WOW! So many things have happened, and I haven't update this in so long.

Well, first of all the best news is that we have a son. His name is Ethan Urban Alexander J. And we love him dearly. He was born on Dec. 2, 2004 and weighed in at 9lbs. 6oz. That is quite a bit of baby for a first child. Mia had him naturally, as the doctor was surprised to see how big he was. No one was expecting it.
Other than that however, the labor and delivery were very good. It was short, things progressed smoothly, and once the epidural was in, Mom didn't feel a thing (mostly).

Everything besides that seems unspectacular. The new Grandma (my mother-in-law) came to stay with us for a couple of days, which was a big help. It made such a difference having someone to boss around :)
But really, she helped out so much.

Grandpa (my father-in-law) also came to see Ethan while he was in the hospital. He couldn't get over how long his fingers were. And how cute he was.

My parents are coming for Christmas, and they can't stop talking about getting to finally meet Ethan. We are pretty excited to see them too.

I am still working at my contract, much longer than expected but we are so grateful to have the work. It has been good experience for me and I think will help to open some doors for me. After working there for about 2 months, I was finally motivated into buying a book about JavaScript, so I am going to learn out to write in it. I can pretty much read it, but don't know how to make my own scripts.

And that's about it.

Man, I have forgotten how busy life gets with a full-time job. I have been coming home earlier than I used to, but it still seems that I don't have much time to do the things that I want, like keep this page updated. I should start writing at least every Sunday like many of my relatives are doing.

But until that starts, I should give a couple of updates here.

First, things are going well for me on the job front. I have a contract position currently that I really enjoy. I am doing Web editing again, and getting to make some updates to the content. The work I am doing is for a college, so the processes are somewhat slow. Not much of my work is up yet, but once we get some things live I will post a link.

I am also doing some freelance resume editing. It is pretty lucrative for the amount of time it takes, its just that it means I have to come up with a couple hours a week to work on them. But we need the money right now and this is something that I am interested in, so I don't mind doing it.

Mia is still pregnant. She wishes that she weren't, but we are getting close, so I think we are going to make it. Last night, we finally outgrew our full-size bed. I blew up the airmatress and slept next to our bed so that Mia could spread out without worrying about hitting me when she rolls over, or me taking up too much room if I get into bed before her. It will be hard to be apart, but we will survive that too.

The only other thing to report is that Boston finally won a World Series. Fans here have been waiting a long time so we are glad they were able to pull through. It would have been extremely disheartening if we had beaten the Yankees so specatularly and then lost in the Series. Everyone here is happy that we didn't.

So, my dad asked me to clarify because I guess that if you aren't living through it, then I might have lost you.

Here is how my job search has played out.

I received a full-time job offer at LW Robbins after the first interview. This was the same day that my brakes failed and I heard about an interview potential at Wheelock College.

I turned down the full-time job, went with the hope that my interview went well at Wheelock. Fortunately, it did.

As of yesterday, I am once again employed, albeit only for a month.

However, I have also started doing some work with an online Resume editing company. It is nice because I can do it from home, just a couple a week, and make some extra money for us. I am working on bigger resumes than I am used to (people with 15-20 years of experience) but hey, they think I am the expert, so as long as I make it better they can't complain.

Now that I am working again (two jobs in essence) it means that I am tired again. And I should be going to bed at a decent hour. Which I am not (tonight). But I feel good about where we are headed and that is the important thing.

I realized the other day that I have no pictures of our wedding up yet. Well, I wish that I could give you a link right now... but it isn't finished yet.

However, I also just received some pictures from my sister's wedding which is an impetueus to get mine up before I post pictures of Mia and I at her wedding. So, in the next week or two, look for many wedding pictures to spring up around my site. Actually they will all be in the picturing section, so I guess you don't have to look at my whole site. Much of which is in desperate need of updating.

Ok, I had better get to it then.

As my sister pointed out to me, it very much did sound like I had this writing position when I last posted. And I thought that I did.

But after turning down the full-time job, the people at Wheelock started sounding unsure, it made me nervous about whether this was going to fall through after I had already removed my other option.

Fortunately, I do want to tell everyone that I have work for at least the next month. It is with the college and I will be doing writing. I am excited for that. It will be a good feeling to go back to work and start collecting a paycheck again. The time off has been good for me, and for Mia, but at the end of the day we need some money coming in.

I should also mention that the pregnancy is going well. She is really starting to get big, but there wasn't much room for the baby to begin with, so I guess it was inevitable. But they are both healthy and happy -- most of the time.

Whew, more updates to the site.

You can see most of our furnished apartment now! The rest of it needs to be cleaned, which will happen shortly.
Also, the picturing page is updated with a snapshot for each gallery.
And if you look in the random pregancy photos, I put up my sympathy picture.

We all know that life is full of tough decisions. I think that I make some of them harder on myself than I need to. This week, just one month out of work, I have been trying to decide what to do with myself. On Monday I received a job offer from a company in the Direct Mail industry. They do not put the mail together, but act as an agency to get all the pieces to the right people so they can do it.

I would have been in charge of budgets, vendors, data, production, and myriad other things. The potential for growth, especially as a project manager, or manager in general, seemed very large. They were also offering me a salary that was quite a bit larger than my previous position.

I turned the job down. Mia was part of the decision, but ultimately she felt that this time I needed to be the one to make the final choice so that I could stick to it without feeling resentful.

Instead I am going to be taking a 4-6 week contract to update the content on one of the small, local college Web sites. It is going to require interviewing and writing, as well as some of my Web skills. I am excited about to do it. I am excited to start writing again. To have something to show for the work that I do.

On the other hand, it puts more pressure on us, because once this contract is finished, I have to find another one. This is what I want to do, try things out, work for a couple of months and then move on. However, standing at the beginning of the path it is very scary.

I have learned this week about how prayers are answered. I have learned that free agency is not just a phrase that we use to justify our wrong choices. My assumption was that as I prayed the Lord would make my choice, that he would tell me what to do. However, the first feeling that I got was that whichever choice I made, our family would be OK. He would support us. The more I prayed, asking to know which choice was right, the more I felt impressed to study both jobs. I looked at the pros and cons, I thought about the long- and short-term consequences, I thought about what would make us both happy.
In the end, it was the feeling that we would both be happier as a couple that led me to my choice. I felt that while it would have been a good job, I would have learned so much, the full-time offer would also have consumed my time and energy. Knowing the industry, even after work I would be thinking about my job. It would likely have gotten me up early in the morning to arrive early to get a jump start. And while I had planned, and discussed at my interview, to leave at 5:00PM, I surely would have stayed later some nights. I didn't feel right walking back into the same fights we had had over my previous job.
So, I am looking out, feeling scared, feeling excited, feeling that this is my time to accomplish something, prove that I have the abilities to take my life in the direction that I want. And I am humbled and grateful to feel that I have my wife and my Lord supporting me.

1 Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks;

2 Waiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

3 Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.

D&C 98:1-3

This scripture feels particularly pertinent to our situation right now. I think that it is amazing the dichotomy the Lord sets up to try our faith. On the one hand he gives us afflictions, but on the other we have the constant assurance that he is watching out for us. We have been able to keep our faith during this time, and we are sure it will be strengthened on the other side of this journey.

I had an experience yesterday that is a microcosm of the ups and downs we have been through. On Monday morning we were excited because I had two job interviews set up. One was for a full-time job, in the Direct Mail industry, that we felt would just be a good chance to practice interviewing. We weren't too serious about it. The company, LW Robbins Associates, is located about 40 miles West of us, but very close to the major highways, so the trip took about 40 minutes. My interview went very well. Two managers were in with me, and they were impressed with my knowledge of the industry and my previous work experience. They were honest about the fact that they put in plenty of hours, but they are flexible and allow them to be done on my schedule. This was promising because I do not want another job that keeps me away from my family. I left feeling good, with the expectation that they would call me in a day or two if they wanted to make me an offer.

I left and headed straight into Boston for my second interview. Now, I don't know how many of you have driven in Boston, but I do know that many of you have driven in foreign countries. With all the construction that is going on right now, Boston is like driving in a foreign country. You don't know where the roads are taking you, you can't tell which road you are on most of the time, and when you find the road you need it is one-way -- the wrong way. Plus the drivers are insane.
I was exiting the Mass Pike (I-90) to get onto I-93 (another highway). This is a three-part exit all on a curve. You take the sharpest curve to head North (which I wasn't), the middle curve to head South (which I was) and the longest curve to get into the city. So, as I am trying to make sure I get into the right lane, all the while slowing down because the construction makes this interchange very slow, a car flys up on my left, cuts me off, and slams on his brakes because he was going so fast.
Now, let me paint you another picture. I have a 1993 dark blue Ford Escort Station wagon that we bought for under $1000 almost 2 years ago. The car is a trooper. It has run well for the last 2 years but I know it needs some work in places, for instance the brakes don't stop on a dime. We are just trying to hang onto it until we are in a position to buy a new car for Mia, then I will get the Altima as a hand-me-down.
So, there I am, in my long, large car with another driver slamming on his brakes. I slam on my brakes. I don't know how long this whole thing took, but I could tell while braking that I wasn't going to have enough room to stop. As I am thinking this, I hear a little 'POP' and feel the tension on my brake pedal release. At that moment, I knew for sure that I wasn't going to have time to stop. So, I look over my shoulder as I am turning my wheel to get into the left lane. Fortunately, I got over in time and there was enough of a gap that I was able to use the little brake function I had left to stop.

So, here I am, in the middle of the city, still on a highway, with just the slightest braking power left. And I still had to get to my interview, which I didn't know exactly where it was. The picture of me driving right through the heart of downtown Boston (literally) getting just a little lost, and then finding a parking garage and deciding to walk to my interview, would best not be pictured by anyone who feels I should not have tried anymore driving.
But I did. I made it into the garage, and went to my interview. This was at a Staffing company, Professional Staffing Group, and they were a busy one. I have applied with some other staffing agencies, their offices were small, they took time to meet with me and discuss what I was interested in doing, and haven't found anything for me since. This one felt like a mill. There were about 10 other people in the lobby area, which was very close to the open call center with about 20 employees talking to people on the phone, asking them questions, setting up appointments for them. I filled out a book full of forms and was finally ushered to the wall behind the call center which was lined with small stalls, each with a frosted, opaque sliding door and one small round table. I was given a booklet on the staffing company and waited. The recruiter I met with was energetic. She took notes while we spoke and let me describe most of what I as looking for. Then she said that there was a month-long position she thought I would be good for. She said that she would email me the details and I could call her if it sounded like a job I wanted to pursue.

So, I left feeling that things were going pretty well on the job front. I had done some interviews; I was still pursuing some freelance work on my own, and now had the potential for some real work. When I got back to my car, there was a message from Mia. The first company I had interviewed with had called to give me a job offer. I called her back, didn't tell her about the brakes and asked what they said. She told me that the message was just a name and number.

Well, and if you all think me foolish you can join with my wife in telling me so, I climbed back into my car and drove out of Boston, slowly, and made it home safely. I called the LW Robbins back, expecting to say "Thank you but no thank you." Well, I get on the phone and the woman from HR says, the managers liked you, they want to offer you this much -- it was a large jump up from my last job -- at which point I mouthed it to Mia, and then told the woman I needed to talk with my wife about it.

We went back and forth. Was it worth taking the job because the money was good? Was it worth risking the long nights? Mia said to call back and ask if the flexibility they talked about meant that I could leave at 5:00PM and go in early the next morning to finish up. We decided that it didn't hurt to ask, so I called back, left a message and asked. We received a return call a little later; saying that she had asked the managers and that would be fine. As long as I got my work done, they don't really want me staying late. I asked for a few days to think about it.

The next day, I took my car to the shop. We weren't sure what was going to happen, but we knew that we needed to get it fixed, because however much it cost, it was still cheaper than starting car payments again. The estimate came back at $1,100 because I had to replace, drums, rotors, brake pads, and tire rods for my front tires. We put in on our new United card and decided not to worry about it right now.

So, here we are, still stuck on deciding what to do. I want to try my hand at some of the more creative aspects of marketing, doing more writing, doing some editing, doing some layout, or any of the various other possibilities. On the other hand, I want to show some consistency, build some experience working with vendors and budgets, get into a job that would help further a career managing work.

I feel like I am at a crossroads. Which direction do I decide to take my career? Do I go for the management side or the tactical side? Do I go back into an office from 9-5 (or 7-5 or 9-6 or whatever the hours are) because it is stable, or can I viably work from home while supporting my family. It is not an easy decision to make. I have been trying diligently this week to pray, seek the Spirit, and be aware of the path that the Lord wants me to take. While I haven't found my answer yet, I have felt reassured that whatever course our life takes, He is watching us. He is mindful of what we are doing and will support our family.

Well, I finally have my Web site fixed. Or at least partially fixed. It has been a couple of weeks since I lost my employment. And I have been finding ways to keep myself busy, like doing the housework. I am amazed at how quickly it adds up. I can't finish cleaning one room without another needing attention. I just go around in circles through the whole house trying to keep up with it. But, now I have some time to devote to my site (mainly at the insistence of Mia, I am glad she is here to get me motivated).

So, I was updating the pregnancy pictures of her. And I got them all to work in my Flash movie, but I forgot to make them the right size. So when I first tested them, all I was getting were the corners. Whoops. There is so much that goes into making a good Web site. I forget about so many of them. Guess that is why I am still learning.

But, the important thing is that my pictures are updated again. You can see Mia's belly progression or (finally) look at our Ultrasound pictures. I hope you enjoy them both.

This is a guilty admission. Let me preface by saying that I have continued to search for jobs, continued to struggle with figuring out how to change my Web host (or actually just access the FTP site), and kept the house clean and my wife comfortable.

Now then, I hope that makes you feel better about how I spend my time. But when I have an extra hour or two in the evening (or sometimes three or four if Mia is at work and I am waiting up for her, which I usually get too tired to do) I have been playing Neverwinter Nights online. Neverwinter Nights is a computer role-playing game, and getting tapped into a community is at least one healthy aspect of it.

I am playing in what we call a Persistent World, meaning I can log in whenever and meet people to roleplay with. It has been pretty exciting, though I use it mainly to relieve stress after cramming a lot of work into a day.
Sometimes I feel that I try to have too many hobbies, or rather that my one main hobby, this Web site, leads me into too many grand ideas. I like the sense of accomplishment when I figure something out like getting my pictures posted, but on occasion, I need to do something more brainless than working but less brainless than TV. This fits the bill nicely.

At the end of my first week as a free (unemployed) man, I have decided to do some freelance work. It is something that I have been considering for a while, but haven't had a chance to dig into because I was working such long hours.

I have already connected with an agency that helps people find freelance work, I am hoping they will be able to get me going on some small, short-term projects. That is what I would like while I figure out where to go with my life.

This would also provide some flexibility to be home once the baby is born. That is going to be the hardest thing, I don't want to start a job just after the baby is born because I won't know what their expectations on my work schedule will be. Getting another job that demands long hours and willingness to put off family life is not for me.

You would think that after going through it once, I would be more aware of the warning signs.
On the other hand, I wasn't expecting lay-offs at this time, so I was very unprepared when I was called in at 4:00PM on a Monday afternoon to lose my job. Not the easiest thing to hear when you are going to be having a baby so soon.

As happened last time (maybe this should be my warning) we had been saving some money and paying off some credit cards and, after we figured it out, realized that we will be fine through the end of the year at least.
This doesn't mean that I am not going to try getting a new job. But it does mean that I am going to really look for something that I want to do. I have grown weary of jumping for the first company that makes an offer. It generally isn't the best way to find a job you can be happy at for a couple of years.

Home again. And back to the grind.

But, before I get into the rut of complaining about work, I want to talk about the wedding. It was great. I hadn't met Zack until we went out to Utah, and even then it wasn't really until the day before the wedding that I really spoke with him. However, it was very easy to approve and know that he would love my sister and treat her well.
This is very reassurring for those of you that know Monica. Especially if you have known some of the guys she dated growing up. But, as a mature she seems to have figured out what will make her happy. We are very glad for her.

And there is no chance of her having a child before us either. The oldest son having the first grandchild, that is the way it should be (for our family, I won't impose this on everyone). But, if she wanted to have a kid, I wouldn't mind knowing what it feels like to be an uncle (sorry Mickeal and Kami, you don't really count).

We made it to Utah! Finally. It was a rather long trip, going from Boston to L.A. by plane and then driving back up to Salt Lake. Fortunately, we had some book tapes to keep us company and from Vegas on, A.J.

It wasn't so bad really. We were trying to time the trip so that we would get to Salt Lake in time for the bridal/baby shower that was planned for Monica and Mia respectively. The family was throwing a combined one and we didn't want to be late. But, for some reason we could not make the headway that we thought we should. Everytime we checked the clock and compared that with the miles left to our destination, the math didn't seem to add up.
So we finally pulled in about 6:00PM which is when the party was supposed to start, and then got over to it about 7:00PM. Which actually turned out to be just fine, things were still getting set-up and they were able to start shortly after we arrived.

I want to thank everyone who attended, helped, and gave gifts during the shower. We had more baby clothes, toys and accessories than we knew what to do with. You all have made the transistion to having a child seem much less intimidating. Yes, the expected shopping was intimidating and I am glad that I don't have to do it!

The wedding is tomorrow, so I had better sign off.

We are heading to Utah for my sister's wedding. I don't know how much I will be able to write, so in case I don't update until we get back, here is a quick one.

Things are going well for us. The pregnancy is coming along nicely. You can start to see the little basketball forming, it is so cute. Also, little Jane is so squirmy. She is constantly kicking, punching, and streching out. I know that it makes her mother uncomfortable, but I think it is funny when you can feel her head and butt on opposite sides of the stomach. Though I usually try to massage her into a different position when I see it.

Site update alert!

There have been questions about where the pictures of the ultrasound are. They are coming. I promise. I am working furiously on getting them formatted correctly and don't really know why I am having so much trouble. I will let everyone know when they are ready.

But, I do have other updates that I have made to my site. I did some reading when I went out to Utah and finally have additions to the reading section of my site.
During our trip I read some short stories by Philip K. Dick including Minority Report. For you other geeks out there, he also wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep which was the basis for the movie Bladerunner.
More on what I think about these works and his writing style is available in that section.

I have also been reading Panda eats, shoots and leaves. It is an interesting mix of pedantic sensibility and individualistic reality. The line that sums this up nicely is:

What I hope will become clear from this book is that one can usefully combine a descriptive and prescriptive approach to what is happening to this single aspect of the language.

As something of a descriptivist myself, I find the book interesting. But for your true perscriptivists, beware. This book doesn't live up to the promise of being grammatically correct. While I missed some of the clause errors, I did notice that the introduction uses em-dashes appropriately while the main text of the book is littered with en-dashes with spaces around them. The spaces I can forgive but seeing so many en-dashes was somewhat painful.

My mother was in town this weekend. She came back from her summer classes in England. She is getting a master's degree in Education Technology. Or more specifically integrating technology into to her teaching methods. I was able to help her with her Web site (though not as much as we wanted. Sorry Mom.) and see the sites of Boston.

Our first stop was Plymouth Plantation, which was highly recommended by my friends. We were able to visit the Mayflower replica while we were there too. Both were very interesting sites. The ship was smaller than we had expected with a larger hold than we expected. Something of a contradiction. We were told that over 100 people were housed on a ship that would probably fit inside a chapel (with overflow). The pilgrims were amazing people to have endured so much so they could achieve religious freedom. I am thankful that our country today is accepting of different religions and doesn't persecute as in times past.
The plantation was also well done. There were actors dressed and living as though they were pioneers in a new land. They spoke about the things that were important to them: farming, fishing, cooking, sewing, carpentry, religion. It was certainly a difficult time to be alive.
My mother as a history teacher was very interested in everything going on. I have been more reluctant to embrace history but even I found it very interesting. Mia and I think of everything these days in terms of bringing our kids back. This is definately on the list.

While my wife stayed home the next day, mom and I went into the city of Boston to walk the Freedom Trail. The trail is about 2 miles long, though we only traveled about 1 mile of it. That tour is packed with so much historical information it is ridiculous. We learned about the founders, the patriots, the myths that surround Paul Revere (he didn't shout as he rode) and myriad other facts about one of the oldest cities in our country.
Some great things happened in Boston and I am proud to live in the city were freedom was so highly regarded.

Before she left, my mother and father gave us the best gift. I want to thank them so much. We know that it is for the baby, but we hope you don't mind us breaking it in first :)

Today was David's wedding to Chris. It was held in Utah at the top of the Snowbird ski resort. The wedding was very nice, it went (mostly) smoothly and there were quite a number of people in attendance.
This was something of a shock because they gave everyone about 1 month's notice about the whole affair. I do not mean to say that we were suprised to hear they were getting married, quite the contrary. However, we were suprised that it was happening so suddenly.

When we were told, David offered to fly us out to Utah from JFK airport in New York city at midnight. That meant a 3-hour drive, driving through the entire city, and then catching a red-eye flight out to Utah. Fortunately, we were able to work out a deal that let us leave from our hometown at about 9:00AM. That worked out much better for us.

Coming back to the topic at hand, the wedding was very nicely done. Chris has more family in Utah so they made quite a showing. We enjoyed meeting them and getting to know her boys better as well. They will be moving to New York in September so the boys can begin school and get settled in.

We drove out to Albany this weekend to visit the Mia's family. We have been doing that quite a bit recently. They just have too much going on in their lives for us to keep up with.

As we were driving we decided to come up with names that we like for a . We are getting more confident in the idea that our baby will be a little inday (the Filipino word for a baby ). We had a couple of names written down from some baby books. None of them felt quite right, they seemed to be trying too hard. After much debate we decided that we liked the name Kimberly Jane Johansen.

Jane comes from Mia's maternal grandmother and will be the name that we call her. She can certainly decide for herself to switch that later, but for the first while we are the parents and get to make aribtrary, caprious decisions.

Kimberly doesn't have roots in either family. We both think that it is a cute name and we hope that our daughter will like it as well. I might just have to steal a nickname from my uncle though and call her Kimmers. I suppose it depends on what she will respond to.

This is one of the most exciting posts that I have had in a while. We went in today for our first (and only) ultrasound. We were eager to see pictures of our little baby and find out if everything was alright so far.

The first pictures that we saw were of random legs or arms, then the technician pointed out the beating heart. From that moment the whole baby seemed to come alive. We could see it moving, squirming, kicking, trying to suck a thumb. We were enthralled, I was enthralled.

The good news is that our baby is healthy. There are a couple of medical histories on Mia's side of the family that had us worried, but everything is fine. the baby is developing normally and from the measurements, our due date was put at 2 days after what we already had calculated. A very good sign!

The only downside is that we were hoping to find out the of the baby. The couple of shots we got, the baby was kicking the whole time, were inconclusive. However, the best guess at the time, and our own feelings on the matter, lean towards having a female baby.

Having a -baby (or boy) will be the best thing that has ever happened to us. We are so thrilled that we can barely wait until the end of November to greet our little newborn.

I will be sure to keep posting her progress.

First, I have to put in the plug that I finally updated the pictures of our pregnancy. We don't have many, but there are some pictures of the growing belly that my wife is carrying around. I think that she is looking cuter and cuter each day, but she doesn't believe me. I guess I will have to keep telling her until she does!

But now, what I was going to write about tonight is how bad I feel because I missed Father's Day. We went out to spend the weekend with my wife's parents, we got so caught up in the affairs of their lives that I forgot to call or write my own father. Now this might not be such a bad thing, if I wrote to my parents regularly, but I don't. So now I have the guilt of not writing often enough, combined with missing the day that I should have been especially focused on my father.

I think that it would be doubly shameful of me if I did not take this chance to write why I feel so badly about this. For everyone that knows Arthur, they know that I have been raised with one of the best role-models for a father that a boy could have. He was always calm but funny, always loving both to us and our mother. He was stern and unyeilding on the principles that were important to him (and are now important to me).

I know that my father has doubted that he was around often enough for us to appreciate him, but some of my best memories are fishing, skiing or playing Master of Monsters with my Dad. He is ready with profound advice whenever I ask and has shared his testimony of the gospel with me throughout this life, in his teachings and example.

Thanks.
I love you Dad.

I am getting closer and closer. I finally updated the main picturing page of my Web site. You can now check out all the slideshows in a much more presentable way. I am going to put some s in for all the main links, but not today.

The weather in Boston has been very fickle recently. In the course of just one week we went from about 50 degrees up to 90 degrees then into thunderstorms. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, but at least the rain has stayed away from the weekend recently.

One of the best parts about summer on the East coast are the trees that grow on the sides of the roads. So many of the streets here have a canopy of tree branches hanging over them, providing shade and making the drive feel like you are in a rural part of the country rather than a busy metropolis. We are both very fond of the greener, plantier landscape here compared to the West, from Utah down to Southern California.

Today we were out looking at baby strollers and car seats. They have gotten quite fancy in recent years. We were looking at some which the carseat fits into the stroller, and the stroller can be foleded down with one hand.
We also looked at some of the baby furniture, most of which cost more than our furniture. Changing tables and cribs and toddler beds and little dressers, it was incredible. We think that we will convert a couple of things around the house, but there are somethings that you can't avoid. We will be making a list soon, I think it is going to be a bit overwhelming when we first write it.

But on the positive side of baby news, we are going in for the ultrasound in two weeks. I am very excited because we are going to find out the of the baby. I hope that we get a good view so we can know for sure. We keep trying to say 'he' or 'she' now, but catch ourselves because we don't want to get too attached to one gender before we know. Although, I am hoping that we have a little boy. I think most fathers want to know they are going to have a boy to carry on the family name.

We will let everyone know when we find out what we are having.

A couple in our ward, who are friends of ours, might move into one of the apartments in our house. There are four aparmtnents in the house we live in, two on the first level and two on the second level. We live in the bottom right (if you are facing the house) and they will live in the upper left.
This is all part of the plan to get the whole house filled by people in our ward says my wife, but we don't expect the other people living near us to move out any time soon.
However, we are very excited and look forward to having people close-by that we can hang out with. The trick will be not to do too much together so we don't get sick of each other.
Our landlord really wanted them to be the ones to move in too. He lowered the initial rent price and offered to pay the realtor fee. That is quite a shock in the sky-high priced city of Boston. They are pretty lucky, indeed.

I like to listen to NPR as I drive to work, recently I have noticed a burgeoning trend towards short, personal essays. A kind of creative non-fiction that I think I would like. If I can get up the courage to do it, I am going to try writing a few pieces. I will post them in the writing section, but first I am going to need to come up with topics. I know they are all around me, but finding one and fleshing it out could prove more challenging than it seems right now.

But, I need to write more, and this is a good exercise in writing, so I will do it.

So, I feel bad that I haven't said more about the baby on my blog. I could write something everyday about our little baby, and I should.

Actually, we aren't seeing much change yet in Mia, so we mostly just read about what our baby is doing. One of the visible things however is the persistent morning sickness. She hasn't been able to wake up and just get going with her day. That is frusterating. We are both trying to come up with ways to help her, but so far nothing seems to work. We hope that it will pass soon. I don't know what either of us would do if Mia was sick all nine months. In fact, let's not think about it.

Mia is under the impression that her stomach is getting bigger, but I don't see much difference. We can tell that the baby has shifted up into the location it will be for the rest of the pregnancy. And in a couple of weeks we get to go in for an ultrasound to determine the . I hope that we can find out on our first visit.

Overall we are still very excited about having a baby. I have been telling people at work, and almost everyone at church knows now, so we are really in full-swing here.

Today is Memorial Day. I want to write down my feelings about today, because I have a long family history of military service.

My father and both my grandfathers served in the military. I lived on and near many military bases. While I have not served myself, I am grateful for the men and women who defend this country. I know that there are many reasons that people enlist but there is always a realization that they must be willing to be deployed to defend the freedom that is so precious to us. I admire that.

With so many opportunities open to Americans, I am proud that our country still has men and women who are willing to join the Armed Forces. I am humbled that so many men and women are willing to put our society above themselves because they believe so strongly in the ideals that America espouses.

I would like to salute my family members who have served. Please let me know if I have forgotten anyone.

Lyle J
John H
Arthur J
Kim J
Sheila J
Ken W
David G

Did I say that I had figured everything out in my last post. I did have figured out that the instance of the movie clip that was designated to load my pictures did not have the proper area behind it set up to receive the pictures. But I had handled that when last I wrote.

Afterwards I discovered that my pictures were all coming in too large, which was a problem with the size setting of the area that I had to adjust to receive the pictures. I finally figured that out today.
Also today I discovered that Photoshop allows you to change the size an entire batch of photos automatically. That saved me tons of time. Of course I still have to rename all of them and enter the names into my XML documents.
And I had to figure out today why my HTML Template in Dreamweaver that I am going to use for these pages was coming up screwy. It still isn't quite what I want, but I am writing the navigation with a JavaScript file, so that will be easy to fix, meaning I only have to do it once and all my pages will be changed. I love that.

So, I have most of the technical difficulties behind me. Now it is just a matter of doing the work so that each page has it own little slideshow. I think I should be able to get that done this week. So, by next week (or so) I really should have pictures up on my Web site. Finally... have I said that already?

WOW! It wasn't easy, but I finally figured everything out and I am going to start posting my pictures soon. All I have to do now is tweak them a bit, find the right setting and so forth for the best resolution without making the files too large.

I am going to work on making the interface look better, but since I have it working, I don't want to keep it tied down for too long.

All in all, I am glad that I found this. I will definitely want to use it in other ways. For instance, I might use it for my navigation or something. But those are projects for another day, right now, I am just interested in finally posting some pictures to my Web site.

Last week I bought a new monitor. It was the perfect time because we were shopping for maternity clothes which meant that money was being spent on my wife and I could sneak in a request of my own. Now, instead of the 13" monitor from 1998 that I have been using for 6 years, I have a nice 17" CRT with a flat screen. I wish that it was one of the nifty LCD thin monitors, but I will take it one step at a time.

But, with a new monitor in hand, I have been more eager to update my Web site. I have spent the weekend looking for a nice Flash slideshow that I can use to show off my photos. There are plenty out there, but most involved lots of complicated JavaScript and very little Flash.

Finally, I found a very nice Flash interface that uses an XML document to pass the URL location of pictures to a movie clip with the Flash movie. Simple and elegant, the perfect solution. I spent most of today customizing the interface shell, then dropped in the script and tried it out.

Nothing happened. Actually something happened but not what I wanted. The interface shell came up for a second, then the whole thing disappeared. If I remove the XML document from its reference area the interface shell shows up -- but it doesn't have any pictures.

I made some headway in getting the example to work (you can see it in the Picturing section of my site) but can't get mine to work. I think that it either has something to do with the XML.Onload function or the movie clip I am trying to load to.
If anyone has ideas, I would love to hear them. Otherwise, I will keep fiddling until I get it right. And once I do, I am going to post some pictures... finally.

We took some video yesterday so that we could start documenting the pregnancy. It was the first time in a while that we have used the camera. I feel bad that we have it and have missed recording so many monumental things in our lives. But, we now have a bit of video and some pictures.

I am going to be changing the format of our pictures online, soon you will be able to check them out right from my site. I make a note here when the pictures are ready.

We went to the hospital today to hear the baby's heartbeat. The doctor said it might take a while to find, but as soon as she put the monitor on Mia's stomach we could hear it. The beat was very quick, about 160 beats per minute. Fortunately this is normal for a developing baby, but I was still amazed that such a little growing heart could sustain such a quick beat for so long.

We are very excited to know that our little kiddo is growing normally. Having a strong heartbeat greatly reduced the chance of an early miscarriage. This isn't something we have been too concerned with, but the extra reassurance is comforting.

The baby is about as long a tube of lipstick by now. He/She has little arms and legs with fingers and toes. Also, little teeth buds are growing in. The skin is still translucent, but the organs are all starting to take shape. This is an exciting time for the little fetus.

We are going to be taking pictures every week of the growing belly that is housing the little growing body. It will be a neat record of our pregnancy.

In a couple of weeks we will get to find out the of the baby. We have some names we are considering, but we don't want to divulge them just yet.

The weather in Boston has turned very Summer-esque recently. We are getting much more heat even though the humidity has not ramped up. The trees are green again, a much welcome sight after such a long winter.

I installed our air conditioners this week. We probably don't need them yet, but I had some free time. Last year we thought that we would be able to live on fans and open windows all summer. But about the third heatwave in July convinced us that we needed something more. Unfortunately by that time the only thing left were the bigger, more expensive units. We got one that had enough cooling power for three rooms. The we mangled our bedroom window frame getting it installed, and tried to us more fans to get the cool air out of the bedroom and into the rest of the house. It didn't work so well. We ended up sitting in front of fans in the living room, then piling blankets onto the bed at night.

This year, Mia decided that if she was going to be pregnant during the summer, she was going to get an AC for the bedroom, and put the big one out in the living room. So I installed the new AC in the bedroom with a friend of mine. Once again it was a big pain and we ended up mangling the frame even more. Then we went to the living room, expecting another fight. We had the AC installed in about five minutes. I wish all home improvement could be that easy. Of course it might help if I was more handy. I might have to try working on that.

Today is Mother's Day, and I can't wait any longer to post this.

We are pregnant. Mia is going to have a baby!! We are very excited and called all of our family early so they could tell people at Church. We thought it was a very nice way to say Happy Mother's Day by letting our mother's and Grandmother's know that they are going to have a new generation to dote on very soon. I don't think they will mind.

So the details are few right now, but I will give as many as I can. We are due November 30, 2004. That seems like so far away, but I am sure it will come very quickly. We don't know what the baby is yet, but we do know that the little kiddo is making Mia very sick in the mornings. Especially if she tries to move around too much after eating breakfast. Sigh, such is life I suppose.

At our first appointment with the Doctor, Mia had to get some drawn. She had not been able to keep anything down that morning, and ended up fainting in the office. It was scary at the time, but I was glad that I was there for her. We came home and I decided not to go back into work that day.

We are going to try keeping a photo log of the pregnancy on my main site, check out the progress our little baby is making week by week.

So once again I have failed to keep up with my blog. But, it is never to late to try and change, we will see if I do.

Last week we had a talent show at Church. I read some of my poems there. It is always fun to have the chance to share what I have written because I think that it is fun material. The audience also liked it, though it was hard to hear over the kids running around playing in the ural hall.

Reading my poems has made me realize that I don't do enough writing, I am going to try and start up again. That means more reading and less TV. It also means that I am going to have to be dedicated to it. It can be so easy to just ignore something because it takes effort. You keep ignoring them until you realize that those are the things you would rather be doing, effort or no.

There is so much that the human mind can imagine, I need to tap into it and let it come out.

Another month practically over. I need to get onto my site more often. I haven't done too much with it lately. I tried to make some updates last week though. The navigation works better now, the links all stay in the same place and they all work.

We had some friends come out this weekend and I helped Stewart update his resume and coverletter. I think that the resume and coverletter are a great medium. I enjoy working to make them concise yet informative. Searching for the language that will engage an employer is an interesting battle. You can't get too esoteric with your choice of words but at the same time you want to avoid the mundane. Quite the balance to strike.

Stewart has been looking for a job over the last year without any success. I am interested to know if our updates this weekend bring in any results. He is applying for a political position down in Washington D.C. so I am waiting to hear what kind of response he gets. If it is positive, I might try to do some freelance resume writing. I think that would be an interesting side job.

Speaking of which, I need to put a bit of work into my resume now that I have a new position. I am not going to send it out, but keeping it current is good exercise.

Happy Birthday to ME!!

People have tried to call me old today, but at a spry 27 I feel that I am just getting started in life. I am not worried about feeling old, I have so much left to do with my life.
I am in a good job, I have a good calling in the Church and a beautiful wife. What more could I ask for?

I feel that over the last few years I have done some worthwhile things with my life. I have learned so much from going on a mission, going to college, getting married, traveling around the world, moving to Boston, and working in editing, public relations, and direct marketing. There is so much that I have been able to do that is unique to my experience that I can't help but feel everyone else has missed out. Of course this is an extremely egocentric point of view, but my life has been very good to me.

I am looking forward to the coming year. There are exciting things that are happening and I expect to happen. My sister is getting married in August, as well as my parents coming out to visit. I believe I will be getting a promotion at work this year. And my wife has started working again, so we can afford to keep living in Boston. I am looking forward to all of these. I am looking forward to another great year, full of experiences that no one else will have, full of experiences that I would regret not having.
All in all, I do not feel old but energized to continue living a full, exciting life.

It keeps getting longer and longer between my posts. Part of the reason is that I have been working very hard at my job lately. Last night I did not get home until midnight. However, things are getting better, and I feel encouraged recently that they really want to keep my at work.

I have been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do each day. I have been vocal about this, not just for myself but for the people I work with also. Just in the last few days my account work has been spread around over a couple of other people. Nothing that will overwhelm them, it was just when it was all on one person.

But, the nice thing recently has been the compliments. I have been complimented from a number of people on how well I have been doing with all of the work that has been piled on me. Amazingly, even when I don't actively involve myself in a particular mailing, I always know something about it, so that if I am asked questions I can at least provide some guidance. I don't know how I keep all the information about so many different jobs in mind, but it has been a very positive experience learning how to juggle so much.

The other thing I like about my job is that I am not afraid to speak up for the group. We had a meeting today about knowing ahead of time if we are going to miss something. Our supervisor then asked if anyone thought it was going to be difficult to know an hour and a half ahead of any deliverable if it was going to be missed. I was the only one that said yes. We had a good discussion using my day as a case study for how to get a handle on this. Later, I was speaking with my supervisor again and she said she liked that I was willing to ask questions, because other people have the same questions but aren't asking them.
This was a nice validation from a previous conversation in which she asked why I felt I could speak for the group.

So, all in all my work life is improving. I am working hard, but enjoying it. And I am learning so much.

Such very sad news today. My wife and I decided that we wanted to get a fish for our house, something to keep her company while I am off at work. So we went to the pet store, bought a little bowl and a Betta fish. We started calling it Mr. Fish, for lack of a better name. But he wouldn't eat and two days later, he died.

We went back to the pet store and asked what we could do to keep a Betta alive. The saleswoman, who was very excited about fish, went through and picked us one she thought would do better. We took him home and called him Isda (the Ilonggo word for fish, we are very creative people). He was active, he was eating, and we thought everything was good.

Then a snowstorm hit overnight and in the morning we had to move him out of our living room. Bettas prefer warm weather and water to live in, and we think that the snow did our second fish in. He never quite recovered after we moved him, he started swimming more sluggishly, stopped eating, and finally died sticking straight up and down.

We are saddened and have decided not to try raising another Betta until summer comes along and we know the water will stay warm enough. We hope that if we can survive the first few months of summer, things will work out. We are still hopeful about adding a fish to our home, but it won't be just yet.

I can't believe that I didn't write a thing while I was alone. I suppose it was because I worked so much during the last two weeks.

But I have to say that I have a new appreciation for how she feels when I am staying late at work. There is nothing worse than being alone in your own home. I don't mind being alone. However, any place in which you are alone, but know that someone is usually with you, makes it even more lonely. I can see why I get planitive phone calls at 5:30 asking when I am going to leave work. I would be calling too.

The lonliest time is 9:30 when you're in your own house. It is late enough that you know no one is coming and you have been there by yourself long enough to want someone to talk to. And yet at the same time, you can't go to bed so early, so you only have more time ahead of you to contemplate your situation.

I am glad that she made it back safely and we are together again.

I am very sad that I will not be with my wife on Valentine's Day. She has gone on vacation with her mother and two siblings.

However, as a Valentine's Day treat, I have updated the mainpage of my Web site with a love poem. No, it is not 'the' love poem, but one that she really likes. I can't remember where I got the inspiration for this poem. I suppose that I should say it was from my wife, but I don't think we were dating at the time I wrote this.

I am fascinated by the hopeless romanticism of William Tell in this poem. His earnest belief that he might one day walk into the basement and find a hole to China waiting to take him to his lover resonates with me. The idealism and complete trust that love will conquer all is becoming especially poignant to me while I am alone.

It's 4:00 a.m. and I can't sleep.

I am hoping that writing will clear my mind and help me slip back into peaceful oblivion for a few hours.

What has been keeping me awake tonight is the very human dichotomy between reality and perception. How difficult it is for us to move past the feelings we get based on what we perceive. How difficult it can be to step outside our egocentric view to look at the broader realities that drive the situations we find ourselves in.
And yet the dichotomy comes into full force when someone who has the bigger picture is so grounded in the reality of all the happenings it includes that they don't overlook the perceptions of other people.
This is coming out poorly without being able to explain the entire situation. I do feel comfortable saying it is work-related, and I want to find a compromise but don't quite know how to approach it.

I am discovering in myself an interesting trait that I didn't know was lurking inside me until recently. I am ambitious. I don't feel this in a self-serving way, but rather I am no longer at ease with letting the world pass me by as it is.
I know that I can be a positive influence on the world around me. I cannot be contented with simply following the status quo. This should not be interpreted that I am looking for change for the sake of change. But when I feel that there is something I can help become better, I feel a moral imperative to step up and attempt the change. I try to avoid being so dogmatic about my views that I force my vision through if I realize it is not for the best.

I feel that I have started taking control of my life. There is one around to do it for me, and now that I have a family of my own, I am the one responsible for guiding it. I cannot simply react or worse passively watch what is happening in my own home. I speak in the present and the future tenses.

Well, I think I have said enough for one night. I don't know if any of this will make sense to me in the morning, but I think it will at least help me fall asleep now.

So much for January.

I can't believe that 2004 just showed up at the doorstep and is already making itself comfortable into February. Just who or what does this year think it is!

The audacity boggles my mind.

But while we are talking about the weather, or at least in my mind if you are going to mention January and February, then you need to mention the cold, if only briefly.

I however, have no intention of being brief.

Having lived in a fair number of places, I feel that I have endured the full range of climates. I was fortunate to spend some time in mild, sunny California but also in blazing, desert California. I lived in the Mediteranean, dry clime of Southern Italy and the bone-drenching humidity of South Korea. I lived in Utah, with no Fall or Spring, just long winters and short summers. I even did an equitorial stint in the Philippines during an El Nino year, it was hot 24 hours a day. And I don't just mean a little hot, I was sweating while I showered!

But living in Boston has to be the hardest yet, or perhaps the immediacy of it overshadows my other experiences. Whatever the case, the two winters that I have spent in Boston are the coldest years of my life. When we arrived, literally the day after we unloaded our truck, we were snowed in for three days. When we finally decided we had had enough, I had to chip an inch of ice off my car. It was like Magic Shell on an ice-cream cone. The entire car was coated, entirely. That was the winter of snow. Every other day we were getting more snow.

This winter has not gotten nearly as much snow. In fact after the first big storm of the season, there hasn't been snow to speak of. But it has been cold. Not just freezing cold, because when the temperature hovers around freezing you get the snow. This has been bitter cold, with air temperatures of 0 degrees Farenheit, and wind chills taking some places down to -80 degrees. You don't want to leave the house it is so cold, but at the same time, staying home isn't much better because the heat all gets sucked right out.

So that is my weather update. Too much cold out here in the East.

I will have to read back over this in July when I will be wishing for a touch of cold weather.

IM has to be one of the most interesting forms of communication. You get to "speak" with someone almost like you are on the phone with them, with the major distinction that more often than not you don't plan to IM someone.
They just show up online and you begin your conversation. In this way IM acts more like a chance meeting at a store or something.

While, I prefer the immedacy of IM over email, I also like the asychronize abilities of email. Email is more practical because you know your message is going to be received. On the other hand, I was talking with my younger brother- and sister-in-law, neither of them have email addresses because they see all their friends through IM. They just leave away messages for each other in a pseudo-email fashion when they can't chat.

A very interesting culture has sprung up around this. One that I am only tangentally involved in, and think that I will stay on the sidelines.

So I am not getting to this blog as much as I would like. That sure makes it hard to keep people interested in coming here.

I had a consultation with my dentist today about a root canal that I am going to need. There are a few other cavities to be filled, but the main concern is the root canal. Fortunately he caught it early enough that I don't have to go for it right away. I might spread it over this year and next. That would be nice.
But it has certainly given me a renewed interest in dental hygene. We got a sonic care tooth brush for Christmas, and I am still getting used to it. I like it except when I hit my teeth with the back side. They are supposed to be good though, I will have to see if I notice a difference.

This has been quite a week. I have been very busy at work this week.

Being busy at work is always an interesting thing. This week I have been running around, but I haven't felt like I accomplished much. I think that part of the reason was that my desk became a complete mess. Everytime I looked around, even after finishing something, all I could see was how much more I had waiting.

Tonight I stayed late so I could clean everything up. The catharsis from cleaning is second only to that of writing. I feel so much better now that I have a clean area. I feel like I can go back to work and be more efficient. Won't that be nice.

This is just a quick update. I have been updating my Web site. I am finally starting to add in some of my writing. And this weekend I am going to try getting more pictures up. Look for photos from Korea and other exotic places...
Ok, just Korea.

Happy New Year!!

New Year's Eve was a quite event around our house. We decided to rent a couple of movies, all of which turned out to be independent films. We watched Raising Victor Vargas, a very real movie about the barriers people set up to keep people out, and how different life is when you let people past those barriers.
Later that night we watched Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, a favorite of my wife's family. I was so tired that I kept falling asleep during the movie. But I woke up in time to watch the ball drop, cheer in 2004, and drag my blanket back to the bed. I was asleep by 12:05 but I didn't care.

Today we watched He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, with Audrey Tautou--the actress from Amelie. It was really well done. I don't want to spoil it, but this is one of those movies where your perception completely changes. We liked it, and it comes recommended from me.

We also went into Boston to with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law to watch Ghosts of the Abyss. An IMAX 3-D documentary about an expediation to the Titanic. Such an amazing ship. So many things are so well preserved down there. I wish that I could see first hand the wreckage. That would be a powerful and humbling experience.

As it is 2004 I feel that I should say I am looking forward to this year. So many things can happen in a year, I just hope it doesn't pass as quickly as 2003 did.