Some more Christmas Pictures :)

 

Care and Christmas

Somebody reallllllly likes her new doll :) In fact, she likes it so much that she pounded on her door at 3 in the morning to get help redressing her doll, hehe. The fact that we were pretty much already up because of teething softened the blow a little, but wow, what enthusiasm for caring for a new friend. Awesome gift, thank you Grandma and Grandpa! (By the way, thanks from all of us!)

I will miss my cat.

 

Today, my cat Tom who had been hiding under the couch for the last two days came out from under and said "Hi, I would like to feel better." He was weak, stumbling a little, and unbelievably thiner than he had been just two days earlier. The skin in front of his ears was also yellow. Charli and I were just shocked. "What has happened to him?"

I arranged to get him right down to the vet, assuring him in the cat carrier that it would be ok, we will get him some anti-biotics, and he would be fine. Just need to get some food into you buddy!" Now I am crying. Shit.


The doctor called a little while ago to tell me that the Billyruben (I know it isn't spelled right, and I really don't care) score for a normal cat is .1 to .6, and Tom was at 11.8. He was suffering quite badly and what did I want to do. "I have never seen a cat with this sort of billyruben survive, his liver is failing. I am sorry."

I love you Tom, I miss you.

Oh Man, What a Basket Case

Charli had taken several pictures of Alex laying in the basket like it was a lounge chair, and then I come out this morning to blog on it, and Alex is at it again! So cute.

 

Ok Alex? Ok Dad!

"Moi ba-ul Dad? Moi ba-ul Dad?!"
"Sure Alex, I will get you some another bottle. Ok Alex?"
"Ok Dad!"

Actual communication. Of course that doesn't mean that she understands everything. She thinks it is a punishment akin to Life Imprisonment to take a nap or go back to bed, and no amount of communication changes that, but she is getting there. :)

Someone said "Go create something Picasso..."

I just finished reading and trying out the steps outlined in Cameron Moll's "That Wicked Worn Look" and I modified it a little to give me a little bit of a different retro worn appearance. This was a pretty fun experiment, and I am pretty much dying to actually find a real need to use this technique.

I heart graphic design :)

Pat

Sisters

Yesterday I caught Alex helping Morgan with her new toy, the baby roller. This used to be Alex's and she was VERY intersted in showing Morgan all the ropes about how to use (eat) the musical duo in the middle, and about how to spin and rattle all of the rest of the toys. Morgan was up to the challenge to, and had a great time!

Oh, what a relief.

After one heck of a long holiday work day, I finally got my wifes site switched over to search engine friendly URI's, reworked every single page, rewrote every link that I could find in the content, and installed and customized a shopping cart system to sell one book, Catalyst. But this is no ordinary romance. All of the proceeds from the sale of this $2.00 book are going directly to aid the victims of hurricane Katrina. Talk about "Labor Day" :) (Find out more about this book and where you can buy it on my wifes site, CharleneTeglia.com, it is pretty killer).

This after a pretty productive yesterday, having created the bookcover you see above, and designing two logos and getting awarded the bid for a website/logo job. Whew.

View from the ferry to Seattle

I simply love Washington.

1989 Mercedes Benz 190E :)

WOW! Ok, here is proof of positive mental imaging.

This car, this particular body style, was the Mercedes that I have liked for like the last 15 years. I like the newer ones, but there has never been one that has held it's appeal to me like this one.

Now here is the story. Short time ago I got a great career working for a great company, but it involved being out of the house quite a bit, driving. That's all right, except we have two kids (one brand new one) and no way for my wonderful wife to get around when I am a 3 hour drive away from home all day. Solution, become a two car family by looking for an affordable used car and buying it. Did I think I should also be looking for my dream car? Absolutely, because I know that what you hold in your mind often can come true.

I saw this car Thursday evening, and knew it was the one. What is even better is that it was the ONLY affordable car in Port Townsend :) They were asking $2750, and what with the upcoming need for a service, and maybe a paint job, and probably some breaks, and maybe needing tires in a bit, well, how about $1800?

Here are the stats: 1989 Mercedes Benz 190E, 2.6 litre gas straight 6, 108k miles pretty good shape, needs some cosmetic work (and a tune up is due)

Allrightythen :)

(p.s. It drives GREAT.)

Welcome Morgan!

Welcome Morgan Chandra Teglia! 7.72 lbs. and 19.5 inches long! Lots of hair too! Check out http://charleneteglia.com/pictureguy/gallery/Morgan to see all the pictures!

Happy Birthday Alexis Ananda Teglia!

Two years ago today, I got to take this picture. It was a pretty scary day, as we were in the hospital, and hadn't planned on it, and because my wife was having an emergency opperation. But the results were AWESOME! Bright eyes, and was she ever the cutest baby? Yep!


And today, here she is, right now she is bicycling, upside down, with an imaginary bike (something she has been doing since she was 3 months old) and just being totally cute, as always. Happy Birthday my little girl. :)

Lining up books

My little girl is such a hound for books. Not to mention that the label some friends placed on me a while back, "He's.... particular." might also apply to her a little bit. Not the fact that they are lined up perfectly, on edge, front-faced, and all by the same author. She seems to be a fan of Gordon R. Dickson :)

Now that term, being a little particular, might be coming in very handy for me here in the near future. See, I have managed to wear down the folks at TrustCC to the point that they said "Ok, ok ok, you can have the career of your dreams, ok!" and are going to let me hack for a living. That's right, hack. I will be a white hat electronic warrior, battling on the side of good. I think that maybe if there was ever a position where you had to pay attention to detail, and keep whacking away at it until you had it just the way you wanted it, this might be it.

Do you want to know what the best part is? It is this: I got this position because I am a gamer. I happen to follow my bliss, which includes playing a game called Counter-Strike, where I found a community of rather mature folks, and got to know them. One of these splendid people just happened to be looking for a few good people, and there you go. Buying that game 5 years ago was probably one of the best investments I have ever made :)

Back on the Blogger!

Here is a new image (ok, so I stole it from my photo gallery :) just for you 2 people out there looking at my blog! If anyone is actually interested in my ramblings, perhaps I will let you all in on the big news tomorrow... I GOT A NEW JOB :) :) :) :) :)

It might not look like much to you, but to me it is WAY COOL :)

It ain't much maybe, but it sure seems cool to me :) I drafted this for a local contractor, and started learning what is involved in doing this sort of thing. It is neat, and heavily math oriented. It is also creative, and technical at the same time, which I dig. Next week sometime I will post an image of the next garage I put together which I rendered in 3D as well.

Test Blog

Testing to see if this little widget works.

Crocus Focus

This title is actually contributed by my ever witty and wordy wife :)

Today is my first day at Ty's Computers, fixing all sorts of computers for people and hopefully bringing profit and good fortune to Ty and LeRoy. I am doing this part time as and learning CAD the other part of the time. So, if you have Mac issues, I will be the certified Mac repair guy doing the fixing in Port Townsend and surrounding areas. Actually, I will be the only certified technician to work on Mac's on the entire Olympic Peninsula. Neat!

Dreamjob is now dream, with a job!

This one didn't happen to work out, but that just means I am going to do it a different way. The contractor that had apparently hired me, seems to have forgotten about me, even after many calls. So I actually don't have that job. What I do have, however, is a plan and a purpose, one that I hadn't had before he had pointed out the possibility of me doing home designs without going to school for 5-8 years beforehand.

So now I have a plan, and a new job! My job, which I seem to have created by presenting a mutually benificial plan to a local computer sales and service shop, is being a certified Applecare technician. What this means is that I am now doing the other thing I love, playing with computers, on a part time basis, while I study my rear end off learning AutoCAD, and presenting myself to local contractors around here as a solution to their problems. The problem being that architects are few and far between here, and it is usually far to expensive to go to them for a drafting project when that project is very small. Such as a pole barn, or a garage, or an extension to a home. They just aren't taking the jobs, or are charging so much for them that the contractors don't want to pay for it.

Find a niche and fill it! And NEVER take temporary defeat as permanent failure!

Oh yeah, you might be wondering about the elephant seal above. I am too. On this beach, North Beach in Port Townsend, there is a leash law that no one seems to notice, and a sign that clearly states "Do not disturb seal pups." Well the owners didn't seem to read that sign, and this dog drove this seal right back into the water.

I had to leave, but I am hoping that that seal just scooted a little further down the beach and popped himself up on the shore for a little restful beach time!

Your Good IS Coming.

Sometimes your good only comes to you after you have made the right choice. It is very interesting to see this principle in action.

Day before yesterday, I learned that I had just gotten my dream job, a job that I had never thought I could have, and just days before had been telling my wife that that job would be just the coolest! I was also waiting for responses from three different avenues of revenue that I had pretty much written off. Not until I took that job, and decided that it was the right thing, and understood that it was a fullfilled wish, did I get responses from those other people. Sometimes your good comes after, and only after, you have made the right decision.

Letting my mind liftoff.

In recent days I have come to many conclusions, and have really solidified my understanding of certain concepts that I had previously heard, and thought I had understood, but now I realize I had really just seen the surface of. Confused yet?

Here is the scoop. I have been a listener, reader, and believer of all sorts of positive, self actualizing literature for the last several years. Books like "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill, anything by Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar, Catherine Ponder, and more recently Stephen Covey, Jack Canfield, David Allen, Robert G. Allen, Nicholas Boothman, and even Donald Trump.

Some of the concepts that I have recently solidified are the concepts of empowerment, and visualization. I had "understood" these things like everyone else does, I knew the dictionary definition of them, and yet I knew nothing about them. It is the difference of seeing a car, and being the mechanic that works on it.

I am not saying I am a guru on these things, more like a brown belt in the greater scheme of things. I have finally grasped that there is something bigger that just the definition.

More to come.

Eagle flight

It is amazing the wildlife I see while I sit at North Beach letting Alex sleep. I also find it increadible how large this bird is. I was using a telephoto lens at 300mm at quite a distance, and this guy just seemed to fill up the lens, where crows and seagulls were just little blips at the same distance.

I am really enjoying the fact that I got to take some photographs of an eagle yesterday. It reminded me that I need to keep my spirits up. Sometimes things look pretty rough in life, but you never get anywhere by letting the whole world know that. If everyone thinks you are down and out, you will be. If however, you look majestic in flight, even though you haven't had a nice big tasty salmon in a week, you will still fly high.

Pat

She hasn't lost her love of books.

Hmmmm, wonder who she has been watching :)

Oooohhh, soft.

I swear, I don't ever pose this baby. She actually puts herself in these positions, and then grins at me waiting for the camera to appear. I love my little girl!

Favorite Places - Memories Vualt at Fort Worden

Fort Worden State Park, here in Port Townsend, WA, is probably one of my favorite places in all of the US so far. It has large and meandering walking trails, right on the bluffs over the ocean (Straits actually) and is almost always peaceful and serene.

The image above is of Memories Vault, a place where there are poems engraved upon cement pillars, and this interesting layout of other cement creations.

Here is a little history, via the Washington State Parks Department:

"Fort Worden, along with the heavy batteries of Fort Flagler and Fort Casey, once guarded nautical entrance to Puget Sound. These posts, established in the late 1890s, became the first line of a fortification system designed to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Bremerton Naval Yard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett. Construction began in 1897 and continued in one form or another until the fort was closed in 1953. The property was purchased as a state park in 1955. Fort Worden is named after Rear Admiral John L. Worden."

My Wife is the COOLEST :)

Isn't that a fine cover? You will probably see this cover sitting on the shelves of Waldenbooks and Borders in about 6 months, and until then you can find this book available at ellorahscave.com.

Blue Skies ...

Nothing but blue skies do I see! :)

After moving to Port Townsend, WA, we have seen more sunny days than any other place we have ever lived. And moving here from Boise, most people would say that is saying something.

What most people don't understand is that Boise lives under an inversion for like a third of the year, and under really really hot weather and really really cold weather for the other two thirds.

Here it is between 50 and 80, mostly sunny, for about 320 days of the year. Not bad!

Ta-da!

And, as if by magic, I will make a lion appear on my head. Don't worry folks, I am a trained professional. Please don't try this at home :)

I Don't See a Mess :)

Mess? What do you mean mess? I don't see a mess here. This is clearly a well laid out and planned event.

Surgeon Generals Warning...

Just in case you were unclear as to what can happen in the case of a fall off of a very large cliff, there are handy reminders all along Washington State Park trails to help you understand.

Out for a Stroll on the Road.

I am pretty sure that this is a bird most people don't see walking down the street most days, but here in Port Townsend, it doesn't seem so strange.

Why "mid life crisis?"

I named this blog mid life crisis because sometimes it seems that that is where I am, right smack dab in the middle of a nice little life crisis. Not in the drama my dog died and my wife left me sort of crisis, but more in the "what the hell am I doing with my life and why haven't I done it already" sort of crisis.

I have, of late, been studying alot of the common material about self fulfillment and all of the "what do I do with my life" books I can get my hands on to try and puzzle out a way to figure myself out. Sounds wierd that I should be looking without to figout my withins, but there you have it.

It has been pretty enlightening, and has caused me to stop and release many things that were "Big Things" in my life. But I have realized that until I do, there will be no room for that which is supposed to be there. I have to open a channel for the greater good.

Pat

Hands? We don't need no stinkin' hands!

Sometimes the only way we can get this little pumpkin to go to sleep is by driving her, in fact, it is most times that that is the only way.

Lil' Crab Hands

I don't know, have you ever seen anything quite as cute as this? I mean she just went into the kitchen, opened the drawer with the oven mits, put them on the ground, slid both hands in and started walking around being a ham. Hehe :)

Mt. Rainier from North Beach

This view is one that I get to look at pretty much daily if the clouds are few, and it is really pretty stunning when the sun is coming up, as it is in this picture. Nice.

Time To Hunt

I have been reading Stephen Hunter today, about 300 pages worth, and have been totally captivated. It has been a while since I have totally lost myself in a book. Lately I have been losing myself in my game, Counter-Strike, and chatting alot with my new friends on that server.