bonnie & jason

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: