Regularly Scheduled Blog

Time to get back on topic with more posts about Megan! This morning we had a ceremony for Megan called a Child Dedication. This was performed at the Unitarian Universalist church that Andrea attends. (she also does the web site!) It was a very nice service for such a small church. It was actually my first time being at the church, it had a warm atmosphere. The event was open to any families wanting to do a child dedication, but it was Megan who prompted the event.



This last week has had a few tough days with Megan. We've heard or read multiple times now that a new borns fussy time peaks at 6 weeks, which was just last week for us - so maybe there is a connection. Tomorrow I head back to work for real. I know Andrea will be okay, but I still worry. Why? Because that's what I do, I worry.

I know what we are experiencing is pretty easy still in comparison, and its pretty much what I would have expected going into this. But that doesn't make it any easier when Megan is just crying for long periods of times, and nothing you do seems to help. It invokes all sorts of negative emotions, and just makes for a very hard day. You start to second guess yourself, doubt your parenting skills and all sorts of stupid things. Logically I know that Megan has to be awake sometimes, but it just sucks when that time is filled with crying.

I think I just have to focus on getting through this period and repeat the new parent mantra: "She won't be a baby forever." (Even if it feels like that sometimes) For some reason the idea of Megan crying because she doesn't get her way seems so much easier then her crying for reasons unknown.

Where the beef!

WARNING: The following post is about video games. Don't like them? Stop reading now damnit!

Holy crap, I haven't posted anything in almost 2 weeks. In the words of Fat Bastard, "That's long enough to declare, LEGALLY DEEEAD!" I honestly don't have much of an excuse for not posting. Not that anyone actually READS my posts, being as they are so completely devoid of anything remotely interesting. The truth is, as the prospect of actually going back to work neared, I buried myself in a few video games.


Game: Ninja Gaiden: Black
Total Playtime: 80 hours
Finished? 3 times

I even got the sweet Ninja t-shirt! This game is hands down, the best X-box game ever. Ninjas are cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet. I finished the game 3 times, first on "Normal", then on "Hard" and then one last time on "Very Hard". The "Very Hard" difficulty on this game makes all other games look like child's play. Finishing this game on Very Hard was a culmination, nay... the pinnacle of my overall hand eye coordination skills.


Game: Quake 4
Total Playtime: 10-12 hours
Finished? Yes

What a let down this game was! Using the Doom 3 graphics engine, I had read some pretty bad reviews of this game, and they all turned out to be right. But seeing as how Quake was one of the founding games for me, I had to buy this one. The gameplay was crap, monster AI was non-existent. I basically just ran through the game as fast as possible to get it over with.


Game: Serious Sam 2
Total Playtime: 15 hours
Finished? Not yet

Great game for what it sets out to do. This is a different type of first person shooter, basically I call it "arcade style" first person shooter. It's a fun game and it even manages to make fun of itself during the game. (cracking jokes about video game budgets, etc) I just didn't have time to finish it, but I will.


Game: Matrix: Path of Neo
Total Playtime: 20 hours
Finished? Yes, but I regret it.

I had been looking forward to this game for some time... to be able to play as "Neo", aka "Mr. Anderson" (yes, people call me that at work a lot). To be able to do the massive agent smith battle, fighting Morpheus and all the other great battles from the movies. The game turned out to be a bunch of random levels with a few playable scenes from the movies thrown in here and there. Overall, I'd say only about 20% of the game was taken from the movies. I won't even get into the graphics and sound glitches. The kicker of all this? The ending of this stupid game. If you are a Matrix fan, watch this ending. Yes, this is directly from the game.


Game: Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King
Total Playtime: 74 hours
Finished? Yes, just tonight!

My experience with roleplaying games started in the early 90's with a game called "Dragon Warrior" on the original Nintendo. This was followed up with a few sequels, all of which I loved. Unfortunately, the series died off in the US but it continued on in Japan. Finally, after 15+ years, they decide to bring one of the "Dragon Warrior" games back over to the US. They are called "Dragon Quest" in Japan. Well, this game was awesome. Simple RPG with ALL sorts of throw backs to the classic days. I felt 14 all over again while playing this game. Good times!

In between all these video games I managed to attend 2 family Thanksgiving gatherings, see the new Harry Potter movie, work out a few times and even take care of Megan here and there. Right now, I feel like I just won the lottery - Megan has been sleeping since 5:30! (almost 3 hours!!) All I know is that Andrea definitely has the harder job when I go back to work.

No Gnews is Good Gnews

Not much new to report since my last post. Andrea's parents visited this weekend and told us Megan is definitely getting bigger. It's harder for us to tell because we spend every day with her.



Work coming up soon, just another week and half off. Tomorrow we are going to start the "practice" week for me going back to work. Both for myself (I need to get on a normal sleep schedule) and for Andrea. So tonight, I'll probably goto bed around midnight and set my alarm for 6am just like I was going to work. Then I'm going to be "at work" (i.e. not help with anything) until 5pm. After that I'll probably go work out like I would on a normal week day. Gonna repeat that all week and see how things go. I'm not sure what Andrea is planning for Megan. If she will try to keep her in the bedroom most of the night or sleep with her downstairs, etc.

Luckily, my first day back to work is actually just one day (Wed) before Thanksgiving. So it's one day before a 4 day weekend. I guess technically I go back on Nov 28th, considering my first day back will be cleaning out my email box of over 400 emails. Good times!

Graphic Content

WARNING! The following links contain pictures of me without a shirt on! This has been known to have the same effects as Medusa. Yes, there have been cases of petrification. You have been warned!

July to November to Aug 06 progress - Front

July to November to Aug 06 progress - Side

I like where I've made it to, but I definitely don't feel done yet. I'm really feel that I could be close to my goals before my next birthday. That would be nice since I will be turning the big Three Oh. My two close friends from highschool are both turning 30 this year, at the end of this month. (3 days apart!) Hopefully I'll get to spend some time with both of them.

Megan turned 1-month yesterday! I honestly can't say that Megan has gotten any easier or harder, although Andrea tells me her fussy time will peak around 6 weeks. Just in time for me to go back to work! I'm not sure how hard things will be once I go back to work. If I goto bed at 11pm every night, at most I'll be home for 6 hours a night, only 4 hours if I want to work out. What can I do with such little time?

I guess I shouldn't worry about it, Time will march on and we can't live on our savings forever. I will just never get over the fact that work takes up the largest percentage of your life. It shouldn't be that way! Maybe I should start buying lottery tickets?

Misc Megan Madness

Thought I would just post some more pictures of Megan. Since my last post was all sleeping pictures, I picked out a bunch of awake pictures. Enjoy!

SOOO BIG! Megan all stretched out.
Megan trying to roll over. She has rolled over once before from her stomach to her back, but I missed it. Hopefully I'll catch the next one!
Megan focuses on an object (rattle) that is shaken in front of her.
Megan holds her first object, although she isn't too happy about it.
Mom & Megan
Megan on her swing. Most of the time she likes the swing, but her head still flops around sometimes.
We saw this ad in the paper recently and just had to laugh... A frog wiping his ass. Priceless!

Observations of a Fitness Center

I've been going to Lifetime fitness now for about 3 weeks. I haven't done much more then cardio workouts, i.e. 60 minutes on an elliptical machine each time I go. The whole point of joining the gym was to add in new things to my fitness such as weight training. I haven't managed to do that yet, but hopefully something will come together in the next few weeks. Needless to say, here are some of my observations about my time at the gym:

1) Naked Men in the locker room - What is with the guys that feel they need to walk around nude in the locker room? And I'm not just talking to and from the shower, I'm talking standing around, having conversations. Walking up to the mirror / sink area, checking themselves out, etc. For the love of all things holy, put a damn towel on please. I've asked Andrea if women walk around the locker room totally nude and she assures me that they don't.

2) People on there cell phones and stairmaster at the same time - Seriously, we all know you are so important you have to talk to the whole world while you are working out. But you are annoying the rest of us. I know I should get some headphones, but I don't like sweaty ear pieces so I normally don't listen to music while working out. Speaking of music, right up there with annoying people on their cell phones, is women with headphones on who feel the need to sing along with their music... outloud.

3) Personal trainers don't really give a rats ass about you - Unless you are a single hot girl working out alone or paying them very well. In my 2 "free" sessions that I've had since I've joined, I've more or less decided that PT's aren't worth it. The second PT I spent time with for equipment orientation kept saying, "Here's some free advice..." Like his advice was a precious commodity with a huge dollar value.

I can see how PT's might be valuable to someone already in shape that is looking to do more. But for me, what I need to do is so simple, that they wouldn't be worth the cost. Maybe in a year or two when I want to start strengthening different body parts. For now, I'm going to do what has been working for me and just see where it takes me.

As for where it has taken me, well as a quick update, I'm down to 245. That's a solid loss of 55 pounds. That's like a whole 7 year old! I haven't been eating as good as I was before - being home all the time makes it easy to snack. Plus, we have had a lot of free dinners brought to us from various groups Andrea is a part of. These meals have usually consisted in high calorie meals but hey - they are free, good tasting, and so we eat them! I'm going to make a better effort in the next few weeks to get back on track there and continue figuring out what I can do at the gym to help me out. I will also probably be visiting the doctor to see if other things have improved such as my cholesterol levels and other stuff of that nature. I had a full blood work done up last November, so its time to see what a full year and all this exercise and healthy living has done to my insides as well as my outsides.

4th and Ounces

Damn, a whole week since my last post. I know I promised lots of posts and pictures of this time with Megan, but she just keeps us so busy! The initial excitement has definitely faded and we are getting worn out. It sucks how during this first phase Megan doesn't really interact much. Yes, she looks around. Yes, she cries and eats and sleeps. But that's really about it. She won't even actually react to us with a smile for another 2 months! It's one of those things, where deep down inside, you know that before you can blink she will be crawling, walking, talking and all those fun things. But it's just like Dark Helmet said in Spaceballs, "When will then, be now?"

Here are some pictures of Megan doing what she does best, sleeping. If I've learned anything in the last 3 weeks, it's that a half an ounce of food can make ALL the difference between a crying baby and a content happy baby.

Saturday night we went to a small Halloween party over at our friends who recently moved really close to us. (within 5 miles) This made for an easy Megan trip, and we stayed just long enough between feedings. The kids were very cute in their costumes, and we also made them bob for apples.

I've basically come to embrace my night owl self. I think about how my brother is constantly up until 2, 3, or even 4am every night and I realize we are probably more alike in that respect. When you have to get up at 6am every morning, you basically force yourself into a "normal" schedule. But the truth is, for some reason, my body likes to stay up late and sleep in all morning. The benefit of this, is that I can take care of Megan from 11pm-3am every night, and Andrea can get a good solid 4 hours of sleep. Then I can goto bed and we can trade off. It works out okay, but obviously it's going to be very hard to get back on a normal schedule once I start work again.

I'll probably post again later this week with an update on my health goals. I've been struggling for the last 3 weeks, although I have made it to the gym 8 times. I plan on keeping that going with at least 4 visits a week. It's just a matter of figuring out what to do while I'm there to be most effective.