ava's arrival, part 3

With Ava in the ICU we definitely had a lot to think about... love, salvation, fear of death... God's sovereignty...

Despite the circumstances, there was much to be thankful for. When Andrea was admitted to her room, the nurse on duty was a little surprised that Dr. P had sent Andrea to the hospital. "Usually in these situations, we'll send you home for a week of bedrest and then deliver the baby the next week." In fact, they were just going to monitor Andrea and then decide what to do. At this point, Andrea was still hoping for a VBAC. As time progressed, however, the baby's heart rate started to drop, so it was decided the best course of action was to get Ava out.

*** WARNING - IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH, YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP AHEAD ***

As the doctors performed the Cesarean, they discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped around Ava's neck. This meant that if Andrea tried to do a VBAC, it would have ended in a C-section anyway. More importantly, they discovered that Andrea's uterus had ruptured and that the placenta was bulging through the rupture. If discovered even a day later, there could have been disastrous consequences.

*** END WARNING ***

Based on what Dr. P told us, if Andrea was sent home for bedrest, Ava probably would have died, and Andrea probably would have lost her uterus. Those are some pretty sobering facts to consider.

I now know what it means to see doctors being given the wisdom we pray they'd have when they work on someone we know and love. When Dr. P sent Andrea to the hospital, he didn't know anything about the umbilical cord or the internal issues; he simply acted on a hunch and he was right. Even the nurses (who have no doubt seen similar symptoms countless times) weren't quite sure why he was pursuing that course. In the end, however, God's direction over the entire process was abundantly clear. The world calls it "luck" and gives the credit to Chance, but we know better. Our Creator has not left us in this world to fend for ourselves. Rather, He's been intimately involved in bringing us safe thus far, and He will surely lead us Home. Amen.

After a couple days, we were able to hold Ava. To be honest, I don't even remember what it felt like. The whole week is still a bit of a blur in my mind. Andrea sure looks happy, though:

Ava had velcro affixed to her head to secure the eye shields during the bili light treatment. "She looks like Princess Leia," the nurse said. Hmph I thought. First of all, it's pronounced "Lay-uh" not "Lee-uh." Second of all, it reminds me more of Lobot than Leia.

Geek, guilty as charged. I linked to some Lobot info for all you wannabe geeks who don't know who that is.

On Saturday, a week and a day after Ava's birth, she finally came home! It's already hard to imagine she was that small. All things considered, it was a pretty brief NICU stay. The baby in the crib next to Ava had already been in there for over a month. And what better place for her to be just in case something went wrong? Better safe than sorry.

We learned a lot from our hospital stay. There's this helpless feeling you get when you watch your child in the ICU. There's nothing you can do to make them get better any faster, learn to breathe on their own better, begin to eat adequately, etc. All you can do is stand by and watch. And pray. And remind yourself that God is in control and you're not. And really, would we want it any other way?

ava's arrival, part 2

Ava needed about a week in the Neonatal ICU, so most of these pictures are from that time. Since she was a month premature, she took a little longer getting accustomed to life outside the womb. Having her in the ICU was a very interesting experience, to say the least.

Not having her in the hospital room with us made the experience very different than Trevor's birth. It was actually quite a process getting ready to go see her. Andrea was recovering from her surgery, so even getting out of bed was no small task. The NICU was one floor down. For security purposes, the Neonatal wards are protected by locked doors and intercom systems. I don't know if I've said my last name as many times as I did that week...

Nurse: Can I help you?
Me: [saying last name]
Nurse: OK, I'll let you in

I figure we visited three or four times a day together, and on top of that I went down every three hours to deliver milk that Andrea had pumped... for about four days. Math majors can help me out with that one, but it sure seemed like a lot.

We had to do a three-minute hand washing every time we entered the NICU. A three-minute hand wash may or may not seem like a long time when you read about it, but it's a pretty long time when you're actually doing it.

Many parents find it difficult to see their child hooked up to IVs and monitoring machines. I experienced a little bit of that, but honestly, Ava seemed pretty comfortable. Cozy, even.

You may notice Ava's orange skin color in that last picture. It's not a bad Hollywood tan. It's part of Neonatal Jaundice [read all about it here]. One form of treatment is spending time under bili lights. Straight up sci-fi stuff. It was really fun to capture on camera (and the NICU nurses weren't bothered by pictures... they encouraged them.)

You can't really see Ava in these next two, but I found the wires and plastic very interesting... good album covers, maybe.

ava's arrival, part 1

I was sitting in our bedroom in front of the dining table we use as a desk. Half-Handed Cloud songs were making their way from iTunes to my iPod. Andrea walked in, shaken. She was surprised by the blood she discovered while in the bathroom.

Her OB/GYN was not working that night, so Andrea spoke to the doctor on call. The last thing we expected to do that Wednesday night was go to the hospital, but that's exactly what we found ourselves doing. We left in a rush; Andrea got dressed while I hurried in to Trevor's room and woke him from a deep sleep. Thankfully, he didn't recognize any panic. Instead, he was probably thinking, "Cool. I get to get up now... and we're going for a ride, even! Fun!" I sped down the freeway, fighting thoughts that it was too late... something must have happened to the baby and we won't get to the hospital in time to save her. But I tried to reassure myself that if it were a REAL emergency, the doctor would have made other arrangements. As it stood, we were instructed to go to the emergency room of our hospital and go through the admitting process.

As usual, there was a line for the Admission window. Every second seemed twice as slow as normal. After a very long 3 minutes, we made it to the window and Andrea was admitted. Once she was situated in her room, Trevor and I were kicked out, partly because the nurse didn't want Trevor to get frightened at seeing Andrea hooked up to all the monitors, and partly because they don't allow children his age into the labor & delivery rooms. I waited outside the ward for my parents, who were able to take Trevor off our hands. After a little while, we were told that Andrea and the baby would be monitored to make sure everything was okay, but that there were no problems at the moment.

In the middle of the night, Andrea woke up feeling sick. She tried to make it to the bathroom, but because of all the hospital monitors and the IV, she was stuck. Her voice drifted over the sounds of The Smashing Pumpkins that were filling my ears... jeff... Jeff... JEFF! I wish I came to the rescue. Instead, I was like a deer in the headlights, not knowing what to do. Andrea told me to call the nurse. Instead of pushing the call-button, I headed towards the door. "No, on the remote," Andrea said. I'm glad I wasn't the nurse, who had to walk in and see Andrea's broken fifteen-year streak all over the floor. Not only did she see it... she had to clean it up. I tried to help, but she said it was okay... she would do it. "Okay, if you say so," I thought.

It turned out that Andrea was dehydrated, due in part to the stomach flu. This was the cause of the pre-term labor symptoms. We knew it came from Trevor because he had thrown up a few days earlier. Thank you to whoever put their sick child in the nursery at Church. In addition to Trevor, we know of two other kids from the same nursery who came down with the same thing at the same time.

Now, I wasn't only worried about the baby; I was worried about coming down with the flu myself. For the next few days, I ate as if I was sick, avoiding lots of dairy and fats and trying to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Even so, I couldn't avoid eating the food at Ben and Frosty's wedding that weekend. It's not everyday that I get to partake in some Hawaiian BBQ. Afterward, I felt pretty crummy, but I think it was mostly in my head.

Once we settled in at home, we were determined to put together a hospital bag so we wouldn't repeat such an unprepared situation. We figured we had a month left until the baby's due date, so within the next week or two, we should have it ready to go. We'd have plenty of time.

The next week's Friday came around and things seemed like they were back to normal. Thankfully, I avoided getting the stomach flu. I was actually early to work that day. That morning, Andrea called to schedule an appointment with her doctor. She started to bleed again, this time more heavily. She was slightly concerned that maybe she had lost her mucous plug. The office basically told her that if she wanted to be seen by the doctor, she had to come in immediately since he had to be in surgery that afternoon. I planned to meet her at the doctor's office so I could watch Trevor. I arrived first and was really enjoying listening to Blenderhead's final album Figureheads on the Forefront of Pop Culture. Soon enough, I spotted Andrea's Jeep in the rearview mirror. The results of the exam were a little surprising: go back to the hospital. The logistical details fell into place. I left Truck in front of the doctor's office and drove the Jeep to the hospital. I dropped Andrea off and then headed home. I planned to (finally) put together a hospital bag and get things ready. I had not eaten lunch yet, so I decided to bachelor it... Taco Bell. I don't really like Taco Bell, but once in a while, it hits the spot. While ordering, I noticed a little sign that said If we don't offer you a drink with your order, it's on us or something to that effect. Sure enough, summer-job-holder #1 obviously didn't want to be working that day. I pulled up to the window and paid. AFTER I got my food, I said, "There's a sign out front that says if you don't ask me for a drink, I get one for free." "What kind do you want?" "Coke... er... Pepsi." Score!

Trevor fell asleep on the way home and he woke up in the drive thru. This meant that when I got home and tried to put him down for a nap, he wasn't interested. Even so, I put him down. I ate my crunch wrap supreme and grande soft taco and drank my Pepsi, all while watching some of the director's commentary of United 93. I wasn't in too much of a hurry. Andrea's mom and sister had been visiting Andrea's Grandmother in Eagle Rock, so they were able to come and watch Trevor. They arrived a few minutes later and I got my things together. After installing Trevor's car seat and getting his other things together, Andrea's mom and sister headed home with Trevor in tow. In the midst of packing Trevor's things, I got a call from Andrea saying that the doctor was going to do a c-section on Andrea at 4:15PM. This meant that I had to hurry. For the second time in as many weeks, I sped to the hospital, arriving in Andrea's room about 4:12PM.

The baby's heart rate had been dropping during Andrea's contractions, mild as they were. To be on the safe side, the doctor wanted to just get the baby out. We had gone through a similar situation when Trevor was born, except that his was a more urgent C-Section... so we thought. This one just seemed like a precaution, so I was a lot more relaxed. As Andrea was prepped for surgery, I waited outside the OR in scrubs. I was not as nervous as I thought I was, but still had moments when the butterflies betrayed my anxiety. After about twenty minutes, I decided that the Future of Forestry EP would calm my nerves. By this time, it was already released officially, though a certain someone was kind enough to burn me a pre-release some 4 weeks before drop day. I pulled out my iPod, put in the right ear bud, and...

The OR door burst open.

"We need you to come in right now. We forgot about you and we've already started."

I hesitated a minute, then stuffed the iPod in my pocket. I left my bag in the hallway and walked quickly inside. I stood in the doorway and put my mask on, just in time to see the doctor take Ava out of Andrea. I greeted Andrea and then followed another doctor to the corner where they began the post-delivery tests on the Ava.

When Trevor was born, I had only eaten breakfast... and he was born in the evening. That, plus little sleep the night before, plus the rush of the emergency C-Section meant that I was only brave enough to view Andrea's insides with my peripheral vision. Those things don't usually bother me, but given the circumstances, I didn't want to risk it. This time, however, I was satisfied with my Taco Bell (and free Pepsi!), so I took a good, long look. I lifted my camera and one of the Surgical Techs snitched (loudly) on me. "Is he supposed to take pictures of the mom?" No one seemed to pay attention to her, so I was going to proceed. "Dad?" I was pulled aside to cut the umbilical cord. After that, I turned around, determined to get some pictures of Andrea's innards. "Dad?" said a nurse. "Just take pictures of baby, not of mom." Grrr!!! Fine.

This is one such picture:

Later, I kicked myself (figuratively) because I had pre-set our camera for video mode. Instead of waiting for a clear shot, I should have just started filming before I was ratted out. Since then Andrea has commented that she wished I was able to take some pictures or video of her insides. Oh well. It was still pretty cool to watch. After a while, I was given the baby to take to Andrea. As I sat near her head, I continued to steal glances over the surgical sheet into her abdominal cavity. I'm sure that if I spill too many details, it would eventually make its way back to the hospital and some angry hospital administrators would pay us a visit. "You're gonna need a hospital after we're finished with you." Ha. Suffice it to say it's no wonder a C-Section hurts. At one point I looked and some of Andrea's body parts were OUTSIDE her body.

I returned Ava to the doctors and they performed more tests. She was breathing fairly quickly, so the doctor placed an oxygen mask over her. After a few minutes, we took her to the nursery for more tests and observation...

"when day is over, I close my tired eyes"

Bonus points to anyone who recognizes those lyrics. A gold star to anyone who didn't have to look them up on the Internet (or see them below).

I still haven't forgotten about the picture-filled play-by-play account of the birth of our new daughter. Don't worry it's worth the wait (ha!)... you'll laugh... you'll cry... you'll be that much more thankful for a full-night's sleep.

In the meantime, I couldn't help but cite a few albums that have I've really enjoyed for one reason or another over the past few weeks. You may be thinking, "here we go again," and that's fine. But for the rest of you who are actually interested in what your friends are listening to, here you go. Even though things have been pretty crazy lately, music hasn't distracted me from what's important... it has actually sweetened the experience.









"Add Some Music to Your Day" - Wilson/Knott/Love
The Sunday mornin' gospel goes good with the soul
There's blues, folk, and country, and rock like a rollin' stone
The world could come together as one
If everybody under the sun
Would add some music to your day

You'll hear it while you're walkin' by a neighbor's home
You'll hear it faintly in the distance when you're on the phone
You're sittin' in a dentist's chair and they've got music for you there
So add some music to your day

Add some music everywhere
Add some, add some, add some, add some music

Your doctor knows it keeps you calm
Your preacher adds it to his psalms
So add some music to your day

Music when you're alone
Is like a companion for your lonely soul

When day is over
I close my tired eyes
Music is in my soul

At a movie you can feel it touching your heart
And on every day of the summertime you'll hear children chasing ice cream carts
They'll play it on your wedding day
There must be 'bout a million ways
To add some music to your day

Add some music to your day

the longest winter wedding kiss

We went to a wedding on Saturday evening. At the reception, I joked that Nickel Creek probably wasn't getting royalties for the song that was playing in the background. I ended up hearing some half dozen more Nickel Creek songs before the night was over. (Technically, they're probably exempt under section 110 of the Copyright Act, but it was a fun joke at the time.) I wonder if the couple put any Nickel Creek songs on the "Love Songs" mix CD-Rs that were inside every program. I also wonder if it was expensive to pay for the distribution rights of all those songs, Nickel Creek or otherwise.

Exactly.


It was a nice wedding, though. Or should I say, nice location and nice reception. I hung out with Trevor during the ceremony. It was an outdoor event held at someone's ranch so I was able to take Trevor to see the horses. He was a little apprehensive of their large size, but he became interested when I started asking him if he saw their eyes, ears, noses, etc. As if on cue, one horse made the that snort-type sound they do so well. Trevor thought it was pretty funny. When I then imitated the sound, he looked at me, wide-eyed, as if to say, "You can make that sound too?!?!"

The ceremony kiss was... long? It was right up there with certain other couples who shall definitely remain nameless. I can't imagine what it must be like for a parent to see their son or daughter not coming up for air.

But hey, it's great that you're in love and it's great that you don't care what people think. That alone earns my respect.

Besides, nothing will ever top a certain wedding reception story that my friend told me about. Two Grace Church members. At some point during the reception, the silverware on glasses signaled a kiss. Standing, they leaned in, locked lips, and... how can I put this... he must have been checking to see if she had a wallet in her back pocket. Yes, that must be it. Part of me wishes I was there so I didn't have to tell the story second-hand. Then again, I'm really glad I was not there to see it.

I told that story to Bob and Jeannie DeLateur when they were still living in Southern California. Later that night, Andrea and I treated them to a chocolate chip calzone from a certain restaurant that serves those. As we sat there waiting (there's something like a 30 minute prep. time), who should walk over but you-know-who and Mrs. you-know-who.

(I just paused from writing, looked down at my shirt, and saw a piece of the granola bar on my shirt. Glad I found it before someone else did. "How long has that been there?").

Since I knew Mr. you-know-who, we small talked and I introduced him to the rest of the table. You can imagine the response when, after they left, I said to the Delateurs, "You know the guy in the story?"

"NO!?!?"

"Oh yes."

All in good fun, though. He's one of the nicest guys I've met.

music musings

It's August 15... do you have your Forestry EP yet?

I've had it for a couple weeks now. I got one from... an inside source. It's different. It's better. Buy one. Future of Forestry. Rock.

Here's a collage from the last Something Like Silas show ever. It was kind of an anti-climactic way to go out, what with most of the other acts on the bill being rappers and gospel groups (and Godspeed, but we didn't see their set). I'd estimate maybe 50 people tops in the audience when Silas/Forestry played. The sound was pretty crummy, but the guys put on a good show. Time permitting, maybe I'll put up some video captures since those turned out a lot better than the still pictures. Andrea and I got to hang out with the band (and Eric's wife) for a good amount of time pre- and post-show. I'll never forget Nick and Luke spontaneously hi-fiving when I told them I liked the new stuff better than the old stuff. And it was really cool to hear Spencer's perspective on playing his best no matter how many people showed up. And to top it off, it didn't cost us a dime to get in! I love guest lists. The only real bummer was that I spilled Carl's Jr. spicy sauce on my Appleseed Cast shirt. Grr!

Speaking of guest lists, I was also privileged to take in these other free shows in July:

Nickel Creek @ the House of Blues
Amazing show... no other way to put it. The highlight was probably hearing Sara sing Bob Dylan, though all in all, Andrea and I walked away inspired to make music. Too bad that wore off already... or maybe reality set in.

The Sleepy Jackson @ the Troubadour:
Amazing in an entirely different way. Brian Wilson meets the Who meets Sonic Youth. Very weird and very loud. Probably the biggest guitar sound I've heard since seeing Autolux in the very same room some years before with Dave Studarus and Bob DeLateur. Hearing them live made me want to go back and listen to the album that didn't really impress me. The songs were still somewhat less-than-impressive, but the live sound was incredible.

I think in the last month, I've seen more concerts than in the entire last year. It's been kind of fun. Working in the industry definitely has its perks. It's funny, though. Part of me loves to be able to work for musicians and occasionally go see them play. The other part of me wishes it was me on that stage. Oh well.

Speaking of being on stage, it was a lot of fun to play in Crossroads on Sunday Morning. I love the way Mainstream sings and I also love the way Crossroads sings (usually). The band was Morgan on piano/vocals, Brian on bass/vocals, Chris on acoustic/vocals, Robert on drums, and me on electric guitar. In addition to the blessing of helping to lead God's people in worship, I learned that a 1967 Fender Mustang + Mesa/Boogie Nomad 100 on Channel 2 running at 60 watts + Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man equals more atmospheric swirly guitar than you can shake a stick at. I've never been happier with my sound... except for 1) Resolved: 2005 and 2) band practice in Nestor's garage in July 2005. And I got to play the guitar part from Don Peris' song "Clement" during the song "Indescribable." Well, not exactly the same part, but close enough for jazz.

something liks silas - divine invitation

There was always something not quite right about Something Like Silas' album Divine Invitation. I could never put my finger on it, but something wasn't as good as it could have been. I never really liked the sound of the toms, and while the drums in general were mixed a little to safely for me, I could stand them (except for the toms). In general, the mix was a little tame, though the instruments sounded pretty good independently. Maybe the vocals were a tad too loud? It wasn't even the shortening of the instrumental sections that did it, though I still prefer the longer drawn-out passages of the earlier versions. Finally, I realized that it was, in my opinion, the song order that kept this album from being all that it could have been.

Case in point... I re-did the track numbers on my iPod and could not believe the difference. I ended up burning a CD-R copy to keep in the album case along with the original so that I can listen to the new and improved album instead of the original.

If any of you out there have this album, give my mix a try and let me know what you think. It may well be that I'm the only one who will notice any improvement, but I couldn't keep this to myself just in case someone else would feel the same way. I went from liking the album to loving the album. Perhaps you might also. If nothing else, check the album out if you haven't already. It's proof that not all Christian music has to be devoid of creativity, though most of it is.

01. Creation's Call
02. Rains Pour Down
03. In the Burning
04. When I Search
05. Infinite
06. Spirit Waltz
07. Divine Invitation
08. Better is One Day
09. The Words That You Say
10. #5 (Please)
11. I Fall

(I couldn't really find a place for "Weight of the World." It's not a bad song, but I couldn't find a spot where it flowed. It would probably fit best after "I Fall," but I think putting a slow, plodding, moody song at the end of a CCM major label debut is pure genius.

memorial day

A little while after Mother's Day, we decided that it would be nice to have people over. The only problem was, we needed a good reason. Then it hit us. Memorial Day! Small problem... we didn't have a barbecue. When it you boil it down, I guess you could say we bought a barbecue so that we could have people come over on Memorial Day.

We decided on a Weber 22.5" charcoal grill. Home Depot Online seemed to be the best option, so Andrea ordered one. She also ordered a chimney starter from Amazon.com. We knew we were cutting it close since we ordered these things about 10 days in advance. The chimney starter shipped fairly quickly, but the barbecue did not. As Memorial Day drew closer and closer, we became more and more skeptical. I think we received the chimney starter on Wednesday the 24th, the same day Andrea called Home Depot to cancel the order for the barbecue. On Friday, we bought the same grill at Barbecues Galore.

That night, I assembled the grill (with much help from Andrea... sometimes those blasted picture-only instruction manuals confound me), but it was too late to give it a go. I wasn't about to cook 20 burgers with absolutely no prior experience, so I did a trial run on Saturday - two hot dogs. I must not have used enough charcoal because one of the dogs was only slightly warm and the other still partially uncooked (still mooing, oinking, clucking, barking, and whatever else hot dog ingredients do when they're still alive) by the time the fire went out.

Monday rolled around and I was a little bit apprehensive, but also figured hey, you can only do so much to ruin a burger (or a dog).

Look at that feigned confidence.

When it was all over, the only undercooked burger (that I was told about) was Andrea's. Go figure. Grilling turned out to be a pretty fun experience. It was equally fun to spend the holiday with the Horios, the Swansons, the Sillas, and two out of three of Andrea's sisters.

The day after Memorial Day, Andrea received an e-mail from Home Depot telling her they shipped the grill (that day). I'm no mail order expert, but I'm pretty sure that canceling an order means you don't want it anymore. Then again, if everything went as planned, I wouldn't be telling this story right now (reference: The Cosby show, Season 5, Episode 18: The Dead End Kids Meet Dr. Lotus, "If she didn't, I wouldn't be telling you this story.").

Home Depot ended up shipping the cancelled item a day after the holiday (May 30). When Andrea called the Depot, they told her she'd receive a phone call 24 hours before it arrived and she'd have the opportunity to refuse to accept the package. As you probably guessed, the phone call never came.

When the grill arrived a day or two later, we refused to accept it and UPS sent the package back. The Depot wasted money on shipping, but at least it was supposedly resolved. They got the grill back and we'd get our credit. No blood, no foul.

On June 14, Andrea called again because we still had not received a credit on our card. UPS didn't give us a tracking number for the return shipping and Home Depot basically blamed us. They said that since they had no tracking number, they'd have to "hunt it down" in their warehouse before they'd give us the credit.

On June 21, Andrea called again. She was told that by the end of the next week, she'd receive a call or the account would be updated.

On July 7, Andrea called again. She was told that Home Depot had recently switched to a new system and our return hadn't been entered. They said the credit should show up by the end of the next week.

On July 14, Andrea called again. She was told that they had "escalated" the process and that the credit should show up within 24-72 hours.

On July 20, Andrea called again. She was told that they "escalated" the process again and that the credit would post that day (such optimism!). The credit should post within 48 hours.

On July 24, the credit posted.

Andrea's estimate was about 5 hours spent on hold over those two months.

In the meantime, we used our Barbecues Galore grill to cook Puke Chicken for just the three of us, Puke Chicken (again) with Ben and Leah, flank steaks with Steve and Jenn, and most recently, this yummy tri-tip and corn.

mother's day

Here are some random pictures from my parents' house that were taken on Mother's Day. I suppose it would have been more appropriate for me to have taken a family picture, but I didn't really think about it. I'm still getting the hang of lighting and exposure adjustments, so I was just fooling around with these.




After having lunch with my parents and my mom's mom, we went to visit Andrea's mom's side of the family at the rest home where her grandmother lives. One of the activities for the residents was to sit and watch this character:

I played around with the color to show that, yes, he really is wearing that. I'm sure this guy's just happy to get a gig. I don't expect there to be much of a market for Robin Hood impersonators who give history of dance lectures and lessons.

least of these - live @ bethany baptist church

ssssunken aaaanchor - four times the fun

Four Jobs I've Had
1. Dish Washer
2. Parking Tram Announcer, Orange Cone Distributor, Trash Collector, etc.
3. Custodian
4. Staff Accountant

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
1. The Thin Red Line
2. Dancer in the Dark
3. Take It Or Leave It
4. The Emperor's New Groove

Four Places I've Lived
1. Sun Valley, CA
2. Thousand Oaks, CA
3. Santa Clarita, CA
4. tbd

Four TV Shows I (Will) Watch
1. 24
2. Cosby Show
3. any crime documentary
4. any music documentary

Four Places I've Vacationed
1. Cape Cod, MA
2. New York, NY
3. Clearwater, FL
4. Mammoth Lakes, CA

Four Foods I Love
1. Original Flavor Triscuits
2. Boneless Buffalo Wings
3. CPK Pizza - fresh, not frozen
4. Green Tea Snow Bubble from CJ's (r.i.p.)

Four Sites I Visit Daily
1. Gmail
2. Wikipedia
3. Republic of Texas Recordings' Message Board
4. Northern Records' Message Board

Four Places I'd Rather Be
1. Recording Studio
2. On Stage
3. In my own house
4. In our living room, which would mean on a laptop with wireless internet, instead of cooped up in the bedroom by myself...

Four Random Items In My Bag (if I had one, I guess)
1. iPod (never leave home without it)
2. 2 oz bottle of Cholula (I'd never leave the house without it... if I had one)
3. Leatherman
4. Camera

Four Things Most People Don't Know About Me
1. I am a sometime Elderado
2. I don't think there should be a Christian music industry
3. Contrary to a rumor that, amazingly, people still fall for, I have only been engaged once.
4. I don't believe in e-mail petitions. Don't send me one...I promise I'll delete it, no matter what it's about.

Four People I Tag To Do This
1. I
2. Plead
3. The
4. Fifth

or,
1. I
2. Have
3. No
4. Friends

:)

gigantic woolly mammoth-sized update

Jeff: Sorry, I had to rip off Clyde's silly pun of a title. Well, I might as well give a shot at a review of our trip to Mammoth before I forget what happened. As an added bonus, this will be our first joint blog-post, but hopefully not the last.

For those who don't know, the weekend after tax season ended, Andrea, Trevor, and I took a trip to Mammoth Lakes, CA. Our guests joined us for three out of four days. The trip up on Thursday was fairly uneventful. We had lunch at The Pizza Factory in Lone Pine. "We Toss 'Em, They're Awesome," they say. It wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't awesome. A few hours later, we arrived in Mammoth. A lot has changed since the last time I was there, and even that was significantly different than years before. We ate dinner at Grumpy's, a sports bar/family restaurant. In all the years of going to Mammoth, I'd never eaten there. In all future years, I don't think we'll eat there again. The food wasn't bad... just not as good as I was hoping. On top of that, Trevor was not having a good night.

Andrea: Not having a good night = cutting new teeth and a pretty painful-looking diaper rash that we discovered when we got back to the condo. We popped him in the bathtub (after a little accident on the bathroom carpet...good thing we had access to the Resolve carpet cleaner... it definitely came in handy throughout the whole weekend...). Thursday night we reclined on the not-quite-as-comfortable-as-the-ground sofa bed and watched COPS until we decided sleep is better than TV.

Jeff: One of the movies in the condo's library was "Left Behind II: Tribulation Force". Those kinds of movies are kind of like car crashes... you have to watch because it's so bad. Actually, I should preface that... I'm usually not one to rubberneck at such scenes. I actually tend to get upset at everyone else for driving so slowly and not watching the road. Which reminds me... on the way up Highway 395, we drove past an accident scene. I was waved through, and, as we passed the damaged autos, someone (a rescue worker, perhaps?) started freaking out, waving his hands in a downward motion and yelling something. Call me crazy, but I figured it would be more polite to drive on through rather than gawk at the carnage. I guess 20 mph was pushing it a bit (apparently). All that to say, I made a point to watch "Left Behind II" on Friday morning while we were waiting for Clyde & Co. to arrive. (Props to Buck Williams for outsmarting the anti-christ. You rock.) And how could I not watch it? It was right there... calling out to me. Now you know why I flip through every Filthy Christian Stores catalog we get. To gawk at the carnage.

Andrea: We also let Trevor have his first experience in the snow while we waited for Clyde, Lisa, and Claire. He wasn't too excited about it... he didn't like to walk in it. And after a while, he didn't even want to stand in it.

Jeff: Trevor did look pretty cute all decked out for the snow.




Jeff: I think the TV was on almost the entire time, even when no one was watching. Since we don't have cable at home, I suppose it was okay. We watched a lot of COPS, and also a lot of shows on Discovery Health.

Andrea: One of the more interesting ones was called "Trauma in the ER" or something like that. It was filmed in the San Francisco county hospital, so there were all sorts of interesting people coming in... a crack addict with a flesh-eating infection in her leg from infected needles (She was with a friend and had passed out. The friend decided to take a nap, then woke up 8 hours later and thought maybe he should take her to the hospital. She was pretty critical because they needed to get an IV in her but couldn't find a vein because they were all used up.); a transient who was hit by a vehicle while crossing the street; a guy with a stab wound in the neck; a guy who was high, standing in the middle of a busy street directing traffic... naked; anyways, some interesting stuff. You definitely see the consequences of bad choices working in a place like that.

Jeff: On Friday night, we played a couple games of Carcassonne. My ninja army (the black pieces) demolished the competition, as you can see in this picture:


Jeff: No, not that one... this one... It looks like I'm in third place, but I've actually lapped everyone! Ha ha! Andrea calls the black pieces the "undocumented workers." I guess she's afraid to call them "illegals" just like... ah, never mind, you know who I'm talking about.

I lost the next game.

Andrea: And I believe I won the next game. My educated farmers outwitted the illegals.

Jeff: Whatever. Later, we played a bit of speed Scrabble. I think this is the only round I won, but what a round! "TAB" and "ROLL" are pretty elementary, but I should have gotten quadruple points for "THORAX!" After that round, there was pretty much no reason to continue. I mean, come on... how you gonna top "THORAX"? Bring it on. Heh heh.

Andrea: That was after I totally creamed Jeff in a game of regular Scrabble. Funny he forgot to mention that.

Jeff: Yeah, funny. Anyway, Friday night we went out for ice cream. I've previously mentioned Swenson's Ice Cream Parlor, which is long gone. Mammoth Lakes Ice Creamery (or something like that) sounded promising... Dreyer's ice cream, drinks, etc... but it was closed. The nerve! We settled on Moose Tracks ice cream from Vons, which isn't really settling, but we spent a good twenty minutes (or more) in line. But that was okay. Clyde and I discussed Darby's music (among other things). At that time, I had still not heard his second album, so Clyde filled me in.

Andrea: Trevor and I stayed in the car while the rest of the clan went in to get the ice cream. Trevor looked particularly chubby in his jacket strapped into the car seat, so I snapped a few pictures.

Andrea: I kept him entertained by turning the interior dome lights on and off (complete with sound effects). There was some guy roaming around the parking lot trying to get people to buy lift tickets or some equivalent off of him. I witnessed a transaction in front of the car next to me. I think he was scamming them.

Jeff: On Saturday, we hit up the outlets in town. We bought Trevor some gloves and two pairs of rain boots.

Andrea: The gloves were originally $7.95, on sale for 50% off. They came to $4.26 including tax. The rain boots were the buy of the weekend though - originally $30, marked down to $5 each!!! I got two pairs in different sizes. I have no idea when he'll grow into them. I just hope he doesn't outgrow both of the before we hit the next rainy season.

Jeff: We walked into a store that had animal heads on the wall, including two large bison heads (I used to call that Bear Country Jamboree style, but after Disneyland (CA) decided to close that attraction, and Disney then had the gall to turn it into a really stupid movie, I now call it Claim Jumper style). When Trevor saw them, he started making his cow sound "Mmmmm!" I wish I had it on video. I think a bison head would go nicely over our TV, but I don't have a spare $10,000 burning a hole in my pocket.

After the outlets, we stopped at Schat's Bakkery for some goodies... a cinnamon roll for me, a pecan danish thing for Andrea, a cookie for Trevor, and (drumroll) stroopwaffels! Ever since reading about them on the Republic of Texas Records message boards, I've been curious, but I didn't think I'd ever actually find any. They didn't disappoint. No doubt not the most authentic version, but probably a step above the Trader Joe's version.


Andrea: I was excited about the bakery... perhaps one of my favorite places to go. Everything looked good. Unfortunately, the pecan thing I got wasn't really that good. I didn't even finish it.

Probably the most exciting thing about the weekend (for me at least) was that it snowed! I think I've been in falling snow before, but it was a really long time ago, and I don't remember it falling quite as much as it did in Mammoth. (The only time I remember being in falling snow was at... um... Indian Maiden camp? And I don't think we even went outside.) It was already gorgeous when we got there, but the fresh snow made it even more so. All the pictures that Jeff took were views from the condo.

Jeff: We had fresh snow Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I know this isn't much for people who are not native to Southern California, and it's by no means the most snow I've seen up here, but I didn't want Jeep to feel left out of all this picture-taking business. I ended up throwing some of the snow at Jeep's windows when Trevor was inside. He thought this was hilarious and laughed hysterically.

Jeff: I ended up taking a lot of pictures of the scenery. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I really like our new camera, and I really like having such great subject material.









Andrea: Trevor still didn't want to have anything to do with the snow, but he sure did enjoy getting pushed around on the sled by Dad. Unfortunately, Dad got tired, so I suggested that they sled down the little hill created by the snowplows. Trevor enjoyed that as well.

Here's Trevor watching the snow fall:


Scarf-Boy


Trevor getting his groove on.


Jeff: Saturday night, Clyde, Lisa, and Andrea tackled a Sudoku while I watched some of Jurassic Park 3 on TV. (Andrea: By the way, my previous feeling about Sudoku still holds.) I didn't skip out because I dislike it that much, especially since I've never even tried one, but I wasn't in a mood to think. I was in a mood to relax. Hence JPIII. I saw this one twice in the theaters, not because it was that good, but because I didn't pay either time. (Since this weekend, Clyde has not ceased to tease me about JPIII.) After Sudoku, Clyde & Lisa treated us to some cannoli they bought at the bakery... except it wasn't straight cannoli... it had a mocha-type flavor and the pastry wasn't crunchy. It was still tasty, though. We finished off the night with Star Wars Ep. III. (Don't worry Y, we'll still do Batman Begins at your place.) There's no real point for me to give my thoughts on Ep. III. It would be kind of like me giving my review of the light bulb or the combustion engine. That's a really bad way of saying it's old news.

On Sunday morning, we departed for home. We ate lunch at Upper Crust Pizza Factory in Bishop, CA. This was quite a bit closer to "awesome," and ironic in that there's also a Pizza Factory in Bishop.


Jeff: On the way home, the sky looked like a giant painting. Andrea snapped some great shots. Here's one:


Andrea: We drove through a storm on the way home. There was a big downpour in a field that looked pretty cool. That's what this shot is, in case you couldn't tell.


Andrea: Trevor decided his bear needed a sip of water. That was the first time I ever saw him do that, and thankfully he did it again so I could get a picture of it.


Andrea: Trevor slept for about two hours on the way home, and fussed for the rest of it. I think he was sad to leave Mammoth too. Or maybe he was just sick of riding in the car.

Jeff: We bought a tub of Jelly Belly jelly beans for our time in Mammoth, and returned with only 25-30% eaten.

Jeff: Speaking of snack food, about a month ago, my mom gave me a snack one of her hapa students gave her. It's sweet corn covered in something sweet. I thought it tasted similar to white chocolate, and wasn't even sure it was real corn until Andrea said it tasted exactly like canned sweet corn. That ruined it for me, but I had to snap a pic before throwing them away. Crazy half-Japanese kids (although I suspect this product may actually be Korean...anyone in the know?).

Jeff: Speaking of Japanese things, I bought some new shoes. Normally I wouldn't post about that, but they're the most comfortable shoes I've ever had, and I happen to like them a lot. But outsourcing seems the way to go, because my "Japanese" Tigers were made in China. Oh well.

Jeff: Early this week, I had some extra time during lunch so I drew a quick sketch of my desk at work. I've got some pretty serious problems with perspective, but it is what it is.