I’ve loved videogames since I was about five. Whether it was playing my dad’s Atari, or going over to a friend’s house just to play Super Mario Bros., they’ve always brought me a lot of entertainment.

I’ve had a PS3 for about three years now, and in that time my love for games has really increased, and it blows me away how awesome current games are. Back in the day it was rare to find a game that could keep my interest until the end, but that’s common fare now.

I think a big part of this is trophy support, and having those accomplishments recognized. But I also think game developers have reached a new level of quality. Check out some videos of God of War III. It’s amazing what they can do now.

I just finished Modern Warfare 2′s single player campaign, and now I’m working on Uncharted 2. I have never played the God of War games, but I have the first two coming for PS3. They remastered them in hi-def, added trophies, and it’s only $30 on Amazon.

But there are so many great games to play. Heavy Rain looks awesome, as does God of War III. And who can forget FFXIII.

It is a great time to be a videogamer.

I posted on facebook this morning that I was starting a journal for Luke, so I thought I’d share what that is here on the blog. I mentioned it back in October, but I actually started it today.

I’m writing a journal to “future Luke” for him to read when he’s older. Right now our conversations are pretty simple, usually revolving around Elmo, our elbow, or bananas. I can’t tell him how cool it is to see him grow or how fun it is to tickle him, and if I wait 25 years…I’ll probably forget all this little stuff. So instead of waiting and having to remember it all, I’m writing it down for him to read some day. I don’t think I would have truly appreciated something like this from my Dad until I was married and on my own, or even until I had my first kid, but some day he can read it and I think he’ll enjoy it.

Today I told him all about the day he came into the world. There’s all these fun little details like how I had to run through the hospital to get the camera from the car, or how it was pretty scary that first day. I’m not sure I’ll forget that stuff, but it’s something that doesn’t come up in regular conversation. Either because we don’t consciously bring it up, or we get so busy in our day to day life that we forget to reminisce and talk about the past.

So now it’s archived for all eternity. It’s a long project that will take years and dedication to keep up with, but it’s also priceless. It would be so awesome to read what my dad was thinking the day I was born, and to read that 20+ years after he wrote it. Not only is it fun to read about yourself, but to get that insight into what your parents were thinking and feeling is something that’s hard to put a price on. I can’t say exactly how it will turn out, but I highly recommend all new parents give it a shot, because once you forget stuff, it’s gone forever.

I owe a complete baby post, and I should also do a Cambria post, but you’ll have to settle for a hodge podge of the last two weeks.

Took Luke for his 18 month check up (18.5 month if you want to get technical). He weighed in at 27.5 lbs, 33.5 inches. Put’s him right around the 70th-80th or so percentile. He’s doing better in height than weight, which I think at this point is a good thing.

And speaking of Luke, I like posting that kind of stuff on here as a way of journaling. In the next week though I am going to get a nice leatherbound journal to chronicle his life growing up. I think it would be really cool to read my dad’s thoughts from when I was 1.5 years old…or my grandpa’s thoughts when my dad was 1.5! How cool would that be? That’s what I want to do…sort of write a memoir/journal to him that he can read when he’s my age. Maybe once he moves out and has his first kid I will give it to him. Then he can read about the excitement I felt when he scored his first run, or how it pained me to discipline him (but that I hoped he would understand some day). These are all things I could tell him eventually….but our memories just aren’t that good. So I’m going to start my Luke diary this week, and when I fill it up I’ll start a new one. When we have another kid I want to start one just for them. Another goal of mine is to write a short “book” about my life before them, because that’s another thing your kids don’t ever hear much about. What was I like growing up…what did I do in High School, and college…all these fun memories I’ll be forgetting (and I’m sure I’ve already forgotten a lot!)

Cambria was a lot of fun, but I’ll try and make a bigger post later. We did a lot of eating, walking around, and lying around. I broke my caffeine streak finally. It was kind of sad…but I didn’t really want to go my whole life without ever having a cup of coffee in the morning, or the occassional mountain dew. If anything though, I want to treat it like alcohol. Having some every now and then is fine, but I was having a cup of coffee in the morning, sometimes a big soda at lunch (with a refill!) and it was killing me doing that every day. So now it’s a treat (like a beer!).

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!

I despise facebook because it allows people to limit their thoughts to ONE sentence. And it’s oh so easy to put down one thing, without elaborating, and be done. BLOGS FOREVER!

I only have to see students for two more days. Heading to Knott’s Berry Farm on Wednesday. I plan on taking a DS to entertain myself. Very much looking forward to this summer. I have dreams of redoing a bathroom, but that’s on top of wanting to start a new book, convert old family negatives to digital, and I already have a small list of home repair projects. The upstairs screens have big holes in them. Remarkably, one of the holes spans the entire width of the screen, but is only about 4 inches high. That’s because a sparrow can’t reach any higher. Apparently ripping off pieces of screen is a favorite activity of the sparrows.

I’m almost 30 hours into Final Fantasy VII for the original Playstation. It’s fun, and I’m finally getting to parts of the game that I don’t remember from my first play through (I got far, but never beat it). I’m not speeding through it, but I don’t feel the urge to uncover every single secret and side quest. I have VIII, IX, X, X-2, and XII all lined up (in that order) to play through next, so I should be busy for a long time.

For father’s day we got our dads meat from Omahasteaks.com. We bought ourselves some too, and while we haven’t eaten any of it yet, I must say it’s super cool to get food in the mail. It comes in a styrofoam cooler with dry ice, and each meat is packaged in a separate box, and each piece of meat is separately vacuum sealed. Place it in the fridge the night before, and you’ve got thawed out meat to throw on the BBQ. The top sirloin looks awesome. I’ll be sure to report back on how it tastes.

And finally…I have a quick story that I think is pretty cool. On the way home from my parents we stopped behind a newer corvette at a red light. I remarked at how bright the 4 big tail/brake lights were, but a moment later the rear lights flashed briefly, and the tail lights dimmed. The man had put the car into park while waiting at a routine red light, and I could only think of one reason: he knew his brake lights were bright. I know, this seems minor, but the more I thought about it, the more impressed I was. Here was a guy who had gone to the bother of putting his corvette into park for a red light he knew wouldn’t last more than another 30 seconds or so, just because he didn’t want to blind us in the car behind him. How thoughtful is that? Most people would never even know they were bright, let alone go to any bother to look out for the people who would have to stare at them. Kudos to you Mr. Red Corvette guy. And even if that wasn’t why he did it, I’d like to think there are people out there who are thoughtful enough to do that for someone else.

Ever since the boy turned one I’ve been promising my thoughts on being a father, and I’ve finally been motivated to do that.

This morning I stepped onto our small back porch to water the few surviving green plants of winter. As I did, Luke crawled out onto the prickly mat just outside our sliding glass door and stared up at me. I walked over with the water nozzle spraying and sat down next to him. He stood up, held onto my shoulder, and grabbed the handle with me. We stood there, watering the backyard together, and it was perfect.

While a lot of work at times, I wouldn’t trade this time for anything in the world. Watching Luke grow and do new things is priceless. It gives me an appreciation for life and family that I otherwise wouldn’t have. I get to see how loving and caring my wife is, and what a great mother she is. I now understand the joy my own parents felt when I was a child, and what it was like from their perspective as I grew up. I realize what an important task God has given us as parents to raise and nurture our children. I’m sure it will be tough at times, but it is all worth it.

Being a daddy is awesome.

Luke turned one this weekend, and we had a fun party! I still want to make some “daddy” comments, but I’ll save that for its own post. For this one I’ll just post the video and some pictures.

Video shows some of the fun moments. He didn’t attack the cake like I’d hoped, so I helped him.

Click here for HD.

You can see those top teeth are poking through!

Booger wouldn’t smile. He was still in shock about what to do with that cake thing.

Cutie pie.

Luke is carrying on the tradition of my Grandfather. Bow on the head!

That’s one happy Grandma.

Thank you to my brother for all the pictures!

I haven’t posted pictures since before Christmas! I’ve got a ton I could post, but here are some of my favorites. Pictures of the baby just sitting is fun…but unique situations with personality are a lot of fun too.

My son, the plumber. I apologize to all plumbers who will take offense to this joke.

We tried doing a piggyback ride…and then daddy’s neck hurt for the next two days.

Sometimes we cry when we don’t get what we want.

And sometimes we get fevers and don’t feel good.