Tour de Corona 2003

For the first annual Tour de Corona, we took off from my house, did a short road ride through the neighborhood to go up Eagle road, up to the Main Divide. We traversed the Main Divide over to Bedford Road, down Bedford and back to my house for a bar-b-que and tasty beverages.

Besides the small fly problem in the house, we had a great time! Can't wait to do it next year.

Unfortunate Trip

We went to Laughlin, Nevada today. Unfortunately for a funeral. Tricia's grandpa passed last week.

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.

Slumber Party

Holy crap. I can't believe I survived. Don't ask my why... but we just had a slumber party for Ryann's birthday at our house last night. Take a wild guess at how many 6-7 year olds stayed the night... 4? Come on, that's child's play. 8? Hah, I laugh at your weak attempts. Try FORTEEN!! That's right, 14 little girls running around with their little personalities, complaining about every little thing, tattle telling on everyone, crying if you look at them the wrong way. When they're by them selves, they're cute. But when you get them together with other 7 year olds, forget it. They're aliens. I swear they're not from this planet. Like I said, don't ask me why. I just know that we'll never do THAT again.

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.

Xmas Decorations

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

Xmas Decorations

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The Luge

Rode the Luge at Whiting today. Just barely recovering from last Saturday's ride.

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Photographer: Rich Rentrop

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.

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.

Just In Case You Were Wondering

Just in case you were wondering...

How to resuscitate a drowning cat...

How much your shit is worth...

The Others

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Whiting Ranch

Rode the Luge at Whiting with the boys.

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Photographer: Rich Rentrop

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.

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.

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!

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.

Something in the Water

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

High Fidelity

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Oficial Ninja Webpage

One of my new favorite sites...

The Oficial Ninja Webpage

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.

Important Message

Let's start this month off right with yet another...

Message From Ponch!

Memento

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

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.

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.

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.

Venice Beach

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

Royal Tenenbaums

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

Cool Rider

One of the best pictures I've seen in a while... COOL!!!!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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:

• The Matrix - DVD


• Mystery Men - DVD - one of our favorites!


• Made - DVD


• Vanilla Sky - theater


• Boogie Nights - DVD


• Jurassic Park 3 - DVD


• Lord of the Rings - theater


• Pearl Harbor - DVD


• Open Your Eyes - DVD - original Vanilla Sky movie


• Bound - DVD


• Count of Monte Cristo - theater

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!!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bachelorette Party

The girls took Tricia to Vegas today for her bachelorette party. It was Jeni, Michelle, Gina, Christal, Marlene and Ashlee. They didn't get on the road until around 5:00 because Michelle had a pretty hard time getting a rental. She was going for an Expedition through a so-called "connection", but she ended up with a minivan with a broken back door.

The rest of the trip was nothing but high class. They stayed in a suite at The Venetian and rented a limo to escort them around town.

From what I hear, they had a blast. They stayed out all night and got pretty drunk. They all said that the drive there and back was the best... They were laughing the whole time.

Santa Was Here

We actually woke up before Ryann this morning, mainly because the Keenes were coming over at 7:00am to watch her open gifts. We totally fixed up the place to make it look like Santa was here. The cookies & milk, the gate for the fire place was moved... She was totally convinced. It was pretty cool.

We spent the rest of the day at the Keenes, playing games and just hanging out. Oh, and I finally got to wash my truck. It's been a while.

We had a pretty humble, but awesome Christmas this year. Humble because we're having a very expensive wedding in about 10 days. But it was great nonetheless.

Christmas Eve in Victorville

We spent Christmas Eve at Cathi's in Victorville. We drove up last night right in time for dinner, and ended up opening all our gifts that evening. There were a few more this morning from Santa for Jordan.

I then went for a nice little jog with Jordan through this area that I usually ride my dirtbike. It was a little cross-country-like, up and down hills... He kept up with me pretty good. In a few more years, I'm going to have trouble keeping up with him.

My family helped us assemble the wedding favors and they turned out really cool. I just have to say that they are very unique, and most importantly, Tricia is very happy with them.

It's Go Time

Today is the day that Tricia officially freaked out about the wedding. She called frantically, huffing and puffing about all the stuff we have to do with only TWO WEEKS LEFT!!! She's been pretty solid, and everyone warned me that this was coming. It was pretty funny. So I sat her down and made her a nice and organized to-do list for the following two weeks. She's breathing regularly now.

Ultimate, Gas and Logos

Played Ultimate in Irvine again. I'm starting to get the hang of it a little more. I made some pretty stupid throws in the beginning, then I started to relax more and my game improved. It's still not as fun, but it's a good workout.

Gas is down to a whopping 95 cents a gallon!!! It's just unbelievable. I just feel like... driving... somewhere! It's even cheaper in some gas stations, but I'm talking about Chevron here, where it's usually a little more expensive than the others. Very cool.

I created a page for My Logos. I have more made, but they're on my computer at work. I'll put them up soon.

Football and Frisbee Golf

We lost in Fantasy Football. Man were we close! The last friggin game, when we needed him the most, our star-player Shaun Alexander gets benched because the original starter, Ricky Watters, suddenly feels better. That prick! Well, the good part about this is that we just barely lost to Tricia's brother Mitchell, who knows A LOT about football, and I know absolutely nothing. So I actually did pretty damned good this year. You're going down next year Mitchell!

I also played a quick round of frisbee golf after work with Ian and I whooped him bad. He was up most of the game by 4 strokes and I came back on the back-9 and beat him by one... in the dark. It was great!

Bachelor Party

The boys took me to Vegas for my bachelor party today. It was a lot of fun. It was Chris, Ian, Jerry, Mitchell, Curt and me. We rented a van and stayed at the Imperial Palace. I'm just glad I didn't stay in Ian's room because he stunk up the place so bad, I think he melted Jerry's nose hairs.

The funniest part was when we went to eat some steak-n-eggs around 11:30pm and Ian fell asleep in the booth.... so we left him there! But Curt felt bad and went back to get him.

Also, Mitchell got a headache earlier and crashed. So when we went back up to the room, I poured some ice on his chest. He woke up but didn't realize it was there for about 5 minutes. He was talking to us, and we were cracking up. Poor guy.

Overall, it was a great time... and I won 60 bucks! That was the first time I really got into black jack. I only played for about 45 minutes and must've gotten about 5 or 6 black jacks. Too bad I was only betting like 3 bucks at a time. I know... what an idiot!

Christmas Dinner

Had an awesome Christmas dinner with Michael, Jenny, Graham, Angela, Ian and Heather. It was over at Michael and Jenny's place and was a lot of fun.

Ultimate in Irvine

I played Ultimate Frisbee with the guys in Irvine again. Boy did I get my ass kicked. I made a couple of pretty bad mistakes and they have no problem with rubbing it in my face. Not to mention I went from being one of the best players with our usual crowd, to a very mediocre player with these guys. I'm into it now. But more for the challenge if anything.

Ultimate in Irvine

Played Ultimate Frisbee with the guys in Irvine again. Boy did I get my ass kicked. I made a couple of pretty bad mistakes and they have no problem with rubbing it in my face. Not to mention I went from being one of the best players with our usual crowd, to a very mediocre player with these guys. I'm into it now. But more for the challenge if anything.

New Desk

I finished arranging my new desk. Getting that big-ass monitor situated under the desk was a bitch (the table top is glass so that you can see the monitor below it. They totally lied when they said it would work with any monitor, even when I said I had a HUGE 21-incher. Did you know that I hate salesmen?

With the help of my lovely fiance, we managed to somehow get it to work. I still don't have enough space, so I'm going to have to find some kind of bookshelf or one of those roller jobbies with drawers.

What a Day

Wow, what a day! I woke up at 7:00am, which is just out of the question for me, especially on a Sunday. I then went to play Frisbee Golf with Ian. I'm actually getting into it, I even bought my own set of disks. I kicked his butt the first game, then we ran between holes on the second game and he kicked my butt. I must've hit every tree in that park in the second game.

I got home, worked out a little, then went to the Orange County Swap Meet with Tricia and Ryann. We couldn't find the vendor we were looking for that had the wedding favors we wanted. But we found a different guy, with these cool little candles already made, for super cheap! So we got them. Now I have to make the little tags and get some ribbon to wrap them up.

I also found a really cool desk there. It's made by Leda. The monitor actually goes underneath the glass desktop to give you more room. They say it's more 'ergonomic', we'll see. It's going to be very strange for a while since I've spent many years looking at the monitor right in front of me. Now, I'm looking down. We'll see how that goes.

We then went over to Gina's to pick up a big plant she gave us. We went home, I did a little gardening and fixed up all the plants with new soil and whatnot. Then I put together my new desk while Tricia and I watched The Matrix. Now that's a killer movie!

Washer and Dryer

Picked up the washer and dryer that Gina gave us. They're actually pretty nice, and much quieter than ours, which are pretty old. So I installed those bad boys and washed a shit-load of clothes. So far I've installed the washer, dryer, the new dishwasher, and a bunch of minor things since I've moved in and I have to say: I'm getting to be quite the handy-man here. I only say that because I'm the one that usually stays clear away from stuff like that.

Serious Ultimate

Played Ultimate Frisbee with the guys in Irvine for the first time. Wow, what a completely different game. First of all, they're really good. Secondly, they're not afraid to let you know how good they are. So, it's not as fun, but definitely more challenging.

Christmas Tree

We bought our christmas tree today, but we couldn't decorate it because our lights were broken... plus we really weren't in the decorating mode.

Waxing the Car

Started to wax Tricia's car today, and of course, it started to rain. I got it polished though. And I got to use my new buffer.

America's Sweethearts

We rented America's Sweethearts tonight. What a piece of crap! I'm never letting Tricia pick out the movies any more... ever!

Harry Potter

We saw Harry Potter tonight. I thought it was a really good movie, and not as long as I expected. It went by pretty fast for me. Tricia was a little disappointed because she just read the book the previous weekend. When is the movie ever as good as the book?

Fantasy Football and Vipers

I ordered the Viper today for our wedding!!! Oh, you're gonna see some smoke alright.

We also had Monday Night Football at our house tonight... Good thing we cleaned up. It turned out to be a great night because my Fantasy Football team won again, and it depended on one of the players that was playing in tonights game. I usually don't care who wins, I just like to watch a good game, in any sport. But I was really getting into it. I mean, I was actually hoping that this other player would get hurt so that my player would pull ahead. Pretty scary huh?

Dreamcast Shopping Spree

Jordan and I took on the crowds at Best Buy this morning to get some killer deals on Sega Dreamcast games. I bought NFL Blitz 2000, Championship Surfer, and Test Drive 6, all for 8 bucks each. I absolutely love Blitz! And Surfer is really, really cool. I also picked up a 17" monitor for Kevin for $75 and was tempted to get an $80 DVD player, but I just don't trust the no-name brands when it comes to electronics.

Christmas Decorations

Got out the Christmas decorations today. Usually that would be no big deal, but let me tell you about Tricia and her Christmas decorations. When I moved in with her I organized all of her holiday decorations in storage boxes and the Christmas stuff alone took up a nice-sized portion of the garage. Now, the garage is kinda far away from the condo itself, so I had to actually load up my truck, which has a long bed, and it was basically a FULL load. That's my Tricia!

She decorated the place while we both cleaned up and everything actually looks really nice. We'll probably go get a tree next weekend.

Sleeping In

I wanted to meet Tricia at home around noon, but it was raining so hard I had to wait until about 1:30 to hit the road. By the time I got to LA, the freeway was so packed it took me forever to get home. Tricia and I just lounged around the rest of the day. Ryann was with her dad, so we ended up falling asleep around 8:30. I woke up an hour later, but Tricia slept the whole night till about 9:30 the next morning... Which is VERY strange because sleeping in to her usually means an extra half-hour or so.

Turkey Day 01

Today is Thanksgiving. Tricia left with her family to Arizona at 3:00 am this morning, and I took off to Toni's house in Oxnard around 7:30am.

Thanksgiving dinner was great! Kevin cooked a big fat turkey with some ham and all the goodies. He is such a good cook.

Sick in Bed

Both Tricia and I are starting to feel a little sick, so we ordered some Olive Garden to go, and ate in bed with a bottle of wine. It was nice.

Another Good Day With Dad

Took a day off from work today to hang out with my Dad some more. We didn't do much... Went walking around downtown Huntington Beach in the afternoon. Today was a beautiful day, I must say.

We then met up with Tricia's family at a restaurant to watch Monday Night Football. That was the first time they met, so it was cool.

After that, I drove him to Scandia in Ontario to meet my sister Cathy (which is about half-way to Victorville). Hung out with them for a little while, playing video games with Jordan, then took off.

A Good Day with Dad

Today Tricia and I took my Dad to the Orange County Swap Meet. It's pretty cool there. We found a little something we might use for the wedding favors.

We then went over to The Block and saw Heist with Danny DeVito and Gene Hackman. I thought it was pretty damn good. Great acting by DeVito, I like that guy.

Tenacious D was on Space Ghost tonight. It was great!

The Minister

Tricia and I met with one of the ministers at The Wayfarers Chapel to talk about our ceremony. He said we're getting married by the head honcho himself, the president of the congregation who will be in town from Canada. I guess that's a pretty big deal.

Picked my Dad up from LAX today. He's in town from Florida for Thanksgiving and to look around because he might be moving here in a year or two. So I need to get busy and do some research.

Jack Black

Ryann is with her dad this weekend, so I took Tricia to see Shallow Hal with Jack Black. I'm a huge Jack Black fan and I think he did great in this movie. The problem is that I'm a little too familiar with his character from Tenacious D, so I tend to expect that kind of craziness whenever I see him. I thought he was great in High Fidelity, but just Ok in Saving Silverman. I guess it's not his fault, these are just the roles he's playing.

Oh yeah, today I finished the new redesign of my company's site: theSupplyChain.com

You can find screenshots of some older versions on this page.

The Meeting

Tonight Tricia and I had a little sit-down talk with her family about the wedding. Turns out Tricia isn't having much fun. In fact, everyone is pretty much stressing her out. When her and I have to do something for the wedding, we make sure we're having fun while we're doing it. But with everyone else, my family included, there's always an issue of money, time or inconvenience. And everyone has been complaining to Tricia about it and we finally had enough. We got everything straightened out and got a lot of crap off our chests. Now let's have some fun damnit!!!

Afterwards, I did homework with Ryann for the first time. You wouldn't think that drawing the letter "d" would be so complicated until you try it with a kindergardener.

I've had a pretty stressful evening. I'm gonna kick back, relax, and watch Space Ghost on Adult Swim. I don't watch much TV, but I think that's my favorite show right now.

Wedding Stuff

Today we knocked off a couple more things off our wedding to-do list. The first thing is my dad's plane ticket to come out here. It was pretty tough because he can't stay that long and it's right after the holidays. But I got a pretty good deal on it.

And a huge item from our list is the honeymoon! We're going on a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise... and Tricia managed to get the whole thing for free!!! She's been collecting American Express points for the last few years and ended up with about 225,000. No, she didn't buy $225,000 worth of stuff, this is from the companies she's work for and the stuff they bought on her card. Cool huh?

The cruise is 250,000 points, so Ian gave us 10,000 and Debi gave us 15,000 as their wedding gifts. These are such great gifts. Thank you so much!

Now, the actual transfering of points is a whole different story. It turns out that AMEX doesn't allow the transfering of points. Why not? Who in the hell knows? With any other program like this, you can transfer points till you're blue in the face. Any ways, Tricia convinced them to make an exception because it's our honeymoon (and because she's spent a butt-load of cash with this card). So, they eventually made the exception and allowed us to transfer points.

We leave at four o'clock the day after our wedding.

The Wedding Shower

Today was our wedding shower, or uh, Tricia's wedding shower. I guess it's more of a chic thing. Anyhow, we got some really cool stuff. Now I can start bugging Tricia every day to write the Thank You cards like she did with the invitations. Ha ha ha... sweet revenge!

During the shower I watched Ryann with all the other guys and their kids. We went over to Mike Dyson's, hung out and watched some college ball. Poor Ryann was bored out of her mind, so I started to make up games with the drink coasters.

Toni, Cathi, my Mom and Julie all stayed the night at our place, so it had to be *spotless*. I watched Memento for the third time with them. I think that is a great movie! Probably my favorite movie of the year.

Let's Get Physical

Went in for my once-in-a-while physical with Dr. Punim. He didn't give me the ol' cough test, but everything else checked out ok. I should get blood test results in about a week. Dr. Punim's a pretty cool guy. I've been looking for a doctor ever since I've been in California (since 1990), and everytime I find one that I like, they move. This guy has been Tricia's doctor and her mom's doctor for years. So I think he'll be around for a while.

Chuck E. Cheese and Cheap Gas

Took Ryann to Chuck E. Cheese's tonight because she got 10 "blue days" in a row. She's in kindergarten and they give the kids blue days if they are good. Let's just hope she never gets a red day.

Of course, on my way over there, I run out of gas. What an idiot. I thought I knew my gas gauge well enough to run it low. I guess not. AAA saved my ass in less than a half-hour. I've been with them for 11 years, it's about time I use them. I think I ran out of gas maybe once before.

I can't believe gas prices are back down to $1.15 per gallon. That is so awesome! It's only awesome because my friggin truck gets only 12 miles per gallon. It really sucked a couple months ago when it was around $1.80.

Invitations, Unpacking and Flip Books

Mailed out the invitations this morning, so keep an eye on your mailboxes and let me know what you think.

Finally finished unpacking our bedroom. Yes, I moved in a month ago, and yes I'm still unpacking. Between designing the wedding invitations and working on the Surrex web site, I've had absolutely no time to finish unpacking. So, now I'm done... except for the pictures I have to hang... Damn! I have to get this done before this weekend when my sisters come over for the wedding shower. We also have to clean. It it VERY important that the house is spotless when my sisters come over. They are very meticulous when it comes to cleanliness... but I love them any ways.

Tonight I also taught Ryann about animation with a flip-book I made with extra paper from the invitations. I drew the stick (for the body) and she drew the head, arms and legs. I started each page, moving the stick over a little on each page. After she drew in all the body parts, we had a very cool animation of a stick figure dancing across the page. It is so awesome! Tricia got a big kick out of it.

Emotions

Eric Conveys and Emotion.

And the Very Last Page of the Internet.

The Wedding Invitations

Finished the wedding invitations today... F I N A L L Y ! !

This project has been so stressful for me, I'm not really sure why. I guess it's from the pressure of designing something for my own wedding. I was going to just buy them, but I had a feeling that everyone just expected me to do them myself. So I basically had no choice.

I think they turned out pretty cool, but I'm usually pretty critical about my own designs. They will be mailed out Monday morning, which is only 5 days late. Not too shabby!

A big "Thanks" goes out to Tricia, Emily, Marlene & Mitchell for helping me put them together. And I just have to say that Marlene is the fastest envelope-licker I've ever seen in my life.

Tricia and I treated ourselves to a movie for working so hard. We saw From Hell with Johnny Depp and the lovely Heather Graham. It was pretty good but a little slow, which made it a little hard to follow. Plus I was just exhausted to really enjoy it. It was, however, a nice treat away from today's typical movies crammed with special effects.

Tool and Tricky

Just got back from one of the best shows I've ever been to, and my favorite band, Tool. They played at the Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre in Irvine and just rocked for two hours straight. It was great. They had huge screens in the back with the videos, animations and claymations of Adam Jones playing. The stage setup was kinda weird. They had two platforms in the back; one for the drummer, and one for Maynard, the lead singer, and the two guitarist were up front. I just thought that it was an interesting layout. Plus these two "performance artists" came out a couple times contorting and hanging from the rafters... very disturbing, but intriguing at the same time... much like a car crash.

Oh yeah, Tricky opened and joined Tool for a song or two. We got to see half of the opening show and that was pretty damned good.

Happy Hallowe... Where is everyone?

We took Ryann out trick-or-treat'n in her Grandma's neighborhood, and I was shocked to see how few kids were out. I understand how some parents might be paranoid because of recent terrorist attacks and what not, but it was down right ghost-townish. We then took her to her school's Harvest Festival and it was packed with kids. She had fun and I got to snatch some of her candy.

Long Drive

Met my sisters at Universal Citiwalk today to talk about my Grandma. We ate at Buca De Beppo and walked around for a while.

Then Tricia, Ryann and I made the drive to the Chapel and the restaurant to test out the maps and directions I made for the invitation. They turned out pretty good. You guys shouldn't have any problems finding the place.

The Wedding DJ

Went to see this DJ that Ashlee recommended. He does most of The Madison's parties. He seemed pretty cool and is giving us a sweet-ass deal... I mean really sweet, because we're friends of Ashlee's. But we still have to see him in action.

Creapy Approach

Ok, you are not going to believe what happened today. Tricia and I went to the Brea Mall, which is way across town, because they were the only ones to carry these special wedding shoes. We had some time to kill so we were browsing around in the book store. All of a sudden, this woman approached us asking if we knew of any good Chinese food restaurants in the area. We said, "no... sorry" thinking they would go away or something. She went on to ask if we were from this area. Tricia said, "no, we're from the Cypress area which is pretty far." She said, "That's perfect! Do you know of any over there?" Ok, red-flag #1. We were like, "uh, no not really". Then the husband came over to join the so-called 'conversation'. The woman then asked if we were engaged. Engaged? Uh, red-flag #2. How in the hell do you know if someone is engaged? So she started to ask about the wedding while the dude was trying to separate me into a different conversation. Meanwhile, Tricia and I are pinching each other, trying to signal each other to get the hell out of there. We finally ended the conversation, walked out, and couldn't believe how uncomfortable that was. Tricia says 'Christians'... I say 'Swingers'... What do you think?

The Wedding Invitations

Worked on the wedding invitations tonight. I think they are going to turn out pretty cool, but this has to be the last print design job I do. I'm so tired of print design work. I enjoy digital design so much more.

Tenacious D

Went to see The D tonight at the Wiltern Theatre in LA. They rock! This is the third time I've seen them, and it's a blast every time. The first time was at the Actors' Gang Theatre, which holds about 40 people tops. It was amazing to see how big the crowd got in less than three years. The Naked Trucker opened. I can't even explain how funny these guys were. They did a Snoop Doggy Dogg rap that had us on the floor laughing.

My Grandma

My Grandma Hartman passed on this morning. She was 91 and a great woman. The last time I saw her was when I went back to visit Cleveland in January 2001. I got to spend some time with her, my Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom. It was a great visit and a great last memory. My sisters and I were going to try and go back to Cleveland for the ceremony, but I don't think we're going to make it. We're going to have a ceremony here when my mom gets back in town.

A Special Day With the Girls

Slept in today... I love to sleep in.

Tricia and I played a little tennis this morning. Then Ian and I took our women out on a special bike ride around Huntington Beach for Sweetest Day (Heather insists that we celebrate this lame-ass east coast holiday). I say it's a special bike ride because Ian and I are the ones that do all the pedaling. He has a tandum bike and the Rasticle, a red, black and green beach cruiser with an extra back seat on it... very cool. We had wine around sunset, ate sushi at a new place on Main Street, then went home and watched O Brother Where Art Thou. The movie was pretty good but the sound track was great. I just might go buy it.

What's New

Had another doctors appointment to check out the cut on my leg. It's all good. Still can't get it wet for another 5 days.

Feeling a little under-the-weather today, so I stayed home from work. I still got some work done, and I was able to finish this "what's new" page. Everything before today is from memory or from my calendar.

Tricia insisted that we watch HeartBreakers. I guess it was better than I thought it would be.

The Wedding Invitations

Started working on our wedding invitations tonight. I've been putting it off for weeks, but I now have a pretty good idea of how they should look. Got to get them done by November 1st... Yikes!

Tape on the Shin

Had a doctors appointment with Dr. Punim (Tricia's doctor) to look at the leg. He said it was healing pretty nicely and there are no signs of infection, but to keep the tape on there for a few more days. Have to come back on Friday.

Also played a kick-ass game of Ultimate Frisbee with the gang (we've been playing once a week for 3 years). Despite the big bandage on my shin, I still kicked Jerry's butt.

BTW, it's a pain in the ass to sit in a jacuzzi with one leg hanging out.

Monday Night Football

It was probably the worst football game in NFL history. Both Washington and Dallas were 0 and 4.

Not much into football, I mean, I don't really have a favorite team or anything. I only root for the Browns because I grew up in Cleveland. However, we do participate in Fantasy Football and we're actually doing pretty well this year.

The best thing about having everyone over was that it forced us to finish unpacking, at least the front of the house. We still have the bedroom to do, and that should be about it. Hopefully we'll get it done this weekend.

Who Would Buy That?

People will buy just about anything!
Disturbing Auctions
Who Would Buy That?

Still Bleeding

Well, my cut was still bleeding this morning so I went to the emergency room to get stitches. I felt so stupid in there with a little cut while people were bent over in pain, moaning. Any ways, it was too late to get stitches. Apparently you have to get them within 6 hours because bacteria starts growing. So basically, they just taped it up.

Cut Leg and a Bike Ride

Went for the usual Wednesday night mountain bike ride. It's getting dark so early now, we have to use our lights about half-way into it... which is not as fun. Only two more weeks before we lose day-light savings.

While I was moving the old dishwasher out to the trash, it got caught on a sidewalk crack and cut my shin open. It started bleeding right away and was dripping down into my flip-flops... it didn't hurt but it looked really cool. Tricia took care of me by cleaning it and stopping the blood.

Handy Man to the Rescue

Installed my first dishwasher... all by myself. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when you're as mechanically DEclined as me, it's a huge thing. The weirdest part was finding out that new dishwashers don't come with a power cord, so I had to take it off the old one. Very strange.

Surrex.com

Finished the design of Surrex.com. Next, I'm going to do their Search Engine Optimization.

Moving

Finished moving my crap into Tricia's. Even after our huge yard sale, I have so much shit. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it all. Thank you Mitchell, Chris and Ian for helping me move. You can borrow my back and my truck any time.

Drive to Ventura

Tricia and I drove up to Ventura for Karly's first birthday. She's getting so big.

Cohabitating

Alright, I moved more stuff into Tricia's, including my clothes. So, uh, I guess this means I'm actually moved in.

Yard Sale

Had a very successful yard sale today. Those of you who didn't make it missed some KILLER deals. We made about 500 bucks and are putting it towards a new dish washer in Tricia's place. We are both very excited about not having to do dishes.

September 11th

I think everyone knows what happened today. So I thought I would just record where I was at the time of the terrorist attacks.

I was sleeping, as I usually am at 7:30 in the morning, when Tricia came in the room and turned on the TV. One plane had already crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers, so I got to see live on TV the second plane crash, then both towers crumble to the ground. I can easily say that this was the most surreal experience I've ever had, being it so early in the morning and me not being a morning person. Between wiping the eye-boogers out of my eyes and just simply trying to wake up, I had a hard time figuring out just what the hell was going on. It really didn't hit me all day. As I was getting ready for work, I was trying to comprehend what this all meant. Should I even go to work? Should I pack for Ultimate Frisbee like I do every Tuesday? Should I call my family to make sure they're alright? It was a very strange day to say the least.

Living In Sin

I started moving some stuff into Tricia's. I can't believe I'm doing this... I've never cohabitated with another female before.

Yes, that's right... We're going to live in sin for a couple of months.

Wedding Photographer

The wedding planning is going great. Today we chose Brian Glenn as our photographer, and went to the chapel for our planning conference, which included picking out our music.

Moving Along

Today we checked out The Madison Restaurant in downtown Long Beach. Wow, what an amazing restaurant. Tricia knows the director of banquets there, so we're getting a killer deal on the whole restaurant for our reception.

So, only after a few weeks of being engaged, we already have the locations for the ceremony & reception, the dress bought and a good idea on the photographer. My baby doesn't mess around.

Extra Cash

Decided to pick up a side project to help pay for the wedding expenses. I'm going to design a web site for a new company called Surrex Solutions Corporation. It should be done around the beginning of October.

We've Found the Chapel

We went down to the Wayfarer's Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes. This is definitely the place we are getting married. The chapel is simply incredible... Not to mention it has witnessed the marriages of the likes of Mash's Gary Burghoff (Radar), actress Jayne Mansfield, actor Dennis Hopper and the Beach Boy's Brian Wilson. Plus it's been in movies such as Innerspace.

I also found out that the chapel was designed by John Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright's son), who also happen's to be the designer of Lincoln Logs.

SIGGRAPH 2001

Went to SIGGRAPH 2001 with Steve today. I usually go to these conferences when they come to Los Angeles. But this one was probably the best because Steve knew a lot of people there from when he worked at Soft Image. So we got to go to their party afterwards, which turned out to be pretty cool.

After the party, we drove down to The Wiltern to try and scalp Tool tickets... No dice.

Check out this other Tool page called DiSSECTIONAL.

Popping the Question

Well, people... I finally did it. I proposed to Tricia tonight and she actually said 'Yes'. I've never been so excited about anything like I am with this. We haven't set a date, but we're thinking soon.

The proposal went down like this. I've been researching and looking for the perfect diamond and ring style for months. I finally went to buy it and have it made last Tuesday and it was going to take about a week. I didn't know exactly where and how I wanted to ask her, I just knew she would want it to be private. So around Thursday, she started planning out our day for Saturday, which was strange because she always makes me make the decisions on what to do. She wanted to play tennis in the morning (that's about the extend of her exercises), go to Downtown Disney for a while, and have a bon fire on the beach. Friday morning I get a call from the Jeweler saying the ring is ready. I think "perfect", I'll ask her on the beach Saturday night. So Friday night I ask the parents for their blessing, and we did everything as planned on Saturday.

The beach ended up to be too crowded to have a bon fire, so we picked a big empty spot, laid down a blanket and chairs, and watched the sunset. We had chips & salsa and some red wine to loosen up. When it got dark I pulled out the ring box, which just so happened to light up when you open it, got on my knee and asked her. She started balling her eyes out and eventually said "yes". Overall, it was pretty cool.