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!

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!

I can’t believe how fast time is going! We’ll be half way through March 2008 by the end of the week. Wasn’t last week New Year’s Day??

I haven’t been doing much this past week other than working and sleeping. I finally almost over my illness, and finally feel somewhat normal. In fact, I even plan on going back to the gym this week. It really pissed me off that I lost a month’s worth of membership ($25) by being sick for almost all of February. Between the stomach flu, and then my concoction last week, I was down for almost 4 weeks. What a bummer!

In my last post, I talked about getting my new cell phone. Having used it everyday for the past 10 days, here are my impressions. First, I love the form factor. It’s as thin as a Razor, and yet, has a full QWERTY keyboard. The main screen is bright and generous, while the front screen is clear, yet not too bright.

But, as always, not everything can be good.

I’ve had an issue from day one with text replies via Twitter. Whenever I receive a reply, I cannot read it. In order for me to see it, I must forward the text, and then it will show up in the body of the forward. I have yet to figure out how to fix this.

My second issue, which is just a personal thing, is the camera. The camera takes great pictures, but there is a slight delay in the camera that I have not experience with my phones in the past. Granted though, I have never owned a Samsung phone before. All of my previous camera phones have been LGs. I’m sure there is this is exactly how the camera is supposed to function. However, this is not something I am used to. With time, I’m sure I will be shooting crystal clear pictures with ease. For now though, I have to make a conscious effort to compensate for said delay.

This weekend was pretty fun. Jess and I went to lunch yesterday at Abe’s Hot Dogs, and then headed down to Hazleton to go see ‘The Bank Job’. The flick was rather good and entertaining. After that, we headed over to the mall for an Aunt Annie’s pretzel, and walked around for a bit. After we got bored with the mall, we headed home. I then setup Amazon Unbox on our TiVo, and rented ‘Michael Clayton’. While that was downloading, I went to the grocery store for some soda and KFC for some dinner. Since the movie wasn’t done yet, we watched the season finale of ‘Stargate Atlantis’ and ate some dinner. Afterwards, we watched some more TV and then headed off to have a little husband and wife time.

Today we woke up and went down to Easton to Jess’s dad’s house to have brunch with her grandfather who was in for a visit. It was really cool to see him since he lives out by Pittsburgh. After that, we headed to Phillipsburg and to Kelly’s house. While the girls hung out, I took a quick nap on Kelly’s couch. When I finally woke up, we went and picked up Katie and the four of us headed to Olive Garden for a most excellent dinner. After dinner, we filled on the cheap Jersey gas (0.26 cheaper per gallon!), dropped the girls off, and headed home.

Sadly, it’s now time to go to bed. We’ve both got long days ahead of us tomorrow and neither one of us is looking forward to it. The sooner we’re both back in bed tomorrow night, the better!