April 30, 2005

MO



I really like this graphic. It's from an ad for The Matrix Online, reviewed here by people far more capable than I. I'd like to play this except for the monthly fee. I have looked around, but can't find out what the fee is...

A rarity & an anniversary

Talk about a rarity! The house is silent, but for the flyovers of jets to the airbase or whatever you want to call it these days. The roomies and their screaming, whining, yelling little darling are gone to work and sitter. Jen and Bren are asleep, as is my mum, who came down on a whim (pretty good since it's a 6+ hour drive). I have the house to myself and I'm surfing and doing things that I want to do. It's great. Nya, nya, Jen, I have like 12 windows open! Hahahaha. It's cloudy/windy but not too cold. I'm sitting inside and watching birds in the garden and admiring the tomato plants that are growing and getting closer by the day to giving me luscious, free, red tomatoes. Yum!

Yesterday was our 5th wedding anniversary already. Time flies, as I keep saying. It was a good day. I got some things taken care of at work, had a great last anime club meeting of the semester (Thanks James and Michelle for being the best co-presidents around) , and then sped home. Time to go out and celebrate! We went to the Cheesecake Factory and picked up a couple slices for later before going to eat at the place where we got married: Alamo Cafe on 281. (Oooh, look, it's the room (tour) where we had our reception. We actually got married in the courtyard outside the doors at the far right of the pic!) As many times as I/we've eaten there, I still love it. Good food, good service, good everything. As usual, I got the Chile Relleno with Chix fajita and a side of good ole Guacamole (on that page, listen to the horrendous pronunciation - little red speaker). Man, I could eat that every meal. Oh, hehe, we took a one night hiatus from the SBD. It was great. After, we came home, I played a little Jade Empire (it just gets better and better) and we ate our ch-cakes. Jen had banana (yech, I thought, but I tasted it and it was actually pretty good). I had raspberry lemon and it was fantastic!!! The funny thing: we couldn't either of us finish our pieces. They were too rich, and that has never been the case for either of us before. Gee, guess this diet is doing some good! All in all, a good day.

April 27, 2005

Morning off

I took this morning off to watch Brendan while Jen slept. The little guy was sick yesterday, stuffy overnight, and just kept her up a lot. So, I called into work and played with him and watched TV with him and surfed the net with him on my knee for the morning. It was great. He swung in his swing a enjoyed bubbles from his bubble machine for a long time. Finally, he tuckered out and took a nap outside right in the swing! Too cute. I have to post a picture of him. It was nice to also have lunch at home.

Last night we traded in 7 mixed Xbox and Playstation games that I wasn't playing anymore to Blockbuster. They have this deal where you trade in any two games, and you get a brand new game for $29.99. I put my two lowest valued games (I checked at a useful website: http://www.sellvideogames.com/) on the top of the stack and used those as the two. Then, the other 5 went to another deal. Trade in 3 or more at once and get an extra 5 bucks per game on top of what they normally offer. Soooooooo, I ended up with like 75 bucks on my account, used 30 of that to buy Jade Empire, and have a tidy sum left over for future purchases. I was happy and sped home to play the game. On the way, Jen noticed that we had gotten the Limited Edition, which was only supposed to be available if you pre-ordered! Woo Hoo! Extra bonus!!! I really came out on top in this deal. Blockbuster is the best place to trade in stuff!!!

April 25, 2005

Warning: Adult Material

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

New firsts (now?)

Well, I have one cool first and one no-so-cool first.

Brendan this week has started saying "Woo Hoo". This is one of my favorite things to say, so I'm REALLY happy. Can't imagine where he picked that up.

The other first is (and by the time your child is two, you would think that the firsts would take somewhat of a hiatus, but no) the little rat took off a poo-poo diaper in the middle of the living room. Thank god that it was the living room with the wood floor, not the carpet one and (TMI here) thank god it was the "ball poopies". For parents, you know what I mean. For kid free people - just wait!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, the unending joys of having children.

Oh, here's something funny too. We just bought two couches at goodwill (eh, cheapest place in town to get good stuff; I'm not above saving a few bucks) and I impulse-bought Bren a little adult exercise (!) trampoline. It's huge for him, and since another of his favorite phrases du month is "Jump! Jump!" it's right up his alley. But, he's afraid to get on it without one of us holding his hand. It feels so good to be needed. 8-]

April 20, 2005

Does I talk right?

I enjoyed the Southern Dialect Quiz, originally from mywebpages.comcast.net/lgrob/southern_dialect_quiz.htm.

Since I don't know if that will always be there, I have it on my server here. Try it out!

My score: "71% (Dixie). That is a pretty strong Southern score!"

April 19, 2005

Today in history

Two significant world events happened today, so I thought I'd put them in my blog so that I don't forget them. 8-]

First, we have a new Pope. Here's a piece of text from cnn.com "THE 265th POPE - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany has been elected by fellow cardinals to succeed John Paul II. He chose the name Pope Benedict XVI." & "The Roman Catholic Church has changed considerably in recent years, its ranks swelling, particularly in Latin America and Africa." According to NPR news, he's very conservative, like the prior Pope. I didn't think that John Paul II was all that conservative, but I didn't pay a whole lot of attention.


Yahoo news said "Pope Benedict XVI leads mass in the Sistine Chapel in this frame from TV on Wednesday, April 20, 2005. Pope Benedict XVI pledged on Wednesday to continue the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council and to work to unify all Christians, as he outlined goals following an election that sent a signal the church was intent on sticking to tradition as it confronts 21st-century problems. Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, listed top priorities of his pontificate in a message read in Latin to cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel for the first Mass celebrated by the 265th leader of the Roman Catholic Church. "

The other significant thing is that it is the 10 year anniversary of the bombing of the Federal building in OKC. The news reminded everyone that the bomber, Timothy McVeigh was McExecuted.

April 18, 2005

1 year at home

April 16th marked the end of our first year in our lovely little house. We celebrated the occasion (!) by making a quick weekend trip to my parents. Anthony was having a fish fry and family party that dad asked us to come to so we blasted off from San Antonio at 3ish on Friday and made the trip. Austin traffic was terrible, as we hit it at precisely 5pm. So, we stopped and ate a tasty low card meal at Cheddar's. We finally got to the parents late and had a good weekend. I was tempted away from my diet by a pecan filled brownie, but made it a short diversion. Then we did the return trip Sunday night. Lots of driving, but worth it, I think. We finished Harry Potter 5 for the second time, just to refresh our memories before #6 comes out in a few months.

This morning when I was getting ready for work, I was sitting on the side of the bed (Brendan was in bed with us) putting hand lotion on and rubbing my hands together. I knew Bren was awake, but I didn't know he was watching me. I heard a funny swishing behind me and turned to find him imitating me rubbing my hands together. How funny! So, I held my hands up and shook them just to see if he'd do it too and he did. He's never done anything like that before. I guess little boys really do like to imitate daddy. It was cute.