new favorite commercial

not because i'm a subaru fan, but because i've done this more times than i care to admit!

saying goodbye

today i have to say goodbye to my dear friend Toby.

the winter of 2000/2001 was a great time for me. Erin and i were engaged that winter and that was also when we first met our Toby. he was a shy but loving pup and was smart as a whip. one look at that little guy and i was hooked.

some of my fondest memories of Toby are from that first year. the house we had at the time had one small bathroom upstairs. Toby, never wanting to be too far away, found that he could squeeze himself behind the toilet so as to stay close but not get stepped on. i'm pretty sure that his heart broke a little when he outgrew that small space and found himself banished to the hallway instead.

i think that Toby was more excited than i was when i finally got around to hanging my dartboard that first fall. he found himself strangely attracted to those shiny flying darts and would muster every bit of energy he had to jump up in an effort to grab them. finally he realized that he was way to small and too slow to actually snag one out of the air so he adopted a new strategy; bark at the dart then jump on me. it was cute when he was a twenty pound pup. to this day, i couldn't shoot darts if he was in the room.

as he grew older, Toby became a little more introverted. he still loved trips to TCBY for frozen yogurt and summers at the lake but was easily spooked by anything that rolled and even got a little skittish on our walks if a mailbox looked suspicious. toby was just a bit of a home-body, and that was perfectly fine with me. he was the best nap buddy a guy could ask for. he loved to curl up next to me on the couch and i defy anyone to lay with that warm fuzzy boy and not fall asleep!

these last few weeks have brought us some pretty bad news. Toby has an extremely aggressive form of cancer in his mouth and his vet warned that we wouldn't have much more time with our Big Daddy. (which is Erin's favorite term of affection for him) we are torn between loosing him sooner than necessary and making him suffer longer for our selfish reasons.

until a few days ago, i couldn't understand how people could get so emotional over the loss of a pet. now i get it. today erin and i made the impossible decision to have Toby put down. i'm sad. i'm sad that our boy is leaving us much earlier than we ever thought he would. i'm sad for our other dog, Charlie Brown. Charlie won't know what to do without his Toby. i'm sad for Jonah that he'll only really know Toby through pictures and stories. mostly, i'm sad to loose my friend.

i must admit, Toby's anxiety did get the best of me on occasion. he and i weren't always on the same wavelength. but, if i had it all to do over again, i couldn't ask for a better dog than Toby.

goodbye my old friend. i'll miss you dearly.

9-24 highs

alright, the weekly update idea is not exactly happening the way i wanted it to but that's ok with me. here are some hi-lights from the past few weeks:

-jonah has started to reach out for things. tuesday, when i got home from work, he reached out for me for the first time. nearly made me cry.

-i found a "to good to be true" deal on a refurbished MacBook Pro. if you're in the market for a new mac, i highly recommend checking out the refurb store first.

-i realized that the briefcase that my grandma bought me when i was in high school was no longer pulling it's weight as a computer bag so I found Timbuk2. they are based in san francisco and make bags to order. i went with an all black messenger bag with a bright orange interior.

-finally, i got a little time in my studio (which is how i now refer to my workshop thanks to my buddy adam) this past monday night. i didn't do much other than clean up but man was that therapeutic.

highs and lows

one of erin and my favorite movies is the 1999 Rob Reiner drama "The Story of Us" staring Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer. one of my favorite parts of that movie, now that i'm a father, is when their family is sitting around he dinner table talking about their 'highs and lows' for the day. this will be the general concept for this series of posts. for me, this will take on the appearance of a weekly wrap-up with 2 or 3 high points rather than a nightly favorite and i'm going to concentrate on my highs and try to leave the lows behind me when i can.

this weeks highs include:

a trip to cleveland to see our friends, the Budingers. it's always good to see friends and every trip we take with Jonah gets more relaxed and more comfortable.

after struggling with whether to build or buy a good solid cabinetmakers workbench, i've decided to take a 3 day weekend with Mike VanPelt at American Sycamores School. This way, I can have the experience of building my own bench but know that it will actually be completed in my lifetime!

pumping up with Hans & Franz

i've had some trouble with my sinuses over the past few years. last week, i finally broke down and went to see an ear, nose & throat specialist.

i left his office with a handful of prescription slips (i'll save my prescription drug thoughts for another post) of which, one was for a steroid. now, i obviously don't know much about medicine but when i hear the word steroid, my first thought is always Hans & Franz from Saturday Night Live. with a 6 day pack, i don't expect i'll come out looking like these guys but i do wonder what affect they'll have on me.

so, like any good patient, i asked about side-effects. the doc warned me that they might make me feel a little "jittery." when i asked a nurse to clarify "jittery" she said, "jumpy."

"like, caffeinated," i asked?

"no, more like pissed off."

great, just what i needed.

if i seem to be a bit on a rampage this week, i'm sorry.

the solar update

though i don't have time for a detailed blog post today, i think it's important for me to get this info out. i got my new pv system (solar panels) installed yesterday and the online monitoring is up and running today. i have some video of the installation that i hope to have imported this evening and i'll post some thoughts on the entire process.

for now, here is the link to the web monitor.

you'll also notice that this monitor is now embedded at the bottom of the blog as well.

adding some blue to my green side

the next step in my environmental effort solves several problems with one product.

problem #1 is heating. during the cold michigan winters, we spend a lot more time in our basement family room. trouble is, our bedroom is right above that part of the basement. so, even though we have a zoned heating and cooling system, when we heat up the family room we are also heating up our bedroom.

problem #2 is air quality. i knew that i needed to insulate between the two rooms. i also knew that regular fiberglass insulation can contain formaldehyde that can off-gas into the air we breathe, not to mention that it's very itchy to install.

problem #3 is sound. sometimes the volume level on movie night can get a little out of hand. that sound transfers through the entire house.

the solution: Ultra Touch cotton insulation by Bonded Logic. yup, cotton. according to their web site, they use more than 85% post industrial denim and cotton fiber. the way i understand it, it's all the scrap denim left over from the manufacture of jeans.

now, to be fair, the Ultra Touch does have a few drawbacks. first, it's dusty. hence, the glasses and respirator you see above. so plan a little extra time for a thorough cleaning after installation. (for this type of dust, i think that a simple paper dust mask would do the job just as well as the respirator, but that's what i had. and, trust me, you want the glasses. i tried it without them and spent the next day pulling bits of cotton out of the corner of my eyes! not at all painful, just annoying.) The only other issue i have with the Ultra Touch is that it smells kinda funny. almost industrial. i'm sure that once i get the finished ceiling up the smell will die off because I can't smell it in the bedroom at all. but, for now, it just smells a little weird in the family room.

if your interested in cotton insulation, i got mine in grand rapids from a company called L&D Adhesives. they were the closest source that i could find. hopefully someone will start carrying it a little closer to home because it doesn't seen very eco conscious to haul it back from gr!

turning green

i think having a child has already started to change the way i look at things. in particular, i find myself trying to ride the "green" bandwagon lately. erin refers to it as "living with ed" but, i figure, what better thing to do for my son than do my part to make the world a little cleaner. so, in my next few blog posts you may see the eco freak in me start to emerge.

my first step was a simple recycling station at home as well as paper and cardboard recycling at work. though we don't have a recycling pick-up service, it's pretty easy for me to run our recycling to the community recycling center in spring arbor.

jonah's first live concert

while in the hospital, our friend john surprised us with a little live set. i can't even begin to explain how cool this was. here's a little of the set...

thank you so much JVo. i can't begin to tell you how much that moment meant to erin, jonah and me.



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Welcome to the world!

i can't use the dog crate?

what i don't know...

well, we've finally got the baby's room ready. we're stocked up on diapers and onesies, i've put the stroller together and even tried installing the car seat in erin's car. i'm feeling pretty relaxed about the whole thing. infact, i'm starting to get a little nervous about not being nervous. and that is getting me to think that i must be missing something. what don't i know?

the obvious answer is "a lot." this being my first child, i'm sure that there is a lot i don't know but i'm still feeling pretty ok with that.

my las vegas favorites

earlier today my friend brian asked me for some recommendations for his first trip to las vegas. it kind of got me thinking about what it is that i love so much about vegas. so, in no particular order, here are some of my favorite things about las vegas:

- Mix. the food, the view. period

- the fountains at Bellagio

- Planet Hollywood

- Comedy Stop at the Trop. best $20 i'll ever spend!

- dinner at Mon Ami Gabi. a great place to watch the fountains.

- the cars. i'm a car nut, what else can i say!

- moon nightclub at the palms. perhaps the best night ever with my best friends.

- the variety. lounge by a tropical pool, visit europe, indoor skydiving and atv tours

automotively frustrated

i love my general motors vehicles. more over, i love my gm dealer.

most of the vehicles i've owned in my life have been gm products. and almost all of those have come from one dealership. i'm not even going to try to list them all but i'll say that there have been a few. my vehicles, erin's vehicles and nearly every one of my commercial vehicles have come from Jim Winter Auto Group. it's fair to say, they know me there and treat me pretty well.

two years ago, the lease on erin's gmc yukon was about to expire. we looked pretty hard for something to replace it. we knew that we wanted a smaller, more efficient suv but just didn't like the looks of what gm had to offer. so, we made the choice to try something new.

the first step into bmw of ann arbor had us convinced that the X5 was the vehicle for us. not because of any salesman trickery, because it had everything we wanted: it was smaller, had seating for 7, ipod integration and a huge sunroof just to mention a few. sure, it was a little more money, but we felt it was worth it for what we got: 5 years no cost scheduled maintenance on a premium vehicle with premium features and premium service. they even provide loaners on service days! and once a year they do a complete interior and exterior detail. at least, that's what we were told...

a year and 9 months in and we've had some trouble. the last time the car went in for service, it took 9 hours to perform an oil change. sure, they gave erin a loaner but told her it would only be a couple of hours. with not enough time to drive home and back she went to the mall to kill a few hours then took the loaner back. my pregnant wife sat in the waiting area until 6:00pm. i was not happy. they told her that it took so long because they had to charge the battery. they continued on to tell her that she wasn't driving the vehicle enough to keep the battery charged and recommended installing a battery charger because, of course, batteries aren't covered by the no cost maintenance plan! not driving it enough? the car is less than 2 years old and has over 30,000 miles on it! i'm not sure how we could drive it much more!

this week, the problem arose again. as erin and i got ready to head to the hospital for our ultrasound on monday, the bmw would not start. the battery was dead. once i got it charged, it showed all kinds of errors. in particular, a "transmission malfunction." i called and left a message for the service department at bmw of ann arbor explaining the problem and asking for a call back as soon as possible the next morning. by 10:30 the next morning, i called again as i had heard nothing from them. i was told that i could bring the car in at my convenience but that a loaner wouldn't be available until monday. yes, they told me to drive a car with "transmission malfunction" from spring arbor to ann arbor. again i was not happy. after several phone calls and an "i'll have to talk to my manager" they were able to send someone with a loaner to pick up our car.

the next morning the diagnosis was that we had bumped the turn signal which somehow turned the parking lights which, in turn, drained the battery. no one can seem to tell me why the car showed a "transmission malfunction" other than to say that the low battery must have "messed up" the car's computer. to make matters worse, they again stated that we weren't driving the car enough to keep the battery charged and suggested we put a charger on the car at night to "keep this kind of thing from happening again." that's right, plug the car in every night. i laughed at him, thanked him for his time and hung up the phone.

so, a quick trip to visit our friends at Jim Winter Auto Group reassured me that it's time to go back to what we know. we've found a car on the lot that will suit us just fine and i can't tell you how good it feels to be supporting the local economy and local people with this purchase. i'll miss the X5 (because i truly loved that car) but i'll sleep well tonight knowing that i'll never have to deal with bmw of ann arbor's "premium" service again.

and, for the record, our bmw never did get that full detailing that we were promised.

pavlov's mobile phone...

i had the strangest experience today...

we had done some work at the home of a 'work friend' of mine earlier this week and i was making a simple follow up call to be sure that the guy i sent had represented my company the way i expect him to.  the call was no big deal, i just figured that a friend might give a more honest opinion than a stranger.

this friend is one who is never in her office much so out of habit, i called her cell phone.  much to my surprise, when she answered i could immediately tell that she was crying.  i'm not just talking about a sniffle, she was sobbing.  obviously, it's not necessary to get into her personal story except to say that she was worried for the health of a family member and was walking into the emergency room.  a short conversation ensued, i wished her well and hung up.  instantly, a question hit me...

why would you answer your phone?

what does it say about our society when a ringing phone takes precedence over the health of a love one?  why is it so important to answer that ringing phone?

happy birthday!

today is my dads birthday.  he's enjoying it on the tropical island of barbados. 

what a life.

happy birthday, dad!

starting to prepare the nursery

in preparation for our first baby we're having to do a bit of moving to make room.  what was previously a guest bedroom/erin's painting space/place to store miscellaneous stuff will now become the baby's room.  that means it's time to do a little cleaning out and moving.

luckily, we're keeping most of the 'guest room' furniture and turning it into baby furniture.  however, there was still a lot of moving to do...

the queen size bed was passed along to friends, the existing furniture all had to be rearranged and all of erin's painting stuff all had to go into the adjacent office space.  however, there was a love seat in the office that had to go before any of the other moving could happen.  it's good to have two cousins in college.  my uncle was more than happy to take the love seat off of our hands.

now if i could only get the time to finish that darn crib...

lifelong friends...

erin and i got to spend the some time with my closest friends and their wives this past weekend.  i forget sometimes how lucky i am to have truly lifelong friends; the kind that know everything about you and would do anything for you.  i don't think enough people have lifelong friends.

i wish we had the ability to all be together more often but with all of us in our own parts of the world, that's just not realistic.  and that's ok, because i know that the distance and time apart doesn't impact our friendships, it just makes the time we get more engaging.

anyway...  thanks to mike and kelly for making the drive and thanks to brook and clare for opening their home!

crib construction complete! (nearly)

so, tonight was a huge milestone for crib construction.  i finally got a chance to see what it will look like as a completed project.  just thought i'd share it...

there is still another few nights worth of work before i can say construction is actually complete.  but, man this is a huge relief tonight to see it actually fit together!

grateful

i'm feeling very grateful lately.

with the forthcoming birth of my first son, i'm nowhere as nervous as i thought i'd be.  sure, i have my 'holy crap, i'm gonna be a dad' kind of moments, but they're pretty few and far between.  my feelings are really heading in a different direction than i would have expected; toward gratefulness.  as i think about the state of the world and the state of affairs in jackson, michigan, i keep coming back to this same feeling. i'm grateful.  grateful for good health (can't think of the last time that i made it to january without some kind of illness), grateful for a healthy wife and baby (finally!!!) and grateful for the freedoms in my life.

running a small business isn't easy, especially right now.  but today i'm most grateful for the freedoms that this business gives me.  so far, i've been able to be with erin for every one of her prenatal appointments.  that's huge.