More F4 Pictures

A beautiful woman in a beautiful day.

Beside the driveway. It's looking more and more like spring.

F4 Film Pictures Developed Today

The footy oval near our house.

A bush near the oval.

A tree next to the oval. Sorry, these are kind of obvious.

This is in a riverbed down Gorge Road a ways.

Headstones and headmonuments in a Roman Catholic graveyard near our place. Almost all Italians.

Henley beach. Good for flying kites on this day. Not good for sunbathing.

Friday Night

On Friday night we spent the evening with my coworkers at The Royal Hotel in Kentown. They have some pretty delicious burgers. No pineapple, beetroot or eggs.

Here are Joe and Johnny contemplating what time they will have to wake up tomorrow morning to get a tour of the ANZAC Class frigate that's in town.

I have to admit; we're a couple of good lookin' fellas.

From near to far on the left, then far to near on the right: Neil (Mechanical IPT Lead), Joe (Ship Design Manager), Megan(Administrative Assistant), Mark(Requirements), Sarah (My Lovely Wife), John (the new Technical Director), Sam (the old Technical Director), Danny (Designer), Johnny (Controls IPT Lead), Mrs. Paxton (the wife of Jack, the Electrical IPT Lead). Sorry it's a little blurry. I didn't want to use the flash on 'em all.

The Home Town

Sarah and I grew up in Grand Rapids, MI, USA. Here's a few things people from our town have been in the news for:

A buddy of mine from the homeschooling days from Grand Rapids put some clues together that led to the rescue of some hostages in Iraq.

A young dude from Grand Rapids saves a couple girls from Lake Michigan in Grand Haven.

Three brothers from western Michigan referee for the NFL.

Some guy at Calvin wins a THX contest.

Exciting stuff, I tell you what.

Henley Beach

On Sunday we went to the beach. It's been sunny and fairly warm (say 60 or maybe 65 degrees fahrenheit), so we decided we'd make the most of it. We've had a few weeks of pretty dreary weather before this.

Willunga

We went to Willunga with Joe and Megan on Saturday (the same place we biked to with Annie and Nandor a couple months ago) to hit up the Farmer's Market. We got some delicious T-Bone steaks which we ate tonight. Sooo good. We also got some other stuff, but we haven't eaten it yet. We'll let you know how the honey yogurt turns out.

We walked around for a while after going through the market, waiting for a cafe to start cooking lunch, and found some really beautiful spots. We also found some fresh lemons on a tree in a park: they smelled real good.

Our New Pet

Here Sarah is petting our new penguin. She is doing this in a very gentle and loving fashion, somewhat akin to the way she will pat our new baby's head when "it" comes.

The Ship

These are the graphics I did with the renderings Angle did from the model I built:

They were released publicly yesterday at the AWD System Centre opening.

The Mother To Be

Since some of you have been lobbying for more pictures of Sarah; here she is, looking lovely:


She's a tough one to catch on film.

Glass Blowing

So on Saturday night we went to a glass blowing demostration in Norwood with some friends from work. The artist had his glass blowing shop all set up with chairs and a stage, with Irish soda bread and cheese to eat. He was Irish, and so was his wife. Crazy as it sounds, their daughter was also Irish, and she played the harp. After she left to go to her friend's birthday party, an Irish guy sang Irish and Australian songs for the rest of the evening.


Megan won this wavy bowl valued at AU$300 or so by raffle.

The furnace.

Kiteboarding

My friend and coworker John Morris recently invested in a kiteboard. It's pretty amazing. The sail is 14 square meters. It's connected to you by a handle and a harness. The board is fairly similar to a wakeboard.

The prescribed method for learning how to kiteboard is:
1) Fly a practice kite (2 m squared vs 14 m squared) on the beach for about 20 hours total.
2) Fly the real kite on the beach for about 20 hours.
3) Fly the real kite in the water without the board for about 20 hours.
4) Strap on the board and go.

A couple weeks ago we flew the practice kite, and decided to do it again this weekend. This weekend we only flew the practice kite for an hour or so before we decided to move on to the real thing. The training kite is large anough to yank you around pretty good, so we were fairly cautious about attempting the launch of the big one.

After arguing about what was what and what went where we finally got the thing all set up. To make a long story short the afternoon involved a torrential downpour before which the wind suddenly kicked up and neary dragged John and the kite into a fence, me getting dragged across the sand until John was able to dive on me, and finally a sad lack of wind.

Here is John flying the practice kite.


Here is a novice with more experience than us. He is not experienced enough, however, to tack back up the coast into the wind, so he has to exit the water and carry his gear back up the beach.


Here's a couple kiteboarders riding the wind and waves.


And here I am flying the practice kite.

Lately

We've been doing all right. As evidenced by the previous post we've been to see the OBGYN and had an ultrasound. The baby is the right size and has a strong heartbeat. Sarah has been sick with an intestinal virus for a couple weeks now. She hasn't been able to eat much, so she is feeling very weak and tired. She's on the mend, but she's sick of being sick. We'd appreciate your prayers! Thankfully she hasn't had much morning sickness on top of the virus.

Work has been busy. We just had the first public unveiling of the two competing designs today. Lots of media attention and VIPs strutting about the place. My my graphics work was all over the place, which is pretty cool. Not that many people knew it was my handiwork, but it still brings a certain satisfaction to see people admire your output.

The Baby

Here is our child. It's about 12 mm long right now, which gives us a due date of March 15 or so. It was sweet, you could see the kids's heartbeat on the monitor.

Uno

So we were out the other Friday night at the pub with a group of folks from church celebrating our friend Em's birthday, and somehow it came up that Sarah and I have been playing some Uno lately. Our pronunciation of the word Uno (oo no) set off a sort of debate between Australians of various geographical origins as to whether we were right or if it was pronounced like "you know." We were compeltely flabbergasted at this. It is utterly and completely obvious to us that the name of the game is derived from the spanish word uno, which in english is simply "one." When you have one card left, you say "uno," and hence the name of the game. I don't understand how such a large number of people could totally miss the connection between one and uno, and then think that the word uno should be pronounced with a long u. I could maybe see a short u, like in "under," "utter," or "up," resulting in "uh no." The only word I can think of offhand that has a long u at the beginning is use and it's derivations, which has an e after the consonant. Who knows. I can't believe we're going to have a child in this land of crazed mispronouncers.

The DDG 51 Class Flight IIA

Here's a picture of the destroyer class my company designed, and is basing the design of the Australian destroyer on.

Speeding Ticket

We were alerted by Sarah's mother today that I recieved a speeding ticket a couple months ago from an automatic speeding ticket generator. Apparently I was caught doing 73 kph in a 60 kph zone on our way down to Kangaroo Island for our one year anniversary get away. The ticket was sent to the address on my drivers license in Virginia, then forwarded to Sarah's parent's house in Michigan. They are now sending the ticket back to us in Australia. It's an efficient system folks. I'm really just mad about getting a ticket. It's never fun. So watch out for this intersection:

Joe and Ryan's 30th Birthday Party

Megan and Mary threw a big birthday party Saturday night for Joe and Ryan's 30th birthdays. This is Megan wearing a fabulous sombrero.

Here's Ryan taking a swing at the cowboy boot pinata. He's wearing his latin jazz shirt.

This is Joe.

I think he dropped the stick, and is about to start using some kung fu on the thing.

The object of our violence.

This is Ruben and Kate's daughter Lily. Cute kid.

Here is the birthday cake. As part of his transition from boyhood to manhood this year Ryan requested three cakes with various themes. I'm not really sure that Ariel has to do with anything in regards to boyhood on the first cake, but there are trucks and tractors on the second cake, and army men on the third.

The New Face of Fatherhood

Fatherhood

I have long wanted to be a father. I enjoyed growing up with seven siblings, and I've always liked being the oldest. I learned how to change diapers (cotton ones with pins and rubber pants) when I was seven years old, and I babysat quite a bit in my youth. I pretty much just like kids and taking care of them. It's also incredible to contemplate the fact that our progeny will soon be toddling about, bringing either joy or a poopy bottom to every person he or she crawls up to. There will be a little Cooper in the family soon.

I must admit however, that the prospect of impending fatherhood is frightening as well as enjoyable. Our life is going to change. Maybe not as much as it did when we got married 14 months ago, but maybe as much, and maybe in less enjoyable ways. We will be inextricably and completely responsible for the well being of our child. As thrilling as that is it's also kind of scary. It's also tough to think about the world that we're bring this kid into. Our deepest prayer is that this child will serve God when the time comes to choose. I found a song by Bob Dylan today that captures some of my feelings pretty well.

Don't think that I'm more scared than excited. My joy far outweighs my fear, and I'm sure my impatience for the child to arrive will become quite a problem.

Applied

Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the LORD. Proverbs 19:14

Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate. Psalm 127:3-5

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:13-16