Nothing good can come of this . . .

Recovery Phase

2012-01-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

It's been just a little over a week since I went to the ER for my kidney stone adventure and while I'm feeling so, so, so much better than I was a few days ago (let alone last week!), but I still get tired very quickly. I'm sure it's because my body's putting quite a bit of energy toward healing up whatever damage was done by the kidney stone and the surgery, but wow, am I sleepy.

If I had the time, I'd probably take a day or two off and just relax, do some work at a leisurely pace, read, and rest, but I'm sure I've used up any sympathy time I have at work. Actually my co-workers have been great and really helped to keep my work moving along with very few hiccups. I'm grateful for that. It's a small team and everyone is busy enough on their own.

I did a fair amount of Green Ronin work yesterday and today, so I'm feeling good about that, but I have so much more to do that I feel a little lame for taking a break here at 5:00 on Sunday to go read some comics.

What's wrong with me? Relax, man!

Absolutely Miserable... But Better Now

2012-01-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

I arrived back from a nice Christmas vacation to see my family in Wisconsin, worked for a single day, then woke up Friday with a sore back. I thought perhaps I'd thrown it out on the plane and was just going to deal with it and go to work, but when a bout of neasea hit me in the car and the pain was steadily increasing, I turned around, woke Julia, and had her take me to the emergency room thinking I had appendicitis.

As soon as the ER doctor saw me standing at the counter in the exam room he said, "Kidney stones. I'd gurantee it." And he was right. They gave me some IV pain medication so I'd stop groaning and sent me off for a CT scan (I think) and it confirmed a 7mm kidney stone on my right side. He said it's not possible to pass anything 6mm or larger so I'd have to have a procedure to get rid of it. But, since it was Friday -- and the Friday before a holiday weekend, I'd have to deal with it using pain meds for a few days.

We picked up the perscriptions and headed home. The afternoon was mostly fine, but in the evening the pain came back with a vengeance and -- even through the oxycodone -- at about 11:30 when I knew there was no way I'd get any sleep, we went back to the ER.

Honestly, it felt like I didn't even have any pain medication in me. It was worse, way worse, than the pain from earlier in the day and by the time I was in the exam room for a few minutes I was pretty much unable to speak, moaning from pain punctuated with a scream every now and again when the pain really ramped up, and literally vibrating because it hurt so much. I can't actually tell you what any of the people looked like who were talking to me, taking my blood pressure, and trying to get another IV in me becasue I had me eyes closed the whole time. All I know is that when you make as much noise as I was the ER staff moves fast and even other patients take note. Or at least that's what Julia tells me. She said at the worst of it we had a couple people in the room and a few more hovering at the doorway to see if they could help.

Anyway, once the IV was in and they'd pumped me full of "the most powerful painkillers they had" I calmed down and then we waited and waited. I was on a stretcher and loopy from drugs, but Julia had to spend a good four hours sitting in a very uncomfortable chair, doing nothing, during prime sleeping hours (midnight to 4am), plus, she had to watch me be in pain, so I'm sure it was no fun for her at all.

End result? They sent me home with more/different painkillers for a few days.

"A few days" turned out to be five, then six days. We had the pain under control, but the drugs made me miserable. I slept or stared into space most of the time because I couldn't concentrate enough to read or even really watch TV. It was... difficult. Again, I'm sure Julia was having a blast, too.

The other big problems with the pain meds was that they pretty much stop your gut from moving things along. So even though food wasn't particularly appealing to me, after a few days I couldn't actually take anything new in because nothing was going out. Ugh, what a miserable feeling... to have for daaaaaaays!

Monday was a holiday, so we scheduled an appointment with a urologist for Tuesday. We thought it was going to be when the stone was removed, but it turned out to be a consultation and the earliest I could get the stone removed was Wednesday. That was difficult. I'd really thought Tuesday was as long as I was going to need to wait and to have the doctor say, "We can probably squeeze you in tomorrow," was really, really, deflating. Miserable.

So finally, Wednesday morning, still drugged up, unable to eat, unable to go to the bathroom, exhausted, and ready for all of this to be done, I go in the procedure. I thought it was a fairly simple, outpatient operation, but no one had really prepared us for what it actually was. I hadn't thought I'd be under a general anesthetic, but I was, I hadn't thought there'd be much of an aftereffect, but there was, I hadn't thought there'd be so much peeing blood, but there was. BUT! the stone is now out and I'm off the pain meds (even though I could use a little bit to take the edge off, but no way!). My back and side is a bit sore, it hurts to go to the bathroom, but I have something for that, and really the most distrubing thing is looking in the toilet after I pee. Not a good thing to see. Sorry if that's all a bit gross for you, but it's really not a pleasant experience and I really hope none of you have to go through it. And I certainly hope I never have to go through it again.

I remember at one point asking the emercency room doctors to "just cut it out of me." I was serious.

Okay, so, happy new year!

Starting Back Up

2011-09-13T20:38:00.001-07:00

Summer's been a bit crazy, but now that it's over and we've had our rummage sale and I've been at my new job for just over a month, I figured it would be a good time to start posting again. I figure I can steel a few minutes here and there to manage some updates to let anyone who's still reading this know what's going on.

You'll hear from me soon.

2011-06-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

Backyard Birds

I remembered I'd taken this picture earlier this week and wanted to share it.

It's a (I assume) mother flicker showing its offspring how to eat the suet in our backyard. The mother perched on the post and ate from the side, then perched on top and ate a bit, then perched on the cage holding the suet to eat some more, I assume in an attempt to show the youngster the different ways it could eat the suet. The chick was small enough that it could stand on the top of the feeder and stretch out it's neck to peck at the block, however. It did eventually perch on the rod to the right and eat some that way, too, however.

It was fun to watch.

Sorry the picture is from so far away, but you can get an idea of what's going on from it. The chick the the gray thing on top of the brown bird feeder.

2011-06-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

Crazy Full!

Our garage is packed to the gills (even though garages don't have gills) with stuff for our garage sale. Julia and I have plenty of stuff to sell, but then her mom and brother brought a bunch of boxes of their stuff to add to the mix and we're overflowing!

Here's some pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like. And this doesn't include the clothes we'll have to lay out on blankets on the ground and furniture we have to move out of the way and set up outside -- or a couple of boxes of toys, a "free" box, and a 25 cent bin that aren't shows in this pictures. I hope we get a lot of business!

As you can see, lots of games and home decoration stuff!

This, and my work during the day, has been pretty much my whole week. Plus, the sale is going to eat up most of the weekend, but I think it'll be a good sale and it will be great to clear some of this stuff out! Can you imagine how many more boxes this would be if we had to move it again? (Not that we're moving anywhere, mind.)

2011-06-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

Fixin' ta Get Ready

Julia's been out in the garage all morning moving around everything we've piled out there for our upcoming garage sale. We've been talking about having one since before I came back in November and the plan is to have it next weekend (the 17th, 18th, and 19th). We have a ton of decor stuff, books, games, action figures, clothes (mostly mine), and house stuff to unload. There are eight tables out there now, including our dining room table with both leaves inserted, and we still need more tables! I still haven't organized the game books into boxes, but I have them all set aside and ready to go. That's my job for Sunday.

Tomorrow we're heading to Kirkland for a photo shoot with the rest of Julia's family, then to a dinner cruise on (I think) Lake Union and Lake Washington to celebrate her aunt's birthday. That should be fun.

Right now I'm working on some things for an upcoming book for work, so I better get back to it.

2011-06-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Third Stage of Blogging

Stage 1: Blogging is new and exciting and you do it all the time!

Stage 2: Blogging is a part of your schedule and you do it out of routine.

Stage 3: Blogging is inconvenient for whatever reason.

I'm definitely in Stage 3. It's not that I don't want to blog, it's that my schedule has changed pretty significantly in the last couple of years.

When I was in California, I didn't really feel like anything was going on. In a lot of ways my life was on "hold".

Now that I'm back in my home with my wife, my schedule is so different than before I moved away that I don't seem to find the time to post here. It used to be that I'd post something at the end of the day in those empty hours before bed. Now those hours are spent with my lovely wife. (I think I traded up!)

I'm going to make an effort in the next week to post more regularly. Maybe over lunch or first thing in the morning. We'll see how it goes.

Julia's been posting some great pictures of our yard, which is really looking good here in the third year of growth.

I spent a couple of hours a week or two ago putting together a Website for myself. I reserved leitheusser.com a while ago and now there's finally something on that page, which is cool. I have to figure out what to put on that first page, but at the very least, my resume and C.V. are up there.

Okay, see you tomorrow!

2011-02-09T19:43:00.000-08:00

Clutter

My lovely wife has ~~gone a bit crazy~~ become quite interested in decluttering the house. She comes home most evenings and immediately sets to cleaning out all the things we've hidden in and around the house.

Tonight she worked on the kitchen and here's what she found -- and then weeded out the things we don't really need.

Anybody need a wooden spoon or two?

Or maybe a spatula?

Perhaps you need a few of these? We have more than this picture shows.

And all our knives.

I think I may keep some of those big knives in case she starts eyeing my games and comics!

On the plus side, the house looks great!

2011-02-02T10:37:00.000-08:00

Home Work

Before the end of the year, Julia's dad moved from his old office space, which he rented, into an office he's sharing with another law firm. That meant he had a whole office-worth of furniture to get rid of.

We were lucky enough to inherit a new table for Julia's studio (which has come in handy for her new sewing machine), I got a great new desk and mounted wall units, plus, we got a whole mess of cupboards and a nice counter for the garage!

This last Saturday, Julia's dad and brother came over to help mount all of the cupboards in my office and in the garage, so now it's time to show off the end results!

Here's my new desk, cupboard, and bookshelf, followed my my old bookcases that have been reorganized to not be quite so overstocked. Oh, we also hung one of my favorite prints on the wall that I've had since my Capital City days. (Click to enlarge.)

The garage now looks amazing and we have a ton of storage space that we haven't really had time to move into. We still have a lot of organizing to do out there, but it looks great! The six hours of work installing everything was certainly worthwhile!

Pretty great, huh?

2011-01-06T08:10:00.000-08:00

A Lot Can Happen in Two Months!

I was tempted to wait a couple of days and post on the 9th, just so it had been an even two months since my last post, but that seemed a bit silly.

Anyway, when last I wrote, I was days away from leaving Cryptic and California for my home and wife in Seattle. The move when just fine. I ended up renting a large SUV, loading up all my stuff -- except for the things I either sold or left for the other guy in the house to use -- and left by about 12:30 on Saturday the 13th.

The drive was fine, especially after the first couple of hours when I made it to I-5, which took me all the way up to Seattle. It's nice when you can get on a road and just go with no need to think about the next turn you have to take.

After about six hours, I was still feeling pretty good, so I called Julia and told her I was feeling like I might just make the whole trip that night, which would put me in at about 2:00am. The radio didn't come in very well in the mountains, so I picked up a book on tape and also listened to a couple of movies (the SUV had a DVD player for the back seats, so I could listen, but not watch the movies... probably a good thing). I'd estimated pretty well and made it home by about 2:30am and found my lovely wife up and doing housework while waiting for me! That was a nice surprise -- that she was up and waiting, not that she was doing housework. I think that was so she'd stay awake.

Since then, we've gotten back into the swing of living together again -- for the first time as a married couple! Had Thanksgiving, gotten back into some regular gaming with local friends, traveled to Wisconsin for a nice visit with my family for Christmas, and done a lot of work for my new day job at Green Ronin. It's really been great to be home. Twenty months away was too long.

I won't make you wait so long for an update next time.

2010-11-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

Impending!

The big move home is happening in just a couple of days and I'm looking forward to it! All my things are packed away except for just the things I need this week... and that stuff will all be packed up by Friday night/Saturday morning.

I have a ride lined up to take me to get the rental car on Saturday, too, so I don't have to worry about that. In fact, the guy who's offered to take me is also setting up a good-bye dinner for Thursday night at the local Rock Bottom Brewery. I'm pretty sure everyone who'll be there will be from the groups I've gamed with, but maybe some random work people will make it, too. I think my boss is planning to have a good-bye lunch for me on Thursday as well, so it'll be a busy day of food and good-byes.

Despite all that, I'll be in the office on Friday until the afternoon when I'll do my exit interview, sign some papers, and collect my last check. Admittedly, as the days go on, it's more and more difficult for me to get out of bed and head into work. I suppose that's not surprising.

Time for me to take some deep breathes and relax a big before bed. For some reason, the last couple of evenings have felt very stressful to me. I'm sure it's because of the move and leaving work (plus all the work I have going on for Green Ronin, which is actually going quite well), but little panicky feelings have made their home in my stomach and I'm trying not to listen to their whispers. Everything's going to be fine and I know it.

2010-11-04T22:47:00.000-07:00

Playing Along At Home?

For those of you playing along at home... Julia and I have been talking over the last couple of weeks and over the weekend we came to a decision. So, I'll be moving home in a couple of weeks. Actually at this point it's only a week and a half away.

I gave my notice this past Monday and everyone at work was very understanding. They knew my situation and knew I wasn't going to be around forever. They've also been great about helping me get the things I had at the office back to my apartment so I could box them up. As of tonight I have everything home except for a few things that will be easy for me to carry or need to stay until the last day.

Julia suggested I take the train back instead of renting a car and when I looked into it more I found out it might be possible to do that. On the plus side, it'll probably only cost about $400 and that includes transporting all of my stuff. On the negative side, I'd be limited to a total of six 36"x36"x36" boxes that weigh no more than 50 lbs. That could be tricky as I have fair number of heavy gaming books here. Even so, I'm going to try to box everything up this weekend. Amtrak has boxes for sale and one of the guys from work has agreed to take me to pick them up. Hopefully I won't buy six huge boxes and then not be able to do it, but I guess it's better to take the chance. Plus, I'm kind of excited about taking the train. It's not often that it's the right way to travel.

Oh, and about the trip. I'd leave San Jose about 8:40 on either Saturday or Sunday (I haven't decided yet) and arrive the next evening around the same time in Seattle. I'd probably pay to get my own room, so that I can sleep with my CPAP machine. I figure that would be for the best because otherwise I'll be snoring and not getting very good sleep, which doesn't sound like fun on a trip like this.

Anyway, we'll have to see how that works out, but I'd really like to do it that way as opposed to driving for two days by myself.

As for work, I'll be working full-time as a developer for Green Ronin. I have been doing that work in my free time, but they were cool with me transitioning to full-time and they understand I'll be looking for freelance and full-time work while I'm doing stuff for them. Julia and I will be living like hermits until I can start bringing in some more money again, so finding more work will be a big part of my time.

Okay, that's enough for now. I may get a chance to post before I leave, but if I don't, the next time you read words here, I'll be back in Seattle. In my home. With my wife. I'm definitely looking forward to that!

2010-10-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

The Single Best Thing

Last time I posted, I forgot to mention the single best thing that happened while I was home, now over a month ago.

The Sunday night before Labor Day, Julia and I were getting ready to go out for Indian food, which Julia'd been talking about all weekend, when the doorbell rang.

Julia let them in and it turned out to be Jen and Hays and their daughter Lily along with Mike, Sharon, and their two girls, Clementine and Vivian! And a short while later, Seth and Melissa! Julia had invited them all over for a surprise party for me since I hadn't seen my friends in so long.

We had a nice potluck dinner, talked a long time, got to enjoy the kids all playing together, and even had some cake! It was great.

I love my wife.

2010-10-12T21:36:00.000-07:00

Time

It's definitely time to post something here. It's been far too long and all I can say is that it hasn't been a good time to write about anything here for one reason or another. Initially it was because I had a couple of job interviews I was excited about, but I didn't want to talk about them here until they happened. Then when they did happen, I didn't want to post about them until I heard back. Then when I heard back, I was very sad because I didn't get either of the jobs. I was more upset about one of them, because it was such a good fit for me, but either of them would have gotten me back to Seattle, which would have been great. That was all resolved last week, so I was in a pretty foul mood for a few days. So, no posts for awhile now. Sorry about that.

I'm looking for work again in the Seattle area and I'm basically starting from scratch again, so I'll let you know how that goes. Julia and I have discussed some other options as well, but we haven't made any decisions yet.

Since the last time I wrote here, I think I've gone home three times, maybe four. The first of those weekends Julia and I built a very cool little herb garden right outside our back door. We're both very happy with how it turned out.

The image above is the space before we got started. We'd talked about getting some pavers and extending the patio a bit, but then Julia thought it might be a nice space to have an herb garden with easy access from the kitchen door. We talked a bit and decided to use the leftover rectangular stones you can see lining the path to make a wall and we got to work.

The above image is after we'd broken up the dirt with a pick-ax (what fun!), laid down some rocks to help with drainage, covered it up with some compost and topsoil, and were about half-way done with making the garden's wall. Having the edge of the patio to line them against made it pretty easy and we had just a few more stones than we needed, which was great!

Here's the end result. More dirt has been added, the wall it finished on three sides and abuts the grass on the back. We transplanted a few things from elsewhere in the garden, mostly herbs (hence the name!), added some stepping stones, and picked up a few more plants to green it up a bit. It looks great and we're both very impressed with out couple days of work. Which is why I'm writing about it.

One of my trips home was for the company I do a bunch of freelance work for, Green Ronin. We have a yearly summit at which we discuss the next year's schedule and try to get everything in order. We currently have the DC Comics license, so that's been the big time sink for me this year. I love working on it, but wow, there's a lot to do. That's another reason why I've been so lax on posting here; most of my free time is taken up with DC work.

Our cat, Coco, who was so sick, has pretty much made a full recovery. Julia babied her for a good month or two and just this week she's been back to her normal self. She was very touch-and-go for awhile there and I honestly think she might have starved herself to death if not for Julia's attention. We're both very happy Coco's feeling good again.

I forgot to post my annual recap of my move out to Seattle at the end of September/beginning of October, but this was my 9th anniversary. And yes, that's still hard to believe.

Julia's birthday was the beginning of September and I was home for that. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the weekend we built the herb garden. We also had a nice date or two in the last month, which has been very nice and I think we'll continue that little tradition.

I'm all over the place in this post, but that's because I'm playing catch-up. Sorry about that. Hopefully things are a bit more normal now, so I'll post with some regularity. I know of a few people who will appreciate that.

2010-09-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

I Was Going To Be Good

I was going to write an update this weekend, but I ended up working on the art order for an upcoming book for Green Ronin. And yes, it took all weekend. I wanted to finish it, but I have three or four more descriptions to come up with, but I ran out of steam.

I went back to Seattle last weekend and it turns out I get to go again this next weekend, which is a nice turn of events.

I'll go more in-depth about last weekend soon. Julia and I had a lot of fun.

2010-08-29T23:18:00.000-07:00

The Weekends

The weekends are always rough for me. I have plenty of time to write up a post, but I rarely feel like doing so. The reason? My weekends aren't very inspiring for me. I get a lot of work done, which is a good thing, but I don't really get to relax or go out and have some fun. Y'know, like most people do. Instead, I stay in my room all weekend, except for a walk to the grocery store.

That said, last weekend Randy called me up and we went out for dinner at the local Rock Bottom Brewery. That was a nice change of pace and we had a good conversation before heading home again.

As for other things, Julia continues to take care of our cat. She's a bit better, but still not so much so that we can let her out of the bathroom. She is, however, being very affectionate to Julia, which is a big change.

My big news in the last couple of weeks is that I managed to get a second monitor for my computer. I'm still pretty excited about that. It was free, too, because work was "decommissioning" it. Something they do from time to time with their older monitors. I have it turned sideways so I can use it for reading PDFs and other full-page documents and I love it.

This next weekend I get to head back to Seattle for another four-day visit. It's so much nicer to go for that extra day; four days instead of three feels so much longer for some reason.

The news that concerns me most in the past week is that Dad had a couple of minor strokes in the middle of the night a few days ago. He went to the emergency room in the early morning and after a bunch of tests told him what had happened, but that he was really quite healthy. They gave him some medicines to take, which will hopefully forestall any future problems. They told him that for being 71 he was in really good shape and shouldn't change whatever it is he's doing. So that's good. Anyway, I hope he doesn't go through anything like that again any time soon.

Time to watch a movie, read some comics, and hit the sack.

2010-08-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

One Sad Kitty

Our cats went to the vet a while ago and we learned they both have (hopefully had, now) Bartonella, which is commonly called Cat Scratch Disease. It's called that because if a human is scratched or bitten by a car with the disease it can cause a nasty welt that can become infected and make you pretty sick. For the cat however, it's a bigger problem because it can cause all sorts of physical problems and even lead to death. It was a good thing they went to the vet.

The problem is, Coco, which I think of as our "older" cat even though she and Babby are sisters, is very sensitive and a bit of a scaredy cat. She was very unhappy about the three-week course of drugs we had to force her to take and took to hiding from us most of the time. I think the medicine also made her feel pretty icky, so she mostly kept away from us and was a bit gun shy.

When she no longer had to take the medicine we figured she'd get better and go back to being the sweet cat she normally is, but that hasn't been the case. In fact, she's much worse. She's taken to hiding around the house, sitting like a little cat loaf, wide- and wild-eyed in apparent fear for her life. She won't eat or drink unless the food is directly under her nose -- and I mean that literally, if the food is a foot away from her she won't move to eat. She's had a number of accidents around the house because she's so terrified, which isn't so bad and we've been lucky they haven't been in really bad places.

We are, of course, more than a little concerned. She's such a sweetheart normally and it really pains us to see her in so much fear and mental pain. We're trying to make her comfortable, control her environment, so we can keep track of how much she's eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom -- and we bought a diffuser that releases a chemical that's supposed to make cats feel safer and more comfortable (a synthetic version of the chemical they excrete when they cheek comb things). We've only had that for a day now and it seems to be helping since she's not quite as wild-eyed.

We really hope she recovers soon. Apparently this sort of thing isn't uncommon for cats, but this is such a huge change in her personality we're very concerned for her. I can't imagine how unfun it must be to be terrified all the time. So terrified you don't trust anyone, don't want to move, eat, or pretty much anything else. How awful would that be?

We just want her to be better, so hopefully the things we're doing will actually help her. I'll keep you updated.

2010-08-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

Another Visit Home

Last weekend I went home for an extended stay. Okay, it was only a single extra day, but Julia and I have found it really makes a difference. Taking Monday off and flying back Tuesday seems to give us enough time to both get things done and relax -- now I just have to figure out how to do those things plus see some friends. I haven't had any real quality time with my friends for, well, about a year and a half. Ugh.

Since they redesigned the San Jose airport, I've had to leave a bit earlier than before, which means I arrive in Seattle early enough to have dinner with the little lady. This month, like the last couple, we stopped at Genki Sushi in Renton. I'd ordered an anniversary cake from Jen and she was nice enough to drive down to visit with us and visit for a few minutes. I'd told Julia about it ahead of time, just so the handoff was easier -- she loved the sentiment, loved the cake, and loved telling her family about it later in the weekend.

Friday we were up early to meet Julia's mom to buy me some new clothes -- for the interview I had the following Monday along with a few other shirts and such. Then Julia and I ran a couple of other errands and picked up the makings of a compost bin we'd planned to build this weekend. That went very well, actually, and I managed to dig the holes, plant the posts, wind the chicken wire around it, and staple it into place in about two hours that afternoon. Here are the end results!

The posts are just in dirt, so they're not super sturdy, but they're buried about a foot deep and don't have to stand up to too much abuse, so they should be good. It's hard to tell from this image, but the bin on the left is the "raw" compost (hidden under some loose dirt we threw in there) and the bin on the right is pretty much all dirt (except for a pretty beat up cardboard box that I threw in on Julia's say so). Over the course of the weekend we added a bunch of coffee grounds we picked up from Starbucks. The biggest thing we need to find for these is dead leaves. We don't have a lot of mature trees in the area, so they're hard to come by, but necessary for good compost. Anyway, we were very pleased with how these turned out.

Saturday was Julia's family reunion, which was held at her parents' place. We arrived around ten-ish for a late breakfast and stayed most of the day. We talked to everyone, celebrated birthday for me and an uncle, then celebrated anniversaries for Julia and I and an aunt and uncle. We played with the kids a lot, too, which was fun, made s'mores, and generally socialized.

Sunday we must have worked in the garden, because the only thing I can remember specifically doing Sunday is going to eat at a bar in downtown Renton called "A Terrible Beauty." It's an English pub-style place and it had some very tasty food for us. Yeah, we must have worked in the yard. I'm pretty sure I mowed the lawn Sunday, too. (I saw quite a few grasshoppers and little frogs in the grass, too!)

Monday was my birthday, but I had an interview to go to at 10 o'clock, so I was up, dressed, fed, and out the door relatively quickly so I could make it over to the foot of Lake Union for my appointment. That went well, but I heard a couple of days later that they decided to hold off on filling the position for a few months at least. They did, however, really like me and will contact me if and when that position opens up. As for the rest of the day, we ran some errands, cleaned up, and relaxed. Oh, I also think I broke our vacuum, so next time I'm home I have to open it up and fix it.

There you go! A long post about my birthday weekend -- and anniversary weekend, since that was July 26th.

Hopefully I'll have some more things to write about soon. But really, after that compost bin thing, I mean, how can I top that?

2010-07-24T14:37:00.001-07:00

Back At It!

The past month has been a blur again. Mostly because after going home for a fun four-day weekend in Seattle, I came back and had to dive right back into more work on the DC Adventures game and Mutants & Masterminds game. We're releasing books for both line at the same time, so there's a ton of editing and development work for me to do when I get home from work at Cryptic.

We also released the DC Adventures game a couple of weeks ago and it's been both great and painful to see how people have accepted it. For the most part people have really liked the game, but there has been some gnashing of teeth from some people who don't like this particular thing or that particular thing. Regardless, it's been selling very well and I just wish I could go to GenCon to see the book actually go on sale. (Right now we're just selling the PDF through our online store.)

Enough about work.

When last I wrote it was just before a trip back to Seattle -- and once again, I'm heading to Seattle this next Thursday -- so I figured I should write about that visit.

As is normal for us, Julia and I spent a lot of time in the garden and running errands to buy plants and supplies for the garden. I also mowed the lawn, which is looking both ugly and unhealthy. Hopefully the fertilizer I put on it will help strengthen it a bit. I may also need to thatch it to help with drainage and aeration. I was hoping to do that this next visit home, but Julia just mentioned last night that the lawn is now filled with tiny froglings the size of her thumbnail and I don't want to hurt them, they're too cute. Actually, thinking about it, they may make mowing the lawn this time tricky, too. Hmm.

Back to the garden and the last visit home... Unlike many visits home, we transplanted a number of things this time around. We moved a number of plants in the backyard and even moved a couple of gigantic blue oat grasses from the front to the back. They were overpowering our young flowering dogwood, so we replaced them with some smaller flowering plants (a knockout rose and something else I can't remember the name of). Have no fear, though, because we also bought a planted a ton of other goodies as well. I'm pretty sure Julia had a fun weekend of picking out plants and planting them.

We also made plans to build an actual compost bin when I come back next time (next week) and talked about turning a couple of, so far, unused portions of the backyard into a tomato garden and a herb garden. Those are going to take a fair amount of work, however, because I'll need to take a pick-axe to the earth in both areas, line them with rock borders, and then fill them with a bunch of dirt and compost. That'll be a workout!

Sunday was the 4th of July, so I left Julia in the garden and went to Jason and Liz's for a joint birthday/4th of July part (the 4th is Liz's birthday). That was great. I was able to catch up with Jason, Liz, Seth, Melissa, and James -- as well as meet James' wife -- and a few other people from Jason and Liz's circle of friends. It was a good time. We ate some excellent BBQ and even made ice cream in their new ice cream maker.

I'm sure there was more to the weekend, but that covers the bulk of it. We had a great time and it was especially nice because I was able to stay for four days instead of my usual three days. In fact, I took my birthday off for my next visit home, so I'll have four days for this next visit as well!

I can't wait until I actually get to live at home again!

2010-06-29T23:18:00.000-07:00

Getting Ready

I'm heading back up to Seattle for a nice long 4th of July weekend! I'm very excited because it feels like forever since I've been home. Probably because last time I was in Seattle I didn't stay at home, but instead went out to one of the San Juan Islands for the weekend. I'll be very happy to be in my house with my girl. Sounds nice.

The past week has been good. Work has gone well and my work for Green Ronin has been super-exciting because I'm finally getting to see the DC Adventures book in near-final form. There's been a ton of editing, proofing, and busy work, but wow, it's so great to see it all come together. These will be some of the best books we've ever produced and I'll definitely be proud of them.

Since Jim's been gone I've been walking to work pretty much every day. I think I've accepted rides from work twice, maybe three times in the last three weeks(?). That's pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. I'm sure it's been good for me and although there were a few days there when my legs were threatening to get shin splints, I managed to head them off and everything's been fine since.

This Friday is the last day at the company for Aaron, one of my co-workers on the current project. He's an amazingly good guy and incredibly talented. I'm a bit sad to see him go, but I know it's a great opportunity for him.

Okay, time to relax a bit before bed.

2010-06-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

Organization Weekend

This was my first weekend all by my lonesome now that Jim's gone and it was pretty productive.

I spent a lot of the weekend working on things for Green Roning; proofing, emailing, writing up and sending out contracts, writing up some characters, keeping up with posts on the M&M forum, and I'm sure there was some other stuff in there as well.

I also swapped my queen-size bed for the single in Jim's old room. While I like the larger size, it just took up too much space in my room. Saturday afternoon I took apart the big bed, moved it next door, and then did the same thing for the smaller bed. Now I have a lot of extra room. I even moved the big, white chair Jim left behind into my room. That's going to be super nice to have. Previously I had to either sit on my bed or on the very hard, very uncomfortable wooden chair I use while at the computer. I may break it in tonight by watching a movie or playing a game on the Xbox.

I talked to Mom and Dad today, so I was able to wish Dad a happy father's day in person. That was nice. I'd really like to be able to get home more frequently, but money and vacation time conspire against me.

Only a week and a half before I get to fly home for the long 4th of July weekend! I can't wait to see my girl!

2010-06-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

The Search Continues

With Jim gone, my landlady had me put up an information sheet at work to find a new renter for his room. We'll see how that goes. I think it'll be a little while before the room is claimed again simply because she's headed out of town for work soon and won't have time to get serious about the search until she returns.

Work is good. I finished up a pretty interesting section today and I was pretty impressed with how it turned out -- which means it turned out exactly like I'd conceived of it. I also had my review at work this week and that was favorable. They're very happy with the quality of the work I do and everything else was good, too, so I'm happy about that.

At home I've been working like a crazy person on the DC game for Green Ronin. Lots of emails to answer and take care of along with editing and organizing. I enjoy it, though, so that's good. It's also been a lot of fun to see people's reactions to the previews we've been posting on the Green Ronin Website. There's always a naysayer or two, but the preponderance of comments have been really positive. I like that. Oh, and I was interviewed on a podcast today, in case you're interested.

I got a call from the doctor today about an ultrasound I had last week on my liver. Turns out I need to take better care of myself and lose some weight. Man, I wish it were that easy. The one thing I know will be good about the situation I'm in right now is that with Jim gone I'll be walking a lot more. Even more than when I first moved here (because he would often pick me up and drop me off from work and now that's not an option). Of the four days so far this week I've walked about 11 miles and tomorrow I'll tack on another 3.5. That should certainly help burn some calories.

Now it's time to read and relax.

2010-06-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

Gone, Buddy, Gone

I'm a bit sad. When I returned from work tonight, Jim was gone. He got an offer from a company down in Austin, Texas for a new job, so he flew his family out on Sunday, had some fun with them yesterday, and loaded them and all of his things in a rented van. They're somewhere between here and Missouri right now. I think his goal was to make it to Reno tonight.

It's definitely a bummer to not have him around and I'm sure I'll have quite a bit more time to myself because of it. I'll also be getting a lot more exercise as I walk to and from work every day. That's definitely going to be good for me.

I'm going to move my big bed into his old room and take his smaller bed for my room. That way I'll have more space in my room, which would be nice. The new bed is a single, but I think that'll be fine. I'll see how it goes once I make the swap.

Work is fine and after hours I'm spending a lot of time on the DC comics project for Green Ronin. I don't remember if I actually mentioned that here earlier, but we announced it a while ago. It's a big deal and it's a lot of work for me.

I'm going to go busy myself with it now.

2010-06-06T22:38:00.000-07:00

The Weekend Away

Not this weekend, but last weekend (that is, Memorial Day weekend) I traveled back to Seattle. I left Thursday night -- and for the first time the plane was delayed -- and came back Tuesday morning, so it was a nice, long stay.

A couple months earlier, Julia's parents quizzed us kids about how interested we'd be in a weekend away as a group and we all said that sounded good, so her dad rented a house on Decatur Island. It's in the Puget Sound and is one of the San Juan Islands.

Friday morning we headed to her parents' house, transferred all the things from our car to theirs, and drove the hour-and-a-half to Anacortes where we loaded our gear and ourselves onto a small "personal" ferry. This ferry was pretty cool (I thought), except I see on their site that they call it a water taxi. Anyway, the front end is flat and they can lower it to bring on supplies, bikes, people, whatever -- sort of like the Army's personnel carriers that you see in films about landing at Normandy. The ride took about 30 minutes, maybe more, as we dropped off a couple of people, picked up a couple more, then landed at our dock at around 4:30, I'd guess. We quickly unloaded our stuff, and wow, did we bring a lot of stuff! It wasn't much fun unloading it and it was especially not fun to then have to carry it up to the house -- even though there was a cart to help us out.

Julia's sister and brother-in-law were coming later in the evening, but we'd brought their two kids with us (Jason and Madison), so as we moved everything up to the house, Julia kept the kids from underfoot and checked out the house. When we all made it inside we were very impressed! Initially it was a bit cold, but we lit some fires and it warmed up quite well. The layout was fun, too. There was a loft over the front porch, a loft over the entry area, a full bedroom upstairs, another full bedroom underneath that, and "the honeymoon suite" just off the living room. Julia and I were in the honeymoon suite.

The house was equipped with a computer, Internet access, a TV with Dish or some kind of service, but we only used it to watch some movies we'd brought along. Jason, it turns out is a big super-hero fan, so loved watching the Spider-Man movie and some Spider-Man cartoons.

A couple hours after we arrived, Matt and Sara were dropped off on the pier by the same people who brought us. They'd already eaten and we were in the middle of the first of many tasty meals. I think it was spaghetti that first night.

Saturday we walked and/or rode bikes up to the farmers' market a couple of miles away. On the way there we passed by the single general store on the island -- closed for the weekend due to a death in the family, so it was a good thing we brought everything we needed. The farmers' market itself was literally nine tables set up underneath a big lean-to. The people were selling baked goods, jam, plants, homemade oil candles, and a handful of other things. I think we all picked up something or other, but again, it was a good thing we brought everything we needed.

The one thing that really amazed me, that I learned later Saturday afternoon, was that the tide was so significant on the island, and the bottom of the Sound was such a gradual slope, that for a good six hours toward the center of the day the water retreated out to a good 40 feet past the end or our roughly 40 foot-long dock! That was pretty remarkable. To go from standing at the end of the pier and being about eight feet from the bottom at one time of day, to being able to step off the pier onto the muddy floor of the Sound a few hours later.

We took advantage of the retreating water on Sunday when we went to dig up clams. We grabbed some shovels and buckets and wearing our boots, we dug into the mud to find them. It wasn't hard, because like you've heard, they spit water out of the holes they're hiding in when they retract their "foot." With a bit of digging we found maybe a half-dozen decent-sized clams and threw them in buckets. I found a really, really disgusting-looking sea-centipede about an inch-thick and maybe two feet long. Creeped me out, quite honestly. I think Julia found a hermit crab, but I don't think they saved that. I started walking out into the water a little ways and pretty quickly stumbled upon two nice-sized grabs (the yummy kind!) and Julia's dad told me to bring them to shore, so, using the shovel, I scooped them up and carried them in.

Crabs are very aggressive.

Even as I was carrying them they were fighting the big, nasty shovel and even raised their claws at me when I'd "threaten" them with my boot. Anyway, once they were on shore we flipped them over and Julia's dad was able to identify the males from the females (females have a wider triangular-shaped section on their underbodies than the males. It's pretty obvious when you compare them.) After we found those two -- oh, we let the female go, the other was a male, so we kept him -- we found five or six other crabs hiding in the small seaweed beds, three of which were males, so we kept those, too. We took our catches back to the house and Julia's dad set about getting the gear together to cook them all. He found a crab pot in the house, a propane can, and a cooking unit to hook up to the gas.

So, yeah, we cooked up the crabs and ate them with our steak dinners. They were good.

I should mention that most nights we all sat up and played Catchphrase or a weird hybrid of Catchphrase and Charades, which was a lot of fun and often had us in stitches. The mornings were often taken up with working on puzzles. I think Julia put together four of them with help from the others. Afternoons were reserved for reading; my favorite part of the day!

Monday pretty much consisted of packing up to leave and then a long drive home. Since the water taxi couldn't get to us until the water was high enough, we didn't leave until 6:00pm, then stopped for pizza dinner, and headed home. Julia and I didn't make it to bed until 11:00 and we had to be up at 5:00 to get me to the airport for the trip back to California. I was very tired that day.

And that was our fun weekend away! Now, I am tired and am going to bed before 11:00. Good for me!

2010-06-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Ugh.

I officially have the flu. I felt okay this morning except for a slight headache, then it expanded to include dizziness, soreness, a worse headache, and then once I got home, chills alternating with sweats. I am unhappy.

It sounds like a couple of the guys at work were feeling similarly and so is Julia, so it looks like I'm the common factor there.

I can't think very well right now, but I wanted to post something here. I owe a big update about last weekend up in the Seattle area. Julia and I and her whole family went out to Decatur Island for the long weekend. It was nice and it deserves to be written about when I'm a bit more clear-headed.

Nothing worse than the flu in hot weather. Ugh.

2010-05-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

Oh My.

I really have been busy, haven't I? It's been a month since my last post and that must not be any fun for anyone who checks in on me with any sort of regularity.

I'm been eye-ball deep in editing and development work for my freelance job, so I haven't had time to sit down and write anything here. I hate that, because this blog seems to be turning into one of those "I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long" blogs. That's no good at all.

I went home a couple of weekends ago and Julia and I had a lot of fun working in the garden (shocking, I know!). We even bought a hammock for the backyard with some gift money from our wedding. It's quite large and we didn't really plan for it in the layout of the yard, but it'll work fine. We also spent a lot of time weeding our little patch of grass, which I then mowed, so it looks really nice. Or at least it looked better when I left than it did when I arrived. In addition there was a lot of other weeding and planting and moving plants around. I think we worked in the garden and yard more that weekend than we had on the weekends we'd planned to work in the garden. I was very sore for a few days afterward.

That weekend was also her brother Jordan's birthday weekend, so we had dinner with her family, which was nice.

My day job has also been good lately because I and another one of the Content guys have been coming up with a bunch of story and plot ideas for the game we're making. I liked that change of pace. Now I'm back to creating the game, which is good. It feels like it's been forever since I've worked with the tools even though it's only been a week or two. Things are going well, though.

Okay, enough for now.

2010-04-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

Life Continues

Life continues to be on hold for the most part. I go to work, I come home, maybe play a game, maybe work on some freelance work, sleep, repeat. It's funny because I'm not bitter about what my life is like at the moment, but I'm not happy about it either. I like that I have a job and am getting a paycheck -- and that I'm learning things, but I really don't have anything meaningful happening in my life, so I don't have much to post about here. Sorry about that, but really, if you want to know what I'm doing every day, go re-read the second sentence above. I wish I had more to tell you.

I actively look for work back in Seattle, but things are very sparse at the moment. Only a handful of positions at any of the companies in the area and so far I've had no luck with any of them. I will continue to look, and hopefully sometime in the next few months I'll be able to get back to Seattle, but I don't know when that'll be.

I want to live in my home with my wife. I want to get on with my life. This... existing is fine, there are moments of fun, but really, my life is pretty devoid of any real meaning at the moment. I foresee that being the case until I move home again. As the saying goes, "If you're going through Hell... keep going." This is hardly Hell, but I'll keep going all the same.

I'm so damn cheery lately, aren't I?

A couple things today made me happy. It was my dad's birthday; he turned 71, which I can hardly believe. It's difficult to talk to him on the phone because his hearing is so bad, but we chatted for a bit and that was nice. He wants so very badly to connect with me on a meaningful level, but I don't think he understands that I love him even if we don't have a lot to talk about. He's a good guy and I know how hard he worked and what he gave up to provide for our family. At the time I didn't really understand how hard things were for him and Mom, but now I look back and I have a pretty good idea. He's done good by me and I love him for it. Happy birthday, Dad!

Second, I talked to Julia a couple of times today and yesterday. She's so fun to talk to when she's excited and motivated! The weather in Seattle has been nice enough that she's been able to get out and work in the yard, which she enjoys immensely. It's so fun to hear her talk about her time in the garden and it's amazing how much she's done. The front and backyard really are amazing, especially this time of year when everything is coming up and in bloom. Gardening is her passion and I help out, but really, everything nice about the yard is her doing. I'm just the muscle. Anyway, she was telling me she planted a bunch of seeds in the few open spots left in the yard. Seeds that will hopefully be sprouting in a few weeks and then turning into full-blown flowers by early summer -- including some 12-foot-tall sunflowers! I'm sure we'll be back in the yard next weekend when I'm home.

Third, I found some really good tea and I'm enjoying a cup of it right now.

Let me know if you find a job for me in the Seattle area.

2010-04-08T22:56:00.000-07:00

I Wish I Had Something To Say

Things are really boring around here. Jim is back in Missouri with his family and will be until late Monday night. I'm on the new project at work and it's going well enough. The rest of the team is wrapping up a big milestone, so I'm sort of treading water until that deadline is over, then I'll start to work on new missions and content with them. I'm happy to help out, but it's a bit slow and boring.

Outside of work I've been able to run some errands using Jim's car, which has been nice, but I don't really feel too comfortable overusing it, so I'm pretty conservative with it. Even so, something weird happened with the lock on the driver's side door yesterday, so now it doesn't unlock with the key, which is not good news.

I've played a couple of games of Warmachine with the models I've been painting lately. That's been fun and I'm learning more about the rules and the different factions.

The big project I'm working on for Green Ronin hit a bit of a snag yesterday when I had a short conference call with the people involved. It's not a huge deal, but the deadline that was supposed to be today will now be moved back a bit. Overall that should be fine, but it's still sort of a pain.

And finally, I continue to be bored, bored, bored and feel particularly unfulfilled when I don't have something to keep me busy or someone to spend my time with. It's very difficult to be here and be all alone. I don't like it. Even so, it's better than the soul-crushing work I was doing the past couple of years. At least here I feel like I'm learning something and advancing my career -- even if it is taking a long time.

There. Cheery enough for you?

2010-03-31T23:03:00.000-07:00

Happy April Fool's Day!

Yep, it's the day of the year when I typically post something weird to try and catch you unawares when you read my blog. But not this year! (Again.) Sorry if you're disappointed.

I do want to take the opportunity to wish Seth and Melissa a very happy 1st anniversary! They were married a year ago today and I hope their first year has been great!

The 1st also marks the first day for me working with a new team at work. I hope that goes well, but I have some reservations. My old Champions team was pretty darn good, so it'll be surprising if the new group is at least as fun.

I think I'm done typing for the night. I'll be back soon.

2010-03-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

There and Back Again

Last weekend I went back to Seattle for the weekend. My good friend Kim (Goffin) Peacock was in town for an internship at a vet's up in Bothell. She stayed with Julia during her time in town and it was nice to be able to spend a day or so visiting with her -- even though she had to work most of Friday and then left for the airport at 11pm. I doubt she'll be back to work at that vet clinic, but I hope to see her again soon.

As for Julia and I, we spent the weekend running a few errands and working in the garden. We planted some of the starts that Julia has growing inside and even planted some seeds. It will be very cool to see those when they start growing! We also spread out some bark that's been sitting on the driveway for over a month now. I was very happy to get that off the pavement, because it really left a dirty mess where it was sitting, including some moss. I imagine the rain will clear off the dirt, but I'll have to take care of the moss myself, I'm sure.

I also moved a pile of gravel that's been sitting on the back patio since the week after we moved in. We kept trying to think of where we wanted it to go, but this weekend Julia said, "Move the whole pile up by the front spigot!" and it was done!

While working in the garden we saw our first two frogs of the year! One in the front yard and one in the back. I love those silly things.

Other than yardwork, we watched some movies over Netflix together and had a nice cookout Saturday evening instead of going out. I made some pretty tasty hamburgers, if I do say so myself! It was very nice.

This week at work I've been working on some maps and missions for my boss. It's mostly filler work until I move to the new team, but it's all stuff that needs to get done, so I'm happy to chip in and help out. As for the new team, I have no idea where I'll be sitting, but (in theory) I'll be moving on or around the 1st of April. I'll let you know what I find out.

In my free time I've been painting figures for Warmachine. It's not something I ever thought I'd do, but since I get the models for the best price you can imagine (free) and I can do the painting on a TV tray while sitting on the end of my bed in my room, well, it's sort of a nice little hobby. It turns out I'm a pretty good painter, too. Who knew? I'll post some more pictures when I remember to bring the camera back from Seattle. If Julia can part with it for a few weeks! The flowers and plants will be coming in, so I'm sure she'll want it for them.

Over this weekend, Jim and I played some Warmachine -- it's nice to actually get some use out of the figures I've been painting! Had a nice breakfast at the diner in Los Gatos, which we do every Saturday, but it's a relaxing thing to do for both of us. Oh, and we drove to a game store by the airport to check out a flea market they were having. It was packed with good deals, so I picked up a few different books for really good prices (I don't even think I spent $6) and then went home to paint, watch some movies and relax.

Now you're all up to speed. Sorry it took so long to post something here, but my weekends at home always throw me off. More soon.

2010-03-16T23:56:00.000-07:00

A Year and a Week

Today (Tuesday, that is) marks a year and a week that I've been working at Cryptic and living in Los Gatos/Campbell. I'm very glad to have the job, enjoy what I'm doing, love that I'm learning something new that I'll be able to continue to do for a long time, and have generally enjoyed myself in the time I've been here, but I really miss my wife and would love to find a job back in Seattle again. I would love that. Love it.

With the launch of our recent game (Star Trek Online) and the beginning of a new project, I'm moving from working on Champions Online to another game that's not announced yet. It's a good fit and I'm a little sad to say good-bye to the people I work with now, but since I'm going to work with people who used to work on Champions, well, I'll be with some familiar faces. I think it'll be just fine. I'm supposed to move at the start of next month.

The past few weeks and weekends I've spent a fair amount of my free time painting the miniatures Kim gave me last time I was home. That's been nice and I'm very happy with how they've turned out. I'll see if I can grab the camera and take some photos for the Flickr site. While painting I've also watched a few television series (Legend of the Seeker and Supernatural) which have been on in the background.

This Thursday I fly home for the weekend. Kim (from Madison) has been staying with Julia for the last two-and-a-half weeks while she's been interning with a vet. She leaves early Saturday morning, so I'll likely only see her Thursday and Friday nights -- if she manages to get home at a reasonable hour, which has definitely been an issue for her while she's been here.

I had a doctor's appointment awhile ago and I heard today that everything looks quite good. My blood sugar's been a little higher on average this time around, but I was expecting that (unfortunately). I haven't been as good as I've wanted with my food and exercise the past few months, but I'm rededicating myself to it and I'm going to start walking home from work most nights now that it's not dark and rainy.

Okay, I'm done for now. Talk to you soon!

2010-03-14T23:32:00.001-07:00

Eyes Tired

I was going to post about the last week tonight, but my eyes hurt from painting all day. I will post tomorrow. Right now I'm going to relax and go to sleep.

More soon.

2010-03-04T19:36:00.000-08:00

Good News x3

Three bits of good news this week!

First, Seth and Melissa left on their belated honeymoon! I'm very happy for them and I hope they have a blast! I can't wait to hear what they thought of it -- and I hope they enjoy their time relaxing, snorkeling, and whatever else they get up to!

Second, Julia had an appointment with the doctor today (he actually moved the appointment up) and he said her foot is healed, so she can do without the cane and even try wearing a shoe again until it gets too painful, then switch back to the big boot she's been wearing for a while. So, I'm also very happy for her. This whole surgery/recovery thing has been a big pain for her (I think especially because I haven't been there to help her out) and I'm happy she's literally back on her feet.

Thirdly, Kim from Madison arrived in Seattle Sunday morning and is spending a few weeks with Julia at the house. They get along really well, so I hope they get some time to hang out and be girly together. I think they'd enjoy that.

As for me; my big projects are going well. So well, in fact, that I had Wednesday night and Thursday night "off" to do some painting (on my miniatures) and some DVD watching (Burn Notice, Season 2). Time to get some dinner and get started on the fun!

2010-02-25T22:56:00.000-08:00

Been Too Long

I was just about to get up form the computer for the night when I realized I hadn't posted anything here in well over a week, so here I am.

The big reason I didn't post earlier in the week or last weekend id because I went back to Seattle last Thursday night and was there until Monday morning. When I return from those trips I always have a lot of catching up to do; laundry, email, work, and freelancing, so Monday night was filled with that. Tuesday I ran my weekly game, and Wednesday, who knows? I forgot.

Even tonight, I was busy editing the very last chapter of my big assignment after finalizing the rest of the book with the writer. It's looking fantastic and I'll be very excited when I can finally announce what I'm working on.

As for last weekend; it was my Valentine's present weekend for Julia since I wasn't around for the actual holiday. We did all the normal running around and taking care of things, but most importantly, we spent a couple of days in the garden. I used the pick-axe (yes, a pick-axe) to break up five big sections of the back yard and then mixed in ten bags of compost to create some raised beds so Julia can plant some vegetables this year. She's very excited to give it a try and there was no way she could grow things in our clay-like ground without the whole pick-axe thing happening.

We also went to a class at a local nursery to learn about growing berry bushes. We have a couple of raspberries planted already, but I also bought her two blueberry bushes which should be a lot of fun. They're different varieties, one blooms early in the year and the other blooms later, but they recommend getting two different kinds to aid in pollination. Apparently we'll end up with better and larger berries this way.

Sunday we went to my sister- and brother-in-law's brother-in-law's funeral (I'll wait while you parse that out). It was very sad and an odd thing to go to during an otherwise fun and light weekend. It's pretty sad story because he was 50 and left behind a wife and a six-year-old son. Both of whom will soon be homeless due to medical bills. Whee.

Saturday night, Julia and I met up with Kim, Kevin, and their daughter Samantha for sushi at a new place in Renton. It's a sister store to the one we went to in Hawaii on our honeymoon, so that was fun -- and the food was very good. I love sushi. Kim had a bunch of figures for me for a miniatures game I play (or want to play more of, at least). She had WAY more figures than I'd ever expected, so I've spent some of this week assembling them. That's been nice because it's sort of nice to have a project that doesn't involve sitting in front of the computer. When they're all assembled I get to paint them, and considering how many I have to paint, I think I'll be done in 2020. But I might surprise myself. (Oh, if you're curious what the figures are, it's for a game called Warmachine and I have some pictures of the things I've already painted in my Flickr stream in the right-hand column.)

Okay, time for me to play with those little metal men and super-glue, then hit the sack.

2010-02-16T23:52:00.000-08:00

Almost Done!

My big editing project is going well and I'm almost done. In fact one good night of reading and it'll be done and I'll be ready for whatever changes come back from the author since he and I have come up with some additions and changes that are needed. Unfortunately, I have plans for Wednesday night, then I fly home Thursday night and spend the weekend with Julia -- most likely in the garden most of the time! I'm sure there will also be some other fix-it things to handle as well.

Work has been good lately. The really difficult deadline is over and now I'm spending my time cleaning up a bunch of missions and polishing as much as possible. I'm really very happy with how my portion of things have turned out. Not to imply that I'm not happy about the rest of it; it's all good!

This past weekend was a very nice three day weekend and I spent Saturday at a convention in San Ramon with Randy and Amy (who were nice enough to give me a ride). I managed to finagle a badge from a gaming industry buddy who lives in Seattle, but was down at the show to run a booth with his new wife. That was awfully nice of Phil, because I wouldn't have gone if I needed to pay the $50 entry fee. I spent the day walking around and checking out a bunch of games, but only played in one game, but I had a nice time. It was very hard to get back into the swing of attending a show for fun. I'm so used to working at them that I really didn't know what to do with myself. Maybe next time I'll actually indulge in a bit more gaming.

Sunday and Monday I spent at the house, cleaning, doing laundry, editing, watching Saturday Night Live on Netflix, and just generally relaxing. It was nice.

Tonight (Tuesday night) I ran a game at work. I'm very happy with how it's going and I'll probably wrap up this first storyline in the next month. Then hopefully I'll get to play in a game for a while.

Okay, you don't want to hear about my games. I'll update again soon. Hopefully when I'm back in Seattle this weekend.

2010-02-08T22:51:00.000-08:00

Alive and Well

I'm still hard at work on my dayjob and on my big new project for my freelance work, which is why I haven't had time for updates here. I wish it were different, because I know for many of you this is the only regular contact we have. Sorry about that.

My weekend was pretty much filled with editing, but I took a break Sunday afternoon to run to the game store with Jim and do some shopping to restock the larder. I've been pretty impressed with myself lately because I've been eating at home a lot more often than the past few months. That is good for my wallet.

Tonight (Monday night) after work Jim and I drove to a nearby GameStop to pick up a game I think Julia will enjoy for the Xbox. I was very happy when I took it to the counter to check out because it was half price! So instead of being $8 it was only $4! How great is that? Julia liked the game Myst and this game, Syberia II, is supposed to be similar. I hope she likes it!

This next weekend there's a gaming convention in town and I'm hoping to finagle a badge somehow so I can check it out. I've always heard good things about this show. I still have a lot of editing to do, however, so I'm not sure if I'll spend a lot of time there or if I'll feel guilty and run home to edit. Time will tell.

Talk to you as soon as I have a few minutes!

2010-01-31T23:30:00.000-08:00

Gone But Not Forgotten

Sorry for the long break in posting. I had two weekend back in Seattle and now I'm in the midst of both day-job deadlines and a big freelance editing project, so my blogging time has been cut to nil.

I will attempt to get something up here a bit more substantive, but really, there's not much going on except work.

And of course as I type that I think, "Except for the fact that Julia has a doctor appointment later this week and should be able to start walking on her foot again!" So there's that.

More soon, I hope.

2010-01-20T21:24:00.000-08:00

The Annual Books Post

I just finished writing the entry below and realized I hadn't posted the list of books I read in '09. Usually I remember/get a chance to do that before the end of the year or early in the new year, but not this time around because of all the traveling and whatnot.

It looks like I did better than the last couple of years and actually made it through almost eight novels this year. I finished World War Z just after the holidays, so I'm throwing it on the list for '09. I should also note that I don't include any of my gaming books, comics, or graphic novels on this list. That would be a much, much longer list.

Ah, also, the list is chronological with the books I read earlier in the year appearing at the bottom and the most recent books at the top.

World War Z by Max Brooks

Since this came out in '06 people have been telling me how good it is and now I can join their ranks. It's not schlocky. It treats the subject matter intelligently. And it's actually pretty damn interesting and thought-provoking. I've never been a big zombie fan, but this and Kirkman's Walking Dead comics are just plain excellent. If all zombie fiction were as good as these two examples you'd be reading them, too.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I enjoy Gaiman's stuff and even though this was a Young Adult novel, it's probably my second or third favorite of his prose work behind American Gods and, maybe, Neverwhere.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

I like Vonnegut the man and hadn't ever read anything he'd written, so I picked up a dog-eared copy of Slaughterhouse Five and read it. I'm always surprised at how fast-paced and almost stream-of-consciousness novels from this time period are, but it worked well in this case since the main character was jumping around through time and took you along for the ride. I wish I'd actually read this in college. When I was supposed to.

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Seth recommended this to me, uh, maybe a dozen years ago and I finally got a chance to read it. It was a very enjoyable novel with some nice characterization and an interesting setting both in terms of the world and in terms of the place the main character was raised and spent most of the book. It has a lot of great political, social, and physical action in it, which was a nice change from some fantasy fiction.

Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne by David Gaider

I read this for research and familiarization because of the work I'd done on the Dragon Age RPG for the folks at Green Ronin -- plus I wanted to read it in preparation for playing the Dragon Age computer game (which I thoroughly enjoyed!) that came out in the Fall. I thought the book did a good job of introducing some of the major places and characters that then appeared in the computer game and still managed to tell a fairly interesting story. Even if is was highly derivative of the legend of Arthur in the broad strokes. Even so, I liked it well enough.

Sacred Flesh by Robin D. Laws

I've worked with Robin, like him, and like his writing. This book is set in the Warhammer universe and is the second of his Angelika Fleisher novels. The main character and her sidekick are fun, but there were far too many characters to keep track of -- even if they did mostly all die during the course of the novel. That said, I think Robin handled the large cast as well as he could and told a very interesting story unlike the standard fantasy fair. This isn't high fantasy, this is grim and gritty fantasy in which the characters are constantly on-guard and in over their head. Fun stuff.

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

I don't remember when this book was released, but I do remember hearing about it for the first time, mostly from serious readers and book editors. After reading it I understand why. Mieville writes fiction like some people write poetry. The book's language is . . . thick and meaty and the similes are incredibly unusual. So much so it was a bit distracting. Thankfully he's a very good writer and he never let the language get away from him. And the story was interesting, different, and very good. If you're looking for something "different" in the SF/F area, give this a read.

Five Hundred Years After by Steven Brust

I love Brust's stuff. Love it. This is the second book in his Khaavren Romances, which were inspired by the writings of Dumas, but set in Brust's Dragaeren setting (from the Taltos novels). These books are both slow and fast in terms of pacing, but they feel so right. The characters are great, the action is always exciting, the situations dire, and yet there's always room for a little comedy. Great book.

And there you go. My books from this year. Hopefully I'll read even more this year.

2010-01-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

Good News and Good-Bye!

Julia went to the doctor today for a one-month check-up. They took some X-rays and found out the bone appears to already be growing well and has already filled in some of the hole caused by her affliction -- and the doctor thought the scar was looking great and may be all but unnoticeable. Nice!

He also told her she can stand on her foot again. She can't walk on it just yet, but she can put weight on it, which will make so many things easier for her. I was so happy to hear that. She's been feeling a bit stir crazy (I know that's not technically the correct term, but you get what I mean, yes?)

Work this week has been full of ups and downs. I wrapped up all my work last week, but this week we've been testing the stuff we made ("we" being the six of us on the Content Team) and that's generated a lot of feedback that now needs to be fixed/addressed. I was happy to see I had very few comments that were significant, especially compared to some of the others. I guess it pays to get help when your learning new things!

Last weekend I went home on a surprise trip to be with Julia as dealt with the aftereffects of the medicine she'd stopped taking. And this weekend I'm heading back on a planned trip. It's very strange to be making that trip so soon, but it's nice.

See you when I return!

2010-01-15T22:36:00.000-08:00

Surprise, Surprise!

This week was good. Very good. I'm still learning at work, but I was able to wrap up all six missions I'd been assigned -- on time! I even had time to go over them to make sure I had the text correct and a bunch of other details that needed a double-check. I was very happy with my progress.

At home tonight (Friday) I watched a movie from Netflix (Green Lantern: First Flight, if you care), then talked to Julia for a while. She was feeling kinda low because she's feeling the effects of not taking her medicine anymore. She decided a few days ago to stop taking her pills this weekend and since it's a narcotic, she'll suffer some withdrawal. So, we talked and eventually she suggested I come home this weekend. I looked up the fares and they didn't seem too bad, so I bought a ticket and I'm headed back to Seattle at 9:35 tomorrow (Saturday) morning! And I have a trip home planned for next weekend, too! (It helps that I had a $300 voucher for being bumped off a flight in December.)

So, that's my weekend! Monday is a holiday at work, so I'll return Tuesday morning just in time to get back to it.

I'd planned to have a relaxing weekend, but now I get to have a whole different sort of relaxing weekend. Woohoo!

2010-01-11T22:41:00.000-08:00

The Holidays

I didn't get a chance to post over the holidays because I was busy, busy, busy. I went home on the evening of the 21st so I could go with Julia for her surgery on the morning of the 22nd. She had some work done on her foot and the surgery went perfectly. She had a bit of difficult time bouncing back from the anesthetics, but she was home and in bed by the end of the day.

We'd both sort of expected her to be sleeping and pretty drugged up over the holidays, but she felt pretty good and not particularly sore or drugged. We had a couple of rough spots due to some harsh medicines, but we managed to get that under control in the first couple of days and after that it was smooth sailing.

While she was in surgery, I ran out to get some crutches and a scooter for her to get around on, so she was pretty mobile even though she can't put any weight on her foot for a while.

All of this added up to mean we had a pretty nice Christmas. We went to her mom and dad's for a big holiday party and spent the night there to avoid getting her home again just to come back the next day.

As for the holidays themselves, they were good. I missed my family, but that's just how things are right now. I talked to them a couple of times during the break and everyone seemed to have a good time -- although Grandma ate too much food while she was cooking for the parties and made herself sick. I thought that was kind of cute, but I felt bad for her because she didn't get to celebrate with everyone.

My younger sister's sons have and Xbox and one of the gifts they received from their parents was an Xbox Live subscription and they were very excited to get online and trade information with me. I don't actually have any of the (many) games they have, but maybe that'll inspire me to get some of the "hot" titles. I just hate to spend the money, though. Anyway, we're all hooked up now and we chatted online just the other day.

New Year's Eve we spent with Jen and Hays and their daughter Lily. We had a nice dinner and celebrated New Year's on the East Coast at 9:00 so Lily could enjoy it and then she was shuffled off to bed. She's too cute. After she went up we played a game of Settler of Catan, which lasted much longer than any game of that I've ever played. When Julia finally won we were all happy to pack up and head for home. It was a good night of relaxing.

The next day we slept in, then went to Julia's parents again to sit around and do whatever we wanted; which meant read, play another game of Settlers of Catan, and eat leftovers. Then we decided to go for Chinese dinner and see The Young Victoria. We all enjoyed it and honestly, for my purposes, it could have gone on for another hour at least. I love period pieces and this one was gorgeous and very interesting. I love watching the social interactions and how things are said or not said. It was also nice to learn a little more about Victoria and Prince Albert.

With the holidays over, Julia and I spent most of our time around the house. She wasn't really able to cook or clean (kind of hard to get around very easily on that scooter in the kitchen and up stairs), so I took care of most of the running around, fetching, cooking, cleaning, and whatever else needed to get done. I even cooked a few times and baked three batches of cookies!

Seth had a get-together somewhere in there, I think between Christmas and New Year's and I was excited to go because Jason and Liz were going to be there. I hadn't seen them since they moved to London two years ago and now they're back! Mike and Sharon and the girls were there, too. Which reminds me, we had the four of them over for lunch during the break, too. We were crazy with the parties.

I flew back to California on Sunday the 3rd and had just enough time to unpack and unwind for a couple of hours before it was time for bed and work the next day. I don't really feel like I had much of a vacation, but I knew that going into the holidays and really, it was just nice to spend a couple of weeks with Julia. That made it really hard to come back here. I like that girl.

I'm back at work. Things are good -- and I even received some nice comments on the forums about some of the missions I made a couple months ago. That was a rare treat; nice things being said on the Internet.

Enough typing for now. I'll update soon. I swear.

2010-01-07T22:54:00.000-08:00

Back At It

I just wanted to write something quick to let you know I'm back in California, back at work, and everything is going well. I've been busy catching up on things I wasn't able to do while I was at home, like answer emails -- and I've accrued a pretty fair number of those that need addressing.

I ran my Song of Ice and Fire game tonight, that went well, but ate up Wednesday evening with prep work (after a run to the store) and tonight actually running the game.

The holidays were good and much busier than I thought they'd be, but I'll get into that more next time. I hope to get some time to write a bit more here over the weekend.

More soon.

2009-12-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

Ready to Go

The past few days have been good. I've been busy at work trying to make my missions perfect so they can be sent to testing. I have a few of them done, but I have many more to do tomorrow and then when I return from Seattle in a couple of weeks.

I've been needed a break, so this weekend, instead of going to work on Saturday like usual, I stayed home and just did whatever came to mind. It was nice and I can't really say I have anything to show for it, but that was sort of the point. I filled my time with playing a bit of a game called Torchlight, cleaning my room, getting things packed up for my trip home tomorrow (Monday), running to the mall, and reading a large portion of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. I may actually finish that tonight. I'll go back to reading it as soon as I'm done writing this.

This past week I sent a box of things off to my mom and she said she'd already received both my box and the box Julia sent. I wish I could be there with them for the holiday. It's been too long since I've been back for Christmas. Maybe next year. Mom said she's sent four packages, but so far Julia's only received two of them. Maybe there'll be more delivered tomorrow.

I take off tomorrow in the late afternoon and arrive in the evening. I'm sure it'll be busy at the airport, but I'm also sure it'll be better than if I were traveling a day or two later!

When I get back I'll be spending much of my time taking care of my girl after she gets some work done on her foot. I'm sure she'll need to sleep quite a bit, so I'm brining some books I want to read back with me. I'll be able to pass the time quietly and either sit with her in bed or downstairs, whichever she prefers.

I'm looking forward to being home. I miss that girl.

2009-12-15T22:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas is Coming

I forgot to mention in my last update that Sunday while I was doing laundry and then some shopping in the afternoon, my landlady was busy with a friend downstairs decking the halls with all sorts of Christmasy doo-dads. It was quite a transformation and it really looks very nice. It's also helped get me in the mood for the holidays a bit, which is nice.

I shipped a box off to my parents' place with gifts for my dad, nephews, and some goodies for my mom and grandma, too. It was good to get that taken care of.

That's all I have for today!

2009-12-14T23:35:00.000-08:00

Preparations!

I left work at a decent time tonight in order to run some Christmas errands. I'm not giving anything away (to my mom) when I say I went to the drug store to print out some more wedding pictures for my family back home. They'll be going in a package I'm planning to send out tomorrow with a gift for my dad and some things for my nephews.

I also (finally) found a gift I'd been looking for for Julia. I can't say what that is, because she reads this. Sorry, Cutie!

I spent the rest of this evening writing up a blog post for my game blog. I've been meaning to write some more there for a while and my new game is perfect for that.

I finished the book I was reading, Assassin's Apprentice, and have moved onto Slaughterhouse Five. I'm really looking forward to that. In fact, I think I'm going to go read some of it now!

One week from tonight and I'll be back in Seattle for the holidays!

2009-12-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

What's the Deal?

Another week gone by and no updates. It appears after a couple of weeks of excitement and regular updates I've fallen back into my old habits. Once again I can only claim that really, not much has been happening.

I finished the Dragon Age game I was playing on the computer. That was good.

I've continued to read the book I started on my last trip to and from Seattle.

Work has been good. I finished a pair of linked missions that were pretty freakin' complicated and started and finished another mission this week, which is great! I have my boss looking over them now to see what he thinks of them and to point out anything that needs fixing.

I ran another session of the Song of Ice and Fire game I started. That's going well.

Julia seems to have finally lost the cough she's had since her cold over a month ago -- well over a month ago now that I think about it. She also noticed that the restaurant we really liked for a weekend breakfast has been closed due to issues with the IRS. That made us sad. It was a nice little place that was always busy, but never too busy.

I did some Christmas shopping online earlier this week, so most of that's taken care of now. And really, I'm just looking forward to going home in a little over a week to spend some time with my girl in my house. Seth's invited us to a post-Christmas get-together and his and Melissa's place and I'm planning to go. Hopefully Jason and Liz will be there. It'd be nice to catch up with them.

I hope I have something exciting happen (relatively speaking) in the next few days that's post-worthy. Regardless, I'll keep you all updated with what's going on.

2009-12-03T23:33:00.000-08:00

Goings On

My work is going well. I'm still very slow, but I'm making steady progress and learning quite a bit. Mostly the repetition on this particular mission I'm working on has been good since it's helped me remember the processes for a couple of different functions. Now I need to do even more of that. Hopefully Friday I'll be able to finalize the mission and get people to play through it. Though, I should say "them" since it's actually two missions, one inside the other. Anyway, that's my hope.

I picked up Jim from the airport Wednesday evening. I was surprised he arrived on time while traveling from St. Louis to Chicago to San Jose, but it all worked out despite the storms in the Midwest. He's back at work and enjoying his new position. He'll definitely be able to contribute more meaningfully in that job.

Tonight I ran a great session of the Song of Ice and Fire game. This was the second session and it's been great so far. The players seem to be clicking, the characters are interesting, and it's always nice to socialize with your co-workers, boss, and boss' boss.

Tomorrow's Friday, so I'm gearing up to do a bunch of work for Green Ronin over the weekend and I have lots to do for them. We have a big new project that we just learned is actually going to happen and we're all pretty excited about it. But that means some extra work for me!

I am very tired, so it's time to read a chapter of my book, then hit the sack.

2009-11-30T21:18:00.000-08:00

Great Weekend. Long Day.

I went home last Wednesday night for the Thanksgiving weekend. My flight had moved from its originally-listed departure time, so I ended up getting home a couple of hours earlier than usual. That meant a couple extra hours of talking and relaxing with Julia and neither of us minded that!

Thursday we took advantage of having nothing to do until a bit later in the morning and slept in, then had an excellent homemade breakfast burrito and went to a retirement center to wash dishes for their Thanksgiving luncheon. Julia's dad volunteers at the center and he asked if we'd be willing to help out. All things considered, it was a pretty short event, but we were moving the whole time. Julia handled cleaning off the plates and I dried and stacked and put things on shelves. We worked with a number of other people, including her parents, grandmother, aunt, brother, and a couple of other people. In all, I think we were there about two hours and the people who always worked there said we were the quickest they'd ever worked with. Hooray for us!

Afterward we went to Julia's parents' place for the afternoon and evening. We had a very good, traditional Thanksgiving dinner around four or five o'clock, I can't honestly say what time it was, and spent the evening cleaning up, talking, playing a game, and enjoying some dessert. It was a small group, just seven of us, which was a nice change of pace from their usual -- very large -- family gatherings. Julia and I both really enjoyed it.

Friday and the rest of the weekend we ran a lot of errands and managed to get a ton of things done at the condo as well as inside and outside the house. At the condo I had to install a new fan in the bathroom. I'd installed another one last year, so I knew it was pretty simple, but I also had to see about fixing the fan on the heater which was making quite a lot of noise. We finished off the fan pretty quickly once we purchased a new motor and installed it, then went to work on the heater. The issue there was trickier and we'd pretty much resigned ourselves to not being able to fix it, but on a lark I decided to try and tighten a couple of nuts (none of which seemed particularly loose) and that seemed to fix it! We were amazed. Really, the telling is much less exciting than it was in the moment. I received big kudos from my girl for that one!

Over the rest of the weekend we worked in the yard, transplanted some plants, put in a couple of lilacs, bought a new smokebush that was on sale for 75% off (we both like those, so that was a great find!), bought some potting soil for some indoor replanting we need to do, hung a "Welcome" sign we received as a wedding gift, and hung two big pieces of art/sculpture on the walls in the living room.

Saturday night we had Shana, Jen, Seth, and Melissa over for dinner and the night before we decided to make it a little fancier than the pizza and soda we'd originally planned on, so Saturday afternoon we made an excellent salad with baby greens, toasted walnuts, prosciutto slices, and a dressing of equal parts real maple syrup and balsamic vinegar. Sounds crazy, I know, but the dressing is so good. Better than it has a right to be. Anyway, we also made some delicious turkey burgers with a spicy-sweet chutney, and key lime pie. None of which we'd every made before. And, wow, was it all great!

Monday morning we were up early so I could catch my flight back, but I was bumped to a later flight, which was then delayed a bit, so I didn't actually leave Seattle until 1:30. That was fine with me, though, because the airline bought me breakfast and lunch, and gave me a voucher that may cover the cost of two flights home, so I didn't complain one bit.

When I made it back to San Jose I had to pack up all the stuff at my desk because we're finally moving things around so most of the team can sit together. Hopefully when I get in tomorrow my things will be in the new spot and I can put all my goodies back on the walls and shelves.

Now I'm just prattling. I'm back and things are good. I'm going to watch a movie, read, relax, and collapse into bed.

Oh, tomorrow, December 1st, is the five-year anniversary of my and Julia's first date! No way it can be a bad day!

2009-11-24T20:43:00.000-08:00

So, So, So Ready

I leave for home tomorrow after work and I am so ready to get home and be with my girl! I don't actually get in until about 10pm and the next day is Thanksgiving, but even so, it'll be nice to be home and be comfortable. And just be home.

I finally made it to the barber shop after work today to get a haircut. I say finally, because I've been planning to get a haircut for about five days, but always found something else to do. Monday and today I'd planned to go at lunch, but was invited to eat with some co-workers and bonding time is always good. Even if I did look like a shaggy hippie.

Right now I'm doing laundry and as soon as that's done it's time to pack for my trip. I already have a trip to the airport lined up and hopefully I can find someone to come get me Monday morning when I return. We'll see how that goes.

I found out yesterday that Elvis Costello has a talk show on the Sundance Channel and even the few short clips I managed to find online were so interesting and inspiring that I have to see the actual programs. We have the channel on OnDemand, so I'll have to check that this weekend.

Okay, I've nothing else to say.

Except this: Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-22T18:04:00.000-08:00

Relaxing Weekend and a Belated Anniversary

In my last post I mentioned Jim was leaving for a couple of weeks. That means I get to use his car while he's gone and I definitely took advantage of it this weekend!

After work Friday my boss and a number of people from work went over to a hole-in-the-wall meadery (place that makes and sells mead - honey wine for those who don't know). It was likely the oddest bar I've ever been in because it was in, basically, and small two-story office building that looked like part of a high school built in the '70s; all brushed aluminum and glass, but old. No lights outside and nothing to say, "Hey, come drink here!"

So, I tried mead for the first time and it was good. I haven't been drinking much in the last few years and it was actually sort of hard to drink an entire glass of the stuff. It seemed very thick to me, but really, it was the same as any wine. I think the flavor and the smell was just new to me. Anyway, I liked it, but I only had the one drink.

Saturday morning I slept in, had breakfast at the diner, then spent the day going to used bookstores, comic shops, and just sort of enjoying the ability to drive around and do whatever I wanted. It was great. So relaxing and liberating in a weird sort of way. I'd actually set out to go to a Half-Price Books since I have a gift certificate to use, but the one I found online had closed or moved or never actually existed. But the day was far from a failure; I found a couple of books for a total of $10, a couple of comics for another $10, enjoyed looking over the game store shelves, but didn't buy anything, and found a nice place for lunch.

When I returned home I did some editing, ordered a pizza for dinner, and watched some more of the Middleman DVDs one of the guys at work lent me. Great day.

Sunday I slept in again, had breakfast, worked on some notes for a novel I've been trying to write for, oh, I don't know, five years? And I actually came up with some good ideas for it, so I'm happy about that. Then it was time for laundry! So while I was waiting to change loads I played some Dragon Age on my awesome computer. Then at 2:30 I went to see An Education which Julia loved, so I had to see it. I can't say I loved it, but it was very good and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

On the docket after the movie was changing my flight home for Christmas so I arrive a couple of days earlier. That only cost $75. I'd hoped it would be in that price range and feared it would cost more like $200. Dodged a bullet there!

Now I'm going to do something. I'm not sure what. Dinner? Play more Dragon Age? Write? Read? Watch Middleman? One of those for sure, maybe a couple of them.

Oh, and in the title I mentioned a belated anniversary. That was referring to my blog. I started writing here eight years ago on November 15, 2001. I downloaded a copy of my blog and it seems I've written over 300,000 words here over the past 8 years. For the curious, this is post number 902. Wow, huh?

More soon.

2009-11-17T21:31:00.000-08:00

Again!?

Yep, another new post.

Mostly because I was having issues playing videos on the new computer using Internet Explorer and any Google products (Reader and Wave, specifically), so I switched to Google Chrome. I wasn't a big fan last year when I tried it out, so we'll see how it works. Thankfully the changeover already fixed the problem I was having, so I'm happy.

I have to get up early tomorrow to take Jim to the airport. He's headed for a couple of weeks at home and he takes off at about 7:00, so I'll be up by 5:00 or so. Bleh.

That's all for now. I'm going to go read.

2009-11-16T22:50:00.001-08:00

Trying New Things

I'm trying new things tonight!

First, I didn't play Dragon Age, which has been pretty time-consuming over the last couple of weeks.

Second, I did a bunch of Green Ronin emails. That's actually not so new, but I typically save them for the weekend, but I'd received a lot of responses for emails I sent over last weekend, so I thought I'd deal with them right away.

Third, I played around with Google Wave a little bit. Looks interesting. Especially now that I know a few people who have accounts. Most notably Seth, Jason, and a handful of the Green Ronin crew. Wave may prove very useful for some upcoming Green Ronin products in the works right now.

Fourth, I hooked up my new wireless keyboard and mouse -- and I'm using them right now! I picked them up as a packaged set a week or so ago and I could return them only if the package wasn't opened -- and only within 14 days. I just decided over the weekend that I wanted to keep and use them, so now the package is open and they're performing wonderfully. I bought them because the space for my computer is pretty small and the extra wire or two wasn't working so well. Plus, this keyboard is larger and much more comfortable than the one that came with my desktop. Another plus, the set was on sale for a really good price at Office Depot.

Fifth, I'm going to watch the first episode of "The Middle Man" on my computer. So, I'll be watching a show I've never seen before on a computer I've never used to watch a DVD on before. New, new, new!

Sixth, I'm posting something here for the second day in a row! That hasn't happened in forever!

That's about it for now. Time to take out my contacts and watch a show.

2009-11-15T22:16:00.000-08:00

Fast Times

It shouldn't surprise me that the weekend goes quickly when I don't leave work until after 6:30, and am at work for six hours on Saturday. I tried to get ahead on some things at work Saturday, but then I ended up erasing a bunch of work from the day before, so I stopped in hopes that someone could tell me how to revert back to an older copy of what I was working on. We'll see how that goes.

Jim and I walked to work on Friday and on the way home we decided to stop at a little Chinese restaurant we'd seen, but never been to for dinner. It was good. Nice little, hole-in-wall place. It was certainly a nice change of pace from my usual fare.

The portions of Saturday not spent at work were spent playing more Dragon Age on the computer and watching a movie. The day was very short, it seemed.

Sunday, today, I slept in, played more, did laundry, went to see a matinee of the movie 2012, and worked on some things for Green Ronin.

And now my weekend is over.

I'm so looking forward to spending a few days at home with Julia over Thanksgiving.

Okay, time for me to do some more reading for Green Ronin, then relax a bit before bed.

2009-11-11T22:56:00.000-08:00

Killing Time

It's surprising how quickly a week passes. Every time I sit down to write something here I think, "I'll follow that up with another post in the next day or so." And then it's six or seven days later all of a sudden.

I know what the issue is; I don't really have anything too exciting happening in my life. I pretty much get up, go to work, come home and play some games or watch a movie until I go to bed. I don't go out, I don't have Julia here to spend time with or do things around the house, or run errands with, or visit with friends, or whatever. Instead I do the same things every day and every week. Am I bored? No, not really, but I don't really have anything to write about here. Nothing stands out. Nothing important happens. So, I don't have anything to tell you.

On some level I know that's lame. I'm sure most people who read this would like to know about my frustrations at work, the lack of training I've received (and continue to not receive), the fact that things are going well with Jim now sharing the house with me. That's actually made my living situation a lot better. The house seems "lighter" since the last tenant was just an asocial grump. I'm sure even the fact that I've been playing a whole lot of the Dragon Age computer game might be interesting. Oh, and tomorrow night (Thursday) I'm going to run the first session of a new game based on the Song of Ice and Fire novels (for those of you who know what that is).

So, there, that's what's going on with me. Work is challenging. I'm still 1,000 miles from my wife and friends and 2,000 miles from my family. None of this is hard to take, it's just so freaking boring.

Man, what a downer of a post, eh? But that said, I don't want you to think I'm sad, just bored. And the lack of anything really exciting happening in my life means my posts here are few and far between.

Oh! I do have one piece of news! I went to the follow-up meeting with the sleep specialist. I've been using the APAP machine for just over a month now and my sleep apnea has improved greatly. The machine I use has a memory card in it, which the doctor pulled the info off of and he said I went from an average of 41 "blockages" an hour while sleeping down to only 3 per hour (the normal range is between zero and five per hour -- yes, even people without sleep apnea have blockages -- and yes, I mean per hour. I was a bit surprised by that, too). He also said the pressure I need to correct my blockages is pretty low, which is neither good nor bad, just something he remarked on.

There you go. My sleep machine is working fine and happily making me healthier. Woohoo!

More soon, I hope. Really.

2009-11-05T15:14:00.001-08:00

Home Again, Home Again, Home Again

Yep, three days in a row I stayed home. This cold has been sort of a pain and I can't really remember the last time I've stayed home sick for this long.

Admittedly, this isn't the worse cold I've ever had (and thankfully it's not the flu!), but that whole "watery-eye" thing made it really hard to do anything in front of the computer. I didn't feel too terrible, but I definitely sounded it. Mostly I was tired, so I slept each day for a few hours, which is really saying something for me since I don't like napping. Today I woke up around 7:30 and then decided to go to bed at 8:00 and slept until after 9:30. I was surprised I could do that. Usually, once I'm up, I'm up for the day. I could probably take another nap now and I may try after my shower.

Other than that, I haven't been up to much. I left the house Tuesday night to buy a game with Jim. Left the house Wednesday night to get some dinner from Boston Market (oh, comfort food!). And tonight I'm going to go to work to play a game. I'm feeling pretty good right now, so I think that's an okay decision -- and it's only for a couple of hours, so I'll still be in bed early. It's feeling very likely that I'll make it to work tomorrow.

I've been doing some writing for work this afternoon and it's been going very well -- better than at work, actually, but I think that may be because I was starting to get sick last week when I was trying to do this stuff. Anyway, much easier now.

Julia met with the surgeon about her foot and he thinks he can make it all better, which is good, but she may need to be off it for a couple of weeks, which was a bit longer than we'd thought. I'm sure we'll work something out.

Okay, time to shower and nap, I think.

2009-11-03T08:16:00.000-08:00

It's Here

It took over a week, but over the weekend my half-cold turned into a real cold. Then, Monday morning I felt pretty good, so I went to work, did my thing, went hom and almost immediately started to feel really beat up and tired and icky.

This morning when I woke up I felt worse than yesterday, so I decided to stay home and try to beat this thing with some Afrin, Day-Quil, and sleep. We'll see how that goes.

Over the weekend I helped Jim move from his old mother-in-law house he was renting into the room next door to me in the house. I feel even more like I'm in college, but I think it'll be good and a lot more enjoyable. He has quite a bit less space, but I think it's generally more comfortable and useful.

I did absolutely nothing for Halloween. I was invited to a co-worker's party, but I think I was in bed by 9:30 on Saturday night because I was so tired from the cold.

Enough about that. I'm going to get some breakfast and relax and hopefully sleep some more.

2009-10-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

Oh my

I am very tired and fighting off a sore throat that I fear may turn into a full-blown cold before it's done. For that reason I may not type for as long as I need to in order to cover the last week.

I flew home last Thursday evening for a weekend in Seattle and didn't arrive until after ten. This was my first time traveling with the CPAP (sleep apnea) machine and even though it took up a fair amount of room in my bag, I was still able to fit everything into the one carryon.

Friday we had to run to a doctor appointment, which ended up being mostly a waste of time because their computer system was down. The upshot of that was we were given the number of a specialist and a new appointment has already been made.

That afternoon we met up with Julia's mom to go see Where the Wild Things Are. I hadn't read the book when I was a kid, so all I knew was that the monsters were big-headed and, uh, monsterous. The costumes were great, but the story was a bit slow and ultimately didn't do much for me. Maybe it was an excellent retelling of the book, but to me it was only average and slightly creepy. Julia's mom slept through pretty much the whole thing.

That night I spent some time trying to hook up a wireless network for the house, but had no luck. That was a little frustrating so I eventually gave up and spend some time with Julia. That was much better than working on the computer.

Saturday we ended up having a nice lunch with Kevin, Kim, and their daughter Samantha at an Indian place in Bellevue that recently reopened after moving. Over the course of lunch I talked to Kevin about the wireless network I was trying to set up so Julia could use it to watch Netflix on the Xbox 360 and he said he had a piece I needed, so we went to their place. It was a fun visit. Sam is so much more social than I've seen her in the past and she's darn cute and nice. She really liked Julia. Before we left Kevin gave me a couple of things for the Xbox and I borrowed a couple of games I wanted to try out, then we headed home.

Julia'd started to feel a little sick over lunch, so she headed to bed. Which is pretty much where we spent the rest of the day and all of Sunday. I ran out a lot for medicine and food so we could have something around the house, in addition to finally getting the wireless network set up and linked to the Xbox (which was pretty exciting!).

I flew back Monday morning and have been cleaning up some missions at work. Now I'm on a new project, but that's not going so well. A lot of the tech I need isn't working correctly or I don't have the information I need, which isn't fun, but I think it'll get better when my supervisor returns from jury duty.

And, as I said earlier, I'm tired and fighting off a cold. So, I think it's time to read for a few minutes and hit the sack -- even though what I'd really like to do is go play some Champions since we just launched the "Blood Moon" event for Halloween.

Oh, I picked up Slaughterhouse Five tonight at a used book store. I've been wanting to read that for a while now.

I'm done with this now. More soon.

2009-10-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

Work and Stuff

Work ended last week on a high note because I was able to finish the six missions I'd been designing for the last couple of weeks. That's pretty slow, but I didn't (and still don't) have all the training and knowledge I need to create missions that work flawlessly. That's not surprising since someone from my department just stopped by my desk this afternoon to say he's been doing this work since the start of the year and he still asks questions very, very often. There's so much hidden information, it's a bit daunting.

Anyway, my missions were sent to quality assurance and they pointed out a handful or errors which I spent most of today fixing, then we had a playtest and a bunch of people played through them and sent me more fixes and feedback. That's good and all, but it was a bummer to see so many new problems come up. I was hoping these were done and ready to ship, but I think I'll be tweaking all day Thursday to get them in good shape. Bleh.

I'm happy they're basically okay, and everyone thought they were fun, so that's good. Maybe that's enough for my first time through, but I want them to be better. Gah, just a little frustrated, that's all.

I leave tomorrow night for a weekend in Seattle and I'm really looking forward to it. The only things on the schedule are to run an errand on Friday with Julia, stop by a friend's house to pick up a book, and set up a wireless network in the house so we can get the Xbox 360 hooked up to the Internet so we can, in turn, get Netflix t stream videos for Julia on one of the TVs. It's gonna be so cool. If I can figure it all out.

Okay, sleepy. Time to relax and hit the sack.

Oh, and notice: new computer results in (slightly) increased frequency of posts!

2009-10-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

Time Marches On

My oldest nepher turns 18 today. He was born the year I graduated college. At the time I was working in the basement of Pic-a-Book on State Street in the comic/dart store and I was living in CotU. That was the nickname for the apartment I shared with Scott and Steve, or Kevin, or whomever was living there then. CotU was short for the "Center of the Universe," because my very large group of friends always congregated there for gaming, parties, movie-watching (especially MST3K), and pretty much anything else.

All of those friends will feel very old when they read that Jake is now 18.

I spoke with my sister Jean earlier and she can't believe she has an 18-year-old either. "Weird," was how she put it.

For his part, Jake was out on the land behind the family's tractor dealership building a chicken coop. He's wanted chickens since he was a kid and he finally went out and bought some chickens a while ago.

So, happy birthday to Jake! I wish I could be there to celebrate with you.

Right now I have to stop messing around on the computer (which is working wonderfully!) so I can finish my laundry and go into work for a bit.

2009-10-17T19:06:00.001-07:00

Big, Happy, Smiley Face!

This is my first post from my brand new computer! I am so very, very excited! I don't have anything loaded yet, but the Web browser is working, so I thought I'd stop by and make a quick post.

I will post a real update soon.

2009-10-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

Weekly Recap

The Thursday before last I made a trip back to Seattle for the the annual Green Ronin summit. The summit itself was Friday and Saturday, so I was able to spend Thursday night and all day Friday with Julia. I was just home two weeks earlier and somehow it felt like I hadn't even been gone. I can't wait to get back home full-time again.

Friday we spent some time running errands, including the tiniest bit of cleaning at the condo (which is up for rent again, in case any of you are looking for a place in Renton). Then we went shopping to prepare dinner for Shana, Hays, and Lilly (Jen and Hays' baby. Jen was out of town for a wedding.) We've picked up a number of cook books over the past year or two, so we decideed to pick out some recipes to try. We spent all afternoon cooking and here's what we made:

A savory cheesecake with roasted red bell peppers and apricot jam on top. Served with homemade pita chips.

Apple and thyme martinis including homemade thyme simple syrup. (I'm pretty sure it was thyme. I forget my plant names pretty easily.)

A cooked beet dish prepared with lots of garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and ground pepper.

Oven-cooked hamburgers with toasted buns.

Dessert was ice cream.

And let me just say that the food was all awesome! The burgers were a little overdone, which surprised us, but we'd never cooked hamburgers in the oven before, so it was hard to judge. Everyone was pretty impressed. We had such a good time and cooking with Julia was probably the best part.

Saturday morning Julia dropped me off at Green Ronin headquarters so she could take the car for the day. She had a hair appointment that morning. Yes, it's cute and she's lovely. Anyway, I spent the day talking with the Green Ronin folks, planning out the next year of releases, shuffling things around, and generally making some excellent plans. At about six o'clock they all headed out for dinner and Julia came to get me so we could spend the evening together.

Sunday was basically a repeat of the previous day: dropped off, meetings, had a late lunch with the crew, took a group picture, recorded a podcast which will hopefully be appearing soon, and then getting picked up by Julia.

That night we had dinner, I packed for my trip, and we went to bed pretty early because I had to be to the airport by around 5:30 Monday morning.

This week has been very busy between the deadline I was working on at work and the different assignments that came out of the summit. The most pressing things are done now, but work is still pretty busy -- again, mostly because I don't have enough training yet, but things are better day by day.

Jim's car's been acting up pretty badly for about the last week. We've spent a couple of hours waiting for tow trucks and going to the auto shop. That's where the car is now after being fixed and returned to him once already. I know it's been a really big pain for him. I think he'd give up on the car, but he needs it to get to and from work in a reasonable amount of time. Anyway, hopefully that'll be taken care of soon.

Last week, before the trip home, I finally ordered my new home computer. I found a good deal online, talked it over with some of the more computer-savvy people I know and finally took the plunge. It's supposed to arrive in just over a week and I'm very excited. Hopefully I'll get to post a bit more once that's set up. I'm looking forward to it.

Oh, my housemate is leaving as of the end of this month and Jim is thinking of renting that room. I don't know exactly where that stands, but I think it'd be great. The current guy is . . . uptight and actively unfriendly, so any change is good.

I'm off to do some work.

2009-10-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

Stop Snoring

I snore. I also apparently stop breathing while I'm asleep. So, I finally went to the doctor about it and they hooked me up with a sleep monitor a while ago. It was a take-home unit that I used one Friday night a while back and then returned to the clinic.

Yesterday I went to the doctor to get the results. Pretty much everyone, when they sleep, get to the point that their body is so relaxed that their tongue and soft palate slide back and block their airway -- maybe as many as five times and hour. Some people, still in the "normal" range might have it happen up to 15 times an hour. For me, on the night in question, it happened an average of 41 times an hour. So, I officially have sleep apnea and will be getting a device to keep my breathing all night long. Whee!

The other nice part about the device is it'll also keep me from snoring.

I'm waiting for the call to set up a time to go pick up the machine, but I'm not sure when that'll happen.

This is definitely a good thing, since, y'know, I don't want to die in my sleep.

2009-09-28T09:59:00.001-07:00

Let's Talk About The Weather

It's a boring topic, I know, but after this last week I just need to get this out of my system:

It is wrong in so many ways to have 90+ degree weather the last week of September!

Happily, according to the weather sites the temperature is supposed to be in the 70s this week, so that's a welcome relief. I'll certainly sleep better.

That is all.

2009-09-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

Home Again . . . and Again!

This month and last month have been pretty good in terms of seeing Julia. In late July and early August we were together for the wedding and the honeymoon, then she came here at the start of September for her birthday weekend, last weekend I went there for a visit (which I'll get to in a minute), and next weekend I'm headed up there for the annual Green Ronin summit where we discuss the past year and plan for the next, so I'll get to spend some time with her again. After that things slow down a bit, but I already have my October and November trips planned, so that's something.

As for last weekend; I flew out early Thursday and was able to spend a nice evening at home with my girl that night. We ended up haivng dinner and then realizing there were some shows on we wanted to watch, we settled in and relaxed. It was nice. We usually end up doing a lot of running over the course of my weekends home, so that was a nice change of pace.

Friday we spent the day with Julia's mom and dad who were babysitting Julia's neice and nephew by taking them to the Puyallup Fair. They came to our place around 10:00am then we drove to the fair and spent the morning taking the kids on a bunch of rides. Jason's big enough and old enough to go on most of the rides, but he was very sad that he couldn't do the "big" rollercoaster. Madison is still too young to go on most of the rides, but we managed to find a few she could go on -- including the giant slide, which I took her on. I love those things, so it was pretty fun. After lunch we walked around some of the displays and booths, then watched a couple of stage shows. I wanted to see the "Al's Brain" exhibit, so Julia and I went to see that. It was fun, but very crowded, so it was hard to actually walk through and see the whole thing. After a few minutes we were let into the theatre they'd set up and we watched the 3D movie they'd produced. It was funny in the off-kilter way Weird Al usually is, but mostly I appreciated that it was basically a presentation about the brain and how it works presented in a way that kids would actually enjoy and maybe even get interested in. It's definitely not a bad thing to get kids interested in science early, so I give it a definite thumbs up.

We left the fair around 4:00pm, stopped home to pick up our car, then went to her parents' for a dinner. Julia's mom's birthday was the following Tuesday, but this was the day everyone could get together, so the whole family came over to celebrate. They'd just finished expanding the patio outside their back door and that looked really nice and definitely expanded the amount of usable space they have -- or at least made it more comfortable.

Saturday we had to get moving early to set up a joint bank account and run a couple of other errands because I had plans to go see my college buddy John Arrington and his wife for lunch. They were in town for a conference he was presenting at and they were leaving later that day, so this was the last chance to see them. I left a bit late, but then traffic conspired to make me even later, but they were okay with my lateness. We met at a pizza place called Fondi over near the University. It was a football weekend (hence the traffic), so the place was pretty empty while the game was on, so we sat and talked for a good hour and a half, then they headed toward the airport and I stopped at Half-Price Books before going home. In total the trip took me about four hours (two in traffic, bleh), so I'll have to remember there are no "quick trips" into the city especially when my time at home is so limited.

That night we had plans to visit Helga and Freddy, some friends who'd promised Julia some plants for the garden when it was a good time to transplant. The weather had turned enough that the time had come. Their house is very close to ours, so when I say it was a quick trip, I actually mean it. When we arrived we visited with them and their daughter's family before they took off after visiting for the day. In the garden we found about 15 different plants to transplant and Helga dug them up, put them in buckets, and we loaded them in the car. Julia was very excited by what she found. After an episode with the gas heating lamp on the fondue stand (it wasn't a BIG explosion...) we sat down to a dinner of fresh salad and traditional Austrian fondue. We had a great time and since we arrived at 5:00, we were happy to head home by 10:00.

Sunday we ate a nice breakfast out, then spent the day in the garden with a sidetrip to Bellevue for some fresh compost, another stop at Half-Price Books, and a side-trip to Seth's so I could pick up his copy or Batman: Arkham Asylum for the Xbox 360 since everyone at work has been gushing about it. Seth's a good guy.

My trip home wasn't until Monday morning early, so Julia and I were able to really enjoy the day and marvel at what we accomplished in the garden. We planted everything we'd picked up the night before, moved some plants around, mowed the lawn, and generally made things look better. I don't enjoy gardening as much as she does, but I love to watch her enjoying it -- and the yard always looks great afterward.

Monday morning, Jim picked me up from the airport and we went right to work. I'm still learning a lot since the tools are very . . . deep, but it seems to be going well and about 50% of the job is pretty easy to do with only a handful of tools. It's that other 50% that I'm not so familiar with yet.

Tuesday night I ran my D&D game and I'm very happy I changed the format of the game. Even after the second session it's clear things are more fun for everyone and more interesting.

Tyler sent me a starter and two boosters of the new Arcane Legions game. It looks very good and I really want to play. Honestly, the more I see of this game the more I want to play it. I think it's going to be a lot of fun, so check it out if you're into minis games.

Okay, I'm going to get some work done. More soon.

2009-09-13T17:17:00.000-07:00

A Few Updates

I took some pictures of all of the miniatures I've been painting (mostly since I moved to California) and posted them to Flickr. I also posted a relative handful of pictures from last weekend's trip to San Francisco with Julia, so go check them out and enjoy.

Work has been good. I've been spending my time creating three new linked missions for Champions Online and while they're not finished, they're darn close and I could have finished them off this weekend if I actually knew how to use all of the tools at my disposal, but I guess that's what training is for, right?

I've been playing a fair amount of the game I'm working on, which has been fun and very educational. I see the problems and I'm always thinking about how to make it more interesting and fun. And the great thing is that the game is already a lot of fun, so anything I add will only make it better.

Yesterday (Saturday), Jim and I went to Randy's to do some gaming. That was a very good time and I really hope we can maintain the schedule a bit better than we have over the last couple of months. Of course, next week, I'm back in Seattle, so that'll throw things off. Hopefully the rest of them will still get together.

Time for me to go play the game and find some dinner.

2009-09-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

Put a Flower In Your Hair

I've been living in California for six months. I've been living in the greater San Francisco area, about an hour from downtown. And just this past weekend I finally made it into the city.

When I moved here, Julia and I drove down together, spent the weekend in the area I'm living, but didn't explore much beyond a few miles from the house. Since then I've gone back to Seattle for visits, but this past weekend she flew down here to spend her birthday weekend with me. We both thought it'd be fun to head into San Francisco and do some exploring. She found a great hostel in downtown for a pretty reasonable price (less than half of what a hotel would have cost) and we pretty much trolley-carred, bussed, and walked everywhere we wanted to go.

It was very nice to be able to spend some time together, but the city really sort of let us down. Sure, maybe we just didn't know where to go or what to do, but it just didn't have a good vibe for us. The few people I interacted with were either homeless or had a major attitude. (One woman was incredibly offended that I walked through a door she was mindlessly holding open while waiting for a friend and had some nasty words for me. That was just plain weird.) Drivers seemed to honk at everything; light's red? Honk. Pedestrian in the street? Honk. Oxygen in the air? Honk. I've always thought West Coast cities were supposed to be friendlier and less aggressive, but San Francisco apparently didn't get that memo. Based on my first experience there, I'd opt never to venture into the city again.

If anyone has advice, opinions, or ideas that may help improve my feeling about the city and any future experiences I may have there, please let me know.

We picked up a CityPass on Thursday morning and that gave us access to the transit system (which, despite some SNAFUs on our part, was very handy) and included tickets to a number of touristy sites. So, we spent a day at Fisherman's Wharf, took a boat tour around the bay and Alcatraz, and toured the aquarium, which we loved. We also went to the Exploratorium, which did nothing for us for the most part. Tried to go to Sausalito, but had bad directions, so instead we just rode around on the bus for a couple of hours. Toured the Museum of Modern Art and the Comic Art Museum, both of which were very cool and enjoyable. Julia and I both really like Rothko's work and they had an excellent piece at the MOMA. They also had an exhibit of Ansel Adams (meh), O'Keefe (it was great!), and a photographer (who's name I forget), who's collection of portraits was a treat. The CityPass was a good investment since all of those things on their own would have been WAY over what we spent on the passes.

We glimpsed Lombard Street (the crooked street) by trolley car. Had a fantastic breakfast of dim sum at a place in Chinatown where we were literally the only white people in the place -- which is a good sign you're in a good restaurant. We passed through Little Italy, but never had a destination in mind, so we didn't actually stop there. We did want cannoli, but that wasn't a big enough draw.

Other than that we spent time together in our room where we talked, played cards, and read. That part of it was really nice.

Sunday afternoon we took a shuttle out to the San Francisco airport so Julia could catch her flight home and I could catch another shuttle back to the San Jose airport, where Jim picked me up. It was sad to say good-bye to my girl again, but it was nice to get out of the city and back "home."

Maybe I'm not being fair. I mean we did a lot of stuff over the course of the long weekend, but the city just didn't impress us and certainly wouldn't rank anywhere on our list of places to visit again.

I spent today at work catching up on emails, playing Champions Online, and working on some missions for work. I also remembered to call my nephew to wish him a happy birthday. That was nice. He's a good kid.

That's all for now. I hope you all had a nice weekend and Labor Day!

2009-08-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

The Honeymoon, Part VIII

A very sad day.

We had to take care of some things around the rental house first thing in the morning, so we were up before 7:00am to take out the garbage, turn off lights, and lock up the key. Then we packed up the car, headed down the mountain, and stopped for breakfast at Buns in the Sun -- the workers knew who we were by this point and Julia and I still sort of chuckle about that. What can I say? They made good food.

We ate our food in the car on the way to the airport and stopped along the way to refill the gas tank. Once we dropped off the car we took the shuttle to the airport and sat around in the open air. It was much too hot and humid to be enjoyable, but we said our good-byes and then it was time for me to board my plane. (I was headed back to San Jose and Julia was on a later flight to Seattle, so we were splitting up here.)

It was a wonderful week and neither of us wanted it to end.

Our flights back were fine. I managed to move to a seat with more room, which was excellent, and the trip back didn't seem very long at all. I returned before 10:00pm (lost three hours due to the time difference) and Julia called me when she got in just before 11:00pm. So we were both safely home and ready to get back to the hubbub of everyday life even if our heads were still in the clouds.

Love you, baby!

2009-08-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

The Honeymoon, Part VII

Sunday. Big day. August 2nd. It was our last day in Hawaii. The last day of our honeymoon. And it was my 40th birthday. We'd planned the trip so we'd leave on Monday specifically so we could spend my birthday together and to avoid spending it on a plane.

Anyway, we woke up and rolled into our favorite breakfast spot, then drove down the coast to snorkeling at the same bay we were at the day before. I think we arrived even earlier than we had the day before, so parking was even better. We strapped on our swim fins, put on our masks, and dove in.

Since we were in the same place, we pretty much saw all the same things as the day before. Regardless, we still loved it and we were able to do a bit more exploring. The most exciting thing we saw was a big, black eel! Julia spotted it swimming along and pointed it out to me. It was veyr cool to see it smoothly cut it's way through the water and both of us kept expecting it to worm its way into the coral once it found a good spot, but it just kept swimming and swimming until it was out of sight behind an outcropping of coral and we lost it. That was great.

Back on shore after a couple hours of swimming we found an open picnic table, snacked on some of the food we brought, and watched the dolphins swim around in the bay -- much farther out than we were swimming.

You know how easy it is to watch a campfire burn, or watch the waves come into shore, well, it's the same way with watching dolphins swim. It's just very peaceful and calming, but at the same time very interesting, maybe even exciting on some level. Anyway, we sat, chatted, enjoyed our food, and watched the dolphins. Not a bad birthday at all.

The area off to the side of the picnic table had a couple of nice tide pools formed from the uneven terrain of the lava rocks, so we did a little exploring (me in my new aqua-socks!) to look for fish, crabs, and whatever else we could find. It was fun, but I misjudged the depth of the water one time when I was stepping down from a rock -- and I even thought, "I think this is a bad idea" -- but I did it anyway . . . and promptly fell over sideways right onto a nice pyramidal-shaped rock that broke my fall when my lower back hit it. Julia said she looked over and all of a sudden I was sideways. It hurt. I didn't smack my head and somehow managed to avoid landing on anything sharp, so I got up, rubbed my back a little, and hoped I hadn't hurt something that wouldn't show up until later that day or the next. And as it happened, I was fine. I figured out later that I'd actually hit the rock the section of my back just to the right of my spine and low enough that it was mostly just padding from my butt. It smarted a bit, but it was fine.

Back on the picnic table we watched as (I assume) a father and son walked out on the rocks near where we just were. The father was quite a bit older and was holding a weighted net for fishing. They both fanagled the net for a good twenty minutes, getting it so the older man was holding it just so, then he watched the fish swimming in the water and when the time was right he threw the net. Julia and I were both curious about what he'd get and if that was even legal, but as it turned out the net came up empty and the pair walked off probably to try their luck somewhere else.

We also saw a younger Hawaiian boy traipse over to Two Steps with his swimming gear and a spear for spearfishing. We'd heard that wasn't legal, but maybe the native Hawaiians have rights that others don't. I dunno. Anyway, he dove in and we never saw if he came back with anything. Even so, that was interesting to see.

We backed everything into the car again and headed north again, but stopped at a couple of places along the way. First was a "Green Market," which was really just a small farmer's market. It was interesting to see what people had for sale, but we didn't get anything. Oh, we did try some white pineapple, and if you get the chance you should do the same. It was very sweet and tasty, but the best part about it was its lack of acid! Such a nice treat. A bit further along the road we stopped at Bong Brothers Coffee Co. It was a nice little store with all sorts of organic foods and coffees. And oddly enough their shirts are very popular with the stoner crowd, how odd. (The name came from the owners, brothers whose last names were Bong. Really.)

A few times during our trip we'd seen signs for a food called "malasadas" but we'd never seen the actual food or picked them up. We heard they were some kind of "donut-like" thing, so when we saw a streetside stand, we turned around, parked, and picked up a bag. Yep, they're donuts, alright. Tasty little chunks of fried batter coated in sugar and cinnamon.

We'd snacked on a few different things, but they didn't really add up to make a proper lunch, so we stopped at Pizza Hut. I know, lame, but it sounded really good to us and it was. And it was nice and cool inside -- so much so that after a couple of minutes Julia asked me to get her poncho-scarf-thing from the car to keep her warm.

After lunch we dropped off the snorkeling gear at Snorkel Bob's, which was a sad event because it meant no more snorkeling. Then we went home, showered off, napped, and packed for the trip home. We were a bit bored after packing so we drove down the hill to check out the Border's bookstore for a few minutes and followed that up with a trip to a grocery store for something to drink and some cake. And of course, we followed that up with a little reading and sleep.

Yep, pretty good birthday.

2009-08-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Honeymoon, Part VI

We only had Saturday and Sunday left in Hawaii (plus a couple of hours on Monday waiting for the plane), so when we woke up Saturday morning we knew there was only one thing we wanted to do first: breakfast at Buns in the Sun. Like I said, find something good, stick with it.

We were up pretty early and we wanted to go snorkeling again, so after breakfast we drove south to a beach on Pu'uhonua O Honaunau Bay, which is also called Place of Refuge becuase there's a small "fort" there that anyone could claim sanctuary at if they'd broken the law but managed to make it there. We didn't get to the fort, but we saw it across the bay when we arrived. Parking was pretty easy and the "beach" was mostly a field of black, volcanic rock that was mostly flat.

This area is also called "Two Steps" by the natives because there are two big chunks of rock that form steps down into the choppy water. It's a little nervewracking the first time you climb in from there because of the waves, but it's much better than trying to make your way into the water from the jagged rocks everywhere else along the waterfront.

The bay was big and apart from when the waves hit the rocks it was very calm and great for swimming. Which we did for a couple of hours. This was a good place for it, too. Besides the calm waters, the area nearest the shore was easy to navigate and offered some great sections of coral, but as you went farther out the water got deeper very slowly. It was fun to glide through the ocean and look down at a couple different layers of fish, the big boulders of coral and a few sandy sections that made it really easy to spot fish as they swam between you and the white sand below. In a particularly large sandy area someone had set concrete blocks on the bottom spelling out the word "ALOHA" and the coral had already started to grow on it. It sounds like a cheesy thing, but it was cool and surprising to see as we were swimming along.

After we finished snorkeling we headed north on the road and found some lunch at a roadside restaurant called Teshima's. It's been around forever and the food was very good. One thing I noticed right away was a bright Family Circus cartoon framed on the wall. When I asked if it was an original the waitress told me it was and that it was a gift from a regular who knows Bill Keane, so he'd commissioned it for the founder's 100th birthday which was earlier in the year. That was pretty cool to see.

Back on the road we stopped at a little shop with lots of curios and a bakery (called Coffees & Epicurea) where we picked up a handful of postcards which we didn't actually mail until we got home. There was a nice sitting area in back and when we went to check it out we saw a number of geckos running around. That was fun because they're apparently territorial, so you don't see many of them in the same place very often. We spent a couple of minutes finding others and admiring their bright colors. They're very pretty with bright greens and blues and reds.

Then it was nap time, so we headed home so we could read and nap. When we were recovered from our hard day we decided to go see the movie Funny People, which we both enjoyed. Then it was time for ice cream, which meant heading down to the main drag, finding a parking spot and walking along the waterfront. That was a lot of fun because the ocean was really choppy with some pretty sizable swells that had just enough force to send intermittant showers of water over the retaining walls and onto the sidewalk and street. It wasn't dangerous, just surprising and exciting (especially when we first drove by and we were splashed by a well-timed wave).

With ice cream in our bellies and a short walk under our belts we drove home, did some more reading, and then fell asleep.

I hope that sounded like a nice, slow, relaxing day to you, because it definitely was.

2009-08-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

The Honeymoon, Part V

From hereon out our days started to get very similar. We'd found a few things we really enjoyed and sort of kept doing them day after day. You'll have to forgive us if the next couple of days get repetitive, but we were having a ball!

We were up earlier than usual because it was Friday and that meant we had a snorkeling trip planned; on a boat and everything! But first thing's first! We stopped at Buns in the Sun for a quick breakfast, which was excellent! Then we drove south on main highway until we found our exit. That was a bit nerve-wracking because we kept feeling like we were going to far and had somehow missed the turnoff, but we eventually found the exit, drove into a little cul-de-sac, decided that wasn't the right place, so we drove a bit farther and ended up in boat launch area that looked more likely. We parked the car, found the Sea Paradise charter office (and noticed the cul-de-sac we were in just on the other side of a small pocked of beach, so we would have been fine there). We checked in, didn't need to get any snorkeling gear from them because we'd brought our own, and then proceded to wait for a good 45 minutes because the captain of our boat apparently had car problems that morning. That was a little bothersome, but not too much because we had a good time watchign a group of kayakers get organized and into the water. We also watched another group of people leave for their outing.

Finally, our captain showed up and we walked down the pier, threw our shoes in a big storage bin (you know you're going to have a good day when you don't need shoes!), took a seat on the boat, and we were off. The boat was pretty large and the captain quickly pointed out that it could hold 42 people, but we'd apparently picked the right day to go because we only had 13 people. Awesome! So, it was nice and comfortable, with plenty of room to move about and spread out. It was a catamaran, so the front had two big netted sections to lay on. That was cool and Julia and I spent a few minutes up there watching the water go by underneath us -- and getting splashed a bit.

The trip to Kealakekua Bay took about an hour and when we arrived we saw a handful of people snorkeling near the beach and another boat or two that had disgorged their charges a bit farther out into the bay. Our captain found a spot away from everyone else and told us to hop in . . . reminding us it was illegal to pursue and sea turtles or dolphins we might see. He also told us that a pod of spinner dolphins (so named because when they leap out of the water they usually also spin around (not flip, but spin)) used this area to rest, so we might see some. This bay is also where the Captain Cook monument is located. It was built to honor Cook because he meant a lot to the Hawaiians (even though they eventually killed him), and the land the monument sits on still belongs to the British. Funky.

Anyway, we all hopped in with our little tubular floaty things and started swimming about. As opposed to the previous time we went snorkeling, we were in prime coral reef territory and the water was clear, so we could see perfectly. Here's the thing, we didn't see anything out of the ordinary or spectacular, but we loved it! It was beautiful and fun and interesting and refreshing and too damn cool. Julia and I both loved it. We swam together the whole time and made noises at each other through our snorkels and pointed to get the other person to see something or look in a different direction (and the sounds we made usually made us laugh because it wasn't really identifiable as words even though we were talking -- with the snorkels in our mouths). We saw many different types of bright yellow butterfly fish, blue damselfish that scintillated in the sunlight like a rainbow, moorish idols, banded angel fish, little bitty yellow tangs, aptly-named needlefish (usually in threes or fours for some reason), surprisingly large spotted pufferfish with black skin and white polka dots, spikey urchins of various sizes, a single giant green starfish with many, many arms, and a number of other things I don't know the names of.

It was great.

A big tourist boat pulled up near us, so the captain called us in and said we were going to move a bit so we could have a little privacy. Plus, he said, someone had mentioned there were some spinner dolphins spotted just down the coast from us, so we'd see if we could get closer. Just as he completed the thought someone pointed off the bow of the boat and said, "There they are." And sure enough we could see dorsal fins moving through the water roughly in our direction. The pod was split into a few different groups and the moved randomly and calmly most of the time, but every now and again one of the dolphins would jump out of the water and spin in the air as it continued its forward movement which brought is splashing back into the water a second later. We couldn't enter the water while they were so close, so we all watched them and pointed out where the groups were to each other. A couple of times a group was withing a few yards of the boat and we could clearly see the dolphins. There were even a couple of mothers with their babies. And if you like dolphins you can only imagine how cute a baby one is! They really were precious little things.

After a while they moved off and we found a new place to snorkel (all of us hoping the dolphins would come back and swim with us because it's fine if the dolphins come to us, but not if we go to the dolphins). The new place was in the same general area, so we saw pretty much the same things. We were a bit farther out to sea however, so if we swam even a little ways out we could watch the floor of the ocean quickly slant down and away from us and out of sight. That was pretty amazing. Like a giant pit or mouth opening up beneath us. Incredible.

A while later the captain called us back and said it was time to return, so we toweled off, got comfortable, and sat back for the ride home. On the way, the first mate (at least that's what I'll call him since he wasn't the captain and he was the only other person on the boat) told us the story of Captain Cook and why he was respected by the Hawaiians and why they ended up killing him. (Short story: Pick which bay you sail into and the time of year you do it carefully because you'll get very different receptions depending on which god is currently "in power.")

The trip in total took a good five or so hours including the time it took us to drive there and back, maybe even a bit more, so it was early afternoon when we returned. A few hours of swimming is tiring so we decided we were pretty much done for the day. We'd seen a sign for a theatre near the house, so we found that, wrote down a couple movies and movie times, then went home for a nice warm shower -- and to put aloe on Julia's back since it was burned pretty bad after a couple of days in the sun; today especially for some reason.

Once we were showered and aloe'd it was time for a nap! Like I said, swimming makes you tired.

When we woke up we decided to check out the new Target. Yes, Target. Mostly because I wanted to get a Hawaii shirt and I didn't care if it was from a little vendor or not. Plus, I thought some "aqua socks" or flip-flops would be really nice since the sand and rocks could be a bit rough on my delicate little feetsies. Good plan! Target was nice and cool -- and familiar, which is astonishingly comforting for some reason. Anyway, we walked in, felt at home and while I found my shoes and a shirt, Julia started looking through her clothes. Since this was a new Target (literally a week old), they had everything in stock and she found about a dozen items to try on. Anyway, at the end of our little trip, she'd picked out five (or so) outfits and I had my shirt, shoes, and some new sunglasses. It was fun. (Julia even had to send some of her old clothes home with me because they wouldn't fit in her bags once she put the new stuff in!)

We'd decided to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and we had a little time before that started, so we had sushi at a new restaurant (Genki Sushi, a branch of which is in Seattle somewhere apparently), and it was excellent. We really enjoyed it. Then we went to see the movie, which we also both really liked. Afterward we headed back up the mountain to read for a while and then sack out.

More soon!

2009-08-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

The Honeymoon, Part IV

Due to some uncomfortable sunburns we didn't sleep well, so we sort of slept in and lazed a bit. Julia felt a little sick, too, so we took it easy, read a tourist book about the island, ate a bit of cereal, and I finished reading my book (Five Hundred Years After by Steven Brust).

Once we were up and moving in earnest we had a late breakfast at and excellent little bakery/cafe called Buns in the Sun. It was perfect and I think we ate there every remaining morning. Near the bakery was a drug store, so we picked up some aloe skin gel to treat our burns. It felt cold, but goooood.

During the trips we'd made south of the city we'd seen an ethnobotanical garden and decided to check it out. We looked at their gift shop, walked around the garden on the paths (and marveled at the number of geckos there were), and saw a number of interesting native plants, but the bugs kept attacking Julia, so we cleared out quick.

Down the road a bit farther was a turnoff to the painted church we'd read about. It was built in 1899 by Father John Velghe and was his attempt to tell his Hawaiian parishoners the stories of the bible since most of them couldn't read. It was interesting, but what Julia and I liked more than the church were its grounds. They were covered in flowers -- most of which were huge and lovely. We took a number of pictures, some of which you can see in the Flickr badge to the right.

On the way back from the church we stopped for lunch at a place called the Coffee Shack. It looks like a real dive from the outside, but inside it's very nice and comfy, with a nice bakery and a great porch that looks out over the island as it descends down to the ocean. It was warm out, but the porch was cool and there was a wonderful breeze. The food was better than it had a right to be and we were amazed to learn the big tree behind us was an avocado tree. It had to be 80 feet high with avocados that must have hit with quite an impact when they fell. Really amazing.

Still continuing back to the homestead we decided to take a different route and see the home village of the friend of Julia's that recommended the place we were stayng to us. It's a little village called Holualoa and her parents were and are quite active in the art scene there -- so much so that the village is now known for its art galleries and is a well-known destination in the area. Our first stop was the Donkey Mill Art Center (co-founded by Julia's friend's parents) where we looked around, talked to a really nice worker about the center, and took some more pictures of some of the interesting pieces on the grounds. Up the road a bit we stopped at Julia's friend's parents art gallery Sudio 7, which had some great pieces. I can see why it's a well-known place.

A couple of miles down the road we were back to our place where we read (I started a new book, Perdido Street Station by China Mieville) and then napped until 7:00pm. Yikes.

We'd enjoyed dinner so much a couple of nights previously at La Cala that we went back, then sat on the bleachers at the volleyball court next door and watched a couple of games. Then it was time for some ice cream, the drive home, and sleep.

2009-08-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

The Honeymoon, Part III

Day three, Wednesday, we had breakfast down in Kailua at a place called Huggo's On the Rocks (you can see this place on the Travel Channel show called, "Bridget's Sexiest Beaches" in the episode about Hawaii. Sue me, after we returned I found the show and Netflix and enjoyed seeing she went to some of the places we'd gone.) Breakfast was a croissant sandwich for Julia and (my favorite) bagel and lox with capers. Over breakfast we decided to rent some snorkeling gear and then find a good beach to actually do some snorkeling since I'd never been and it'd been a long time for Julia.

Almost right next door to Huggo's was a small building that housed a smoothie shop and Snorkel Bob's Snorkel Shop. And how can you resist a name like that? So, we ducked in, looked around and waited for the clerk to help us. She grabbed some swim fins, body boards to make the swimming easier, masks with snorkels attached, and a small bottle of de-fogger for the masks. Then she asked us if we wanted to book a luau or a full-fledged snorkeling trip. Julia and I looked at each other, asked the prices and then bought both. So, we walked into this place planning to spend maybe $40 and instead spent about ten times that amount. That's salesmanship! Okay, actually, it was because we'd planned to do those things anyway and had no clue that Snorkel Bob's could supply all that fun. And the prices were actually pretty good from what we'd heard and seen around town. So, now we had a luau to attend later in the day and the snorkeling trip on Friday to look forward to.

The clerk also happened to mention that my facial hair will likely make the mask leak, so we hopped back in the convertible Mustang and made a trip back to the house so I could shave. I came out looking all soft and boyish. Julia claims to not have a preference -- although she doesn't like how spikey the hair gets sometimes.

Anyway, based on the clerk's recommendation we made a quick drive north of the city to Honokohau Beach. It was a very short walk from parking to the beach and we were surprised to see we basically had the beach to ourselves. The only other people in the area were two moms and their four little kids. We walked along the beach, which curved out toward the water a bit, set our things down on the beautiful salt-and-pepper sand, and then walked into the water to de-fog our maskes and put them on. Julia was standing about three feet to my left when she put her mask on, looked under water and came up screaming in surprise and pointing. I quickly finished putting my mask on and looked in the water and not a foot from me was a three-foot-diameter sea turtle that we must have interrupted either resting or hunting. He looked at us then turned and started swimming along the beach. I followed for a bit, just to get a good look at him, but I didn't want to bother him too much so I turned back to swim with Julia.

The rest of our snorkeling that day wasn't all that exciting. We saw some fish, including a puffer, some stripey fish, and some small white fish jump out of the water near us -- possibly because the turtle was hunting them. Julia also saw three squid quickly swimming from us, but I missed them. Knowing what I know now, we probalby weren't out far enough to see anything good, but it was a good first attempt and we had a great time. We were there for two or three hours and I didn't know it at the time, but I badly burned my back, so I was feeling a bit charred for the next couple of days.

Swimming always makes me tired in a really pleasant way and we hadn't had lunch yet, so I was dragging a little. We found lunch at the Kona Market, which is a large building with a collection of stands selling various touristy things and a comfortable little food court. The stalls didn't excite us, but the food was good -- especially the ice cream Julia had and the smoothie I had.

After lunch it was time to nap! But first I talked to the owner of the house and mentioned the hot water wasn't hot and she said she must not have turned on the heater, so she did and then we had hot water for the rest of our stay. Woohoo! So, anyway, we read and napped and then got dressed for the luau.

The luau was held at a hotel down on the main drag, so parking was easy, and we walked right in. They had an option whereby you could pay and extra $5 per person to get "preferred seating" which we did, so we had seats right up front, about eight feet from the stage. Considering the overall cost of the tickets and extra $5 was the right choice for such good seats and the chance to get our food first.

The "show" included calling everyone over to watch them pull the roast pig out of the ground where it had cooked in a pit heated by rocks, called an imu (eemu). Then we sat down again and while the staff pulled the pig apart and made it look presentable, the host told us about the history of the luau (literally "celebration") and about some of the foods we were going to eat. Things like lomi lomi, poi (not as bad as you've heard, but strictly speaking not good either), and the pua'a kālua (literally "pig cooked in an underground oven"), plus a few other things like salad, breads, and deserts. When enough time passed, they started calling tables to walk over to the buffet and get their food -- starting with our table!

After the food, which was enjoyable and quite filling, the sun had pretty much set behind the stage and the show started. Thoughout dinner the three-person band had been playing and now they continued, but the host went on stage to introduce the show which would feature a group of dancers who'd be performing various traditional dances from Hawaii and other Polynesian islands. They were all pretty impressive, but what Julia and I thought was most amazing (and really made the show) was that the dancers all seemed really into it. They were having a good time and it didn't feel like they were "just performing another show" which I would have totally understood since they do this show three times a week. Anyway, it was great. There was hula, and fiery swords, and a section where they brought up a bunch of guys from the audience to show them how to dance, and even a portion where they called all the newleweds up for the wedding dance. Julia and I were one of six or eight couples (I forget which) who were there for their honeymoon. Fun.

After about two or three hours the luau wrapped up and we went home to discover just how bad our sunburns were. Bad. So sleep was a little rough, but we pulled through.

More in the next post!

2009-08-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

The Honeymoon, Part II

Because of our shopping trip the night before we had cereal for breakfast and decided to spend the day checking out some of the attractions outside the immediate area, mostly because we were afraid we might not feel like spending much time in the car if we waited a couple of days. I still think that was a good decision.

So, we drove south. Along our route we saw a sign for South Point, the southernmost point in the United States. How could we resist!? So, we took a right and drove another ten miles through wind-blasted countryside with trees misshapen by the wind, horses huddled together against the wind and dust, and some giant windmills until we reached the rocky South Point. The area rests atop 30-40 foot cliffs and the first thing we noticed were the fisherman trying their luck at catching tuna. (At least that's what he said. Who really knows?) The second thing we noticed was a woman in her swimsuit working herself up to diving into the water. The height was definitely hair raising, but she walked up to the edge, pumped her arms a bit, took a few steps back, pumped her arms again, let out a little yell, pumped her arms, then finally jumped off. The few of us standing around were pretty impressed, but I have to admit that I was more impressed by the fact that she then climbed back up a rusty old ladder that had been jury-rigged to the side of the cliff. After that excitement we wandered around, looked at the brilliant blue-green ocean, and then jumped back in the car to continue on our way to Volcanoes National Park. (Follow these links to a Website with a number of nice pictures of the South Point area, including the black sand beach which I talk about a couple paragraphs from now.)

During the trip we had the chance to see some of the flora and fauna of the islands. I'm sure I'll post some pictures of the flowers, but we saw a number of animals, too. I've already mentioned the geckos, but we also saw mongooses which are very cute (apparently quite a blight since they're not native and have no predators, but are quite good predators themselves), wild turkeys, chickens and roosters, and even some endangered Hawaiian geese called nene (pronounced naynay) that like to hang out next to roads, so they unfortunately get hit a lot.

The other interesting thing we saw (during the whole trip) was the evidence of older and newer lava flows. I'm not talking about still-hot lava, but of fields of bare black rock sometimes peppered with plants, sometimes with absolutely nothing, and sometimes almost completely obscured by new growth. It was really fascinating to think the entire chain of islands is like that. We stopped at one place along the way that overlooked one of the big lava fields that stretched from way up and behind us all the way down to the water a couple of miles below. It was pretty amazing.

Continuing along the way we stopped at a black sand beach which had, uh, black sand. The sand was all lava rock that had been reduced to sand by the action of the waves. I was at a red sand beach in Turkey and we learned a couple days after seeing the black sand beach that there's a green sand beach near South Point, but we didn't make the trip. The black sand beach is well-known as a popular place for sea turtles to come and lay their eggs. I can't imagine how cool that would be to see. There were many signs up saying not to interfere with any turtles that might be on the beach or in the water, which was good to see.

We seemed to be in the car forever -- partially because we kept stopping places, but also because the road was twisty and turny much more than straight. Anyway, after all those stops, we made one more in a little village named Pahala where we had a nice lunch at the only diner in town, checked out "The I Love Jesus Store" (that's its name), and an ice cream sandwich from a little store, then we were back on the road. Oh, and somewhere along the way we drove past Jimmy Stewart's ranch, but we didn't learn that until much later.

Finally! we arrived at Volcanoes National Park and we checked out some maps of the area, the plants and animals of the area, history, and such at the "discovery center" where I also picked up a cool magnetic bookmark with a great image of an exploding lava bubble on it. There was a nice little art gallery nearby with some really great pieces of art and various crafts inside. It was clear that not enough people made their way over to the gallery, but it was definitely worth a look. After all of that we made our way over to a building that overlooks the volcano (called the Volcano Cafe, I believe) and looked out into the cauldron. It was a large expanse of black, craggy rocks that surrounded a smaller, but still quite large depression that was black and rocky and craggy and steaming. Yep, Mauna Loa is an active volcano. Or as they comfortingly put it "erupting" and has been "in eruption" for decades. Awesome! Let's stick around here!

So we did. There's a road that leads around the entire mouth and we followed that a little way (not even a mile) so we could tour a lava tube. A lava tube is a geological structure that used to carry lava, but slowly emptied and did so in a way that the walls are rounded, while the floor is relatively flat. The lava tube we made a circut through ranged from six to 18 feet in height and was at the bottom of a small section of rain forest that had grown on top of it, so there was water slowly leaking in. Again, it was definitely worth the walk and very interesting.

We'd seen enough, so we drove out of the park to find a nearby rainforest that was marked on the map. We found the correct road, turned down it and followed it. Let's just say the rainforest didn't really make itself obvious to us. Certainly there was an area with a lot of plants, but not much in the way of water or anything else to give it away as a rainforest. Regardless, we saw some interesting plants and eventually turned around and made our way back to Volcano Town (yes, seriously) to get some gas. Then we drove back to the Kailua/Kona area where we drove down the main drive of Kailua, Alii Drive, and stopped for dinner at La Cala, a very good Mexican place on the second floor of a building right on the water. After dinner we walked around town and on the beach where we saw a sea turtle in a tide pool. He was being tossed around a little bit by the waves, but he was very intent on ferreting out some food he'd found so it didn't seem to bother him. He came up for air a couple of times, but we mostly saw his butt sticking out of the shallow water, so we took some picture of that and called it a night. We were tired from the day of driving, so we went home and slept.

And once again, I guess I'll have to post another day of the honeymoon tomorrow. This was a particularly full day, so maybe I'll be able to get a couple of days done tomorrow.

Check back!

2009-08-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

The Honeymoon, Part I

The wedding was on Sunday, the 26th, and we were up early Monday morning to say good-bye to my mom and sisters, then hop in the car with Julia's dad so he could take us to the airport. He was also nice enough to then turn right around and pick up my mom and sisters and take them to the airport about an hour later.

Anyway, we boarded the plane, had a very nice flight that felt surprisingly short (it's about five hours) and landed in Hawaii on Oahu, I believe. After a short wait, we boarded another plane to Hawaii proper and were in the open-air airport within the hour. We were pretty surprised by the openness of the airport, but it really didn't have any walls (except for the three or four stores).

Julia'd signed us up to receive leis, so we were greeted by a nice woman who gave us the official Hawaii welcome and then placed leis around our necks. Cool.

We'd rented a car and when we were picking it up decided to upgrade from a normal ol' sedan to a convertible Mustang. It was an extra $100, but over the course of the week it definitely proved worthwhile. The island has some truly magnificent scenery and enjoying it with the sun down was fantastic. Actually, I think about ten minutes after with put the top down Julia said, "Oh, yeah, this was a good idea!" Once we had the car we tried to make our way to the house we'd rented. Unfortunately, despite all the preparations we'd made for the wedding, we hadn't even thought about the honeymoon, so we didn't have the address, maps, nothing. After a couple of quick phone calls to people who could access email we at least had the address. Unfortunately that didn't help much. We drove. And drove. And drove. And when we called the woman we were renting from she wasn't much help. Eventually we started paying attention to addresses and it was clear we were way past where we should be; like 20 miles or so. We were pretty tired and annoyed, but we eventually found the place.

What we'd rented was a guest house on a small coffee farm in the Kailua/Kona region (100% Kona coffee!). The house looks like this. As you can see, it's quite nice and very comfortable. The only drawbacks (which we learned over time) were that they hadn't turned on the hot water, so the first couple of showers were a bit chilly. And some geckos had found their way into the cottage. They were kind of cute, but we learned they sort of, um, pooped when they were walking on the walls and ceiling. Now, that's really not too bad since geckos are about the size of your longest finger and their poop looks like bid poop. But, y'know, that's not the most awesome thing to find on the floor, bed, or bookcase. Oh, and we couldn't use the pool. Initially that bothered us, but over the course of the week we found plenty of things to do, so we didn't even miss it.

Once we were settled in the house and had unpacked a bit we decided to head into town to get some dinner. The trip down the mountainside to Kailua took about 15 minutes and we made that trip many, many times over the course of our week. The town was very touristy, but on this first night all we cared about with dinner, which we had at a pub and brewery (where we saw our first gecko!). After dinner we stopped at a nearby grocery store to pick up some supplies for the house. We decided since we had a pretty standard kitchen we ought to take advantage of it by picking up some things to eat -- at least for breakfast. We didn't end up eating everything we bought, but it was definitely nice to have something to drink and snack on during our time there.

After our excursion we returned to the cottage, read our books, and crashed. We thought we were two hours ahead and we didn't figure out until about three days into the trip that we were actually three hours ahead. It wasn't unusual for us to crash at 9:00 or 10:00 in the evening and that made a lot more sense once we figured out that actually meant 12:00 or 1:00 at night.

Day two and most of the days to follow were much more action packed, but I'm going to head home now, so I'll have to type that up tomorrow.

2009-08-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

New Pictures

I was hoping to start typing up a post about the honeymoon tonight, but I ended up having a good, long conversation with Julia instead.

I did, however, manage to put a few new photos from the wedding into Flickr, which you can access over to the right.

Enjoy!

2009-08-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

So, I'm Married!

It's true! Julia and I celebrated out wedding on Sunday, July 26th on the Skansonia at the top of Lake Union. The ceremony started about 12:40 and was over by 1:00 -- just in time for us to get ready for guests who started arriving about 1:30.

Before I get too far, I should say the week before the wedding was very busy with last-minute appointments, cleaning, errands, and picking up friends and family from the airport. Wednesday afternoon my good friend Kerry and his fiance Amy arrived from Madison and Thursday just after noon I picked up my mom and my two sisters. Despite some nervousness on my sisters' parts about the flight and the ability of their children to survive without them for four days they generally seemed in good spirits.

Julia was an invited artist at the Renton Annual Art Show again this year, so we took my sisters to the opening night event on Thursday evening, but the rest of the weekend was a bit more freeform. We'd set aside Friday and Saturday to show them around town since they hadn't been before.

Friday we had breakfast with Mom, Jean and Julia, as well as Kerry and Amy at Lola, one of my and Julia's favorite breakfast places, then took them up in the Space Needle and I learned that my little sister Julie really doesn't like heights, but she was very brace and even walked 3/4ths of the way around the outside with some coaxing -- until our older sister Jean pointed out that the plexiglass only extended part of the way up and stuck her hand over the top. That was it for Julie.

I'll say this for the Space Needle: It may be a touristy and typical thing to do, but damn does it offer some spectacular views of the city. I think I enjoyed it more this second time than I had the first time.

After the Space Needle we all went to Pike Place Market, had some lunch at the Athenian and then spent a couple of hours shopping for fresh fruit and veggies for the rehersal dinner and the post-wedding reception gift opening. We also did a fair amount of shopping just for fun. That evening we had the wedding rehersal at Julia's parents' house, which went off without any problems.

Saturday we had plans to go to the aquarium, but that morphed into a plan to take a ferry out to one of the islands in the sound, but the ferry we wanted was sold out and the only other option would have taken far too long, so we decided to bag that and instead slowly wended our way through traffic over to Bellevue where we window shopped at Bellevue Square Mall which was actually quite fun.

The plan for that evening was to relax together and enjoy a night off before the wedding, so that's exactly what we did with a tasty pizza and some fans blowing to keep us cool.

Sunday was the day of the wedding. Kerry showed up to spend some time with me, taking pictures while I put on my tux and primped (as much as I'm capable of primping), then we hopped in the car and headed to the Skansonia. We left very early because we feared traffic was going to be as bad as the day before, but we made it there about a half hour early.

Once we were let on board at 11:30 we ran around, set up the music, guestbook, favors for the guests (a CD Julia and I made for the occasion and she created the covers for), Julia went upstairs to get changed into her dress (which I still hadn't seen and really didn't know much about), and we generally made things ready for the ceremony. At 12:40 everyone was seated, the music started, and Julia walked down the steps. She was lovely and I can't imagine a more perfect dress for her. (Check out the Flickr badge on the right for a couple of images from the wedding, including some good shots of her and the dress.)

The ceremony itself was short and sweet and afterward we had a quick bite to eat before the guests arrived -- which happened pretty quickly. The reception was short, only 1:30 until 4:30, but in that time we had a very nice luncheon served, toasts from friends and family (gaming friends will be happy to hear that Seth brought props and quoted both from comics and roleplaying games about love and marriage and what I may have learned from them), our first dance which was to "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys, Julia's dance with her father to the song "My Girl", the cake cutting, and then a lot of socializing with friends, family, and new family! It was great and I think everyone had a good time.

I'm expecting a bunch more photos sometime this week and I'll post them once Julia and I have a chance to go through them. I'm excited to see them!

After the reception, Kerry, Amy, Julia, and I stopped for gas (see the photos) then went to Kubora Gardens in Seattle for a photo session. We wandered all over the gardens and found good spots for shots. I just spoke with Kerry earlier today and he said he has about 900 shots, about 500 of which he thinks are pretty good. Woot!

Once we were done with the photos at the park we went to Julia's parents' for a light dinner and gift opening. We were both pretty exhausted, so we were happy when we finally got to go home and relax, do some last-minute packing for Hawaii, and finally go to bed!

Monday morning we were up early and headed off to the airport for our honeymoon! More on that in the next post.

2009-07-22T21:51:00.001-07:00

Running to Stand Still

I returned to Seattle Friday evening and I've been running ever since. Lots of errands to run; tux fitting, get a new driver's license, get the car emissions tested, get some dancing lessons, choose music for the reception, clean up my gaming room to make room for someone to sleep in, pick up gifts, pick up a friend from the airport, etc. etc.

Happily, things are going very well and we haven't hit any snags. Julia and I just returned from our last dance lesson and she's definitely hooked! We may be returning to the studio for some fun in the future!

Okay, time to have some dinner and get ready to pick up my mom and my sisters in the morning. I'm very excited they made the trip and I can't wait to show them around town!

I doubt I'll get a chance to update before the wedding and the honeymoon, but who knows?

Wish me luck and if you're reading this blog, chances are good I'd love to have you at the wedding.

2009-07-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

Home Stretch

This week at work has been crazy. Quickly:

I leave Friday for two weeks for the wedding and honeymoon.
I need to get artists descriptions for about 80 illustrations by Friday.
I received a free lunch voucher at work, but I need to find four other people to go with me. (Work provides these so people in different areas of the company can meet and talk with people they normally wouldn't. I really like the program, so I'd like to do it. Otherwise they might drop it.) So that has to happen Thursday or Friday.
I have to pack up a bunch of stuff to send home since I don't have a large enough suitcase here with me to carry everything I'll need for two weeks away.
I have to ship that package.
Jim had some projects he was working on, but he had to leave town for a family emergency, so those were pushed onto my plate.
And whatever else comes up.

So, yeah, busy week. And I've spent all of today (until 9:00pm) working on the stuff I'm doing for Jim. Thankfully I'll finish that up tomorrow, but two full days lost in my schedule.

I'm really looking forward to going home. Julia and I are both very excited and despite how many things we have to do to be fully prepared for the wedding, we're both feeling good. Okay, maybe a bit overwhelmed. But good.

It's been hot here lately, which means my room has been very hot, so I haven't slept well the past couple of night. Wheee!

Okay, time to get out of here for the night.

2009-07-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

Weekend Alone

Normally Jim's around on the weekends and we have breakfast at a little diner in Los Gatos Saturday mornings and then go to work, but he went with some old friends to Reno this weekend. So, I have his car which is nice, but I'll pretty much be on my own all weekend. I happened to stop by a local game store Friday night and saw they were having a sidewalk sale today, so I looked around there and picked up a couple of magazines for cheap, then had breakfast at the diner next door. Wow, was that bad. The place is nice enough, but the food was not enjoyable. That was a bummer.

Now I'm at the office and I'm going to work on some things that I need to do.

I mentioned in my last post that I'd finished one of the miniatures I bought a couple weeks ago. Well, now I've finished all four of them and they look great! I'm very happy with them. I'm going to go outside in a bit and spray them with sealant/varnish in a couple of minutes. I really need to bring the camera down so I can take pictures and post them. Maybe I'll do that when Julia comes to visit in September.

Our wedding is two weeks from tomorrow! I'm pretty excited about that for a number of reasons; friends and family are coming from out of town for a few days, so we'll get to do some sight-seeing and visiting, then there's the actual wedding and reception, which should be a great time. We only have about 20 people coming to the ceremony and only about 100 people for the reception. That seems like a pretty big number, but I think it's a good size. It's not so many people that we can't have a few minutes with everyone. Plus everyone we've invited is awesome, so how could it not be fun. It's funny though, because even with 100 people at the party, there are so many more friends I would love to have there -- especially all my college-era friends. I'll miss them.

I sent letters to all the families I grew up with in Burlington to tell them about the wedding, Julia, and what's going on in my life a couple of weeks ago. And I've already received a nice reply from my friend Dave's mom. Dave is my friend who was killed in a car accident 17 years ago, so it was good to hear from her. He was my best friend for years and introduced me to gaming, so to say he had a big impact on my life is an understatement.

Bleh, I don't want to write about that anymore. Anyway, it was nice to hear from her and now that I have an email address for her I'm sure we'll talk more.

Okay, time to get some things done.

2009-07-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

As Promised

I nearly forgot to do some writing here, but remembered at the last minute.

The wedding is only three weeks away and I leave for Seattle in only two weeks. My wo-worker, Jim, suggested a "boys' night out" and everyone thought that was a fine idea. So, we're headed out to a Brazilian steakhouse in Palo Alto named Pampas for dinner tomorrow (Friday). It will be the two of us plus a number of co-workers I've become pretty good friends with. Or, if not pretty good friends, then at least very friendly with -- and I do a lot of gaming with them. Regardless, they're good guys and I look forward to eating meat on swords with them. Plus, I've never been to Palo Alto, so I get to see a new part of the city.

Apart from that, things have been fairly low-key. I saved up money ($10 a week) for four weeks and bought a new boxed set of unpainted miniatures. I've already finished one of them and have three more to go. They're excellent for filling my time at home and painting is actually pretty enjoyable. I have to say I never thought I'd paint minis, but there you have it.

As usual, I've been watching lots of movies and TV shows, either streaming or on DVD. I worked my way through all four seasons of Doctor Who and now I'm watching Torchwood.

In the "real life" portion of things; I'm really excited to get home and spend a fair amount of time with Julia. I really miss her and although we have some decent phone conversations, but it's really not the same as being there every day. As if that even needs saying. Anyway, it's pretty hard sometimes, especially on the weekends, to be away from her. I end up feeling pretty bored and lonely on Friday nights, but I manage to keep busy enough over the course of the weekend that it doesn't bother me too much.

Sorry, I'm not actually all maudlin. I just happened to start writing about that.

Julia had her bridal shower this last weekend. Her sister threw it for her and they all had a ball. It was a mix of Julia's friends, including friends she's met through me, and family and friends from her childhood. Her sister or mom (I don't know which) suggested everyone bring a cutting of a plant from their gardens, so Julia could plant then in our garden. We both thought that was a great idea! In addition to the plants, Julia received all sorts of fantastic gifts. She loved every single one and felt very loved. I really wish I could have been the proverbial fly on the wall.

Time for me to make some dinner and get home to watch more Torchwood or play some Magic: The Gathering on Xbox Live.

2009-07-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow

I meant to write something here today, but it was awfully busy, so I'll update tomorrow.

I swear.

2009-06-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

Zombie

It's 8:50pm and I'm still at my desk (and I was here at 8:00am this morning) because I had some work to catch up on. If I had a computer at home I'd be there, but this is just as comfortable (probably moreso). The only drawback is the 35 minute walk home -- and like the headline says, I'm feeling a bit zombiefied. Ugh.

Last week at work was good, but the big news is that I had to pack up my office on Friday so they could move me across the street to the new annex. The company continues to grow pretty aggressively and a number of departments were shuffled to the new buidling to give us all more room. I think it'll work out fiine, but it does kind of stink to be away from the heart of the company.

Since we couldn't be at work this weekend, Jim and I drove down to Santa Cruz on Saturday and spent a couple of hours walking around. There's a nice boardwalk amusement park there. It's free to enter, so we did, and you can buy tickets to ride all the rides, which we didn't. Regardless, it was fun to walk through the park, look at the rides, people-watch, and relax. We also walked on the beach (and saw the ocean down here for the first time). After a couple of hours we hopped back in the car and drove back to the homestead so we could go to Randy and Amy's house for some gaming. We didn't actually do any gaming and instead watched a movie, had dinner, and talked (mostly about gaming) for the evening.

My D&D game is on hold for the time-being due to work deadlines for some of the players, but that's fine with me because the game hasn't been clicking like I want it to. I have to give that some thought, but I won't do it here.

On Thursday I fly home for my regularly scheduled trip home to see Julia. It's only been about a week and a half since my last trip, but this one was scheduled a while ago. Plus, it's really nice to see my girl.

Okay, time to walk home.

2009-06-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

Surprise!

Julia surprised me with a ticket home last weekend, so I took off Friday night and spent the weekend in Seattle with my girl and no plans! We had a great time tooling around town doing whatever the hell we wanted.

Saturday we spent the day checking out rummage sales, plant sales, and cooking some yummy burgers on the grill.

Sunday we bought some things for the garden, then spread 15 bags of red mulch all over the front yard and wow! did it look fantastic. I'm hoping Julia can take some pictures soon.

Now I'm back on Los Gatos and hard at work on the game. It's going well and Jim and I have had a number of good ideas in the past couple of days.

I'd normally be running my D&D game tonight, but it was cancelled due to people being unavailable or just plain tired, so I'm headed home for the evening.

More soon.

2009-05-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

Last Weekend

I posted last Friday about how I wanted to go home and spend some time with my girl and that feeling presisted for pretty much the whole weekend. Normally, I'm all over an extra day off, but not so much last weekend. I had a difficult time filling my time and I felt pretty bored and lonely the whole weekend.

I spent most of my time in my room painting miniatures and watching the first, second, and part of the third season of Heroes (which is much better than I thought it would be based on what everyone is saying about it). And really, you can only do those two things for so long before they sort of become a chore. With no computer access at home I had to walk to work to check email, get online, or work on side projects that require a computer. It's a pain to not be able to run over to the computer and jump online whenever I want. (Of course, I have no one to blame but myself as I still haven't purchased a new computer.)

This week has been normal; work, gaming, all the normal stuff. I just finished up some Green Ronin work, which was good and that seems to be progressing well.

Now it's 8:50pm and I have to walk home and figure out what I'm having for dinner. And considering I have no food at home, that may be a challenge. Then it's time for Heroes again.

Oh, nearly forgot! My grandma's 92nd birthday was Sunday and she just called tonight to thank me for the card I sent and to let me know how much she liked the wedding invitation she received from Julia and I. She's so thrilled and happy for us. That was sweet.

2009-05-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

Home. Now!

I'd really like to be able to leave work and go spend the weekend with my girl. I need some time with her. Just because.

Instead I'll work on one thing or another all weekend and watch some Heroes.

I came up with a really great idea the other day. That's one of the things I need to work on this weekend.

Miss you, Sweetie.

2009-05-16T17:53:00.000-07:00

Lots and Lots!

I woke up at my normal time for a Saturday morning and decided to see if I could find some things I needed.

Driving down the street I saw a sign for a rummage sale, so I found my way to it and found the first item: a folding TV table, actually two of them that I can use to paint minis in my room (instead of sitting in bed, which is really unfortable). I snapped them up for $8.

Then I drove to Goodwill to see if I could find a lamp to use for painting and a new shirt. No luck on the lamp, but I found a new shirt for $4.99.

Then I went to the hobby store to see if I could get a whole mess of cards to use at work for super-cheap. I talked to the guy behind the counter and he said they didn't really have anything, but we talked for a couple of minutes and then he said I could have the remainder of one of his card games for $20! It was a few more cards than I was looking for, but it was perfect! Mission accomplished.

That was all in about 40 minutes this morning. It was great.

This afternoon I spent $12 on a lamp to use while painting, so that process just became a lot more enjoyable. I'll probably spend much of tomorrow (Sunday) painting while my laundry is going. Wheee!

I also listed a bunch of things on eBay, too.

It was nice to get so much done today.

2009-05-15T12:31:00.001-07:00

Time Passes

My last post was made after a visit to the doctor and today was a follow-up with the doctor. Things are good on that front. My diabetes seems under control and he gave me a couple of good suggestions on how to improve things even more.

For some reason, in the last five minutes I'm really missing home and its affecting me right now. I was just home last weekend, which was great, but I've been on my own this week since Jim's back home. Lonely office. Bleh.

Anyway, last weekend was great. Busy, but great. Friday evening we had Julia's family over for a cookout and an evening of talking and video games. Katamari seemed to be the winner for the evening, but Jason really enjoyed LEGO Star Wars. Saturday we went to Seth and Melissa's wedding reception. It was nice to see everyone again at one time and I pretty much got a chance to talk to everyone for at least a few minutes. Apart from those two things, Julia and I entertained ourselves around the house, bought some plants, planted them, and just generally tried to relax together. (We weren't entirely successful since there were a lot of errands to run, too.) Overall it was a really nice weekend.

Next time I go home it'll be about a month before the wedding, so we're trying not to make any plans for that weekend. It'll just be time for us to do what we want. No running around. That should be nice.

Oh, Julia picked up her dress last night. All the alterations are done! And no, I still haven't seen it. She's being a stickler about that. She'll be beautiful, I'm sure.

Wish I were home now.

2009-05-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

Barber-Surgeon

Quick update to say I went to the doctor for the first time in San Jose. I checked out okay, my blood pressure is still a bit on the high side, but not bad (130/84 or 134/80, I forget which). He also took some blood to run an A1C, which will tell us how well I've been controlling my blood sugar levels.

Jim lent me his car for the trip, so on the way back I took the opportunity to get a haircut. I badly needed one and I feel much better now that it's back to the length I like.

In a bit, Jim and I are going to go see the new Wolverine movie. Should be a nice break.

Next week at this time I'll be in Seattle with my girl!

2009-04-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

Downtime and Good News!

So, I don't have a computer at home . . . still. And my time at work is pretty much filled with work. I ought to take time now and again to post updates here, but for some reason I've really fallen out of practice. However, I'm going to try and get back into the swing of things. I mean, I started this to keep people updated on what I was doing when I moved to Seattle and now that I've moved to the SF area, I should probably keep the updates coming so that people know what I'm doing here.

The weekend before last I had a nice dinner with one of the guys from work and his wife. They mentioned they were going to a Cajun restaurant and when I said that sounded good they invited me along. The place was interesting. It's owned by a Vietnamese(?) family, but they cook Cajun food and deliver to your table in plastic bags. Their specialty is crawdads/crayfish. And I think the place is actually named "Crawdaddy's". It was a good night out and it was particularly nice to get out of the three or four locations I'm usually in every day.

This past weekend I spent all day Saturday working on Green Ronin stuff. I made a list of all the non-dayjob things I need to take care of, and GR is at the top of the list. Luckily, many of the other things on the list aren't very time-consuming, they're just things I need to take care of. So far, two things have been crossed off the list and one or two more are almost done. Woohoo.

That's all for now! Things are generally good, but I'm definitely working a lot.

Oh, one last thing! The story that Red Juggernatu hired Robin Laws to write about the world all of our games are set in, Hungerblade, was nominated for an Origins award! That was great to learn the other day. The link takes you to the story, which really is very good.

2009-04-17T17:06:00.001-07:00

Drained

I finished a project today and once it was done I felt completely drained of energy. Kinda burned out. Certainly I've been working a lot and spending much of my time at work, so that's probably the issue.

It's been quite a while since I last posted and many fun things have happened. The best of those is that I flew home last weekend to see Julia! We had a great time and managed to get quite a lot done over the course of the two-and-a-half days I was there. I had to get fitted for my tux, she had an appointment to get her wedding dress worked on, we did some clothes shopping, had a nice dinner with her family (an early Easter dinner on Saturday night because some of the kids couldn't make it on Sunday), and took a spur-of-the-moment trip to a nearby nursery to pick up a couple of plants.

What started as a quick trip to pick up some herbs and ground cover turned into an actual shopping spree and we ended up with what we went there for plus three rose bushes and another largish plant. We spent some of Saturday out in the yard planting what we picked up as well as a few things that we still hadn't gotten into the ground fromwhen we moved here. It was a little rainy, but we had a great time and Julia has been bit hard by the gardening bug again. I hope to see some pictures of our hard work soon. The front and backyard are both looking great.

I was sad to leave again on Sunday, but we had so much fun over the weekend it was hard to complain.

More soon.

2009-04-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

Wedding Day!

Not mine, but Seth's!

I sent him a text message this morning wishing him the best (and he sent a "Thanks" back my way). I really wish I could be there for him, but instead I'm going to try and come back to Seattle for his reception next month. He's been a good, good friend for 16 or17 years now -- ever since we met at Pic-a-Book on State Street in Madison. He came in to buy some comics and a DC Heroes book from me. We got to talking and that was that.

And now he's getting married.

Congrats, my friend! And as the luggage clerk in Joe vs. the Volcano, "May you live to be a thousand years old!"

And I know you know what I mean!

2009-03-14T20:15:00.001-07:00

New Pics!

Julia loaded up the pictures we took on the trip to California, my new living quarters, and my workplace. You can see them over in the Flickr badge on the right.

I've been spending a lot of time at work since I'm not hooked up to the Internet at home and don't really have a way to get around very easily. That's okay, though, since I need to conserve money. And the upside of not having a car is that I've been doing a lot of walking. Jim picked me up and dropped me off a couple of times, but I think I've either walked to and/or from work everyday this week.

I worked a bit today (Saturday) and spent some time getting files moved onto my computer so I can get to work on other projects. I also filled out some paperwork for the new job. It's nice to not have that hanging over my head.

I'm heading out now to walk home. Tomorrow I need to hit the store, do my laundry, and maybe come to work to find something to do. We'll see how it goes.

2009-03-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

Let's See . . .

I haven't posted since mid-/late-last month, so I better have something meaningful to say, huh?

Hate to disappoint, but everything I have to say revolves around my new job and the move.

I flew down to San Francisco to vist the folks at Cryptic about a month ago on a Friday. The interview went well and the trip was pretty easy considering I flew home the same day.

The following Tuesday they made me an offer. I had a few questions for them and I accepted the offer a day or two later. I quickly exited from my job at Microsoft and actually managed to leave everything in a pretty good state there; I finished up some projects and actually managed to get some things shipped out that had been sitting around waiting for me to take care of them.

I had about a week off to organized things around the house, pack, clean, and generally prepare for moving. The time was almost exactly the amount I needed. I had a huge list that I managed to work my way through. Here's some of the list:

Go to the storage unit and return some things, but pick up others to list on eBay.
List 'em and ship 'em.
Tear down boxes in the garage and clean it up. (Looks gooooood, too.)
Sell a bunch of stuff to Half Price Books.
Wash and vacuum the cars.
Meet with tax guy -- and have all the tax stuff ready for him.
Hang curtains. (Which look awesomely awesome!)
Go see the doctor.
Change flat tire on my car and get the flat fixed.
Reserve hotel and car for the trip.
Vacuum the house.
Clean my office. (You can actually close the door to it now!)
Donate some stuff to Goodwill.
Get a haircut.
Get the security system installed in the house.
Do laundry and pack!
Have lunch with my friends!

So, yeah, a few things to take care of -- and that's not even the whole list.

Anyway. Last Thursday (Criminy! A week ago!), Julia and I picked up a rental car from downtown Seattle, loaded it with six or seven boxes of games and books along with a couple of bags of clothes and hit the road. We drove about 10 hours the first day and made it out of Washington, all the way through Oregon, and to Redding, California where we stopped for the night. We'd planned for Thursday to be the bulk of the driving and I think that was a wise choice because it meant we could sleep in on Friday and take our time. We didn't leave Redding until about 11:00am and we made it to my new house between 3 and 4pm.

We quickly moved everything to my room, unpacked, and went out to explore a bit.

I won't go into too much detail about the weekend, but we had a good time. We picked up some things I needed (shampoo, food, etc.) and managed to find a good comic shop (Heroes), a table for my TV, a walking-distance grocery store, my route to work, and a few other places of interest. Oh, and we went to see the Winchester Mystery House and spent some of Sunday at the Campbell Farmer's Market.

It really was a great weekend together and I was very sad to see my girl fly home.

Since then, I've pretty much been reading, walking to work (unless Jim gave me a ride), and working.

More soon, I swear.

2009-02-19T16:54:00.000-08:00

As Promised

Okay, lots has happened lately, so I'll give the broad strokes.

I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and he said I have diabetes and my blood pressure is a bit high. He was also worried that I had a fatty liver, so I scheduled an ultrasound.

That appointment was fine, although the nurse/technician was a bit aggressive with the wands and I think she bruised my ribcage. I was sore for a day or two afterward. But, the good news is that, no, I don't have a fatty liver. Whew.

Julia and I also attended an "Intro" class on diabetes that was very informative. We were both really surprised at how good it was and how much we learned. F'rinstance, we both thought I'd "given" myself diabetes by being inactive and eating too many carbs/sugars, but it turns out I always had diabetes (and always will have it), but it's just recently that it's become a problem and now I need to monitor my blood sugar and take a pill to control it. The good news is that with some changes, I can hopefully get it back under control.

This week and next week we have three more classes to attend that go more in depth on specific parts of dealing with diabetes. Wednesday night was information about "Medical Complications" and next week's classes cover "Nutrition" and "Lifestyle Changes." I'm actually sort of looking forward to them because they've been so interesting.

Okay, in other news . . . last Friday I flew down to interview with Cryptic Studios, the company that made City of Heroes and City of Villains computer games (both of which I loved and played the hell out of). I interviewed with five or six people and then flew home in the evening. Oh, they're located in Los Gatos, California, which is part of the greater San Francisco area.

On Tuesday I heard from them and they extended an offer which I accepted. So, now I have to move to Los Gatos so I can start work on the 9th of March.

Firstly, I never would have gone for the interview if Julia and I hadn't talked about this beforehand and agreed that it was a good opportunity. Given the economy I'm not comfortable (at all) with continuing to work contract positions because I think they might be drying up. So, a full-time job is a good thing right now. And, the other big plus for me is that I'm finally breaking into the computer gaming business, which, despite my time and success as a game designer hasn't been open to me before now. So, this is an investment for me and I'm pretty excited about it.

The only drawback is that Julia is staying here in Seattle. She has her job, family, and we have the new house. And there's no way we're going to try and sell that in the current market. No way. So, we'll be living apart for a while. Luckily my boss is okay with a couple of days working remotely every month, so I should be able to make trips back with some sort of regularity.

Right now I'm spending some time looking for a place to live -- which will likely be a rented room in a house somewhere near work. It will be a spartan existence for me, I think.

Okay, there you go. My life over the past couple of weeks. Exciting, eh?

2009-02-11T17:18:00.001-08:00

Real Quick

I just wanted to let you know that I plan to update again soon. And I actually have some good, cool, and interesting news.

If I'm lucky, I'll get some time to post tonight, but with Lost on, maybe not.

Check back soon.

2009-02-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Not Good

Nothing about today was good.

I went to the doctor, pretty much first thing this morning I had to go in to see the doctor (see last post) so he could give me the results of my lab tests.

The short story is that I have high blood pressure (today's readings were 142/82 and 130/80), diabetes (blood sugar in the 180 range, I think) and the lowest vitamin D levels he's ever seen (4, whatever that means). Oh, and I may have fatty deposits in my liver.

The longer story is that I now have medical conditions that require medication weekly, daily, and twice daily to treat everything. I also have to meet with someone to discuss my diabetes and how I'll need to change things in addition to the medication. Then I have to have an ultrasound on my liver to see if it actually has fatty deposits.

And the end result of all of this is that I'm so angry and disappointed in myself that I can barely stand it. All of my reasons and/or excuses for not working out regularly and all of my crazy cravings for sweets have led me to the worst shape I've ever been in.

So, now, to fix this I'll be walking every day at lunch. That will help to solve all the problems; the exercize will serve to lower my blood sugar and get me into better shape -- and walking at lunch will get me in the sun more often which will help with the vitamin D.

I'll learn more in my meetings, but hopefully the pills won't be around for long.

I'm trying to be positive about all of this, but it's not easy. I'm so disappointed in myself. This is 35 years worth of body, weight, and health issues that have finally come to a head. I don't want to be in this position.

2009-01-28T19:38:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-27T13:58:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

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!