Posted by: Mike McDowell | November 13, 2009

Crash!

Hey everybody. Sorry for the lack of posts. The really bad news is that our computer’s hard drive crashed and along with it went all of our photo and video. Pretty sad, actually. We didn’t back any if the files up. Our only hope now is that we can hire a professional to try to recover some data. It will be expensive, but worth it. I’m posting this from my phone. Hopefully we can get some photos back and posted from the repaired computer. In the meantime, there are a few more photos on my Facebook page that aren’t on this blog. So check in there for now and enjoy a couple of shots I took with my phone just now.

Posted by: Mike McDowell | September 11, 2009

More London Photos

For all of you who are clamoring for more photos – here’s a few to quench your thirst. London, Steph and I are all doing really well. A big THANK YOU goes out to all of our friends and family who were thoughtful enough to help us out during our first two weeks of being parents. Whether it was giving us an hour to nap, helping us tidy up, walking the dogs or preparing a meal for us, it made a world of difference, and we hope you know that. 

Posted by: Mike McDowell | August 28, 2009

London McDowell

August 27, 2009

London Joseph McDowell was born on August 27, 2009 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Reno, Nevada. He is very healthy and was born at a weight of 7 lbs, 14oz and 21 inches long. There will be many many other posts to come, but I at least wanted to get this one out there for the folks that stay in touch via this blog. Here’s a couple of photos to wet your whistle.

London - one hour old

London - one hour old

London on day one, taking a nap in the hospital.

London on day one, taking a nap in the hospital.

Posted by: Mike McDowell | August 16, 2009

Belly Update August 10

August 10

August 10

Posted by: Mike McDowell | August 16, 2009

Mini House Makeover

August 9, 2009

We’ve been thinking a lot about getting rid of the carpet in the house. Our main motivation is that we wanted the floors to be clean for the baby. Now, our carpet certainly wasn’t in bad condition, noticeably stained or damaged. But, Steph and I bore witness to the number of dog accidents on the carpet, and we knew that deep down under there, it was probably kinda gross. So, we decided that we would give it a shot – we’d replace the carpet with hardwood floors. With a baby on the way, we also knew we didn’t have the funds to spend lavishly, so we went with the hardwood laminate floors. We got a great deal at Lumber Liquidators on some nice American Cherry floors. They come in strips that are just short of four feet, and they snap together. In truth, this process of laying floors was much easier than I had anticipated. Of course, I had great help in our friends Matt, Josh and Eric. There were certainly a few tricky parts along the journey, but we got it all done and it really looks GREAT! As always, I documented the process, and I’ve included some before, during, and after shots. We’re so thrilled with our new floors. They’re sturdy, scratch resistant, and have a solid 10-year warranty. The dogs have had some difficulty getting the kind of footing they were getting on the carpet, but they’re learning : )

Posted by: Mike McDowell | August 16, 2009

Hail Storm

August 2, 2009

It’s a hot August afternoon, quiet and calm. Temperatures had been in the 90s/100s for the past couple of weeks. The sky dims, and we hear a couple of light taps on the roof and windows. “Tap, tap… tap.” I don’t think we even raised an eyebrow. But then the tapping intensifies: “Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.” OK, something strange is happening now. “taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap…” It’s hailing – and hailing like crazy. The hail gets to be about the size of marbles at times. And it showers down upon our house, our yard, our neighborhood like an airplane opened up its doors and poured it down upon us. And as quickly as it fell upon us, it disappears, save a few sporadic latecomers. One of the more odd things I’ve seen in Reno weather in a while. I guess it was a timely reminder not to think I could possibly predict the weather around here. 

Posted by: Mike McDowell | July 29, 2009

Belly Update July 25

July 25, 2009

July 25, 2009

July 25, 2009

Posted by: Mike McDowell | July 12, 2009

Dr. Seuss Nursery Mural

July 8, 2009

I’m really really proud of the Dr. Seuss mural that we painted for the nursery. My brother (Matt) and I worked together on the concept and the painting and the outlining of the Dr. Seuss characters for what seemed like countless hours, days, weeks, etc. I really want to thank him for all of his help – his work on the mural will truly be a major gift to London that will be around for a while. Everyone who sees it just loves it!

I emphasize, again, that this was no easy task. As you’ll be able to tell, we had to take this process step by step. First, of course, was just the base/background color of blue. Then we did a chalk outline of all of the characters on the blue paint. 

The third step is to start filling in the colored sections, one color at a time. This was an uneasy step, because you could kind of see the character start to form, but they were still just an undefined blob of color for the most part. 

And the fourth step was the most time intensive, but the most gratifying. We added all of the black outline that you see in the photos. Some of the characters, like the Cat in the Hat, have a lot of black to them. But once that black outline goes down, the character suddenly became alive! We used a black ink, rather than a black paint or a black Sharpie marker. It’s a little high-gloss at times, as you may spot in a couple of the photos (in fact, you’ll notice most photos are taken from a slight side angle, or else there was a glare on the black ink), but it looked so great. You’ll notice that we have the following characters: The Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2 (from the Cat in the Hat), Horton (Horton Hears a Who), Sam (Green Eggs and Ham), Balloon boy (Oh, The Places You’ll Go!), The Sneetches, and “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.”

I’ve included photos from each of our stages of creating this mural (when I remembered to grab the camera), so you can really see the transformation. The experience of creating this mural with my brother is one that I’ll remember and cherish for years to come. It turned out SO good. It feels like you’re standing in a children’s storybook. I hope you all get an opportunity to come see it in person some time.

Posted by: Mike McDowell | July 10, 2009

Belly Update July 4th

July 4

July 4

Posted by: Mike McDowell | July 9, 2009

4th of July

July 3-4, 2009

This year, we were invited by our friends, Chris and Shenea, to join them at her parents’ cabin in Lake Tahoe (Glenbrook). The house was beautiful, and had an extremely nice wine cellar with more than 5,000 bottles of wine! There are some photos of the wine cellar below. You’ll notice that it has a full professional kitchen setup too. How cool is that? What’s better is that the wine cellar also has a secret passageway! I LOVE secret passageways! We spent some time on the beach and had a really relaxing weekend. 

Saturday night, we headed back to town to catch the Reno Aces game with our friends Mike and Amy. We had pretty good seats, near the plate on the first base side. The stadium was packed – in fact, an attendance record was set on the 4th of July with more than 9,100 people (I forget the exact number). The Aces lost in a close one to the first-place Sacramento Rivercats, 12-14. After the game, the Aces provided the crowd with a short patriotic presentation and then a fireworks show. The City of Reno had cancelled its fireworks show for this year, so we felt especially glad to be seeing fireworks on the 4th of July. And what’s more American than watching fireworks on the 4th of July from a baseball stadium. The fireworks were really done well, and it was a great and memorable 4th of July experience for us.

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