Julie amended Shelly's grocery list yesterday...

Here's a nice video clip (thanks to Shelly) of the girls at last weekend's little dance recital/student appreciation picnic for their dance studio:

Congrats go out to my wife, Shelly, who won the following prizes and awards for a few of her hand knit entries to the 2008 Minnesota State Fair:

• 1st place in the "hand knit bedspreads" category for "the Blankie". In addition to the 1st place win for the blanket, it also won the "sweepstakes" prize (best overall) in the "hand knit afghan" class which was comprised of three sub categories.


• 1st place in the "hand knit lightweight scarf" category for a lace shawl.


• 1st place in the "hand knit socks (plain or ribbed)" category for a pair of socks. In addition to the 1st place prize, Shelly also won the prize sponsored by the "Northern Lights Handspinners Guild" because the socks were knit from handspun yarn AND a prize sponsored by "Needlework Unlimited" for "best hand knit socks". (I guess that crazy wheel is already paying dividends)

In any case, you can read her full reaction to all of this (plus pictures of the winning items and her day at the fair) here.

Overall, it was a good weekend...

On Saturday morning, my friend D* picked me up at 8am to head off to the 2nd annual Surly Open (disc) Golf tournament. It was held out at the Hyland Hills disc golf course. Hyland Hills also double as a ball golf driving range during the summers and as a ski and snowboard area during the winters. The Minneapolis Ski Club's ski jumping facility is located close-by, too.

It was a very non-competitive event. But what do you expect when you're gathering to celebrate a mighty awesome local brewer with awesome tap prices? We met up with my friend J* (a good friend of Surly owner Omar) and signed up to start at the 14th hole. It basically runs straight up a ski slope. After finishing holes 14 through 18, on our way to the 1st tee, we stopped in to get our first Surly of the day ($1 taps!). I had my first taste of Coffee Bender. It was very good. We chatted a bit with Omar before we headed back out. Since the three of us managed to finish our first beers before we headed back out, we each grabbed another Coffee Bender ($1 taps!!!) and headed out for the first tee. I should mention that my breakfast consisted of a PB & J sandwich and a couple cups of coffee that morning. I'm not exactly a heavyweight drinker either. So, after two Coffee Benders (all before 11am), what was left of my round of golf got pretty loose.

We managed to finish our round by 11am. Hung out while they got lunch set up, ate lunch (which included my first taste of Surly's "Cynic Ale"), hung out for the raffle for the morning participants (I won a Surly t-shirt), and then headed home.

Did I mention that they had Surly on tap for $1? They did!

Here's what my disc golf bag looks like



That was before the addition of my complimentary commemorative disc (a 174g Discraft Force ESP with a 2.0 stability rating). I don't have too many discs in my bag these days which is a reflection on often I play (or don't).

I got home around 2 and was wiped out. Mostly due to drinking beer before lunch. But, managed to keep it together sufficiently enough to survive the afternoon. Shelly had plans to see the "Sex and the City" movie that night with some friends so I took the girls over to J*'s house for some grilling and hanging out. I also got to finally meet D*'s second son, Mikko. Cute little thing at 3 months. The kids played very well together (at least they did after their initial shyness wore off). Sophie really liked petting Bo-Ghee (the dog).

We're getting rid of the living room furniture that Shelly's had since even before I'd met her. And the futon in our living room that acts as our sofa is moving to the basement. We'd been taking our time doing this. Trying to get rid of the old stuff before getting the new, but a forgotten visit by a cousin this week sped up the schedule a little bit. So, at the last minute, we decided to head out to Ikea on Sunday afternoon to buy that new couch we'd talked about. We got an Ektorp sofa with a tan cover. We'd already bought two of the Ektorp Jennylund chairs with the "Kareby multicolor" covers.

As is usual for a visit to Ikea, we dropped Julie off at "Småland" (the kid's area at Ikea). Julie loves playing in the ball pit or watching whatever they're showing on the TV. Sophie is (a) too small and (b) not potty trained so she's not able to join Julie yet. So, Sophie comes with Shelly and I as we shop. Here's Sophie and I hanging out while we waited for Shelly to track down an Ikea employee to get our sofa stuff...



Which reminds me... I had assumed that the sofa wasn't in the self-service warehouse but that the cover for it was. It turned out to be the exact opposite. The sofa was in the self-service warehouse and we had to wait at the furniture pick-up area for the cover. Too bad that between waiting for it to come out, loading the furniture into the minivan and picking up Julie, we completely forgot that we never got our sofa cover! Shelly is going back for it today.

So, I spent last night

• Putting the middle row seats and car seats back in the van.


• Disassembling the futon in the basement and hauling it out to the garage.


• Vacuuming the area of the basement where the futon sat.


• Disassembling the futon in the living room and hauling it down to the basement (with Shelly's help)


• Assembling an Ektorp Bromma ottoman (beige). It required more effort than I thought putting the cover on.


• Assembling the sofa.


• Assembling one of the Jennylund chairs.

We had already hauled out the other living room furniture into the garage earlier that afternoon.

It didn't take as long as it could have because Shelly helped out by breaking down all of the cardboard and hauling the living room futon down to the basement. Yet, it still took me a good three hours just to do that much. Plus, it meant my ironing got neglected for another night.

Hopefully, we'll get the other Jennylund chair assembled and the cover on the sofa.Then we'll see if it looks OK or if we need to look at a different color for the sofa. Maybe I'll even get some ironing done tonight...

Back in November, I purchased a set of Kozyndan's "Seasons of the Bunny" prints from Atomic Books. I'd been waiting for them to release their fourth and final installment (Winter) before I ordered the set.

After that, they sat in my office in the shipping tube until a few weeks ago when we finally took them in to get them framed. Yes, they sat for a few months. I R slacker. It took about two weeks for that to get done. We finally got around to hanging them in our living room this past Sunday.

They looked really nice on the wall. But, because the glass was so reflective, I didn't think we'd be able to get a good picture of them. But, my wife (who recounts her version of the story here) managed to get a very good photo of them on the wall. And here they are...


2008 05 06 001
Originally uploaded by shellykang.

I have to admit I wasn't thinking quite straight when I ordered them. I mean, I saw the dimensions for the prints on Atomic Books' website but their true physical dimensions didn't really register for me until I received the prints. If you want to see a larger version of the prints on the wall, you can look here.

If you want to get a better look at these prints, you can check them out at Kozyndan's online shop. These particular prints are the first four listed at that link. But, the images don't really do justice to how they look in person. Also, here's a link to their LJ, kozyndan. It's a good way to keep up on what they're up to.

Someday, maybe I'll have enough money to afford one of their panoramic pieces in original size...

BTW, if you want to see some cute pictures of Julie along with a cute story about her special day at school, you can check that out here at Shelly's blog. There are also some very cute YT videos of Julie and Sophie during Julie's dance class, too.

Also, in reference to those videos... That first one was apparently a "good day" for Julie at dance class. She actually managed to follow along for the most part to what her instructor wanted her to do and was willing to do it. When Shelly showed me that for the first time, my comment was, "It's a good thing you're the one who takes her to class because if it were me, we'd be leaving early every week due to her inability to follow along well enough to what the teacher wants."

I have a very low threshold when it comes to the kids and listening to directions. Patience is something I have in very short supply. It usually takes everything I can muster to let a lot of things slide. Yes, they are four and two. Still... It's something I try to be conscious of regularly.

I spent last Thurs. and Friday home from work. I wasn't sick or anything. I was just needed around the house.

By my own account, last Thurs. was a bad day. I know I spent too much of my time yelling at the girls. After the girls went to bed, as I reflected on how the day went, I realized that I needed to loosen up a bit or else neither I nor the girls were going to survive the weekend. I resolved to not be so uptight the remainder of the weekend. It worked for the most part.

Friday, I took the girls out to the Minnesota Zoo for what was left of the morning and early afternoon. We'd just gotten to the zoo and were headed towards Discovery Bay when I thought I spied someone I knew out of the corner of my eye. I did a double-take and there was my cousin's daughter! A very unexpected coincidence. I assumed she was there with her preschool/daycare program. I said hello to her and so did the girls. We went off to explore Discovery Bay. Unfortunately, the dolphin show was on temporary hiatus due to the introduction of two new dolphins to the existing pair. I felt bad for the girls because they LOVE the dolphin show.

Then we headed over to the Tropics Trail. The girls had fun wandering through there. Though, I kind of freaked as two male gibbons proceeded to tussle with each over territory and dominance which happened to include dry humping each other along with slap fighting and chasing. Thankfully, the girls didn't ask about the dry humping because I have no f'in clue how I would have answered that question.

After the Tropics Trail, we headed to the food court for lunch. We had just sat down for lunch when I saw my cousin. That explained why her daughter was at the zoo. So, we had lunch together (with her friend and her friend's kids). It was a very nice coincidence. Completely unexpected.

We spent a little bit of time playing in a room where the kids can dress up in animal costumes and whatnot. While we were in there, two zoo volunteers came in with a rabbit that the girls got to pet and stuff. Then we went home.

Saturday was pretty mellow. Shelly had a class to teach so I took the girls to Chipotle (surprise! Not!) for lunch. When we got back, Sophie took a nice long nap and I let Julie try out the "Moon Sand" castle playset that we bought for the girls. Though, again, I think I was too tough on her about getting sand out of the inflatable sandbox and onto the floor. Might explain why she said she was done much earlier than I expected.

Sunday was kind of a gloomy day. We spent it mostly indoors. I got a brief break from home in the afternoon and went over to St. Paul to check out Familia Skateshop. I've been getting their email newsletter for awhile now and finally got around to checking out the store itself. Nice little shop. I managed to avoid buying another pair of shoes. (Those Adidas Stan Smith Skates in navy, "running white", and "sun" were so tempting!) I guess they're also one of the shops (or maybe the only shop) in the area to get US-bound limited edition Nike SB stuff, too. Not sure if it's good that I know that or not.

We also had another Skype video chat with my brother and his fiancee. That was nice too. They got to see the girls a little bit (even if the girls were total goof balls).

One thing about the past few days. Since Shelly was taking it easy, it meant we ate out more often than we usually do. Mostly because I wasn't going to do much cooking. I think the girls liked that.

I think we should be back to "normal" around the house now. Hopefully, that also means I get back to playing more video games, too.

Happy birthday, Shelly!

I love you!

A belated Xmas/early Valentine's Day gift from Shelly.

My wife is a knitter, for those who didn't know. Those of you who live with a knitter, you're used to finding the occasional needle, stitch marker, and bits and pieces of yarn around the house.

Recently, I "inherited" my wife's '93 Honda Civic when we bought an '04 Honda Odyssey as her daily driver. No biggie there. Though, I must say that this might be the oddest place I've found her knitting stuff.





What you see there is a stitch marker in the air vent in the Civic. Now, this vent is up on the dash on the driver's side. I don't know how it managed to find its way here. But, I find it hilarious that it's here of all places.

Shelly got a new lighting tent so she can post better picture for her Etsy shop and eBay auctions. But, of course, I got curious about it.

Shelly has put up another blog post chock full of cute pictures of the girls.

Enjoy...

Julie went back to pre-school yesterday. The big change is that she's now riding a school bus. On her own. Apparently everything went well. Read Shelly's blog post at the provided link because there's an accompanying picture there.

So, my birthday started a bit earlier than I expected. (Yes, today is my birthday. I am now 35. gasp!)

First off, my friend Jonathan gave me a disc golf driver disc from the first Surly Brewing Co. disc golf tournament. I had hoped to play in it but we were at camp that weekend. I will most definitely make it for the next one (schedule permitting). The disc, if I remember correctly, is a 168g Discraft Elite Z Surge driver. I think he gave it to me as a birthday present. He said it was $10 but then said "Happy birthday". But, by that point I'd had 3 of Surly's Furious ales and another home-brewed brown ale. So... Yeah. That's at least what I remember.

The capper was last night. I came home from work early so Shelly could go back out to the MN State Fair and spend some quality time in the Creative Activities building. On her way out the door, she said that my birthday present was sitting in the box on our dinner table. I resisted as long as I could and then plunged my hands into the packing material to see what might be in there. What I found was pretty much everything that was on my Newegg.com wishlist (minus the motherboards listed there). I was stunned.

Now, I just need to decide on a mobo and get it ordered. A new rig is on the very near horizon!

Plus, the Q6600 that I got came with a free copy of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. But really, I think the first thing I'm going to play when I get the build done is BioShock.

So far, my mom called and sang "Happy Birthday" over the phone and then Shelly and the girls called and did the same.

From this post on Shelly's blog, you get this:

Julie bouncing on a ball


and this:

Julie on her Kettler Sprint Training Bike