Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Three days too long

I have not exercised since Saturday. That would make today day three. According to my logs, I have not gone 3 days without exercising since November. (last time I went 2 days was the first week in January). Needless to say, it's dragging on me big time. It's mostly works fault, I've had to stay late the last two nights. I'm not sure if it will stop anytime soon, but it damn well better. Things SHOULD slow down tomorrow, and I'll be able to do my normal schedule, but you just never know...

Tonight Andrea is going out with a friend for a birthday dinner. Her 30th birthday is coming up in 2 days. She can finally join the club! Not much big planned for her so far. She was going to do an early morning brunch party with her Mom's club, but due to the fact that Megan might have some type of mild flu, she has decided to call it off. We might do something this weekend instead, hopefully get my Mom to babysit. Grandma G hasn't got to see Megan for a few weeks now.

Last night we experimented with putting Megan to bed without a bottle. It did not go too well... I'm not quite sure what the best approach is there. It seems to me that bottle weaning is very subjective. Although there is agreement that you shouldn't put a bottle in the bed with them over night while they sleep (which we have never done). There doesn't seem to be any real strong reasoning behind not giving a child a bottle before bed time. Some seem to think its totally bad to let that happen past 12-18 months, while others do it as long as age 3 or even 5! I think perhaps the approach we can take is to slowly start to reduce the amount of milk in the bottle over the next weeks until maybe she can fall asleep with out it at night. Time will tell I guess...

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Ummm... take the Storm back

I was only kidding! Before jumping into what happened yesterday, I thought I'd share some pictures. There is nothing better these days after coming home from a tough day at work and a long run, to have Megan just curl up like this on my lap even though I'm dripping sweat and smell totally gross.



Close-up picture I took the other day, I just love her eyes in this picture. They are so beautiful and bright blue!



Megan is at the climbing stage. Sometimes while sitting on my lap at the computer, she will climb up to other areas. I don't even fight it anymore...



Yesterday started out pretty good. I ended up braving the elements and making it over to Woodbury with Megan for a birthday party in the afternoon. Lots of fun there... the way home still wasn't too bad.

5pm rolled around, and the snow really started to pick up. However that would not stop me, and on to roleplaying I went! The session was great, everyone had a fun time. Oddly enough, I think the players had more fun then me this time. From my perspective, I wanted to see them get through as much "content" (dungeon levels, monsters, etc) that I prepared. From the players perspective, they enjoyed over analyzing one single monster encounter to death. Granted, I'd be a tad worried if I saw a sleeping dragon-looking-thing in the courtyard of a fortress with unknown number of evil forces around. But hey, only 2 people almost died and the party was able to bring them both back from the brink!

We decided to call it a night at 2:30am, and the drive home was probably one of the worst decisions I made all night. Not that it would have been much better in the morning. It took me about 25 minutes to drive the 7 miles home. And then it took me another 25 minutes to get from the end of my cul-de-sac into my driveway. First I made the mistake of thinking I could actually make it. After getting stuck, I shoveled my way around for a bit, and tried to back up to get a running start back into the drive way. On the way back, I almost took out one of the mailboxes of our cul-de-sac. What I was left with was a nice long streak of mailbox paint on my car.



After that incident, I cleared enough snow to get the running start up my sloped driveway and into the garage with no further incident. Thankfully, I think everyone else from the roleplaying group got home safely as well. It could have turned out much worse for me. Good thing my car is almost 9 years old and I don't really care much about it's condition!

Friday, February 23, 2007

Bring on the Storm

The weekend is here! And not a second too early. I've been counting down the hours until this weekend since 10am on Monday morning when all this shit hit the fan at work. I got through it all, it ended on an up note for the most part. I was out of the office by 3:30pm today. Can't complain with that.

Originally we had planned on going to check out a movie tonight, Number 23 with Jim Carrey. Unfortunately we had to cancel because Megan had a few vomit incidents this week. Once on Wednesday afternoon and then again one more time today. She doesn't seem sick or have a temperature, so it's most likely not a flu or anything like that. But we aren't sure what it is, so we didn't want to take any chances.

Tomorrow Megan and I were supposed to attend a birthday party in Woodbury. But with this weather that is starting up, in combination with Megan's status might make me change plans. We'll have to see how bad it is tomorrow afternoon and see how Megan is feeling by then. It's at a big gigantic inflatable jumping palace, and we already know how much Megan loves those!!

And then finally, tomorrow night is the end-all-be-all of Dungeons and Dragons sessions. I'll have to be careful not to get my hopes up too high, because something will just have to go wrong. But I'm sure that everyone is going to have a great time and remember this session for quite awhile. Perhaps I will actually end up setting the bar TOO high, and I'll never be able to out do myself again. Sunday's post will most likely be my analysis of the entire session. So look forward to that! Or... maybe not.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Anti-Climactic

If you are looking for something exciting, you might as well just stop right now and go do something else. Honestly there are days when I think about just stopping the silliness of this blog thing. Hardly anyone reads it and those that do mainly just want to see Megan pictures. (Please, don't post a comment of "But I read your blog!" I'm not seeking validation, I'm simply stating a feeling I have sometimes)

I originally started this blog for me, and in the end, that has to be my main reason for posting. But more and more it feels like maybe I'm not actually posting for my own reasons. The ironic thing in all this, is that a blog by its very nature/definition is a gigantic ego trip. You're basically saying to the world, "Hey look at me! My life is so cool I have to make a permanent record of it for everyone to see!" The funny part is there is hardly anything exciting about my life. In fact, I've done everything in my power to simplify my life. For whatever reason, I've really started to find solace in simplicity.

I wonder where the distinctions between a satisfying life, a simple life and a boring life are drawn? Maybe there are no distinctions, and it's just a matter of perspective. I like to think of it that way. Or maybe I'm just trying to see life for what it is, and let go of idealistic notions that I've held on to for so long. Or maybe I'm just waiting for the next huge change to come along and smack my simplistic life in the face and laugh at me for thinking I could get by that easy.

Tonight Andrea is out for Mom's Night Out with the Mom's club, seeing a movie. Megan went to bed early (8pm) due to an early nap today. I totally intended on using the rest of the night to work on D&D, but instead just ended up cleaning out my Hotmail inbox for a full 45 minutes. After I get done here, I'm going to make the bed, as we have clean sheets! Exciting huh? Can't say I didn't warn you.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Evil Bunny

Know the face of evil, for this is it! We got a call today, from my brother of all people, that this bunny has just been recalled. I only say that because my brother has no kids, so it seemed kind of weird to be coming from him. Apparently the nose on these evil bunnies can pop off and pose a choking hazard.

Andrea has already filled out a form to get our bunny money back. Besides, Megan likes her learning puppy more then the evil bunny anyway. For those of you that have seen Megan do "Itsy-Bitsy", this Puppy sings that. Megan knows just what to press to get that particular song playing (the nose multiple times) and will keep going until he starts singing it. Then she will do the hand motions along with the singing dog, it's so priceless. (note- for anyone that has not seen "Itsy-Bitsy", make sure to ask Megan to do it next time you see her. She will gladly perform.)

Originally I wasn't going to post until after I saw Ghost Rider this weekend, but as it turns out I'll be seeing it tomorrow afternoon instead of tonight. My brother is of course convinced it will suck, but I don't care. Even in my original movie listing of 2007, I said it had suck potential. But it's a comic book movie, therefore I will see it.

Spent the rest of today exercising, napping, and working on Dungeons and Dragons some more. Tomorrow after Ghost Rider, we will be using our free money for an early dinner at Major's. We tried going tonight, but it was 6:40 when we got there, and there was a 25 minute wait. We didn't feel like trying to get Megan to sit still for all that time, so instead we just came home and made a nice pasta dinner. It was just as yummy and filling! Megan loved it too, she likes spaghetti or pizza sauce. Yes, she had spaghetti sauce in her hair by the end of dinner. (sorry, no pictures)

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Mid-Week Fest

Nothing very festive actually, just couldn't think of a better title. Happy Valentines day to everyone! Andrea reminded me earlier this week how when we first started dating, I always made big deals out of V-Day. Mainly because I just never had anyone to share Valentines day with before that. Over the years, I guess it's just kinda worn off, and now I just see it as an overly commercialized "Hallmark Holiday". This probably just makes me a bad husband since I didn't buy my sweetheart flowers.

Wow, there is that negativity shining through again. Let's see, what are some positive things to talk about. I got my fixed (new) glasses today, glad that only took a few days. I actually left work early (3pm) just so I could get my glasses and still have time to get a run in. I ended up coming home first, and realized that maybe taking a break and actually spending tonight with Andrea and Megan might be more fun. Besides, I think my legs need a break.

Tomorrow night we are having an old college friend over for dinner, that should be fun. And then this weekend is the release of Ghost Rider, which I am looking forward to. Probably be checking that out Saturday night and spending the rest of the weekend working out and getting ready for the next Dungeons and Dragons session.

Hmmm what else on the positive news front. We got our taxes done and will be getting a decent refund. Not quite the same size as last year, but still decent. Plus, I got a small bonus check at the start of the month (whole company got it, nothing special). Finally, March is a 3-paycheck month! Combine all those and we should be making a very large dent in our "financial emergency fund" goals for the year.

See? I can be positive. :-)

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Mid-Winter Fest

There is something I have been suspecting for awhile now, but I got to experience it first hand this morning. You see, the gym I goto opens at 8am on the weekends. I often arrive there sometime shortly after 8, only to find every single treadmill and elliptical in use. So this morning I specifically got there about 4 minutes before 8. Sure enough, there were about 15-20 people sitting in their cars waiting for the doors to open. When they finally did, they made a stampede like rush. It looked like an opening morning of Walmart on Christmas Eve. By 8:03, every single piece of equipment was in use. People are strange.

This morning was SO much fun. One of the things I wanted to try and focus on this year was more family events on the weekends. So often our weekends end up being, I go work out, Andi goes and works out, Andi goes to Church, I stay home, I go do this, she goes and does that, etc. This weekend we did something very fun, the Apple Valley Mid-Winter Fest.

Lots of free things to do, we mainly went for the inflatable jumpers that would be there. Megan really enjoyed them. We saw a few people we knew that Andrea had invited. The icing on the cake was when Andrea won a door prize! We got a $25 dollar gift certificate to Major's. Damn that women is good at getting free stuff.



Action shot! She couldn't really jump, but she would bounce up and down on her knees.



We tried a little face painting for Megan, but it didn't last very long. In fact, it lasted maybe all of 3 seconds. I didn't even get to see it before she got her hands on it. It was supposed to just be a heart.



There was even an ice sculptor there, I got to catch him hard at work.



Here was his finished product. He did it all in barely an hour I think.



As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, we then headed over to Supercuts in Apple Valley, because... drum roll... They were giving out free hair cuts for kids! We figured it might be packed, but we were the only ones there. Megan got her official first haircut. She sat very nicely through the whole thing, didn't fuss or anything.



Her finished haircut... so cute!

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Growing excitement

In just a few hours, Megan will officially be 16 months old. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, damn she seems to be growing so fast. She will be talking before we know it. We are thinking about getting a toddler bed soon, sometime before she turns 18 months. That should be an interesting transition. I'm also nervous about the whole bottle removal process... We only give her bottles twice a day, once for nap and once for bed time. But getting rid of it entirely will be a challenge I'm sure.

You may have glossed over the bad news I posted about at the end of January. The fact that due to schedules, our time between Dungeons & Dragons sessions is a full month. This is much longer then I'd like, but I've taken the opportunity to do some pretty wicked stuff for next session. All told, I've spent over $40 dollars on supplies and at least 10 hours preparing so far. And I easily still have another 10-15 hours of prep that I want to do. Overkill? Probably... but when this is my primary form of weekend entertainment, I might as well. Coolest new thing so far? A fully laminated battle grid!



Ohhh look at that sexy shine. Combine that with a bunch of dry erase markers, and you got yourself much more interesting battle scenarios! Should be tons of fun. Needless to say, I am very excited for our next session. I think it will be the best one yet!

In other news, I took a sick day from work yesterday, I'm really glad I did. I needed it... At some point next week I'll be having my first review, which is always a stressful time regardless of how you might think you are doing. Anyway, my BRAND new glasses decided to break for some odd reason. One of the ear pieces just fell off. Thankfully I'm getting them fully replaced at no cost, so no big deal there. No one at work even noticed that I went back to my old glasses. Or maybe they noticed but didn't say anything.

On the running front, I also used my time off yesterday to buy a new pair of running shoes. I got the latest Asics GT-2120's, which are the update to the 2110's I've been using. Like buying the 2007 model of a new car or something... You'd think I was some serious runner, but really I'm just an amateur who pretends. Tried them out tonight. The first couple miles they felt weird, but after mile 3 they were really nice. Light, good support, and very flexible. Maybe they will help with the recent ankle soreness I've been having!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Dirty Little Secret

As much as I like to use this blog to share details of my life and perhaps even glimpses of the inner workings of my head, the truth of the matter is that there are plenty of things I don't post about. My work life is a prime example of something I tend to filter out, but I also tend to censor out some of the more negative thoughts I have.

I think the main reason for this is I really don't want other people interpreting or judging some of those thoughts. Often times they are simply a passing thing anyway, and the last thing I want is for someone to read it and think I'm depressed, crazy, malicious, selfish, or any other number of negative ways to describe thoughts of that nature.

Am I all doom and gloom all the time? Of course not, but if I were to honestly record my all my daily musings into two columns of positive or negative, I'm sure the negative side would win. I'm pessimistic, so what? I deal with it!

I don't really know where I was going with this post, other then the fact that work has me freaking out right now, and I'm convinced I'll be out of a job within a year. Thanks to that, I can't really come up with anything overly positive to post about and I just didn't feel like faking it.

So instead, I'll just close with a few pictures of Megan doing odd things. First up, she was having fun wearing other peoples shoes:





And finally, what happens to a bored Megan when no one is looking? She falls asleep in very strange places.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

On like Donkey Kong

Ended Jan with about 135 miles ran. I say "about" because as I've mentioned before, that includes some distance covered on elliptical. Still, another new record under my belt and a great start to the year. Got a 10 mile run in this morning, which is 18 miles for Feb already!

I haven't posted one of these pictures since July 06, so I figured I might throw another one up. This was after my run this morning.



I read every now and then how BMI isn't always a good indicator for overall health. But it's really the only thing I've had to keep me going, so I just stuck with it. 180 is considered "normal" BMI for my height, which is 5' 11" and 1/4" (I swear I've shrunk). 180 is the weight I think that I would like to maintain in the long term, so in other words, I've finally made it.

I'm going to enjoy the rest of the weekend, starting with a big dinner tonight at Champps with my bro and some friends of his. I know, you're thinking, "But Shawn, didn't you say you would never goto Champps again?" This is true, but only Burnsville Champps! We are going to the Champps in St. Paul, where Andrea got us a $50 dollar gift certificate for $25 bucks.

Then on Sunday, I will be heading over to my brothers apartment to watch the super bowl. Apparently they are getting food for everyone... This was a surprise to me, but yet not really. I can see Scott is the same way as me, that if your going to do something, you might as well do it right. When I (used) to throw parties, always had to go overboard. I can think of many a time where our alcohol budget alone would top $100 bucks.

Too bad that's a thing of the past. One of my mottos for '07 is to do away with useless endeavors, and it just so happens that throwing parties for myself is now on that list (along with a bunch of other things that might seem odd). Luckily, I now have Megan as an excuse, and although we kept her 1st birthday small, I hope to do something much bigger this year. Speaking of Megan, I know I promised pictures, but I haven't taken any good ones lately. Instead, please enjoy Megan dancing the Hokey Pokey with Elmo. She got this gift from a cousin on Christmas and at first was absolutely terrified of it. She has since warmed up to it, and gladly dances along.