Journal Entry: Nickipendence Day 2008

If you check the "My Favorites" links over on the right, you can find picture (and video) illustration of pretty much all the following events. It was a friend-heavy weekend, so all of my friends are chronicling the same things.

Anyway, last Thursday night T-- and I went to the gym fairly early, then got home to meet D--, who brought some BWW for dinner. D-- had picked up a Sony Handycam camcorder as T--'s birthday present (that he, his mom, and I had all gone in on), and we went ahead and gave it to her three weeks early so that she could get some footage of N--'s birthday party on Friday. So we presented that to her, and she was suitably astonished. D-- and I played several rounds of Heroscape while T-- played with her new camera, and then we watched some TV.

Friday morning I woke up a little before nine, and T-- and I ran up to Barnes and Noble to get the rest of N--'s birthday present. Then...well, somehow by that point it was already 11:15, so we headed over to K-- and N--'s for her birthday party.

Everybody was there. Everybody. We had a delicious lunch, and the kids played in a bouncy castle that they'd rented for the party (so cool), and then we played some party games before all the babies started crying for naps. It was probably two-ish when the party broke up.

We stopped by D--'s apartment and grabbed his new Fourth Edition D&D books on the drive home, and started working on making up some characters. Nap-time called, though, and we all dozed for most of the afternoon. Evening rolled around, I roused myself enough to order some pizzas, and we finally got around to filling out some character sheets.

It took several hours. The process is enough changed from previous editions and, more significantly, the entire Players Handbook describes the process of character creation. You can't just turn to pages 20-24 and go through the process. There's bits scattered throughout the book. Once we know what's needed, it will actually be a quicker process than Second Edition character creation (and way quicker than the Third Editions), but our first two characters took all night.

Saturday morning AB woke up before T-- or I. We were both laying in bed, not ready to get up, and AB was screaming in her room. I decided that, if T-- would go ahead and get up (and let me sleep for another half hour or so), I would mow the front yard for her when I did get up. I was about to say as much out loud, when she threw back the covers and went to get AB. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

I finally got up around 9:30, and decided to honor my deal. T-- put AB down for her morning nap and she went to the grocery store while I mowed. Then I went out back and, using my newly reacquired drill (K-- had been borrowing it), I installed a waterhose hanger on the back of the house. T-- had picked it up a couple months ago, and it's a really nice one. Only took about five minutes to hang, but that's the first time I've ever used a mortar bit or (most terrifying) drilled into the facade of my house. Everything went fine, though.

Sometime in the afternoon I got online and checked out our bank account, and discovered we didn't have nearly enough money. Ugh. Between all the car problems over the last week and several big purchases, I'd kind of lost track of money running total, and here we are in trouble again. I hate that.

Anyway, I spent most of the afternoon working on our finances, trying to figure out when to pay what and what we should expect in terms of budget stuff. No fun, but I think I've got it mostly ironed out.

Saturday evening, T-- had plans to go hang out with Rebecca, so I stayed home with AB. T-- left about 6:00, had dinner at Chili's, and then watched Get Smart with Rebecca. I'm jealous.

I didn't spend the evening alone, though. K-- and N-- called, and I asked them to come help me with the baby. AB was easier than I expected, though, so they were mostly just there to keep me company. We had Olive Garden (they picked some up To Go), and watched 21, which was an entertaining flick. It had some pretty stupid plot holes, but it was still a fun hour and a half.

By the end of the movie, AB was in bed for the night. K-- and N-- went home, and I spent a couple hours reading Cat Who until T-- got home, then I went to bed a little bit before midnight.

Sunday morning we went to church, and then El Chico for lunch with K-- and N--. Afterward, AB and I took naps while T-- went swimming with N-- at my little sister's community pool. Then Josh stopped in (he'd been in Tulsa for the weekend), and we watched Family Guy and talked for a couple hours before he headed back home to Little Rock.

Then T-- and I headed to Edmond for small groups. K-- and N-- didn't make it, so it was the rest of the young couples group (or whatever we're called) at Brent and Celia's, and AB running all over the place. Between chasing AB and social anxiety stuff (I am not comfortable among these folks), I had a terrible time. It was a nice enough evening, but I'm just not wired that way.

We got home around 8:30, and T-- put AB down while I went back to my office just to be alone with my breakdown. I got over it soon enough, though, and T-- and I watched three episodes of Boston Legal, and finally went to bed at 11:00.

Then, I couldn't sleep. I lay in bed for about half an hour, then got up and played some video games for an hour or so, and came back and still couldn't sleep. It was not a pleasant night.

I was a little late getting up this morning, but nothing near as bad as last Monday. Got to work, and it's been a pretty nice day, in spite of the long night.

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