bonnie & jason

One day, two hammers, three saws, and lots of sore muscles

I took the day off today to start my shed. I’m using these plans I found for free on this wondrous thing called internet.

It’s going in the back corner. Originally it was going in the back center, but Bonnie preferred it in the corner. That meant I had to do some landscaping (trim the trees back) as well as move about a million bricks out of the way.

The build went pretty well. Lots of cutting and nailing. I got the floor (pressure treated 2×4 joists on 4×4 skids) and two of the walls done in addition to the roof trusses.

Had to stop there as I didn’t feel it was a good idea to try to get the roof trusses up by myself while holding a nail gun that can shoot 3.5″ nails through solid wood. Speaking of which, here are the two nail guns I used:

The little one is a finishing nailer that I just used for holding certain pieces in place. The big one is the work horse. There is something very gratifying about pneumatic tools… nail guns in particular.

More to come later this week assuming I’m not hobbled over in pain. I’m hoping to get the roof up Friday and perhaps get the back and front done. Then Saturday, shingle the roof and get the trim up. Then it’s time to paint and eventually move crap in!

What is that squeaking noise?

$1 to the first person who can tell me what that squeaking noise is!

Whatchoo lookin’ at?

Don’t cry, it’s ok.

Hey big sis!

Just a cute pic:

Amanda the bully

When we put Amanda and Ashley in the crib together, most of the time, they ignore each other. But occasionally, one of them will maneuver into position to get a better view of the other. Or sometimes their random arm flailings will result in anything from hand holding to hair pulling. Both accidentally, I think. Bonnie caught a new one a couple days ago with her iphone where Amanda somehow got a hold of Ashely’s nose.

Lots of estrogen around these parts…

I’m sure it’s just going to get worse from here on out, but I think I’m already compensating for having to live with four girls. I redid the closet in the bedroom this weekend. Also, I’m planning another small shelf project in order to prove my carpentry skills to Bonnie so she’ll let me tackle a bigger project in the breakfast nook. And of course, I’m spending lots of money on tools and spending lots of time at Home Depot. (Insert Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunt here.)

Here are some recent pictures and videos of those of the fairer sex.

Watching Wimbledon:

Alissa the big sister:

Tickling Amanda:

Amanda and Ashley both looking chubby:

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: