TunaHut.com

Ava and I were chatting recently and I asked her, "Pookie diddles, if there were one person in the whole world who was awesomer than all the other people -- slightly faster and more handsome, mightier but also radiating a powerful humility, both a gentleman and a scholar, one of whom it's been said smells not unlike a bright spring day with a touch of passionfruit and gunpowder, a striking oak of a man compared on countless occasions to a fiery puma chief -- who would that person be?" Then I hit record:

Abby: You don't have to have two kids. You can have five....or three....or three
Kyle: Three!
Abby: Three you think? Okay, when you grow up all you have to do is put three seeds into the mommy and then you can have three kids at once!

[end scene]

That's how it works, folks.

We went to a Relay For Life event here in town a few days ago and there was a group dressed in various Star Wars costumes -- very authentic and very cool. There was a fairly steady onslaught of folks wanting their pictures taken with these kind-hearted nerds, so I thought it a bit uncanny to see one of them taking a picture:

Now, you're almost certainly wondering, as I was, what exactly does litter the pages of an elite Imperial TIE Pilot's photo album (or dare I assume...scrapbook)? Well, since we're all about dispelling centuries-old mysteries, wonder no more:

Apparently, they're just as terrified of fascinated with Ronald as everyone else.

We were driving home the other day (as we tend to do) and noticed a new thrift store near us -- I think the less-than-subtle yellow and blue theme is what really tickled my visual fancy, as it were. Anyway, I barely gave it more than a, "Huh, that place wasn't there before." But my astute wife started laughing at the oddly familiar signs. Seems the recent Mervyn's bankruptcy wasn't terrible for everyone.

A few days ago, Abby informed us she'd like to have short hair. Sara explained that if she cut off a full 10 inches, she could donate it via Locks of Love, as Sara herself has done a few times. She was all for it, so tonight Sara proceeded, a tad reluctantly, to make it so.

A few weeks ago we fulfilled a long-time dream of mine by getting custom-fitted for spandex jumpsuits taking the kids to Disneyland. My family decided this past year that instead of Christmas gifts, we would all save our money and just do a big vacation together. We had a fantastic time -- there was joy, laughter, and enough medical drama to make Noah Wyle soil himself. There's also some pictures of some other recent outings -- I'll just leave it at that and let the suspense overwhelm you.

Come see how much fun we have while you're sitting at home reading lame blogs!

...you connect to a computer using four other computers and three networks. My home PC VPN'd and remote desktopped into my work PC, which is running a running a virtual machine, which is VPN'd and remote desktopped into a computer in California, which is remote desktopped into the target machine. How many start buttons do you have?

I came across this photo project the other day. Basically some guy took hundreds of pictures of people from the same spot over several days and then stitched a bunch together to look like one big long scene. If you're into people watching or photography at all, it's surprisingly interesting to look at:

'We're All Gonna Die - 100 meters of existence'

Christmas is a great time. So is right after Christmas. Especially if you're in the market for worthless miscellaneous Christmasy junk at rock-bottom prices. Case in point:

Now why would we be so giddy about mitten holders? I don't even own mittens that I'm aware of. This, my friends, is where tiny people come in handy:

Bet you wish you could keep your pants up for a mere quarter!

I feel that part of my responsibility here is to bring joy to your life. In that vein, I'd like to nudge you in the following direction:

1. Prepare the Bertolli Chicken alla Vodka Farfalle as directed
2. Moments before serving, crumble a handful of Tuscan Three Cheese Kettle Chips over the top
3. Hold on to your wigs and keys, 'cause you're in a for a tastetastic ride!

The new phonebooks are here! The new phonebooks are here! Our little Ava has finally arrived. She was born this past Thursday afternoon at 8lbs 4oz (a sub-premie by our hearty Tuna standards) and 21 inches long. Of course, she is an absolute delight. Mom and baby are doing great, and Abby and Kyle both love their new little sister. I'll shut up now and let you picture junkies get to what you really came for:

Picture pages, picture pages

This morning I noticed a message from Ebay that I had ticked up to the 100 feedback mark and therefore earned the prestigious "Turquoise Star", which I guess is there way of acknowledging that my ebay skillz be wicked mad, so to speak. Anyway, had it been left at that, it would hardly be worth mentioning, but then I noticed a link to an achievement certificate I could print out to...I don't know...frame on the wall. Or maybe attach to resumes. The fact of the matter is, I don't really know what to do with this certificate, but it took me like 10 years to earn it so by golly I'm not just going to ignore it. So I'll share it here, where I can publicly revel in my own mundane-ness.

I considered linking to the full-on PDF for you to enjoy in it's original splendor, but then you might be tempted to print one for yourself and pass it off as your own mighty achievement, and I will not be party to your filthy fraud.

Since we're all about hot trends here at the hut, a few weeks ago we finally hopped on the Wii Fit train. A good time has been had by all, especially our little ski jump competitions. The other day, on my way to the summit of Mt. Fitness, the game asked if I'd noticed any difference in Kyle's posture. I said it looked about the same, not really sure if two year olds even have "posture" yet. It responded with some drivel about how it's possible that he needs to do some more work to improve it. Then it offered this insightful little possibility:

So, apparently Wii Fit has decided that I'm a lousy, neglectful parent. Thanks, Nintendo.

So there's some pretty exciting news around the old Tuna camp. We've somehow gone and managed to queue up yet another addition to our glorious progeny, due in the heart of yule-tide madness. For those of you more visually inclined:

We're at about 20 weeks right now, and we had our latest appointment two weeks ago. Everything looks great, and it seems Abby's insistence on a little sister was not in vain. Here's one of the recent shots (note the hand up over the head):

We're pleased as punch and just wanted to share the news with those of you far enough away to not yet have noticed Sara's...mild expansion.

Yesterday morning Abby and I decided to kick-start the day by hitting the ol' garage sale circuit. As we were leaving one house, we happened upon the exquisitely named CMO. DE MICHAEL. For the gringos in the crowd, "camino de" is español for "street of". Yes, we do indeed ooze local flavor here in the Old Pueblo. Of course, we made the turn and as I was explaining this amusing coincidence to my pumpkin, something delightfully amazing happened - the next street we came to was CMO. ABBEY! I glanced around for any realtor signs, overcome with a someday dream of anticipation for people to ask us where we live, but alas, there were none. Probably better that way - then I'd have to buy a bunch of packing tape and that stuff's pretty overpriced.

A few days ago we bought Kyle some Spiderman shoes. They've been sitting up on a ledge by our kitchen and yesterday Kyle kept pointing up to it and saying, "Making 'I love you' and making 5!" Quite confused, we finally looked where he was pointing, and sure enough, the picture on the shoe box clearly shows ol' Spidey making 'I love you' and making 5.

No, I'm not actually done, but I had only planned to do the whole chart thing here for 12 weeks. Kind of a lousy last week since I went up one pound, but I actually spent most of the week between 193 and 194, so I was glad to get back down to 192 at the end. Besides, that works out to a tidy one pound per week, which I'm perfectly happy with. I'm still gunnin' for a final goal of 179 so I'm only about halfway there, but I'm excited about my progress so far. Don't worry, I'll still post updates every few weeks since I know some of you live vicariously through my victories, despite them being mild at best.

Here's that new pile o' pictures I mentioned before. Apparently it's been like 10 months since our last one - I really don't know why you people keep me around. Enjoy the show, kids!

Lotsa pictures this-a-way!

I thought shooting for sub-190 by the end of week 12 was a bit ambitious, but with one week to go I'm at 191. If I can just sneak in one more good week, I'm in like Flint. We're going camping again this weekend, so as long as I don't go nuts with junk food, it should be a good chance to get in some extra activity. We're also painting our room this week, which isn't excessive exercise by any means, but it's better than parking on the couch every night. And the best news of all, those of you sick of my little graphs are nipping at the heels of a reprieve -- just humor me a tick longer. I know these stupid OHT things are pretty much all I've been posting lately, but I think it's really helping me reach my goal. I actually have another album of pics to post from the past 6 months, but I like writing my clever captions, and you just can't rush wit. Maybe I'll finish that this weekend as well.

Only ended up down another half-pound this week, despite being down as low as 192 a few days ago. Of course, I was sick all weekend and didn't eat much for 2-3 days, so I'm sure that skewed things. I was bummed to miss my weekend bike ride for the first time in almost 2 months, but I'm mostly unsick now so I'll be "all up ins" again this weekend. Speaking of, I bought a fancy schmancy mountain bike yesterday from the list of that Craig fellow. I have a few friends with mt. bikes who have been itchin' to find some good trails, so I'm hoping to get mine tuned up and head out with them. It will definitely provide some variety from the one path I've been riding over and over. Plus, here's hopin' it will provide an opportunity for awesome phrases like, "Man, you got some sweet air!" or maybe, "Whoa, that skid was wicked!"

Very exciting week - I finally hit the 10-pound mark, weighing in at 194 this morning! The last few times I've tried to lose a few pounds, I've burned out pretty quick. I'm not sure what's been different this time, but after 2 months I'm still going strong and enjoying this. I'm only about 40% done with my goal, but hitting double-digits is a nice morale boost. Now my next target is getting down into the 180's by week 12.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Kyle and I went camping last weekend which I was looking forward to as a great chance for some extra exercise. We did some hiking, but I also ate a lot of junk, so it was pretty much a wash. Still down one more pound to 195.5, narrowly evading that impending upper green line. I'm really looking forward to hitting 194 since that will be the 10-pound mark. I've been getting a little lax on my eating, so I need to tighten up there a bit, at least until I get down to my goal. Ideally, I'm gunning for 179. Twenty-five pounds is a nice, even number, and in college I got down to the lower 180's so I'd like to beat that. Plus, I'll be back at my junior high weight! Yeah, I was a beefy little lad.

This past weekend, a herd of guys from our church went up to the mountains to be rugged and outdoorsy, as men are wont to be. Not to be outdone in outdoorsyness, Kyle and I eagerly joined them for our first father-son camping trip. Needless to say, the boy's newfound fondness for s'mores runs deep. One of the highlights was tagging along with the group to a nearby cliff where rockclimbing was afoot. I hadn't planned to actually do any climbing and assumed Kyle would be terrified at the prospect (I don't know why, considering climbing all over stuff is one of his relentless proficiencies, second only to chucking toys at my face). However, the offer was made for him to have a go at it, he solemnly gave a nod of acceptance, and the harnessing began. I lifted him up to a good spot and figured he'd just stay put long enough for me to snap a few pictures, but he actually tried climbing a bit and really enjoyed it. Very fun little memory.

Well, I was bound to have an "up" week eventually. I was down 2 pounds last week, so I'm really not too bummed about being up 1/2 this week. In fact, I've been bouncing between 196 and 197 all week, so ending at 196.5 is quite apropos. I'm still staying surprisingly consistent with eating healthy and exercising a few times each week. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I think the fact that the bulk of my exercise is weight training means I'll need to settle for longer-term, more indirect weight loss. Of course, I'll also need to settle for looking like a mighty stallion in a few months. Decent trade-off, my friends.

Down to 196. By the end of this 12 weeks, I'd love to be down in the 180's. My sleeping this week wasn't quite as hearty as I had planned, although I think I did go to bed before midnight every night, and even before 11 some nights. Sadly, this is actually a decent accomplishment. This weekend I hit two more bike rides - about 9 miles each. Every year Tucson has a big city-wide bike race, El Tour de Tucson*. The full route is like 100+ miles, but you can start at various points for shorter routes. Since biking has become surprisingly enjoyable, I'm thinking about working up to one of the shorter ones, like 35 miles - this would be an exciting little triumph for me. It's not until November, so I still have plenty of time to work on squeezing into the obligatory neon-yellow spandex.

*This translates roughly to "The Tour of Tucson"

Down another pound this week even though I only hit the gym twice. However, I did squeeze in two 5-mile bike rides this past weekend. Now that I seem to be doing really well with eating healthy and excercising, I think this next week I'm going to try focusing more on getting better sleep. I typically get in about 6 hours per night, and my energy level hasn't been a big problem, but I'm curious to see what would change if I consistently got 7-8 hours per night for a week or two. If nothing else, I might look forward to more vivid dreams, but mine typically consist of me huddled under a table in a library weeping. And my tears are made of suger-free pudding. Oh, and there's a scrappy Norwegian lad over in Non-Fiction endlessly belting out "Highway to the Danger Zone".

Lots of good things to report this week. I went to the gym 4 out of 5 days (I'm only really shooting for workdays since I go at lunch), which felt great. I then went for about a 4-mile bike ride on Saturday morning, which is a pretty decent ride for an aging out-of-shape chunker like myself on a 20-year old equally-aging mountain bike. Finally, rounded out the week down another pound at 199. I'm gunning for at least one more pound this next week to stay ahead of that pound-a-week curve. Things are really shaping up for a fantastic bikini season!

Kids tend to generally be fun, considering that's all they really care about, but every once in awhile as a parent you get to enjoy one of those extra special take-you-by-surprise smile-on-your-face moments. I had one of those with Kyle recently and just wanted to share.

I was sitting in the bathroom peacefully working on a little project (we tell it like it is here at the Hut), when a certain young boy ran up to the door and started jiggling the handle and asking for me to come out and play. I relayed that I'd be happy to join him once I completed my transaction. It gets quiet out there, then I see some little chubby fingers stick through under the door and quickly retract. I smile, then a few seconds later the fun begins. A little blue matchbox car comes racing under the door on the tile and bumps into the bathmat. Of course, I turn it around and send it back through to be received by giggles of delight. This continues for about 2-3 minutes, then I get down on the floor to peek underneath (I'm done with my business by now). Sure enough, I see a little face pressed against the floor with a little eye and half a smile staring back at me. The car takes a few more laps, then he jumps up and runs off. The moment's all over. I'm still smiling about it.

This week was a tick disappointing. I continued to eat really well this week and am still taking a few short walks each day, but didn't get in much additional exercise. That being the case, my weight stayed right at 200. I've actually been right at 200 for about the past year or two (I went up a few pounds recently before starting this) so I was really looking forward to breaking below that. My weight typically fluctuates very little, so it seems like no matter what I did, I was always right at 200. I guess I should appreciate the irony in quickly dropping back down to 200 and then having it sit right on that line all week.

I did end up joining a gym, which I'm pumped about (HA!) but I'm planning to use that primarily for strength training, so that probably won't lend itself to immediate notable weight loss. Of course, like I said before, this is really more about overall health and weight is just one of the most easily trackable indicators. Regardless, I'll hopefully knock off another pound or so before next week.

One fantastic thing I've noticed over the past few weeks is that I've had a much more consistent energy level throughout the day. That alone is worth eating healthier to me since before I would aways get incredibly sleepy in the afternoon. Then I have to deal with my managers bursting into a tizzy because they find me napping under my desk again. Apparently their definition of "productivity" is a bit skewed from mine.

What the crap is "Operation Hot Tuna", you ask? A few weeks ago I started taking a few simple steps towards un-chubbing a bit. Ideally, I'm enticed by the prospect of dropping a few pounds, but I'm really trying to approach this as a long term shift towards overall better health. I decided that a fun way to track my progress would be to document the next several weeks right here. I've been at this for about two weeks now, and things are going pretty well. Let's jump right in with a pretty graph, shall we:

So, the blue line is my weight and the green lines represent the range I'm expecting to stay within. The top green line assumes losing one pound per week, the bottom is two per week. So far I'm right on tack with the lower line, which is a nice start! My main change over the past two weeks has been a very intentional focus on what I eat -- more fruits and veggies, whole grains, nuts, low-fat dairy, lean meats. I've also been trying to go for walks a few times a day, and squeeze in a yoga DVD a few evenings each week. I landed on yoga because it seemed like a great balance of cardio, strength training, balance, breathing, and stretching - just a good overall package.

I'm also exploring joining a gym - hopefully within the next week. Either that or a cage-fighting league. Those guys are usually in pretty good shape.

There's alot of funny stuff out on these webs, but this is one of the most hilarious things I've seen in awhile. Not so much "funny joke ha-ha" funny, but more like "wow, that's incredible bizarre, disturbing, and I wish I would have been brilliant enough to pull it off." With somebody else's child, of course -- I hear therapy is pretty expensive.

So, I was having a little bedtime conversation with Abby tonight which involved a discussion about getting married, which transitioned into a discussion about getting older (seeing as how she's self-admittedly far too young for nuptials just yet). At this point, taking on a very sad and somewhat fearful tone, she explained that she didn't want to get older and be a grown up. I began to rationally assuage her concerns by explaining that getting older is a long and gradual process, and one does not simply become an adult, but progresses through blah blah blah. She dismissed my thoughtful argument by reiterating that she very much wanted to remain a 4-year old, even progressing to five being miserably undesirable.

Daddy: "What do you like so much about being a 4-year old?"
Abby [still quite forlorn]: "I don't want to have to get my own drinks."

Apparently I'd forgotten what an overwhelming hassle this task was.

Just in case there was any confusion, I want to make it perfectly clear that I wholeheartedly endorse Mrs. Renfro's Raspberry Chipotle Salsa. Every moment you continue without this salsa in your life is another moment your soul is lessened. It cures pneumonia. I guarantee that either you'll love this stuff as much as I do, or you're an idiot. Oh, and you're welcome.

*Chipwise, Mission Restaurant Style Tortilla Rounds are a perfectly adequate vehicle -- Santitas have also served me well.

Feeling neglected and forgotten? Good! I'd hate to think us waiting six months to update this puppy was all for nothing. Moving along, we have a buttload of pictures of us, because...well...we're really good looking and we figured you'd be jonesin' for an eyeful.

You could always not click this link, but that would just be stupid

Since our little high-speed video from a few months ago of Kyle crawling around was such a hit (and by "hit" we mean that at least two people told us they liked it), we decided it was definitely time for another - this time of the other child, of course:

I accomplished something very significant tonight and I wanted to share. First off, I'm pretty hooked on Wii Sports. In each of the five sports, you gain points for winning and once you reach 1,000 points, you're considered a "Pro" in that sport. A few weeks ago, I Pro'd out in all five sports, which is not too terribly hard (although I still celebrated by patting myself on the butt along with a "Strong work, Tank"). But tonight, I finally broke the 2,000 mark in a sport -- Tennis, of course. Not only that, but I hit 2,000 exactly, which I thought was pretty cool. Cool in a lame kind of way.

Oh, and for any of you out there in Wii-land who want our special little Wii code so you can take advantage of Nintendo's over-elaborate process for hooking up, throwing down, and just generally bringing it, here you go: 4727-8918-5926-3311. Of course, you have to send us yours too for it to be any use. If you can't find it or simply don't have one, feel free to send your credit card number instead.

Saw this video today and thought it was pretty hilarious. Wonder how long it'll be before this little "ride" shows up at the ol' county fair.

So, many fortnights a-back, I mentioned we'd be setting up a MySpace page for Sara someday. We finally worked on it tonight and she's now up and running, so all you little social networkers can just hop-to with your friend requests.

Oh, and while I have your attention, everyone reading this needs to visit your local Target (or sundry retailer of choice) and drop seven crisp Washingtons on a Crest Spinbrush Pro right now. There's a whole new tier of oral cleanliness which can only be found on the other side of using consumer-grade machines in your mouth.

Here's a few of them fancy moving pictures I was talkin' about. I hear these are all the rage with the kids out on the internets.

Click the play button in the middle to just watch the video -- if you click anywhere else on the video panel, it will kick you over to the actual YouTube page, and lord knows what else you'll find if you start pokin' around over there.

So the Nintendo Wii has an internet plug-in, and I was checking out how the site looked on there -- works pretty well, actually. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post something from here. Turns out, typing lots of stuff is not much fun at all.

Here's that new album I promised -- let the aw-how-cute's ensue. Abby will be three in a few weeks and Kyle is knockin' on 10 months (Sara's like 28 or something). He's been walking like a champ the past week or two and she continues to amaze us with how smart she is. All in all, everything on the Tuna-front is going really well. We have a few videos we want to post too, so I'll try to get those up soon.

Click me to see the pretty people!

So we've wanted to post some new stuff here, but I've been working up to switching our web hosting plan, then upgrading our blog engine. Well, I finally ran through both tonight and for the most part, we still seem to be in one piece. There are a few minor tweaks I'll need to work out, but everything we care about is up and running. Hopefully now we'll get some new stuff to you soon :)

Saw this picture today and thought it was pretty funny. Not sure where this sign is actually located, but they really should be just about everywhere.

So, in the spirit of being trendy and hip, I finally got around to setting up a MySpace page (it was cheaper than getting an iPod). I really think all this social networking jazz is just an evil front for Amway's big, sneaky return to prominance, but we'll just have to wait and see how things shake out. Until then, might as well jump on the hottest trend bandwagon since Beanie Babies!

Anyway, if you're interested, my "earl" is myspace.com/miketuna

I think Sara's going to set up one of these bad boys too. I know you're all just quivering with anticipation to be on her Friends list, so hopefully you won't have to wait too long.

A half hour of Kyle's morning in only 90 seconds. We could be more efficient, but it would start to hurt.

Here's a fun little golf game someone sent us. Sara got 58 (she was doing really good before hole 18) and I got 44. Can ya beat us?

Click me for some hootin' hollerin' fun!

10/14 Update: Bring it!

Just a little personal project I wanted to share.

Here's another little slew of pictures from the last several weeks. Things here are going well -- mom and dad are doing good, Abby's pee-peeing in the potty, and Kyle is making a pretty sad, but sincere, attempt at crawling.

Click me to see the pics (and to vote for Mike as your favorite person in the whole world!)

Kyle's first tooth came through yesterday and I thought everyone should see it. Actually, you really couldn't in this picture until Michael doctored it a bit. It's really hard to get a good shot of such a tiny thing in such a wiggly little person.

Absolutely nothing to do with the kids -- just thought this was hilarious and wanted to share. Hit the play button in the middle.

Here's a few new pictures from the last week or two. I'm also very excited to introduce you to the wonderful world of embedded video. Ooooh! Just click the little play button below in the middle of the picture and watch the magic unfold.

I'm slowly figuring out this handy dandy little blog engine. It can do WAY more stuff than I understand right now, which means lots of room to grow. My latest feat is adding a "Linkblog" to the sidebar. As we continue adding more albums, we'll post links for them in the linkblog so you can quickly get to them without scanning back through all the posts. We've also added a link to our old Tunahut site, just in case you're feeling nostalgic. My next mission is to play with YouTube and see about getting some video action in here.

Kyle rolled over for the first time today! Three months, one week, two days, three hours old. Yes, dad, it was to the left.

So, we've obviously decided to give our little site a hefty overhaul. I had originally planned to just redesign the site and use a similar layout to what we had before, but then decided to set up the whole site as a blog. So, what this means to you is that hopefully we'll update the site a little more regularly since this format will be much easier for us to manage. We're still pretty new to this, so I'm sure the site will continue to evolve as I figure more stuff out. Anyway, I'm sure you all just want me to shut up and point you to some cute pictures of the kids. Well, here you go -- enjoy:

Click me to see a bunch of pictures!!!