Journal Entry

Meanwhile, our heroes....

Ugh. I thought I was two or three days late on posting. Maybe four. But no. It's worse than that.

I have a sore ankle tonight. That's why I'm not walking right now. Not sure how it happened, but I noticed it walking out to my car after work today.

Work? Work has been awful this week. I'm in all-day meetings all week. Monday I had free (no meetings, that is -- I still had to work a nine-hour day), and Friday I have free free. It's my RDO. It comes on the Friday before a Monday holiday, too, so I'm looking at a four-day weekend (Kris's dinnertime request notwithstanding).

Anyway. Last weekend was a lot of fun. I'm trying to remember back that far. I don't really know what happened last week. I finished reading Calvin and Hobbes, I know that for a fact. And then...I dunno, I had pretty short evenings. I don't remember if I was feeling tired, or if I was busy. Oh! I did play some WoW with Mom and Dad. Most of Tuesday night and most of Thursday, too.

Then Friday night I'd set aside to go help B-- drown his sorrows in some of his expensive whiskey, but he ended up taking a nap or something, so I watched some TV with T-- and then went over to D--'s to check out some cool new video game he'd gotten.

Then Saturday I helped T-- with some chores in the morning, then went over to K-- and N--'s for the afternoon while T-- took AB to one of her Saturday crops. I introduced K-- to my favorite new game, Overlord, and watched him play for five hours or so. It's that sort of a game. It's fun and funny. Apparently at some point it gets challenging, but I'm not really there yet. It's quite unique, though, and I enjoy that.

Then at 6:00 we headed to B-- and E--'s for their long-awaited housewarming party! It was worth the wait, too. I may have mentioned before, but they have done a TON of work on their house since they got it. N-- mentioned that she was jealous of it. I can't blame her. They've made a really cool home.

E-- decided to pick up some meat for the guys to grill (we made it a team effort, too, all four of us out on the patio giving B-- instructions). So we had hamburgers and hotdogs and chicken and all manner of grilled vegetables. There were also two cheesecakes courtesy N--, and chardonnay champagne to boot. We all had a really good time, got thoroughly smashed, and discussed very private matters in a public sort of way, into the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday, somehow, I made it to church. Got three pages of "Royal Holiday" written during the sermon, then picked up D-- for some lunch at Schlotzky's. He'd left his car at B--'s place (N-- drove us all home), so he needed a ride to pick it up. We took him to lunch, then came back to the house to pack up a few baby things that we're loaning to B-- and E--, and then we went over there (and, yeah, woke B-- up for our short visit). I introduced HIM to Overlord, too, and dropped off the stuff, and we chatted for a bit before he chased us out of his house so he could get back to sleep.

That evening, we met K-- and N-- for dinner at Casablanca American Grill, a new-ish restaurant here in town, and had some delicious dinner. I'd been meaning to take T-- on a date, and she picked the place. I had my filet mignon for the year, and it was well worth it. Yumm.

Afterward, we went to their place to watch some Psych, and then finally got home 9-ish. I don't remember if I walked or not. For most of the last week, I didn't.

Monday, I spent most of the day honing my programming skills. Specifically, I wrote a script to cheat at a really cheesy, free, multiplayer web-based flash game that I'd encountered while at work on the previous Friday. Over the weekend, K-- and I were discussing that "we" had figured out how to control HTML objects from within a Python script, and I was forced to point out that it was all him.

So I took some of his sample code on Monday, read through it and modified it until I understood what was going on, and used this cheesy little online game as a project to learn through. It's been a blazing success, too. I'm tearing up. I'm more excited about the skills I picked up, though. Web-manipulation through Python is terribly useful. If you can't immediately guess why, you'll probably just have to trust me on that.

Monday night, T-- didn't feel like cooking and I didn't feel like eating leftovers. I suggested P. F. Chang's. She went out and picked up a cheap but amazingly good pizza from Mazzio's for dinner. It was good. Sometime later, D-- and I went for a walk together.

Tuesday, yesterday, was my first all-day meeting. It was just awful. Basically, it has nothing to do with me, so I have to just sit in the meeting all day, nine hours straight (with a thirty-minute lunch break in the middle), and listen to engineers argue about things that aren't going to change. About a year from now I'll be responsible for maintaining the documentation that will be generated after this meeting is over, but I can tell you for a fact that almost nothing discussed in these meetings will have any impact on the product I receive. Ugh.

So, yeah, I didn't enjoy yesterday at work, or today, and I won't enjoy tomorrow. But I get Friday off. So that's good.

Yesterday I came home in a bad mood, and T-- asked me why, and I told her all about my meeting and then I felt a little better. Then I played with AB for a while, and she giggled for me (finally), and then I felt a little better. Then D-- came over and we finally had a leftovers night, finishing off some of the food in our fridge (which was way better than "leftovers night" makes it sound). D-- had hurt his knee somehow, so he skipped out on our walk, so I went to the office to pay our bills and play Overlord instead of going by myself.

Then today, well, same as yesterday at work, but about halfway through the day I decided what I wanted to do for dinner. We often get together with K-- and N-- (and usually D--, too) for Wednesday night dinners, because K-- and N-- go to the church right next to our house, so it's convenient. But, we have to find somewhere pretty quick and pretty close, because the earliest they can get over to this part of town is 5:45, and church is at 7:00. We've generally gone somewhere Mexican.

But, as I may have said more than once, I've been craving Changs for a week, so when I got out of meetings at 4:40 today I called everyone involved (including B-- and E--, but B--'s in Dallas for some reason, so couldn't make it), and told them instead of going to some Mexican place, they should head to my house. Then I went and picked up a bunch of Changs and brought it back to the house for everybody. The timing was almost perfect, and the food was SO good. Then I prevailed upon all to hang out at my place and watch a movie (Blades of Glory), which turned out to be hugely fun. We laughed and had a good time.

So...yeah, today has been a really good day. Really, all week I've managed to have good enough evenings to make up for just awful days. Tomorrow's looking encouraging, too, because there's a Cowboys/Vikings preseason game, and then no work to follow. If I can just make it through the day, I'll be in really good shape.

Anyway, sorry for the long silence. I hope everyone's doing well. I'm off to kill a few unicorns, and then I'm heading to bed.

Journal Entry

Same story as yesterday, really. Had a sore back, went to work, wrote a couple pages on "Royal Holiday" over lunch.

When I got home, I played with AB a bit until T-- made supper, and then I called my dad to see if he and Mom wanted some help in WoW. Turns out, they were both in the midst of a pretty busy evening, but he got free around 8:45, so I ran his character around Hellfire Plateau instead of going for my walk. In the process, I got his character caught up with Mom's, so they'll be able to play together more easily. So I consider that a good deed done.

While I was waiting for him to get available, though, I dug out an old, broken wireless keyboard, dismantled it (by which I mean, removed all the keys), cleaned it and all the keys (which were pretty filthy), and then reassembled it for AB to use as a toy. I did the numpad and some of the function keys by myself, and ended up popping a key off, hard, right into my eye. It hurt! So after that, T-- kindly volunteered to help out, probably mostly to keep an eye on me. Between us we were able to get the whole keyboard finished during an episode of Jim, though, so that was fun. AB loves it, too. She just bangs on it with both hands, as hard as she can. I don't think she quite gets human interface devices yet, but you're never too young to start learning. That's what I always say.

Anyway, that and then WoW, and now I've got to feed the cats, then I'm off to bed.

Poor Trish

Journal Entry

Is it really only Monday? Ugh. I've got get that best-seller sold.

Today went pretty well. I think I'm finally feeling better. I did have a sore back from scooping water yesterday, and we had several awful things come up at work, but they were just things, y'know? I got two pages written on "Royal Holiday" (that one's turning into a novella), and I read some Calvin and Hobbes, and by the time I got home I was able to forget work, so those are all good things.

T-- made chicken parmesan and spaghetti for dinner, which was delicious, and we played with AB some, and I played some Civ and put the door back up over the cabinet under the kitchen sink, and then we both read while eating ice cream, and then I headed over to D--'s for our walk.

Only, he didn't really feel like walking after going to the gym tonight, and it was muggy enough that I was easily convinced to skip most of my walk (I still had half a mile walk there and back again), and instead I watched him play Civ for half an hour. That was fun. He started a war and lost it, and his economy went to pot. Poor guy. "That's what you get for trying to play Civilization as the Native Americans," I told him (only with more racial slurs, probably). And then I went home.

An odd sort of day. I didn't really accomplish anything. But I'm feeling better, so that's got to be a good thing.

Off to bed.

Journal Entry

I don't know why I have so much trouble updating over the weekend. Maybe it feels like work, and I'm just convinced I shouldn't have to work on weekends (in spite of much evidence to the contrary). Anyway, here's the weekend's posts.

Friday, August 17th
Friday was my RDO. I planned to take full advantage of that (read: sleeping in), but somehow didn't. I stayed up late Thursday night (probably playing Civ, but I don't remember for sure), then woke up around 9:00 on Friday morning. So, yeah, technically I slept in (I normally wake up at 6:00 for work), but when I think "sleep in," I'm thinking noon. It's not a non-specific designation, as far as I'm concerned. It means "not waking up in the ante meridian," plain and simple.

Anyway, yeah, woke up at nine, and I was kinda thinking that if I helped T-- out with some housework on Friday, good karma would kick in and I wouldn't have to do any chores for the rest of the weekend. So I vacuumed the whole house before T-- got home from walking AB, and then I took out all the trash (including the diaper pail, so that actually counts). After that, I did nothing useful for the rest of the day, so karma didn't really take me all that seriously.

I'm really not sure what I did with my afternoon. I read some and did some stuff on the computer, and played with the baby and talked with T--, and the day just sort of melted away. It was a pleasant one, though. T-- made some really good sandwiches for lunch, and we already had plans in the works for pizza for dinner. She'd been seeing tantalizing ads on TV all week, so how could we resist?

So, when evening finally rolled around, we ordered some pizza from Pizza Hut and tried to watch a movie. The guy at Blockbuster really recommended I Think I Love My Wife as a hilarious comedy, but ten minutes in we decided to turn it off. It wasn't funny. Have you ever seen Bye Bye Love, with Paul Reiser? Yeah.

So we turned that off, and started Wild Hogs, and then heard back from B-- and E-- who we'd invited over (and who sounded like they were having a real hell of a day), and it turned out they could come over after all (yay!), and seconds after that phone call the XBox glitched (that's our story), and instead of resuming the movie where we were, we waited for B-- and E-- to get there and we started it over.

D-- saw it a long time before we did, and said it was mostly hilarious to middle-aged people. While we were watching it, about a third of the way in, B-- said, "So, this is basically City Slickers, no?" Basically, yes. It was good though. Easy fun. Easy laughs. We had a good time, and then we talked for a long time before they headed home. It was a fun night. I love it when those two can come over.

After that...well, I went to my office to play Civ, and T-- went to bed.

Saturday, August 18th
AB turned six months old. We didn't have a party or anything, but the fact got mentioned more than once this weekend, so I'll throw it in. A short paragraph doesn't really cost me anything.

Saturday morning I woke up je ne said quand, and pretty much immediately headed outside to mow. At that point, it was eight days since I'd mowed last, and such dry days that I was thinking I could probably skip it, but I had the whole day free so I might as well get it done. Ten minutes in, I felt a couple sprinkles and thought maybe I should quit. It didn't rain, though. It was brutally muggy, but it didn't rain. Not while I was mowing.

A little later, I got cleaned up and then when I came into the living room (10-ish), T-- suggested that we invite K-- and N-- over for lunch. That sounded fun, and we ended up eating with them around noon and socializing until two-ish, then they went home to take care of some stuff before coming back a little before five. I probably spent the whole afternoon on the computer, though I may have read some.

At some point in there it started raining, full-on storming, and I discovered it was a really good thing I'd mowed. I hear we got four inches of rain in just a few hours. No big deal, at least at the time, but it kept raining all evening and became a major storm sometime in the night.

The thing at five was one T-- has been planning for a little over a week. She invited all her girl friends to go out for the evening. I think only three were able to make it. N-- was one of them, and she dropped K-- off at my place to watch the second Cowboys preseason game while they were at the movie (they went to dinner, then shopped at the mall some, then went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix again). We had AB.

K-- brought some steaks with him, and the makings for Tattoo and Redbulls, so we had the stuffs for a party. We also had two hours until the game began, so I suggested watching the Chris Rock movie again in the hopes that it would turn out to be funny. It didn't. Bye Bye Love, seriously. It was brutal. It had a happy ending, eventually, but it was never anywhere close to a comedy.

Also, my nerves were worn a bit by AB, who skipped her 6:30 nap entirely, opting to spend that hour crying instead of sleeping, no matter what I did to calm her. She finally went down around 8:30, and that gave us a little under two hours to watch the game without her screaming.

Anyway, it was a good game (Cowboys are looking really good for this season -- I'm optimistic), and K-- and I had some time to talk, which was pretty cool. We also had an awful lot of salsa which went uneaten, because nobody came by with chips. But, then, that just means it's still available, and the invitation is an open one. I'm just saying, is all.

But, yeah, we played the last quarter at double-speed on the TiVo while the girls told us about their evening, and then K-- and N-- went home and, if I remember correctly, I went to my office to play Civ, and T-- went to bed.

Sunday, August 19th
I woke up this morning at 6:40 and 7:15 and 8:00 and 9:30, and since church is at 10:30 I finally got up around 9:45. We had some wild storms last night. I don't remember exactly when it was, but I remember lying in bed with the sheets up over my head, listening to the howling wind and just waiting for it to break out the windows. It never did, though, and by dawn the rain was mostly gone.

When we marched out to the car to head to church, I was just putting AB in her carseat in the back when T-- looked over the top of the Honda to our stupid old Saturn and said, "Oh, shoot!" The windows were cracked, to relieve a bit of the brutal heat we'd had for the least three weeks or so, and when we looked inside the car it had several inches of standing water in the floorboards. Yuck.

There was nothing for it at the time, though. We went to church, and K-- and N-- didn't make it (N-- had a headache), so we just went home for lunch which left us with a weirdly-early afternoon. We almost always go to lunch with them on Sundays, so we ate some chicken and veggies that T-- cooked up, and found ourselves home and fed more than an hour earlier than usual. It threw us both off our games.

I decided to spend the hour fixing a drip in our guest bathtub, and spent an hour and a half trying to get the cold water knob removed. I never managed it, either. I know how to remove a cold water knob from a bathtub faucet, this one just didn't work right. I researched it on the internet. I called my parents. I banged on it with a hammer and pried at it with a crowbar. It just wouldn't come off. So I gave up, put everything back together as it had been, turned the water back on (slow drip and all), and put all my stuff away, and chalked the whole thing up as two hours wasted.

Sometime in there, T-- took our shopvac out and completely cleaned out the water in the Saturn, and even vacuumed the Honda just for cleanliness. Jeez. It looks really nice now, though.

Around 6:00 we went over to K-- and N--'s for pizza and Psych, which was a ton of fun. While I was there, I missed a call from D-- on his way home from Wichita, so after we got home (and T-- and I each had a bowl of ice cream and we watched another episode of Psych together), I got back in touch with D-- and we went for a walk.

I keep trying to think of a non-gay way to say, "we went to D--'s apartment and had a bottle of wine and talked." Turns out, there's not one. But we did that (and nothing else), and it was a lot of fun. Then I came home, drank a cold glass of water, and wrote an ass-long blog post. And now, exhausted, I'm going to bed.

Watch Stranger than Fiction, if you haven't. Read The Three Musketeers and all of Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber if you haven't. You'll be glad you did. I'm going to bed.

(237.0)

Journal Entry

Today was unlike yesterday. I made it in to work on time, spent the day working on profitable things (albeit work-related), and then went home.

I stopped by B-- and E--'s on the way home to pick up AB, because T-- was working in Tulsa. I got to chat with them for a while, which is always fun (even if B--'s still reporting sad tidings from work). After that, I met D--, K-- and N-- at Taco Cabana for dinner. It was fun, in a social sort of way. AB got hold of a cup of queso and spilled it all over my jeans, but whatcha gonna do? She's just a little baby.

I did get a couple pictures uploaded to my MySpace at work. I also got several pages typed up for "Royal Holiday," although I didn't compose anything new. I think I've got it written up to the part where it gets interesting, though, so if I ever get started on it, I'll probably go right through to the end.

After dinner, I got some fajitas to go and took them home to T--, who was happier to see her baby than the delicious fajitas I brought. Fair enough, I guess. She ate while we watched some Jim, and then I took care of some business on the computer and read some Anansi Boys while waiting for D-- to show up. We went for a walk just now, and had some good talks. We'll have to see if anything comes of it.

Maybe I'm ready to start reading again. Harry Potter hit the spot, and now I've picked up one that's been on my recommended reading list for two years (and when the book is given to you as a gift, along with the recommendation, that's some pressure right there), and I'm really enjoying that one. So we'll see.

Back to that again. I don't really trust myself to follow through on things. It'd be fair to say I don't really decide what I'll do. I'm just like a character in one of my stories. I've developed an interesting personality (you know, from my point of view), and then I just put myself in situations and watch to see what happens....

That's a really admirable ability in a created character. Not so much in a human being. Alas.

Journal Entry

Woke up late this morning, and the whole day went that way. I've felt like I was running behind ever since I got up.

I spent most of the day at work wrestling with silly little thing. N-- got us some tickets to an OU game through her work, so that should be fun. Then I met T-- for lunch at Rib Crib.

When I got home, I played with AB for a while, which was a lot of fun. I also flipped through one of my old scribblebooks, and picked out a dozen old pencil drawings I did that I'd like to preserve. I'm going to try to figure out how to work our scanner, then see how much time I want to waste in Photoshop trying to make them look right. Given my proficiency with the graphic arts, that'll probably end up being a lot of time, and they still won't look right. Alas.

My favorite of all my drawings is, "My First Mob Hit." If I can just get a good scan of that one, I'll be satisfied. I have a couple others that some friends have complimented, but that's the only one that holds dear meaning, close to my heart. Well...that, and the one with the coring knife chopping off some dude's thumb....

Oh, and the Heroes of Might and Magic-style beholder preaching at Levy Church of Christ. That one makes me giggle.

Anyway, had some dinner, ran to Blockbuster (Wild Hogs and Chris Rock's I Think I Love My Wife, which I've heard is really good), and then spent some time watching According to Jim. I'm probably going to go read, now, and skip my walk. So what! I can skip my walk if I want to. Okay, fine, I'll walk! 'Night.

Journal Entry

Nothing terribly exciting to report for the day. I considered some fun ideas for the story I mentioned last night, but I didn't do any writing on it.

Actually, I've remarked before on a recent difficulty motivating myself to write, and that persists. I've been able to commit a handful more pages of the Auric-meets-Queen-Sera story to paper in my scribblebook, but I can't even make the time to type that up. That's more than a little frustrating.

Anyway, I spent most of today at work working on work, but I did leave to have lunch with D--, which ended up not really happening because he got caught in some errands (not that I begrudge him that). But I ended up eating a burger at Coits, and then after I was done he showed up and we talked for a few before I had to head back to work.

I spent most of the afternoon fighting nodding off at my desk. I don't know why, but I just felt extraordinarily lethargic there. I was falling asleep at the wheel on my drive home, and then had a pounding headache by the time I got into the house. Then AB was fussing and T-- needed help making dinner, and I didn't really get to take a nap until around 7:00, and I wasted that one by taking it on the couch. I never get good rest on the couch.

So, a frustrating evening, really, and I'm sure T-- could have used more help than I gave her, so probably frustrating all around. D-- came by around 8:30, and we went for our walk a little early. We spent the whole time talking shop (writing stuff, I mean), and then I just got home. Going to get another DVD burning, and then I'm off to sleep.

(237.4)

Journal Entry

Hmmm. I had a media-heavy weekend.....

Saturday, August 11th
As mentioned, I was up late Friday night reading Harry Potter. I woke up around 11:00 Saturday morning, only to be told we had to be at T--'s brother's place for lunch at noon. So I got cleaned up, and read another chapter of the book.

We went over to Matt's place, and had brats and hotdogs. The kitten we gave them a couple months ago was running around, and he's become a pretty fun little animal. The kids are all doing good, got to see Matt and Chris, had a good lunch and spent a lot of time talking. Then we checked out the old Jeep Matt is rebuilding, which is a pretty cool project. After that, John and I went to see The Bourne Ultimatum.

I wasn't really excited about that movie when I heard it was coming out (mostly because Supremacy was something of a snoozer), but for the last week or so I've been hearing a lot of people say how excited they were to see it, and getting really good reviews from people who had, so when John asked if I was interested, I said sure.

After leaving Matt's, we had a little time before the movie so we stopped by a model car shop (John collects some of them), and while I followed him around the shop I saw an old Camaro, and for the first time in my life I got it. I was all, "Oh, Camaros used to be cool." I'd never seen one before that that came close.

Anyway, the movie was awesome. Fantastic action flick. I recommend it highly, for anyone and everyone. Make sure to watch The Bourne Identity first. Supremacy is optional. If you've seen the first movie, you can pretty much assume everything that happens in the second movie, and save yourself two hours.

After the movie, we went back home and John made steaks. He just got his first gas grill (to my knowledge) when they bought the new house, and this is the second time he's made us steaks on it. He keeps asking for my advice, but he already does a better job getting everything to the desired done-ness than I've ever managed, so good for him. The steaks, by the way, were excellent.

Then we went downstairs to watch some TV, and I was making an effort to be friendly and social, but the book was just lying right there. In easy reach. Looking at me.

So, y'know, during a commercial break or whatever I picked it up, and just sort of started flipping through the pages, and next thing you know, it's one in the morning and I'm turning the last page.

So, basically, that's my Saturday.

Sunday, August 12th
Sunday morning we had plans to go to Westlink for church -- that's the one in west Wichita where T-- and I met (and D-- and I for that matter, and Julie, Julie, and...well, half of the people reading this blog). It's where I attended for the six years I lived in Kansas.

Anyway, of all my old friends, only Vicki nee Linnell still goes there. Everybody's parents still go there, but that's not quite the same thing. It was weird, though. T--'s parents came with us, and we got stopped just inside the door by a greeter who recognized the Charbs even though they hadn't been there for over a decade (T-- and I have been back to visit more often than that). But, while we were caught in the entry, classes apparently let out, and it seemed like 3 out of 4 of the people walking past recognized one or all of us and came over to say hi. It was an outpouring of welcome and hospitality. It made my skin crawl.

But, yeah, everyone was really friendly and so excited to see all of us. We showed off the baby some, had an interesting service, and then Vicki and her husband Dan came to lunch with us at Chilis. After that, we went back to the house and pretty much started packing right away, because I had plans with D-- in OKC Sunday evening. (Evening, I said, not afternoon -- okay?)

The drive went pretty well. I came up with a story idea Suday morning and spent a couple hours developing it, then discussed it with T-- on the drive home. That's always a good time for talking, y'know? Anyway, I'm hoping to develop the idea into a short story within the next month, and that short story can serve as sufficient summary of the basic idea to hold it for me until I get time to develop it into a novel. Should be fun.

We got home around 5:30, unpacked the car, watched some Jim and had sandwiches, and then at 7:00 I headed to the mall to meet D-- and K-- and N--. I tried to invite B-- and E--, but phones failed us and by the time I got through, I didn't have sufficient time left to do all the necessary wheedling and convincing. Also, it wouldn't've done any good. Poor B-- is getting hammered with work stuff. That's got to stop!

Anyway. Anyway. Back to the point. We went to see Stardust, which was awesome. It's like Big Fish, if Big Fish were a happy movie. I loved it. Highly rewatchable. Very good story. I had a great time.

Then D-- and I went for a walk around the neighborhood, and I ran my new story idea by him, and we ended up going to his apartment to try out a new bottle of chianti, and finish the conversation. I ended up getting home a little after eleven, and I was too tired to make my blog post. Sorry about that.

Harry Potter and the Deathly et cetera

Well...

That's that done, then.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Y'know, I kept telling people I wasn't really that excited about Harry Potter anymore. And I really meant it. I couldn't explain it, but somehow as all the hype about the final book built up, I really just didn't care.

I got done with WoW around...oh, I dunno, whenever I made my last post, and then AB was fussing instead of staying asleep, so I sat up with her a little bit, and read the story some, and before 1:00 she was sound asleep.

Anyway, long story short, I'm on chapter fourteen now, and only going to bed because I have to. So, I'd say I'm caught up in it again.

Journal Entry

Big news for today is that I'm posting blogs on MySpace and Facebook now. I actually created accounts on both of those sites in order to search for E--'s blog, which ended up being on Blogger. So, in its way, a big waste of time.

I probably do have enough friends from days long gone, who could track me down through one of these blogging sites if they wanted, that it could be worthwhile. Y'know, in its way. Creepily, or whatever. I did a little bit of mini-stalking today, finding out who's where, but nothing too serious. I found most of the names I was looking for, really, with the sad exception of Michael Stohr. Really wish I knew where he was now. I might even send him an email, if I found him.

Anyway, it's one of those, "I just saw Heat" sort of things. I signed up for MySpace and FaceBook and, would you believe it, they're full of people I knew in my distant past and lost contact with! Yeah, yeah, I won't go on anymore.

I'm going to try to cross-post all my blogs. Maybe just this one, actually. We'll see how much work that is, and if I can trick Python into doing it for me. Chances are good I'll end up giving up on that, but it might be fun for a while.

Oh! Also, I did find E--'s blog, which is entirely in French (for some strange reason), and I was
delighted to learn that I can tell what she's saying almost all the time. I didn't realize my French was still up to that level. So, yay. I read backward a couple weeks. I was going to give a couple examples of things that I couldn't translate right away, but I worked them out later in context, and, as she's pregnant, they both happen to be pretty embarassing things, which she's probably only blogging about because, y'know, it's in French and no one can understand it.

So I'll keep that to myself. She's a pretty good writer, though. I'm impressed.

After work, T-- and I packed the car pretty quickly, stopped by S--'s to grab a travel-crib for AB, then hit the road for glorious Wichita. Better trip than usual, because T-- spent it reading Harry Potter to me. Book 7, that is. We got through three chapters, which was pretty good with her also taking care of the baby.

About 8:00 we got into Haysville and checked in with the in-laws. Then I had about half an hour to set up my computer at John's desk, because I'd promised my parents I would help them out in WoW tonight. While the in-laws watched Psych, I ran my mom and dad through Hellfire Plateau, and got Dad some major upgrades. So that went well.

Just finished, and I'm writing up this post, then I'm going to head to bed. Have a good weekend, all.

Journal Entry

Today...turned out relatively fantastic.

I woke up still feeling sick, but for the first time this week I was able to breathe through my nose. I have progressed to the part of my disease where I have a hacking cough, and that had my throat raw within the first couple hours, and my chest aching before lunch. But that was the worst of it.

Work was pretty dreadful today -- formatting layout and hand-numbering paragraphs for a 200-page document, but while I did that I listened to an audiobook version of Harry Potter book 6, and made it through about a third of the book over the course of the day (that's 5 hours worth of mp3).

Then I came home and, since T-- is finally sick, I was able to cuddle with her on the couch while we watched According to Jim. So that was nice, even if the cause behind the effect was a sad one. We had some delicious leftovers for dinner (for real), then I went over to K-- and N--'s to watch the first Cowboys preseason game.

Preseason...well, there's all kinds of things to be said about it, most of which amount to the fact that the game's outcome doesn't matter. But it's a football game! A real one, and a live one, and it goes according to regular rules. So, in other words, it's an excellent breakfast. We got to watch Romo play a little (he proved he's still got game, and then they pulled him to prevent injuries), we got to see a lot of the new guys, and at least one looked really good. Mostly, though, it was fun to see some football.

Also, we tore the Colts apart. I know, I know, it's preseason and both teams were mostly playing second string for most of the game, but it was fun to watch.

It was fun to spend an evening with K-- and N--, too. They're quality people. I'll tell that to anyone who asks.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Wichita. I should be back Sunday afternoon in time to see Stardust with D-- et al., but that's not yet a certainty. Here's hoping, though.

Journal Entry

It's been a bad week.

Specifically, I've been sick. (See how I did that, with the parallelism with last Thursday's post?) Actually, there's more than just the sickness, but I'm not sure how much I'll tell. I guess we'll find out.

Okay, where were we? I told you about last week in a general sort of way on Thursday. So I'll start with Friday.

Friday, August 3rd
Friday was my Regular Day Off (RDO, henceforth), and we'd made arrangements with K-- to take off work for the afternoon so that we could get into Dallas at a reasonable time. We were thinking leave around 3:00-4:00, and get in around 7:00, but Grandma convinced me that, even though it's technically a 3-hour drive, if we got into town any time after 5:00 on a Friday night, we needed to add a couple hours, because of traffic across town. Ugh. So we all discussed it and agreed to leave as close to noon as possible.

Sleeping in didn't really contribute much to that goal, but I reserve that right for RDOs. It's just how it is. But I did have a lot I wanted to get done. Our car had been acting really weird lately, and I was pretty sure I knew why. It needed the tires balanced. It was bouncing and jostling like it had a flat even when it didn't, which is no fun at all, especially when you're looking at an interstate trip for the weekend. So I dropped the car off at Econo Lube 'N' Tune & Brakes, and had them do an oil change and balance the tires. They said it would take twenty minutes, but I gave them two hours anyway.

The shop is only about a mile from my house, so I walked home, and then decided to mow since I wouldn't be home much over the weekend. By the end of that, I was thoroughly exhausted and dripping with sweat, but we'll just call that good practice (ugh). I showered, then it was time for T-- and me to go pick up the car, and then pick up K--.

There were some traffic issues, but we ended up getting out of town shortly after 1:00. K-- drove, which was nice because it let T-- sit in the back to take care of AB as needed, and she spent the rest of the time listening to her new iPod. I'd intended to try to get some writing done, or at the very least make some headway on the sixth Harry Potter book (giving it a reread so I can get to book seven), but I ended up talking with K-- the whole way. Which, probably, was a much more friendly way to go about things. We spent about half the three-hour drive discussing our new iWays, and configuring the settings on the one we were using. Overall, I think we're both pretty happy with it.

Early as we were, we still ran into some traffic in Dallas, and I think we ended up at Grandma's a few minutes before 5:00. Then we learned my aunt Darla and her family, and my uncle Eric and his family were all coming for dinner...and wouldn't be in until 7-ish. We talked with Grandma some, and K-- spent some time on the computer picking out driving routes for our work on Saturday, and then he and I went with Grandma to pick up the barbecue for dinner. It was fantastic, and hanging out with the family is always fun. We had Darla and Jason and their daughter Hannah, and Eric and Shelly with their kids Dakota and Lauren, and Lauren had a boyfriend with her, and before the night was done Wayne and Carol stopped by. It was quite the party. We ended up watching some baseball and an interview with Nichole Ritchie, though, so it wasn't all good.

Saturday, August 4th
Saturday, we got up around 8:00 and I made a doughtnut run for T--, then K-- and I headed across town. We picked up a big moving truck (and got lucky -- they were out of the 10-foot truck he'd reserved, so we got a free upgrade to the 16-foot one), then went over to his mom's place. Err...I don't remember how much I explained last week, but the reason for the trip was to help K--'s mom move from a two-bedroom apartment that she'd shared with one of his brothers to a single bedroom townhouse (in the same apartment complex) now that the brother had moved out.

So K-- and I were supposed to do that. Meanwhile, T-- went along so that the family down in Dallas (my mom's family) could see AB again, and with the possible objective of getting AB's ears pierced. My aunt Darla had done that to her little girl, so T-- thought she could lean on Darla's experience to get her through the process of, y'know, paying cash to make a stranger mutilate her daughter. There's a certain hesitancy there, in case you couldn't guess. Luckily, T-- was able to overcome that, and did pay a stranger hard-earned money to stab metal spears through AB's perfect earlobes. It turned out pretty well. She probably sent you pictures.

Anyway, we weren't part of that. K-- and I were driving all the way across town to move his mom's stuff. She already had all her stuff in boxes, and didn't really have that much stuff to move. Also, we discovered to our delight that she had some of the lightest bedroom furniture we've ever encountered. Yay. But it was just K-- and me, and her old apartment was upstairs with a very steep, very narrow staircase up to it, and a dogleg at the bottom of the stairs that kept us from just carrying stuff straight to the truck. Oh, and it was 100 degrees, and 70% humidity.

So, if not for those factors, it would've easily been the easiest move K-- and I have ever been involved in. But, given those factors, it was still excruciatingly brutal. Took us a little over two hours to get the truck packed, if I remember correctly, and about 45 minutes to unload. We were able to get a really nice parking spot for that, and no stairs outside. Yay.

Anyway, that took us all day. We dropped off the truck, then drove the 45 minutes back across town to Grandma's, and got in around 4:00. We cleaned up in a hurry, and packed the car, and made it to dinner (Grandma wanted to take us out, and Wayne and Carol wanted to see us one more time) at El Fenix by 4:45. I always love that place, but we all had way too much to eat, and then we piled into the car to head home.

Here's where a lot of the other bad stuff happened.

We were about half an hour into our drive home when T-- got a phone call from my little sister, who said she had slipped and fallen while holding her baby, and the baby had fallen to the floor in the process. That's a scary thing. Even when AB fell eighteen inches, from the couch onto our carpeted floor, we were scared. My sister doesn't have carpeted floors, though, and we got the impression that the baby had fallen a lot further. Not only that, S-- was hurt, too, from her fall. And she had her older daughter also to take care of, and her husband is in Italy for work at the moment. So she wanted to know if T-- could watch the older girl while she took the baby to the emergency room. Of course, we were somewhere between Dallas proper and Denton at the time, so that wasn't an option.

S-- was rather panicky on the phone, and she hung up to try to find someone in town who could watch her daughter for her. Meanwhile, T-- started getting worked up worrying about S-- and the baby, but again, there was nothing we could do. A little while later, T-- called my mom to get more information, and that helped a little, but she also learned that a family really close to my mom and dad was in the middle of its own tragedy, because a daughter had just had a particularly tragic miscarriage, and the woman's own health was in jeopardy. Ugh.

So we drove on, and got in contact with S-- again a little while later, but there was still nothing we could do. T-- talked her into just taking both girls and getting to the hospital ASAP, but apparently a few minutes after they got off the phone, S-- got hold of a friend from church who was willing and able to babysit.

Meanwhile, T-- ended up talking to Mom again, and she felt like there was something Mom wasn't telling her, so she pressed her on the issue and learned that, over the same weekend, my older sister was going through some tragedy of her own. It's not really something I'm comfortable explaining in this medium, but I've said as much as I have so that I can ask, if you're the praying sort of person, please keep my sister Heather and her family in your prayers.

Anyway, that hung heavy on our minds, and we didn't get any further news from S-- until we were pulling into OKC hours later, so it was a pretty dismal drive. We dropped K-- off at home, and T-- called S-- to see if we should stop by to visit, but she was in the hospital with hopes of getting out within the hour. Baby was fine, they'd even done a CAT scan to make sure (CT scan? Are those the same thing?), and the baby looked fine. She had a big comical bump on her head, but otherwise she's fine. S-- ended up with two broken ribs and a fracture in her shoulder blade, but the baby's fine.

Ugh. What a weekend.

Sunday, August 5th
Sunday morning, to give S-- a little bit of a break, T-- drove over early and picked up the older daughter, who we took care of until after lunch. With my niece in tow we went to church, and we had services in the regular auditorium but I'm not convinced the A/C was handling its full load. That wasn't terribly fun. The niece was surprisingly well-behaved, though. I'd go so far as to say she was delightful.

We went to Red Robin for lunch with K-- and N--, and had some pretty good burgers, then took the niece back to S--'s house to drop her off. Oh! Before we left church, we'd agreed to go to small groups with the young families class at 5:00 that night. K-- and N-- were going, and T-- had been wanting to go to that group for a while, so I couldn't really argue. I probably could have gotten out of it, but that'd make me look quite the heel, wouldn't it?

So, anyway, by the time we dropped off the niece and then stopped by Best Buy to pick up a new router (not a luxury purchase -- my old one wasn't routing anymore), and Civ 4: Beyond the Sword (a luxury purchase), it was already nearly time to head to church. I installed the router, which immediately seemed to fix the problems we'd been having, and had a few minutes to test it out, and then we headed over to K-- and N--'s.

We drove with them out to the minister's house in Guthrie -- quite a drive. And even though we showed up fifteen minutes late, we were the first people there (apart, of course, from the hosts). AB's new earrings (and just her cuteness in general) served as the bulk of the conversation until a few more couples had showed up. Somehow, then, as people were making their delicious sandwiches in the kitchen and I was stuck in the living room holding AB, somehow I ended up the center of attention. Some dude asked me how I ended up a tech writer, and I answered that nobody was willing to buy my novel, and then suddenly eight people all looked at me and started asking about my novels.

Now...most of you probably just jumped straight to the thought, "Oh, he must have loved that," and I'm willing to say that only two or three of you know me well enough to have loaded that sentence with deep, bitter sarcasm. Because I do love talking about my writing, as you all know, and I've been known to hijack whole evenings and entire social gatherings, forcing everyone present to talk about nothing but my writing. But that's, y'know, you guys.

My discomfort in social settings easily, easily trumps my desire to talk about my writing. So I have eight people that I barely know intensely interested in anything I have to say, and it was just miserable. K-- was in the room, and he said he couldn't tell. He said I pulled it off pretty well, describing the premise of Sleeping Kings in a simple and interesting way that really fascinated my audience. I couldn't comment yay or nay to his opinion, though, because to me, that whole time is blacked out. I don't remember a bit of it.

Anyway, we had a little devo that was not fundamentally different from the ones I went to when I was twelve, and then a lengthy series of prayer requests, and then finally things broke up, and I think we got home around nine.

Oh! Okay, it comes into play now, but I'll just say this once to cover the whole week: I didn't go walking. I think I did walk Thursday night, after my last post, and then I did the walking-home-from-the-tire-shop thing on Friday morning, but since then I haven't.

Also, and I'm not certain about talking about this on my blog but, again, prayer requests. While we were at the small group on Sunday night, there was one other baby there (the only other one in the group) so everybody kept comparing AB to this other one, and those two were generally the center of attention, because everyone loves babies. Anyway, that other baby's mom and dad were there, and T-- knew the mom but neither of us really knew the dad. More on this couple when I get to Wednesday.

Sunday night, I went home and played some Civ, and then I went to bed.

Monday, August 6th
Monday I got sick. I spent all day Sunday with aching muscles because of the move on Saturday, and achy muscles are usually my first symptom of a fever, so I didn't notice it coming on Monday morning because I confused one with the other. But, by noon, I was feeling light-headed and my skin felt hot. I sort of spent all my vacation time on T--'s iPod, though, so I just made myself stay at my desk (I don't interact with people much, at my job), and as the afternoon progressed it became more and more clear that I was really sick. Before I headed home, I told everyone I work with that I probably wouldn't be in on Tuesday, because I was already feeling awful.

On the drive home, I felt so light-headed from the fever that it was like driving drunk. It was a most unpleasant experience. I got home, anxious to avoid making T-- or AB sick, and basically took a little medicine then went straight to bed. I may have read a little bit, I know I drank a ton of water (rest and fluids are generally the only cure for these things), and I slept most of the evening. I did call N-- to get her professional opinion, and she said what I was thinking: summer cold. She also warned me that it would probably hang on for a while. It has.

Tuesday, August 7th
Tuesday morning I still had a 100+ fever, so I called in to work and told them that, iPod or no, there was no way I could make it in. So I took leave, and spent the morning sleeping. I played a little bit of Civ, and chatted with D-- some online (who diagnosed with certainty that what I had was Civ-itis, but seriously, I'm sick). Mostly, I slept. T-- took the baby and went over to S--'s to help her out with some stuff and then they went to Wal-Mart to get portraits done of the little one. That left me alone for most of the afternoon.

Then...ugh, I don't really remember much of the evening. Apparently D-- came over, and T-- made chicken fried rice, which was very good. I may have read some, we may have watched some TV. I don't really know. I ended up playing Civ until 10:00, then headed to bed thinking I'd read with T-- for half an hour, but she was already lights-out. So I just went to bed. By that point, I was actually feeling a lot better.

Wednesday, August 8th
By the time I woke up, I was feeling a whole lot worse again. I went in to work anyway, and spent most of the day trying to keep my distance from my coworkers, and not let them hear my sniffling. We did have a going-away lunch for my old grandboss, at Steak and Ale, and I would have been reviled for skipping it, so I went anyway and avoided coughing on people. That was the best I could do.

T-- was in Tulsa for work on Wednesday, so I was responsible for picking up AB at B-- and E--'s place after work. I wrote D-- and asked if he could come over and help me take care of her until T-- got home, so I could limit the likelihood of making her sick. Then, on my drive to B-- and E--'s, I got a call from K-- and N-- inviting me to dinner with them, but I had to turn it down because I'd already invited D-- over to help me out. Then I got a call from T-- saying she'd gotten done earlier than she expected, and she was already in town, but I was at B-- and E--'s place by then, so I told her I'd meet her at home.

B-- and E-- have been doing some work on their house, and it looks really awesome. I'm impressed how much difference nice furniture and a good paint job can make. I really like the colors they've picked, and in a very short time the place has gone from...well, weird-looking to very comfortable and really cool. I can't wait until we can have a party there. The place has style.

Anyway, I spent more than half an hour getting caught up with them. I've been meaning to tell them in person, but I don't mind saying it here, too: I really love having them around. They're an awesome couple (and awesome individuals), and I'm glad to have them in my town.

So we talked for a while, then I took my baby home where D-- had brought me Little Caesars (and probably thought I was scamming him, when he found T-- there waiting), and a few minutes later K-- and N-- called and asked if they could bring their dinner over to my place to eat it. They posed it as a request, but I'm pretty sure they were offering to come keep me company. I'm constantly amazed how much effort my friends are ready to expend to take care of me. It's awesome.

Anyway, that gave us a little party at our house. T-- had some of the pizza and made a particularly impressive salad for her and D-- (I'd had one for lunch), and K-- and N-- brought their Taco Cabana. N-- also brought some really sad news. Remember the couple we met at small groups on Sunday, with the baby? Well, the husband/father was killed in a car accident sometime Wednesday. That was pretty shocking news, since I think most of us had just met him for the first time. And, of course, we all feel awful for the mother, and the days she has ahead. So, again, please keep that family in your prayers, if you would.

K-- and N-- went to church, and D-- and T-- and I watched some Dead Zone and mostly acted exhausted and blanked out. D-- went home when I decided I definitely wasn't up for a walk, and then I went to bed to read for a couple hours before falling asleep.

Around 10:00, just as I was closing my book, T-- came into the bedroom, sniffling, eyes watery, to tell me that she'd caught my cold. Great.

Anyway, that's been my week. I woke up this morning feeling worse yet, with a fever again and now really coughing for the first time. It's painful, but I'm guessing it means I'm nearly done. I feel awful for T--, though.

But, yeah, everyone's having a pretty rough time, this summer. Pray for my family, and all their friends. With any luck, things will turn brighter soon.

Journal Entry

It's been a weird week.

Specifically, my melancholy funk from last week has persisted. Now it's possible that I gave myself the melancholy by writing it so much into Jason's story last week, or it's possible I was already there and that's why I inflicted it on my protagonist. The first seems more likely given our different life situations (things are actually going really well for me these days -- and not so much for poor King Jason), but if I did have a little bit of a manic/depressive cycle going, it'd make sense that the last month, with all its writing productivity, would account for my manic phase, and I'm just now crashing. Physiologically, that seems more probable. I've been tired all the time, no matter how much I sleep, and I'm having trouble finding the motivation to do things that two weeks ago came easily. Those sound like pretty telling symptoms.

None of this is major, and I'm not going to harp on it, but it's something that's been going on in my life.

Speaking of which! The rundown:

Friday, July 27th
Friday night I went out drinking with K-- and N--. It was supposed to be this big party, with D-- (who had committed) and B-- and E-- (who were invited), but D-- backed out, and E-- is preggers, and B-- is a good husband, so whatcha gonna do? T--'s parents came into town to celebrate her birthday, so she kept AB at home to hang out with them.

So, K-- and N-- took me to Hawaiian Don's, a bar that they tried out a month or two ago and really liked. The place's main gimmick is a (relatively cheap) 60 oz. drink. Fun. So, between the three of us (and, mind you, over the course of several hours), we had 300 oz. of coctails Friday night. Fun fun!

Saturday, July 28th
So, anyway, I made some poor choices Friday night, which meant that Saturday morning was brutal. Brutal. Leave it at that.

Oh, but wait! We didn't. D-- showed up around 9:00 (although I didn't get up until 10:15) because he needed some help moving. Moving! Ugh. Anyway, he'd gotten the apartment close to my place, which I'm pretty excited about it. It's a cool little apartment, too. So B-- brought a pickup home from work and the three of us were able to move D--'s few belongings in a couple hours. Not too bad. He took me out to lunch by way of saying thanks.

After that, I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond with T-- and her parents so she could spend her birthday money. She ended up getting a cool new quilt for our bed, which also gives her a color scheme to work off of so we can finally get the bedroom painted. Tricky, that.

Then for the evening we had a picnic at the park at Hefner Lake, as T--'s official birthday party. B-- and E-- came, and T--'s friend Rebecca with her oldest son, and K-- and N-- of course, and T--'s parents. It was quite the crowd. And in spite of it being a picnic, and in spite of it being at the park, and in spite of it being at the lake, and in spite of it being, y'know, outside, I had a really good time. Everyone did. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday, July 29th
(Yikes, I should have been doing this daily!)

Sunday morning at church, the A/C was out in the auditorium so we had services in the dining hall. It went pretty well, although it still got close to uncomfortably warm before everything was said and done. Then T--'s parents took us to Carino's for lunch (one of T--'s favorite places), and then we just sort of lounged for most of the afternoon.

Her parents went home about 3:30, and at 5:30 we went over to K-- and N--'s for supper, which ended up being another big party. D-- brought pizza and his mom, and Toby and Gwyn came to visit, too. They'd been down in Dallas for a wedding, then spent the afternoon with B-- and E--, and then had dinner with us. That was a lot of fun. Their kids are both really cute. We had a lot of fun playing with Lucas. Also, Toby brought iWays (or automotive GPS devices, if you prefer) for K-- and me. Awesome! We had to pay for them, sure, but still awesome. Also, N-- made some delicious cookies.

Ugh, and then there came the week. Like I said, a weird one. I didn't walk Sunday or Monday. I've got the first two pages of two different stories written, but I can't seem to finish them (that motivation thing I mentioned at the top). Work has been slow, and I've been sleepy. That's pretty much my week.

Tomorrow T-- and I are going to Dallas to help K-- move his mom's possessions, but we should be home Saturday night. Then I'll post again Sunday night, and it'll be a whole week lost. So there you go. Sorry I didn't write. I'll be better about it in future.