Dansen in America

Our visit with Dansen just ended, he had to get going to meet up with his Mom. We first met Dansen about 8 years ago at Fairhaven College at Western here in Bellingham. He was helping a friend of his and ours Nicky on a theatre/ film project. We later found out that he and Nicky had a radio show called Japan Radio on the college station . As the years went by we would hang out at the radio station from midnight to 2 a.m. every Sunday with Nicky and Dansen. We'd work on movies together and even fill in for Dansen on his show when he'd travel to Japan during the summer he now permanently resides. Even though our visit was not very long we where quite happy to see him after all these years. He's now off to see some friends of ours who live down in Oregon. Have a safe journey home my friend.

We went on a tour of Mallards Ice Cream Shop a couple of weeks ago. It was a lot of fun and we got to enjoy some tasty treats. These pictures were taken by our friend Rainbow.

Are you smarter than a four year old??? We're not!

Adrian just moments ago came over and announced to us that "the capitol of Burkina Faso is Ouagadougou!" We had to ask him what continent it's on...look it up. He's right!

Busy, busy, busy!

We have had a lot going on recently. M went back to work a few weeks ago, and Kieran started in daycare two days a week. Both are going well, but keeping us very busy. M has updated her flickr page with some more pictures of the boys. They are growing up so fast! We are having a lot of fun. Adrian is such a good big brother and Kieran is about as relaxed and easy going as they come.

New pictures on M's flickr page

Check out new pictures here! http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixielyte
We had some major computer trouble over the holidays so we are working on catching up, but everyone is doing well. Adrian just had his 4th birthday and Kieran is now two months old, and already weighs 15 pounds! They sure grow up fast!

Flickr posting.

I have finally decide to sign up with Flickr for photo sharing. Here is the link to the photo stream for your perusal. Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/outwestalready/

10 Days Old

On Saturday November 15th at 5:45 a.m. Kieran Conrad Sheridan was
born in the St. Joseph's Child Birth Center. This round was definitely different
from when Adrian was born, and the old adage; "no two births are the same" is true. With Adrian it was late in the evening but unlike with Kieran, Adrian's birth had progressed a lot further by the time we arrived at the hospital. Meaning once we got there Adrian didn't take very long to make his appearance. With Kieran we arrived a lot earlier in the cycle of contractions and therefore spending a little more time in the hospital.

We arrived around 10:30 p.m. got checked in through the triage nurse and then
assigned to a birthing room. The contractions came and went until it was decided at 4:45a.m. to break M's water. Since this was our second pregnancy the odds where that Kieran's birth would go fast. So once the water was broken he was born exactly an hour later. He was born 9 lb., 4 oz. and 21 1/14 " long. While in the womb he had swallowed some a meconium and had to be tended to by the respiratory specialists. He was checked out and once they cleared out his lungs and stomach M got to hold him.

At the hospital in the Child Birth Center instead of staying in the birthing room for the entire duration of your stay, you get moved to a postpartum room for the duration. It's nice especially for M because the bed is an actual bed and not a modular birthing bed. It was a really nice room and all of the nursing staff was really nice. We where there only for a day and a half from Friday night to Sunday afternoon.

So far things are going well, still working out schedules, not getting up until 9:30 or 10:30 a.m. or so. Kieran is such a good baby as newborns go. Unlike Adrian, Kieran will do marathon feedings and then sleep for hours on end afterwards. The timing of Kieran's birth couldn't have been better, because I was able to take off two full weeks with the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of this week. M had actually reached the end of her time at work on the day she had Kieran. She'll be off until the early part of February. We have lots of pictures and they will be posted shortly. So stay tuned!

338 and counting......

I have voted three times in my life in for the president.  For the first two times the person I voted for wasn't elected, but this time, this time I cried.  I cried for happiness, I cried for validation of my beliefs, I cried for our country and the new future we can proudly look forward to.  

Happy Halloween! We went trick-or-treating in Fairhaven. Adrian was a leopard (in a costume made by G-mo for Aunt Moli when she was little) and Kieran was a jack-o-lantern.

Television, Genius, Music

A few weeks ago our television picture suddenly shrank down to a 1/4 inch by 27 inch wide image.  So you can imagine our surprise when it happened.  M called me at work and informed me of this and told me that it happened to her parents' television right before it died.  At the time we decided that we should wait until it really dies before we invest in a new one.  Last night the picture pulled the incredible shrinking trick four times.  So now we need to get a new one much to our dismay, and finances.  We've narrowed our search and budget to a 26 inch LCD television, which when watching movies and the like would be somewhat equivalent to what we have now.  Admittedly it comes at a rather bad time with a new baby coming any day now, M's mom coming out on Tuesday.  It's the kind of situation I would have liked to avoid but it's something we need to take care of. (insert heavy sigh here) 

Around the same time the TV started to first act up iTunes software updated and installed this thing called Genius.  I of course had no idea what it was let alone what it did, and just went on my way listening to my music.  A week later I was using the Safari browser and saw Steve Jobs' presentation of this mysterious feature called Genius.  (see image below)

 Basically it looks through your music library and matches up music you'd honestly never think of putting together in a million years.  So today I turned the feature on, and I must say it's pretty awesome.  First you select any song from your library and then click the little atom shaped icon at the bottom of the iTunes window and Genius takes over.  In a fraction of a second it compiles a list of 25 songs that the program feels goes well together.  For my first list I clicked on "november has come" by the Gorillaz off their Demon Days album.  Included in the playlist was Rob Thomas, Gnarls Barkley,  Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay, Kyle Minogue, Incubus, Beck, Cake, Colin Hay, just to name a few.  I will enjoy this very much, and like Steve Jobs said you'll re-discover music you haven't listened to for a while.  Sure enough he was right.  Pretty awesome.

Adrian from a very young age has had an interest in music, and the wide variety that is out there in the world.  You could even say that he's developed his own taste which is quite eclectic.  He always has listened to what M and I are listening to at the time, which could range from Vivaldi to the Gorillaz or one of his all time favorites Kanye West feat. Daft Punk.  I caught him bobbing his head to the beat of a Zero 7, or a fast past song on the television or radio.  Not only do we get to see the head bobbing, but we are also treated to him dance to the a fore mentioned artists respectively.  Before he falls asleep he like to listen to the A side of They Might Be Giants, Flood Album from 1990 (a cassette that I borrowed from my Dad), sorry Dad.  When I'm listening to music on the computer through itunes Adrian will request that I make it "big"  meaning I switch it to full screen with the album covers enlarged.  I guess he likes the full music experience.  Can't blame him though, I used to listen to my dad's records through head phones for hours on end when I was younger.  The technology may have changed but the ultimate experience hasn't.

M, Adrian, and Kieran

I finally got around to getting some shots of M before Kieran comes.  As you can see Adrian is making silly faces.

More silliness.

Adrian giving Kieran a kiss.

Gibsons Pt. 4

This was taken the night before we left.  We had a lot of fun visiting with our friends especially Adrian and Twain.

Gibsons Pt. 3

This is from the summit.

A tired little boy.

This is a shot looking down the east side of the hill.

This is looking up as the group of us comes down.

Gibsons Pt. 2

This bridge was half way up the path to the top of Soames Hill.

Here we are at the top taking a well deserved rest.

Here is Tom showing us the various points on the land way, way down.

Nice view!

Best buds!

Gibsons Trip, Belated Post. Pt. 1

Two weeks ago we traveled north of Vancouver to Gibsons where our friends own a condo.  It took us about 5 1/2 hours total, only because we got lost getting to the Route 1 and then to the ferry.  Once we got to the ferry we had to wait another 3 hours for another ferry to arrive.  We finally arrived around 11:00 p.m..  (Pictured above is from Saturday as we walk down into Gibsons from their condo.
This is from the water front in the small port.  The buildings on the hill behind the boat are the city hall and library.  After wen walked along the water front we walked to a little park and had the boys play for a few hours.
The next day we took a short drive out of Gibsons to climb Soames Hill which took about 40 minutes to summit.
This and the picture below are shots of some of the stairs going up.  It was a long walk.

Viv Special

Vivian a.k.a. Emma

A bed time buddy.

Breakfast togeather.

My pirate cat, one of her favorite pastimes.

She'll walk around and then lay down across my shoulders.

A rest after people watching out the window.

It turns out that we where given the wrong name for our new kitty.  Her Real name is Emma, but M, Adrian and I like Vivian instead so we'll be sticking with that.  Today Adrian and I took Vivian to the Whatcom Humane Society (WHS) to get the RF tag put in Vivian and for them to correct the paper work.  When M got home from work she noticed that the WHS had given Viv another rabies shot.  So M called to double check, and sure enough they had, but where reassured that it would not harm her.  Viv is a trip one of the things she like to do is to sit up and lay on my shoulders as I walk around our place.  Pictures are to follow.   

Vivian

This is Vivian, our new adopted kitty.  We got her through one of the Whatcom Humane Society's foster homes.  She's a real sweet heart and thus far is getting along with Kunnie fairly well.  She loves attention and when she's real happy she drools just like Kunnie.  When we went to the foster home and sat down Vivian came right over, plopped her self down in my lap and laid clam to me.  It was quite reminiscent of how Floyd choose me all those years ago.

One might think we're jumping into getting a new kitty too early.  We feel that the best way to memorialize Floyd is to provide a loving caring home for a cat, just as we did for both Floyd and Kunnie.  

Passages

This evening at 5:30 P.S.T. our dear friend and companion Floyd passed away at the Fairhaven Veterinarian Hospital.  Last night he took a severe turn for the worse and we decided with discussion with the veterinarian that it would be best to end his suffering.  I've never witnessed and animal die before let alone have one pass away in my arms.  It was a quiet passing with just M, myself and the doctor in the room.  M had already made arraignments with our friend Hannah to bury Floyd on their property.  After we left the vets' we went over to Hannah's house and choose a nice quite spot in the woods to put him to rest.  We said our goodbyes and marked the spot with stones we had found around and from with in the spot we left Floyd.  

He was my first cat that I had ever had the pleasure to live with.  After M had gotten Kunnie I felt that I should adopt a cat as well.  So once we had looked on line we made the trip up to the home where Floyd was at.  We had actually gone there to see another cat when Floyd made his decision to pick me.  Where Floyd and these other cats where the foster Mom made an open outdoor enclosure for them.  It had ropes, branches and other items for the cats to climb on.  I was next to one of these branches when I felt a tug on my belt loop.  I looked down and there was a one year old Floyd looking up at me.  Both M and I took it as a sign and decided to adopt Floyd instead of the other cat.  A day or so later we went back to pick him up to bring him home.  Once we got home and Floyd had checked out our apartment he made himself right at home.  We put his bed right out side our bedroom door, and Floyd took it upon himself to guard our room from Kunnie.  He would go after her if she tried to go into the room, and also attack my feet when I was lying down on our bed.  

Admittedly it feels weird not to have him here right now.  A part of our family is gone and we will miss the cat that thought he was a dog.  

Life & Family

This picture was taken by our burgeoning photographer, Adrian.

Here is a very happy Mom and a very happy son.  As of today M has about 77 days left in the pregnancy.