2007 = Year of the Movie?

2006 was a pretty bad year for movies. (for me anyway) I looked back and saw maybe 2 movies I was actually looking forward to, and maybe a handful of others that I saw just for the hell of it. Out of all those movies, I can think of only 1 that I really enjoyed (and subsequently bought the DVD on release day).

My last post mentioning some new movies got me thinking about 2007. I realized that it has the potential to be a really great year for movies. Off the top of my head, I could name 5 movies I was REALLY looking forward too, with a bunch of other minor ones included. So I decided to go ahead and make a full list of "Movies I want to see in 2007." This list includes a ranking of how badly I want to see it (out of 5) and my prediction on if it will actually be good or suck.

Movie	Release Date	Ranking	Suck or Good?
Epic Movie	Jan 26	2 out of 5	Suck
	This is another spoof movie that looks to be somewhat funny. I'm sure it will suck, but hopefully make me laugh a few times.
Ghost Rider	Feb 16	5 out of 5	Good
	First comic book movie of the year, I think it will be good but has suck potential.
The Number 23	Feb 23	2 out of 5	Good?
	Weird thriller with Jim Carrey. Looks interesting...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	March 23	5 out of 5	GOOD
	I have hopes this movie will be in the top 3 for 2007.
Spider-Man 3	May 4	5 out of 5	GOOD
	This should be one of the other top 3.
Shrek the Third	May 18	3 out of 5	Good
	The Shrek movies always make me laugh, I'll see this one just because.
Pirates of the Caribbean 3	May 25	3 out of 5	Suck
	The 2nd one was pretty sucky, but I'm still going to see the next one. Why? I'm a glutton for punishment!
Fantastic Four 2	June 15	4 out of 5	Good
	As I said before, this one might be good, but all comic books to movie have a chance to suck.
Evan Almighty	June 22	2 out of 5	Suck
	A sequel to Bruce Almighty... This could be funny, I'm going to see it just because I think Steve Carrel is hilarious.
Transformers: The Movie	July 4	5 out of 5	Good
	I'm hoping a new preview comes out soon for this movie... I really want this to be the last of top 3 movies for 07.
Harry Potter 5	July 13	5 out of 5	Good...
	I didn't really think they would do this many Harry Potters, but damn - are they going to finish them all before the actors are 30?
The Simpsons Movie	July 27	3 out of 5	???
	I've no clue if this movie will be any good, but I think I will go see it because my brother is such a huge Simpsons fan.
Rush Hour 3	Jan 26	2 out of 5	Suck
	I like Jackie Chan, so I'll go see his new movies even if they suck...
Resident Evil: Extinction	Aug 10	2 out of 5	Suck
	The 3rd installment in this series, I'll go see it simply because. It will probably suck, but I don't think I could ever get enough of Milla kicking ass.
The Mist	Sept 7	2 out of 5	Good
	A movie based on Stephen King... I listened to a book-on-tape version of this long ago.
Alien vs. Predator 2	Jan 26	3 out of 5	Suck
	The first AVP sucked so bad, it hurt. The only reason I'm going to see the 2nd one is in the hopes that they actually make a movie this time. I'd bet against that, but you never know!

Christmas Photos

The 5-day weekend is getting off to a good start. I got a decent run in today and also got out to see Eragon. I don't know why all the reviews said bad things about this movie, I really enjoyed it. Was it out of this world fantastic? No, but it had all the elements of a good fantasy movie, and that's really all you could ask for. I hope they end up making the next two in the series.

Speaking of new movies... I also got to see a few new trailers recently. If you haven't already checked them out, I highly recommend both the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trailer and the new Fantastic Four trailer. Although I wasn't a HUGE fan of the first Fantastic Four, it was good enough that I am looking forward to the next one. TMNT on the other hand looks down right AWESOME. I can't WAIT to see that movie.

Anyway, on to the Christmas photos that this post title promises. Here they are, in chronological order!


Megan in a cute santa hat.


Papa B and Megan playing with bows.


My smoking hot wife in the santa hat!


Daddy feeding Megan some peppermint ice cream.


Megan looking stoned sitting with my cousins.


My other cousin who seems more interested in Megan's new toy then she is...


Megan and Great Grandma Ruby winding down...


Megan in her new Escalade. That's right, its a GENUINE GM product! (the box said so)

To PS3 or not to PS3, that is the question

I suppose I don't have much to complain about when the biggest dilemma in my life right now is whether or not to buy a PS3 ($600 dollars). The last 3 days went by like a blur as I knew they would. You know that they wore everyone out when at the end of it all, Megan goes to sleep at 7pm and sleeps straight through to 7:30am the next morning. She was possibly more exhausted then me!

Now I just have to survive one more day at work and I can really unwind with a long 5 day weekend, which will be just perfect. I'll get some more Christmas pictures up on Thursday after I have more time to pick out the good ones. In the meantime, I wanted to put up this picture from the Bieraugel farm, from Saturday morning. All the trees were covered in this fine layer of ice, it was quite a beautiful thing to see.



I got the one thing I really wanted for Christmas, Zelda: Twilight Princess for Game Cube. It finally came out on Dec 12th, despite possible rumors that it was never going to make it to the Game Cube. (there was talk it would end up being Wii only) So rather then waste anymore time blogging, I'm off to save Hyrule!

X-mas begins!

First off, thanks everyone for the kind words about my previous post. It's been a long time coming, and I just wanted to share the results with everyone. 3 crazy days of holiday plans coming up shortly. Tomorrow we head down to New Ulm for an early celebration with Andrea's family. Sunday night will be with the Andersons at a new location in Minneapolis, and finally Monday afternoon will be down in Cannon Falls with the McMorrows. Oh, and Monday morning we offered to make a Christmas morning breakfast for 6 people! Whewww... This "weekend" (if you can call it that?) will be over before it even begins.


Thought I'd just wrap up with some pictures. Megan visited Santa with the Mom's club again this year, only this time she was much to scared to sit in Santa's lap! I wish I could have been there, I think next year I will make an effort to.


The kids also frosted sugar cookies, I hear Megan just ate the frosting.


Step away from the cookie...


Thursday night, when I brought Megan down stairs after her bath, the classic Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer was on. You know, the old claymation show. Megan enjoyed it and settled down to watch it with Andi.

I never quite realized it before, but Santa is a jerk in this show. If you don't believe me, click that link and you can see for yourself just how mean he is.

Numb3rs & New Glasses

My blood test results are in! They arrived Tuesday, so now it is time to compare. Thankfully, my wonderful wife keeps all our important things in very safe places. She was able to pull out my 2004 test results with no problem! So on to the numbers:

2004-2006	Old	New	Ideal
Total Cholesterol	182	148	Under 200
HDL(good) Choles.	31	39	40-96
LDL(bad) Choles.	119	94	0-130
VLDL(bad) Choles.	32	12	5-40
Triglycerides	158	60	30-200
LDL/HDL Ratio	3.85	2.4
Choles./HDL Ratio	5.87	3.8
Cardio CRP	9.6	.4	Under 1.0

Whoa! I know, lots of numbers. There are a couple of key ones, obviously my Total Cholesterol being the first one. Lowering my total Cholesterol by 34 points is just awesome. My risk for heart disease is very low right now, and I can only imagine it will continue to improve. My HDL (good stuff) is still low, but at least it went up a little bit. Perhaps that will just take longer to get up over time. The doc's note on the results were "Low good cholesterol but excellent bad cholesterol".

The last thing to note is the CRP, or C-reactive protein. I have no clue what this number really means, but the important thing is that it's a very important number when it comes to gauging cardiovascular risk. The scale basically says, 3.1-10 is "high cardiovascular risk", and that anything over 10 could be very bad. Dropping that number from 9.6 to 0.4 is HUGE. Anything under 1.0 is considered "low cardiovascular risk".

In other words, GO ME! I probably just saved/prolonged my life by who knows how many years. How's that for motivation to keep going? Bring on the New Year baby, I'm ready.

Also, I picked up my new glasses today. I think they look okay, but it's going to take awhile to get used to them. They keep slipping down a little, I might have to go back in and get the nose section adjusted a tad tighter. Here is what they look like, figured I could squeeze in Megan as well.



Ideally, I will get one more post up pre-Christmas, but we'll see how that goes. In case I don't, everyone have a very Merry Christmas!

Pointless Post

It's been awhile since I've had a pointless post, so I figured it was time for one. The only reason I'm posting tonight is that if I don't, it will be longer then a week between posts. And I can't have that!

Had an AD&D session this weekend. That's pretty much all I can say about that. The longer I run sessions, the greater my desire is to be a player for awhile. I actually starting making a character today. Why? I don't know... no one I know has the time or commitment to run a campaign I would actually enjoy playing in. AD&D is the strangest past time ever... Where else can you find 6 adult males, staying up until 4 in the morning, arguing incessantly about things that aren't even real? What's even more strange, is that we keep coming back for more...

Health wise, I hit some all time low weights this weekend. (as low as 184!) I need to keep up the intensity because I can already see how hard the holidays are really going to be. My Mom is talking about bringing over her chocolate fountain for Christmas morning. I'm still waiting to get the final results from my blood tests, I'll be sure to post those up when they arrive. I won't be able to post again until after Wed night, and hopefully I will also have my new glasses by then. So check back for pictures!

Bad Hair Day

Long post tonight, so I thought I'd just get the picture Andrea snapped this morning out of the way. Just precious!



Work has got me slightly stressed out lately. Luckily I got a few days off I have to use before the end of the year, and with Christmas and New Years right around the corner, that will help. I've only been there 6 months now and I feel like I'm being asked to do things that would be asked of a 2+ year veteran. It just doesn't feel right, like the ship is strangely missing it's captain. Let's just hope there aren't any icebergs around.

My doctors visit yesterday was pretty uneventful. The doc was pretty shocked at my weight loss, he literally said to me "You're my hero!" (direct quote) He said that these days, achieving the amount of weight loss that I did without surgery, pills, or anything else was virtually unheard of. According to my previous physical on November 16th, 2004, I weighed in at 308 pounds. Yesterday, my weight came in at 191. 38% of my weight, gone. I think hearing this doctor of who knows how many years tell me he had only ever seen one other person that "did it all on there own" really made me start to realize the level of my accomplishment. But at the same time, there is still a part of me that says, "Well, you wouldn't have had anything to accomplish if you hadn't fucked up your body in the first place."

The other thing he said to me was that how sometimes in order to get someone to make the level of changes I've made you basically have to "take out their brain and replace it with a new one." (another direct quote) That comment really stuck with me, because lately I've really been thinking about the New Shawn vs Old Shawn. It's really hard to explain how distinct the two personalities are in my mind. But for someone who is as introspective as me, they are as different as night and day. Although I'm sure a lot of my recent musings stem from the whole "OMG I'm 30 now, what do I want out of life?" (that I think a lot people my age are going through), another big part of it has to do with the fact that I'm still trying to figure out who this New Shawn is. Shitty part is, I have no one to help me figure him out except for me! (If you're still with me at this point, I'm impressed!)

In the spirit of embracing New Shawn, I went ahead and got some new glasses ordered yesterday as well. I'm really excited and nervous at the same time. They are unlike any style of glasses I've ever worn before, and I honestly believe the only reason they might even look good on me is because of the fact that my face shape has changed so dramatically. For whatever reason, it's almost like they've become a symbolic representation of the change in my personality. Okay so that sounds pretty hugely far fetched, but oh well. This blog is my craziness after all.

Sunday Blog is On

Another 3-day weekend, as I have a doctors appointment (physical) and eye exam scheduled for tomorrow. I haven't had my vision checked since we got back to Minnesota, so just over 3 years. Hopefully it won't be too bad... I'm thinking about getting a new style of glasses, but we'll see how that goes. Change can be hard for me. I figured that perhaps with a thinner face now, thinner style glasses might look better on me then the typical round shape I have stuck with for many years. I'll of course post some pictures with the results.

I'm scrambling to get everything ready for the next Dungeons & Dragons session. That's coming up this Saturday, and once again I think it is going to be a lot of fun for everyone. I've recently acquired a large amount of source material (books describing the world) which will make for some very richly detailed adventures.

Megan is doing well lately, trying to walk a lot more then before. She is definitely getting braver with taking steps away from things, and not having to always be holding onto something. Our latest fun thing to do is yell "WEEEEEEE!" anytime she falls or looks like she might have hurt herself. It makes her totally forget about what happened and just smile all big.





The eye patch is going well, I'm trying to keep it on as long as possible still. Might have kept it on a bit too long today, because after taking it off there was a big red mark on her cheek. It's somewhat gone away now, but still there a little bit...



Of course, snapping that picture woke her up from her nap, so now I must end this post! It's just me and her this afternoon, Andrea is out to lunch with a friend.

My Back Hurts

Guess I've been pushing a little too hard lately. 35 miles running in the last 8 days... I got a little pinch in my lower back tonight. I'm sure it's probably just a small muscle pull, I'll have to take it easy for awhile. Maybe just do some elliptical for a bit. Once again, that same lesson keeps smacking me in the face: moderation in all things!

Today I was reading about the guy from Lakeville that won $47 million in the Powerball, and once again started thinking about what I would do if that were me. Can you believe this guy has a new child named Lucky? That's like a whole new definition of irony.

Sure, it would be great to never have to work again. But it's not so much the fact that I'd never have to work again, it's the fact that I would have so much time to do OTHER things. Honestly, I don't hate work all that much. In fact, I honestly do like my new job, and really hope it pans out in the long term. But damn would it be great to spend all day with Andrea and Megan instead.

So to totally change topics here, I just got some news from my brother. Someone decided to kick the trunk of his car, and put a huge dent in it. He could tell because of the boot print. How messed up is that? And what's really stupid? This kind of stuff happens to him all the time. Sometimes I wish I could just give him some of my good karma, because it really seems like he just never has any. Maybe he should name his first kid Lucky?

Sick Day

I feel like crap! It seems like every time I'm just getting over a cold, I get another one. It just doesn't seem fair... You'd think with all the healthy foods and exercise, the amount of colds I get would go down. Oh well, at least I get a sick day out of it. I guess I should be thankful it fell on a Monday. And being actually sick, I don't feel guilty for staying home. Woohoo!

Dungeons & Dragons on Saturday was awesome! It was damn near perfect in my opinion. I know that not every player felt 100% as I did, but I think that's to be expected. You can't make everyone happy every session. The only complaint I had was that I screwed up and didn't fit any combat into the session. Which is odd, considering D&D is all about the hack & slash! But I think everyone had fun with this type of game play, and the entire session setup the next sessions which will be much more combat intensive. The cool part is that this session proved to me that with enough planning, you can get your players to move quickly from one thing to the next to keep the session flowing.

Anyway, I made the mistake of asking if Andrea would make peanut butter cookies today... Now she is dead set on doing it, so I'm gonna have to do my best not to eat half a dozen cookies. When your sick, nothing makes you feel better then eating bad food that tastes ohhh so good.

I'm actually thinking about heading to Best Buy to spend some money... I know I shouldn't, but there is actually something I need. I might have mentioned before that Andrea and I are wanting to cancel cable. The key to that is if we can get local channels at all decently with an antenna. I think today is the perfect day to give it a try!

The Pirate

The only reason I'm posting today is simply because I had wanted to post yesterday but never got around to it, as I ended up getting too caught up in preparing for Dungeons & Dragons. People should be over here within the next 30 minutes, so I thought I'd get a quick post in, since my next post will most likely be all about Dungeons & Dragons.

Here are some pictures of Megan with her eye patch on:





It's turn out to be not so bad - she only picks at it a little bit, but it's easy to distract her with other things so she forgets that she has it on. We are trying to do even a little bit longer then an hour when she seems able to handle it. Taking it off is a bit tricky, because they are a really strong adhesive. But Andrea discovered a thing today that seems to work. She takes Megan into the bathroom by the mirror, and takes a small part of the patch off. Then she lets Megan take the rest off herself, which for some reason doesn't seem to bother her as much as when someone else does it?

Finally, I thought I'd end with an artists rendition of Megan with the eye patch. ARRRRGGGHH!

Fake Choices

The week has gone by surprisingly fast. Normally the first week after a long weekend is really slow. I suppose looking forward to the Bob Seger concert last night helped - and also my D&D group is meeting this Saturday night, so looking forward to that also has the week going by quickly.

Tuesday morning Andrea took Megan to the eye doctor. The gist is, they determined that her vision is fine. She does have some form of "lazy eye". I am not sure if they can actually diagnose if it's Strabismus (wandering eye) or actual Amblyopia (lazy eye). Either way, the treatment for both is the same - eye patch time! Our first pass will be eye patch for 1 hour a day for 6 weeks. I've read that this can end up going on for months, even a year or more. I can only hope that it doesn't have to last that long...

Enough bad news! Tuesday night, my brother and I went to the Bob Seger concert. It was excellent!! Our seats were awesome, the music was great. The crowd was very diverse, although there were quite a few Seger look alikes... my Dad would have fit right in with that crowd. At one point someone lit up a joint down our row a bit... I heard the women behind me say, "It's like Where's Waldo. Where's the joint?" And then another woman standing next to Scott turned to him and asked, "Are you smoking pot?" He couldn't tell if she was asking in shock or because she wanted a hit. Too funny.

I started thinking today about the choices in our lives that aren't really choices. Like choosing to get up and goto work in the morning. You might moan when the alarm clock goes off and say to yourself how you wish you didn't have to goto work, but there is no choice. I started thinking about other fake choices we make. It occurred to me that exercising has become a fake choice for me. I've finally been doing it so long that it's no longer something I choose to do. It's just something I have to do, like going to work. This is good and bad. On the good side, it means I'll keep on doing it just like going to work. On the bad side, it means I really have ceased to get any real enjoyment from it anymore. It's just one line item on my daily list of obligations.

Jingle Rap - Megan Style

I apologize to my viewers that have problems watching my youtube posts, but I just HAD to share this one. If this doesn't get you into the Christmas spirit, I don't know what will!



In other news... I've decided it's that time again. I am going to start re-reading the entire Deverry series by Katharine Kerr, from start to finish. The main reason is, the next book in the series finally came out last June. Of course, I never bothered to pick it up, but I think now is the time!



I first started reading this series when I was 14, and it was some of the hardest reading I had ever done. This will be the 4th time re-reading the entire series, I do it every time she starts a new chapter with a few year break in between. This is by far, my favorite set of books I've ever read. Will see how long it takes this time... for now, it's going to be a slow start, but I know once I get to book 3 or 4 I won't be able to put them down.

Thanksgiving pictures

Thanksgiving was a smashing success this year, as we made the rounds to both Andrea's parents house and my Mom's house. Andrea called it "one of the best Thanksgiving's ever". Not quite sure what all qualified it as such! Here are some pictures from the day, obviously all about Megan!


Megan fell in love with this ball almost as soon as we got to the Bieraugel house. So much that we ended up bringing it home with us.


Still has that ball! (this was right before we left)


Playing around with Papa B.


Megan enjoyed her first piece of pumpkin pie. Maybe too much, because she ate the ENTIRE piece, and then got a little sick later.


All that fun and food makes for a tired little girl...


Megan got a new dress when we got to my Mom's house. This dress was hand made and won first prize in a fair. Very cool!


Another cute picture of her new dress.

That's all for now, I'll be doing a long run tomorrow to work off all the food and trying to enjoy the rest of my weekend. Some things have developed regarding my attempts to start Dungeons and Dragons again that have got me in a bad mood, but I'll try to shake that off with my run and see how things play out. Right now, it's not looking too good.

Weight Maintain Challenge

The gauntlet has been thrown down! Tonight, Andrea and I weighed in for our Holiday Challenge to maintain our weights until the new year. We will weigh in again (I assume) on Jan 1st. Our weights were as follows:

Andrea:

147 pounds

Shawn:

192.5 pounds

I was happy with my number, cause it was slightly above what I expected it to be, so it should be that much easier to maintain. My actual goal for the end of the year is to be 186. (I was 190.5 after my run tonight!) It MIGHT be possible to hit that weight before Jan 1st, but honestly - I've come to realize that just being 190 by the end of the year will be a big accomplishment.

I watched this news show that said for an average 170 pound man to "work off" the typical 3000 calorie Thanksgiving feast, he would have to run a 10 minute mile for 2 and half hours. My first thought was, "That's it?" Hell, I just ran an hour tonight at a 9min mile, and I'm going to be running another hour and half on Friday. I'm basically already done working off my Thanksgiving!

Seriously though, I'm wanting to get this stupid goal weight of 183 pounds DONE in the next few months. Ideally, no later then the end of February. I need to start focusing on different aspects of my health, but until I get this weight goal off my plate, I can't seem to get motivated to do anything else. It's just the way I get so focused on things that I decide to do. I am definitely a person that has to finish what I start. I guess that's why I've beaten almost every video game I've ever played....

I'll try to post some Thanksgiving pictures tomorrow or Friday. Have a happy Turkey Day everyone!

Pursuit of Happiness

Sunday afternoon and you know what that means. I find myself watching Football and blogging. I ran 10 miles this morning, it felt great. I'm very happy with my decision to go with the close gym. Being able to get there in 2 minutes is great.

So speaking of being happy, as the new year approaches I once again find myself thinking about the things that make me happy. I'm sure part of it is the fact that Andrea asked me just a few nights ago, "Are you really happy?" and I didn't immediately shout "Hell ya!" at the top of my lungs.

Not that I think CNN is an authority on happiness, but I stumbled across this article. The article itself does nothing to establish the actual definition of happiness, which in my opinion is required to answer the follow up question of "Am I happy?". But it did have some interesting facts.

First, it tries to establish that money can't buy happiness, past a certain level. How came up with the value of that level isn't described:

By and large, money buys happiness only for those who lack the basic needs. Once you pass an income of $50,000, more money doesn't buy much more happiness, Gilbert said.

So is that $50k per person, or like $50k for a family? A married couple? Regardless, I have to disagree. I don't think just being able to provide the basic needs is enough to make you happy. Unless my definition of happiness doesn't account for material things, which I don't think is possible.

The article then throws out a bunch of other arbitrary comparisons of who's happier. Married people are happier than singles, Republicans are happier than Democrats, and my person favorite, religious people are happier than those who aren't. Ohhhh kay... guess I'm doomed to never be happy!

The one thing that did stick out to me, was something that my brother has also mentioned that he has read or heard about in the past. That is, you get happier the older you get. The happiest group of men are 65 and older. The least happy? 18 to 29.

Let's think about that... 18 to 29 are men just starting there careers or just starting to look at the fact that they will be working for the next 30 years of there life. That can be VERY depressing. 65 year old men? Probably retired, kids are all grown up, not a care in the world. Gee, I wonder why they qualify as "happier".

I know that I am definitely happier than before. Happier than when I was 300 pounds. Happier than when I lived in Boise away from family, and happier than when I wasn't a father. But am I happy? No... simply because I have too many concerns and worries about the future. But at the same time, I really don't feel like waiting 35 years to be happy. There has to be a way to find happiness in the years leading up to retirement. Now to just figure out how to do that...

Corporate Speak

A survey of office workers found that the use of management jargon by bosses lowers employee morale. Workers said they were particularly depressed by the terms "getting one's ducks in a row" and "thinking outside the box."

My personal favorite is "touching base". That one just depresses me. I know there are other ones, but I can't think of any right now. Lets just say, I'm glad that tomorrow is Friday and that next week is only 3 days long.

Andrea and I are going to try a little challenge starting on the 22nd, the day before Thanksgiving. I don't know exactly what it's called, but something along the lines of the "Maintain Challenge." The gist is, we will both weigh in on the 22nd with the goal of maintaining that weight until Jan 1st. Little does Andrea know, that I have serious weight loss goals from now until then, so I don't think it will be that hard for me... Anyway, onto some pictures:


Megan sitting in her carseat inside. I can remember when she barely fit in there!


Megan and Uncle Scott playing around one night.


Cute, peaceful, sleeping Megan. Scott, if you're reading this, you will be happy to know that Megan is just like you - she loves to sleep on her stomach!

Back on the Wagon

Today I stared at a blank, white wall for 60 minutes. And it was the best 60 minutes of the day. You know why? Because I was running on a treadmill at the time! I went four straight days without exercise, and my body was screaming at me to do something. I haven't gone that long without exercising for quite awhile, so it felt damn good to run tonight. I finally picked a health club to sign up for, right near my house called Fitness 19. I think it's called that because the memberships are $19 bucks a month. But I actually went all out and splurged for the cheaper $9 dollar a month membership. I say splurged, because there was a higher up front-cost. But in the long run, I just couldn't pass up $9 bucks a month for a place that I DRIVE by every day to work. It doesn't get much more convenient then that.

Not much else is knew, this week is looking to be pretty uneventful. I did goto Jim's house for his birthday party tonight. We played some poker and I lost $10 bucks. Actually technically speaking I only lost $8 bucks because that's all I had in my wallet at the time. So I guess I owe Jim $2 dollars that he spotted me... Ya, I'll remember that... Suuuure.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get to bed early... ya... tomorrow will be the night... Definitely.

Nightmares

Picture this: You spend 6 hours coming up with a story. You make up characters, good and evil. You give them stories, back grounds, motivations and goals. You weave this tale and try to come up with "loose" connections for your players so they can feel like they are a big part of the story. So they can feel like THEY are directing the story, and the story isn't direction them. You create dialog between characters in an attempt to "hint" them in the right direction. Sure, I delivered the dialog horribly but I tried. And after all this work to try and make the players feel "involved", I still get a "Well that's not my characters problem, lets keep going."

I probably shouldn't post right now, seeing as I'm in a very cranky mood and tired as hell having only got around 4 hours of sleep last night. We were up playing Dungeons and Dragons until 4am this morning. I don't even know if my brain was actually functioning for the last 2 hours, but that's half the fun isn't it?

I'd love to say the session was a smashing success and everyone had an awesome time, but as always that wasn't the case. I really thought I had prepared well this time. I had cool little mysterious things for each player to be worried about, I had a main plot thread that started with a cool cinematic large scale battle. I had important NPCs (non-player characters) with vague but important quests. Even an unknown bad guy! All these elements I tried to throw in and it still didn't work. The dialog was choppy, the plot was too straight forward, and my attempts to give the characters motivation was lacking. There was bickering, slow progress, and once again arguments about the definition of good and evil. Oh the joys of Dungeons and Dragons.

Perhaps like a lot of things in life, my dreams of the perfect Dungeons and Dragons session is just a pipe dream and actually a nightmare. But I can't give up yet... for where there is a will, there is a way! Somehow the princess must be rescued, the forces of evil brought to justice, and the heroes will reap the rewards!

Unseasonably Warm

Not that I'm complaining, but 71 degrees!? It's got to be some kind of record. Actually I just checked, according to kstp.com, the record temperature is 77 degrees - however, weather.com states the temp right now as 77 degrees! Either way, it's warm out, and I'll be taking advantage of it.

Dungeons and Dragons is coming together nicely for this weekend, perhaps too nicely. I'm slated to have 5 players there now, 1 that is totally new. I wasn't quite expecting that many, in fact, I had kind of hoped for a smaller group of just 3 players. I'm afraid it will become too much with that many players. We'll see how it goes, I still have a goal of making a fun fast-paced adventure.

It's kind of sad, it's only the first week in November, and I'm already thinking about the New Year. Just trying to think about what types of goals I want set for myself this next year. One new goal is vacation planning. I've always been horrible at vacation planning in the sense that, I just don't plan any for myself. 90% of the vacations Andrea and I have gone on, are some place that Andrea wanted to go. Anything else I've done is usually travel related to some kind of video game conference or convention, and those don't really count.

I want to do something big for our 10 year anniversary, which is 3 years out. What that is yet, I don't know. What I do know, is that I need to start planning for it now or it's just not going to happen. I figure as long as I can set the wheels in motion early, I'll be able to figure out what it is I want to do...

As for a Megan update, not much to report. She still hasn't decided to start walking yet and doesn't have much more in the vocab department. Although it has seemed like she has been more vocal lately. I guess the biggest thing is she has really started to get upset when I leave now. If I see her in the morning before work, or after I get home from work and leave the room. This may seem like a "Well ya DUH" type thing to other parents, but it's my first time experiencing what feels like real "attachment", so BACK OFF! It's still new to me. :-)

Remember Remember the Fifth of November

Pretty ironic to put in "V for Vendetta" this morning, only to realize today actually IS the 5th of November. For those that don't know, the movie starts out with the popular Guy Fawkes rhyme.

Last night I went to the Wild hockey game, which we ended up losing. 8 straight home game wins, and they had to lose the one I went to. Figures, the last game I went to they also lost. At least it was a high scoring game (3-4) so it was somewhat exciting. Prior to the game was a minor reunion of sorts. I went to dinner with 3 former college classmates. And on another ironic note, one is a former co-worker and one is a current co-worker. Small world I guess?

Today there are things I know I should do, mainly get my ass outside and run. But I know I'm not going to, because I'm tired and lazy.

Blog update: I would have been INSANE not to take advantage of the weather today. Thankfully that part of me that makes "good" decisions got my ass off the couch and outside for a great 6 mile run. For sure the best decision ever, I hope the rest of the week is this nice.

I was 192 (190 after my run!!) on the scale this morning, which I realize is a "fake" weight, but it's low enough that I'm not motivated to put in that extra effort. On the plus side, I will make up for it this week with this crazy heat wave we are going to have. I'll get outside for runs every night!

Earlier this week, I had the following horoscope:

You're getting serious about where you're going and need guidelines for weeding out the weak. Here's one -- the chief hallmark of a mature being is one who accepts total responsibility for his or her own state.

It has been awhile since I had a horoscope that struck a cord with me, but this one did. Responsibility is such a strange and powerful word. Every day we make choices, and in the end, we are responsible for those choices. And the only person we have to blame or praise for those choices is ourselves. Yet even knowing this, we make bad choices. That is what is so interesting to me. That a rational, logical, intelligent person will make bad decisions.

As far as I've come, I still make bad decisions. Granted, they are fewer and farther between, but they still happen. What this horoscope made me realize, that it's okay to make bad decisions, as long as I take responsibility for them. In the past, I ignored my bad decisions. I completely denied that I was even making bad decisions, and that was my problem. I know now that it's important to embrace the choices I make, good or bad, and acknowledge and learn from them both.

I just wished it wasn't so damn hard to always make the "good" choices!!!!!

There it is

Today we finally had Megan's 1 year check up. It was delayed because our doctor called in sick for our original appointment. Let's just say, it could have been worse? She was 24 pounds and 32 inches today, which puts her in the 90% and 97% percentiles respectively. So she is definitely still a big girl! She had two shots, and she cried but only for a very short time. The worse part was when we had to get her finger pricked for a blood sample. That just sucked!

We also pointed out to the doctor something we've been worried about for awhile now - Megan's lazy eye. Her right eye wanders when she is looking at things far away, or when it is really bright. At first we figured it would just go away, but it hasn't. I find out later that I guess my Mom also had something like that, and had to wear a patch over one eye when she was little. I have a feeling Megan will have to do the same. Here is an example of what I am talking about, we actually brought this picture to the doctor to show her.



Right away the doctor said we should get her in to see an optometrist. I just can't see Megan being okay with a patch over her eye, she would just rip it right off! I guess we will see what happens...

If you've read this far, you get to know the coolest part of our doctor visit. Megan took her first steps! Right there in the little room, Megan took 2 or 3 unassisted steps towards me. It was just awesome! Of course, I can't get her to duplicate it now for the life of me, but she definitely did it. Best part was Andrea was also right there to see it. So now I never have to worry about missing her first steps.

Happy Halloween

Andrea took Megan out tonight, so I got to enjoy a short break. They tried the Mall first, but didn't really like that. So then they visited a friend and just did a few houses, finally ending up at Grandma's house.

Actually I used most of the free time to do a long run tonight. Figured I started the month out with a 10-miler, so I finished out the month with a 10-miler. I got a one week trial with a cheaper health club alternative called Snap Fitness. There is a good chance I could go there for $16 bucks a month. They are basically little clubs in strip malls where you can go to work out. Nothing fancy, no locker rooms, no showers. Just a room with a few tread mills, elliptical, and weights. Cool part is there is one just a block from where I work, so very convenient.

Here are the pictures I promised of Megan the Monster!

Megan and Mom after a successful candy gathering expedition.


So scary! Her smile is just the monsters ruse to draw you in...


Monster Megan on the prowl... look at that tail!

Free Hour

How about a free day? Can't believe November is right around the corner. Time is flying by, faster then it's ever felt in a long time. It seems like I'm going to blink and all of a sudden Megan will be walking and talking. She is definitely starting to assert more of her independence. If there is something she wants, she lets you know. Or if you take something she is fixated on, you will definitely know. It's pretty cool but also tough when she becomes fixated on my computer or trying to get behind the couch.

Friday night we did a little baby sitting for a friend of Andrea. All week we had been getting pumped up for our first ever It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. We were gonna sit the kids down and enjoy it all together. And then guess what happened? Some stupid District 6 debate came on instead, and we didn't get to see it! We don't even vote for District 6 people, what the hell? So lame...

Last night I got out of the house to hang out with my buddy Art. I hadn't seen him in quite some time, so that was great. We saw "The Departed" which was... okay. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, but it couldn't have really ended any other way. The funniest part of the night was after the movie, we went to a little restaurant for some drinks. It was a little loud, and Art asked the waitress if they had any root beer. She proceeds to start listing off the beers on tap... So he tries to stop her and says, "No, ROOT beers." She stops... say, "Oh! Well... " and then proceeds to list off more tap beers? At this point we are both trying not to laugh, and we both say very loudly, ROOT BEERS! She finally got it at that point and brought over an ICB. Okay, well maybe you had to be there, but it was damn funny at the time.

Still not sure what we are going to do for Halloween. I imagine it will involve getting candy for Megan, so that we can eat it! More importantly though, we will be putting Megan in her costume again, which she has worn a few times so far. It is just adorable, so check back Tuesday for pictures of that.

Century Club

I'm in the century club! If I was in college, you might think I just drank 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes. No... I never actually got around to trying that. (or the Power Hour for that matter). It's not that Century Club I'm referring to... Naw, I'm referring to my own fabricated Century Club - I've finished 100 miles of running in a single month!

Okay, well maybe it's not that big a deal, but it's the most I've ever done by far. Only reason I got that much really is because the 10-mile race was on the 1st of this month. Kinda like cheating almost...

I realized today that there are a lot of new things with Megan that I haven't really reported on. For example, I just found out two days ago that her first year molars are pretty much all the way in. I didn't even know that! I mean, it's not like I go out of my way to go digging into her mouth...

She is very helpful with getting dressed. (or not helpful sometimes). She will put her arms into jackets or sweaters, but will also unzip them. Today she decided to take her diaper off for the first time, yikes! Still not walking, but I think she is starting to verbalize more. Not really babbling, but definitely putting some syllables together. Of course, she is dancing just as much as ever.



Today Andrea made these awesome Halloween cupcakes. They are called "Buried Alive" Cupcakes. Damn were they tasty, I had one tonight. Not sure yet what we will do with the rest, but somehow we have to get them out of the house!

I'm still here!

Lest I get labeled as a weekend blogger, I wanted to get a post up today. It's 10:23, and tonight has a chance of proving to be a very long night. Megan has a REALLY bad cold. She can hardly breath, I feel so bad for her. Luckily, after a good hour on my shoulder, she went down in her crib. Fingers crossed she gets some rest.

Hopefully next few weekends are going to be very full for me, and I'm really looking forward to them all. For the first time in a long time, I'm doing a few things I want to do on subsequent Saturday nights. Now I know, your thinking "But Shawn, you sit around and play video games on Saturday nights usually, isn't that want you want to do?" Well, not really. For the most part, I play video games as time filler. And sometimes, that just gets old. Especially when your just playing World of Warcraft for the umpteenth hour cause you have nothing better to play.

Big thing is that I'm going to try and resurrect my Dungeons and Dragons group, aiming for a first session in mid November. I realized that... although our sessions have been a mixture of success and failure, the group I have are all very good players. They enjoy the character development aspect of D&D, actually trying to give there characters personality. I'm going to be running the campaign again and I really hope to provide some quality character driven adventures. For the next few weeks, D&D is going to be my "thing". Will see if it pays off...

Next up in the life streamline process, canceling cable. That's right, I said CANCELING cable. Okay, so I haven't actually done it yet, and I'm sure it's going to be a major pain in the ass. If I had to bet, I'd put money on the fact that we will be CHARGED money to turn the cable off. I'm gonna miss Comedy Central, but that's really about it. Andrea and I both realized we just don't watch TV very much to be paying $60+ dollars a month for it. I can just get an antenna, some local channels, and I'd still even be able to get Football games in HD (cept for Monday night). I think it will be a good move, and I honestly don't think I'll miss it all that much.

Well blogger went down for awhile so this post took longer then I wanted it to. Thankfully, it's 11:30pm and Megan is still sleeping peacefully. Time for me to get some sleep, I haven't gone to bed before midnght all this week. I'm pretty wrecked each morning, but sometimes I just can't help it! Maybe I'll get some sleep this weekend... (ya right).

My Daughter, the Otter

Capers is an orphaned male sea otter pup who was rescued and rehabilitated in Alaska. He's currently being cared for at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, but will be on exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo in 2008.

Megan is my newly 1 year old daughter. She enjoys splashing in the bathtub, and will most likely be at the Minnesota Zoo often in 2008.

My Daughter:



The Otter:



Notice any similarities?

Lazy Saturday

For the first time in awhile, Andrea and I don't have any plans today. I'm going to milk it for everything it's worth! Although I did actually shower this morning, I got right back into my PJs. Odds are, I will stay in them all day.

Slow week on the blog, no good pictures of Megan really to share, and not much new going on. I did manage a few more outdoor runs with slightly warmer clothes that I own, but I'm still planning on joining the Y. It's not so much the cold, but I don't really feel like dealing with the snow/wet/weather during the winter months. Plus, maybe I can actually use the Y to do some weight lifting.

In other news, it turns out Bob Seger has a new album out. Not only that, but he is going to be in MN on Nov 28th! Now, as much as I profess to be a fan of Seger, I had no clue he came out with a new album. It was released on Sept 12th of this year, so it wasn't like it's been out for awhile and I didn't know. Luckily my Mom got an email from Ticket Master about him coming to Xcel center, so I got tickets the morning they went on sale.

I last saw Bob Seger (for the first time) at the Target center in March of 96, so I wasn't even 20 yet. I went with my brother, and the tickets we got were just shitty. I tried to trade with scalpers the night of the event, but it still wasn't that good. This time, I hope to make up for that. I got some GREAT tickets, and it is at the Xcel Energy center which is much better for concerts. The tickets I got are for Section 116, row 5, seats 1 & 2.



Currently that row is on resale web sites for as much as $235 bucks, so hopefully this time will be much more enjoyable. Of course, I am going again with my brother, so it should be a really great time. I'm looking forward to it.

Funk Minor

The body is amazingly resilient. Every day I'm glad that after a year of running, my body hasn't completely broken down on me. Tonight during my run, I had thoughts like what if this was my last run? What if something just snapped and I was never able to run again? What if I slipped a disk and my back never let me run? Again... all those fears trying to creep up. And for the record, I don't just come up with this crazy shit on my own. A guy I work with that ran the TC Marathon can no longer run due to back problems.

So speaking of resilient, I ran 9 miles tonight in the coldest weather ever. In shorts and t-shirt no less! It was probably 45 degrees and really windy. Your probably asking yourself, why didn't you just wear warmer clothes? Well... I'll let you pick the answer:

1. I'm a super hardcore runner, who won't let the cold prevent me from running!
   -OR-
   
2. I'm too cheap to buy good cold weather running gear.

I'm pretty sure the answer is B. The 10 day forecast isn't looking much better, so it might just be time to get that damn YMCA membership and stop whining about it.

I think a combination of the weather, work stress, and yes, even home stress has me in a little funk. This funk is by no means on the magnitude of my previous funk. But being that it has been 6 months since that one, I was about due.

I've been kinda disappointed I probably won't hit my goal weight by the end of the year. Actually, I'm not sure if I can actually get down to the weight I want to. No, that's a lie. I can probably get to that goal, I'm just not willing to do what it would take. (i.e. deny myself to even more extremes) It was a pretty arbitrary goal that I basically just pulled out of my ass, so I shouldn't be so hard on myself. But at the same time, I've hit so many other goals, I just want to hit this last one and be done with it. But that's just it... hitting that goal weight isn't "The End", it's just another new beginning.

Alright, enough ramblings from my crazy ass, and on to the real reason you are visiting my blog. Yes, I saved them until the end, so tough!


Megan doing a little Team Speak, talking to my World of Warcraft buddies.


Look out, it's the sock baby!


Ahhh... isn't that cute, L for Love!

I thought it would be fun to compare/contrast these next two pictures. What is interesting, is that they are only a MONTH apart. But she just seems so much taller in the second picture! I mean, her head is almost level with the keyboard now, where she had to look straight up at it before.


09/09/2006


10/16/2006

Thankfully, so far she has only caused something to print twice...

Burnsville Champps = Horrible

Since I don't expect anyone to read this entire post, I'm going to state this first. Don't go to the Burnsville Champps. I will never be going there again and urge you to do the same! Read on to find out why...

Recently Andrea went online and signed up for the Champps fan club. Her original motivation was to see if she could get anything free for Megan's birthday. What she got instead was a coupon emailed to her for a free appetizer. So we headed on over to the Champps in Burnsville today to redeem the coupon.

At the end of the meal, we handed the printed coupon to our server. She came back shortly and said her manager wouldn't accept the coupon because it was "Corporate" Chammps, and they aren't affiliated with corporate. Ahhh... okay, so then why does the web site list the Burnsville location? The server asks if we'd want to talk to the manager, and we said sure.

Now at this point, if we don't get to use the coupon, oh well. We're talking about $6.50 + tax. But then the manager arrived... Mega-Bitch 9000.

This woman starts off by saying, "This coupon is for Corporate, and we are privately owned so we can't honor this." No apology, no attempt to smooth things over. Andrea asks how were we supposed to know? She responds by saying, "The web site should indicate that it's only available at corporate locations. That's their problem not mine." Say what? Now we're just pissed off out of principle, and Andrea asked if she could comp us this time. Her response? "You're not the only one to bring those coupons in, we can't honor them."

Okay, so you're going to stand there and piss off customers to save a buck? I mean, seriously, how much can an order of mozzarella sticks cost them? Let's say the average cost is about $3 bucks. So if 200 people come in with this internet coupon it would cost them $600. Is that really going to do anything to the bottom line? Probably not... but pissed off customers, well that's gonna cost ya.

It's hard to accurately describe the remaining interactions, but this woman was just so horribly mean, it was beyond anything I had ever experienced. I think my brother said it best when I told him about this, "I've seen managers give free meals because the server dropped a fork or something stupid, that's how that business works." He is so right, and I've seen that too. I've had times where they bring out my food with something on it I didn't want, and they will offer it free.

Anyway, I simply will not be going to the Burnsville Chammps anymore, and encourage you to do the same. If however, you'd like to visit one of the "Corporate" Chammps, make sure to visit this link first.

Free appetizer at a "Corporate" Chammps location

Cold Cold Sigh

Things at work have been pretty hectic for the last 2 weeks, causing my stress levels to be higher then normal. If I had any alcohol in my house I would have consumed it by now. Luckily (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) I don't, having recently decided once again I need to be careful with my habits. It's hard to find that good moderation point, so for now I'm just staying clear of keeping any in the house.

I used to really miss the cold when I was living in Idaho. I loved the first few winters back here. Okay, granted the first winter I wasn't working, but still! Cold weather was great. Cold weather meant I could wear big baggy sweaters to hide behind. Cold weather meant it was okay to stay indoors for 48 hours straight. Cold weather was an easy excuse to do nothing but veg out.

Now cold weather means I can't get outside to run or bike. It means exercising is going to cost money, one way or another. Either I get a membership or I buy new winter quality outdoor running gear. Cold weather now just plain sucks! I knew it was coming, I had just hoped it would hold off a little bit longer this year.

That isn't to say, next week won't be better. This is Minnesota after all, we could end up with 60 degree weather all of a sudden. Until then, Andrea has 4 more free passes to the YMCA that I will use up and when those run out, most likely get a membership there.

Speaking of the YMCA, we went tonight and dropped Megan off at daycare. When we came back to pick her up, the guy tried to tell us she took her first steps! What the hell!?!?! DON'T TELL US THAT! Oh man, I couldn't believe it. We rushed Megan home and tried to duplicate it, but no go - so we figure he just meant she took steps with assistance, which she has been doing for quite awhile. Apparently Megan didn't get the memo that she can't take her first steps with anyone but Mom and Dad!!

Happy Birthday Megan!

Today is Megan's birthday! To think, an entire year has come and gone since she was born. I'm so excited to see what the next year brings, and still very scared. No matter how hard I try, I find myself worrying about the future and things beyond my control. On the positive side, I've really learned to quiet those voices over the last year, which can make all the difference. Anyway, enjoy the pictures from yesterdays birthday party!


Mom with Megan in her new birthday dress, that will fit for approximately 1 week.


Megan and Grandpa B playing with hats.


Megan wasn't to sure about the balloons...


She took to present opening like a duck to water.


Megan loves toys with buttons... I wonder why?


Speaking of ducks, here is the cake Andrea got... for FREE.


I'll take this piece!


Before the fun begins...


And the aftermath!