Happy Holidays!

Well, Christmas #39 in the life of David Berlinguette has just become a done-deal. Overall, we had a good one this year, though low-key. I think one of the highlights was celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of Tito Romy and Tita Aurora on Sunday night (Dec 23rd). It was a nice evening, with a room rented out for the occasion at Anthony's Homeport down on Shilshole bay. I was especially surprised by the number of Aurora's coworkers from Fred Meyer who made it. I think they were expecting about 5-6, but got closer to 20. She's obviously well-liked.

On Christmas eve, I spent most of the day getting things together around the house. We then went over to Fred Meyer (popular theme in this post) for stocking stuffers and staples. Afterward, we went out for sushi and sukiyaki, following which we went home, drank some wine, and broke tradition by opening the gifts on Christmas eve rather than Christmas morning. I'm very happy with the little tri-pod I received, the electronic Karaoke, a hutch for the computer table, portable hard drive case, a book or two, and a generous gift from the parents toward something for the home. We scored! Leilani seems like she likes the Mac Mini. I know she'll love it once she gets it up and running. I'm sure of it.

Christmas day was spent baking tortiere in the earlier part of the day, and then off to Issaquah in the afternoon, where Lew and Charlene were hosting the gathering. I provided Dewayne with the gifts of a blown up framed photo of a flower I had taken, and a nice sweater from Macy's. In return, I got a copy of Guitar Hero 3, and a Tully's coffee card from Larry. We drove home in a wet snow storm, and chilled out for the remainder of the evening.

Now I'm back at work as if I never left. Good times. It's all about the GCI and Certuspact.

Best wishes for a Happy and healthy 2008!

Late again...

So, sometime back in August I stated my intentions to have my Christmas list ready and the shopping process begun by early Fall. Christmas is now a week away, and I'm just as clueless and unprepared as I was back in August. The trouble is, nobody wants anything! This is not a bad thing. I think there's already way too much junk in this world and each year at about this time we fill the landfills with more of it. But when you feel obliged to get gifts for the people in your life, it doesn't make for an easy situation.

So here I am, scrambling to get some things taken care of, but obviously at this point there will be some "surprise gifts", reaching their destinations a few days generous of the actual holiday date.

Yelling at Homeless People

Last night was a dilly. I had spent a mostly relaxing evening at home. Leilani was at a meeting for the radio station in Everett. All good. When she got home I was relaxed in bed. She ran into the room in a tizzy. It was late at night, and the garage door decided not to work. There was a whole line of cars parked in the alley, and in the meantime, she had placed about six calls to building security. God forbid anyone needed to drive a sick loved one to the hospital, because they weren't going anywhere, and security wasn't checking their messages. The whole thing got her more agitated by the minute. Finally she conceded that the car was staying in the alley for the night. We tried going to sleep.

Literally, not seconds after our heads hit the pillows, our local homeless drummer / singer was out on the sidewalk putting on his nightly show. I finally did what I've been wanting to do for a long time. I went out to the terrace and shouted "WILL YOU SHUT UP!!!!"

Funny thing... it worked. Didn't hear one more drum beat for the remainder of the night.

Where Have I Been?

It's been since October since I've typed in one single character on this blog. What have I been up to during that time? Here's a quick rundown:

• Sick for the past two weeks. Spent my 4-day weekend in bed. Just now getting over it


• Taking zero pictures


• Spending 4 hours per week in class, about the same amount for out-of-class work. We conducted some usability studies on the website Localharvest.org. I'm happy to say that I've completed my course of study in User-Centered Design. Good experience, but a lot of work outside of the normal work of my day job.


• Not doing any artwork (outside of the occasional birthday card)


• ...and not doing any holiday shopping. Gotta get on that!

So now I'm back and I'll try to come up with some things to write.

Happy 85th, Rafael!

Tonight we celebrated Leilani's dad's 85th birthday. We were expecting about 8 to show, and we got about 30. I think he was really happy to have the whole family around. I brought a bottle of Sake, and he Lew, Larry and I had a small glass. Very enjoyable.

Toward the end, he put on the new World War II documentary by Ken Burns, and he and Dwayne were very engrossed in it. Even some scenes from the Philippines at one point.

Happy birthday, Rafael! With your health and attitude, I'm sure there'll be plenty more!

Messing with Photos

Tonight, I decided to look around online for some Photoshop tips and tricks. I'm taking some nice photos with my new camera, but I'd like to couple that with adding some character to them. Here are two that I played around with tonight:

This is Sun He's dog Penny, in a film noir kind of mood.


Here's what I did to a sunflower:

I gotta admit I miss the color, but it does set a mood.

Dining on the Needle

Tonight, we are wandering over to the Space Needle and using last year's birthday gift before the new birthday arrives. It is a crystal clear September evening, so the opportunity will likely not be as good as now for awhile. Dinner is at 6:15.

Other than that, my toe hurts.