I am going to wait, however painful this is, until the iPhone V2 comes around. I just learned though, that AT&T has exclusivity for the first 5 Years. So if you were waiting to buy the greatest and latest technology breakthrough since the first Macintosh, to use on your Sprint or TMobile service, well, hell, just got out and git yurs today. I WOULD!

Today we are going to see if we can find out what sex the baby is. Will be be painting the walls of the room blue or pink?

That is a question that I do not ask myself very often. Of late, I am not concerned with what color the room will be but rather will I be a good dad? Will I know the answers to all my kid's questions? Will I be able to distinguish and teach my kid right from wrong? Will I know how to react when he/she comes running inside with a sliver the size of a toothpick shoved under their index finger skin?

I think the answer is right here, courtesy of by business partner/coworker, Tim Walmer. Thanks buddy.

About two years ago, i got myself a christmas present. a new watch. I did some research and decided on the Timex Ironman Triathalon watch.
i was just getting into running and thought it would be nice to get hooked up with a watch that monitored my heart rate, as well as, keep tabs on my running times.

as it turns out, i use this watch for much more than a heart rate monitor. actually i have never used it for monitoring my heart rate. but i can tell you how long it takes to get from our old house to our new house. or from our new house to the Home Depot on Colorado Blvd. or from our house to Coors Field.
I can also tell you how long it takes to wait for the elevator at work, get downstairs, catch the shuttle to the lightrail and end up at my car.

it's becoming a sickness. I time how long i water each tree. I time my burgers on the grill, and the time it takes from when Christy calls and says she is on her way home until she walks in the door.

also, off the subject of timing, i have taken to using the odometer to find out distances from our new house to everywhere. we are 1.25 miles from a King Soupers, and only .24 miles from a Safeway. We are 3 miles from the closest Home Depot and 8.2 miles from our old house. Sometimes I can even time and check distance, but with traffic it varies too much for my liking.

i guess it's time I check the time of how long it took me to waste time writing this post.

Obviously, the much-anticipated iPhone will have nominal plans attached to it.
You didn't think, like I did -because I read somewhere on the INTERnet - that included in the $499 or $599 price of the iPhone that you would get the phone's plans for free, did you?

Announced today:

The iPhone is slated to go on sale at 6 p.m. local time Friday at Apple and AT&T retail stores as well as Apple's Web site.

THREE PLANS

$59.99 monthly plan includes 450 minutes of voice time
$79.99 plan includes 900 minutes
$99.99 plan includes 1,350 minutes.

All three offer 200 text messages, unlimited data services, minutes that roll over month-to-month and mobile-to-mobile calls. There also is a $36 activation fee.

I did read in a news report though, seriously, that there was initial talk of including the two-year agreement with the cost of the phone. I guess they quickly scrapped this.

This kind of action still astounds me.



Who can kill a person or animal? But who could kill a pregnant woman? Someone that:

Is still married with two kids of his own yet is sleeping with this woman and has a child with her.
Has impregnated the woman and is/was now an ex-boyfriend.

A few weeks ago, I was reading a story about certifying your backyard by getting it "wildlife approved" by the National Wildlife Federation.

This certification basically says that you are thinking about the environment and how it affects the birds, plants, and other animals in your area. I loved the idea and since we have a blank canvas of a backyard right now, I decided we are going to do all we can to help nature and it's needs. I first am starting by putting in some trees with fruit. Fruit that birds like to eat. Also by planting trees, you provide shelter for our feathered friends, and our favorite backyard rodent, the squirrel.

I also am looking for just the right water feature. I want to get a cement bird bath for starters and then eventually add a water recycling fountain. Birds and squirrels have to drink too.

I planted an Ash tree in the front yard in hopes of shading our house -in 10 years - that gets nailed by the sun in the afternoon. After pulling my back out a bit, I waited two days before planting a Service Berry and a Red Bud in the backyard. The Service Berry provides fruit for the birdies and will grow somewhat fast while adding shade to our much-needed open space. Thankfully our neighbors have lots of trees that add shade to both ends of our yard but the middle is being hit hard with the sun.

The Red Bud is a gorgeous "little" tree. It will produce colorful flowers and a delightful smell. I say "little" because in 15 years it will reach it's adult height of 25 feet.

Here are a few pics. Also, Christy has done a fantastic job of planting flowers again this year.


Red Bud - Flowers and smells good.


Service Berry - Provides fruit for birds and gets tall

come up with a reliable, efficient, bug-less, and less aggravating font system that works on Mac? Please. I beg you. Suitcase sucks. Font Book is not intuitive. Please help. Thank you. Your beloved Denver Web Designer, dave.

Becoming the Kind Father
A Son's Journey

Are you a guy that has trouble showing his true feelings to your wife, kids or friends? Do you drink too much, kick the dog and think you have to be this macho MoFo?

I am sure a lot of you will not find this shocking, but I have always found it hard to relate to guys. Not every guy, and not guys in a man-on-man way, but I have always been able to buddy up to girls easier than guys. The reason I think this is, is that many guys always have their guards up. They have to act macho. I do not mean ALL guys. Guys feel they can't talk about face wash or planting flowers, or that sweater they love at Jcrew. There is a place for dudes being dudes, but not being able to let go and express your feelings to your wife or girlfriend, well, it's just sad!

I do not have anything against macho dudes, other than I cannot relate to them in social settings. That is why, when I stumbled onto this book "Becoming the Kind Father," I decided to grab it. Actually my coworker Nancy said "Dave, why do you need that book, you ARE going to be a kind father?" At first, I was unsure of the title but it had Kind Father in it and I thought, well, I WANT to make sure I am one, but little did I know that this book was going to answer many of the questions I have about why many guys are not on the softer side and as a result why many boys become so macho. From what I have read so far, we can blame our dads for this.

The book answers many questions us guys [sic] might have about ourselves. It helps to explain why men cannot connect with their feminine side or why they have trouble getting along with their mates, expressing their true feelings. Instead they hide behind a cement wall of machismo.

Calvin Sandborn does a terrific job of explaining this phenomena.

"The macho society that held John Wayne as a role model has created an emotional wasteland where eighty percent of men are unable to accurately express their feelings, and where that same percentage feel estranged from their fathers. The stifled male, disconnected and out of touch, fills the void with apathy or anger and the toll is staggering: short unhealthy lives, ruined relationships and damaged children. This destructive behavior repeats itself in the next generation as the sins of the father continue the cycle."

I like the way the book has broken out all the words macho dads have used on us over the years like: Buck up, be a man, or Stop crying and be a man. Step up! or What are you, a wuss?

Here is just a few bullet points from the website on how to identify with yourself and your son/daughter.

 
• identify and share feelings 
• treat yourself as a kind father would
• form trusting male friendships
• break the anger habit, and
• forgive the world, and yourself.

I do not want to come across as a femme or a wuss, because I do think that men need to be men, but we need to be men that can relate to both sexes and be in touch with our feelings and not be afraid to show it. So check this book out, you pansies, and stop whining.

Check it out here on Amazon

or here at the Publisher's site

Google pushes 100-mpg car

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Google said Tuesday it is getting in on the development of electric vehicles, awarding $1 million in grants and inviting applicants to bid for another $10 million in funding to develop plug-in hybrid electric vehicles capable of getting 70 to 100 miles per gallon.

The project, called the RechargeIT initiative and run from Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, aims to further the development of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles - cars or trucks that have both a gasoline engine and advanced batteries that recharge by plugging into the nation's electric grid.

• build or buy a car wash and work every day


• still wake up a 5:15 am every day


• still be a Denver web designer


• move my parents closer


• continue to mow my own lawn

Boycot India Graphic Design Services

Being a graphic designer for print and web in the newspaper industry, we were shocked to read this article about outsourcing to India. Ok, outsourcing to India has been around for years but that is not the shock. The shock is that the oursourcing is hitting ad design and layout departments. When you think about it, this company, Express KCS has a brilliant business concept, EXCEPT that it is hitting us where it hurts. Here's a story from our local Guild paper.
---

Layoffs, buy-outs and loss of beats bleed newsrooms

from: news guild website
Job cuts, bids roil news industry

In a Wall Street version of corporate whiplash, the newspaper industry was buffeted in the past month by still more high-dollar takeover bids —and still more buyouts, layoffs, loss of beats and off-shoring....

The Denver Post, MediaNews’ flagship paper, has extended voluntary buy-out offers to 90 or so newsroom workers—approximately a third of its newsroom staff—and is to accept as many as 37 by early June; a year earlier it cut newsroom staff by a dozen. The Post’s cuts were announced a month after the competing Scripps-owned Rocky Mountain News—with whom it has a joint operating agreement—offered buyout packages to 50 employees, with a final decision on who’s leaving to be announced later this month. When the JOA was created, in 2001, MediaNews head Dean Singleton pledged to increase the Post’s newsroom by 100 new employees.

The Baltimore Sun, still owned by Tribune Co., likewise said in late April that it wants to cut payroll—currently at about 1,250—by 50 employees. The newspaper’s Guild unit has accepted a buyout plan for which approximately 85 of its 489 members qualify, although management reportedly will consider nonqualifying volunteers. The unit had 623 members just four years ago.

And in a move that portends more layoffs at the San Jose Mercury News, also owned by MediaNews, the company said it will begin outsourcing ad production July 1 to Express KCS, a U.S. company with offices in Gurgaon, India. Although the announcement did not state how many U.S. workers will be affected by the shift, Express KCS reportedly will be adding approximately 18 employees to handle the new work.

But the most notable devastation of the past month occurred in Minneapolis, where Star Tribune employees—who less than a month ago honored 24 co-workers who had taken buyouts—were informed May 7 that another 145 jobs would be cut. That was followed by the news that as many as 100 newsroom staffers will be reassigned, with some beats eliminated altogether—including those of outdoor, travel and architecture writers—while others are consolidated or reduced, notably including those of several columnists. The Duluth bureau also will be closed.

The layoff announcement, on a day Guild members quickly dubbed “Black Monday,” will reduce newsroom staffing—currently at around 340—to 290 or so. ..

Ridder’s stewardship, meanwhile, is being viewed with scorn and suspicion. “He comes in here under circumstances that we don’t understand,” Star Tribune columnist Doug Grow complained to Minnesota Monitor. “He’s 38 years old. He has no reputation for building anything. And within a few weeks of his entrance into the door, he’s slashing and burning.

“Trust is something that’s earned,” Grow added. “Leadership is something that’s earned. He’s the publisher; he’s not the leader.”

A while back, I posted about being smarter about our environment and what small changes we can make to better Earth.
Last night, Christy and I were talking about some new commercials she has seen while she takes a work break, watching Charmed. They struck a chord with her and when I heard about them, it really got me inspired to take a more personal and proactive look at what we are doing, good and bad, to the environment.

Why should we wait for the government or scientists to one day drastically cut the use of gasoline, emissions, and the use of gas-powered power tools such as leaf blowers, mowers, weed-eaters, etc.

Seriously. What will it take for all of us to band together to say, enough is enough. We need to take responsibility and do our part to stop global warming. You see it happen all the time. Only when it affects us personally, hits home, do we actually make a change.

This is not a "SAVE THE EARTH YOU FOOLS" speech. Well, it is, sort of, but mostly, I am trying to ask, WHY WAIT UNTIL IT COMES TO DRASTIC CUTBACKS AND RESTRICTIONS BY THE UPPER HAND when we can begin doing it now to save Earth for our kids.

Here are a few of my suggestions:

One: Try to stop using gas-powered leaf blowers - how about breaking out the broom and get some exercise.
Two: Try to stop using gas-powered lawn mowers if you can - purchase a REEL lawn mower or spend a bit more and get an electric or battery-powered one.
Three: How about selling one of your two SUVs and buy something more practical as a second car , like say a Toyota Yaris, or Prius, or even a small Honda Civic or Ford Focus, to name a few.

I am also realistic and understand that it takes money to do this, and time. It does not have to happen all at once, but small steps will really help. OK, I will get off my soapbox now, but please think about it.

Oh, and what am I doing to save Earth?

Blogging about it - for starters. I use a broom instead of gas-powered blower, we are planning on getting a REEL (electric-powered) mower, electric leaf blower, and also, ridding our backyard of as much grass as possible and xeroscaping in the front. I plan on stepping up our GREEN-ING in the future too, by planting more shrubs, trees and vines to provide shade so our house uses less energy. We also keep our thermostat set to 686 in winter and open windows instead of AC as much as possible in the summer.

If you have energy-saving tips to offer, please pass them along here. I would love to have more ideas. Thanks.

We salute Apple. Try something different, won't you?

Apple just released a beta version of their superior web browser Safari for Windows users. Go ahead, try it. Come on. Just try it. It's FREE. You might just like getting away from the swirling letter E.

• A shower at my office


• Healthy skin and good genes


• Two good jobs, one as a denver web designer


• Lovely wife


• Handsome and pretty Dachshunds


• A patient, handy FIL

Each week it seems like, someone in the office sends out a quiz from MSN. This quiz is a current events quiz based on this week's news. Of course, I missed the sports question. How did you do?

Take the quiz

Wow, so they canned him. For his homophobic comments? I am not surprised but am actually shocked. He was a great character. He will be missed.
Photo by Getty Images from CNN.com

It was Dec. 2005. I hired the Yultide Carolers to make a surprise visit to our annual holiday party. Little did Christy know that they had more than a few Christmas songs under their Ye' Olde Garb...

This enables you to receive an alert each time I post so you don't even have to lift a finger to find out what the heck I am up to. Is that positive or what?

Learn more here

here is the feed

Favorite Podcast of the Month Two


I have another favorite podcast. This one is brought to you by NPR. It is called This I Believe.
These past few weeks - months actually - at work, have been frustratingly hard. We are going through a difficult stage with layoffs/reorg, and I have to admit that I have been very negative lately in both personality and performance. I was leaving the train station and caught this NPR segment. It changed my entire perspective on life/work. It's optimistically refreshing to hear how other people face, deal and overcome obstacles that internally challenge them each day. This woman offered us her take on her personal situation, ultimately changing my mood and perspective. Sometimes we fall into a funk and it takes a while to notice, or someone has the guts to talk to you about it. If you were affected by my pessimism and negativity, I apologize. Realizing it is half the battle, changing is another story. It's not as easy as some think. Ok, done. Now I must go refill the coffee cup, I got's some work to do. P.S. I lost my wedding ring yesterday, Tuesday. THAT didn't help matters.

SIL FIL
Originally uploaded by dhgatsby

FIL came to visit this weeked to help with chores ( like installing a ceiling fan in the bedroom). We also got tix to the Rockies game for Saturday night which was a blast. Steve has the best smile....IF he'd ever show it! This was taken with his camera by his daughter. I think after the third day here, he will be sick of the stinky dogs and ready for some relaxation back at home, on his own couch, on his own bed, and on his own patio. Hmmm. Maybe, maybe not. We are having fun.

Stitches
Originally uploaded by dhgatsby

Every Spring, just as the excitement of new lawn projects, house work, and everyday cleaning hits, I go and do something to set myself back around a month. This Spring was no exception. First, let me share with you what I did two Springs ago. Ok, so actually last Spring I did NOT set myself back, but it feels like I did. SO last night I was putting the finishing touches on the outdoor speakers I had prepared the night before, drilling into walls, running wire from the garage out to the patio. I had made major headway. I drilled in the speaker mounts, even connected both speakers, but was missing the final two spindles that secure the pivoting speakers. I had one for each side of each speaker but had placed the others somewhere. Somewhere amongst all the other stuff we had moved from the old house. Anyway, I decided to look for "a bag" of stuff that might contain the parts I needed. I go over to our three-drawer file cabinet and think i see something way in the back of the top drawer. While I move my arm and hand back further in the drawer WHAM!!! I hit something. It was the metal separator that was razor sharp. I pull my hand out like it has been bitten by a morray eal. I see blood but not much and think, ok, this isn't so bad, until further inspection reveals what looks like a vein or tendon popping out. So I immediately run to the front yard where Christy is outside planting flowers and say "umm, I think I need to go to the emergency room." So we do. I was in and out of Porter in about two hours. I have to admit I hate hospitals, who doesn't, but these nurses and doctors made it so pleasant that I cannot wait to return in 10 days to have the stitches removed. Thanks Porter.