Camcorder Fun!!!

Michelle and I just bought a new camcorder last night. This is our second 'baby' purchase. The first was the car (we needed something safe and economical to drive when the baby comes and my old beat-up explorer was not) and now the camcorder. We wound up going to Best Buy and were helped by exactly the kind of employee you would want to be helping you at Best Buy. He was knowledgable, he was not trying to up-sale us, and he was honest. And his name was Aaron. So if Aaron from Best Buy in the Tustin Marketplace happens to read this....Thanks for your help last night! I think that I am going to be one of those fathers who always videos his kids. If in another year or two I get really annoying with it, please let me know. Thanks!

Here's the one that we got:

Tustin City Council Parking Ban

The Tustin City Council is voting on a parking ban on all public streets. The Tustin City Council wants to ban parking on all public streets between the hours of 2:00AM and 6:00AM. I have heard that the reason that they want to do this is because one of the members of the council lives across the street from an apartment complex and the apartment residents park in front of his house because there is not enough parking inside the apartment complex. For those of us who live in apartment complexes, this seems unfair. Tustin has many apartment complexes that were built 3,4 or 5 decades ago when it was perfectly acceptable to have only 1 parking place per unit. This is no longer acceptable as most families have at least 2 cars. This is going to especially effect places like Mitchell Ave where there are several apartment complexes, none of which have adequate parking and parking (even on the street) is always an issue. This also applies to home-owners. If you are a homeowner in Tustin and you have more cars than can fit in your driveway or if you have an overnight guest whose car cannot fit in your driveway, then you cannot park on the street; you will have to find another place to park your car. If this measure is passed, there will be no more parking on any public streets and the city will be spending $1,046,250.00 on parking ban signs, a Code Enforcement Officer, one new city Police Officer, and 2 Parking Enforcement Officers all paid for by our taxes. If you dislike this idea as much as I do, then you can find more info here or you can contact the City Council Members:

Jerry Amante - Mayor jamante@tustinca.org
Doug Davert - Mayor Pro Tem ddavert@tustinca.org
Lou Bone - Councilmember lbone@tustinca.org
Tony Kawashima - Councilmember tkawashima@tustinca.org
Jim Palmer - Councilmember jpalmer@tustinca.org
City Council Main Line: (714) 573-3010

The City Council should not be telling us that we cannot park in front of our homes.

Pretzel Day!!!

Today was pretty much the best day at work for the whole year. My work had an ice cream social as a "morale builder" for my division. I felt like Stanley from The Office when he got really excited for pretzel day and ran downstairs and stood in line for hours to get a free pretzel. I stood in line for about 15 minutes for some ice cream. There were 3 kinds of ice cream and a whole spread of toppings at my work today. It was really exciting! I think I need a new job.

Paper Toilet Gaskets

Have you ever noticed on the boxes (the cardboard boxes, not the metal boxes) of the paper gaskets in public restrooms it always says "Provided by the Management for Your Protection"? I wonder why it says that? Why does management get all the credit? I know management at my work doesn't order those things. Maintenance does. Why doesn't it say "Provided by the Janitor"? And what is management trying to protect us from anyways?

Stupid Ultrasound!

Update on my last post:
The cold-as-ice ultrasound technician could not find the sex of the baby. It would normally not be that big of a deal, but we planned this whole huge party for both Michelle's and my family for father's day for the big reveal. Baby McMurtry, though, decided to be stubborn and kept his legs crossed the whole time with a pile of umbilical cord in his lap. What made it worse was the bedside manner of the ultrasound technician. She was silent, rude, and completely unhelpful for the full hour of this ultrasound. She wouldn't tell us what she was looking at so we would keep asking her what she was looking at and she told us in such a irritated way like we were interrupting her schedule. So, we got a lot of good ultrasound pics and we are going back in a couple weeks or so and if they still can't tell, we are going to take it as a sign and just be surprised at the delivery. Here is a great shot of our baby's profile though.

Boy or Girl?

Michelle and I are going to find out the sex of the baby today! I have always been the kind of guy who can't wait for surprises. As a kid I was the one sitting under the Christmas tree shaking the presents 2 weeks before Christmas. As an adult, I read spoilers for movies and t.v. shows (I knew the ending of this season finale of Lost about a week before the episode aired) So when we had to decide whether or not we were going to find out the sex of the baby, there was no debate.
So, I'm taking guesses. Let me know what you think it will be. There are no prizes except for "I-told-you-so".

Dear Eric and Rebecca Wakeling,

I'm sorry for spilling a half gallon of primer on your garage floor. I tried to clean as much of it as I could, and most people will probably never notice it, but you know its there and I know its there. So, I am sorry. From now on, I will read new paint sprayer instructions in full before I attempt to spay praint anything. I will no longer feel that hand tightening paint sprayer hose connections is sufficient. I will always use a wrench to tighten connections from now on.

Sincerely,
Kevin