Chris McDowell's The Meaning of Life

My new website

2008-11-28T20:12:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to say that I finally got a chance to work on my own personal website. It's mostly finished, and set to host my photography. It's been hand-coded in PHP and although most of the cool stuff is on the back end, it promises to be pretty cool.

I still have some work to do but for now, the home page shows a random assortment of 6 (out of 13) photos of Sage's birthday party. Hit the 'refresh' or 'reload' button on your browser to load some others.

www.ChristopherJMcDowell.com

It will be refined over the next couple of days. Later!
-Chris

More Photos

2008-10-16T20:07:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos from Yosemite, when Amy's friend Jessica and her fiance Peter came to visit for a bit. We climbed 1,000 feet to the top of Vernal Falls and Chris almost died in the process.

Here is a photo from when we were moving. And yes, that's a (nother) brush fire, that broke out about a half mile behind our house a few days before we left. It was put out within a few hours though, unlike some of the others which have raged for a week or more.
And finally, photos from our anniversary trip to the coast. We stayed in an airport area hotel (so was able to take a ride around the airport on their train and get a cool photo), then we drove down the coast all the way to Santa Cruz, where we saw the shut-for-the-season boardwalk amusement park.

(can you say 11 pounds of hand picked organic strawberries?)

New Pics!

2008-08-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

Mommy here. Here are some new Sage photos for you all.

From an oh-so-rare rainstorm. He was shivering like crazy after about 10 minutes, but it was really, really hard to get him to come in! I think we ended up bribing him with chocolate.

A trip to Bass Lake and boating with Grandma and Grandpa.

One of Sage's famous matchbox car convoys.

On Daddy's birthday we rode the train from Fresno to Hanford (about a 30 minute ride). Sage had lots of fun!

Hugging a Hanford palm tree.

What an exhausting day!

Until next time!

Finally some new photos

2008-04-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

After a long absence, here we are with some more photos. We took surprisingly few photos over the winter, but now that it's warmer we've been taking more.

Here is Sage in his winter gear going to Oakhurst Park:

And here is Sage at Donna's arena:

Whoops! Ran out of energy.

Now we've moved into our new house.

At the Easter Egg hunt in Oakhurst:

Got warm in a hurry!

From Dad's trip:

On the steam train in Jamestown, CA

At Ironstone Vinyard:

Poof, out again:

At Bass Lake:

A few shots at the end of the trip:

That's all for now!

Here comes a Christmas Present

2007-12-24T14:18:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been awhile - but finally here are some pictures of Sage & Company from Toronto, Halloween and Sage's 2nd birthday. It's been a busy 3 months for all of us, and are looking forward to getting some rest in after the holidays!

Enough yammering, on with the photos!

Just about to leave for San Francisco for the flight to Toronto - let's get this show on the road!
Sage & Gram

Bird bath!

Whee!
Thanks for the lift!

Chris & Sage by Lake Scugog, Port Perry

Sage & Pappy

Great view from the train!

Splashy splashy

Leaf fans!!!

Upsie Daisy

Party time!

Sage with his great-grandma & grandpa

Whadda ya looking at?

Sage & John playing the drums

Sage hiking

Chris, Grandma & Grandpa

Our ride home from Chicago to San Francisco

Sage and a giant dog - no matter what we told him, he kept calling the dog 'horsey'

Amy, Sage, and San Francisco's 'painted ladies'

2 shots from Las Vegas

Amy & Sage at Bass Lake

Sage & Chris & Bass Lake

Halloween - Scary monster!!!!

Sage & Mommy

Sage & Daddy

Up visiting Amy's Grandfather & Aunt in Walker, CA - Sage & Oscar ('Oxer')

Just after falling over

Amy along the edge of the Walker Valley

Amy & Sage exploring the Bodie ghost town

Sage's 2nd birthday - Sage after some chocolate birthday cake

Sage getting yet more cars!

Some more presents for Sage

What's in this one?

Sage at his cousin's birthday party at an inflatable funhouse

He was enjoying himself!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Ultra-Photo Blog

2007-08-25T12:44:00.001-07:00

We're sorry about the loooooong delay in updating the blog, but life has been pretty crazy for all of us lately. Chris is working long days, plus has about 5 freelance projects in the works. Amy is working part-time for an online tutoring service and working on her masters degree via a correspondence course, and we are finding it takes more and more energy to keep up with the mini tornado, who turned 21 months old yesterday!

So here are some pictures for you from the last several weeks. Hope you enjoy them!

The first group of pictures is from a trip we took to Oregon at the end of July. We drove the whopping 14 hours each way, but it was a lot of fun! We got to escape the horrible heat we've had here all summer, and the beaches in Oregon are so clean and beautiful!

We couldn't keep Sage from scaling rocks and hills any chance he got! This kid has feet of leather!

Left to right: Irie, Chivonne, Adam, Azriel, Amy, Sage, Chris

This was the first time we've gotten to spend time with Amy's brother and family that Sage has been able to keep up with his cousins. He had a ball!

Amy made home-made faux-stess cupcakes for Chris's birthday. Man were they complicated, but they tasted fantastic!

Sage helped. :)

Donna and Terry took us to Old Sacramento and boating on the Sacramento River Delta for Chris's birthday. It was great! Here is Sage with 'Amma in Old Sac.

All tuckered out from the exciting weekend and the long drive home.

Stay tuned for pictures from a super-fun trip to Vegas scheduled the weekend after next! Chris will be photoshopping it for four days, and Las Vegas has one of the largest children's museums in the country, so Amy and Sage should have something to do, too! Then the weekend after that...well, we're going somewhere. ;-)

Lots of love!

Chris, Amy & Sage

More of the same...

2007-06-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some more photos for you. Enjoy!

Sage noticed a kitten sitting in his cart and had to go push it around. Just so you know, this scene lasted an entire 2/5 of a second. Good thing I was ready!

Upside down!!!!!!

(Amy took this one)

Just 5 Pictures

2007-06-19T22:28:00.001-07:00

Here are 5 photos taken in the past little while - 3 of Sage, 1 of a mountain meadow on an afternoon drive up into the High Country above Bass Lake, and one of one of our kittens (aptly named White Shoulders)

I've been thinking that it's time to create something of a photo gallery for myself - so I'm going to start throwing together some PHP code to make it happen. I'll let you know when I get anywhere.

Update

2007-06-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

In the last post, we mentioned that we were going to wait until we had an offer accepted before posting our plans. Seems we should have listened to logic. The land was listed at $91,000 - we offered $80,000, expecting to settle somewhere around $85,000 which was what we had in the budget for the land. The offer also required detailed info on the feasibility and cost of a septic system - we had budgeted $6,000, as originally stated by the seller. The counter offer was $91,000, with no given information about the septic. We did hear from our contractor that the septic options were so limited on that property that an engineered septic would likely be the only feasible option - at a cost of at least $30,000. So with the additional cost of the land + the additional cost of the septic totalling at least $30,000, we just can't make it work.

So that is where we stand - it was certainly a nice dream while it lasted.

Big Big News!

2007-06-05T20:39:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of months we have been looking into buying some property and building a very unique type of house. Well, we've found our property, we've found our house, we've gotten pre-approved for a construction loan. And tomorrow we're putting in an offer (cross your fingers)! We were going to wait until we had an offer accepted before posting this, but we couldn't wait...and we've had a couple of desperate pleas for pictures. So here we go:

View of the building pad from the driveway

Looking down the driveway

The building pad from up on the hill, and a peek at our view

Just think: in a few months time you could be sitting on our deck looking at this view! Go make those airline reservations now!

Sun goes down, lights come on in the Central Valley.

We are getting a yurt! This is a custom-designed, wood-paneled, eco-friendly round house. It's built in pieces in Oregon and shipped to us on a semi truck, then we assemble it ourselves (with a little help from friends and family)! The company is Oregon Yurtworks

We're going pretty simple to begin with and getting a single-story, 31-ft diameter yurt. It will have an open-concept kitchen/living/dining room, a bathroom, bedroom, and loft. With the loft it will be about 1000 square feet.

This is what a wood-paneled yurt looks like from the outside:

And a couple interior shots:

Right now we're working on a website for Oregon Yurtworks to help us design our house. It will have all kinds of pictures and plans and details. We'll let you all know when it's up. Until then, wish us luck!

P.S. We realize you've had NO new pictures of Sage in months. We're very sorry about this. We've been very busy. So here are a couple to tide you over and we will post more when we get the chance.

2007-04-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring, Everyone!

Lots goin' on with the Sage-Man these past couple months. After taking a very, shall we say, casual attitude toward the idea of walking, he started taking steps at about 15 1/2 months. Now he's all but given up crawling for the unique thrill of perambulation. But you all come here to see pictures, right? Here ya go!

At the beginning of February we had a spot of very nice weather and so we took Sage to Woodward Park in Fresno.

A couple weeks later the weather turned decidedly different!

Sage has gotten quite adept at building towers! And yes, it was him who put that hippo on top.

With cousins Azriel and Irie at the Chaffee Zoo.

Sage started playing peek-a-boo with the shower curtain during his bath last night, so mommy called to daddy to grab his camera and we ended up with a great bathtime photo shoot!

Aaaah! The joys of naked time!

Video of Sage standing and walking

2007-03-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

Well, after seeing the photo of him standing, you must have known this was coming...

http://s62.photobucket.com/albums/h118/chrisnamers/?action=view&current=walking.flv

Click on the link above to load a video of Sage standing and taking a trippy stroll around out messy house. Before today, he hasn't taken more than a step, but he just went crazy walky today. Enjoy!

By the way, because I know people will ask, our kitchen chairs are turned upside down because Sage has the tendency to climb on them and then the kitchen table with hilarious results. So hilarious that we turned the chairs upside down. No one told me that about parenting! Nor did anyone tell me that if toilet paper was left on the rolls, it would soon ALL end up on the floor in a big pile.

AAAHHH!!! WHAT'S HE DOING???

2007-02-12T20:09:00.000-08:00

Sage stands! Unbelievable. He has been casually standing for a few days now, every now and then he will just stand, wobble for a bit and then sit back down. I had my camera pointed at him for 20 minutes and finally caught it:

Just some random shots of Mr. Sage...

And some photographs of our Toronto trip at Christmas. Surprisingly, I haven't done much photography since and barely took a single photo through the entire month of January.

This is Mr. Untalkative, signing off...

Disneyland!

2006-12-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

We took Sage to Disneyland last Friday. Here are some highlights:

Checking things out at the entrance

With Grandma on the Jungle Cruise

We found a spot to crawl around. Sage was minding his own business when a little girl (about 2) sees him, screams "Baybeeee!" and runs up to give him a big hug. He was taken a bit by surprise! He immediately grabbed her arms and threw them off! It was hilarious.

His favorite ride seemed to be the double-decker bus that shuttles people up and down main street. Go figure.

Looking at the pretty lights at "It's a Small World"

"It's a world of laughter, a world of tears. It's a world of hopes and a world of fears. There's so much that we share, that it's time we're aware..." Let's sing it again! Over and over and over and over.....

It got a bit chilly at night, but Sage is keeping warm!

Not at Disneyland, but...can you guess? A trip to L.A. wouldn't be complete without a visit to this place (that is, if you're traveling with Chris). Now, who (as a baby) does Sage look like in this picture?

11 days until we are in Toronto! Woo hoo!

2006-11-26T20:18:00.000-08:00

The Sage man is 1!!! Here are a few pics of his birthday party:

The first thing he went for was the camcorder. Never mind the presents.

Eating a toy pager...Grandma got him this after he drooled on our cell phone and broke it.

Showing his teeth

Wow! Look at that stash! That's cousin Addy helping him unwrap.

Look at all this paper to play with! This is the best party ever!
Daddy helping out.
Time for cake! (A gingerbread cake with lemon frosting, in case you were wondering.)Mmm. More sugar than I've ever had in my life.

On Saturday we went to the parade of lights and tree lighting at Bass Lake. Sage got to ride on the Pines Resort float!

And he got to see Santa!

That's all folks!

It's Mommy again

2006-11-09T09:40:00.000-08:00

We've got all kinds of new photos of Sage, and Daddy is to busy to post them. So Mommy's stepping in again. That means no pictures of planes or trains or pretty landscapes this time. If you want more of those you'll have to bug Chris. This entry is purely Sage.

For the last few weeks he is seriously into climbing...climbing the stairs, climbing mom and dad, and climbing anything else around. Open boxes are definitely a favorite.

He also loves making music of any kind!

Mommy saw this horse at the consignment store and couldn't resist! Sage's legs are a little short yet, but he still loves riding it with a little help!

What a great hairdo!

Halloween puppy

And who's the guy in the background with the funny-looking mask?

I told you he was musical!

There's that silly-looking guy again! Where does he keep coming from?

And here's Sage with the sage we planted after he was born.

Eureka! Something Sage will eat! He really liked the tofu feta mom made.

Last weekend we took Sage to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He thought the fish were soooo cool! His favorites were the jellies, anything with tentacles, like shrimp, the otters, and fish that schooled, like the ones in this picture.

Whoa! Looking at fish is so exhausting!

After the aquarium we took Sage to the beach, thinking he would like to crawl around in the sand before the 3 1/2 hour drive home. Nope. He loved the beach a few months ago, but this time he hated it! He started freaking out if I even acted like I was going to put him down. In this picture he's looking like he thinks the ground is way too close.

So instead of playing in the sand we went flying. That was fun.

Hey, Sage! Shouldn't that sock be on your foot?

Let's see, news...Sage's third tooth popped through the day before yesterday, and his fourth just about to come in as well. Strangely enough, they are not his top front ones. The new tooth is to the right of the as-of-yet absent front right tooth. The one about to come through is next to his bottom front left. He's going to have one crazy smile!

About a month ago Sage started saying his first word (besides mama): "Uhrrrr" or "Buh-uhrrrr" aka "Bird"! He hasn't been saying it much lately, as the giant vultures who used to hang out in our tree (and who inspired the word) have mysteriously dissappeared. But he said it last weekend when we were in the aquarium aviary.

In exactly 15 days Sage will be one! Woo hoo!

That's all for now, folks!

Our new house, new cats & new teeth

2006-10-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

I know what you're thinking, and we haven't published anything to the blog in a long time for a different reason.

We've moved to a new house here in the town of Oakhurst. It's really a pleasant place to live, although the house is a bit on the older side. Here is a photo. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with a woodstove, 2 floors, balcony and screened-in back patio that really rocks.

To go with the house, we adopted a pair of kittens. Their names are Charlie:

And Brooks, which is short for Brookscroft which is the road on which Amy and I first lived together.

We're not really sure of the gender of either of them, but we think they're both females.

Meanwhile, Sage has grown two bottom teeth which have remained impossible to photograph until I got a shot last Saturday morning.

After I took this photo we all went to Yosemite for the day, as an anniversary outing. We got some cool photos which I'll share...the first was taken at Glacier Point with famous Half Dome in the background,

The next on the road up to the point again with Half Dome in it,

And finally at the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.

And I'm not sure what Sage is eating, but he hasn't seemed to get much of it in his mouth.

Sorry for not posting in awhile. We got a new computer and are without Photoshop which makes processing photos for web viewing a whole lot easier. But I will get more photos online soon.

It hasn't been that long since I've posted, has it?

2006-07-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

Don't answer that.

Well we're in the final week before coming to Toronto for a few days so I thought I would flood the netwaves with more images of adventure and excitement. Starring Sage! Here he is just before bugging the cat, as he's apt to do.

We watched fireworks on the 4th of July on Bass Lake from Donna and Terry's boat. Here is Sage wondering why he's allowed to stay up so much later than normal.We went to San Francisco for a weekend away in early July, here are a few shots of the cable cars in the city by the bay.
We all drove across the Golden Gate Bridge for some evening photos on the other side. We also got to pose for a few. There was a heat wave going on in the Central Valley at the time, but it was so freezing cold and windy up there, we couldn't believe it. We had sweaters on the whole weekend.
The money shot!

Amy and Sage while wandering around the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park.

And a nice shot of lily pads.

Sage's first encounter with sand.

Back in the hills, Sage went in the spa with Donna.

Here's a photo from our weekend in Los Angeles. Amy and Jessica are posing on the grounds of CalTech University on Canada Day.

Sage isn't sure whether he likes solid foods yet...definitely not avocados. He does like plums, peaches and cucumber slices though. We're not giving him anything pureed, choosing to do a child-led introduction of solids, which means we give him real whole food. If he wants to take a taste then that's cool, if not then it will probably end up on the floor and life goes on!

Taking a bath in the sink...to be small and flexible like that!

Almost a peace sign!
Just yesterday he made his first shaky attempt at a crawl!
That's it for now!

It's Mommy's Turn!

2006-06-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

So all afternoon I'd been bugging Chris to post on his blog. I finally got tired of all the foot-dragging and decided to do it myself!

Sage was seven months old yesterday! He is quite mobile, even though he doesn't crawl yet. He pivots and rolls to get where he wants to go. No interest in solids yet, but he certainly isn't missing them. He weighs close to 22 pounds! And we're baffled at the absence of teeth, as of yet. He's been teething for 3 1/2 months!

Well, here are the cute pictures:

Squeaky Clean!

At Grandma's birthday dinner
Mommy and Daddy decided to pick cherries on an
UNBELIEVABLY hot day, so Sage is making sure
to stay well-hydrated.

Somebody LOVES his nekkid time!

Enjoying the interesting texture of
Grandma and Grandpa's Lawn

The following photographs were taken during an impromptu photo shoot. We were chillaxing at Grandma and Grandpa's and Daddy suddenly realized how cute Sage looked sitting naked on white sheets. Enjoy!

If that last photo doesn't make you want to have a nice warm boob full of milk and snuggle into bed, then you have our pity. Sweet dreams!

Passing 6 Months

2006-06-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Hello all you folks in internet land,

Sage recently passed 6 months of age. This kid is doing awesome. Here are some photographs!

He can now sit up on his own. And he smiles a lot. An awful lot.

He's got the concept of crawling down, but doesn't yet have the ability to move the hands and legs in a way that would cause him to do anything other than...

...flop over!

He really enjoys being in his high chair!

Really REALLY enjoys it!

He's so sweepy!

One of his favorite toys now is a wet washcloth.

We've started taking him for short swim lessons, although they're more like water familiarization classes at this point. He does look cute in his blue trunks.

He's got a lot to ponder.

Anyway, that was our son! meanwhile, Amy's brother Adam has just announced that he and Chivonne are getting married! The wedding is booked for September 9th at Bass Lake, and they have asked Amy and I to be the best man and maid of honor.

We've decided to rent a cool car to drive from the wedding to the reception (at Terry & Donna's place), and when I say cool, there is a couple close to Bass Lake that has a small fleet of old Model A & Model T Fords which they rent out, and we'll be renting a 1928 Model A Touring Car. Since I'll be the chauffeur (like I would let anyone else drive it), Amy, Sage and I took a ride up there yesterday. I got a few good pictures and a quick driving lesson. It was so strange and exciting to drive!

Anyway the owner and I have now made plans that when the busy summer season is over, we're going to get all the cars together and do a mass photo shoot of their fleet for their website and marketing matierals. This is so excitingly awesome.

1928 Ford Model A Touring Car - The 2nd oldest Model A known to exist in the United States...I got to drive it!

Well that's all for now. We've confirmed that we will be coming to Toronto for the August long weekend, so everyone gets to meet Sage!

See yuhs lay-ter

Le Grand Voyage

2006-05-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who don't know, we took a grand voyage, excuse me, Le Grand Voyage, to visit Amy's brother and father up in the city of Vancouver, Washington which is just north of the Oregon border and the city of Portland.

Originally intending on driving, we found rather inexpensive plane tickets from the city of Sacramento (about 3.5 hours drive north of Coarsegold) to Portland which saved us about 10 hours of driving each way.

The main downside was that the flight there was at 6am, which means we checked out of our hotel at 4am to head to the airport. Sage's first flight was in a Canadian-built Q400, the 70-seat stretched version of the popular Dash-8 aircraft. He slept through most of the flight and seemed to have a good time! Here is a picture after we got to Portland.

Amy's brother Adam and their father met us at the airport and drove us to Vancouver to stay with Adam and his girlfriend Chivonne. She has 2 daughters, aged 3 1/2 and 2, named Azriel and Irie. Boy did they keep Sage busy! He's never slept so well as after being worn out by the two of them. Here they are having a good time.

For some reason, this Friday, everyone had the day off so we hit the road and drove 90 minutes to a lookout point close to Mount St. Helens, which had been closed for almost a year due to fear of volcanic activity and had just recently reopened. Here is a photo of the mountain...clouds covered the top, but you can clearly see the blast crater and the desolate valley below. It was really amazing to see how the eruption that happened 26 years ago still affects the landscape. Mount St. Helens can easily be seen from Vancouver and Portland and Amy's father told me about looking up from playing tennis and seeing what looked like an atomic bomb exploding over the mountain in 1980 while Donna was pregnant with Amy.

Here is Sage meeting his Grandpa Bryan. It was the first time he got up close and personal with a beard and he couldn't help but grab it every now and then!

On the second day there we went for a very scenic drive through the Columbia River Gorge. It is a whole string of State Parks with hiking trails and more waterfalls than I have ever seen in such close proximity. Here is a photo on one of the hikes showing Bryan, Amy with Sage on her back and Adam.

On the Oregon side of the gorge, I got a shot of the river valley from a scenic overlook.

Amy and Sage at one of the many waterfalls we saw along the trip.

And here is what I think is a beautiful and scenic shot of a top of one waterfall.

The next day we spent in the environs of Portland. We stopped for awhile at Washington Park for some playground time. Sage spent it rolling around on the green grass.

We then went on a bit of a city hike, crossing bridges over train tracks and the river to stroll along the waterfront. Here's 'the gang,' Amy and Sage, Chivonne, Azriel and Irie, Bryan and Amy's Aunt Sharon and Uncle Joey bringing up the rear.

Later on we went to visit Amy's grandmother who recently got out of the hospital. Here is Bryan, Aunt Sharon, Sage and Amy.

Sage got a kick out of his Great-Grandma Alice!

The next day was limited as we were flying back in the early afternoon, but we hung out at Clark College where Bryan works and Adam attends classes. Adam took an algebra test and then we headed to the airport.

Amy says I can't put another plane picture on my blog so I guess you'll just have to imagine that we flew back in another Canadian-built plane, a Canadair CRJ-700 Regional Jet. Sage didn't like that flight too much because he had ear problems during descent and did quite a bit of howling. Anyway we drove home, rather tired but overall we had a really great weekend, saw a lot, and even went as far as to title the blog in French.

A long overdue blogging

2006-04-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

It has been so long since I've added to this blog. Where do I begin?

Well we are all doing ok. I had a cold for the longest time and thought my nose would never stop running. But, it did. Very happy about that.

My work is going ok. The company I work at has decided to branch out into web design, and I'm more than happy to be taking the helm of that. I've completed my web masterpiece, which is a website for the magazine that my workplace puts out once a month. It's at www.HomeAndRanchMag.com, which has real estate listings. It's all PHP driven (learned the language from scratch to build this site!)

Here's where I work!

One part of my job that I really like is that for 2 days per month, I get to go and shoot photographs for the magazine. I get a list of properties in Fresno to photograph, and I just drive around the city snapping them. Unfortunately Fresno is not known as one of the safest cities in California, so I do take some precautions. As far as firing a gun goes, I know it's an American tradition, but I haven't yet done it. About half a dozen people have offered to take me to a shooting range or just some empty area to try it, but I haven't folded yet. I always joke around...hey I'm Canadian...I don't know what to use a gun for other than to hold up a 7-11!

Sage is growing well, and is now somewhere around 18 1/2 pounds. What a bruiser! He can now flip from his back to his front, and can crawl somewhat using a combination of kicking his big chunky legs and planting his face into the ground. Believe it or not, it does move him a quarter inch each time he does this.

The weather has been really rainy recently. We got an above-average amount of snow last month, and since then it has just poured. It actually snowed so much that it brought hundreds of trees down that weren't used to having so much extra weight on them. Wussy trees anyway, no match for a good ol' Canadian tree!!!

Anyway, of the 31 days of March, it rained on 25 of them. The land all around out house and neighbourhood is now blooming with wild flowers, lupins and wildgrass because of it. Mind you, when all the rain stops, for the most part it won't be back until November. Most of the year in this area the vegetation is all brown and dead...one of the reasons why there is such a forest fire risk up here.

So what have we been up to...a month ago we all drove down to Los Angeles to visit with Amy's best friend Jessica. We visited with her and her boyfriend Peter, and also had lunch with Jessica's sister Stephanie. We hung out for awhile at the Santa Monica Beach, but not long because it was really cold that day. And when I say really cold I mean 12 degrees and windy. Not bad for early March by Canuck standards.

Here are Amy and Jessica and Sage!

The Los Angeles downtown at night (from the parking garage at our hotel)

Speaking of Canuck standards I really miss walnut chocolate crullers at Coffee Time.

But back to the story, what trip to Los Angeles would be complete without a trip to Los Angeles Airport! Got some photographs that I've wanted for a long time, including Qantas' bright red 'Wunala Dreaming' 747.

Sweet!!!!!!

And we're making plans a month from now to head up and visit Amy's brother and father in Vancouver, Washington (right across the river from Portland Oregon.) We were going to drive it (about 13 hours nonstop) but we found a really cheap flight to Portland from Sacramento, so we'll drive to Sacramento (3.5 hours) and then hop on a plane for the rest of the journey. The coolest part? Sage's first flight will be on a CANADIAN MADE AIRCRAFT, the Bombardier Q400...the stretched version of the famous Dash 8. Coming back will also be in a Canadian plane, the Canadair CRJ-700 Regional Jet. Funny, we didn't plan it that way, but I'm not arguing.

Speaking of planes, on Saturday, the 15th, Amy and I celebrated 6 years since my plane crash. We went out for lunch and I drank a really big margarita and got a massive piece of chocolate cake. They don't signify anything, but I got to act like I was all emotional and traumatized by the anniversary to get whatever I wanted that day.

And without further ado, here are some more images of the Sageman for your viewing interest!

He's getting used to the potty!

Sage gets really wrapped up in life sometimes.
Sage from the side...what a head!

Who's the goofy looking one in this picture?

What's up Doc?

Sage sleeping on one of our walks

Guess what Sage got for Easter from Grandma and Grandpa!

Sage with Donna at Easter

That's about it for now, until next time, umm, well just keep out of trouble. Or don't.

Mr. 3 Months

2006-02-27T21:15:00.000-08:00

Sage turned 3 months old on Friday! Here are some photos.

(This one HAS to be seen full-sized...click on it!)

Chilling out at a cafe in San Francisco

And because it's my blog, an Air New Zealand 777!

2 Months of Sage

2006-01-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Here are some new photos of Sage that I took this weekend after fierce and persistent prodding from 3 out of 7 of Sage's grandparents.

Enjoy!

Here he is looking like a real couch potato. He's even got a remote handy.

Check out this cute shirt we got him!

Here is Sage and Chris having a freaky face contest.

Here we are practicing elimination communication which is used as an alternative to diapers in many cultures. For more information, go here.

Duhhhhh...

Amy thinks he looks like Olive Oil saying 'Oh Popeye!'

Where did that remote go?

How cute!

No more pictures!!!!!

Scenes from Californee

2006-01-16T22:27:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post some photographs from the various places we've been since we've been here, and just some nice shots.

First is a shot of Highway 41, the "Southern Yosemite Highway" as it winds through the town center of Coarsegold.

Here is a shot of a foggy morning in our backyard. Yes, this is our backyard...beats a manicured lawn anyday!!!
In this shot the sun sets in the Ponderosa Basin where Amy's parents live. The clouds as you can see hover at a slightly higher elevation than we are.

The moon rises through a gnarled tree one cool winter's night.
We drove up to Millerton Lake Recreation Area which, although pretty much abandoned during the winter months, was still quite scenic.One weekend we all drove north to Sacramento for a party at Amy's sister's place. The riverfront is lined with historic buildings and ships, one of which is this riverboat.

On our way down to San Diego for Amy's aunt's wedding, I of course stopped in my favorite place to watch planes...Imperial Hill overlooking the main runway at Los Angeles International Airport.
San Diego's waterfront is currently sporting a patriotic Model T.
A sailing ship cruising the San Diego Harbor.
The massive bulk of the aircraft carrier USS Midway towers above the water. This ship is now a naval museum.
The sun sets over the Pacific on the beach at Del Mar, just north of San Diego.
Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Sage Chunkmeister

2006-01-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

So our dear boy is now well over 12 pounds. He's been gaining something like an ounce and a half every day he's been alive...isn't that amazing? He's really rounding out well. It's rather funny to see his chubby cheeks and double chin (sometimes triple, depending on how his head is)

Here he is!And finally, here he is leading us in a roaring chorus of Row row row your boat.

In other news, After 2 months of being here, I've finally received my employment authorization, and have now taken up a position as a graphic designer at a small publishing company nearby.

Also, we have a new car...after borrowing an old 1992 Ford Explorer with a manual transmission, we bought a 1998 Saturn for a mere 2,500 dollars. It works great, and here's a photo of both before we returned the Explorer this afternoon.

In order to get a California driver's licence, I have to retake the written and driving tests again. I passed the written test (one answer wrong out of 36 though,) and I have the driving test this Friday. That should be fun. One interesting thing is that there are online help tutorials in studying for the written exam, with pictures and multiple choice questions. This one was pretty funny...police assistance my heiney...there might be terrorists on the other side of the hill!

So that's it for now, time to face the barrage of phone calls saying 'more pictures of Sage...'
Sorry for not writing more, it's been a busy weekend...I will put more pictures up soon though.

Precious Monuments

2005-12-31T11:31:00.000-08:00

Just something goofy I threw together with Photoshop. Enjoy!

The Many Faces of Sage

2005-12-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I let my camera go nuts as my son was doing the same. Here are our favorites!

He's doing great, he looks like he's growing! He's making his first non-cry or fuss noises, he's holding eye contact for longer periods of time, and has really strong arms and legs.

Oh and already he has more clothes than Amy and me combined.

Later!

"The New Kid"

2005-11-28T16:49:00.000-08:00

After 8 1/2 months of waiting, the new kid has made his appearance!

Presenting...Sage Patrick Wilde-McDowell, a young Sagitarius born on Thursday, November 24th, 2005 at 3:21pm PT. Now we'll look at the meaning of the day he was born. It was American Thanksgiving day in the California foothills...but more importantly, Burrito Night (every Thursday at our house). We didn't end up having burritos that night, but we did roll Sage into a tight swaddling cloth to kind of resemble a burrito. He shares a birthday with the actor who played 'Howling Mad' Murdoch on the A-Team, Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, 12th president of the United States Zachary Taylor, & serial killer Ted Bundy!

An excerpt from our e-mailed birth announcement:

I can honestly say that this was the most amazing day of our lives. Amy woke up with several strong contractions in a row at about 1:30am. By 2:30 the contractions were having a sharp edge to them and the mucous plug which holds the baby in came out into the toilet...labour had begun. Her water then broke at 3:45.

It was a long morning as the baby was unfortunately positioned posterior in the womb (head down, but facing the wrong way for an easy birth). The result was a longer labour with much back pain. Finally, at 2:35pm, Amy felt the first urge to push and we got into bed, her on her hands and knees, pushing with every contraction. At 3:15 we could see the head with a little hand waving hello along side it, and at 3:21, the baby popped out into his father's hands. What an unbelievable moment that was. He immediately began coughing and within 20 seconds of being born let out a peircing cry to announce his arrival. For the longest time we both lay there in bed crying and laughing and looking at him.

He was born one and a half weeks earlier than his due date, and weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces and measured 19.5 inches from head to foot.

He's healthy, active, nursing well, has 10 fingers and 10 toes, is unfortunately still working out mucous from his stomach, and loves attention, sleep, head rubs, and wearing clothes (you should hear how he cries when we change his diaper!)

His first name is one we really like, the meaning being 'a very wise man.' We had the hardest time coming up with his middle name, but finally decided on Patrick as it's a name we really like and is all Irish-like (you know us and our Irish thing).

So now without further ado are some pictures. A note to all you scrapbookers out there, we have the full-resolution digital photos to all these (and all photos posted on my blog as well) if you'd like to get copies made. You don't have to though. Only if you want to.

We'll have much more on our little Sage as time goes on, so until then, do as Sage does...sleep, drool, eat & poop and you'll be just as healthy and happy as he is.

3 hours after Sage's birth. Note the tired mommy!

Sage posing (20 hours old)

Here's lookin' at you kid! (20 hours old)

Sage & Taz (2 days old)

Sage in a sling on his first outside adventure (3 days old)

Amy's sister Kristin stayed overnight the day after Sage was born

The amazing elf-boy (3 days old)

Chris with Sage (4 days old)

A close-up

So just where the hell are we?

2005-11-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

Many people have asked us, just where do you live?

I figure to do that, maybe I can start with a little geography lesson for y'all.

California has a few different distinct areas. Northern California, The Central Valley, The Sierras, The Foothills, The Coast, The Bay Area, Southern California, and the High Desert.

Here's a map...

Using the map, I'll define the areas...

Northern California...generally everything above the line created by the elbow of the California border where it meets Nevada. Draw a line straight west towards the ocean and everything above that is Northern California. There aren't any very large populated areas, and it's got a lot of forest.

The Central Valley...highlighted well by the word 'California' on the map. Continues through to just south of Bakersfield, where the valley ends with the Grapevine, as it's called. The central valley is hundreds of miles of flat farmland. It is also home to some pretty nasty air, as the pollution from the large coastal cities blows east until it hits the mountains, and of course settles in the Valley.

The Sierras...the Sierra Nevada mountain range which runs from the Oregon border down into Mexico. Yosemite National Park is located on this range.

The Foothills...the area between the Central Valley and the Sierras, this is the area where we live! Lots of hills, temperate climate and below the snow line.

The Coast...rather self evident. Everything along the ocean above Los Angeles.

The Bay Area...all the cities and towns surrounding the San Francisco Bay. Kind of their equivelent to the Golden Horseshoe.

Southern California (coastal)...Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Hollywood, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Pasadena and then further south is Orange County with Anaheim & Santa Ana, and further south is San Diego and the Mexican border.

The High Desert...after crossing the Sierra Nevada range, you come into desert that's high. Then you hit Nevada.

Well I hope that helps a bit. On the map, is the town we live in...a tiny town called Coarsegold (originally Coarse Gold Gulch). The town is about 35 minutes drive north of Fresno. While the town itself is small, it is spread out, and where we live is called Yosemite Lakes Park (YLP in the area), a large spacious community to the SW of the town.

Our house is rented, and has quite a large amount of property, populated with rock outcroppings, trees, and a creekbed (active in late winter & spring).

Our house, 30576 Holiday Dr.

Amy's cat Taz exploring our front yard

Sunset at YLP

So there you have it, that's where we live. I'll post pictures of the inside of our house and of Coarsegold itself soon.

Getting there is half the headache

2005-11-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

Over the long weekend of October 14-17, Amy and I were in Montreal. First thing on the Friday morning we were at the American Consulate, being told off by a rep for using downloaded forms instead of the photocopies that they'd sent. Luckily, though, that was the only problem and after a nerve-wracking 2 1/2 hour wait, we had the interview with the world's friendliest government official-behind-glass. My Visa was approved, although we had to wait until Monday to pick it up.

We suffered through the rather miserable weekend, where we dodged rainy weather as best as we could. Got a few good pics though.

Amy at Parc Mont Royal

A waterfall from Mont Royal

Skyline from Parc Jean Drapeau

After getting the Visa, we bused back. The next day, Dad came over and helped us get our stuff on a truck and shipped.

The morning after that was the flight, Toronto to San Francisco via Chicago. The stopover allowed us to fly on 2 aircraft types that I'd been wanting to fly on for some time, United Airlines's huge Boeing 777s, and Air Canada's brand-new Embraer 175s. Dad gave us and our monsterous luggage a lift to the airport, and we got checked in, and got my Visa stamped by US Immigration. After an hour and a half wait, we excitedly boarded the Embraer. I took the window seat, and grabbed my camera. I pointed it out the window in preperation to take my first photo, when the warning flashed on 'NO MEMORY CARD.'

It couldn't be. I did not pack my memory card with the rest of our computer, right now on a truck rolling towards Los Angeles. Oh yes I did.

My saving grace was my camera's spare card, a 16 meg card that came with the camera, capable of taking like 6 good-resolution photos. Amy suggested changing the resolution on the camera, and was able to free up space for 28 photos, which would have to do me until we picked up our stuff in 5 days. What a bummer start to the trip, but oh well.

The flight in the brand new airliner was quite exciting!

The Embraer 175 booting over the suburbs of Chicago

One hour and 20 minutes from take-off, we landed at a busy O'Hare International Airport. There were thousands of people all over the place! It was without a doubt the busiest I had ever seen an airport. We fought the crowds to a quick lunch, and then to our chore for our 2 hour stopover...to get my work permit application mailed. The bonus was that the office we were to send it to was in Chicago, which meant if we could do it during our stopover, mailing time would be minimal.

We first hit a business center and got my passport and Visa photocopied. We then stuffed the application into an envelope and I walked miles to another terminal to the post office there to mail it. When all was said and done, that, plus our lunch, took up an hour and a half. Unbelievably big airport, that O'Hare! By that time they were boarding our next flight.

Caught this just before boarding it...United Airlines Boeing 777-200

The flight was delayed due to a delay in loading the baggage, but eventually we pushed back and taxiied towards the runway. On the way, I caught a shot of an Air Canada Embraer 175...not the same aircraft we had flown on, but same type and colours exactly.

Air Canada Embraer 175

We took off into the hazy Chicago sky, and after a 4 hour and quite bumpy flight, we began decending over the Central Valley of California. Just one problem though...I couldn't get my ears to equalize in pressure. Oh the agony as we dropped further and further! I couldn't believe the pain! That was the least enjoyable landing I'd ever experienced. But it was over, and we were actually in California!

We picked up our heavy luggage and walked out to catch a shuttle van downtown. My ears were still aching like crazy as we flew down the highways on the way to the Hotel Parc 55, the same hotel that Mike and Leigh-Anne were enjoying the last few days of their honeymoon at.

Unbeknownst to us, Donna had arranged our night's stay in one of the massive suites on the 31st floor. We'd actually stayed there once before, over Christmas, but it was nevertheless a nice surprise. I didn't bother using any of my last few photos on the room, but I did get a few nice ones of the view...

Looking North towards Nob Hill and the Golden Gate

Looking South

We got in touch with Mike and Leigh-Anne and they came upstairs to hang out. We actually got to use the big conference table in the room just for that purpose! After that, we all went out for some dinner at Lori's Diner and then called it a night. Somewhere in there I managed to equalize my ears and thus was no longer in pain.

The next day Amy and I ran some errands to a few health food stores around the city and had lunch at a raw foods cafe (Amy's NEW favorite restaurant (I accentuate NEW because she has a new one every few months)). We wasted some time with Mike and Leigh-Anne in their room, and caught a few photos....

The clouds covering half the downtown

A historic streetcar on Market St.

The clouds cleared up for this golden sunset

Early in the evening Donna arrived to drive us to our new house. We crossed the Bay Bridge out of San Francisco, and headed home! And that was it! The End!

Next:

-The circus act that was picking up our stuff from the shipping warehouse in L.A.
-Our House
-Our trip to San Diego (happening this weekend)

Welcome to the blog

2005-11-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

Hiya folks,

Well, here it is, my new blog. I decided to create it as kind of a chronicle or journal of our lives now that we've left familiar ground behind. We have our own (rented) house now in the California foothills, the baby is just 5 weeks away, and life may never be the same! That was the inspiration to have some kind of written record I guess. Plus I thought people might like to keep track of us and keep in touch.

For those unfamiliar with blogs, it is short for weblogs. They're pretty popular, and I have the honour of being the first of the McDowells to have one! I think.

Well, now that the intro is out of the way, time to catch up on the past 2 weeks of our lives.