Super Stars Warses

SuperbOwl weekend has, in the past 5 years or so, become a different sort of tradition for us. We generally travel to Carlsbad on Saturday to celebrate Julie and Ross's birthdays, then travel back home for Super Star Wars Sunday, wherein we eat junk food and watch a Star War. This weekend was no exception. Celebrated and played games (Dungeon Mayhem, Chess, and Swords & Strongholds) with Ross and Jalie on Saturday; ate nachos and watched The Last Jedi on Sunday. Pretty great weekend, sinus trubs notwithstanding. Oh, and Ross is turning 18, which is kind of crazy. He was born right when Carrie and I got together. He's heading to NMSU in the fall. Will be good to have him close and get to do some gaming with him on more regular basis.

Krrraaaccckkk

Eating biscotti and my tooth cracked in half. Called the dentist:
"Can I get in today to get this looked at?"
"No, but we can get you in Monday."
"Oh, ok. Can you recommend an emergency dental place?"
"Hmm, can you be here at 12:20?"

???

So I guess I'll get it looked at today. I purposefully did not tell them it was a tooth that had been root canal'd.

Reader

I finished The Martian. Not great. It's a real easy read, but it felt like the main character was Science. The logs of the astronaut read like bad LiveJournals, and the third-person scenes back on Earth may have been worse. As riddled with clichés as the Martian surface is with craters. After that I read Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. Reviews of the book seem split, but veering toward the positive. I'll add mine to that side too. I enjoyed its Lovecraftian bent, with layer upon layer of spreading infection. Also, pretty short. Now I'm on to Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt. So far, immensely engaging and fun to read.

I watched Chef. I thought it was ok. It's gotten good reviews, and I'd heard a lot of hype, but it didn't hit that high of a mark for me. Too rosy, maybe.

There's a new sickness assailing the house. Owen had a fever and coudg/sinus issues most of the weekend and stayed home two days from daycare this week. Then all three kids went in for vaccinations. Last night Abigail got feverish and it's carried over into today. Might be a side effect of the shots, but she's also got a cough. Add to that both Carrie and myself are feeling (sleep-deprivation notwithstanding) a bit lousy and I think maybe whatever Owen had is finally spreading.

Open for Business

Nyquil dreams last night: I threw someone out of our office at work for calling a coworker an asshole. Then another guy came in and tried to start a fight with me so I put him in an arm lock until security came to collect him.

When the kids became mobile we installed a fence of sorts in front of he couch table that serves as our entertainment center.  Last year the addition of a few sections made it so the Christmas tree was blocked off as well.  This year when we put the tree up, the whole affair looked a bit sad, fanced off like that.  So we I took the whole fence down the other night.  So far so good.  The only real worry about the whole thing, beyond having to pick up any dvds or video games that get scattered across the floor, is that behind the entertainment center are the only accessible electrical outlets that actually have things plugged into them.  We're watching you, Owen and Paige.

Blather

Just got over five days (3 of which were weekend) of being sick. Very un-strep-like symptoms with a positive strep culture. Who knows, could be I'm a strep carrier. Long and the short is I spent a long week feeling miserable and worthless, sick and not contributing to the family. Oh, I helped out to some small degree, but man did I feel like a layabout. Carrie may have a licensing exam coming up so hopefully I can make it up to her with some quiet study time soon. That is when I'm not traveling to Miami for work, like I am on Monday.

Spaces

Out of shape in more way than one, blog shape included.

Tucson was fun, but I tweaked my back again just before leaving. A weekend on the road made for a lot of not being able to get comfortable. Ended up spending half of last week at work on darvocet. Would have stayed home but Paige came down with something that kept her home, fighting low-grade fever most of the week.

Nice weather has us getting the kids out into the back yard more. Seeing them run around and play, whether on the trampoline or slide,is pretty great.

It Cometh WIth Snot

The past week has been sickness all through the family.  Near as I can tell Owen was our own patient zero, followed by either Carrie or I, with Paige bringing up the rear.  It hit me last Sunday/Monday and lasted till about today.  Still not completely over it but much better since yesterday.

This past weekend we toted the kids out to Carlsbad for Julie and Rosss birthdays.  Was good to get out there and see 'em but also tough what with everyone not feeling well.  Made for a tiring weekend.  So much so that I came home from work after a couple of hours early on Monday.

Managed a session of Flamentations Friday before last.  A mini-dungeon crawl followed by a survival scenario and finally returning to a town beset by chaos.  Next session this Friday.

Pulled a 12-hour at work today.  Surprisingly, not that bad.  But then a 3 hour nap yesterday and staying busy all day today probably helped.

Oh, and I got a new nook.  Carrie was wanting to do more reading so she took my old one and I upgraded to a nook Simple Touch.  Very small, and very nice.  Still working through Dance with Dragons, but taking large chunks out at a time.  Carrie's been reading Bossypants and enjoying it, so I may hit that up next.  Or maybe Ready Player One, not too sure.

Sinu-balls

Some kind of sinusitis has descended upon me. Out of work Friday and still feeling worn out and sore.

Friday Flamentations were booshed by sickness. And it looks like no gaming for the next two weeks for other reasons. May have to see if Ben and Amy are interested in something during the week, to ablate the seemingly inevitable once-a-month gaming schedule.

Kids have been getting more and more "getting into things.". This morning they moved the 'fencing' we have in front of the trash can and retrieved a mostly empty cup of ranch dressing. It was, undoubtedly delicious. I, being sick and tired (of sickness, not kids) got a bit frustrated with the situation, when Owen's ranch smeared mouth clearly called for humor. So Carrie bundled the kids up and took them for a walk. Next time I'll just go back to bed like she suggested.

Been thinking about getting a new nook. I may have mentioned this before, but with the old one working just fine, not sure it's warranted. Maybe if I sold the old one...

Lots and Lots

Thanksgiving: Lots of family time, also, unfortunately, lots of not feeling so great. Pulled some kind of sinus business Tuesday, and it lasted through Wednesday. Carrie and I both had some stomach bug Wednesday as well. Jon got in that night and I was well enough to have a few beers with him. We forwent Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day and had it Friday instead. Jon was here, Agnes and the kids too, her parents, mom, the Sharons. I found a turkey recipe that knocks out the bird in 2.5 hours. Good food, good company, but with recent sickness and staying up too late (including a perfectly fine time playing MW3 till much too late with Cameron and Derek) I felt worn out all weekend. Saac, Jenni, Sage, and Sarah were in town. Managed to make time to get together a couple of times, including a nice outing to High Desert for both Carrie and I while mom watched the kids. Oh, and we got together a kickball game on Saturday. It was windy and cold, but we ran around and kicked balls with gusto. The past nine months or so of no exercise are readily apparent in the pain in my lower extremities.

Nathan stopped by on his was to Tucson for a quick visit, Sunday. I was feeling poorly most of the day, then contracted a 102F fever in the afternoon. Ended up taking Monday off. Feeling much better, but with the recurrent sinus crap I decided to go ahead and take the antibiotics I picked up the end of last month. Could just be the dry weather but who knows.

No gaming this Friday, again. There supposed to be a RockBand party instead, but I think Conner's 3rd birthday is happening then too, so we'll probably take the babies over to that.

I crammed through Storm of Swords and am on to Feast for Crows. Enjoying it immensely, the story as much as being back in the habit of reading frequently again.

I owe Kenny a callback. My apologies.

Finally, I put up my first Mr. Beer batch weekend before last. Dad sent the kit to me for my birthday. I'll bottle it in the next few days and it should be ready to drink by the time Dad comes in to town next week.

Pushers

In addition to making small strides (ahem) in walking, the kids have started pushing things all over the house and walking behind as they do. They've made their way around the house with their walking toys for a while now, but recently other objects have started enabling their controlled falls across the tiled vastness of our open architecture. Of late these objects include a laundry basket, strollers, and a metal chair.

Bought the first set of our new car seats today. We're getting a 'cheaper' set for everyday use (read: Carrie's car) and a set with more features (cup holders, really) for the longer trip car, or mine. These come in the waning days of their first year of life, and will replace the detachable seat & base version we've used up till now. Having to buy four is not inexpensive, even going with relatively 'inexpensive' seats. But, safety!

Whatever settled upon my sinuses in the early hours of Saturday has continued its colonization attempts since then. Called in sick to work today, although I have high hopes that whatever it is will be successfully repelled in the next little while. Another day of the same may force me to seek outside biological assistance in this battle. For now, chemical warfare (sudafed and ibuprofen) My wife, wonderful lady that she is, has been masterfully handling most of the baby duties through it all.

I read a bunch of Savage Dragon comics whilst recumbent with illness. Weird, the nostalgic relations there; Dark Sun and Rifts, reading the former waiting in a car outside Cody's house, picking him up to got to Ren's to play the latter, springs most readily to mind. I wonder if that timeframe's right. Anyway, it's not a very good comic. Made it through 30-some issues, then decided to get some more recent Marvel stuff, that is from the beginning Heroic Age, or last year this time. Read the 4-issue Heroic Age vignette series, now am looking at the Thanos Imperative. Not sure if I shouldn't rethink that and get at some Avengers or Fantastic Four instead. My recent foray into the DC reboot, and now this, just reaffirm that I fall solidly on the Marvel side of the comic divide. Although, weirdly, I historically tend to like the animated versions of DC characters somewhat better. Young Justice has been pretty cool lately, and I even admire the campiness of Batman: Brave and the Bold, though I have yet to really watch an episode all the way through.

50/50 Weekend

Had a fine Friday off. I slimed the tires of Carrie's new stroller. One had gotten a puncture and that machine is too awesome to be sitting around not strollering. I also got some Corner Deli. That's be becoming a Friday off thing. Also played some Gears of War 3 horde mode with Cameron, and some of the campaign solo. Oh, and they delivered the replacement freezer. Time to fill it up with frozen dinners and pizzas.

In lieu of rpg'ing Friday night (Kyle was out) we played some King of the Elves. I think we were all more in the mood for just hanging out anyway. Made for a laid back evening that we wrapped earlier than usual, so I came home and played some more Gears.

Woke up in the early hours this morning feeling feverish. That started a day of general crappiness; vaguely cold and/or allergy symptoms all day long. I was supposed to take the kids over to mom's this afternoon to get them out of the house for a Rendi thing Carrie was hosting. Instead I holed up in the bedroom and HBO Go'd and Savage Dragon'd on the iPad. Luckily mom was coming over for the party so she helped wrangle the kids, and they mostly napped through it anyway. Even now I still feel wrung out. Hopefully it will fade overnight.

Whoosh

Gaming: More Burning Post-Apocalyptic Rome. Catastrophic flood, we killed a witch, and evacuated the neighborhood saving them from the long-beard horde.

Home stuff: Traci came through town on Sunday. Good times. Also got a storm door put on. Very nice.

Movies: Troll Hunter. Loved it. Check it out via Netflix instant.

Sick: Some kind of sinus garbage the last three days.

Babies: Have been alternating wakeful nights. Also they have learned to clap. At night it's crying though, not so much the clapping.