bonnie & jason

Happy Birthday Amanda and Ashley

We got some Hawaiian takeout and gave the babies some cupcakes today to celebrate on their actual birthday.

Amanda went to town:


Ashley seemed to like in a slightly more reserved fashion:


No surprise, Alissa was also a fan:

With daddy:

With grandparents (and everyone looking and smiling at the same time!)

Zaph Audio SR71 DIY Speakers

I had this setup as a separate blog page originally. Now that they’re done, I’m archiving here.

To go with the amplifier project, I’m building a set of speakers. This DIY community is also very active and has lots of resources available. I chose to build this kit from Zaph Audio and Madisound.

It’s a two-way system with a 7″ reed/paper pulp cone woofer and a ferrofluid cooled tweeter with a pre-coated fabric dome. The kit includes a crossover (this determines to what level what frequencies the woofer should produce and which frequencies the tweeter should produce) as well as all the hardware needed to put them into cabinets.

The cabinets can be bought pre-made, but I decided to try to build my own per the design specified by Zaph Audio. Here’s what they would look like if I had bought the cabinets (for like $300.)

I still haven’t decided the details… but it will either be MDF or plywood or solid hardwood… or some combination thereof. More to come.

1.23.2010
I went to Macbeath lumber today and got a piece of African Mahogany. It wasn’t cheap, so I figured I’d use it for the front, top, and rear panels and just use plywood for the remaining sides. This way, I get a nice two toned look and don’t have to deal with veneer or paint. I’ll just sand and tung oil and be done with it. Need to pick up some tools still, but I’ll probably make some rough cuts on the table saw.

1.28.2010
Got some work done on the cabinets the last few days:

The kit from Madisound came in as well. Everything looks pretty much as expected. Should be able to get a lot done this weekend as well. Still have to cut the holes for the drivers and cups. Then rabbet and chamfer the woofer holes. Then glue the front and rear baffles in before rounding over the edges. After that, I think it’s just sand and put some tung oil on it and they’re done. Except for the actual wiring install of the drivers and crossover.

1.29.2010
Got a little bit more done today. Made a couple small mistakes though.

1. I should have rabbeted the baffles vertically to insure flat surfaces to mate to the cases (my table saw is kinda so-so.) As it is, my glue job may have some small gaps. I’ll have to take a look after I trim and roundover to see if there are indeed gaps and if so, fill in with some sawdust/wood glue.
2. My initial countersink for the woofers was a tiny bit too small. About 0.10″ or so. I didn’t realize this on the first one until after I cut out the thru hole. I was able to sort of kluge together the little circle I cut out back in place so I could use the jig again with some backyard engineering so that worked out ok I think.
3. I probably should have made the countersinks a little deeper. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get the drivers in flush after I put the gasket in. I figure I could always add more gasket to build up to flush if necessary.

Well, hopefully tomorrow I can get them trimmed and rounded over. Then sanded and tung oiled.

1.30.2010
Trimmed all edges and rounded over the front baffles:

2.3.2010
I got them all done today. Soldered the connections up and added the stuffing. Installed the crossover and drivers and voila!

I still have to get them broken in and I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do about speaker stands yet. But I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. And I’m looking forward to setting them up properly with good amplification.

Amanda and Ashley’s first birthday party

We had a small party for the twins today at Yeah! restaurant in Redwood City. We were able to rent out nearly the entire restaurant and ended up packing it entirely with good friends and family. The food was pretty good I thought although they were late in serving and slow to replenish. But otherwise, I think everyone had a good time. Bonnie brought a bunch of crayons and coloring books for the smaller kids. And we hired a balloonist to make all sorts of fun things that both smaller and bigger kids seemed to enjoy. Also, I put together a video to play on the flat screen in the background. The first half is the same video I did covering their first few days and the second half is from the rest of the year.

2010 01 30 Ashley Amanda birthday video from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

And what is a birthday party without birthday cake?! We ordered this one from Anderson Bakery. (Bonnie made the lady bugs and bumblebees with fondant herself.) It was pretty tasty… white cake, strawberry cream frosting and raspberry filling. Just sweet enough and very tasty.

We had to wake Ashley up to cut the cake. Neither she nor Amanda was all that into it.

Look at that chubster! Jacqueline is pretty cheeky herself. (KIDDING Benita… jeesh.)

I thought this was a nice family pic of the Wee’s.

More pics here.

Can you find the baby?

Last night, Amanda and Ashley were playing in the play area and then Ashley decided to just take a nap amidst the toys. Can you find her?

Alissa finally tall enough for her tricycle

It was actually kinda nice late this morning so I took Alissa to the park with my mom. Alissa is finally tall enough to reach the pedals on her tricycle so we rode there. She still isn’t tall/strong enough to go up any sort of hill, but on the flats, she goes pretty good!

Ashley practically running!

Ok, she’s not running. But from the video, you can see she’s gone from taking a few tentative steps at a time to really getting a move on. They grow up so fast… *sniff*.

Amanda is ready to take her first steps, but she’s kinda chicken. Won’t be long though before they’re all doing laps around the house.

Ashley’s first real steps

Ashley has been taking single steps here and there for a couple weeks now. But today, she did eight steps in a row so I think I would call today the day she really started walking. Alissa was at this stage right at her first birthday so Ashley seems to be tracking right about the same as her birthday is only a couple weeks away. Amanda has started taking a step here and there as well so I’m sure she’ll be walking right around her birthday as well. Great… thankfully, we bought a gate to contain the madness!

Random pictures from the little camera

I did a purge of the pictures from our little camera and thought these were worth sharing.

Daddy pedicure.

Not bad form!

Chunky legs.

Chicken legs.

Daddy’s girl.

Mommy’s girl.

Amanda presiding over daddy’s gut.

Alissa’s POV.

How YOU doin?

How a three year old and almost one year old’s play.

Too cool for school.

Amanda and Alissa at my desk

This is just one of those random moments in my day. Thought I’d try a little black and white for a change. Also, to capture the documentary style of Alissa’s first “good” picture. (The one of my fat, wrinkly face… getting old!) I’m not sure she actually looks through the view finder… it seems like she squints the wrong eye. In which case, all the more impressive I guess. =)

Alissa’s first school picture

She’s sporting her fake smile and she’s too short to reach the floor. For some reason she looks kinda pudgy to me. And we thought it would be a 3/4 length picture so she’s still wearing her play shoes… oh well. But as far as school pictures go, not bad.