The phone was in very nice condition, though it was not guaranteed to work, thus justifying the steep discount. It did supposedly spend a decade in very light service followed by 60 years in a box. Several things piqued my interest. The brown cloth cords are in exquisite condition, and this is a May 1940 metal phone with matching parts. A little over a year after this phone was made, WWII ushered in an era of thermoplastic phones that would forever overshadow these metal beauties.

Don’t call this a “Lucy phone!” I abhor the term, as it is better suited to the plastic toys made after the war. I jest, but I do much prefer the metal phones. They are more expensive so I was thrilled to find and win one in such great condition for a stupidly low price.

I do not have any personal attachment to the WE-302 beyond liking it. I was born much too recently to have seen them in common use. Growing up in the 80′s I saw the touchtone trimline as the quintessential phone in kitchens at home and around town; though I do recall some relatives owning WE-500 rotary models. Still I appreciate the styling and the timeless elegant functionality of the good old fashioned 302. It’s perfected from the 102-202 but not so sterile as the 500.

I quickly tried my new phone but it did not work. My heart sank, but I was prepared for this. I sat down to work while my wife watched television. After a day of hard work at the office, a creative hobby is an excellent release. She just spent the evening juggling the twins, so she earned some couch time! For me though, the satisfying resolution of fixing something is quite relaxing.

Thankfully the dial was in perfect working order and after some rewiring inside the phone I was finished and ready to test by the time the show was over. The gongs gave out their harmonic ring as my cell phone dialed in. I was very pleased that our phone company’s rotary service functioned over their VOIP box. Kudos to you, Surewest.

The dial card was yellowed with age and possibly original, though I cannot be sure. It included numbers such as a two digit number for the fire brigade and 211 for a long distance operator. I fashioned my own “Wait for dial tone” card and filled in my number. I chose RIverside as my exchange, though of course my number doesn’t fit into an historical exchange, being in Granite Bay using VOIP. I was astonished at how perfectly Brush Script matched up with my expectations on the “Wait” font. It was simple enough to cut it out and place it under the cellulose cover. I retained the existing dial card, just in case I ever pass the phone along.

I made some test dials (actual dialing here!) and those worked as well. I love the sound quality and though some may scoff at this, the inability to cradle the phone against my shoulder due to the triangular shape of the F1 handset. This isn’t a multi-tasking device, it is a telephone. If I am talking to you on it, you have my full and undivided attention.

It may not be in pristine, like new condition, but maybe some day I will research proper restoration of the paint to fill in some minor wear and tear… perhaps replace the suede feet. Some lubrication and cleaning on the inside might not be out of order. I have no plans to sell it and do not care specifically about “ruining” it by cleaning or repairing it. I plan to use and appreciate it! (Also, it looks pretty cool)

Time to get packing!

First we were welcomed into the Smiths’ fresh new home. Not quite all the way moved in, the exquisite interior was still inviting and friendly as family and friends gathered around the tree. Elizabeth and Emory crashed almost right after our arrival, but I know they will know many fun trips to see their Great Aunt & Uncle!

For Christmas Eve morning we arrived on the Janvier’s doorstep bearing gifts of food as we prepared a breakfast complete with homemade cinnamon rolls. It was a big hit indeed, there are no photos of the freshly baked rolls because they were devoured so quickly!

The twins received their first set of teddy bears from Grandpa Janvier. We are still waiting on a reaction other than their immediate instinct which was to attempt to devour them. Speaking of devouring, after Christmas Eve service, we came home to the cinnamon roll glass baking dish on the floor (intact thankfully) after Romeo had somehow knocked it off the counter so he could “clean” the remaining sticky sugar residue off. Yum? Yuck? Both?

I guess Christmas Eve was fun for man and animal alike. While our Golden Retriever “dined,” we attended to Fair Oaks’s traditional evening service. The twins made their star power appearance in the nursery where they slept soundly. When my step dad was called out on a page at the end of the service, I was left holding two candles. I wasn’t quite sure what to do when the pastor encouraged us to hold them low and cover them… but when we held them high I  certainly had that covered! Double fisted candle man! (In other related news, I can confirm from first hand observational research that the common man still fails at understanding elementary physics and cannot comprehend the simple “hold lit candle upright, light unlit candle sideways” methodology!)

The penultimate gathering on Christmas morning consisted of just me, the misuses, and Emory and Elizabeth with their first Christmas morning. I know they won’t remember it, but I will not soon forget it. They sprawled on the floor while we got things ready and then snuggled with mommy to unwrap some goodies. Very fun indeed! We even had the fake “Yule Log Channel” on Netflix crackling away to the tune of Christmas carols.

And to top it all off, we made a customary traditional Christmas morning appearance at the VanHamersvelds, for fun, fellowship, food and of course presents. A traditional marathon of hours long gift opening. I posited that perhaps we take too long as someone always tries to “move things along” though my wife assured me that it was fine because “we savor the moment.” And she’s right.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Christmas round one is in the can. Jenny and I made our way over to her mother’s house with the twins for some dinner and some nice family time. The twins had a blast opening their first Christmas presents ever. Well, they had some help getting them unwrapped, but they did a lot of smiling on their own!

When I unpacked the camera, expecting to take some quick shots with on camera ETTL + bounce card at 45 degrees (no, I could not have planned to be more lazy!) My wife then informed me she wanted some nicer shots in front of the Christmas tree. I am slowly dreading shots in front of a Christmas tree. My hands are steady, but not that steady. Shutter drag to expose the lights on the tree is taking it’s toll!

I had left my radio triggers at home so I was somewhat dismayed at finding out she wanted something halfway presentable. I was just there for “the moment” and family goodness. Inspiration struck as I realized my LP-160′s make excellent optical slave flashes and happened to be stashed in my bag. How smart was that? (It wasn’t. It was just dumb luck they were in there.)

Why the expensive 580exII doesn’t have optical slave functionality will always mystify me. Anyhow, using the 580 as an on camera trigger into the ceiling, I strategically placed LP-160 flashes around the room also more or less aimed at the ceiling. There is still some direction to the light, but I admit it is very diffused and soft.

The result was an entire room of adequate lighting. No small feat as I’ve yet to see a living room with sufficient lighting. If I ever build a dream house, it is going to have an artificial sun in main gathering areas! Or wireless flash tubes embedded in the ceiling LOL!

I was able to roam around and collect snapshots for the family archives that were pretty good considering I shot on manual and never bothered to change my exposure throughout the night even as I moved around the room. Not very happy with the white balance, but I’m tired and don’t feel like getting that perfect. It’s just a family gathering for pete’s sake!

As an extra, while a diaper changing session was going on, I grabbed this shot of the nativity figurines. Click to explore on Flickr.

I’ll still stop by small shops during the regular season for everyday needs. When I need my car serviced, I’ll use my local mechanic. If there is a specialty shop nearby, you’ll find me there if I can make use of it. Tasty eats from a small local eatery? You bet! But when serious shopping needs to be accomplished on a large scale, I’m moving online.

I support Amazon’s resistance to collecting sales tax, as I believe it is a complete sham to force them to collect it on shipments to states in which they have no physical presence. If consumers are ripping of the state by not filing and paying use tax at the end of the year, that is between the citizen and the Franchise Tax Board and/or Board of Equalization.

It is not an unfair advantage as many a brick and mortar retailer claim, because Amazon is not here. It’s that simple. And we don’t have an interstate import tariff in California! (We do have a use tax, but again, that’s between you and the FTB) Be that as it may, Amazon caved and time is running out for their sales tax holiday so many people are taking advantage of. (And I do hear from a lot of friends, people are taking advantage.)

I have enjoyed the lack of bloodthirsty parking space hunting this season as I do my Christmas shopping on my lunch break, in my slippers on the couch, or while working in my home office with my wife. The only negative experience I’ve had this year is an item I inadvertently bought from a third party via Amazon. I generally try to avoid that experience as I don’t like being at the mercy of businesses thousands of miles away that are sometimes ill equipped to provide excellent customer service.

My third party item via Amazon was promptly lost in transit. I think UPS still is claiming it is “about to be shipped” and Amazon’s website assures me it will be arriving “last Tuesday.” All was not lost however, as a simple phone call connected me to an English speaking customer service rep for Amazon, no phone tree required, who solved everything. She tracked down the problem (package was lost, UPS even admits it) and issued a refund, applied a shipping discount to my account, and alerted me that the item was also available directly from Amazon and it was on sale! Success!

This was just one experience this season, I also made many other purchases do check off my Christmas friends and family list trouble free. Packages arrive on my doorstep like clockwork, including the occasional surprise for my wife which I routed to my office to keep from spoiling the surprise. When people tell me they are afraid to shop online, I chuckle. I’m afraid to shop in person, I’d rather avoid the mall, traffic, parking, lines and near riots!

After having to go back to work when the twins were just barely 2 months old, I’ve been longing to spend more than just a weekend with them.  Now the twins are 5 and 1/2 months old and I’m so grateful that this Thanksgiving I got to spend an entire week with them.  They’ve grown so much both physically and mentally.  Emory rolls over (one direction only) and Elizabeth can pivot on her back and stomach a full 360 (very funny to watch!).  They both hold their toys and reach for them too.  They also just started eating solids this week – carrots and peas.  So… here is what we did this week:

• Sunday - Sunday school at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church.  Later in the day, babies ate some mushed up carrots for the first time!
• Monday - A visit to my colleague and her husband’s house for coffee (for mommy) and tummy time on the floor at their house.  In the evening, a former student stopped by my house just to visit and play with the babies.
• Tuesday - Shopping with Grandma Carol at Baby’s R Us for new baby girl Sweet (on her way) and a few Christmas gifts for the twins
• Wednesday - A day with “GG” (great-grandma Janvier)…  We had lunch at the soda shop in the Eskaton where she stays and we were stopped by every old lady and man that we strolled past.  By the way, babies in a stroller serve as a great walker for any elderly person who might need one.  Babies get pushed around, Great-grandma gets to gaze on them while pushing them and brag about them to her friends, and GG also gets added stability to her walking – a great combination!  We also stopped by Aunt Jean’s on the way to Grandma’s hair appointment.
• Thursday - Thanksgiving Day!  It began early (as every morning does) with a walk to the nearby park with the twins and Romeo.  It was a cold rainy morning, but I put hats and blankets on the babies and covered the car-seats with rain-jackets.  Then, in the afternoon, we headed to Nana and Grandpa’s house for a family gathering and turkey feast.
• Friday - A relaxing morning at home followed by a Bible study lunch and movie at cousin Kim’s house.  Babies just loved all the attention!
• Saturday - A day at home with Mommy.  What a great way to end the week! I honestly don’t remember the last time I spent an entire day in my house… not even a single trip to the grocery.  And, yes, although the babies got dressed, I stayed in my pajamas all day long.  (Yay for me!)

Elizabeth and Emory will be making a box every year, as there is no better time to start teaching them about the importance of giving. Even if it’s just a small thing to do — for a kid, toys/presents/etc are a big deal!

The twins admittedly won’t remember this Christmas’ boxes, but there will be many more to come.

For my birthday, Jennifer took me to Napa to ride the Wine Train. This trip was no small feat as it was our first away from our babies since they were born. Grandmas shared the duties of watching them over the weekend, though we suspect they enjoyed it considerably!

The wine train was fantastic! We dined in a 1952 Vista Dome car, with a delicious assortment of several courses and variety of wines. The train took a leisurely pace up from Napa to St. Helena and then back again.  The service was superb, which is an important consideration from the most lavish affair to the most simple of eateries. Without quality service, you’ve got nothing. But fear not, should you chose to ride the wine train, we think you will agree that the service is friendly and attentive. We both had a great time and recommend the train to anyone who might be interested in a comfortable and satisfying trip up and down the Napa Valley.

During the days, we visited several wineries, including William Harrison, an American owned operation with dynamite selection of wines. We did some tasting, purchased some wine, grabbed some photos and moved on.

We also stopped by Domaine Chandon, makers of sparkling wine, but were assaulted by a massive tide of tourists streaming in from cars, buses and limousines. Not a very friendly atmosphere, more one of chaos. Still, it was fun to visit. We will try again at a better time of day in the future!

Eagle eye Jennifer spotted two Starfleet officers milling about the grounds of Domaine Chandon: Command division officers circa 2360 and 2260 respectively. Must be the season!

Also present on the ground of Domaine Chandon was an odd sculpture that caught Jenn’s attention. She stopped to ponder/pose by it.

Downtown Napa provided additional distractions in the form of a myriad of shops and stores. Additionally a small army of children trick-or-treated the downtown businesses during the day. We took the opportunity to fit in a little Christmas shopping. So if you know us, you might just be getting something from Napa this year!

We held our noses as we passed by several Occupy Napa protestors setting up camp in a small park. They were already gone the following day, having run out of enthusiasm, or allowance money, we aren’t sure which. We continued to stimulate the economy and moved on.

On our last day, we made sure to top things off with a visit to Mustards Grill for a light lunch and a final glass of wine before we made our trek back to civilization and our babies. While at the grill, Jennifer (being an “on duty” Spanish teacher at all times) made sure to photograph their display for Day of the Dead. She also seemed to be interested in an amusing fountain/statue out front, so she borrowed my camera and grabbed a photo of that as well.

All in all, a great birthday celebration. Thanks to my lovely wonderful wife who came up with the idea!

For this excercise, we are solving the problem of PDF files generated by MS Word and other programs. They tend to be RGB color files. When converting these files for printing on a four color press, you need to be careful not to convert RGB black text to CMYK rich black. If you print lots of small (normal body text) size text in rich black, colors that are even slightly off will look strange. You can end up with blue or pink shadows on the edges of the letters and that won’t look good at all!

The solution? Exporting a proper CMYK PDF from Word is not an option. You need to run Convert Colors in Acrobat to get that black RGB text to 0% Cyan, 0% Magenta, 0% Yellow and 100% Black to avoid problems at press time.

It is very simple to open your PDF in Acrobat, open the tools menu and run Convert Colors. If you don’t have “Print Production” in your tools list, you can add it by clicking on the small “Show or Hide Panels” button indicated in the screen capture.

In Convert Colors dialog, just select the “Preserve Black” option and you are all set. Once completed, you can save the PDF as a new file, or overwrite the old one.

You may check your work by clicking Output Preview, and un-checking the Black color. If your text disappears or turns white, you have accomplished the conversion and your file is ready to send to your printer. If you still see text when black is turned off, you have not yet converted the colors and Cyan/Magenta/Yellow are being used to render the text.

Your printer should be able to do this for you, but if you receive a lot of PDF’s from users who are not using professional design software, specifically if they are saving PDF’s from Word and expecting those to go on press, this is a convenient shortcut to ensure your text prints crisp sharp and black!

This example uses a PDF file created in MS Word and opened in Acrobat 10 for preparation to print.