Aviation Museum

The Spruce Goose had a lot of documentation surrounding it. It was a feat of engineering to create it and get it from California to Oregon. There was a scale model of how they created the hangar for it. My knowledge of the Spruce Goose was the Hollywood-version biopic of its creator, Howard Hughs, in the movie Aviator. I remember being a bit disturbed after watching the movie because I had expectations of watching an inspiration life of Howard Hughes. But it taught me an important perspective that in life, some of the most brilliant people do not live with wisdom.

Back to the Spruce Goose, it might as well be a support structure of the hangar since its wings spread across almost the entire width of the building. The wings were eleven feet tall the point where it’s connected to the body of the plane, and you could easily walk down past all the engines before you had to crouch. We were limited to the main compartment of the Goose, which gave us glimpses down the body to its tail, but in order to go to the cockpit, it required another $25 fee for a group of six. Since a ticket was already $20 a person, we saved the visit to the cockpit for another day.

Below is a photosynth I created of the interior of the museum with the Spruce Goose. If you don’t know what a photosynth is, it’s a collage of photos strewn together in a way to get a perspective as if “you were there.” It’s a free iOS app if you want to create some yourself. They’re especially useful for tight indoor shots.

Space Museum

The building dedicated to space was equally impressive, with displays of large rockets and space missions. There was an area that simulated a five-minute launch sequence and various simulators. We got to this section a bit later, so we didn’t get to spend as much time there before it closed.

Here are few other photosynths of the rockets and displays.

There was also a section for airplanes, which I’m sure is overflow from the other building. I learned a few things or two about the SR-71 “Blackbird”. It was the most fascinating and beautiful plane I saw there. Sure, the Spruce Goose is the headliner of the iste, being the only one in existence, but the Blackbird was just cooler. Even Jenni took to it and spent some time photographing its sleek form.

I didn’t realize how record-breaking fast the SR-71 was. There was a chart in the museum that showed how fast various planes in history were, and the Blackbird could fly across the U.S. in about an hour. I wonder if your hair is blasted back like in the cartoons.

Next visit, we’ll hit the water park first, preferably with our girls and our parents. It should be a great summer fun destination.

See photos from our visit to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum »

We unexpectedly got pregnant before I left for Mauritius last year before our sixth anniversary. Bruce has been a jolly “bonus baby”. It took me the full nine months to truly believe that we were having our third. We’ve had a lot of help before and after the pregnancy, and Kadie and Vi have taken up their duties as big sisters very well. Jennilyn has reached new heights of being a mother of three.

Since we couldn’t fit three car seats in our Mazda 626 sedan, we purchased a minivan. It’s been great to be able to carpool with friends and our kids. Better for the environment and better companionship during longer drives. My favorite feature of the minivan is the “sports mode,” which is a fancy name for automatic and manual transmission engine. Perhaps the “sports” moniker helps the husband not feel so domesticated—I have no idea.

Jenni and I did a series of photographs highlighting aspects of our married life, called “Mr and Mrs Lim”. Sadly, we were too busy to fulfill the weekly schedule for the year, but we enjoyed what we did photograph about our married life—which, in turn, helped fill out this year’s anniversary slideshow.

What were we busy with? Well, besides preparing for Bruce, I was project lead for a major website redesign at my job. It was the first time where I had a difficult time leaving work at work. There were a lot of stresses and I’m very grateful for Jennilyn’s support during the project. It was the largest project I worked on and led. The website has been so much easier to maintain and develop for since.

Speaking of my job, Vernier celebrated their 30th anniversary with a weekend at the beach for all their employees. We invited Tracy along so that she could babysit Kadie and Vi when we went to the formal party. We had a great time enjoying the resort and the beach. Kadie and Vi asks us occasionally when we can stay a night at the beach again.

On the dancing side of things, we got out to dance whenever we could before Bruce arrived. Even after Bruce was born, we made it out on a rare occasion. We got much of our dance fix from the sidelines with the kids. So You Think You Can Dance has allowed us to stay interested in dance and introduced us to great new music.

We were able to attend BridgeTown Swing for the weekend. It was great to be out on the dance floor and reunite with friends. And I always enjoy volunteering as the event photographer.

Our photography side job slowed significantly last year, part of it is by our own choosing. We had a difficult time balancing the time between all our priorities, so we scaled back the number of jobs we did. And fewer requests came to us. Still, of the jobs we did, we had a blast working on family and baby portraits.

I experimented with timelapse photography with my iPod touch during Thanksgiving and enjoyed creating them. I made one for Christmas tree trimming, Christmas dinner, and putting together a new computer at work. It’s a pretty simple process with fun results.

It has become increasingly challenging to carve out time for each other. But we found ways to steal moments between laundry, washing dishes, breaking up sister fights, and other day-to-day routines. We started reading books to each other (still working on our first, Jurassic Park), massaging each other while watching The Daily Show, Colbert Report, or Day9, and exercising. It has been great revisiting a marriage book to remind us how to have fun besides watching movies. We canceled our Netflix subscription shortly before Bruce was born so that we could focus on activities that encouraged us to talk with each other or learn something new together.

I make no pretense that raising kids is not straining on a marriage. It is an investment I couldn’t imagine not making. Our kids bring us much joy and teach us innocence, creativity, and openness that we may have forgotten while “growing up”. My thanks to our parents who love our kids and give us a much needed break regularly so that we can rejuvenate our marriage at least once a month.

God reminded me this week of an error in my thinking before I got married. I had the view that marriage was a milestone in life—something that could be thought of as a checkbox on the to-do list of life. Marriage, I learned instead, is a life-long pursuit and journey, where two people commit to loving each other to the maximum extent two people can love.

I’m honored and humbled that I got a great catch like Jennilyn. I am living my dream of a happily ever after—one year at a time.

Here’s our seventh year anniversary slideshow. Song credit to Peter Hollens, singing a cover to Jason Mraz’s “I Won’t Give Up”.

Thank you for being a good God, for even when you allow strife in our lives, you use it for your good and perfect will for us. God, be our strength, for I am so weak. Guide us in your wisdom. Please have mercy on us and give us your healing power. We need your love to glue our family together when the stress of our circumstances can easily create a gaping hole. Give us your grace to be gracious with our children and each other when we are exhausted and depleted. Fill us with your life and let us serve you faithfully everyday.

Lord, let me be ever so thankful in my heart. Thank you for the gifts you’ve given me in my husband and children. Thank you for the precious time with them that you give to me. Help me not to take them for granted; especially my David. What an exceptional man you’ve given me! Wanting to marry me even though we didn’t know the future, or how much of a wife I could be to him as I was bedridden much of the time. How far we’ve come, and how much we’ve gone through in the past seven years… in the past several months! You’ve got our attention, Lord. We wait with expectant hearts as to what you will do, and what we will hopefully mature in.

Thank you, God, for giving much joy and happiness in our marriage these past seven years, and I pray for us to keep walking closer to you and to each other in whatever time you give us together on this earth.

In the name of Christ Jesus, I pray these things,
Amen, let it be done.

Their latest blessing? Giving us an impromptu date without kids last night.

They watched all three kids while we drove off, unsure of what we wanted to do with our freedom. On our way to Target—because no date without kids is complete without doing an errand—we both came up with the same idea: go visit Clark and Mary to meet their new baby boy. They lived about half an hour away, so it would be a short visit before we needed to head back.

We texted them as we shopped around Target for kid art supplies—mandatory casual window-shopping without kids during a date—and strolled over to Best Buy so Jenni could reject the mechanical gaming keyboard I was eyeing because it made too much racket. We received a call back that they were at an urgent care clinic for Sam, their new baby boy, for jaundice. They had been there for a long time—which always makes me beg the question as to why they call it urgent care when you’re there waiting for two hours for the doctor to give you a diagnosis in two minutes—and welcomed our company.

Great! It was about eight o’ clock, so the visit would be short if we were going to get back at a respectable hour. We both wanted to bless them with a meal so we went to our favorite post-birth restaurant, Nicholas’, grabbed two chicken kabob plates, and headed toward the nearest hospital per Mary’s description of a clinic north of Lloyd center on Interstate avenue.

Humorously, a hospital isn’t the same as a clinic. The employees at the emergency hospital teased that directions to the clinic would cost us half of the food we were delivering.

So, after an analysis of the nearby area on a Portland map, we finally landed at the Kaiser urgent care to meet Sam. They were still waiting and got really hungry. So the food was provincial. Jenni held Sam so that Clark and Mary could eat, and Sam greeted her with a loud poop. And like the trooper-mother-of-three she is, Jenni took Sam to the restroom to change him while Clark and Mary ate a few bites. Not to be useless myself, I helped watch Amelia, their three-year-old daughter, as she ran back and forth to the aquarium.

We visited with them for a short while, watched Amelia when they were called in to the doctor their second time, but we had to hurry back to our house because we had a three-month-old baby to feed. It was great to see them and happy that the Lord allowed us to bring them food. Which brings me back to thanking my in-laws for watching our kids, longer than intended, so that we could get out on a date.

You’re probably wondering where the name of the operation came from. Well, that’s easy—it’s Sam’s middle name.

Today, Bruce turned 100 days old, a special custom to Chinese. I can’t take credit for knowing any of that; when Kadie was born, my cousin Kevin asked if we were going to throw her a 100-day party. I asked my mom if she had ever heard about it, and before we knew it, we threw a party to thank all the people who gave us gifts.

And just like Kadie, we celebrated Bruce’s party at Super King buffet in East Portland. It worked out well as people came as they pleased and we filled their banquet room.

I actually never knew why 100 days were significant, so I googled it:

100 days after the baby’s birth, relatives and friends will send gifts such as clothes, pants, necklace, bracelets for wrists and ankles, tiger shoes, hats for the baby. This is an important day for the baby because 100 days birth celebration represents the wish that the baby will live 100 years, the baby will wear a silver longevity pendant (in Chinese called Longevity Lock) on the neck. The pants will have long fringe on the legs, because the pronunciation of fringe is the same as year in Chinese. And the more fringe the more years. – www.folkartchina.com

I’m glad we didn’t dress him up in fringe. His tuxedo was much more stylish.

Here’s to you Bruce, 100 days to 100 years.

See photos from the party »

The Koss KSC75 arrived first and I used them for a few days. The clip headphones aren’t easy to get on at first, but it is after you get use to its nuances. I find them a little loose, so the sound escapes a lot. I also didn’t realize that their impedance was much higher at 60 &Ohm;, so they generally are quieter until I crank the volume up.

They do sound pretty good, although I haven’t done much testing with games. For music, all the ranges sounded good to me. So, they are a good deal for $16.50.

The Creative Aurvana Live! are fun. I’ve switched back and forth between it and the Plantronic .Audio 355. I honestly can’t tell a huge difference in sound quality in gaming. I’ve enjoyed surround sound in games like Battlefield 3 where the sound positioning is spatial. Especially after configuring my Asus Xonar DG correctly.

But music feels “full” and the bass is present but not overpowering. The sound reminds me of my speakers, so the soundstage is pretty good. They are very comfortable and fun.

As I did with Violet’s story, the short version is that the labor was about 12 hours. The pushing stage was 5 minutes. I had a natural birth at Alma Midwifery Birth Center. It was another water birth, and it went very well. My midwife said the birth was “amazing.” Bruce was born on his actual due date, December 11th, 2011 at 3:23am, weighed 8lbs 6oz, 20 inches long, with a head circumference of 14 1/2 inches. He looked a lot like Kadie did as a newborn. We were very pleased to have a son!

The long version (be warned, it’s the nitty-gritty, detailed version) goes something like this:

I started losing my mucus plug on Wednesday, December 7th. There were lots of uterine activity. I kept wondering, “Is this it? Is this labor?” Then I’d chide myself, “If I have to ask myself ‘is this labor?’ then it’s not labor. I’ll know when I’m in labor!” But still, the mental side of waiting was just as exhausting as all the weird aches and pains.

Thursday, the 8th, I was having more acid reflux again, and feeling kicks in my butt from the inside, and pressure up in my tummy. It was the second night in a row of having to sleep in the recliner after having a break from that nightly routine. Most of my last trimester, my baby’s head was pushing up into my stomach. I had gone to the pool and did hand stands, which made baby turn head down for a few days, but this baby was sure active and did whatever he or she (we didn’t know the sex yet) wanted. The midwives were worried, but I wasn’t letting myself get too stressed out about it until the week of my due date.

I was scared baby’s head was up again. I was scared that labor would start soon, as I was 3 days away from my due date, and I’d have to try to push out a breech baby at home. I wouldn’t be allowed at the birth center if baby was breech, and if I went to the hospital, they’d automatically do a C-section. I live close to a hospital, and I prayerfully decided that I’d rather try to deliver breech rather than just give up to the knife without trying first. I even thought about paying my neighbors to go stay in a hotel if I were to attempt a home breech birth. Thankfully the ultrasound showed baby’s head down. Thanks Lord! Thanks baby! This knowledge help me relax. I could allow myself to go into labor now.

It amazed me at how strong “Bruce Lee’s” kung fu punches were “in the basement” to make me think they were his kicks. It must have been his famous one-inch punch. As I told many people, I’d be surprised if we had a girl, but I still wasn’t completely sure. I thought my first two were going to be boys.

We took Kadie and Violet to David’s parents’ house on Friday, December 9th as a trial run of staying the night. I was counting on the baby being late because Kadie was 8 days over and Vi was 10 days. But I thought to myself, if I could actually go into labor on my due date weekend, I’d like the kids to be elsewhere so I could actually relax and allow myself to go into labor instead of being too busy taking care of everyone. Well, that night I was having even more uterine activity. I had “the grip” (a very hard belly) almost constantly. I had to tell David to walk a bit slower, and I had to stop and catch my breath when shopping at New Seasons on the way home.

Saturday, December 10th, at 4am, I felt a small gush of liquid when I got up to pee. I woke again to pee at 6am and I was all wet. Kori, my CNM, and I suspected it was amniotic fluid leaking. I started cramping—not consistently, but I knew “this was it”—labor was starting.

“Sorry, Whitney, I’m not waiting for you,” I thought. She was part of our birth team and hoped I wouldn’t go into labor while she was out of town on our due date weekend.

I got up at 6am and started cooking food for the labor and stay at the birth center since I have special dietary needs. I made waffles, beef and chicken jok, cut up veggie sticks, and made a container of mangos and kiwi in pineapple juice. I had started drinking Recharge (electrolyte juice) a couple days earlier, and continued drinking on Saturday, along with tea and water. I kept drinking and drinking and peeing and peeing… and drinking and peeing some more.

I was preparing myself for a strenuous athletic event and wanted all the energy I could get, so I made “pond juice” (veggie juice). I had a spinach salad with salmon and drank nutrient-dense soup I had made from beef bones and veggies. All of this was to hopefully help my platelet count remain high, and help my anemia with iron, since tests had showed some concern for those issues.

By the afternoon, I was pretty tired, so I took nap. I didn’t really “sleep” sleep, but rested in between slowed-down contractions. I was a little disappointed that labor basically stopped, but I knew I had a ways to go and felt like my body needed to rest.

When I got up from my nap, contractions picked up again. I had timed them on David’s iPod for a bit that day, but nothing seemed consistent, so I gave up keeping track. We went to Chipotle to eat dinner and I was having to stop and breathe through contractions. We were going to pick up a few more groceries, but decided to head home instead. We watched my “comfort” movie, Pride and Prejudice (the Matthew Macfadyen version), while I continued to breathe through increasingly intense contractions. I was very tired after the movie so we went to bed.

I hadn’t seen any more fluid or mucus plug all day, so I was tempted to fear that I would have to keep contracting like this for several days more. It was getting very difficult.

I didn’t sleep, but got deep rest between hard contractions every half hour or so. I started praying through them, thanking God for and meditating on a different attribute of God through each contraction. Some of my focus points were God’s blessings, joy, hope, peace, the Holy Spirit, comfort, power, and strength.

By midnight, I felt I should eat again, so I got up and toasted a waffle. I went to the bathroom and saw deep red blood. It was time to go in. Contractions became much closer and harder. I woke David and told him we needed to go. By then I couldn’t just breathe through them, I had to use my voice and felt things were moving down. David had only slept for 2 hours and was quite out of it. He sort of stumbled around collecting his gear.

When we were on the phone with Kori, I had “the turning point contraction” that made me cry uncontrollably and shake. It was the shift into very intense labor that was bringing tremendous downward pressure. I urged David that we had to go now. I told him I hoped the baby wouldn’t come while we were still driving, but to be careful of ice. He did very well, going the speed limit the whole way, which is a contrast from his usual Lead-foot Lim driving.

I don’t think he realized the urgency of the situation. Kori did though and called me to say that if we have the baby in the van, to keep coming and they would be out there to help catch the baby… but she thought I could make it. She called again to say “just breathe through it,” and she stayed on the phone with me the rest of the way to Alma. I was worried too, so I made sure not to use my voice the rest of the way, and just blow air through each contraction, and hold my kegels up slightly as I could, all the while talking to the baby, saying, “Don’t go down yet. Just stay there. Just hold on, baby.”

We got to Alma at 1:30am on Sunday, December 11th. My birth team Kori, Corinne, and an intern named Angela, were on the curb waiting for me. They walked me up the steps to the front door of the house, which was locked. Somebody opened it for us and I waited out another strong contraction before finishing going into the room and into the big tub. I used my voice fully again, and squatted until my feet were numb. I shifted positions, and continued to feel my tailbone shifting out painfully as baby moved down with contractions. I felt a stretching as my bag of waters bulged out. I was so close to the edge of pushing, but I felt like I couldn’t bear down very well in the water. I was a little too buoyant. Eventually I asked David to hold my shoulders down. I was able to relax between the slowed-down contractions and felt very exhausted. I felt like I couldn’t keep doing this. A couple of times I said, “I don’t want to do this.”

Kori said, “But you can do this. You are the only one who can. You are doing it.”

I asked David to tie my hair back, and he gave me sips of Recharge. I was feeling nauseated and so the midwives gave me something homeopathic to put under my tongue.

I told my baby “I love you,” and I told David I loved him. He was holding my hand steady through each contraction and kissing my head lovingly between contractions. Just the feeling of his hand firmly, yet gently holding mine was a great comfort and strength. It was reassuring to have him be there with me through it all, even though I did not want to be there inside my body at all.

I asked God for help. I asked him to help me be brave. I psyched myself up to push my contraction over the edge into the pushing stage. I was so close. But just I couldn’t do it. Another contraction or so went by until I could muster up the courage to push it harder again. The bag bulged out so painfully stretching me out again, yet I was denied. “Come on already!” I said.

Corinne, who was quietly sitting in the corner, could tell I was frustrated and asked me “What do you need?”

“I need my bag to break.” She said to try little grunty pushes. I did so on the next one and, sure enough, my bag broke and I immediately went into pushing very forcefully. I felt baby go down and start to crown. This was the worst pain I’ve felt in my life! For the third time! The stretching burning was unbearable but I held him there with all my might, not wanting the baby to slide back up, prolonging the agony. I then took two big breaths and pushed the head out. The next push was terribly painful too, but the shoulders and body came out as the midwives, probably Kori, caught the baby behind me, telling me to squat back down into the water so she could guide it under and through my legs. I didn’t realize I had partially stood up. I lowered myself into the tub, reached down and pulled my baby up onto my chest.

I held my baby tight. My eyes were closed and I just held my sweet baby to my chest and breathed. That’s all I could do. After a while, one of the midwives asked if I was going to find out what it was. It was exciting for them to find out too, since it’s not as common these days to wait until the birth. I held my baby out and said, “It’s a boy… I have a son.” I looked at David. The joy in his moist eyes and the smile on his face made me cry. Such great happiness and love were holding us tightly together.

There is more to this story, but I fear another 3 months will go by before I have the chance to tell it. So for now, I will post this as part 1, with part 2 on the way.

Thankfully, I have Google to help me in my searches and it brought me to head-fi.org, a great resource and review site with a vibrant community forum. The trickiest thing is that I’m not an audiophile, nor do I want to become one. I’m interested in budget headphones (or headset) for movies, music, and gaming. I’ve discovered that audiophile-quality headphones lean too far off the bass end. Perhaps I am part of the culture of bass-heads that they detest, but I like what I like.

Last week, I thought I had finally concluded my extensive, borderline-obsessive, search for a gaming headset. I originally was going for good headphones for music so I can enjoy tunes while I code at work. But then, my wiser-half noted that I probably should not be wear noise-isolating headphones at work since I needed to hear when the phone rang or when a coworker stopped by. So, I turned my attention to gaming headsets since I have participated in multiplayer games more often (and loving it).

I used to play games with bluetooth headphones and used my webcam as a microphone. It worked pretty well, but it did mean I had an open mic in my living room during my gaming sessions. And that has gotten me in trouble when Jenni didn’t know that it was an open mic.

At the beginning of 2011, my friend Clark gave me a gaming headset as a gift. I was really appreciative and I’ve used the Plantronics .Audio 355 since. It helped keep the volume down as I no longer had to shout into my webcam for my friends to hear me. He had gotten it for me so we could communicate better in Battlefield Bad Company 2, but I ended using them much more for StarCraft 2 team games.

As I was building a new computer for work at the end of 2011, I came across an system-building article that convinced me to get a dedicated sound card for our home computer. The on-board sound had served well, but I always had to turn up the volume for movies and it came with a background hiss. The recommended Asus Xonar DG was only $20 after rebate. The audio quality is definitely better as I can turn up the volume with little distortion from my trusty old Klipsch ProMedia 4.1s. And there was no more background hiss. Music has always and continues to be an important theme (pun intended) in our lives, so having better quality sound for music was easily justifiable.

The Xonar DG also included Dolby Headphone technology, so I experimented with virtual surround sound. It has been fun, and after reading a round-up on Tom’s Hardware for 5.1/7.1 headphones and HardOCP’s recommendation, I purchased the Corsair Vengeance 1300 to see what I’ve been missing with more expensive headphones. Tom’s had recommended the 1500 model, but I didn’t need a USB sound card since I had a dedicated sound card, and from HardOCP’s review, it seemed like the 1300 and the 1500 had the same 50mm drivers.

I felt very disappointed at how underwhelmed I was with the 1300. I investigated further and figured out that since they’re “gaming” headphones, they don’t really emphasize bass much at all, so that you are more competitive hearing footsteps and gunshots. But I really missed the booming bass for explosions, especially when I used the headphones to watch the Bourne series with Jenni. Every time there was a solid punch from Jason or a car crash, I would get a thud but no resonance that I’m accustomed to.

So back to Amazon the Corsairs went, with a $9 restocking fee. Thankfully, their purchase price was subsidized by my birthday gift card.

Looking ahead, I’m going to check out the Koss KSC75, which got recommended on head-fi for its fun and competitive gaming capabilities. And I can’t lose for $16.50. After I get a refund for the Corsair 1300, I think I’ll look into the Creative Aurvana Live! as well.

I’ll follow-up later when I receive my next batch of headphones. Until then, here are some great links I’ve come across in my pursuit for budget-gaming-movie-music headphones:

• LifeHacker’s How to Choose the Perfect Pair of Headphones
• Mad Lust Envy’s Comprehensive Round-Up of Dolby Gaming Headphones
• Matt Mullenweg’s Headphone Recommendations
• The Wire Cutter’s Home Theater Headphone Recommendation
• Head-Fi Fall 2011 Headphone Gift Guide
• Tom’s Hardware Review of 5.1/7.1 Headsets
• HardOCP’s Review of Corsair Vengeance 1300 and 1500

I struggled to find something enjoyable and manageable to celebrate my birthday. As much as I didn’t want to ask my friends to drive the distance to Battle Ground, it was a combination of reasons that led me there. First, we would have Jenni’s family to help with the kids so that Jenni could join in the festivities. Secondly, Jenni’s grandma in Longview wanted to see Bruce, so meeting her in Battle Ground would save her a long drive. Third, I wanted to shoot the new airsoft assault rifles Jenni’s dad got for Christmas.

As part of the celebration, I sous-vide steaks for the dinner as a treat for everyone. It also fulfilled a wish to have my friend Clark try the sous-vide method. The steaks came out tender and everyone seemed to enjoy them.

A long-time promise fulfilled as well was playing bridge with my brother, Clark, and Jenni’s grandma. We had joked it about it for years after we found out that we both liked bridge. We had a great game, Jack and I versus Clark and Gran. Jack and I almost won the rubber, but I misplayed and they took the next bid. Great games.

Clark brought Rock Band Wii, Beatles Edition, so that we could play that with Jenni’s dad’s projection wall. It was pretty fun, though I was disappointed that despite my music background, I couldn’t keep the beat on the drum or hit the notes on the guitar very well. Don’t get me started on the vocals. It was still a fun experience and I’ll have to try it again sometime.

The airsoft assault rifles were too much fun. I enjoyed aiming and firing in semiautomatic mode. Then it was such a rush to go full auto. I didn’t do that too often as I didn’t want to use up all the ammo. We shot at soda cans and enjoyed a soft “tink” sound for a good hit.

Best of all, I finally got an Autobot chrome emblem, thanks to Jack. Now our minivan is a Man-Van ;)