Since this day only comes once every 4 years, just had to write a post to say “Happy Leap Day”!
This day is extra special as it is Marie’s wedding day. Always the non-conformist, it’s no surprise she would have her wedding on February 29th. Apparently, she likes the idea of only celebrating their anniversary every four years. I suppose it does make it that much more special. Anyway, I just wanted to wish Marie and Paul a truly wonderful wedding day and much happiness for years to come.
Today is Ella’s first birthday. I can’t believe an entire year has gone by since she joined our family. Happy Birthday Ella! Jenn took some very cute pictures of her today, which you can see in her post.
Yesterday, with a little help from mom, Ella took her very first steps. As you can see in the video, she was very excited at this feat and would giggle and fall into mom’s arms after every attempt. You can view a larger version of the video in the mediaalbums.
I’ve been meaning to post a scan of this really cool Yoda drawing my sister, Marie, gave me this past Christmas. I’m blown away at the detail and shading…better than that of some artist’s hired by Lucas himself. She has come a long way from the not so proportionate drawings of elves and mermaids of her early years. As a matter of fact, she is now an aspiring tattoo artist as well. She actually just got her own tattoo gun for Christmas. Speaking of guns…perhaps I’ll have to have her put this Yoda on my right bicep! Yeah! 
Ok, probably not…but I’ve always wanted a tattoo of the Rebel or Imperial emblem!
As the fantasy baseball season draws near, the battle for free agents has begun. Myself excluded, it has been somewhat of a heated battle among team managers. Take a look at Johnspach’s (notice the out of place “h” Jonspach?…payback! ) post here.
Perhaps one of the coolest happenings this year is the upcoming release
of a groundbreaking concert film called, very simply, “U23D”. Releasing on Feb 22nd, the film uses new 3-d filming technology which has been used in filming sporting events, such as the Super Bowl. U2, having been one of my favorite bands since my dad bought me the Joshua Tree album all those years ago, is the perfect choice to pioneer this new technology in a concert film. Shamefully, I have never seen U2 in concert so this movie will be the next best thing. I tried to get tickets for my dad and I to their Vertigo tour in 2005 but they were impossible to get, especially due to a major scalping problem. Apparently much of the movie’s footage was taken durin the Latin America leg of the tour. Maybe I can get my dad to come up and we see this together instead. Heck, depending on the theater, the acoustics could be even better than a live concert anyhow.
Check out this cool widget from the official site to view the trailer.
Well, Jenn couldn’t resist the call of a blog any longer. Probably partly because I’ve been so bad at updating this one lately. 
Anyway, check it out here.
Well, it’s been entirely too long since my last update. I know, I know, it’s unforgiveable and I should be ashamed to call myself a blogger. I’ve been intending for some time to upload new photos for this year. I have a ton with our camping trip, Halloween, zoo trips, etc. I hope to get some of them up soon. Anyway, we were brave (or crazy) enough this year to take all the kids to Penny’s for Christmas pictures. Despite some difficulties, we ended up getting some pretty good pictures.
Today Ella is six months old or “.5″ as I like to say. She’s doing great and getting big quickly. In fact, she just went in for a follow-up last week and she is in the 90th percentile for weight and 95th height! She smiles and laughs all the time and much more than Nick or Sam did at this point. Perhaps that’s partly because she got two silly brothers to jump around and entertain her. Nick and Sam just love to make her laugh. She’s also very good at rolling over onto her tummy and often times wakes up in this position. Ella’s fascinated with everything and loves to touch and squeeze things. She particulary likes crinkling plastic graham cracker packaging and grabbing my chin or mom’s hair and earings!
A funny point of note, when we ask Nick how old she is, he’ll say “zero”. Maybe now he’ll start saying she’s “one-half”.
Happy Half Birthday Ella!!
Here’s some pictures of her, taken today:
Here’s a picture of the “Simpsonized” version of my family:
Jenn and I had a lot of fun with this and apparently it’s all the rage as a guy at my work also did everyone in my department.
Click this link for some “Simpsonizing” magic:
A little survey from Jonspach
Some jobs I€™ve held:
Fast Food Cook (Taco Bell)
Steward -fancy word for busboy (Zoopa)
Rough and Finish Carpenter
Payroll Wrapper (basically a mailroom clerk)
Mainframe Computer Operator
Software/Website Support tech
Four movies I can watch over and over again:
Tommy Boy
Any from the Die Hard series
The Empire Strikes Back (thanks Jonspach for prefilling this answer for me)
Ronin
{these are all the places I€™ve lived – for at least a year} places I have lived:
Tacoma, Redmond, Maple Valley, Bothell, WA
Silverton, OR
Four TV shows I watch:
24
Heroes
Lost
Four the places I€™ve been on vacation:
Hawaii [honeymoon] (thanks again Jonspach)
Disneyland (and again)
Victoria, BC
Canon Beach, OR
Mammoth Lakes, CA
Four of my favorite foods:
Pizza (yep, again)
BBQ’d salmon burgers (they’re phenominal)
Burritos (last time, honest)
Baklava (my dad made the best!!)
Four websites I visit:
I am passing this along to€¦
Well, no one else I know has a blog, but I’ll say Chris. He could post it in a comment…maybe that will finally break his silence in comment posting…not likely though! 
