Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…
The Johnson household is back to two cats. Today we went to Sangamon County Animal Control in hopes of finding a suitable kitten for our home, and brought home a fun little energetic boy.
David immediately started calling him Bottles for reasons unknown to us, so we figured we’d try that out as a name. Several hours later we decided Bottles just wasn’t working out, so we instead have ended up with Faraday. Dozer and Faraday. Works well.
More photos available in the gallery.
One of my Christmas gifts from Ana was delivered today, my new Noreve Kindle DX Tradition leather case. And it looks and feels great.
Unlike many of the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX cases out on the market, Noreve has avoided the terrible hinge system for this case. Thank goodness, because the Amazon case with the hinge caused our DX to crack (eventually replaced by Amazon). Instead, it uses sturdy, leather-covered tabs to keep the kindle firmly in place in the case without worry of scratching or otherwise damaging the device. You just slide the Kindle in from the left and into place beneath the “tabs”. Unlike in the Amazon case, the Kindle is going nowhere in this thing.
The case is padded quite nicely, has a stylish texture, and a good magnetic closure.
One concern I had before receiving it today was that it may be too bulky, but surprisingly even with it’s padded feel it isn’t noticeably bulkier than the stock Amazon one. The front cover can comfortably be folded back and out of the way while reading, and unlike Amazon’s case you don’t have to worry about opening it from the wrong side (which can lead to those cracks!).
I spent a lot of time looking for a good case for the DX, and ended up with a great one. While it’s a bit more expensive than competitors’, every indication thus far is that it’s going to be worth every penny.
For more photos of the case, check the gallery.
This weekend I built the second step stool for David, this one for an upstairs bathroom.
I also got both sanded, primed, and covered in a coat or two of paint. One red, one white. The white was so we could turn David loose on it to make it his own. With Mom’s help, 30 minutes, and a few tubes of paint, he deemed it complete. There is no mistaking it, it’s his!
As always, Mr. Serious:
Here’s our work, side-by-side. I’m happy with how they turned out and they should last beyond their need.
So that’s what we did this afternoon; it was fun and provided a nice little diversion on this cold, cold January Sunday. If you’d like to see a few more photos of David’s artistic process, they’re in the photo gallery.
Here it is New Year’s Eve and David has come down with something. He’s just spending the day taking in medicine and an Imagination Movers marathon from the couch.
A far cry from the active little guy that was two days ago.
David spent this Christmas Eve morning helping Mom make Santa’s cookies, and after a quick nap he’ll get to decorate them too.
He is pretty excited, even if he isn’t quite sure why. On more than one occasion he has run up to me saying “It’s Christmas!”
This is going to be fun 🙂
Update: decorating has begun!
2 years ago today, Ana and I were sitting in a hospital room with our brand new son, David.
That photo is the result of asking him to smile big for me tonight. Just wonderful, the little ham.
Happy Birthday, David. You sure make it fun!
Today I made a step stool for David, it give him just enough height so he can reach the faucet and wash his hands. All that’s left is to sand and paint it.
Ana has already put in another order for one for upstairs.
After quite a bit of time sorting and editing, I present to you roughly 9% of the 1600 photos taken on our vacation.
http://www.ejiphotos.com/Travel/SFVacation
Comments welcome.
Today was our last full day here in San Francisco. While it has been much fun, we are tired and ready to come home.
Since we did so much yesterday around the city, we really didn’t do a whole lot today. The day started with breakfast and coffee, then shipping one of our suitcases home via UPS to avoid an oversize charge. Then we took a drive over to Golden Gate Park and spent a couple of hours wandering around enjoying the weather.
One of the stops was the the Japanese Tea Garden, but it wasn’t all that interesting.
The afternoon brought a visit by our good friend David Rasch, who just flew in today for a conference. It was great chatting with him while he was here, and little David finally warmed up enough to give him an unprompted goodbye hug as he was leaving.
We’ve been slowly picking things up in preparation of packing or our return trip, and once David goes to bed I’m sure we’ll make sure everything is ready to go for tomorrow morning. Direct flight to St. Louis departs at 1pm.
It’ s been a great trip!
For not knowing yesterday what we were going to do today, it sure ended up being a packed day.
We kicked it off by sleeping in until nearly 7 and then going a couple blocks over to Crepe Vine for a declicioius breakfast. As it was still early for touristy things, we drove to Alamo Square – home of the “Painted Ladies” row of houses. The neighborhood parks here in San Francisco are great. David got to play on the playground for a while before forcing him to participate in the photo op.
We made a drive over to the Cable Car Museum where we got to learn more about how the signature transportation system works. It was a short visit but definitely ranks up there as one of the neater things I’ve seen on this trip. So simple yet so complex, very cool. Here’s what the “powerhouse” looks like, with the motors that drive all 4 cable car lines.
Before going back to the house for lunch and nap time, we took advantage of it being Monday and drove over to Lombard Street, aka the “Crookedest street in the world”. This is the result of asking David to smile for me:
Lunch and naptime came and went, so we figured we’d go to the aquarium a day earlier than originally planned. When we got out to the car, we learned that this was the 3rd Monday of the month and we had parked on the wrong side of the street. Result? $53 ticket, thank you very much San Francisco!
Eyerolling and cursing behind us (ok, me..), we took in the neat but short Aquarium of the Bay. David had an absolute blast. From finding Nemo and Dorey, to staring at the “Jellies!”, he was completely beside himself.
After telling all of the fish “goodbye”, we topped the day off at the Rainforest Cafe. I have video I’ll post once we get back home, but let me just say that David went completely nuts with the decor and environment they have created in the restaurant. He had an incredibly hard time peeling his attention away from the sights and sounds surrounding him. I think this photo sums it up well:
We hit a couple souvineer shops on the walk back to the car and headed back to the house. What a day!
Tomorrow is completely open, no idea what we’re going to do.
