Asher likes cars. Well, scratch that...Asher really, really, loves cars. So much so that he cries every time we put him in the back seat because he wants to drive and be where all the action is.

So every once in a while we cut him some slack and let him drive. The downside is turning on the car afterward to find your wipers going full speed while your emergency lights flash.

[click thumbnails to enlarge]


In the end it will work out for the best. As soon as he turns 5, I am going to let him start competitive kart racing.

As many of you know, my long term project has been building an interactive coffee table called KaveBox. Well, I actually had some time this weekend to work on it and take a few pictures as the rudimentary stages of the hardware start to come together.

Now that the software is well underway, I have started building the 64 individual LED units that will ultimately be housed in the coffee table.

[click thumbnails to enlarge]


It has taken me over a year to get this far, so realize the final product may still be a long time coming.

Winter has apparently decided to die out in February, so we find ourselves spending more and more time outside.

Asher has made it very obvious that we may need to upgrade our BBQ for the upcoming summer season.

[click thumbnails to enlarge]


With all the rust this hunk of junk brings, we should probably all get tetanus shots.

Today was great outside, so Asher and I headed to the backyard as usual to play on the swingset. While I took several photos of Asher, I realized that they turned out exactly like the photos I posted previously, so I figured I'd throw up a photo of my own ugly mug for a change.

The weather this weekend was extremely varied, as Saturday turned out to be overcast, cold and drizzly, while Sunday warmed up with some sunshine and blue skies.

Asher was getting stir crazy from being inside most of Saturday so we decided to take a nice Sunday stroll around the grounds at the Texas State Capitol and enjoy the greenery which had recently been added for the current legislative session.

[click thumbnails to enlarge]


All in all, it was a nice way to enjoy a Sunday afternoon as a family.

Jill and I managed to get out and about for a few hours on Friday night after dropping Asher off at the church for the Young-Women-Camp-Fundraiser-Drop-Your-Kids-Off-And-Donate-Money-Thing.

Since we only had a few hours, and there was literally nothing to do in San Marcos, we decided to grab a bite and walk around the Texas State campus for a little while.

[click thumbnails to enlarge]



Things were pretty calm, as could be expected for a Friday night on a college campus, so we managed to take a couple of photos for those who have not had a chance to see where Jill is going to school.

As many of you know, we suffered a great lost a few months ago when my laptop decided to overheat and die. Since buying a new one immediately was out of the question, I have been forced to use Jill’s Mac, which I really do not care to work on.

However, after much scouting around on Craigslist, I was finally able to find a nice fixer-upper PC that had plenty of potential, but still fit in the sub-$100 range. (For those wondering, I picked this up for $60)

Without further ado, meet Ulysses:

[click thumbnails to enlarge]


Using scrap parts from around the house, Ulysses now sports 2 hard drives (160 GB for software and 320 GB for storage), 1.5 gigs of RAM, a 1.4 GHz AMD Athlon, 2 48X DVD drives, and a GeForce 128 MB video card.

It is not the fanciest, but it runs quickly and gets the job done.

Since we got a new camera, I have been trying to get the hang of how to use all of its features. Here are some sample shots from around the house. With time, I promise these will start to look better.

[click the photo below to view the gallery]

Asher has recently become fond of the slide on the swingset in the backyard. He has gotten to where he can climb up the landing and push himself down the slide all by himself. He has also figured out that pushing cars down the slide can be quite a bit of fun as well.

[click the photo below to view the gallery]

With all the warm weather, Asher has started to enjoy taking his toys outside to play in the backyard. He is really enjoying the die cast metal Tonka trucks he got from Aunt Tiffani.

[click the photo below to view the gallery]

Today we went over to a park that Jill and Asher often visit. Asher enjoyed the swings while Jill tried her hand at tree climbing.

[click the photo below to view the gallery]