Santa Barbara Zoo

This weekend we went to the zoo. Laine slept through most of it but was awake for the "family" shot.

Halloween 2010

This weekend was so relaxing. Its been a while since I have had nothing really going on so I definitely got to catch up on rest. Laine has been wonderful for this too; she loves to sleep just much as her parents for the most part.

We went hiking on a trail by our house that I have run on quite a bit but haven't hiked. The slower pace makes for better scenery and the recent rain has helped out with that too. This is our fam at the top of the trail. Laine was a bat for Halloween. Bats are usually pretty ugly but this one is pretty cute. She wasn't really in to getting the suit on but once it was on I think she liked it. She also got her very own pumpkin that she just couldn't stop staring at. I coerced her eyes over my way for the shot below but the ten before...yup just staring at the pumpkin.
I think next year she will have a better idea of what's going on but she just had to dress up for her first one.

Century

I have a tenancy to push myself constantly to do more. In some cases it really isn't healthy but healthy or not I continue to do it. It's this characteristic that got me through the juggle of school, work and living. It's this characteristic that convinced me that building a high altitude retreat deep in the woods would be an achievable task. Huh, this characteristic really needs to chime in on my architecture tests but that's another story.

If you know me, planning to have a daughter without a "conventional" job was a big "push." It was definitely a well thought out decision, I mean people have unconventional jobs and families their whole lives. It's just something I am still getting used to. The job/s...well the daughter too.

I had a physical push this past weekend doing the Santa Barbara Century ride. A ride is not a race but with my personality and the ingrained attitude of my college friends - "Every Ride is a Death March" - I went for it. And it was painful. It's been a while since I have had that feeling. the dude, I really don't think I am going to make it feeling. At mile 60. 40 more miles to go? It felt good to finish it off though and it was so good to see my lady and our daughter after....I hadn't seen them for nearly a week prior. That's another post...trip to Colorado.

Drafts / Finally Caught Someone

Man, if I actually posted everything I write on this thang, there would be a lot more content. There are so many posts marked as draft that never see the interwebbings of the world. No lie, a lot of them are pretty stupid. Others I start writing and my complete inability to formulate sentences takes over and the post dies, labeled draft for eternity. It is Friday though, and I finished work early so here is a draft from last week.


I always get caught.

Whenever I am doing anything moderately embarrassing, someone is almost always there to acknowledge the fact that yes, you really are doing that right now.

Singing in the car with the window down when all cars stop and the entire world goes silent.

Tripping over invisible objects anytime a moderately attractive person is walking by.

Speaking of, if anyone knew what song just started playing on my itunes, I would be in one of those moments........ugh

But this time the glory was MINE! I was on the home stretch of a bike ride this afternoon and noticed a young lady walking a couple dogs in the distance. As I approached closer she suddenly stopped. Upon stopping she pulled her arms in, turned to the side, cocked her head back with closed eyes and tight lips...rolled the body and revved the wrists...then flipped it to the other side!
Repeat!

I am pretty sure after she completed her little shuffle, she got that hot feeling, you know that feeling like uhhhh someone totally just saw me do that.

Two feet away by this time she looks dead at me in horror. She busts out laughing...I do the same and keep on riding.

OH, the glory!

Avocado Festival

Sounds really cool doesn't it? Not so much. I guess there is the novelty of drinking beer and listening to bands in the street but we were truly hard pressed to see anything avocado. We envisioned endless avocado vendors with cool recipes and...well, just avocados everywhere. This was not so. I guess now we know.
We did take a nice long walk on the beach after. It has been pretty hot here so we try to stay outside as much as possible. Laine likes the beach...I think. She has a really hard time staying awake with the crashing waves and movement. But isn't a sleeping baby a happy baby? One form I guess.Laine is getting bigger by the day. She still is super small when I see her in pictures though.

Yeah, about that studying....

I started taking the architecture registration exams a couple months ago. I was doing so well, studying after work and some on the weekends and taking an exam a month.

Laine came after two tests and I haven't been so diligent. She is a great baby but come on, which would you rather stare at after work.
I will get back on it shortly but for now I am trying to spend as much time with her and her mother as possible.

CO Visit

Man this post has been sitting half finished for a couple months now so..better late then never I guess.

As I mentioned earlier I was able to spend some time back in Colorado to do some work on our little hut. It is really coming along now....dare I even say that it is almost done. Yes. I dare.
I admit, it is kind of silly how much time I have spent on this place. I mean its a hut...maybe a cabin. But as one who works in the field of architecture and construction I am constantly designing and building for other people. I love it...but there is immeasurable satisfaction in doing the same thing on something one can call their own. Seeing as I don't have one or six mill right now to do the same thing in Santa Barbara...the hut will have to do.

Grillin' up the trout my brother caught while up thereThe finished deckThe insideSolar Panels going in

SF Walking

It has been about a month but we recently went to San Francisco for a long weekend. Our anniversary weekend in fact. I had never been before so I was pretty excited. As most do, we spent a lot of time walking.Of course this being my first time there we had to see the things that everyone sees there. Now that I have those under my belt, we can dig a little deeper next time we head up there. We had a lot of fun though. Our hotel had a cool mail chute. Probably not used as much as it was a few decades ago.As you can see I was always excited about getting my picture taken.Ja really excited about her yogurt.

Concrete Counters

I have been wanting to try doing a concrete counter for years. I've had some close opportunities but they never came through. And at the speed our little cabin is moving at....the counter isn't ready yet there either. I will make some posts on that soon though.

The opportunity came and actually it was pretty straight forward. Some complicated but methodical and I do methodical like a methodist....or something. No actually, the hardest part what getting the "desired" color. Some colors are easy, a deep red...the hardest. I think we did six or seven samples to find the appropriate color chemistry to get the finished product.

The buffing was pretty cool. It gets the concrete as smooth as glass. And the finished product....The first picture is with the wax and everything so it's the deeper color. The other two were before the sealing and waxing.

May Fair 2010

Treads

Today we installed the finished steps on the spiral stair. It actually ended up going a little smoother than I expected. The plaster side of the steps still need to be filled and the lower part of the tower still needs to be painted but it is well on its way. Some pictures of the progress.

Architecture work is going rather well too. I am still waiting on California for clearance on taking the architecture exams which should come through any day...then it will be like I am back in school again or something, studying and whatnot.

Underneath the Dome

A bit ago I posted about the dome/tower and within it a stairway is being constructed. At this point it is pretty far along but not quite there. The stairway is a spiral but built on a helix, not a central pole. The helix is then tied to the walls of the tower. So I guess its more like a winder staircase but whatever... Not the best picture but you get the idea. The plywood steps are temporary. I have had the intense opportunity to make the treads for the frame. Because of the custom nature of the frame all 16 treads and platform are slightly different. Not recognizably different but definitely different. They are well on their way and will be installed sometime next week. So I'll post an update when they are in.

I guess this happens now

Apparently I have survived my first winter in California. It's weird, all this time I was thinking....man its gonna get cold coming up here and it did. It was in the 40's at night for a couple weeks. But man, I really thought it would be more substantial.This past weekend this tree started exploding in our yard with white flowers. No doubt its nice but it does seem a bit early. I'll take it though.

We did escape to some snow here and there...maybe more next year...or even this year, who knows.

Auto Loans

I think most people like nice things. I like nice things. I know people that like nice things. At the same time, there have been times in the past where my peace of mind has been destroyed by nice things that I shouldn't really have. It's these same nice things that folks have experienced a lot of grief over in the past couple years and many years to come.
I will say that I have been a lot more responsible with money in the past 4 or 5 years than I have been in the past. I think I am a completely different person in this respect. Its a good thing to. Especially when I am getting emails from my bank like this....

Hello! (love the exclamation)

Our records indicate that you are near the end of your auto loan with us and may be in the market for another vehicle. We would like to invite you to apply for another auto loan today.

Seriously!? I just spent a couple years paying off this loan feeling so excited that it will be done...cleared, and now you want me to jump right back into another one? How many autos should one have? How many relatively new autos should one have? How old should an auto be before one decides ehh, its paid for....lets jump into another loan. I guess different folks answer these questions in different ways but me....I was able to laugh, delete the email and look forward to next month where that financial burden is lifted.

Almost Disney

A few weekends ago we went down to Anaheim for a concert. I still haven't been to Disney Land but the in-laws gave me tickets for Christmas so I think that is in my near future. On the way back we stopped by the Disney Concert Hall to check it out. It was a cool day to go because downtown was completely empty. So empty that a Mercedes commercial was being filmed driving back and forth in front of the Hall.

The pictures ended up being pretty cool.Okay back to work.........

Mammoth

The little lady has been talking about going to Mammoth for pretty much our entire relationship. She spent some of her younger years living there and loved it. Naturally she has been wanting to show it off. That time finally came this past weekend.
We had awesome time. We spent the first full day cruising around, checking things out, and pretty much eating the entire time. I always thought the amount of snow at California mountains was exaggerated but there was truly an amazing amount of snow. We hit the mountain the next day and pretty much covered the whole mountain. Lines were relatively small and we had an early start. The only thing I wish is that it was a little closer. Six hours of driving each way on a weekend is a bit heavy.

Tiling of a Dome

A few years ago I tiled a spa-like bathroom and shortly after I told myself I would never lay tile again....unless it was in my own house. Turns out, I lied to myself. Before moving to California I helped a friend lay tile in his bathroom and NOW recently I have tiled yet again and this job was just as insane as the one those few years ago. It is finally done and turned out quite nice. It did take some time though. I think I was on the roof for just over two weeks. SD was manning the saw. Pretty good system but pretty killer.

The base of the dome is ten feet across and is a true half sphere. This equals out to about 160 square feet of tile and some serious cutting. It works out to be around 4000 2"x2" tiles and I would guess 70-75% of the tiles are cut in some way. This equals 2800-3000 cut tiles! Oh and then there are the red Saltillo tiles below....