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This was a rare weekend where I was not only productive, but had fun as well.

On Saturday afternoon, I finally got an opportunity to sit down with the Wii. I played Super Mario Galaxy for a little over 2 hours and am officially in love with the game. After a most delicious dinner of Jess’s famous meatloaf, I went into the computer room for the rest of the night. I saw that WordPress 2.5 had dropped earlier in the day, so I updated this site and the GrUG site to 2.5. The upgrade was painless, the new interface pretty slick, and the plugin management a dream.  By the time I was done with that, it was time to record GrUG. JP was in Maryland, so it was just me and Bertman. We had a great podcast recording for a little over an hour and a half. After we were done, I went back to the Wii and finally bought Super Mario 3. I played the first 3 levels, and then decided to start editing the podcast since Jess and I had plans for early Sunday. I edited about 31 minutes of finished audio, and by that time, my eyes were starting to close. So, I headed off to bed.

Sunday, Jess and I slept in until about 10:00am. We got up, showered, and headed to Waffle House for breakfast. After a most delicious breakfast, we went shopping for Jess’s mom’s birthday, and then headed over to Cinemark and saw ‘Run Fat Boy Run’, a most excellent flick. After the movie, we went to Maureen’s for some of the best ice cream on the planet, and then went home and took Loki for a walk. Afterwards, I finished editing the new episode of GrUG, and then grilled up some steaks on the grill.

And that brings me to making this post right now.

This is the last weekend Jess and I will be able to do stuff like this for a few weeks, and for once, I’d like to think we’ve made the most of our time together!

I know my blogging habits have been been horrible these past few weeks. So let’s put that behind us and we’ll catch up.

The biggest thing happened last Sunday. I was a wee bit hungover when I woke up (wee = incredibly) around 9am. I had been up until 3am recording Episode 04 of ‘Growing Up Geek’, and in the process, had consumed half a bottle of vodka. When I finally got up after 3 hours of recording, so did the vodka. Yeah, not such a good feeling. After praying at the porcelain altar for a while, I flopped on the couch with the dog and passed out. When I finally got up, I knew I had about 5 or 6 hours of editing ahead of me, so I drug my sorry, hungover ass to the computer room. When I here, I had a text message from my wife. The text message read, “hope u r not mad. i bought us a wii today.” Thinking I was seeing things or still slightly drunk, I texted her back to see if she was serious. She indeed was. Well, that changed everything. After 2 hours of sitting there checking out Wii games online, I managed to get myself to the shower, and went out shopping for some games. After picking up 2 games, I stopped by her store and picked up the Wii. After helping my dad move some heavy tool and machinery on the way home, and stopping by the grocery store for some muffins (my dinner), I made my home and starting setting up the Wii. Jess luckily stopped on the way home for some games of her own, so by the time she got home the Wii was fully setup and ready to play. We spent the rest of the day playing the Wii. This being my first real Wii experience, I can now see why people want this system so much.

My work week this week was all over the map. I went from needed more hours in the day to get everything accomplished, to not having anything to do an hour after I got there. It eventually ended, and we were both treated to a holiday weekend where we were both off (a rare experience, much like Haley’s Comet.)

Yesterday, Katie and Kelly came up and we all played Wii most of the day. Of course, we all consumed some magnificent Tommy’s wings for dinner. — To be honest, I think they come up more for the wings then to see us! — The girls ended up leaving around 11pm, and I started recording this week’s episode of ‘Growing Up Geek’ shortly thereafter. Knowing I wanted to spend all day today with Jess and my family, I stayed up until 3am last night, got the entire podcast editing, and posted. Since it only ended up being about 45 minutes out of the box, it wasn’t that bad.

Right now Jess and I are just hanging out, listening to some music while we each take care of a few things in cyberspace. She’s working on school work while listening to some techno, and I’m blogging listening to some Billy Joel. Variety is the spice of life! I think we’ll be hitting the showers in the next hour and then it’s off to my parent’s house for some free eats. After that, who knows. All I do know is that I will be with my wife and that’s all that matters.

I’ve just downloaded Firefox 3 BETA 4. I’ve been wanting to try it out, and now seemed a good time since Apple just updated Safari to 3.1. I’m going to use the 2 as much as possible over the next 3 days for a hopeful comparison discussion on this week’s GrUG.

So Kyla’s 9th birthday party was this afternoon. A good time was had by all. After the party, I decided to head up towards the mall and finally pick up an iPod shuffle for the gym. My 60GB iPod video is great, but just too damn big and heavy for the gym. A nice little 1GB shuffle with built-in clip is perfect for me. So, I went up and picked one up.

On my way home, I felt guilty about over sleeping this morning, and decided to go to the gym. When I got there, it was closed however. Apparently they changed their Saturday hours or something. Who knows. So, I hung my head low and headed home.

Once home, I saw my sister standing outside her house so I went over to talk to her. Kyla and her friends had taken her new electric motorcycle over the school yard to ride it. So I grabbed Loki and Mel grabbed Combo, and we took a walk over. After about 45 minutes over there, it started to get a little cool out so we all headed home.

So I’m home now, Jess is asleep on the couch (she worked all day) and and I’m having one hell of a time trying to get the blister pack the shuffle came in open without breaking the case the shuffle is actually in. Seriously, this is the toughest shit I’ve ever had to open!

If all goes well, we’ll be recording episode 4 of ‘Growing Up Geek’ in about 5 hours or so. Hoepfully by then, I’ll have a pretty good buzz on and it’ll be a show to remember!

My alarm was set for 6:45am and I was all ready to get up with the alarm and hit the gym before 7:30am.

That was my plan.

The reality of it is I woke up this morning at 10:30am. True, it’s only 3 hours, but I’m kinda pissed at myself since I pretty much had the whole day planned out. Oh well.

I have to go through some tapes for the camcorder and look for one with some room to take to Kyla’s birthday party this afternoon. I already have lunch in the fridge, and I was going to start some prep on the website for tonight’s podcast. Maybe I’ll end up going to the gym, maybe I’ll just call today a loss and go tomorrow. I didn’t go after work last night because I was totally wiped after work. Hell, Jess and I went to bed last night at 10:00pm when I could have stayed up as late as I wanted to. I’m hoping that I caught up on any missing sleep this morning because I really don’t want to sleep in tomorrow. The weekend go by too quickly to miss out on a few precious hours.

Life is finally starting to get back to ‘normal’ with me. After a month absense (totally sick) I returned to the gym after work today. While I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do much, I was able to put in a full hour workout. I ended up going about 2 miles on the eliptical, almost 3 miles on the bike, and then lifted weights for about 15 minutes. I never thought I would catch myself saying this, but it felt really good to get back to the gym.

This weekend it looking pretty good weather wise, which is great since there is a lot I want to get done.

Saturday I want to wake up fairly early (8am) and head to the gym. Afterwards, I want to change the oil in my car, and then start cleaning up the yard. I have my niece’s 9th birthday party from 2pm-5pm which should be fun. After the party, I plan on coming home and having dinner with Jess. After dinner, I’m not sure what I’ll do before we record our weekly podcast ‘Growing Up Geek’ at 10:30pm.

Sunday should find me down in the basement going through the mess down there, editing the podcast, an running around Azeroth. That’s all I really have for Sunday so far, but I think that will be more then enough to fill my day.

Man, this losing an hour is really hitting me hard this year. I had a hard time falling asleep last night, and couldn’t wake up this morning. And now, sitting here at 8:00pm, I want nothing more then to lay down and go to sleep.

What I think I may do is throw in a load of laundry, and maybe sit here and work on something or play a little WoW until the washer is done and I can put the clothes in the dryer. Once that has been accomplished, I think I may retire to the bedroom, where I will lay down with a book and read until I fall asleep. I close the rest of the week (9-6) so I get to sleep in a bit from my norm. Believe me, I really appreciate the extra 3 hours of sleep when I can get it!

In other news, we’ve just about finalized plans for our annual beach trip. We’re going back in early September again since everything is much cheaper and the crowds aren’t really there. We’re going to stay at the same cottages we stayed at last year. Not only are thy nice little cottages, but it’s we are almost on the water. If you walk about 1/2 a block, you’re at he water. If you drive about 3 minutes, you’re at the beach. You can’t ask for better location then that!