Christmas 2006

I wasn't quite sure how to approach a Christmas report this year. But I finally decided to cover a couple of "to-us-from-us" gifts.

Faces is a fun game for 3 - 8 players. LaRue, Liz and I played and LaRue won. It was quite good.
Here's a description from the Funagain Games website - Faces gives you 3 decks of cards with pictures of faces on them. One deck of women and one from men that look to be from the 1920s, and a deck of animal faces. Working with one 6 pictures from one deck can you guess which one is the insomniac? Take turns being the judge, and everyone will be laughing at the mismatched faces and phrases. This is a good game for 4 to 6 players and can be played in about 30 minutes. It is easy to learn, and is a fun social game.
It received the Parents' Choice FunStuff Award:
The Parents' Choice FunStuff Award was created in response to requests for PCF (The Parents’ Choice Foundation) to identify value priced age-appropriate products such as kits for making a keepsake for Grandma, party games, or birthday party gifts that won’t break the bank - nonviolent products that may not be "educational" but are well produced and fun.

Description - Killer Bunnies is a funny non-collectable, expandable card game.
The object: Collect as many "Carrots" as possible, hoping that one of them is the randomly predetermined "Magic Carrot". In doing so, you must keep your bunnies alive as possible, while eliminating your opponents' Bunnies because once all the Carrots have been claimed you must have a living Bunny to win.
The problem: Your opponents are armed with outrageous weapons (from level 1 weapons such as a "Kitchen Whisk" to level 12 weapons such as the "Nuclear Warhead").
Use cards to defend your Bunnies, such as the hillarious "Magic Spatula" or other special cards, or use a "Feed The Bunny" card to force your opponent to buy cabbage and water (if they have the money to do so...)

Possibly more later. Now we're off to plot and plan New Years.

Hit and Run

Our Alero was the victim of a hit and run accident last night in the grocery store parking lot. It was dark and we didn't notice until later when the rear window started to fall apart. Then on further inspection we found where someone had hit the rear bumper. Just a couple of scratches on the bumper, but the rear window is shattered.
Looks like I'll be putting some plastic in the window until the insurance company and the glass guys get things arranged.

Recommendations

I have added a new Link category to the sidebar on the right. It is Recommendations. I will be adding links to websites and other information that we at Bailey Acres want to present for your edification.

First up is a link to the Glenn Beck website. We both are now avid viewers of his television show which runs on Headline News at 7, 9 and Midnight Eastern time. Also has a nationally syndicated radio program. You can go here for a list of stations.
This man is so right on the money when it comes to politics, Iraq and political correctness. Definitely worth watching.

Light Before Christmas

The Light Before Christmas aired Sunday night on KJZZ tv in Utah! It is the animated special that Andy did most of the animation on.

To see a promo clip go to Candleman Films.

Christopher's Blessing

Last weekend LaRue and I drove to Logan for Christopher's Naming and Blessing. Here is a link to some of the pictures we took while there: Christopher's Blessing.

Andy in the Newspaper

An article about Ageless Animation appeared in today's Deseret News newspaper and featured a picture of Andy!



The article is located here - Ageless Animation

School Picture Day

A couple of weeks ago the photographers came to LaRue's school to "Picture Day". Emily and the kids happened to be in town so they went over and got pictures taken. We got the pictures back yesterday.

Brighton -


Kjerstine -


And, Christopher (he looks a bit confused) -

Birthdays

Brighton and his Grandma Bailey share the same birthday.

This year Robin, Emily, Brighton, Kjerstine and Christopher came home for the birthdays. Liz also came home for the weekend.

I was our first look at Christopher. He's a really sweet baby. He hardly fusses.

Here is a direct link to some of the pictures I took over the weekend. Birthday Weekend

You can also get to the pictures via the Photo Album page.

More Christopher Pictures

More of Christopher sent by Robin:

With Aunt Liz -

Kiss from Mom -

Christopher Eugene Bailey

Here are some early pictures of Christopher.

New Grandson

Christopher Bailey was born this afternoon at 1:43. He weighed in at 8 pounds 8 ounces. 21 and 1/2 inches.

Picture as soon as we get some.

The Weather Changes

You know what everyone says - "If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes."

Well, last week we're averaging 85-90 degrees. Friday dropped into the 30's and got hail!

Andy & Gangrene Film Festival

Andy called yesterday to say that he had made a mistake. The Gangrene Film Festival was held last Friday instead of this coming Friday! But, on the positive side, his film took one of the two awards at the festival! He got the Audience Choice Award - (I know the graphic says 2005, but it's all they had at the Gangrene site)
You can watch the film here - Weird Ribs are Swell

"Needs"

Andy sent us a funny email this morning. It's a Google thing. You type in your name followed by the word "needs" (without quotes). Some of the results are kind of funny.

So, I did "John needs". Here are some of the results:

John Needs Your Bone Marrow
John needs to get his patootie back here
John needs to borrow a car on February 25
John Needs Rest After Throat Surgery
John needs to learn to Zoom out when framing
John Needs Coffee
John Needs A Good Home
John needs some help!!
John needs a shave
- I take exception to that last one!

Liz Birthday

Both Liz and her dog, Curly, celebrated birthdays this last weekend. Liz turned 20 - no longer a teenager! Curly turned 11.
Liz got a table for her sewing machine.

I took a few pictures and posted them here - Liz Birthday. No picture of the sewing table since it's still in the box and she's taking it back to Logan with her.

Liz Takes Off

Yep, the youngest has departed. She left today to take up residence in Logan and attend college on-campus at Utah State University.
She and her friend, Lonnie, took off about 11 AM today in their own vehicles (I'm not sure who was following who but I gave Liz the directions). They also took a set of walkie-talkies to keep in contact on the journey.
Here's the route from Google Maps (it's 252 miles with estimated drive time of 4 hours 38 minutes) -

29 Years Ago Today

LaRue and I got married!

In case you haven't seen them already, the Bailey Acres Photo Gallery has a set of our wedding pictures: John & LaRue Wedding

Miturga Lineata

LaRue was cleaning up an area outside the house and came across one of these spiders. We had never seen one like it before. Apparently it lives more on the ground by logs and such. It was living under some bags of leaves we had. We took it out into a open fiedl area and let it go.

More Pictures

This last Weekend Andy and Laurie came to visit and we took them up to Red Canyon Overlook and Visitor Center. Click here for the pictures: Red Canyon

Oh, I do have some picture of the week before when George and Mage were here and we took them to Red Canyon. I'm still working on that set of pictures and will get them posted soon.

Pictures of Kjerstine's First Birthday

We had an early birthday party for one year old Kjerstine last Saturday, July 8th. Her actual birthday is on the 14th.

Here is a link to some of the pictures I took at the park. KD's Birthday.

Superman

It's been a week now, but LaRue and I went to see Superman Returns last Thursday when George and Mage came to visit.
We really liked it! I loved the little things in the movie that paid homage to the 1978 Christopher Reeve film. I also liked seeing Noel Neill and Jack Larson (Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen from the 1950's tv series). Plus the shot of Superman holding the Mustang over his head - just like the cover of Action Comics #1.
There is so much more. If you haven't seen it - SEE IT!

4th Pictures

As promised a few pictures from yesterday -

Here's LaRue by some of the city's flowers that line Vernal's Main Street. Yes, that's my finger in the corner. Oops.


The dinosaur in 4th and rodeo attire.


LaRue with the dinosaur.

July 4th

This morning LaRue and I walked down past the Post Office to catch the beginning of the parade. Actually, we didn't go to watch the parade, we just wanted to see the jets do their fly over. It's the most exciting part and is usually just before the parade starts. However, this year they were running a bit behinds schedule and the parade was 30 minutes along when they showed up.

In this picture I have enlarged them approaching for their run down main street -


And here they are just flying overhead -


I also got a couple of pictures of LaRue by some of the city's flowers and the dinosaur at the end of town. But I didn't get a chance to upload them. Possibly tomorrow.

Two Good Movie Rentals

Over the last few days LaRue and I watched a couple of good movies we rented -



Admissions is a Sundance award winner. It's kind of hard to describe. It's about a girl applying for college who lives with her mother and a sister who is a savant.

The World's Fastest Indian is based on the true story of an older man in New Zealand who takes his 1920's motorcycle to the Bonneville Salt Flats. This happened in the 1960's and the record he set still stands today for that class of motorcycle.

Father's Day

Man, I made off like a bandit this Father's Day!

LaRue gave me a shirt and a couple of books -
The Official Movie Guide for Superman Returns.
And the second book in the Maximum Ride story. I'm really excited to read this one since I enjoyed the first novel and have been reading the blog featuring the book's characters: 6 Kids, 12 Wings, and 1 Blog.

Liz got me this:
Whoo-Hoo! It's the color Palm Z22. It's a smaller Palm with just the basic stuff - calendar, address book, etc. No multimedia. But the best feature is the ebook reader program so I can load it with novels and read them on the Palm. Much handier for taking a "book" to work.

Google Maps

I have decided to periodically update my Google Analytics Map images and post them on a linking page. I have put a link in the right sidebar. I am hoping to update this about once a week. I will be changing the date of the link when I upload a new image.

The Weather Changes

After a few days in temperatures in the 90's I broke down and installed the air conditioners. For the two days since then - nothing but wind, cold and rain!

I am getting the old Impala going again. I have a couple of new belts to put on and then get it inspected. Probably do that tomorrow. Since I can do the registration renewal online I should have it licensed to go before the weekend is out.

I'm still trying to track down a steering column for the truck. But I know a guy....

Da Vinci Code

LaRue and I finally went to see Da Vinci Code. We both enjoyed it quite a lot. I am now looking forward to the DVD so I can watch it with the captioning on to catch some of the dialog we couldn't hear in the theater.

As far as the movie itself went....it was pretty close to the book. They had to take a few shortcuts and alterations, but kept quite true to the story (as I remember the book from reading it two years ago).

Next on the list of summer must see movies will be Superman Returns.

Google Analytics Map

A while back I hooked up with Google Analytics to track information about my websites.
This is a graphical map of the places where visitors to the site originate (yellow dots).
So far during the month of May I have had the usual suspects; i.e., family -
San Diego, CA
Yuba City, CA
Provo, UT
and Salt Lake City.
Plus Baton Rouge, LA
St. Louis, MO
Chattanooga, TN
and Olivia, not sure of the state..it's the eastern most dot.

Weekend Visit

Andy and Laurie came out this weekend to celebrate Andy's birthday. We all went out to eat and then he opened a few presents.
I'll post a few pictures of the event soon.

I've been thinking about doing something a little different with some extra photos. I have gathered up all the images I have so far of both Brighton and Kjerstine. And, rather than create really big photo albums and upload them to my host server, I am considering using a Flickr account to post the pictures. That way I'm not "using up" my space allotment or bandwidth restrictions. Plus, I have never found what I consider to be really good photo album creation software that I like. Whichever route I end up with, I'll program a direct link in the sidebar.

No-Update Update

Here's an underwhelming blog update.

Today's accomplishments:
1. Got a haircut.
2. Mowed the lawn for the first time this year. (I guess you could say the yard and I both got a haircut)

Liz is going to be taking summer classes. Her scholarship was renewed for another semester.

I have to get some parts to fix the gear shift in the truck. I'm afraid I might have to replace a fair amount of the entire steering column. Perhaps a visit to the friendly neighborhood wrecking yard is in order. That's how I replaced the shaft in the steering column and the steering gear box.

Maybe next time I can have something more interesting to pass along. It's like I read on another site. A woman was recounting an event with her family and she made the comment, "Well, it gives me something to blog about."

Big Announcement

FANFARE Emily is pregnant again! It's a boy due in September!

Liz Update

Poor Liz. :(
She developed an infection on one side of her jaw. The dentist had to open it up and drain it. Now she's on some heavy antibiotics.

Liz Update

Liz is feeling much better now that she's a week past the dental surgery. When she was swollen up she wouldn't let me take a picture of her and post it for the world because she said she felt like the little creature in the movie Mac and Me.

Wisdom Teeth

Liz had her wisdom teeth taken out Saturday. She spent a lot of the weekend medicated, but is much better now. However, she's quite swollen. Unfortunately, she won't let me take a picture of her to post here on the blog.

I've been fighting with one of the church computers. All the wards in the stake received new Dell computers a couple of years ago. One of them has been getting really slow to run. It takes up to 10 minutes just to boot. So, I've spent a couple of mornings on the phone with Dell. They've had us replace the hard drive and are now sending some new RAM. But that is not going to solve the problem which I believe is a motherboard and/or CPU failure. Dell keeps wanting to replace minor parts when they need to replace the entire machine.
Don't you just love tech support people who think they know it all but are just following a flow chart of responses?

Film Strip Sample - The Way of the Bird

As promised earlier - here is a short sample of the conversion I did to a film strip for LaRue. It is a Quicktime file and will take a few minutes to load.

The Way of the Bird

(click to play or right-click and save)

What We've Been Up To

I've been converting some old school film strips for LaRue. You remember those - the "advance to the next slide at the beep" films from school.
I've had to cut them into 8 frame sections and then scan them into a graphics program to be tweaked and saved as individual jpg's. Then I record the sound (usually from cassette ot LP) into the computer.
Then using Adobe Premiere Pro I insert the sound file and line up the images to time with the beeps in the soundtrack.
Finally, burn the project to DVD. I'm going to run the DVD's onto videotape for LaRue to use in her class.
It's a fun project, but quite time intensive.
If I can, I'll put a small video clip online.

Liz has been working hard with her college classes. A couple of her classes require a lot of reading. But she recently got 90% on one of her exams. A couple of her classes are over the internet. One is a satellite feed from the main campus in Logan. And one alternates between the Vernal and Roosevelt campus.

Robin, Emily, Brighton and Kjerstine came to visit this last weekend.

I'll try to update with more later.

John's in the Newspaper

One of our area weekly newspapers did an article on the dispatch center. They also have a website. It's the Uintah Basin Standard. On their main page click on Feature. Then click ABILITY TO MULTI-TASK IS A MUST for the story.
There is also an editorial about dispatch. On the main menu click Opinion and then Editorial.

John on a Podcast

One of the podcasts I really like is a program by two guys in England called Top of the Pods.

I recorded a short comment and emailed it to them. They played my comment recently on one of their shows. I have included the part with that comment. It runs 49 seconds. Click this link to listen (or right-click to save-as): John on Top of the Pods

For a brief explanation of podcasts check out the link under Bailey Acres Extras. Or, click What is a Podcast?

Ageless Animation Pictures

The set of the current Ageless Animation project:






Andy working on the computer that captures the stop frame images.




Andy shows LaRue how it all works.