Where have I been?

2008 04 05_kids birthday party_0006.JPG, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been a long stretch since I've posted. I keep meaning to and I've let a number of topics slip by on me. Truth be told, I've gotten sucked in to playing a good amount of Call of Duty 4 online. I hadn't seriously played an online shooter like this since the glory days of Quake 2.
So, what's been up? Here's the short recap. I made my weight loss challenge. 19lbs dropped in the 10 weeks of the challenge. I've slipped back up a few lbs in the last month, but I've reversed the slipping trend this week and I'm working my way back down again. I finished at 216 on the scale at work. I want to push to get down to 200 by the end of the year. I think I'm on track this time.

Now, as for the picture. That's the tornado taking a swing at the pinata we got for the combined birthday party we had for both the kids. With their birthdays two weeks apart, it becomes a bit of a struggle to do different parties. This year, we're getting them one big present of a playground for the backyard. So, we elected for a fairly simple party at the park for family and friends. It was probably one of the best we've had or been to. The weather was perfect. The kids had a blast on the playground. Everyone had just enough pizza and we didn't get stuck with a bunch of leftovers. And, the parents could hang out and relax and chat for a while. The pavilion is dirt cheap to rent for the day from the city and we didn't have any pressure to be packed up and out after exactly two hours so the next party on the production line could come in behind us.
Where have my weight loss pictures been? Well, I've definitely fallen behind on that as well. Can't post pictures I haven't been taking now, can I? I shall endeavor to start that up again this weekend.

Back from DragonCon

2007 09 01 006_edited-1, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Well, I survived DragonCon! The weekend was a blast, though totally draining. I got to meet up with many of the friends I've made online, especially the gang from Farpoint Media like Jack Mangan, Leann Mabry, and the Wingin It crew.
I got to meet and hang out with authors whose work I've enjoyed like Tee Morris, Scott Sigler, JC Hutchins, Michael A. Stackpole, and Matthew Wayne Selznick.
Plenty of Celebrities were on hand as well. Of course, getting this picture with the Mythbusters build team was massively cool. Their panel was a lot of fun and we got a first showing of an all new blooper reel from the those. I got to see panels featuring cast members from the new Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and Farscape.
And, oh the costumes. I've shot about 250 pictures from the weekend and I need to sort through them and get more uploaded to Flickr. It's amazing some of the work that gets put into them.
I doubt I'll be back next year and it is a pretty good size expense all in all, but I do expect I'll make the trip again sometime in the years to come. If you're any kind of geek at all, you've got to make this trip at least once. But, for the love of God, make sure you pre-register! The lines to get through the daily ticket purchase were insane!

Weekend Roundup

Well, I've survived another weekend. This time, my parents came to visit us - well, acutally, they come to see the grandkids :-)
The wife and I were able to get a few things done around the house and we also got to go out to dinner and a movie - JUST THE TWO OF US!!! We finally saw the new Pirates of the Carribean movie. We enjoyed it, although it could have been trimmed up tighter than the 2 1/2 hour run time w/o losing anything. Still, I'm definitely looking foward to number 3.
Our daughter starts kindergarten on Thursday (yikes, it's really here!) and there was an open house at her new school today. The school is brand new and looks amazing. We got to meet her teacher and some of the other parents of the kids in her class. She is already going to know two others that have been going to the Montessori school with her these last several years. She's been at the Montessori school since she was one, so this is going to be a big change for her. Overall, she seems excited, especially since she already knows some other kids. Her cousin and some other kids that she knows will also be there in the other kindergarten classes (I think they have eight of them), so there will be plenty of familiar faces. Thursday is the big day. I think Momma and I are more nervous that she is.
Finally, we finished the evening with the traditional birthday gathering at Pancho's. My father-in-law, sister-in-law, and her husband all have their birthdays at this time, and they always pick Pancho's for the birthday dinner place. The food isn't the best, but, there's not many places that you can gather with eight young kids that don't involve animatronics. We had a good time and now it's just time for settling down and getting ready for the new week.

Happy Birthday, My Daughter

 
Here we are, two weeks to the day after my son has celebrated his first birthday. Now, it is big sister's turn and she's five today. I look back and I can't believe that she's this old already.
Let me tell you, time machines do exist and they are called children. Except, they don't work like you'd expect. They can only take you forward in time at much faster than the speed of time before children.
She's comes so far already and I know that she's going to go far beyond her mother and I. One of these days, she going to look at her mother and I and wonder how she gets her smarts when her parents are such stupid people :-)
She starts kidegarten in the fall, but she's already learned a lot and I expect she will stay ahead of the curve all her life.
After having to put up with whatever Mom and Dad say, she enjoyed having the day the call the shots herself. We went swimming and to the park and we went where she wanted to go for lunch. All in all, she had a pretty good birthday. I don't know if we'll get to have many more birthdays like this one where the day falls where I'm off of work and she's out of school, so I wanted to make sure we took full advantage of this day.
Happy birthday, princess. 

Happy Birthday, My Son

 
Today my son celebrates the first year since his birth. I thought time flew when I had one child - now with the second it seems to have accelerated even more so. He's such an amazing and happy little boy and truly a blessing to our family. He's grows more capable every day and I look forward to the days we will spend playing at the park, jumping on the trampoline, and swimming in the pool. As we did with his sister, his mother and I continue to wonder how such a beautiful baby came from the two of us. I only hope that I can be the kind of father that a baby like him deserves to have.