We’re on the tail end of the home construction/repair. The Master bath Granite counter was installed on Wednesday along with the plumbing. This should bring an end to the “dancing jigs” held in front of our guest bathroom since we’ve all had to share one bathroom for a while. Carpet gets installed Thursday and Friday. Soon we’ll be able to return to a normal life.

…but an ominous event looms on the horizon for the Saldivar household, an event spoken only in small circles and hushed tones. It will visit us this weekend or Monday… (continue reading…)

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My son and my daughter go to Blessed Sacrament school, As a 7th grader, it was Joaquin’s second year playing football. This is middle school football so the team consists of 6th, 7th and 8th graders. In the past I had posted a webpage of his schedule on my main website www.g-man.net and had done the same for his first year as well.

Now, I’m more of a videographer but my wife’s Nikon D40 digital camera was just calling to me. So I started taking pictures of his games during the second season. Turns out (like with video) that if I’m behind the lens – then I won’t get so over excited about the game – you know, proud papa and all. Soon I was walking down on to the sidelines and just getting really involved in the picture taking. I was snapping close to 100 pictures a game and when the season ended – I had a total of about 900 images! I finally culled them down and decided to make a slideshow of the season.

My theme for this slideshow (it’s all about themes with me) was “Band of Brothers” like the Band of Brothers HBO series – which I highly recommend to anyone. I used the music from the series, assembled the images into a slideshow and then burned it to a DVD. I even designed a DVD cover image. That first image up to the left is the DVD cover – if you click on it – a larger image will “pop up” on your screen.

My intent was to capture the toughness, camaraderie and friendship the team displayed during the football season – plus to present this DVD of the season to the hard working and caring coaching staff.

Below you will find a movie of the slideshow so click on the play button.

The “flash version” doesn’t do the pictures any justice – I had to compress “the heck out of it for web delivery” so for a higher resolution version click on this link and select the Quicktime version.

Be prepared to wait though, it’s a big file so there will be a delay in the presentation and you PEECEE users may need to install the free player to see the slideshow at a higher resolution.

Thanks for letting me share,

Beto

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Many of you don’t know that I’m from a large family. I grew up with four sisters and a brother. Martin is the youngest and he lives in Stockdale TX with his wonderful wife Patricia (Trish for short). They live on 104 acres and have horses, cows, chicken and dogs…yes…I’m related to him BY BLOOD.

Of course my kids LOVE  Uncle Martin and Aunt Trish because they are very gracious and let them ride horses, feed the cows and pick eggs from the hen house. Over the years, we’ve spent numerous holidays with them. My kids also get to drive the Polaris four-wheeler when they’re out and have had to “Four-wheel it” across a dry creek crossing.

Well, my brother sent me some pictures of how he BUILT A BRIDGE to accommodate his tractor!

Geez, I build stuff but not at this scale. I thought it was really cool to see and wanted to share with everyone.

And yes – he’s my baby brother. Oh and being out on “the ranch” has it’s disadvantages…and advantages – as evident from the pictures after the bridge pics.

Wow – Beto

click on each picture for a larger view

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Remember that little product I purchased a while back? Well – here is what it can be used for in my film making arsenal of tools. It’s a mount for a camera. My buddy Fernando and I did a quick test of it around my neighborhood. Got some funny looks from the neighbors (because a yellow car was driving around the block) but we managed to get this footage. I’m sorry it took me so long to post the video – but I just figured out how to post video (that I produced – not a link) to my blog. It’s down below the images.

Click on each image for a larger view – I know I forgot to take a picture of it on the hood..

I tell you what – it’s a leap of faith to have your camera outside a moving car. I was pretty anxious waiting for Fernando to drive back around and a sigh of relief escaped my mouth as I noticed the camera had not fallen off!

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Looks like the medication is working. We noticed a significant difference in Max’s behavior yesterday morning. He was more alert, came to greet us, his ears were up and was wagging his tail.  He still wasn’t eating as much but I did notice he had nibbled on the canned “medicated” dog food we left him – the one he dropped in the dirt remember? The Vet said it was going to be bland and I guess Max was just confirming that to us. When I got home yesterday, he had eaten most of it.

While I was outside with him, I asked him, “Where’s your ball?” And he immediately began searching the yard for his purple ball he loves to have me throw around with him. He looked for a bit but then got tired and just came over to sit with me. That was my cue to ask Joaquin to go get his IV bag for his next treatment – 2 times a day, 150ccs until it runs out. I had to hold Max this time since he was feeling better but he was a good dog and took his medication.

This morning my son is with me while I’m working from home. We went to check on Max and give him his dose of medication and again, he’s improving. I even heard him bark for the first time in a couple of days. Max is a great watch dog and it was comforting to hear that he was back on the job.

Thank you all for the kind words and support for Max, I’m positive those well wishes helped him as well.

Beto

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