Pellegrini Page

Jessica and I are closing out our second summer in San Diego with lots of visits from friends and family. Last weekend we had a visit from our Vegas friends Brian, Tiko and Tina, which was a blast. This weekend Jessica’s friend Laurel is in town from San Francisco for a wedding reception, then we have Jessica’s Mom Amy coming to stay with us for a week starting on Tuesday. Amy is going to help us get the house ready for Ava (which is only 2.5 months away at this point). The following Tuesday Amy’s husband Tom will be in town for work so we’ll have the two of them nearby for another week. Having all this company is making time fly by really fast. It’s hard to believe that less than three months from now Ava will be here…

I just came across a list of things that have changed in the past ten years and it almost doesn’t seem believable. Please enjoy:

• The iPod, XBox, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Ubuntu, and Blu-Ray did not exist.
• IBM was still in the PC business, Handspring was still around, and Blackberries were data-only devices with no telephone capabilities.
• The Euro had not yet entered circulation, currencies like the Franc, Mark and Lira were still legal tender.
• George Harrison, The Queen Mother, Gregory Peck, Barry White, Johnny Cash, Ronald Reagan, Ray Charles, Julia Child, Pope John Paul II, Johnny Carson, Steve Irwin, Gerald Ford and Michael Jackson were still alive.
• SARS, Avian Flu, H1N1 were not in the common vernacular.
• Enron and WorldCom were still in business.
• Oil was $24/barrel, gold was $276/ounce, NASDAQ was at 1912.41, and the DOW was at 10,382.35.
• The Concorde still flew.
• The Petronas Towers were the tallest skyscrapers in the world. (They’ve been surpassed twice since.)
• Lost and 24 had never aired, there were only four books in the Harry Potter series, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was still making movies.
• Lance Armstrong had only won the Tour de France 3 times. (He went on to win 4 more.)
• The most recent Boston Red Sox World Series win had been 1918 (which remained true until 2004).
• The Netherlands was the only country in the world that legally recognized same sex marriages. (That stands at 7 now).
• Charley, Ivan, Jeanne, Katrina, Dean, and Ike were not names associated with weather.
• 61 Extrasolar planets had been discovered. (Currently that’s up to 424).
• Pioneer 10 signals were still being received on Earth.

I guess there’s only one word to describe all this… progress?

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!!

Since Jessica is out of town and I have a three–day weekend, I’m getting tons of web design work done. Today I launched a site for a restaurant concept I’ve been working on for a while called ‘Sidecar.’ It’s basically a pizza, mixology place with live music and a vintage motorcycle feel. I designed the logo a while ago and recently decided to turn that into a full website, mostly so that I’ll have another nice portfolio piece to showcase when I’m looking for a job.

I also met with one of Jessica’s co–workers today who does professional photography and needs a website to showcase his work. I’m going to start designing his site tonight, as well as begin on a site for our karate school. To say that I’m keeping busy with design work would be a drastic understatement but hopefully it will all pay off in the near future! Time to take a break from the computer and take the dogs on a walk.

Check out the Sidecar site at: www.PellegriniPage.com/Portfolio/Sidecar

Jessic flew out to Dallas today to visit her friend Liz, so it’s just me and the dogs for the next few days. I have a three-day weekend starting tomorrow and I wish I could say that I had big plans, but it looks like most of my time will be spent working on web design related stuff. Hopefully I’ll get out for some surfing or a karate lesson.

Today has been a very productive day for me! In addition to launching my personal portfolio website, I also launched a site for San Diego ‘Pulpcore’ artist David Russell Talbott. I’ve been hard at work on both of these projects lately and am very excited to see them go live. David’s site will definitely serve as a great portfolio piece for me. Visit his site at: www.DavidRussellTalbott.com

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!

Today Jessica and I took the dogs to Fiesta Island to go swimming. Bella loves getting in the water but Bruno stays away. Even though he has webbed feet and seems like he’d be a natural at it, he doesn’t like to get in. Surprisingly there aren’t that many places around here where dogs are allowed in the water. You can’t take them to the public beaches, so you have to settle for going to a dog park that has it’s own beach, which is exactly what Fiesta Island has. I took Bruno out twice and he did ok but it was obvious that he wanted out so I spent the rest of the time throwing the frisbee way out into the bay for Bella to fetch. Bruno, meanwhile, spent the day running full speed up and down the beach. We didn’t know he could even run that fast but it was pretty fun to watch. As always Bruno receives lots of attention from curious dog owners about what breed he is and why he walks so funny. Looks like the two of them will be asleep for the rest of the evening.

We arrived in Las Vegas yesterday and had a nice dinner at my mom’s house with family and friends. Today we spent the day at my uncle Bob’s place swimming and playing pool, then we went to Gold & Silver Pawn on the strip to see the home of one of our favorite tv shows "Pawn Stars." Tonight we’re heading out to dinner with friends. I also got a call from my good friend Shawn today who recently got engaged. He asked me to stand up in his wedding, which I was honored to agree to. He’s getting married in early June in Vegas so I’m sure that will be great. It’s been a really nice day!

Monday will mark the beginning of the 26th week of Jessica’s pregnancy. This means that we are closing in on the third trimester! She had a checkup with the doctor this week and everything is looking great. We’re looking forward to Monday because we have a three-day weekend together and we’re spending it in Las Vegas at my Mom’s house. We try to go to Vegas every other month or so because we always have a place to stay and it’s only a five hour drive from San Diego. Plus Bruno and Bella love playing with all of my Mom’s dogs. Business has picked up at both of our restaurants for the end of summer so it will be very nice to get away for a few days and relax. Definitely looking forward to spending some time by the pool 😉