Adventures In Babysitting

DeAnne's sister, Sara, has a friend coming in from Utah this weekend and they're going to go spend the weekend at the beach.  They plan on taking Liam with them for one night but then on Saturday DeAnne and I are supposed to head down and spend the day at the beach and then bring the little guy back with us. That's right, Liam's going to spend the night at our house.  For two nights.  We're pretty excited.

So that's pretty much the plan for the weekend.  It'll be interesting to see how things go.  There's sure to be some crazy moments, but he's just too darn cute and lovable not to look forward to having him stay with us.

I didn't mention it on Tuesday, but my Mom came down on Saturday also and I got a chance to check out her iPhone 4.  It was awesome, I'm jealous and I'd give anything to be able to have one.  That's about all I can say about it.

Amazon announced a new version of the Kindle yesterday.  It's smaller, has twice the storage, comes in either white or charcoal and now they have a wi-fi only version for only $140.  Sure, you can't download a book just anywhere with the wi-fi only version, but how many times are you not around a wireless internet signal these days?  I think it's just my gadget envy kicking in when I look at the Kindle. I don't read nearly enough to justify having one and I can't imagine having one equating to me reading more but the new version looks really cool.

Have a good weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday with tales of how babysitting went.

--Paul

Despicable 3D

Another good weekend is in the books and a new week has begun.

Saturday afternoon we went down to the new movie theater in Crestview with Bryan and Adrienne and watched "Despicable Me" in 3D.  The movie itself was great.  It had good humor and was just touching enough to be sweet without being saccharin.  But that was the content.  This was the first 3D movie that DeAnne and I have been too and I have to say, I'm not sure how I really feel about it.  It seemed to really be hit or miss with the effect.  Some of it was really cool and really believable and then there were times, especially when something was moving fast, that the effect kind of fell apart.  Also, and it may just be my poor eyesight, overall it seemed to add a blur to the whole movie.  It was almost like it was just slightly out of focus and the edges were starting to blur some.  It wasn't a deal breaker, but it was a little distracting at times.

I know I sound critical, but overall, I enjoyed the 3D experience.  I didn't enjoy being charged an extra $2.50 per ticket to be able to experience it.  I'm also still not convinced that 3D is worth having in the home.  I'm sure in time, they'll develop 3D T.V.s that don't require glasses, but until then, I have no desire to where those things while sitting on my couch.  HD is plenty amazing on its own.

Sunday was great too.  We had homecoming at church so that meant a great service and a great lunch after that service.  We didn't have an evening service but we still worked in a little band practice and then a few of us got together and hung out and ate pizza.  It was a fairly relaxed, quiet day and was a great way to wrap up the weekend.

See you on Thursday.

--Paul

Almost There

It's been one of those long kind of weeks it seems. I guess spending two afternoons cutting grass probably helped that feeling more than anything, but still, I'll be glad when Friday rolls around tomorrow.

Last night was a good mid-week jolt though. The youth service was really good I thought. We had a good group of kids show up even though they all knew that Garrett was going to be gone and Todd was filling in. The music went well too. It was down to just me and Morgan, but we got an assist from Adrienne and the Spirit was working with us on song selection because what we played match perfectly with what Todd had to say. It was a good night.

So heading in to the weekend, it looks like we don't have a lot of plans. Mom's coming in to town Saturday morning so we'll see her and I'll get to see her new iPhone. I'm still incredibly jealous. Other than that, Bryan and Adrienne mentioned watching a movie and hopefully we can also get some swimming in somewhere along the line. I know one thing I'm not doing though: yard work.

Have a good weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday.

Always About the Weekend

I know, I know. All I ever seem to talk about is either what's happening this coming weekend or what happened this past weekend. I guess the rest of the week is just too boring. Sorry.

So we had DeAnne's sister Sara over Friday to eat with us and I ended up baby-sitting Liam while the girls went to Wal-Mart. It was pretty funny because when they left he was asleep and Sara told me, "Oh, he'll probably sleep the whole time we're gone." Not five minutes after they walked out the door, he was up and then stayed up until about five minutes before they got back. He was good though and we had a good time. I tried to upload a picture of us to facebook but evidently facebook didn't think that was worth posting because it just sat there and churned on it with nothing happening. Oh well.

Saturday was pretty busy. I got up that morning and headed out to the church for a work day on the new building. We had about 10 men there and we worked for 8:00 to about 12:00. We didn't do anything glamorous but the stuff we did had to be done and every little bit helps. I had a good time and I'm always glad to help work on the building. It was incredibly hot though.

So after that and a good nap, we went to DeAnne's 10 year class reunion. I guess I know how she felt at my reunion. I didn't really know anyone so I pretty much sat and ate and spoke with a few of the other spouses while DeAnne and her old friends talked and took pictures. We didn't stay long because DeAnne's back started hurting, but she seemed to enjoy herself.

It seems like I had something about Sunday to talk about too, but now I can't seem to remember what it was. We went to church, of course, and we ate lunch in Kinston, but I could have sworn there was something else I wanted to tell you guys. Oh, well. I guess it wasn't important.

See you on Thursday.

--Paul

I Thought I Had a Title

It's a good thing I'm not a writer for a T.V. series. All the titles for the episodes would be horrible. It'd probably get canceled just because of the sorry titles.

DeAnne's back seems to be slowly improving. She said that she wasn't hurting as bad yesterday. Hopefully, this trend continues and she'll be back to normal before too long.

With DeAnne out with her back, we'll be having a low-key weekend. I'm also on call for work, so that keeps us in town. The only thing I really have planned is Saturday morning. We're having a work day on the new building at church and I'll be going to that. Other than that though, I guess we'll just be hanging around and doing some chores. DeAnne has a few things she's been wanting me to hang up on the walls for I don't know how long. Maybe I can actually get some of that done.

The Magic tournament I played in over the weekend has set me on fire for the game again and it's taking all I can do not to go drop a pile of money that I don't have buying cards. How I let myself get in to these situations, I'll never understand. I have more expensive hobbies than is healthy for a middle-class man. I bought the Xbox game a year ago and haven't played it in a good while. Maybe if I revisited that, it would help.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Results

The tournament went well Saturday night. I had a good time and met some great people. Out of 15 playing the tournament I placed 11th. I know it doesn't sound that great but I was only one turn away from winning in at least two games that I lost. Things were a lot closer than my final results show. Where I messed up was when I second guessed myself when building my deck. I had one built and then looked back through all my cards and changed my mind on my direction. I looked through all the cards I got Sunday morning and I feel like I had stuck to my original plans, I probably would have done better. I learned a lot though and I really had a good time. I don't know when the next one will be, but I'll probably play in these little tournaments as much as I can.

Other than that, the weekend was pretty low-key. DeAnne's aggravated her back somehow and she's been out of commission since Saturday morning. We're not really sure what happened, but I don't think it's anything too serious. She seems to be getting better, so maybe the next day or two, she'll be back to somewhat normal.

I had to cut the grass yesterday afternoon because I was lazy this past weekend. Man, is it ever hot. Summer is definitely in full swing.

See you Thursday.

--Paul

Uber-Geek-ery

I'm a geek. I think that's fairly obvious to anyone who spends enough time with me or reads more than a couple of posts on this blog. I've always loved comic books and I've always loved "Lord of the Rings" and I've always loved the whole fantasy genre of books. Tales of adventure, dragons and other fantastical creatures.

Before there was the Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh card games, there was a game that came out called "Magic: the Gathering". You buy cards and use the cards to put a deck together to play the game with. The cards are collectible and therefore some are valuable. I started playing M:tG when I was around 13 or 14. I bought cards off and on for about 10 years and when I finally sold my collection, I had a pretty good number of cards. I sold out because I never played anymore.

M:tG also has a pretty strong tournament and organized play circuit. A few players have even managed to make a living playing the Magic pro tour. The vast majority of these tournaments, you bring a deck of cards with you. However, when they release a new set of cards, they usually have pre-release tournaments where you buy a certain number of packs when you enter and then build a deck from those cards to play the tournament with. A lot of how you do depends on the cards you open in the packs, but for the most part, it's a level playing field. You don't have to worry about someone having a deck full of really expensive, rare cards that you can't compete with.

This Saturday, there's a store in Crestview hosting a tournament like this. In the 15 years I've been playing this game off and on, it'll be the first tournament I've ever played in. I'm not sure how I'll do, but it's a Swiss style pairings system, so I'll get to play at least four rounds even if I don't make the top 8. It's going to be incredibly geeky and I'll be spending hours in a room full of complete nerds, but it should be a great, great time. I've been trying to convince DeAnne to go and support me, but I don't think she's going to be up for it. She's always known about this side of my personality and she's always tolerated it, but it's always been from a distance. We'll just have to wait and see.

Have a good rest of the week and a good weekend.

--Paul

Oh Say, Can You See

We had a good 4th. There were a few things that didn't go quite the way I thought they might or should, but it was good. We spent pretty much all weekend hanging out with DeAnne's family. Mike was in from New Mexico to see Sara and Liam and it was good to get to see him and catch up.

So that pretty much covered Saturday and Sunday. Friday was a date night for DeAnne and I. We went down to Destin and watched "Eclipse". I'm not a huge fan of the series. I've read the books and I've watched the movies with DeAnne because she wants me to but I'm not a girl, so I guess the appeal for me is kind of limited. Having said that, this was probably the best movie so far. The acting was vastly improved over the first two movies and when you throw in the big fight at the end, it had enough going to keep me interested. So the movie was good and afterwards we went to Olive Garden and just had salad. All together, it was a really nice night.

I know I'm skipping around, but yesterday is our last stop. Yesterday we laid around the house for a while, went to Wal-Mart and then Bryan and Adrienne called to go swimming. We swam for a while and then watched the first Indiana Jones movie. It was a nice, relaxing day off and I was glad to be able to do pretty much nothing for a day.

So we had a good weekend and now it's a short week, which is a huge bonus. See you on Tuesday.

--Paul

Today's Topic?

I know I've talked about Wednesday night band a few times already, but I'm still pumped up from last night, so I'm going to talk about it some more.

We had a good night. It was our first night with a drummer and I though Andrew did pretty well considering we only had about three hours of practice with him. Overall, I think we're still improving, shaking out the rough spots and getting to a point where we're comfortable with one another and know each other well enough to see things coming. It takes a while for a band to become a unit and with the limited practice time that we have, I think we're reaching that point pretty quickly. Personally, I'm taking all the good things about this as a way of the Lord telling us that we're doing what we're supposed to and I think He's blessing us for it. We're always going to have room for improvement, but I think as long as we're fulfilling the Lord's purpose for us in the youth service, then we're going to be fine.

Our big deadline at work passed yesterday. You would think that we would be able to take a minute and catch our breath, but now there's a pile of work that we put off that we've got to start working on. And the regulation stuff never really ends since we have to document every little thing that we do. What I need is a android version of me that can just stay at work 24/7 and do all the work that I don't have time to do while I'm there.

Final thing: Tuesday was the first day that you could get an iPhone4 in AT&T stores. My Mom called me to let me know that while she didn't get one outright, they were sold out, she did order one. She should get it before Monday. I never thought that I would be jealous of my Mom's phone, but I have to admit that I am. Last week, AT&T closed the deal to take over our Alltel, so AT&T is coming to the Andalusia area. I've got my work cut out for me though in order to get an iPhone. Who knows when AT&T is going to finish the tech rollout in our area and change our service over. Then I've got to convince the phone guy at work to support the iPhone. Right now, we're exclusively BlackBerry. I'm determined though. Ever since I got my first iPod, Apple has been working it's way into my heart. I think they've now completely changed it to where it's shaped like their logo. It's even getting to DeAnne. Any time you mention phones around her, she automatically states that she wants an iPhone. You have us Apple. I just wish I had bought as much of your stock as I could have when you nearly went bankrupt in the late '90s.

Have a good weekend and a good 4th of July. DeAnne's brother-in-law is getting to come in to town for the weekend, so we're all excited to get to see him. Going to be a weekend full of family and friends. Should be awesome. Having Monday off isn't a bad deal either. See you on Tuesday.

--Paul