multiple days off work and unrelated snow!

so last week i was off monday for mlk day and thursday for the inauguration. on monday, lindsay took jake to daycare and i went and had thai for lunch with joseph and then we tried to go see the incredibles. however, there were a billion kids off school as well so it was sold out. we went with the second choice - ocean's 12 - but it didn't start for another hour and a half so he called up his friend jeff and we wandered around the mall to pass the time. the movie was, well, sub-par and i understand the critics' complaint that they were too full of themselves because it almost seemed like they thought they could use dumb plot lines and get away with it because the first movie was so good. don't get me wrong, the movie was still enjoyable...
on thursday, i watched jake and took him to the dr. in the afternoon cause he's still got his cough/cold/congestion thing and they gave him "the pink prize" (antibiotic) as they called it.
saturday and sunday were much different than the last as it snowed about 5 inches throughout the course of saturday (early predictions were 6-8") and we just stayed around the house watching tv and movies and hanging out. sunday afternoon i shoveled the car out from the snow so i wouldn't have to do it monday. it was fun "playing" in the snow, but my back didn't think it was so fun that night ;-)

the weekend in review

i'm happy to say that poker nite went _great_ as we had 9 people play and i finished in the money for the first time! i placed second, took $36, and bought those washington nationals hats i mentioned. from here on they'll be my poker playing hats i guess haha.
we did indeed get to meet up with my high school friend julie for lunch at chili's in crystal city. best buds in high school, but sadly - due to our own admitted laziness - this was only the 2nd time we've seen each other in the 2 years she's lived here. she's doing great for herself and is still working for our u.s. representative from our home district.
i started a madden franchise with the colts, but i get to play so infrequently that i'm still in the preseason haha

happy half-birthday to me!

i've been told that by this age (25.5) you're not supposed to be recognizing your half-birthdays anymore, but hey it's fun and cheesy and fun and cheesy is my middle name. i just realized that kg's 26.0 b-day should be coming soon haha i feel so old.
so i might finally get my washington nationals hat(s) this weekend and we're hopefully going to be able to get together with my local high school friend julie.
this week has been pretty routine, but i just got my first copy of madden a few weeks ago so i've been trying to practice and play a little every few days. it's really fun, but i wish i had some kind of chair in the middle of the floor for video games.
there's some great news on kg's website (see sidebar) - if you haven't seen it, check it out.
i can't wait for next week because i get off not only mlk day on monday, but also thursday for the inauguration! haha every once in a while working for the fed gov't has its perks.

the hospital stay...

i realized that in my most recent spate of non-posting that i never mentioned being in the hospital recently! crazy, huh? well, with the exhaustion that comes from getting about 4-5 hours of sleep for an entire semester, my immune system must have been down and i got a sinus infection. well, the dr. gave me zithromax - which lindsay has taken frequently - and it did _not_ like me. it caused my liver to enflame and made me jaundiced. when i woke up looking yellow in the torso and eyes on sunday dec. 5th, my mother-in-law and the on-call dr. told us to get me straight on over to the er. after a few hours, i was seen and got some pain meds (stomach felt like an ulcer which i attributed to finals week school stress and was taking mylanta and tagamet on saturday). they kept me in the hospital until tuesday evening and pumped me full of fluids and antibiotics to fix me up. the dr. made me stay off work the rest of the week and i was glad because i was just really weak from everything. anywho, i'm much better now and i'm enjoying the month off from school as they have a january term on campus!

ps. this was post #100!!! It took over two years (man, i'm bad!), but it's been a fun journey...

trying not to slip...

into yet another rut of blog silence. last week was a tough week at work with some different cases that took up extra time, but all ended well as everything got corrected, signed, and sent out yesterday.
tonite i'm going to our church board meeting - i've missed the last three because of school or being out of town. i feel like such a slacker, but i figure i'm still welcome haha
this friday i'm hosting our poker game again. i've considered setting up a website with some pics and our rules and announcements like winners, but just haven't gotten around to it. maybe if i finally win i'll have some extra incentive haha
ok this next bit deserves it's own post...

usc - nat'l champs

so, being a sports nut, i'm pretty much obliged to at least comment on this give props to usc (*cough* norm chow *cough*) who obliterated a really good ou team and would've done the same to auburn or utah with that month of prep time.

however, if ou beat utah in the fiesta and usc beat auburn in the sugar (and we let vt beat pitt in the orange and get no ratings) and then usc had to play ou just one week later, i think the game would've been more like 35-19 instead of 55-19.

well, that's enough of that (besides the need to crow about ut's thrashing of a&m _in_ texas in the cotton bowl) and i can't wait for college football to start up again. it really is my favorite sport. however, i'm really looking forward to hopefully getting my new washington nationals red fitted hat this weekend (finally!). they didn't have my size last weekend, but they did have some finally. i'm looking forward to finally having a baseball team of my own - the braves will always have a special place in my heart, but come on they were always hours away and the team for basically all the south (everyone knows florida - well, besides the redneck panhandle) doesn't count as "the south" lol). who knows how much longer we'll be here, but i think i'll keep the nats as "my" team.

as good a time as any...

i don't know why i've been delaying, but it's the same issue of having so much to say you don't know where to start. however, as a helpful list on my office wall tells me, "stop telling yourself you do not know how to start - start."

christmas at the cabin with lindsay's folks was wonderful and while we drove around seeing a few friends in knoxville on christmas eve, the best part was just hanging out at the cabin and not having to rush around or drive all over town instead of just being able to relax.

on new year's eve, joseph - my friend from work who happens to live down the street - and his out of town girlfriend katie (well used to be in-town, but... long story...) and his cousin came over and we watched napoleon dynamite. pretty funny and off-beat. for the ball dropping, it was just me and L as jake had already crashed of course. actually, L had fallen asleep when the ball dropped and i used tivo to show her lol great stuff.

i'm enjoying the extra rest from the time off school and i'm sure L is enjoying the extra time spent with her as much as i am.