We're expecting! (In case you hadn't heard. We're now entering the "tell people" phase) Due in January, and we're hoping for a Craig. Doesn't matter if it's a boy or girl. (I think Jill wants a girl, tho.)

Went to the doctor with Jill today to hear the heartbeat. Pretty cool. We brought Eli but he didn't quite understand, and he's sick with the flu so he wasn't very happy, either. :(

Basement almost complete. Jill's PC is now wireless, so she can put it wherever she wants and no cable. Very handy. The network card is a usb wireless thing the size of a deck of cards. Subtle, no power cord, either.

I've been doing digital photography for some time, and I've got my big expensive mega cameras, but I love my pencam!

I've got a Bell and Howell (aka Jazz) mini cam with 352x288 resolution. Got it at Target for $39.95. Image quality is.. pretty bad. But with DCEnhance and some tweaking they're okay. Fun.

I've thrown my collection online, and will probably be adding to it until the little thing dies.

You can find them at:
http://www.lightistic.com/pencam

(The interface is .net on an IIS server in vb.net -- in case anyone is wondering if they can get a copy of the software: only if you know how to code. :) It's powerful, but complicated)

Also, I'm anxiously awaiting the Logitech Pocket Digital -- but I'm not finding it in stores or online yet. What gives? They said June 30... I've never heard of a product launch being late. (Riiiiight.)

Wild weekend. Eight adults and three toddlers. Chaos and craziness, but somehow it was quite relaxing. It was a lot of fun. Paddled around in the water on some new water toys, did fireworks after the kids went to bed, and did a great flag puzzle. Lots of good family time, most excellent.

I love Office Space:
"Excuse me, Senor? May I speak to you please? I asked for a Mai Tai and they brought me a Pina Colada, and I said no salt, nooo salt for the margarita, but it had salt on it. I won't be leaving a tip, cuz I could I could shut this whole resort down. Sir? I could Take my travellers check to a competing hotel.. I could write a letter to your board of tourism and I could have this place condemned. I could put, I could put strichnine in the Guacamole. There was salt on the glass. Big grains of salt."

The carpet is in the basement, still have the stairs to do yet, and the vinyl is going in the bathroom thursday. Much like the upstairs bathroom, this project is going to be 99% completed within hours of Jill's birthday bash. We hope. :)

Set up the PC and everything -- it's nice to have a home again, stayed up too late doing pretty much nothing. Flew a bit, checked out filepile, made the network all happy, etc. Need to start a new project to obsess over.

Need to spend too much at BestBuy or something to finish off the electronic portion of my new office. And move the futon down. And move the TV in. And get the satellite working again. Lots to do!

Started a new puzzle yesterday -- 3000 pieces, and it's just a titch smaller than the puzzle mat I use to store puzzles. I have no idea how I'm going to finish it. And the New York 3d puzzle is about to rear it's wonderful head once the basement is done and the party is over.

All should be well from now on. Deleted the other (non-used) blog and now I'm smarter. About how this works.

Figured out where all of my "lost" posts were going: the wrong blog. Mine, but not the right one.

To catch you up, here are the "missing" entries, all confused and in the wrong order:

[7/1/2002 7:59:46 AM | robert craig]
Fun weekend, HOT HOT HOT. Spent some serious time in the inflatable (which uninflates rapidly) pool -- more importantly got the air conditioners installed. Nice.

The Kishel-Corbetts and my brother Jim came over for BBQ Saturday night, was quite fun. Jim was trying to escape the heat so he hung out and watch the Peacemaker (Clooney, Kidman) -- okay movie, even if we did have to watch GASP commercials.

Almost did a whole puzzle yesterday, will finish it tonight. Odd puzzle. Will explain once I'm done and take pictures.

Did I mention it was hot out? Oh yeah, sunburnt Saturday afternooon taking the scooter out -- didn't think I was going to be out that long, but I was. Went to the MOA, which is a long drive since there is no direct route. Fun tho.

[6/24/2002 8:08:37 AM | robert craig]
Long weekend of painting and sweating. Very hot. Got out on the scooter yesterday for a while, went down to the Lock and Dam at the Ford bridge and looked around. Need to carry camera around with me all the time, missing too many shots.

My latest "scheme" interesting: I'm trying to figure out how to get to Stillwater via roads of 35mph or less.

[6/18/2002 2:48:02 PM | robert craig]
Loooong weekend. Details? Quickly:

Wednesday:
Satellite doesn't work with new wiring, can't fix quick, Tivo useless for the weekend
Dashed off to cabin, Eli did quite well in the car, all slept quickly and well.

Thursday
Drove from 6:30am to about 6pm, with some kind of time change in there. Emma and Matthew and the rest of the Cheboygan Michigan crowd were very happy to see us, and we were very happy to see them, as well as get out of the car finally! Eli rode quite well, with much help from Grandma.

Friday
Fort Michillimackinac in the drizzly rain, but lots of fun anyway
Ate at zooey Burger King with LOTS of little kids running around.
Eli threw up everything in the van ("I threw up..")

Saturday
Rain. Stayed in all day. Went a little batty. Eli ended up in a dress playing the guitar while Emma spun around the room. Surreal to say the least

Sunday
Rain stopped, went to the Island. Saw horses, fort, arch rock, and parade. Eli loved riding on the boat

Monday
Up too early due to Emma's crying, hit the road early, drove lots.
Drove more.
Continued to drive.
Kept driving.
And then drove some more.
Got home with VERY little crying out of Eli, which was amazingly wonderful. He did throw up just after Hudson though. Wouldn't be a trip without that familiar smell..

Great weekend, but I need a vacation!

(Got the Satellite working, thank goodness! Basement coming along really nicely!)

[6/12/2002 9:23:35 AM | robert craig]
What kind of cough drops do you consider LEAST offensive? i.e. If you were locked in a 5 foot by 5 foot space with someone for 10 hours and they had cough drops, which of the following would you most prefer:

1. Fisherman's Friend, the most effective and least sweet of the cough drops
2. Blue menthol type "cool" cough drops
3. Honey, the boring cough drop
4. Cherry, the cough drop that makes you want to outlaw cough drops
5. Other (you fill in the blank)
[edit]

[6/11/2002 9:23:27 AM | robert craig]
Way too long since any entries...

Preparing for the trip this week to Mackinac Island (Cheboygan, actually), lots of packing and stuff. Eli's pretty excited about the trip, and we're doing a lot of plotting and planning to distract him throughout the journey.
[edit]

[6/5/2002 8:20:55 AM | robert craig]
Stress lately. We had to go to Home Depot last night for some "basement stuff" and had to wait for help. Eli got bored and frustrated, I got stressy. It wasn't until the end of our trip that I realized I had the ultimate "get service fast" tool. As Eli cried and cried while sitting on my shoulders (thus propogating the noises further) the clerks started doing anything to just get us out of the store.

Basement done soon enough, and all will be well.

32,707 pictures in my complete collection. Only 12,681 are available online.

Suck. This isn't working anymore. Most of my posts get lost. Dammit..

Argh!

All I needed was 30 postcard stamps, so Jill can mail the invitations to her birthday BBQ. Follow this pain:

1. Try and remember how much a postcard stamp is worth
2. Go to machine located conventiently in lobby of work building
3. "See "$.23, bag of 5 for $1.15" (might be right..)
3. Realize you never knew how much a postcard stamp was worth in the first place.
4. Trudge two blocks to post office.
5. Look at long line and decide to try your luck on the slot, er, vending machines
6. See familiar "Postcard $.21 for $1.15" and toss $5 bill in machine
7. Assume that $5 is going to get you multiple packs of stamps in one go
8. Be wrong.
9. Make selection
10. Head satisfying "plink" of packet inside machine
11. Hear loud rattle as machine starts dispensing obsolete $1 Susan B nthony coins. (Not the pretty new gold ones)
12. Put more change in machine
13. Make same selection
14. Hear noises
15. Put more change in machine
16. See "no more left" message
17. Hit "coin return" button
18. See "must make purchase to receieve change"
19. Buy next cheapest thing (pack of 50 $.03 stamps.)
20. Reach into machine to pick up booty
21. Find out familiar "Postcard $.21 for $1.15" really meant postcards with stamp built in.
22. Tear hair out
23. Trudge back to work -- wait
24. Decide on way back not to waste all of this time, try machine in lobby
25. Purchase 7 packets of $.23 cent postcard stamps correctly and easily from machine in lobby
26. Realize you just bought one pack too many, or it gave you an extra one because it felt bad for you
27. Realize those postcards you got don't even have correct postage on them
28. Realize you now have a way to waste some of your $.03 stamps.
29. Remember that the Post Office is a government entity

What trip? Wednesday night we're going to Mom's cabin, then driving all day thursday to Michigan to my sister Lisa's place. Coming back the following Monday.

[nice. looks like a bunch of wasted words got thrown out the window at some point. Oh well..]

Friday: Scooted over to Joe's after dark for a beer. Fun. Told lots of Eli throwing up stories.
Saturday: Home Depot, picked out carpet. Scooted for two hours down to the old abandoned Toll Bridge (it sounds so Hardy Boys) in South Saint Paul. Got wicked sunburn.

We all walked to Lake Harriet after Eli's nap and took a ride on the streetcar/trolley. Great fun for $1.50 -- we'll be doing it again for sure! Followed that up with some hot dogs and such at the concession, and then a walk home. Lovely evening! Lovely!

Sunday: Grand Old Days parade in the morning, 'The Regulars' in the afternoon -- good ride, went over to Grand Old Days. I raced the rain home and made it with just a drop or two on me.

Ok, to summarize what I haven't typed in the last few days"

Weekend up north at Lake George was fun, weather was perfect.

A one point Eli was running and tripped (he did this a lot this weekend) and started crying and sobbed "I did it again!" -- we all had to stifle giggles. He's pretty darn cute these days..

Drive back from the weekend took forever (not really) and was just as bad as every year. Nice to be home tho.

The triplets and company was a fun time -- everyone's kids are so much fun now! Personalities abound!

We actually have to fill out two timesheets every week now at work.

Basement has walls! Yay! Getting closer and closer to having a computer room again. We're going shopping for carpet and paint this weekend.

So there are a bunch of police cars blocking off a four block area downtown. Corbett (slacking off in the skyways) says something about a "suspicious package" but nothing on web site. And I forgot my freakin scanner at home. :(

Fun weekend! Up on the land, great weather, Eli had a LOT of fun. Triplets descend on the homefront tonight for a night over, more detail later...

I bought a scanner last night. Way too fun. The tough part is going to bed. The later you stay up, the more interesting it gets. Some Radio Shack employee in Highland accidently locked himself in the strip mall and had to call the police for help. Funny.

I don't really link here, but I was reading this evil Barbie story and just really had to save the link. It's milk-through-the-nose funny.

Parenthood is a zoo. It's smelly and loud and little kids throw up there. But it's a LOT of fun, and you get to see some really cool stuff. And you get popcorn.

The gas company dug up our front yard today to move the gas meter outside. Sheetrock happening this week -- I think it's going to be a basement again within a couple months.

I sometimes find that in a relationship in which there is a lot of teasing and jibes, not enough realworld interaction often causes problems. Like when Erik makes fun of me now, it feels like when my co-workers make fun of me, and I can't sense the friendly element of it. It just ends up making me all defensive and pissy. Maybe I'm just crazy.

Jill and Joe and Jin and I (the one without the J) snuck out of work a little early last friday and checked out Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones. Wonderful fun movie! Lots of noise and action and Star Wars action. Great fun and a better movie than the last, to be sure. No crowds though, which was a little sad. The theater filled up eventually, but it wasn't like the Star Wars hype that was around 25 years ago when I saw Episode IV. (In that very same theater.)

Jill's rents were here this weekend which resulted in a busy but fun weekend. We completed the painting we needed to finish up and had some good grillin'!

Saturday I got out on the Scooter for a couple hours, 46 miles all total. Went up Cedar Lake pkwy, Wirth, Memorial, etc. to circle around and end up in St. Anthony. It was really cold tho, and I ended up at Urban Bean for coffee. Finally found an appropriate time for Coffee!

Riding with 'The Regulars' this week was a blast! Last time there were about a dozen of us -- this week it was 25! Lots of interesting scoots and people, and the highlight had to be buzzing up Park avenue into downtown, the pack of scooters taking up four lanes and cruising down the street like a gang of dorky Hell's Angels. Awesome!

The ride was a bit short (7 miles) but the destination was Scooterville, the new shop in town. Bob sells some of the new/old Bajaj, Kymco, etc. as well as service on those and vintage scoots. Nice digs, hoping he does well.

Getting home was somehow more diffucult, as it apparently was 21 miles from Scootervill back to home. Stopped down by the river near St. Anthony falls. They've really done some nice remodeling/refurbing down there. The river road now goes all the way up to somewhere near Broadway now, I think. Might have to pursue that. In any case, I took my time getting home.

At the river I was checking out the Lock and Dam and saw that the Padelford was going through, but that it didn't look like it was movie. And all the passengers were looking up-river. Turns out there was a guy on the Hennipen avenue bridge threatening to jump. He was standing up there talking to two cops, but by the way he was walking around (must be a large ledge) he didn't look like he was going anywhere.

There were news cameras and lots of emergency vehicles, but after a little while he climbed back over. They were trying to help him over and he kinda went over onto the bridge forward (I can only assume they were cuffing him.) and there was a wondeful moment when his legs were sticking straight up. And me without my camera. By the way, besides being locked in a small, cushioned room for a few days, what's going to happen to him? They had at least one ambulance, a couple fire trucks, the Lock and Dam was closed while they talked him down, a sherriffs boat was stopping traffic upstream, and I think the bridge might have been closed. How much did THAT cost? Does he get the bill?