Ava's Tough!!

Well, we've been telling Ava for a while now that once she's potty trained she can get her ears pierced. She's been wearing big girl undies every day for almost 2 weeks now, so we decided it was time! She had her 3 year dr. appt. yesterday and had to get a shot, so figured why not add a couple more holes to the mix! She handles shots really well, has never cried or anything. A tough little girl! So let's see how she handles the real deal! Not sure why I didn't think about video until after, so pictures will have to tell the story.
Let's do this!

Ok, just like a shot. Should just hurt for a little bit.

There was a brief moment of crying and something along the lines of "OOOOOWWWWEEEEEEEEE". Only one lady was working, so they had to do them one at a time. Amazingly Ava just let her do the 2nd one while she was still whimpering over the first.

Is it all done already??

Ok, enough crying! Let's show these babies off!!!

Not so bad! Check these cool flowers out!

We are so proud of you Ava! Good job sticking with the potty and great job being so tough getting your ears pierced!

My first mobile entry...

So Darrell is still stuck at Abbott, most likely through the weekend yet.  I think we've all gotten to know that hospital much better than we care to.  Hurry up and get better Darrell and get the heck out of there!!

My not-so-technical review of the TMoblie G1

For those not aware, TMobile is the first company to offer "The Google Phone", basically a phone running Google's Android operating system. Tenielle and I both needed new phones, so we went with this one (please don't mention the SE Xperia, I got sick of waiting) So, techy details aside, here's my review of it so far (I've had it for just over 3 days now).

Look/Feel/Size: My previous cell phone was a Razr, but I also had Treo 700w for email, etc. which I never carried for the sake of only having one phone on me. The G1 is bigger than the razr of course, but feels much less bulky and heavy than the Treo by far. I had a requirement of a physical keyboard, and the G1's is comfortable and I have gotten used to it real quick. Navigation is really intuitive, and the touch screen controls respond great and make a lot of sense. Really no instruction needed...it just flows well. Very comfortable to talk on so far.

Screen/Color, etc: The screen is really bright and crisp and I have no problems reading websites when zoomed out. The browser is pretty slick and so far has done great on all of the websites i've gone to.

Email: If you use GMail, you won't find a better phone for email than this one. I use Gmail almost 100%, so this is probably the best feature of the phone for me. Notifications are instant, and the full sync of contacts, calendar and mail seamless. Email interaction is almost identical to GMail on the web, so no real learning curve at all.

Other apps: There are plenty of apps available already for free on their 'Market'. The G1 commercial highlights one of them, the ShopSavvy app, that lets you scan in a barcode at a store and it will look up prices online as well as at stores nearby (where applicable). We've really only played with it so far, but I can see it being very useful. There is also an app to make your own ringtones from MP3's you put on the phone. I've used it and it's really fast and simple. Works great! There are hundreds more, but I've had it for 3 days, so only tried the most popular one's so far.

GPS/Maps: The G1 has aGPS, so it's not accurate to the inches, but definitely within a few feet most of the time. However, the phone is also supposed to be able to use cell tower triangulation to get yoru location when GPS is off or not available (indoors, etc), but that hasn't really worked for me yet. I have only tried it at home, so maybe it's somethign with the towers nearby. However, with GPS on, it's very accurate and works well.

Camera: So-so. It won't replace your current camera, but will do for random shots in decent light. Lowlight, don't bother as they will be blurry, and there is no flash. There is also no way to adjust the shutter speed or have lowlight settings...maybe that will come in future system updates. We'll see. The auto focus seems to work well though, and taking pictures is quick and easy. There is also an app that lets you edit pictures (add text, effects, etc) and then email/text them to people.

Memory: It comes with a 1GB micro SD card, which you can obviously replace. I'll probably keep my eyes open for a 16GB card on sale....16GB should be plenty for a phone :) And 1GB will suffice for the average person anyway.

UPDATE
Battery Life: Not so great when you start using the web features a lot. If you use it just for phone/standby, seems to do just fine (probably a couple days), but if you use it heavy on the web/gps, etc, appears to probably drain in about 4-5 hours. So car charger is a must.

That's the basics. If you are looking for a new phone, it's a great phone for the price, and I really don't have any complaints that are of major issue. If you use GMail, then you definitely want this phone.

More questions on it, let me know...otherwise, feel free to start making fun of this post for being stupid and how nobody who cares will read it, etc.

Ava at Dance Class

So last night they had 'Parent Observation Night' at Ava's dance class. It was interesting. Her class is for 3-5 year olds, and there is a 2 year old and then Ava as the young one's. Ava is just about 3 and seemed to do pretty good compared to many of the kids, but you can easily pick out the older kids as they seem to take it a bit more serious. They have only had 4 or 5 classes so far, so everything is VERY raw, and the distraction of having the parents there probably had a huge impact on everyone's lack of attention...but take a peek at the video! It's a little fuzzy from compressing it down for this site, but you get the idea. Enjoy!

If I miss ANYTHING about IDS...

That's right...I unfortunately have to resort to watching the few live broadcasts that I can from PDC 2008. This is the first year in quite a few that I haven't gone to at least one major Microsoft conference (PDC, TechEd or BI), and I guess if there was ANYTHING I miss about IDS, I guess this would be it. I'd be in L.A. right now, still sleeping after a night out at one of the very few bars in downtown LA. Considering the cost of the conference, plus lodging and entertainment expenses, we just can't justify sending any of us out there. Not to mention, I no longer have the time or luxury to play around with every beta that comes out. Don't get me wrong, you learn some great stuff and keep on top of all of what is up and coming at MS, but we are focuses on getting a product out the door. That said, I am pretty excited to hear about Silverlight 2 for MOBILE! Sounds pretty cool! And I'm not sure if it would be as fun when knowing that the 200 dollar bar tabs you are expensing really are just coming out of your own pocket. As Jim can attest, we definitely didn't have to live on a shoestring budget at these things. MS takes GREAT care of you and provide a ton of great food and drinks (both at the conference during the day, as well as at evening events), and we got away with expensing pretty much whatever we wanted through IDS. IDS even picked up the tab for Jim's hooker in Seattle! (Sorry Jim, I couldn't keep it a secret any longer!!)

Anyway, for those who might be intersted, and by just odd chance read this within the first 2 hours of posting, you can watch the opening Keynote LIVE at www.MicrosoftPDC.com. It starts at 10:30 CDT.

Ava Loves to Dance!

This post is a few weeks late as Ava has now had her 3rd week of dance class...but if you didn't catch it in my previous post, she is now (as I just said) in dance! She's in the 3-4 year old Tap/Ballet/Jazz combination class at Select Dance Academy in Shakopee. She's one of the youngest in her class but her teachers say she is doing great!

This session goes into Spring with her recital being sometime around May 10th I believe at the new Shakopee High School. Should be interesting! We aren't sure exactly what they do for their hour each week as we aren't allowed to stay, but they apparently have a couple of 'parents' days where we can observe what they do. I do know that so far she's learning the basics of Ballet (First/Second,etc. position, Arabesque, Jeté, Plié) as well as basic toe tapping...fancy! She'll show you all of it, so she's obviously learning!

Anyway, I'm sure this post is more exciting for all of my 'female' readers (yes, I say it as if I have a large dedicated reader base). Hope you all enjoyed your summer...'cause if you haven't noticed....it's OVER!

Welcome back, Us!

So we were in Seattle for 7 days and had a great time! Quick summary of the main things we did

Day 1 : Got there. Flew out early. Checked out Pike Place. Met up with Everyone (including Anna and Nick for dinner). Wandered.
Day 2: Jim arrived - Duck Boats - Dinner with the Watson/Shipunoff Crew
Day 3: Visited Anna/Nick, shopped, Rehearsal Dinner
Day 4: Underground Tour, Wedding
Day 5: Bainbridge Island
Day 6: San Juan Island, saw some WHALES!
Day 7: Wandered, Flew home! Check out the website as I added pictures from the trip.

Ava's favorite part was the dancing..here she is warming up the crowd before dinner.


I managed to stick to my plan and eat fish/seafood for every lunch and dinner, and it was ALL great. We had an awesome hotel with a super breakfast every morning and a view of the water from our balcony...all in all the trip was tough to beat! Oh, and congrats again Anna and Nick! Hope you guys have a great time on the honeymoon!

Steve

State Fair 2008

So we headed out to the Fair on Saturday and spent 12 hours there! Here's a 2 1/2 minute video recapping Ava's day!



Of course, Tenielle and I had our share of fried food, etc...but what fun is that to watch!

Also, check the website in the next day or so for more pictures, plus pictures of Ava's VERY FIRST HAIRCUT! (Yes, that's right..VERY FIRST!)

Holy Smokes! A new entry!

Yeah, I've gotten really lazy on my blog and website...but guess what! Today they both got updated! I've added some pictures to the website from March through July, so feel free to take a look-sy.

And guess what...no time to do anything else, so this is the end of this entry. Hope you enjoyed it :) I'll try to write something worthwhile soon. No promises, as always.

No Cover All Summer!!!

Driving through Crosslake last week, we drove by the Exchange to see that Neil Diamond (aka some guy who plays a lot of ND) was there..and a big banner in the front stating "No Cover All Summer!" Good deal, eh? Unfortunately, they had a huge fire early Sunday morning and the place is a total loss. They literally have no roof...so I guess 'No Cover' now has a different meaning....get it? get it? Ok, so it's not nice to joke about it...people lost jobs. Luckily nobody was hurt (especially Neil Diamond!)
They have struggled for a year or two now to get teh bigger bands in there, as Manhattan Beach really stepped it up on their entertainment schedule...plus they are on the lake...so tough to compete with that.

On to the rest of our week off, we spend a lot of time just hanging out. Did a little biking, a little golfing, a little fishing. Other than that just relaxed, ate good food, took boat rides and did some swimming. On Saturday, there was a boat parade sponsored by the Tavern that was a lot of fun. I'll try to add some pictures from it once I get some from Karen or my Mom...as we didn't take any.

By the way, the Ox Tavern now has chicken wings....AWESOME wings. And from 3-6 daily, they are 25 cents a piece...so 3 bucks a dozen. Oh, and if you boat up to the Ox, you get a buck off a pitcher of mich golden. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed at first with the new ownership...specially since they wouldn't let us start a tab, etc. But the new kitchen (and new menu to go with it), the food is great, they have more beer selection, and food specials every night, it is still a great little spot that is away from all of the tourists and "I just turned 21" crowd.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!

Oh, and for justin, a programmers joke:

Q: Have you heard about the object-oriented way to become wealthy?
A: Inheritance.

GO TINS!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there! Mom's are the best!

Yesterday, we took Ava to the Twins game, the last of a 4 game home series against Boston (Justin, they have a team in Boston called the Red Sox...and yes, they are my 2nd favorite team in baseball...so deal with it).

Before the game out on the plaza, she got to jump on the T.C. Belly Jumper! Somehow our timing worked out that she had the entire thing to herself! Pretty cool!


Our tickets were on the first baseline, but we didn't have one for Ava, so sitting on our laps, she got a little squirmy after 2 innings. We moved to section 139 right by the 3rd baseline foul post in the outfield. I actually like that area, plus it was almost empty, so we had the entire row to ourselves, as well as the ones in front and back of us.

Ava was much more comfortable there, and it turned out to be a great move! She got to meet T.C. Bear! Right after this picture, she gave him a little peck on the nose. Pretty dang cute!

She was also given a real baseball! Which she had T.C. autograph! She was pretty excited!

She was quite the cheerleader...and coined her own cheer "Go Tins!!!" I may be biased, but I'm pretty sure that her team spirit was the main contributing factor to their big win last night.

She had a great time, but a 2 1/2 year old on a Monday night can only handle so much (and as responsible parents, we tried to keep her close to her normal bedtime), so we headed out during the 6th inning and we were back home in time to catch the last inning and a half on TV.

Bullheads...not just for breakfast anymore...

So we were in Browns Valley, MN (and Sisseton, SD) over the weekend for a funeral for Tenielle's great uncle Butch. Obviously the occassion wasn't ideal for a visit, but we ended up having a good time!

The B.V.F.D. had a Smelt & Bullhead fry Saturday night. Now, I had never had the chance to try either of these two, so it was an interesting experience. If you (like me) don't know what Smelt is..let me describe it. Take a bunch of minnow sized fish (avg. 2-3 inches long), throw them in some batter, throw em in the fryer, grab em by the tail and eat. Those were actually pretty tasty.

The bullheads though...although I never really pictured ANYONE eating them, were my favorite. Same story. Take a bullhead, gut it, but leave the head, tail, etc....batter, fry, eat. These were my favorite, and actually very delicious. Turns out, Ava loved it as well. She even snuck a smelt while we weren't looking (after we cut her off from the bullhead). She was literally begging for more. Anyway, here's some pictures:

A Fresh plate of bullheads...DIG IN!

Jocelyn helps Ava cool down her bullhead that is fresh out the fryer...

Justin can't seem to take a normal picture. You can see some of the tasty smelt on the plates in this picture too. Don't they look delicious?

Ava feeding her face with Bullhead...her new favorite dinner.

It was very good, and if you ever get the chance, it's worth the experience. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Stuck in Sisseton, SD.

Greetings from Sisseton, SD! It's the end of April, and all roads leading in/out of town were shut down yesterday afternoon, shortly after we (finally) arrived. We left Friday morning, seeing that there was going to be snow near here, but at the time, it showed it being north of where we were headed. So we head out. About 2 hours in, the rain turns to sleet, then snow...then horrible snow/wind. Going 30mph on the interstate (I-29) isn't all the fun. And that isn't from traffic. Actually, we only saw one other car for the 20 miles or so we had to go along that road...at least going in our direction. Anyway, our plans out here were postponed another day, so we are staying through Sunday afternoon. Here's a glimpse of the after-effects of the storm..well after digging the truck out and getting gas..but you can still see the show..I'm guessing about 10-12" here, but it was drifing a ton too, and i'm just guessing..but probably pretty steady 40 mph winds. Lots of fun.

Scantily clad killers roaming the streets of Shakopee!!!

BREAKING NEWS!!

Ok, so this debate has been going on in Shakopee for some time now, but the Daily Show finally did something funny, and by odd chance, it's about Shakopee.


In other news, Ava graduated from Tots 2 swimming and is moving on to Tots 3! I know...impressive. Tots 3 are on Tuesday's, so if you ever want to come out and watch (they are 1/2 hour long), there is plenty of room for 'guests'!

Ava has also graduated to a 'big girl' bed. So far so good...she's done very well with it and loves being able to get in and out on her own. Here she is showing off the first day...

Did you ever read about a frog who dreamed of bein' a king?

And then became one? Crazy stuff. So I was listening to a little Neil Diamond today while I worked..it had been a while. For a while there, he was coming to town ever year or two, but it's been a few since he's toured around these parts. Would be a fun show to see again...if we had better seats so the people around me would hear ND singing instead of me overpowering the top row of the Xcel. But that's another story.

Just a quick update...added some new pictures to the website, so check em out when you get a chance (which is probably now, since if you are reading my blog, you clearly have nothing better to do).

That's it..i'll try to write something with real content (on this blog? doubtful) sometime soon! For fun, I'd check back a few times a day if I were you.

Happy Valentines Day Eve

Ok..so figured I'd write SOMETHING to make this blog look active. Ava's butterfly bandages are starting to come off. She is kind of upset about it and is angry that she has lost some stickers. Pretty funny. I think she liked the attention she get's with them. Believe it not, she eats that stuff up. Last week we had 'evaluation' day at swimming lessons. They gave Ava the nod to move to Tots 3 next time (she's in Tots 2 right now), which is ahead of schedule for her age, but she is plenty comfortable with everything they've done so far in tots 2. Pretty cool, right?

Since I haven't blogged about it, Tenielle's party was a great time. Good turnout and most people stayed out til bar close, which was a lot of fun, and not quite expected anymore since we are all getting old and boring.

Heading to Crosslake this weekend. Sposed to be cold to start out, so not sure how fishing will be. Beer should be cold though.

Also, there is going to be a new show on the Food Network (supposedly) called "Have fork...will travel". It's hosted by Zane Lamprey, who also hosts one of my favorite shows "Three Sheets" on the MOJO network. Sunday, at 2:30 I believe. I think they've aired a couple episodes in the past, but i have yet to see any.

Ok, I have to get back to work. Bye.

Little known fact...only Republican's have Common Sense

Ok Cristin...before never speaking to me again...read on. I'm not really saying I believe that (although I've often felt that way many times :) ), but read on...

So today (January 24, 2008), the details of the 'Tax Relief' plan that was passed by Congress were announced. Read it here if you care.

http://www.startribune.com/business/14178126.html

Now, that's great and all. Now let's go back to logic class and see if I can remember how things work. So here's a few 'familiar looking' logic test questions (true or false of course)

1. Everyone who pays income, works. Therefor, everyone who works, pays income tax. Easy...FALSE. As stated in the article and most people know, if you don't make enough, you don't pay taxes.

2. Rebates are an amount of money given back to you for something that you paid for. Therefor, you must pay for something in order to get a rebate. Easy again...TRUE.

But wait! According to our lawmakers, we can give someone a $300 INCOME TAX rebate, even if they didn't pay any income tax! Ok...so that's fine. But the article states:

"Conservative Republicans, meanwhile, were likely to be restless over tax rebates going to those without income tax liability."

Ok...so logically it would make sense that you would have some sort of liability in order to get something back. But apparently only conservative Republican's are capable of grasping that concept? I would hope that MOST AMERICAN's, regardless of political affiliation, would be smart enough and logical enough to feel restless about that.

There Jim, how's that for keeping it short, stupid? And I appologize to any democrats, republicans, independants, greens, communists, nazis, etc. that may have been offended by this. I understand that COMMON SENSE (not republicans) can sometimes make it seem like people should be accountable and responsible for themselves. It's unfortunate.

Just a quick note...

That I finally added some new pictures to our website (it's basically been since September), so feel free to check it out during your next 'down time'. I tried to cut out as many as I could with Justin in them, but he seemed to show up in almost every one.

Husky Pride and stuff....

So a little Husky Hockey action last weekend...taking 3 of 4 points from the rodents. Can I get a witness up in he-a? Oh, and...to some...maybe even more exciting is the fact that the SCSU Wrestling Team pounded the snot out of Eau Claire 42-0. Ok...so I'm guessing to anyone reading this, the later fact is probably not really a point of interest. I've never been to a wrastling match, and to be honest, I don't know much about the sport other than it involves eating disorders, sweaty men in tights rolling around for a while (justin, put your pants back on). However, in support of Nick (Team Captain), and of Husky sports in General, I give them a well deserved 'Way to go!' or an even more deserved 'Super Job!'. Ava had a blast cheering them all on (which I'm sure contributed greatly to the win). And Nick continue's his winning ways by kicking some serious ass on the mat and racking up that highly sought after 'riding time'. Seriously though...nice work. And sweet tights! (I'm sure that's what they are called, right??)

Time for Swimming!!!

Ava had her first swimming lesson last night! She did great and had a lot of fun. She was a little mad when we made her get out of the pool though.

Just a relaxing swim to start out...


Look! A Camera! I better show off a little bit!

I use this cool thing to kick my way across the pool to pick up little floating toys.

Check me out! I'm doing the 'Monkey Crawl" along the side!

I just came up from a dunk while playing ring-around-the-rosie! Man, these lessons are FUN!