IdaGomm

Happy Frickin' New Year!

2009-01-02T15:05:00.000-08:00

Fer New Year's we dun had ourselves a redneck-themed party, co-hosted with our neighbors, the Kulms. Not only did we have pork rinds, cheeze whiz, and beer, we also had ourselves some right nice fireworks made out of diet soda and mentos! Can't furget to mention that we had some fried Spam for everyone to try, too.

Simpsonized!

2008-12-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

I guess we were slow to learn about this, but you can 'Simpsonize' photos of yourself at http://www.simpsonizeme.com/.

Wyoming Trip

2008-12-23T11:46:00.001-08:00

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Gomm in Star Valley, Wyoming last week. They live in the mountains just south of Smoot, WY.

Ivy made a point of having us stop on the Idaho/Wyoming border so she could stand with one foot in each state for a minute (then she did a dance between the states). :)

We haven't been up there since summer of 2002, so it was great to see all of their modifications to their place. In addition to seeing their grandparents, the girls were excited to play in some serious snow! We spent two days sledding and spent a lot of time pulling the girls behind the 4-wheeler in 8-degree weather. It was cold enough that we ended up buying the girls skii masks to stay warm. Ivy decided that she was a Mexican Wrestler with hers.

Here is Ivy with the blanket we gave Grandpa for Christmas (she picked it out because it is a 'manly' blanket):

Grandma with the family photos that we gave her:

While we were there, Angie wanted to make a quilt for her bed with Grandma. Anna prepared the quilt with the batting before we went, so while there, the three of them spent HOURS tying the quilt. (Grandma LOVES to quilt and tie quilts - she very literally has made THOUSANDS of quilts!)

The finished blanket:

My brother-in-law (Mike Vinson) also lives in Afton, Wyoming. He buys/sells rare books/documents/and antiquities (and has made a really good living for himself doing it, too). I took Violet and Ivy to his office. He showed them several cool things, including a handwritten letter from General Sherman during the Civil War. Here they are wearing military hats from the Mexican Border War:

Here Violet is holding a Roman oil lamp from A.D. 300 and Ivy is holding an American Indian mocassin (note Ivy's red and green Holiday Hair - yes, it's permanent):

And... the roads home were pretty good, considering it is winter in Wyoming!

Lights and the 21st Ammendment

2008-12-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st amendment, so we celebrated by having dinner with the Parrishes and then having a few drinks at the Kulms. I spent a few minutes yesterday educating myself about Prohibition - Wikipedia has a pretty good summary here.

Then we spent some MORE time today putting up X-mas lights. Again, we're pulling more than 40 Amps with all of our lights so it's a trick to get all of the lights on the right breaker. :)

Here are a few pictures I just took:

Rainy, Goo-ey Day

2008-11-09T14:02:00.001-08:00

It's a cold, wet day, so Anna and I are doing laundry and playing a new game, "World of Goo" on the Wii. Excellent, with a Goo-d underlying message, not to mention that it helps with your intuitive engineering skills.

If you have a Wii, you can download it on the Wii Shop Channel, otherwise, you can get it for the PC.

The girls are playing with their Littlest Pets and rolling on the floor bored.

Halloween and Pre-Halloween?

2008-11-05T17:05:00.000-08:00

So here are some pictures from our Halloween - Angie was a Goth Girl, Violet was a Crazy Cat Lady, and Ivy was a Chicken. We'll leave it to you to decide who was the Big Chicken and who was the Squirrel. :)

I mentioned in the last post that we went to our friend Chris Richards' 40th birthday bash the weekend before Halloween. The theme was 70's Disco, so we had yet another excuse to dress up. I even grew out my chest hair for this one! :)

After seeing these pictures, we've realized that we're in for some serious trouble with these beautiful girls. Anna has decided that Violet is no longer allowed to wear her boots!

Halloween Preparations and Violet's Birthday

2008-10-25T15:13:00.001-07:00

Last week we celebrated Violet's 12th birthday! She's in sixth grade and still enjoying soccer.

Every year it seems that the plan is the same - "DON'T SPEND ANYMORE MONEY OR MORE TIME ON HALLOWEEN!" We always fail. :)

It's pretty bad when putting up the decorations is a two-weekend chore. Seriously, we rent a storage unit JUST for Halloween and Christmas decorations!

Here are a couple of picures - I re-built the big monster this year and made a few new pertinent gravestones. I also got a new animated 'Food Baby' and built a cage for him with chicken wire. :)

Last night we got into the spirit of Halloween by taking the girls and several of Violet's friends to a local Halloween Haunt - "Haunted World". It is done in a huge cornfield with ~12-foot corn. Lots of scary monsters waiting to get you, including clowns with lawnmowers and chainsaws. One of the girls was crying so hysterically she started to hyperventillate and we couldn't talk her down, so Anna had to be escorted out with her! (She even cried her contacts out and lost one!) So I had to try to keep Ivy calm - she went through the whole thing clinging on to me crying and sobbing, "Daddy - I'm scared!". Angie LOVES those things and Violet was having fun with the two other boys that were with us. We're great parents. :)

Tonight we're going to our friend Chris Richard's 40th birthday party - it's a 70's disco theme, so we all have our costumes ready and we've been studying "The Hustle" today. Here's a picture of the Hostess birthday cake that Anna made (Yes, made out of Ding Dongs, Zingers, Twinkies, Ho-Ho's, doughnuts, and a Snowball!):

Soccer, Spore, and Castration

2008-09-19T13:54:00.001-07:00

Whenever soccer season starts, we completely lose our Saturdays! The sacrifices that parents make. :) The nice thing is that it gets us to slow down and sit there for a few hours while we enjoy the girls' games.

Last Saturday Violet had two games and Ivy had one game, so we were at the field from 8:30 to 1:30! Both girls scored a goal and they won all three games!

Here are a couple pictures of Violet:

And a few of Ivy:

Last Friday we received our copy of 'Spore' - a game where you simulate evolution - from single cell, to land dweller, to tribes, then to civilization, and finally to intergalactic travelers! We all played it a LOT - Anna even played all night Saturday (until 5:00am Sunday)!

Since it looks like Danny is a permanent addition, we had him 'fixed' last week. Nothing like castration and a funnel around your head to make your day! (We're sure he's saying, "Feed the funnel!" here):

So the other day my 500GB external hard drive that has all my pictures, music, and backups crashed hard and is 100% dead! (Western Digital 'My Book' - I'll avoid these in the future; I only had it for a year and a half!)

Here's where my OCD tendencies come in really handy - I backed everything up to DVD at the beginning of the month, and as soon as the drive started to look flaky I backed up the newest data again!

So to be SURE that never happens again, I bought a redundant, four-drive data-managing drive last night (should get it sometime next week) - the 'drobo' from Data Robotics. I bought two 1TB drives to start with, so that gives me a fully-protected TERABYTE of storage! Crazy - my first PC had a 20 Megabyte hard drive - this is 1,000,000 Megabytes!

Back to School, Wedding, and Boating

2008-09-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Again, we continue to be so busy that we can't figure our how we fit it all in! Last week, the girls went back to school. Angie is in 8th grade, Violet is in 6th, and Ivy is in 4th grade! - And Anna is happy to have them back in school. I enjoy back to school because I'm no longer getting up to a quiet house while everyone else is sleeping. Summer always feels unfair that I have to work - now it's nice to have everyone back into a routine.

Last week we hosted a simple after-wedding get together at our house for my niece Hannah. Being the incredible woman she is, Anna decided to make a wedding cake, too! :)

Here I'm finally posting a few boating picures. We went boating with the Kulms again on Saturday - it was another excellent day ont he lake! Here I'm surfing:

Anna surfing with one sock on to protect a toe she had hurt the night before:

Denise and I wakeboarding at the same time - this was fun, but it's probably too dangerous. Anna's face was full of concern the whole time (even though she took these pictures):

No College Funds!

2008-08-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

So the last couple days of summer break we have had Bratz central here at the house. This picture explains why these cute girls have no college funds. :)

He's BAAaaack!

2008-08-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

When Anna took the lost long-haired chihuahua back to the owner (the one they found several weeks ago), they really weren't too happy to get him back. Apparently they had 'received' him as an unwanted gift only two days before and he ran away. They had him tied up in a yard without grass or a fence.

Anna left her number with them and told them if it didn't work out to please call her. Well, today they called, and we have a new member of the family - Danny Boy!

Fifty Patents!

2008-08-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

I have to brag a bit here. When I was about 7 years old I decided that I wanted to be an inventor. Today my 50th patent was issued! We were going to have a party, but lately we've been partied out! :) (Who knows - Anna may yet throw one...)

Here's a link to my issued patents - shooting for 100 now.

Camping, Diaper Cakes, and more Camping!

2008-08-18T12:10:00.000-07:00

Wow - we've been spending SO much time having fun that I haven't taken any time to post any new entries! So instead of a bunch of text, here are a lot of photos of our summer activities. In addition to camping, we've been going out with our friends, Eric and Denise Kulm a LOT on their boat. When I get copies of the boating photos, I'll post some here, too.

At the end of June, we went camping with the Richards at Stanley Lake, Idaho - it was beautiful! Here's a picture of us on a hike there:

Ivy and Violet caught a frog that they were really proud of:

Wading in a REALLY cold stream:

Floating in Stanley Lake:

Ivy (the fisherwoman) caught a lake trout and a rainbow trout:

Also, toward the end of June Anna hosted a baby shower for a friend (she happened to be Angie's 6th grade teacher). Here she is with the 'diaper cake' that she made out of diapers. (When she told me she was going to make a diaper cake, I had other much more disgusting images in my head!)

Anna turned 31 in July:

Of course, she got the new Guitar Hero: Aerosmith as a present, too! :)

THEN, near the end of July, Anna and Chris were doing Meals on Wheels with the kids and they came across a lost long-haired Chihuahua. Being the kind soul that she is, she took the dog home and sent me a text message that we had ANOTHER dog. The girls put up posters and after a week they found the owner - but not before they had gotten kind of attached (They were calling him Danny). Here he is on the far left:

More camping - we went to Sagehen, Idaho in mid-July again with the Richards. Here's the fishergirl again:

Floating in Sagehen Reservoir - notice Balto and Mimi taking a swim, too:

Just late last night, we returned from ANOTHER camping trip, this time to Stanley, Idaho (Casino Creek Campground). We fished in the Salmon River and at the Sawtooth Hatchery - here the girls are at the hatchery - Angie and Violet each caught two trout and Ivy caught three:

Violet feeding the fish at the hatchery:

The whole family pitched in and we ALL cleaned the fish together, blood and all - Ivy wanted to skin the fish heads to get their skulls. :)

For this trip - I bought a nice three-burner camp stove (I used part of my patent bonus for 'Method and Apparatus for Testing Image Sensors' to buy it!):

When we camp, we usually play Blackjack with the kids - this time it was quite appropriate, since we were camping at Casino Creek! :)

The girls stayed cool by floating down the Salmon River. (Note the three black dots that are their heads!) It was really hot in the day, but it cooled off a LOT at night - ~90 degrees at 2:00pm, but ~30 degrees at 7:00am - at 60 degree change!

We took a day trip and visited the ghost towns Custer and Bonanza, Idaho. We had a picnic in Custer - this was a good one to visit - they had a hosted visitor's center and gift shop.

North to Alaska!

2008-06-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

So last week we went on a cruise to Alaska! We planned this about a year ago with our good friends, the Richards (They were the ones that bought our Meridian house and we lived across the street while our current house was built - we became best of friends!).

We drove to Seattle in a borrowed 15-passenger van with both families and got on the Norwegian Star.

This was our first cruise - Anna and I are both very 'buffet-averse', and the idea of a cruise has always created images of a buffet that you get to float to sea in. We refer to buffets as 'putting your head in the trough', and going on a cruise seemed to be tantamount to just getting IN the trough and floating away. :)

So the 'trough' theory held true, but kids LOVE a buffet because they can eat immediately and whatever they want (seems that old people felt the same way - we were referring to them as 'gummers' and 'troughheads' through the trip). :)

Other than the food, the cruise was GREAT! The kids loved the independence, and we were able to see some great places.

Since we have three kids, our best cost for a cabin turned out to be a penthouse suite that came with our own assigned concierge and butler. The butler's name was Roy and the kids took FULL advantage of him - he brought them chocolate-covered strawberries and brownies nightly, plates full of gummy-bears, jelly bellies, and fruit. He even brought Anna her plates of cheese and crackers daily (she was so happy with this that she would go to 'Cheeseland' when she was napping and would dream of cheese!). :)

Here are a bunch of pictures....

Kids in the cabin:

Leaving port in Seattle:
Kids with gummy bears from the butler:

Swimming in the kid pool at the boat aft:

Picture of Violet and the Norwegian Star:

Totem poles in Ketchikan, AK:
In front of the Mendenhall Glacier (out of Juneau, AK):

Snoplow on the the White Rail train in Skagway, AK:Getting rained on in Prince Rupert, B.C., Canada:

May! Piano, B-Day, M-Day, Mold, AND Wii Fit!!!

2008-05-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! I let a month go by without adding anything to the blog! And it's not like it was a month that wasn't 'blog-worthy'! Just WAY too much going on!

Let's see, May had Mother's Day, my Birthday (Tyler's), piano recitals, lots of bicycling, and we purchased a Wii Fit balance-board this morning! Top that off with the fact that we were kicked out of our house for mold remediation due to a flood from a freaking homeowner's association's pressurized irrigation pipe break! (Yes, this is the fourth time the pipes have broken, and the THIRD time that we've had to have a disaster cleanup company come in to pump the water out of our crawlspace - this time they found mold all over the subfloor). We stayed in a hotel for three days while they replaced all of the insulation, sandblasted the mold out with baking soda, sprayed an antifungal, etc, etc - Oh, AND two of the girls had a bug that induced PROJECTILE VOMITING! On walls, doors, windows, and blinds!).

Yes - a full month! (Very blogworthy, just no time!)

This morning, Anna woke me up at 6:30 to hit the Sunday morning store openings to buy the new Wii game that came out this weekend, the Wii Fit (you see, she has done her homework and knows that if a product is listed in the Sunday paper ads, then they have to have at least SOME of that product available on Sunday morning - and you all thought *I* was the geek! :) )

We were waiting in line at Target this morning at 8:00 when they opened - the line was all of three people long - the second lady in line was just there to buy some cushions for her patio set... go figure. At 7:59, the store manager poked her head out to ask if we were waiting for anything in particular, and two of us said that we were looking for a Wii Fit. The manager warned us that they only had TWO in, and that we were NOT to fight. :) So Anna and I were GIDDY that we actually GOT one!

So after blowing an ENTIRE day playing this game, we're just waiting to see how much pain we're in tomorrow... I for one am SCARED.

We interrupted the game playing to take an hour-long bike ride to check out the 'rooster tail' that the Army Corps of Engineers does at Luck Peak Reservoir if the water levels are high enough. It was great that we live close enough (~2 miles) that we could ride our bikes and avoid the cluster-freak of cars that were trying to park there!

Here are some photos that explain some of the events of the month:

Music Festival:

B-Day:

Mother's Day:

Waiting to bum a ride on the boat with the Kulms:

Anna watching Ivy with a projective-vomit-inducing bug while IN THE HOTEL!:

Boating!

2008-04-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

I have a motto - "Don't BUY a boat - just be sure you always have a FRIEND with a boat!" :) Since people are highly motivated to get the most of their investment, they HAVE to use their boat a lot, and they need people to go with them! (Kulms - I know you're reading this, so just realize that it's only fair to expect gas money and beer in return!) :)

Now that spring is tempting us with warmer weather, my friend Brandon took his new boat out on Saturday and our neighbors, Eric and Denise, took theirs out yesterday! We spent all afternoon out on their boat - it was great! The only problem was the water is direct snow melt and was only ~40 degrees yesterday. There was no way I was going to wakeboard, but Eric and Denise (our friends with the boat) both put on the wetsuits and went at it!

It's going to be a good summer!

Sandy Easter!

2008-03-23T15:03:00.001-07:00

This weekend we decided to go camping at Bruneau Dunes with our friends, the Richards, before it got too hot. Well, we erred TOO far on the cool side - it was 20 degrees the first night and about 25 degrees with high winds the second!

It was our first trip with our pop-up camper that we bought from my brother Tom - it saved our lives in the cold and the wind!

In spite of the cold, we all had a great time - here you can see Ivy making a sand angel - note that she's in the middle of the sand dunes in her pajamas. She's definitely her mother's girl!

When we got back home today, we found that the Easter Bunny had visited us even though we weren't here last night! Now to finish getting the sand off of us and the dogs!

Party Like a Who!

2008-03-14T19:08:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrated Ivy's 9th birthday (her real birthday is on the 17th, but she's having a sleepover tonight). We had Emin (our 'personal' limo driver that we use almost every other week with our neighbors to go downtown :) ) pick up Ivy and two of her friends at school!

We drove by Mrs. Perry's house (the girls' incredible piano teacher) so they could wave to her, then we went to the movies to see 'Horton Hears a Who'. (We really enjoyed it, too!)

Now Anna and I are suffering through the noise of a sleepover (so I'm hiding in the den to work on the blog)! :)

Debut on HSN!

2008-03-13T11:38:00.001-07:00

If you haven't already checked it out, the Pazzles Inspiration Creative Cutter is the featured item of the day on the Home Shopping Network - TODAY.

They started showing it last night at midnight (Eastern Time) and have had a couple of showings this morning already. You can still catch it at 3:00-4:00pm (MST) and 7:00-9:00pm (MST). If you don't have cable, see it live on your broadband Internet connection here.

Where the Red Racoon Goes

2008-03-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago Mr. Balto (being the stupid Chihuahua that he his) ran outside to encounter the racoon munching on cat food. Balto was barking at it for a while, then apparently sat down to growl at it while it continued to eat. The noise woke Angie up and she came and got Anna and they went out to chase the racoon off!

After realizing that another encounter like that could cost us Mr. B's life, I dug out my skunk/racoon trap (we've used it in the past for rockchucks) and put some catfood in it as bait on Friday night. We woke up at 6:30 with Ivy telling us that we had the racoon in the trap! (Note the red paint on the trap - that's a different story altogether - Anna caught a rockchuck and spray-painted it red a few years ago...)

So yesterday morning, we took it across the river and let it go. We felt bad because he WAS cute, but we like our little dogs more.

The freaky part was hearing him GROWL - I've only associated the cute purring sounds with racoons... this one sounded like a big, mean BEAR, with snarls and all!

So after that, we spent the rest of the day going to Violet's soccer game and hosting playdates and a sleepover. Then Anna, Violet, and I played Guitar Hero so long last night that my hand still hurts. :)

Piano and Production

2008-03-06T17:58:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, Angie, Violet, and Ivy played for the local piano festival. (Sorry - Angie was at a school dance right before playing, so she's not in the photo.) For this yearly program, they each have two memorized pieces that they play for judges and are graded. No parents or spectators allowed. Each year, they earn points and this year, Angie and Violet both had enough to earn their festival trophies! Ivy started later, so if she does well, she'll earn hers next year! They

accumulate points each year - the fastest they can earn a trophy is in three years. Violet did it in four and Angie did it in three with perfect scores each year! (She had taken a year off when she was taking private violin lessons.)

Also, I received my 'free' Pazzles Inspiration Creative Cutter yesterday (pre-release)! It's cool to see the whole package come together! Next week on the 13th of March, it will be the featured item of the day on the Home Shopping Network! Let's hope they sell out fast! Coverage will begin at midnight (Eastern Time) early Thursday morning and continue until midnight Thursday night.

If you want to win a free cutter, you can enter HSN's 'Make it Memorable' contest. :)

Murder Mystery

2008-02-20T18:12:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday night we attended a murder mystery, hosted by our friends (and neighbors), the Kulms.

It was a 1920's Prohibition Era setting - so we ALL dressed up and had a lot of fun with it. I was a bit hesitant about whether it would be uncomfortable or not, but we ALL had a blast. In fact, after the game was over (~3-4 hours later), we all felt like we were still in character. I was Don Wannabe, the owner of the Four Deuces, and Anna was Madam Meme, the proprietor of our houses of ill repute.

Love Chihuahua and CHA 2008

2008-02-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Anna had lots of fun with the dogs yesterday - she had a two-sided heart placard for Balto and Cupid wings for Mimi. It was funny to receive the photos on my phone while working yesterday!

For Valentine's Day, I had the girls make dinner for us - Angie was the hostess, Violet was the waitress, and Ivy was the chef. I prepared all of the ingredients and drew up diagrams for Ivy to follow. The girls did great! We had a nice candle-lit dinner with some Bobby Darin playing in the background. Honestly, it was more romantic than trying to fight the HORDES at the restaurants! :)

This last week the Pazzles team was at the biggest craft show of the year - CHA 2008. I found a video on YouTube that shows a demo. We're still waiting for the show on the Home Shopping Network!

Just so it's clear, that design work is NOT my job - just a hobby (that I hope will make me some extra $$$). I work full time as a design engineer at Micron Technology designing clock synchronization circuitry. It's interesting to put into perspective that I hope the Pazzles Inspiration will sell ~50,000 units per year, while the delay-locked loop circuits that I design are manufactured on >1 million DRAMs per WEEK! (Stress levels can get high when the circuit you designed is the reason that the parts have to be thrown away!!!!)

Glasses and a Masked Bandit

2008-02-07T18:51:00.000-08:00

Well, Violet has the curse of my genes - she's nearsighted and needs glasses. She got her new glasses yesterday and looks great! :) More than anything, we're glad she can see again! We felt bad that her vision had gotten so bad before it was caught! Thank goodnes for school eye exams!

So we've had TONS of deer wandering through the neighboorhood every night since we've had decent snow accumulation (at least it's a lot for Boise). Anna spends the late hours looking through the windows looking for the deer. :)

Last night she saw a shadow crawling along the top of the fence. She called me downstairs to show me this video - she had already named him 'Rascal'! I still think shes another incarnation of Giselle (from Enchanted) - between her two dogs, cat, two hermit crabs, a gerbil, a chinchilla, and the quail and finches that she feeds everyday, I'm thinking that even animals have a thing for her! (I know I do!)

Jackpot!

2008-01-31T17:41:00.001-08:00

So rather than lose money last weekend, Anna and I turned $200 into $800... and WALKED AWAY. After paying for gas, food, and the room, we netted $350 for the trip, AND had a relaxing weekend! We both REALLY enjoy playing blackjack - good thing that we can only gamble while in Nevada! :)

On the way back we took a detour and went to see 'balanced rock' - a few miles south of Twin Falls, Idaho.

The trip was GREAT because we were listening to an audiobook that our neighbor recommended (in fact, we were listening to it on HER iPod) - "A Dirty Job", by Christopher Moore. We're not quite finished (have ~3 hours left), but this will definitely be the way we travel! (And, I've already purchased and downloaded Christopher Moore's book "Lamb" - again on the recommendation of our neighbors...)

The only thing that sucks is we could never do that with the kids - you know... "Mom! - Ivy is LOOKING at me!!!"..."Dad! - Violet touched me!"... You get the point.

Poetic Justice

2008-01-26T07:48:00.001-08:00

Two weeks ago we went to Cabela's and bought a nice pellet/BB gun so Anna could go after the chicken hawk. We had fun working with the girls teaching them about gun safety and shooting soda cans in the back yard. :)

Sometime last week, Anna texted me the picture below... while she was taking down the Christmas lights, she found the dead bird up on the roof near one of the power cord junctions! We're guessing it was electrocuted. Either way, Anna was happy!

In case you hadn't seen photos of our house, we're known as the Griswold's of our neighborhood, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the lights could kill small animals!

Our friend at Pazzles was in China for the last three weeks getting production going - here's a photo of the packaging:

This will be for sale on the Home Shopping Network sometime in March. I'll plan on TiVo-ing it and we'll have a party as we watch. :)

Last, in her SPARE time last week, Anna painted the front room a nice chocolate brown... :) That woman is amazing!

So now we're off to spend a couple of days in Jackpot, NV to lose some money (and some stress) playing blackjack!

Chicken Hawks

2008-01-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

This week Anna has declared war on a chicken hawk that has been driving all of the birds away from her garden (she feeds the quail and finches every day). She has a small BB-gun pistol that doesn't work at all - after trying to shoot at a hawk from the back porch yesterday, she ran out in her pajamas and bare feet to throw snowballs at it. I'm thinking that she might get a high power pellet gun (rifle) this weekend. :)

Also, we received a photo of a pre-production run this week; doesn't look like much, but it's especially cool when you realize that it's "Designed in the USA (by me), Made in China" - and I didn't have to do any of the soldering!!! :) Also note the molded plastic is real; it's no longer just a CNC-milled prototype!

More progress...

2008-01-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

More progress with testing this morning.... It makes Balto tired all over! :)

Here's a clip of the prototype running nicely (using a pen instead of a blade)....

Here are some of the previous boards - kills my back just thinking about the hours of soldering!

Sock Monkeys

2008-01-04T20:26:00.001-08:00

I came home from work today to find a pair of my socks seriously abused!

Ivy wanted a sock monkey, so Anna told her that if she could find instructions to make a sock monkey, she'd help her. Little did she know that Ivy is a google expert (and she finds various farm animals she wants us to buy on e-bay, too). Here's the pattern she found.

YouTube Stuff

2008-01-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

Angie and Ivy each got Flip Video cameras for Christmas. Violet got a nice keyboard.

Angie likes to do more of the music video type of thing - she did this video with her friend using Microsoft Movie Maker.

Ivy likes the strange (of course)... here's her 'Orange vs. Cuties', then 'Lonely Child', and of course, 'Attack of the Frog' (Violet played/wrote the soundtrack of this one live while it was being recorded).

We had put together this test video a while ago.... Expect more soon from our young directors. :)

2008-01-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

We are recovering from a 'Rave without the Drugs' party at the neighbor's house last night. How do I recover? Start a blog, of course. :)

2008-01-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

Finished!

In case it's not clear, a buddy and I are designing all of the electronics for the new Pazzles Inspiration creative cutter....