Will's first haircut

Yeah, it's been too long since the last entry, but this seemed a good occasion. Will's lock's had gotten too long, so it was time for Liz to do her thing.

She not only cuts our hair, she's just had her first child a few months ago. So Liz was the perfect one to give Will his first trim.

Oh, and Liz drives, well, at least drove, a Lotus Elise before becoming a mom. So, yeah, she was highly qualified. =)

Click the photo of Will looking longingly out the window for more hair-cutting action.

Birmingham welcomes Apple

Will, Christina and I got up way earlier than usual and headed to The Summit, where the Apple store lives. After standing in line for about an hour, we got in and got our t-shirts. Here's an unboxing of one of those t-shirts. Enjoy!

Summit t-shirt unboxing

Will walks

Will will be 1 year old in April. Despite all the sleepless nights, it doesn't seem like it's been nearly that long. He's a little learning sponge, soaking up every sight, sound and smell around him.

Just in the past couple of weeks he's started to take a few steps on his own, and it's amazing to watch. While he still holds on to objects around him occasionally, his tiny steps are getting more confident and faster. Soon we won't be able to keep up. But you can see all that on the video.

Sorry for the lack of posts all these months. Besides trying to keep up with Will, I've taken on another project that's eating up a lot of time and work's been busy too. But that's news for the next post.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Will taken since last I posted...





Will is our 42...

Cotton

On this day two years ago, Christina and I were married.

It honestly does not seem that long ago. We've bought a house, had a child, been to Italy and, in general, had a great time.

I hope the next two years are just as much fun and filled with just as many adventures.

I love you Christina, and can't wait until Oct. 23, 2007.

Will crawls. No, really!

Will, Christina, Joey Rodgers and I had a picnic at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Sunday. We let Will loose on the Gardens' wide open spaces.

New and, well, not so much improved

Yep, new look. More by accident than by design. I'll tweak the colors soon and improve the look. But for now, it's at least working.

More cute baby pictures soon.

Spook Country

In happier news (unless you're a member of the North Korean military), William Gibson says he has a new book about to be published. All I know so far is that it's called "Spook Country." It's been way too long since "Pattern Recognition" and I can't wait.

Here's the latest post from Gibson's personal blog...

My new novel is being published as The Very Latest, The Most Recent And Terrible News. On the multiverse fork immediately adjacent , though, it's titled The Mongolian Death Worm. Utterly different works, of course, in spite their texts being exactly identical in every regard. For you, though, it's Spook Country.

Happiness to our military

In 2002, President Bush laid out our strategy against the "war on terror" in his State of the Union Adress. In it he named three countries, Iran, Iraq and North Korea, to his "Axis of Evil." The president said, "The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."

Back in February of 2003, North Korea said it had the right to preemptively attack the United States if it felt threatened.

Monday morning, North Korea woke up, had some oatmeal, took a shower, fed the cat and then tested its first nuclear weapon.

''The nuclear test is a historic event that brought happiness to our military and people,'' Korean Central News Agency said.

And don't we all want the North Korean military and people to be happy?

So, Mr. Bush. When you're done cleaning up that little Iraq spill on aisle 4, you wanna just go ahead and work on that nasty nuclear vomit in the North Korean restroom? OK?

Stay tuned. It's about to get really, really interesting.

Six Months

We did it! Christina and I have officially gotten through six months of parenting! Woo Hoo!

And Will seems healthier, stronger, smarter and cuter than ever before. What better way to celebrate than with a flurry of photos?

Zoom to Atlanta

My parents came to Birmingham last weekend to keep Will while we went to Atlanta. It was our first night away from the baby in six months. Knowing he was in very good, experienced hands made leaving him much easier than I expected.

We went to Atlanta to drive cars fast, see our friends Vivi and Allen, visit the Georgia Aquarium and, of course, visit Ikea.

So, using the video and photos I shot on the trip I put together this short (1 minute, 43 seconds) video. Enjoy.

Blogging by request

My good friend David over at All These Worlds is, apparently, bored. So, I shall entertain.

This is a cool video I found at autoblog.com of a Formula 1 race car engine playing "God Save the Queen." Be warned, it's loud. Very loud. Notice the people standing around the engine holding their ears. Oh, and be patient through the first couple of seconds of the engine tuning up. It does get better.


F1 Engine Song - video powered by Metacafe

Birmingham (finally) gets an Apple store

That's right. After five years, Birmingham, Ala. is finally getting its Apple store.

Ok, who's camping out with me for a t-shirt?

This is probably the second-toughest secret I've ever had to keep. The first, of course, being Will.

Work: Widescreen II

Almost exactly a year ago, I posted a series of images taken from my desk at work in panoramic form. That was in the old building.

A year later, we've moved into our fancy new building and here's another panoramic attempt. I still need practice it seems.




We've cleaned up the new place a little since these were taken. I'll try to do another soon and try to capture more of the concrete and steel architecture.

Animated animal action

Will loves watching our dog, Enzo, and our cats run around the house. He also loves watching video of himself on our iMac.

So he and I went looking yesterday for youtube offerings of animal videos. There's some funny stuff over there. Take this for example...

More Mustang Mania

In my profile (upper right of the screen), I say I want to write for an automotive magazine. Any will do. It doesn't have to be one of the better ones, it could even be one of the less-respected rags.

Unfortunately, most of the top rack magazines are in Michigan where temperatures sometimes dip below -90 and it snows year-round and the sun never shines. Except in the summer (July 3-July 5), of course, when it's 150 degrees.

So I've been seeking other outlets for my thoughts on all things automotive.

While it's only a "reader report" (i.e. - this guy sent us a story and photos for free, heck yeah we'll run it!), I got a story and photos on Autoblog.com. Hey, it's something.

Will Crawl. Eventually.

William turned five months old Tuesday. And to celebrate, he gave himself a good hand/knee workout on our living room floor.



Anyone wanna place bets on when he'll actually begin crawling? Six months? Five months and a week? Tomorrow?

Happy Birthday II

Christina celebrated her birthday with just a few close friends, some home made ice cream a Coca-Cola cake and an apple cobbler.


Mmmm good.

Happy Birthday!

Today my beautiful, loving, caring, ever-patient wife turns 29.


Happy Birthday Christina!

Mustang mania

I went to see the hundreds of Mustangs in town for the National Mustang Club's 30th Anniversary Stampede at Barber Motorsports in Birmingham.

After three hours of walking about as fast as I could, I had taken 127 photos and had only seen about 2/3 of the cars on display. It was an amazing collection of old, new, rare and beautiful Mustangs. Here are a few of the photos I took. More to come.

Here's a few minutes of the half-hour of video I have of lucky club members driving their pony cars on the beautiful Barber racecourse. The sound of those high-horsepower cars heading up that hill is amazing.



Hopefully I'll be able to edit more of the footage and have a few more videos online soon. I also have more photos I can share. I just, uh, overstepped my Flikr upload limit for the month. And it's only the 2nd!

Emily and Colin

Emily and Colin were married Saturday in, what I hear was, a beautiful outdoor ceremony.



Congrats, guys! Sorry Will and I couldn't make it.