So Sad

I ride BART to and from work every day. I see a lot of strange people and observe a lot of interesting things.

This morning from MacArthur to Berkeley, I witnessed a very young mother (maybe 17?) singing to her child. How sweet I thought. Then I stopped reading a moment and listened. She was singing a denigrating gangsta' rap song to her child. Mind you, she wasn't censoring out anything.

I am all for people doing whatever they want, as long as it hurts nobody else, but this was so shocking and vile to me that I feel ill inside. Children completely absorb information at such a small age and the song (if you want to call that a song - early rap rhymed and people needed talent to succeed) was really awful content wise and as a lullaby.

Before I could shake off the shock of it, I had to exit the train.

It's been a quite a journey...

As some of you know, I play World of Warcraft. This week marks their 5th anniversary. This means that I have been playing all 5 years of retail, plus I played another year before that while they were beta testing it (Should of seen Shamans then, wow - unkillable!).

6 years! WoW - time flies (pun intended). I think of all the hours I have spent with my friends and my family playing, and all the laughs and adventures we have shared together.

My first real big online game was Everquest - my friend Web got me into it. I created a barbarian warrior - who wouldn't want have an avatar like Conan?!? Well apparently, my Conan was blind as a bat in the dark - got killed and I could never recover my body. I was so pissed at Web because he couldn't or wouldn't help me find my body and all my gear (which looking back now was nothing more than some rat whiskers, and some old moldy boots). I damn near quit right then and there out of pure frustration. I stuck with the game, becoming one of the more premier players on our Quellious server (First human ranger with full Plane of Fear gear! Nearly first rogue with the epic weapon - other rogue beat me by an hour!). I ran a guild coalition of 100+ and it was extremely taxing, eventually causing me to retire. I formed new friendships, which eventually led me to move to the bay area. I guess it was via Everquest that a direct link could be made to finding my wonderful Allison.

Anyway, love Blizzard games. They are the best - they have this snarky sense of humor, very high quality, and very fun. When they announced they were going to make an Everquest killer, I was all over it. 6 years later, they completely dominate the gaming market. 11 million people play the game with a new expansion coming out. That number is sure to continue to swell.

I thank Blizzard for making a wonderful game, and giving me hours of enjoyment. My hats off to my friends and family in the 'Spears of Brittany' (our guild) who continue to put up with me. We play on Daggerspine, as a casual pve guild, but are fanatical when it comes to destroying Alliance players. Blackwatch players, remember, you aren't safe anywhere!

Here is a link to all my characters that I actively play if you ever want to contact me:

Mootraza
Mootraz (usually played by my brother)
Altraz
Trazzy (my newest love!)

Here's to another successful five Blizzard!

Some Pirate Jokes

A pirate walks into a bar wearing a paper towel on his head. He sits down at the bar and orders some dirty rum.
The bartender asks, "Why are you wearing a paper towel?"
"Arrrrrrr I've got a bounty on me head!"


What's a pirate's favorite fast food restaurant?

ARRRRRBYS!


Why are pirates called pirates?

Because they arrrrrrr!


What be a pirates favorite letter?
No, not Arrrh.
P - It's like an R but it be missing a leg.


I would have responded with my favorite pirate joke... but there be kids around, and it be rated ARRRRRRRRR!

Some More Things I Love

Getting "free choice" of music instead of "studying music"
The pretty little birds I have scattered along the mantel
My bowls of succulent plants
My new revolving shoe rack
Organizing with genius products from the Container Store

We have been busy

Well, sorry for the delay in posting. We have made some progress on the house.

We bought a new TV for the wall. This makes me very happy.

A few days after we bought it, Carmen decided to climb up the chimney. Good times for all.

Allison's grandparents came out and helped us finish up the lighting. They had only seen the house when it was at bare studs.

I bought Allison a canoe for her birthday, so we had to take that out.

This weekend we are going canoeing with Adrienne and Erik up near the Russian River for a few days. That should be a grand time.

Enjoy the pictures!

We moved into our house!

We finally moved into our house roughly 6 months after we bought it. There is still more work to be done, but we now we can work on it while staying here. Saves a lot of time.

Here are the things we did to it:

• Removed all sheetrock from inside
• Replaced all electrical including installing a new breaker box
• Replaced all plumbing
• Installed insulation in all walls
• Resurfaced hard wood floors
• Installed entirely new bathroom
• Installed entirely new kitchen
• Installed new sheetrock, textured, painted
• Installed all new windows (6 more windows to go, already did 8)

There are more things, but these are the big ones and it was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. We could not of done it without our friends and family. Without their help, we could not of embarked on this trip.

Here are a few pictures of some of the more completed rooms. Allison has more up to date pictures. I'll add those in later.

Replacement windows!

We are now living in our house. Some things are not finished but it is quite liveable.

Carmen has taken up to exploring and playing with everything. She loves the new floors and enjoys running quickly then locking up her feet and sliding across the room.

All our roses are in full bloom. We probably have 20 huge rose bushes, and easily have 1000+ roses right now.

We also had to replace some bedroom windows as they did not meet fire code - but we just moved them from the bedroom to the living room, so they did not go to waste.

More work in March

Well, our journey to be able to live in our house is almost done. We are really pretty close to being finished but we decided to fork up the money to have our floors refinished before we moved in. It was fairly expensive, but the results are stunning. It is hard to capture the richness in the wood with the camera, it really should be seen.

We already have another update, but I need to find Allison's camera. She has been taking most of the pictures. The next update will probably have our furniture in the house.

Thanks for all the support everyone!

More progress made - plus a few pictures from this weekend

I didn't post last weekend, but we did a bit of work. I mostly installed a kitchen floor and wired a lot of the electrical receptacles (both inside and outside).

Allison has been working on the outside part of the house - clearing out ivy and planting new trees and such.

We went to a BBQ this weekend and while cookin' I was a bit too close to the fire and just kind of curled all my facial hair. The worst part was my eyelashes would curl together and when I blinked they would stick together like velcro. Somewhat painful.

Enjoy!

More work on the house

Allison's new haircut

Well, I am a bit of a tease. I told you Allison cut her hair, but I am going to show you high precision work. I installed the oven and microwave in our cabinets this weekend. Had to make a few platforms for them to sit on and then trimmed the cabinets to set them in. 1/16th of an inch is apparently pretty important!

From Allison's Hair

So remember when we were married, Allison's hair was almost to the small of her back. About a year ago, she trimmed it to her shoulders. Here is an album of her most recent work! I like it. I think she wants to color it blond or red.

Allison's Hair

Have fun!

If last week was nice progress on the house, this week is even better

We have been cranking out the work on the house. My dad and mom came up from Monday to Wednesday and helped out on the house. I took those 3 days off to help.

Saturday and Sunday my sister and brother-in-law came up and helped sheetrock and help with the sink (too heavy to do by myself).

Caulin and I finished up the kitchen cabinets on Saturday.

Deborah and Jim (in-laws) helped on Saturday with the taping and sanding of sheetrock. Jim put together a tool stand.

Here are some pictures:

Feb 14 - Feb 22

(I am tired of uploading pictures one at a time. From now on, everything will be in Picasa. Just click the image to go to a slideshow.)

I rear-ended someone today but our house is coming along great!

Well, I rear ended someone today. Was driving on the freeway going south on I-80, just about to my exit, and started sneezing (I picked up a cold the previous night). Earlier this morning, I sneezed about 50x in a row, for 3-4 minutes straight. My entire body ached. Well, wouldn't you know that I started sneezing again on the freeway. I just held the wheel straight and went at it. However the car in front of me about 10 sneezes in had stopped on the freeway and I smacked him. I was only going about 20 MPH so it wasn't that hard, but my car is in the shop. Everyone was okay - all is good.

We are making some real progress on the house. Last weekend we made real visual progress. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

I am working on the bathroom here, putting in a dividing wall between the shower/sink area and the john area.

Allison and I found this lamp at Home Depot on clearance. It was $90, but then discounted to $50, and when the guy brought it down from the ceiling, it was tagged for further discounts at $30. What a bargain. I have already wired it and it looks great!

I am putting up green board in the bathroom in preparation for the marble guy to install our shower.

Here is Pedro installing our cultured marble enclosure. It looks fantastic and he did a great job!

Everyone helps out. Here is Mom Ogden putting some mud on the screws and taping up the joints.

Dad Ogden putting in some sheetrock. Some of the wood is so hard that the final bit of the screws must be driven in with a regular screwgun not a drywall one.

My sister Jeanne & brother-in-law Chris working on more sheetrock. They are great at sheetrocking. Much better than me!

Here is Collin who is a cabinet maker working on the cabinets. I would like to say that I am helping, but really, I am just holding a few things for him and trying to stay out of his way.

Our living room is full of cabinets.

Yes, that is Allison kissing the cabinets. She thinks they are beautiful. I think she is beautiful. It all works.

Room before we started with the cabinets and painting.

We moved the door from one side of the kitchen down a bit (about 8 feet).

Here is the room now, mostly done. Few more cabinets to go.

More pictures to come soon!

My favorite toy in the house...

... is huge!

A few years ago I took a small bit of a bonus that I received from work and bought a homer theater in a box. It consisted of an Onkyo receiver, 7 speakers and a subwoofer. It changed my life. Movies just came alive - and it was complete immersion. In fact, I can barely stomach watching movies without having surround sound. I highly suggest that people should buy a smaller TV and get a nice sound system rather than going without surround sound.

So I have been wanting a new sub for our new house. The space is much larger and it was time to grow out of a $300 complete setup - however nice it was!

So I bought some RBH speakers on EBAY for a crazy good deal, and have been dreaming about this SVS subwoofer for a long, long time. It was expensive, and I just couldn't fork out that kind of money with the house being in the shape it is. The other day though someone was selling one. It was only 8 months old in prestine condition and still under warranty. I click on it just for kicks and WOW - it is half off the retail price! Amazing! They prefer local pickup - RATS. I plug in the zip code and it is Oakland, CA. I was going crazy inside. I email the guy saying I am interested and he responds saying, you can have it if you pick it up. He didn't want to ship it. The sub is huge - it weighs 175 pounds, and is quite big. How big you ask? Well see for yourself!



Here is a close up! Even without calibration, the thing sounds so sweet. I can hardly wait to get the rest of my speakers installed, everything calibrated, and watch some really cool movies.



I am so happy!

Anyone want a fried cat?

Allison grabbed a shot of our cat Carmen just sleeping away on the griddle. We did have to clean off her fur as she was full of oil from the pancakes we made earlier that morning. She did not enjoy that at all.

More house progress

We keep plugging away at the house. The kitchen is completely sheet rocked and now all the screws are covered and most of the joints are taped as well. Take a look =)

One day our house will be beautiful...

... Or at least livable.

I have been breaking my back working on the house. This weekend we put in sheet rock. With the help of my father-in-law Jim we put in the ceiling in the kitchen. We also started on the kitchen walls. Naturally the kitchen has a lot of outlets and pipes and stuff like that so it makes the sheet rock very slow going.

Then we also decided to put in tile around the entire kitchen, so there is an 18" stripe of Hardibacker board that goes around the entire room. This stuff is hard and heavy to work with. And wouldn't you know it - most of the outlets fall in this "stripe" of pain.

I also moved the door from the garage to the kitchen yesterday. We just need to buy a new fire door and frame it in. I already built the wall out.

Things are progressing - I am going to work every night this week on it so we can get it inspected and then get our cabinets in.

I have some pictures, I'll edit those in later.