The Brady Bunch

This is us going to the Publix

Return From The Murk

I'm back.

When last I posted, it was with a simple haiku telling you I was mere days away from being a married man. Now here I am, married for nearly four months, the beginning of school upon us, and far, far too much to talk about for one post.

Suffice it to say, married life is wonderful. Darlene keeps me sane, keeps me fed, and completes me in every way. She also takes great delight in sending out wacky e-mails to her friends, that I tell her should be blog entries. Not that they write back. Maybe someday she'll start her own blog and wow the world with weekly stories of marriage, love, crazy kids, and Kroger sales. Until then, you'll have to make do with me. Isn't that bizarre? Aren't you just going, "Ooooh"?

So anyway, there has been far too much happening over the last four months to tell you about now. I could sit here and write for pages. Even summing up would take far too long. So, what I'll do is tease you. I'll list a few topics, then sit back and see what kind of comments I get on this entry. Ask for an explanation, and the topic that gets the most (or the most creative) requests, will get its own entry. Maybe I'll do more than one, if the urge takes me (and if enough people care). Check these out:

The wedding weekend! (ask me about balloons, high-fives, and the screen door at the hotel!)

Our Southeastern Tour 2006!

Steven's new cell phone! (actually, he might write about that in his own blog at some point)

Mom and Dad's European travels! (check their blog for updates)

Fun with Scrabble!

Fun in the shower!

Our stove catching on fire!

Darlene's Curious George obsession!

My Darlene obsession!

My return to the UFFL!

Oh, and if you get the chance, read Lee's blog. He's a friend of Ben's who has his own blog now. He's an actual award-winning writer and has a lot of real talent (unlike myself, who has no awards to prove anything concerning my writing). Check him out, and tell him Darth Sam sent you.

That's all for today. I'll try to update more regularly from now on, especially if I get comments and know that people are reading what I write. Positive feedback is always welcome. Please support your local blogger. Peace out, yo.

haiku no. 3 (wedding edition)

saturday's the day
darlene and i say "i do"
hell freezes over

In which random geek talk continues

This is another one of those instances wherein I don't really have anything to say, but still feel compelled to write something to keep my journal active. I assume people are dialing in to read what I have to say, and it's been a month since anything new was said, so I’ve been neglecting my fans. If you're dialing in today, hi! Welcome! Look, there’s new stuff to read! Leave a comment and say hello!

I'm getting married two weeks from Saturday. The house is slowly transforming from my home into our home. The kids' bunk bed has come down and is living in the extra bedroom. As discussed before, the computer has migrated to the kitchen. The one big piece of news on that front, is that we have a flat-panel monitor now. Darlene got me a 19" Dell model as a wedding present. I got her a digital camera.

Not much else going on, except for talking to Darlene on the phone, wedding preparation and getting nervous. As you can see, my life is pretty much revolving around her right now. I expect it will be, for quite a few years to come. Sage and I will be driving to Maggie Valley to hang out with them this weekend, then I'll be flying to Fayetteville next weekend to visit for Pop's birthday. We'll all be driving home together that Sunday--that's the actual move--then the wedding will be a week after that. I can't wait!

Ben and Wanda came over last night and we watched 24 and The Unit, then Ben and I played about two hours of Forza Motorsport. We aren't at all skilled, but we are wicked enthusiastic. Our cars were much-dented at the end of each race. The most memorable encounter was on the Tokyo circuit, where the cars come out of a tunnel right into the teeth of a 180-degree hairpin turn. The first time we got there, we both ran headlong into the back wall of the turn, not knowing the turn was there. As the session went on, my strategy on that turn developed: approach at full speed (we don't need no stinkin' brakes!), attempt to slew the car about as I approach, slam into the wall, and see if I can angle it right so as to rebound off the wall in the proper direction for the next straightway. It was like billiards. He usually beat me in the races but it was still fun. There was much muttering and cursing and name-calling as we tried to spin each other out at every opportunity. Wanda slept on the couch as we geeked out. It was fun! Hi, Ben and Wanda!

I guess that's it for now. I said I didn't have much to say, and I'm not sure how much I actually did say, but there you go. At least my journal is updated.

17 days till the wedding!

Put your hands behind your head and step away from the XBox!

I've been so slack!

You may notice that I have neither updated my blog nor written a new 24 article in quite a few days now. It's my own fault, really. I've been playing too much XBox again. It's a cycle I go through now and then--I get a new game and spend hours and days and weeks at a time doing nothing but playing. Most of my spare time the last three weeks has been spent playing Jade Empire, a very cool RPG set in the fictional Jade Empire, a sort of depiction of China, if all if its myths were real.

It's pretty cool. Sort of a mix of traditional "Neverwinter Nights" style RPG action and kung-fu movies. I've played it through once already, following the "Way of the Open Palm" (which made me a "good guy"). My current character is named Smarmy Pao Yang and is following the more tricksy and evil "Way of the Closed Fist" which, in the grand tradition of good/evil RPG player character morality, is a lot more fun. Bad guys simply have more fun in these games. It was true in Neverwinter Nights, it was true in Knights of the Old Republic, it's true in Jade Empire as well.

I finally decided to go ahead and update my blog. No telling when I'll get caught up on 24. I haven't even watched the last two episodes. I may try to get to them this week, but then again, I may end up being slack some more. I will catch up eventually, I just don't know when.

60 days til the wedding! As if there would be an entry with no mention of the wedding. HA!

"...a dweem wiffin a dweem..."

I'm getting married ten weeks from tomorrow. In fact, as I begin writing this, 71 days from this exact moment I will be ten minutes away from an event that will change my life forever. It's going to be a busy 71 days, too. Between the two of us we have to figure out how to get her kids enrolled in school here, move them down here, get new clothes for the wedding, make sure everyone is happy and healthy, plan the ceremony, decide what to do afterward, talk to each other at least twice a day, and say "I love you" to each other at least 1,400 times. About the only thing we're not doing between now and April 15 is framing Guilder for anything. We're swamped. We're loving it, too. It's definitely a good swamp to be in.

I'm going to have three new kids in my (our!) home, not to mention a wife, and that's way cool. I've been by myself for much too long. I'm ready to be a family man. It's a little scary sometimes--I've lived by myself for most of the last 14 years. I'm going to have to get used to sharing closets and bathrooms and a bed and the TV and all the other things that having a family entails. I also get afraid sometimes, that I'm not going to know what to do as a dad or as a husband in certain situations. That worries me. I don't want to mess up. I'm sure I'm not the first husband/dad-to-be who has worried about that, though. I'll learn about my family, and they'll learn about me. Yeah, it's scary, but it's going to be good.

As I finish writing this, 71 days from this very moment we'll be at the altar, crying our eyes out. If you guys are reading this, I love you, and I can't wait until we can be together all the time.

Emotional potpourri

This should be a happy entry, and I guess for the most part it is, but there is sadness in my life even as there is joy, and I'm going to talk about that as well.

The joy first: over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend I became engaged to be married to a remarkable woman who, somehow, has managed to put up with me long enough to fall in love with me. More than that, she has brought her three wonderful children into my life, and when you add my daughter into the mix, there is a Brady Bunch a'brewin'. Appropriately, perhaps, we saw Yours, Mine, and Ours while they were in town last week, and we hope that our story ends as happily as theirs did. We had a houseful of people last week, and it all felt so natural, so right, that I had no choice but to get down and propose. I'm still not sure why she said yes.

Darlene, I love you with all my heart, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. To Drool, Messica, and Vickboy, I feel the same way about you guys as I do your mom. I can't wait to see you all again soon, so you can all shout "Ooh, BABY!" when I kiss your mom.

That having been said, all is not as happy as I would like. My oldest, dearest friends Ben and Wanda have been trying to get pregnant. You can read their story on their own blog (link is over there on the side somewhere), so I won't repeat it here. Suffice to say, they have arrived at a point where they are almost out of options. I am devestated. Ben is my brother, near enough, and Wanda would be like my sister if not for the unsavory connotations that would evoke, given that she's married to Ben. Call her a third cousin, maybe. I think that's legal in this state. Anyway, they are heading for adoption after another round of heartbreak, and I can't help but feel a little (ok, more than a little) guilty, because I am getting engaged and bringing three new children into my own life when they've had so much difficulty getting even one. I shouldn't feel guilty, I guess, but I do anyway. I am hurting for them. More than anything, I want them to be parents, and to know that joy for themselves. They have a lot of love to give, and I know whatever children end up coming into their home, whether by birth or via adoption, they will be magnificent parents, and their home will be full of love. You guys have my heart behind you, and anything I can do in support, just let me know. I love you, and I can't wait to see your dream come true, however it has to be done.

One day, my friends, Darlene and I will build a family, and you will as well. Our children will play in the park together, then yours will go to choral rehearsal while mine go home, sit on the couch, watch football, and wonder why yours are always so busy. That's how it's happened with us all these years, no reason the kids shouldn't continue the tradition.