Posts of a more personal nature.
It’s like I fell off the face of the Earth or something…
Work’s been really busy as of late. We just hired a new jr. designer to help relieve some of the workload here at PowerServe.
I’ve been ignoring my site because I just haven’t had time to devote any time to it. Traffic has suffered as a result. C’est la vie. It happens 
But fear not, I am not deceased, merely indisposed. Hopefully I will have more time to devote soon.
Happy to report that I am not dead yet! ;) Just been busy with work, life, and in general…
I tweaked the design somewhat this morning. I eliminated the Google Search and Google Adwords elements from my site. I also removed the center column, which listed out the latest entries, and links to archives… (Both lists were getting way too long, and rather unmanageable.) Now, archives can be accessed by visiting the Archives section of my site… If I start feeling scrappy, I might even incorporate some sort of search into the site… but until then, the archive setup will have to be dealt with.
I love CSS. It’s amazingly easy to use. I spent a little under an hour this morning tweaking various attributes, attribute values, etc… and was able to significantly change the look and feel of the site without messing with the HTML code at all. Gotta love it.
Anyways, as soon as I get some free time, I’ll post some more. Until then, please bear with me.
Woohoo… I’m a Certified HTML Developer according to W3Schools.com now… took an “exam” that covered three topics: CSS, HTML and XHTML – and passed! (Got 66 of 70 questions right.) I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t do better, but I don’t think my results were that bad, especially considering I did absolutely no studying whatsoever before I took the test.
Last week, Kim and I went to Prenatal Imaging in Martinez, GA to get a 4-D Sonogram done.We took this step for two reasons. First, there was a degree of uncertainty starting to surround the Baby Gender Mentor test we had done in July. (The test reported we had a boy, but there’s some concern about the validity of the Baby Gender Mentor test.) Secondly, there was a degree of curiosity as to what the baby might look like inside of Kim’s body.The 4-D Sonogram was awesome.I met Kim at the Prenatal Imaging offices at 4pm on Thursday afternoon. They had Kim fill out some paperwork and select a plan. They then escorted us to the songram room where Kim’s parents, sister and brother-in-law, my mom, and our niece Meaghan joined us. They helped Kim up onto the examination table and laid her down. For 35 minutes we were able to sit and watch as they “peered” into Kim’s tummy. It was awesome, awe-inspiring thing to watch. Little Tyler’s already very active. He moved a lot inside of Kim. We got to watch him suck his thumb… and yawn… and stick out his tongue… It was amazing at how much detail the 4-D Sonogram picked up.We’re anxiously awaiting his arrival now. Kim is 29 weeks along, and we’re expecting to have Tyler delivered by C-Section sometime on or around 12/20-21.Our next session is scheduled for November 12th. I’ll post pics and video from that session as soon as I have it available to me :)
Things are going well for Kim and the Baby! She enters the 3rd trimester on Wednesday. We’re both excited to be so close to the end.
Life threw us a curveball over the weekend. We discovered that the Baby Gender Mentor might not be as accurate as we previously thought. A recent report on NPR and posts on several websites, including in-Gender.com, have caused us to seriously doubt the results we were given back in July. We’ve invested a lot of time and money in getting ready for a boy. If Kim has a girl, we won’t be devestated, but we’ll definitely be inconvenienced at the start.
To avoid any issues, we decided to give a local company – Prenatal Imaging – a try. They specialize in 3D ultrasounds. Hopefully, they’ll be able to give us better insight as to what Kim and I should be expecting.
I know it’s a little weird to be so concerned about what the gender will be. I wish we could be more patient like my boss and his wife were (who recently gave birth to a baby girl!). They didn’t know what the baby would be til she came into this world. I’m too inpatient, though. I’m like a kid at Christmas. I see the present. I want to know what’s inside. Know what I mean?
Anyway, we’re going for the u/s appointment on Thursday at 4pm. It’s not cheap, but it could give us some piece of mind. Kim’s got enough stress on her as it is. She doesn’t need to be worrying about what’s inside her, too. (Because that’s all she’s stewed over all weekend.)
Been pretty busy lately. Some major projects have fallen on my lap here at work, and I’ve been working hard to keep my head above water. From time to time, it’s good to just take a step back and clear your mind of everything you’ve got going on. I did that last night as I played with my mother-in-law’s puppies… (They can make you forget about anything!Kim snapped this pic last night as I started to doze off at her parents’ house. Cocoa crawled up on my shoulder and fell asleep too! I absolutely love this photo. I still can’t believe how big she’s gotten already. Click here to see a bigger version
Kim and I broke down today and bought a new digital camera, and DVD Camcorder in preparation of the birth of our son. We both wanted to get something that would last us for a while. So, we settled on a Konica Minolta DiMage Z6 – 6.0MP Digital Camera, and a Panasonic VDR-M53 DVD Camcorder. Pretty cool stuff 
We chose these two gadget based on cost, and features. The DiMAGE Z6 features a 12× Optical zoom, 4× Digital zoom; 6.0 effective megapixels, and a bunch of other features. The Panasonic VDR-M53 writes direct to mini-DVD discs, and also support Secure Digital Cards for taking still photos.
Once we use them a bit more I will try to review both products a little further.
Last night, after almost three days of painting and an hour or two of moving furniture around, we finished the nursery. I invite you to view the photos or view a slideshow of the photos we took as we worked on the room.
It’s pretty interesting to take on a project like this and see it to its end. A couple of months ago, when Kim and I first talked about doing it, I didn’t know when or how we would get it done in time for Tyler’s arrival. Fortunately, Labor Day weekend provided us with an opportunity to get it done. Tyler won’t be here for a few more months… but one thing’s for sure … his room is now ready!
(In case you’re wondering, the whole idea came about as a result of the Barnyard theme we chose for the comforter set and accessories.)
Here is a small design project I did for Mike Leaptrott, one of my co-workers over at PowerServe. Mike wanted some custom-designed poker chips for his new poker room. This was the first time I tackled this sort of design project, but I think they turned out pretty well, and definitely give his chips a more unique look. I can’t remember who Mike actually used to have the chips put together, but they exceeded his and my expectations.
Below is the artwork that I came up with for the chips. As you can see, each of the chips features the same basic artwork. To differentiate each of the chips, I used different color combinations to help them stand out from one another visually. This color differentiation was further enhanced by the colors chosen for the poker chips (see the photo above).
Kim is almost halfway through the pregnancy already. It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 20 weeks already.
I’m anxious, excited, enthusiastic about the birth of our son. I hope that I will be a good father to him. I hope that I will be a better husband to his mother. It’s an amazing amount of responsibility to bring someone into this world, and here I am – standing here with Kim – ready to take this intense leap of faith, by bringing little Tyler into this world. Yep, we’ve decided on Tyler as his first name. Don’t ask me about a middle name. We can’t seem to make up our minds. We’ve tossed around the idea of using Douglas (my middle name), Alexander (Kim hates it), Andrew, among others.
There is a lot I have to do before he gets here. I need to finish cleaning the house; paint a mural in the baby’s room; get new carpeting; get baby furniture assemble baby furniture; etc.
I am going to be one busy papa. It’ll be worth it though. The hard work. The sacrifices. All to bring a new life into this world. I hope Kim and I will do a good job as new parents. Wish us luck.