Our 8th Wedding Anniversary

Crystal and I have been married for 8 years. It's hard to believe, isn't it. We've been through a lot of ups and downs over the past few years, but we're still together, and we love each other more now than we ever have.

Rather than spend a lot of money on gifts this year, we both invested time and thought into what we did for one another.

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My Nerdiness

I admit it: I'm a nerd, and I have been for a very long time.

There are three "codes" floating around the web that allow people to classify their nerdiness: the Geek Code, OmniCode, and the Hacker Key. So, without further ado, here are my nerd classifications.

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Turtle Bay Day Trip (101 Things #14)

We escaped our house yesterday for a day trip to the Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding. The park consists of a botanical garden and a museum with several fixed and a couple of changing exhibits, and it is adjacent to the Sundial Bridge.

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25 Random Things About Me

I just posted this over on Facebook, and I wanted to share it here as well. Here are 25 random things about me:

1. I've played the piano since I was 6. I don't have nearly as much time to play as I used to, but it's still a great stress-reliever for me.
2. I love science. I watched my dentist remove my wisdom teeth by looking at the reflection in his glasses. I've gotten into technical conversations with my wife's doctor before, which she did not find terribly amusing.
3. Due to family rules, I didn't see a movie at the theater until I was in college.
4. My idea of a perfect vacation is a camping trip, the longer the better. My parents have pictures of me camping with them when I was so young I could barely walk.
5. I played basketball for my high school. I was terrible, but I had a lot of fun.
6. My worst job ever was the summer between high school and college. I was a construction worker for a boss who was a slave driver. If I hadn't been planning to go to college, that job would have convinced me that I wanted to.
7. My brother introduced me to the woman who has since become my wife.
8. I have a birth certificate proving that I gave birth to my oldest daughter when I was 15 and Crystal was 11. Oh, and we somehow had this child in Mexico.
9. I created my first website when I was in college, before the internet became really popular. It was terrible.
10. I spent ridiculous amounts of time at the library as a child, and then my first job was working at the same library. I still read a lot on vacation and when I can get a few minutes away from my packed schedule.
11. I spend so much time working with computers that I probably have an image of a computer screen permanently burned into my retinas.
12. I can be funny. If you want to confirm that this is true, ask Ariana, not Crystal.
13. I've buried two babies. It was the hardest thing I've ever done.
14. I'm extremely afraid of heights.
15. Even though I have a day job right now, I'm an entrepreneur at heart. I have enough ideas to keep me busy for the rest of my life.
16. I had surgery on my eyes twice before I made it to high school.
17. I sold my car, and now I ride my bike to school almost every day. This includes rides in the winter rains and the summer heat. I much prefer the winter rains.
18. My college major is in Computer Information Systems. My minor is in Church Music. People always look at my funny when I tell them that.
19. I have a thing for epic journeys. Someday, I'd like to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. I'd also like to ride my bike all the way across the United States.
20. I'm an introvert. I don't make friends easily, and I don't trust easily. But once I love you, I'll never stop.
21. Being a husband and father are the great joys of my life.
22. I've lived in four states: North Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, and California.
23. Someday, I really want to learn to play the saxaphone.
24. I'm a major control freak.
25. This is probably the only one of this type of list that I'll ever post. Email forwards drive me crazy, and I don't want to bug anyone with anything that looks like one. If you want to know more about me, shoot me an email. :-)

Bidwell Mansion (101 Things #17)

Bidwell Mansion preserves the Victorian home built and owned by John and Annie Bidwell, the founders of Chico. It's a fascinating look into the history of our town, so I added a trip to the Mansion with my daughters to my 101 Things list.

My parents are visiting right now, and they are interested in historical sites like this. So, we thought this would be a good time to take a tour of the mansion. We went yesterday and joined the last tour of the day.

The house is fascinating. It features several items owned by the Bidwells, including an almost rectangular rosewood piano and a life-sized portrait of John Bidwell painted using an amazing vanishing point perspective. The house also had running water on both the first and second floors and a hot water tank which was filled with water from pipes run through the bricks behind the wood-burning stove in the kitchen.

After the tour, we stopped for an obligatory, tourist-like photo in front of the house, and I checked number 17 off my 101 Things list.

2008 Family Update Letter

We just sent out this letter to a bunch of family and friends, and we wanted to share it here as well.

Greetings from the Coates Clan! We hope that you all had a peace-filled and joyous holiday season. Although a bit unconventional, we have decided to deviate from our “norm” and send out a post-holiday newsletter this year. This would be in large part due to the shifts in our household during the last month or so. (Translation: we are a bit behind.)

However adept we may be with words, there is simply no way to convey all the triumphs and struggles our family has undergone in this last year. A repeated message seems to have been echoed: a message to simply trust God with everything. Through God’s unending patience He has continued to impress onto our callused hearts the truth that He is indeed trustworthy!

After being gone for a bit more than a year, Rachelle has finally returned home to us. She worked hard while away and is looking forward to a bright and glorious future. She will be finishing up her senior year this semester and hopes to attend Sacramento State University in the fall.

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Pandas and Pregnancy

"Would you like to make a personal difference in the life of a panda?"

I was walking across the CSU, Chico campus when I noticed some students manning a booth full of pictures of pandas.

As I walked by I heard it again: "Would you like to make a personal difference in the life of a panda?"

I was dumbfounded. In the last election, California voters struck down Proposition 4, an attempt to amend the state constitution to mandate that teenage girls be required to notify their parents before getting an abortion. My two teenage daughters can still get pregnant and eliminate the baby without me ever knowing about it.

We live in a state that worries about pandas but freely kills babies. Something is very wrong.

Books Read 2008

Last year, I decided to track all of the books I read. My plan is to write reviews of several of these books, but for now, I'll just share the list.

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101 Things: First Year Update

I've been working on my 101 Things project for just over a year now, and I wanted to post an update on my progress as well as some thoughts about how things are progressing.

Goals Completed

I've completed 16 of the goals from my list:

001. Write and publish this list of goals

002. Come up with a weekly schedule that will allow me to manage my time well enough to accomplish these goals

010. Write a (hopefully) good poem for my wife

018. Play tennis with my daughter

021. Finish designing the book of photos and stories from our 2007 summer road trip and order a copy

025. Buy a weight bench and free weight set

026. Cancel my parking pass at work (this will mean I'm in shape enough to ride my bike every day)

050. Tour the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield

056. Visit a state or Canadian province I haven't yet been to

070. Add comments hosted on our server to the blog

071. Update the galleries on our website with our new, better work

072. Buy a high-end Nikon digital camera so that our low-light lifestyle portraits really sing

076. Design and purchase a sample Baby's First Year album to show clients

090. Attend an OSP event with Crystal

093. Get Postfix and IMAP working on my new web server

094. Finish moving all my websites to my new server

Weekly Goal Progress

Several of my goals were things that I hoped to do on a daily or weekly basis. I've made this progress on these goals:

004. Spend 15 minutes a day focused on God (5 times a week): 44%

008. Write a note, card, or letter and give it to my wife: 71%

009. Go on a date with my wife: 55%

011. Write my daughter at least while she is in residential treatment: 76% (Rachelle is home now, so this goal is finished.)

012. Have bonding time with at least 1 of my children: 61%

024. Exercise for at least 30 minutes (5 times a week): 74%

Reflections and Looking Ahead

In general, I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made on my list this year. My weakness was in the daily and weekly goals. I've found it difficult to consistently be disciplined enough to make sure that I get all of those little things done each week. I've let the busyness of my life push those things aside. It's something I hope to work on in the next year.

I expect that I will be able to complete several of the goals on my list that are large in scope during the next year. These goals require a significant amount of time to complete. I've been working on those goals, and I'm nearing completion on several of them.