Greetings and happy holidays to all of our family and friends. Welcome to year 2 of our annual holiday newsletter. It’s been quite a year for us Bernharts, and we’re looking forward to it finishing up so we can get started on next year.

To keep you all up to speed on the happenings in our lives, below you’ll find a quick list of significant events in our past year. After that you’ll find a slideshow of photos of us taken throughout the holidays.

A special thanks to Mike Flores who took our family photo this year. With Brody now running around, it’s not as easy to keep him in one place while I set up the camera, like it was done last year. Having Mike take our photo helped keep us stay sane that day.

• Neil was laid off in March.
• Neil started his new job in June.
• Melanie was laid off at the end of October.
• Melanie started her new job on November 1st: full time mommy at home.
• Lauren finished 7th grade with all As and Bs, and has started 8th grade. Her favorite subjects include Drama and Science.
• Lauren started training for her return to soccer next year.
• Neil took Lauren to her first concert (Jason Mraz at the Hollywood Bowl).
• Brody started crawling.
• Brody started walking.
• Brody took swimming lessons and loved it.
• Brody learning baby sign language, which really helps us communicate with him.
• Brody is beginning to say many words. His first word was ball, and his second word was beer.
• Our annual summer Carlsbad trip turned out to be quite the camping fiasco.
• We updated our photo booth collage for 2009.
• Brody turned 1, and is currently 18 months old now (and weighs more than an average 2 year old).
• Lauren became an official teenager in April.
• Melanie and Neil each turned 29, again. :)

Below is a slide show of holiday photos. I’ll be updating this with more photos through the holidays, so please be sure to come back.

Here’s the scenario: I have a .BAK file of the database that was hosted on a MSSQL Server 2005 at my previous employers data-center. I need to re-create that database on a hosted MS SQL Server 2005 system at GoDaddy.com. No worries, I thought. I will just create my new database, do a manual back up of it. Then restore it and point it to my .BAK file from the previous server. That concept is old-hat to me, as I’ve done it countless times… on systems that I have complete control and access to. This time it’s on a server that I have limited access to. GoDaddy only permits SQL restores from files that were created by the host system, and stored on it’s local disk. And… I have no rights to place my .BAK file onto the host db server. So, I put on my thinking cap and thunk this one out.

Now, I must fully expose that I am not a SQL DBA in any way, shape, or form. Systems Administration is my background… I can install, configure, and maintain the heck out of a MS SQL database. But, I have extremely limited skills with SQL programming and queries. So, here’s what I came up with:

I have SQL 2005 Express running on my Vista system. Figured I could use that to my advantage here to get the data moved. I’ll break it down into pieces. I have SQL Express connected to my local instance, as well as the remote instance.

• Create a new database (in my local instance, I created a new database… we’ll call it dbFOO)
• Make a back up of dbFOO
• Do a restore of dbFOO, and change it to grab the data from the .BAK file from the old system (this is the step that I would have loved to be able to do on the remote database server)
  • Change the options so that it overwrites the existing database
• On the remote instance, create a new database named dbFOO (db names must be the same since we’re using some queries and we want to limit how much manual editing we need to do)
• On the local instance, right-click on one of the tables and choose “Script Table as… > CREATE To > Clipboard”
• On the remote instance, right-click on the database and choose “New Query”
• In the query window, paste your clipboard contents
  • since your database names are the same, this query will run without issues on the remote instance.
• Execute the query. Boom, the table is now created on the remote instance. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the local instance tables.
  • Tip: keep that query window open, and just replace the sql script with the once for the next table and execute it. A little time-saver.
• Once the tables are created, right-click on the dbFOO database on the remote instance. Choose “Tasks > Import Data”
  • WAIT! SQL Express doesn’t have DTS built in, so how am I able to do this? I once had SQL 2000 Ent. Mgr. installed and I held on to the admin tools, which included DTS. It does spit out some errors when starting up, but I just launch dtswizard.exe and I’m able to use it for my SQL 2005 Express databases.
• Choose the local instance as your source, and your remote instance as your destination. Set up dbFOO as the database, of course.
• Go through all of the wizard steps, choose the option for “copy data from one or more tables or views”.
• Check the boxes for all the tables and make any adjustments. (I had to enable identity inserts)
• Finish the wizard and blam, there is all of the data.

Are there other ways to accomplish what I needed? Maybe so. Is this the most graceful way to accomplish what I needed? Probably not. Do I care? Nope… I got what I needed done. It actually took me longer to write this post than it did to do all the steps listed above.

If you have other ideas or ways that this could have been done, please leave a comment. I love to document this stuff for other out there that could be in the same pickle I was, to give them some ideas or help in their situation.

Here are Lauren and Jordyn getting some rides on the surfboard.
Both  of them did really well! I had to jump up over each wave with my camera in-hand… trying to keep it from getting splashed since I was up to my belly in the water.

Some video of both of them surfing:

Brody playing in the sand:

A slideshow of all video and photos from the trip:

If you’re looking for photos, sit tight please. I haven’t had any time to process what shots I had a chance to take. You’ll have to check back later for those.

Day 0: Sunday

Check-in day… we’re all excited and have everything packed into the RV. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. We usually just throw up some tents in our campsite and “rough it” when we camp there. I use the term “rough it” very loosely as there are restrooms and showers on premises, but for us, this is camping. This year, since we have Brody with us, we decided to rent an RV for the trip to make it a little more bearable for a 14-month-old. We got a great deal on a private rental from a friend-of-a-friend. We picked it up the previous night and spent the morning getting it all ready. So, back to the story: all packed up now, we’re rolling down Interstate 5 South to our destination.

Melanie’s sister is already there and calls us up to mention that someone is already in our reserved spot. What? How can this be? Her sister must have been looking at the wrong site. Mel asks her to go to the entrance and find out what’s going on. A few minutes later, she calls us back and relays the message from the campground staff that our name is nowhere to be found on their list of reservations. Worry starts to set in at this point. Melanie calls up Reserve America and gets someone on the line. Apparently, our reservation was canceled due to “non payment”. AHHHHH!!! Panic ensues now.

That’s impossible!! I was just logged into their web site a few days ago looking for a possibly better spot to open up. I saw the “Current Reservations” section, and it was listed right there: Check-in 8-16, check-out 8-19. Something had to be wrong.

After the final 15 miles of stressful driving, we arrived at the camp check-in booth. No use in complaining to them about the problem with Reserve America, the campground staff doesn’t have anything to do with that. I explained our predicament, and luckily they had one site available for us but we could only have it for one night. The way it works when you want to extend your stay, you have to wait in line in the morning for a “walk up” reservation. They suggested that I get in line at 6am, and wait for the booth to open at 8am, and my 9am you’ll know for sure if you get a spot.

We then found our spot, and set up our camp. Here is what was involved for me to “set up our camp”:
Back in the RV and get it level using wood blocks. Set up the tent for Lauren. Put out the awning on the RV. Put out area rug. Put out folding tables. Put up ez-up sun shade. Put out play pen for Brody. Clear off sleeping areas in the RV (used for storing gear while driving).

Combined, this took about 2 hours or more to complete. Once the set up was done, we started cooking dinner. By the time we finished eating, I was beat and it was time to crash. That’s about when Brody was all cranky and whiny. Did I mention that he’s teething with some mean molars coming in? Yeah, that’s loads of fun at home, let alone on a camping trip. He did not sleep very well that night, waking up every couple of hours probably freaking out from being in an unfamiliar place. When he woke up at 5:30am, I figured I would just head down to the check-in booth to get in line since I was up anyway.

Day 1: Monday

5:45am I ride my bike to the check-in booth to find that I am the first one there. I set up my chair and bust out the iPhone to catch up on emails and read some news to pass the time. 6:20am this older guy rolls up on his bike and gets in line next to me. He was a cool guy, and kept me entertained with all of his stories of RV trips, including one where he drove to Fairbanks, AK and back in a 3 month, 10,000 mile trip… engine replacement and all. I even let him use my chair since he was tired of standing and I was tired of sitting. I’m bummed that I never go this name or camp number.

While I waited, I used my iPhone to log into the ReserveAmerica.com site and checked the “Current Reservations” page. Up, there was my reservation… right there for me to see. Wait, there is a word just below the reservation ID… ‘Canceled’. I don’t think they could have made it less obvious. I never received any notice or warning from them that we were going to lose the reservation. But, more on that at the end of my story.

At 8:05am, the line of campers grew to about 10 or so… the booth worker opens up shop and announces that there are only two sites available. I approach since I’m first in line and he changes his tune to say that there is only one site available. Since there is already someone in it, I would have to wait for that person to possibly renew for another night. They have until 9am to do so. Seated back in my chair, the worker announced that there was actually only one site available and that I would be waiting for it until 9am. The crowd slowly dispersed, the old guy gets onto his bike looking depressed. I tell him I’m sorry and that it’s a bummer he couldn’t get a site. He agreed and rode off.

9am rolls around, and I start writing my check out. The worker tells me he had misread his notes and says there is another site available… site #2, it’s on the beach side, and it’s already open and ready for us to move our gear to. Sweet… check signed and handed over. To make it even sweeter, he then tells me that it’s available for a second night, all I need to do is renew by 9am the next day.

Now I’m riding back to our camp on a cloud. We can move today and not have to worry about moving again until we are ready to leave. When I get back to camp, we are presented with a choice: either keep site #2 that we just got, or take #26 for the next two nights. #26 became available after Mel’s sister was booted from camp for having been too loud and annoying the previous night. Mel and I decide to keep #2 since it’s close to the camp store and to stairs down to the beach. I thought of the old guy that chatted it up with me in line waiting for open camp sites… I kicked myself for not getting his name or site number. He could have had a site, if it weren’t for the foolish staff.

After breakfast, I do the camp tear-down. To simplify the explanation, just reverse the “camp set up” list above.

We arrive at site #2, and I begin camp set up, again. This time I stake down and tie down Lauren’s tent so it’s nice and secure. Since her and her cousin will be in it for two nights, I figured it would be worth it. We were able to enjoy some time at the beach while Brody napped in the RV and Mel’s mom babysat for us. She was a huge help with Brody since Mel and I were always occupied with something. We had a great grilled tri-tip roast for dinner that night and hit the sack.

Brody didn’t do well that night, even worse than the night before. This night, he vomited all over his portable crib… I mean a lot! He was up every few hours again, but I didn’t worry too much since I didn’t need to be up early the next morning.

Day 2: Tuesday

Made some coffee in the morning, and at 8:40am I walked over to the check-in booth and said I was there to renew site #2. Different worker this morning… she said “No, sorry. You cannot do that since we have a reservation coming in today for #2″.

My jaw hit the floor. I explained what I was told the previous day, and the worker said that I should not have been told that and I should have been in-line early for the chance at a “walk up” reservation. I was so pissed at this point that I didn’t know what to say. They had a site opening up that we could move to, oddly enough, it was site #26. I guess the group that was in that site was too noisy the previous night and were not allowed to renew. Trying hard, I asked if the incoming campers for our site could instead take site #26 and let us stay in #2. No deal… they could not let us do that. We could wait and ask that person, but we could not stay in the site.

After I walked back to the RV and explained the situation to Mel and her mom, we considered just packing up and going home. It’s funny, we should have just taken site #26 the when it was offered and we wouldn’t be in this situation. I guess we couldn’t cry over spilled milk at this point.

We decided to stay and stick it out. I know the girls were dying to have more fun down and the beach, and I went to get a rental surf board for Lauren that I’d promised them. I started to tear-down the camp, once again. Then drove everything over to site #26. This time I was only  going to set up the minimal stuff at the next site. Lauren and her cousin agreed to sleep in the two-person tent, without the air mattress. This saved a lot of time. No ez-up sun shade this time.

Again, I told Mel to take the girls down to the beach so that they could get into the water and do some surfing. Mel’s mom stayed behind with me and handled Brody while I set up the minimal camp. After that was done, I helped Brody get to sleep for his nap. When he was out, I grabbed my surf board and went down to the beach. This is the 3rd day we were there, and the first time I touched the water. The surf sucked, but I didn’t care. The water was warm and it was relaxing to get out there.

We spent a few hours down at the beach. This was the only time I can safely say that I had fun on the whole trip.

Day 3: Wednesday

Time to tear down camp and pack up to go home. After dropping off Lauren and her cousin at home, we got to our place and started unloading the RV, then cleaned it up and returned it.

Moving every day to a new site, toddler barfing and teething, and a wicked sunburn. I felt like I needed a vacation after my vacation!!

Some suggestions for the folks that run the ReserveAmerica.com web site

If my reservation is not confirmed:

• Consider perhaps sending an email to me after a certain amount of time has elapsed so that I am aware that if I don’t pay the fees within the next X hours, my site will be returned to inventory.
• Consider making it more apparent on the web site when I log in.
  • Maybe an alert on the main page after login?
  • Definitely a bright orange or yellow background color on the ‘unconfirmed’ reservation that is listed under the “Current Reservations” page.

If my reservation has been canceled:

• Consider perhaps sending an email to me to notify me of said cancellation.
• Consider making it more apparent on the web site when I log in.
  • Maybe an alert on the main page after login?
  • Definitely a bright red background color on the ‘canceled’ reservation that is listed under the “Current Reservations” page.

Moral of this story… if you use ReserveAmerica.com to book your campsites for a family vacation that includes money spent on renting an RV: check the fine print when you make your reservation and call afterward to make sure that it is confirmed. Don’t trust their web site as it appears they have no automated notification system to alert you when you’re about to lose your reservation.

I always love seeing how Lauren has changed over the years! Now we have Brody in there and we’ll have more fun changes to watch.

The ever popular compilation of all the years:

2009:

I know it’s been a loooong time since I’ve posted, and I apologize for that. But, my daddy has been super duper busy over the past few months. He stopped going to work every day back in April, he said something like laying down, or laying off… I dunno what you grown ups mean sometimes. He was real busy trying to find another place that he can go to work. Anyways, he got to stay home with me a lot and I really liked that! Well, he found a new place to go to work and we’re all happy for him.

So, let me quickly catch you up on thingz I have been doin’ over the past few months! I’m gonna run it down in a list for you.

• I know how to crawl on my hands and knees now! Yup, I thought that scootin’ around on my belly was cool… forget about scootin’ because crawling is waaaay faster. I’m really watching mom and dad, because they know how to walk around up on their feet. I like to pull myself up on everything in the house to get up to my feet. You just wait, I’ll walk around like mom and dad in no time.
• I drop stuff a lot, and I know how to say “uh oooh”.
• I got my hair cut twice before my first birthday. Mommy sayz I have daddy’s hair… which makes no sense to me, cuz if that was true then daddy wouldn’t have any hair, you know?!?!!
• I like to pretend to sneeze when anyone else sneezes. Heck, I even do it after I sneeze!
• I love waving at people when mommy and daddy take me places.
• I give kisses when mommy asks for one… sometimes, if I feel like it.
• I like to go swimming in the pool with mom and dad. I get to take swimming classes with mommy now. But I’m not sure why mommy needs the classes, since I think she already knows how. She’s funny.

Talk to you soon. Bye-bye for now!

BeerPad is a nice little application for the iPhone that is designed for beer enthusiasts to keep track of their beer adventures. You can add beers that you try into the application and it keeps all sorts of information in its database for you.

Features include:

– Assign parameters to each beer from predefined lists. These include Style, Brewery, Region, and Pairings. Each of these lists are editable so that you can add items to them if they don’t exist.
– Assign a photo to the beer. Choose from the camera roll, or take a new one. I am not a fan of the iPhone camera, so I search google images to find either the label or a good pic of the beer online, then save it to my phone and use that one. I discovered that once you assign the photo in BeerPad, you can remove it from your camera roll and it stays in BeerPad.
– Assign a rating for the beer on a scale of 5 stars.
– Several other free form parameters can be assigned. i.e., color, aroma, finish, etc.

Back to my alergy to some beers… if I drink a beer that I am allergic to, my throat swells up. Now, it’s not my airway but rather my esophagus. Regardless, it’s not comfortable and quite irritating. By the way, I’m also allergic to macadamia nuts, which I discovered before the beer allergy. My tactic on new beers is to take a few sips, then wait a good 5 – 10 minutes for a reaction. If there is one, I slide the beer over to a friend to finish. If there is no reaction, score one for me because I have a new beer that I know I can drink without worry.

Here’s where BeerPad comes in to help me. For the past year+ I’ve been adding beers to BeerPad; ones that I know are OK and also an new ones that I try. I use the rating system to track the bad beers. Well, they’re not necessarily bad, just bad for me to drink. I assign a single star to the beers that give me an allergic reaction. Any other beer that goes down without a ruckus gets 2 or more stars.

When I first figured out this allergy, about 8 or so years ago, I had to rely on written notes to remember which beers I could drink. The iPhone in general has improved my quality of life by keeping me more connected. But with apps like BeerPad, it makes it all the more helpful to me. Are there smart phone apps or tools that you use in ways that were not necessarily intended but help you?

Oh, and my mommy started giving me some things that she lets me put in my mouth. She usually doesn’t let me do that with all the stuffs I want to eat. There’s all sorts of neat stuff I find around the house, but mommy and daddy take them away from me before I get to taste them. Were was I?… oh yeah, these things she gives me are round and crunchy in my mouth. They call them cherry ohs or something like that. And there are some other thingys  they give me … they call those pups or pufs. Those taste different, and I like the cherry ohs better. Don’t ask me why, I just do.

Awww man, mommy and daddy have been taking me to this place by home… it’s sooo fun to go there. They put me into this hanging chair thingy and push me back and forth. Makes me laugh so hard, I LOVE it!! Daddy took some pictures of me in it. Mommy sits me on her lap and slides down this thingy… my belly feels all funny and tickly when we slide down. That makes me laugh too.

I’m not sure why, but I did not take note of the artist that day. The images of the photographs have stuck in my mind ever since. I’d always wanted to find out who the photographer was… but, never really took too much time in searching for their identity.

Fast-forward to present day: U2 has a new album out this week – No Line On The Horizon. I saw the cover art for it a few weeks ago and it was a black and white image of the ocean, with the horizon going straight through the middle of the frame. It also had an “equal” symbal overlaid on the image. I did wonder a little bit about it, but was distracted by the character overlaid on it. This morning, while searching for some music information on the webs, I saw a newer version of the album, and it did not have that overlaid “equal” character on it.

Immediately I knew it was one of those photographs that I stared at 17+ years ago. I did a quick google of “U2 cover art photographer” and did not take long to discover the artist: Hiroshi Sugimoto

And I found on his website, a page on his ‘Seascape‘ series. It shows three images, but I remember there were more than that.

Serendipity, for the win!

I went to the site and gave up my email address in order to get the coupon. They’re slick those guys at Quiznos, they make it so you can only print it once. With my golden ticket free sub coupon in hand, I went with a couple of co-workers to our local Quiznos franchise. As we got in line to order the manager passed by us, and he noticed we were all holding the coupons. He told us “sorry, I can’t accept those… I can’t afford that promotion. But, I can give you a free drink.” On our way out we noticed that he did have a sign posted on his door stating that they were not accepting any promotional coupons. We missed that on the way in.

REJECTED! We all looked at each other since we did not have a plan B for lunch. I think we all read each other’s minds though, and we all agreed on the Carl’s Jr. located right next door. I’m sure that Carl’s had a better-than-normal Wednesday of sales receipts.

Another friend a few cities over (the one who sent the link) mentioned that the sign on his local Quiznos stated that they reached their “quota of free subs” and they were no longer participating.

Now, I have a few thoughts for Mr. Quiznos regarding this experience.

Dear Mr. Quiznos:

Now, you may be saying “Neil, it’s just a sandwich… chill out!”. To me, it’s them offering something for free, then tap-dancing around the offer. If it’s only at participating locations, and each of those locations have a quota of how many free subs to give out, then along side the Free Subs ticker on their site they should have a “Find a location that still has free subs available” tool.

Don’t thank me, Mr. Carl’s Jr… thank Mr. Quiznos.

Here’s another take on these shenanigans. And props to Brett for the logo idea, I saw his and was inspired.

UPDATE: After submitting a complaint on the quiznos.com web site, I received an email from a Tracey Markow, who appears to work for a marketing agency that works with Quiznos. While I appreciate that the marketing arm of Quiznos is actively reaching out after my complaint, (and I’m impressed that they took the time to follow my link and read my thoughts) I’m even more agitated by what I’ve learned about while reading the many writings about Quiznos in the past few days.

This site has a good little nugget of info. Quiznos requires its franchisees to buy their ingredients through corporate… AND, they were expecting the frachisees to foot the bill for the free subs. In essence, only Quiznos corporate stands to make any real profit from the promotion.

Here’s what Tracey wrote:

Hi Neil, I saw your post on Wednesday (on thebernharts.com) regarding the Quiznos Million Sub Giveaway. I’m working with Quiznos, and I’m sorry to hear that you had such a difficult time redeeming your coupon for a free sandwich. I’d like to share you with our response to those, like you, who had trouble using their coupons:

The response to the Quiznos Millions Subs Giveaway has been nothing short of overwhelming. That’s great, right? Right… but given that we have had over a million consumers respond in only three days, there are a handful of people who have reported some problem redeeming their free sandwich. If you’re one of them, please let us know right away by emailing millionsubs@quiznos.com. We’re working hard to address every issue very quickly.

And, if you weren’t quite fast enough the first time around, there’s still a chance to win a free-subs-for-a-year gift card through our Hometown Heroes promotion throughout the month of March. Check out www.millionsubs.com for details.

Please feel free to use the millionsubs@quiznos.com email address. I truly hope this is helpful!

Have a great weekend.

Best Regards, Tracey Markow | SEO Specialist: Link Building

I don’t think I want to contact them any further. They will more than likely send me some sort of voucher for free food at a Quiznos. And who will that hurt? The franchise owner, who will likely not get any money from corporate for that free food, and would have to use the ingreedients purchased from corporate.

It’s safe to say I’m done with Quiznos.

Here’s how it works:
Go to “Wikipedia.” Hit “random” and the first article you get is the name of your band. Then go to “Random Quotations” and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. Then, go to Flickr and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days” and the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. If you are inclined to do so, use Photoshop or your favorite image editing software to put them all together.

It was a fun way for me to waste some time today. Here’s what mine comprised of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant_Craving
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2444.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samzagaz/3289165478/ (cropped square)

I’ve been practicing a lot lately, going forward to grab some toys or slobber on dads leg. Sometimes it’s wierd, mom will come running quick if I get too close to certain things… I think she thinks it’s some kind of game. Whatever – it’s funny to see her hurry and keep me from getting stuff.

So, my dad says you can watch me doing this thing, he calls it an army crawl or something like that (I don’t even know who this army guy is). Here is the video. Check out my skills! That stupid wheel keeps moving farther away from me everytime I got close to it, man I wanted to just smack it so bad!

1. My favorite color is yellow, no blue.
2. I was born in Queens, New York.
3. I do not have any wisdom teeth.
4. Before I turned 1, my parents thought moving to Australia would be fun. We lived there for 6 years, and it was fun.
5. When we moved back to the US, I was 7 did not know what ‘kickball’ was. The neighbor kids looked at me funny.
6. I don’t remember what my favorite toy was when I was a kid, 
7. My mom’s nickname for me as a child was ‘doobie’.
8. My hair started greying when I was in high school.
9. When I walk down stairs, my right ankle pops almost every time. This is from sliding into 2nd base and tearing ligaments when my foot hit the bag.
10. As a kid, I would build model cars and airplanes and then destroy them with firecrackers.
11. My armpits can get sweaty, even if I’m not doing anything.
12. I learned to type on a typewriter in 7th grade.
13. I still have the t-shirt I was wearing when my daughter was born.
14. I once pee’d my pants because I was having too much fun in the snow and waited too long to go inside to the bathroom, I was about 8, I think.
15. I cannot recite the alphabet backwards. It’s a good thing I don’t drink and drive.
16. I took French in high school. Mostly to spite my mother. (I wish I’d taken German now)
17. As a teen, I would sneak out of the house. Once, I was chased down our street by my underware clad father and evaded him by hiding in some bushes. He never knew it was me.
18. My dad loved VW Beetles. Being the youngest of 4, on family outings, I go stuck sitting in back. I mean in the waaaaay back where you put bags and stuff.
19. My shins are bald. 
20. I’m allergic to some beer, and macadamia nuts.
21. I can crack my nose.
22. I saw Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Return Of The Jedi when they were out in the movie theaters.
23. The first Compact Disc I purchased was The Smiths ‘The Queen Is Dead’.
24. I’ve only had 2 employers since graduating from high school.
25. In high school, I quit my job at McDonald’s when my friend came in and told me there was a killer party. I don’t remember the party.
26. (Bonus) I don’t think Angelina Jolie is attractive.

After mulling about it, I thought: why not set up a photo booth so that everyone can get their shots whenever they like. 2008 is the first installment of the annual Holiday Photo Booth series. The details on how I created the booth, as well as how I made the images into photo strips, can be found here. 2 separate days, and 145 photos later… here are the results.

Individual Shots – These are all the single shots that I put into groups for the strips.
Photo Booth Strips – This is all of the photo booth strips in one set.
Coming soon… links for family to order prints or posters.

Slide Show:
If you don’t want to bother skimming through all of the shots, here’s an automatic slide show that you can use to sit back and see all of the strips. (click on the slide show, then click on the play button at the bottom left)

HI!! This is my first blog post… my daddy wants me to start writing my own stuff from now on. He keeps saying something about being too busy. I don’t really know what that means yet, so here I am. He already has me updating my own page, but wants me to make new posts when stuff happens and junk. I just turned 6 months (what mommy says at least), so please bear with me… I haven’t quite yet developed a writing style.

So, the other day my dad was pulling on my bottom lip and trying to look inside my mouth. I thought it was really weird that he would want to see inside my mouth. Then mommy and daddy were all excited and kept saying “tooth” or “teeth” or something like that. Kinda funny how they were all excited about it. Can someone tell me what a “tooth” is? Maybe it’s why my mouth has been hurting so much lately… and I keep slobbering all over the place. I like to slobber on people, it’s fun! They keep grabbing for these rags to wipe my chin, but I’m getting pretty good at landing the spit right on them. Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, tooths… inside my mouth it has been hurting really bad, but when mommy rubs her finger in there it feels better. When I bite down on her finger it feels the best. But when I do, she makes funny faces yells “ouch” out loud. Makes me giggle sometimes. Mommy is fun.

Yesterday, they took me to that place where they lay me down on the cold paper to measure and weigh me. This lady in a white coat said something like “19 point 5 pounds” and then “26 and one quarter inches”. Oh man, I almost forgot!!.. then she put this thing around my head that had all these numbers on it and she said “17 and three quarters”. I hope I get some of these quarters they keep talking about!!! I need to start saving up! Everything was all over since dad put my shirt and pants back on, or so I thought. That lady came back and poked my legs with needles and made me cry! If I knew how to say bad words I sure would have at that point. But, then she was nice and held me and showed me some posters on the wall… I smiled for her and forgot all about the needles in my legs.

Oh oh oh…. one more thing! At home, daddy put this huge tree in the living room. Yeah, right there next to the couch. Then mommy and Lauren put all these shiny things on it… hanging them all over it. When it gets dark, there are bright thingies that light up on it. I like it, but not as much as slobbering on people.

By for now!

This page is the official family newsletter for 2008. Why have it on our site? Partly because we’re lazy, but mostly because we can keep it here forever. In 10 years, we’ll all be able to go back through the newsletters and see what happened during each year. Sort of like our little annual scrapbook.

First, we’ll cover all of the important events of 2008, and below all of that will be a slide show of photos taken around the holiday season.

• Of course, the highest on our list is the birth of Brody! He joined us on 6/7/08 and has been keeping us busy ever since. 
• Lauren turned 12 in April and started 7th grade in the fall. She’s doing very well in school and enjoys Drama and Science as a few of her favorite subjects. Seeming to grow taller every day, she now matches Melanie in height… and they can wear the same shoes and some jeans, too.
• Melanie turned the big three oh in May, and Neil turned 38 in July. (we’re old)
• Lauren enjoyed her final soccer season. She’s claiming to officially retire from the sport (for now). Volleyball has her interest and she hopes to persue it more next year.
• In October, Lauren got braces put on. She loves to switch the colors of the bands now and then. Currently, she is sporting seasonal green and red.
• Back in March, while very pregnant, Melanie flew with her friend Rene to Loveland, Colorado. They surprised their friend Stacy for her birthday. Stacy knew all along that Rene would be there, but was bummed that Melanie wasn’t going… until they landed and Melanie was with Rene!
• Neil’s work travels were much less than they were in 2007, with only a few trips to Portland, Seattle and New Orleans (and he met bass player Jimi Jazz of Special Sauce on his flight to New Orleans).
• Melanie and Neil enjoyed just a couple of concerts in ‘08. Jack Johnson in August (Neil’s birthday gift) and G. Love & Special Sauce in February (pregnant Melanie was a trooper for that show).
• In July… Neil’s brother came down to visit in July with his wife and son Colton. Brody’s other cousin, Jake was also there. We all had fun watching the 3 boy cousins. They were all born within 7 months.
• In August, we all went to the Orange County Fair and did our annual photo booth shots. This was Brody’s first time in the booth, and it’s getting crowded. Up on the header of the site, you can see a shot from each year we’ve done it, starting in 2001 on the left.
• Neil is enjoying his side work doing photography, and hopes to have more work soon.
• Melanie and Neil started doing baby signs with Brody. Hopefully in a few months he will be able to communicate with us. (a little at least)
• Early December, Brody cut his first teeth… two on the bottom. Read all about it here.

What could be running all the time that would cause a drain on the juice? Well, I have my work email account configured to sync mail, contacts, and calendar via ActiveSync. This was the only culprit I could think of that would run all of the time… at least when I had the push feature enabled. I did a few days worth of testing and here’s how it went.

• Day 1: Charged the phone overnight and left push and fetch off (as I normally do to avoid being awoken by new emails). At 6am, I turned both push and fetch on. I typically set fetch at every 15 minutes, so I left it as such. 
  • Results: After 2 hours, the battery was down to 50%. This was 2 hours of very mininal use, pretty much sitting on my desk for all but maybe 10 minutes of use. No phone calls, no internet use, no texting, etc.
• Day 2: Charged the phone overnight and left push and fetch turned off. At 6am, I turned only fetch (15 minutes) on.
  • Results: After 2 hours, the battery was down to 90%. Again… no phone calls, no internet use, no texting, etc.