Journal Entry

I didn’t mention it in my weekend summary, hoping it would quickly pass and be not worth remembering, but I got…sick, I guess, while I was in Tulsa. Sometime in the afternoon, I started feeling an awful pain in my belly, like someone had just punched me.

It didn’t really feel food-related, if you follow me, but I couldn’t guess what might be going on. It hurt, though. It would come and go, but every ten to fifteen minutes, I would just ache. That went on throughout the afternoon and evening, in spite of all the things I tried to fix it.

I was really hopeful that I’d wake up Monday morning and it would be gone. No such luck. I was in enough pain during the day yesterday that I left work early, got home around 4:00, and then slept until 7:30. When I woke up, it was still there, but not nearly as bad.

Same thing again this morning. Now it’s just enough to keep me worried, but not enough to distract me from other projects. I probably should see a doctor about it, but I hate going to doctors. So I probably won’t, dumb as that might be.

Anyway, I didn’t make it to the gym last night, obviously. I really wanted to — end of last week, I was finally seeing some progress — but there was no way. When I woke up, I had a sandwich and watched last Thursday’s NBC sitcoms with T–. That was pretty much my whole night. By the time we were done with that, I took care of the dishes, made up some protein shakes to drink at work today, and then went to bed.

But, like I said, I mostly feel better now. We’ll see how the day goes.

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

Journal Entry

Another weekend come and gone.

Friday evening, we’d talked about going to see Iron Man, all as a group, but it didn’t seem to be in the cards. We were going to see it at the new Warren Theatre, but we’d have needed a babysitter and T– already had her lined up to cover the crop on Saturday, so getting her for Friday, too, seemed highly unlikely.

We ended up grabbing some dinner with K– and N– after I finished at the gym, and then K– and I took the baby back to his place while the girls did some shopping. We tried to work on my game some, but he spent most of the time trying to figure out process issues with his computer, and I spent most of my time trying to keep AB from falling down the stairs.

D– showed up, and the girls a few minutes behind him, and we sat and talked for a while. Then T– took the baby home, and N– said she was heading to bed, so K– and D– and I ended up going to see Iron Man after all.

Fantastic movie, by the way. Much like Transformers in the structure and feel of it, but better in every respect (except hot-chickness). I highly recommend it. If you know comic books, it’s worth staying after the credits for a 4-second final scene. If you don’t know comic books, it’s probably a long wait for a big reveal you’ll barely get.

Saturday morning, T– and N– went to the art festival in Edmond. I stayed home. When T– got back we had some sandwiches for lunch, did a little shopping (and got her a new phone), and then I went up to the gym to meet K–. After that, D– and I dropped by B–‘s place for a minute’s chat, and then met K– again for dinner (some delicious barbecue), and a lot of awful movies. We watched Blade II and Blade Trinity, which last we’d heard was good, but K– and I could never make it through the awfulness of Blade II, so neither of us had seen it.

The plan was to watch Blade II while working on something else — allowing distraction to shield us from the worst of the movie’s effects — but K– “just doesn’t watch movies that way,” so he took the full brunt of it. I worked on my game, and got my quests stubbed in. In the end, Blade Trinity wasn’t awesome, but it beat the pants off of the second one.

When I got home, around 11:30, I found that T– had invited her friend Rebecca over after the crop, to introduce her to the joys of couponning, and I figured that leaving them alone would make a good opportunity for me to actually get to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour. Just as I was coming to that conclusion, though, T– said she was wanting to show Rebecca one of her favorite stand-up comics, and asked if I would put it on. We ended up watching the Sklar Brothers (the one she’d initially asked about), as well as Demetri Martin and Brian Regan (which last was my recommendation, and the one that got the most laughs).

So, yeah, I can’t resist the call of stand-up comedy that I’ve already seen dozens of times, so I didn’t end up going to bed until 2:30, or something ridiculous like that.

Then Sunday morning I had to wake up early to be ready in time for Toby to pick me up. He needed help moving and a last-minute cancellation by his brother gave me the opportunity to spend some time hanging out with him. It also meant a 14-hour day spent moving him from Tulsa to Norman.

He picked me up a little after 8. We grabbed some breakfast, then headed to Tulsa. I found out he was moving back from Tulsa several weeks ago, and we’d exchanged emails and a couple phone calls since then, but this was the first time I’d really gotten to talk to him much. Norman isn’t right next door (it’s about twice the already-annoying distance away that K– and N–‘s place is), but it’s a lot better than Tulsa. It also gives them some family who can take care of the kids sometimes, so I’m hoping we’ll be able to do a lot more with them.

Anyway, the drive up was fun. We talked a lot, mostly about my game. Then we got in, picked up the UHaul, and then (since his Tulsa friends weren’t showing up to help pack until after church), we took his lawnmower over to my place so I could put the yard back in showing condition.

Unfortunately, the yard was more than I’d bargained for. The back yard is a jungle. I managed to get the front yard chopped down to a reasonable level, and Toby recommended a good lawn service that I’ll probably hire to keep it in order, until we get the place sold.

So, once we gave up on that, we grabbed a quick lunch and then met his movers. They’re leaving the house mostly furnished to improve its sellability, so we didn’t have a lot to do. We got enough furniture for them to get by with for a couple months — two beds, a rocking chair, a dresser and an entertainment center — and then a lot of boxes. Oh, and the washer and dryer. That’s pretty much it. Loading took a few hours, though, between arranging stuff in the truck and dismantling both of the beds to fit them through doorways. We cleaned up afterward, too, to make sure everything looked nice for show, and then headed home around four.

In Norman, we had a crowd ready to help unpack. K– and N– and B– and E– with their baby (whom the Nances had never met), and T– brought AB down, and among us we basically got the truck unpacked in half an hour. That’s less time than it took most of them to drive there. But we had pizza after and there was a lot of reconnecting to do, and I think everyone had a good time. It was a fun little party.

By 8:30, everyone but T– and I had melted away, and T– was ready to follow after so she could get AB to bed. We were on our way out the door when someone pointed out that Toby would need somebody to drive him home from dropping off the UHaul. I’d thought of that earlier in the evening, but it had slipped my mind before I said it out loud. Anyway, I volunteered, and when we found that the nearest UHaul place was seven miles away, in the wrong direction, T– went ahead and took the baby home.

It took us a while, but Toby and I finally found the UHaul place his GPS device was recommending, and it turned out to be an old abandoned lot. He made a call, got some directions, and we headed a couple miles away to the nearest actual UHaul place, and then he took me home. I got in a little after 10, so it must have been almost 11 before he got home.

So, yeah, it was a long day. It was mostly fun, though. I was glad of the opportunity. Still, I was exhausted when I got in. So I spent a few minutes getting some stuff ready for work this morning, and then I headed right to bed.

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

Journal Entry

I found myself in a pretty bad mood yesterday, driving home from the gym.

Here’s what I was thinking about. Most weekdays, I have to wake up at 5:45 to be at work on time. If I sleep fewer than seven hours, I really can’t get out of bed at all, so that means I’m going to bed by 10:30 at the latest, and desperately hoping to fall asleep quickly. It’s much safer to go to bed by 9:30, but I never really manage that.

5:00 is the earliest I get home, in spite of my early start to the day, and then going to the gym (which I’m now trying to do six days a week), means the earlier I really get home is 7:00. 7:30 is a lot more common.

That leaves me two hours to have dinner and relax (or, under more normal circumstances, try to get something important accomplished at home), and I usually take at least three hours to do that, so I’m tired all the time.

I get weekends, when I’m not in Tulsa or Wichita or Little Rock (or hosting family from Little Rock or Wichita). I do get a regular day off, every other Friday, but it’s usually spent taking in large part taking care of all the responsibilities of life outside work that I don’t have time for on any of those incredibly short evenings.

I complained about all of this to K– recently, and he shrugged and said, “That’s life.” And I get that. It just sucks. What a miserable life that is. I get two hours a day of it, plus occasional weekends. In a week where I get all my evenings free (after the gym), and have no responsibilities incumbent on me for the weekend, I get to look forward to about 49 hours of time at liberty, doing as I will, in a week. That comes to about 30% of my life that I get to lead.

I’ve got a good job. I get that. I understand that going to the gym and getting in shape will add years onto my life (and increase my quality of life in the meantime). But it chafes, having so little free will. Driving home from the gym last night, I got myself into a pretty bad mood over it.

Then the storm certainly didn’t help any. Most of our sitcoms for the week come on Thursday nights, and every single one of them was preempted for storm coverage that didn’t impact us. We watched an old Lost instead, and then a new one (that, at least, they chose to show), and then two more old ones before I was ready to go to bed, and by that time it was already 11:00 and I had no chance of being anything but exhausted today.

The wind and the thunder kept me awake until after midnight, anyway, and I was late getting in to work this morning. Fridays are pretty laid back around here, so I’ll get away with it, but I hate being late at all.

Then on the drive to lunch today (D– had to cancel on plans for Bennigan’s, so I went to Mazzio’s on my own), I passed a little dentist’s office with a duck pond out front the more frequently sports geese, and out right by the edge of the road was a big mama goose resting in the sun and half a dozen little baby geese running around, their fur-like down all fluffed out, just adorably cute. That made me smile.

Then, at the light, I waited patiently for the long passage of a funeral procession. That was sad. Then I finished Watership Down while I was there, and, let me tell you, it’s just about the best book I’ve ever read. It’s an amazingly-crafted story, and I think pretty much everybody should read it.

So, that’s good. I definitely like the book. I don’t think we’ve got a lot scheduled for the weekend, so I’m going to take a valiant stab at getting my game finished before I pick up another novel sometime Sunday afternoon. I’m not making any promises, but it would be fun to put finished to it.

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

Journal Entry

My freshman year in college (so, 10 years ago, now), I started a tradition because of my deep, life-long love of cheap Mexican food.

Specifically, it was Enchilada Night at El Chico’s. They used to offer a Wednesday night special enchilada platter for $2.99. These days, I’m pretty sure it’s running $4.99, but any time I’ve been to El Chico recently, it’s been the tamales for me.

Anyway, every single Wednesday night I went to El Chico’s for the enchiladas, and as I gradually invited others to join me, it became something of a Thing. I’m not saying that I set a trend, but my whole group of friends knew that Wednesday night was Enchilada Night.

Yeah, no big deal, college is about stupid stuff like that. But, since then (and even since El Chico fell from its place of honor), Wednesday night has remained an opportunity to share dinner with friends. If I have the opportunity, I pursue it.

Obviously, anyone reading this blog knows that I manage to spend a lot of time doing stuff with friends, but Wednesday night is the only real scheduled weekday get-together. Now that I’m going to the gym regularly, I see K– and N– on Mondays and Thursdays fairly often, and the rare week that D– doesn’t stop by for at least one full evening is a lonely one, and from time to time we’ll devote a whole season to getting together to watch each new episode of Lost or Stargate, but those come and go, drifting on the whims of various conflicting schedules. Wednesday night dinner, I think, everybody knows about, and knows to plan for. It’s not that everybody always makes it (actually, that’s pretty rare), but everybody knows, and there’s always somebody to share the evening with.

Yesterday, we found ourselves with a buck fifty in the bank, and going out just wasn’t in the cards. I called D– after work to let him know things weren’t going to work out, and he said, “Pshaw,” and went and got dinner for us. He’s a hell of a guy.

After dinner, T– took AB to church, and D– and I spent the evening playing the new MarioKart. It was fun. We unlocked all the race circuits on 50cc (easy mode), and unlocked two new characters. Also: the new Rainbow Road is ass. But what do you expect?

We also got tickets yesterday for K– and N– and Toby and Gwyn (say that out loud) and T– and I to go see Jim Gaffigan when he comes to town in July. That is going to be awesome.

I found out about the appearance at work several days ago when I heard a coworker mention it to another coworker over the cubicle wall. Rather than joining in the conversation (right, because I’m me), I went to jimgaffigan.com and looked up details, then emailed everyone I thought might want to go.

That day, on the drive home, I heard a commercial advertising it. They opened with, “Jim Gaffigan one his new tour brings all new, never-before-heard material to OKC….” Then they played about a minute of clips, all of which I’ve heard dozens of times over the last ten years. I laughed anyway. I really can’t wait.

Word has it B– is having an even worse week than usual. Keep him in your prayers. If you hear of an opportunity for me to go hang out with him, let me know.

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

Journal Entry

I keep labeling these “Journal Entry” because, in theory, it’s possible for me to log onto my blog one day and write something other than a mundane description of what I did yesterday (which was, in almost every case, also what I did the day before).

Since I don’t ever actually do that (writing something else, I mean), it makes the little link list on the right look pretty damned silly. Sorry about that.

One project I’ve been considering working on is building a script to scrape all my blog posts off my old Xanga and post them here, timestamped for their original posting. It should be easy enough, but it would take me a big time investment to get it working smoothly, and I’d probably want to do that so I could share it with others.

So, yeah, dunno if I’ll ever actually do that. I kind of plan to let my Xanga site wither, though, and it would be nice to keep access to a lot of the stuff I wrote there. Blogger seems like it has better archiving tools, too. So, yeah, maybe I will do it. Someday.

I’d also really like to write up a clear explanation of my idea of Science as “The Cannibal Magic.” I’ve been working on the concept a lot lately, and I think I could do the idea justice, but it would help to link back to some of my old essays instead of just repeating everything.

Anyway, yesterday I did what I did the day before. Got a lot done at work, accomplished some programming over lunch, and then went to the gym and then watched TV and worked on my game until bedtime. The big difference was that “worked on my game” last night consisted of looking at pictures of dragons all over the internet for four hours straight. I may end up using three of them. It wasn’t terribly productive.

Also, I’m strongly tempted to ask, “What is the deal with all the naked ladies hanging out with dragons?” Except, as a student of literary symbolism, I know exactly what the deal is. Still, you’d think we’d gotten past that by now. One glance at the internet, though, proves no.

Journal Entry

Yesterday ended up being a pretty good day.

I got a lot accomplished at work. I had to tell my boss that I wouldn’t be able to finish a project by deadline (which is always uncomfortable to admit), but I learned that the larger project had slipped by two weeks, so my manual probably gets the same grace. Nice.

I also got a lot done on my game over lunch, and when I got home from the gym, I picked it right back up and kept going. I now have quests and timed events provably working — that is, I’ve got one of each happening so far. I have to write a bunch more, but I’ve built the framework for them, and I think I’ve built it in a versatile enough way to handle most of the other events I want to write.

In case you’re curious, what I specifically have happening is this: Once your character hits level three, it opens up the first event. One evening (exactly when is randomized) after a day of hunting, a group of other survivors stumble across his camp. He invites them to stay with him for the night, but they insist on pressing onward to the safety of the nearby fort. Before they go, they give him directions.

Essentially, this gives your character access to his first town. That’s always a pretty important point in an RPG. Since this game takes place after the absolute devastation of human civilization, there aren’t going to be a lot of towns. Most of the ones your character encounters will actually be founded by him, and that requires a pretty hefty chunk of resources. So, getting one for free like this is a pretty big deal.

Then, at level five, your character stumbles across some people who tell him they’ve escaped from the slave pens of the brutal Warlord Thauloc. They describe his stronghold, and you decide you should pay him a visit.

When you finally track him down (and defeat him in battle), you not only get access to another stronghold (this one is a village, one rank higher than the fort you found earlier), but also some leadership commands, such as having one of your followers join you in battle.

Getting these working accomplishes two things, really. First, it’s a vital part of the game creation process. It allows me to set up a major rewards system (loot and experience points making the minor rewards system), that will eventually drive the player to finish the game. It also, as you can see in the previous paragraphs, gives me my first real opportunity to insert storyline into the game. As I was a fantasy writer for over a decade before I ever wrote my first line of code, I’m sure you can imagine the appeal of finally being at the storyline part of the game.

I haven’t written magic into the game yet. That will be a major addition (I’m sure much harder to add than the EventsManager was). Still, apart from that I have all the pieces in place. I basically need to finish up the events stuff, and then spend however long it takes on magic, and then I have a completed game. That’s an exciting prospect.

Anyway, yeah, that’s all I did last night. After work we went to the gym (and I didn’t have any trouble doing my strength training, in spite of the five day break), and then grabbed some dinner on the way home and watched How I Met Your Mother and Rules of Engagement and Bones while I did my programming. Then we went to bed. There’s my day.

Journal Entry

It was, for the most part, a disappointing weekend, but it had its spots of sunshine.

Friday was my Regular Day Off, but I went in to the office for a few hours in the morning to make up for my late morning last Tuesday. Afterward, I had lunch with D– at On the Border, and then headed home.

I’d wanted to go to the gym early and then spend the rest of the afternoon programming — or maybe reading, I’m on to Watership Down, now, and it’s gripping — but Friday morning a guy from the gas company came out to investigate our ridiculously high gas bill (a free service the gas company provides), and he decided it was caused by the water leak in the bathtub.

I was pretty concerned by that, as the water leak had barely even started during that billing period, and so it suggested the leak was causing something like $40 a day in extra cost, so instead of spending my afternoon as planned, I spent it plumbing.

I took one of the old, rotten valve stems up to Lowe’s to see if I could find a replacement, but I didn’t have a lot of hope (it being a non-standard type). They had a little book there for reference, though, and I was able to find an exact match to the one I had. Just, y’know, they didn’t have it in stock.

I waited my turn and asked the salesman if they had any in stock (in the desperate hopes that I’d just missed it), but he said no. He went to the computer and looked up the manufacturer’s number and made a call, and told me it would take 10 days to have one shipped.

While he’s explaining this, a funny little old man standing behind me keeps grabbing at my sleeve and saying, “Excuse me. Sorry, excuse me.” And it’s clear from his manner that he has some advice to offer, but I was kind of hoping to let the salesman finish his explanation, then turn to this new guy. The salesman didn’t even pause in his spiel.

So, I finally turn to the guy, and he says, “You know Watonga cheese?” I just stared at him, completely blank. I had no idea what he was talking about. He asked again, “You know Watonga cheese?”

I just shrugged. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“Well,” he said, “There’s this place called Watonga cheese on 39th Expressway, and right in the shadow of it is a little shop called The Faucet that has every faucet part you could imagine. You know, in case you need to get it today.”

I did, and I followed his brief directions (with some help from T– and Google Maps, via phone), and found The Faucet and as soon as I walked in the door the guy there took my ruined valve stem, stepped behind a shelf, and came back with a new one, quick as that.

I got home, and (after weeks of messing around with it), now knew enough that it was a simple process to swap out the old with the new. I replace both valve stems, turned the water back on at the main, and came in to test it.

The good news is, there was no hot water stream (as there had been for three expensive weeks). I did, however, still have the same cold water drip that had started this whole process. I didn’t cry or curse (somehow). I just called a plumber and scheduled a visit for this morning.

By that time, it was nearly five in the afternoon, and we had plans to do dinner with D– (and I didn’t feel particularly motivated anyway), so I never got to the gym. I didn’t get any programming done, either, but I think I finished a short chapter in my book before we went out.

We had Bennigan’s for dinner, and then went downtown to the Festival of the Arts. T– says we spent two hours there. I wasn’t really keeping track. It was a mess of people and a lot of uninteresting art being peddled by depressed-looking artists, but there were certainly spots of genius in there. The only piece we considered buying, though, looked like something you could pick up at Target. It would have been cute in AB’s room.

A little after 10:00, my dad and Josh showed up, and Josh stayed the night. I was exhausted, but we stayed up for an hour or so talking, and then I finally had to crash. I wish we’d had longer.

Saturday morning, T– went to the gym and I slept in. When I finally got up, I did some work around the house (little things, like taking out the garbage and putting away clean dishes), and then dad showed up again (he stayed the night with my sister), and T– showed off the work she’s doing in the back yard, and before I knew it the morning was over and I was making us late getting to lunch.

We went to Ted’s again, up in Edmond. It’s my sister’s favorite Mexican place, and my dad’s pretty partial to it, too. Lunch was good, and afterward we found ourselves on the north end of Edmond with an hour to go before my niece’s birthday party. We didn’t feel like spending the whole time driving home and back, so we went to a little playground in my sister’s neighborhood, and T– and AB played on the swings. I took a nap in the car.

Then we had the birthday party, which is already well-documented elsewhere. My aunt Darla and grandma came in from Dallas, and it was awesome to see them. After the party, they stopped by our house on their way home, and we got a little bit of time in a quieter environment to chat with them. It was fun.

After they left, D– came over and bought us pizza, then when AB went to bed D– and K– and I went out to Henry Hudson’s for some drinks. After everything else in the day, it was pleasantly relaxing.

Sunday morning after church we went to Carl’s Junior for lunch, and ate for free thanks to K–‘s participation at a water station along the Memorial Marathon that morning. All volunteers got coupons for a free combo meal, and he picked up enough for all of us. It was a nice treat.

Then I went to the gym (for the first time in five days), and spent the whole hour running — first on the elliptical, then on the treadmill. I’m going to try to do more jogging on the treadmill. It’s a good way to follow the exercise plan I’m using, and keep track of my goals and progress.

Afterward, T– and I went grocery shopping, and then we cooked hot dogs and brats for K– and N– and D–. D– had picked up Mario Kart for the Wii, and we spent the whole rest of the evening on that. It was much fun.

Then, this morning, our plumber came out and I just got a call from T– with the update. Turns out the valve stem seat is (and always was) wrong. It was a kitchen sink seat, rather than a bathtub one. He replaced it in no time, and we paid him $90 to fix a really simple problem that I never in my life would have figured out.

Anyway, the problem is fixed, now, and the leak is gone. Thank God for that. Looking back on it, it was a pretty fun weekend, but I spent most of Friday and Saturday in a bad mood over plumbing problems. That’s a shame.

I should have plenty of time to program over lunch today, though, and after the gym tonight, I figure I’ll get a lot of reading done. Nothing much to pout over. I’m hoping for a good week.

Journal Entry

Okay, obviously the waking up at 5:00 to jog thing was a bad idea. I’m sure everyone could see that coming, but I let optimism win out over reason.

The problem with hitting the snooze button once is that it makes it so much easier to hit it the second time, know what I mean?

I only woke up once during the night last night, but when the alarm went off at five I set it for six, and when it went off at six I set it for seven, and I didn’t really get up at seven. When I did finally get out of bed, I rushed through getting ready and got to work, instead of taking the morning off and going for a jog (like I did on Tuesday).

I don’t know what the solution is. I guess I’m going to get back to working on getting up right at six and getting to work on time, and find time later in the day for my jogging. That’s a little worrying, because I know I’ll have trouble being consistent at it, but I’ve done a good enough job going to the gym that maybe I can manage. If nothing else, I’ll just go back to aiming for five days a week at the gym (something I was planning to do a week ago).

Yesterday after work we went to Jason’s Deli for dinner. I’d been wanting to go for a while, but there’s not one terribly close to home or work, so it always made sense to put it off until we could get together with K– and N– at the one by their place. It was a little tricky working out the timing (and leaving enough time to get to church afterward), but we managed.

Afterward, I called B– and E– to see if I could come hang out, but B– is working evenings all week and E– was planning on going to bed early. Alas and sadface. I settled for doing the dishes and then working on my game while T– and I watched Lost. We’re into season two now.

I got a lot accomplished. Strongholds are now growing and changing over time, much like the character does. I’d guess I’m at about 70% of gameplay functionality, but when you factor in that I had to build the entire UI to get to this point, I’m probably closer to 90% done with the project.

Writing a game is remarkably like writing a book. The hard part is not coming up with an idea, or putting in the many hours to see your vision take shape. The hard past is putting in those last few hours to actually finish it. This particular game isn’t particularly good. I wrote it entirely on my own, in less than a month, using some pretty crappy tools. I don’t necessarily think anyone will ever spend an afternoon playing it and having a good time. Still, I want to see it finished, because I’ve worked on lots of programming projects before, and lots of those were games, and I’ve never actually gotten one done.

Anyway. Things are things. Maybe today will turn out good.

Journal Entry

Yesterday I got home from work and found T– and AB out in the back yard. Not a big surprise, since those two are always playing outdoors (yeah, I don’t get it either), but T– has also been talking a lot about gardening lately, and I found yesterday that she’d taken the first step.

When we bought the house, it had clearly had some landscaping work done. There were shrubs along the front walk, and out back the back of the house and a large area along the back fence were divided from the yard with some concrete landscaping, with rose bushes growing against the house and trees and shrubs growing along the fence.

Unfortunately, most of the rose bushes had been choked out by tall grass and climbing weeds, and 2/3 of the trees and shrubs were evergreens, which we hate.

On that note….

T– got a handsaw yesterday and started clearing out the evergreens. I don’t know how she did it. She said it only took a couple hours, but it must have been exhausting. Anyway, half of that area is cleaned out now, and it looks so much better than it ever has. She’s going to put a garden in there when it’s all cleared out, but just getting the old dead spruce out of there makes a huge difference.

I finally talked her into coming back inside (after pushing AB in her swing for ten minutes), and we called D– to see if he wanted to come by for dinner. I also had an invitation from my sister to go watch a movie premiere with them downtown, but T– was busy and I stayed home to help her out. D– didn’t end up coming over either, so it was another quiet night at home. We watched three episodes of Lost (and I redesigned the DetailsFrame for my game), and then we went to bed.

I had a better night than the one before, but I still found myself awake at 2:30, 4:00, 5:00, and 6:00.

And, yeah, my alarm was set for 5:00, so clearly I didn’t make my jog. That was a conscious decision, though. E– provided me a link a couple days ago to a site with a program for new runners, and it sounds like a really good one. I’m going to start following it, and one of their big recommendations is leaving a couple days off between jogs to let yourself heal up.

I need that. My calves and quads have been achy for five days now. I was thinking I needed to push through the pain, or something silly like that, but I realized I’m already doing three days of exercise a week at the gym (including half an hour of cardio), so there’s no pressing reason for me to try to get in 5-7 days a week jogging in the morning. It’s a nice goal, and I might make it by the end of the summer, but starting out too aggressively could keep me from accomplishing anything.

So, I’m planning to go to the gym Monday, Thursday, Saturday (as I’ve been doing), and make my jogs Tuesday, Friday, Sunday. That keeps me active all week, and still gives me some time to rest individual muscle groups. It should be good.

Oh! We’ve had one person look at the house so far, and her realtor reported that she didn’t like the neighborhood because of all the foundation issues. Fair enough. Given the age of the neighborhood, every house out there has foundation issues. I found it encouraging that her concern was general (for the neighborhood) and not specifically aimed at our house, though.

Journal Entry

I couldn’t sleep last night.

We went to the gym after work, then grabbed some dinner to-go and went over to K– and N–‘s place for a little bit. AB was better than usual, and it was a fun hour or so.

I also sent E– an email asking for her help with a project, and I wrote the whole thing in French. I’m not about to promise it was good French (for one, I figure every single noun and adjective probably had the wrong gender), but it got the point across. So, cool.

Anyway, we spent the evening watching TV while I worked on my game. Then ten o’clock rolled around, I headed to bed, and couldn’t sleep at all. When I did fall asleep, I’d wake up a few minutes later. Around three in the morning I got up and set my alarm for six instead of five (planning to skip my morning jog). When it went off at six I hit the snooze button once, and then turned it off altogether.

I’ve been having a lot of sleep issues lately. I’m not sure why. I have some guesses, but I don’t like them, so I’m trying to convince myself that I just don’t know why.

But, yeah, I skipped the morning at work. Got up about nine, had breakfast, went for a jog after all, had lunch, and then came in to work.

Still no word on the Tulsa house, as far as I know. I’ll keep you posted, though.