Work:
Things at work have shifted a bit. My arm of the company (aka MegaCorporation One) has been significantly reorganized. After spending nearly ten years in the support and troubleshooting side of IT life, I now find myself on the project & development side. This is new territory for me, and a new challenge. I can’t say that it’s all bad. It’s been a positive learning experience, and I’m getting more deeply exposed to things like Crystal Reports and soon, Informatica.

Home:
We picked up a new 2010 Honda Pilot (silver) a couple months back. It’s tres swanky, and a better fit for the family than my aging Element. 2.0 is mid-way through first grade and enjoying it. She’s doing pretty well in her classes. She reads like I used to, which is a good thing. Her reading and comprehension are off the charts. She also just finished up soccer season. She seems to like it, and will be doing more next year it seems. Up next for her: Girl Scouts. (Cookies FTW!)

We spent the last month or so (off and on) hosting in-laws. First my Wife’s sister and family came to town for a week or so, then her parents came to visit for nearly two weeks. We visited our local fall festival for a day, went to Ohio Amish Country another day, and otherwise spent the rest of the time hanging out and visiting. (I was on vacation that week.) I stocked up on plenty of summer sausage and smoked cheddar cheese. I’m good for the winter I think.

She Who Allows Me To Play the Games Which Shall Not Be Named has been busy learning the art of quilting. We’ve seen many runs to fabric stores and snagged supplies as she learns this dark art. I don’t mind as long as I still get baked goods in metered doses. I know where the good stuff comes from.

Church:
I’ve been teaching (more facilitating really) a class at Church on basic Christian beliefs, counterpointed with one of the newer works of Christian fiction: The Shack. It’s been good so far and has resulted in some good conversation and discussion. Basically, we’re comparing and contrasting the scholarly view of God against the extremely emotional one you find in The Shack. It’s provoked some interesting discussion, which is what I hoped to get out of it anyway.

Other Stuff:
Things over at Ironworks are percolating along nicely. Our roster is up to nearly 50 people now, we’ve been added back into the Good Game Network, and have taken part in a XBL Community Playdate. Up next? Trying to get a Humpday Challenge or a Community Spotlight. We’re slowly making a name for ourselves in the gaming nation and have built a positive rep as good gamers. Tis a good thing.

Up Next:
Getting through the Modern Warfare 2 launch (November 10th!) with my sanity intact, as well as navigating the holidays. Halloween has gone off well. 2.0 went dressed as Glinda the Good Witch this year. I went dressed as an overweight and out of shape geek with poor fashion sense. Seriously though… Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be interesting. Not any more than usual, but busy. Still debating our final plans for holiday action. Our current plans may let me see a Geek Watch period over the Christmas / New Year’s holiday. If that’s the case, it may be all Night Vision Goggles and M-16’s for me over the coming holiday break. *evil cackle*

Regardless, hope all of you out there in the hinterlands are doing well. Keep an eye on my twitter feed for the most recent activities and crazy thoughts.

On Saturday, it was errand-running day, so we drove into the city to take care of business. For lunch I took She Who Allows Me to Play The Game Which Shall Not Be Named and Version 2.0 to the ever-wonderful Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace. This was the family’s first trip to Dirty Frank’s, and it was a good experience. We tucked in for hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, soft drinks (a cherry slush for 2.o) and finished it off with a funnel cake. I’ll save all the details for an Unhealthy Fascinations write up, but it’s safe to say we enjoyed our lunch and we will be going back again and again.

Sunday was of course, Church. After church we grabbed some Chipotle and spent an hour or so at one of our local parks having a bit of a picnic lunch. It was a cool and breezy afternoon. 2.0 got to spend some time feeding the ducks and geese, and we were able to walk around the pond enjoying the weather. After lunch, we went back home and hung out putzing around a bit.

Starting the first Wednesday in September, I’ll be heading up a class at church studying “The Shack” and another book by Dr. David Case called “What We Believe: A Layperson’s Guide to Wesleyan Theology.” The idea is to compare and contrast the theological views/concepts of God to the strongly emotional and relational view you see presented in The Shack. I’m not looking at myself as a teacher in this class as much as I will be a facilitator. I’m going to be looking for a lot of different dialogue and discussion. I’m hoping to get people to a newer or better personal understanding of their relationship with God and building some friendships and relationships at the same time. We’ll see how it goes.

That’s all for now. Watch my twitter feed for all the latest stuff.

A big thanks to @walterg2 for the hosting for the site. It’s much appreciated.

Life has been keeping me extremely busy as of late. I’ve been glaringly remiss in my blogging duties, but that is because life, family, and social obligations have been keeping me running. Over the past two months, we’ve either hosted or  been guests of family as we worked through our vacations, school/summer vacations, hosting nephews, sending the family to Canada for a week, etc. I didn’t even have time to post “Geek Watch” blog entries this year. It’s been pretty crazy.

Here’s the short list of bullet points of things that have happened since we last talked:
- Emma finished Kindergarten
- Emma has learned to swim (and quite well I might add)
- We hosted my nephew for nearly a month
- The wife and daughter spent ten days in Canada
- We had vacation together in Canada for an additional ten days
- My in-laws moved from the apartment building they managed to their new place (actually their old place, as they lived there before they managed the apt bldg)
- SBG Gaming formally disbanded due to continued drama and disagreement. The members went three different directions. I helped some of the remaining members form Ironworks Gaming and helped them build that web site and forums.
- I helped Ironworks get an X-Box Live Community Playdate in late August. This will expose the group to the entire X-Box Live community (several million gamers) and help them grow.
- Church board elections have come and gone. I was the treasurer, now I’m the church extension and community outreach guy. I now coordinate outreach with several community action programs that directly impact people in need in the surrounding area.
- About two weeks ago, we purchased a new 2010 Honda Pilot to replace our 2003 Honda Element (or at least give it a rest.) Cheryl will be driving the Element now as she is taking driving lessons from me and preparing to get her drivers license.
- Cheryl has been working on various arts and crafts this summer, and has tried selling some of her stuff at local craft shows and fairs. It’s been a disappointing season for her as the economy really dries up the customers.
- Our garden has kept Cheryl busy as she’s been canning jellies, potatoes, beans, stew, pickles, and salsa. Our shelving in the basement is bursting with canned goodness and it will be a good winter

For the other nitty gritty details of oddities and madness that have occurred over the past few months, check my twitter feed. Hoping that things get back to normal otherwise.

2.0: “Daddy, when I get married, can I get fake boobies?”

Me: *spit-take*

Cheryl: BAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

me: So things are OK down there today?

Wife: so far
2.0 informed me today that she has new boyfriend again
Biff* this time, Sluggo* broke up with her apparently

me: Ahh
Young love.

Wife: and she told me that she asked Biff if her outfit was hot and he said yes

me: Stolen kisses and little notes that say DO U LOVVE ME [ ] Y3S [ ] NO
(CHECK WUN)

Wife: so I tried to to explain to her that she shouldn’t use words like that and it wasn’t very good to talk that way
yeah, so our 5 year old is apprently hot and on her third boyfriend

me: *sigh*
Here we go.

Wife: I do not look forward to the tween and teen years

me: Yeah. Sounds like it’s gonna be a load of fun.

Wife: yay

*names have been changed to “protect” the “innocent”

Frogs on Lily Pads
ones upon a time
there was a littil
FrOG WHO lived on a lily pad
and she lived on a rivr
and she loved her
lily pad
and she ate flys

Butterflies in the Sky
ones apon a time
there was a butterflie
who got nectar from
flowers
and she ate nectar
for food

Bees Make Honey
bees make honey
from flowers to get
nectar
to make honey

Ladybugs on Trees
ladybugs
get on trees
to drik
watr
and eat litter bugs

Word has it, she’s making more. She’s excited that I can “write them to my friends” – incoming!

Since we’ve last spoken, my daughter has started softball, I’ve handled minor and major crises in the online gaming community I help manage with some degree of success, and we’ve gone to Canada not once, but twice. Have I mentioned that I hate road construction? Detroit (and the state of Michigan in general) seem to take perverse pleasure in making me drive 30 minutes out of my way to get back to Ohio >.<

Things at the office have been rather hairy lately. In March, Megacorporation One decided they were going to remove three of my friends from my old team that were contractors. At the beginning of this month, we lost two members on my current team, two very close friends from an old team, my cousin (who passed along my resume and indirectly helped to get me hired here), and we almost lost my manager due to layoffs. All in all, there were roughly 300 layoffs in the IT segment of the company. To put it lightly, this economy really, really sucks.

I mean… I feel blessed that I still have a job, but I still have a degree of survivor’s guilt. It’s weird “living” through something like this big of a corporate shakeup. It’s also hard watching friends and family that have been here between ten and twenty years get the boot (albeit with severance and oodles of job finding assistance and resume services.) It’s been pretty eye-opening for me as far as preparing for the future.

In other news, 2.0 woke up with a wicked sore throat and an unusual cough this morning. By the time I left for work though, she was up and about playing Wii Sports Bowling like a pro. We’re keeping an eye on her and if she gets worse we’ll take her to the doctor tomorrow. I suspect allergies given that we were out on the baseball diamond over the weekend and she’s prone to sniffles after outdoor activities. Emma seems to be having a hard time deciding whether she’s a jock or a princess. She fields, bats, and catches like a pro, yet she runs to and from first base (when she’s covering it) like she’s dancing ballet – on the tips of her toes. It’s almost comical to watch and I caught other parents besides us chuckling about it.

The wife has been working on a new quilt made out of remnants from my old denim jeans. It’s pretty sweet. It kept her and her mother busy for a couple of weeks and now it’s almost done. Its heavy though. Looking forward to using that during the fall and winter.

Not much else to say for now. Must get back to work and make sure things are moving along smoothly.

Yes, yes, I know I have been neglecting the blog as of late. For that I am sorry and offer up half-hearted apologies for which the Internets seem to demand yet never really read.

Let’s see, what has happened lately that I should let you know about?

In boring health news… since around Thanksgiving, I have been battling a wicked upper respiratory infection. I thought I had it taken care of about three times but thus far it has returned each time. Apparently over the counter meds did not snuff it out and over my Christmas Break in Canada (TM) I coughed, wheezed, and generally infected half of the in-law side of the family. Good times, good times.

After the Mass In-Law Infection of 08-09 in early January I went to see my family physician and he gave me a dose of antibiotics (Z-Pac) which I dutifully consumed and felt better. Two weeks ago, the infection returned, tossed me about the ring like a Mixed Martial Arts champion, and I crawled my way back (literally) to see the family Doc for more treatment.

He smiled like an athetics trainer when he said “We’re going to treat this a bit more… aggressively.” I came away with a scrip for Prednisone (for the lung inflammation) and Levaquin (to kill the wee beasties) I can honestly say twelve or thirteen days later that I feel ++better. I have another week to go on the Antibiotics though. Yayz0rz.

A fever of 103 really sucks. I highly recommend that you don’t go through this. News flash: breaking a fever is nasty disgusting. Glad I could share. Thanks for stopping by.

Other than that, it’s been business as usual. Learning the new ropes at work. Crazy kid. Exasperated wife. High maintenance dog. Sushi on Thursdays. Video games at night during the week with the clan. Church on teh weekends.Life is good.

Haven’t seen Watchmen yet *gasp*. Yes, I know. I am going to try and meet up with some of my gaming buddies and check it out. Our team from the office also has time scheduled to go see it in the next week or so. Everything that I’ve heard thus far has been it is a successful translation of the graphic novel to the big screen and that in IMAX Doctor Manhattan’s blue wang is EPIC.That and there are about 26 more times of wang than there are shall we say, lady bits.

Not that I focus on wangs. I just like saying the word Wang.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG

If it’s good enough for a brand of computer, it’s good enough for me.

If you’ve been keeping up with my other blog, you’ll see that I’ve been dropping some weight lately. This excites me because, you know, I’ve been a fatty fatty two-by-four all my life and it’s nice to be less fat. As a result, I like to share good news like this. Grant me this I beg. Cry your pardon.

Still working on The Dark Tower Book VII. Seems like the books get slower as I go. Not Wheel of Time Logarithmic Progression slow, but slow nonetheless. I had hoped that I could cruise through the last book but I had to put it down a couple of weeks before going back to it. The series has been great, but it seems to me that Stephen King spent more time pulling story out of his arse than actually writing it. Most of the paragraphs are interspersed with odd ramblings and bits of story that do a lot to build atmosphere but do little to maintain a sense of coherent thought. (Kind of like my blog ha ha.)

Anywho… I’ll probably finish it while in Canada this weekend. And then? Bleh. Who knows. I’ve been looking for an excuse to pick up the hardcover edition of Watchmen so I can Archive It And Keep It Safe. I need to re-read it going into the film anyway so I can properly critique it in the inevitable blog post to follow. All I can say is I just wish they’d release the darn thing on Blu-Ray so I can just add it to my collection. Never mind that this is week 2 in theaters, I just know the Blu-Ray is going to be exponentially better than the theatrical release because of all the associated goodies.

Also, as a blurb for my Twitter stream – I’ve been hitting the Twitter bottle pretty hard lately. If you want to really keep up on what I’m thinking and such, I highly recommend you sign up for Twitter and start Following me. I’ve been blogging less and tweeting more. 140 characters allows me to distill my sense of sarcasm, snark, and geekishness down into meaty morsels of goodness at all points throughout the day. Hope you like updates regarding Sushi and mindless Watchmen banter with @CaffeinatedLiby 

^_^