Quote of the Day...

"I'm not lazy, I just don't like to do stuff."
-- Ryann (age 17)

Kindle2

Tricia's Kindle2 arrived today! So of course, I had to check out what davidguido.com looked like on it. Not to shabby, huh?

Her family and I pitched in to buy it for her birthday. I bought it a month in advance, and of course, it was back-ordered. So for her birthday, I found a picture of a Kindle, wrote a message on it in Photoshop, printed it out, and pasted it to a piece of card-board. It took her about 5 minutes to figure out what it was. But once she realized, oh man, was she excited. You see, this is the first gift she's received in a long time that was entirely for her; not for the family, not for her-and-the-kids...just for her! So she was extremely excited about it.

She wanted it about a year ago when it first came out, but I talked her out of it based on the poor reviews of other reading devices that I've heard. When I started researching it, turns out things like eye-strain, poor battery life and clunky UIs have all been fixed on the Kindle. So I got together with her family and bought it.

After her birthday, and after she told everyone that she's getting it, Amazon announced that the Kindle2 is out. I immediately thought we were getting old technology, so I was kinda pissed. I check my email and Amazon writes that we're getting upgraded automatically for the same price...now that's pretty cool.

We were supposed to get it on March 3rd with free shipping, so Tricia kept asking me to track the package. It ended up coming way early (today, 2/27). Tricia screamed at the post man with excitement when she saw the Amazon logo.

Needless to say, she's stoked...and I'm golden for at least another year!

Welcome to the world, Ava!

Ava was born last night and she's doing great! So is Tricia, which is surprising considering the stats...

Weight - 9lb 3oz (Keep in mind that Tricia is normally 105 pounds soaking wet)
Length - 19.5 inches
Time - 9:50pm
Date - June 27, 2005
Hospital - Kaiser
Full Name - Ava Michelle Guido

We induced at 10:00 am and the contractions built up slowly throughout the day. It was finally Go Time at 9:40 pm. Tricia gave 5 hard cycles of pushes and 10 minutes later, Ava was born.

We had a bit of a scare because she was completely purple and didn't breath for a little over a minute (which seemed like about 5 minutes to me.) It was so quiet, you could literally hear a pin drop. Then she started crying and everyone gave a huge sigh of relief.

The next morning Tricia was up walking around by herself and we were out of there by 4:00 pm. She's a trooper that Tricia!

The baby is absolutely beautiful. See for yourself...

Ava's First Two Days

New Dog

We picked up our Golden Retriver puppy today and surprised Ryann with it. If anyone knows Tricia, they know that this has been her dream dog and any other dog just wouldn't do. So, being the great husband that I am, I gave up a huge chunck of our tax return to buy this thing. Oh it's cute alright! But damn... 1200 dollars??? Come on! This dog better do the dishes and drive me to work for that kind of money.

No, I'm not bitter or anything. He's actually really really cute. We couldn't think
of a name so we let Ryann name him. She came up with "Cooper". Whatever.

Long Lost Cousin

Today, we took a one-day trip to Las Vegas to see some of my family. My cousin David
got married there yesterday, so Cathi, Tricia, Ethan and I decided to go up for the day. I haven't seen these cousins (Johnny & David) in almost 15 years, so it was really great to hang out for a day and catch up. I also haven't seen my Aunt Denise in while. And it's always great to see my second mom, Aunt Mary.

We stayed the night at Cathi's both nights because it's on the way. So Cathi babysat for us while we took Jordan to see The Matrix Reloaded. I definitely have to see it again to completely understand the story, but generally, I agree with the critics in that the story was a little weak while the action was kick ass.

Busy Busy

Well, what can I say... I've been busy the last few months.

Typically I write about the things I do, the movies I see, etc. But I can pretty much sum up the last 5 months right here. Basically, besides working, I've been hanging out with the family and attempting to get the house organized.

Ethan is getting huge. He's almost 5 months now and he's as strong as a bull. Still bald, but he's pretty much doing all the things a 7 month old would do; holding onto something while standing, he's rolling over like crazy, and many other amazing things. It's been really great so far. It's hard to explain unless you've been there.

The house is coming along... slowly. There are still boxes all over the place and no pictures hung up yet. It's pretty sad. But I can't really do anything in the evenings, and just about every other weekend we're traveling somewhere. We did manage to plant a very cool vegetable garden and we got a trampolene for... uh ummmm... Ryann. Now, talk about fun!

Other than that, Ryann's adapting to her school a little more. Besides getting into huge trouble by telling two other kids that she was going to kill them, she's actually doing really well with her school work. We're hoping she makes more friends at her new school in July.

Tricia has been doing such a great job with the kids. I'm so glad she's able to stay at home and take care of them... cuz I'd never be able to do it. Seriously, she's doing all the hard work. She hasn't had a full nights sleep since the baby's been born. She's been incredible.

Tricia managed to get us a free digital camera with her American Express points. She collected over 100,000 points from doing a lot of the purchasing at the company she used to work for. She did the same thing to pay for our honeymoon too. Any way, we got the Canon Powershot s45 and it's sweet! I've taken hundreds of picture already, too bad I don't have time to do anything with them. But as soon as I finish that clone, I'll be able to catch up. Damn, I don't even have time to work on my clone. Whatever!

Well, we have a bunch of plans for this summer, so I'll try to keep this updated.

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.