bonnie & jason

Bea’s first birthday Bea-B-Q

Our friends Ravi and Jen had a shin dig at their new place this weekend to celebrate Bea’s birthday. We could only make it to the last hour or so but were glad to make it out to see Bea (who is looking more like Ravi it seems) along with their sweet new backyard. Maybe someday we’ll be able to turn our jungle into something as nice as theirs. Anywho, as is typical with these kinds of parties, lots of cute babies were around so I took the liberty of taking some snaps. Here are some of my favorites:

Birthday girl:

Bea chowing down on a wooden star:

Bea giving me her, “This is MY house… don’t you tell me to smile… I’ll smile when I’m good and ready!” look.

One of mine:

Another one of mine with Erika:

“Yea, he’s my dad. I’m not exactly jumping up and down but he makes a decent BBQ pork.”

“Mom, on the other hand, is finger licking good.”

“Yes, I do have big eyes.”

“Whatchoo lookin’ at?”

Alissa is the next tennis star

Alissa practicing her high follow through for lots of top spin:

Walking to the courts with grandma:

Not quite understanding the concept of keeping your eye on the ball:

A little better:

Still have some work to do:

With grandma, one real and one fake smile:

Sand more fun than tennis balls at the moment:

Ahh, to be a little kid again

Went to the South Sunset park with Alissa today. She basically ran around the fields non-stop for an hour. Definitely a good way to tire her out before her nap.

Smiley

Bath time pics

Ashley the piglet and Amanda the chick.

Twin pin

Ashley and Amanda spend a lot of time together. And now that they’re able to roll over, they’re often in each other’s space, on purpose or not. I’m sure the words, “stop fighting” will be uttered from my lips more than I care to know, but I didn’t think it would start this soon!

Ashley trying to eat her way free:

Amanda, already practicing the eye gouge:

Alissa the photographer/videographer

Alissa is really talking a lot these days. I don’t have a frame of reference to know where she lies in the continuum of 2 and half year old little girls, but it seems like she’s non-stop some times. Anyway, here’s some video that she inadvertently took as a random sample of her verbosity:

Shed and shelf are done!

The shed is finally done. I might put some more shelving inside but for the time being, I’m saying it’s done. As you can see, it basically just holds all the tools and materials that I used to build the thing to begin with. Bonnie happy I’m not getting the garage all dusty though and it’s nice to have the space back as well. I’ll probably move a bunch of other tools and “man-stuff” in there too. Put a keg and a HDTV in and I can almost live back there!

I also finished off my first attempt at cabinetry. This was kinda my learning project in preparation for making the built-ins for the breakfast nook. It’s made of 3/4″ birch plywood for the casing and shelves and various pieces of solid birch trim. The “toy chest” drawer is also made with 3/4″ birch ply and solid birch trim. I routed the top trim piece with a 1/4″radius round-over bit for a comfortable grip when sliding. It slides on bottom mounted drawer hardware. Finally, the finish is a simple hand rubbed tung oil. It brings out the grain nicely and imparts a warm, golden hue to the naturally pale birch.

Lesson #1: Don’t skimp on tools. I had originally bought a cheap stacked dado set and got crappy cuts with lots of tearout. I’ve since upgraded to a nice set from Freud and expect better results next time based on the test cuts I’ve made so far.

Lesson #2: Prep work is just as important as the actual work. Planning, measuring, tool setup, etc. all contribute to the quality of the final product.

Lesson #3: 3/4″ birch plywood is HEAVY! I almost broke my back trying to get the thing up the stairs.

House for rent

My tenant is moving out Saturday so if anyone knows of anyone looking for a house to rent in the Sunset, feel free to forward this CL ad.

Amanda’s turn at solids

While Alissa eats a piece of pizza.

And daddy got a little bit of project work done:

It’s the front panel to a DAC (digital to analog converter.)