I fell a little behind on my post from last month, so I’ll try to catch up without making this too long. Two bigger holidays have passed. Many great meals were had. Time was spent with lots of family and friends. All was good. Now, for some specifics…

Ben has been growing like a weed. He’s now about 17 lbs. and about 26″ long. He’s eating and sleeping well and has started to “talk.” He makes the funniest sounds sometimes. He has also discovered his feet just this past week and has started to grab objects in front of him. His eyes have yet to make the full transformation. There have been 2 big brown specks in his right eye for about 2 months now, but they are still mostly dark slate blue. Here are some of the latest photos:

I got a ticket to go to the Duke/VT football game (11/22) with some friends of mine. It was around 20˚ F outside, with some wind, so the pre-game festivities were a must. Jackson, Derek, and 2 other friends of Jackson’s started out at their parking spot. Jackson used his MacGyver-like skills to light a fire in their firepit (read: dump a box of matches on the fire logs) the rest of us enjoyed some food and drinks while watching Captain Outdoors work his fire magic. Derek and I ventured out to visit with our friends Mac, Michelle, and some of their friends. After that, we went to visit our other friends Katie and Brian. She’s been telling me about their “Big Beer Game” that they play every home game, and that I needed to play it. Well, I lost (2nd to last) and ended up with a big can of what appeared to be rotten cough syrup called Four Loko Fruit Punch.  The game was fun, we had great seats, I ate a turkey leg, and Tech won. It was a successful night.

Our friends Mac and Michelle stopped over the next day to see Ben. We hadn’t seem them since their wedding, which was 4 days before Ben was born. Here are a few photos of their visit:

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the second year in a row. Our friend, Bryan J. joined Mama G, Holly, and me. Holly and Mom prepared a wonderful spread.

About 2.5 weeks ago, our cat, Smokey, went missing. We would let him outside since he liked it out there. He had a habit of coming right away if you called for him, but not this time. I had a soft spot in my heart for him since I picked him out at the animal shelter. He would visit me when I would go to the bathroom and lie on my chest when my alarm would go off in the morning because he wanted me to get up to feed him. Holly saw some unfamiliar dogs outside the house around the same time he disappeared and one of our neighbors said she saw a coyote around lately, too. We’re not sure what happened to him, but I’m sure he’s up in kitty heaven weaving in and out of people’s legs. I miss you Smokey.

I found some time to clean up the Univega bike I picked up last month. It cleaned up pretty good for being a 20-year-old bike. I got some tubes and tires for it and will use it for cruising around when I need some more flexible gearing which I don’t have with the fixie. I ended up pulling the original front wheel from the Raleigh since the front wheel on the Univega had some bearing play. Here are some photos:

I also got the fixie bike back! It took a long time to get all of the right parts, but it’s finally done. I rode it right after I picked it up from the bike shop and I’m really pleased with it. I didn’t have the head badge at the time I took the first round of photos, but I snapped a photo of it on the bike. I also am waiting on some leather straps for the toe clips, then it will be 100% finished. I can’t wait for some nice days so I can ride it. Today was promising, but I ran out of daylight. It looks like there are some nice days early next week that I might be able to get out and ride. Here are some pics:

We had a few Christmas celebrations this year, and one more today (12/28) when Mama G. comes to visit. The first was at my Mom & Dad’s place with our family, Greg & his family, and Mom & Dad (12/20). We all had fun and was great hanging out with our family. Here’s a link to some of the photos from the day.

The next day (12/21) was our yearly “Yohn Christmas” which was traditionally at Nan Yohn’s house, but has moved to either my parent’s house or my Aunt Denise and Uncle Marlin’s house. This year, my parents hosted it and we had a full house…25 to be exact. We had a special visit from Santa Claus, lots of presents and got to catch up with some relatives we only see a few times a year. Here’s a link to some of the photos from the day.

We left my parents’ house around 4:30 on Sunday (12/21) and stopped in Maryland on our way back home. We stayed with our friends Greg and Krista, and stopped by Holly’s Granny’s house. We also met up with some other MD friends while we were in town. Here are some photos from the visit with Granny:

Then, on Christmas Day, Holly, Ben, and I opened up gifts from each other and Santa. We all got some very special gifts. While looking at a poster and print blog (OMGposters!) I stumbled on an artist named Jason Sho Green who ran into some bad luck and was selling some of his original art. I really liked his style, thought it would be cool to start a collection of original art for Ben, so I picked 2 pieces up from him (one for Ben and one for Holly). I surprised Holly with a piece I personally designed on Christmas Eve. Here’s a link to the piece and here’s a link to some of the photos from the day.

Today, Mama G. stopped by for a belated Christmas dinner. The ladies sure outdid themselves with another great meal. Standing rib roast, potatoes, green beans, macaroni & cheese, rolls, and some cannoli cake for dessert. It was great to see her and spend an evening with her since we haven’t seen her in a while. She brought our other cat with her, so we are no longer kittyless. Here’s a link to some photos of the gift exchange.

We also got a very special gift from the guys at Fender. They sent a very touching letter along with a Custom Danny Gatton Signature Telecaster for Ben’s first Christmas. Here are a few photos of this beautiful guitar:

Lastly, I found some free time to do some design work. I contribute to an art/design/photo blog along with a few friends of mine. As you can see by the name of the blog, it really has fallen by the wayside. I try to make time to do some design projects for myself, and this is where I showcase that work: fallenbythewayside.

I think that’s all I have. I know that was much longer than I expected, but I had to catch up on quite a bit. I’m sure there won’t be too much to write about in the next few days, so have a very happy 2009. I wish you all the best. Take care and goodnight.

Categories: Baby, Cars, Holidays, beer, bike, cats
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It’s been about a month since I wrote last, so time to fill you all in to what’s been going on.

I’ll start things out with a Ben update. He’s grown a lot in the past month! Homeboy weighs 14.5lbs. He’s “coo-ing” now (which is hilarious) and his hair has fallen out and is now starting to come in quite nicely. He’s been feeding pretty regularly, and sleeping pretty good too most of the time. Ben’s mouth has also managed to find his thumb sucessfully one time. He seems like he enjoys sucking his thumb, which really calms him down. The blocked tear duct seems to have unclogged itself…it’s not longer goopy. His diaper rash has disappeared too! Here are some progress pictures:

We drove up to my parent’s place in PA the weekend of Oct. 18-19th. We drove up to Mama G’s Friday night in order to split our trip up a bit on the way up. Mom Y. had set up a “visiting session” for most of my relatives to visit and meet Ben for the first time.  He seemed to do really well eventhough there were tons of people around. My cousin Brad’s son, Simon, my niece Rachel, and nephew Nathan, really seemed to enjoy meeting him. Here are some photos from the day:

My friend, Derek, asked me to join his flag football team, so I said I would. We have had a few practices and a few games, but no victories yet. We have our first (and possibly last) playoff game this Wednesday (11/12). We did better last game, but we had too many mistakes. I caught 2 long passes last game for some positive yardage. It’s been fun so far, which is cool and all, but it would be nice to at least score once…we were shut out both games! Haha.

It was Holly’s 29th birthday on 10/24 and our 2nd wedding anniversary on 10/28. We went to Red Robin for Holly’s birthday, which was the first time the three of us went out to dinner. Ben was fine up until our food was brought out! Haha. I ate real quick and walked him around the restaurant a few times, which worked out perfectly since I tracked down our waitress and told her it was Holly’s birthday. Holly wasn’t so amused, but it was all in good fun. Holly started having mastitis pains on the Sunday after her birthday (10/26), so Mama G came into town to help her out around the house. She whipped up a really tasty dinner of stuffed cabbage, mashed potatoes, and cornbread. It was nice for both of us to be “off duty” when it came to cooking dinner.

I also had a little scare that same week. I was in the shower on Sunday (10/27), I saw a black speck on my knee. I looked closer and it was a deer tick that was in my knee. I dried off really quick and attempted to rip it’s mouth parts out of my skin. I pulled everything else off except it’s mouth parts. I called the family doctor the next day and was able to get an appointment the same day. The doctor numbed up the area around where the tick was, then dug the mouth parts out with a razor. He gave me a 1-time prescription that was supposed to take care of any infection that may occur.

I got a call from the powder coating guy the week of the 26th that my Raleigh bike frame was done and could be picked up at any time. I went the following Saturday (11/1) to pick it up. I ended up going with dark green. It turned out great. I swung by the bike shop on the way home to drop off the frame, wheel set, crank, and pedals. I was told that all the rest of the parts would be in and the bike would just about be ready. Once everything is on, he can measure what size stem I will need. I also need to figure out what saddle I would like. I heard back from the guy at the shop…he said the thread on the headset has an uncommon threading to it, so it he should have the proper parts by Thursday of this week (11/13). I’m really anxious to have it all come together. In other bike-related news, I picked up a bike trainer locally from craigslist on Halloween night. It was in ok condition, but for $50, it wasn’t bad at all. I took it apart, sanded the pieces down, and painted it dark gray. As usual, I’m too impatient and some of the paint scratched. I threw the Nashbar TT bike on there since it seems impossible to find a replacement front tire for that thing. I was down in our crawlspace and happened to find a 10-speed Univega road bike that belonged to our landlord. I asked him if I could ride it, and possibly buy it. He said sure, so I took it out, cleaned it up a little bit, pumped up the tires, and road it around the yard a bit. It’s a 1985 Univega Maxima Uno; 10-speed, lugged frame, and 27″ wheels, so there shouldn’t be a huge problem finding tires if I would need to.

I dropped the avant off to get the windows tinted last week (11/3). I was referred to a shop in Salem, VA, which is about a 20 minute drive away. It appears that they did a pretty good job. I just detailed both of the cars and took some pictures:

That’s all for right now. Until next time…

Categories: Baby, Cars, Misc., bike, cats
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I didn’t know exactly what it would be like, but I have to say, it’s a great feeling. The lack of sleep is the only thing I’m not liking too much. I know Holly is grumbling under her breath after reading the previous sentence. Haha. She’s doing really well other than not sleeping too well. She really does need to start sleep when Ben’s sleeeping. He has grown so much in a month’s time. His cheeks and legs have filled in pretty well (read: chubby). It appears he is able to focus his eyes now compared to the previous weeks. It also looks like his eyes seem to be turning from a dark blue to a tint of bluish-brown. We have been showing Ben off to our neighbors, family, friends, and strangers. Everyone seems to agree that he’s so cute…we think so too. Here are some photos from the past few weeks. Some are not very good quality shots, but I still like them:

I went to H2Ointernational (vw/audi car show) in Ocean City, MD a few weeks ago (9/27-9/28). I left the Friday before and came back the Monday after. I really didn’t want to leave Holly and Ben, but we always do well at this show, so it was a must that I go. A few friends of mine helped me at my tent and I ended up doing pretty darn well. As always, it was a blast hanging out with friends I see a few times per year.

I also went to a conference with a colleague of mine for work in Savannah, GA this past weekend/week (10/4-10/7). It was the UCDA’s (University and College Design Association) annual conference. It was my first conference and it was a really positive experience. It was comforting to hear from other designers in a very similar professional position as I am, and to hear what they go through at their schools. I found it interesting to hear how different the experiences are for designers who work at smaller schools compared to me, who works for Virginia Tech (probably 30,000+ students). I met a lot of really nice people and hope to stay in contact with them in the future. I also hope that I will be able to go to next year’s conference which is in Seattle, WA. I was very anxious to get home by the end of the conference. Holly’s mom came down and stayed with Holly and Ben while I was away. Here are 2 links to the photos I took through out my time in Savannah: Page 1 and Page 2.

Holly, myself, some friends, and co-workers just went to Mountain Lake’s Oktoberfest this past Friday (10/10). The food was fantastic, the beer was great (Spaten Oktoberfest), and a great time was had by all. My parents and Nan Y. came up to watch Ben while we went out. They, of course, didn’t mind at all!

I dropped my Raleigh frame and fork off at the powder coating shop. It should be done this week at some point. The guy at the shop called me last Tuesday and said he was waiting on the powder still. Apparently, the dark green that I specified was out at the first 2 vendors I picked. I will be sure to post photos of the frame when I get it back. I can’t wait to see it come together. On other bike related news, my Nashbar TT bike is still at the bike shop. The wrong size tire was ordered, some measurements were taken and the correct tire and tube will be ordered and shipped soon (I hope).

Holly, Ben, and I will be making a trip up to PA this coming weekend to show Ben off to the rest of the family (in the Central PA area) that hasn’t seen him yet. Everyone is anxious to meet him in person for the first time.

Well, I think that’s it for now. Night.

Categories: Baby, Cars, beer, bike, cats
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Well, I’m not going to fill you in on what I’ve been doing the past 3+ months. We’ve been busy though. The two main things are we had fall opening at work and we’ve been getting ready for the baby to come.

On with the big news. Holly’s water broke last night (9/9/08) at around 8:30pm, she called the birthing center and got the ok to come in, so we got our stuff into the car and ready to roll. The first thing I did was do some dishes, sweep the floor, pack my belongings, and shaved my head. Isn’t that what every expecting dad does? I had been meaning to get to the barber for the past couple weeks, but I always seem to be at work later than they are open. So I took matters into my own hands…with a pair of clippers. We got everything else packed up and into the car (including a new car seat that Holly had ordered from Target which came that same day). We finally left our house at 11:00pm and got to the birthing center at 11:15pm.

They got us in to a temporary room, asked lots of questions, and did some tests. At that point, they confirmed that Holly’s water did break while we were at home and moved us into our room for the duration. She got settled in and I brought the rest of our things into the room. Holly didn’t get any sleep unfortunately, but I was able to get some sleep because that’s how I do. My parents arrived at around 7:45am on 9/10/08 wielding a bag of breakfast food which was very appreciated. Around 8:00am, they had hooked Holly up to an I.V. bag and some Petocin to start induction. I drove home really fast, ate my food, fed the cats, took a quick shower, and got back to the hospital. Holly and I decided to go with the epidural. She had to wait until the bag of fluid had drained, then the anesthesiologist came in and started the epidural catheter, which part of it is a giant needle. The drugs took about 45 minutes to fully work itself into her system. After that, Holly’s pain seemed to depreciate greatly, which was a huge relief for her.

The nurses kept checking his and her vitals and everything was progressing really well. She was 1cm when she came in, 3cm at 8:00am the next morning, 6cm at 1:00pm, 9cm at 3:30pm, and 10cm at around 4:45pm. The nurse checked her at 5:00pm and she felt the head within 3 inches of the opening! The nurse said she felt some hair, too! Things started to get going at 5:35pm. Holly’s contractions started to come on and it was go time. She did a great job of pushing. Benjamin Daniel was out at 6:02pm and the doctor had me cut the cord. He weighed 7lbs. 3oz. and was 19.5 inches long. The whole experience was truly amazing. Ben stayed in our room through the night and he only fussed one time. The nurse came in every 3 hours to wake Holly up to feed Ben. He must be really tired because mid-way through most of his feedings, he will fall asleep. I hope he will keep liking the boob. There has been lots of research saying how important breast milk is. We are anxious to get him home and have him in his room. We got the nursery finished up last week, thank goodness! I will have to take some pictures of it when we get home. It turned out pretty cool.One thing that needed to get stored was my press room and everything in it. That means I’ll be putting the shirt biz on hold until we move into another house. I might build a temporary 1-station, 1-color press in the corner of the upstairs so if I would need to, I could still print a shirt or two. We can’t wait to start our little family. It’s going to be fun and very rewarding. On with the pictures:

I also have a bike project going on right now. I bought an 80’s Nashbar time trial bike in mid-July. I picked it up for $75 on craigslist with intentions of converting it to a fixed gear. I attempted to adjust the extreme rake by replacing the stock fork and 24″ front wheel with a standard size fork and a 700c wheel. It didn’t work as I had hoped unfortunately. I then had the stock fork back on and ordered a 24″ tire and tube with hopes of either selling it, or having it to cruise around on.

A few weeks later, I noticed an old Raleigh road bike beside our friend’s apartment. I looked into it and found out the bike had been given to our friend, Ashley, by Holly’s co-worker, Pat. I asked Pat how much she wanted for it and she said nothing and was happy that I wanted to fix it up and ride it. So, I would using this bike frame as the basis of a fixed gear conversion. I found out that the bike is a 1972 Raleigh Grand Prix, I talked with a friend of mine who runs a small bike shop in Blacksburg, and my wheels started spinning (PUN! LOL!) I started out doing lots of research and seeing what was out there in the way of fixies. I have learned a lot in the past few months. I started ordering parts last week and quickly realized that only thing that will be used from the original bike is the frame and fork. So I will have a brand new updated and custom vintange bike when I’m done. I will be getting the frame and fork sandblasted and powdercoated. I am going to stick with a dark green. Per Holly’s suggestion, I have dubbed this bike “Project Cicada” because of the color combination I’ve got going on. Here is the parts breakdown:

• Soma Urban Pursuit handle bars (shotpeen black)
• Soma Urban Pursuit brake lever (black)
• Soma Forged Seatpost (black)
• Shimano 105 long-reach front brake caliper
• Pake 165mm 46t Crankset (matte black)
• Weinmann Deep V wheelset (black with gold hubs)
• MKS Sylvan Track Pedals (gold)
• new headset
• new stem
• new bottom bracket
• new tires and tubes
• new chain
• new rear cog

Here are some progress pics of the Raleigh: Here is the bike when I got it (8/25/08):

Here is the biked pulled apart to get ready for the powder coater (9/7/08):

Here is the bike semi-mocked up:

That’s it for now. I am taking at least a week off from work to help Holly with the transition home. Ben is sucking on my finger as I type one-handed, so I am going to wrap this up. Bye for now.

Categories: Baby, Misc., Screen Printing, bike
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