Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Miller Motorsport.. Baby Grand Prix Style
While Baba (aka Ryan) is off watching some superbike championship, little did he know he left behind his own little #1 road menacing baby. Whew! Good thing for mama, her car is stationary.
Checking out the track for some good maneuvers 
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Steppin' Stool Dad
One hot and lazy afternoon, Ryan decided to take a nap on the living room floor. Emilia decided to take advantage and found a good use of a sleeping dad... also provided me some entertainment!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Baby At Play
I was getting dinner ready the other night and as I was prepping, I heard little feet and big feet pattering quickly. Soon after, a deep "Arrrr!!", followed by a high squeal and laughing. Ryan was chasing Emilia around the house with "Arrrs!!" and Emilia was giggling, and laughing, and tumbling in between, as she ran away.
Squeals and laughter. Now I know why parents like staying at home. It's cause play time at home is really fun time for all of us. It's where the kids are most comfortable to do what they do, and laughter and games are an everyday norm. While crying is also an everyday norm (which seems to be filtered out now), I look forward to hearing my kid laugh every day. I can't think of any other environment that has laughter every day. It's just one of the little things that makes having a kid pretty awesome. She makes a stressful, tiring day suddenly vanish, and I end my day with snuggles, laughing, and baby fun. Even the crying is endearing, because a simple hold and snuggle makes everything all better. Yup.. I'm really cherishing these days. I hear it's all different come teenage years!
Some recent photos of play time...
Just thrown into the rub-a-duck-duck inflatable.
The clapping game with dad.
All happy.
Not so happy.. put down the camera already and help me!
Break time for some finger snacking.
Squeals and laughter. Now I know why parents like staying at home. It's cause play time at home is really fun time for all of us. It's where the kids are most comfortable to do what they do, and laughter and games are an everyday norm. While crying is also an everyday norm (which seems to be filtered out now), I look forward to hearing my kid laugh every day. I can't think of any other environment that has laughter every day. It's just one of the little things that makes having a kid pretty awesome. She makes a stressful, tiring day suddenly vanish, and I end my day with snuggles, laughing, and baby fun. Even the crying is endearing, because a simple hold and snuggle makes everything all better. Yup.. I'm really cherishing these days. I hear it's all different come teenage years!
Some recent photos of play time...
Just thrown into the rub-a-duck-duck inflatable.
The clapping game with dad.
All happy.
Not so happy.. put down the camera already and help me!
Break time for some finger snacking.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Projects
There's always projects going on at the house. This is one that I wish I would've gotten a video of. We had a pine tree that was leaning against the fence and over into the neighbor's yard. Not only was it damaging the fence, but it also would've crashed into their roof if it ever fell over. Unfortunately I didn't take any "before" pictures, but you can envision from this picture of the stump how the tree was leaning.
So I rigged up some safety lines to an avocado tree to hopefully keep it from falling the wrong direction when I cut it.
I then did some internet research because I was paranoid about the tree still wanting to fall the wrong direction (i.e. into my neighbor's roof). The interesting thing I found on an arborist site was that the recommended cut is a 70 deg notch on the side that you want the tree to fall. The old method I was aware of was a 45 deg notch. But the 70 deg notch ensures that the hinge stays intact until the tree is completely down. This is suppose to provide better control of where the tree falls. So you can see here how the 70 deg notch allowed enough clearance for the tree to completely fall before closing.
And that the hinge stayed predominately intact.
It was really something to see the tree falling just the way you planned- it was "internet textbook". That's why I wish I would've gotten a video of it because things don't always go exactly as they're suppose to. And the relief of not having to pay for repairing the neighbor's roof was priceless.
Another project I recently completed was resetting all of the railroad ties that create a retaining wall along our driveway. They were starting to be pushed out and falling over. Once I started digging them out, I found out the reasons - roots and rot. Tree roots had undermined a lot of the ties, and several of the ties were crumbling to pieces. So what I thought was going to be a relatively straightforward job turned into a lot more. Hopefully this will hold out until we can get the driveway repaired and a real retainer built (projects that are in the way distant future).
The other project I'm working on is still in process, but is going to be the testbed for some planting I'd like to do throughout the property. I'd like the plants here to be either natives or succulents. I used natives for erosion control when we built the workshop so now I need to get some experience with succulents. So I figured I'd start on the front of the property that adjoins the street. And as most projects go, it grew into a little more than just planting a few succulents. First, there is no water out there so I had to run a water line from about 120 ft away.
Then I decided that I wanted to do a little hardscaping in this area so I added a dry river bed. Fortunately a friend (thanks Diane) had a bunch of river rock she wanted to part with so I made many trips carrying as much as (maybe a little more than) the poor Subaru could handle. This is the beginnings of the river bed. Once the river bed is completed, I'll add mulch and then start laying out the succulent design.
Another part of this project is to replace our old mailbox with a delivery box I've had for years, but just haven't had the time to install it. It needs a little concrete pad so that's the hole for it next to our current mailbox. I'm hoping someday to see concrete in that hole.
And lastly (for now), this is the start of a rock border I'm building along our uphill property line. The idea is to help control the erosion and weeds that occurs in this area (note: neighbor side = weeds; our side = no weeds). All of this rock has been scavenged from our property, but I'm going to need to buy some rip rap to complete it. Only about 200 ft to go...
So I rigged up some safety lines to an avocado tree to hopefully keep it from falling the wrong direction when I cut it.
I then did some internet research because I was paranoid about the tree still wanting to fall the wrong direction (i.e. into my neighbor's roof). The interesting thing I found on an arborist site was that the recommended cut is a 70 deg notch on the side that you want the tree to fall. The old method I was aware of was a 45 deg notch. But the 70 deg notch ensures that the hinge stays intact until the tree is completely down. This is suppose to provide better control of where the tree falls. So you can see here how the 70 deg notch allowed enough clearance for the tree to completely fall before closing.
And that the hinge stayed predominately intact.
It was really something to see the tree falling just the way you planned- it was "internet textbook". That's why I wish I would've gotten a video of it because things don't always go exactly as they're suppose to. And the relief of not having to pay for repairing the neighbor's roof was priceless.
Another project I recently completed was resetting all of the railroad ties that create a retaining wall along our driveway. They were starting to be pushed out and falling over. Once I started digging them out, I found out the reasons - roots and rot. Tree roots had undermined a lot of the ties, and several of the ties were crumbling to pieces. So what I thought was going to be a relatively straightforward job turned into a lot more. Hopefully this will hold out until we can get the driveway repaired and a real retainer built (projects that are in the way distant future).
The other project I'm working on is still in process, but is going to be the testbed for some planting I'd like to do throughout the property. I'd like the plants here to be either natives or succulents. I used natives for erosion control when we built the workshop so now I need to get some experience with succulents. So I figured I'd start on the front of the property that adjoins the street. And as most projects go, it grew into a little more than just planting a few succulents. First, there is no water out there so I had to run a water line from about 120 ft away.
Then I decided that I wanted to do a little hardscaping in this area so I added a dry river bed. Fortunately a friend (thanks Diane) had a bunch of river rock she wanted to part with so I made many trips carrying as much as (maybe a little more than) the poor Subaru could handle. This is the beginnings of the river bed. Once the river bed is completed, I'll add mulch and then start laying out the succulent design.
Another part of this project is to replace our old mailbox with a delivery box I've had for years, but just haven't had the time to install it. It needs a little concrete pad so that's the hole for it next to our current mailbox. I'm hoping someday to see concrete in that hole.
And lastly (for now), this is the start of a rock border I'm building along our uphill property line. The idea is to help control the erosion and weeds that occurs in this area (note: neighbor side = weeds; our side = no weeds). All of this rock has been scavenged from our property, but I'm going to need to buy some rip rap to complete it. Only about 200 ft to go...
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Watermelon Break
We do a lot of chillin' at home, especially on the weekends. Don't get me wrong, life is still crazy busy, which from here on out, it should just be an assumed default state, so I won't mention it. So the weekends are highly looked forward to so that we can catch up on things.. one of them being chillin', hanging out, and even eating watermelon while catching up on the latest TV kid-friendly show, Quints By Surprise. Em likes looking at the babies and Ryan and I are reminded that we have it easy compared to the Quints!
Like father.. like daughter.. 
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Words
Within the last week or so, there's been a rapid progression in Emilia's understanding and speaking of words. Here's a small (because I forgot the other words) sampling...
BTW, Anna is the name of our nanny's daughter, and ba ba is the Chinese word for daddy. We've also been trying to get her to say banana but so far have just gotten a combination of the other words she knows - bug-anna ;^)
Oh, and she's looking off to the side because she always looks outside when she hears you say "bird".
BTW, Anna is the name of our nanny's daughter, and ba ba is the Chinese word for daddy. We've also been trying to get her to say banana but so far have just gotten a combination of the other words she knows - bug-anna ;^)
Oh, and she's looking off to the side because she always looks outside when she hears you say "bird".
Monday, May 9, 2011
Backyard Snowscape
One of these days I'll get around to providing a current update, but for now, another back post from Em's very first birthday. We had a pretty good cold weather storm that moved through here and gave us a day of awesome view of snow atop the local mountains. A rare sight. Em loves to look out at the window and point at all the various scenery and "talk" to me about what she sees. I don't know what she's saying, but it is a lot!
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