Wow look what a slacker Ive been.. no updates in a while.
Ive been busy with the baby blog, work, and my mom visiting. And playing games.
Alrighty then....

My mom came and visited last weekend. She was in the area (North Carolina is considered "In The Area") and so drove the extra 5 hours and stayed the weekend. I haven't seen her since Guildhall graduation, so like, just over 2 years. We got lots of great baby stuff, so that's really exciting. As a result, I cleared the baby room, umm I mean nursery, and am about ready to populate it with cool nursery stuff. Violet's really excited too, this being both mine and her first child.

Work's been going pretty good. I've finished my tasks early again so I'm fixing bugs and adding new cool stuff. I haven't had any overtime in quite a while so that's good.

Today on the way home a Shetland Collie was out walking along a fairly busy two-way-traffic road in a residential neighborhood. I turned the car around and drove back down the road towards the direction he was running to try and grab him to safety. Unfortunately, the car ahead of me didn't seem to notice him and when the dog ran out into the road, which I knew he would eventually, the car in front of me slammed on his brakes.. ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Whew. The dog didn't get hit. Yet. He decided to run across the rest of the road, and oncoming traffic had to go up a small hill and then down a small hill. We were at the bottom of the hill, so it was unlikely oncoming traffic would have seen him. So I started driving on the left hand side of the road. That seemed to work because oncoming traffic stopped. Good thing too because the dog might have been hit a 2nd time. He ran into a small grass clearing and started running in circles. He seemed pretty happy with his daredevil antics. Anyway, I pulled up and over into a side road and tried to convince him to come to me. Surprisingly he did, and I grabbed him and put him in my car. He was a very nice, healthy looking collie. I checked his collar. DOh. Flea collar only. No tags, no phone number. Well I guess I'll take him home and wait for a lost poster. As I was about to close the door a man walked up and claimed that was his dog and thanked me a lot. He looked like a military man. Anyway, Apparently the dog's name was Andy and lived a few blocks down the road. They had just moved here and Andy had accidentally escaped from the garage. He had been calling the dog when he heard the car screeching and ran towards our area. He thanked me and I gave him the dog and he carried it back down the road towards his house. I drove away content that I had done what I could to help. In Wisconsin our dog escaped (from a fenced in yard.. still not sure how she did it, probably went under the fence) and I was relieved when our neighbor was keeping her safe. I'm happy both instances turned out OK.

Mmm I retook the test again, and got a halberd instead. I scored higher than 99% on both power and speed. I never thought of myself as much of a polearm kinda guy.. I tend to prefer the sword in one hand and a morningstar in the other. Or duel pistols. Or both depending on the circumstance. Ah well.

Your Score: Halberd

You preferred a weapon with 34% power over speed and 41% range over melee.

You use a Halberd.

Possibly the most versatile polearm ever made, the Halberd is an elegant mix of spear and staff, remaining relatively light while having an effective cutting edge and stabbing point. Your enemies will never get near you; your personal space will be as unreachable as a faraway land.

Your Score: Desert Eagle

You preferred a weapon with 34% power over speed and 63% range over melee.

You use a Desert Eagle.

One of the most powerful handguns in production, the Desert Eagle is a heavy punch in a small package. Its reliability and speed are remarkable for a gun with such high caliber. Your enemies won't stand a chance as you fell them bullet by bullet.

A while ago Violet bought some cheap movie tickets from a solicitor that came to our door. I know, bad idea. But anyway, we went tonight. Normal movie price was $7.75.

It has 4 screens and is in terrible condition. Many of the ceiling tiles showed heavy water damage, the general decor was old and dirty, random plumbing parts were missing from the bathroom stalls, boxes and junk were strewn about, and overly large movie cut-outs were used as walls. They also feature a "dinner theater" where you can watch the movie while eating dinner. I'm not sure I'd care to try that though... I doubt they have an "A" rating for food prep. I did however get a free pinball game because the 50cent machine apparently was already paid for or a bonus game was awarded that no one continued. Instead of "Theater Seating", this theater featured "Dip" seating. The middle rows are lower than the front or rear rows, and the screen is higher up. its an interesting, if very old, way to seat people. No stairs involved too. I kinda liked the concept. The drink holders were attached to the rear of the seats that were in front of you instead of on the armrest like I'm used to. The parking lot was small and part of a small strip mall but there was amble parking since it was Wed evening.

We were the only 2 people in the movie. The popcorn was good but since I'm semi-dieting I didn't order any other junk food. The seats were comfortable enough but I noticed some of the seats weree ripped out or in dire need of repair/replacement. Its kinda like the place you'd see a Live Rocky Horror Picture Show being played, but alas, all they offered was a poster for that event.

Shrek The Third was pretty decent, I laughed out loud a few times. I liked the general story. The animations and voice acting were fantastic. It was a little predictable in places, but I liked how things generally wound up. I don't think I liked 3 as much as 1 or probably 2, but it was worth seeing. I recommend it.

The company took us all to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Friday. I thought it was a good movie, but not "great". It had a lot of stuff in it and was a pretty long movie. Definitely worth seeing. I thought it was a little too much stretching on the weird myth stuff and a little light on the actual piracy side. Oh, there were some good piracy-type scenes, but they were forced and short while not blending in too well with what was going on. I did like how they spotlighted so many characters throughout the movie, giving them their chance to shine. I didn't care for the ending. Perhaps the DVD will feature an alternative that better suits my non-tragic romantic side. The movie featured lots of gross stuff and violence, but the only bare skin was 5 seconds of Keira Knightly's knee. Oh, also, it's a Disney movie, so the previews were somewhat questionable. Even Underdog. That's not the kind of thing I would make up.

Since Ive been working late a lotta night this past week (66 hours) and the one before that, I haven't had too much time to do much else.

Company Softball game was Sat. I thought there'd be a lot of people (30 or so signed up) but like a 1/3 of them dropped so we were short 2 full teams. I did prtty good as first base and pitcher, hit a triple, home run, and left-handed batted a single. We didnt keep track of points though since we were all there to just have fun.

I FINALLY fulfilled my goal of having a pool table with a ping pong table on top Sunday. Craigs list had one for sale (2002 Old Chicagoan drop pocket billiard, 3/4" slate, really good condition with table tennis table that goes on top. Included all balls, paddles, cues, etc. ) New this stuff would be like 2k or so, but I bargained his asking price of 850 down to only 750. Sweet!
Best of all, I finally was able to use my trailer.

Moving it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I had three friends from work that I game with help out and the four of us carried it out the owners backyard without an issue. The fence and gate presented a problem, and we tilted it sideways and slid it on some carpet covered grass to get it past the fence part. Unfortunately, some of the varnish on the side rubbed off. doh.
Then we carried it to the trailer and hauled it back home (the previous owners lives about 15 miles south of my house) without issue. We didn't want to try and truck it through the garage or front door, so for now the table lives in the garage. I'm going to try VERY hard to not use it as a shelf.

Lastly, I reactivated our City of Heroes/Villains accounts. Violet and I are playing at random times when she can stomach it. I miss CoH/V. Its my favorite MMO (for now).

Sat was our company picnic. Violet and I had a pretty good time. Since we dont really have any friends yet we kinda wandered around talking with different people. She usually hung around the many other pregnant woman and new mothers. For myself, I pretty much stayed near the giant air-arena thing. Kinda like those things the kids jump in, but there were three. A huge maze for little kids, which I though was cool, and the normal party jump thingy. But between them was a open square jumper with 2 pylons in the middle. With it came two 6' tall cushioned battle arena jousting gladiatorial combat staffs of honor. Or whatever you call it. But it was fun. Unfortunately they 10yr old kids thought so too and took up most of its time. The adults didn't get to play very much :(

There was pretty good burgers, hot dogs, and bbq chicken there, as well as chips, beans, and trays and trays of cookies. They had ice cream too but i didnt have any :( It was kinda warm, around 75 ish, and mostly overcast, so it was a pretty nice day overall.

I also got a pretty cool bag-thing that had an inner lining for keeping ice and cold drinks like a cooler, but also had several more pockets and compartments for stuff too. Nice coloring and design, its a cool bag.

I would like to take this opportunity to direct you to my wife's site for Sonogram pics. That is all.

My company took us (and our signigicant others) to see Spider Man 3 last friday (release day). We had the whole movie screen room to ourselves. K-nifty.

I liked the movie. I though the acting was very good and the special effects were great. The storyline was OK, could've been better in some areas. My main dislike was the theme.. it was kinda forced and didnt flow very well. "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" worked really well for the first film, but this "friends and forgiveness" or whatever they were doing didnt work well. A few people clapped when Bruce Campbell graced the screen. I guess only a geek would know why. I didnt know he could do a french accent. it was ok.. not great. Too much drama between MJ and Peter. Just say what you mean and mean what you say. Geeez. BTW, What Peter did.. totally stupid. I was happy to see Bryce Dallas Howard, even though she had blonde hair.

It wasn't as good as 1 or 2, but it was still good. I reccommend it.

I've been reading this for a while now. When I first learned about it I read a few strips somewhere in the middle and was kinda lost. Its like a soap opera I guess. But since I started from the beginning I've enjoyed Too Much Information a lot more. I've added it to my Web Comics favorite links on the right. Enjoy!

Mainly because of my job, I decided to become more familiar with MMOs. To accomplish this great feat, I figured I should play some of them. To do that for any reasonable amount of time, I gotta buy and or pay a monthly fee. I let all my subscriptions expire last year, and new stuff came out recently.. so I bit the bullet and took the hit.

WoW: Burning Crusade. I made a blood elf warlock. Red hair, (a free) Nightmare mount, and a Succubus pet. What else could I ask for? I subscribed for 3 months. This should make Violet very happy. Playing WoW with her counts as a date night! If you have WoW but not burning crusade and want it, let me know. I'll email you a free 10 day trial code and if you subscribe to it, I get a free 30 days. hurray!

LOTRO: Would people please start calling this RO (Rings Online). The Lord of the Rings Online is too long a name. And an acronym. Its quite the "bargain" to sign up for lifetime membership for 199 (or pay 9.99 a month, or even less a month if paying for more than 1 month at a time). This is the "founders" fee which is anyone who pre-ordered the game. Nice deal, and some cool loot in game. Unlike WoW, Violet and I are sharing the one copy.

CoX: I'd like to reestablish my City of Heroes / Villains account. I really would. And play it. But with costs and time so limited, I can't justify it.

GW: I have Guild Wars (not the expansion though). I really like this game and should play it more. Especially since there's no monthly fee. I've been saying this for well over a year.

Warhammer Online: This highly anticipated MMO was just announced as being postponed. Awwww. Early 2008 now I guess. That's OK.. I can wait :)

Being addicted to Craigslist, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a trailer so I can haul stuff like free pool tables and shelves and crap. So I bought a nice 5x8 utility trailer from Lowe's. Note the link isn't the trailer I bought.. it just looks like that one. Lowe's has a link on their website that allows you to get an emailed coupon for 10% off. So I saved about 70 bucks. But umm, anyway, I had some problems:

The ball and extension I bought from UHaul to tow the rental trailer I rented during the move a month or two ago, I thought, was 1 and 7/8". Which is standard size for the class 2 trailer I rented. I think. Anyway...

The trailer I bought is 1 7/8" so no problems. Except the ball was 2", not 1 7/8". So I went back in and bought a 1 7/8" ball. But then the lowe's employee and I couldn't get the ball off the extension.. there was a HUGE nut on it and it was loc-tite'd. Lowe's couldn't even get the ball off the extension. They didn't have an extension that was the same shank width as the 1 7/8" ball I bought, so I ended up having to buy a combo extension with 3 balls on it (1 7/8", 2", and 2 1/8")
This took well over an hour, during which time Violet sat, very unhappily, in the car. And cost about as much as I had saved with the coupon.

The trailer is pretty nice, wasn't too expensive, and Lowes gave me the title to take to the DMV.
It now sits in my garage, waiting for use. and a license plate...

DMV Trip #1. Oh yes, I have to number these...
I went to a DMV "Select" location, which is a DMV with fewer services than a regular dmv. They needed the bill of sale, which I didn't have with me.

DMV trip #2: I went back the next day with the receipt. They couldn't help me because I didn't have a VA license (and selects don't do new licenses) nor a proof of residency. I had to goto a different DMV in the mall down the road from work.

DMV Trip #3: I goto the DMV at the mall again with a utility receipt as proof of residency. They can't help me because Lowe's didn't sign the title.

Lowes Trip #3 (I had already went there twice to look at trailers, and then a 2nd time to purchase one.. I didnt care for the trailers avail via Craigslist). They didn't know what I was talking about regarding signing a title for a trailer... they've never had to do that before. I said the dmv said they should be doing it, and showed them the pen park that the DMV wrote on the form. A manager eventually came out and signed it.

DMV trip# 4: I show up with all the paperwork, signed, sealed, etc. They charge me 97 bucks (Lowes doesn't charge sales tax for trailers, the DMV does that.. + 20 bucks for a permanent license plate). 30 mins after entering I leave.

I never waited too long at the DMV, since I sacrificed my lunch hour (or half hour) each time.. but that's a lotta wasted lunch times.

Well I heard that this movie wasn't so great, but that's never stopped me before.
It showed up in the mail via Netflix a few days ago and having just watched it last night, I liked it. so there. There were a few parts that were kinda.. well, done "wrong" IMO, and a few parts seemed to carry the cinematic camera vistas into boringville, but by and large I enjoyed the movie, most of the actors, and the dragon herself was great. Besides, I always enjoy a Joss Stone cameo. And who would have guessed that Sienna Guilory is the same Sienna Guillory that starred as Jill Valentine in Resident Evil:Apocalypse? Not me.

I'd give it a 75%

(Warning.. contains explicit language.. well.. for me.. )

So here's the deal: I have a credit card with Citibank. I stopped receiving paper statements and so didn't pay the bill for 2 months in a row. This is not good for my credit rating. They jacked the account interest to 35-sumthin % and flagged it for no more authorized charges. This is also not good for my credit rating. After some negotiating I was able to have them credit my late fee charges for non-payment, but they refused to honor my initial interest rate. So I paid the card off. I used Bill Pay so the amount was paid electronically online direct from my bank. No worry, no fuss.

Except the payment was "too high" and so Citibank didn't honor it! WTF?!?!?! They want me to give them my bank account number and routing information "for verification". Hell No!! The bank paid it electronically! There's a authorization number! Frickin accept the payment and be done! Noooo they want to talk to my bank directly, even though my citibank account has already been credited with the payment! WTF?!?!?! So while I'm busy at work Citibank wants me to call them and conference in my bank so the three of us can "verify" whatever. Its crap. My balance is ZERO. I paid off the credit card because I want to close the account. Screw Citibank. Too bad suckers! The payment's been made. Deal with it. Move on. I ain't giving out my account info to you, or anyone else that asks. Not even my own bank. Forget it. I'm sorry you can't handle "large payments" (we're talking like, 4k, not exactly a really HUGE amount...). Citibank Procedure can bite my ass. Verify THIS!

Not much to post lately. I've been working a lot. I can't talk to much about it, I'm afraid.

I'm also in negotiations with several people to start up a role playing game. Several people from work have indicated interest in my Evil Rises campaign. I can't decide if I want to start the campaign from scratch and have the players go through the same things my last players did (Act I: Finding the first Shadow Gem) or start at a higher level and continue the campaign from where the last game left off (begin Act II: Finding the 2nd Shadow Gem). There's pros and cons to both.

Also, gas is too expensive.

I don't talk about my job much. Most of the stuff I do is protected by an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) anyway, so there isn't too much I can say about work. I also like to try and stay a little more anonymous to the general internet world.

Friday my team (which is large) did so well with our last milestone that the company took us all out bowling Friday afternoon(We reserved the entire building). Free bowling for 3 hours plus free food and drink. (The pizza was pretty damn good). We also each got a cool T-shirt. With my right hand I bowled 138. With my left hand I bowled 98. I got lucky the first time. These scores reflect my typical range of bowling scores.

Add the fact that the entire company gets free doughnuts every Wed, and you would be safe to assume that I'm liking my fairly new (Ive been there 4 weeks now) job a lot.

Hydrogen Peroxide? Really? And no by-products... it runs on steam? How safe is that thing?
Sign me up!! I want a jet pack too!

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=A49E6E18-0101-4EEA-A7C6-53D1D137F9F5&t=c156&f=06/64&p=hotvideo_viralvideos&fg=&GT1=9246

I setup a blog for the baby. I've backtracked it to conception but I hope to add more posts to catch up to the present. Well worth the read, IMO.

http://whowillibecome.blogspot.com/

Today is no normal day. Today Violet and I celebrate our 5th year wedding anniversary.

The traditional gift for the 5th anniversary is something crafted from wood. The modern gift is silver, especially silverware. I find the material used for the different specially numbered anniversaries interesting, from cotton to diamond.

Back near our first anniversary, I promised her a 3 gemstone ring by our 5th. This was a perfectly reasonable request. After all, our wedding bands and the engagement rings were inexpensive, and Violet has spent nearly nothing jewelry related since then. I'm lucky her preferred gifts are $13.00 CDs and $10.00 books instead of pieces of jewelry costing hundreds of dollars. But even so, due to financial issues these past several years (losing my job twice, moving 3 times, going back to school for 18 months, huge credit card bills, and being unable to sell our houses quickly enough) we just can't do it. Also, being pregnant, the ring won't fit on her finger in a few months anyway. So once again I will have to delay the delivering of my promises. They may be late, but I'll make good on them as soon as we are able. At least 2 of my promises have been fulfilled: A good home and a baby (which is on the way). And those are more important anyway. One day I hope to buy her everything she wants. But today is not that day. I got her a card. From Wal-mart. Happy Anniversary Violet Twilight. These have been the best 5 years of my life.

We've been in this house for about 3 weeks now so there's a nice layer of black fur all over the carpet. So we just picked up the Dyson DC-07 vacuum. It works really well, even on all the pet fur. The model line up is a little confusing at first but basically there's the base model, and then as you ADD attachments that come with it the model# and price go up. And the color of the plastic changes. Funky. They're horribly expensive, but thanks to Craigslist (I've been addicted to this for the last month or two) I got a used one (about a year old or so, with manual and all accessories, excellent condition, for only $160. I saw another one for 120 but that was sold so fast I didn't have time to respond to it. Anyway, these things retail for $399.00 new so 160 is still a great bargain, and only slightly higher than a mid-grade vacuum. The "wand" (Hand held hose tool attachment) is a little awkward to wield sometimes, but pushing and operating the Dyson is very easy otherwise. If you can find it cheap, I highly recommend it, having only used the thing once. I believe mine came with a 2 yr warranty but the newer, higher end models come with a 5-year warranty. Of course, they also cost 499+ and come with crazy attachments and cleaning solutions. Happy cleaning!