Daily ramblings and interesting things I find.

Monday, December 23, 2002

Xmas Decorations

This has to be the best Christmas photo I've ever seen. I'm totally doing this next year...

Xmas Decorations

Sunday, December 22, 2002

Our New Home

We're finally moved into our home. If you're ever in the area, don't hesitate to stop by.

Here are a couple of snapshots of the house. It has a great back yard!

Front
Back
Aerial

Friday, December 20, 2002

Ethan is Born!

Ethan was born today. And there is my conclusion for one hell of a year. This year alone, I got married, became a step-dad, got a new job, bought a house, and finally, became a new dad. I'm surprised I'm still standing.

Having Ethan was something that's really unexplainable. But I'll at least tell you how the day went.

It started off 2 days ago, when Tricia had her membrane stripped (I know some of you guys love to hear that!) She's been having some really mild contractions, but this made them slightly stronger and more frequent. We thought this would get things moving because if any of you have seen Tricia lately, you know that she was *more* than ready. Yesterday, we went in at 6:00 pm to have her induced. Things got started off around 7:00. From there she slowly built up and had mild contractions all night long.

At 4:45 am, her water broke and it was go-time. She was dilated to about 3 cm at this point. As soon as this happened, her contractions really started to hurt. It took about an hour for the guy with the happy juice to get there (technical term for epidural). Let me tell you, during that hour I was looking at a woman that I've never seen before. I swear to you that this was not my wife... an actual intruder snuck in and morphed into her body. I was just waiting for her head to start spinning.

Finally, the happy juice kicked in and my wife was back. The doctor came in around 7:30 to check on her and she was already dilated to about 7-8 cm. She came back about 8:40 and asked Tricia if she was ready to start pushing. By 9:20 we had a brand new baby. I first checked to see if he had the Guido Toe... Check! All other toes and fingers... Check! Check! He quickly turned bright pink and as cute as a button.

I can now say that he is the cutest baby I've ever seen. I know everyone says that about their own babies, even though they're butt-ugly. But seriously, this baby is cute!

Tricia is doing great. Besides the hemorrhoids, peeing on the floor, and playing practical jokes on the nurses, she's been a trooper.

Official Stats:
Name: Ethan David Guido
Weight: 8 pounds, 5 ounces (yes, he's pretty thick!)
Height: 19.5 inches
Hair: Light brown and a bit fuzzy.
Born at 9:20 am, 12-20-02

Special 'Thanks' goes out to Dr. Leslie Gonzales, nurse Julie and the staff at Los Alamitos Medical Center. We had absolutely top notch service the whole time we were there.

Here's a first Round of Pictures

Monday, November 04, 2002

Busy Busy

I just have to say that the last two months have been the busiest of my life. First, I got a new job at Washington Mutual Bank as an Interaction Designer. So that's been keeping me very busy. But with any spare time, I've been packing like a maniac. Tricia's about to explode, so she couldn't help that much (although she's been great at doing the light stuff). Aside from all that we had Mitchell and Marlene's re-wedding to prepare for. Tricia made their cake which turned out awesome. We moved into our new house (taking care of the paperwork is a full-time job in itself), and took a short trip to Maui. Holy crap, I can't wait until I have nothing to do, but with a baby coming in about 8 weeks, I don't see that anytime soon.

So now that things are a litte more calm, I'll try to update this section more often. Keep in mind that my home computer is packed away in my garage somewhere. I had to steal Emily's cable modem connection and plug it into my work laptop to update this.

Sunday, November 03, 2002

Trip to Maui

Tricia and I took a short trip to Maui for Jeni and Ryan's wedding. Needless to say, this trip was way too short. Well, we had to keep it short (and cheap) because of everything else going on. Heck, when we first planned it, I didn't even have a job!

Any ways, the first day we arrived we stopped at the Maui Mall to get ice cream from Guri Guri (thanks for the tip Audra). Next we checked in and took a long nap. Anyone who knows us knows that we're big on sleep. A vacation with a lot of sleep is a good vacation. We then went down to Front Street to watch all the people dressed up for
Halloween. First we ate diner at Maui Tacos... Yum. Halloween is like Mardi Gras on Front Street. Very crazy! But around 8 or 8:30 it started to get a little too crowded, so we took off.

On Friday, we took a nice long drive to the Grand Wailea Hotel. Holy crap, now that's a nice hotel. We had lunch at the cafe that set us back about 30 bucks, but it was nice. On the way back along the coast we stopped off at a beach that was empty. We hung out there for a couple of hours, then headed back to town. Later, we met everyone for Sushi at Sansei's.

Saturday morning I took off for a little jog along the beach. That's always nice. We then went over to the Westin where Jeni was getting her hair done. Tricia went to take pictures of her while I did a little snorkling. That was the clearest water I've ever seen... simply amazing. Later that day was Jeni and Ryan's wedding at the Westin. It took place above the water falls and swimming pools in the gazebo. They had a guitar player, a drum player, doves and a hula dancer with a big ass torch. After the ceremony we took a limo ride over to the Hyatt for dinner. Overall it was a very classy and fun wedding.

On Sunday we met everyone for breakfast at the Westin. We spent a little bit of time back on Front Street to pick up any last minute souvenirs, then took off to the airport for our 2:00 flight.

I have to say that Tricia was a trooper, being 7 months pregnant she was able to do a lot more than I thought. We were a little concerned about flying, but everything turned out just fine.

Sunday, October 27, 2002

The Move

We moved into our new house today and the day probably couldn't have gone any better. Thanks again to Ian, Heather, Michael, Austin, Angela, Graham, Curt, Crystal, Emily, Gerry, Gina, Chris, Cathi and Jordan. Aren't friends and family a
great thing to have?

It's just too bad that we have to leave all of our boxes there and live at the Keene's for the next 1-2 months. There's nothing wrong with living at the Keene's, it's just that our house is just sitting there. Yep, all of our stuff is there, waiting to be unpacked. We're going to stay at the Keene's until the baby is born because Ryann's school and Tricia's work are so close and we wanted to keep the same doctor and hospital. I'll be making weekend trips to unpack.... very slowly. But next weekend we're going to Maui!

Monday, September 02, 2002

Hurtin'

Played a few good games of Ultimate today with the gang, but I think I jacked up my back pretty good. I was sore enough from yesterdays motocross ride, now I'm pretty much dying. I'm on my way to the jacuzzi.

Sunday, September 01, 2002

Lake Elsinore Motocross Track

Went motocross riding with Curt at the Lake Elsinore Motocross Track. We only stayed a few hours because it just happened to be one of the hottest days of the year. I think a few records were broken (temperature records, not riding records!) Overall, it was pretty fun, except Curt crashed pretty bad, broke his handle bars (Renthals!!!), and got a nice strawberry on his ass.

Friday, August 30, 2002

Recent Movies

I've been way too busy this month to write about much. So, here are some of the movies we've seen recently. Now that I think about it, I really don't know why I keep track of this. I guess I'll look back someday and realize how much money I've wasted on movies.

The Royal Tenenbaums - DVD
My Big Fat Greek Wedding - Theatre
Signs - Theatre
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - DVD
Swingers - DVD
Rushmore - DVD

Saturday, August 24, 2002

Buying Our First House

If you haven't heard yet, we're buying a house! We're using the same real estate agent to sell our place, so instead of having another open house at the Corona house, she had one at our place today. Well, she sold it within a few hours and got us the full asking price. Amazing!

Friday, August 23, 2002

We Got the House!

The owner of the Corona house got two offers and made counter-offers to both of us. We accepted the counter-offer and got it. Yikes!

Tuesday, August 20, 2002

Offer on the Corona House

We've been thinking about that house in Corona an awful lot, so I met the real estate agent out there again to take another look at it. It's even better than I remember from Sunday, so we decided to make an offer.

Sunday, August 18, 2002

Checking Out Corona

Decided to check out Corona to see if there are any decent houses out there. So far we like Mission Viejo the best, but we wanted to check out more places before we decide. We saw one really nice house on the end of a cul-de-sac with a huge yard. We just happen to run across it because of all the signs pointing to the open house. We also, looked at a few older homes and a few model homes in new developments.

Sunday, August 11, 2002

One Year Blog Anniversay

Alright, today, it has been one year since I've been writting in Dave's Daily Dump and I think it's been pretty cool. Mainly, it gives my friends and family a way to see what I've been up to. But also, it's been like a journal for me that I've gone back to several times to check dates, links, or whatever. It also gives me a way to record all the friggen movies I've seen. I never thought that I was such a movie buff. Any ways, I'll continue to try and keep this section updated.

Saturday, August 10, 2002

12 Hours at the Summit

Rode in the 12 Hours at the Summit mountain bike race today in Big Bear. This was my very first mountain bike race, and I had a great time!

We all drove up to Big Bear last night, just so that we can get a decent nights sleep and try to get acclimated to the altitude. We hung out, drank and cooked some pasta before hitting the sak at a respectable time.

It was me, Rich Rentrop, Steve Wilder and Bob Green, and it was a relay race. Ian joined us as our one-armed mechanic, cook and moral supporter. He made sure that our bikes were clean and well lubed before every leg of the race. My bike never worked so smoothly. Steve's wife also joined us to give us massages between each race. Needless to say, that was awesome!

I think we all did extremely well. There were no mechanicals and no crashes. For me, there were several close calls, but I managed to stay on my bike the whole time. We each did 3 laps, except for Steve who did 2. We ran out of time for him to do his third. Each lap was 9.5 miles, with about a 1500 foot climb in elevation and took about an hour to get around the loop. Surprisingly, I think I had the best average for my team of about 59 minutes. Overall, it was painful and very stressful, but I can't wait until next year. We're thinking about doing 2-man teams and joining the "Steel" class.

They actually messed up the results and didn't record my last lap. So technically, we actually came in 6th place, not 7th.

Saturday, August 03, 2002

DVD Collection Software

Found a way to keep a record of my DVD collection through DVD Profiler. This is a very cool program, and free.

Tuesday, July 30, 2002

We're having a BOY!!!!!

We went in for our ultrasound today to find out. We're both really excited about it, especially me. I'll finally have a riding partner I can ride dirt bikes with.

We got to see him yawn, rub his eyes, suck his thumb, and he had hick-ups for a little while. It was amazing to see. He's about as big as a soda can now. Pictures coming soon.

Monday, July 29, 2002

Blade Runner

Finally got around to watch Blade Runner, a video tape that Ian let me borrow over a month ago. It was pretty cool. I really liked the settings and ideas about the future. But the movie was a little slow at some points. Maybe I just watched it too late and I was really tired. It was interesting to see where the phrase "More Human Than Human" came from; it was Tyrell Corporations slogan.

Sunday, July 28, 2002

Training at El Moro

Rode El Moro by myself. I did the main loop twice with an hour in between rides, and I did them without stopping. Still training for the 12-Hour Race in Big Bear. It took me about 1 hour and 6 minutes the first time, and 1 hour and 15 minutes the second.

Friday, July 26, 2002

Orange County Fair and Mullets

Went to the Orange County Fair with Tricia. Since she's pregnant, we couldn't go on any rides, which is okay because I can't really stomach them any more. I have to say that some of the newer rides are really cool though. I only wish my stomach can handle them.

Saw the usual share of Mullets and toothless ride-operators.

Thursday, July 25, 2002

Minority Report

Tricia and I went to The Block to see Minority Report. I thought it was a very cool movie, with great futuristic concepts on human-computer interaction. Right up my alley.

On another note, here's My kind of Sign Language.

Wednesday, July 24, 2002

Training at Whiting

Did our usual Wednesday night mountain bike ride at Whiting Ranch. But this time I rode all the way to the top of The Luge (about 8 miles), without stopping. Usually, we take about 3 or 4 breaks, but I thought I'd give it a try. I actually did pretty good. I had a nice even pace going and I made it in about 55 minutes. Not bad for a first time. I'm kinda training for the 12-hour relay race on August 10th in Big Bear and I'm the weakest of our team when it comes to climbing, so I want to be ready.

Sunday, July 21, 2002

House Shopping in the OC

Did some house-shopping with Tricia all day. We thought that it was about time we started the "looking" process. We checked out Mission Viejo, Lake Forest and Huntington Beach. We have a lot of other areas to look at, but so far we like Mission Viejo the best.

Went to Blockbuster to rent A Beautiful Mind, but instead just bought a used copy for only 12 bucks. And it's in perfect condition! Oh yeah, I liked the movie. I thought it was a great story done with some great acting.

Saturday, July 20, 2002

A Clockwork Orange

Check this out, Chris and I actually went to see A Clockwork Orange on the big screen at the Bay Theatre in Seal Beach. That was fantastic! I haven't seen it in a while and to see it in a normal theater was just incredible. I'll never forget it.

Friday, July 19, 2002

The Royal Tenenbaums

Bought and watched The Royal Tenenbaums DVD. Very funny movie! A lot of subtleties and classic one-liners. And the outfits were just perfect.

Tuesday, July 16, 2002

A Visit With Aunt Rose

Went to Ventura because my Aunt Rose was in town from Florida. I haven't seen her since I was a kid and the wierdest part is that she looks exactly the same... just more white hair. It was great to visit with her.

Stayed at my Mom's house and woke up with a dead battery. I left my cargo light on all night... What a dork.

Sunday, July 14, 2002

Mammoth Trip 2002

Spent a few days in Mammoth with Tricia's family. They go up there for a week every year and this year there were about 30 people all together. We had a great time hanging out with everyone and Ryann caught a ton of fish this year with her grampa.

Thursday I rode my dirtbike all the way up to Laurel Lake. When I did this trail in May, it was blocked off with snow. This time I was able to make it all the way. It was so nice and peaceful up there.

Friday I rode my mountain bike down Mammoth Mountain Bike Park about 4 times. And later that day I rode my dirtbike at the track for a little while.

Saturday I took a nice little mountain bike ride from the condo up to the village. I then caught a shuttle up to Ski area, rode about 1 mile up to Minaret Lookout, then about 2.5 miles up Hard Core to Deadman's Pass. The view from up there was incredible! I could see June Mountain and a large portion of the Sierra's including the Ansel Adam's Wilderness, which we are supposed to hike this fall. I rode back down Hard Core, down the Mountain View Trail including a kick ass single track, over to the Earthquake Fault. I then crossed over the 203 and jumped on the Downtown Trail back to the village. It took me about 3 hours to ride 12-15 miles climbing about 2500 feet. It was a great ride!

July 10-14, Wednesday-Sunday, 2002

Wednesday, June 26, 2002

Tuesday, June 25, 2002

13 Weeks and 5 Days

Had our 3rd baby doctor's appointment today and got to hear the heart beat for the first time. Tricia is now 13 weeks and 5 days pregnant and finally starting to lose the nausia, but still feeling really tired and light headed.

Saturday, June 22, 2002

50 Mile Ride

Did a crazy 50 mile mountain bike ride with Ian and Rich today. We started in Irvine, ended up in Corona and looped back. Ian fills in the details here.

Friday, June 14, 2002

The Others

Tricia and I rented The Others tonight. It dragged on a little too much, but I thought it was Ok.

Tuesday, June 04, 2002

Catalina Island

My Mom, Cathi and Aunt Mary went on an Ensanada Cruise that made a one-day stop at Catalina Island. So I went there for the day to hang out with them as well as Toni, Kevin and Karly. It was such a beautiful day and a lot of fun to hang with the family. I wasn't feeling that great because I really didn't sleep last night, but we still had fun. We rented golf carts to drive around the island and check out the scenery. It's been about 10 years since I've been there and they really cleaned up the place.

Later on, Tricia and I watched Three Kings, a DVD I borrowed from Trevor. It was a pretty good story, but depressing as hell. Tricia couldn't finish it, but I kinda liked it.

Sunday, June 02, 2002

Aunt Mary

Went to Jordan's basketball game and got to hang out with my Aunt Mary. She's here to visit and go on a Mexican cruise with my Mom and Cathi. After Jordan's game everyone came over to watch the Laker game. The Laker's won, but unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time with Aunt Mary. I'll see her again on Tuesday.

Still fighting a cold.

Saturday, June 01, 2002

Gallery Hoping

Tricia and I went to LA for the day. First we went to MOCA to see the Andy Warhol exhibit. That brought back a lot of memmories. He used to be one of my favorite pop artists.

After that, we walked around Melrose for a little while, had dinner, then went to Stephen Kasner's exhibit at Gallerie Morpheus. His work looked great as usual, and we finally got to meet each other's wives. It was really good to see him.

Friday, May 31, 2002

Hot Date

Tricia and I were supposed to go on a date, but I came down with a cold. So we ordered take out from Olive Garden, watched our When Harry Met Sally DVD, and watched the Laker game in picture-in-picture.

Tuesday, May 28, 2002

Baby Guido

Tricia and I went to our second baby doctor appointment. Dr. Gonzales clarified that she's 9 weeks and 5 days pregnant, and switched our due date to December 26th. She gave us another ultrasound, so, presenting for the first time to the Internet,....

BABY GUIDO

I was so cool to see the heart beat and see the baby move around. It really hit
home for me. Dude, the little bean was actually moving around!! How cool is that?

Monday, May 27, 2002

Memorial Day

Tricia and I just took it easy all day. We watched American Pie, one of the first DVDs we bought, but never got to watch. Later, I washed my truck.

Sunday, May 26, 2002

Mammoth With the Wives

Ian and I took our pregnant wives to Mammoth this weekend. They basically hung out and waited for us while we had fun. I didn't do any snowboarding this trip (actually, I didn't do any snowboarding all year), I don't know why, I just wasn't into it this year. But I took my dirt bike and rode the Mammoth Motocross Track with a few other guys that we met up there. That track is so fun! Instead of double and triple jumps, it had all table tops, which are much more forgiving.

Sunday morning I took off by myself to ride up the Laurel Lakes trail (everyone else was snowboarding). It was basically a rough fireroad for 4-wheel drive trucks, but it was pretty fun on my dirt bike. I had to take it easy because I was by myself.

I also brought my mountain bike and got to ride the Lower Rock Creek Trail. Man, that is the best trail I've ever been on. This is my third time going down it, but the first time on my new mountain bike. It's full suspension, so it was a completely different ride this time.

May 24-26, Friday-Sunday, 2002

Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Saturday, May 18, 2002

Birthday at Disneyland

Took Ryann and a friend to Disneyland for her birthday. She's actually big enough to go on a lot of the rides now. So we did, except that 4 main rides were closed for repairs. They should lower the price when they do that.

Sunday, May 12, 2002

Frisbee Golf at El Dorado

Kicked some D-Golf ass at El Dorado. I shot my best game ever, coming in at 4 over par.

Saturday, May 11, 2002

Spiderman

Tricia and I went to the Block and contributed our 18 bucks to the Spiderman movie fund. Very cool movie, hitting $223 million in just 10 days. Unbelievable!

Friday, May 10, 2002

Sick at Home

Stayed home sick from work. Had some kind of cold that just knocked me out for a couple of days. Besides all the sleep I got, I got to watch a couple of DVDs.

I finally saw 2001: A Space Odyssey, a movie I've been wanting to see for years. I don't know what it is about Kubrik films. Some of them are so long and slow, but compelling at the same time. I borrowed the DVD from Chris.

I also got to watch my Fight Club DVDs. The extras on the second DVD are so cool. I love to watch all the behind the scene shots and computer graphic explanations.

Tuesday, May 07, 2002

Something in the Water

Found out my sister Toni is pregnant as well!! I tell ya, there's definitely something in the water.

Monday, May 06, 2002

Jammed Fingers

Jammed two of my fingers playing Ultimate Frisbee. One is my ring finger and you should see how swollen and black & blue it is. It looks absolutely horrible, but it doesn't hurt much at all.

Tricia rented Riding in Cars with Boys on DVD. It was surprisingly funny. I think Steve Zahn might be one of my favorite
actors now. He cracked me up in Saving Silverman and That Thing You Do.

Saturday, May 04, 2002

X Ride

Took Jordan to Magic Mountain for his birthday. We had a great time, even though we waited 4 hours for the new "X" ride! In a way, it was totally worth it. I can't even explain in writting how incredible this coaster is. You have to experience it for yourself. But I highly recommend paying the extra 15 bucks to get the fast-track thing... just for this ride.

Thursday, May 02, 2002

Chinese Lunar Calendar

Ian found this Chinese Lunar Calendar that tells you what sex your baby is going to be. It's supposedly 99% accurate, and says that we're going to have a girl. Just kill me now, please.
Add rest of post here

Wednesday, May 01, 2002

Pregnation Confirmation

Went to our first Doctor's appointment. We found a new Doctor, Dr. Gonzalez of Los Alamitos, and interviewed her. She's a little too new, but we like her a lot. She did an ultrasound, confirmed that we're pregnant and gave us a due date of December 22 (my Mom's birthday). Tricia hasn't felt anything in the last day or two so she thought that the two home pregnancy tests she took were faulty because they came in the same box.

Rode the Luge again in Whiting Ranch. It was a little easier this time.

Sunday, April 28, 2002

California Speedway

Went to the California Speedway in Fontana. We camped in the infield with a group of friends. It was Ok. Very noisy from all the generators, smelly, cold and rainy. A fight broke out near our campsite and I felt a strange and incredible urge to protect Tricia. The feeling hit me pretty hard after everything calmed down.

We actually had to leave early on Sunday, the day of the big race, to finish Ryann's Science Fair Project. We felt like fools trying to get out of the infield while thousands of people were coming in. So we went home and watched it on TV.

Tuesday, April 23, 2002

Math Wiz

Found out today that my nephew Jordan, who is 10 years old and in 5th grade, just
passed a highschool math exit exam! Not only is he the first 5th grader in 23 years to do this, but he actually got a 100%. What a great kid!

Monday, April 22, 2002

We're having a baby!!!

Tricia took the test today and it was positive! Although we were trying for this, it's still quite surprising. She gave me the news by giving me a wrapped book titled, The Expectant Father. It took a couple of seconds for it to hit me, but I finally figured it out. I couldn't be any happier.

Sunday, April 21, 2002

Basketball and Garbage Disposals

Watched Jordan play basketball with his new team. This is a different league where there are much better players. This game was so intense. They ended up winning by one point with a last second buzzer shot. Great game.

Being the handyman that I am, I single-handedly changed our garbage disposal. Yep! That's right... all by myself. Next I think I'll tear down a wall or something.

Friday, April 19, 2002

High Fidelity

Got take out from Olive Garden and watched High Fidelity again on DVD with Tricia. Great movie!

Thursday, April 18, 2002

Freeze Plugs

Got the freeze plugs replaced on my truck. Who whould of thought that they would go bad at only 45,000 miles?

Watched Blow on DVD with Tricia.

Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Whiting

Rode mountain bikes with the guys to the Luge in Whiting Ranch for the first time this season. This is the ride we did every Wednesday last summer. And I totally forgot how hard it is. I almost died.

Sunday, April 14, 2002

D-Golf and Hiking

Play D-Golf at La Mirada with the boys.

Went for a little hike in Silverado Canyon with Tricia. We've been trying to find fun, out-doorsy things to do together. So far it's hiking, camping and tennis.

We later watched Snatch, a DVD I bought used at Blockbuster for cheap. Very funny movie! Especially when the dog swallows the squeaky toy... That's just too much!

Saturday, April 13, 2002

Yard Sale and Santa Monica

Had a neighborhood yard sale over at the Keene's, to which nobody showed up. We only made about 120 bucks. I think the only productive thing that happened that day was that I tought Marlene's brother how to juggle.

We then took Ryann to Magicopolis in Santa Monica. Tricia got free tickets from work so we couldn't pass it up (I did a lot of free stuff this weekend!). It was fun! Ryann got to go up on stage with the magician, she was so cute up there. We also got to see some good breakdancers on 3rd Street Prominade. I'm surprised they're still doing it, but they got some really cool moves now.

Friday, April 12, 2002

Toyota Grand Prix

Took half the day off to go to the Toyota Grand Prix in Long Beach. Chris got free tickets from his girlfriend so we couldn't pass it up.

Later on, I took my wife out on a hot date at the Block. We had diner and saw Frailty. It was a really good movie, but the subject matter disturbed me. I left with a creepy feeling inside.

Thursday, April 11, 2002

Turbo Tax

Did my taxes tonight on TurboTax Online. What a great system! I was finished in about two hours, where one of those hours was spent digging around trying to find more deductables. Another great thing about it is you don't have to mail anything in, and you get your return directly deposited into your account. Oh yeah, because I used this system last year, most of my information was already entered. It almost makes doing taxes somewhat enjoyable. I say that only because I'm getting a nice return this year!

Wednesday, April 10, 2002

Aliso Creek Trail

Rode mountain bikes with Ian and Graham on the Aliso Creek Trail. It was my first time there and it was pretty cool. There was a great single-track downhill part, but by the time we got to it, it was getting dark. So we had to rush through it.

Tuesday, April 02, 2002

Training Day and The Rainmaker

We watched Training Day, a DVD we borrowed from Tommy and Nena. Since it received so much hoopla from the Academy Award's a week ago, it was about time we saw it. It turned out to be a really good movie, with great acting of course.

I also finished reading The Rainmaker, a book I started reading on our honeymoon... 3 months ago. Ok, so I'm not the fastest reader in the world. It usually takes me longer than that to finish a book. I got it from the library on the cruise ship and found it so interesting, I had to buy it when we got home. So I found a hard copy version on an Amazon Auction for like 3 bucks. Now I want to see the movie again.

Sunday, March 31, 2002

Panic Room

Went to see Panic Room. Although it wasn't in the same nature as other David Fincher movies, it was still really good. Nice and dark, great camera work, compelling and suspenseful.

Friday, March 29, 2002

Michelle's Birthday at Fred's

Today is Michelle's birthday, and we all met at Fred's in Huntinton Beach. After that we went to Mr. K's to enjoy some entertaining karaoke, which Tricia and I were just observers. It was fun.

Wednesday, March 27, 2002

My Birthday at the Yard House

Today is my birthday... whoopee.

Tricia got a bunch of my friends together and we met at the Yard House in Costa Mesa. I really don't like birthdays, but Tricia always seems to make them worthwhile. It was great to hang out with everyone.

Saturday, March 23, 2002

Sleepy Hollow

We watched Sleepy Hollow, a DVD Tricia bought gave to me on Valentine's day. I really like this movie... well, I really like pretty much all of Tim Burton's movies.

Friday, March 22, 2002

ET Phone Home, Again

Tricia and I took Ryann to see the re-release of ET. It was very cool to see a movie from our era on the big screen again. The coolest part is that Ryann is the same age that Tricia was when she first saw the movie. I wanted to take her to the exact same theatre, but it's pretty run down now. Tricia was a little disappointed that Ryann wasn't as into the movie like she was when she was a kid. She expected Ryann to cry at certain scenes and be all emotional, but she wasn't. Tricia, on the other hand, was balling her head off.

Tuesday, March 19, 2002

Evil Beagle and Dark City

I finished the Evil Beagle web site today. This is a quick little project my friends and I whipped together. Check it out, I'm pretty happy with the design (site no longer available).

We also watched Dark City, a DVD that Trevor let me borrow. He thought I would enjoy the visuals, which I did. Although the story was very interesting, the movie itself was just Ok. Hard to explain.

Sunday, March 17, 2002

Das Boot

Watched Das Boot this weekend. Great movie. The best part about it was the sound effects on the surround sound system. Especially when they dove really deep and the metal started to creek. That was great!

Thursday, March 14, 2002

Dinner and Spinal Tap

We had Ian and Heather over for dinner and a movie tonight. It was cool because we're finally settled with our new kitchen furniture, place settings, silverware, etc. I bar-b-que'd some fat rib-eye steaks with vegetables and the corn cake you get from El Torito (you can buy it in the grocery store now... that is some good shit!).

We watched This Is Spinal Tap. Believe it or not, this was my first time seeing it and I loved it! Tricia liked it too. Heather wasn't into it.

Monday, March 11, 2002

Patterns

Check out this randomly generated David Guido Design Pattern.

Created at PrayStation.com. Go to machine.0500.(2001), and click on 'type setting'. You also have to take a look at machines.(2000) and click on 'machine.1100.(2000)'. That is my favorite one. I swear I can stare at it for hours.

Sunday, March 10, 2002

Basketball and High Fidelity

Went to Jordan's final basketball game of the season, and he kicked butt as usual. Oh, he only scored 25 points this game. The kid is simply amazing!

T and I later watched High Fidelity. This has to be Jack Black's best performance (besides on stage). Great movie.

Saturday, March 09, 2002

Criterion

Went to Sam's club today while we were waiting for Tricia's car to get it's 30000 mile checkup. I swear, you can never walk out of that place without spending less than a 100 bucks. The good news is that I bought the double DVD set with Rushmore and High Fidelity. And Rushmore is a Criterion Collection DVD. Both for only 26 bucks! Nice score!

Here's a better Criterion Link: www.CriterionDVD.com.

Wednesday, March 06, 2002

The Musketeer

I was going to ride El Moro with Steve, but it started raining right when I was about to drive there. Not like a little rain would ever stop me, but they usually close the park when it rains.

So I went home early and cooked diner for Tricia. We then rented The Musketeer... what a piece of crap. I mean, the fighting scenes, coordinated by Xin Xin Xiong, were pretty cool, but definitely not realistic at all. The best acting in the movie was from a 12 year-old little girl.

Thursday, February 28, 2002

Memento

Tricia fell asleep early, so I watched one of my favorite movies... Memento, a DVD I got for Xmas.

Wednesday, February 27, 2002

El Moro Canyon

Rode El Moro Canyon today with Ian and Steve. It was a short ride, but Steve showed us this really cool single-track trail that winded the hillside while looking over Laguna Beach and the Pacific Ocean. It was pretty awesome.

Monday, February 25, 2002

Rocket Sauce Logo

Played a few hard games of Ultimate. They were really hard because of yesterday's ride.

Ian and I are thinking of making t-shirts with the new Rocket Sauce logo I made for the crew.

Sunday, February 24, 2002

Mount Modjeska

Rode the Maple Springs Trail all the way to the TOP of Mount Modjeska baby! (13 miles up, 4500 ft) What a great feeling, although I'm going to feel the business end of that feeling for the next few days. This time it was was with Ian, Bob, Rich and another Bob. The other Bob got two flats on the way down. Rich and I took the single track on part of the downhill and it was so much fun. Too bad I was so damned tired to really enjoy it. I crashed twice. Nothing serious though. Just a few scratches.

Ian and I then went to Trevor's for his kid's birthday party, dropped off their gifts, and chowed down.

Trevor let me borrow SE7EN, one of my favorite movies. T and I watched it. It's a double disk set and I'm dying to see what's on the second DVD.

Saturday, February 23, 2002

Venice Beach

We went to Venice Beach today. I haven't been there in a while. It's always a good time.

Friday, February 22, 2002

Royal Tenenbaums

We saw the Royal Tenenbaums tonight. I thought it was absolutely hilarious! If you liked Rushmore, you'll love this movie.

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Monday, February 18, 2002

Night-Time Ultimate

Starting the season off a little early with some night-time Ultimate Frisbee. We've played the last few Mondays, fighting with the soccar players and little leaguers for the field. I think we have the lights arranged for the next few weeks. It was a great game tonight.

Here are more details if you're interested.

Sunday, February 17, 2002

House Shopping and Ponch

Did a little house shopping today with the Arcuris. Holy crap houses are expensive out here. Not that I didn't know that already, but it really starts to sink in when your looking at them *knowing* that you can't afford them. It sucks!

Ponch was on Space Ghost tonight. It was probably one of the funniest episodes I've ever seen. I love that show.

Saturday, February 16, 2002

Maple Springs

Rode the Maple Springs Trail (Mount Modjeska) up to the Main Divide (8 miles up, 3500 ft) this morning with Ian, Bob, Steve and Eric. This was my second time up this trail and I felt great. Having more people to chat with really helped. I thought we were only 2/3 the way up when I saw the Main Divide... What a great feeling. I wanted to keep going to the top (another 1000 feet), but nobody else wanted to.

In the evening, we went to the Rodeo at the Arrowhead Pond. 1st time at a rodeo and I thought it was pretty cool. I was just too damned tired to enjoy it.

Wednesday, February 13, 2002

Crystal Cove

Rode the Crystal Cove State Park (Laguna Beach), otherwise known as "El Moro". Ian crashed again and banged up his knee and good elbow quite a bit by getting stuck in a rut and thrown about 15 feet. I didn't see it happen but I saw the results and they weren't pretty. Put it this way... El Moro 1, Ian 0.

We did this ride a lot last summer because it's probably the closest. There is this great downhill called "Rattle Snake Ridge" that is pretty much suicidal if you're not careful. Good times!

Friday, February 08, 2002

Movies

Instead of updating this site, I've been watching a lot of movies on our new DVD system...

Movies from the past few weeks:

Saturday, January 26, 2002

Maple Springs Ride with Ian

Rode the Maple Springs Trail (Mount Modjeska) up to the Main Divide (8 miles up, 3500 ft) this morning with Ian. This was my first hard ride of the season and boy did I feel it. I was hurting so bad, I barely made it.... Can't wait till next time!!

Thursday, January 17, 2002

GuidoPlex v1

We finally got a DVD player!

We took some gift certificates and wedding money and bought a nice surround sound DVD system. It is so awesome! With Tricia's big screen TV, I set up the living room to be a mini-home-theater, with the speakers in the correct positions and everything. I'm so excited about it... but Tricia won't let me "test" it out like it's supposed to be tested out. Trouble is we live in a condo where the walls aren't that thick, so she doesn't want to "disturb" the neighbors. Whatever.

Sunday, January 13, 2002

Honeymoon

For our honeymoon, we went on a 7-day Mexican Riviera Cruise for four reasons:

  • It was free!

  • We didn't want to drive or fly anywhere; the port is 20 minutes from out house, so it was nice and simple.

  • Neither of us have been on a cruise before.

  • And it was free!


Tricia managed to get the whole thing with her American Express points from work related purchases. So we would like to thank Wellspring Solutions (formally Object Automation) and Linfinity for indirectly paying for our cruise.

We'd also like to thank Debi and Ian for pitching in points as their wedding gifts. They were great gifts!

Oh yeah, the honeymoon... The cruise was at sea for three days going all the way down to Puerto Vallarta, where we went horseback riding and saw a Mexican bullfight. The next day we stopped in Mazatlan where we hiked to the top of Dear Island and kiyacked half-way around the island. And the third day we snorkled in Cabo San Lucas. Besides that, we slept.... A LOT!

Pictures of the honeymoon are here.

January 6-13, 2002, 1 Week

Saturday, January 05, 2002

Our Wedding Day

Today is the big day... The queen-mother of all days... Our wedding day!

I slept Ok last night. I fell asleep pretty easily because I was so damned tired, but I woke up around 5:00 am ready to go. I was wide awake, but eventually fell back to sleep for a couple more hours.

Alan went with me to pick up the Viper. The Viper has been my favorite car for a long time and this is pretty much the only thing I wanted for my wedding. I will probably never own one, so I felt I should at least treat myself for one day and rent one. I can't even begin to explain how awesome it was to drive this thing. The only bad thing about it was that it was a little too heavy in the front, which made the back kick out if you weren't careful. But besides that, I had so much fun driving it. I planned on getting at least 2 speeding tickets today, but was pretty lucky to get none. Actually, I was extremely lucky because I was driving very, very fast.

I took my Dad with me in the Viper to get to the chapel. He kept asking questions about the car or whatever else and it was kind of getting to me. So, finally, I calmly said, "Dad, I know you want to chat, but I have A LOT on my mind." And he was quiet the rest of the ride. He actually only told me I was driving too fast one time, and I know that was hard for him to keep in.

I showed up with my Dad at the Wayfarer's at 3:00 to take pictures. Everyone was pretty much on time. We put on our boutonnieres and began. Our photographer, Brian Glenn, arranged a special "first viewing" for Tricia and I and got some really good shots. It was a little difficult to get everyone else arranged for pictures, but I think he got most of them taken.

I met with Reverend Bruglher, who flew in from Canada to perform a few ceremonies. He is the president of the congregation, so I guess it was a privilege to have him marry us. I felt kind of honored, but I couldn't get past his sandals, the butterflies on his robe, the earring and the fact that he talked like Barney the dinasour. Other than that, he was an extremely nice guy.

The ceremony started a little after 4:00 and it was simply beautiful. The groomsmen and I came in through the back after everyone was seated and it was nice to see all the faces in the crowd. The girls walked up the aisle one-by-one, then there was Tricia with her Dad. It was so incredible to see her walk up the aisle, she was so beatiful. I shook Jerry's hand, took Tricia in my arm, and began the ceremony. It only lasted about 20 minutes, but it felt like about 5. It was quick, but beatiful.

After that, we took more pictures with the sunset, shoved Tricia and her huge dress into the Viper and took off to the reception.

The reception was at The Madison Restaurant in downtown Long Beach. Tricia managed to get the whole restaurant on a Saturday night through her friend Ashlee who manages all the parties there. Out of all the people we hired for the wedding, Ashlee was one who went way above and beyond what we paid her for. The Chapel was incredibly beautiful, but I think the reception was what really impressed everyone. She wanted this reception to be so perfect, she even made the restaurant buy new plates for us. The restaurant is impressive by itself, but the service and food are to die for. I realize that people are supposed to compliment you on this and that, but everyone, and I mean everyone, raved about the whole thing. I'm talking about older people saying that it was the most elegant wedding they've ever been to and brides-to-be sweating about how they're going to top this one. Even Jeni, the maid-of-honor, said that she doesn't care what Tricia thinks, she's copying our wedding exactly!

Pictures of the wedding are here.

Friday, January 04, 2002

Rehearsal Dinner

Beth went with me to pick up Dad at LAX. It was really good to see him. Since he had a direct flight from Florida, he had a cigarette and lighter in his hand ready to go. We took him to get fitted for his tux.

We had our rehearsal dinner at the Keene's. This is the first time our entire families
are going to be together, so we wanted to create an environment to get well acquainted. We decided to have an Italian theme since that's what both of our families have in common. We had two large tables, with the red and white checkered table cloths, red glass candles, and Emily's famous lasagna with sausage and meat balls. It turned out so good, we had a blast.

Thursday, January 03, 2002

The Wedding Countdown

Well, things are starting to get a little bumpy. Debi and her family are snowed in somewhere in North Carolina. Beth was supposed to meet them in a different city, fly in together and drive together in a rental. No Debi, no ride for Beth. So after our rehearsal tonight at The Wayfarer's, I had to go to LAX to pick her up.

Ellen also got delayed and didn't arrive until around midnight. So instead of driving all the way to Toni's so they can drive all the way back the next day, they just stayed one extra night at The Renaissance in Long Beach.

The rehearsal went pretty well. I think this whole marriage thing finally hit me when I was standing up at the alter with Tricia. Although we were just practicing, it suddenly occurred to me that it's really happening. I started to get a little nervous.

Alan went with me to pick up Beth. She was surprised because she didn't know who, if anybody, was going to pick her up. Since her regular flight got delayed, she got bumped into first class. She was very happy when she arrived.

Tuesday, January 01, 2002

4 Days and Counting

Happy New Year!

4 days and counting to our wedding. Today we are basically tying up any loose ends. The planning is going very well, so the wedding should be pretty smooth... We'll see.

New Years at the Keene's

We had a pretty mellow New Years Eve this year. Last year we threw a party at my Huntington Beach apartment that was pretty fun. This year we had Ryann and way too many things to worry about with the wedding coming up in 5 days. So we went over to the Keene's with some other friends and played poker till about 2 in the morning. Overall, Tricia and I lost about 20 bucks, but it was fun nonetheless.