Muddy Buddy 2007

This year's Muddy Buddy race was a lot of fun, as usual. Unfortunately, Tricia was in Connecticut so she couldn't make it. Her sister Gina helped take care of the kids though.

Jordan and I had pretty low expectations going in; not really prepared at all, and ended up doing better than we did last year! The results show us coming in 11th place at 47:30, but we have a very clear photo of us coming in at 46:45. But oh well, it's always a lot of fun. One of these years we'll actually train for it and take the podium.

Can't wait till next year... Here are the photos.

Tour de Corona 2007

The attendance at this year's tour was much slimmer than last year's. Partly because I gave less than two weeks notice, but also because nobody likes to climb Bedford Road.

The proposal was to start at my house, climb Bedford to Main Divide, take a right and go down Silverado Motorway. From there we climb back up Maple Springs to Four Corners, back down Main Divide and back down Bedford.

And that's exactly what we did, with a nice long break at the bottom of the Motorway. John twisted out of his pedals wrong and ended up on the ground with his left foot pointing behind him!

The ride stared with 10 of us:
Dave (me)
Joe
Bob
John
Jeff
Adrian
Patrick
Nick
Andrea
Steve

...and ended with 9 of us back at my house.

We headed out about 9:30 am, for a nice, easy stroll up Bedford Road. Uh, yeah. The good thing was that nobody was racing this time, which took a little bit of the edge off. During the climb, we had the typical group splits, with Patrick and John in the front, followed by a strong Steve and Jeff, and me way in the back.

I planted 10 gallons of water at the top of Bedford so that we didn't have to lug full Camelbaks and bottles up that dreadful climb. I realized that it was a great decision when I saw everyone refilling and thanking me at the same time.

Going north on the Main Divide was pretty uneventful, except when Jeff slid out while trying to avoid going over the cliff on a sharp left turn at top speed. He ended up with a bloody elbow and knee, and a piece of his inner-tube coming out of his rear tire. So the engineers congregated and devised a plan to place many Gu packets on the inner wall of his tire... Chocolate was the flavor of choice today. Jeff filled his tire up to about 30 pounds and off we were.

Going down Silverado Motorway was a blast. This was my first time, so I was loving it. Miles and miles of single-track... that's what I'm talking about. Bob and I were the first ones down, followed by Steve with some bad news... "John broke his leg about a half-mile up." Oh crap, what do we do... we're almost in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no cell phone reception.

Steve and I proceeded to the nearest house and ask if we can use their phone to call 911. The woman literally rolled her eyes, sighed, and said "just don't give out our address or phone number". Apparently, this has happened once or twice before.

So I call, and we return to the base of the trail to see Jeff. He said the whole group only had 400mg of Ibuprofen, so I rushed up the hill to give him 600 more. Poor John was in some serious pain, but handling it like a true fighter. Three other guys were standing above him to provide shade, and we basically just had to wait.

Eventually we saw a Sheriff's helicopter hovering over us, then a Fire helicopter, then 2 paramedics hiking up the hill with full yellow fire-fighting suits on, then 2 more with a gurney, then 3 more, then 4 more... Of course it was the older guys in the back, huffing and puffing... but they made it. Eventually we had 11 or 12 firefighters up there on this little narrow trail, right on top of a huge washed out section just waiting to suck someone in.

They went to work, took John away in a helicopter, and Jeff caught the whole friggen thing on video. (.ASF 138 MB)

After it was all said and done, John ended up with a broken tibia and a cracked fibula. Because he got to the hospital fast enough (helo-ride) the doctor could reset/realign his tibia before his muscles contracted causing further damage. John said that re-setting his leg was very painful. After the realignment, the 2nd set of xrays looked good. He ended up with Intrameduallary (IM) Rodding and will need about 6 months to recover. Hang in there John!

Brian met us in the canyon, but was too sick to ride. He resupplied us with water and snacks, then he was kind enough to take Jeff's bike back to my house (Jeff rode John's bike because it was more reliable) and join us for the bar-b-que.

The climb up Maple Springs was looooong and tough. Of course, I ended up in the back again with only Patrick and Nick behind me. Eventually, I see a Jeep drive past me with Nick in the back smiling back at me. That little bastard! So I plug along, Patrick catches up and we continue up together to regroup at Four Corners.

Now the fun begins with the rest being pretty much all down hill. We basically blazed down the Main Divide and Bedford, hitting some of the final single tracks towards the end.

Amazingly enough, there were no flat tires this time, although Patrick ended up with a slow leak towards the bottom.

We returned around 5:30 PM. We scarfed down some well-deserved burgers, dogs and beer, and watched the UFC on my back patio with a nice warm fire pit on the side.

Can't wait to do it next year! Here are some Google Earth photos of the ride...



Overview of the ride from my street, facing south-west.


Overview of the ride facing north-west.


Overview of the ride facing north.


Overview of the ride facing east.


Overview of the ride facing south.


Overview of Silverado Motorway, where John broke his leg, facing north-west.

Tour de Corona 2006

This year we started at 9:00, went up Bedford, up Main Divide all the way to Santiago Peak, back down the same route, hitting the single tracks, back to my house to enjoy some tasty beverages, grilled meat and UFC 65.

Here's a cool map of the planned route...



The ride started with 16 of us:
Dave (me)
Rich
Brian
Joe
Bob
Skippy
Frank
Patrick
Bart
John
Cody
Jeff
Jeff Jr.
Tony
Adrian
Lamond

... and ended with 8 at the top. Here is my attempt at showing the losses suffered by the Tour de Corona 2006. The thick yellow band represents the size of the group at each position...



Inspired by "probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn" by Charles Joseph Minard, here is Napoleon's March.

Can't wait 'till next year!

May I see your ID?

Everyone that knows my wife, knows how young she looks. I mean, she gets carded about 98% of the time. Sometimes it's flattering to her, but most of the time she's insulted. I really don't understand why she gets insulted because she goes through every last measure to maintain her young appearance... She takes extremely good care of her skin, she eats good, exercises, dresses young, dyes her hair... the whole nine.

So, today was the kicker. She was at Michael's buying some crafts and stuff... she's goes to check out, and you wouldn't believe what she gets carded for... That's right... SPRAY PAINT!! She actually got carded because she was buying spray paint! How funny is that? What would've happened if she didn't have her ID on her? Come on how... she's frikken' 31!... She has a decent size rock on her finger.. she has 3 frikken' KIDS for crying out loud!

I'm tempted to go back without her ID and record it with a hidden camera.

Muddy Buddy 2006

This year's Muddy Buddy race was the best so far. The kids were way more into it and our team did pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. After last year's race, Jordan and I both said we'd shoot for top 10. Out of 62 teams in our division this year, we ended up at a respectable 14th place. Not too shabby. But besides all that, we had an absolute blast.

Ethan did great this year by just getting dirty. Last year, I had to carry him through the mud pit, but this year he was a trooper. About half-way through the pit, I let go of his hand for a second to lift up the rope. At that very second, he slipped, catching himself with his hands and splashing his face with a good dose of muddy water. I knew right there that he would either get really freaked out, or totally get into it. Fortunately it was the later; he thought it was great. So he scurried across the finish line with a stern look of dedication and grabbed his medal.

Ryann was simply awesome. Last year, she basically tip-toed through the pit like a little girl, but this year she literally dove right in. For some reason, she figured that the fastest way through the flagged ropes would be to duck her head deep into the muddy water. Quite the contrast from last year!

Next year, Tricia is talking about doing the race as well. She'll at least have to go through the pit with Ava.

Good times... can't wait 'till next year!

Here are the photos

Question of the Day...

"Hey Aunt Gina, wanna come into the bathroom with me and smell something stinky?"
-- Ethan, age 3

Farting Preacher

The funniest video I've seen in a long time...

Farting Preacher

Snip Snip! Gone!

I just had a vasectomy and boy I feel great! Yeah, right. Here's how it went.

I started off my uncomfortable day scratching my balls. They itched like crazy because I had to shave them last night. The only good thing about that was that I looked like a porn star afterwards. Nevermind, there's nothing really good about shaving your balls because sharp blades just don't belong down there. Plus, I didn't really look porn star at all.

While walking through the parking lot of the hospital, we saw Santa Clause driving a broken down blue Pontiac. We later saw him in the urology department and I said, "Look Ethan, Santa's getting a vasectomy just like daddy!" He got really excited.

So the next part of my uncomfortable day was walking into this ice cold bathroom/changing room. It must've been 50 degrees in there. Then after walking into the operating room with my ass hanging out of the gown, this really hot nurse walks in to prep me. I'm like, "Heh... hi! Sure is cold in here, isn't it?" I felt like an idiot.

She started off sticking a big grounding patch to my back, which was also ice cold. Then had me lay back and lift up my gown. Talk about uncomfortable! I was basically flashing a hot chick in a freezing cold room. Can you say "Shrinkage?" How embarrassing! I thought that this would be really good fantasy material or something... Wrong!

To top it all off, she had to spread that orange shit all over the area, and guess what... It was also ICE COLD! She used some kind of sponge and did it like 4 or 5 times. Up, down, all around... It was a very humbling experience.

The doctor came in and talking to him was the only comforting factor in the whole procedure. He's done this somewhere between 500 to 1000 times. So that was good but that didn't last very long.

He started off by squeezing my sack and giving me a numbing shot, explaining that I'd feel a 'sharp prick'. Uh, I felt it! Then I'd feel a 'burning sensation'... didn't feel that. Then I'd feel 'some pressure'. Heh, bullshit. It felt like I got hit in the balls by a little league baseball champ swinging a bat at a pinata! Man, that hurt like crazy! I naturally want to curl up or bend over, but I just had to lay there flat on my back.

Then I noticed that I could see an obscured reflection of what he was doing in the overhanging light. I saw scissors and needles and that just made it worse. Just like sharp razor blades, scissors and needles don't belong any where near the junk. The visuals just made it even more uncomfortable.

So after he found "the Vas," cut and cauterized it, he had to do the same thing to the other side. I don't know what I was thinking, but I initially thought that it was a one-time thing. Nope... Why do it once when you can have twice the fun!

After it was all said and done, they gave me a scrotum support and some Codeine and sent me home. I'm now laying here with an icepack on my nuts, getting ready to watch a movie. Overall, it wasn't really too bad. Just taking one for the team, you know? (but I'm glad I'll never have to do it again!)

Ready to go...

My balls are shaved... ready for my vasectomy tomorrow.

Man, talk about a reality check!

Muddy Buddy 2005

Today I did the Muddy Buddy Race for the second year in a row. The Muddy Buddy is a running and mountain biking race you do with a partner. I was supposed to do it with my neighbor Eric again, but he was cool enough to let me race with with my 14-year old nephew, Jordan. Thanks Eric! Yes, you're supposed to be 16 to race, but hey, what's wrong with a little heated competition from a young whipper-snapper.

I came into the race on the verge of a cold, plus I threw my back out the week prior playing Ultimate, so I had no training time whatsoever. Jordan's been kicking ass on his cross country team (they just won league championship), but he's never ridden a mountain bike before. So I had to basically show him how to switch gears in front of the house, on flat ground, which is not realistic at all. I also showed him how to change a flat, just in case. So basically, we had low expectations going into this and simply wanted to have fun. Our team name was Pythagorean's Serum.

Turns out, we actually did pretty well. We placed 25th in our division of 62 teams, and beat all of my riding buddies. So I had to rub it in a little.

I created this logo as a friendly reminder of how they got smoked and told them I'm going to make them t-shirts for Christmas. Then they all complained about how I basically "cheated" by using a minor and they joked about turning me into the Muddy Buddy authorities. So, I updated the logo to make them feel better about the situation. No more responses after that... I call that the virtual smack down.

There was also a kids race, which was a blast. The kids had to go through a small obstacle course then through the mud pit. I took Ethan through the course, but right when he got to the pit, he didn't want to go in. So I picked him up and started to walk through the mud, thinking that he might see it as fun. Instead, he started crying. So I'm stuck carrying him through the mud, trying not to laugh. My friends are on the sideline yelling "Throw him in! Throw him in!" I just couldn't. I saw those tears and with my luck it would've damaged him somehow and he would spend the rest of his life freaking out at the sight of dirt or something.

Ryann did the race with no problem. She tackled the obstacle course and basically tip-toed through the mud like a little girl. Totally appropriate.

Here are photos of the event. Can't wait for next year!

Bill Pay

I'm on my way to Seattle for a usability test on the new Bill Pay prototype I've been working on. I'm writing this only because this is the most exciting project that I've worked on since I've worked for Washington Mutual in the past 3 years. I've worked on some of their bigger projects in the past, most recently was the WaMu Direct online application (to compete with ING.) But this one... this one is huge, at least to me. To think that I'm working on something that will effect millions of people, sometimes on a daily basis, just blows me away. I haven't been this excited since we started theSupplyChain.com 6 years ago.

The prototype simply kicks ass. It's going to take about a year and a half to implement all the features that I put in. But once they are, it'll be so killer that even I would switch over... and that's saying a lot because I've been a BofA customer for 15 years and an avid online bill payer since it started about 9 years ago. BofA's Bill Pay system is the best that I've seen and has inspired me through this whole process. But once our system is complete, that is, when it's similar to my prototype, it will blow BofA out of the water.

Welcome to the world, Ava!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ava's First Two Days

Mountain Biking Incident

This past Sunday, I was riding with 3 other guys up the Indian Truck Trail. One guy, named Dan Frei, in his mid-50's, suffered a massive heart attack and died right there on the trail.

We started at 6:00am to beat the heat. On the way up, we took a lot of breaks, drank a lot of water, and snacked. There were the usual complaints from all of us about being out of shape and a little about the heat, but nothing whatsoever about anything related to this.

Dan fell behind us like he usually does. Sometimes one of us road with him and other times he was alone. At this particular break, about 4 miles up the trail, the three of us waited a good 10 minutes before Eric headed back down to see what was up. Another 10 minutes went by before Rudy and I headed down.

After a half dozen turns I see Eric on the phone, and Dan just lying there on his back. I knew it wasn't good. I get closer and Eric says he's not breathing and doesn't have a pulse... and my stomach drops. He asks "Do you know CPR?" and my stomach drops further.

Surprisingly, neither one of us knew CPR. The person on the phone, who was from the Riverside Fire Dept, said not to move him since he might have broken his neck. And they couldn't instruct us over the phone how to perform CPR.

Eric was instructed to ride down to meet the fire department and Rudy and I were there... with Dan... lifeless... for what seemed like forever, but turned out to be a good 45 minutes before a helicopter arrived and landed near by.

About a half-hour into it, we got ahold of Eric who was driving up with the firemen, and they were able to instruct Rudy, over the phone, on how to give CPR. Rudy went at it like a champ for about 15 minutes, but it was really hopeless. The guys from the Mercy Hospital helicopter took over, pumped him full of adrenaline and other drugs for another 15 minutes, but to no avail.

They said is was most likely a heart attack, and the coroner, after hearing our descriptions, said it was a massive heart attack (or Sudden Cardiac Arest) and in these conditions, CPR was totally useless. Even if he had a massive heart attack in an Emergency Room, chances of him making it were very slim.

At the time we didn't know it was a heart attack. In fact, we had no idea what had happened. But sitting there with him for 45 minutes, being ABSOLUTELY HELPLESS, was the WORST feeling I've ever had in my entire life. It was the longest 45 minutes I've ever had to experience and I never, ever want to feel that again... I wouldn't wish that feeling on anyone at anytime.

So, I set up an adult CPR and First Aid class for us with the American Red Cross at my house on Saturday, June 18. EVERYONE MUST ATTEND!

The only excuse that's acceptable is that you are already certified AND up to date. Nothing else.

If you can't afford the 50 bucks, let me know and I'll gladly pay for you.

Where
My House

When
Saturday, June 18th, 9:00am - 4:00pm (one-hour lunch break, lunch provided)

Afterwards
I was thinking we could do a little up and back on the Bedford Motorway, and hopefully NOT use what we've learned that day. Then back to my place for a Bar-B-Que (bring some meat to throw on the grill).

Let me know by June 3rd so I can get an accurate head count. All are welcome.

~D

Shepard Fairey at OCMA

Today Victor and I went to see Shepard Fairey talk about his work at the Beautiful Losers exhibition at OCMA. I've been somewhat of a fan of his for a long time now, but never took the time to learn the background of his Obey Giant campaign. I've heard stories about how it got started and what it actually means, but just as he explained in his talk, they were all wrong. It was interesting, and funny, to learn about how it started by accident and pretty much as a practical joke, but turned into a real statement about marketing and consumption.

I was surprised to learn that he's the same age as me, 35, and that for being a "street artist" he was actually a pretty decent presenter. His social commentary, along with bits of humor, made the hour fly by way too quickly.

We were already going on a two-hour lunch, so we had to zip through the rest of the exhibition. I was pleasantly surprised to see a little Haring and Crumb on the walls. Everything else, from the graffiti to the photography, was just really damned cool. I wish I had more time to absorb it all.

Question of the Day...

"Are blended bullfrogs good for you?"
--Ryann, age 8 (while watching Fear Factor)

She's Anatomically Correct

I'm in Seattle this whole frikken week for a usability study. So I thought I'd take advantage of the long holiday weekend and drag Tricia along with me.

Despite the ice-rain we had a great time. We actualy didn't do much, but it was the first time in at least two years that we had the chance to "get away". We dumped, I mean, dropped off the kids at Grandma and Grampa's in Vegas and took off from there.

We took that Underground Tour that I've been hearing about and it was really cool. We actually got to go and see a REAL movie in a REAL theatre. Wow, was that weird. We saw Ocean's 12.

The funniest part about the weekend was Saturday night we were strolling down 1st street and this homeless man stumbles towards us. He stops and slurs to me, "Hey, where ja git her? She's anno-tomic-ly correct!"

I lost it! That had to have been the most flattering comment I've ever heard. Only in Seattle!

Ethan at Two Years Old

That last post just made me think of some other things that impress me about Ethan. He turns two next month.

• He says (and signs) "Please" and "Thank You" for just about everything.


• He already knows his first movie quote: "What's up dog?" from School of Rock. It comes out more like "up gog?", but it's cute nonetheless. (He definitely has some Keene blood in him.)


• He has total coordination when jumping on the trampoline and gets almost a foot of air. (That's Guido blood.)


• He throws a perfect spiral with the mini-football, if he gets the grip right.

Nanny 911

We've been watching this new show, Nanny 911, and we're just amazed at how out-of-control these kids and parents are. I'm still new at this whole parenting thing, so watching this show is a great example of what not to do. But more importantly, it shows me how great of a parent Tricia really is, especially when it comes to discipline. Our kids test me a little with this, but they never, ever let their mom get to the count of 3.

One comment that stood out above the rest was when the nanny was telling the mom to discipline her kid. She says something like, "He's only 2 and a half, he doesn't know what that means!" Tricia and I just looked at each other with our mouths open.

Ethan's not even two and he friggen knows.

Tour De Corona 2004

This year's tour was a great ride overall, even with all the flat tires and crashes. I estimated a 30 mile-ride... I was a little off. The path was right on, but I messed up on the calculations somehow. Here's what we road:

Started at my house
Temescal Canyon road ride to Indian Truck Trail
Up Indian Truck Trail to Main Divide
Up Main Divide to Santiago Peak
Down Main Divide to Bedford Road
Down Bedford, through the orange groves back to my house.

Everyone met at my house around 7:00 am, including a couple of new faces. Jeff, who I only rode with once before, invited a couple of friends to come along. Which was totally cool because this past week a bunch of people backed out for one reason or another and I thought for sure that nobody was going to show.

John and Mike pulled up shortly after Jay and introduced themselves. Totally cool guys. Jeff warned me that John was a hard-core rider and rides like 5 times a week. So John starts talking about doing this ride in the middle chain ring, and I'm thinking - Okay he's definitely with the wrong crowd, but oh well, let's see how it goes.

Everyone else shows up one-by-one, eating their Jack in the Box breakfast and getting ready for the big ride. Bob finally shows up and we shove off around 7:45.

All together it was:
Me
Joe
Brian
Steve
Bob
Jay
Jeff
Jeff Jr.
John
Mike

The road ride on Temescal Canyon was a subtle incline, but we went way too fast. This was supposed to be a mellow warmup, but I had to stay in front of the pack to direct everyone. Everyone else kept passing me, so the whole group just went too fast. At this point, Jay already blew his load.

Climbing up Indian Truck Trail was nice and steady. It was interesting to see all the ancient Indian furniture on the side of the road. I'm sure that La-Z-Boy was comfortable in a tee pee at some point.

As we started the climb, Mike asks "So how far are we going?"

"All the way to the peak!" Apparently he got the email, but failed to read it. Details.

Jay started to fall back, so Steve and I waited up for him and harassed him into keep climbing. "Come on Jay, it just around that corner." Hee heee... works every time. Just before Holy Jim Trail, he threw in the towel and turned around. He probably could've went down Holy Jim to get to his house, but his truck was still at my house.

At this point, everyone was way ahead except for me, Steve and Jeff (Jeff probably had 50 extra pounds of equipment on him, including a GPS device, a walkie talkie, an MP3 player, a Hamm Radio and enough water for both him and his son). I pulled ahead slightly, and was so tired I could've sworn I saw the Indian Truck pass me by with a real life Indian smoking a pipe in the drivers seat. I looked at him, he looked at me and said "how". I blinked, shook my head and he was gone. Dehydration perhaps? They say nobody ever saw the Indian Truck and lived to tell about it, so I started to worry a little and considered it a true hallucination.

By the time I reached the top everyone was cursing at me and giving me high-fives at the same time. It was a little awkward to say the least. But I, along with everyone else, felt a great sense of accomplishment to bag the peak. I don't know what it is that keeps us coming back to these torturous rides because during the ride we think "what the fuck are we doing?" then once we reach the top we're like "hey, can't wait to do it again!". It's a very strange, unexplainable phenomenon and it happens e v e r y - s i n g l e - t i m e.

I've been up to Santiago Peak once before, but from the Orange County side. This was the first time from my house, which I've been wanting to do every since I moved to Corona two years ago.

Now comes the fun part... the downhill ride. Mike and I pulled up front for most the ride, until I got a flat. From that point on, it was flat after flat after flat. I got two, but changing my second one resulted in another because of a bad stem, so I used 3 tubes total. Similar thing happened to Joe with 3 tubes, but he had some kind of mysterious hole in one of his and Brian was determined to find it come hell or high water. He blew it up to the size of a truck tire but to no avail. He was getting so pissed.

The wierdest flat was Jeff Jr's. As we were waiting for Joe and Brian, Jeff Jr was just standing there... let me repeat... just STANDING there with his bike for a good 20 minutes. Then he said, "Do you guys here that?" We didn't hear anything. Then all of a sudden... 'psssssssssss s s s s' His tire flattens right in front of us. Very strange... Did this have anything to do with the Indian Truck I saw? Hmmm...

Steve started the crash sessions with a flying-leap-over-the-handle-bars-into-the-rocks-with-a-flat-tire-to-boot-trick. Very impressive. Mike crashed and racked up his knee to get the "Most Bloodiest Crash" award... until I crashed. I felt a little bad because there wasn't enough action going on for this ride so I saved my crash right until the very end. I crashed pretty good and ended up with blood dripping down my leg to take over the award.

We then returned to my house for some well-deserved burgers and dogs and very tasty beverages.

Everyone's computer said something different, but Jeff's GPS device seemed to be the most reliable. Here are his stats and images (Thanks a bunch Jeff):

Distance: 33.76 miles
Lowest Point: 889'
Highest Point: 5622'
Total Elevation Gain: 6138'
Ride Time: 4.5 hours average
Total Time: 8.5 hours
Flat Tires: 9
Crashes: 3

Mom is Cancer Free!!

Today my mom had her last radiation treatment and is now cancer free. I can't even begin to explain what a relief that is and how happy I am. I've been kind of a bummer the last several months, but I'm sure everyone understands why.

Date a White Woman

I have to see this book... too bad it's out of stock... How to Date a White Woman: A Practical Guide for Asian Men The reviews speak for themselves... "Adam Quan is best. He book converted completely my life. At the same time now I dating two white woman! It is best. I thought that he is the sex God." and... "I rike this product! SO GOOD! I use it to rocate woman who will not raugh at my way of talk. Now we get married! I rove her very much!"

The Cannel Plunge

We had an incredible ride at the Cannel Plunge this past weekend near Kernville, Ca.

32 miles, 8 hours, a couple catastrophic mechanicals (including a malfunctioning shoe), a ton of great scenery, way too much climbing, WAY too many people flying over the handlebars (including me, which Joe got a great picture of), sleeping in 26 degree weather, and of course, The Plunge... that about sums it up. Good times!

Of course, Julie chimes in with "Hummm... 4 mph average. Was it uphill both ways?"

I think "Wow, that fast?"

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.
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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.