bonnie & jason

Stop and smell the flowers

The last few weeks have been kinda crazy with work and travel and sick kids and such. Things are starting to die down and bit and we’re looking forward to the long weekend. No big plans… just hoping for a nice relaxing few days. As a matter of fact, it should be a good time to stop and smell the flowers a bit.

Why the sentiment you ask? Well, the main trigger is actually the final (I think) insurance claim from Amanda’s hospital stay. Although we’ve been outside our out of pocket maximum for quite a while now (pre-natal care is really expensive for high risk twin pregnancies), I still pay attention to the claims to make sure everything seems appropriate. And just last week, I saw a single claim that was in the hundreds of thousands. That’s right… hundreds of thousands. At first, I thought it was a typo as I had already seen tens of thousands worth of claims get processed for that two and a half week period. I even emailed the insurance company about it. But they assured me that it was correct and it had been paid for. Yay health insurance! All of a sudden, I don’t feel so bad about my premiums. Especially considering the additional prenatal care, delivery and hospital stay for the twins, all the other doctor visits we’ve had, and who knows what other medical services we’ll be using before the end of the year. But I digress. Ultimately, the reminder of Amanda’s dire circumstances from just a few months ago has put me in the frame of mind to try to take it all in for a little while. Also, Bonnie and I are realizing that we will probably not (99.999% sure) go through this stage of parenthood again so that’s contributed a bit to the sentiment as well.

Well, I’m way over my normal text to picture ratio for this post so I’ll end with a couple pictures from yesterday:

And one from when Alissa was about the same age:

Welcome Jacqueline!

Congrats to Eric and Kathy on the birth of their daughter!

Trip back east

Our annual pilgrimage back east almost didn’t happen this year. First, we weren’t sure we wanted to schlep everyone cross country to begin with. Second, with Amanda being susceptible to viruses, and the whole swine flu thing, traveling seemed a bit risky. And finally, after we had made arrangements to go after all, Alissa ended up with a fever the night before we were scheduled to leave. In the end, we decided that the trip wasn’t going to get any easier, Amanda would be fine and they do have doctors in New Jersey anyway, and Alissa’s fever broke before we had to leave for the airport so off we went.

All in all, it was a great trip. For the first half of the trip, the plan was to stay with Vin, Denise, Henry, and Gunther. While we were there, Jenny visited with her daughter Maddie. Last time we were in town, Jenny was just a few days short of giving birth, Denise was pregnant with Henry, and we just had Alissa. So lunch was a pretty straight forward affair with all the adults and just one baby. How things have changed! Here’s a pic with the babies and most of the adults.

And here’s me with all the babies:

And Henry having his way with Ashley:

Good times.

Part two of the trip was to attend Mary’s wedding. We hadn’t seen Mary in a while and were excited to witness her happy day and to meet her now husband. This is the first trip where I didn’t bring my big camera gear but here are a few pics I took with our point and shoot:

From the wedding, we were supposed to go stay with my cousin Anna but Aidan was just getting over the flu and we didn’t want to risk the kids getting sick so we ended up staying with Geoff and Asha that night. They were very gracious hosts especially considering the last minute situation and the fact that it’s no small feat to accommodate all five of us. Kiran and Alissa got along fine even though he’s a little bit older.

The next day, we went to the Pepsi headquarter’s sculpture garden.

Then it was back to the Chao residence for the remainder of our stay (after a short visit with my cousin… poor Aidan was sequestered 100 feet away). Henry was happy to see us again. More specifically, he was happy to see Ashley and her feet.

That Henry is a character:

So all in all, even though it was a very demanding trip both physically and emotionally, it was well worth it to spend time with the friends and family we don’t get to see very often. Will we do it again next year. Hmm… we’ll see. I should have taken a picture of us trying to wrangle the two infant seats, two strollers, one car seat, three pieces of luggage, and of course, the three kids. Thankfully, we got help from random strangers on both the flight out and the flight back. On the flight out, the person sitting next to Bonnie was a mom to three kids, two of whom were twins. So she was both sympathetic and also took a stint holding Amanda for a while. On the way back, a nice man helped us with our luggage out to baggage claim. He was also a parent of twins. Anyway, like I said, we’ll see.

The ultimate headphone amp - Part 1

I sold my other headphone amp in order to fund building the ultimate headphone amp. It’s just the big brother of the first one. The main difference is that it is a 4 channel balanced amp with dual power supplies. Also, instead of a cookie tin, this time I’m putting it into a real enclosure. So far, I’ve just stuffed the boards and have gotten some of the case work and wiring done.

One of the powersupplies ready to go.

Front panel of the power supply. The power button has a cool LED ring.

Rear panel of the power supply. Check out the massive 8 conductor power cord.

The four channels and the joshua tree stepped attenuator ready to be wired up.

The front and rear panels of the amplifier. I kinda screwed up a couple of the holes… I measured the wrong part for the wrong hole. Oh well, at least it’s a very precise screwed up hole thanks to my new milling machine!

Here’s another project that’s in the works:

It’s a poplar enclosure for a TBD audio project. Originally, I had made the miter cuts with my compound miter saw, but they were woefully imprecise and would not allow a tight joint. That, plus the fact that the other projects in the queue involve some shelf and cabinet making, convinced me to invest in a table saw (the big honking tool that the wood is sitting on.) So rest assured, more project posts are forthcoming!

Bike finally done… for real

Last time I posted my bike, it had been clear coated and had a very raw look to it. Unfortunately, the clear coat did not do a good job of fending off rust, so I had it powdercoated. Blue. So now I have three blue bikes.

Girls, girls, girls

Here are some random pics of the girls.

Grandma and Alissa after the red egg and ginger party. Notice Alissa has smeared face paint from her hand across her eyebrow.

AAA crammed into the pack ‘n play:

Amanda and Ashley’s Red Egg and Ginger Party

Two years ago, we hosted a couple hundred people at the Moonstar in San Francisco for Alissa’s red egg and ginger party. This time around, we ended up with mostly the same crowd at the Daly City Moonstar since the San Francisco one closed down (I think.) Also, the Daly City one is newer and nicer, probably a little closer to us in driving time, and parking is much easier.

We did Kit Kat bars along side bubbles for the kids and twin lady bug magnets for every family instead of the Trades Joe’s chocolate bars this time around. (Happy to offer these up for sale similar to how we did the ones for Alissa for those of you who are interested.)

My mom was able to make it out this time.

These are the four pictures we used in a big frame.

Otherwise, we feel very lucky that so many of our friends and family were able to make it out. Too bad it’s impossible to spend as much time as we would like with everyone, but hopefully, we’ll be able to see folks a little more often now that the twins are a little bit older.

I’d write more, but we’re all pretty pooped out. Here’s the rest of the pictures: http://flickr.com/gp/jasonwang/106988

Argh! Cornell totally messed up the last minute of the NCAA lacrosse final!

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, here are a few random pictures.

Alissa’s fake smile is getting more automatic.

Alissa earning her keep.

Amanda being chubby.

Ashley being… chubbier.

Find the real baby.

An easier challenge.

Rediscovering the park

Alissa hasn’t been to the park in ages! I just haven’t had the opportunity with the twins, the weather, or any number of excuses I can rattle off. But today, despite the chilly weather, we made it back for a little while. Here are some pics… it seems she’s starting to master her “fake” smile.

Infections, birthdays, and party prep

Haven’t posted much lately since work has been busy and the kids have been keeping us occupied. But there are a few things to report.

First, Ashley had a little toe nail tear turn into an infected toe. Nothing major but she is on antibiotics to clear it up. While at the doctor, we found out that she’s now 11lbs 14oz. Amanda, meanwhile, weighed in at 9lbs 2oz. Still has some catching up to do, but she’s doing fine.

Second, I turned 35. It sounds kinda old to me, but somehow I don’t really feel old despite the whole three kids thing. Ask me again at 37 how I feel when Alissa is 4 and the twins are in the terrible twos. I may have changed my tune by then.

Finally, we’ve been getting ready for the twins’ red egg and ginger party. We have some new favors slightly different from the ones we did for Alissa’s party. Otherwise, I think we’re ready to welcome the 200+ guests and officially introduce the twins to everyone.