Soooo, Saturday, we treated him to Golden Corral and the 7PM showing of Star Wars: Clone Wars. He had been so psyched to see this movie. Since he first saw the preview for it a few months back, he has basically been counting down the days until opening day. Anyway, both boys really enjoyed themselves. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the movie, but the boys seemed to like it quite a bit.

Monday, we actually had his party… nothing fancy… just us, the grandparents, and Tita Angie. In lieu of an actual single birthday cake, Victoria made a cupcake-cake instead.

Then it was decorated with a ton of DragonBall-Z miniature action figures that Amy found on Ebay.

Everything turned out really well and fun was had by all. Will ended up scoring some great loot! Check the photos below to see what all he got.

Some of the new features included in Brian-9.0:
Advanced intelligence
Ability to make more complex decisions
Increased energy
Ability to take on more responsibility(This feature has not been fully tested)

As one of the lead developers, I cannot begin to express my pride in this newest release. But we are not resting on our laurels. We are still on track for our most recent product, Will, to reach version 7.0 in August. And in September, be sure to look out for Victoria-19.0. We hope to make it our most stable release ever!

[tags]brian, birthday, victoria, Will, cousins, jen-and-terry[/tags]

It was pointed out that this blog could be a source of motivation since I had recently published our Christmas Holiday Pictures online, and that perhaps some of my photos were not as flattering as some had hoped.

Well ladies, rest easier. I can assure you that these photos were all taken in the worst possible light and at the worst angle by the worst photographer – ever. In fact, the better quality photos were not taken by me at all, but by my youngest son – Will-6.5. I guess he and Victoria are just naturally talented at photography.

I’d also like to take this time to point out a new section in the sidebar of this blog. If you let your eyes wander over to the right – just under the “Recent Comments” section, you will find a new section called “My shared items.” –ok the title sucks. I’ll come up with a better one later. Anyhoo, This section is a list of articles from different blogs I read that I found interesting enough to share with others. They usually range anywhere from technology, to budget living, to personal productivity. The list only shows the 7 most recent articles I’ve shared through my favorite RSS newsreader, google reader, but you can click the “read more…” link at the bottom of the box to check them all out… There’s even an article or two on weight-loss and motivation!

[tags]pictures, Coats, weight loss, motivation, New Year, Will, Victoria, photography[/tags]

If you have never watched The Unit Tuesday nights on CBS, you are missing some great action/drama television. The past 2 weeks have been absolutely outstanding. You can still watch the full episodes(commercial free) on CBS.com

I noticed that one of my favorite people in the game review industry, Bill Abner, is stepping away from his Sportsgamer blog. The blog will continue on with Dan’s and Glen’s contributions, but I will personally miss Bill’s posts and his insight. He’s an “old-school” gamer… something that I feel a kinship to.

The stress-filled drama that has been my last few weeks is slowly coming to an end:

• Victoria has a new car (’05 Saturn Ion)
• With the help of my car insurance company and the new dealer, we now have the old loan paid off.
• We received a pre-approval notice for our mortgage.
• Most of my life insurance stuff is done except for the exam.

So, anyway… lunch is over, and I’m stuffed and back in my training class ready to nap.

[tags]Thanksgiving, mortgage, Victoria, car, life-insurance, Bill-Abner, sportsgamer, The-Unit, CBS, television[/tags]

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“Daddy?”
“Yeah Hon, what is it?”
“I need you – NOW.”

My heart begins to race. I know something is wrong…

“What happened?”
“I got in a wreck…”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah…”

That makes me calm down a bit. I have her explain to me what happened. Apparently, while making a left turn she and a friend got hit by a pick-up going in the opposite direction, striking the passenger-side of the car. The force of the impact pushed them over the curb and into an electric pole. It must have just happened because her voice is shaky and she seemed more than a little lost. But I’m just relieved she’s ok. I finally ask her how the car is…

“Oh, Daddy,” she says anxiously, “the front is all messed up!”
“It’s ok hon… as long as you are ok…”
“But the car…”
“Don’t worry about the car, I’m just glad you’re safe. You need to call your mom and tell her what happened.”
“But she’ll be mad at me!” She says excitedly.
“No, she won’t. I’m going to leave here and get her, and we’ll be there in a bit.”

I make arrangements for my mom to go to my house and watch the kids while I go ahead to get Amy so we can get to the scene.
I get to my house and she is sleeping…

“Amy, AMY, you need to get up!”
“What? What?” She exclaims with a start… this is her normal reaction when getting woken up.
“You need to get some clothes and some shoes on.”
“Why?” You can hear the fear beginning to take hold.
“Victoria’s been in an accident…”
Her eyes begin to tear up.
I immediately try to calm her down. “Honey, she’s ok – she’s fine, we just need to get there.”

The minute my mom arrives, we are out the door. The accident was in Whiteville, NC – about 30 minutes away. It was the longest 30 minutes I have ever driven. I can’t begin to describe what was going through my head at the time. But I knew Victoria was safe, I had spoken to her.

Thus marks the beginning of one of the longest nights of my life. We get to the site of the accident and she had already been transported to the hospital to get checked out. I take a look at the car and I wonder how she made it out with only seatbelt and airbag burns. The policeman warns me not to get too close to the car. When the car hit the utility pole, it tore off a chunk of conduit and exposed some live electrical wire. He told me that they were lucky that they didn’t get electrocuted. Amy goes to the hospital to be with Victoria and I wait for the tow truck to arrive and to shoo off any vultures that have intentions of pillaging the car. After making sure the car is towed off, I finally meet Victoria and Amy at the hospital. They are finished examining her. She has a couple of minor cuts and abrasions. Her friend has a small chip in his forearm. We load up the car for the trip home.

We reach the house around 1 AM, and Victoria is beginning to feel the pain… Headaches and pain in her leg that she hadn’t noticed before. I think she had been running on pure adrenaline for most of the time. We have her sleep downstairs just so we could check on her every once in a while.

Her soreness has become more prevalent today than the previous days. She has some back pain and her left leg and chest are sore…. all acceptable to me. I’m just happy she’s here.
Amy was able to snap a few pictures of the car yesterday from the body shop. They look much less severe there than at the scene of the accident… but then again, the car isn’t up against a light pole….
You should be able to click on the picture below to see the rest of the pics that Amy took.

Victoria’sAccident

[tags]Halloween, victoria, accident, pictures, car[/tags]

Each rune quest varies in the number of steps to complete and the difficulty of each step. Once a rune is earned, the magi then has the ability to cast a particular spell. So, if you earn the lightning rune, your wand can then cast a lightning bolt spell…. which could then be used much later in the “adventure quests.” The whole setup was impressive, and there are a ton of items spread throughout that the players can interact with. Both Brian and Will had a ball running around and activating things with their wands and earning runes. We agreed that the best way to tackle these things was to split up in groups of 2. Amy went with Brian, and I took Will. In the 2 hours that we spent there, we had completed all but 3 of the rune quests(different ones for each boy). They really had a blast and are excited to go back.

All that wand-waving had made us extremely hungry, so we decided to walk down to the Yamato Japanese Restaurant and treat the kids to a great hibachi show and good food. Unfortunately, when we planned this outing, we had forgotten that it would be Labor Day weekend, and there was a 2-hour wait!!! By this time, it was already late and everyone was so hungry that we decided to scrap the Japanese food and go to Chik-fil-A instetad…. Our boys LOVE some CHIKIN!!! Afterwards, I don’t think it took more than 5 minutes in the car before both boys were fast asleep – wands still tightly gripped in their hands.

The following weekend, was Teacher’s Appreciation Weekend for the Ripley’s Entertainment Group where all Horry County certified teachers got free passes to all of the Ripley’s attractions. Well, you know we were going to take advantage of that deal!!! So we loaded up the car and went to Ripley’s Aquarium. We realized that we hadn’t been there since Will was still a bald-headed baby, so the whole experience would be new to him. They had a blast going through the tunnel and looking at the sharks, and were shocked when their mom reached in the interactive pool, pulled out a horsehoe crab and turned it over, revealing its underside. But to see them at Ray Bay, petting the stingrays… I think the look on their faces was near priceless. I just wish I had remembered to bring my camera!

After the aquarium, we decided to take another stab at going to Yamato’s and this time, we were able to get in with no issues. I think everyone enjoyed the hibachi performance,(what is it with the males species and fire?) and both of the boys really liked Amy’s tempura appetizer, but I’m not to sure that Will was too keen on his hibachi shrimp. I think he was expecting fried popcorn shrimp. No matter – it made for a great Sunday snack for me.

Where was Victoria in all of this? Well, since school started, she has become the typical college student enjoying her newfound freedom. Football games, and visiting her friends in the dorms, and any other excuse to get out of the house. I can’t really complain, though. Her grades are good, and she hasn’t gotten into any major trouble. In fact, she has gone to Conway today to see if she can substitute at the elementary school on the days she doesn’t have class. Not bad….

[tags]Victoria, Brian, Will, Ripleys-Aquarium, Yamato, MagiQuest,[/tags]