Posted by Ben Tue May 03 19:33:21 +0000 2011
I love QR codes and think they have unlimited potential. When developing (or heading out the door), I've often found the need to view a webpage that I have open on my desktop PC on a mobile device. Necessity being the mother of invention, I cooked up a bookmarklet to solve this problem. You can find it here: http://benridout.com/qr_url_bookmarklet.htmlPosted by Ben Fri Jul 23 13:40:23 +0000 2010
It's official. I've got the most boring website in the world. So here is a little story about nothing so my site is not entirely devoid of content. More stuff is coming - pics, videos, and even some fun stuff. If you're bored you can check out a little game I threw together one evening. Crossing Parsons was inspired by my daily road-crossing to/from work. As you will see, things can get a little hairy!Posted by Ben Sat Feb 27 00:09:36 +0000 2010
We had a busy month, including our first family trip to Florida and Walt Disney World. We've put a few (dozen) of our favorite pictures online. Check em out! November 2009 PicsPosted by Ben Fri Feb 26 18:45:47 +0000 2010
BenRidout.com is back online. Some tinkering with my server took things offline last month without me realizing it. Now everything is back. Lots of new posts and pictures are coming and will be posted soon!Posted by Ben Thu Oct 08 02:24:24 +0000 2009
Ellie has a Nemo nursery, so it's only natural that she asked for a Nemo birthday cake for her 2nd birthday. We had a lot of fun making this cake. Check out all the pictures! Making the Finding Nemo Birthday CakePosted by Ben Mon Oct 05 01:51:34 +0000 2009
Ok, we're back. How long were we gone - like, a week or so? Stay tuned for updates and pictures. Plus, the site should be running a lot faster now.Posted by Ben Sun Feb 15 16:14:42 +0000 2009
Unlike last year, when Ellie slept through most of the festivities, Ellie was awake to experience Christmas with the family this time around. Do Not Open Until Dec 25
Posted by Ben Sun Feb 15 16:11:37 +0000 2009
Ellie was all kinds of cute in November. In this edition Ellie opens doors, plays the piano, learns to take videos, rocks in her chair, eats a banana, generates lots of dirty dishes and more. View all the fun now
Posted by Ben Sun Feb 15 16:08:40 +0000 2009
Griffin hit the big 3.0 and we've got pictures of his cake and his party. You know you want to see them
Posted by Ben Sun Feb 15 16:07:19 +0000 2009
Last year Ellie dressed up as Yoda (Thanks, Dad!) and this year she was a cute little monster. Not too far from the truth. Ellie the monster and Griffin the fireman
Posted by Ben Sun Feb 15 13:55:33 +0000 2009
October has come and gone, but at least we have pictures. Check em out
Posted by Ben Wed Oct 08 22:29:51 +0000 2008
We hauled Ellie back to Portrait Innovations for her 1-year pictures. Other than falling off the giant block and hitting her head on the ground, we thought it was a success! Many of the pictures captured her running toward the camera - she did not like to stay put on the background. To see all of the cute pics, click below. Ellie 1-year Portraits
Posted by Ben Wed Oct 08 21:45:31 +0000 2008
I finally got around to posting pics from Ellie's 1st borthday party. Check em out! Ellie 1st Birthday Party
Posted by Ben Wed Oct 08 20:28:12 +0000 2008
Tis the season for birthdays. Les celebrated his most recent with a little help from Griffin and the rest of the family. Also pictured are the frighteningly similar outfits Les and I happened to wear. Check out the socks even!
Posted by Ben Mon Sep 29 21:05:31 +0000 2008
Tammy and I spent a good deal of the weekend creating the Penguin cake for Ellie's 1st birthday party. Here's some making of pictures. Penguin Cake Pics
Posted by Ben Mon Sep 29 21:03:21 +0000 2008
My Cougar came down with a bum headlight. After a quick trip to NAPA, I was able to replace the bulb successfully! Cougar Headlight Repair
Posted by Ben Thu Sep 04 16:58:46 +0000 2008
Well, in the past month Ellie has learned to walk and now she's toddling all over our home. In the pictures you can see she's been struggling through a cold or two. And just last weekend, she got to spend some time with Griffin and the family. Ellie Walking and More
Posted by Ben Sat Jul 19 18:14:10 +0000 2008
Ellie went swimming in a pool for the first time today. Check out the pool pics
Posted by Ben Mon Jun 30 01:50:08 +0000 2008
Keeping with tradition, we took Ellie to get her pictures taken today (Sunday) since it marks 9-months since her birthday.
We tried a new photo place this time, Portrait Innovations, at Les and Kim's recommendation. They did a great job, were very affordable (the cheapest place yet?) and had us in and out in less than 2 hours with our pictures in hand.
There are some really great shots of Ellie. you can see them all at the link below.
View all of the cute pictures of Ellie
Posted by Ben Wed Jun 18 22:05:25 +0000 2008
At night when Ellie sleeps, I'm usually at my computer. And for the forseeable future, I'll be creating my own creatures in Spore! You can see some of my creations below (if you're not seeing any, it may be due to your browser):Posted by Ben Mon Jun 16 21:48:17 +0000 2008
We've been making a point to take more pictures of Ellie. She's growing and learning so fast. She's been crawling (army style) for several weeks now. She can sit up on her own, and this past weekend she started pulling herself up to standing by holding on to stairs, furniture, and Mama and Dada.
Ellie Pictures - June 2008
Posted by Ben Mon Jun 16 21:44:40 +0000 2008
John, Teresa, Sarah and Carol all came up to visit from Virginia last week. It was so nice to spend time with everyone and watch Ellie and Griffin interact. They are quite the pair. We can't wait to see everyone again. Next time we'll go see everyone in Virginia.
Pictures of all the Ridouts
Posted by Ben Tue Mar 25 14:30:47 +0000 2008
We captured Ellie's first laugh on video. I think we may have set the bar too high as she hasn't laughed like this ever since.Posted by Ben Sun Jan 27 17:03:26 +0000 2008
Below you'll find Ellie's best pictures leading up to Christmas. Those Christmas pictures will have to wait for another post. Ellie - December 2007Posted by Ben Sun Jan 27 16:48:00 +0000 2008
It's already 2008 and Ellie just keeps getting bigger and bigger. While we haven't taken quite as many pictures as we did early on, we still have lots of new snapshots to share. Since our last post, Ellie has had her first Christmas and her first New Year's. Here is a pic of Ellie in her Wonder Bread sack.
Posted by Ben Sat Dec 01 19:01:23 +0000 2007
For halloween, Ellie channeled her inner Jedi. Daddy swears he had nothing to do with this.
Posted by Ben Sat Dec 01 18:58:41 +0000 2007
Ellie has been keeping us busy, but it's all been worthwhile. Check out her latest pictures! More Ellie PicturesPosted by Ben Thu Oct 04 05:46:37 +0000 2007
For those who can't access Picasa (because it is just so EVIL! Viewing pictures on the internet...? Oh no!) Pictures of ElliePosted by Ben Tue Oct 02 18:06:04 +0000 2007
Ellie Victoria Ann Ridout is here!Posted by Ben Sat Sep 01 17:11:30 +0000 2007
Thanks to our generous family and friends we're now much closer to being ready for baby. Check out the baby shower pics below. August 4 2007 Shower Surprise Work Shower August 23 2007 August 25 2007 ShowerPosted by Ben Sun Jul 22 22:32:52 +0000 2007
Check out what arrived in the mail just past noon on Saturday.
Admittedly, I was a little nervous that this box would not come at all. But excited as I was to have it my hands, opening it made me a little sad.
I read all day and into the night, finishing around 2am. Now, it's over.
Posted by Ben Fri Jul 13 00:05:40 +0000 2007
In January of 2006, Coke stopped producing Vanilla Coke. Sadness. =( I bought a case before they ran out, and I've been saving my last one for a special occasion.
Now this is a special occasion! W'hoo!
Posted by Ben Thu Jul 12 23:51:23 +0000 2007
Tammy made it clear that she did not want a pink nursery, and several trips to Babies R Us and browsing online didn't turn up any great nursery themes either. But we did run across some Finding Nemo wall decals (like mini Fatheads), and that gave us the idea of doing a Finding Nemo theme. It's a great movie that touches on life and parenting and kids love it so we figured we could make it work. After many hours of debate, we finally settled on a paint color, and picked up a gallon of our color and a gallon of white (for furniture and other uses). Although we toyed with the idea of painting the walls a gradient that faded from light blue to dark blue, we ended up settling on just a single color. Our internet research found that painting gradients is very difficult. So, to make a long story short, we painted during our long July4th weekend. We still have to actually decorate the room, but at least the walls are done.
Check out the rest of the painting pictures!
Posted by Ben Sun Jun 24 17:54:12 +0000 2007
Well, 3 Ridouts from Virginia anyway. That's like a 20% increase. John, Teresa and Sarah braved their way to Ohio as pioneers on the SkyBus. It was a great time having everyone together to visit and talk and celebrate Mom's 60th birthday. We're so glad they were able to make the trip. We had a great time, but we did not take too many pictures. We can't wait until the next time we see everyone. Visitors are always welcome!Posted by Ben Sun Jun 03 12:41:48 +0000 2007
This weekend we said goodbye to our precious little yellow friend. He will be missed, but we know he'll find a good owner who will love him just as much as we did.
Posted by Ben Sat May 19 22:26:00 +0000 2007
Tammy and I have had May 18th circled on the calendar for several months. Now it's come and gone and we're happy to share the exciting news. We're 80-85% sure we're going to have a baby girl! W'hoo!Posted by Ben Sun May 13 15:25:30 +0000 2007
Wow, how time flies. We still lived in Virginina Beach, Va when Sarah was born. I remember running around the playground with my Transformers watch telling people I had a sister. The whole cousin concept hadn't sunk in, I guess. Now, she's out of college. Crazy. Tammy and I took a few days to drive to Virginina to bear witness to this stunning turn of events. (Stunning due to the passage of time, not Sarah's aptitude for challenges, of course). We began our trip on Wednesday, May 2nd (Tammy's 29th B-day!), driving to Uniontown, PA. We stayed at the Summit Inn, which is something of a landmark. We spend the next day taking in the sights of Laurel Caverns (almost right beneath our hotel) and Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. On Friday, we made the drive to Virginina and met up at Jack's house for delicious BBQ and cake. Sarah's graduation followed on Saturday, including a party/reception at the hotel to commemorate the event. We drove back Sunday, with a stop in Winchester to visit Maya Stanton (so confusing) and her family. We're so glad we were able to make the trip. We enjoyed spending time with family and friends, and we took lots of pictures to make the memories last. Now, you can view our pictures online: 20070502 - Pennsylvania Trip - Summit Inn 20070503 - Pennsylvania Laurel Caverns 20070503 - Fallingwater 20070505 - Sarah JMU Graduation You can check out other pictures by clicking 'Pics' on the menu to the left.Posted by Ben Sat May 12 23:23:49 +0000 2007
I know, I know. Considering everyone else in the world has a website or MySpace page, it seems like I should have had my own website a long time ago. I'm finally catching up. I guess I've just been spending too much time reading websites, and not enough time creating them. Here I am. I'm hoping this site will help me keep in (better) touch with family and friends and share what's going on in my world. Expect pictures, stories, and random thoughts. As with everything I do, this is a work in progress. Please check back soon, and be forgiving of how everything looks and works. -Ben :)