I’ve been enjoying summer so much that I forgot to blog! Now where to start…

The biggest thing we’re doing this summer is remodeling a bathroom. Originally I had dreams of remodeling it all by myself…but now we’re looking at maybe half the work. A friend’s dad will be tiling a new shower for us, and then I think I can do the rest. We went today to look at new vanities and countertops (oooh, quartz is pretty), and I might try my hand at tiling the floor. I had dreams of redoing both bathrooms this summer…but we might have to settle with one. We’re doing the bathroom in Luke’s room though, so once it’s all done we can start on our own. We’re doing that tile on the walls, a smaller 6×6 inch on the floor of the shower, and I’m going to try and put in an 18×18 on the floor. The glass/mosaic tile we’re going to use to make a stripe horizontally in the shower, and then also to make “diamonds” in the walls. Big thanks to Amanda and Kurtis for helping us pick it out!

Over the fourth of July we drove down to San Diego with Andrew and Sarah to see the Dodgers beat on the Padres. It was also the night Manny came back from his suspension, which was really interesting. Felt like we were witnessing a part of history. Every time he came up to bat the entire stadium was on its feet. It was half cheers, half boos. It was fun to spend a night away without the baby (thanks Grandparents!).

I’ve also been playing a game called Evony a lot. It’s an online, flash based game, but it’s far more advanced than you would think. You run a city (or multiple cities), collect resources, amass troops, and can attack other people. I’m in a great alliance with some other people, so it’s fun to protect each other and attack our enemies. If you want to sign-up, go here! I’m on world 5, in lower lorraine.

I have to put some Luke in here! We went a couple weeks ago for his 15.5 month check-up. He’s now 25.5 lbs, and 32 inches long. The kid eats like crazy…it’s like he’s never full. Our favorites are bananas, watermelon, strawberries, cheerios, goldfish, ritz crackers, cheese, and chicken. Come to think of it…he eats whatever we give him. He’s also letting us enjoy our summer mornings by sleeping in. The kid will go from 8pm when we put him to bed, and won’t wake up until 9am! Here’s some recent pictures.

Otherwise we’re taking it easy and enjoying summer. Stacie is headed to Las Vegas for two nights on Sunday, so it’ll be me and the boy! Should be fun, and tiring. Stacie’s going to put $20 on the Dodgers while she’s there, so Luke and I will watch the game and cheer them on.

In case you’re wondering, that caffeine counter is still accurate. Haven’t had any in two months now. Overall I wouldn’t say I have more energy…but I feel more balanced out. There are no highs and lows, just a nice normal all the time. I miss my friends Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper, but they’ve been replaced by Sprite. But somedays I have a couple sodas and then I feel gassy all day, so I might give that up too, haha.

That’s all for now. I’m promising a super cute video of Luke very soon!

It’s been a long time since baby! He’s doing great, and we’re all in a good work/daycare routine. I’ve been meaning to make a post about my thoughts on fatherhood, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet. Maybe after the election is over.

Our friends from Utah were in town the other weekend with their son who is about four months older than Luke. He can crawl already, so he was doing circles around Luke. They both look a little dazed and confused here.

Before the Dodgers got booted out of the postseason we went over to a friend’s house to watch the game with them. The Dodgers were still playing Chicago at the time, so we had plenty to cheer about that night. These guys are just two weeks apart.

Earlier this month Luke got his first teeth, two of them on the bottom. Nothing has shown up on top yet. So far he’s been great, not a single change since before teeth. He still likes to chew on stuff, but if they hurt him he doesn’t seem to show it.

Here’s dad and his boy. I’m a very lucky guy.

Here are the final two installments to my first “real” story. It’s a little longer than previous chapters, so make sure you have a few minutes to spare. I hope you enjoy.

This is the last chapter before the finale. There are two chapters left to be written, but I will have to write both at the same time, just as you will need to read them both at the same time. I apologize if it takes an extra day or two for them to be completed.

It looks like I’m well on my way to a 10k word story, so I consider that an accomplishment. Technically a monkey and a keyboard could make a 10k word story, but hopefully mine has had slightly more coherency. Then again I’ve never read a monkey’s story, so I shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but I digress. Enjoy.

I think caffeine blocks the creative areas of my brain. It’s like when you’re trying to sleep, but there is a constant activity in your mind keeping you awake. It’s not that you’re thinking about anything in particular, but like you’ve got a light bulb on that you can’t turn off. It could be that I’m just not a very adept writer yet, but it sure seemed like the caffeine wasn’t aiding my writing.

Regardless of any excuses, here is the next chapter. You’ll be glad to know that the next chapter is also started, so it should follow quickly.

    After about an hour of staring at Monica’s phone number, Mike found the courage to pick up the phone and dial. The conversation was brief, and for this Mike was grateful. Monica said the plan was to meet at The Coffee Hut at around 7 pm tomorrow. The Coffee Hut was a local coffee shop in town that hosted different musicians on the weekend. Usually they were unsigned bands or solo acts that had yet to be discovered. It was popular to grab a cup of coffee and sit for a few hours and listen to music on a Friday or Saturday night. Monica said her friend Jen was coming, and Mike was welcome to bring some friends. He gave a cheery “Sounds great! See ya then,” and hung up before she changed her mind.

continue reading…

On Monday Treasure Hunters will end, and Prison Break will start. This marks the end of the many reality shows we’ve watched this summer, and the return of regular primetime programming. Here’s a recap of all the shows we’ve watched:

Last Comic Standing 4
I’d watched bits and pieces of previous seasons, but I never got into it enough to watch the entire season. For whatever reason we watched it from start to finish this year. Josh Blue won the whole thing, and I was cheering for him the entire time. I have to admit, Ty Barnett was really good. Josh was really funny at times (Gabriel, stop calling me!), but there were sometimes when I think he was just up there grabbing stuff off the top of his head. Ty had great material everytime he went out. But props to Josh for being naturally funny!

America’s Got Talent
We watched the first episode, and it was painful. I think we then skipped the next couple episodes, and started watching again in the semi-finals. The girl that won, Bianca Ryan, was beyond annoying. Her singing sounded like an annoying whine, and just becaue you can fluctuate pitch does not mean it always sounds good. This is what escapes me about professional singers. Just because you can do something difficult with your voice doesn’t automatically make it sound good.

The more I think about this show the more annoyed I get. Hasselhoff just wanted everyone to like them, Brandy had retarded hair every night, and Piers Morgan, though correct a lot, was a jerk.

Treasure Hunters
By far my favorite reality show of the summer! I’ve never watched much Amazing Race, but this show makes me want to. Take Amazing Race and throw in tons of puzzle solving, and you’ve got an exciting show. This one isn’t over until Monday, so I’ll finish this when the finale airs. Update: The Geniuses won, but I wanted Air Force to win.

Others
We’ve also have been watching Windfall (not a reality show, but it does have Luke Perry). It’s about a group of people that win the lotto and they each get $20 million. It started off as an interesting premise, but slowly turned into "we’ve all got problems and are retarded!" If this show sticks around past the summer, I don’t expect it to stick on our viewing schedule.

We also watched bits of several other shows. We watched the last couple episodes of Hell’s Kitchen, and it was fun. We were also watching a show called How To Get The Guy, and it followed around four different women in their quest to date and find the right guy. It was very authentic, especially for a tv show, but it was on a couple times and then disappeared.

Prison Break begins this Monday night, don’t miss it!

The USA beat Japan, woot. I am going to cheer on my good friend Hee-Seop Choi in a couple hours.

I should be lesson planning so I have something to teach tomorrow.

My sister and Paul came by and brought Boo a dog treat, and she really likes it.

I read the first 4-5 chapters of the book of Acts this morning. I had a really funny idea for a comedy sketch. When they are replacing Judas, they actually consider two guys for his place, Barsabas and Matthias. They cast lots and end up choosing Matthias. I was thinking, wouldn’t it make a great Monty Python sketch to follow the life of the "almost replacement 12th disciple," Barsabas?

Baseball season is starting, and I will only be able to watch about 1 game a week on television because we don’t have sattelite or cable. I could get Dish Network’s $20 family pack, and add Fox Sports for $6, which is pretty cheap. It would be really cool to have ESPN HD and Discovery HD too though, but then we’re talking closer to $60, which I’m not sure I can justify. Or should I only be watching 1 game of Dodger baseball a week anyways?

Ok, gotta leave for the game in an hour, better plan some lessons.

Since I left blogger I had to completely redo my layout. Instead of just using the old graphics I decided to make something new. I looked through tons of wordpress themes to find something I liked and could tweak somewhat. Though I am not much of an artist, I think I like the title graphic and will try it out for a while. If you look closely, the background text is a very rigid font (arial), and the foreground font is much more loose. The rigid font expresses my often serious look at politics and other important life decisions, while the fun font represents my odd sense of humor that often makes its way into my posts. Yes, I really did just say that.

With all things artistic, I find that familiarity breeds likeability. The old blarg design had been intact since around January, and I’m sure this new design will take some getting used to. Cheers to all the people moving to wordpress and those beginning to blog. May all our wits become sharper each day.