Doctor! Doctor!

I went to see my doctor today for a regular physical; something I like to do when I have medical coverage.

In the last year and a half I've gained about 70 lbs. In the fall of '07 I weighed 279 and now I weigh about 350. I don't mean this honestly, but I could kill myself. I was 34 lbs from my target weight and now I'm over 100. Ugh. So stupid.

For my health this means issues with blood sugar and insulin resistance. Plus, as an added bonus my blood pressure, which is normally about 120/80, is now 130/100. If that's acurrate, that means I officially have high blood pressure and may need to be treated for it. Double ugh.

I'm going to look into the lap band surgery, but even before that I'm restarting a walking regimen. In fact, I'm going upstairs to use the treadmill right now.

And that's all from me for today.

Reunited!

Julia returned from her trip Monday night around 9:00 after some long and trying flights (New York to North Carolina, North Carolina to Seattle). It was so good to see her again! This is the first time since we've been together that she's been gone more than a day or two. I've been gone for days and days at a time for work and such, but never her. The cats were very glad to see her. It was very clear to me that I'm not considered a good substitute.

Since she was gone for a few days I filled my time with lots of work and fun. I spent the evenings last week with emails that I owed people, some editing, some writing, movie watching (Beowulf, Speed Racer, Wanted). Friday night I went to see Jen and Hays, Saturday I played board games with Seth, Chris, and Rick, then went out to see Outlander with Seth, and on Sunday I played in the regular game. Whew. I was busy, but it was a good time and allowed me to catch up on some things, which was good.

I don't have much more to say, but I'm very happy my girl is home safe and sound!

All Alone!

Last week I forgot to mention that I met Jeff (of Grubb Street) for lunch over at Crossroads. He did me the favor of picking up some games for me, so I picked those up from him and we had a good talk that ranged all over the place. I still haven't loaded up the games I got from him, but I've been pretty busy with Green Ronin work over the last week.

And speaking of . . . I spent much of last weekend and the days leading up to it writing about 7,000 words for an upcoming book. I had a hard time getting motivated on it, but it went well. I spent all day in front of the computer and, if anything, I felt energized at the end of the day. It was great. Now I just need to spend some writing time doing something I want to do instead of what I have to do. I wonder how that'll make me feel.

This week has been busy at work. I've had a ton of work to do at work, so the days have been passing quickly. The nights have also been passing quickly. Tuesday night I gamed, but left a bit early to spend some time with Julia before she left to visit a friend for a few days. She took off Tuesday morning and doesn't return until Monday.

With her gone, I've been spending my time working on Green Ronin stuff, watching movies (Beowulf last night, Speed Racer tonight), and taking care of some other work as well. This weekend I have plans to meet up with Seth and a couple of others for board games. I'm looking forward to that because Seth just picked up the Battlestar Galactica board game, which is supposed to be excellent.

Okay, enough for now.

Hey All!

I have time for a quick recap of the last week. So that's what you're gonna get!

Julia's parents left for a vacation a week ago (and they get back today), so we stopped at their place before they left in order to have dinner and then take all the leftovers and other goodies from their fridge. We ate like kings over the weekend! Including an excellent quiche-like dish Julia made with a bunch of the leftovers. So good!

Saturday I was supposed to game, but that fell through. Instead, Julia and I dropped my car off at the mechanic's because the brakes were misbehaving. Then I dropped Julia at Shana's so they could talk about wedding stuff and I had a nice lunch at a BBQ place near Southcenter Mall. (Famous Dave's, if you must know. There was one in Madison near Seth's apartment, so it remidns me of home.) After lunch I went home to do some Green Ronin work.
Parents left for vacation.

Monday night after work we picked up my car and were happy to learn the brakes didn't need replacing. Instead it was a leaking caliper, which apparently, is an easy fix. So, the whole thing, including an oil change, cost about $40. Woohoo! We also left Julia's car behind for them to look at since it had been acting up, too.

Tuesday night I played D&D with the crew.

Wednesday night I finally got a chance to sit down and do some writing for Green Ronin. I have a short section of a book to write and I haven't had time to get rolling on it. By the end of a couple of hours I'd managed to get about 1/5th of it done, so that felt good. And the main thing is that I've now started, so I'm feeling better about it mentally. I plan to continue my work on it tonight and probably through the weekend.

Tonight after work Julia and I are heading back to the mechanic's to pick up her car. It was shifting gears strangely, so we had them look at it. Again, thankfully, it wasn't the transmission, just some back sparkplugs and a new distributor cap -- oh, and some transmission fluid.

Julia's been making really good progress on wedding plans. Nothing is set in stone, but we at least have a good idea of what we're going to do, when we're going to do it, and who's going to be there. I'll keep people updated as things continue to move forward!

Clever Headline

I'm tired from staying up too late last night gaming and I'm headachey for some reason. Plus it's really warm in here, which is sort of uncomfortable. All of those things combined are making it very difficult for me to concentrate well enough to do much, so I thought I'd write a quick note here to see if I could get back on track.

At lunch today I called to set up an appointment with the doctor for a regular checkup. I have medical coverage right now, so I figured I should take advantage of it. I'll be making a dentist appointment soon, too.

The treadmill has been broken in. Julia's used it a couple of times and I've used it once. I made a poor choice in footwear (slippers) and my feet have been a bit sensitive for the last couple of days, but I think I'm going to use it again tonight anyway. It's very nice to have that in the house and I'm going to take advantage of it.

This week has been good, despite being back at work full-time again. I sort of liked working a couple days, then having a day or two off, then working two days, repeat. It even looks like my gaming sessions have both recovered from the holidays, which is good.

This last weekend Julia had tickets to go to a wedding show in Seattle with her mom and sister. She collected a lot of good information and business cards. We're still working out how the wedding will be handled, but at least we're armed now. I spent the time she was at the show writing and editing for Green Ronin and I managed to finish one project. I have to start on the next right away, but it's only 5,000 words, so that won't be bad. (Even if it is due on the 19th.)

Sunday, I gamed and then we had a birthday dinner for Julia's sister at the Cheesecake Factory in Bellevue. I even ran into one of the old sculptors from WizKids (Elizabeth Mars, for those who know her).

Okay, time to get back to it. I don't feel anymore cogent, but maybe some aspirin will help. Off I go!

Happy New Year!

My new year's eve was very low-key and that was absolutely fine by me. Julia and I stayed up and watched some TV, then hopped into bed around 11:30. She dozed and I read. When the fireworks from the neighbors' places started going off I leaned over and gave her a kiss and that was that.

At noon today we had to go fix the exhaust fan in the bathroom of the condo. It was a bit tricky and involved two trips to two different hardware stores. One trip for a new fan motor and the other trip for a 12 cent nut to hold the motor in place.

Now I'm hanging out, about to do some editing and writing. It sounds like a fine day to me.

As part of my annual first post of the year I thought I'd make note of the books I read this year. I'm a bit surprised by how few books I've read this year, actually. I'm not exactly sure why, probably because of the move and everything that surrounded it. Plus, I've been going to bed earlier, so I haven't been staying up reading as much. I like/need the sleep, but I'd really like to read more, too. I'll have to figure out how to balance those two things.

Here's the books of 2007:

Silverlock by John Myers Myers: I aborted this book more than halfway through. It just wasn't doing it for me. I enjoyed all the literary references, but the writing was a bit . . . off-putting. I may have to jump back into it some point, but it'll be a while before that happens.

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin: Fantastic book. Great writing. Funny. Involving. Affecting. Fascinating. It was great to get to read his story. I highly recommend it.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger: This was lying around and I'd never read it, so I did. It was okay. I'm not entirely sure why it's the classic that it's regarded as, but I'm pretty sure it may have resonated a bit more if I'd read it when it was first published. Maybe I'd recommend it to a teenager, but I think they'd laugh at it a bit, too. Meh.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch: This was a fun, well-written (especially for a first novel), adventure story that should appeal to any gamers or fantasy fans out there. There are some standout characters here that I think make the book really enjoyable.

I started Five-Hundred Years After by Steven Brust a few months ago, but I haven't read past page 38 for some reason. I love Brust's writing and I loved the first book in the series, so I know I'll get back to it. And I have a bunch of books lined up after it that I'm looking forward to, too.

Have a great year and I'm sure I'll see or talk to you soon!