I just wanted to point out, and direct you to a new site that I started – www.russds.com.  It’s less family and pictures, and more information and tips on everyday life.  I wanted to start something more general, and something where I could post information that I find interesting and that doesn’t necessarily have to do me or my family.  The goal of the site simple: provide valuable information.  So, you’ll find everything from financial tips, to computer tips, to productivity tips and book reviews.  I Hope you enjoy it and find useful information. Feel free to leave comments, and if you want to be sent an email, subscribe to the mailing list.
Enjoy!

www.russds.com

We recently had a vacation up in Washington State, visiting some very good, long time, friends of ours.  Here’s a play-by-play, with pictures!  Skip to all the pictures.

Our first destination was Reno Nevada.  We left Saturday morning and arrived there that evening.  Spent time with my Dad and Carol – there first time meeting Noah.  Sunday we went to the Rib Cook-Off.  Wow, great food.  A little on the pricey side, but well worth it.  Lots of people, and attractions.  I think this is one of Reno’s best qualities, they have the ability to attract lots of people to these outdoor, fair type events.  Also, great attraction is Hot August Nights.

Our next stop was Washington State, in the beautiful town of Sequim.  Noah loved it:

We stayed in the Home of our friends, we had the whole bottom floor to ourselves, it was such a great place.  This is their backyard:

The next morning, we had breakfast at a great little diner called “The 101 Dinner“.  Noah loved it:

Actually, it was very good, and the place had a very friendly feeling.  Everyone knew each other. And the customers who came in all semmed to know the staff.  A very small town feeling.  But also very warm to new-comers like ourselves.  And I found my new favorite coffee: Tully’s.

We first took a small tour of Sequim, driving around, and seeing what we see.  First interesting stop was Dungeness Wild Life Refuge.  There we found a nice walk way overlooking the Peninsula:

With some benches to enjoy the view, Noah loved it:

The next day we visited Victoria Canada.  What a beautiful coastal town.  We saw the Royal British Columbia Museum:

Craigdarroch Castle:

Parliament Building:

and the famous Empress Hotel:

The next day we visited Seattle.  What a great city.  We enjoyed it a lot.  A couple of touristy tips:  Take the Double Decker, tour buss – it’s relatively in expensive ($15/person), you get to get on and off all day, and they go around all the major streets pointing out interesting things.  It works great to see the city in one swoop, and then get off when you find something interesting.  The underground city tour is also well worth it.  Great history and information, also very funny and engaging tour guides.  Some other things we saw:

The space needle:

The very first Starbucks store in Pike Place Market

The Science Fiction Museum, which didn’t allow photos. But basically had movie props, exhibits, and lots of information about science fiction stuff.

Sadly, our digital camera broke during some takes of the Space Needle, so from this point, we only had our phones for photos.

The next day we spent time in Sequim and it’s big neighbor Port Angeles.  We walked down what is known as the Dungeness Spit, which is a long skinny strip of land surrounded by water.  It’s 11 miles long with a lighthouse at the end.  We didn’t walk the whole thing, but enjoyed the time.

Then the next day we left.  We left in the morning, drove to Redding, stayed the night, then drove the rest Sunday.  I snapped this cool shot early Sunday morning using my phone.   I found the shadow very cool.

I just wanted to add a little post on a great resource I found recently.  For the last 3 weeks I’ve been having an ongoing issue with Sprint because they couldn’t activate my new phone – something simple I would think.  Every time they would try to activate it, they would get an internal error on their system, they would try many different things, but eventually have to open a help ticket with their internal network engineering to get the problem resolved.  This went on for 3 weeks, and it was getting really frustrating.

Finally I did some googling and found planetfeedback.com.  According to some forums I had found, this site would actually forward your complaint to the applicable customer relations department in a company, and depending on the complaint could actually turn into action.  So I submitted a complaint about Sprint – the fact that it was taking 3 weeks to simply activate my new phone because their network-engineering group wasn’t addressing a problem on their internal system.  After completing and submitting the letter via planetfeedback.com, I got a personal note from an executive at Sprint inquiring about my situation, and almost simultaneously the problem was resolved.  It was a miracle.  I was quite surprised that the site actually worked. And that I got a personal message from the executive with a direct phone number, and email address – something I could never get out of customer service.

Planetfeedback.com. If you have an ongoing issue, and aren’t able to get results the average way (customer service) give it a try.  Seemed to work great for me.

We didn’t make Round 1:( We are now trying for Round 3 in a cute baby contest, “MyFM Cutest Baby Contest”. The winner gets a $20,000 college scholarship. Could you vote for him? Here’s how:

1. go to MyFM Cutest Baby Contest
2. To see Noah’s picture click on the box for baby’s “N-R” (Noah is contestant 31)
3. To vote for Noah, click “Vote” under the box for N-R
4. Enter Noah’s contestant number (31)
5. Click “Vote”.
6. You’ll then receive an email that asks you to confirm your vote, click to confirm it.

We’ll keep you posted on the results. The results come at the end of August.

Thanks!

We’ve entered Noah, in a cute baby contest, “MyFM cutest baby contest”. The winner gets a $20,000 college scholarship. Could you vote for him? Here’s how:

1. go to MyFM Cutest Baby Contest
2. To see Noah’s picture click on the box for baby’s “N-R” (Noah is contestant 19)
3. To vote for Noah, click “Vote” under the box for N-R
4. Enter Noah’s contestant number (19)
5. Click “Vote” and you’re done.

We’ll keep you posted on the results.  The results come at the end of August.

Thanks!

1. She always finds the bright side of things
2. She never complains
3. She runs in excitement to see other peoples’ kids
4. She can actually talk and interact with our son for 8 hours straight.
5. She somehow always knows the right way to do things.
6. She’s an excellent investor and money manager
7. She’s a great driver
8. She laughs and makes others laugh
9. She’s a hard worker
10. She likes going to school and learning new things
11. She loves to love.
12. She’s naturally beautiful, inside and out.

So we are walking down Main Street, on our way to Seal Beach pier – where we often find ourselves on a weekend afternoon – and we are behind this couple with 2 young boys, maybe 5-7 years of age. Now, the boys are obviously misbehaving to some extent because the parents are holding them close, and speaking loudly to them. read more…

A long, long time ago…There lived a young boy of amazing talents and gifts. He was special in every way. He had the innate ability to give happiness and smiles to anyone that dared look at him. He lived in a far away land, and is rarely seen. This exclusive footage shows Noah in his natural habitat.

We’ve been parents for 11 weeks now, enjoying every minute of it.  Although it’s some times very difficult, and tries our patience, it’s the most satisifying, and enjoying thing we’ve ever done.  Here are just some small anecdotal observations, that maybe some of the other parent readers can relate to.

Enjoy.

• I enjoy ‘new baby’ smell.
• Crying is not as loud as it used to be.
• I can love something, while simultaneously being upset with it.
• I’m convinced that time actually moves faster now.
• I have seen the cutest thing in the world now.
• Nothing feels like making a baby smile
• It’s never been so satisfying to have a baby make eye contact with me.
• When our baby smiles, the room actually gets lighter
• I can enjoy conversations that only consist of ‘cooo’, ‘ogogaba’, and ‘hababibi’
• When I noticed that he’s grown, I feel strangely satisfied.
• I’ve never seen someone outgrow clothing on the same day!

So we’ve reached the 10 week mark.  And here it is in pictures, enjoy.

1 Minute Old

1 Day Old

1 Week Old

2 Weeks Old

3 Weeks Old

4 Weeks Old

5 Weeks Old

6 Weeks Old

7 Weeks

8 Weeks

9 Weeks

10 Weeks