Happy Birthday Vern Dog!

Vernon is now officially 1 yr old today! He has grown so much in a year, the first picture is from when we first got him ( he was around 9wks). I thought about making him a cake, but he is just a dog... so I decided to go buy him a bone (which he was sooo excited about) and Joe and I will enjoy a cake in honor of his birthday! And a yummy one too, rainbow chip cake with extra yummy rainbow chip frosting :)
Unfortunately for Vern it is going to be a pretty boring day; he would love to go and play with his playmates but they are being treated for hookworm and we don't want Vern getting that! Not to mention it's pretty dreary and chilly outside so much of today will be spent indoors. It's a good thing he has a brand new bone to chew on.

He gets super excited when he gets a new toy or bone or pop bottle (he really loves those), and it's the most comical thing to watch... he does a happy dance which involves his behind shaking about 90 shakes per minute, keeping his rear facing you and yet trying to look at you at the same time (this results in him being pretty much bent in half), and avoiding all attempts anyone makes to take the new toy away. He also knows when I come home with grocery bags that he might have a new toy, and so he will look through each bag I bring in... he's pretty bummed when there aren't any toys to find. Spoiled dog, but we love him!

Makin' Speakers

Spring break! Uh...well sorta. Shannon's spring break was two weeks before mine, so we couldn't do anything real crazy like take a road trip. Instead of taking a leisurely spring break like most of my friends, I worked. I worked on building a set of speakers that have been stirring in my mind for the last couple of years. They're far form ordinary, and that's what makes them so great. I used many of the principles of design that I've been reading about for years, and finally made with my hands what my mind had built over and over again. Within a week, I was able to make some pretty respectable speakers

They aren't pretty yet, but they sound great - especially for not being 100% finished. As I have time in the next couple of weeks, I'll be doing swept frequency response tests and tweaking them to perfection (hopefully).

Shannon is thrilled to have a big set of ugly speakers dominating her living room, especially since they have plenty of wires and visible electronic components to match. I know it looks messy, but that's why I'm a sound guy. It doesn't need to LOOK so good, it just needs to SOUND good. Shannon loves me. Shannon loves electronics.

Check out the photo diary of the construction.

Smile :)

Well we finally have some news regarding the job search... Joe will be flying down to Fort Wayne, Indiana April 19th for a second interview with Sweetwater. The timing couldn't be better (we were both starting to get down about not ever hearing anything). What's funny is Joe was pretty sure he had crashed and burned on the 1st interview with them, since he pretty much told the guy he wasn't into sales, and the position happens to be in sales! Anyways even though this wasn't the dream job Joe has always wanted, we are both ecstatic at the possibility of getting a job! And really this position would be good for Joe because he could get equipment at cost... which means cheaper for us to build the studio he would like to have! Working with new audio equipment on a daily basis would make him pretty knowledgeable, and that can't hurt :) Also, and hopefully we aren't getting our hopes up too much... real estate is pretty cheap in Fort Wayne :)

If you feel like checking out the company... here is a link, just click.

Only to be a child again...

Well, I wish I had new news regarding the job search, but that continues to be tiresome... so instead I thought it would be fun to remember the fun times. You know, being young and having no responsibilities. All that is required of you is to play :) There are some days that I really miss those days.
With that in mind after the last snow storm we had (which really droppped a lot of snow) we spent some "quality family time" outside building a snow cave. It wasn't terribly huge, because we wanted it to be sturdy. But it was large enough by the time we were

done carving out the inside that all three of us could fit inside. Not comfortably... pretty much tight enough to make a person have a claustrophobic panic attack, but we did it! I had always wanted to make one there just had not ever been enough snow. Maybe I should put that on my resume, think it would be impressive?

Skills:

• Experienced builder of snow caverns.
  

You call this a blizzard?

I don't mean to sound like some hardened yooper that's jabbering on and on about how bad the storms used to be, but seriously folks...If you're gonna call it a blizzard, make sure its worse than the regular system snow that we get.


It was definitely windy, which added to the severity of the snow. As you can see from the pic inside the entry way, blowing snow has a way of getting through the cracks of these old creaky doors. The worst snow in the Keweenaw in my opinion is the heavy lake effect stuff that takes twice the effort to shovel, then makes the roads all slushy when they put down the sandy salt mixture. This storm almost fit the bill, but I don't think that it was the spring thaw storm (AKA St. Patty's day storm) that we usually get each year.

For the FIRST TIME in my five years at this wretched school, Michigan Tech has canceled classes. Hard to believe, don't you think? Well, here's how they get around it: They make classes "optional" on the really bad days. That basically means that if you don't come to class, it'll be like any other time you decide to skip class, since the dorm rat nerds want to keep their perfect attendance. To top it all off...I don't have any classes on Fridays anyway.

Vern and I had a great time playing in the fresh drifts of snow. I think he really loves the snow the same way he loves splashing around in the water in the summer time. It makes him feel tough.