Pellegrini

Ava 5 months old today

Today our baby girl turns five months old! She's growing faster than ever and developing her personality. She loves to smile for anyone, can hold her own bottle at times, can pick things up, and occasionally roll over. We expect her to be crawling and getting her first tooth in the next couple months. We have a big weekend coming up as we get to celebrate Jessica's birthday. We're going to a barbecue Saturday evening at our friend's Evan and Natasha's place, then getting up Sunday morning to go to a live bluegrass brunch. Not sure what else is on the docket for Sunday but I'm sure it will be a fun day. Here's a few recent pics.

Our Second Anniversary

Today we celebrate our second anniversary! It's hard to believe that it's already been two years until you think about all that's happened since then. A year ago today Jessica gave me the news that she was pregnant, which was the greatest news/first anniversary present I ever could have hoped for. Today isn't quite as exciting but has already been a nice day. I went into the office this morning for a couple hours and then surprised Jessica by coming home and doing the rest of my work with her and Ava at the house. It's the nicest day of the year so we had a nice outdoor lunch on our back patio. I'm finishing up early so we can relax and hang out for the rest of the evening. We're going to Costco later and will be getting some nice seafood for dinner tonight. Not going out to a fancy dinner tonight but having a great day/night at home with my girls.

The joy of moving

Jessica and I have been moving into our new house all week and we're nearing completion. Each day has gotten progressively longer and more exhausting, but after tomorrow we'll be at least 90% finished. We met with Amelia on Tuesday afternoon to sign the lease and get the keys, then we made two trips that night after I got home from work. Wednesday evening we made three trips, and last night we made four trips. So far Ava hasn't been very accommodating; she cries constantly while we're loading and unloading the car and there's really nothing we can do besides hurry.

Last night after our third trip we decided to stop at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Ava was perfectly content to sit there and look around, but as soon as our food arrives she starts crying. Jessica and I were exhausted and hungry so we had no choice but to eat in shifts while one of us tries to calm Ava down. By the time I got home from the fourth trip I was so tired I don't even remember going to bed. I was probably asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Tonight Jessica is working so I'm going to be watching Ava and making trips to the house to unload more stuff. My fingers are crossed that she'll be good and won't cry but I'm not really expecting that to happen. Tomorrow morning we've got the Uhaul truck and the help of Jaime and Evan from my work for moving furniture. I've also got the Directv and Cox Internet guys coming out to set everything up. Should be another long day but after that all we need to do is clean the old house, and we've got a week to do it.

I should mention that the new house looks amazing! Everyday there's people over there working on it and they're doing an outstanding job. This is easily the nicest house we've lived in and I'm excited to spend the next few years there. I'll be recording a video tour of the house and posting it here as soon as we get unpacked. Until then...

Made it to Colorado

Today we flew from San Diego to Denver for our annual family get together at Tom and Amy's house in the Rocky Mountains. It was hard to leave San Diego considering how beautiful the weather was, but we're very happy to be here. I was expecting it to be freezing in Colorado but it's actually not bad. Our precious Ava was so good during her first flight. We expected her to sleep the whole time but as it turned out she never closed her eyes, and never made a sound. Joel and Melanie have been here since Saturday, Tom got in right before us so we rode up the mountain with him, then we have Derrick, Emily and Cole coming on Saturday. Jessica's grandparents and her Aunt Betsy are coming out on Wednesday but I'll be gone by then. Not looking forward to going home without my girls but I'm happy that the rest of the family will finally get to meet Ava. Hoping to get out on the slopes tomorrow and do some snowboarding. This trip is something I look forward to every year so it should be a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Dad

Tomorrow would be my Dad's 84th birthday. Hard to believe considering I'm only 31 but it's true. I have a lot of great stories about my dad but the story of how he got the name Elmer is one of my all-time favorites.

Elmer Michael Pellegrini was born on February 24th, 1928 in Aberdeen Washington, a town then occupied predominantly by loggers and Norwegian/Swedish fishermen. Aberdeen gained fame and recognition over 60 years later when the band Nirvana and their front man Kurt Cobain, an Aberdeen native, made it big.

My grandparents, Modesto (aka Mike) Pellegrini and Norina Lora Giuntoli (aka Gigi) were both 100% Italians who had emigrated separately about 15 years earlier. I don't know how my grandparents met or what brought them to a Scandinavian fishing town on the western coast of Washington state, but that's where they were. The most important thing to know about the time period that my Dad and his older sister Norma were born in was that it was the 20's, and it was prohibition. This was unfortunate for my grandpa Mike because, for better or worse, he liked to drink.

Grandpa Mike died long before I was born but my dad always said he was a very smart and crafty guy. One example of this was the fact that he had a hidden bootlegging room behind a false wall in their house. In order to access the room, you had to pull on a coat hook that was wired to a hidden door. Crafty indeed.

Now, back to my dad's name. Grandpa Mike was friends with a Norwegian guy named Elmer Gibson who just so happened to be the Aberdeen town sheriff. Mr. Gibson knew that my grandpa was a bootlegger so he made a deal with him. He told him that if he named his first born son after him, he wouldn't take him to jail for bootlegging. Their first child was a daughter named Norma, born on June 15, 1926. Then a couple years later on February 24, 1928, my dad was born, and my grandpa kept his word, most likely making my dad the only full blooded Italian named Elmer in the history of Italians.

A few years later my grandpa Mike was paid a visit by the Feds. Apparently his bootlegging stature had grown beyond the oversight of a small town sheriff. My dad was probably 3 or 4 at the time and was so eager to show off how cool and smart his dad was that when the federal agents arrived at their house, he proudly pulled the coat hook to show them the hidden bootlegging room. I don't know what happened after that but it couldn't have been good.

The best thing about this weekend is that we get to celebrate my Dad's birthday with my sister Dana, her husband Brad, and her two kids Kallan and Anna. This will be their first time meeting Ava so it should be a lot of fun. I know nothing would make my dad happier. I think of him daily, even more now that I'm a dad, and hope to do as good of a job with my kids that he did with his. Happy birthday dad!

This is one of my favorite pictures of my dad – taken in Hawaii, October 18, 1993

Dad & Gigi

Dad and my Godfather Pete when my parents were married in Sun Valley, Idaho

Dad and I on my sister Lora's wedding day – September 12, 1992

Ava's first Super Bowl

We spent Ava's first Super Bowl Sunday relaxing at home, watching the game, and watching last night's UFC. I was pulling for the Patriots but the Giants had their number, again. No biggie though, it was a good game and a nice day at home with my girls. We moved into a new office on Friday at work so today Jessica was more than happy to help gather all kinds of sports and music posters around our house and get them ready for me to take to work. I'm also bringing in our old flat screen tv and the Nintendo Wii, plus I'm on the lookout for a mini fridge. We're making our new office, affectionately known as "The Factory" into the ultimate bachelor pad / production studio. It's so cool working for a company that wants you to have fun at work and encourages us to decorate as we please.

Here's a few pics of Ava, Jessica and I taken over the weekend. Happy Monday!

Happy baby

Grandma almost got away with it!

Meal time with mom

"Watching" the game with dad

My first promotion

Tomorrow is my first day at work under my new title of "Senior Production Developer" at ScrollMotion, Inc.. I've been in negotiations with them for a couple weeks and was pleased when they responded to my final requests and gave me the title I was hoping for. This will surely mean more responsibility but I'm fine with that.

Amy has been with us for a few days now and all is well. Ava had a great night last night and was able to sleep for 7 consecutive hours. Hopefully she's starting to figure out the difference between night and day. I'm back in school but they started me off with only one class and it's quite easy, which is why I haven't bothered to mention it on here yet.

I had a meeting with a company called Kirei USA last week about doing some web development work for them. My friend Leigh Anne, who I worked with at The Tractor Room, works there and contacted me a couple weeks ago about possibly doing some freelance work for them. The meeting went well and I'm hoping to get some work out of it. I'm also hoping to get started on a project for my uncle Jim and his business partner Dan very soon. These types of projects will be more difficult once my school work increases so I'm eager to get started on them asap.

That's about all for now. Jessica is getting ready to go back to work in a couple weeks and Ava is getting bigger every day. She smiles regularly now and nothing brings me more joy than to see her happy little face.

Ava turns 6 weeks old today

Today our little Ava turns 6 weeks old and I have been fortunate enough to spend the day at home with her. I pulled an all–nighter at the office last night to get our Nike updates out on time and was able to take today off to sleep in and relax at home. Nice way to start the weekend!

It's hard to believe that Ava is already 6 weeks old. This is a major developmental point for a baby; they usually start showing more of a personality at this age, and also tend to cry the most/loudest. Yay. She is smiling more and more every day and is growing fast. It seems like she is constantly wearing a new outfit that she just grew into.

Jessica started a project on Jan 1st of taking a photo of Ava every day of the year. This will be a fun way to document her growth. I'll start posting some of her photos asap. Starting up with school on Sunday. I've never heard of a school that holds classes on a Sunday but it's all online so I guess it doesn't really matter. Definitely looking forward to getting the ball rolling.

Amy leaves for Colorado

Yesterday Amy left for Colorado after spending the first three weeks of Ava's life with us. She was beyond helpful in getting us going as a family. We were sad to see her go but look forward to her next visit in a month, then our trip to Colorado in March. Last night we went to my company's holiday party at George's in La Jolla. Ava wore her holiday dress and slept through the entire event. She was quite popular amongst my co–workers. We had a great night and were even able to enjoy a full nights sleep due to Ava not waking up for over 5 hours. Ava's third week is complete.

Heading to the company holiday party

Back to work tomorrow

Well this has easily been the most exciting holiday weekend of my life, but now it's time to get back to work tomorrow morning. Here are a couple more pics from yesterday and today.

Home after a day full of errands

Ava and I on our first football Sunday together

A great first week

Yesterday was the end of my first week working at ScrollMotion and it went extremely well. On Monday, my first day, I was assigned as the lead developer on an iPad application for G.E. and I was able to jump right into it with only a few hours of training. I've never done this type of work before but it's very similar to web development and came naturally. The project is almost complete which means I'll be starting something new next week. I heard from one of the project managers that I will likely be working on a project for Nike next, but we'll have to wait and see.

Since I really like my new job and can definitely see myself there for the long term, I decided to put in my notice at the Tractor Room on Thursday night. This wasn't easy to do, mostly because I have a lot of respect for Johnny (the owner) and hated to let him down. He's not only been good to me as an employee, he's been extremely generous whenever my family has been into the restaurant. We had a really nice talk on Thursday that left me feeling much better than I was going into it. He was also nice enough to tell me that if things didn't work out I would always have a job working for him.

My last night at the Tractor Room will be Thursday Nov 10th, meaning that my first day out of the restaurant industry is 11/11/11. Kinda symbolic. Today will be my 11th day in a row at work, and I don't have a day off until Saturday Nov 12th, so it's tough right now but at least I'll be through with all this before Ava is born. Only one more month to go...

Baby Classes begin tomorrow night!

Tomorrow night we will have our first of six baby classes as we prepare for Ava to arrive. The classes are held at Mary Birch Hospital every Tuesday night from 7:30 to 9:30. Here we will learn all about the entire birthing process and get tips on caring for our newborn. I know Jessica is totally ready for all this stuff but I haven't spent any time around babies in my life so I'll take as much instruction as they're will to give me. Should be fun!

Baseball Games & Maternity Photos

Last night Jessica and I went to the Padres game. The Cubs were in town for the final series of the season, and since they're Jessica's favorite team, we decided to go see them play. Jessica's work has season tickets and they were nice enough to set us up for the game. We ended up sitting in the fourth row right behind the home dugout. It was the closest I've ever sat at a ball game and we had a great time.

Today I had a job interview in the morning and then went to meet up with Jessica and her Mom for some maternity photos in Balboa Park. Honestly this isn't something that I've been very excited about being a part of, but did it because she wanted me to. I look forward to family photos once Ava is born, but didn't feel like I really belonged in maternity photos. Either way it wasn't all that bad and it looks like we got some nice shots.

Power Outage Last Night

All of San Diego county plus parts of Northern Mexico, Western Arizona, Riverside County, Imperial County and South Orange County were without power for over 9 hours last night starting at 3:45pm. I was at work just getting started when everything went dark. I managed to hit my head pretty hard on a corner and have a nice bump to show for it today. Both Jessica's and my restaurant weren't able to open so we both got an unexpected night off. Unfortunately there wasn't much to do besides read by candlelight and take the dogs for a walk. I would have loved to watched the NFL season opener between the Packers and Saints but that wasn't an option. It was Jessica's first full day back from Dallas as well. The dogs and I were very happy to have her home. I want to wish a very happy 40th birthday to my good friend Sean Beavers today. Hope it's a great one!!

Portfolio Website Launched

Today I finished building my portfolio website. This is where I'll be displaying all of the new sites I build, as well as my resume and freelancing information. Check it out at: www.PellegriniPage.com/Portfolio or just click on the Portfolio link in the navigation bar at the top of the page. Please enjoy!

Woody's Final Race

Well today was an interesting day. A little history might be necessary to fully explain this story. My dad had a good friend named Woody that he was close with for many years. I remember hearing lots of funny stories about him when I was growing up, the best of which was the time Woody and my Mom decided to have a race in the parking lot. Woody won the race... while running backwards. Cracks me up every time. Anyway, Woody was also very good friends with a guy named John Lamont who I've worked with for years at El Gaucho in Seattle. Unfortunately Woody passed away earlier this year and John and his wife were by his side for all of his final days. When Jessica and I were getting ready to make a visit to Seattle for her birthday in April, John asked me if I could do him a favor. As it turns out, one of Woody's dying wishes was to have part of his ashes scattered at the Del Mar Racetrack in San Diego, and since I live in San Diego, John asked me if I would mind taking care of that. Obviously I said I would be happy to do it, so John brought me Woody's ashes and I mailed them to myself in San Diego. We then had to wait until the track opened, which wasn't until late July.

Today we went to the track to do the deed. We weren't completely sure how we were going to do this since we didn't exactly have permission, but we figured if we went into the infield we'd be able to get it done without being noticed. We rode the motorcycle up to the track, which was a good idea because you get front row parking and it's free. While on our way into the track, Jessica walked right by the station where they were checking bags and purses and she didn't even notice the man asking her to stop. She kept walking and he just let it go. I got a kick out of this. Once inside the track we headed to the infield and found the perfect final resting place for Woody. As the horses were coming down the final stretch of the day's first race, I opend the bag and tossed the remains over the fence. Unfortunately there was a problem. I completely forgot that the ashes were double bagged! Several swear words followed as we looked over the fence to see a small ziplock bag on the ground filled with Woody's ashes.

First I tried reaching through the chain link fence but there was no way my arm would fit. Finally I decided to climb the fence and reach over to grab the bag. This was tough since there were employees in the area but I was able to grab it without being noticed. We then headed to a different part of the infield to give it another try. We found another good spot and I was successful in spreading the ashes. Jessica was standing downwind of me and I saw some of the ashes heading her way but she was far enough away that it didn't get on her. After accomplishing our mission we left the track and had a nice lunch in Del Mar. Hopefully Woody's wishes were granted. It was certainly a memorable day for us!

New Website

Today we launched the new and improved version of our family website. The idea was for it to have more of a fun, playful, family sort of vibe and I think we captured that nicely. This new site will also serve as a much better portfolio piece for me to show to propsective employers. Hope you enjoy!

House "Hunting"

Last night provided us with an experience that we won't soon forget. Our hound dog Bruno kept freaking out and trying to get at something underneath our bed. My first instinct was that there was some little animal under there, but when I got down to look, I couldn't see anything. Bruno continued to freak out for the next couple hours and Jessica and I thought he must be going crazy! His attention soon shifted from under the bed to behind my guitar amplifier, which is just across from the bed. I wheeled the amp out to see what was there, and was quite startled to find a rat! I must admit that I kinda freaked out and screamed, then rushed Jessica and the dogs out of our room. Jessica HATES rats/mice so I knew I was going to have to deal with this one on my own. I decided to use my pellet gun to hunt the poor thing down because I couldn't think of any other way to catch it. After suiting up with motorcycle boots, plastic shooting glasses, and an airgun, I went in for the kill. I shot it once and it scrambled away. Since I couldn't find it I had to bring Bruno back in to locate it for me. Once located, I shot it several more times and it died. I didn't feel good about it but had no choice. Cleaning it up wasn't fun either. Afterwards I had to praise Bruno for alerting us that something was definitely in our house. What a memorable night!

Dogs and Babies Class

Last night Jessica and I went to our first baby-related class. It was called Dogs and Babies and was all about how to train your dog, and your child, to co-exist peacefully. We learned a lot about non-verbal queues our dogs may be sending us that let us know whether they are happy, fine, or unhappy. Obviously the biggest concern is making sure the dog doesn't lose it's temper and bite the child. Although there were certain parts of the class where I was struggling to stay awake, overall I found it to be very informative and helpful.

Welcome to our family website

Today we decided to create a family website for our loved ones to visit and see what's going on with us down in San Diego. As you all know, our little Ava is due in early December and we couldn't be happier. New pictures will be added here regularly throughout Jessica's pregnancy and beyond.

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