last month and it was great being on the track. I have a short video that I stole from josh and edited down to just the part I am in, which you can watch if you want, even though it is long… check it (warning, 20mb). I have only been driving around in the city lately, not pushing the car much. I had noticed a few thunks in the rear lately, I assuming it was stuff in the back of the car rolling around. I happened to be driving the camry home the other night and as I pulled behind the audi, I noticed something hanging down. Sure enough, the swaybar was BROKEN. Kinda nuts, I’ll get some pics tonight. but it is odd. Needless to say, the camry is doing fine. I’ll likely buy some better tires for it next summer, as I hate these RE92s, and one has a slow leak. But whatever. I am still impressed by the gas mileage for a car of its size.

computer stuff: I still think my macbook is dope. still very happy with it. The move to the intels was a great move by apple. I also got a nice case for it that fits in my backpack, very nice.

side stuff… I have been inspired a bunch of times readin the MAKE blog and I have a few little projects I am going to work on, but I have been so busy with side web work and other shit I haven’t had time to play. I finally got around to learning layout with CSS vs. tables, and that has worked out well for me. I am by no means an expert, but I am getting the hang of it. I don’t know why I had such trouble figuring it out in the past, it is easy. I think I just wasn’t motivated enough.

Other than that, nothing super amazing to make note off… off to hang some more stuff on the walls. or back to the basement bathroom. And I need to go to the garage to talk with dylan about websites we are working on. And I have some work to do for work work. awesome.