The Woz

This past Wednesday (Jan 27th), Steve Jobs was on stage unveiling the iPad for Apple. On that same day, Steve Wozniak was at Laxsom Auditorium giving a speech entitled "How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Doing It".

My son, a Chico State employee who does Technical Production for Laxsom Auditorium, got the chance to meet The Woz as he is affectionately known. Here is a photo of him signing an Apple IIe at Laxsom (the oldest computer in the Laxsom inventory).

If you are unsure of the significance of the Jobs/Apple/iPad/Wozniak relationship, then I hereby strip you of your Geek credentials and sentence you to reading the article at this link.

Troy At Almost 3 Months: Pics & Video

We had Troy, Lucy and David over for dinner last Sunday and I had the opportunity to take a few photos of Troy...and some video! He is able to stay awake through his whole evening with us now.

He has quite a range of facial expressions, and is always fascinated with the camera when I bring it out. Here he is mezmerized by the black object (the camera) I have in front of my eye.

Though my male voice is nowhere near has pleasant to him as the soothing female voices of Lucy and my wife, I can almost coerce a smile out of him...

But just to my left was my wife, and with just a few sentences she was able to make Troy happy enough to smile. Just a little bit at first...

..........then a little more............come on Troy, you can do it!...............

...and finally a great big smile! My wife is on to her next challenge now, and that is getting him to do a full-on laugh next time we see him. I did some silly dances for him, but he's not quite sure whether I'm just weird or whether I'm playing with him. Once he figures out I'm playing, I think I may be able to extract a laugh.

Lucy has been going to the gym, and one evening David and Troy came with her. I wasn't there, but my wife was and she said Troy was absolutely fascinated by the machinery and the people working out. I can just image how exciting those new sights and sounds would be to a 3 month old...

All right, are we ready for the videos I promised? There they are, below. They are in chronological order, with each being a little better than the previous. They are all short so watch'em all, but if you only have time for one, watch the last one...

Rain, Hail, and Wind

This has been an amazing week for San Diego county. Starting Monday, we've had 30-40 MPH wind gusts, rain so heavy that high-speed windshield wipers would not handle it so traffic on the freeway simply stopped, and at least 5 doses of hail - some pea sized. It completely covered our sidewalks one time.

We have lived in the county over 20 years now, and I have never seen 5 straight days of weather like this. But supposedly this is the last day before the storm heads out, giving us our normal sunny San Diego weekend.

All I have to say is: watch out those of you living in states east of us...it's heading straight for you! If you don't believe me, look at what happened to the tent that held the Russo Steele auto auction in Phoenix Arizona today...

Squirrel Nut Zippers

Last night, we went to see Squirrel Nut Zippers with Mike and Emily at Anthology.

I must say that was the most fun concert I've seen in a long, long time...maybe ever! Anthology is a very intimate, upscale venue and there is no other band on the planet that sounds like the Zippers...it is so refreshing to hear something so different, so retro, and so fun!

Here is a little sample for you all...