The Gravley Life

BTW

2011-03-17T13:10:00.001-07:00

Sam is 2 now. I bought a new house (in Mahtomedi), love my job (same one), and am having a blast.

Kids in Tow

2009-11-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

One of the joys of coming home to young kids is making up and playing new games. The old stand byes; watching TV, building blocks, and tag are fun, but often you get bored with those and have to branch out to new and more creative activities.

Last night, James was playing with a rubber snake. It's about 5 feet long and is very stretchy when pulled. He was running around and slipped on the floor, sliding several feet in his sweat suit. I considered his nearly frictionless state and thought it would make for a fun new game.

We cleared the kitchen, dining room, and part of the living so that we would have a clear path on hard floors. He sat in the furthest corner of the kitchen, and I pull him through the rooms as fast as I could, making a crucially timed 90 degree turn to prevent a collision into the door frame into the living room. Our tow rope, the rubber snake, was elastic and provided a powerful slingshot effect that further elevated the top speed and the fun James was having.

James loved this game! We even got Sam to sit on his lap for a couple of Sunday-Drive speed rides.

Occasionally, I'd pull a little too hard and the snake would slip out of his hand, whipping back behind me. One time, this happened in the kitchen. Unfortunately, I had not remembered to put away the cup full of chocolate milk that was sitting on the kitchen table. As if Indiana Jones had done it himself, the snake whipped the cupped with great precision, splattering the chocolate milk at a high velocity over about half of our kitchen. I even found drops on the ceiling in the next room 15 feet away!

We all laughed and cleaned up together. After that, Bets pulled James for another 20 minutes before it was bath time and we had to stop.

I know I don't post much here, but I wanted to share part of our day to day lives with you. I hope to keep it up!

Three Plus Two

2008-12-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

In moments of questionable judgment, Bets and I decided to increase the size of our family by adding a cat first, and then a kid (the decisions were made in the reverse order). We didn't do this to test the limits of how many "beings" (human or feline) we could fit into our 990 sq ft house, although I'm sure the results will be interesting. We also did not feel the necessity to measure up to some ideal that trumpets the false sense of fulfillment from having two heterosexual parents, a dog, a cat, a commuting car, a minivan and 2.4 children -- especially considering the legal/medical implications of creating 0.4 of a child. Although, we're actually there, sans the 0.4 "it", which gives me an unsettling urge to jump out of plane with a air board strapped to my feet, screaming "I'm alooooooonnnnnneeeee" for 8,000 ft and "Oh craaaaa" for the rest of the fall. As an aside, when do I get my midlife crisis toy, and what's the price limit on that? I'm thinkin' Tahiti.

So we got a cat, Jack Wyatt. He's about 8 months old. I was against this addition and had been for a long time, but even the strongest of defiant walls are worn away by the constant pleadings of a wife and a 3 year old. Jack Wyatt (JDub) is actually an exceptional cat. He's mellow, affectionate, doesn't shed, looks nice, knows how to use the litter box, and is endlessly patient with James. He was a gift from Kirsten, James' Aunt, for his birthday.

The other addition is that Bets is due February 4th with a new kid, a boy. His name will probaby by Samuel Henry Gravley. I'm reserving my thoughts on the new kid for another post, but in short, we're very excited!

I changed the image on this site to something a little more personal. Below, I've posted a couple of pictures from the shoot.

Happy Holidays!

Ten Pin Alley - James Bowling

2008-12-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

As parents, Bets and I sometimes get stuck doing some of the same activities over and over on weekends like going to the MN Zoo or the Mall of America. We thought we'd try something new last weekend, and headed to the Brunswick Zone in Lakeville.

The Brunswick Zone just opened up. It's a bowling alley with an arcade, restaurant, corporate meeting space, and lots of alleys (I'll bet you had guessed that part). It's very nice.

We came into the place during "Cosmic Bowling", luckily. The lights were down, laser lights and fog machines painted the alleys, and music blared overhead. James loved it!

We had a great time. Here's a vid of James knocking the hell out of a couple of pins.

Mr. Bubbles

2008-09-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

I've posted this video, not because something amazing happens, not because hilarity ensues, but because it's a simple peek into our bathtime routine.

The quality isn't the best because it was taken with my phone, but I hope you'll enjoy watching James play with bubbles in the bath.

Anty in m' bowly

2008-08-25T14:49:00.001-07:00

"Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." John F Kennedy's inaugural speech contains the most famous example of an antimetabole. That is, a phrase where you reverse the key words or the first part at the end for effect or new meaning. This example is also probably one of the few antimetabolies that doesn't rub me the wrong way.

It's not that they can't be somewhat useful or insightful. It's the lack of effort and smugness inherent in every desk calendar, church bulletin, mechanic street sign, or hopeless know-it-all that ruins the entire rhetorical mechanism for me. Let me make one up here; for your pensive and potentially perspective-changing reflection.

My feet don't smell if you don't smell my feet.

...wait, I can do better. Let's get real, you know, soulful here.

The steps I take in my simple life teach me that life is simply a set of steps.

Oh yeah, now that is stick-a-straw-in-my-back-and-rub-my-belly Buddha drink mug quality wisdom there.

My first hope is to educate, but more importantly show you that hope is firstly about education. I'll stop now.

We need to expect more out of what we're trying to communicate. We don't need to resort to cheap cliche semantics to give our words power. If you have something to say, be frank, focused, raw or anything but antimetabulelar (sorry, couldn't resist, try to say it out loud for fun maybe). And please, the next time you run across a failed antimetabole, roll your eyes dramatically and spread the word to those around you that this trend is on its way out.

Hanson Visit

2007-11-20T20:35:00.000-08:00

We have great times with the Hansons, especially James, now that he's getting older and can keep up with the girls a bit better.

Kids are Fun

2007-11-07T04:44:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of examples of James and I having a great time. The first is the two of us playing in the leaves. The second is a picture of the two of pretending that the playdough wrapped around his fist is a puppet names Stumpy.

It was a dark and stormy month

2007-10-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

I will be joining about 100,000 other people and my brother during the month of November to try my hand at writing a novel. Wish me luck!

Click on the image to get more information about this program.

James May through October 2007

2007-10-10T07:43:00.000-07:00

I though I'd give you all a healthy update of pictures, but instead of posting them here, I put them onto Flickr and just post a slideshow. If you'd like to see bigger versions of the pictures, just click on the slideshow and click"open photo in new window".

Some fun over the weekend

2007-05-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

Bets, James, and I had some fun this weekend. Below you'll find pictures of us posing James and Luke, Dan's dog, with a new Toro kid's power tools set. I feel obligated to mention that they didn't have much choice. Also, you'll see James having fun in a sprinkler for the first time.

Healthy Helping of James Pictures

2007-04-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

Hello people. Spring is in full swing. James is great. Life is good. Here are some pictures.

James was playing with blocks last night, and Bets and I were amazed at how high he could stack them! I was going to wait until he was 3 to introduce him to Tetris, the gateway drug into gaming, but I might be able to bump that up to 2.5 now.

I enjoyed getting this falling down action shot. In case you're trying to read the shirt, it says " I do all my own stunts." It was a gift from Terri and Aaron.

James is enjoying his first "shower". He seems to like it. We're training together for the sprinklers at the water parks in the summer.

This was taken March 3rd after we got that last big snow of the winter. He was helping me shovel. Wait, no he wasn't. He was goofing off as usual. Why should he get the credit...

My hat on me: warm, but no effect. My hat on James: funny as heck.

Bets was brave and let James have a cone. He actually did pretty well with it.

Goodbye, Bud

2007-03-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

Bets and I put Bud to sleep this morning. He had kidney failure and wasn't responding well to treatment.

Bud, from the Humane Society in 1997, raised in Richfield, MN; Boston, MA; Sunnyvale, CA, Burnsville and finally Lakeville was a part of everything we experienced over that last ten years. His absence leaves us with a sadness, which frankly, is a bit more than I expected. He was an affectionate, gentle, and very loved cat. We will miss him.

Bets wrote this about Bud.

Pain gone
Suffering gone
He's gone
Bye Bud
We miss you, we loved you, and we love you still

Here are some pictures of him.

In Boston

In Boston again

In California

Here, at home

Cold Fun in the Wintertime

2007-02-28T08:35:00.000-08:00

It snowed last weekend. We got eight to ten inches of it in our neighborhood.

It seems that every year, we come a point during late winter when we think, "we're out of the clear." We'll have weather in the 40's or 50's, the snow melts, and the birds - they start a-singin'. Then, inevitably, the snow falls and blankets our hopes of an early spring. It never fails to surprise me. Our weather is pretty volatile.

Here are some pictures we took while I was shoveling. James loves being outside. This much fresh snow was fun for him.

A Few Faces from James at 14 months

2007-02-20T19:38:00.000-08:00

So it's come down to this.

I have resorted to posting periodically, most often at the insistence of my family or peers. Don't get me wrong, though. I do enjoy it, even sometimes, I think about it. But the pendulum of my interest has swung away from this venue for time being. I do not worry, it will return.

In the meantime, here are some great pictures my wife took of James today. If you enjoy them one tenth as much as I do, they'll at least give you a nice warm 'aww' feeling deep down.

God Bless You!

2006-12-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Adam,

Thank you for motivating me to resume posting on my blog.

Love - not literally,
Steve

Here's a picture from our "Christmas family picture" reel. I'm at liberty to post this particular print because it has no chance of making it into our Christmas card. Can you guess why? That's right. Betsy's not in it. Well done.

Completely unrelated...

I have to get something off my chest -- I'm looking at you, sneeze. Where do you get off being blessed when your aspiratory kin need to be excused? You don't deserve God's blessing or mine. You're not that special. The best you'll get from me from now on is that I'll excuse you. That's it. Your day in the sun is over for me. I hope you had fun.

Are you ready for this?

2006-09-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

I don't think you're ready.

Are you?

I don't know, but we'll see. What you are about to witness is the very first of James' stunts, captured on video.

"Stunt," you say?

"Yes," I reply, "an honest to goodness stunt."

"Is it long like your last video?"

"No, it's like only 45 seconds."

Incredible.

The anticipation is palpable.

Here we go...

James walking video

2006-08-30T05:12:00.000-07:00

Here's the video of James walking. There's nothing more grating than hearing your own baby-talking voice on video, so I hope you appreciate the sacrifice my dignity is making on this one.

Make sure you stick around for "the helicopter" toward the end of the video. Also, notice that Bones, our dog, is at the window watching most of this. Watching, always watching...secretly...and plotting.......

Officially: we're in trouble

2006-08-29T04:43:00.000-07:00

James started walking Sunday. It's really cool, but a little concerning as well. He had taken steps before, one or two steps to a piece of furniture, but when it came to walking, he hesitated and would not do it. He would consider it, then sit down. Sunday, he overcame that, for whatever reason. He took steps from one place to another without any coaxing. He walked around for about 20 minutes, even a 15 feet stretch at one point. It was really amazing to watch. Yesterday, during the day, Bets says he walked a lot more. Of course, he's no Jefferson PÃ©rez. He still falls a lot and we have to walk with him to catch him if he falls the wrong way, but I'm sure he'll get better quickly now that he can practice. I took a video of this, and I'll post it in the next day or so.

Cousins part 2

2006-08-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

"Dear administrator of The Gravley Life,

I am concerned that your content no longer contributes to the fabric of social commentary. I've noticed that you have cheaply resorted to posting all of these kids' pictures. I hope you pick up where you left off.

Please, no more kid pictures.

Thank you for your time,
Some people."

Dear guy,
Doug McLeod once said, "A church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence." Deep, huh? Is that enough "content" for you?

Sweet.

Now, here are some more kid pictures. Enjoy! (click to enlarge)

James Picture Clearance - Every Pic Must Go!

2006-08-01T06:23:00.000-07:00

My dearest Blog patrons, we're liquidating our picture inventory! You want cute pictures of James? You got it! We've got naked pictures, swing pictures, funny face pictures...you name it! We must clear these out to make room for the new inventory...inventory...inventory...

Today and probably not today only, you can have these for the believably low price of free.

Enjoy!

(Click the images to enlarge them. Clicking or viewing these images releases The Gravley Life from any liability including, but not limited to, cute-induced vomiting, obnoxious "aww" sounds, or half hearted chuckling.)

BFF (best friends forever) ?

2006-07-26T06:08:00.000-07:00

Starting yesterday, Betsy will be taking care of James and Andy, my nephew, during the day at my sister's house. It's a bit of a change for her since she's been able to stay home with James, but so far, I think she actually prefers getting out and watching both James and Andy. She said it was "more fun". I believe her, but I don't know if I could do it.

Here are some pictures of James' and Andy's first day together!

Sensitive at my desk

2006-07-18T09:37:00.001-07:00

I planted seeds of a sensitive plant at my desk. Two sprouted. I thought it was unusual that one grew as I expected, but there was also a teeny tiny plant coming up, too. Same seeds - but one is about 15 times smaller than the other.

Shoestrings are fun

2006-07-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, I'm going to start a special feature. By "special", I mean something that is only slightly more spectacular than my regular content.

I only curb your enthusiasm in hopes that you'll avoid pulling a muscle from over-bracing yourself - something I tend to do at the promise of future content from any rinky dink friend/family blog sites.

In the meantime, here are a couple of videos of James playing with my shoestring yesterday.

Yardwork, part 2

2006-07-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

After having stirred my readership into a frenzy of excitement over the recent post I did about having dug a hole in my backyard, I felt it was only fair to update you on the suspenseful situation.

I took some dirt from my garden and wheelbarrowed it over the hole to fill it up. Then I leveled it off, sprinkled some grass seed, buried the grass seed with a garden rake, and put up a fence up around it. I've been watering it once or twice per day since, and it seems to growing well. Here are a couple of pictures.

Right before I seeded.

Grass growing.

And here are a couple of bonus baby pictures.

Tormenting James in the bath.

James and I were matched involuntarily on the Saturday before Father's day.

Our sponsor goes live

2006-06-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

Our sponsor, NapaBama, has just announced plans to broaden its influence to the Internet. Their preview site is available at www.napabama.com.

Cheers!

Gooooooaaallll!

2006-06-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful first father's day weekend!

Bets, James, and I spent Saturday doing our own private invite-only celebration which included grunting, fast food, father/son time, yard work, whiskey, and a whole lot of whatever-the-heck-I-felt-like, that is, fantastic.

On Sunday, we went over to my parents' house with Tracey, Kevin, Dan, Kate, Aaron, and Terri to watch the Brazil vs. Australia soccer game in HD. We watched soccer, grilled, had beer, played dominos, and went for a nice walk. Again, fantastic.

Here are some pictures from Sunday.

James looks on as Brazilian defender Cafu talks to his goalie Dida before the second half.

Eating James' neck while making cookie monster sounds makes James laugh.

Brazilian soccer star in training.

James wants to stand, always standing, all the time. Hopefully, he'll want to crawl at some point.

But it's still light out...

2006-06-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

Bets snapped this picture last night after I sat down "for just a second" with James and favorite plush doggie toy.

I never used to just fall asleep for no reason, but now I've joined the ranks of "matured" society and suffer from occasional bouts of mild narcolepsy.

Helpful tips for mowing your lawn

2006-06-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

I was going through my bills and paperwork last night and came across a manual for my riding lawn mower (generously donated to me by my parents). Thumbing through it, I found some illustrations that made some excellent points about safety. Hopefully, by sharing this information with you, I can make the world a safer and happier place.

Here, you can see that if you hop onto the tractor with a buddy, you are fated to fall head-first dive in the front wheel.

Illustrated here is how you might lose the tip of your toes or fingers. What? No blood?

The universal symbol for death by exhaust inhalation should be familiar to all of you. If you don't have a perfectly circular set of lungs, I assume you'll be OK.

Here, they show you the different spots on the body that debris can hit you. Ouch, but evidently, your knees are safe.

Try to avoid getting rolled over by your tractor. Not having an advanced sense of subtlety, I would not have thought of this.

I hope you've all learned some important safety tips from these invaluable illustrations. Mowing is not for fun, it's a responsibility.

Cell phone video warning: low quality

2006-06-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

Just for fun, I thought I'd put a video from my cell phone of James swinging in a $3 swing we got at a garage sale event called River Hills Day. He kind of laugh/cries a little at the end, but I assure you, he loves that thing.

I can show you the world...

2006-06-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

Jalladin on his magic carpet.

It was a nice weekend for us. We got a lot done, and even got to watch a couple of world cup games. I am rooting for Brazil primarily, followed closely by the US, and then Denmark and the UK at the distant tail end. After that, always the underdog.

Bonus Pictures: Spam Edition

2006-06-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen,
Since I sent out an email to many of my friends and family, I felt it was only right that I should post some extra pictures for you to consume en masse (sometimes I like to inject latin into my posts, partly because it's fancy, but mostly because it's an honest good time).

I hope you enjoy them!

Taken this weekend, James is in a good mood. He's a bit small for this play center, so Betsy puts a little pillow in front of him to prevent him from flopping back an forth as much.

Last week, Bets and James were at the park. He wasn't really in the mood, but I can't resist posting pictures of James in our favorite hat.

We went over to my parents' house Saturday to visit with my sister Tracey, her husband Kevin, and their 8-month old Andy. At bed time, we were short one crib, so they tried to use the laundry basket instead...which didn't really work out - as you can see.

One last shot of James' play center, which is in our kitchen.

The list

2006-06-06T05:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a better pic of James and I on our hike, taken by Bets.

I picked up a 4 ft. by 2 ft. white board from home depot for about $5 last week. We put it up in our kitchen next to our fridge and slapped some magnetic dry/erase markers onto the fridge. On this board, we keep a list of tasks and projects that need to be done. This is immensely helpful because who in the heck can remember what needs to be done around the house?

Now, I can scan the list (which is about 30 items long, yikes) and pick out the ones I feel like doing, which usually involves yardwork. Slowly but surely, that list is actually going down, much faster than before.

I don't know what it is about yardwork that I enjoy so much. Betsy usually does a good job of keeping me on task on the weekends, and when she suggested that I go out weed wack the yard instead of like changing the laundry or hanging up pictures, I just about teared up with joy. How sad.

Avian flew

2006-06-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

Crawling? Not on these knees. Walking? Strictly for bipedal underachievers. No, no...I'm going straight to flying. Akaaawww!!

I dig grunt yardwork

2006-05-31T05:30:00.000-07:00

The previous owners of our house took out a stump, but not very well. It was still mostly there beneath the surface and the ground was raised, instead of level. This bugged me, so I took my trusty 35 cent garage sale shovel and went to town. This hole is the result. Luckily the stump had rotted, so it was easy to take out. The hole is below ground level by a few inches, so now I just need to fill it in. ...where to find dirt...

The only problem is that I'll be hard-pressed to discipline my dog for digging after letting him watch me displace a couple hundred pound of dirt.

Emotional precipice

2006-05-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

One of the funniest things about James (and probably most babies) is that precarious time before naps or bed when he is really tired and fussy but he's still in a good mood all the same. So, while James is crying a little (let's say whimpering), I'll say hello and smile at him, and he'll take a 3 second respite to smile and laugh then immediately revert back to crying. It's almost mechanical in its repeatability. I laugh so much when I can do this, but I have to stop soon after because I feel like I'm being too manipulative.

In this picture, we've captured the last 0.5 seconds before he goes back to fussing. Oh, and that's a froggy towel we got from Kirsten which we think is very cute, but not too cute - because too cute is definitely not what we want, you know...

Nickels and Dimes

2006-05-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've probably noticed that I've taken to posting a bunch of small posts instead of doing big long stories. It's easier this way, and I'll still post longer posts when I have a chance. I have to give credit to Pat Beyer for the idea, since his blog is where I realized this was a good idea. That, and taking picture with our cameras, which are always with us, is so easy and convenient.

James:0 Jumperoo:1

A kiss for the gipper

2006-05-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

My advice to James: When it comes to maternal smothering; better to be a leaf floating down a river than a rock fighting against it.

Intellivision

2006-05-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

Before Playstation.

Before Nintendo.

But slightly after Pong.

There was Intellivision. The Gravleys had hours of good old-fashioned 32-color fun on the Intellivision console. Here's an ad for and Intellivision game.

(click to enlarge)

Wowee!

Funny thing is, I played that game and loved it, but no, it's not the best space game ever - I think Super Mario Galaxy will be.

Cannibalism, hiking, and traveling

2006-05-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

James laughs as I pretend to eat his belly. Honestly, it wasn't that tasty, but he seemed to enjoy what I thought would be a terrifying experience.

Bets and I went for a hike Saturday and tested out a baby backpack donated to us by her sister, Kirsten. After a few miles, my shoulders were sore, but not too bad. The best part? This backpack is 75% less emasculating than a Baby Bjorn! I actually like it a lot. It has many useful pockets, and is really good quality. We even used it again yesterday when we took Bones and James for a walk around the neighborhood. We have another pack that has metal braces for support, i.e. even more hardcore, but it frightens me a bit. I'm working up the courage to try it.

Bets is off this morning to Duluth for about a week. Her mom is having shoulder surgery, so she'll be there for the surgery and a while afterwards to help her recover. James is going with her. I'll miss them both, but I mostly just wanted you to kind of think good thoughts about my mother-in-law's surgery.

Update: I guess Betsy's Mom's surgery was pushed back a couple of weeks, so my family is coming back home! ...and then leaving again in two weeks.

Vacation photos that are actually interesting? You decide...

2006-05-19T05:23:00.000-07:00

Tracey and I were talking about Disney the other day, and I spiraled into my black, dismal abyss, i.e. Disney nostalgia. So I dug up my old vacation photos and posted just few of them for your entertainment, whether you have memories of this 2003 trip, or just to serve your natural voyeuristic human nature.

This was taken in the German pavilion at Epcot, but I can't help to caption this, "In Soviet Russia, the beer drinks you."

Throughout Disney, they've hidden little Mickey heads for the obsessed (pronounced Gravleys) to find. Here's one of them in the coffee counter at the Polynesian Resort.

This picture reminds me of those Arby's cowboy hat commercials, but here, Tracey has Disney on the brain.

We actually had uniforms for this trip, named the Libation Vacation 2003.

Crisp at the helm, and privates Gravley on deck at MGM studios stunt show (crewman Kevin Crisp was below deck in the engine room). I got yelled at after the show by the staff for going outside the rope during the "explosions". I should have told them I was looking for Eisner's dignity in that watery grave.

This is a hold up

2006-05-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

Taken at Easter, Betsy shows James to the camera. He doesn't understand what's going on, but yet, we persist is posing him ... all the time.

It still amazes me that an entire kid's outfit (sweater, shirt, and pants pictured here) only costs like $7.99. I think that the only way they can charge $7.99 and still make money is by using child labor.

Little Esmerelda or Xiang are slaving away making clothes they would love to be able to wear for 4 cents per hour while being verbally and physically abused to make more size 2 courderoys.

...and yet, you notice that I patronized the system. I guess I have hope that, somehow, I'm buying one of the outfits that is actually made by well-paid Americans and sold for a loss.

"Yeah, that's the ticket." - John Lovitz

The ridiculous hat

2006-05-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

We went for a walk outside with James and my family. The choice: let his scalp burn, or put on this ridiculous hat. I'm not sure we made the right choice.

YouTube present the History of Dance

2006-05-08T07:07:00.000-07:00

YouTube, if you don't already know, is one of the "latest" things on the Internet that allows you to post and view videos easily and completely free.

Here's something that made me laugh, a lot. A white guy doing the complete history of the popular culture of dance. Sound is required.

My New Financial Mantra

2006-04-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

I saw this on Saturday Night Live a couple of months ago and can't seem to get it out of my head. It's sketch about how to handle your financial choices starring Steve Martin, Amy Pohler, and Chris Parnell.

Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford

Like pulling teeth

2006-03-29T13:24:00.000-08:00

I'm guessing that back when people had a lifespan of 25 years, those who had their wisdom teeth were actually considered wise because they were relatively old. I, on the other hand, and am still young (ish) and find no wisdom to the malevolent hunks of enamel that have long since ripped their way through my gums. So, in two weeks they come out. Good riddance.

I have what most people would consider a long and sordid relationship with my teeth. If dentists had frequent visits cards, I'd ... it'd ... well, you insert something clever here, but I have more teeth with fillings or repair than not.

Here are some insights into dentistry from me, an expert patient.

1. If you are uncomfortable, tell them. Usually, they can be a lot more careful. Sure, they'll treat you like a Miss Prissy, but emotional indignity is easier to handle the real seething mouth pain.

2. Dental insurance is tricky. Know the rules or you will pay. Call your dental insurance provider for details. It will save you a lot of money.

3. If you ever have or have thought about practicing meditation, brush up on it and use it in the chair. It helps manage the experience.

4. Be cheerful and friendly to your dental people (ie hide your fear a little) and they will usually respond with better service.

Well, wish me luck. I'm getting all four wisdom teeth pulled out, and I'm just so gosh darned excited to do it.

Video Gaming Debrief

2006-03-15T07:45:00.000-08:00

Sony recently announced that the Playstation 3 will be delayed until November. Gilbert Godfrey once said, "I think I'm gonna have a heart attack of not surprised." I saw that coming, along with anyone else "in the know", as it were, so to speak, if you catch my meaning...

The tendrils of my web surfing choices have touched many corners of the gaming community. As such, I seem to have a comfortable and definitive handle of the state of video games and the next generation of video games consoles. I'd like to save you the time, hassle, and humiliation of having read all of this gaming crap and present to you the quick and dirty...

Steve's Super Fantastic Guide to Next Generation Video Game Consoles

Brown Grass
Currently, on this side of the fence, we have three consoles. Microsofts's XBox is for teenage boys, online gaming, and American style games. Sony's PlayStation 2 is the staple gaming system with a wide variety of games. Nintendo's Gamecube is a gaming system with mostly family games and a few great exclusive "grown up" games.

Green Grass
The grass is always greener with prospect of new video game systems, but the promise of higher-tech gizmo-watchama-whozits always finds my wallet trembling under the stairs like an expectant abusee. Here's what you can expect for your hard earned cash.

Microsoft Xbox 360
Alredy released, the two selling points for the 360 are high definition gaming and a really solid and complete online experience. So far, the games released do not live up to the potential of high definition gaming, but you should see a decent amount of quality high definition games by this Christmas. The online experience is the high benchmark of the industry for Sony and Nintendo to hope to match...if you're into that sort of thing. The console is $400 for the premium edition. Please, don't even bother looking at the core edition for $300, it's a total waste of money.

Sony PlayStation 3
Just announced that it will be released in November, expectations are that it will set you back at least $400, maybe $500. Sony is pitching the PS3 as a uber-powerful machine that's high definition, but also a media center of sorts including music, movies, and a frankenTivo. It's power should be about the same as the 360, despite claims. The other "buy me now" factor is that it comes standard with a Blu-Ray drive, the new high definition DVD player. Sony figures they can wedge their brand of Hi-def DVD into the market by packaging it into their games system.

Nintendo Revolution (not the final name)
Scheduled to be released this holiday season, Nintendo's Revolution is about as different from it's competitors as it can be while still being called a "next generation game system". The biggest reason is the uniqueness of its controller. Instead of a regular gamepad, Nintendo is opting to sell a remote-control looking device that you can move around in the air and the game reacts to your movements. Crazy, yes. Crazy cool? I think so, but we'll see at E3. Also, it's not as powerful and doesn't support high definition gaming. They did this to keep the price down so it would be more accessible and they don't think people care that much about HD. You can also download old Nintendo games from any system except Gamecube to the Revolution. It's speculated to launch at $199.

HD gaming
While the 360 and PS3 are wickedly powerful, most of that power is being sucked up by having to draw the HD picture, so you're left with graphics that are better, but not "WOW". People, including you, might be underwhelmed and come away with a stale experience for the amount you spent.

Online gaming
Until we see massively online multiplayer games like World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Lineage, I don't see this really taking off. Sure, there are 5 million online XBOX users and 2 million online DS users, but they're casual online experiences that are enjoyed as an extra. These did not motivate huge games sales. The 360, PS3, and Revolution all have excellent and different online models. This is still a young technology that I expect to mature during this generation.

E3
E3 is the world's largest gaming convention, held in Los Angeles. In May, all of these companies will reveal much more about their systems, and I'll write a summary of that event once it's over. I went to this event in 2002 with Jon Roberts. It will always be a clip in the highlight reel of my life.

Every thing I've written here is either fact or very near it. If you read this, you can have the confidence to speakon this subject as an expert, nay, connoisseur of video games.

Mini JamesVaganza!

2006-03-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

In the style of my blog friend over at squid action, I'm striking with a few pictures and running away before any real content spills forth from my keyboard.

I left these images pretty large because I thought some of you might use them as desktops or print them -...um, not that I'd be upset if you chose not to do that.

A nice picture of James.
Oh my, another one!
When will it stop?!
Oh, here it stops.

Got my mind on my time and my time on my mind

2006-02-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

First of all, at the bottom of this post are a few baby pictures to tide you over until I get a decent baby post worked up.

For the last 5 year, I've dedicated considerable efforts to my finances. Using a strategy oddly resembling A Christmas Carol, I worked on the financial problems on my past, evaluated how I was today, and tried to protect and set myself up for the future. Thankfully, I've succeded - for the most part, anyway, and learned a lot.

Earlier today, I was reflecting on similarities between my past (read: ignorant) spending habits and how they resemble how I spend some of my freetime during weeknights.

Time and money have always been closely connected, from cliches to how we get paid in money per time ratios. I had never really lent much thought to this connection until today. Time is spent, just like money, and should be controlled and managed so you can realize it's fullest potential. I suspect you're with me here, so I'm not going to go all "infomercial" on you - save for a few ideas I had.

For now, I just want to focus on weekdays. Most of my day is accounted for. From the time I get up, which is as late as possible but still in time to get to work on time, to the time I get home - usually around 6-8 at night, I have little control over my time. At night, however, I have many hours, usually three to six hours, that I have to work with. Let's average that out and say I have a budget of 4.5 hours each weeknight. Here's how I usually spend my time now:

Making, eating, cleaning up dinner: 0.75
Chores, errands: 0.25
Time with James and Bets until bedtime: 0.75
Leisure (TV, Video Games, Reading,cooking): 2.75
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.50

Clearly, I don't need almost three hours of vegging out time. I used to spend money on things like computers, movies, restaurants for the same reason: I had extra resources and I wasted them because I made lazy and "American" choices. Nowthat I fixed that with my finances long ago, it's now time to work on my time budget.

Here's my new time budget for the evenings:
Making, eating, cleaning up dinner: 0.50
Chores, errands: 0.50
Time with James and Bets until bedtime: 1.00
Leisure (TV, Video Games, Reading,cooking): 1.50
Studying 0.50
Sleep! 0.50
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.50

I'm investing a small percentage my time for the future by studying more than I usually do doing during the day. I also am spending more time sleeping and working on my household. Doing these household thing (cleaning, bills, fixup projects) wont' be fun, but will reduce my stress and make me happier in the long run, I expect.

After two months, I'll take a look at how this went and maybe even start in on my weekends.

For fun, try see if you can translate financial terms like CD's and interest into time matters. This is particularly effective if you're trying to fall asleep at night.

Resuming service with nonsense about gaming

2006-02-13T16:07:00.000-08:00

First things first; you may have noticed the scarcity of posts recently. The road to procrastination is laid with best intentions and all that. But, in addition to today's post, I have a couple more cookin' on the back burners, so you should hear from me plenty in the next week or so. I also have a major baby update to post online next, so keep an eye out for that baby lovers.

My unwinding mechanism of choice these days is a computer game called Counter Strike. Usually, my brother, Dan, and I hook up on Skype and play together defeating endless wave of terrorist attacks.

I recently changed my internet connection to allow people to log into my CS server, allowing them to play along with us with no password - meaning the whole internet now has access to my game server. I love the variety of having the wide range of Internet users (ie 13 year old dorky boys) logging on to play with us. I laugh, though, when I see some of the names they have chosen. They are always in l33t speak, you never see a Tom, Jerry, or Helen. Here are some examples...

S0rdidC@det (Sordid Cadet): This gentleman wants everyone to know that he is, perhaps, enlisted in the armed services and that his defining characteristic is dirty and foul, maybe to better frighten his opponents.

PieceOƒRo_no (Piece of Round): Equating yourself to meat is uncommon, but should be taken seriously, like his penchance for killing. Or perhaps he is referring to a round, or bullet, but not the whole thing. Oh no, just a piece. Modesty is important in killing your opponent.

§up@f£yHor§eman (SupaflyHorseman): Probably a reference to the four horseman of the apocolypse, and also that this individual is fly. But wait, no, he's better than just fly...he's supafly. Sadly, he was not fly enough to afford typing the "er" in super and had to settle for just the "a" in supa.

-3art0ƒoeer (Heart of Beer): I think I can sum this one up using mathematical terms. If Beer = Cool and Heart > than elbow (or most body parts, for that matter), then Heart + (or filled with) beer = Cooler than an elbow with no beer. I'll let you manipulate that further.

And my favorite...

Fis7Full0fCu7thr0at "First Full of Cut Throat": If you could materialize an adjective - for example - be able to put 17 angries into a basket made of prudents, then why couldn't you have a fist full of cut throat? What would that look like? I imagine that Mr. Fis7Full0fCu7thr0at would expect you to fear that particular image heading your way. Ooooooo....

And finally, I'd like to add that, since my IP address for my CS server changes all the time, I've decided to keep it on this site on the right side of the page. I'll keep that up to date until I tire of the game and bring down the server.

UPDATE: Oh, and how cool is this?

Fatherhood and some amateur photography

2006-01-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

It's common knowledge that parents love to share pictures, stories, newborn intestinal information, and just about anything else having to do with their children. I am no different. No, I will not sit idly by while my friends actually request pictures and not post some rockin' pictures of my baby boy. Sure as heckfire, I'll even throw in some pictures of Betsy's sister and her girls and even a couple of our nursery - just so those with kids can compare and those without can snicker.

Bets and I are doing well with James. Next Monday, he starts at Betsy's preschool. It's seems like yesterday he was born, but it will actually have been six weeks and they say that's an ok time to bring him in. Bets will be right across the hall from him all day, so she'll be able to have that connection constantly, otherwise it wouldn't have happened. I wish we could have her stay home with him, but bills is bills, and they keep on coming.

I also wanted to share an analogy that being a father is kind of like getting your driver's license, in a couple of ways. You have a whole new perception on reality and life, but also, life is much like it was before, even though your day-to-day routine is very different. I'm not saying I expected to turn into a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery, but I was expecting more change and not as much magic. I got less change and more magic, and I like that very much.

Pictures of James
Seconds later, he said, "Electrostatic speakers..."
Sleeping James and our cat Bud.
James tries to understand cold weather.
Kirsten, Betsy's sister, holds James.
Little does he know...
...he's on the menu for tonight's dinner(bath, actually).
"The closeup"

Kirsten, Melissa (3yrs), and Sonny (2yrs)
BFF
Nice hooded towel poncho thing for Sonny.
Melissa's hooded towel poncho thing.
Aww...isn't that nice.

Our nursery
Camera 1
Camera 2

James is such a noob

2006-01-09T07:46:00.000-08:00

"Welcome back," I say to myself. You've probably noticed that I took a little respite from my blog. The longer I had put off posting, the more spectacular I dreaded my next post should be. However, as you can probably already tell, I gave up on that dream. It just wasn't meant to be, and you are left having to suffer my "B"-team writing.

First up: baby update. I got James' social security card in the mail yesterday. He's officially a member of our fair country. I'll try to post some picture of him later on, as I don't have on me, but he's got a little baby acne and he's bald on top with a ring of hair a la Carl Reiner. Nevertheless, he's adorable and a very well-mannered baby. We are really lucky to have him. But enough of that...

Just when I think I'm disenchanted with video games, I'm lured back in.

I watch and follow an online video series called Pure Pwnage (http://www.purepwnage.com). I consider this to be the most creative and sincere video project on the Internet. The humor is raw and quickly became a quotable part of my vocabulary, especially when my brother is involved. Some knowledge of the gaming community is needed to wholly appreciate it, but it also stands on it's own two legs if you're a noob (someone who is new to it).

During these episode 8, the protaganist, Jeremy, plays a game of high stakes computer games against an opponent for $25.000. They're playing "Counter Strike: Source" which is packaged in with Half Life 2. I bought this game just for the novelty factor, expecting to play it a little and lose interest like all my other games, but it has gripped me. I first played through the entire HL2 single player game, which was incredible, but I really got hooked with CS:source.

Counter-Strike is basically a game where you either play on the terrorist team, who tries to plant a bomb in one of two locations on a map. Or you play on the counter-terrorist team, who tries to kill all of the terrorists before they get the bomb to explode. The concept is simple. The allure to this is how incredibly realistic the action is. Your techniques for how you move, which weapons you choose, your style of hiding versus advancing, walking silently or charging, and even making sure you don't knock over bottles to alert your enemy all have a direct very direct effect on your survival.

Dan and I love to play this game together. We played together on my parent new computers many times and last night played a game over the internet for the first time. The great part about playing with him is that we are always on the same team fighting against the others. It's a genuinely fun experience for me, and I hope it doesn't grow old for me or my brother anytime soon.

Here are a few shots of the game. Click to enlarge.

The first of many embarassments I will inflict upon James

2005-12-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure who the audience for this post will be, but we took a video of James' first bath at our home Saturday. I've uploaded the file for your viewing if you're interested. It's about 10 minutes long.

This will not be on the test, so feel free to pass this up, but for those of you who have an eager interest in our new son, it's a great video of him (of course, I'm paternally partial, if that's a real adjective).

Click here then scroll to the bottom of the page for a link to the video.

And to James: I'm sorry, but I had to do it. You'll understand some day, or you won't and I'm just wrong to do this.

James Stephen Gravley

2005-12-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it! Literally, I suppose. I want to tell the story of our birth, but that will have to wait. I wanted to take this extra moment I had to put up some pictures we took of the birth. There's also a picture Betsy in front of our tree and at the hospital during labor.

The quick of the story is that James is 7 pounds 11 oz and the labor went well. We're home now. Everyone is healthy. Here are the pictures. Enjoy!

(Sorry I didn't thumbnail them, maybe I'll get to that later on)

Click Me!

Click Me!

Click Me!

Click Me!

Click Me!

Click Me!

Click Me!

Click Me!

Click Me!

Click Me!

Click Me!

Click Me!

Splintered ramblings of an anxious father-to-be

2005-12-07T13:10:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here munching on 4 surprisingly excellent chilitos from Zantigos (if you haven't been, make an effort, you'll never go to Taco Bell or John's again).

I have much to tell and none of it is related.

The lists
Many of you have asked for gift ideas for Betsy and I for Christmas or for Bets' birthday. Betsy told me she would like the following. I added a few things to round out the list.
- Gift Certificate to Target for shoes and nursing equipment. I'd go into more detail about the nursing equipment, but I'm fairly certain you'd rather I didn't.
- GC to a book store for baby books and porn (ok, no porn). Barnes & Noble, or even better, Half Price Books so we get more loot.
- GC to Michaels or JoAnn fabrics, as she likes to go there for her kids and other stuff. These stores are to her what Best Buy or Audio King (yes, Audio King) are to me.
- Restaurant gift certificates for a smashing night out with her elegant gentleman.
- GC to PetSmart. But be warned that this will likely be used to buy fish, which will die shortly thereafter due to our bad luck with fish.
- Bath stuff

For me(Steve)[hi]:
- Subscription to Cook's Illustrated or any other good cooking magazines.
- Good tupperware.
- Animal Crossing: Wild World for the Nintendo DS.
- Kitchen themed bookends.
- An electric knife.
- A nice thermos to bring my coffee to work in.
- Single malt scotch or wine (red only).
- Baked goods.
- Some nice candles.
- Gift Certificates to Kowalski's, Best Buy, Half Priced Books, any restaurants, Target, Penze's Spices (I love that place), or Electronics Boutique.
- Any book you've read lately that you'd love to share with me.
- Anything related to cooking, babies, handyman work, music, or portuguese.

The Baby
Betsy is going in for her last (read: hopefully) appointment with her doctor. We're both just waiting around for the blessed event. Sometimes I wish she'd be like a package of Mentos with one candy left in it. That way, at my liking, I could just squeeze her from the top and give birth to our little Mento. You all know I'll call you if we've set that up, otherwise, expect pictures of the gipper here shortly after birth.

update: We're inducing on Sunday at 7:30am if she hasn't delivered by then. Woohoo!

Electronics
As most of you know, I fiddle with technology for a living. I've been putting together two l337 (elite or good) computers for my parents. While my exaggerated vision of this pro hardware compares to the awesome power of Maxell Audio tapes (put on your shades), I'm just hoping they won't suck. Do you want me to bore you with specifications? I didn't think so.

Holidays
We have family coming for the holidays, and as such have bought a genuine 100% needle littering pine smelling full sized cat attracting Christmas tree. The first of its kind in any of our households as a couple. Isn't that just lovely? Hot cocao anyone?

I'll see you all soon, I hope.

Message to Pat
Why can't I comment on your site? I had whipper snapper of a zinger against Dick Van Dyke that will have to sit on the shelf now.

The fun things in life sometimes come in bags of crap

2005-11-18T12:31:00.001-08:00

Kids have more fun than adults. This is a fact I think most of you would agree with and have come to grips with. I’m trying my best to defy that concept. As a child, I would fill my life with genuine unadulterated fun, but these days I use cheap tricks to achieve the same results. I'm speaking, in part, about consumerism. The joy of succumbing to your American given right to buy crap.

Woot! (.com) is a great enabler for your inner consumer. The basic idea is that this website sells one item (but many of that item) each day. They talk to suppliers ( and I’m guessing probably magical crap-building gnomes) to find new items or clearance items. Then they mark them way down and put them up for sale for one day. The next day it's a new item if they sell out or not. I really enjoy that concept and have been visiting their site for a long time.

Once or twice a year they will sell a "Bag of Crap", or BOC as it's known to Wooters (I'm hip with the lingo). Over time, Woot.com acquires a pile of odds and ends that they probably can’t dedicate a whole day to. They take these items and sell them for a dollar each (three is the limit) and ship them to you for $5.

The beauty of the BOC is that you have no idea what you are buying. It's a rare event and has become somewhat of a phenomenon to many circles on the Internet.

I was fortunate enough to have checked their website at 12am one night and bought a BOC before it sold out only minutes later. What mystical items would I get? Could my random bag of crap bring me the enlightenment I have sought out for so long? Probably not, but I was very excited.

Here's what I got. Keep in mind I ordered three items and paid $8 (including shipping):

1. A very rudimentary Sony tv/vcr remote. Ok, well that'll make a good kids toy.

2. A faux leather briefcase/bag with a “cell-phone pocket”. It's really nice. Betsy snagged that up right away.

3. A water gun that also shoots bubble. The idea here is that you blow bubbles and then try to shoot them down with the water gun. Sounds like fun, but it's still in the packaging.

4. 2 blank DVD rewritable media. I can use that.

5. A Christmas nutcracker doll. Fan - f'n - tastic! I love it.

I was so excited by all of this opening of my bag of crap that I’m not sure it was healthy…and I think I scared Bets a little, but it f u n!

So next time you find yourself up at 12am, be sure to check Woot.com. You never what you'll get.

Good News...

2005-11-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

Good news for you, the reader. This is the last post (yeah, umm, it's probably the last, but who knows) about our pregnancy for at least a year. Unfortanately, I feel obligated to disclose to you that there is a good chance I will be posting a lot more kid information. ...and soon.

Dan, my brother, thought it would be a good idea for me to post some general information about where we'll be when the miracle ... the miracle ... the miracle ... takes place.

I agreed and here it is.

If all goes according to plan, we'll be at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, just south of downtown. Here's the information you'll need:

Directions (basically, from the south, take 35W to Lake St, don't turn right on Lake and follow the big blue H signs)
General Information Website

Phone number for information and the operator: (612) 863-4000

Due date: 12-6

Monday morning pick-me-up

2005-11-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, I need a little humor to help me get through the day. Here's something I ran across today that made me laugh.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds sung by a young William Shatner - who is obviously either on something or heavily influenced by the beat poet movement.

Baby info, lucky you!

2005-11-03T10:28:00.000-08:00

I’m sure most of you aren’t on the edge of your seats waiting for an update on our pregnancy. To you I summarize, “The bun’s in the oven, still cookin’, and everything’s ok.”

For the rest of you or to those who have to read the entire post once they've started, here’s a little more baby related info.

Betsy will be starting her ninth month of pregnancy next week. It’s amazing how quickly these things go by. She had her last biweekly appointment yesterday, and will go once per week for the rest of her labor. They checked her out and everything is going well. Her cervix is fifty percent effaced and 1 cm dilated. Effaced refers to the thinning the wall of the cervix, which is necessary for labor (though I’m sure most of you who care about this already know what it means). So far, her tests have been good for protein, sugar, and a whole host of other issues. Also, the baby is head down and very low. I don’t have much else to report medically as there really aren’t any problems, which we are grateful for.

In preparation for our new little bundle of joy, we have wrapped up most of the essential baby projects. We finished the baby room, which was our largest project. We’ve washed all of the clothes/linens and put them away, we put baby supplies on the shelves, and the room is decorated quite nicely (in my opinion). I’m sure we will run into situations where we have to run out and pick up one thing or another, but we’ve bought or received most of everything we figured we’d need. Also, we’ve worked through our finances and planned our time off. Kirsten, Betsy’s sister, is planning on coming to help after the birth, too, which is very generous and we appreciate it very much. I’ll be taking 2 weeks off and Betsy will be taking 6 weeks off.

Last, but not least, we’ve pick out 2/3 of his name (we don’t have a middle name yet). James Gravley. Middle name suggestions are welcome. We liked James for many reasons, but mostly because Betsy loves James Harriet stories. We’ll call him James or Jamesy as kid. If it’s a girl, we not sure what we’ll do for a name. I suppose we had better get on that, eh?

(insert generic blog title here) Happy Halloween!

2005-10-31T10:45:00.000-08:00

Betsy, her Mom, Bones, and I piled into our van in the wee hours of this past Saturday morning heading for Betsy’s sister’s family’s house in Iowa for the weekend (yikes, that was a long sentence). The drive was uneventful, but the stay was fantastic, as usual. We all love visiting their two little girls, Melissa and Sonja (pictured below).

I like Iowa, as it turns out. After years of being conditioned by dumb Iowan jokes and hearing about how corn is so copious that it’s on the brink of overtaking civilization as we know it, I just couldn’t see the appeal. But after having visited the state a few times, I can see that it does actually have something offer after all. For example, the southern part of Iowa, where we stayed, is not flat and dull. It’s actually quite hilly and beautiful. The rolling deciduous landscape reminds me a lot of those American farm oil paintings you find at flea markets (like this one, for example). I’d even say more nice things about Iowa, but my Minnesotan acquaintances might excommunicate me, and I don’t want that. I have to make clear, just so there’s no confusion, that the top two thirds of the state are, in fact, very flat and on the brink of being taken over by corn.

I don’t think I’ve posted any pictures of my nieces Melissa and Sonni before in my little corner of the web. I intercepted some pictures of them apple picking and also at a kids’ Halloween event. Oh, Melissa is three and a half, and Sonni is turning two next month. I hope you enjoy them!

(click them to see the full picture)

Learning to Over-Share

2005-10-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Warning: this post contains over-sharing. Read at your own risk

People have told me that I’m an optimist; that I tend to look for the good and positive in even the worst of situations. For example, I was sitting here envying one of the very few positive aspects of being a crack addicted twenty-something selling their organs for money. I’m not sure why my mind would immediately jump to this scenario, but hey, I’m just along for the ride and my id’s in the driver’s seat. But I digress, for now…

At some point during the past three or four years, I became a student. Most of you know that I’m trying to get my degree. I’m taking one to three classes per semester which usually means I’m gone two nights each week for school in addition to studying. But that’s not where it ends… During my commutes, I learn Portuguese with my fancy new MP3 player. I’m currently on my 37th of a total of 90 30 minute lessons (it’s great fun, I love it). Additionally, at work on my breaks and late at night, I’m going to through CSS lessons. CSS is a technology that web designers use to make their websites look pretty. This is preemptive learning for my Blog’s redesign (coming later this year). Also, I’m constantly watching cooking shows, reading cooking media (all kinds), and practicing my cooking on Betsy’s unfortunate and forgiving palette. Lastly, I’m doing lots of reading and other types of research on kids and becoming a father.

I know people say that you never stop learning, but I have a feeling I might be going a little above and beyond.

I don’t know for certain why I’ve turned into this studious person, but I have three theories. First, I am trying to quench my brain’s thirst for knowledge after having wasted my adolescent education with disinterest and underachievement. It sounds good, but my second theory is just as likely. I just happened to stumble into these new interests recently, and it’s just a coincidence that I have the motive, time (barely), and means to learn all of these things where I didn’t have all three of those before.

My third theory is the strangest and least likely of the three. In my life I’ve usually clung to one vice or another for whatever reason; never more than one, but usually not less than one. For example, at one point I smoked (cigarettes, fyi), at another point I drank (during college), and at another point I played online games a lot. It’s always been something, not to the point of danger, but to the point where I could say I had a little vice. My third theory is that learning is my new vice since I don’t smoke, don’t play video games, don’t drink very much, or participate in any other “vices” that I can think of.

One thing is for sure, that crack addicted twenty-something selling their organs for money knows he or she has a problem. There can’t be any doubt in their mind that they are addicted. I envy that (and just that one aspect) because it's not that clear to me if I have an "addiction". I mean, it's not like I'm desperately hawking my wife prized possessions and selling plasma for books (…yet). Because then, I'd know for sure I had a problem.

But honestly, I don’t have "a problem", but it’s getting harder to ignore the potential considering the length of my laundry list of studies.

Who knows? Maybe I’m having a one-third life crisis - trying to stuff every moment of life with something of interest. (uh oh, there's another theory)

An email from Tracey and Kevin

2005-10-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

I got an email from my sister and brother-in-law announcing and talking about their first kid. I thought you might enjoy what they have to say and look at the pictures.

Hi Everyone,

Kevin and I are very happy to announce the arrival of Andrew Jason Crisp! He was born very punctually on his due date Oct. 4. In fact, labor started just a couple of hours after the day began and Kevin and I headed to the hospital by three o’ clock. I was in labor until 8 that night when it became apparent that things were not going as planned and Andy wasn’t coming out. I had a C-section at 8pm and it became apparent that his size (and partly mine) was the cause- he was born 9 lb 2 oz! He’s very beautifull and very well behaved.

Today is his first week birthday and he had a check-up and is doing great. Also, I’m recovering well from the procedure and have been told that I should feel 100% in about a week. It’s been a little hectic around here because I can’t do as much while I recover and Kevin is swamped at work, but, then, we’re so taken with Andy that it’s totally worth it.

I’ve included four pics. One of me the week before birth and you can see that Andy was huge. The other three are of Andy. What a cutie :)

Kevin gets an extended weekend this weekend and we’ll be headed up north for an early Halloween celebration and I’ll be sure to send pictures of Andy in his little pumpkin costume.

Hope this finds you well,
Tracey & Kevin.

Straight to Size 1

2005-10-05T06:14:00.000-07:00

**Updated with a new picture**

Tracey gave birth to a 9 pounds 2 ounce Andrew Jason Crisp last night (October 4th) at 8:23pm. Andy is a healthy and beautiful boy with red hair, and Tracey is recovering well. Here is a picture of Kevin holding Andy taken from my cellphone (so it's low res):

I'll post a couple more pictures tomorrow so you can see Andy with more detail.

Tracey started labor at 2am, and though she had contractions all day, she didn't start pushing until about 6pm. She pushed for a long time and did an amazing job all day, but Andrew was a little too big, so she had a c-section. The c-section went perfectly.

Kevin came out with Andy and we got to oooh and awww over him for a little bit. They started processing him for measurement, shots, and the like. The nurse weighed him, turned to Kevin, and said, "we're going to skip the newborn diapers and go straight to size 1." We thought that was very funny.

Incidentally, Andy was born on the 4th, which is the same day of the month as Tracy and Kevin's anniversary. Also, his time of birth (8:23) is the same as Betsy and mine's anniversary.

Kevin, Tracey, and Andy are at the Northfield Hospital. The contact information is Northfield Hospital, 2000 North Avenue • Northfield, MN 55057 Phone: 507-646-1000.

Like Cats and Dogs (unrelated anecdotes included!)

2005-10-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

Any relationship between two animals where there is a five to one difference in size is fated to have its difficulties. I’m speaking of our cat Bud and our dog Bones.

Eight months after moving into our new house, and just as Bud was getting really comfortable, we decided to get a dog. Since Bud’s successfully lived with a yellow lab for a year, we hoped that Bones and Bud would get along right away. Here’s how I pictured it; Bones might hold Bud’s hair back as he puked up our houseplants, and in return Bud might provide his services as a comfortable feline thermo-pillow. But it was not meant to be…

--In case I’m boring you (don’t worry, this happens to many people), here’s an anecdotal link to refresh your interest in this story by distracting you for a brief period of time. Here are instructions on how to shuffle a deck of cards with one hand(opens a new window). Amazing!

As I was saying, the vision I had for their amicable coexistence was not meant to be.

Bones, being part coonhound, found Bud to be an exceptional coon/toy and relentlessly chased him off of the top floor of the house into the basement where he was scared to pursue. Whenever Bones saw Bud coming out of that basement, his eyes would roll into the back of his head like a shark and there was nothing we could do to stop him from chasing/hunting our poor cat. So, Bud lived in the basement - a sad and lonely existence punctuated by Betsy or me going down there to pet him or feed him a few times each day.

Something had to be done, so we came up with a plan to try to get these two to live in peace together. Our plan: Every time Bones didn’t treat Bud with gentleness and patience, he was put in his kennel for a couple of minutes.

After a couple of months (sigh, poor Bud), Bud finally found the courage to sit at the top of the steps. He would bat at Bones with his de-clawed paws with this killer rapid-fire bat-fu action. As soon as Bones would lift a paw to defend himself, into the kennel he went. It might not seem fair to Bones (or you) that Bud got to swing away at Bones unpunished, but that’s the burden of being five times bigger. Besides, Bud needed the confidence.

-- Another anecdotal link, something I never thought I would see: Someone created a system where video playback speed is controlled by the amount of play-doh on a table(opens a new window).

About a month after the bat-fu attack was discovered, Bud learned that he could hide in corners and on furniture on the main floor. If Bones bothered him, he would bat-fu him away. Another three months passed and Bones and Bud seemed to tolerate each other and we didn’t need the kennel anymore. Bud could roam the house cautiously.

These days, Bones and Bud aren’t best friends, but they certainly tolerate each other’s existence with remarkable patience. I think their progress has mostly leveled off, but as you can see in the picture below, things are much better now. Bones finally got his comfortable feline thermo-pillow and Bud only goes into the basement to use his litter box and to get some peace and quiet.

This pictures makes me laugh because this couch sharing situation happens fairly often. The funny part is that Bones sometimes pretends to "stretch" while he's sleeping to kick bud off because he know's that the only way he can kick him off without getting in trouble. Heh.

Odds and Ends and Starts ‘n Evens

2005-09-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

I like to cover the full gamut of information from not only the odds and the ends, but also the starts and probably even the evens. Today’s topic of conversation is to just to fill you in on what’s going on with me and Mrs. Nothing fancy, just the facts.

Pregnancy
Bets and the baby are coming along very well. Betsy will be starting her 8th month next week. According to the averages, the baby should be about 3 pounds right now. Also, it’s kicking and moving a lot. I suspect there’s a soccer goalpost somewhere inside of Betsy’s uterus.

Work
Betsy has new kids in her class for the new year and everything is going very well for her. The kids have gone through breaking period and behave well for Betsy. I’m sure Betsy would disagree for modesty’s sake, but I have to let you all know that I’ve considered her to be a modern day Mary Poppins, so she better bring her A game when our kid is born. Maybe nanny Deb from Nanny 911 would a more relevant analogy. Speaking of nanny Deb, Betsy is in love with her. You should check out that show.

My work is going well. I’m working on many projects all at once. I’m putting out a lot of new technology for the folks here that they can really use. It’s been busy, but I’m having fun and learning quite a bit.

School
After having been in the “adult education” sector for a couple years, I can safely say that classes are always in one of two categories: no homework/easy or work required/difficult. There’s no middle ground. As obvious as it may seem, Physics falls into the work required category. I figured as much going into it, but I like to reserve judgment until I take the class. Anyway, Physics is fun. I like it very much.

Home Life
Recently, we’ve spent a lot of time getting the nursery ready. We’re almost done. It’s really fun to get everything out and ready for the kid. Are we jumping the gun getting everything done months in advance? Maybe, but we couldn’t resist.

Generally speaking, we’ve been very busy lately, and haven’t had as much time to spend with friends and family, but we’re doing very well and we miss those of you who we haven’t seen recently.

I hope this post finds all of you well.

You've been Punked ..no.. Pumpkined ..no.. Pumpked!

2005-09-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

This true story is a tribute to the Gravley spirit of Halloween. It is meant to be a positive tribute, though after reading it, it’s quite likely you’ll disagree.

The dark night swallowed up most of the light coming from their headlights as they sped down highway. Steve clenched the steering wheel of the old Ford tightly while Betsy peered out into the forest for the eyes of potential road kill. Neither of them said much, for even the slightest distraction might mean death to them or anything crossing their path on this treacherous stretch of road.

The sky smothered all light except for the moon. The autumn quarter moon was smoldering with a deep orange hue. To the some of the dark circles in society, this moon is known simply as Moon O’ Lantern. But don’t let the whimsical nature of the name fool you, for the best of intentions are quickly fated for disaster under the orange glow of Moon O’ Lantern. (You still don’t like that name, do you? Well, too bad.)

With their watchdog, Bones, sitting in the back seat, they raced to complete their objective. After what seemed like hours, they slowly pulled up to the home of Kevin and Tracey. The lights were out, and it seemed as though no one was awake. Fortunately for Steve and Betsy, their plan could continue safely under the cloak of darkness and quiet.

Steve got out of the car and opened the trunk of their station wagon. Betsy had to hold Bones back. It was clear he sensed the danger in the night air and was restless to do something about it.

Steve grabbed the three pumpkins that they had been hauling and carried the heavy vegetables over to the patio and arranged them in a festive manner. No longer would these vegetables bring autumn cheer to those clerks at the store. They would serve a higher purpose now. They would bring about the mood of Halloween and Autumn to their new owners, the Crisps.

As quickly as it started, it was over -- the trap was set. Steve and Betsy raced off undetected, cackling maniacally, screaming into the night, “You’ve been Pumpked!”

“You’ve been Pumpked!”

“Muahahahahaha!”

Notes: They loved the pumpkins. There is no dark circle of society that calls orange moons Moon ‘O Lanterns (that I know of anyway, but I guess anything’s possible). And most importantly, this whole idea was spawned from the brilliant mind of Betsy Gravley. She’s crazy, sexy, cool.

Even Steadfast Optimists Rant Occasionally

2005-09-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

Each of us, I hope, is born with an innate sense of duty that motivates us to protect others from evil. Evil, however, implies that some sort of malevolent intelligence exists where some things are just bad but violently lacking in any intelligence whatsoever. The latter is what I am writing to you about. Enter the new show from FOX, War at Home.

Michael Rappaport plays the lead character who I describe as a noxious cross between Dennis Leary, Bob Saggot, and Slappy the Retarded (but sadly not even lovable) Baboon. The rest of them are a mix of about half of the 12 stock sitcom characters available for use to all of the networks; the sassy wife, dorky son, apathetic daughter, but that's where my memory blanks out a little bit. To call the show formulaic is to call leprocy "a little rash".

I'm not even sure how to describe the actual content of the show as I can't seem to remember any part of it in particular, but I can say that I distinctly remember my emotional reaction during the 7 minutes I happened to watch it.

Minute 1 - Excitement at the prospect of finding a fresh new show on television (I'm an optimist after all).
Minutes 2-4 - Disbelief that someone green-lighted this show, but hope that it might get better, or that they played the wrong reel and would start over shortly.
Minute 5 - A deep sadness for the poor laugh-track operator who had to push that laugh button. Every time he hit that button, part of the world's joy died. I think actually I saw the actors flinch at the sound of laughter in surprise (I'm not kidding).
Minutes 6-7 Fear, general disorientation, and pain set in as I fumbled for the remote without the use of my now bleeding eyes.

In the end, War at Home is much like full-grown men that still kill ants with a magnifying glass: it's moronic, embarrassing for them, and a shameful waste of life.

In other words, I didn't like it. Please save yourselves.

Geeky Gaming stuff - read at your own risk

2005-09-16T06:26:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know me, know that I like video games, and as such, I thought I'd let my inner pizza-scarfin' Mountain-Dew-chuggin' dweeb out for one post. Lucky you, eh.

Last night at the Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo revealed their next console's controller, which proves vastly different than today's generally accepted opinion of a normal controller.

You can't tell from the picture, but the controller "knows" where it is in space, so that you can swing it and move it and the game will respond accordingly. For example, you could be playing a tennis game where you actually swing the controller/remote to hit the ball, or if the game character is using a flashlight, you would have to move it just like a flashlight.

I can't help but think that Nintendo has gone crazy (like a fox?)! They really took a risk with this, and I hope it pays off. Personally I'm excited about this new technology. I think it will certainly provide the groundwork for some really new and creative gaming. The big uncertainty is that we don't know if developers will be able to apply it well or how solid/accurate the technology really is.

We'll see, but for now, you can visit this website (IGN) for videos of the controller and all of the information available about it. Oh, and here's a picture of the controller with the analog stick attachment. (I guess you can attach things to it)

First person shooters will be awesome on the Revolution, that is for sure.

Learning Portuguese in more steps than AA

2005-09-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my second post of this blog, my commute renders me useless for about half of an hour twice per day. But I do not fall quietly into that mind-numbing trap of talk radio and Top 40 radio. Oh no! I elect, instead, to learn Portuguese.

I've done the research, and the best tapes available are made Pimsleur(for any language actually). The entire Portuguese course comes in three sets of thirty half hour lessons on tape or CD that costs a total of about $900. In other words, outside of my price range. So I did as any good tax payer would, and went to the library.

The tapes were not at the library, as I expected, but I did find a way to avoid dropping $900 on the course. I've documented the process if any of you wish to learn any language, not just Portuguese, since the process is the same for all of them.

As you may have ascertained, when I titled it "Wicked Easy Steps", I was being ever so slightly sarcastic.

After I'm done with Portuguese, I'll take on either Italian or Japanese. I'm not sure yet.

Wiki Wiki Wild Wild West

2005-09-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

My resolve to keep my friends & family abreast of the current social trends of the Internet has led me to this semi-new (or as I like to refer to it: nuvo-stale) trend of Wiki.

"Surely," you think with reserved anticipation, "this new Wiki you speak of will finally lead me to the lucid peace and calm I've always dreamed of and deserve." Well, you probably weren't thinking that, but sometimes it's fun to pretend ( <-- my little shout out to Mr. Rogers).

Wiki is simply an online encyclopedia where the people of the world (typically the eggheads among us) contribute to its content. I, along with millions of Internet users, use wikipedia to learn about anything I don't understand. For example, here is the wikipedia entry for wiki. It's kind of like that hand drawing a hand scenario.

I was in the mood to read up on Haiku poems, so here are a couple of my submissions for your potential enlightenment / regret for having wasted your time.

i see another
the leaf thought late in autumn
but then came the breeze

--)~@~(--

the crunch of my step
as I scrape my windshield clean
breaks the morning calm

Here's where I'd place my Haiku skills on the following scale:

Easy to Learn--:)------------------------------------Hard to Master

Feel free to create your own haiku in the comments. Basically, the rule is three lines written in five-seven-five English syllables. I hope you all have a relaxing Labor Day weekend!

A genuine bonafide haiku

The List

2005-08-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

Some of you (you know who you are and the rest should disregard the end of this post) have asked for a list of items I would like that I don't currently possess. I gladly submit to you such a list, but first I first wanted to share with you some old pictures from my past.

Bets and I hiked to the top of Cadilac Mountain in Acadia Ntl. Park in 2000.

Adam coming out of our Boston apartment (the 2nd fl of this house), also in 2000.

Tracey, Dan, Steve, and Kevin at the stunt show in Disney's MGM Studio, in 2001.

Getting some totally sweet air jumping my RC Car into my yard in 2004.

The list (in no particular order):

GC to Kwalski's: A new one just opened up in my neck of the woods and it's amazing. I'd like to cook up a nice meal from here.
GC to Home Depot: There's always something I could use to make my house look nicer.
GC to Burlington Coat Factory: For baby stuff!
A decent bottle of Cabernet or single malt.
Something from London (attn: Jon) ;)
A new grill brush
A couple quality spatulas that won't melt (see spatula city perhaps)
A nice dress shirt (m or 15 1/2 or 16 - 34)
GC to Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble
An MP3 player and an FM Transmitter so I can listen to my Portuguese language tapes in the car.
A Wustof Forged Classic parring knife set.

Bones

2005-08-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

It's about time I wrote a little bit about our dog, Bones (btw, that's the name he came with; we thought it'd be easier just to keep it). You can still see his online classified even though we adopted bones in January 2005. Here's what the ad said about Bones and my comments.

The ad: I don't think he is a purebred coonhound, but I am unsure of what he is mixed with. He definitely has the ticking of a bluetick.
We still have no idea what he's mixed with, though we've had guesses of Dane, Greyhound, Doberman, or even Mastif (but I doubt it) from vets and dog lovers.

The ad: He is a really sweet, affectionate young dog.
Seriously, I think he'd probably die if didn't get some lovin' from Bets or I during the course of a day. He's the most loving pet I've ever met.

The ad: He has a very easy-going personality with people and other dogs.
This is very true as long as he has 10 minutes to get to know you. He's a little shy at first with people. With other dogs on the other hand, he's very friendly right away.

The ad: He loves to give gentle kisses to children and adults.
I think this is the nice way to put that he's a licker. Kisses - my ass. Keep that tongue to yourself, buddy. Betsy, evindently doesn't mind, meaning that when I hold Betsy's hand I'm holding that hand that got licked by the tongue that licked my dog's butt. Lovely.

The ad: He doesn't seem to bark much, if at all.
This is mostly true. He'll bark if someone is approaching the house or if he's really frustrated (maybe a couple times a month if we leave outside for too long). We like that he barks at people approaching the house, it saves us from buying an alarm system.

We loves Bones very much. He's a great dog.

An ideal weekend?

2005-08-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

Betsy and I managed to burn up another weekend working on our house instead of doing something fun. While this gives me a feeling of true satisfaction and accomplishment, I can't help but sigh a little inside wondering what might have been.

My "dream weekend" (yes, I realize it's a corny and cliche topic, but I want to spell it out anyway), which is not likely to happen anytime soon, is this; I have absolutely no plans. I start by sitting on my couch with Betsy next to me and a couple hundred bucks in my pocket. When something strikes me as worthy of my time, I do it. No pressure, just a cornucopia of pure and unfiltered "whatever the heck I want".

Post your ideal weekend in the comments if you have a second. I'd love to know!

Spam Critic: Situation Phramacrutical!

2005-08-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

My dad always says, "If you're already there and working, you might as well do a great job."

The makers of Spam (junk email, not delicious meat product which - incidentally - is described by Spammy the mascot as "Pork shoulder and ham, mostly. And spices. Secret spices." - scary) have failed to impress me with their writing skills and general lack of work ethic. If you're going to do something, do it right!

Below, I have taken a few of the spam messages I received at work and pointed how these writers might have lost their way (that's as politely as I can say it). I've scrambled the addresses and naughty bits for the young and the sensitive.

First of all, verbs are free. Don't hesitate to use them. "**** is Hard as steel / ED store is proud to offer..." Secondly, Brendan (if that is your real name), I doubt most people would consider your 4,999,832 imaginary friends to be part of "[your] current 5 million happy users."

I'm confused. The subject promises one service while the body of the email offers another. Amidst all this confusion, how could I possibly be expected to click your over-sized link?!

Sometimes, misspellings spawn great words. "Phramacrutical" is easily the most fun I've had with a word for weeks. Use it in place of the words critical or crucial, and I promise it will be the highlight of your otherwise average day.

Alex N probably read the DaVinci Code one too many times and expects us to decode his message. That's not likely.

gctolegjs.snafaztyu.com? Wow! I almost typed that into my browser this morning just to see where it went. "find new girl in you area"?! I'll bet "Slavin" ran out of Spammer Poetry Magnets™ and couldn't form a cohesive sentence.

Since it is not in my best interest to reply to these grammatically unfortunate spammers, here is my plea to all of them:

Please, for the love of the English language and to better promote your business, learn to write a proper email message. That way, I won't be aggravated by your grammar which frees me up to be aggravated by your content instead.

A deck by any other finish would not look as sweet

2005-08-08T12:16:00.000-07:00

"How was weekend?"

You respond faster than Jack Tripper getting into a sticky situation, "Good, how about you?" Or maybe you opt for the slightly friendlier and humorous, "It was too short! You know what I mean? Eh?" *elbow nudge* "Eh!?"

To which I reply, "I rolled up my sleeves and slaved over my deck all weekend." That's right, nothing says slap-me-silly fun more than power spraying and sealing your deck, a process that evidently takes no less than a grueling 10 hours to finish.

Although it was a lot of work, I have to admit that the results are fantastic; much better than I had anticipated.

According to my mind's eye, here's a metaphor for the before and after:

What you would perceive would probably be a little more realistic. Maybe something like this:

Still not bad! (by the way, that's not actually my deck)

While it was a lot of work, I have to admit that I earned that satisfying warm feeling of accomplishment. I know this will help the value of our house.

Next up, trimming the ceiling in the kitchen!

Zee-a Grefley Liffe-a. Bork! Bork!

2005-08-05T06:02:00.000-07:00

In honor of a great man with the culinary skills to pay the bills, I hereforth deem every first weekend of August to be National Swedish Chef Weekend!

For those of you who do not know who the swedish chef is, here is a quote from his wikipedia written by the chef himself:

A perody ooff telefised cooking shows, I weer a toqooe-a
bloonche-a und hefe-a booshy iyebrows zeet completely oobscoore-a my iyes. Bork Bork Bork! I wes oone-a ooff zee-a feurst Mooppets to imploy un ictooel pooppeteer's hoonds.

Neerly ill ooff my sketches begin wit me-a in a kitchee-a, wefing some-a utensils while-a singing my signetoore-a song in a tredemerk semi-comprehensible-a gibberish which perodies zee-a cherecteristic fowel sooonds ooff Swedish. Zee-a lest line-a ooff zee-a song is ilweys "Børk! Børk! Børk!", und is poonctooeted by me-a throwing zee-a utensils oofer my shooolder to cresh into zee-a crockery behind.

Iffter this introdoocshoon, I continooe-a speeking gibberish while-a prepering a perticooler recipe-a. My commentery is spiced wit zee-a ooccesionel Inglish word to clooe-a zee-a fiooer in to whet I im ittempting. Zeese-a clooes ire-a necessery is I freqooently uses unorthodox coolinery iqooipment (fooreerms, tennis recqooets, itc.) to prepere-a my dishes. This typicelly degeneretes into a slepstick finele-a where-a zee-a ingredients oor iqooipment get zee-a better ooff me-a.

Celebrating National Swedish Chef Weekendis easy! Whenever possible, simply speak with a Swedish accent and end your sentences with an exclamatory Bork, Bork, Bork!

If you need practice, just run any text or website through The Borkifier.

Heppy Neshoonel Swedish Cheff Weekund!

Bork! Bork! Bork!

Thank Dog Almighty!

2005-08-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

Bones is free at last!

Betsy, her Mom, and I took Bones to the Dakota County "off leash dog area" yesterday afternoon. This park is a fenced in park where you can let your dog off the leash. It was such a great time for Bones! He had 16 acres of trails and an open area to run and play with the other dogs. There was much licking, sniffing, and romping to be had. It cost us $5 to enter, but you can buy an annual pass for $30, which I'll eagerly do after work today after having been to the park to test it out.

Wooded section of the park
For more dog parks around the Twin Cities area, you can visit http://www.dogromp.org. There are 18 parks around the Twin Cities. I didn't even know they existed.

Umm...one time...at choir camp...

2005-07-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

During my high school days (many well-lived years ago), I was magically whisked away to All-State choir. It took place at St. Olaf, where selected choir students spent a week preparing advanced choir material for a concert that was performed at the end of the week. I am ever so slightly emberrased to admit that I had a great time.

For the last five years or so I've looked for a song that we performed in that concert that I loved, but I was never able to find it. Luckily, while listening to the public classical radio station at work, 99.5 KSJN, I heard it and the composer's name!

I present to you a contemporary take on the Ave Marie by Franz Biebl.

AveMariaBiebl.mp3 (to download, right-click & Save Target As)

It's a boy!

2005-07-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'll get right to it, then.

We had our first sonogram this afternoon. Everything looks good with the baby. Our doctor told us that, while she can't be sure and to not paint the room yet, that we're having a boy.

Here are the pictures we got from our sonogram:

Leeroy Jenkins!

2005-07-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

My resolve to keep my friends & family abreast of the current social trends of the Internet has forced me, once again, to share with you a recent video circulating the net (there are a couple of curse words, but it’s not too bad). So, I suggest that you sit back, start downloading the movie, and read through the following background. I’m betting you’ll love it.

Background:
This is a video of a bunch of teenage boys playing an online computer game called World of Warcraft. They are connected to a voice chat system, so you can hear them talking to eachother. Each one of the characters you see on the screen represents one of the players. They are in a dungeon that is very difficult and have probably spent a few hours just getting to this point. The room they’re about to enter is difficult and takes some planning, which you will see in this video.

Thus, we come us to Leeroy. Leeroy is one of the players, and actually, is the reason they are in this dungeon to begin with. You’ll see him on the left in the first part of the video. You’ll also notice an “AFK” next to his name. That means he is away from keyboard, or not at his computer, at least up until…well…you’ll see.

Make sure you can hear the sound. Enjoy!

Leeroy.wmv (to download, right click then click Save Target As...)

If you desire even more Leeroy goodness, here’s an entire site dedicated to him: www.leeroyjenkins.net.

Y.A.P.V.P.

2005-07-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

[Yet Another Parle Vouz Potpourri] - that's what the title stands for. Oh, don't pretend you don't care...I know you do. As I said in the last one of these PPP posts (and I won't mention it again), "I'm going to break with tradition a little bit and talk about a few different topics instead of beating one topic into the ground like I usually do. Oh, what fun!"

Dan, my brother, has bought himself a fierce new vehicle. You may recall the modified van I almost purchased last month. With my refined taste and keen searching skills, I was able to find a vehicle that was a great match for Dan, but I was didn't contact him before he bought this great truck, so someone else will get it. Here's the *cough* vehicle I think he should have gone with instead:

Betsy and I will most likely find out if our baby is a boy, girl, or "other" next Monday afternoon. I'll be posting the gender on this very blog as soon as I can get to a computer so keep an eye on this space after 4pm!

In traveling news, our very loved and missed family members, Tracey and Kevin, are moving back from Miami next weekend! We're all so excited! Next, my parents are going to Denver(?) on Thursday. My dad is teaching out there and my mom is going with for the scenery. Also, this past weekend we had Kirsten and the girls at our house. We had a great time! And at last, Betsy's mom is coming down to visit us this next weekend. We were supposed to see her the last two weeks, but weren't able to, so we're very excited to see her soon! (Did I just say "excited" 17 times?)

Lastly, our Harry Potter event went smashingly. It was truly a unique experience being in a bookstore with over 500 people where you could barely move. It was pretty hectic, but Dan and I had a great time being in the middle of it all.

That's all for today. Everyone stay safe and take care.

updated Reminder: Harry Potter this Friday!

2005-07-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, we are attending the Barnes and Noble Harry Potter book release this Friday night and would like any of you to join us.

Here’s the deal from Dan:

Call and reserve your copy at the Burnsville store. (952-892-9280) You don’t have to pay but you get it for $18 if you pre-order. Also, the sooner we can pick up our wristbands the better. They are numbered as to when you get the book. They start passing them out at 9 in the morning.

The guy I spoke with at the store told me that the last time they did this it only took 45 minutes to get everyone checked out, so that no one is there later than 12:45 or so.

Please let me know if you you’re coming by calling me so we can pick a time and place to get together beforehand.

Update: As a weekend bonus, I'm including some T-shirts I found humorous from www.bustedtees.com. See if you can guess my favorite one; the answer's in the comments.

Survey says?!

2005-07-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

Anyone reading this is probably old enough to remember the old TV show Tool Time, with Tim Allen and the now new host of the Family Fued, Richard Karn. One of the "bits" they did on this show was that Tim "the Toolman" Taylor would seek advice from his neighbor Wilson next to their backyard fence whevenever he had a problem(note to self, purge this information from my brain later on). I had a similar experience, except I'm not a toolman, my neighbor is not an older and supposedly wiser man, my sidekick never went on to host an arguably lame TV game show, and I don't have an alliteral middle name surrounded by quotes - but aside from that it was exactly the same.

My neighbor and I were talking about kids, since she has 3 now (all under 4 years old - yikes!). Specifically, we were talking about how her dogs acted around the kids and how, while I have seen Bones with kids and he's been wonderful, that I still sometimes think about whether I should be doing something to ease the transition. Well, from keyboard to your monitor, I present to you Jackelo Poopiepants:

Like my good friends Reginold and Elenor who conducted a shady familial transaction from a crack whore named Lulu, Bets and I bought a baby yesterday. We actually had Jackelo setup in a swing last night, wrapped in blankets, and held him for awhile. He's my special boy! Now, before you tell me I'm nuts (which can't categorically deny), the reason we're doing this is to get Bones used to the idea of having baby stuff around and even, to a very small and weird extent, a baby. My neighbor says this really worked well for them.

The results so far: Bones couldn't care less about the baby or the baby stuff, which is good, I suppose. We only got a couple of sniffs from him, so I guess we're okay so far.

The last thing I need to address is that this is the third baby picture in a row I've posted. This ends today. I apologize for the monotony.

Parle Vouz Potpourri?

2005-07-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

I'm going to break with tradition a little bit and talk about a few different topics instead of beating one topic into the ground like I usually do. Oh, what fun!

First and most importantly: Our thoughts are prayers are with Jon and his family. Hang in there, dude (and co.). That's all the further I want to get into that here.

Now, something else...

We had a family reunion for my mom's side of the family this past weekend at their farm. My expectations were mediocre with a side of reservation, but the reality of the events were actually very enjoyable. The reunion lacked any sort of "fiasco" or "shenigans" and was instead a lot of fun. Kudos to my Mom and Dad for pulling it off so well. I recorded some video, so after I get it edited, I'll try to post it here.

Bets and I are expecting (as in a baby, not spitting - that's expectorating), as you probably well know. After our last visit, and some tests, we know that our kid is not likely to have down syndrome, spinabifida, or a bunch of other abnormalities. So far, so good, as they say. Bets is feeling pretty well at this point. She only gets a little sick if she doesn't eat for a long time. Oh, and she's starting to show, but only I can tell. It probably won't be really noticeable for another few weeks. She's about 17 weeks along if you were wondering.

We have visitors coming to town to visit Bets and I soon! This next weekend, Betsy's mom is coming to see us. I'm not sure what we're planning on doing, but I know we'll have fun. To quote Mike Nagita, an Asian guy with a thick Minnesotan accent from the movie Fargo, "She's a super lady!" The weekend after that, Kirsten and the girls are coming to visit. I can't wait to see them! Oh, and Kirsten, too. ;)

I think that'll do it for now. I leave with the immortal words of Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber after being told the chances of him dating this lady is about one in a million: "So you're sayin' there's a chance!"

Flying Sonic Rodent Hombre

2005-06-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

I don't get out to see movies very often, but when I do, the rule of thumb is that I enjoy the movie but am ulitmately disappointed with the way I spent my money. However, the latest cinematic viewing for the Gravleys (Dan, Bets, and I) was Batman Returns, the story of the how Batman came to be the superhero. - on a side note - there are some that argue that Batman (seen below as a wee little one) is not actually a superhero, since he doesn't have any "superpowers".

Alrighty, well, allow me to check The Refence for All Things Super or Otherwise Fantastic...it says here (and by here, I mean nowhere) that having the ability to have a great movie after the 3 terrible sequels is super. But I digress.

Batman Returns is a fantastic movie that strikes an uncanny balance between action and emotional development. I won't ramble except to say that I strongly recommend you treat yourself to a truly enjoyable movie. It's the Batman movie all of the others should have been, including the first one (which was good).

Mmmm....Procreation.....

2005-06-28T06:05:00.000-07:00

Bang! ...and from two there are three! Wonderful news from my long-time Gravley honorary brother, Adam.

Hi, everyone -
I wanted to share some fabulous news - 9lbs, 12oz of it,
actually. ^_^
Meet my new nephew, Tolkien Ray Perry, born Monday, June 27th,
2005. Here he is with his very proud papa, Tyler:

Congratulations, Amanda, Tyler, and the rest of the Browne family. That baby's beautiful somethin' fierce.

The Seven and Three Twenty Firsts Blood Prince

2005-06-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

Annually, or rather Harry-Potter-new-book-release-ally, I get together with Bets and Dan to stalk out the local mega-bookchain until midnight on the night before the release date. Last time we grabbed some food and beverage beforehand as well.

As you may know, the Harry Potter book is being released soon. The release date is Saturday July 16th, which puts our little camp out on Friday the 15th. We'll probably go to the Barnes and Noble in Eagan.

Please join us*! Here's a picture I took from my cell phone from last time we did this.

*Neither I nor anybody connected to gravley.blogspot is liable for damages to your reputation.

Heya

2005-06-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

Another day, another dollar, but from a different company.

My first week at Priority Courier went well. I've really enjoyed it because I've been working with fun and new technology, the people are great, and I'm really busy (hence the lack of posts here this week).

I'm just passing through here tonight. I'll write a more substacial update later this weekend.

Have a rockin' weekend!

Secret Ops: Status Report #1

2005-06-09T07:05:00.000-07:00

Status Report #1

Brief:
Under the guise of normal life, Steve and Betsy Gravley continue to suppliment and nurture their strange fetal creation. It's only a matter of months before the entity escapes it's prison wreaking havoc upon the human race.

We have recently discovered the following bits of information:

The beings sex will be determined as soon as possible to help facilitate better decisions in future purchases and because they don't seem want to hold out until the end.
The name has yet to be chosen, but definately will not be Wilma, Punchy, or any name whose initials are JP.
The host's body has ceased to react negatively to the surge in hormones. This seems to have had a positive effect on the quality of their lives.
The hosts received news that all test from their doctor's visit were good/fine/dandy.

Conclusion:
Information is slow at this point, but we suspect we have less than 6 months to prepare for its arrival. The arrival date is estimated at December 8th, which is also the mother's Birthday. God help us all.

--end of file--

Two Men in Coats

2005-06-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile I run across something on the web that makes me laugh in earnest. The most appropriate way to describe the act linked below is zany or perhaps whimsical, but most of all, the sincerity of these performers is heartening.

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=prettig_menincoats

Thanks to my Mom for the heads up on this one.

Our Traveling Fortress

2005-06-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

The ad read:

From uptown to downtown, you'll be loved by many in this luxurious van sporting the latest in Pimp-chic styling! Men will want to be you, and women will want to be with you while you host indoor mobile cocktail parties with this elegant roof extender. Daniel-san won't be able to wax on or wax off because of the hotness emanating from the flames brandishing the sides of this sophisticated ride. Don't hesitate, get this while you still have time. It's only a matter of hours before someone else's life is upgraded to the exclusive and upper echelon of Pimp-chic.

"Surely, this is the perfect utility vehicle to safely transport our first-born child," I said to Bets as she reached for the Idiot-stick I've come to fear so greatly.

It was clear she disagreed with my recommendation.

And so it came to pass that we purchased a milder alternative, a Dodge Grand Caravan Sport. That's right, we purchased another sports car adding to our current collection; one Ford Escort SportsWagon (it's red, like a race car). The Dodge is a brand new looking deep blue 2002 with 39,000 miles. It has a modest but healthy option package and is a joy to drive. Bets and I couldn't be happier with the new addition to our vehicular family.

Here is a link to our van for your curiosity (though this isn't my actual van). In addition to this listing, we have a tow package installed. If you live in the Twin Cities area, feel free to stop by to say hello if you would like to go for a quick joy ride.

Secretly, I've always wanted a minivan. Now that my dream has come true, and I have revealed my secret, you can all judge me silently for enjoying my kid-car a little too much. All that is left now is to name it...

Making time for Portuguese

2005-06-03T07:28:00.000-07:00

Life for Bets and me lately is best described as controlled turbulance considering all of the changes we are going through. One of more significant changes in our life is my job change. I will be thowing in the reigns at PDI and moving onto Priority Courier Experts/VanEx on the 13th of June.

The quick and dirty description of my new job is that I'm running the IT show for the largest courier company in the Twin Cities. The official description is found by going to the monster job description which gives you a very accurate picture of my job functions. You can also click on the VanEx logo to visit the company's website.

What was my catalyst for change? There were two central motivating factors. First, with a baby on the way, I was looking for some more green. It's not the most noble of reasons, but powerful nonetheless. Secondly, and more importantly, my role at PDI had become stagnant and I was losing more and more of my technical skills as time passed. The framework of my new role will allow me to rejuvinate my skillset and venture into new technologies at an exciting rate.

The biggest down side of this new role is that I have a 30-40 commute each way, but I can manage that. Perhaps, I'll take up my Portuguese tapes once again.

Onde fica o hotel California? Eu nao se!
(Where is the hotel California? I don't know!)

Primordial ooze

2005-05-31T07:43:00.000-07:00

Like the beginnings of life on our planet, the start of this blog is simple and entirely unimpressive. The single-celled organism of information I'd like to share with you is that Bets and I are looking to get a kid-friendly car this week; something along the lines of a van that is mini or a station that is wagoned.

"Steve, that's simple and entirely unimpressive."

I warned you, didn't I...