Immy hanging at the house

So dad has been home solo for January, and is heading back to work Feb 1st (Tuesday).  It has been great hanging with the Im-ster here are some pics of her in our newly painted bedroom……

Imogen VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Stats of the little gal as of today at the doc’s office, 28.8” long (yea that’s long), and 18.5lbs. 

This week Immy is well on her way to being fully documented as both a Canadian citizen, and is now officially (except for Notary) represented in the Wettlaufer Will.  Who said this stay at home dad thing was hard…..

….. ok I did.

I Kissed Lucy

Gavin had some exciting news to share with us today.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

I Kissed Lucy, posted with vodpod

All the videos

Our saga with this new blog site and videos continues. 

Why cant WordPress users embed directly from the worlds largest social networking site, Facebook?  There are over 300 Million users on Facebook, WordPress must recognize its importance to the social communities of the internet.  It hosts videos for free and has a fantastic embed option, with native HD support.

I  have been blogging on Windows Live Spaces for several years. In that time, I have used one of the worlds best offline blogging editor tools, Windows Live Writer.  Using Spaces, and WLW, I could insert a video using the embed code right from Facebook.  This posted easily, with no additional steps.  Before we were forced to migrate to Word press, my process was this.

1. Upload, edit, tag and publish video to Facebook
2. In WLW, insert embed code from video
3. Publish blog post with video included – often with multiple videos, photos and text

Now, here is my process.

1. Upload, edit, tag and publish video to Facebook
2. Goto Vodpod – authenticate, get to vodpod browser based account main page
3. Select ‘Add Video’
4. Go back to Facebook, grab FB video embed code
5. Embed video code, verify correct video is there
6. Select NEW tags, titles and other comment information.  ALL of this was already done in Facebook, but it is not picked up
7. Publish this ‘Found’ video to my vodpod account
8. Select publish to WordPress from the odd bookmark hyperlink step that is documented.
9. New Window pops up, with WordPress Publisher tool
10. Select Publish to Blog Editor.
11. WordPress Blog editor webpage launches/refreshes
12. Select HTML View tab of blog post
13. Copy entire embed code
14. Paste this into WLW using HTML Source tab view – repeat for each video
15. Clean up code, remove all Vodpod ‘First collect junk’ for EACH video
16. Publish blog
17. View blog, and wait, wait, wait, wait, wait for embedded videos to load into through vodpod from Facebook post.  Sometimes this works, MANY times it doesn’t.

This is an accurate explanation of the steps.  Vodpod uses the original Facebook video.  What a waste of time.  I have tried the WordPress widget for Vodpod that can be inserted in the navigation bars of my blog.  It is not a good experience.  Not only is it hard to customize, it doesn’t give a good experience of the videos, launches a pop window that blows up on some devices.

I have hunted for WLW plug in support to help embed for WordPress.  It all comes back to WordPress simply not supporting Facebook.  I want to know why I cannot embed directly to WordPress from my Facebook account? 

Don’t tell me to use Vodpod please.  This week I have done 2 blogs, with 7 videos, and this process takes hours. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Tonight Mom had her Birthday dinner, and we all celebrated, even Immy was awake for it!

Plenty of videos linking in here soon, when WordPress and VodPod decide to reboot their servers to I can link them in…..

Check out Immy’s deer in the headlights look….

Oh and if you ever eat cake at our house, don’t take the piece that has Gavin finger holes in it……

They turn what age?

It is the month that mom and dad here at the Wettlaufers age gracefully one more year.  One of us, no names please, turns a rather significant, while the other simply rolls over a little number.  In any event, it was great fun having Big G sing Happy Birthday!

Tonight is moms Birthday, so we are celebrating with cake, prezzies and perhaps a celebratory cocktail.  It should be fun, we hope all 4 can stay awake!

Singing Happy Birthday

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Singing Happy Birthday, posted with vodpod

Immy and hew new Sweater

Today little Im got to try out her new sweater, made with love by Aunt Anne.  I think she liked it…..

Whistler Weekend

The Wettlaufers headed north of the border again this past weekend.  This time, it was a 2 stop adventure.  Gavin and Imogen had a fun filled weekend at Osler Street with G.P. and El, and J/D headed onto Whistler for a corporate weekend with Jeff’s team. 

The skiing was wet but great.   It was odd being away from the kids for the first time pretty much ever.  They behaved beautifully – or so we are told haha.  Some pictures even made their way via email to prove all was going well.  Thanks!

Gav got some time with Ax, and they punished the local playground…..

Even at the end of the weekend, the boys were all smiles.

We got a first ride on the Peak to Peak gondola at WB.  The things is awesome.  We travelled from Blackcomb over to Whistler in 11 minutes.  This used to mean a ski or download to the village, and back up the other side.  This thing is amazing.  As we left Blackcomb, we dropped down into the cloud in the valley, so the pictures make it look like we are descending into a cloud.  Some stats below on the P2P. 

• Speed – 7.5 meters per second

• Ride Time – approximately 11 min.

• Frequency – one cabin departs every 49 seconds

• Total Distance – 4.4km (straight line)

• Length of Unsupported Span – 3.024km (straight line between the two towers that are furthest apart)

• Highest Point – above the ground is 435m/1,427 feet over Fitzsimmons Creek

• Number of Cabins – 28

• Capacity of Cabins – 22 seated, 6 standing

• Capacity – 2050 people per hour each way

• Number of Towers – 4 (2 on Blackcomb and 2 on Whistler)

• Height of Towers – 35-65 meters

• Track Ropes – the two stationary ropes that the cabin rides upon-each rope is 56mm in diameter. Total length of the track rope with the sag is 4600m

• Haul Rope – the single rope that pulls the cars along the track ropes is 46mm in diameter. Total length of the haul rope loop with the sag is 8850m

We also got some nice walks and meals in, these are pictures of the stream between the Fairmont and the main Village.

And I thought I would sneak in a picture I managed to get with Immy.

Home, and time for dinner, Gav dines with the ladies…..

Warming up to the Weather

A few pics of the gang in their fab winter gear.  I wish I had kit like theirs when I was their age.  Wait, that was the 70’s, North Face didn’t exist… oh never mind…..

 

 

 

 

A Walk with the Huttons in Bothell

We managed to get Kim, Maddie and Ellie to join us for a walk down to Bothell this week.  It was freezing, but the only ones who cared about the temperature were the parents……..

And Gavin continues to show his colors.  Sometimes Fireman red, other times, everything in the dresser……

Hanging with the Clarkes

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Your Videos: Hanging with the Clarke’s in Putne…, posted with vodpod

New Years–East Coast Style

Well that was the plan.  We had the Hutton family over to celebrate and it ended up being a sleep over.  All for the best, so the girls could have some bubbly, and the men could cook the meal.  Ok, I might have that the wrong way around.  We had planned for a 9PM EST midnight party but well, that didn’t happen….

Gav did set a lovely party table for the kids, and they made the most of it……

Christmas

Immy is still asleep, ssshhhhh  I can keep posting.

The Wettlaufer’s again went up to Vancouver for Xmas.  We headed up on December 23rd, and came home on the 26th.  It was a great few days, lots of wine and laughs watching the kids go nuts.  Oh, and some excellent food and conversation too.

Here are some pics, videos coming.

We made the trek to Oakridge Mall for the annual photo, its getting a little crowded in there!

 

 

 

It was great seeing Jess and Immy get to know each other:

And of course mom was SO photogenic, even with her new daughter!

For some reason, the boys LOVE this DVD made called Mighty Machines, about the City of Toronto Street Cleaners.  Here, they study it hard.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Christmas on Osler St without the carousel. 

And the annual reading of Night Before Christmas went well, although a much lager crowd meant the couch needed to be used.  At least G.P.s wallet was safe……

It needs to fit under the counter!

So El wanted a new coffee machine for Xmas, and the only criteria given to G.P. was it had to fit under the counter.  We should have used Immy as a measure stick.

The Xmas pictures are coming, most likely in the next post.  I hear a little one stirring……

 

 

Kona

I know I know. Its been a while.  Blogging catch-up is a new years resolution.  With little Immy into her 2nd hour of napping, I thought I would try and start the catch-up. 

Kona was amazing.  We went for 2 weeks, 1 with Crannas, and 1 with Rob and El.  Both were awesome weeks, and we stayed at the same house we did last year.  This year with 1 more guest .

Pics.  Still trying to sort out video posting to the new blog site……

1 Tourist thing we did was take a visit to Greenwell farms, one of Kona’s largest coffee growers.  Here Gavin holds a fresh coffee bean from the tree.  To the right, Gavin is pictured in front of a rack of beans drying in the sun and the 3rd is Gavin standing on the weigh scale where the farmers drop their harvest.