New Birthday Scooters

We all are enjoying Anna's new birthday scooters. Sarah bought her the pink princess 3 wheeler, and she received the Barbie razer scooter at her party.

Here is Dad...

View at YouTube

Here's Mom...

View at YouTube

Sometimes YouTube videos perform better when viewed directly at YouTube. So, I put the direct links below each video.

The new deck is done!

For the last several weeks I have been building a new deck that wraps partway around the pool and comes up along the back of the house. It will allow us to step out of our new sliding glass door off our bedroom onto the deck. The top of the deck will match the floor level in the house. It took several piers embedded in footings at 32"cc and pressure treated 2x8's at 16"cc to support the weight of a future hot tub. Since framing is less than 10" clear from the ground I had to use pressure treated wood. I used chemical resistant screws, hangers, & angles to fasten the framing together.

I bought most of the hardware from the usual spot, Home Depot, but the wood and Trex decking were much less expensive at Berco Redwood. I used screws for everything, so there are no nails in this deck. I lost a week by buying the deck late on a Saturday so it couldn't be delivered until Monday. All I could do was move the decking to the back patio Monday night after work. Then look at it all week wishing I could start getting some of it down.

The first weekend attaching the decking was a cold one so I wasn't moving as fast as I would have liked. I was getting 5 rows of deck done a day. The following Saturday I finished the decking on the front side. Once I finish the far side I'll cut and attach the trim around the outside. The trim will cover the pressure treated wood still visible around the outside of the deck.

The framing is done and all I have left to do is finish attaching the decking (and cast a step on each side). I'll have additional progress photos posted soon. I've been using the film camera for most of the shots.

Christmas Eve 2004

Here is a funny video of Anna on Christmas Eve 2004.


see it on YouTube.

I had to take the video off of YouTube... We sent the video in to Americas Funniest Home Videos, and they responded with a contract! So, it's looking good that they may actually use it!

A New Addition to the Family

The other night I brought home a new member to the family in a box in the back of my car.
Meet Rufus ...

Rufus had been settling in quickly.
Here he is joining us for a comfortable moment.

KT Tunstall Live from YouTube

I just heard this song on the radio this evening and had to check out the artist. Once I saw her perform this live and dynamically create the background music and vocals to sing with, then play the guitar and sing along with it, ... I was amazed. So, I immediately bought her "Eye To The Telescope" CD from Amazon.

Howto: use your PC and Webcam as a motion detecting / recording system

This tutorial will take you step-by-step through setting up your PC and Webcam to act as a motion-detecting and recording security camera system. And the software required to do this is open source (free)."

That didn't turn out as expected, however...

Well, the new pool didn't perform all that well. After 3-4 weeks in the hot sun the pool slouched to one side and stretched a seam until it split and started to leak! Good news is WalMart took it back. Bad news is it happened last week when the heat wave hit and we were without a pool. We had just enough taste of having a pool that we just had to get a replacement. So, we went shopping and found that the local Doughboy pool reseller beat most prices we found on-line. We bought the pool last weekend and today August 3rd it is being installed. Actually, as I'm typing this, they are filling the new pool making sure the liner doesn't wrinkle. Kind of an interesting approach they use to accomplish this.

Julie and I cut out the grass and leveled the area last weekend. They did the final leveling with a transit to check level. There was about a 1-1/2" slope across the area so they moved about 3/4" from one side to the other then recompacted it. They also smoothed the area nicely.



They quickly assembled the pool and stretched the liner over the top and slowly lowered it as the water filled. This kept the liner from wrinkling.



They marked a point to stop filling with some tape. This allowed them to finish installing the pump and skimmer the next morning.



Here Anna is seeing the pool for the first time. That evening after work we hurried home to check on the filling progress.



Julie and Anna posing with the pool the first evening it was installed.



The skimmer and filter are installed and we are filling the pool the rest of the way.



Julie quickly started putting in the new landscaping around the pool.



The pool is full and the landscaping work has started.

New Swimming Pool!

We bought a new swimming pool this last weekend, and quickly set it up. I had suggested we buy this above ground pool I spotted at WalMart, which was on sale for $130. We ended up waiting a week or so then the heat finally got to my wife and she decided it was a good idea. So, all excited we went to the store and bought it. Anna was really excited too. Setup was easy and it just fit in the small open yard area in the back. It is only 14 feed round and 42" deep but it sure is nice after a hot drive home to go jump into the pool to cool off. Anna would stay in the pool forever if we let her. We bought a lifejacket for her and one of us is in the pool with her at all times. She has been paddling around and playing until she is exhausted. At bed time she is wiped out and falls asleep almost immediately.

We Escape the Heat

It was so hot here this weekend that we escaped to Tahoe for a day at the beach. We went to Pope's Beach and brought a ice chest of good snacks, a beach umbrella, and a new floating lounge that Anna tried out for a moment. Most of the time was spent digging in the sand, building sand castles, then a mote that turned into a big pit she played in for a while.

Then we stopped in Truckee on the way home for dinner.

Camping Out (In The Backyard)

We have been telling Anna for several months that when the weather warmed up we would go camping out in our backyard. She couldn't wait and last night we decided the weather was warm enough and nice enough so we broke out the tent and sleeping bags and had a camp out. Scary stories by the camp fire (or in this case big flashlight), fun snacks, and star gazing, listening to the sounds of the night, then finally drifting off to sleep. Anna had a blast so I'm sure we'll have to do this again before the summer weather is gone.