I want to thank my wife and daughter for the love and support during my education and training. without them I would have failed for sure.

In a related note I though I would post this advertisement for Bakersfield Memorial Hospital that I was in (if only for a second). I didn’t actually know I was going to be in an advertisement when I showed up for work that day.

UPDATE: 1 week as a paramedic and I’m on the news

Today we met the new doctor and had our first look at our new addition. The baby is growing nicely and everything appears to be in order. We were not able to tell if it was a boy or a girl yet since the baby had the umbilical cord in the way! We will be sure to update this post once we know.

I was digging through some old photos when I found a set from 2007 at the Oakland Zoo. I love this place and the exhibits are excellent. Enjoy!

When I went to the snow it was fun and exciting. My friend and I made a fort out of white, feathery snow. There were sparkly icicles on the trees, and one was long and thick but the rest were small and thin. My friend Sarah and I were playing a game about cats. My dad and I sledded down the hill once. The hill was stupid. I hated it! I like playing in the snow instead of going down the hills, but sometimes hills can be fun. When we got too frozen and stiff to play anymore, we went for pizza!! Up in the mountain there was a great pizza place called The Pizza Factory. After pizza we drove home. We went past Lake Isabella and through the Kern Canyon. There was no snow but there were lots of curves. I felt really car sick and I got an earache. when we got home we played Mario Party 8. Then we watched some of Tim Hawkins. We took Sarah home about 7:00pm. I hope we can go to the snow again.

Just thought I haven’t taken any pictures of my laptop and its stickers. I have more on the bottom and on the wrist rest inside. Some of them are older stickers I had saved, and others were added after I bought the laptop. With my next laptop I hope to laser etch something cool on the top.

Due to school our anniversay had to be a short overnight trip. To make up for quantity with quality I booked a night at the Old Monterey Inn a great Bed and Breakfast. The house is steeped in history and was a wonderful atmosphere. On sunday we went to the Monterey Aquarium and thorough enjoyed ourselves. The Aquarium is a great educational trip and we will definitely be taking our daughter there.

In other news we now have a Pro Flickr account and will be adding wedding photos soon.

Once again mitb.net has been transformed. I have owned this domain name since 1999 and it has served many great purposes over the years. While maintaining the same email for nearly 20 years has done wonders for my spam collection, it’s a consistency that I hope to have for a lot longer. This time around it’s not about portfolios, connections, tutorials, or self promotion. It’s about our life and it’s an opportunity for those who we might not see as often to catch up on what we are doing. I won’t be the only one blogging either. My beautiful wife will contribute, as well as our creative daughter.

This years fair is a first for us. Gemma has entered a polish bunny in the fair. Below is a link to the video she and I made about it. I hope you like it.

Most people out there have heard about the Threadless t-shirt company. People submit drawings and other members vote on which one they like the best and the winners become t-shirts. Not only are they great t-shirts, but they make fantastic computer wallpapers. I took twelve of my favorite t-shirt designs and added a bit of text from the shirt’s titles here and there with padding to make them 1280×800 (My new Macbook’s Resolution). Maybe you will also like them. Just remember that I didn’t draw any of these and so all rights blah blah go to their respective owners. Also go pick out a dozen shirts from Threadless.

How many people have seen these fairly new business cards called “MooCards“? They are all the rage among the bloggers and Flickr kids. These “mini cards” are a great idea but I would rather not pay $30 for them when a little Illustrator time can produce the same thing but with a custom look.

These mini cards measure 28mm x 70mm and are printed on a 17″x11″ Tabloid size card stock with a glossy front and matte back. I was having a bout of “designer’s block” so this project helped get the juices flowing again.

Keep in mind that I am now posting from back in the states a couple weeks after our trip so I will probably update this after conferring with Shiloh.

In the morning we planned on going for a walk but when we had gotten down to the beach we met another couple that was taking out the kayaks. I forget their names (one of those things I will have to confer with Shiloh about) but we all had a great time out there and rowed a good distance up the beach. The tide was on the way out so it was a good fight to get back into shore and the waves moved fairly good (but not enough to tip us over). The coral looked beautiful even from in the kayak. The next post will have photos from our snorkeling trip using the underwater camera, so you will see what I mean.

After lunch, we made our way to Honeymoon Island by boat. Honeymoon Island is a very small island a ways down the coast and out from shore. It had a small hut to sit at, a bathroom hut, and thats about it. This is the only time the whole week that the weather was less than hospitable. The wind made the waves rather choppy but that actually was the best part of the trip out to the island.

Once there, the wind made it unbearable to stand and was even unpleasant laying down. We did see lots of hermit crabs and other various crabs on the rocks as well as a great coral snake. It wasn’t long before we had had enough of being stranded on a tiny island being blown around by the wind. We radioed in to Maravu and Nei promptly came back with the boat and we had another enjoyable ride across the bumpy waves back to the shore.

That night they had a underground BBQ as well as a local group come to perform some traditional dances. The boys danced with a lot of enthusiasm and the girls were very graceful. I have a short video I will share later (not a very good quality since it was taken with the still camera). They even got us all up to dance at one point. This was yet another full, fun packed day and we were quite tired by the end of it.

Appearently this “Mad Max” style bus has been parked in front of this Walmart for several days now. All it needs is a couple of rifles sticking out of the windows and a flame thrower mounted on top.

I carved a pumpkin today.
Seriously!

P.S. More Fiji Pictures Coming soon.

While this post is being done on Friday it is really about Wednesday.
::
The Internet has been very sporadic so these posts have been delayed a bit. On Tuesday we needed to go to the bank to change money out (strange how some people don’t take US dollars ). The front desk told us that the bank was in SomoSomo Village 40km away. They recommended that we take a taxi, but we opted to ride mountain bikes instead. That turned out to be a great decision.

We got to really see the country side as well as talk will the various people along the way. We definitely recommend it if you are ever here. On Wednesday, we took a fantastic ride up to a waterfall. We had to hike in a little ways but it wasn’t bad. That spider in the picture was right over our heads. The waterfall was magical. We climbed up behind the falls and jumped into the water from about 15 feet up. After that we hiked back and we drove to a black sand beach for a little while. Every day is filled will so many adventures and we are quite tired at the end them.

Hey everyone! Well, we didn’t die on the flight over. The flight was pretty hard for me the first couple of hours. Every time we would have turbulence and the “fasten you seat belts” sign came on, my blood pressure would rise. Nate, on the other hand, was just fine. Then again, he didn’t have all of the “final destination” dreams that I’ve been having the past week.

When we arrived in Nadi, Figi, the sky was overcast and the air muggy. My first thought was “Oh, how fun. They messed up and sent us to Texas” . But as the early morning turned to mid-day the clouds blew off some and the sun shone through. The flight to Taveuni was in a very small propeller plane. It was scary at first, but the beauty of the ocean, and the clouds beneath us was too breathtaking that I had no choice but to enjoy it.

We landed safely, and then we beheld paradise. Everything about this place is amazing. We choose some pictures that we thought you all would like. Nate will post a message tomorrow with some more pictures.

Love, Shiloh
P.S. We love you Gemma!!!!!

Finally wordpress is installed. For now the site will be simple.

On Saturday I proposed to Shiloh who is the love of my life. We are looking at an October wedding. I am very happy.