First Baseball Game

I put together a little highlight film from Samuel's first baseball game. It's a little over 3 minutes long, and there is sound. Thanks to Pop Pop Mast for the footage.



Click here for a larger version.

Deep Zoom Experiment

It has been over a year since I first saw a demo of some image viewing and zooming technology called SeaDragon. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought it was cool -- Microsoft bought it, and they have finally made a version available for us regular folks to use. Here is my first experiment with it, using photos from a visit to Seawolf Park on Galveston last year. Samuel was getting ready to lose both front teeth, which gave him a bit of an odd look.

You will need to install Microsoft Silverlight, a small multimedia download that you can get with the link below. It's benign, so don't worry.
When you get the viewer going, click on the fullscreen button to get the full effect. You can move your view around by left clicking and dragging. Zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. Let me know if this viewer works for you.

UPDATE: The in-blog viewer appears to be broken, but you can still view the pictures at this link:
http://deepzoompix.com/Album.aspx?alias=cgmast&album=4

Houston 1/2 marathon

It was an amazing day.
Starting saturday night we headed to the hotel. While heading to our room we ran into a teacher from Samuel's school that was also running the 1/2. She and I set a 6:30am meeting time for the following morning to meet and walk to the start line together. The boys and I had IHOP for dinner and then off to bed. Please note I did not say sleep. It was a restless night!

Benjamin woke briefly at 5am- so I took that opportunity to eat my pre-race granola bar. Then up for good at 5:45am.

To the start line by 6:45am- start temp of ~55 degrees. The excitement was amazing. Gun time was 7:10 for me. The crowd support was so awesome- our names were written really big on the bibs so people would yell out your name as you went by. There were bands and just tons of people encouraging you. I typically run with an IPOD but didn't need it- the atmosphere was just too cool.

As I turned the final bend- there was my favorite support crew in the whole world. The boys were holding up a sign and yelling for me. I ran and gave them quick hugs and kisses which confused Benjamin. "Why mommy stop running to kiss us?"

Crossing the finish line was awesome.

Truly an amazing experience- one I plan on repeating.

Houston marathon

Christmas 2008

We are done!

Another great morning. The kids finally got up around 8am for the morning. They were so intrigued with their stocking gifts that we cooked breakfast while they played. Then the fun began. Both boys did a great job taking turns. We all were spoiled rotten once again.

The best part of all was having Grandma here with us.

Thanks once again for a great Christmas!

Christmas 2008

5 am- Christmas Morning

The eldest comes downstairs just to check. "Is it time yet? I heard the kitty up!" Not yet son, go back to bed. Believe it or not- he did so willingly. It is 7am now. All are still sleeping. Will post updates as time allows and photos at days end. Merry Christmas to all.

Galveston

More later- too tired, but we headed to Galveston for the first time today.

Here are some pictures.

Galveston and IKE

It's Back!

As of last night around 5 pm, our power is back on. That makes a total of seven days without power, five of which we spent living in the house. We were actually just a bit sad this morning when all the usual noises greeted us instead of the relative silence we had grown used to.
That said, it's really nice to have the juice on again. I had fun just pulling cold milk out of the fridge for breakfast.

Update -- We're Back

Well, we are back at the house. Thankfully we sustained little damage. There was a lot of debris in the backyard (about twenty bags worth), and a little bit of water in the kitchen, as well as some missing roof shingles (maybe 30 or so) but otherwise we were largely untouched. We have had no power since the night of the storm, but the weather has been very nice so we are doing fine. Others on our block have power, so we have been able to charge cell phones, wash clothes, and keep some perishables cold. I am using our neighbor's computer to do this update.

Other neighborhoods in our area have taken more damage, from extensive roof damage to flooding in areas closer to the bay. And Galveston is a mess. Estimates from UTMB range from 2 weeks to 8 weeks until we will be seeing patients as usual. They are still not letting anyone on the island who are not essential recovery personnel.

As with the last hurricane, the hidden benefit here has been some quality time with the kids and our neighbors. We spent the morning cleaning out the yard at the house of a neighbor's elderly parents -- good exercise, lots of fun, and a great lesson for the kids.

We are putting things back together little by little. Our next hope is to have power restored as soon as possible, and maybe to get the roof patched up before the weather decides to turn.

Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers. More updates later as we are able.
-Chris

Good news?

The storm passed over Houston today, and we've already heard from some people who went through our neighborhood. It appears that we have lost some shingles from our roof, but otherwise the house looks intact from the outside. No down trees or broken windows for us, although that doesn't hold for everyone in our area. Some people in our neighborhood appear to have power, which is quite a surprise.

Today we went to the zoo and then shopped for supplies. The plan is to hit the road for home very early tomorrow. We will probably have to get off the main highway before we reach Houston, as we have heard that parts of it are still underwater inside the city limits. The beltway appears to be open, though, and one of our neighbors has already traveled that way without incident.

Once we leave the hotel, chances are we will not be able to update the blog for awhile. I'm pretty sure that internet access will be as spotty as power in our area. Although we've already had several pleasant surprises, so who knows?

Our big worry now is the roof -- has it leaked, or will it do so if we get more rain before we can get it repaired? Time will tell. Wish us luck.

Waiting....

PLEASE DO NOT RETURN TO THE CITY OF LEAGUE CITY UNITL MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 2008. Certain areas of the City are without power and there is some localized flooding. Emergency Operations personnel are currently engaged in damage assessment.

This is the latest information from our city. Nothing from UTMB yet- we are hoping to find some people that stayed behind to check on the house so we can relax. As I was typing this a friend call and said that the police department said the city did very well- does not appear to be any major structural damage- no power for any of us- no flooding in our neighborhood.


The kids are a bit stir crazy- so we may head to the zoo today to get away from the updates.
We will head to Kitty's house as soon as it seems resonable to go. Eager to get home!

Sitting in San Antonio

We're sitting here in our hotel room in San Antonio, watching Ike on the TV. Actually we are watching the Cartoon Network, because the boys are tired of watching the weather.
After settling into our hotel this afternoon, we went for a walk on the Riverwalk and then had a nice dinner. During dinner a little mariachi band came by the table and asked if the boys would like to hear a song. "Sure," I said, thinking the boys would really like to hear a little live music. As the band struck up their first chords, the leader said very quickly, "we charge eight dollars a song, OK? La, la la laaaaaa. . . "
So now I have been officially suckered in San Antonio. But at least when another band came by later I knew to say "no thanks". Live and learn.

We also got some candy at a candy store, went through a mirror maze (very cool), and wandered into the lobby of a wax museum to watch a giant animatronic dinosaur head roar at passersby. The weather has been very pleasant (albeit a little warm), and we have nothing to do but wait.

Which is exactly the point of this blog post, and why I'm going on about the little details of our day -- because it's all we have to focus on. There is nothing to do but wait and see what the evening will bring. Galveston will get pounded, of course, but so far the emails coming from UTMB (where we work) are relatively benign. The real mystery is what will happen to our house (where the power is still on, by the way). League City hasn't been this close to a big storm in decades, so nobody is sure what will happen. Including us.

So we wait, and pray, and watch. Cartoons.