Seriously, any day now.

We're almost there, today M had a slight feeling that he could come today, but twords the end of the day her feeling subsided. Even though her contractions have been getting stronger it's still not time. Now it's just a waiting game on when he decides to make his appearence. Hopefully it's Friday, because that is the last day Susan will be able to deliver any babys due to rising insurance costs. If she is unable to deliver Adrian we still want her to come and see him after he's born. This past Tuesday was our last apointment with Susan, and she told us that she will be coming in to visit after his birth. It will be awsome for her to be there because she's been there since the begining of M's pregnecy. For those who don't know, M's mom will be coming out here on Friday, and she has told us that she has this feeling that as soon as she gets on the plane to come out here that M will start to go into labor. It would be nice if that happens so that I'll be able to get to know him better before I start up with school again. Once he's born we will be calling our families and friends to let them know the big news. That's all for now and catch you all on the flip side.

Happy Holidays to all! 9 Months along. 

Here is my Mom and Dad the day we went up to Mt. Baker. Unfortunately the road was still snowed in, so we couldn't go all the way up, but we stopped at the lower lot and had a really nice picnic. 

Here is M and I on our way up to see Mt. Baker back in June when my Mom and Dad stayed in Bellingham after thier trip to Alaska. 

Christmas 2004, It might seem like a too dark of a photo but you can see the christmas lights really well in this shot. Enjoy!

Any Day Now

M continues down the path to the due date. She has been having contractions for the last few weeks or so and they have been somewhat mild, but around the beginning of this past week they have been getting stronger and a lot more noticeable to her. Next Tuesday we have an appointment with our Mid-Wife Susan Willis. It will be nice to see her again because she's been away visiting her son in Costa Rica for the last month. And it will also be the first time I have been able to really go with M to the appointments due to me being in school. All is well up here in the Pacific Northwest, the tree is up and decorated, the weather is not too cold (about mid 40's and rain), and I no longer have a beard. So not too much say but to keep your ear to the road cause' the little man could come any day now.

Before I depart I will leave you with one line from one of my many favorite songs. If anyone gets an opportunity to check it out I highly recommend it.


"The sea it swells like over our heads and the night it is aching, two lovers lie with no sheets on their beds, Electrical Storm, Electrical Storm".

Electrical Storm (William Orbit Mix)
U2 The Best of 1990-2000

It's begining to look alot like Christmas. 

Here's a closer view. There are six indicator lights, each light comes on only when the relay it's wired to becomes energized. Each relay has a timer on it, so when voltage is put to it, the timer times out and then 5 seconds later a light comes on. It indicates when a certian process occurs on a conveyer system. The transformer steps down 208 volts to 120 volts. This is called a control transfomer. The garbage can looking things on the telephone poles out side are transfomers and usually take in 12,500 volts and steps it down to a much safer 240/120 volts for our houses. Ahhhh the wonder of electricity.

This is a picture of a motor control cabinet that I designed on my own and was not assigned to be done. I got all my other labs done first and then I did this one. 208 volts AC are coming in to the step down transformer on the inner left side of the cabinet (the black square) , then through a 30 ampere fuse, to stop and start buttons, through five magnetic coil relays, and each one control the next one in line. and then when each one energizes it turns on a light. The cabinet is about 30" x 30" x 7". It took a total of 2 1/2 hours from concept to application. The title of this lab is (Conveyer System)

Our New Life

On Thursday of last week M started having the beginning contractions of pre-labor. They are getting pretty strong, and M told me that he could come in a matter of hours or up to a week or so, because of how the contractions are coming. The other day I told M to tell Adrian to at least wait till next Thursday after my final at school. Anytime after that will be just fine. She said she has no control over it and I said I know. So I went up to M's tummy and pressed my mouth against her tummy and said to Adrian, "not yet please". I know he can't understand me, but it never hurts to try. So any day now we could be meeting our son Adrian, and that day will be the last day of our independence as a couple, and the first day in Our New Life.

Ah yes before I forget I thought I should mention that I am thinking about starting to write a short story. The topic is still up in the air until some things are finalized and approved but it should be fun to do. Recently I've feeling like I need to do something new. Like I've reached some sort of ceiling or maximum of sorts. Same thing goes for school, for instance this past Friday I started working on something that wouldn't be starting until the end of next quarter. The subject is called "PLC's" (Programmable Logic Controls). So what I've done is written a program for a PLC unit to control a bank of lights, which in the real world would be a bank of motors, and various controls. So instead of using mechanical means to control something we use (solid-state devices) to do the controlling and switching. It's pretty cool. So when we get to that part in my class I'll have a pretty good understanding of it, and I'll be able to help my class mates if needed. School is really awesome, I highly recommend it.

I hope everyone is doing well and I love you all very much. Catch you on the flip side.

M at 35 Weeks, any time now! 

Pay It Forward

Yesterday M and I went to take a tour of the birthing centre at St Joe's, and we got there about 30 minutes before the tour started. On the way to the parking lot we passed and elderly gentleman suffling across the parking lot on the driverside of the car. When we pulled into the parking spot I asked M if she had seen him shuffling. She said she had and how unstable he looked. I asked her if I should get out and see if he needs a hand. We decided that he looked like he knew where he was going. He had made his way on to the sidewalk next to the building and he stoped at one of the waist high pathway lights to take a breather. No more than a minute later as he was about to leave our field of view he fell over. I launced out of the car leaving the door open. I shouted out to the man and asked if he was alright, and in a some what unsure voice he replied "no not really". By then M had gotten to we where and I was about to help him up and realized he couldn't really support his own wieght. So I had M wait with him as I ran inside the birthing centre to get a wheel chair. When I came out M had helped him to sit up, so I brought the wheel chair over to him and picked him up and placed him in. We asked where he was headed and he said he was looking for his car. I asked where he had left it and he told me that he had just had his hearing checked. We took him inside so we could have the receptionist help us find out which biulding he had come from. The man told us his doctors name and the recptionist was able to tell us which bilding he had come from. So M and I wheeled him over to his car which was clear on the other side of a large building. On the way we talked with him and with his discription of his car we where able to locate it. I pulled the wheel chair up to the drivers side and helped him out of the chair. When he reached to put the keys in the door lock he missed three times, he took a moment and started to talk to us about his late wife, children and how he was a Ancient History teacher a Western for 23 years. He was a very sweet elderly gentleman, I felt bad that he had about a 25 min drive home, because he could barely support his own wieght. He said that he was better and we talked for a few more minutes and we went on our seporite ways. Afterwards I was talking with M about what we had done and I said that I felt really happy that we could help a complete stranger like that. It gave me a good feeling.

Later that evening we went over to our friend Diego and his wife's place to help them push thier van five blocks, from the shop it was at to thier house. Diego, his wife and myself pushed as M steered. The three of us pushed it about two blocks until someone came up to us and asked if he could help, he said he was going in our direction and it was no problem to help. So here's a complete stranger the three of us and M steering pushing the van across a main drag and to the bottom part of Diego's street. So the man said goodbye and wen on his way. Then it was just the three of us again until we got on to Diego's street when three guys came out of nowhere and insisted on helping. We got about 50 yards when one of the guys said he would get something to help us. He came back with two more people to help and made light work of pushing the van. It was really nice of those people to stop what they where doing and come and help us. People we had never met before helping out of the kindness of thier own hearts.

Pay it forward, pass the karma, simple and easy ways to make the world a little better, as you can see it dosen't take much. When it all boils down it only takes one person to be kind to make it all a little better. I think that His Holiness the Dalai Lama puts it quite nicely.

"Be kind whenever possible…It is always possible."