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.

A Perfect Weather Day

Temperatures in the mid 70's, partly cloudy, light breeze, no chance of rain - a perfect Texas day for being outside. And that's what we did. In the morning, we did some much needed cleaning and laundry, but, after that, the kids spent a lot of time out in the sun. I took them to Jake's Grill for lunch, where they have an outdoor eating area and a playground. There were plenty of kids for my two to run around with and I was able to relax in the shade and enjoy the weather while they ran about. After lunch, we came home and Momma opened up some "infinite bubble" makers. The video above was taken by Momma with the kids running around in a shower of them. Some of the neighbor kids came over an played for a while and that took us to the early evening.
Unexpectedly, but not really surprisingly, both of the kids conked out by 7:30 this evening.

A Fine Winter's Day in Texas

Here in Texas, winter means nothing. One week it's rainy with lows near freezing, the next, highs in the 70's and clear.
Today was something borrowed straight out of Spring. High around 70, dry, light breeze, clear to partly cloudy skies. About as perfect a weather forecast as you could ask for.
And so, it made for a fine time, hanging out on the in-laws acre yard, playing ball with the kids and a niece while the wife and her family traded the latest news about the family.
I think I even managed to get a mild sunburn.

Sunday again

I don't have a picture to upload yet, though I did take one today. I am down to 223.5 lbs, so the trend is definitely downward.
Now, why don't I have a picture? And what about that wife? Well, the good news is the wife was able to make her flight on Friday. She was fortunate to have an afternoon flight as many of the morning ones were canceled. Hers left about an hour late and she made it back home around 7p on Friday. She was able to see the princess score three baskets at her game on Saturday and enjoy the company of family watching NY win the Super Bowl this evening (and what a helluva game is was, too!)
Now, why don't I have a picture to post? Well, Wednesday brought my new power supply and video card upgrades. I proceeded to install the power supply first. When the computer came up, the hard drive behaved very badly and ultimately proved dead. Now, I think it's as much coincident as anything. The drive has always been somewhat flaky and noisy, so I wasn't terribly surprised by the failure. Besides, I had recently backed up my critical data to an external drive....so I thought. Turns out, my music and pictures are intact, but, for reasons I cannot figure out, some of the documents that I thought I had copied over were nowhere to be found. I can ultimately live without the stuff I lost, but it is still damn annoying.
But, I did have to get a new hard drive and rebuild it from the HP restore DVDs. Since then, I've been in the process of reinstalling my hardware, getting my pics and music back on and generally trying to get things back in order. At this time, I've not yet got my photo software back on yet, so my photo editing and uploading is hampered.
I did eventually get the new video card put in and it is truly sweet. I can now play Call of Duty 4 at the full 1680x1050 resolution of my 22" widescreen monitor and kill the bad guys good and dead.

Planes, Pains, and Automobiles

This week marks another sojurn for the wife back to her company's home office in Chicago. Which marks another opportunity for me to live as Single Dad^tm. It started off well enough - Sunday we finished her packing and laid out the week's clothes for the kids. Monday morning comes and the wife takes the car out for Intercontinental and I take the van to get the kids to school. The deal has always been that, since a vehicle is just going to sit at the airport for a week, she takes the car and I get to use the van. We tried once for us to drop off the kids and then have me drop her off at the airport. But, that proved a major hassle, and she is able to just expense the parking and gas for the car anyway.

But this time decided to be a different adventure altogether. I'm coming up 288, about to exit onto 610 when the phone rings. The wife tells me the car is dead and she's somewhere near downtown off of 45. Great! So, I continue up 288 making my way to 45. I fight through traffic to the exit that she's stuck on. But, I can't get into the correct lane because it's jammed up with traffic....of cars trying to get around her.

Now, downtown Houston is pretty much an island surrounded by freeways and access to those freeways in the downtown area is very limited. I tried a couple of ways zigging and zagging around downtown to see if I could get back to the ramp. No luck. I eventually settled on the only way I was sure - I followed the loop of freeways all the way around downtown. Finally, I managed to get the van in behind the car. She had called for a tow truck and that arrived about 10 minutes after I got to her. We swapped all her luggage to the van, I gave the tow truck driver directions to my one and only trusted mechanic in Pearland, and we headed off to the airport, trying to make up for lost time and not miss her flight.

I got her to the airport about an hour ahead of her scheduled departure time. After I'm on my way to work, I get a text that the flight has been delayed an hour, so no worries about her missing it. The afternoon wears on and I get a call from the mechanic that the car made it and that one of the transmission lines busted and dumped all the fluid, so, no shifting, no power. This turns out to be good news. They replace the lines and tighten up all the connections and fittings. Refill the transmission and it shifts smoothly.

I get back home with the kids, drop the princess off at basketball practice, and the lady from the garage picks me up to get the car. It drives home as good as usual. It's been a long day, so I "celebrate" by going to dinner with the kids at CiCi's and very much enjoying the buffet.

The wife is going OK in Chicago, but the weather is getting worse. Snow started tonight and it's going to be in the negatives tomorrow. There's a good chance her flight home Friday will get delayed or even canceled. Tune in later to see if Momma makes it home!

A fun and busy weekend

Daddy and Denali ready for the Dance, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

My parents came to visit for the weekend. We started off on Friday night with my Dad and I taking the princess to the Daddy/Daughter dance up at our church. The picture is of the two of us dressed for the evening. We went last year and had a lot of fun and this time was the same. It took my Dad and myself taking turns to keep up with the princess' energy!
Saturday lead to me sleeping in until 10am, when the wife finally woke me up. I haven't slept terribly well this past week, so I finally got a chance to catch up. My mom and I took the princess to her team picture day for basketball. After that, it was game time and we all watched the princess play. In the last afternoon, the wife and I went for workouts at the Y and we closed the evening by going out to see "I am Legend" while my parents watched the kids.
Today started off with church in the morning, followed by my parents taking the kids for breakfast while the wife and I packed for her week long trip to Chicago. Yes, It's just going to be me and the kids for a whole week again.
I spent the afternoon wandering around at the car show. I sat in dozens of different vehicles as I will be casting a wide net to draw from when I replace my car. I've set a date for two years from now to make a new purchase. I'll write about some of my impressions from the car show during the week. The one thing I can say about it was that it was jam packed. I usually go on a Friday afternoon and the crowds are nowhere near what I faced today. I shall definitely remember to return to the Friday routine in future years.

Pearland Winterfest

2008 01 12 Pearland Winterfest 018, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Yesterday was a pretty full day. Once again, our city's Parks Department held it's annual "Winterfest" at the big park in town. This year was generally better than recent ones. Pearland is growing very rapidly and it has been the case in years past that the city has not been able to put on an event big enough to hold everyone in town that shows up for it. This year, there was a good bit more to do and things were spread out around the park. So, even though there were a lot of people there, it didn't feel as crowded.
Both the kids had a great time, as you can see here. Both took to the snow field and the snow mountain slide. The princess and I road the Ferris Wheel and she also ascended to the top of a 40 foot tall rock wall that was brought in.
It's things like this that I enjoy about living in Pearland.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2007 11 22 Leaf Pile 046a, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Well, we're home from San Antonio and we even brought the kids back with us :-) The weather turned bitterly cold (for us central Texas types, anyway) on Thanksgiving Day.

But, the food was good (mmm, pie) and the visits with family and one of my oldest and best friends was quite nice. My friend even suprised us with the gift of a new Nintendo Wii!

My father prepared a fine leaf pile in the backyard and we put it to good a proper use.

We even managed to score a few good deals and get most of our Christmas shopping finished on Black Friday. Now, we're free to focus on the reason for the season.

All in all, we managed to do a fine big of living this weekend.

Empty Nest

The house is quiet...too quiet. Momma and I are empty nesters this week. My parents came to visit this weekend. When they returned to San Antonio, both the princess and the tornado went with them. We'll be catching up come Thanksgiving. But, for now, it's just Maw and Paw at the homestead. We're both taking off of work tomorrow to get some projects done around the house that we just never manage to have time for with the kids around. Still, it will be good to get back with the kids again.
In other news - the car. No, back up a minute - yesterday I went to the doctor as I had picked up some kind of eye infection. The visit went well and I got a prescription for drops, which are helping. On the drive home, I noticed steam venting from under the hood and got the car home quickly. An inspection showed the source to be a failed hose. I filled the radiator and got the car over to our trusted mechanic. After 190,000 miles, its no surprise the hoses needed replacement. Alas, it turned out to be worse - the radiator is also cracked and that needs to be replaced as well. But, with the holidays gearing up, the shop can't get a replacement until Monday.
In truth, it's working out for the best. It was only a matter of time before these things wore out. With the holiday trip and the kids out of school, it's about the best possible time for the car to be unavailable. So, overall I'm thankful that I was able to get the car to the shop w/o destroying it and that we have a good opportunity to get things fixed. I'm counting on another couple of years service before I put this one out to pasture.

Boo!

2007 10 31 Jack o Lantern 001, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Alright, I've been in hiding long enough. I've been meaning to make some posts, but, life has been getting in the way.
I've actually been sick off and on the last couple of weeks, which has rather heavily cut into my posting motivation.
Still. other than that, things have been going reasonably well. Momma made it home safe from Chicago and the family was still alive when she came home.
Last weekend was full of parties and visits from grandparents. The princess had a karate tournament and she won her bout. She was also on fire at her soccer game.
This past week, naturally, there was much candy to be gathered and given out. Momma made the fine Jack o'Lantern carving in today's picture. We probably had a good 30 kids come by the house. Our little witch and Thomas the train went out and brought in a pretty good haul. Today finished the week with a school field trip to the zoo. Momma wasn't feeling well this morning, so I took the day off and chaperoned the princess around.

While Momma's Away

A new quarter is upon us, which means Momma is in Chicago for the week. So, I'm alone with the kids until Friday. Thankfully, we're already so busy every night, that I don't have time to worry about what to do :) Even when Momma is in town, we have a full week. The princess has soccer on Monday and Wednesday (though I elected to skip yesterday as the weather was looking nasty). Tonight was Karate and Thursday is Ballet.
And, this Friday, the YMCA is having a fall festival and, if it's like last year, it will be fun and crowded. That's a pretty typical week for us now that the Fall is in full swing. Who needs evenings? They're over rated.

Tornado Strike

2007 09 21 Momma's 35th Birthday 008, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Just a quick one. This is my son, the Tornado. He really enjoyed the birthday cake from Momma's birthday party.
So, Last weekend, the wife was out exercising, the princess was playing with the neighbors, which left me to entertain the boy.
we're playing with his new set of LEGOs. He used the blocks to build as tall a tower as he can. But, it gets too tall and buckles on him as he's trying to snap another block on top.
He ends up with half in his hand and half attached to the base. He looks at it and in a cute little boy voice says "Awwwwww, crap!"
And I know exactly who he learned that from. 'Course, I do have to be proud that he used the phrase correctly.

Enjoy.

The Princess Back in Action

2007 09 22 Soccer Day 039, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

She got off to a bit of a slow start the first couple of games. But today, she was on FIRE! Five points she scored today and was chasing after the ball the way we're used to. I think her confidence level is well back up after today. She had been concerned that she wasn't going to be able to play well enough, especially since she missed the first couple of weeks of practice. But, she stuck with it and I'm proud of her for that.

My Old Wife

2007 09 21 Momma's 35th Birthday 001, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

For 19 days each year, my wife gets to be the younger woman. But, after a few short weeks, her birthday comes around and we're the same age again. Today is that day.
In our main aquarium downstairs, we've had an explosion of baby fish - somewhere between 20 and 30. Most of them have survived for over a week and are starting to get big. I'm probably going to have to get our older 10 gallon aquarium out of the attic and set it up again somewhere as these fish get bigger.
The wife commented that she'd like to have something small that she could have near her computer while she works during the day. I had to run to Wal-mart for a few things for her birthday party that we had tonight, and I picked up this little aquarium. While she was out picking up the kids from school, I brought it in and set it up as a surprise for her. Once the tank is stabilized tomorrow, we'll bring a few of the babies up here to their new home.

Life is good

Not a whole lot unusual going on. Life is busy, especially with the kids back in school. The princess had her first soccer game last Saturday. It was a big step up from the last two years. Before, they played 3 v 3 for six minute quarters. This year, they play 4 v 4 for 12 minute quarters. It was a hot and muggy morning and everyone was soaked by the time it was over. Hopefully, things will be a bit cooler this weekend.
The wife went out of town for last weekend for a short business trip. So, this weekend will be her first time to see the princess in action for the new season.
The tornado grows ever more pissed that he can't get out and play. Next fall, he'll be old enough to play at the YMCA and it can't come soon enough.
And, thanks to the very high demand that my business is in, I got a pretty big raise today. Back around 2000, things looked pretty bad in this industry and I thought I was going to have to find another line of work to make a decent living. Looks like it's a good thing I stuck it out, because it is definitely paying off these days.

Mid week update

It is a week of changes. The princess started first grade on Monday and is loving it. She really likes her new teacher and has several friends from last year in her new class. We had soccer Monday, but got rained out today. The weather has been hit and miss this week. Still, I show 1.5" of rain in the gauge so far this week. So, I've turned the sprinkler system off, yet again. No complaints about that one.
Yesterday was my sister-in-law's birthday so the wife and mother-in-law took her out to dinner while I watched all the kids. Which proved not too difficult. The tornado loves the boys, though I don't think either he or they really appreciate how much of a size difference there is between them. Fortunately, the boy it tough, so he came through OK.
Workouts are going well. I'm not seeing any kind of loss yet, but I can definitely tell the workouts are more effective that what I was doing before.
Early on Friday morning, I fly to Atlanta to meet a number of friends I've made online over the last few years. We're coming from all over the country to attend DragonCon. I've never been to it before (actually hadn't even heard of it until last year). I expect to have a very full weekend. I'm taking the old laptop to the hotel, so, if I'm not completely worn out each day, I'll trying to get somethings posted while I'm there.

Another day at the beach

Well, we survived another week with Momma in Chicago on business. My parents came in to visit for the weekend and we made a return trip to Stewart Beach in Galveston. This time, we came prepared for the big slide. The princess made her first run on the slide back when she was around two, so it was time for the tornado to continue the tradition.
The weather was about perfect. The water was a good temperature and the sky was mostly overcast. There was a lot of sea weed on the beach from Tropical Storm Erin coming ashore, but we still found a good patch of sand for a new sand castle. After a couple of hours, we got cleaned up, had lunch and then drove home. The tornado fell asleep on the way, and pretty much everyone else went down for a nap once we got home. Not a bad way to spend the weekend.

Summer has arrived in Texas

2007 08 12 003, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Well, after one of the wetest and coolest July's on record, Summer has come full force now in August. This past week, highs have been in the upper 90's and rain has been scarce. Today, I observed 101°F. Even going to the pool today was difficult as it was just too hot and way too bright outside.
As for this past week, it's been a busy one. The kids have had swim lessons at the Y. The princess swims well enough on her own in her class, and the Tornado is being difficult for Momma in his class. We've all be going as a family and I've been taking the opportunity to workout. Both the wife and I continue to struggle with weight, but we've been making some progress. The truth is we just eat out too damn much.
Today, as the picture shows, is a repeat of an annual tradition. My father-in-law and sister-in-law share their birthday and it has been tradition to go to Pancho's for dinner. The food is certainly not great, nor is the restaurant, but the birthday people get to pick where to go.
Both the in-laws donned the traditional sombrero and were sung to by the family and staff. The nice thing about the place is that is is already noisy and has a large back room, so having eight grand kids running around is not a big deal. You can check the FLICKR feed for some other pics of the evening.

A Day at the Beach

2007 08 05 015, originally uploaded by ultimate_ed.

Yes, yes - i know I still need to do a proper write up about the rest of our vacation trip to San Antonio. It will come some time.

For now, here's a bit from our trip today down to Galveston. We hadn't been to the beach since before my son was born. So, today was his first time and we all had a ball. For a nice weather Sunday, it was perfect. I got a good parking spot and the beach wasn't crowded. The water was good and, as you would expect from Stewart Beach, everything was nice and clean. Getting him to leave was the toughest part.

Rainy Day? No problem!

We were planning to head out of town for the weekend to take the kids to see the new baby horses in the extended family. But, 22" of rain yesterday in Killeen with the promise of more today nixed those plans. So, what to do?

I took the kids to Bounce On It and let them have their way with the moonwalks for a good three hours. Momma stayed home and did some organizing around the house while I tried to keep up with the princess and the tornado.

Here's a snippet of the tornado in action:



We probably would have stayed longer, but the tornado finally ran out of steam and was ready for his nap.

I just got back from a workout at the Y here. I made a good run at weight loss during the company's annual 10 week start of the year challenge. But, I've since gained most of it back and I've been struggling to get back on track. I've been sick off and on for the last couple of months, just enough so for it to be annoying and keep me from getting good exercise. Unfortunately, it did nothing to curb my appetite. I think I'm finally over all that, so I'll have a better chance of getting back on the downward path.