IDIOTTECH.com: News from your favorite tech idiot!

Often, I get the random joke about being an atheist and celebrating the yuletide holiday. While it doesn't rattle me in the least since my answer is normally a simple, "I celebrate it as a commercial holiday to get gifts," I fully understand that in many ways the commerce is a smaller part of the holiday when you add a baby. Especially when that baby won't sit still and can't decide on which gifts to play with. We would have loved to have spent the holiday with our loving families back east but adding an antsy kid to a plane fully of antsy adults sucking down holiday spirits at $5 a pop, it wouldn't have been a pretty scene.

We all enjoyed the many gifts we got and have been tossing out all the old stuff to make room for the old. In turn, Liam is pulling out the new stuff to make less room on the floor. Yes, Liam is as curious as ever and last week he learned to walk. Actually, he took his first steps on Sunday night (12/19) and was fully walking by Wednesday (12/22). Yes, Liam learned to walk in about 3 days... so there goes the nice walker he barely used as he now pushes that out of the way so he can walk more. Since then he has finetuned a bit so that he no longer needs something to hold onto in order to stand, jumping, and the "ohmygawdhemightfallandsmackhisheadonsomething" 180 degree one-footed spins. Ah the joys of parenting... I should have asked for a heart defribultor.

I'm also happy to announce that Colleen has accepted a new position as occupancy specialist with the San Mateo County Housing Authority. While her title is the same, she has a better chance for advancement, better benefits, and more money (which is good because Liam isn't a cheap kid). Colleen is pretty happy about the new job so it was a great Xmas gift. Her last day at Bonnie Brae will be January 10th so take that phone number and address out your address books. :)

The latest pictures

We're currently freezing out butts off in Northern California with freezing temps and while there's no fear that it will snow, it sure feels like it. Liam could care less as he's been happily enjoying his mother's near-daily jaunts to holiday-related events. In the past few weeks, we traveled up to Clearlake for an overnight stay at Maura & Cassie's home, we celebrated Thanksgiving at our day care providers (good food and even better company).

But of course, you don't come here to read my witty sarcasm, you come to see the pictures and get Liam updates. In the past few days, Liam has learned to stand. While he doesn't really know that he's actually standing unless he's distracted. Yes, it sounds odd. Let me explain, you give Liam a cookie in one hand so that he balances with the other. Then you give him something small to play with and he has to use the other hand to nab it... voila no hands. While he can only do it for 5-20 seconds, he's got pretty good balance. Yet, once he notices that he's standing, he unceremoniously drops to the floor. For new words, Liam can now say "more", "whoa", "hi", "good", "mama", "dada" and "baby". Regarding the last word, he uses the term "baby" to point at all other kids... I just wanted to clear that up before people (um... family) start asking some dumb question like, "When's #2 coming?" Sure, we've partial deceived you in the past but you have to admit that you were way more shocked about it. There will be no #2 and considering all the work it took to get #1, Colleen & I won't have any suprises to report other than Liam's monthy progress and leading up to his Ph.D by age 6.

Also included in this update are some videos that depict Liam apparently having his first mental breakdown and Liam bouncing a miniature basketball (daddy taught him nothing other than the fact that basketball players are tall and misogynistic morons who make lots of money, do drugs, and only have to answer one of two questions on TV: Why'd you lose? or Why'd you win?).

Los Pictures | Mental Breakdown Video | Mental Breakdown Video 2 | Basketball Video

Yes, I'm lazy. With an extremely active one-year-old, life has changed. I have tons of pics to share with you from October but figured that you would probably be most interested in the most recent pics. Enclosed are shots from halloween with my co-worker Michael Johnson, his wife Nellie and their beautiful daughter Ella (Liam agrees). Also are some shots from 11/15 where we were invited to Ria's birthday. Ria, if you actually remember, is the daughter of Colleen's hospital roommate Sapna and her husband Jai. Yes, it sounds like a soap opera. Thankfully, I'm happy to report that it was an amazing event to celebrate Ria's safe arrival and continued happiness. And I have to say that I have never met so many interesting and friendly people at any party in a long time. Every time I turned around, there seemed to be a new face to talk to and learn about. And after sweating from some chicken doused in some red mixture that may have been concocted to kill me, I'm happy to say that most Indian food is good.

Happy birthday to Ria and congratulations to both her parents!

Also you'll find pictures of Liam in a new section of a bookstore that opened on Saturday. Liam got to meet Peter Rabbit (my co-worker Jaap... husband of one of the bookshop's attendees) and my boss's daughter Claire.

Ria's Birthday & Trip to Bookstore | Halloween Night

After a complete year of being a dad, there's no greater joy than celebrating your son's first birthday party with friends and family. While the weather failed to cooperate, Colleen was able to relocate the party to a local pizza parlor that had enough room to seat all of us.

With my mother, sister, and newly-minted niece Maggie in tow, Liam was shocked and delighted to hear his first Happy Birthday and then gently bowed forward to take a nibble out of his first cake.

After a bunch of cake, pizza, and good times, Liam and Maggie returned home to play with his stacks of gifts. Thanks to everyone who sent a card, a gift, or just happy thoughts to Liam on his big day. It was also a good day to exercise Colleen's amazing memory regarding all the gory details leading up to Liam's arrival over a year ago. Even through all that, Liam's first birthday is also a celebration of Colleen's amazing willpower to overcome incredible odds to create the one thing we never thought we would ever have (trying looking in the Hallmark store for a card for that). Happy Birthday Liam!

Later this week, I'll have more shots to show on the site as I go through 500+ pictures that my mom, Tiff, and I took during their stay in cloudy California.

happy 1st birthday & first haircut

Big month on the way. My sister, my mom, and my niece Maggie (a newly minted 1 year old) are coming out this week to celebrate Liam's first year on the planet with cake, burgers (hamburger and soy... you know my view on hamburger), and lots of friends. Hopefully the recent rainy season here in NoCal will let up for a few rainbows on Saturday afternoon.

Updates... I have lots of pictures that we're going to post shortly. The pictures are really good and mantle/fridge postable and since they're halloween-specific, I wanted to hold off on them for a little while. I also got a nice new version of Premiere Pro so I'm going to pound out some new videos for the site. I now have a DVD burner so I may attempt "Mullen Movie 2: Liam" in the near future .

Liam is quite a crawling maniac nowadays and no level of babyproofing seems to stop him. With his stubborn McLane side and his technical-minded Mullen side, barriers are mere speedbumps to Liam. He also has a limited vocabulary that includes:

Momma (including ma-ma-ma, ma-ma... and the ever-popular MA!)
Daddy (including dee-da and da)
Up
Oh-oh (which happens before and after accidents)
Gao (this may be "good")
Butt (don't ask)

I wanted to include a link to show how expensive homes are here (for reference we live nearest to San Mateo), just to illustrate why we're probably never buying a house (unless you have an extra one that you'd like to sell us for dirt cheap money since all the jobs back east don't seem to pay that much or be all that fun.

No, Mr. McLane, we're not moving to Syracuse. :)

CNN/Money: Most expensive housing markets

So the little guy is almost 11 months (time flies, eh) and he's gaining new skills on a near-daily basis. He's almost crawling and has a strange crawl where one leg stays stationary as the secondary leg pushes. He also has a new addiction with clapping and finds that life is more fun when everyone in the room claps with him. The first shot is of Ella, my co-worker's lovely daughter who just loves Liam... and as you can imagine, Liam's quite in awe of her as well. The other shots are so you can check out what else Liam is up to: standing up, chewing, and playing his favorite video games.

mo' shots

Had this up secretly for a few days and wanted to share. Here are some new pics of Liam on his new piano and a look at all four of his first teeth.

NOTICE: I've removed the link to the message board due to some retarded spammer who keeps filling the board with links to some moronic casino site. Thanks for killing a nice and friendly board for my family and friends, may a boot sector virus wipe out your PC.

new shots

All sorts of stuff going on with the little guy. Still working on that 1 big tooth and much to his mommy's happiness, Liam has learned how to give hugs and kisses and does so without prompting (he still kisses open mouthed so he's quite advanced HA!). Anyways, I wanted to show off one of Liam's new abilites that I unfortunately don't have, sports ability. Over the weekend, Liam taught himself how to juggle a little soccer ball with his feet while sitting down. Uncle Mike McLane will be overjoyed to know that it was one of the foam balls that he brought to California in the rare hope that Liam would have something inside him that would make him like sports (although he'll stop anything to watch women's gymnastics -- funny that). So I compressed the video with the oldest AVI codec that I could find so that those with older Windows would be able to view it. It's really compressed but it's the best I could do with older compression. Enjoy.

Liam's Soccer Video

So our little guy has now hit 9 months and is starting to head into boyhood. He's starting to eat finger foods and loves to try new stuff. He loves guacamole, spit out baked potatoes (essentially sacrilige with us Irish), was iffy on the mashed potatoes, and basically inhaled a bit of french fry (thankfully he was able to exhale successfully). From a developmental standpoint, he's still lazy and refused to crawl but has finally figured out how to pull himself into a standing position. He knows how to pick his feet up but hasn't gone all daredevil-style and attempted to take big steps yet. He's slowly figuring it out though and we'll have more updates. Liam know has 2 bottom teeth and 1 big upper teeth, which makes him look sorta like a drunken chipmunk but the other big tooth is coming in slowly.

Check out the latest pics of Liam and a new cute picture of my sister's daughter, Maggie. In Liam's slideshow, you'll notice a monkey picture. Our friend Chris recently bought a house and this was Alan's way of telling him that he need more love in his life. Although we left early, we heard the monkey had a great time.

Maggie's Garden Adventure | Liam Hits 9 (months)

On Saturday, we gathered the troops to celebrate Colleen's 30 years on the planet. While our uber-party crew was on hand, we had one new face (Bev's new beau, Ben) and 3 faces that we only wish we could see more of (Brian, the elusive diabetic and Hope and Tanuj, the couple with loads of frequent flier miles). Of course, Liam was one of the stars of the show by showing off his new ability to wave Hello and his unchanging charm for all females (I'm ordering a chastity belt for his 12th birthday). After the burgers and beer disappeared, we celebrated with a cookies and cream birthday cake (sugared). It was a fun day and we hope to do it again every year. Thanks everybody for coming and for those who didn't, you'll now know why you should have (feel guilty yet?).

30th Birthday Pictures

So we had a pretty laid back 4th of July and introduced Liam to his mini pool and as you can see in the picture -- Liam loves the pool. I also took a little video on my camera of Liam's new laugh. Enjoy.

New Pictures | Laughing Video

Yes, it's been a while since I updated the site. Sorry about that. Lately, we've been pretty busy. I celebrated my first Father's Day and Colleen suprised me by taking me to a great French restaurant for lunch. As card carrying liberal democrats (get off your butt and vote Bush out of office), we went to the opening of Fahrenheit 9/11 and while there are some items that have been discovered since the movie was done, I'm glad that the movie is stirring up something that didn't happen the last time we elected president Gore into office and lost that to the current dumb monkey in the oval office... and that's political discussion. Since Bush took over the White House, we haven't heard any other opinions about Bush and I've basically stopped reading US-based news because it has become so one-sided over the past year. Curious to see what's happening? Check out the UK-based The Guardian and get some real news.

Apart from politics, we journeyed down to San Jose last weekend to meet several Liberian refugees and a family of 5 Afghans (one of them named Parwana, the girl holding Liam, has turned into one of Liam's favorite people). It's always interesting to meet up with people that have nothing except aspirations to make themselves better by working. Hopefully, we'll be able to help give them some help so they can walk on the road of greatness and one day stand on top of the hill of success.

After months of waiting, we finally got together with Colleen's hospital roommate, Sapna (pic from January); her husband, Jai, and their beautiful daughter Ria for a little catching up and getting the kids together.
New Pictures

So in 1996 just before mother's day, I turned tail on the east coast and headed rather quickly to California. While I'm not much for prognostication, it was an odd affair to return to Boston with more people than I originally left with. Something I could have never predicted. First and foremost, my wife, friend, and best buddy, Colleen. And of course the amazing proof of our love, our 7-month old son Liam.

And while my small little west coast nuclear family is a rather happy isotope, fission with fellow family members on the other side of the country only helps to prove that distance only makes for stronger bonds. Case in point, during the Mullen family party we had friends and family melded together in a single room to simply enjoy being together to celebrate our arrival. I could probably be quite the egotist and say it was simply our arrival but if it had been anyone else, the Mullen clan would have done the same thing and this is what makes it a family worth returning to.

Enough with the supermarket teary music stuff... during our 12 days, we hooked up with family members on all sides, I met with some MIT folk, we got to NH to pay our respects to Colleen's greatly missed friend Linus and the amazing parents he still graces with his memory, hooked up with my once long-lost father to rediscover his great sense of humor and establish his future as a "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" candidate, discovered the Make Way for the Ducklings statues in Boston Common with Grandpa and Grandmere McLane, met up with one of the people I would kill to meet before I die (Henry Jenkins @ MIT), met my beautiful niece Maggie who always gave me a big glance and a smile whenever I said hi, ran about 4 miles chasing my nephew John Bradley, gave my friend Leigh permission to keep her boyfriend Erik (finally someone I can approve of), had a great night out with the Mulligans at Dodge Street, got an amazing painting of the once-small baby Liam from my mother, and re-established that my grandmother is the most kick ass grandmother on the planet. You're jealous, and you know it.

Yes, there are countless other stories to tell but my memory really stinks so I may have already forgotten them. It may not be legally binding but I'm still too poor to hire an actual lawyer. Thankfully I had a digital camera to record some of the action for your viewing pleasure and as a refresher for my near-braindead memory.

2004 Boston Trip

Here are some recent pics of Liam in case you're curious.
Mo' Pics

Earlier today, my sister sent me some new pics of my lovely niece Maggie. Just wanted to share... can't wait to meet her.
New Maggie Pics | NEW! Maggie @ Easter

Another big weekend. Maura and Cassie invited us up to their home in Clearlake for good times away from the crazy city. The three hour journey was a little rough on Liam but he made it and back again. Over the weekend, we got some rest, caught up with the aunts, and Liam ate his first full jar of food (he loves food). We also took Liam to a chicken farm to see how he would react. He wasn't too sure what chickens were but quickly figured them out.

Boston updates... so my grandmother has rented a hall for friends and family to get together for a meet and greet on May 22nd. If you're interested, let me know so I can tell her how many people will be on hand to eat some pizza.

Clearlake Pics

Big weekend. On Friday, I took the day off to take Liam up to San Francisco to meet some old GameSpot buddies, check on the CNET building and meet some new GameSpot people. On Friday night, Liam had his first meal with a bit of rice cereal. In short, he ate the whole bowl. He liked it so much that he "yummed" after almost every bite. Since then, he's had two more meals and while they're a little messier than our first ordeal, he loves to eat. Included are some before during and after the first feeding.

On to the wine. On Saturday, the organization that Colleen boards hosted a meeting up in Sonoma valley's Benzinger Family Winery. It's a beautiful campus with lots of roosters clucking around (not the best place for a sleeping baby but nice nonetheless.) Bob Benzinger, one of the owners, then served a 4-star lunch with some great wines that they had produced. The lunch happened in one of the many caves the company had created to keep their wine chilled. You'll see 2 pictures of the cave.

Easter... While I'm still an ardent atheist (much to many god-fearing people's dismay because they'd like all the smart people on their side), I still enjoy gift giving and parties so the three of us exchanged gifts and went to our friend Angie's place for some food and good times. Liam successfully wooed all the women in the room and was talking up a storm. He's got his "maa", "baa" and some "gaa" sounds down, he still hasn't mastered the "daa" sound yet... much to my disappointment. In due time, I'm sure he'll master that... "Dad, I need money" or "Dad, can I drive your Ferrari?"

Easter Pics

So everyone seems pretty happy that we're coming back to visit and we're beginning to fill in some evenings and days with plans. Over the weekend, we took some more pictures of Liam and Party Auntie (Beverly, our friend not my hometown) took a little video of Liam performing one of his favorite things to do. It's a small 5 MB AVI video so all your non-Windows XP users (you know who you are) should be able to view it.

Video | New Pics

It's not a late April Fools joke, I booked tickets to come back to Boston to catch up with family, show Liam beantown, dodge questions about when I'm moving back, and show off my wonderful little clan to the portion of the family that can't pronounce the letter "R" to save their lives. We're be taking up in grandma's penthouse suites for the 2 weeks and we're working on putting together a schedule so that we can see as many people as humanly possible. Also, I have to get into Boston to rediscover my old haunts for food, books, and culture (Legal Sea Food, Wordsworth, and Newbury Comics).

Off-the-top-O'-My-Head Trip Goals:

Gather Mullen Clan for Mullen-style party & attempt to take another blackmail video of Cassie for later use in a Mullen DVD
Meet Maggie
Have a romantic dinner with lovely wife (w/o baby)
Let Liam show off all his skills for Grandma Chris and Great-grandma
Meet up with Grandmere and Grandpa McLane
Meet Grandpa Mullen
Hook up with aunt Maureen in Cambridge (unless she escapes for Europe again)
Get into Boston to take picture of Liam with Make Way For The Ducklings
Wander aimlessly through Newbury Comics and Wordsworth bookstore
Faneuil Hall & environs to gather trinkets, good food, and Boston T-shirts
Get up to New Hampshire so Colleen can pay respects to a great friend that left the world far too early
Kittery, Maine for L.L. Bean stuff

Over the weekend, we caught up with our friends Hediatu and Isatu for a trip to the ocean and snapped some pictures (hmmm... I need to go find those beach shots again). Anyways, Liam's is 5 months old today and doing just fine. He's a happy kid, just started figuring out the leg mechanics behind crawling, yet he needs to work out the arm mechanics before he becomes mobile.

Also, my sister recently had some pictures taken for her hubby's birthday of his son John Bradley and the new baby Maggie. While I'm not a big cowboy fan, John Bradley certain looks like he's destined to russle up some something in the future (that's the best cowboy joke I can come up with).

Liam @ 5 Months | John Bradley & Maggie

Liam woke up early with the gift of gab this morning, keeping Colleen awake but ready to celebrate the most Irish of all holidays. I have to get back to work but I wanted to share some of the pics we took this morning. Enjoy.

Liam's First St. Patrick's Day

While Colleen and I are ill with colds and bronchitis, Liam's the only healthy person in the house. But after Liam soiled his first outfit of the day, Col put his Syracuse basketball outfit on (Colleen's mother, father, and uncle's alma mater). To make it better, we let Liam play around with a mini basketball that his uncle Mike brought to him after Liam was born. Liam grabbed hold of it almost immediately and while he's far from delivering his first slam dunk, he could handle a ball better than his daddy... and that's not saying much.

Liam Discovers Basketball

We've been busy with Liam and making sure he's well entertained. At 25 inches and roughly 18 lbs., it's looking like Liam may be the kindergarten bully for sure (although he seems to be a lover and not a fighter since he melts for the ladies...). He's still a talker and while he still can't recite Shakespeare or Bukowski, he has mouthed his first monosyllabic effort... "GA"! So that may turn into a bunch of new vocal abilities including, "gab", "gate", and other words I just can't think of right now.

Over the weekend, Colleen was fighting off a really nasty cold, so we took a short trip to San Mateo's public park to catch some sun. While we did do a little shopping, I bought a really nice convertible seat for Liam (he's just about grown out of his baby seat) and we seemed to bump into tons of other parents just like us.

Workwise, I'm moving to a new building on campus because all the people behind The Sims and SimCity are arriving soon. With all the people coming, they didn't have a space for them to work... so we got shafted. My new cube is about 50% bigger so I'll have to get a couch or something to add a nice touch to the sterile cubelife.

Lately, I've received lots of requests to come back to Boston and visit. Considering that our last visit was to Syracuse, making the journey to Beantown is in our future, we just have a bunch of things to work out first. Plus, I still have a massive stack of thank you cards to go out for Liam's baby shower and the Chrismas gifts that we've received. Liam did get some really useful and uniquely cool gifts, his dad's just lazy and hasn't filled them out.

So here are the latest pictures of Liam and his little cousin Maggie (thanks to Mom and her addictive digital camera snapshots).

Liam @ 4.5 months | Maggie 2

He's getting big. So far, he's 24 inches long and weighing in at 16 lbs. 11 oz. Like his mom, he still loves to smile. He also loves to talk, sometime for no real reason, and he has a keen sense of the comedic by knowning when it's really funny (for him) to poop on anyone changing his diaper. While his uncle Mike in Virginia may call basketball his sport of choice, pooping is undoubtedly an Olympic-style event for our little guy.

Beyond Liam, there's not too much going on. Colleen's dealing with the oh-so-not-fun repurcussions of opening another building for her work. And I'm working on a major site redesign that takes way too may hours of just thinking about how things should work. Once the new work site is up, I'll definately let you know since some of the big ideas are ones I've been trying to talk work into doing... oddly, they're just now listening.

On the east coast front, I would like to congratulate Tiffany's daughter Maggie for her amazing recovery in the hospital. Maggie wasn't eating all that much and while she was still a chipper little girl, she needed to ramp up her eating habits. Thankfully, Tiff now has a progressive doc that got Maggie into the hospital, helped get her back on her feet, and Maggie is currently home trying to catch up to Liam "Hoover" Mullen's eating schedule. We can't wait to meet the golden tressed little girl... if anyone wins the lottery and wants to fly us back (to visit), you know where to send the tickets. :)

Liam @ 4 months | Baby Maggie

It's really amazing how quickly personalities come out in babies. Already, Liam can play peekaboo, mimic his father saying, "aaaaaaaaaa", and loves to dance (well, on his back anyways). He's tipping the scales at about 16 lbs and coming along just nicely. He's loving daycare because he gets to watch older kids make fools of themselves and while he doesn't play games, he does respect the need for great entertainment. We only wish that everyone could be around to see how our pride and joy is developing. He even had his first major feat: He shot his poop 4 ft. 3 inches. I measured. It's sick but you'd do the same thing, you would just never admit it... while you ponder the answer, Liam image therapy is just a click away.

Liam & 3.5 months

Pre-spring cleaning time is here. If you really wanted to check out 2003 updates, head on over to the archive page. There, you'll find all the hits of 2003 and 2002. With so much happening I wanted to make the site load a little faster. I may want to change the look and feel of the site at some point too since we're overdue for one of those metrosexual makeovers.

Yep, Liam is now 3 months old and getting bigger everyday (and with all the food he eats, it's really not shocking). Over the weekend, we reconnected with Colleen's old hospital roommate, Sapna, to get our babies together for a playdate. Ria, Sapna's lovely baby girl, was pretty sleepy most of the time but had fun sitting on the couch with her new friend while their parents talked about the trials and tribulations of parenthood over tea and munchies. We expect to have more pictures of Sapna, Jai and Ria more often since we really had fun with them (we actually thought they would have kicked us out way earlier than they did.)

More Shots

UPDATE. Some people haven't been able to view the video. I'm working on recoding in a different format so that everyone can see. I rebuilt my PC the other day and somehow killed the old hard drive (I still have all of Liam's shots safe and sound though). Now that I have my PC back, I'll go back and see if I can reformat the video.

I'm on paternity leave right now and already I've rebuilt my PC (new, smaller case) and put together a quick little video of Liam talking back to Colleen. I have to take some time to master Premiere so I can clean up future videos... more things on my to do list. While he can't form words yet, the sounds do mimic what he may want to say... some angry, some happy. This is a 27.9MB video so you'll have to view from a T1 (work access) or DSL/cable to get the best overall effect.

View the Windows XP video | View the smaller AVI video

We're still catching up on opening all our Christmas cards and I have stacks of birth announcements that have yet to be sent... in short, having a baby is a big time suck but one that was well worth the effort. Little Liam is progressing nicely and made a new friend with Aunt Maureen as she arrived in the bay area to hang ten with the little tyke and his parents. During her stay, we met up with the other portion of the family in San Francisco and went to the beach... it was a little chilly but it wasn't like those horrid temps back east (and you want us to move back? Are you sick?). Maureen left yesterday and we miss her already... we're running out of visiting family members... who's next? Anyways, check out the latest shots and see how the family is doing.

2004 Shots

Last year, Colleen and I made a secret resolution to have a baby and didn't tell anyone. We're sneaky like that and given the reality, you can understand why. I can't begin to tell you how great a year it was. Colleen practically willed her eggs to be fertilized in February and BAM... it happened. To say that my wife is determined would be to undermine one of the reasons why I married her... she's strong-willed. While I still don't believe that marriage is for everyone (some people just do better alone), I can definately say that I'm happier for the fruits, veggies, and snacks that I've gained by being happily married. I know, blah blah, same old crap for three years running... but I really feel strongly about this (and how many things have I harped on for 3 years... it's gotta be a good thing).

So I don't bore you with a "yawn yawn" slideshow, I will show you what the McLanes and Mullen clans were upto over the holiday. True, I'm still a heathen but a heathen that loves to get gifts. I'd love to send out thank you cards but I'm such a lazy ass... I haven't even sent out the birth announcements yet... if you were to calculate when I may potentially send out those announcements, you would correctly assume that you may receive a thank you card around mid-May.

Before I offend too many people, I should get offline and get my butt to bed... it's currently 2:40am PT, I wanted to wish everyone in all timezones (from Auckland, NZ to NYC and SF) a happy year full of joys and adventures. Before you get all bitter and reflective on me, check out some of the latest shots from the left coast. Xmas 2K3

Sorry I took so long to get the latest pictures up. You'll see shots from the last 2 weeks (and more) where Liam shows off his smiles and his blue eyes. He has a little bit of "cradle cap" (aka dandruff) so you may notice some flakes on his face. It's pretty normal and will clean up so no need to worry. Enjoy some of the pre-holiday pics.

Yes... it seems like an eternity since I last posted pictures of the little apple of our eyes... so you're addicted... good. :) Over the last two weeks, Liam has once again had a very busy social calendar. Uncle Mike (Colleen's brother) from Virginia arrived to help out, play games, and reconnect with the other SF-based McLane clan (Maura and Cassie). While Mike was here, we took him on tour to show off all the sites of the city. Bad news was that it was raining quite a bit so while he experienced the city, most of it was behind auto glass. Hopefully next time, there will be a bit more sun. The first shot you'll see is one of Liam's latest skills, smiling. You just can't hate it. Enjoy.

More Shots: 12/7

It was a fairly tame day yesterday here at the Mullen household as Liam slept, we ate, and of course, we all played games. Colleen's brother Michael is out here for a few days and has been super helpful with baby tips so we'll leave him an open invite to return whenever he wants (of course, we'd like to see his lovely wife and two girls in tow). Colleen's brother is also a sports freak (basicly my opposite) and brought a few mini-nerf balls for Liam to start experiencing "the other side". As you can see, Liam is so far clueless about what to do with a basketball (just like his dad).
Thanksgiving Pics

So Liam is finally a full month old and already on schedule in his development. He's now over 8 lbs and yesterday he had his first smile. Today, he followed up with a few more. I also got him to produce some more tricks while I had him on his belly (I was helping him work on his neck muscles). Don't worry, I was with him the whole time. Anyways, He turned his head from one side to another! It was pretty amazing considering that he didn't anchor the move on his chin. Shortly thereafter, I got him off his belly so he could look around as he normally does, on his back. He's an amazing little guy and we really can't wait to introduce all our friends and family to him. In the meanwhile, here are some new shots of the little guy.

Liam @ 1 Month

Liam has already been a super lucky guy after having Grandmere and Grandpa McLane around for his birth and to take care of him once he arrived in this place with bright lights and lots of noise. Last Tuesday, Grandma Chris (Micheal's mom) came to San Carlos to celebrate Liam's arrival with lots of kisses, love and the kind of affection that can only come from a grandparent. Tomorrow, she'll return to the Boston area to check in on her grandaughter Maggie and tell stories about the great week she had. Here are some pictures to show off Liam's 3rd week.

Life with Grandma Chris

Yes, more pictures. My mom came out to help us with little Liam after immediately falling in love with the little guy through our online photos. Constant topics o'week include getting Liam and Maggie together, when do I get some of mom's good quiche, and whoa where'd that nasty diaper smell come from. During mom's stay, Hope and Tanuj stopped by to grace us with their smiling faces and also fell in love with Liam... I see a trend developing... hmmm... while I'm thinking about it, take a look at the latest shots.

Liam's 3 weeks old shots

It's great to hear that everyone wants to see more picture of our little bundle of love. He's currently 2 weeks and 3 days old. Developmentally, his vision has improved and he's able to see shapes outside the 24 inch range and he's still fascinated by patterns. Liam also survived his first real bath since he lost his umbilical cord stump. Food-wise, he's eating quite a bit more lately and while that's great, his "output" has developed a more "output" smell. In the past we had to guess when his diaper was full, we can now use our highly tuned noses to accomplish the same goal quite quickly... sometimes not fast enough to keep the gag relex at bay.

All in all, he's a wonderful little boy and pretty easy to care for. He wants food, sleep, love, and his pacifier, as long as he has the essentials he's a happy boy.

Liam's 2 weeks old shots

Not too much to say. Liam's still cute as a button. Grandmere & Grandpa McLane returned to Syracuse (after a greatly appreciated trip to Belmont). Party Aunt (Beverly) swung by to check out her nephew and while she was tense at first, Liam worked his manly ways and talked her into holding him. Also included in this slideshow is the highly requested picture of me with Liam... this is taken about 5 minutes after he was born. I walked down the hall with him in my arms and Mrs. & Mr. McLane were on hand to take some pictures. Enjoy... time to sleep.

More Shots

My favorite holiday is finally here and thankfully I can enjoy it with my wife, my son, and my mother and father-in-law. We're not sure if we'll be getting any trick-or-treaters but we have some candy just in case. While I don't have a costume yet (I could pull off "dad of the living dead" with the lack of sleep though), Liam's currently warm and cuddled up in his bat outfit with Colleen. He got to show off today for the pediatrician (who was dressed as a cowboy today), the Online MarCom Group, and the public relations team. Here are the latest pictures to show off our little guy. Of note, I haven't used any hair gel in days and people have said that I look like a) British rocker; b) young boy; c) "different"... I'm sure that you'll have other comments.

New Liam Developments:

Discovered the joy of sucking thumb
Hair changing from dark brown to light brown... not sure when that will stop
Eating about 60cc's worth of food per feeding

Halloween Shots | NEW!!! Liam's Close-ups

Just wanted everyone to know that both Colleen and Liam are doing well. We spent our first complete night with Liam last night and he kept us up with feedings every 2.5 hours, we're still happy to add this wonderful little guy to our family. Colleen was up and walking today and we expect to bring the dynamic duo home on Tuesday.

Liam's First Pictures | NEW!!! Liam's Close-ups | Liam's First Movie (Windows WMV format)
After 4 days of induced labor at the hospital we finally told the doctors that if Colleen didn't get to 5 centimeters by Thursday afternoon, Liam would be born by C-section. Already Colleen had gone under almost 65 hours of total labor, and the docs could do nothing but agree, even though they were prepared to go on for a few more days. Colleen was pooped out and having a baby on top of that could make it very dangerous. That was never a risk we were willing to take. So while the mysteries of clinical medicine is left up to doctors, it was good to know tha that when push came to shove, our team of doctors left their clinical selves aside to listen to our wishes.

On Thursday night at 9:47pm PT, Liam Micheal Mullen arrived into the world kicking and screaming... the first good sign. Then as a few docs carried Liam to an examination table to check him out, he turned pink! An equally amazing task. After a few minutes, they let me hold him in front of Colleen (I was allowed to sit up near Colleen's head to talk with her during the operation). From there, I was able to carry Liam down the hall to big group of onlookers including Colleen's equally excited parents.

Then came the tests... the most nervous part of the evening. His sugar test for diabetes to see if his sugar was too high or low came back normal. His APGAR test was 8-9, which means a stellar response. Basically, it means that Liam is as healthy a baby as anyone else's.

While I haven't slept more than 9 hours over the last few nights, the real heroes in this story are all too obvious. First and foremost is Colleen, my wonderfully strong wife, who beat the diabetic odds, survived the long labor ordeal and could still make silly jokes.

And the greatest force in getting us to yesterday is Dr. Fraze. Colleen's endocrinologist has worked with Colleen for over a year or so to get her sugars in control and prepare her body for having a healthy baby. In the modern age of doctors with bankers hours with minimal interaction, Dr. Fraze selflessly made herself available 24-hours a day as we called her with hourly updates (and I mean every hour for 24 hours for 3 days) about Colleen's condition and instructing medical staff on how to make Colleen's conditions better. One of the residents that helped deliver Liam probably said it best, "Dr. Fraze is the kind of doctor I want to become."

And there's the love and support of all our friends and families who sent us their best wishes, lent us an ear when needed, and prayed for Liam and Colleen's health and well-being during this dangerous time.

Finally, I would love to introduce you to our son. He screamed into the world as a 7 lb. 14 oz., 20 inch cannonball with a head of brown hair, Colleen's nose and chin, and a lust for snuggling. So far, we can see a tint of blue in his eyes, he's not too fond of light (just like dad), he's got some wide feet (opps, just like dad) and a birth date that he'll share with Michael Crichton, Pele, Johnny Carson, and Weird Al Yankovic.

I was tempted to find some proverb to summate the story of Liam's arrival and the circumstances surrounding his birth but it's such a complex story that maybe it just can't be summated except to say that dogged determination, discipline, and will can overcome many obstacles (and that same dogged determination, discipline, and will will now undoubtedly be refocused on making sure that our happy family only equals three.)

Good night, I'm absolutely exhausted and need some sleep... so forgive me for the rants, raves, bad jokes, grammatical errors, bad puns, and roughness you'll find in the enclosed. More photos will be up soon and I hope to have some video as well.

Liam's First Pictures | NEW!!! Liam's Close-ups Liam's First Movie (Windows WMV format)

So Colleen is still in Labor & Delivery and after 12 hours of pitocin, she's still not ready to give birth. She's trying really hard and had some big contractions but the red carpet (so to speak) has yet to open. Therefore they removed her pitocin drip so that she could get some dinner and sleep tonight. She's still in good spirits and they'll start her again on the drip at 5am. I'll be there to catch all the waking action. Hopefully, if all goes well, Liam will arrive before evening's end and he'll get to meet Grandmere and Grandpa McLane as they're due to arrive tomorrow morning. Who said we weren't multitaskers?

So we've gotten final clearance, Colleen will get some gel stuff tonight to prep us for the a pitocin drip tomorrow morning. By the doctors' estimate, we should be parents before tomorrow eventing. Also, I wanted to give a big shoutout to my sister Tiffany, who will be turning 29 today and couldn't be happier with life now with a great husband, her stepson John Bradley and her newborn Maggie.

I'm happy to announce that Tiffany (my sister), my brother-in-law Jay, and John-Bradley (Tiff's game lovin' stepson) have added another wonderful member to our extended families. Margaret (Maggie) Christine Wright was born around 7 pm ET at Beverly Hospital. The beautiful blonde haired baby girl tipped the scales at 7 lbs. 3 oz. and stretched out to 20 inches. My mom says that Maggie is moving around, checking out the world and hasn't cried yet (a good thing). Tiffany is doing well after having a C-section. Now I have some pictures to show off big thanks to aunt Chrissy, Grandma, and Jay's dad.

Maggie Pictures | NEW VIDEO (thanks Steve!!!)

On Monday (our 3rd year wedding anniversary), Colleen was admitted to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital for pre-eclampsia. While she's physically ok, the doctors are a little worried about her condition as it could get worse fast. That said, she's been told that she'll remain in the hospital for about 10 days... at the end of the 10 days, little Liam should show up on the scene... wooing the nurses and such. While she's totally bored, Colleen is still in good spirits and should have access to email in the next few days.

Hospital Shot 1 | Hospital Shot 2 | Hospital Shot

So two weekends ago, Laura, one of Colleen's co-workers & good friend, MC-ed for a Lesley Foundation shower at her home. The troops came out in full force with gifts galor, childbirth stories, and good times ahead. I didn't take a ton of pictures but if you're curious, check out the latest pics.

Shower at The Reeds

We've had lots of requests for what clothes Liam will need and lots of great gifts still arriving. Since I have a crappy memory, I asked Colleen to tally up all Liam's clothes to give everyone an idea about what he needs. In short, NO MORE HATS (as you'll see). :) If you're looking to purchase a clothing item for our upcoming little guy, please check out the list. And once again, thanks for all the wonderful outfits. We were worried that there wasn't a lot of boy clothes out there but there has been no shortage of uniquely cool boy clothes that you've sent (the unfortunate reality is that I can't fit into them).

Liam's List of Clothes

It's really amazing how time flies when you're having a baby. Colleen is currently eight months pregnant and both mother and baby are doing well. Liam is weighing in at 5 lbs. 2 oz. and has thankfully slid down from the 69th percentile for size to the more managable 63rd percentile. He's still a healthy little guy that enjoys kicking for 45 minutes at a time, loves to be talked to, and loves to be a brat by cramming his little foot under Colleen's lung. Other tidbits include an above average head (note: BIG BRAIN) with a full head of hair and a little belly that will hopefully slim down before he arrives.

We also received an expected birth date of November 2 unless he decides to arrive earlier. Since Colleen will be induced, her doc is pretty confident with the date but as it goes with kids, expect the unexpected.

Liam's Second to last sonogram

Yesterday during Colleen's first "Non-Stress Test", one of the monitors showed that Colleen was having contractions. So they admitted her to L&D for observation. She did have a few other contractions while she was being observed but Colleen checked out ok and was released. While we were there, we had another sonogram to make sure Liam and his environs were ok. Liam's got quite a head of hair and was quite active during the whole affair. All is well and both mother and child are a-ok. Hopefully the next "non-stress test" won't be so stressful.

Labor & Delivery Sonogram

For Labor Day weekend, Maryellen (Colleen's best friend from Maryland) came to visit. To make sure her time was well spent, we hauled her up to San Francisco to check out Alcatraz. As you can see in the photos, we had a great day with lots of overcast photos (great for picture taking).

Trip to Alcatraz

Anyone who knows me knows that I love thunder and lightning storms. And while I moved to a place that has little to no good storms, political scene aside, last weekend's freak lightning storms were a sight to behold. A storm attacked the east bay from Oakland down to Milpitas and the view from our new apartment was perfect. The storm lasted roughly 2 hours and was oddly without any discernable thunder and no rain. I captured some shots on my digital camera and should have some cool footage of my DV cam soon.

Lightning Storm

On Saturday, our rather scattered group of friends in the bay area converged on our little San Carlos apartment for Liam's second baby shower. Beverly was the hostess with the mostess for the event and she cooked up some interesting activities including "Guess the taste of the baby food", messages for Liam, and a game where each of us had to tie white bows on blue necklaces... if you said "baby", the person who caught you saying it would steal your bow. Ming Huang won that event with enough white bows to knit a sweater. As always, we had a white elephant where Colleen wiggled away with a tea difuser and a Yahoo! drinking mug.

San Carlos Shower

Early this morning while Liam was just waking up, Colleen had her latest ultrasound. Liam's doing great and is already over 3 lbs. and growing. During the session, we got to see more of his face, double check to make sure his palette was ok, got to see him move his arms and legs (an extremely common occurance), confirmed his "boyhood" again, and found out that he's got a full head of hair... just like his dad.
Liam at 28 Weeks

Yeah, I'm a slack master. I have all these cool shots and you, dear viewer, have been anxiously awaiting more images to come about. Well, here are new ones. The first set contains a few shots of the Mother and Baby deer that were sleeping under our staircase. Pretty cute. Also, we attended the birthday of little Nick Reed as he turned 2. During his big truck party, he got to pound down so serious cake and we all rolled around in the grass. Sounds fun, eh?

Our Pet Deer (Our Dear Pets?) | Nick Reed Turns 2.0

People have been asking me about the pictures I took in Syracuse so here they are at long last. As always, I took a bunch of kid shots. After having our flight cancelled in Chicago for a day, we finally got to Syracuse. On Saturday night, we shocked Colleen's dad with a suprise birthday party and my family suprised me by bringing my sister Tiffany along for the haul from Boston. Tiff's pregnant too and will deliver in early October. Anyways, enjoy the shots.

Syracuse 2003

So we got back from Syracuse on Tuesday and I'll have those pictures up later today for everyone to check out. Meanwhile, Colleen went in for another ultrasound to check up on Liam. He's still an active little guy with hands and feet moving (the fast, cat-like reactions needed to be a champion gamer form before birth), and we're happy to report that all is well. Liam is currently nudging the scales at 1 lb. 9 oz. and while he's just under average for his size at this point (note, Colleen and I aren't big people), he's perfectly fine.

Ultrasound 7/24

On Sunday, Colleen and I went up to San Francisco's Stern Grove Festival to hear the SF Symphony play. While we were there eating and drinking up a store (it's a picnic-like affair), Allen got the crowd to sing happy birthday to "his friend that's 5 months pregnant and this would be her last birthday before giving birth." People actually sang! To top it off Allen bought Colleen the one thing I could never give her. Definately made me curious. When Colleen pulled out a black baby doll from the bag, we were in howling. All in all, it was a great day. So much so that we're going back to Stern Grove next weekend to hear Afro Celt Sound System play.

Colleen Turns 29

Yes, it's true. We're moving to San Carlos, a town that's south of us and according to the site usacitiesonline.com, Belmont is 2570 miles away from DC. San Carlos is TWO miles closer at 2568 miles. Hopefully that will make our DC friends and family a bit happier.

Regardless, Liam will need a bedroom of his own and we're moving to a two bedroom that is obviously better than our current place (read: more expensive). With two rooms, new kitchen, additional storage room (a bay area rarity), personal garage, and a view that bests our last view... we hope to encourage more visits to California or just from other bay area folk.

Our New Apartment Pictures

So I've been playing around with all these cool little site features and I'm working on perfecting a simple little message board tool. It's simple and just lets you leave messages for us or for other family and friends. Not sure if everyone will be into it and I still can't seem to change the style and color of one of the pages in the process but I'll work on that later.

Leave a Message.

As you may have already heard, our upcoming addition to the family will be named Liam. Today we went to the doctors and mother and child are both in excellent health. While we were in the office, Colleen felt him kicking around (appears that he doesn't like hospitals). Even better, Colleen had me touch her belly and I actually felt Liam kick my hand as I pressed down. It was the most amazing experience ever and words fail me in describing it. The ultrasound confirmed that his feet are right where I felt them. Colleen's worried that he's going to be a real kicker. More word on that over the next few months.
Third Ultrasound

First and foremost, we wanted to let everyone know that we've registered at babiesrus (you can get there by going to a local Babies R Us store or babiesrus.com). We're working on some baby shower stuff and will have more information when we finally nail down dates.

Also, my PC was down for a few days and I finally have it back in working condition. So I scanned the pictures that I posted on the 21st for everyone. We should have a few more shots for everyone after our next sonogram schedule then. I'm also working on adding message boards to the site so that you'll be able to post comments... not sure if anyone will but I'll see what happens.
view the detailed shots

Quick update: So we had our second ultrasound today and we're happy to report a good heart, two legs, two arms, ten fingers and ten toes... we also found out that our little one is indeed a boy!
view the first shots

After repeated requests from Whitney and Maryellen, I finally talked Colleen into some "belly shots" to show off what 15.5 weeks looks like. Not too much to look at but you can see in the picture that she's definately expanding. It's definately easier to see in person (too bad you don't live in California).

Click below for bigger shots...
Front Shot | Front Shot # 2 (w/flash) | Side Shot | Side Shot # 2 (w/flash)

New baby FAQ file with some answers to some of the questions we thought you might ask BABY FAQ

Yes, you read that right. On Mother's Day (yesterday), Colleen and I announced that we're expecting an addition to our happy union on November 9th. Colleen just started her 14th week on Sunday and I'm happy to report that she's doing amazingly well. The only pictures we have were from our first ultrasound on March 20th so there isn't much to look at yet. We expect to have more pictures on May 23rd (a day after our next ultrasound). I should have more details next weekend after going to Los Angeles for E3. So far, we don't have a registry or names picked out... but we'll let you know when we do.

So we were going to tape people's responses to our announcement but discovered that my phone doesn't have speakerphone capabilities. So here are my personal awards for reactions to our happy announcement.

Best Use of a String of Explatives: Maureen McLane (we were going to post a reply but this is now a family site)
Best Use of Dramatic Pause in a Mind-Numbing Moment of Shock: Elizabeth & Michael McLane (Colleen's parents)
Best Use of Screaming Chorus Over 15 Seconds: Chris Mullen & Tiffany Wright
Shortest Phone Call: Grandma Mullen
Person Most Likely to Pass Out When She Reads This Because She Wasn't Answering Her Phone When We Called: Whitney Wingerd
Best Negative Response: "What are you stupid?" - Dan Esposto (Colleen's co-worker)
Most Active Non-Parental Positive Influence on Baby (and potential cheap babysitter): "David Gray Concert, marathon, and upcoming Coldplay concert." - Beverly Tseng
Most Likely to Have Killed Someone: Michael McLane (Jr.) for almost driving off side of road.

So my sister called yesterday and said the upcoming addition to the family is doing well. Her ultrasound yesterday confirmed a health spine, ten toes, and ten fingers. While the tech was unable to 100% positively confirm if the baby was male or female, the tech was 90% sure that it was female due to the lack of an outside "package". Since I've been vocal on seeing what my new niece is looking like nowadays, Tiff scanned four images so I could have a look myself. I enhanced these a bit to make it easier to see. Congratulations to Tiffany, Jay, and big brother John Bradley.

Margaret's First Slideshot (first of many I figure)

So after bugging my sister for pictures, she finally pulled through today with a cute little picture to show off her welcome addition to the Mullen and Wright families. Tiff's already feeling the pangs of motherhood and has already started sewing like a maniac. Not sure if any of that sewing involves Harley-Davidson products...

Am I addicted to hard drive performance? No, I just love to have lots of it. Today< I found that someone has decided to make a floppy disk RAID setup. Truely funny. If you're a geek like me, you'd get it. RAID is a way to make saving files faster by breaking up the information into two or more drives. They use it for big video production and animated movies. So why is a floppy disk RAID funny? Floppies are super slow and old so the fact that someone even tried this is just nutty.

Floppy Disk Raid

Did you miss all the old shots that I had up on my old Yahoo site? Well, I decided to move them to this site and spent a few hours last night with Photoshop Elements 2.0 to convert them (with some interesting templates. Everything from old Ireland photos to blackmail shots of Allen... check all 10 of 'em out.

Allen Party | The Bahs (01/03) | Boston (2001) | Hope & Tanuj's Wedding
Ireland | Isatu and Family | Ingrid's Brother's Wedding | Various
Wedding Pro Shots | Wedding Shots

Last weekend, Colleen and I trekked up to Napa valley to watch our friend Bev complete a 26 mile marathon through wine country (no, it didn't involve drinking at every winery on a 26 mile stretch of Napa's highway 29). In just under 6 hours, she made it across the finish line, got a nice medal, helped a great cause, and was still smiling at a time where most of us would probably ask for a medic.

Bev's Marathon

So if you haven't heard yet, Tiffany (my sister) is now officially pregnant and will have a new edition for the family sometime during the first week of October. Since Tiffany was upable the scan the little eight week old future niece/nephew, I had to find a worthy picture. And this one just SCREAMS TIFFANY. Also, Colleen and I took to the streets of San Francisco last Sunday to protest the president's blockhead approach to world affairs. Word is that almost 200,000 people showed up and while Mr. Bush chose to ignore us (he doesn't tend to listen to anyone who's intellectually superior), it was good to see crowds rise up for a common cause. On hand was actor Danny Glover, mayoral candidate Ammiano, singers Joan Baez and Bonnie Rait, and Barbara Lee, the only representative to say NO to Mr. Bush's twisted ways. Some great pictures inside:
Scenes from the Protest

On Saturday, our friends Scott and Diemchi finally made it official by celebrating their American wedding in San Jose (their first wedding was held in Vietnam a few weeks ago). Diemchi proved that using the color "MANGO" can actually work when you have the right bridesmaid party, and Scott proved that he can actually dress up. At the reception, our table received top honors as the loud people in the back as our table donated the seemingly best and worst singers of the night as well as forcing the best man and groom to perform "Like a Virgin" while wearing large, shapely bras... interested? Pictures enclosed...

Scenes from the Wedding

Yes, we're back from the east coast for Christmas cheer and cold air. We were lucky enough to hang out with Darcy (now 2 years old) and Bridget (now a highly-advanced 8 months), played with their parents Mike (Col's brother) and Meredith (the superhero of moms everywhere) and hung out with a cast of characters from Colleen's past. Carlos and Cecilia showed off their house as their adorable raven-coiffed terror (Alejandra) on two legs tore up the place (Karla, her sister, only watched in calm disbelief). We went to an Ethiopian bar were we listened to Sudanese and Ethiopian tunes. There's loads of stories to tell... I'll just have to write a paper on it and post it later.

For now, enjoy some quick pictures that I pulled from the stack... more to come... I have more than 200.

Xmas in DC

If you haven't already heard, we took a road trip down to the LA area to visit Disneyland during Thanksgiving break. We didn't eat turkey, we didn't have to worry about all that pie, and we didn't cook for 80 people again (although we'll probably take up a more charitable position by next Thanksgiving). In case you haven't been to Disneyland recently, it now has this new park called California Adventure, which includes a big roller coaster that is still making me smile and some rides that Colleen even rode... one of them simulated hang-gliding over an orange grove (complete with orange smell). We hoofed it for three days and saw just about everything. On our final night, there was a X-mas fireworks display and once it was over, several foam machines gave the Main Street crowd a snow-like dusting. Main Street isn't small either. One thing's for sure, Disneyland folks know how to throw some great parties. Colleen's face has been stuck in permanent smile mode.

Disney California Adventure | Disneyland | Disney Characters

So Colleen's friend Angie is back to the bay after an brief stint as a Reno nun (long, long story). To celebrate the passing of another year in Angie time, she gathered friends from all over to eat some breakfast grub, drink some champagne and head off to go bowling. One amazing thing is that Gabriel bowled. A little more than a year ago, he and his half-brother Daniel arrived in the US after traveling hundreds of miles to escape the Sudan. Gabriel was at work one day at a furnature company and a large couch fell from a few levels above and crushed his head. They said he would die. Thankfully he didn't and his determination is pretty focused on being as normal as possible. He's actually a pretty amazing bowler! Also, in my odd picture taking frenzies, Col & I made new friends with Dana, Melissa and their daughter Jordan. Enjoy the pictures.

Angie's Birthday

So I went to Boston last week to become a godfather (yes, I'm still atheist so don't start collecting any bets). My godchild, Rosemary, was kicking and screaming as they poured the holy water on her head (thata girl) and the church didn't burn down because of my presence (I checked local news to make sure). While I was being all jealous living in Ingrid & Colin's house for a few days deciding on which colors they should paint their rooms, I was able to catch up with Mandy and her new baby Ava, Millie and Dana, Jason, Grandma, Mom, Tiff and Jay and John Bradley, and even caught up with really old friends Stacy McCormack (now Alexander) and Caroline Mills (now Leamoureax). I had a blast. Glance through the pictures, I have to add some captions later today but Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets just shipped so I don't have much time to write... later.

Micheal's Trip To Boston 2002

It's been a while since I've updated the page and I have lots of pictures to share. I was upgrading my computer with a new motherboard, launched several new game sites, shipped a few games, worked on some marketing plans for our new "Challenge Everything" campaign and then got a nasty cold that I just can't seem to shake. Anyways, the two latest slideshows for all you secret voyeurs is from when my mother came out here and we traveled out to the Sausalito Art Festival and Muir Woods (hence all the tree pictures). The second group is from my friend James Reed's wedding that we went up to in San Rafael. It's scary but his wonderful new wife Carolyn and my sister have very similar faces. Colleen even agrees. Finally, Colleen and I went to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire with our friends Scott & Allen a few weeks ago and got medevil for an afternoon.

Mom's Trip to SF | Reed Wedding | Renaissance Pleasure Fair

Ingrid & Colin have added another baby to their happy house. Colin actually updated his site with the first picture of what appears to be a cute green-eyed redhead... wait, that's Ingrid! The other cutie is the blue-eyed Rosemary... more details about Cunney Baby 2.0 as Colin dishes out more details. As expected, the proud papa has his hands full.

Congratulations to Ingrid, Colin and Ruby!

So yeah, I haven't updated the site as much as I wanted. I have been sending stuff up to the site though on a fairly limited basis for people to check out what they've looked like at parties and the like. Displayed below is the Diem Chi's (Scott's wonderful future wife... and great chef), Angie's going away party as she's back to the Flying Nun thing, and a few random pics of Hope, her friends and her hubby Tanuj. I've been playing around with Mac-compatible slideshow makers so Diem Chi's slideshow is a new design that's in progress.
Diem Chi's B-day | Adios Angie | Hope Highrise

So we came back east to spend five days with Colleen's good friend (and married couple) Mary Ellen & Javier Icaza in Miami, Florida. Javier's wonderful parents were gracious enough to put us up for 5 nights as we ventured around the tropical climes and ate yummy BBQ. Since Col & I felt a vibe for the exotic, we took a cruise out to Freeport in the Bahamas for a solo day trip. After cleaning her system through sea sickness, Col's been fully initiated into the Mullen clan's love of the sea.

If you have the time, we've got lots of pictures to show off. During the ride out to the Bahamas we saw flying fish, a super lightning storm, a waterspout, a slightly-daft dolphin, four women in Vegas-style dancer costumes, and two Aussie blokes on a quest to drink as much beer as possible and more. Click on the newest slideshows for as taste of the south.
Miami | Freeport, Bahamas | Seaquarium, Key Biscayne

So now it's 1:20am PST and I just had to put some shots of Muktar, Hadiatu and Isatu up on the site. Last weekend, we took them into the city for the first time to check out the buildings, Pier 39, Twin Peaks, and more. Isatu's personality shows though in these pictures too... she's loving and stubborn in equal measure.

I still have shots of our party, a Bonnie Brae party and pictures of Bridget and Darcy from the video camera. I'm getting slow in my old age...

Grandma apparently found out that mom got her picture taken for the Salem Evening News and scanned it for all to see. As always, I just had to add the shot to the site. Click the shot to the left for a larger version.

Yes, I'm totally lazy and have tons of pictures to post. My PC was totally messed up and it is finally stable again. WOOHOO.

So I've had a cold, I've been busy, I'm slow... whatever the excuse, I've finally uploaded more shots of our life here in California. First off, we celebrated Colleen's 28th Year on the Planet with fun, friends, and games (of course). The weekend before we headed up to San Mateo's Central Park to pound down dogs and burgers for the Lesley Foundation Summer BBQ.

I'll have more items on the site soon. My new laptop is coming and I set up a wireless network to help hook my new iBook to my PC. Oddly, I discovered that our neighbors had done the same but with a cable modem. Stupidly these same people (the orange tarp people if you remember that story) forgot to secure the network so I now have cable modem access for free. More pictures of Bridget to come. I have a massive amount of video to post, I just need to get some more hard drive space.

Last Thursday, we headed to the Washington D.C. area to celebrate Colleen's brother's daughter's baptism. While we were there, we bought fine bake and cookware at Mary Ellen's "Pampered Chef" party. We got a personalized tour of the Capitol Building by Colleen's ex-roommate. Had time to eat dinner with Colleen's parents. And we got to befriend Meredith's (Colleen's brother's wife) family and their kids. It was a great trip to catch up with old friends and loved ones and make acquintances with new loved ones. Here's just a simple highlights slideshow, more pictures are coming soon (I have 166 photos).

Bridget's Baptism Party

After a year of promising to turn Colleen's 1994 Mercury Topaz into a new car, we finally decided and purchased a sparkly new and blue 2003 Toyota Matrix. Colleen couldn't be happier to have her first new car.
More pictures: image 1 | image 2 | image 3

For the long weekend, we soared up to Maura & Cassie's Clearlake home for a little R&R. We got to watch two full moons with the telescope, made three trips to WalMart (for garden supplies) and had some great nights catching up with the rest of our West Coast Clan. Three cheers for our fine hostesses. Most of the pictures were taken from the back of their home at various times over the weekend. Enjoy.

Weekend At Clearlake

With three weeks of 12 hour days under my belt, we launched two new sites. First and foremost, we relaunched eagames.com. Easier to find stuff, WAY better looking, and more games since we added in our partner games like the addictive stuff from LEGO. This week from the 22nd until the 24th, the gaming industry heads to LA for E3. To celebrate to occasion, we launched e3.ea.com. While the second site looks light... you wouldn't believe the hours of approval time involved with getting the site live. I can't wait to sleep again. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

With a headline like that, how can you say no? Mary Ellen, Colleen's best friend, recently turned in her check for The Human Race with a few real estate brochures for the Southern Maryland area. Anyways, keeping a relatively open mind I went through and found some houses that were pretty cool and have decided that if I will never buy a rambler unless my goal is to burn it down. Basically I have no idea where any of these houses are. I may soon have to send the Icazas a few brochures from the peninsula just for shock value.

On to some interesting tidbits:
Mary Ellen's note | The Smoking Gun... :)
What Exactly Is This Realtor Selling? | The Big Ben thing is just way too... Freudian.
Interesting homes | Bottom one with a good repaint could be good.
Just Cool | No idea why, but I really like this one.

We were waiting for a big shock at the end of Ally McBeal and we sure got one tonight at about 10:01pm. A 5.2 quake hit Gilroy (known best for it's garlic festival), a town about 40 miles from where we live. Definately shook the apartment with pictures shaking and walks creaking a little. Basically it was one big crash and a shockwave right after. Nothing damaged or anything like that. We're just fine and it looks like no one was injured by the quake... a good sign.

Quake shakes San Francisco Bay area

On Saturday, Colleen and I walked three miles in The Human Race, a non-profit pledge drive that directly benefits SF peninsula-area non-profit organizations. Afterwards, we went to one of the Lesley Foundation's buildings to celebrate with Colleen's co-workers and residents.

Human Race Pictures & Celebration

Tonight, a group of ex-EA.com folk and some current workers met at the pizza place across the street to bid adieu to our good friend EM Stock. She's packing her bags and shipping out with her lifelong companion Bixby to Austin, Texas to help build life around the upcoming massively multiplayer superhero game, City of Heroes. In the pictures, from left to right is Lisa (EA Sports), Jon (now at Nexon), Allen (no idea where he's at nowadays but it was great to shake hands with my old Air Warrior compadre), Matt (my boss), EM, and Colleen.

Picture 1 | Picture 2

Since I've become an uncle to a great nephew (John Bradley) and niece (Darcy), I've really grown to whole-heartedly embrace the true virtues of unclehood (posting numerous pictures, spoiling them, bragging, missing them). Admittedly my role has only been enhanced by being uncle to Isatu (the daughter of our good friends Muktar & Hediatu), Ruby (daughter of Ingrid & Colin), and now... Bridget (the newest McLane daughter of Colleen's brother & sister-in-law). Since my fridge no longer has any available space not already occupied by one of my nieces and nephew, here's more pictures. These were originally posted by Colleen's brother and after some time with Photoshop, I've enhanced them a little to show off Bridget.Enjoy!

More Bridget Pictures

On Sunday, Muktar, Hediatu, and Isatu welcomed us into their home for a day of music, smiles, laughs and good food. While we were there, we captured some new shots of the family and were quite pleased that Isatu is turning out to be a lovely girl. We haven't been down to visit in several months and have come to one conclusion... Isatu has a future as an Olympic runner. I have never seen (yes, even in my little experience) such an energetic kid. She ran at full speed for almost 7 hours. She may have lasted longer but Colleen & I needed to recharge our Energizers (and watch X-Files). On to the new pictures.

Muktar, Hediatu & Isatu's Visit

2:15 am and I'm sleepy. Tonight we went up to Pacifica to Sarah's home (Colleen's boss's boss) to celebrate Jennifer's (Colleen's co-worker) upcoming wedding. Overall it was a great evening of kind words, good cheer, and great conversation. Congratulations Jen & John! May your new lives be sprinkled with all the joys and rewards of marriage. I need to go back and label some photos so that you can actually figure out who's who. Tomorrow though... need to work on some ZZZs. FYI: The baby is Nicolas, Laura & Eric's rapidly growing and teething son.

Jennifer & John's Wedding Shower

Colleen and I are once again honored to announce our newest niece to the clan.

First 9 pictures | Second 11 Pictures

While she was two weeks showing up on terra firma, Meredith and Michael (my brother and sister in law) finally ushered in the next generation of McLanes (and Darcy's sister). At 10 lbs 3 ozs., Meredith once again proves to be a formidible force. Thankfully both mother and child are doing A-OK. As always, we've already spoiled Bridget with some new clothes and a nice ducky bib. Reportedly, Darcy had quite an adventure opening the box of goodies.

Next trip... D.C. so we can meet Bridget and perhaps have a little tea party with Darcy

You know how you laugh at all the funny things that Sims do in The Sims? Well, it appears that the team may have met this family. While it is a bit lengthy, you need to check out the pictures of the redneck neighbor from the backwoods.
REDNECK NEIGHBOR

04|9|02: We're back! After last week's jaunt to the chilly east coast, we're happy to report that the newlywed, Mary Ellen & Javier Icaza, are now "warming up" in Florida. As unofficial photographers for the bride's team, we captured some funny shots of the bride's party in preparation and during the reception... wedding photos to come soon as I get some video off the MiniDV. All in all, apart from the bone-chilling cold, the unrelenting questions about when we're moving back east, and poor in-town directions, we had an amazing time.

Mary Ellen & Javier Icaza's Wedding Photos

Also, we finally got to visit Chez Wingerd in West Chester to experience, for ourselves, the design magnates known as Whitney and Jon. Sure, we fell asleep in the car after our bodies came extremely close to shutting down at the mall but after getting inside their home, I can admit to being wickedly jealous. I WANNA HOUSE TOO! Anyways, we took some quick pictures of the house along with it's furry and infamous little characters, Charlie and Zoe because Whitney is too lazy to take pictures of her own home.

04|1|02: So it appears that my friend and lunchtime cohort Peggy is becoming more and more famous (rightfully so). She's been designing jewelry for the likes of Buffy and women here at EA and needs to be bigger! You can check out her goods at PeggyLi.com.

New Famous Friend in ElleGirl.

03|29|02: One of the atheist groups that I belong to found this really well written article about the current affairs fueled by religious history and zealots. It isn't a bashing article and that's why it's so good. Examples include the recent discovery that priests molest children (wow, who didn't know should be the question?), hindi followers attacking muslims over a piece of facial hair, and other zany stuff. Happy easter, passover, X-Files Day, I guess. :)

The Nation: God Changes Everything

03|21|02: I've been playing around with the videos that Colleen took while in DC and decided to post several candid shots of Darcy and Meredith. Yes, I'm addicted to looking at my cute little niece. I'm a happy uncle. Soon, Darcy will have even more fun as Meredith unleashes baby number 2 into the world. Expect pictures. Lots of pictures.

In further idiot news, a band of Creationists in Ohio are challenging the Darwin theory in the state's public schools. The crew has actually come up with a new evolutionary theory to explain our obvious evolutionary pasts. But wait, they're headed by a man who obviously has some issues... a biologist and religious studies scholar. I only wish that I could make silly stuff like this up.
Ohio Board Hears Debate on an Alternative to Darwinism

��>Shower at The Reeds
��> Liam's September Sonogram
��> Labor & Delivery Sonogram
��> Trip to Alcatraz
��> Lightning Storm
��> Shower in San Carlos
��> Liam at 28 Weeks
��> Our Pet Deer (Our Dear Pets?)
��> Nick Reed Turns 2.0
��> Syracuse 2003
��> Ultrasound 7/24
��> Colleen Turns 29
��> Our New Apartment Pictures
��> Third Ultrasound 06/19
��> Ultrasound 06/03
��> Allen Party
��> The Bahs (01/03)
��> Boston (2001)
��> Hope & Tanuj's Wedding
��> Ireland
��> Isatu and Family
��> Ingrid's Brother's Wedding
��> Various
��> Wedding Pro Shots
��> Wedding Shots
��> Scenes from the Protest
��> Diemchi & Scott's Wedding
��> Xmas in DC
��> Disney California Adventure
��> Disneyland
��> Disney Characters
��> Diemchi's B-day
��> Adios Angie
��> Hope Highrise
��> Miami
��> Freeport, Bahamas
��> Seaquarium, Key Biscayne
��> Bahs in SF
��> Lesley Foundation BBQ
��> Colleen's 28th Year on the Planet
��> Bridget's Baptism Party
��> Weekend at Clearlake (Maura & Cassie's)
��> The Human Race
��> More Bridget Pictures
��> Muktar, Hediatu & Isatu's Visit
��> Jennifer & John's Wedding Shower
��> Mary Ellen & Javier Wedding
��> Mary Ellen Shower Slideshow!
��> Scott's 16th Birthday
��> SF Zoo
��> Whitney & Jon's Home
��> New Darcy and Meredith Shots
��> Take a look

��> Cassie Mullen Cookie Video
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/ Rise of Legends: Turn-based Crossover Drug
/ Hate to Love Relationship with Nintendo GameCube
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