Dunstan's Colophon

I can't figure out if this guy is really that talented, or if he just has way too much time on his hands.

This is one of those things that is just really damned cool and fascinates the hell out of me.

Dunstan's Colophon

Muddy Buddy 2004

This morning, my neighbor Eric and I did the Muddy Buddy Race in San Dimas, Ca. Although I haven't done many races, this was definitely my favorite. Mainly because it mixed mountain biking with cross country running. I really like the idea of mixing it up.

Out of 79 teams in our class, we came in 33rd. Right smack dab in the middle and pretty damned good according to our standards. The most important thing was that we had a blast.

Here are the results. We're team "Ball Busters" in the Male 56-69 class (that's a combined age).

Running Springs Race

This morning we all went up to Running Springs for a mountain bike race, and we had a great time. This was Ryann's first race and out of about a dozen kids of all ages, she came in forth place. She was very happy and we were very proud. Here she is getting ready to cross the finish line...

As for me...

I got my butt kicked... Bad! Here's me "barely" crossing the finish line...



Here are the results. I'm in the Sport class, age 30-34.

Please Sit Down

Some new signs Ethan learned recently...
Socks
Train
Bird
Dog
Cat
Flower

Victor and I have been working on a new homepage for a while and it was finally published today. Check it out...
www.wamuhomeloans.com

It actually looks similar to the old site, just updated. The coolest part about it is that the download size of the homepage went from 130k to 36k. That's what I'm talking about!

I've been with the company for a year and a half and it took me this long to make a major change to the site. I used to be able to squeeze in a project like this over a weekend.

I rode my bike into work again today. I've managed to do it about once or twice a week and I'm totally digging it. Instead of riding my Intense, which is overkill for road riding, I fixed up my old Specialized Stump Jumper with slick tires. It's really been great. I'm already feeling like I'm getting back into shape because of this. I've been playing Ultimate every Monday night, but squeezing in other workouts during the week is just about impossible. So I'm going to try to keep this up.

For the past couple of months we've been teaching Ethan sign language and I'm telling you, it's THE coolest thing I've ever seen in child development. Our friend Heather, who is an interpreter, tought us a few signs to start with and recently she let us borrow her Signing Time DVDs. It started off with "more" and "all done", which is pretty much a complete life saver for any parent. Now he knows:
Milk
Water
Diaper
Ball
Shoes
Hungry/Food
Tired
All done
More
Sleep
Ouch/Hurt
Please
Thank You

Today it really hit me on how cool this is. I took him for a mountain bike ride early this morning (I pull him in a bike trailer). As I was climbing this hill I hear him say "Daddy", I look back and he gives me the sign for "water". I stop and notice that he couldn't reach his water bottle, so I got it for him. I got back on the bike and thought about how powerful that just was. Instead of throwing a total fit, screaming and crying and me not having a freakin clue why, he simple tells me what he wants and I get it for him. End of story. I've heard that kids who learn this early on are much more mild-tempered and I can totally see why. I highly recommend this to any parent with an infant.

Bob Dylan in Garamond

Typo

This is my Semacode...

Uh, yeah, just another geaky thing that facinates me. It's actually a URL barcode for cell phones. You can actually aim your picture phone at this and with the right software install, it will take you to my website (I don't recommend doing this since my site isn't optomized for cell phones, but I thought it would be cool anyway).

Create your semacode at SemaCode.org!

Today is National Bike to Work day, so I thought it was a good opportunity to get off my lazy ass and bike to work. Well, since I take the train to work, I rode my bike to the train station (6 miles), brought it on the train, then from the Tustin train station I rode to work (about 5 more miles). At the end of the day it's about 22 miles with a nice long steady incline at the very tail end. I liked it a lot, so I need to get slicker tires and lose some of this weight in my backpack (or something). It only added a few minutes to my commute, but it was a great way to get a good workout in during the week.

Very cool web app... Get ready to waste a lot of time...

Morphases.com

View the face I made

May 5 - 15
Our first "real" family vacation. We went to North Carolina for 6 days to visit Debi and her family. It was fun playing with the kids, although keeping Ryann and Ashlyne from fighting was a huge task. We went to play miniature golf and Ryann got her very first hole-in-one... actually she got two that day, which was very exciting. At about the same time Camerron's wheels fell off and he threw a huge fit, but Debi handled it perfectly. We also got to check out the property we bought there last year.

Then we set off to St, Petersburg, Florida for 2 days to visit Dad, Aunt Rosie, Aunt Terry and Susan. We had a great time visiting with them, who I haven't seen in way too long. The last couple of days of our vacation we went to Universal Studios in Orlando. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, which had a water taxi that took us right to the parks. Islands of Adventure was the best part... probably the best amuzement park I've ever been to. Very well kept and designed. And the Spider Man ride rocked!!

Da Vinci Credited with Developing First Search Engine

Quote of the day...

"I don't have time to become a millionaire"
--Victor Zavala

I've got the coolest Mom ever!!!

Image 1 :: Image 2

10 worst album covers of all time

Whenever I'm feeling sad and blue, I visit this site:

The Power is Yours

Very cool site... Just turn down your volume if you're viewing it at work.

FoNt fetiSh

Genius... Pure Genius!

The Brief Safe

How to Build a Computer for Almost No Money At All

Promised Land: "The only paintball park in the Midwest that features a fun Family-Friendly Atmosphere with friendly spirited competition. 'Bad-boys' and rowdies are not tolerated."

Wow, I slept for 12 hours last night!!! I needed it bad. I've been lacking about 1-2 hours of sleep for the past week and it finally caught up to me. Then Saturday night I only got about 4 hours of sleep. The baby woke up at his normal time, and we didn't get to bed until about 2:00 am. So I was dragging my feet all day Sunday. I sat in bed to do some work around 6:00, and I was out cold.

In the afternoon I was able to finally finish the projector setup in the GuidoPlex. Before Curt installed the outlet in the attic, I had a power cord dangling from it attached to an extension cord. So I cut the power cord, fed it through the pipe of the projector mount, reattached the cord and plugged it into the new receptacle. Worked like a charm. I took some pictures that I'll post very soon. The whole projector installation turned out to be pretty damned cool.

Otherwise, we need to paint the walls, buy some curtains to totally block out the daylight, and buy some antique movie memorabilia for the final touch.

Yesterday was the first time in a while where I was able to get a bunch of stuff done around the house. I've been sick every other weekend, then taking care of Tricia on the others.

First of all, our microwave gave out last weekend. It was a Whirlpool and only four years old... piece of crap. So we bought an open-box GE from Best Buy, took it home, and of course, the wall bracket was missing. We got 30 bucks off the price, but sometimes it's just worth paying the regular price. Tricia called to complain, and they mailed us the bracket a couple days later. So I installed it today and it was pretty easy. Tricia helped me hold it up while I bolted it in.

Then I replaced a simple wall light in the garage. Yesterday, Curt and his buddy came over to do a bunch of electrical work, like installing outlets (if you can believe it, there were only two outlets in the whole garage), fluorescent lights on the ceiling, and an extra light and outlet in the garage attic. It turned out awesome. I just need to put a floor down in the attic, and it'll be ready to toss all of Tricia's holiday crap up there. He also installed an outlet in the crawl space above the projector. So now I can run the power cord throught the mount and the it'll finally be done.

Then I installed my new receiver. This one has component video in and out for the best video quality. It also has the ability to play different sources in two different rooms. I'd like to install speakers out on the back patio next.

Later on we went to Michelle's engagement party. Tricia got pretty hammered. She was dancing with Michelle and actually fell. Luckily there was a chair right there to catch her. It was extra funny because she tried to play it off like she wanted to sit down.

A Family Proposal

2 - 6 women to have 2 - 15 children by me.

The preferred situation tends toward the higher numbers.

Ok, the weirdest thing happened to me today on the bus. I'm in the very back seat, minding my own business and reading the newspaper. There's this older lady next to me; I'd say around 50 years old, talking on her cell phone slightly too loud so that everyone can hear her. She was asking someone from her work to look outside the office because she left her gym bag at the bus stop. She hung up while the person went to look. All of a sudden, she's looking out the window of the bus and says "F***ing losers!". Intrigued, I kind of chuckle and asked "wha?". She says again "F***ing losers! That's the only words for them." Even more intrigued, I ask "What are you talking about?" So check this out... she looks directly at me and says "Yeah, you're probably one of 'em!" I was totally dumb-founded, with absolutely nothing whatsoever to say. I just wish I had something cleaver or funny to say back, but I could only laugh and continue reading my paper. Can you believe that? I need to think of something to say in case I see her again.

Oh yeah, some one took off with her gym bag... He heeee!

l 4m |_4m3

A 17 year old dude named Mike Rowe is big in the news today for adding "Soft" to his name. Check out his site:

MikeRoweSoft.com

We all watched Couple's Fear Factor, while flipping back and forth to the first episode of American Idol. What a crack up. The first few episodes are always the best.

After that was Average Joe 2, another great show. There's something about that show that I'm really drawn to; I can't really pin point it. I think it's because I see myself as one of those geaky, awkward, average guys and I was able to land a hot wife. So I feel for them. But it's so embarrasing to watch some of the things they do, especially when that one guy serenaded her. Dude, come on now.

Met Tricia at home in the afternoon. She was well rested, but still really tired. She took over with the kids and gave me chance to work on the dirt bikes.

While Ethan was taking his morning nap, I took Ryann out on our dirt bikes for about an hour. She's getting a little more comfortable riding in the dirt, but I'm starting to realize that she's only good for about a half hour. Her fuse starts to go out after that and she gets frustrated and falls real easily.

Tricia took off to help Michelle pick out her wedding dress today, so I had to entertain the kids, including Jordan and Ryann's friend, Nicole. I took them all to this little carnival that's going on at Tom's Farms. There wasn't much there, so we only stayed for about an hour and a half. By the time we got back, Nicole's mom came to pick her up.

I then took everyone to Cathi's house in Victoville. Tricia stayed the night at her parents so she could try to get a full nights sleep. I got to work on Cathi's computer and program her remote controls for her new home entertainment system. I got a hair cut of the deal. That's how we usually do it.

Took the family to the San Diego Zoo. We also brought Jordan and one of Ryann's friends that she hasn't seen in a couple years. We didn't have that great of a time, I think because Ryann and her friend just wanted to play and act like 7 year-olds, instead of look at all the cool animals. At the first exhibit we saw these monkeys picking each others butts, so I thought, "hmmm, this is going to be an interesting day." But the other animals were rather tame in comparison. Seeing the panda bears was pretty cool.

Took the family to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. This was the first time for everyone and we had a great time. We got to pet sharks and sting rays and watch the bigger sharks get fed. We only had about four hours to spend, but we could've spent the entire day here.

Later on we took a drive to the Wayfarer's Chapel were we got married two years ago. We just barely caught the sunset and they were just closing. So we could only spend about 5-10 minutes there. I think that was THE perfect place to get married.

Took the family to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. I took Jordan there a long time ago when it was called the Museum of Science and Industry. It's all new and improved now and we had a great time. At least I did. I love this science stuff.

We also watched an IMAX movie about underwater volcanos, called Volcanoes of the Deep Sea. The movie itself was so so, but seeing anything in the IMAX theater is just amazing. This was the first IMAX movie for both Tricia and Ryann and we had the whole theater to ourselves... it's great to go to these types of places on a weekday. There was hardly anyone at all in the museum.

Finished the ceiling mount for the projector. I had to go up into the crawl space, which is always challenging, to fish the video cable and install the mount. Tricia was a huge help from down below.

The mount actually turned out pretty damn nice. I combined different ideas and suggestions from a few sources from people on the hometheaterforum.com. There's a lot of good ideas out there, but I'm surprised that many people didn't really fine tune them. For example, I didn't really see any attempts to hide wires and cables in the mount. I thought it was pretty simple and it made a HUGE difference on the appearance. Hopefully, I'll take pictures of it and share it with the others on the forum.

Worked on the ceiling mount for the projector a little more. I think I'll be ready to install it by tomorrow.

I also stopped at the fabric store and picked up a couple samples of different material for the big screen. I bought more blackout cloth, and some silver satin, both about 1x3 feet. I taped them onto the wall for comparison and this is when the yellow from the wall really stood out. The white blackout cloth was way too bright overall, especially in the black areas. And the silver satin cloth looked incredible. It had just enough reflection to it for the whites to look bright and the silver color really made for some dark blacks. I think this is the way to go. I'm either going to stretch this over the existing frame I built or add some thin door panel to the frame and stretch the cloth over that to ensure a perfectly flat surface.

Finally starting to feel pretty good. Today we went to the Fender Museum here in Corona. It was smaller than I thought, but still pretty cool. Ryann got to play a guitar hooked up to an amp with headphones, so she was stoked. She's been wanting to play the guitar ever since we saw Freaky Friday at the drive-in. Of all the intruments to play, guitar is definitely the coolest. I wish I would've learned that instead of the freakin' clarinet. Then I'd be able to live my life long dream of being in a folk music band.

Messed around with the THX optimizer tool on the Ice Age DVD. There's also a similar tool on the Fight Club DVD, but it's a little older. Later in the evening we watched xXx, which had some of the worst acting I've ever seen, but very cool action shots. That, with the bumpin' sound and large size actually gave me goose bumps.

Watched Reservoir Dogs, The Salton Sea and Fight Club in the GuidoPlex. Recovery couldn't be better.

I manage to muster up enough energy to put up the projector on a ladder. I'm in the process of building a ceiling mount, but I probaby won't be able to get to that until I feel better. It was hard enough getting it up on the ladder. First I managed to open the box and get the manual out. Then I slept for an hour. Then I got the ladder out. Then I slept for an hour... It pretty much took me all day, but that night we got to watch SpiderMan in full glory. It was awesome.

I'm pretty disappointed on how my DIY screen turned out. There were some ripples in it that really stood out when the movie was projected on it and the paint that I used looked horrible; way too reflective. So I took down the screen and projected it onto the wall. It looked friggen' amazing! The wall is actually kind of yellow, but it still looks great.

I got a chance to pay a visit to my doctor... Dr. Milkey (yeah, seriously, that's his name, Dr. Milkey - I can just hear it over the hospital speakers... "Dr. Milkey... Calling Dr. Milkey to the breast exam room"). He said I didn't have the flu, but just a really bad respitory cold.

Whouldn't you know it... our friggin' projector finally came in today... and I'm too damn sick to do anything about it. I ordered that thing ONE MONTH ago! I wrote nasty complaint letters, and made nasty phone calls threatening to cancel my order and write about my horrible experience on all the home theater forums and review sites. And NOW I get it... when I'm almost on my death bed.

Last night was horrible. About 2 o'clock in the morning, I woke up with the worst chills I've ever had in my entire life. No matter what, I couldn't get warm... at all! I swear, I was shivering like fag at a weeny roast.

Things are definitely going down hill now. My temperature's starting to rise, Ethan is getting worse and Tricia is still not even close to fully recovering. Ryann has been at her grandparents and she's been coughing like crazy.

I made all the calls... the trip is canceled. We'll have to go in May when Ryann has another month off of school.

Ok, so I just spent the entire weekend nursing Tricia back to health from the flu, taking care of the baby, and preparing for our trip to North Carolina and Florida tomorrow night. Now guess what? I think I'm starting to catch what Tricia had.... bummer.

I came home from work early because I'm starting to feel achy and a slight cough. Ethan was starting to cough as well. If this gets any worse, we'll have to cancel our trip. We'll see how the day goes.

I had the day off today, like most people, so I thought it was a good opportunity to take Ryann out for a dirt bike ride so she can get used to riding in the dirt. Turns out my Aunt Mary was in town from Ohio at Cathi's house in Victorville... a perfect riding area for Ryann. Also, Tricia starting showing some flu like symptoms last night.

So I basically killed 3 birds with one stone... Took Ryann (and Jordan) riding, visited my aunt, and let Tricia rest all day. The only bad part was by the time we got home, Tricia's temperature was 102.5. I felt so bad!

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.


On a related note, the same idea can be applied to spoken words…

and scratched out words…

and missing vowels…
L-ng--g- -s -n -m-z-ngl- c-mpl-x th-ng.

Makes you wonder how important spelling really is...

This year we had Christmas at our house, and besides the constant rain all day, we had a great time. Mom and Toni's family stayed the night, and everyone else (Cathi and Tricia's whole family) came over first thing in the morning. Tricia made an awesome breakfast... we then went crazy with the gifts. Everyone made out like bandits, especially Ryann with a new dirt bike! She was totally shocked.

I made Jordan a web site for his Christmas gift. I basically bought the domain, found some cheap hosting at GoDaddy.com, and incorporated a free blogging tool from Blogger.com. Check it out...

www.jordanvargas.com

I'm really digging this blogging tool. I've been using it throughout this month to test it out and I have to admit, it is much easier to update this part of my site. I still need to figure out how I want to handle the archiving.

If the library were like Amazon.com

Either you'll see the geniousness in this video clip, or prepare to flush four minutes of your life down the toilet.

More useful links in this article...

How Not to Get Fired Because of Your Blog

"These days, many companies are blog-friendly because they recognize a valuable tool for communication and the sharing of ideas when they see it. However, as with any public medium, care should be exercised from time to time. Here at Blogger, we want you to keep your job and as always, ending your blog should be a last resort reserved only for woeful situations. Fret not gentle blogger, we’ve put together this document to help you keep those paychecks rolling in."

Charles Schwab | Account Types

These are the 529 Plans offered by Schwab.

I'm finding less and less time to update this section of my site, as you can see from my dwindling posts. So I decided to make it easier by using Blogger.

Paint Ball

Played Paint Ball for the first time today. Got a couple of welts across the body and I'm totally sore, but I had a blast. I got shot so much... I wouldn't last two seconds in the real trenches.

Leave me alone, please!

I don't wanna hear anymore crap from you people. I finally updated the gallery, so leave me alone.

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.