Aras' Observations

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T05:47:00.000-08:00

This year Alex had two (2) costumes for Halloween. Friday at daycare the trick-or-treat activities involve a LONG walk down the corridors. Boston Scientific employees line the corridors and hand out the candy. The walk is about 1/2 mile (really - I measured it on Google Maps) and takes just under an hour. Pam borrowed a Thomas the train costume for this event:

Saturday night was a bit cooler (35F), and so we used a different costume that Pam purchase a month ago. Alex dressed up as an elephant. The costume was perfect for the conditions, and looked pretty comfortable too. He liked pretending he was spraying things with his trunk, which he knew (from reading our books) that elephants liked to do.

It took Alex a few houses to get used to the idea. Once he figured out that people were giving out free candy, he became rather enthusiastic about the idea.

Alex reads a book

2009-06-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

Here is some video of Alex "reading" one of his favorite books.

He didn't know I was filming him. I made some noise and he turned around:

Apostle Islands Kayaking

2009-06-15T19:27:00.001-07:00

I spent the weekend kayaking with SKOAC up in the Apostle Islands. We drove up Friday night and paddled over to Oak island. Some folks were already there, but more showed up after we arrived (they scraped bottom around 10:45 or so - a very nice night crossing). Even though I normally am "out" by 9:30 or 10:00 at home, I stayed up until past midnight socializing with fellow kayakers around the campfire.

This was a mistake, which became clear at around 5:00 in the morning. A bird decided to serenade me. I am convinced he was mere inches from my tent, based on how loud the little fellow was. Having his various singing exercises, he eventually flew away.

Our group decided to break into two. I opted to join the crowd paddling over to Stockton island. We started off in very calm conditions, and were making good time. The picture below is our first snack stop - note how calm the water is:

We were soon on our way, and made it to Stockton with no problems. Looking behind us to the west, we saw a nasty squall line coming in. Leading front winds were reported to be gusting at 40 mph, so we ate quickly and watched the storm roll in. Dave and Sam made the best of in their chairs, as seen below. They are quite snug and cozy, and I do believe some napping was accomplished as the storm rolled through.

There were two nasty thunderstorms: one to the south, and one to the north. Checking the vectors on the weather radio, we decided to paddle between them and head back to Oak island. The sailboat in the picture below was a bit south of us, and looked pretty cool since he was lit up by the sun:

As we paddled along, we kept an eye on which way the storm was moving, but we stayed clear of any nastiness and arrived at camp without incident.

Excitement for that night was a "pot luck". In my case, I had brought my famous meatsauce, but quickly realized that the spaghetti was still at home. Thus, I was able to focus on the "luck" part of the evening, since I got lucky in spite of my mistakes and still enjoyed a very tasty dinner.

Sunday morning came quickly, and we were soon paddling back to Red Cliff. A nice surprise came when I looked over, and realized the guy unloading his boat ten feet away from me was Ron Steinwall (with whom I have done 2 circumnavigations of Isle Royale). It was nice catch up with him for a bit before getting into the truck for the drive home.

Done with School!

2009-06-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

Well, after 5 years of part-time study I finally finished my MBA! The picture below is our last "night" of class. It was purely optional, since it was held during finals week. Nine (9) of us (out of around 45) showed up. After some discussion, we opted to head up to the Corner Bar to continue our case discussion for that evening. This was the final class of my MBA career, and I don't think I could think of a single way to improve upon the evening:

Two days later it was time for commencement. Since I didn't do the "walk" for my other Masters degree, I decided to go for the experience now. Glad I did - it was actually kind of fun.

Pam & Alex

2009-03-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

I decided to spend part of my annual bonus on a new lens - the Nikon 18-200 VR. I've been watching the price/availability of this lens for some some time. It has two major attractions for me. First, it gives me a large zoom range. This is something I had with my film cameras (28-200), but gave up when I went digital (since there was nothing out there). Second, and more importantly, it has a vibration-reduction feature that allows me to shoot in lower light conditions than would otherwise be possible. It claims that I can shoot around 4 stops slower. I though this was hype, but initial tests confirm it. (I took a test shot at 200mm, with a shutter speed of 1/10 second. It came out razor-sharp!) Anyway, I am looking forward to getting shots of Alex that were impossible before.

Here is a picture I took of Alex and Pam yesterday morning:

Alex on the Stairs

2009-03-03T19:27:00.001-08:00

Here is a picture of Alex telling me to stay where I am as he goes up the stairs. He has become proficient at taking his pants off, and enjoys running around with just his diaper on (or even less). On this particular day, he decided he needed his boots on, which he put on by himself. Thus, we see a classic portrait of a little 2 year old boy, dressed in a way that makes perfect sense to him, issuing orders to all around him:

Waterpark Weekend

2009-02-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

We spent last weekend at a waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, WI. This year we stayed at the Wilderness Resort. I was impressed by the size of our suite: 3 separate bedrooms, enough beds for 12 people to sleep, full size kitchen for only $250 per night. And that included water park wrist bands for everyone!

Alex was not overly excited about the water since he has not been in a pool for some time. He was happy walking around the edge, but had little interest in going deeper than 6" or so. Still, I think he enjoyed being out in a large open space that really felt like summer. (This is advertised as "America's Largest Indoor Wave Pool".)

Here is a picture of Pam and Alex on the "beach":

This picture gives a sense of how large the space is:

I acquired a nice waterproof camera last year for kayaking, and brought it along on this trip. Here are some picture of Madison Turnis swimming around:

We were in the wave pool, which was pretty cool. Wave height was around 3 feet, which is enough to get people bouncing around pretty good. This video shows the waves going by:

More Trucks

2009-02-09T19:15:00.001-08:00

I've decided to play around with making cars/trucks out of pine until I get the dimensions figured out. I'm also skipping the finishing part - just sticking with bare wood. I had planned on using 1.25" wheels (seen on truck in the background), but then concluded that 1.5" was the way to go - it made a bigger difference than I expected. My 3rd attempt is the truck on the right hand side. It's unique feature is a real bed in the back.

First Wooden Toy

2009-01-11T19:48:00.000-08:00

Last week I finished my first wooden toy for Alex. It's a little car, with people that come out. Alex likes it, and readily recognized the "people" as such. The wheels turn, and the whole thing is about 7" long. It's all glued together - there is no metal in this toy!

(For those who don't know, I bought him a bandsaw for his birthday, and he agreed to let me use it from time to time.) My goal is to build a few trucks and other assorted toys. In any case, this was a first attempt to determine: a) how hard is it to do (not bad - the parts I thought would be hard were easy, the easy parts were harder than anticipated), and b) how interested is he in what I create (seems to like it so far).

The book I purchased for truck ideas and plans has been a big hit - he likes to flip through the book and look at pictures of the finished trucks. He knows all of them by heart now. The surprise (for me) was that those trucks are a bit more "advanced" than is appropriate for his age, so I won't be tackling them for a while. My research indicates that a 2 year old is happier with the above abstractions, or something similar. I am intrigued by the scale used for Plan City toys, and may pursue something similar. Although one could argue it would be cheaper to buy the toys, I don't think there is anything that equals watching Alex play with a toy I made especially for him.

So, what is the next project? A rocking horse! I found this very nice rocking horse on-line, and discovered that he toymaker sells plans on how to make the horse. In this case, I will save some money, and have the personal satisfaction of making a toy for Alex that he will pass along to his children one day.

Looking out the Front Window

2009-01-07T19:41:00.001-08:00

A picture of Alex last weekend as he is looking out the front window. You would never guess he just turned 2...

Merry Christmas

2009-01-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

While Pam was out shopping for last-minute gifts before Christmas, I invited our neighbors (Lorna, Winona, and Erica) over to help get me a good photo of Alex. The irony is that the best one of Alex was made during a "light check" where I was adjusting the output of two flash units:

Eventually, I realized it would be easier to hold him, and was rewarded with a really nice picture of the two of us:

Reading his book

2008-12-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

The Saturday before Christmas we got hit with a snowstorm. I thought this would be the perfect time to take Alex to the Children's Museum, since most likely everyone else would be staying home. I was right! We pretty much had the place to ourselves. My favorite picture is one of Alex reading a book. Normally there would be about 35 kids running around in this room (the "ball" room for those who have been there) - it's a real zoo. Today, there was only 1 other kid, so Alex was able to take a few moments and just relax. We both had a lot of fun that day.

Alex Turns 2!

2008-12-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

It's official - last week Alex completed his second lap around the sun. Dec 11 is the magic date for the little guy. We had some friends over to help celebrate the event on Friday. The evening started with a variation of "simon says". He likes to lie down on the floor next to someone else, then mimic which limb (arm, leg, combination) goes up in the air or back down. He especially adores Winona, who is playing the game with him here:

After a bit of socializing, it was time for the cake. We dimmed the lights and Pam brought the cake out. He was pretty happy

but not 100% sure what to do next.

Of course, a birthday party for a little guy will have some presents to open. Alex was in the thick of things, checking out his recent acquisitions:

Long Sunday

2008-12-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

We had a long Sunday. For some, it felt longer. That would be Alex.

He developed a bit of a cough on Friday night, which is not unusual for the little guy. He was pretty normal Saturday, bouncing around with boundless energy. Sunday was pretty much the same, except for later in the day. His nap was amazingly short (45 min instead of the more typical 2 hours), but he woke up happy and energetic. Around 5 pm, we were reading a book on the couch, and he started getting tired. I thought his lack of a nap was catching up, so I let him drift off while I held him. I noticed he was pretty warm, so Pam and I checked his temp. Good thing - it was 104.5 (nothing slips past me). I used by EMT training, and took his vitals. Pulse of 170 was prety high, but the respiratory rate of 44 tipped the scale for the nurse - she recommended we head down to the ER to get him check out.

He was pretty groggy for most of it, but perked up a bit in the hospital room. There was a TV there, and he doesn't get to watch TV at all (I'm not kidding - zero time is spent in front of a TV, this is something my friend Timbu tipped me off to). So, he thought this thing with a moving picture was pretty cool.

The biggest difference is that he has learned how to talk (toddler talk) since we were last at an ER. He has also discovered self-will. So, it was interesting watching him exercise those two things, trying to figure out which one would yield the best results. Couldn't yank the pulse oximeter off, so how about negotiating for it be taken off? Wish I could have taped that one.

At the end of the night, he started mumbling something. We've learned that when we hear the same thing a few times, he is trying to say something. Pam decoded it first: he was saying, "Ready to bye-bye". I.e., "Can we go home now". It was 11:30, and he was definitely tired.

Of course, the whole way home he kept stating, "All done, Doctor", then asking "Where did Doctor go?".

It's Tuesday evening now. He is feeling much better, and with any kind of luck the trend will continue.

Still out there paddling...

2008-11-30T20:34:00.001-08:00

Note the difference between the following picture of me and the previous picture of Alex. The two pictures were taken about 24 hours apart. Sunday morning dropped a bit of snow on us, and the winds began to blow. Nonetheless, I had committed to going kayaking with Matt, and so around noon I found myself on West River Road near Boom Island unloading my kayak.

We had decided to do the full distance this time, going from the upper lock to 694 and back. Once we got going, it wasn't bad - only my feet were cold. I had brought my pogies this time (things that are on top of your gloves to keep them warmer), and noticed a huge difference in how warm my hands were. I am still working on the footwear issue, though. Neoprene booties with a pair of wool socks are marginal - cold feet, but not as numb as last time. (Progress!) On the educational side, there was a LOT more icing this time. I ran into problems getting my rudder up/down because of icing, and discovered it's almost impossible to put something under a deck bungy when there is ice and I am wearing gloves. (Temps were in the mid-20's, with a brisk north wind. Not sure of the exact amount, but the flags we saw were fully extended, so I would guess 10+ mph).

Here is a picture of Matt paddling upstream, about a mile south of where 694 crosses the Mississippi river:

We miscalculated (again!) the amount of time required for our trip. Part of this stemmed from the fact that it was very annoying to check the time, since it involved removing a pogie to gain access to my wrist to see the time. The upside was that we were finally headed back downstream around 4:30, and so were treated to a view of downtown as the lights were all coming on. It occurred to me that this would be a cool trip in the spring when it's a bit warmer, but it still gets dark fairly early.

All told, we ended up paddling 14 miles. We got out of the boats once to heed the call of nature, but other than that decided that the boats were the warm place to be! A highlight of the trip for me was when Matt shared some coffee out of his thermos with me - I had not thought to bring anything warm, so this was very, very tasty! We'll see if we are able to get out for another paddle in December - it will all depend on how iced up our potential launch zones are at that time.

Saturday in the Park

2008-11-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend. The day itself was spent with our neighbors, the Johnson family. Even though we started with a large turkey, there was little left by the end of the day. The downside (for me) was accidently (versus intentionally?) cutting myself with a knife as I was sharpening it. This led to us learning that a) Alex knows that a bandaid means that I had an "Ow-ie", and b) Alex brought out a bandaid for me to put on him (if I have an "ow-ie", he should have one too). He was quite proud of his band-aid, and made it a point to show it to mama on several occassions.

On Saturday, we decided to go for a drive in Alex's car. My original intent was to go around the block (which is about a mile). But, Alex decided it was a nice day, so we continued onward to the park where he enjoying running around and swinging. I fully expected I would be carrying him home, but he was happy to get back in his car around noon for the long "drive" home. (I installed a footrest for him, so he can keep his feet up as I push him along.)

The weather was nice and sunny, with temps in the low 30's. Sunday marked a dramatic change in conditions!

Another lap around the sun...

2008-11-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

Sunday marked another lap around the sun for me, and I did things I enjoy to celebrate the day. In the morning I kayaked with SKOAC. We rent a pool once per month during the winter season, and it's a good chance to practice rolling techniques and things like that. My rolls are getting pretty consistent - I'm now shifting from being happy about just being able to do a roll to focusing on building up the muscle memory to make it more "solid". Still a ways to go.

In the afternoon, Pam and I headed in Minneapolis to attend a talk given by Dr. John Francis (founder of Planetwalk). He spent 17 years not talking, and shared his experiences and what he learned. Originally he started out by being quiet for a day, then decided to go a whole year. It was his gift to others - apparently he was quite chatty before the silence thing. His goal was to draw attention to the environment (he started in the early 70s). In addition to not talking, he decided he would not travel in any motorized vehicle.

I was amazed to hear how during his silent period, he completed a BS in Oregon, then walked over to Montana for his MS, then walked over to Madison, WI to complete his Ph.D. He was doing his Ph.D. on oil spills in the late 80's for no particular reason - he was just interested in the topic. Then, in 1989, the Exxon Valdez dumped its load of oil, and all of a sudden he was in high demand. In turns out that he was the only person in the US studying oil spills at a Ph.D. level, and the government was eager to tap into his knowledge.

For me, the most interesting part of the talk came at the end. He described a series of experiences that made him realize it was time to shift his thinking, since he had evolved a value system that was at odds with his beliefs. His original goal was to draw attention to pollution and the environment by walking and not talking. But, when he became a highly sought after expert in key areas, he realized that asking folks to wait 3-6 months for him to walk or bike somewhere was not going to help him be more effective. Thus, he agreed to start driving and flying, since it would be a more effective way to get his message out.

This got me to thinking. What set of habits have I adopted that are actually at odds with my current situation and underlying belief system? We all have contradictions in our lives - which ones are keeping us from being the people we would like to be, or even imagine ourselves to be today. I don't expect to take a vow of silence of 17 years, but this is definitely a question worth pondering.

Saturday w/ Alex

2008-11-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

We had a good weekend.

On Saturday, we returned to the Children's Science Museum in St. Paul. It was a family outing this time - all three of us. It was clear that Alex remembered the place, as he had formed very strong opinions as to where he wanted to go first. He headed straight for the crane, though I suspect the main attraction there for him is the "big truck" that the operator of the crane is attempting to load. He was more interested in watching that than he was in playing with the controls.

After that, we headed over to the boats, where he remembered how that whole process worked. The Museum is interesting, since a particular exhibit can be packed with a dozen kids (not good for a wee little one like Alex), but if you wait 5 minutes, they all leave and you have the place to yourself. In any case, he enjoyed playing with the boats and other water stuff.

After that, we headed upstairs to the "Hobi-tot" - a special play area for kids up to 4 years old. This tends to be less crowded than some other areas, and the kids are young enough that they are still ok with sharing. Alex likes running around there, and playing hide-and-seek with Mom & Dad.

Big Truck in our Front Yard

2008-11-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

It's been an interesting 24 hours for Alex. Last night he woke up at 12:30 and was having problems breathing (croup). Fortunately, he responded well the the recommended 20 minute steam bath. I responded pretty well too - in spite of sweating profusely (it was like a poor man's sauna), I was overjoyed when it was clear the technique was working. Needless to say, after 20 minutes we were pretty soaked with sweat, but the nurse had suggested heading outside for a bit for cold air. It was around 20F outside, so I think that qualifies.

So, I wrapped both of us up in a down comforter, and we headed out to the front porch. There was a chair there, so I plopped down and prepared to wait and slowly get cold. But, exactly the opposite happened. I was extremely comfortable, since it was a lot like being wrapped up in a down mummy bag. I was holding my son, who had put his head down on my shoulder and was obviously extremely relaxed (as stressed as I was, imagine if you were the one having the breathing issues). After 5 minutes, Pam came out to tell us we could come in, but Alex very firmly said, "NO!" So we hung out for another 5 minutes or so - I could easily have fallen asleep, and I think Alex felt the same way. But, we came in and soon everyone was asleep.

In the morning, Alex got a treat. One of his favorite things in the whole world is "Big Trucks". There is a loading dock next to daycare, and he really enjoys seeing the big rigs come and go. This morning our neighbors were movning in, so there was a moving truck right out front. Needless to say, the little guy was quite excited about that. We were doing a slow start to the day so everyone (well, Alex and myself) could get a little extra rest, so we spent some time checking out the truck. I wonder if Alex will now expect the truck to be there tomorrow?

Late Fall Paddling

2008-11-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

I was able to get out the water Saturday afternoon for some paddling. An unexpected treat this late in the season. Matt Kennedy, who did the Rossport trip back in August with, came along to check out this thing I call "urban paddling":

We hit the water at around 2:30 or so - the temps were a bit above freezing, but the wind was blowing hard. I was excited about trying out my pogies (things you put on your hands while paddling to keep them toasty) until I realized that I had left them at home. Fortunately, I had some neoprene gloves along!

We started at the I694 bridge (a park off of East River Road), and paddled downstream. This would force us to work hard to come back. It was a great day, and the downtown skyline beckoned us to keep paddling. We finally turned around when we realized we would be tight on time (and energy) to make it back before the sun went down. (We turned around at the bridge in the background. The bridge after that is at Boom Island.)

Leaving that late in the afternoon meant that the sun set while we were still on the water. This resulted in temps dropping below freezing. As a result, we both had a decent layer of ice on our boats from the paddle spray. the spray skirts were pretty crusty too. It was also pretty dark (and COLD) when we returned, and the park was getting ready to close (the ranger stopped by to see when we were going to leave).

We had a good paddle. Total distance was just under 12 miles - not bad for an impromptu paddle. Both of us dressed warmly, and were fairly comfortable. Until we got out of our boats. Turns out the spray skirt contributes a lot to staying warm!

First Snow

2008-11-12T06:46:00.001-08:00

We had our first snow last night. Started out as freezing rain and sleet, then turned to snow around midnight. This morning everything was a beautiful white:

I don't think Alex remembers the snow from last year. He was really fascinated by the whole world being white this morning. When he stepped outside, he thought it was really cool that he was leaving footprints on the driveway, and kept turning around to look at them. Here he is checking the view out through the window, and pointing out that something seems a bit different:

Falltime in Minnesota

2008-11-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

Every year we make a big production out of raking leaves. We figured out a few years back that we were spending a huge amount of time bagging leaves. Ramsey County (where we live) has a compost site about 3 miles away, so it works out very nicely to just load the back of the truck with leaves and drive them over there. We end up getting the entire yard done in just a few hours. I think I estimated a few years back that I can put the equivalent of around 20 bags of leaves into the back of the truck.

This year, Alex had fun playing in the back of the truck as we were filling it up. He is joined by Lizzy (on the left) and Meghan:

Children's Museum

2008-11-08T19:00:00.001-08:00

We had our first snow yesterday (11/7), and so I've started thinking about warm things to do around here to get thru the winter. Specifically, warm things to do on the weekend with Alex.

I have heard good things about the local Children's Museum, so I finally took Alex down this this morning. This gave Pam so quality sanity time to herself, and Alex and I had a chance to do that father/son bonding thing. It was a really cool place. Alex spent a lot of time playing with the boats - he put the boat at the top of the track, and when he lifted the gate it water would come pouring out and carry the boat down to the pool at the bottom. I lost track of how many times he did this - he was having a LOT of fun.

We then wandered over to the ball room, where he enjoyed pushing a large ball around.

The remainder of the day was spent in a little room where he was able to climb around, crawl, and generally explore. I didn't realize until I got home that I don't have any pictures from there (ironic, since it had the best lighting). The next time we go, I think I'll try to talk Pam into joining us so I can bring my Nikon and get some better shots. It's certainly a challenge trying to watch the little guy and take good pictures at the same time.

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Last night I took Alex out trick-or-treating. This year he was dressed up as a lion. He wasn't too sure about the lion outfit, so he insisted on having his own hat on. Pam realized that he wouldn't care about a second hat at that point, so she put the "lion hat" on after that. A fairly unique look was thus achieved.

He did really well, at least in my opinion. He walked around the whole neighborhood on his own (I never had to carry him). In addition, he insisted on carrying his little pumpkin candy bucket. I suspect that had more to do with keeping an eye on his stuff. It was cute watching him stop every 2 or 3 houses, sit down on someones lawn and proceed to check out the contents of his bucket. Our neighbors (Meghan and Lizzy) who had joined us felt that this behavior was slowing them down, but seemed to be pretty good sports about it anyway.

This one is a bit blurry, but I like the artistic effect:

The group is ready to go. From left: Meghan, Alex and Lizzy. I had a lot of fun taking them around the neighborhood.

I dressed up as "Indiana Jones". A few neighbors caught it. One even came out as we were half-way down the driveway to tell me she realized I was dressed up as Indy:

Laudaga 2008

2008-10-30T11:01:00.001-07:00

This year the Laudaga weekend was held during the last weekend in October. For the first time in 18 years, Aldas was unable to attend so the group was one of the smallest we've seen in some time. The weather varied from warm and sunny to cold and rainy, but there was ample opportunity to get outside and have some fun.

The kids had fun rebuilding their fort by the swings, and enjoyed a "GPS course" as well. The GPS course is a cross between geo-caching and orienteering. I set up a course, and hide a playing card at each location. I then mark the location on the GPS, and come up with a witty clue to describe where the card is hidden. The GPS will get them to within 20 feet or so, at which point they have to use the clue to figure out where the card is hidden. (It's amazing watching them wander off 100-200 feet from where the GPS said the card is hidden as they forget that component and focus solely on the clue). The orienteering component comes in because the GPS points in the direction of the next card, but they need to figure out the best way to get there. Last year, I was amazed at how well they did this - they were popping up and walking along the road, then zipping back into the woods to get to the location. Very efficient. I commented on this, and Gytis (I think) pointed out that he was just following my path, which was still in the GPS as a dotted line. I.e., he was tracing my footsteps. I quickly erased that from the GPS memory, leaving them with only the actual marked locations and surprised looks on their faces.

The log chopping contest was won by Aidas this year. Aras took 2nd, and Senelis won the bronze. The card game (tukstantis) was a bit more interesting. Since only 3 of us were playing, we opted to give Aldas the points for the cards being dealt. This is how the game is played with 4 players, with the dealer position changing after each hand. The first game was won by Aidas, and Aldas took third (out of 4). Since the first game was over quickly, we opted to play a second game, which was won by Aras. Yet, once again, Aldas took third. In both games, it actually hurt one of the players to be at the table using their "strategy". Fortunately, both players also won a game so ego's were not bruised beyond repair.

Official group portrait from this year:

Click here for full set of photos (42 photos).

Stages of Man's Life

2008-10-29T07:44:00.001-07:00

My father crafted a series of plaques depicting the different stages in a man's life. The plaque below is the one closest to my current stage. Granted, I have not made the jump to a mini-van, but I do enjoy driving around with a happy son in the back seat.

Alex is not quite at this stage yet, but I do think this plaque does a good job of capturing the joy a little boy feels riding his tricycle:

Click here for a link to the full set of plaques (10 photos).

Alex pics in early fall (doing toddler stuff)

2008-10-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

Some new pictures of Alex taken in the last month or so. I took these with my super compact Olympus SW850. This is a camera the size of a cellphone, so it's very easy to just slip it into my pocket in case a photo op presents itself. All of the pics below were from opportunities presenting themselves - I would not have brought one of my larger cameras. It's not always about having the best equipment to take the shot - sometimes it's simply about having the equipment available!

Click here to see all pictures in this gallery.

Alex in the Park

2008-10-04T16:01:00.001-07:00

We went to Central Park today to check out one of the larger play areas in our part of town. Expecting to see almost no one when we set out, we were quite amazed to find out a fundraising event was in progress. We even bumped into our neighbors there.

In any case, what started out as a fairly brisk morning (45), turned into a beautiful day. Alex had a lot of fun climbing around, and exploring the area:

Kayaking - Silver Islet to Rossport Story

2008-09-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

Finally completed my writeup for our Silver Islet to Rossport trip. The scenery was even more spectacular than I expected, and I continue to be amazed at the variety of landscapes we encountered.

Friday

We started the trip Friday afternoon. Jill and Matt met me at my house, where we proceeded to load up the kayak trailer with our three boats. We left right on time (according to my expectations, but 45 minutes late according to others) and headed north to Duluth. Between rush hour traffic and pulling a trailer (not being sure how fast I should go), we didn't make it up to Duluth until well past 7. Time for dinner.

The original intent was to drive all the way up to Grand Portage that evening and stay at the Casino. However, the winds were blowing hard causing large waves out on Superior. As such, there was little hope for getting out on the water Saturday. Why is this important? It's key because this allowed us to saunter into a restaurant I've always to check out up there: Hell's Kitchen. Turns out the manager/owner (Mark) is a good friend of Matt's. As if that is not enough, Mark has also done a lot of guiding in the Silver Islet / Rossport area. He was kind enough to share his expertise with us while we enjoyed some fine adult beverages and a meal that couldn't be beat.

By the time we got out of there, it was 10pm, and there was no way our little group was going to make it up to the border. So we opted to stay on my boat for the night, and proceeded onward the next morning.

Saturday

The trip up to the border was uneventful. This was the calm before the storm.

At the border, we had some excitement. Turns out that not everyone wanted to tell the customs officials what they had packed. Our confusion prompted them to search the truck, which was an impressive undertaking (there was a LOT of camping gear, and they made us unpack everything so they could run it thru their X-ray machine). After some time, they concluded that we were not dangerous terrorists or devious smugglers after all, but rather, just silly (and not too bright) kayakers. Once this became clear, I found myself liking the mystique of being potentially dangerous. But - too late. The label was cast and we were given a very stern verbal warning and told it would go on our permanent record.

Driving onward, we came around Thunder Bay and proceeded onward to the Sibley Peninsula. Eventually (why does it seem like the last few hours of a trip take the longest), we found our way to Marie Louise Provincial Park, where my troubles with the law continued. Seems that I was driving at 40 km/hr, but the speed limit was 20 km/hr. The ranger was much nicer about it than the customs officials, but I was now becoming quite wary of anyone in uniform. Or pretty much anyone in general. I was getting very eager to get out on the water.

Sunday

Listening to the wind conditions for Sunday on our weather radio, we opted for a late afternoon start. Turns out this was a bit conservative since the waves calmed down sooner than expected. In any case, by 3pm we were ready to go.

We paddled offshore to check out the famous Silver Islet mine. There was a cool model in the park visitor center - pretty much how it looked at its peak. The island today was a bit of a let down. Only a few large beams in the water give any indication that anything interesting ever happened here. This would explain the reaction of those I told about my intent to see the mine - "I suppose you could, but I'm not sure why you would want to".

Our brush with history complete, we set off on our trip. The trip was supposed to be (ideal case) about 75 miles. We expected it to be closer to 100 miles with side trips and explorations.

Crossing Black Bay was pretty uneventful. Turns out there are islands nicely spaced so that you don't really feel like you are doing a major crossing. At least, not as major as it would appear on a map. Completing the crossing, we made landfall at Pophery Point. There is a cool lighthouse there. The campsite was very buggy, and kind of freaked us out about how buggy it was going to be the rest of the week. As it turned out, this was the only place we encountered bugs. But, there were a *LOT* of them!

Jill really enjoys cooking, and finds it relaxing. We had agreed that Jill would be in charge of the cooking, since Matt and I felt it important to do anything we could to help Jill relax. Indeed, as she was busy getting dinner ready and relaxing, Matt and I hiked the trail through the woods to the lighthouse. The bugs attacked me with a viciousness I have rarely seen. I was very happy to finally get to the lighthouse and the breeze that the open fields provided. The area was quite picturesque, and we had fun exploring the grounds.

After dinner, Matt made a very nice campfire for us to enjoy.

Monday

Monday morning we departed Porphyry Point and headed north. Winding our way through the small islands, we were getting into the groove of paddling. Crossing between Magnet Island and Magnet point, we had been advised to watch our compasses carefully for wild swings, but didn't see much. I suppose we were still too enthralled with the scenery to really want to spend time staring at our compass. After Magnet Island, we came across a commercial fishing operation. This is the only one we saw on our trip.

Mark had told us that the lighthouse is Number 10 Island was really cool, so we headed there for lunch. Very picturesque for camping (with lots of space), but a bit exposed if conditions were rough. A great spot to check out for lunch. And a nap.

The afternoon paddling was pretty focused on getting to Swede Island. The sauna there is legendary - reported to be the best in the area. I have never been to a "volunteer run sauna", and so was eager to see what was in store for us. We arrived at an amazingly pictureseque bay, and easily found the sauna. There is also a building that serves as an "emergency cabin". This was built in the early 70's, and is maintained by volunteers. There is a visitor logbook, where I was pleased to see entries by other members of our kayaking club in the past couple of years.

But, about the sauna. Matt quickly got a fire going, and started heating the sauna. My experience with saunas was limited to what I remember from Michigan Tech - there was a sauna next to the locker room that I used to frequent. That was some time ago, and so I was eager to see how this would be. (In fairness to Timbu, I also had tried a sauna after hiking Snowbank Lake, but that was a bit toasty for me.) There was a thermometer hanging there, and once it reached 150, Matt declared it was time. We went in, and immediately my sinuses starting clearing up. It was great. The sauna is right next to the water, so we were able to run from there to the bay and jump in. A nice way to wind up the day.

Tuesday

Tuesday we awoke to incredible conditions. The high pressure system was still with us, and the morning was perfect. A lot of dew had settled overnight, and the day was warming up quickly.

We paddled north, going up to Loon Harbor. We saw the remains of an old sawmill there, and talked with some powerboaters who were anchored and busy enjoying their breakfast. Very picturesque. Continuing north, we were aiming for Loon Harbor, but soon realized we were making very good time. There was some discussion at lunch whether we should adjust our schedule to take advantage of the great weather, but the argument was made that the forecast for tomorrow was still good, and we should enjoy the nice weather and just relax.

We arrived at Otter Bay in mid afternoon. Otter Island stands guard at the mouth of the bay, and forms a very impressive cliff. We paddled in, and checked out the campsite near the mouth of the bay, then headed on to the north part of the bay to find the one that was supposed to be better. It was a bit rough, but workable. Lots of moose sign, so I felt sure that we would be seeing moose in that area.

That night Matt built a nice little custom fireplace, and we enjoyed a most relaxing fire. The stars were out in full force, with an especially impressive Milky Way. The moon was not rising until much later, so each night I was able to enjoy the stars without any light pollution. I recall being able to see the Milky Way in the city (Lansing, MI) when I was a child. There was a lot less pollution back then - both smog and light.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning Matt got out in his boat early to go check out the eastern end of the bay. Jill and I were packing and eating breakfast (Matt can munch on a breakfast bar and call it good.) Around 9, he came back, and we paddled out to Lake Superior. It was clear that a new front had come through, since the waves were now quite substantial. Big. Huge. We tried paddling in them for a few minutes, then concluded paddling with the waves hitting us broadside for at least an hour was not a good idea, especially with very limited opportunities to land. So, a quick U-turn and we headed back in to explore the bay some more.

It turns out that in the east sub-bay, there is a trail that goes to a substantial waterfall. At this point in the summer, there was only a small creek running over it, but I could see that in the spring this would be quite impressive. We spent a good chunk of the day relaxing there and exploring the trails that ran in the area. The trails were strange - they are in great shape, and marked with bits of orange plastic tied to the trees. But, the location makes me wonder who comes out here to maintain (and use) this network? I really have no idea.

In late afternoon, we headed back up to the smaller campsite at the mouth of the bay and set up camp there. It was actually nicer than our previous location. We could see (and hear) the surf crashing on Otter Island, reminding us that the Lake was still roaring. This was a bit strange, since we were so protected the water was glass-smooth in front of us.

Thursday

It rained during the night, and the sound of the surf was still unmistakable. So, no one was in a hurry to get moving. The weather radio indicated 1-2 meter waves, and our observations suggested 2 meter was about right. It was still raining (misting) during the morning, which made for a nice quiet environment. I really like that kind of thing. A friend of mine noted that there is no such thing as bad weather, only lousy gear. Our gear was good, and so we could enjoy the mist and how it changed the mood of our campsite with the fog and wet leaves.

In the early afternoon, we were beginning to go stir crazy. The surf was still there, but we decided to paddle out to take a look. Turns out that the wind had calmed a bit, so the waves were more like swells (the faces were not quite so steep). Thus encouraged, we returned to camp to get ready for departure.

We paddled up and around the point, and found the going was pretty good. This turned out to be an ideal situation, since the swells were crashing spectacularly on the shoals and rocky shoreline. Yet, were quite comfortable paddling along and just enjoying the show. It was clear to me that attempting this section yesterday would have been a mistake - very little safety margin for something going wrong.

We arrived at the gravel spit at the northwest tip of Spar Island, and noted that there was in fact an indication that camping was available there. None of us had noticed it before - otherwise we would have paddled to here instead of Otter Island. In any case, the camping there was quite nice. Jill prepared a very tasty dinner, and we discussed what needed to happen to finish up the trip on time. We concluded a longer day tomorrow would get us back on track, and targeted doing about 28 miles. With an early start, this should not be a problem.

This was also our first (and only) attempt to actually hang a bear bag. The problem was that we had a LOT of stuff to hang, and that the trees in the area were not ideally suited for the task. After a substantial amount of effort, we were close to a regulation bear-bag, but were also quite close to a "bear pinata" - that's what I call a bag that will likely provide more entertainment for the bear than actual deterrent. It was dark and late, we had been assured the odds of seeing a bear were minimal, so we called it done and went to sleep.

Friday

I awoke in the dark, and got my tent packed up using the headlight. It turns out that being sick was slowing me down a bit, and so I compensated by waking up earlier. We were on the water by 7, and started paddling north.

Our first goal was to make it to CPR slip, which we had heard was worth checking out. It was sort of a like a "super Swede Island" - two large buildings, extensive set of docks for use by sailboats and powerboats. This was maintained by a much larger group of volunteers, and supported through extensive donations. There was a sign asking those who were on guided trips to not use the facility. The sauna was large enough to fit a small crowd. Unfortunately, we did not have time to fire it up, and had to be content with simply noting it for future reference.

Paddling north from CPR slip after lunch, we saw some nasty thunderstorm clouds in front of us, and concluded they were going to stay in front. So we kept going, and made the crossing from Bowman Island over to Hope Island. The north side of Hope Island has a really nice gravel beach, and made for an ideal break location. Paddling into Armour Harbour was strange, because no exit could be seen until we were almost on top of it. We kept looking at the maps, making sure we were in the right location.

As we cleared Armour Island, I glanced behind us and saw that another thunderstorm was forming to the south. We opted to cut our day at 22 miles, and darted into McHab Harbor. We were able to get our tents set up, and Matt even got a little fire going before it started raining. And hailing. Matt's fire was in a depression, which soon filled with water and his fire was no more. After a hour or so, the rain let up, and Mother Nature treated us to a really nice sunset.

Saturday

Saturday was our last "real" day of paddling, and no one was in a hurry for this day to be over. We crossed Moffat Strait, and found the columnar basalt on the southwest tip of Simpson Island. This was really impressive, since it went on for a while.

The camping spot on the west side of Woodbine Harbor was nice, but we could only note it as a place to stay in the future.

Paddling on the McCay cove, we figured that would work for a lunch break. The marked campsite was already taken by some tandem kayakers. We considered paddling up to say hi, then noted that they were nude and hiding behind a bush, and decided to give them the privacy they were expecting. On the east end of McCay cove there was a nice spot for a lunchbreak, and an opportunity to get cleaned up in the water. I tried to climb up to Beetle Point, but found it to be more challenging than expected. With more time, I could solve the problem, but had to leave it for the next trip.

Leaving Simpson Island behind us, we paddled on towards the lighthouse on Battle Island. This was one of the more impressive lighthouses in the area, and made for a really nice target as we paddled towards the island. We headed north to Harry Island, where I was eager to check out the campsite noted as the "Harry Hilton". This was an interesting place - the sort of place you would expect to see in Deliverance. A bunkhouse and such, but limited options for tents. With such images in mind, we opted to find a better location, and were rewarded with an awesome spot on the northwest side of the island. Perfect view of the sunset, lots of space - what could be better? A perfect way to spend our last night of the trip.

Sunday

Conditions were expected to pick up Sunday, so we packed up and got moving. Truth be told, no one was going to be depressed if we had to spend another night out camping. But, there were some advantages to getting home Sunday night and so we stuck with the original game plan.

We crossed Wilson Channel without incident, and paddled towards Rossport. There was a lighthouse indicated at Whiskey Island that was disappointing. After the red/white picturesque lighthouses we were accustomed to seeing, this was a simple strobe on the edge of a rock outcropping.

Rounding Whisky Island, Rossport appeared. We quickly crossed Rossport Harbour, and just like that, the trip was over.

Full set of pictures here

Rossport Kayaking Pictures Posted

2008-09-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

Still working on the trip story, but I've posted some pictures from the Silver Islet to Rossport kayaking trip at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=16ah43nr.8l3p37bn&x=0&y=-6524hn&localeid=en_US

Family Visit

2008-08-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

Alex is at a stage where he really likes having books read to him. Over the past weekend, my parents were in town and he was able to take advantage of the opportunity to have Senelis (grandfather in Lithuanian) read to him:

My dad's cousin, Aleksandra, was also in town. She really clicked with Alex, and enjoyed playing with him:

We had a really full house, since Lori (Pams' sister) and her son Braden were in town. Alex and Braden had a blast in the bathtub splashing each other (as well as Pam and Lori):

The full set of pictures can be found at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=16ah43nr.a8nas4mb&x=0&y=amn8qu&localeid=en_US

Two Harbors Kayak Festival

2008-08-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend up in Two Harbors, MN at the annual kayak festival. I won my division in the kayaking race, which worked out to about 10th overall out of around 80 boats. It was the hardest I've pushed myself since I did the Turtleman Triathalon in 2004.

In addition to the racing, they also have kayak demos for people to try. Alex realizes that all good kayaking starts with the right paddle. So, his first course of action was to investigate the differences between my european style paddle (the Werner Kaliste):

and the traditional, or greenland style paddle:

These are important decisions that will affect his life greatly, and should be made only after great consideration.

We camped at the Burlington Bay campground, which ended up being a bit of a challenge with Alex. He was not feeling 100%, and so getting him to sleep was problematic. In the morning, however, we had a lot of fun reading books to him in the tent:

He enjoys a little breakfast milk with his book:

We are reading "You and Me" by Martine Kindermans to him. This is currently one of his favorite books, and he can easily sit through 5 back-to-back readings! It's a story about two geese, parent and child, that describes how they are always there for each other.

Weekend in Duluth

2008-07-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in Duluth. Here are some pics of Alex...

Here he is looking at some seagulls...

Like any little boy, he then felt compelled to chase them around:

Duluth has a very cool playground area for kids. It's a HUGE wooden structure with plenty of space for kids to run around and explore. Some of the passageways are too small for me to get through - I started, then realized I could easily get stuck. Alex thought the independence part was pretty cool. Here is Pam getting some sunscreen on Alex as we get ready to play:

We discovered about 2 weeks ago that Alex can hold himself up. He found these bars that are at the correct height, and had a lot of fun swinging around:

I like this picture of Alex looking at me. He is having a lot of fun exploring!

He is making his way down the stairs, and pauses to consider the implications of the current economic situation in the US. Or maybe just thinking about what to go explore next?

Alex discovered sailboats, and boats in general on this trip. Here Pam is walking back with Alex after walking over to look at the boats on the lake:

A full set of pictures from the weekend can be found at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=16ah43nr.6ba1im6r&x=0&y=amkkey&localeid=en_US

Alex and his tricycle

2008-07-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

We recently got a Keller tricycle at the Goodwill store (saw it as we were dropping off some furniture) on Saturday for $3.99. $4 of stainless steel screws at the hardware store to fix a few things and we were in business! I'm guessing this bike is 25+ years old - definitely an older style, and it's stamped with "Made in W. Germany". Colors are green frame (steel), purple seat and a bright yellow bucket in the rear.

In any case, he is now familiar with how to keep his feet on the pedals as we push him around. He is also getting pretty good at steering. Turns out he can steer around things really well if he sees the need to go around something. So, the lessons are actually on making him realize that going in a straight line is a good idea. He is quickly getting the hang of it. Now the challenge will be to get him to realize he needs to go somewhere, or should avoid something.

Turns out the bucket is perfectly sized for a mop. This saves a lot of wear and tear on the backs of the older folks who push Alex around. This is a good thing, since Alex bee-lines to the tricycle when we get home from work/daycare, and says "ride bike, ride bike" several times.

Definitely a happy kid on the trike!

Kingfishers

2008-07-23T06:57:00.001-07:00

A few pictures of the kingfishers in our pond:

A walk in the park

2008-07-23T06:42:00.001-07:00

Turtle Lake Park is pretty close to our home - it's a little under a mile to walk there. During the summer, I often take Alex over there to play. There is a nice playground that is shaded - I appreciate that during the hot and humid days. Plus, there is a beach that is very "kid-friendly". By this I mean the water is warm, and it doesn't get deep very fast.

We were there recently, and Alex found a nerf football. He really enjoyed tossing it to me, and was actually doing pretty well insofar as accuracy is concerned:

After we got done playing catch (and put the ball back where we found it), he wanted to walk down to the lake. So we did:

We got down to the beach pretty quickly:

And then looked for ducks. Alex really likes ducks. Though, in fairness to other waterfowl, I think he interprets "duck" as "bird". Since there a lot of ducks around here, he is right more often than wrong. It's cute, though, to hear other toddlers correct him when he calls a goose a duck.

Little moments like these help to make the summer very special.

Little Eyes

2008-07-16T09:41:00.001-07:00

I came across this in a co-workers office, and it really hit home:

Little Eyes Upon You
By: Author Unknown

There are little eyes upon you
and they're watching night and day.

There are little ears that quickly
take in every word you say.

There are little hands all eager
to do anything you do;

And a little boy who's dreaming
of the day he'll be like you.

You're the little fellow's idol,
you're the wisest of the wise.

In his little mind about you
no suspicions ever rise.

He believes in you devoutly,
holds all you say and do;

He will say and do, in your way
when he's grown up just like you.

There's a wide-eyed little fellow
who believes you're always right;
and his eyes are always opened,
and he watches day and night.

You are setting an example
every day in all you do;

For the little boy who's waiting
to grow up to be like you.

Me in a kayak...

2008-07-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture Dave took of me kayaking in the Apostle Islands a few weeks ago. I'm pleased with how much my kayaking philosophy has changed since I first started paddling. Much less stuff on the front deck is probably the biggest thing. I did realize last week when I was out practicing rolls that my approach to securing a paddle float and pump inside the boat was somewhat flawed, since they came loose during a wet exit. On the plus side, not having them on the rear deck made it possible to simply hop up and plop myself back in the boat (something I learned during the pool sessions last winter). Other improvements are the Camelback hydration system attached to the PFD (much, much easier to stay hydrated) and the cool looking knife on the front deck (in addition to looking cool, I have also used it to spread peanut butter).

4th of July Weekend

2008-07-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

I had a very enjoyable 4th of July weekend in New England. The weekend was spent traveling and participating in a family reunion (my mom's side of the family). Pretty good turnout - about 60+ people showed up, traveling from places like FL, CA and OR (not to mention MN):

My first time on the Amtrak system. My cousin (Daina) and I paid the extra $8 for "Business Class", and found it to be a worthwhile investment. Very relaxing trip. About 2 hours long, but the seating was as nice (if not better) than what I recall in Business Class when I flew to India a few years ago.

At the reunion, it was cool re-connecting with cousins that I have not seen in 10 years (since the last reunion). We did a number of fun things as teams, including building a sandcastle:

Full list of pictures can be found at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=16ah43nr.8kywpz4n&x=0&y=wmxg50&localeid=en_US

stick 'em up

2008-07-02T04:39:00.000-07:00

We were chatting with our neighbors (Chris and Lorna) last night when Chris took Alex over to their front yard to play with an orange soccer ball. This picture gives a whole new meaning to "stick 'em up"!

Synchronized Greenland Kayaking Team

2008-06-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to get out for some paddling in the Apostle Islands. It was great to finally get out for a while and get my boat wet. I came across the world famous Synchronized Greenland Paddle Kayaking Team, which is made up of four of the folks I was paddling with: Ron, Dave, Tom, and Kathy.

Playing in the hammock

2008-06-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

It's been pointed out to me by my fellow kayakers that I have not been actively posting in some time. I was amazed to see that my last post was in August of last year. Difficult to defend myself when the data clearly shows I have not kept up.

To start off yet another well-intentioned attempt at staying up to date, I found this picture of Alex and myself playing in the hammock a few weeks ago. He really gets a kick out of climbing up there with me. As soon as I lay down, he comes walking over and climbs in with me. He will then snuggle in on my left side (he feels obligated to crawl over me for some reason), and relax. Being a toddler, there is not much stress in his life, so he only needs to relax for one (maybe two) minutes to feel fully refreshed. At that point he will climb over me again, and hop down to continue playing with whatever toys are out on the deck.

Safe Kayaking

2007-08-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

I've been busy getting ready for the big kayaking trip this year, which entails going back to Isle Royale for a circumnavigation. To get ready for this, I've been doing some training over at Turtle Lake. Last week, I was out for about 75 minutes. About an hour of paddling, plus 15 minutes of rolling practice. At the far side of the lake, I started thinking about how I had been in a hurry to get on the lake, and was rushing to get the kayak off, etc. I remembered the key to the truck was in my pocket, so I dug it out and put in my PFD (aka life-jacket). This was not good - I had put the key in my shorts with the intent of transferring it to my PFD when I locked the truck up. Had I forgotten? Sure enough, when I came walking up, there was my truck with the driver side door wide open!

All the stuff was still inside - cell phone, wallet, big case of CDs. Wow!

In contrast, the truck I had in San Diego was broken into while I was rollerblading at Miramar reservoir - they punched the passenger side lock out and took my credit card.

Things like this remind my why I like living in Minnesota.

Alex w/ Katie

2007-08-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

When Alex started daycare, his teacher was Katie. He is shown here saying "hi" to her last week during an outdoor event. They get along really, really well.

Alex in the Morning

2007-08-17T18:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, Alex was taking his time waking up so I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures. This is the one I like the best:

People actually read this!?!?!

2007-08-09T10:30:00.001-07:00

I was informed last night that there are actually people who check this on a regular basis. Imagine my surprise!!! In the next week or so, I will try to get this blog up to date (for the most part). The dates will changed to match the photos, so it's worth pointing out that the last post I made (around 6 months ago) was in mid Feb. It's a B&W picture of Alex when he was around 6 weeks old...

Ok, time to do some posting...

Macro experimentation

2007-08-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite macro shot so far:

Trip to Iowa for Gerald's Bday

2007-07-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

We went down to Iowa in mid July to surprise Gerald (Pam's father) for his birthday. At the birthday party, Alex spent some time with my good friend Ron.

Alex explores a leaf while Ron watches:

Ron took Alex over to the cornfield for more exploring:

Sailing in Duluth

2007-06-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

While vacationing in Duluth, I snapped the following series of Pam and Alex. Alex is about 6 months old in this sequence.

The frown:

Then a smile:

Finally, a big kiss for mom!

Dad w/ Alex

2007-06-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

Aras and Alex seeing eye to eye:

Aras & Alex - both are having a good day:

Best Alex Pics

2007-06-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

One of the first times Alex was outside in the spring:

Sunday mornings Pam liked to sleep in, so I would practice my portrait photography with Alex:

Alex was learning to smile:

One of his first baths:

A happy mother with her newborn son:

I really like this picture of Alex - he is so focused:

After a bath, we typically wrapped Alex up in a blanket. I like the soft lighting in this one:

Super macro photography

2007-04-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

I had a few moments of "down time", and wanted to check out how close of a closeup I could do with my digital SLR. This is a "full frame" picture of a quarter. To do this, I combined a Tamron 90mm macro lens, a 2x converter and a bellows attachment that I borrowed from Tim a while back. (Quite a while back, actually, now that I think about it.)

B&W photo of Alex

2007-02-08T10:40:00.000-08:00

A picture of Alex at 6 weeks of age. I ran into some problems trying to get the color balance right (main light source is through some shades, and I used a fill flash). This was getting to be very frustrating until I realized that all of the coloring issues went away if I converted the picture to black and white. This is my favorite picture (so far):

Searching for Web-Searches

2007-02-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

Apparently you can now do web searches to find out what other people are searching for. This is a very powerful business tool, since it enables you to accurately identify your target segment and create a marketing strategy to reach them. Some of this entry was taken directly from the WSJ article "The New Benefits of Web-Search Queries", Feb 6, 2007 (page B3 in the printed version).

Companies that buy search-related advertising through Google and Yahoo can access the online keyword tools, which enable them to enter specific terms and see estimates of consumer search queries or clicks on related search ads for a given time period. Yahoo has a free online tool accessible to anyone as well at:

http://inventory.overture.com/d /searchinventory/suggestion/

Microsoft has a free prototype service that offers historical monthly search volumes and forecasts for a few months, as well as an age and gender breakdown of those searching:

http://adlab.microsoft.com/ForecastV2/KeywordTrendsWeb.aspx

Wordtracker from Rivergold Associates Ltd., which has a free version of its service that estimates daily query volume for terms and related keywords:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

Some other Web sites let users research keywords, drawing from the Yahoo and Wordtracker data:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword

Trellian offers a free version of its service called KeywordDiscovery:

http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html

Other software that companies commonly use to monitor traffic on their Web sites can provide some data on what words consumers are searching for, since it often tracks what search query led them to the site in the first place.

Google offers a free service called Trends that lets users see graphs of relative query volumes over time for any given keywords, and even compare relative query volumes for several keyword phrases. The data on Trends are delayed by one month in some cases, and Google doesn't provide numerical values for the volumes, instead just graphing them in relative terms:

http://trends.google.com

The following is an example of a chart that can be constructed based on research of how people are searching for "sneaker". A store might use this information to determine which brands are the most popular:

Free Music

2007-01-25T17:49:00.000-08:00

I've had several folks ask me about capturing free music streams, so I thought I would post the steps here. It reminds me a lot of recording the music from radio stations when I was in high school...

There are three basic steps.

First, you'll need to get the music player, Winamp. Download the player of choice (free or "pro" version) from:

http://www.winamp.com/

Next, you'll need to get a plug-in. While Winamp allows you to listen to music streams from the internet, it lacks that key "record" button. The Streamripper plugin can be found here.

I believe (this is from memory now) that you want to download the srwa5-1.61.27.exe file to your PC and execute it (so it installs). I recall some challenges there, but everything worked out nicely after I stopped stressing about what I THOUGHT the instructions wanted me to do and just applied common sense. As such, I think it's pretty straightforward.

This plugin (when you install it right) will automatically open when Winamp starts. It will present a "record" button, and give you various options for recording the stream of music. I use the option to break the stream up into separate songs, each song into its own MP3 file. You can customize it pretty well.

Finally, you need a source of music. I like to use Shoutcast.

They have a pretty good selection of tunes (e.g., SKYFM) at a decent bit rate (120, 160).

After I've loaded up a bunch of songs onto my PC, I transfer them to my MP3 player, which is an iRiver T-10 (2GB).

A nice thing about this approach is that I can apply equalization at two places: in Winamp during the recording (well, certainly during playback - have not checked to see if it actually applies it to the recording process now that I think about it...) and inside the MP3 player. This allows me to really get the equalization dialed in the way I like it.

Finally, what to listen on??? For light listening, I like the Sennheiser PX-100. It's a fairly low-priced open air style headphone that delivers amazingly good results. For noisier environments, I use the Sennheiser HD280 Pro. The sound quality delivered by these headphones is nothing short of amazing. With a 32db noise reduction from the closed design, all you hear is the music. Just as it should be.

2006-11-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

A few pictures from the "Log Splitting Weekend" at the cabin. First, a picture of everyone:

Next, a picture of Audra holding a GPS. I had a lot of fun setting up geocache courses for them. We did a total of 4, each one harder than the previous one. By the end, the kids were going cross-country through the woods, with adults nowhere in sight (we walked along on the roads).

Next, a picture of Vytas:

Now on to Aldas' kids. Here is Gytis:

And finally, Andrius:

I like this portrait of my Dad, so I decided to include it as well:

Halloween

2006-10-31T12:16:00.000-08:00

Here are the pumpkins from our annual halloween party. As usual, mine is the one with all the teeth:

2006-09-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

The final week of August saw me up at Isle Royale National Park. This island is known for its population of wolf and moose (an isolated ecosystem), and for its hiking and kayaking.

A few of my favorite pictures. This is sunrise at the northeast point of the island:

I like this picture of our kayaks at twilight, with the moon in the background:

A picture of a lighthouse:

And finally, a picture of Ron and Ron at sunrise:

Cornucopia Marina

2006-07-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

A few pictures of the marina at Cornucopia (WI), taken during our 4th of July trip:

Another picture with the classic "76" ball. The company that owns these tried to get rid of them (saying they were old fashioned), but encountered a lot of resistance from consumers who like them. I like them (they remind me of simpler times), and I hope this one sticks around:

Apostle Islands Kayaking

2006-06-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I did my first kayaking trip where I was carrying camping gear in my own boat. This was pretty exciting to me, since it was the whole reason I originally chose the QCC 500X. I learned that kayaking is a lot different than backpacking - you don't care about weight, but do care (somewhat) about volume. So, if I am going to be doing more kayak camping (and yes, I will be), I need to re-think how I am approaching this.

The following picture shows Ron walking along the beach, searching for white stones. The fog has come in, and blends in with the water as if Ron were at the edge of the world:

As the fog cleared the next morning, there was a sailboat in the harbor near our campsite:

First Sailing Trip This Year

2006-06-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

Pam and I were able to get up to Duluth the weekend after Memorial Day to spend some time on our sailboat (Wildheart). The picture below shows a freighter coming into the channel under the lift bridge - always an impressive sight:

Copper Harbor Kayaking Trip

2006-06-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

During the Memorial Day weekend, I drove up to Copper Harbor, Michigan, for a kayaking trip with SKOAC.

On Saturday, Jill and I decided to take a shortcut from Copper Harbor down to Lac Labelle. Going via paved road, the total distance was about 20 miles. There was a dirt road that looked like it might eliminate as much as 3-4 miles of this daunting distance. We started down the dirt road, which quickly turned into a snowmobile trail, then into what looked to be a cross country ski trail. If we would have had the proper maps, this would have been easy. After about 3 hours, we finally arrived at the lake. The paddling was great - challenging conditions including large waves, windy conditions and fantastic scenery. The picture below is from our turn-around point near Bette Gris. My boat (QCC 500) is in the background.

Returning, we found Dave wondering what had happened to us. The next day we paddled from Agate Harbor to Copper Harbor, which is about 12 miles. A few miles from Copper Harbor, Jill announced that "someone who can read the weather from looking at clouds should turn around and look behind us". I turned around, then proceeded to tell her that blackness in the middle of the day was a bad thing, and that we had 20-30 minutes before the storm was on top of us. We paddled quickly to Copper Harbor and avoided any mishaps.

The hotel we stayed at (Bella Vista) was right on the water, which allowed us to launch for a nice sunset paddle. The picture below shows our boats the next morning:

The next morning we did a quick paddle from Eagle Harbor, but got clobbered by winds and waves. Here is a picture of me with as we duck into a harbor:

Bathroom Update

2006-05-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

Some progress lately. Mirror is mounted, cabinet mounted to the wall and all of the drawers installed. This weekend the countertop showed up, so I was able to get the sinks installed. Still need to hook everything up, but it's starting to look like a real bathroom again!

A night of being blind

2006-05-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

My left eye has had a tough week.

Last Friday, I took 4 stitches above it due to a camping accident.

Less than a week later, on Thursday night, I was working in the woodshop getting some stuff made for the vanity. Some sawdust/shavings blew off the piece of wood I was holding, hit the airflow from the shopvac and blew under my safety glasses into my eye.

After repeated attempts to flush the debris failed, I concluded it was time to head to the ER (again). This was getting old.

When you have an eye injury, you need to cover both eyes in order to avoid more damage. This is because both eyes move together, so the covered eye will still move around if you have one eye uncovered. Covering both minimizes movement, thereby decreasing additional damage.

So, I put on a blindfold at the house and got into Pam's car. I figured that if nothing else, this would be a good way to experience what it's like to be blind. I didn't think there was any really serious damage to my eye, and wanted to salvage what I could from the evening.

The drive to the ER was interesting. I knew the route pretty well, and was able to keep track of where we were very accurately. The cues were very different - how bumpy the road is, have we gone over the railroad tracks, hills, stop lights. Even more interesting was that I did not find it particularly difficult to focus. This was interesting to me since I have noted a diminished ability in this area due to age and/or stress. Perhaps spending more time meditating would be useful?

After Pam parked the car, we walked from the parking lot to where the receptionist was. Pam did a pretty good job of directing me - at least I didn't hit anything. Useful lessons here: tell me what is coming up and how soon (e.g., "straight for 50 feet, then a step"). Pam was telling me only when something came up, so I could not relax and just walk - always had to be ready for something.

I checked in with the receptionist, then Pam led me to the seating area. (The receptionist offered a wheelchair, but I declined.) We walked over to Triage, and got checked in. Lesson here was that since I could not see the person, it was spooky since I did not know anything about them. I just said "and your name is?", and they told me their name. So, since blind people can't see what is happening, I thought it was reassuring to have a verbal flow of information to help me understand what is happening.

In the "eye room", we waited for a little while. I liked that Pam described the room to me, so that I had a better feel for where I was. When I needed to sit down, it was better for me if Pam put my hand on the chair, instead of making me feel around for it and feel silly in the process.

After being "blind" for about an hour, the doctor came in and removed the blindfold. It was a miracle, I could see again! Oh, wait - I was not really blind...

The doctor told me that I had scratched my cornea, and gave me some eyedrops. One of them really dialates the eye, making me look a little freaky on Friday. The side effect of the dialation is that the vision from the left eye is really blurry - that was actually more disturbing, until I realized what was happening.

In a few more days, I should be back to 100%. That, of course, assumes no more accidents!

Spring Camping Trip

2006-05-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

I was gone last weekend for the annual spring camping trip. This is the trip where I go camping with two of my nephews and my dad. This is the 4th consecutive year, and has turned into a nice way to stay in touch. Each year brings surprises, as we are forced to improvise in order to have fun.

This year was no different. Friday started off with a surprise. As I was setting up the 6-person tent, one of the poles popped out of its grommet and hit me just above the left eye. I trip to the ER and 4 stitches later, we were back in camping mode.

The most interesting game of the weekend was our adaptation of basketball. The campground we stayed did not have any courts, so we made up our own game. It involved shooting a ball at a childs collapsable chair. The ball had to land on the seat, and the seat could not fall over. We were intially impressed at making 8-10 foot shots, but by the second day we were sinking 25 foot shots with some degree of consistency:

Other hightlights included going for a hike and seeing a snake, enjoying campfires, and making an indian break called Bannick over the campfire:

From the left: Gytis, Aras, Andrius, Romualdas:

Wild Heart

2006-04-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

I am part owner of a sailboat up in Duluth. She is called "Wild Heart", and is a 30 foot Catalina. Eric and I were up last weekend cleaning her up:

I am looking forward to a fun summer of sailing.

Gas Prices

2006-04-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

Gas prices are going up again. Two months ago it was at $2.40, this morning it was at $2.90.

Every time this happens there is a lot of media coverage about gouging, and how the price of gas is "too high". Poppycock. In Europe, prices were at $4+ when I was there 10 years ago (we were still way under $2). Last summer in Canada, I was paying well over $3 when the prices were in the low $2 range here.

The market economics of gasoline are simple. With a limited supply, the prices will go up until demand is equal to supply. The media would have you believe that the price of crude oil is somehow to blame for this. This is actually not true, since the price of crude is no longer the key driving factor. Rather, it is the refinery capacity (which is at around 100% utilization) that is the bottleneck.

So, we can't make any more gasoline. This means prices will go up.

Who benefits? There are three (3) parties that have the opportunity. Consider the cost of gas has three components. First, the crude oil must be purchased. Then it must be refined and delivered to the pumps. Finally, the pump price must be set, which includes a variety of government taxes.

First, the arabs. They can drive the price of crude sky-high until it once again become a key driving factor in the price of gasoline in the US. This will annoy the Europeans, but they tend to be annoyed with us anyway. The downside is that the arabs will then pocket the profits.

The second group consists of the oil companies. They tend to control the supply chain, so it's easy enough for them to simply raise prices at the pumps and pocket the extra profit. Personally, I'd rather pay $4 per gallon versus having gasoline rationing and waiting in long lines to get gas.

Finally, there is the government. They can raise the taxes substantially to drive down demand, thus avoiding rationing.

The interesting thing to note here is that the price of gasoline is going to go up substantially in the next few years. The only question is who will pocket the extra money, since the cost of production and refining will not change. Interesting question, since the government won't let the oil companies do it (remember the outcry over the Exxon profits), and the government doesn't have the stomach to do it themselves.

Thus, the arabs will eventually realize that driving the price of crude to $100+ per barrel has no effect on the actual price of gasoline, and will move in that direction.

Illegal Traffic Tickets

2006-03-19T10:06:00.000-08:00

Minneapolis recently had to remove their traffic cameras as per court order. It seems that these cameras were taking pictures of folks running red lights, then sending the owner a speeding ticket. Statistically, accidents at monitored intersections were down 13%. This all seems pretty reasonable.

The ACLU argued that the approach violated our civil liberties. By sending the ticket to the owner of the car, the state was making the claim that the OWNER of the car was presumed to be guilty of DRIVING the car through the intersection, thereby placing the burden of proving innocence on the defendent. Our legal system assumes innocent til proven guilty, so this is a big no-no.

This morning there was a letter to the editor who argued that the same thing is true with parking tickets. The owner of the vehicle is liable for fines incurred when a parking meter runs out. I'm not seeing how you can have one and not the other, so I'll be curious to see what happens here.

Nature or Nurture?

2006-03-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

There was an interesting article a few weeks ago in the WSJ that described how nature and nurture might interleave to produce a child with certain characteristics.

There has long been a debate regarding the importance of genetics on how a child turns out. Another group argued that equally important, if not more so, was the importance of the environment the child grew up in. This was actually the them of "Trading Places".

It turns out the two are inter-related in a way that had not occurred to me.

When a child is born, he/she might be predisposed to behave a certain way. Of particular importance, it turns out, is how often he/she smiles. Parents like smiling kids, and will interact more with them if they are smiling. So, if genetics make a child more likely to smile, you get more interaction, positive reinforcement and all kinds of good things.

What happens if a child does not smile as an infant, or frowns a lot, or cries a lot. Parents get "testy", and the child does not receive the postive feedback and attention. Indeed, short tempered parents may start yelling at the child, and doing a variety of things that stunt the childs emotional and intellectual growth.

The key is that the nurturing environment does not exist in a vaccuum, but rather, is dependent to an extent on what nature provided the child.

British Virgin Islands - 2006

2006-02-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

In mid-January, I had the good fortune of being able to go down to the British Virgin Islands for a week to escape the snowy landscape of Minnesota. This was my third time down there, so the relaxation factor was pretty good since I knew what to expect.

We rented a 450 Cabriolet from Voyage Yachts. This was slightly larger than the 440 we rented last year, and had a drastically different setup. The entire salon area was covered, resulting in a huge space for hanging out while under sail. It was kind of weird steering from the center of the salon (instead of being on the outside where I could feel the wind):

The twist to this trip was the extremely strong winds we encountered for the first few days. A storm system was moving out of the area, making things interesting. The night before we signed for our boat, a 50' rogue wave had hit a cruise ship near St. Thomas, causing some damage as a result. Hmm. Same storm, same ocean. That's the kind of thing that helps one stay alert. In our case, the heavy winds made for choppy seas and some queasy guests. On several occasions, the waves washed over the top of the cockpit, which was pretty cool. Eric and I felt like we were in "The Perfect Storm" - all we needed were windshield wipers!

One result of the heavy seas was that we spent much more time on shore for the first few days. I was able to enjoy a pretty full day in Cane Garden Bay, which was nice.

Over on Jost Van Dyke, we practically had White Bay to ourselves. Hung out at Ivan's Stress Free Bar, which is mentioned in Kenny Chesneys song Somewhere in the Sun. The bar operates on an honor system - make your drink and leave the cash in the metal box.

The fish in that bay were going crazy, jumping 5 feet (or more) into the air. The pelicans were going crazy trying to catch them. There were schools of baitfish churning up the water like some oversized cauldron. Very cool to watch. I also took advantage of the phone signal to call my Dad and wish him a happy 70th birthday. (Kind of surrealistic being on a cell phone in the middle of nowhere...)

Sailing up the channel we stopped at Sandy Cay, which is where this photo was taken:

Unexpectedly, the "party night" of the trip was in Leverick Bay, which is in the North Sound of Virgin Gorda. It started out as Martini Night, and sort of went from there. I kept waiting for harbor patrol (or some similar entity to come over and ask us to quiet down, but it never happened. The only downside was Pam getting stung by a jellyfish during some late night swimming.

The usual stop at The Baths was fun. Enjoyed spending the bulk of the afternoon snorkeling. I took Rachel and Pam around, where we saw some cool fish. For whatever reason, the best display of tropical fish is still from 4 years ago at The Baths.

Sailing down to Cooper Island (home of the infamous Willy T's floating bar and party spot) was fun. We picked a course that took us outside of the Sir Francis Drake Channel. I was pretty amazed at how much choppier the ocean was out there. I also saw a real flying fish - it came up about 50' from the boat, then flew alongside for 50 yards (maybe more), skimming just above the waves before dropping back into the ocean. Truly amazing!

Eric makes the most of the last night in the BVI:

Our last night in Manchioneel Bay was a nice, low-key to wrap up the trip. That's a pretty laid back location, with a nice view to the west. A bank of clouds came in as the sun was setting, so we were denied our customary end of trip sunset. I'm still trying to figure out who I should call to complain!

Passage of Time

2006-01-09T18:58:00.000-08:00

The passage of time. In western civilizations, we know that time increases on a graph as you read from left to right, but what else?

Time is thought of as the 4th dimension.

I was thinking about this topic over the weekend. As I grow older (and wiser?), I've noticed that time seems to be speeding up. I think it is because as we age we become increasingly aware of the value of time, and cease to view it as an infinite resource, to be squandered with the recklessness of youth.

Passing the theoretical half-way point in life really serves as a warning notice. Think about how much you've done in life so far. Plan on doubling it, more or less. And that's it. Is that enough? If not, what will you do about it?

I notice that I often find myself mulling over events from some time ago, thinking about how I might handle them differently. It's interesting to note that the time differential between the underlying event and my thoughts gets smaller and smaller every passing year. My theory is that is the reason why older people are so relaxed - they have shrunk that gap to virtually zero, and realize that today is today, and you had better make the most of it.

As Clint Eastwood said, "Tomorrow is promised to no one".

When I was younger, I was much more patient and willing to make sacrifices for future opportunities. As time moves on, I am realizing that those opportunities had better start materializing sooner than later. This has the overall effect of making me less patient, and more concerned about the probability of payoff. How does this translate to "paying my dues" at a new job?

A few interesting questions. Since I don't know the answers yet, I won't try to answer them right now.

Remodeling Update

2006-01-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

Still making progress. Lights turned out very nicely. I was happy to finally put the covers on the outlets and light switches, since it's starting to look more and more like a real bathroom. Had some hesitation about how contrasty the grout is on the floor tile, but it's really grown on me. My goal is to have everything (except the vanity) completed before we leave for our sailing trip in a few weeks.

Holiday Letter

2006-01-02T12:07:00.000-08:00

Here is our holiday letter for this year. This year we decided to include pictures to make it a little more interesting. The letter also made me rethink how I am approaching this blog, since none of the main topics (or pictures) were covered.

Happy Holidays!

Our year has been exciting, and we enjoy sharing it with you.

Aras focused on aquatic themes this year. In January he went down to the Caribbean to help a friend charter a sailboat. The twist this time was that they were in a 42’ catamaran – a first for Aras. He reports that it is not as much fun for actual sailing, but can’t be beat when anchored for the amount of space it provides.

In late July, Aras spent a week kayaking north of Seattle – his highlight was seeing a pod of orcas (killer whales) pass less than 50’ from his kayak.

In August, we spent a week driving around Lake Superior. Camping along the way, we enjoyed seeing The Lake from a Canadian perspective, and recommend the experience highly.

Pam tried several new adventures this year. In late spring, she went backpacking. Not the ideal weekend, since it rained the entire first day, then was hot and muggy the second day. Eager to try something she might enjoy, she went to North Carolina in late fall to try some coastal biking. She enjoyed visiting the little B&B’s along the way, and making new friends.

Late spring brought the annual camping trip for Aras, Romualdas, Gytis and Andrius. This has become a tradition in our family, and this year was enjoyed by all. Both boys enjoyed the playground next to the campground, and spending time with their uncle and grandfather. Before we knew it, the weekend was over and it was time to go home.

During the summer, we had multiple opportunities to enjoy sailing around Duluth with friends of ours. The summer was warm, and we were able to make the most of each weekend by combining sailing with biking and kayaking. The more time we spent up there, the more we looked forward to going back as soon as possible.

As fall started, a few more family gatherings took place. The annual reunion at the cabin was lots of fun - Aidas won the log splitting contest. A few weeks later, we flew down to Indiana to attend a surprise birthday party for Aras’ father. He had no idea we were coming, and was very happy to see us.

Please accept our wishes for a happy and fulfilling new year.

Aras & Pam

Remodeling Update

2005-12-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

Progress has continued on this project which does not seem to end. I'm starting to notice that my tension level is increasing, since I've been spending all spare moments trying to get this done. Fortunately, we are past the hard stuff! I put the first coat of primer on last night, and was very pleased to see that there are only a couple of very minor imperfections in the sheetrock that I will need to correct.

In the picture below, Pam is getting the walls ready for priming by wiping down all of the sanding dust. The tile has been laid (but not grouted).

Legal Humor

2005-12-23T08:26:00.000-08:00

I particularly enjoyed these two comics last week. The first depicts my view of the legal system fairly accurately. I remember indicating this on my jury interview form, and having a discussion with the defense attourney about the concept:

This would have been very entertaining to see in court:

Remodeling Progress

2005-12-13T05:58:00.000-08:00

Made some good progress in the past week. Spent the week itself finishing up the electrical (pretty straightforward), then moving the plumbing for one of the sinks over about 12". Neither task was difficult, but both took longer than I expected. Craig came over on Wednesday to help out for a few hours. We got a fair amount done that night, and drank lots of beer. I can't say for sure, but I suppose it's possible that yhe beer might contribute to schedule slips. It does seem to improve worker morale at the job site. So, moving into the weekend, here is what things looked like:

The weekend was spent getting the sheetrock put up. This is now the 3rd time I've done a sheetrock project, and I am getting better at it. I've learned not to mess with the ceiling any more than I need to. Take the time up front and minimize the number of seams you will need to smooth out. The job is a lot easier also, because the vast majority of what I put up will be covered up by the vanity and bathroom mirror. As of Sunday night, here is our current state:

Remodeling Woes

2005-12-01T19:24:00.000-08:00

Well, the remodeling project stalled out a bit last weekend. Instead of working on the remodeling, I spent 8 hours across the street helping my neighbor replace a hot water heater. Their unit had failed, and was leaking water everywhere. We (Dave, George and I) run into some unexpected problems, so of course everything took a lot longer than planned. I thought it would be a useful skill to learn, so I stuck around to help and learn.

As it turns out, a friend of mine at work (Craig) announced today that *HIS* hot water heater failed this week, and is leaking water everywhere. So I'm going over there on Friday after work to help him get things fixed. He is willing to help me with my project, so hopefully I can get back on track this weekend.

Here is a picture of how things look right now. Pretty messy - I am eager to get the place cleaned up so that we can start moving forward.

The electrical setup has been full of surprises. Discovered tonite that not all of the outlets were wired up the ground fault protection circuit. Some, but not all. Frustrating - makes me wonder who inspected the original wiring!

The other setback this week was my realization that I need to design the entire bathroom, not just the vanity. I've been using TurboCad to do this, and am very happy with the product. Here is the current plan:

Bathroom Remodel : Day 2

2005-11-25T16:44:00.000-08:00

Most of today was spent at the Home Depot buying stuff to put into the bathroom. We bought our mirrors and light fixtures, then looked at sinks and toilets. As it turns out, all toilets are NOT created the same. Who knew!?! The model I like I refer to as the Super-Turbo Flusher. Apparently it's claim to fame is that it can flush pretty much anything - there is a sticker saying it can take down 100 feet of toilet paper. Our neighbor (with 3 very young children) assures us this is a useful feature.

Today's highlights were: a) adding shutoff valves to the water lines for the sinks, b) yanking the vanities out, and c) removing the remaining sheetrock. Our cat (Pitter) is shown inspecting the quality of our craftsmanship:

Ongoing Project

2005-11-24T14:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's the beginning of a four day weekend, and around here that means a major project is underway. I've decided to take advantage of this block of time to see how much progress I can make on our bathroom remodeling project. Technically, this project started about 15 months ago with the re-tiling of the shower. Now it's time to wrap this thing up and not have to worry about home remodeling projects for a while.

For those who have not seen our bathroom, here it is:

Here is our ending point at the end of day 1. I ripped out the dividing wall and tore down the majority of the drywall while Pam chipped away at the floor tile patiently. We achieved our goal for the day at around 4pm. Pam put the rugs back down so we could pretend our bathroom is not torn up:

quirks and quarks

2005-11-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across a very cool MPR program while coming home from grocery shopping. It's called Quirks and Quarks, and deals with interesting scientific discussions. The really cool thing is that it assumes you actually have a college degree (think of it as Scientific American on the radio, but a bit more interesting). The web site provides a means to listen to MP3 and podcasts.

Jury Experience

2005-11-19T14:15:00.000-08:00

A few thoughts on my jury experiences in the past month. I was involved in the trial of a man on trial for murdering his wife; the state was seeking a conviction for 1st degree murder. The morning after we returned the verdict, we made the front page of both papers in this area:

Normally I would take the logical approach and discuss the line of reasoning taken, and how we arrived at the verdict we chose. Not today. Today, I will write more about the emotional perspective.

During the jury interview process, we were told that the defense admits he killed his wife. The question to be answered is how she died. Since we already knew he killed her, how tough could the jury assignment be? Very tough, it turned out.

The jury interview process had some interesting moments. In the questionaire, I had indicated that I believe it more important to have a good lawyer than to be right. The defense argued that with me, then moved on. An interesting thing happened during the interview process (other jurists had the same reaction). At the start of the interview, you are not sure if you really want to be on the jury. Big time committment, disruptive, etc. As the interview process gets going, you click into interview mode, and become increasingly determined to "make the cut".

After 90 minutes of discussion, both sides accepted me and I was given the formal "OK".

Testimony started and we learned the circumstances of the case. They were disturbing.

One morning, Gordon and Jean got into an argument about something. He pushed her, whereupon she suffered head wound that was going to be fatal. At this point, he opted to set the house on fire. The questions to be answered were: 1) Did he intend to kill her when he set the fire, 2) Did the fire kill her, 3) Did she die from the head injury.

At a trial like this, you are playing God. That's a tough job. Since only He knows what actually happened, the best you can do is second guess. And, unlike a final exam, there is no one to tell you if you got it right. You never really know. And that can be tough.

In the article above it describes how the family was not happy with our verdict. I guess that's reasonable to expect, but it makes me angry. We gave up a month of our lives, and did our very best. And yet it's not good enough. I'm guessing if we would have returned a manslaughter verdict they would be less happy.

Relying on lawyers is annoying. Many times, there were questions I wanted to ask. Clarifications. Knowing that both sides have a story to tell, and that they are leaving out key pieces of information did not make it any easier. Why didn't anyone ask the defendant if he poured the accelerant on the victim? He was on the witness stand, but NEITHER SIDE thought it useful to pose the question.

One of the jurists referred to it as wanting to throw a yellow penalty flag (like in soccer). He felt our system could be improved by giving the jurors yellow flags. When they saw an obvious mistake, they could throw the flag and declare a penalty. They would then indicate why they called the penalty, and the judge would rule on it. That would make for an interesting trial.

Often I found myself playing the devil's advocate in the jury room. Someone would state one perspective, and I would feel compelled to state the other point of view. My thinking was that if you assume "X" and arrive at a conclusion, then assume "~X" (x is not true) and arrive at the same conclusion, then you can stop worrying about whether "X" is true or not - it does not affect the outcome.

Some of the experiences were downright amusing. The prosecution spent an entire afternoon parading witnesses through who all stated that they did "not go back behind the shelves, and did not turn and levers, knobs or dials". Each witness pretty much gave up a day to do this, and spent maybe 3 minutes on the witness stand. After the defendent took the witness stand, his counsel asked if he had turned off the gas, and he said yes, then went on to explain why. I had to fight to keep from smiling.

Other moments were not fun. We spent an entire day looking at pictures of the victim. The morning had the pictures taken by the fire crew, when they initially recovered the body. Immediately after lunch, we launched into the autopsy photos. Both were difficult to look at, but I had to do so in order to follow the testimony. Indeed, they proved to be a key factor as to why the final verdict was Murder 2 with aggravating factors. The photos were haunting, because (unlike TV), you know it's for real.

Testimony took about 2 weeks. Extreme pressure there to catch everything. Because the jury does not receive their instructions until after we begin deliberating, we do not know what we are looking for. Thus, anything and everything said in court must be duly noted for future analysis. I took about 100 pages of notes during those 2 weeks. The tough part is that, as a jury member, you cannot raise your hand and ask someone to repeat or clarify. So, you have one chance to get it right. I came home extremely tired every night. I could tell my focus at school (I attend night classes for my MBA 2x week) was slipping rapidly.

Deliberations made the testimony look like a cake walk. Days were 12 hours long, with very intense discussions. On several occassions members of the jury lost their cool and ripped into another jury member. This was done respectfully, and righfully so. On a few other occassions, members of the jury broke down into tears because of the extreme pressure.

The end result was all 12 members working together to determine what we believe actually happened. In almost 20 years of working, I don't think that I've ever been on such a large team that worked so well together.

After returning the verdict (2nd degree murder), we were asked to go back to the jury room and wait for a while. A few hours later, we returned for additional instructions. Recent Supreme Court Rulings now require the jury to find aggravating factors before a judge can extend the sentence based on those factors. A raw outpouring of emotion commenced, with an extremely angry jury venting to one another. We thought we were done. Why are we being asked to deliberate on this?!?

There were a few happy experiences too. Dinners at the Carousel restaurant with a night view of the entire downtown. Lunch at the M Street Cafe. Feeling like part of a team, with diverse perspectives being brought to bear on the problem at hand. No egos, just a common desire to solve the problem. Having great deputies protecting us.

When Jesse Ventura was the governor, he referred to the media as "jackals". I was fascinated to hear this term used by official folks we interacted with as well. Especially at the end, there was a lot of media attention (reporters, photographers, TV vans outside) waiting to get the verdict. We were able to sneak out the 4th street entrance, whereupon everyone met down at the Liffey for beers. I had a reporter from the Pioneer Press call my home the next day asking for comment. (After watching the press trash Guidant all summer, I had little motivation to help them out.)

After we had delivered our decision regarding the aggravating factors, the judge came in to talk with us regarding the experience. It was really helpful to get her opinion on several things, and to find out some of the "behind the scenes" stuff that had been going on for the past month.

In the end, it is Saturday morning and I am still emotionally exhausted. (We delivered the verdict Wednesday night. It did not help that I had a final exam on Thursday, a final project due Friday, and a take-home final exam due earlier this morning.) But, I am happy I was chosen for this job, and think it was a good life experience.

As with most jobs, the most important component was the people I was working with. I was lucky to get a really good group.

Witty Jury Sayings

2005-11-19T14:06:00.000-08:00

I recently served on a jury. My brother (Aidas) came up with some witty sayings I thought were pretty good. So, if you liked "If the glove doesn't fit, you must aquit", read on:

To be said early during jury deliberations to lighten the mood:

The prosecution did nothing but confuse,
For that they will undoubtably lose.

Speaking to another jury member that is perhaps getting out of hand or disagrees with you:

Your comments strike me as extremely vile,
Please remember a man's life is on trial.

Handing verdict to the bailif or supporting someone who agrees with you:

It's unclear if the defendent acted in rage,
But thankfully we're on the same page.

Fun Airplanes

2005-11-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

Paper Airplanes. Lots of fun, and cheap too - just use those printouts you were going to recycle. A few interesting books are Fantastic Flight and and Guiding Flight.

Enjoyable Evening

2005-11-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

Last night Pam and I went out to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. We drove down to Stillwater and enjoyed dinner at the Water Street Inn. Pam had the Sea Bass - very, very good. I opted to try the steak and shrimp combo. Very good as well, but unfortunately the portion was much more than I could eat. As we were leaving, we heard a band playing in the pub attached to the Inn. We stopped in and listened to Big Spud Daddy & the Guiness Aires. A folksy Irish band. I enjoyed that a lot.

The music style was quite a contrast from Friday night, where I visited with some friends and listened to Coldfront (a hard rock band). I discovered that wearing ear plugs made a huge difference in being able to enjoy Coldfront - I could actually listen to the music!

Leaf Raking Party

2005-11-10T20:43:00.000-08:00

Our neighborhood has a lot of mature trees. In the past few years, I've been developing more effective ways to move all of the leaves from our yard to the compost site. Every year I come up with a more efficient way to do it. So far I have:

1) Wet leaves are best - they compress better than dry leaves. (Dry day is ok, though.)
2) Put all leaves into the back of a pickup with a shell. Use a garden rake to push the leaves back and all the way to the top. It's truly amazing how many leaves we can get into one truckload.
3) Use a tarp to put the leaves in. Rake a LOT of leaves onto a tarp (took 4 people to lift it), then hoist the tarp up to the truck. Push the tarp with leaves in, then pull out just the tarp. Use garden rake to adjust.

Using the above technique, we do the equivalent of bagging around 30 bags of leaves in about 10 minutes.

This year, we also borrowed a trailer from Eric to increase our leaf carrying capacity. After loading up an unbelievable amount of leaves, we also grabbed bags of leaves from the neighbors. The entire process of loading and transporting the leaves took about 2.5 hours for all three houses involved. In the past, this was pretty much an all-day project for each house.

Cities 97 Sampler

2005-11-10T20:28:00.000-08:00

Our local radio station, 97.1 (aka Cities 97) has a good rapport with many of the musicians who come to town. Quite often, they will stop by the Cities 97 studio to record a few live tracks in the spirit of the MTV unplugged series. Once per year, the best songs are released on a CD, with proceeds going to charity. The CD's are available only at the metro Target stores. Also, only a limited number are produced due to agreements with the artists.

Over the years, this event has gotten to be quite popular. When I first moved to the Twin Cities 6 years ago, you had to look for the CD within about a week of the release date. Three years ago you needed to get to a Target store by noon. Two years ago, they started measuring in minutes. It's worth pointing out that the maximum number of CDs per person has also been reduced. I know it was four (4) a few years ago. This year the maximum was two (2). This is to prevent scalpers from taking advantage of the high demand / low availability. (Highest bid as of 10:38 pm is $38 for a $20 CD).

I stood in line last year, and arrived at about 7:15 (the store opens at 8:00). This year, I arrived at around 7:30, and got my ticket. Yes, a ticket. Some stores were not doing that, prompting a huge mass of humanity charging down the aisles to the CD section. Store managers realized this was bad, and started handing out tickets to people. One ticket per CD. If you have a ticket, you know you'll get a CD.

Above is a picture of the folks in line at the Arden Hills Target store (7:30, temperature was around 25 F).

Winter Camping

2005-11-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I attended a winter clinic held by my adventure club (Superior Kayaking and Outdoor Adventure Club). Or rather, the club of which I am a member.

It was interesting to note that they break winter camping into two categories: a) Winter Camping and b) Cold Camping. Category (b) consists of camping when there is white fluffy stuff around and being cold. They don't like that. So, they opt for (a), which uses heated tents. With a mix of hi/low tech for heating, as in a titanium stove which burns wood.

Much pride was taken in explaining that the low temp last year could not be recorded accurately, since their thermometer stopped at -45F. But, they estimated it at -48F. I asked about keeping the stove burning all night long, and was told that it's allowed to burn out. But, the tent probably adds 20F to the outdoor temp, so that inside the tent it only got down to -28F or so.

The real eye-opener for me was being told that the cold weather bag I bought a few years ago (Western Mountaineering Puma Super MF) for about $550 was "ok for a starting point" (it's rated for -15F). Talk about a reality check! What I would want to do was to start with that, but then bring my 20 degree bag to drape over the top of the -15F bag.

I should point out that I did one test with my Puma bag. A few nights after I bought in, I put it in a Bivy sack and went out to my porch to sleep. It was around -8 at the time. I was pretty warm (except for my face and nose). I learned that the cargo flight come into the Cedar Rapids airport at around 2:30 am, and apparently I was on the direct flight path for those flights. After listening to planes for about 30 minutes, I concluded a) I was warm, b) I would probably stay warm, and c) it was much quieter indoors. So I went back inside.

I'm actually excited about trying some Winter Camping with this group. It's been a long time since I spent time with folks who actually pushed me to do more extreme adventurous stuff than I might otherwise be inclined to do on my own.

Favorite Picture

2005-11-01T20:28:00.000-08:00

For no particular reason, here is my favorite picture from a trip to the San Juan islands in August, 2005.

Unwanted Insightful Observations

2005-11-01T20:21:00.000-08:00

I've been accused a few times of explaining to folks how to build a clock when all they want to know is the current time. So, I really had to laugh when I read this cartoon in Sunday's paper.

I am waiting for someone to ask me why the chicken crossed the road.

bigfoot

2005-10-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

I was looking around for new speakers, and found the Orb system. The description on the website seems pretty impressive. In checking ebay for listings, I came across this fascinating item up for sale. Apparently the bigfoot phenomenon has been captured on video, and can now be purchased. I will have to look into this a bit more. Lacking the $5,000,000 to buy the video outright, I'll need to be more creative.

The Office

2005-10-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

I've pretty much given up watching network TV. A few years ago I was a "Survivor" addict. Even went so far as having "Survivor Grand Finale" parties, complete with appropriate games (races involving stilts, trivia contests, etc.) West Wing was good at the beginnging, but then some new writers took over and it turned into a show about why Democrats are so smart, and Republicans are not. The original CSI was fun for a while, but I lost interest there too.

I have found a new show which I actually look forward to. It's NBC's The Office. It protrays a modern office with stunning accuracy that continues to impress and amaze. If you work in an office, and are the least bit cynical, tune in and try a 1/2 hour. You won't be dissapointed.

Kayaking and Rock Climbing

2005-09-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

I was able to get out and do some kayaking over the weekend.

For some time now, I've been interested in paddling around the Hudson, WI area. I was able to view the St. Croix from Stillwater down to Hudson from the air when I flew home for the Labor Day weekend. This made me realize the distance from Bayport to Hudson is not nearly as far as I had previously thought. So, on Sunday I drove over to Bayport and dropped my boat in the water.

There was a pretty strong south wind blowing. Since the St. Croix runs north/south in this section, this meant that the waves were large enough to be interesting (12" - 18" is my guess, maybe with some at 24"). I'm still getting used to the kayak I purchased at the start of this season, a QCC 500X, so anything other that still water requires me to pay attention.

The paddle down was pretty straightforward. Although I was paddling with the current, the wind was a much bigger factor, so I had to work pretty hard. In general, I've learned to care more about the wind than the current, so there was no surprise there. Nearing Hudson, I saw a really cool looking railroad bridge. Passing that, I realized that some of the tiny islands were a) pretty much solid sand, and b) the local party spot for any power boater from miles around.

I think I saw a bit of downtown Hudson as I paddled by, and made a mental note to return on my motorcycle sometime to check it out. I like old downtown areas, as long as they have not been 'modernized'. I guess it's a nostalgic part of me that wants to believe that Mayberry and Sheriff Andy Taylor really existed somewhere. That may not be the case, but I keep the dream alive that one day I'll move to a small town somewhere where folks get along, are not spiteful of each others differences and respect their neighbors. That dream keeps me going when I get really frustrated with the world.

Paddling back upstream was a bit more interesting. The wind was behind me, so I expected the rate of progress to improve somewhat. To this end, I opted to return on the east side of the river and cross over once I reached Bayport. This worked out nicely, since I got to see the river from a different perspective. As I started the crossing, the waves became larger and more interesting. Nothing as intense as the 2.5 mile solo crossing on Lake Superior I made up in Canada a few weeks ago, but interesting anyway.

I started to think about how kayaking has some of the same elements that I used to really enjoy about rock climbing. The thing I liked most about climbing was that the rock didn't care about who you were - either you could climb it or not. The rules were there for all to see - gravity didn't make exceptions. Strength and balance were rewarded with progress. Working in software, my career has exposed to changing rules, inept management and stuff that even Dilbert would shake his head at. How refreshing it was to engage in an activity where everything made sense, where I had control over the outcome.

Kayaking is a lot like that. Waves take the place of the rock face, while the boat itself is a surrogate for my climbing gear. The wind creates the waves, in differing patterns. My job is to figure out what the waves are doing, then balance my boat accordingly. The waves don't care about my job, my joys and fears, my relationships, my bank account or what music I listen to. The waves don't even care that I exist. They will continue on their merry way either way. I embrace this indifference, and use it challenge myself. If I fail, it will be my fault - it is not as if the waves had a grudge against me in particular.

Like climbing, their are small failures and large ones. A small failure is simply flipping my boat and having to get back in and pumping it out. A larger failure, like a major mistake on a major climb, could be running into bad weather and barely surviving for a variety of reasons. Or, I suppose, not suriviving at all. Either way, it's my fault. The only way to get better is to continue going out in conditions where you can handle failure, like the waves I encountered on Sunday. It's the same thing with climbing. When you master entry level climbs (e.g., 5.7 or 5.8), you continue to push yourself to intermediate levels and beyond. As the difficulty level increases, so does the price of failure.

Even today, I can vividly recall climbs 10+ years ago where a fall would have meant certain death. The rock would not have cared, and that's how I like it.

Just me and the rock. Or the waves. Tough to beat for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon.

Nice Picture

2005-08-04T19:55:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this picture of my cat, Patter, to experiment with the blogger picture posting feature. I lost interest earlier due to my inability to post pictures, so hopefully this will work out nicely. Ironically, this is one the first digital photos I took when I first received my Canon G5 a little over a year ago.

mosquito alert

2005-06-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

As weather information becomes ever customized, I found that www.weather.com now has predictions for the expected annoyance level of mosquitos. For us in Minnesota, this is much more important than things like sun, rain or wind.

Going it alone

2005-06-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

I recently finished reading Pale Horse Coming, by Steven Hunter. (For those interested, the overall story starts out very strongly, but has a weak finish.)

There were a couple of interesting points made by the lead character, Earl Swagger. Early in the book he rescues his friend, but realizes that he personally will not be able evade capture. He tells his friend to promise he won't send help, no matter how tempted he might become. This caught my attention, since the reason for this request is that Earl feels that he must be forced to rely on his own wits to escape. Even the merest possbility of someone else coming in to solve his problems will weaken him, allowing him to give up being proactive (relying instead on the hope of the problems simply going away). There are several sections in the book where Earl remembers that no one is coming to help him, and so he reaches down deeper to stay alive.

Does this approach actually make one stronger?

People are conditioned to expect help from outside, ranging from government payouts to a moral strength derived from believing that God is watching over them. In many cases, this knowledge translates to the comfort of a safety net, allowing them to take risks which would otherwise be unthinkable.

Conversely, this approach weakens others. Knowing that the government won't let them go hungry allows segments of society to absolve themselves of worrying about the future. Why save for retirement when you can use the money to party now?!? Rather than controlling their destiny, they are actually subject to the whims of those who are expected to help them out.

At a higher level, the same observations can be made of countries. I don't think the US seriously expects other countries to come to our aid when a natural disaster strikes. Yet, other countries are quick to comment on the lack (or insufficient amount) of support from US. I think this makes the US stronger, and weakens others, for they do not actually control their fates.

In the end, I think being forced to rely on oneself strengthens the strong. For those not so strong, it limits what they can do, since they are unable to focus on what must be done.

The Aras Corporation

2005-05-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

While doing some googling recently, I came across a company with a really cool name. The Aras Corporation. They are are based in Lawrence, MA, and produce software for manufacturing organizations. I felt compelled to see if I could obtain a shirt with their logo on it. They sent me a black polo shirt, with a red logo embroidered on it. Very sharp looking.

The web site itself is somewhat surrealistic. Since I have not yet internalized the notion of a company with my name, everywhere that it refers to the company, I internalize it as something I am doing. As an example, "Aras is actively building a world-class team." Good stuff.

I wore the shirt to work last week. Although I know that the engineers with whom I work are high caliber, it really drove the point home when the vast majority of them assumed that the shirt was from a company I had started. In "past lives", the question would have simply been "where did you get that shirt". Different standards, different assumptions. I am happy to be in a place where the bar is set this high.

Spring Kayaking

2005-05-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

I've been kayaking on the Missippii River since February (it never froze up). A week ago I was out, and a snow squall hit when I was in my middle of my route. The sleet was stinging so hard that I had to tuck my head close against my chest to try and protect my face. This only lasted 10 minutes or so, and then the storm passed.

The clouds cleared, and the setting sun bathed the lake and shoreline in a warm, red glow. The real treat was that the snow had really cooled down the surface of the lake, so there was a foggy mist rising up. The foreground was backlit by the setting sun, and the background was a very dark sky as the storm continued on to the east. This magical moment only lasted a few minutes - once the sun started warming everything up again, the fog quickly went away. My reward for not scampering back to shore when I saw the storm approaching?

Tonite was so warm that I did not need a jacket. I can already feel shorts and T-shirt weather coming up!

Airline Safety

2005-05-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

In today's WSJ, there is an article about how airline accidents due to turbulence have decreased over the past few years. Last year, there were no serious or even minor injuries to passengers due to turbulence. Eight flight attendants did get hurt (typically broken ankles). In 1999 and 2000, there were 90 injuries to passengers and crew. The reasons cited were increased seat-belt use, better flight crew training and better weater forecasting. Also, due to security regulations, the crew frowns on passengers stand around near the bathrooms.

I always keep my seat belt buckled when seated. If nothing is going on, I might loosen it up a bit. If the turbulence warning is announced, I'll snug it up a bit. Turbulence is not going to hurt the airplane, but it can hurt me. I can still recall when I was flying a Cessna 152 near San Diego and hit a rough patch. My arms literally flew off the yoke and hit the ceiling before I realized what was happening.

So I always keep my seat belt fastened. I don't mind my arms flying around, but I prefer to keep my body firmly planted in my seat.

Popularity of Names

2005-05-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

I found this interesting link at Timbu. It's an interesting way to visualize baby name popularity - The Baby Name Wizard. Type in a name, and it will plot the popularity of that name over time. Amazingly enough, Aras did not show up.

My First Blog

2005-04-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

I've finally gotten around to creating a blog for myself.