My Daddy Day

My Father's Day started with the banging on my door followed quickly by the doorbell. I laid there in bed half-asleep and thought to myself,

"Fuck who ever's at my door. Knockin on my door like the damn police..."

Turns out, it was the police. I wonder if police knock like assholes when they go to visit their friends. Anyway, Lana answered the door and was informed by the officer that one of our trees fell over the street. It was blocking the whole street. I always worried that tree would fall over and I knew it was really just a matter of time but I really hoped it wouldn't do it anytime soon. The city, the officer said, would take care of it up to our property line. I would have to take care of the broken fence of course and the remainder of the tree. Great way to start Father's Day huh? I did get an awesome Happy Daddy's Day poster made by my kiddos and Lana that Livie promptly dismantled.

We headed out to Galveston for some beach time with some family and all got a little burnt. It was a great day for it too, being that it was scorching hot. Marcel spent most of the time in the water and Livie enjoyed making everyone chase after her. We spent the day soaking in the beach.

I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am to be so fortunate. I have an incredible wife and my kids are healthy, beautiful, and smart. I can't imagine my life without my children in it. I firmly believe that to live life without ever having experienced parenthood is to not truly live. There is no greater joy in this world than to know that you are loved by your children. It's the greatest experience anyone can ever take on. Children open up depths of emotions you never knew you were capable of. I know it's called Father's Day but honestly it always makes me feel a little selfish. To think that I'm the one they're grateful for when my wife and kids are the ones who've given me more than I can ever repay.

To say it was a wonderful day, would be a gross understatement. :)

Weekend Distractions

So we've been a little busy but nothing to crazy. Lana went off to Washington for a Passion Parties Business seminar meeting thing and I stayed home to hold down the fort. We went for a dip in the pool on Friday where I had to drag Olivia out of the pool. Yeah, terrible two's are here. I was the daddy dragging his kid from the pool trying to reason with a toddler in the middle of a full blown temper tantrum. Marcel walked a safe distance ahead of me pretending he didn't come with us. I can't say I blame him. We must have been pretty funny to see though.

Saturday I ended up taking the kids to the drive-in, not wanting to sit at home. It never feels right in the house without Lana so I look for distractions to keep myself busy. A nice drive to Galaxy sounded just awesome.

I let Marcel pick the movie and he picked well. Despite neither of us having any real interest in Imagine That, we decided it was worth it to see Up at the drive-in. I was happy we made it on time considering it was a spur of the moment decision to go.

We got really lucky and got a great parking spot despite getting there on a Saturday just twenty minutes before sunset. To make it even better, I did a little fuse experimenting before leaving and found the right fuse to kill my running board lights! So we enjoyed the movies with the back of the hatch popped open, blankets and pillows tossed in the back and an adjusting tension knot to keep my hatch from opening all the way. So I got to lounge in the back of the truck with my kids like my dad did with me, watching movies at the drive-in. It was killer hot when we first got there but as the night went on we got a pretty steady breeze coming through the windows, the temperature dropped, and we even turned the car on for a while to enjoy Up with surround sound. 'Livie fell asleep, taking up half the truck, trying to stay awake during Up. I'll have to take her to an early bird show so she can watch the whole thing.

Marcel stayed awake almost the entire time on the way home. We listened to music the whole way there and back, talking now and then. I have to admit, it scares me a little to think of him getting older. Is it selfish for me to want to keep my kids at home near me?? I sometimes feel like the clock is ticking. I want to make sure he knows how much I care about him - before the crazy hormones of Teenager Marcel take over. I remember all too clearly how much of a terror I was for my own parents and I cringe. Kids can be mean sometimes but teenagers can be vindictive. I guess it's my way of armoring up for what may come.

I've sapped on long enough. Anyway, time to lift weights and then probably take the kids to the park before it gets too late.

Later!

A New Path

With Marcel now out of school, it's offically Summer. I'm always eager to have him home for the summer. He's getting so damn big far too fast. It's become even more apparent recently. He's getting so tall, the young man he's growing into is starting to peak out of his boyish features. It's a little scary, sad, and exciting all at the same time. He's got a regular girlfriend at school that he talks to pretty regularly on the home phone and has inadvertently learned how to roll his eyes. There are moments he thoroughly frustrates the hell at me and then there are those that I just want to hug him forever. Crazy. Sorry if I seem a little sappy tonight but I just can't get over how fast this time goes by.

With summer here finally I'm hoping for plenty of outdoor stuff to do. I got a few things planned this summer but the big thing is I want to be in shape to enjoy them all. I'm tired of carrying around the spare tire. I don't want to be the short fat guy. I can't do anything about being short but I sure as hell can do something about the fat part. I didn't realize I had such a dunlap until an unfortunate photo captured it in all it's glory. It was enough for me to make a decision.

I've began to seriously hit the weights. With that I've started to be more aware of what I'm eating. That isn't to say I've started to count calories, but I've just decided to take more responsibility for the food I choose to eat. No more junk food and heavy sweets. I figure if I can cut the sugar dredged cokes and heavily caffeinated drinks out of my diet, I can cut out the rest of the junk food and reduce them to the occasional treat in moderation. With all of us in the house making a group effort to eat healthier I think it'll be a lot easier.

This time around I'm trying for a different method of weight training. Every time I've decided to weight train before, it's always been with more of a bodybuilding training plan. Isolated muscle workouts, medium to low weights and somewhat higher reps. The only problem with this method is that it requires (or allows) you to workout almost everyday. I eventually burned out and just didn't want to bother with working out almost every day.

So this time I'm going for more of a power lifting training program where the focus is more on building bulk and strength. The workouts are shorter, the weights are heavier, and the workout I've chosen uses almost primarily all compound exercises. I'm shooting for a body fat percentage of around 18 or lower by the time Summer is over. I have to say, I'm super excited about it. Lana's been lifting with me and next workout we're going to start Marcel on a training session to get him familiar with proper form. Man, it's going to be awesome.

I want to be healthy. I think with a little self discipline I can kick the bad eating habits just like I did the smokes. I'm going to try and track my progress. We'll see about that. Right now I just want to get in the habit of lifting regularly. I don't see that as a problem though being that I feel so damn good after a good workout. Plus I like to think that as an older me I'm more disciplined then I was ten years ago and want it more than I did before.

Well, it's been a long day and I'm wiped out. I got a busy day of roleplaying Mutants and Masterminds ahead of me tomorrow morning!

Busy Bees

I've been a little absent here but not from a lack of things to write about. Between writing a few new GURPS games, working on the house, lifting weights and roleplaying the blog posting fell to the wayside.

With a house appraisal guy getting ready to roll through our house we decided it was long past time to finish a majority of the projects we started. Base boards went down in a flurry of thumb injuries, entryway tile went down to the beat of a throbbing back, and our backyard was tamed by a new weedeater. I felt like I was destroying architectural history when I painted over the artwork of numerous kids from my walls. I think it took us only a few days of constant work but the days sort of blend together so I can't be sure. I don't know what we would have done if Tracy hadn't loaned us his air compressor though. I nailed up the living room base boards in just under an hour. An air compressor is almost as good as having super powers.

Anyway, the major stuff was knocked out and it took our bodies a few days to recover. Lana and I skipped our weight-lifting while working on the house but it didn't feel like it.

With all that out of the way I've been having fun roleplaying again. It's been far too long since I sat down to do some gaming that didn't require a mouse or button mashing. It's been very nice. Between the RPGA games and the regular Sunday group Oscar and I play in, I've been getting a pretty regular fix of "geeking out" as Lana calls it. With all the creative juices flowing again, I've been taking notes like a madman for a new GURPS game I want to run.

So hopefully in the next week or so, I'll be kicking off an Old West game! I've been on a western movies kick the past few weeks which inevitably led to me writing a scenario. So to better capture the mood, I've been watching Deadwood again too. Such an awesome show even though the final season wasn't very good for numerous reasons. Despite that, I thoroughly enjoy the company of the characters every time I watch it.

With Marcel only days away from being out of school, I'm really looking forward to this summer. He made nearly straight A's this year and hardly blinked at any of the work. I see lots of beach time, barn trips, and camping in our future this summer. I've got lots of camp grounds scoped out and some awesome family activities marked out this go around. Hopefully we'll get Marcel back into riding again especially since the little girl loves it so much!!!

I guess I should get back to work. I say work but I'm playing in Photoshop and Dreamweaver for a friend. While out with some friends the other night, a friend of ours told us he opened a catering company, Wide Open Cattle Co. Catering. After talking awhile about it, he told me he built his website in Microsoft Word. Being that I really enjoy creating web layouts and logos, I offered to revamp his site. I used to charge but honestly with most web designers offering stuff like Flash and CSS I just can't, in good conscious, charge for anything I do. I enjoy the graphics work and have no intention of learning CSS or Flash anytime soon. Too much else to do. Besides, it's a favor for a friend and he did bribe me with a brisket and a family get together. I can't say no to that. ;)

To make it even better, he said it would be cool if I come out to his next catering job to take some photos for the website! More time behind the camera means more practice for me! This whole thing is just a win-win for the both of us I think. :)

So if you need to have an event catered, go to Wide Open Cattle Co. Catering in Crosby!!!

Here's a sample, but not the final, revamp of the logo. Web coding to be done as soon as I catch up on some dishes and get Olivia down for her nap. :)

I am a Gamer, Hear Me Roar!

It's going to be a good weekend. Got some plans to do some roleplaying, Lana and I are going to start reading Lumley's Necroscope series together, we're lifting weights again, and turns out I'm a dragon. Adamantine, to be exact. Later!!

D&D Home Page - What Monster Are You? - D&D Compendium

Something to Share

I just had to share this quote:

This is the dirty untold secret of The Matrix: Not that we'll be enslaved by machines who hook us up to a virtual reality to keep us pacified, but that we'll plug ourselves in voluntarily. If you don't think this will ever happen, you've obviously never played World of Warcraft (or known someone who has). The minute we can turn our body maintenance over to thinking robots while we frolic, sexy and beweaponed, in a fantasy world, we're going to lose about half the people on the planet to it.

--John Scalzi

This is an excerpt from an article written by one of my favorite authors, John Scalzi, about the technology he doesn't want to see come to fruition. He's an amazing author, a witty man, and I truly enjoy his insights.

For the full article go to Future Trek-nology I Can Live Without.

Back to the Beach

I've been spending a little more time than usual playing around with Fractal Mapper. Since I'm now a card-carrying member of the RPGA I can now officially run games so I've been reading some of the modules and even made a few maps! Yeah, the modules do come with maps but mine are better. With Fractal Mapper I can print them to scale and then just put miniatures on top sort of like a good ol' game of Frag. Here's my favorite so far.

Besides pushing pixels around in Fractal Mapper, I've been doing a lot of reading. Mostly books on photography with some Dungeon & Dragons stuff mixed in. I'll probably be picking back up on Eclipse in the next day or so. I really just needed a break from Bella's dumbass.

I'm really enjoying the series so far. I hear a lot of criticism over the series but most of these people are forgetting one key factor; it was published for young adults in mind. It's not going to have break neck plots with convoluted story arches that only a note-taking freak can keep up with. It's a fun read with a good story even if I do think Edward is an asshole and Bella's a dumbass. Jacob's just a cool muther fucker even if he does have horrible taste in women. Anyway, I have to read it. Otherwise Lana will ruin the story for me one piece at a time. She likes throwing me plot crumbs hoping I'll follow them back to the book, knowing I can only hold out so long.. Hurmph.

Speaking of Lana, we spent Mother's Day at the beach with her momma and Charlie! It was really great weather with a slightly cloudy overcast. It made for some good, if not sporadic, lighting. I wish I could say I took advantage of it, but I pretty much just flubbed the day as a picture opportunity. Lots of really bad composition shots that cropping couldn't even fix, forgot to adjust my metering modes, forgot to switch back to shutter priority mode after switching lenses, etc. Learning new camera tricks is a lot like poker. You focus so hard on the new technique, basics go out the window and you wind up staring at a handful of chips, or in my case, a handful of photos. I am happy with them though and I had a really good time just relaxing with my family snapping pictures like a retard with a camera. I should have just put my camera in program mode. Oh well. I was fun so I can't really ask for more than that.

By the way, if you haven't seen the new Star Trek movie, go now or I'll hunt you down and force you to watch Voyager Clockwork Orange style!! You grok me bitches???
Okay, maybe that's a little too harsh on you and Voyager but you get my point...

"Live long and prosper."