The arrow is pionting to the lunar eclipse that we could see outside of Anthony's on Lucia's last night out here. As you can tell I moved the camera while the picture was being taken. 

Here is M and Lucia outside of Anthony's  

Here is a picture of Nooksack Falls that I took a year ago. I don't have any of Lucia there when she was out here, but this what she saw. 

My, my aren't we the tall one. This is one of the smaller trees.

Lucia At the top of Sehome Arboretum, and Bellingham in the background. 

Lucia @ Bouelavard Park in Fairhaven 

Lucia has come and gone.

Lucia's trip is over, and she is already back east in Baltimore. M and I picked her up on Sunday the 24th and we dropped her off at the shuttle on the 28th. She was only out for three days, but it was a really awesome three days. M really enjoyed it, and I think it was also really good for her to spend the time off and with Lucia. It took her mind off of work which she needed like no one's business.

M took her all around Bellingham to show her why B'ham is so wonderful. Monday M took Lucia up to see the Old Growth Cedar forest, and Nooksack Falls north of town. The Cedar trees are hundreds of feet tall and wide. One of the trees there is so wide it takes 12 adults holding hands to go around the entire base of the tree. M also took Lucia to see Noocksack Falls which is right down the highway from the old growth forest. The falls aren't very wide, maybe 40-55 feet wide, but it's about 150-167 tall.

M showed Lucia around Old Fairhaven and boulevard Park, she also got to go up to Sehome Arboretum to get a birds eye view of Bellingham from the large watch tower at the top og the hill there. Lucia's last night here M, Rob, and my self took her out to dinner at Anthony's Restaurant on Bellingham bay. We all got the sunset dinner, which is a four course meal for the price of a normal entree'. It was quite good. Afterwards when we went out side to leave we all got to see the lunar eclipse. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful visit.

It was fun having her out here and I hope she comes back to visit soon.

Here I am on the road with a huge storm on the horizon behind me.  

Lucia's big adventure.

In one week and two days our friend Lucia will be coming out to visit. If I'm correct this will be the farthest west that she has ever been. M and I are very excited about her visit for one, we haven't seen her since out wedding, and two this will be the first time any of our friends have come to visit (hint, hint) ;-) . M has taken off the days that Lucia will be out here. Unfortunately I have school during those days but I'll be up late keeping her company whilst she adjusts to the time difference. I've heard that it generally takes one day for every hour lost, so that means by the time she gets back east she'll finally be on Pacific Time. M's really excited about her coming out here. It' will be good for her to have one of her life long friends out here to visit with. We'll keep Lucia busy with cleaning up the apartment, doing dishes, and laundry so she won't have to pay rent for her stay with us. Just kidding Lucia. You can stay rent free.

It would be great.

Mom and boy are doing good. Adrian has been doing a lot of stretching inside M in the last few days. On Monday she said that he stretched both his arms and legs at the same time, and it felt really strange. I commented, well yeah, that sort of thing would feel strange. Now that school has started back up again we don't get to see each other as much as we did during the summer. When we finally do get to see each other it mostly consists of how her day went and all the moving around Adrian has been doing.

Her days, to me sound alot more interesting than mine most of the time. I'll start telling her about my day and how my class was introduced to, (single phase, parallel, secondary transformers) or (cumulative compound motors). Generally speaking she gets lost after the third word or so of my descriptions. At least that's what she says. The more I talk about what I learned in class, and the more I explain the process and break it down, the better I am able to retain it all. I sometimes get so into a electrical topic I can go on for quite a while. For instance, on Wednesday I was a tour guide for the BTC Tour Day. It's where the local high schools have their students come in and get a tour of all the different programs at the Tech School. I had a lot of fun doing the tour. Five other students and me from the Electrician program set up a really cool display table. We had our tools out, circuit breaker boxes, duplex receptacles, switches, etc..... All the kids that we showed our lab to really enjoyed it, and so did we. It was a pretty cool experience.

On a sadder note. This Tuesday M went in to get her flu shot and was told by our midwife Susan, that as of December 31st she will no longer be able to afford the insurance costs. This means that she will most likely not be able to deliver Adrian. So if he comes after the 1st of January we'll mostlikely have to go with just a doctor. This has put M in a tailspin, so to speak. I mean we both have gotten attached to Susan, she is a very good Nurse Mid-Wife and a really nice and caring person. Unfortunately only way she could afford to pay the medical malpractice insurance costs is if she would take on a double work load.

So on Tuesday and Wednesday M called some people that Susan had recommended calling to take over her primary pre-natal care. M called the hospital down in Mount Vernon to talk to the mid-wifery department there, and had a nice conversation with them. I think ultimately what we'll do is stay with Susan for as long as we can, because for one reason Mount Vernon is a 35 min drive south and it's coverd as "out of service" meaning we have to pay more. Also the Birthing Centre up hear at St. Joes' is very modern and very close to us. It would be great if we could have Susan to be there for Adrian's delivery, but we can only hope he comes early................uh maybe not early. If she can't be there for the birth I would really like to invite her over after he's born so she can meet Adrian. It's the best way to show her how much she means to M and I.

This is a clipping I've had for a year or so. I got from school because of the mention of (watts) or the measurement of energy/heat. Also it's pretty funny, and at the time I might have actually done it myself. 

Buddha Looking On 

A funny feeling. 

Here are some pictures I took with our new digital camera. Enjoy! 

Here is M at 28 Weeks. She's doing really well, and so is Adrian. Last night he was streching out his legs and his arms at the same time. Only three more months sports fans.  

Pay-It-Forward

Another week goes by, and we get even closer to when Adrian will be joining us in the "other" side. I find myself during the week thinking about his arrival, and how much I look forward to it. It'll be, most likely, the happiest day in my life. Except for the day that I met my wife. Those two days are right up there at the top of the list. You'd think I'd be worried about money, finding a job, getting M into graduate school, or something like that. Oddly enough I'm leaning in the opposite direction of all that. I'm feeling impatient, like I can't wait for him to come. I want to do so much with him, show him the world that I know and love. All the experinces, feelings that goes with being alive. It's an interesting feeling, being the driving factor in helping shape a life. Not a god like complex, but just the simple fact of being there step, by step. This is the part of life where you really get to use all the life lessons that you learned while you where growing up. I guess it's the ultimate "pay-it-forward." Doing something good for someone and then passing the favor along to the next person.

I also wish that my Mom's parents Alvin and Louise, and my Dad's father Louis could be here just for a minute or two so they could see how well they raised their children. And how well they raised me. One thing I will make sure Adrian knows is how much he is loved by both M and I, and all of his family.

Catch you on the flip side.

Music from the corner of my Mind.

As I sit here, as I always do, trying to compose awe inspiring thoughts, sonnets, rifts, an epic perhaps? Anyway...... I was thinking about music and all the many different effects it has on people, places and time. Do you know what I mean? Music has a huge roll in how a persons mood is while they work, play, during sex, and the all popular driving your car. I've noticed we all become proud of the music we listen to. For example: the people that blare their rap music to the point they'll blow the windows out of their cars. Me for instance and all of us is guilty of doing it at one point or another turning up our own music in the car so other people can hear it outside. Showing off is just human nature especially when it comes down to our music.

When I had my radioshow on KUGS it was such a good feeling to be able to share my taste in music over the air waves in Bellingham. Every Saturday from 2-4pm I'd let the listeners in on my eclectic collection of all sorts of music. Some of there first music that I remember listening to was a Men At Work Album called "Men At Work." They where the 80's band from New Zealand. They lead singer Colin Hay recently did a song on the Scrubs TV Soundtrack, it's an acoustic version of the song "OverKill". He also did a song for the Movie Garden State called
"I Just Don't think I'll get Over You" it also is done acoustically. I think that since Zack Braff is in both Scrubs and wrote and directed Garden State he chose Colin Hay to do a song for his movie.

Music plays a big part in my life and if I didn't have music I would probably be a different person. Dave Brubeck , U2, Ben Folds Five, The Bare Naked Ladies, Ani Difranco, Tori Amos, and of course The Beatles and all the other great musical groups out there I thank you for everything. I want to ask a question to all those who visit this blog. What is some of your favorite music, Bands, memories, and experiences with music. Write what ever comes to mind and write as much as you want. It would be cool to see all the different responses I get. I'll leave you with the lyrics to a new song from the Barenaked Ladies new Album Everything To Everyone, it's called Aluminum it's one of my new favorite songs. when you read the lyrics add a light back beat to it and get your friend to help you sing the chorus parts (it's more fun that way). Enjoy!

Aluminum

How in every visible way you shine - As if the stars in
your wake align - Almost impossible to malign

But just below where you shine you burn - Although I
know it, I never learn - Just goes to show that I can't
discern

(chorus)
Aluminum to me - Aluminium to some - You can Shine
like silver all you want - But you're just Aluminum

Illuminating just waht you want to show - You'll never
rust, but I'll never know - You can't be trusted; I can't
let go

(chorus)
Aluminum to me - Aluminium to some - You can shine
like silver all you want - But you'r just Aluminum

Everytime you're here I forget - When you leave, you
leave only regret - Every time you're near I forget -
Everything

You're so lightweight, how can you survive - Recycling
moments from other's lives? - You're not as precioous as
you contrive

Aluminum to me - Aluminium to some - You can shine
like silver all you want - But your just Aluminum

School, School and even more School.

Well things are going good for M and I. School is working out for me alright, and as I have mentioned before the subjects get complicated really fast. If for some reason that when we are going over a certain lab and you get sidetracked for a minute or so you can easily get lost. The snowball effect is the best analogy for what happens if you get lost with the material, once it happens it's very easy for it to progress.

Since I have gone back to school I have decided to get more involved with the Associated Student Council. I'm now a student represenitive, and on Wednesday I signed up to be on the Teacher Tenure Recomindation Commitee. It sounded like something that would be very interesting to be a part of. Just to give a brief discription of it; we would read trough all the various recomendations sent in and then give our findings to the Student Council. It's funny that it took me almost 8 years since high school to get into something like this, and it turns out it's pretty cool.

Last Monday I volunteered to be a tour guide of my program for the big school wide tour that's going on in October. My friend Chris and I will set up different examples of the different things you learn while in the electrical program. We'll be covering everything from basic electrical circuits to reading voltage, amperes, to wiring a switch and plug to AC and DC motor controls. ( just a sec, need to take a breath) This week I also started my work study program. That means that I will be getting paid to work in the electrical lab and wire up transformers, recepticles, and three phase disconnects. I'm really excited about it all cause I get a chance to do some real hands on work with electrical componants and get paid doing it.