Preschool!

At nearly 3 years old, Lucas had his first day of preschool yesterday. Through a series of fortunate circumstances, I got to accompany him on this exciting and momentous occasion. Sharon got an acting gig and was on set all day, so, it was Daddy and Lucas off to school!

When he woke up he was very excited about going to school. I knew not only because he told me he was excited, but because I could see it in his eyes... this kid wants to go to school! I can't say I did not have visions of him in 10 years when he'll most likely not be quite as excited.

We got him ready, he packed his Pooh Bear lunch bag with the container of cut up strawberries mommy had left for him. We got his Thomas the Tanks Engine boots on, and his yellow rain jacket. He was ready to go. So ready in fact that even though there was still 10 minutes till we were to leave, he waited right by the door for the entire time, smiling and asking if it was time to go yet.

We arrived at school after a quick trip back home when I realized I had forgotten the immunization forms at the house, we parked and got out of the car, Lucas grabbed his lunch bag and took my hand and we went in search of his class room.

I told him is door was the blue door, we found and and then looked for his hook. When I showed him the hook with his name on it, again, a big smile and look of excitment and pride, and then the same followed on my face.

We hung up his jacket and lunch bag and waited for the class to open.

When the door opened, we were greeted by his new teachers, he rushed into the room, and stoped just looking around at all the new toys and things he had never seen before. He immediately got down to business... the business of playing.

The parents were told to site at the table in the smallest chairs possible in order to fill out all of the consent and emergency contact forms. Lucas just played and played, he showed me a couple of things during the 40 mintues we were there, but other than that, he was very independent and well bahaved. And I was a very proud daddy.

He helped clean up the toys at the end of class, and we exchanged a hearty high-5 to acknowledge a job well done.

I never realized that he would be off to school, even pre-school, so soon. And I never realized how proud I'd be to see him in that environment. It's something that I would never have understood before having kids, but now it just makes sense.

I'm looking forward to all the other firsts, and lasts, and everything in between. Next stop, swimming classes startup again for him and Sam, Sam's first swimming class to be exact.

Just in case someone stumbles on this

It's been over a year since I last posted....  here is a quick update for anyone that shows up!

1.  New baby boy Sam has arrived.  Lucas is a great big brother

2.  Another new car - 1989 325ix.  I love this one, and it is not perfect, so I don't mind when sharon puts her purse on the trunk and drags it off...

3.  Loving my job at Habaneros

4.  We are renovating the kitchen and bathroom in our place

5.  I pulled my first engine out of a car... now to put one back in.

All in all, things are going pretty well.  I'm even more involved in the local BMW community and getting to know a lot of other people around town that love these old BMWs as much as I do (actually more). 

Lucas is growing up fast, he talks so much and it's crazy that we can fully communicate with him already.  He loves riding his bike, sitting in the drivers seat of cars, and wants his own steering wheel in the back seat.  He even loves motor bikes!  But mom won't let us get one :(

That is really all for now.  I'll try to update more as I can.

You can see my work blog entries at http://sitefinity.habaneros.com and http://engblog.habaneros.com

Annual Posting

I just noticed it has been over a year since I posted anything on my blog.

Things that have changed:

1. New Baby on the way
2. New job (www.habaneros.com)
3. New Car (1999 BMW 540i)
4. New iPhone

Other than that I'm the same old Adam.

More next year!

XBox 360 Amps and Babies

Oh no my XBOX 360 is dead. Got the Ring of Red lights death. Luckily they extended the warranty from 90 days to 1 year, or I'd be paying for the repairs. We'll see how the return process goes...

So far the process has included
1. Really annoying automatic voice prompted phone system walking me throught troubleshooting. This guy sounded like he was trying to lure small children from the park by being their friend.
2. Really annoying tecno type music for the on hold music, i guess the 13 year olds who call in like this stuff.
3. Equally annoying live CSR asking me all the same troubleshooting questions.
4. They said they are sending me a box.

From what i've read, this process can take 1 -2 monts, and not 2 weeks like they promise. I dont' miss the gaming as much as the ability to watch videos from tvtorrents.org on my tv by streaming them off my PC. We dowload shows when we miss them. Now have to watch them on the little laptop.

Adam's First Amp

Sharon bought me these wicked noise cancelling headphones for XMas. I love them, but my iPod just was not powerfull enough to do them justice, so I went in search of a small amp, only to find they are 100-500 dollors (and up). Then I stumbled on the CMoy . It seemed easy enough, just by the parts and build. And really it was, after 3 soldering irons (1 borrowed that died, 1 bought that died, 1 exchanged for the 2nd one that still seems ok), two Altoids tins (got the wholes all wrong on the first one), a few minor burns, a messy office and about 25 hours, I have an amp. Listening to it right now, it sounds great. Now, you can buy one of these off ebay that are arguably nicer and better than the one I built, and cost about 50 bucks US, but I wanted to do it! In the end i probably spent about 90 bucks, but have tons of extra parts that can be used on other projects. I think next I'll build this.

I also had the bright idea that I would build a baby monitor since sharon wanted one. So I orderd a kit voice actived (VOX) FM Transmitter for about 10 bucks plus shipping. I bought a case for it also. But I killed a transistor when I was trying to bypass the VOX portion of the circuit so that we did not get static on the radio when the monitor was not transmitting. Have to get a replacement transistor (about a buck) and then I'll be all set to go.

And the baby, he keeps us busy and on our toes, but we are having a blast. Sharon is doing Mummy and me Yoga and music class. He stands up if we keep him balance, but he does all the standing himself, and he sings along with sharon (if you can call it singing ;0) ). And he smiles a lot as you can see in the photos from the links on the side.

One last thing, if you have not got a customized google home page yet with RSS feeds of your favorite sites, do it. Really streamlines your daily web reading.

Like anyone reads this anyway

It's been a while since I posted here, but really, like anyone reads my blog anyway right.

Anyway, for those of you who don't read my blog, i've been really busy, mainly getting my wife pregnant, then finding out, then realizing that my life is going to be turned upside down, the realizing i need to make more money, then realizing we need another bedroom, then deciding to buy a house with my mother (yes that is right my mother), then buying the house, then realizing we needed to sell a house and an apartment to be able to pay for the house, then spending every weekend holding open houses, then finally selling the house (and hopefully the apartment finalized tomorrow) and now I have to start packing to move.

That is how 5 months goes by really quickly.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited and happy to be becoming a Dad, even though i'm usually still acting like a child. I mean I'll be a great role model right? Well i'll try, as long as it does not get in the way of my XBOX 360 playing.

It is kinda strange though, I mean, i had to take all these tests to drive a car, but no one asks one little question to make sure i'm fit to be a parent. Anyone can do it. You have the right parts, you have some booze, you have some fun, now you have a kid!

Crazy stuff.

coldplay pic1

coldplay pic1
Originally uploaded by applecran.

test

Coldplay

Went to see Coldplay last night at GM Place.

I have not been to a lot of concerts, well, really none untill this past year (unless Raffi with my mom counts).

We went to see Sarah Mclachlan (Really good) and Michael Bubble (outside at Deer Lake park, lots of fun) last year, and now Cold Play.

My wife came with me even though she does not as much into rock as I am (even this soft rock of Cold Play). She enjoyed it, and she really enjoyed Fiona Apple (very distinct sound).

Once Cold Play got on stage (over an hour between Fiona and them) the crowd went wild and was on their feet (almost all standing up).

They sounded very good live, even in the metal box that is GM Place, they can actually perform. Some bands don't sound good live, but Cold Play is not one of them. The crowd was constantly chanting the lyrics along with the band, if they stopped singing you could still hear the song without pause.

I can deffinately see whey they are said to be the largest band of the 21st century so far, even the critics can deny that.

We had a great time and really enjoyed it, of course I forgot my camera so don't have any pictures except for my blury cell phone pictures. I'll see if I can figure out how to get those off the phone and on here.

Figured it out.







Go see Coldplay, it is a good show.

Oh Comon!

A few weeks back Duncan wrote on a radio bit he heard where they were saying that some teachers are not using red ink to mark their student's papers as it is to stressfull for them. He says in his post titled "Dial W for Wussy" that of course this is absurd and it is making our children to soft. I agree.

Well, I'm watching my recorded "The daily show" from last night and this author Sally Satel was on promoting her new book, One Nation under Therapy. She basically talks about all these silly things including the red ink.

Things like:
- some schools don't allow the game tag, now they have a game called "circle of friends", they sit and share their emotions, and no one is ever out. I say to these school administrators, tag, your a fricken idiot.
- the Girl Scouts have an Anti Stress badge, you get it by writing feelings diaries and giving foot masages. excuse me?
- she says they found that basic activities that are good for children, having conflict, challenge, etc. are seen as being harmful to children.
- Little league teams in Massachusetts not keeping score
- Dodgeball is not allowed in many schools
Here is a good quote that gives you an idea of the bull that is going on.

Sensitivity screeners remove from texts and tests distressing references to
things like rats, snakes, typhoons, blizzards and ... birthday parties [which
might distress children who do not have them]. The sensitivity police favor
teaching what Sommers and Satel call "no-fault history.' Hence California's
Department of Education stipulating that when "ethnic or cultural groups are
portrayed, portrayals must not depict differences in customs or lifestyles as
undesirable' slavery? segregation? anti-Semitism? cannibalism? "and must not
reflect adversely on such differences."

Society is doomed.

The sky was falling

You know sometimes things happen and you say "I got to blog this" and then you forget and you can't think of anything to put in your blog... Or is that just me?

Anyway. A few weeks back a coat hook thing that I had attached to the wall last year fell off the wall. We had about 25 coats etc on it (I think 3 were mine) and I ah... Well...Ah... Well I did not screw the thing into the stupid metal studs our building is made out of because I was in a hurry to get it done and did not take the time to go down to the home depot and ask one of the kids there if they know how I can screw this thing into metal studs and let them look at me like "what do you mean? HOW can you not know how to do this? I mean oh m' god!" and then have to pay through the nose for some screws and then come back and make the wrong holes and have like 8 holes for 3 screws. (was that a run on?). Any way, so it fell down, not a big deal.

So, two days later, I'm adjusting some cables on this big ikea shelf thing that we have on another wall that has our projector on it. This thing weighs about 80 pounds. Well, this thing I put up with these cool screw in wall anchors that you screw to the drywall, and then screw a screw into it, and there were like 12 of them, but again, nothing into the studs for the same reason as in the above run on sentence. So this thing falls down. On to the couch. Onto our table. Onto the heater. Needless to say, the heater is severely dented, the table slightly dented and the wall has gaping holes in it where these anchors were torn out of the wall.

After I recovered from the shock of having this thing fall down and having to catch my projector in mid air (it is ok), I headed straight to home depot.

Well, my suspicions were right, the kid looked at me like I was an idiot and pointed to some metal stud screw things. Well armed with those, some big mother f***in anchors that go in straight and then deploy long pieces of metal perpendicular to the screw and squish against the wall, I attached this thing backup, into the studs this time. And same with the coat rack.

Just glad no one was sitting on the couch when it happened cuz my wife definitely would have said something.

I like to laugh

I like stupid funny. My friends (some) think i'm strange, my wife definately does but I just can't get enough of this stuff. By this stuff I mean:

Old School
Road Trip
Eurotrip
an National Lampoon movie (yes even the bad ones)
Scrubs
The Office
Scary Movie 1,2,3
Not another Teen Movie
Harold and Kumar go to White Castle

I think you get the idea. If you like to laugh, watch one of these movies and let the belly rolling begin.

Speeking of White Castle, why is there no White Castle in Vancouver? I could really go for some of those juicy, tasty, bitesized little burgers... mmmmmm

Oh yeah, I also like food.