Nakamoto Blog - Craig & Sara

Mar 15 Muskoka River Swim

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:01:02 -0400

This might be the earliest ever swim in the "pool" at Dad's place in Port Sydney. March 15 and the weather has been beautiful the last few days. When I did the swim it was +10oC in the sun, and today it got up to about +16oC in Muskoka!

Building a Bathroom in 3 Minutes

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:00:51 -0500

In only 10 days, Craig has almost finished the new main floor bathroom. Starting from scratch, everything is pretty much done except the painting and trim. It took about a day to plan and buy everything including the sink and toilet. It took a day to frame and install the door and rough in the plumbing. It took probably another day (off and on, late at night) to complete the plumbing. Shig did the wiring in about 2 hours and the drywall has taken another day total (off and on, late at night).

Lessons learned:

1. When you plan the framing for such a small area, make sure you have room to get the drywall inside before you close everything up.
2. I have always said this, but never from experience: avoid doing your own drywall whenever possible! It is one of those things that anyone can do, the tools are cheap, and the materials are cheap. The problem is that moving the boards around is cumbersome and error-prone. Mudding is an art that requires a lot of practice to be able to do well.
3. If you can do it, lay out everything on the floor before you start to help plan. For example, in this case I laid out boards to represent the walls and doors on the floor and then I placed the vanity and toilet, etc. so we could play with the exact design of the room before I finalized the design. This helped us decide to widen the bathroom by 6 inches past the pantry, because it was really just too narrow otherwise.

Merry Christmas!!

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:00:00 -0500

Vancouver Trip

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:00:00 -0500

Craig Nakamoto was seen hiking along the west coast during the first big snow storm in Ottawa in December.

Oh Christmas Tree

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:00:00 -0500

Happy Halloween!

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Sage was sick this Halloween, but ended up going 'trick or treat'ing to our neighbours a few days late and most people still had candy left!

Happy 40th Sara!

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Sara celebrated her 40th birthday this October.

A quiet supper with the family.

A surprise party with friends and neighbours!

Happy 40th Craig!

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Craig celebrated his 40th birthday this October. No cake, but PIE!!!

He also went to see the Silversun Pickups with Steve and Chris and then he went on a 4-day birthday trip that Sara and Rob planned.

Jonathan flew back from Calgary and met up with Rob and Craig for a birthday trip.

The three adventurers spent a day and night in Toronto with a visit to the oldest Irish pub in the big smoke with Sean, a tour of the Mill Street Brewery, frisbee on Front Street, wandering across town from the Distillery District to Queen Street West, and much more.

Rangers in Killarney Provincial Park confirmed that the trio registered for two nights of back-country camping, although they did not appear to park near any of the official hiking trails...

It was an excellent trip and the scenery was awesome - if wet and cold at times.

The following is a 3.5 minute multimedia show from the camping trip.

Harvest Feast

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0400

The Harvest Feast was once again a big success at Ottawa Montessori School and everyone enjoyed Monkey Rock's music show too...

Happy 6th Birhtday Sage!!

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:13:56 -0400

Sage enjoyed a lovely 6th birthday this week. Sara made a home-made angel food cake. She was a little scared of the sparkler candle she picked out herself, but quickly recovered. Tomorrow is the big party with her friends from school.

and the big party:

Wakefield Harvest Festival

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:28:00 -0400

The Nakamoto-Berry family attended the harvest festival in Wakefield last weekend.

Calgary Trip

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:18:00 -0400

Craig Nakamoto was apparently in Calgary last week. It was a whirlwind trip and it looked like he was doing as much work in Ottawa as he was in Calgary.

Still, he managed to hit a few of his favourite spots (Vue Cafe, Manuel Latruwe, the King & I) and see some of his friends. Also, he managed to go from 0 to 60 mph in only a few seconds with Scott in the new Solstice.

Check out all the photos in the album.

Back to School

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:02:10 -0400

Sage started grade one this week at the Ottawa Montessori School. She is loving it so far!

Opeongo Trip

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:57:05 -0400

The Hobros and Nakamotos were reunited over the Labour Day weekend at Opeongo Lake in Algonquin Park.

Everyone enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, scenery, the harvest moon, smores, swimming, and some excellent camp cooking.

They spent two fun-filled nights at an awesome spot on the lake surrounded by loons, gulls, and other wildlife.

It was Gabriel and Sage's first canoe camping trip, and Gabriel's first real canoe ride. Gabriel was seen doing a header out of the canoe on day two, but he was quickly rescued by his dad as he floated by the stern of the canoe. He screamed a fair bit, but he stopped trying to crawl out of the canoe after that.

Sage and Gabriel

nospam@example.com (Craig Nakamoto) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:59:18 -0400

Animoto now lets us add video to our slide shows. Check out this quick video I created using only photos and video from my phone. It is about 2.5 minutes and loud (as all Animoto videos tend to be):

It still amazes me that something like this takes about 30 minutes of my time (select photos and videos from my hard drive, clip the video to small bits on the Animoto web site (no software required), choose a free music track from the Animoto collection, click GO), and then maybe another 30 minutes elapsed while the video is created, and then it is mine to keep/share/enjoy! It costs me $25/year for a membership to do this as many times as I want. Thank you Animoto!