Baby Rankin's Zeroeth Christmas

Here's a picture of Baby Rankin at Christmas 2005. Still baking. I'll be ready for Christmas next year. 

Skeet and sporting clays

Last Saturday, Bret Mercer took me skeet and sporting clay shooting. First time I've ever shot a shotgun, and it was a lot of fun. With the sporting clays, I hit 25 out of 50 clay targets. Not too shabby for a beginner. Thanks Bret!

After having a little fun, I went home to start painting the nursery and do some house work. Since then, we've gotten the ceiling finished and the first coat in the closet and on the top part of the walls. We need to put on another coat and then paint two coats for the bottom part of the wall and put up the chair rail. As soon as it's finished, I'll post some pictures of the completed project. Until then you'll have to just look at the novice shooter.

Music in the home

Well, I've started taking piano lessons. So far I've had four lessons and I'm progressing pretty well given the limited amount of time that I practice (probably shouldn't admit that) and my natural musical talent (or lack thereof). It's fun doing something that's not technical and not work related. Jessica enjoys my practicing as well. Sometimes the only time I can practice is late at night when she's trying to sleep, which is added incentive to not make any mistakes that result in too awful a sound.

Last weekend Jessica's parents and sister were in town and we had a blast. First off, anytime I'm playing golf on a weekday is simply a great day. Tom and I played together and trailed the girls. We had a great time, and before you know it Tom and I were both putting for a 39 on the front. He made his, but unfortunately for me, my brain got the best of me and I ended up with a 41 (3-jacked it of all things to do on the 9th!). Good lesson in the fact that golf is definitely a mental game. It's not like basketball or soccer where you can just out hustle other people even if they have better talent or technique. Not in golf. Brain has to stay engaged. On the back I did pretty well, and ended up shooting an 84. Not bad considering that was the third round of golf I've played all year.

On Saturday we went up to Salado and then to Georgetown for dinner, which was a very nice time. After church on Sunday we squeezed in another round of golf. Lots of fun all around.

This weekend, Jessica and I are just relaxing and enjoying some time together. Aside from the cough that she has, she's been doing well. We're having trouble coming up with names for the baby but fortunately we have another 5-6 months.

Picture from California

Since Blogger has added the ability to post pictures, I thought I'd try this out. Here's a picture of Jessica and me at a winery in California.

New Rankin in the World

Speaking of babies in my previous post, Chanie (sp?) Lynn Rankin was born about 40 min ago. Sounds like Markie is doing well, and David is enjoying being a father again. William and Mom (Nana for Chanie) are on their way to the hospital to see their new sister/granddaughter. Congratulations and welcome to the world!

Great news

Jessica and I have great news in that she is pregnant. The due date is January 19th. We are not going to find out the sex (always a top question from people). A little over a week ago, we heard the heartbeat. Very cool! And very fast. It was around 160 bpm and the doctor had no problem finding it on the first time.

In preparation for this new person to join us in the world, we're working on remodeling what will become our sole guest room. We've painted the guest room, put up a fan/light, and installed half of the chair rail. Tonight I hope to put up the rest of the chair rail. I must recommend the Porter-Cable CFFN250N Finish & Brad Nailer Combo Kit. At $300 from Amazon.com, this is well worth the time and effort that it saves you. Plus, it's just cool using pneumatic nail guns.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to be better about putting up posts, and I'll include some pictures as well.

Muir Woods and Coastal Drive

On our second day in California, we visited Muir Woods National Monument. The trees here are amazing. Both the height and the diameter is just incredible. Their trails are setup so that you can do either a 1/2 mile, 1 mile, or 2 mile walk. However, for you golfers there isn't a drink cart lady, so make sure that you take your own snacks and drinks because there won't be any along the way. Although, I think that they should change that and either add a nice coffee stand or breakfast taco bar about halfway out. That wouldn't detract from the beauty of the place at all in my mind.

Next, we made our way up Highway 1 along the coast to Mendocino. The first three spots that we stopped, they all told us that we were about 5 hours from Mendocino. This was disappointing considering there was over 1 hour of drive time between them. But after a full day of curvy roads, fish sandwiches for lunch, and a few bathroom breaks we made it to our destination.

We stayed at Sea Rock Inn right across the street from the coast. We highly recommend this bed & breakfast. It really was perfect to have such comfortable and clean place to go after a long day of driving or wine tasting. The first night we decided to head into Mendocino to check out the town (population 90) and have dinner. We ate at the MacCullum House and then picked up a deck of cards so that we could play Spades and Euchre by the fireplace in our room before calling it a night.

A Day in San Francisco

Today Jessica and I started our weekend vacation in California. We took the 7AM direct flight from Austin to San Jose, which is affectionately known as the "Nerd Bird" by folks in the technology industry. After getting our car, we shot up the 101 to San Francisco and headed straight for Fisherman's Wharf. The first stop of the day was Boudin Bakery, where we toured the bread making facilities and then had some soup in bread bowls. Afterwards, we walked to the northern terminus of the Powel-Hyde cable car, which we rode to Lombard Street.

Lombard Street is the crookedest street with eight switchbacks. We walked down the street and then back to Fisherman's Wharf. Next we toured the USS Pampanito, a World War II-era submarine. I've watched quite a few movies involving submarines, but I never truly appreciated the tight quarters until after looking at some of the bunk beds residing in the torpedo rooms.

After this, we were fairly tired of walking around, so we decided to hit some of the city by car. We took off in our Camry and drove to as many places as possible--Chinatown, Nob Hill, Financial District, Transamerica Pyramid, Coit Tower, Twin Peaks, Golden Gate Park, Golden Gate Bridge. We didn't stop at all these spots, but we drove by to take pictures and see them.

By now it was late enough in the day, that we needed to go to the San Francisco Airport to pick up the Boltons. Eric and Adair arrived around 7PM without any troubles, and then we all piled into the Camry to head to the Thirsty Bear for dinner. It featured Spanish tapas and was listed as one of the must eat restaurants in our guidebook. While the meal wasn't bad, I'd probably recommend trying one of the other many restaurants in the city.

Well, that about sums up our first day in California. Even though it was raining and the digital photos didn't turn out as good as I would have hoped for, we had a great time and were able to make the most of it by seeing as much as humanly possible in that short amount of time.

First post on Rankin Family blog

Well, I've decided to create a blog for the Rankin family. Specifically, this being Jessica and I. Not sure how frequently I'll update this, but considering our parents live in Missouri and South Carolina with other family members in various cities and states, I thought it might be worthwhile. In fact, I might open this blog up to a group blog for various family members to create a medium where others can post thoughts as well. As for the reason to create this today, Jessica and I are going to California on Wednesday and I thought it might be nice to have a place to post our thoughts and pictures. Well, time to get to work so have a great day, and I'll blog with you later.