Journal Entry: June 24, 2008

I have been suffering some pretty bad backache for about a week now, and I used that as an excuse to take the week off going to the gym last week.

Well, that and the busyness of having my parents visiting for the second half of the week….

Anyway, yesterday after work I was still hurting, but I figured I had used up my excused absences. I got home and picked up T– and AB, and then we headed over to the Family Expectations building to pick up my niece Sophy (since my sister and her husband were teaching a class), and we took the two girls to daycare at the gym.

Once again, I found that after a week off I could jump right back into my routine, which is encouraging. I also found, again, a pound of weight loss in spite of a week off. That’s pretty good news.

After our workout, we grabbed some McDonald’s for dinner, dropped Sophy off at home, and then went home to crash on the couch. We watched four episodes of Boston Legal and then went to bed. That was my night.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: June 23, 2008

I have some pretty ugly business going on with the Tulsa house, involving insurance stuff and roof problems, but I don’t want to go into detail on that, because it’s horribly depressing. If you’re curious about it, ask me sometime when I’m in a good enough mood to handle it.

Anyway, Thursday afternoon my mom and dad came in for a visit. They had to take care of the van (as mentioned previously), and had dinner plans with an old family friend at 5:00 downtown. T– drove down and we all met up near the airport at 4:30, then we dropped the van off in hourly parking and headed to the Zio’s downtown for dinner.

It was nice getting to see Theresa again, and dinner was excellent. D– joined us so he could take AB home with him (he’d offered to babysit while we went to an exhibit at the museum), but he ended up coming with us.

The exhibit is a collection of ancient Roman art from the basement of the Louvre. It’s mostly sculpture and jewelry, but they’ve also crafted a walking tour through it that’s themed and presents all kinds of fascinating historical information. It was very cool. AB’s favorite part was the relief of a cow, sheep, and pig being led to sacrifice, but that’s just because she likes animals and doesn’t quite get context yet.

Afterward, Dad and I stopped at Byron’s to pick up some dessert (as it were), and we all stayed up late watching SNL and talking. It was fun.

Friday, Dad and I had made plans to spend most of the day writing together, but I ended up sleeping in until 10-ish, and then we had lunch with Mom and T– at Pizza Hut, and then I had a dentist appointment at 1:00 (small filling), so it was 2:30 or so before we really got started, and Mom and T– got home from their thing (painting pottery at the mall) around 4:00. We did make some good progress on a story idea Dad had come up with, but I didn’t accomplish much of anything.

Friday evening we went to dinner with D– and his mom, and my little sister brought her family including the in-laws, so we had quite a crowd. We went to this barbecue place called County Line, down by the Cowboy Museum (yes, we have one of those), and it was fantastic. The food, not the museum. Fan-freakin’-tastic.

Then we ran by the Family Fun Night at OC, and AB got to ride one of the ponies. T– has pictures on her blog. Unlike Thursday, Friday was a pretty early night.

Saturday morning, T– went to a tea room for brunch with Mom and my sister. I took Dad to the Texas Roadhouse, and we brought our writing stuff (he his laptop, and me my scribblebook), but we ended up spending the whole time talking.

Mom and Dad headed home around 2:00, and D– came over with a new tabletop came called Heroscape, and taught T– and me how to play while AB was taking her afternoon nap. We played for most of the afternoon, and then he went home and I went over to B– and E–‘s to watch some mixed martial arts.

Mostly, though, we talked. I was there for four or five hours, and it was a lot of fun. I need to spend more time with them. But, then, I think that every time I spend any time with them.

Sunday morning we skipped church because we had plans to celebrate Mrs. Huddleston’s birthday with her. She’s…umm…D–‘s childhood friend’s mom. It’s a little bit of a distant connection for us, but she’s also D–‘s mom’s longtime friend, and the two of them both fell in love with AB pretty much from the start, so we’re invited to family stuff, now.

Anyway, that was at the zoo. We got there around 11:00, and it was already hot. All the girls went on the merry-go-round to start with, and rode this silly little train that goes in a short circle, and then we had a picnic lunch, and talked for a while, and then it was 3:00 and we went home.

Umm…I’m sure T– will make it sound like a lot more fun. Watch her blog for updates.

Both before and after that trip to the zoo, I spent several hours working on a markup of my sister Heather’s first novel. It’s fascinating working on Fantasy again. Her book is a good one, too, so it’s fun to have a hand in that.

After I finished that, around 5:00, I invited D– over for dinner and called in a take-out order to Ole. We ate, and then spent the rest of the evening watching Boston Legal. We’re ten episodes in. It’s…fascinating.

I also had a couple truly bizarre dreams this weekend, but I won’t try to explain them here. Suffice to say, they have me thoroughly weirded out.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: June 19, 2008

We didn’t really have a Wednesday night dinner last night — at least, not one of the social ones I’ve talked about before here.

Instead, we went to a fundraising dinner at church, intended to raise some money for the missionaries. K– and N– went, too, but we showed up fifteen minutes before they did, and sat with several women I don’t know at all (but, of course, who all know and love T– and AB), so it was mostly a matter of trying to avoid being talked to.

That was stressful enough for me, and T– attends a ladies-only class anyway, so after dinner I hitched a ride home with K– and left T– to attend classes and then meet me at home. I spent the hour or so playing AoC. When she got home, she mowed the lawn (so she wouldn’t have to do it in the heat of the day today), and I played some more. Then we watched some TV, and went to bed. Altogether, it was a pretty quiet night.

I did get a call from B–, which is always delightful. I need to spend more time with him. But, then, I think that every time I spend any time with him.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: June 18, 2008

I stayed home again last night, feeling much as I had the night before. I spent some time considering and evaluation my symptoms, and I diagnosed myself with a condition doctors refer to as a “brain cloud.”

Of course, you have to get a second opinion for something as silly-sounding as “brain cloud,” so I did. T– is confident what I actually have is “the mean reds.”

Whatever it is, it’s rough. Keep me in your prayers.

We had sandwiches for dinner, and watched a lot of Lost. I didn’t mention, but Monday night we watched the first two episodes of Boston Legal. T–‘s parents are big fans of the show, and the episode or two that we watched with them were surprisingly clever, so T– asked me to track down the rest.

So far I’ve only gotten the two. They were good, and we spent last night watching Lost and wishing there were Boston Legal to watch instead.

We’re nearly done with the most recent season of Lost, too. Last night we watched “The Tempest.” I tried to play AoC while we watched, but my laptop was giving me trouble with the updater. I just copied the full contents of my PC’s installation over the one on the laptop, but that took four or five hours, so I never got a chance to take advantage of it.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: June 17, 2008

Not a lot to report. Yesterday, I spent the whole day feeling tired (a condition which has persisted throughout today), and by the time I got home from work my back was killing me, so I decided not to go to the gym.

T– and I ordered dinner from Ole, to see how their take-out service was, and it was quite satisfying. They provided free chips and salsa and queso (which is most of the reason I like to go), and in sufficient quantity that I was satisfied.

We watched an episode of Lost while we ate, and we’re into season four now, so it’s odd seeing compact the whole storyline really is. Season three made a major plot transition within the space of about three episodes, mid-season.

After that, I went back to the office to play some AoC. D– helped me out with some quests I couldn’t have completed on my own, and that took about twice as long as I really expected, so by the time we finished it was already past my bedtime.

Not much past, though, and I didn’t really sleep poorly, but I still felt completely exhausted when my alarm went off this morning. I got up, showered, and half finished getting ready for work before I sank down onto the bed for a minute. Half an hour later, I pulled the covers over me.

I didn’t end up getting out of bed until after 10:00, and I still felt tired. I still do. Ugh.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: Father’s Day

This was Father’s Day weekend, and we treated it with the respect and gravity such a significant holiday deserves.

On Friday, T– and I went to dinner at Ole (temporarily my favorite Mexican restaurant, for set-up anyway), and then went back home to wait for her parents to show up. They got in around 7:30, and we talked for a while. We had made tentative plans to go out for a movie Friday night (and let her parents act as babysitters), but T– was concerned they would get bored, showing up so close to AB’s bedtime.

Well, first thing after they came in the door, T– suggested we go ahead and do Father’s Day, so she gave John and I our cards, and handed out presents. John got the first three seasons of Hill Street Blues on DVD, and I got a wireless mouse I wanted and a 3 pound bag of super Twizzlers. The bag is almost as long as AB is tall. Seriously.

Anyway, after that we discussed the movie situation (we had a coupon for free movie, drink, and popcorn that was set to expire that day), and T–‘s parents told her she was being silly. So they stayed home and watched Hill Street Blues while we went to watch Kung-Fu Panda.

Fantastic movie. Probably my favorite Pixar movie. Hilarious, with a strongly developed storyline (even for some of the secondary and tertiary characters), good action and great dialogue. And Jack Black, of course, is awesome. There is no charge for awesomeness.

Even though we picked the 90-minute movie, though, it was after midnight when we got home, so naturally I slept in on Saturday. Still, I had to get to the gym before going over to K– and N–‘s for lunch, and it was set to be an early lunch, so I was up by 8:00, and as I was heading for the door, T– brought up several complications that delayed my leaving by another 15 minutes. I also ended up tasked with getting a coolerful of foods to K– and N–‘s place, when we didn’t really have enough ice to keep it cold.

So I called them both but, it being so early, got no answer. I went ahead and went to the gym (which is right by their place), and about 30 minutes in, just as I finished my strength training, K– called me back and said, sure, I could come by early and dump some food in their fridge.

I went ahead and left then, took the food over and dropped it off, and then decided to try running in their neighborhood instead of going back to the gym. I had been wondering for a while how well my training would translate into real-world running, and it seemed like a good chance to try it out.

There are a few things I hadn’t considered, like the fact that the outdoors isn’t at all air conditioned, and that everyone in the neighborhood was out mowing that morning (which meant a nasty allergy attack). Worst of all, though, I’d never realized their house had been built in the midst of a damn mountain range. What’s a man to do?

No, really, I haven’t been using any incline when I’ve been doing my running on the treadmill, and even the slight elevation of their neighborhood was enough to knock me back a couple weeks in my training. No problem. I’ll go back to the gym tonight, get back in where I’m supposed to be (week 5, day 2), and finish up my training in the gym. At week 9, I should be running 25-30 minutes at a time, and then I can start fancying it up, gradually adding things like incline and increasing my speed. That’s really been my plan all along.

Anyway, lunch was delicious, burgers and dogs, and we had a fun crowd. Afterward we took AB home for a nap and sat around talking for a while, then headed out to do some shopping (Wal-Mart and Michaels, oh joy), and then out to a kitschy Americana restaurant called Pops! for dinner.

It was good. We had an hour wait which was brutal, but the food was good and the place had a fun feel to it. It was far enough out there, though, that it was easily AB’s bedtime by the time we got home. I spent a couple hours played AoC while we watched some more Hill Street Blues, and then got to bed around 1:00.

Sunday morning we went to church, and then T– grilled up some steaks for us for lunch. They were fantastic. After that, I spent pretty much the entire afternoon playing AoC. Her parents headed home around 2 or 3, and we ordered pizza for dinner sometime around 6 (and it was delicious), but pretty much the whole time I was on the couch playing AoC.

Overall, definitely a relaxing Father’s Day. A great weekend all around, really. Thanks to those who made it so.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: 80’s Movies Spectacular

Yesterday for lunch, as has become my ritual, I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for some cheap boneless wings and some AoC on the laptop. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the wireless network on. I’ll give them another week to see if they fix that nonsense, and then I just may cancel my ritual. Jerks.

I’d had the presence of mind to bring a book, though, so it wasn’t a bad lunch. And the chicken, of course, was delicious.

Then after work I took AB to the gym, and T– stayed home to get some work done (she’s been in a frenzy all week, getting ready for her parents to come visit). After strength training, I did the first day of week 5 in my running program, and it went really well. The second day is going to be tough, and the third is going to be a nightmare, but I’m anxious to see if I can manage it (this is the first week that the various days involve different requirements).

Anyway, after the gym, I got home to find K– and N– already there, and D– showed up shortly with a big batch of boneless wings from Buffalo Wild Wings. (Yes, I did know that we’d be having the same thing for dinner, and no, I didn’t mind at all.) I suggested that we watch the next movie in our 80’s marathon, and we settled on Flight of the Navigator, one of N–‘s picks.

Okay, here’s the thing with that. D– suggested over dinner a couple months ago that we should spend the summer watching our favorite movies from the 80’s.

The idea evolved gradually. We started out with a pretty simple rule: our “favorites” should be movies that we liked during the 80’s, not just movies made in the 80’s that we like now. The reason being, movies that we like now (with the availability of DVDs and whatnot), we watch pretty frequently. Not a season goes by that I don’t watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and usually some subset of this group of friends is forced to sit through it with me. Same goes for The Three Amigos and any of the Fletch movies.

So, 80’s movies that we liked back in the 80’s. When we started throwing out names, there were way too many, so we decided on 3 movies apiece. Some negotiations were made whenever more than one of us wanted to pick the same movie, so that those with longer lists wouldn’t have as much difficulty narrowing it down.

And then, as we got further into the selection process, it became more of an evangelistic endeavor. When K– said, “Well, there’s Tron,” and I said, “Never seen it,” and he said, “You’ve never seen it?!?!” like that, well, he had to pick Tron because, come on, everyone should see Tron.

So that pretty much became the next major rule: out of our lists of childhood favorites, we narrowed it down by polling everyone to find out how many people had never seen each film. We’re not required to pick the least viewed films, but we’re using that as one of our selection criteria.

Anyway, T– hasn’t settled definitely on her 3 yet, but she’s hoping her parents’ visit this weekend will help spark her memory. Once that’s done, we’re going to go through a voting process to determine the viewing order, but so far I’ve just been using the right of imminent domain (we’ve watched all the movies at my house) to pick the ones I thought we should see.

The list we have so far (not including T–‘s) goes, in no particular order:
The Abyss (N–‘s pick. 2 people have never seen it)
Adventures in Babysitting (My pick. 2 people have never seen it)
An American Tale (N–‘s pick. 1 person has never seen it)
Bladerunner (K–‘s pick. 3 people have never seen it)
Field of Dreams (N–‘s pick. 1 person has never seen it — me)
Flight of the Navigator (N–‘s pick. 2 people had never seen it)
Goonies (D–‘s pick. 2 people had never seen it)
Ladyhawke (My pick. 2 or 3 people have never seen it)
The Last Starfighter (My pick. 2 people have never seen it)
The Lost Boys (D–‘s pick. 3 people have never seen it)
Real Genius (My pick. 2 people have never seen it)
Running Man (K–‘s pick. 2 people have never seen it)
Tron (K–‘s pick. 2 people have never seen it)
Young Guns (D–‘s pick. 3 people have never seen it)

There’s an extra movie in there for me (Ladyhawke) and N– (An American Tale). We haven’t fully narrowed down our lists to three yet. I toyed with suggesting that we expand our selections to our favorite four movies, but then I looked at a calendar, and realized that would stretch our summer to the end of October.

We’re sort of watching a movie every Saturday night that we’re all in town (T– and I being the ones most often missing). I like Thursdays, too, but it can be tough to talk K– and N– into staying out too late on a school night. Luckily, 80’s movies tend to be in the 75-90 minute range, instead of the 2 hour plus stuff we’re making today.

Anyway, that’s our 80’s movie thing. Now you know what’s going on. We watched Flight of the Navigator last night, and it was pretty good. I can definitely see why kids would have loved it back then. I was pretty critical of it during the movie, but that was the Crown Royal talking.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: June 12, 2008

Yesterday after work I headed south. I had plans in place to meet Toby for an evening of programming. We’ve pursued projects together — primarily video games, and particularly a single one, an MMO called Remnant — ever since he taught me to program.

Most recently, we’d started talking about building a Python client for a tabletop game, when we started looking over our old documentation and decided we’d really rather work on Remnant again. My oldest notes for that project date to 1999. So, yeah, we’re not making great progress.

Still, it’s an interesting pursuit, and Toby has a 3d game engine working (built primarily in C++, but callable from Python scripts), and it’s really not too great a leap to get started.

Anyway, since I work so far south of our house, I went straight there from work, and Gwyn was kind enough to make me dinner. She made some fantastic chicken and rice, and the kids were fun company at dinner.

Afterward, Toby and I went immediately back to the office to work. He showed me what he had working (a flat plain of a world, with a tree in the center, and an avatar that could be made to run around, using standard RPG controls. While I was there, we added an enemy creature, and implemented a very basic form of combat. That was pretty cool.

Game development will be pretty evenly divided into the C++ stuff and the Python stuff, Toby building up the game engine, and me building up the game environment, writing in character interactions and story events, stuff like that.

We wrapped things up around 7:30 and I headed home. I spent the whole drive thinking about the things I would need to do to get the game part up and running, and they were all things I’d done recently for that cheesy single player game I was working on. And, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the majority of that code can be copied and pasted right into the new project. I have yet to try it out, but I should be able to dramatically improve the game’s functionality with a tiny bit of work. I’m anxious to get started.

Still, when I got in I decided to play some AoC instead. I wasn’t sure how long I would have, and I hate having to stop a programming project in the middle of a change, so AoC seemed safer. I got several levels and finished off the starter area, which was my goal.

T– got home late from church, last night being the final night of VBS, and then she and I watched a couple episodes of Lost, so it was pretty late by the time I got to bed. I had some fascinating dreams, too, but I didn’t write them down, so they’re lost to me now. I remember it was in England, and there was something about a bomb, and it would be a perfect movie for the guy from Napoleon Dynamite. I can’t even imagine how those pieces fit together….

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Journal Entry: June 11, 2008

So, I did go to the gym last night.

As I said, it was the first time in a week. I’d had a pretty active day last Thursday, working on the house in Tulsa, but that was it for the week. Anyway, I’ve been tracking my weight, as I’ve made quite clear on here, and last Tuesday I was at 232. I started the year at 244, so that was a 12 pound loss on the year. Then I took a week off from going to the gym, and I had more than one high-calorie day during that week from indulging in sweets. Thursday was one of them (and I’m pretty sure I made up for it with the 9-hour workout), but it wasn’t the only 0ne.

Anyway, on Sunday I weighed at home, and was surprised (for the reasons just given) to find I’d lost a pound during the course of the week. I weight in at 231. Then, last night, I got on the scale at the gym expecting that 131 to be one of those “minor fluctuations,” but the gym scale put me at 230. So, nice. That’s the lowest I’ve been in at least three years.

Buoyed a bit by that, I did my strength training and then, once again without K– for support, I got on the treadmill to try my third day of week 4 for the third time. I finished it this time, and the week off probably helped more than it hurt, because I’d been having persistent pain in my calves for the last week that I’d spent running, and it wasn’t really there last night.

So, yeah, that’s a lot of detail you’re probably not interested in, but I went to the gym last night and I finally finished a jogging segment that had been giving me difficulty for a while. That’s encouraging. I’ll start on week 5 tomorrow night if I’m not in Norman (and Saturday if I am).

After the gym, D– picked up a mega-burger for the three of us for dinner, and we watched and eveningful of Lost while I played AoC and D– messed around with Linux on his laptop. It was a fun night.

Journal Entry: June 10, 2008

Friday afternoon, I left work early and dropped by the mall to pick up some new t-shirts, then went to get a haircut (always a pleasant experience). When all that was done, I still got home around 4:00.

T– took AB to a church Ladies’ Night Out sort of a thing at the mall, after meeting N– for dinner. Meanwhile, D– and I went to Ole, and I enjoyed their free queso once again. I recommend the place highly, if only for their setup.

Afterward, D– and I grabbed snowcones, and then played AoC until T– got home. At that point he went home (tired of trying to play a high-end game on a laptop), and I moved out to the living room to watch some Lost with T–. While we were doing that, I played a high-end game on a laptop.

Saturday morning I’d offered to watch AB for T– while she went to a big sale with my little sister. It was easy enough, because she was kind enough to schedule her shopping to overlap AB’s nap. As a result, I got to spend most of the time she was gone playing games.

Of course, as soon as T– got home, that was over. She had a big playdate scheduled for the afternoon, with E– and the Nances and several of the young moms from church invited over for a “pool party.” It took place entirely in the back yard, so she and I spent the morning and afternoon getting it ready.

As part of that, we were moving a lot of the less-attractive elements from our back porch (things like the lawnmower) into the garage. We also still needed to get the quadrillion-pound air conditioner that we’d brought from Tulsa out of the van and stored somewhere semi-permanent, and the only reasonable place for it was occupied with a massive pile of junk that had accumulated over the course of our last five or six trips to work on the house in Tulsa.

So, in addition to helping T– with yard work, I ran up to Wal-Mart to buy some new storage shelving, then committed a big chunk of my Saturday to setting it up and coordinating a lot of the mess. By the time I finished, our cluttered garage was a lot more organized. D– came over to help me unload the air conditioner and we tucked it into the newly-emptied corner, and had room for everything else besides.

T– had asked me to make an appearance at the playdate, but it being all-girls, she didn’t require me to spend much time on it. Which is a good thing, because it was outdoors…and I’m not a fan. Toby came, too, bringing his family, so he and I spent the two hours in my office, working on a programming project. Primarily, he was trying to get my computer installed with all the software necessary to collaborate on a big project we’re starting. I’m looking forward to it.

After they left, I’d intended to spend much of the evening playing AoC, but I got a call from K– asking if we wanted to carry on our 80’s movies review, and that sounded just capital. K– and N– picked up some P F Chang’s for us, and D– came over, and we watched The Goonies, which neither of the girls had seen before. It was a fun evening.

Sunday after church, we five met up again for lunch at Friday’s, then split up again. I did some more house work, patching up the open ceiling of the creepy closet on the back of our house, and cleaning up all the loose insulation that had fallen down into it. Afterward, T– went shopping while I watched AB and played some more AoC. Later in the evening, we watched some more TV and retired early.

Last night was much the same. When I first got home from work, I spent half an hour playing with AB, practicing her dragon roar and quizzing her on face parts (she definitely knows where her hair and nose are, but she’s pretty hazy on ears and eyes). Then I think I played AoC while she took a nap.

This week is VBS at church, evenings, and for the first time they’re not offering adult classes, so after T– dropped AB off, she found herself with an hour of unexpected free time. We spent most of it in the Customer Service Desk waiting line at Wal-Mart, after watching a pretty funny half of an episode of King of the Hill. Then we went up to the church for the end of VBS, and watched N– and K– on-stage for the evening’s sketch, which involved the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Afterward we compared notes, and learned that we’d been present for all of N–‘s collegiate and post-collegiate stage performances. Apparently she did something in high school that — she being many thousands of miles away and, at the time, completely unknown to us — we didn’t bother to attend. That’s the only one we’ve missed. And she has that on video. Yay.

Anyway, we got home from church and it was already 9:15, so we watched an episode of Lost and bemoaned the fact that it was too late for another, and then went to bed.

There’s no gym in any of that, as you may have noticed. Last time I went was one week ago. I don’t really mind, but I may by the time I try to do my run. K– will be there to make me finish it, too. Ugh. Anyway, I’m doing that right after work tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.