Were in "now" now...

Its three days after christmas, and I am just enjoying myself.

First off christmas was great. I got to spend the whole day with my entire family. There were a LOT of presents under the tree. We spent a lot of time opening all of those. At about 3 we left for dinner at a family friends house, the Reichles. Though the unseasonably warm weather didn't make the day quite feel like christmas.

Monday Amanda and I left St. Louis and headed back home. The drive wasn't too bad and we ordered our usual chinese food when we got home.

Tuesday I slept in because we didn't have to be in at any specific time. I had an easy day at work where I left early to pick up my brothers from the airport. We went to dinner (brothers in tow) with Amanda's dad and step mom. We had a very good time. Also, we got our "christmas" gift. Amanda and I got an "open bar" at our wedding for christmas.

Later we stayed up late to watch tv and play video games. I crawled into bed a little after 2 in the morning. I am surprizingly awake this morning after doing so.

Today will be long because I have to go to work at Best Buy tonight. Hopefully everything will go easliy enough tonight.

Merry Almost Christmas

Well, technically its christmas, but what does it matter? Amanda and I got up at 6:30 and were on the road by 7. We made good time and Lucky didn't get sick in the car.

We have just been hanging out at my mom's place. It's quite nice, however everyone thinks (including mom) that this place feels like my grandmothers place. Kinda funny. We ordered some pizza and took the dogs for a walk. Though the day seemed to drag on forever. There was no sun all day and its just been slow going. Though its been an enjoyable day. So even though it wasn't 5 we felt like it was time for bed.

Dinner was great. We talked about a lot of things and enjoyed each others company. After which we opened a couple of presents. Amanda and I got a knife from my aunt Kathy and she is REALLY excited about it. I got a new phone, a moto razr v3. It's amazing. I finally have the Mario Brothers theme as my ring tone.


Now everyone is asleep and we are watching the Jackass movie. Don't ask me why...

I love my family.

Busy Busy Busy...

I know its been awhile, but I have been busy. First off I started to feel sick again last thursday night and then threw up. upon which I felt immediatley better and have stayed that way.

As I said, we have been busy. We finished our christmas shopping last week, and have been preparing this weekend.

Saturday we spent pretty much the entire day at Apartment 9 (now G3) and had a great time with everyone. Dinner was good, though salty by Geoff's own confession. We watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and played "Mad" (a card game) a couple of times. Both Amanda and Michelle learned how to play that night. We also exchanged gifts and enjoyed each others company. Eventually I got around to talking to Andrerw, Geoff, Tim, and J about the wedding. It was snowing most of the day and Amanda and I took care on the way home because the streets were a little hazardous. We could have stayed at G3 since they were so kind to offer, but I had to work in the morining so we left. We never went above 50 mph... even on the highway.

Then sunday I went to work, came home, spent some time with Amanda, took a nap, and then got up to go to Brunch with her Dad and stepmother. After which we went home grabbed some laundry and went to her mothers house. We did some laundry, after which we went to her Uncles house to have a little "christmas" with them.

Basically we have just been running around with familiy stuff as of late and we aren't done yet. Friday we have dinner with other members of Amanda's family, then we drive to St. Louis for mine...

It should be fun.

Also, everyone at my office is mad about Tom Hanks playing Robert Langdon, and its worse now that they have seen his hair...


Three different people in 15 minutes told me that seeing this picture ruined their day...

Feeling Better

Yesterday was my first day back at work. It was nice as usual. We got to leave at 4 so that we could get to the HOLIDAY dinner in time.

We all went to the "Peppercorn Duck Club" last night. Its a very nice restaurant that specializes in duck (obviously). Though, it was very difficult to find a place to park initially. Once inside we fared much better. We had to do a little arranging to get everyone at the same table, but once we did it was all good. We talked and drank most of the time. Once we got the food we still managed to trade embarrassing stories. While the food was good, the kicker was the chocolate bar. The women loved it. Not that the guys didn't, but it was much more popular among the girls. Basically they offer you several types of cake, fruits, and other chocolate dishes. At the end they gave everyone a strawberry with chocolate and all the women roses. And then they put our leftovers in tinfoil ducks.


It was a really good night. We were there from 5:40 to about 10, drinking all the while. Some people here are still recovering.

I'm Sick

Well, after taking care of Amanda I got sick, and had to miss work both today and yesterday. I am not particularly happy about it, but dem's da breaks. I guess I will just have to suffer through it with the help of bedrest and tv.

Could be worse...

And then there was one...

Friday we went to see the Chronicles of Narnia. Amanda liked the movie, I thought it was "ok". I couldn't help but see all the christian referencs, and it just really put me off. I might have liked it more if I didn't know about all that. But what is done is done.

Saturday we had lunch with Amanda's side of the family for her birthday. We ate at Brio's in the plaza and she got to open a lot of her gifts.

Saturday night we went to Mel and Doug's for a little Party. You can see their cat Dante loving all the fabric on the table with the white elephant gifts to the right. We had a good time except for the fact that while Amanda got the stomach flu for the first time in her life. She threw up a couple of times. I ended up with a disposable camera, a couple of Shrek super balls, and a heart shaped pillow from the white elephant gift exchange. Amanda got some candle holders as well.

Afterward we played a very LONG game of trival pursuit, as Michelle would say. Pictures of this are at my flickr site. We might have stayed longer, but during the game Amanda started to get sick. Anyway, because of this we didn't see "Little Shop of Horrors" tonight (sunday). It was a birthday gift from her parents.

Now, I have been taking care of Amanda all day and managing to keep in good health. I hope it stays that way.

Snow Day

I woke up today and Amanda told me that it was 7 degrees outside. While it was cold, it was also easier to get going this morning because of the fact that there was not any frost on my windshield, just a thin layer of snow which was easily brushed off. Getting to work was not hard, though it was very cold. I was able to submit a card I had been working on today which I am happy with. You can see it on my flickr site if you are one of my contacts.

Anyway, it has been snowing so bad that we had a pool at work to see how much we thought it would snow. No money involved, though I am sure I will lose because my guess was quite low. And since the snow kept up and conditions were worsening we left early. No now I am at home just relaxing.

Though I still have to go to Best Buy to work tonight. Oh well...

Almost there

Last night was a very productive night. I am almost done with my christmas shopping. I got Amanda's birthday present and found something Tim should (hopefully) love.

It was so nice to stay at home and not have to work at Best Buy. I got to finish "Shadow of the Colossus" and all I have to say is "wow." It was AMAZING. It really was just a interesting and different game which did so much with so little. It was surprisingly satisflying to climb over these HUGE colossi. The ending was truly great, though now I have to play Ico to understand more. Which is apparently another great game from the same team as SOTC.


Though, now I am going to turn my attention to a rather ambitious drawing I want to do. I will tell you more about that as I work on it.

Christmas tree

Didn't do to much this weekend. Amanda and I saw Aeon Flux and were pleasently surprized. I went in thinking it probably was going to suck. But it turned out pretty good. It had a deeper story than I thought it would.

Other than that we did a lot of errands, namley christmas shopping. We are almost all done, and we will be closer after today. Speaking of which, I don't have to work at Best Buy tonight, which brings me great joy. I can do some more shopping and finish Shadow of the Collossus which continues to be awesome.

We put up our christmas tree last night, the picture of it can be seen below.

Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by dark_hylian.

I am not going to get into it, but if I ever see and little blue mag flashlight rip-offs it will be too soon....

Holy Flirking Shnit!

Wednesday I went to commerce and filled out one of those "reclamation E" forms so that I can get my 500 dollars back. I should have it by monday or so, which would be nice. Later that day I got an email about my grandfather having to go to the hospital because of some gastro intestinal bleeding. He was going to be there for a few days, but was discharged on thursday. I tried to call him but I didn't get a responce. I have called him a few times but each time no one picks up. Its been awhile since I have seen, let alone talked to my other grandparents. I don't want it to stay that way.

On a happier note, the title for this post is for the game "Shadow of the Colossus," which I rented yesterday. That game is AMAZING! I really don't know how to describe it. It's just plain cool, and stunning in so many ways. I played it for a few hours while Amanda scrapbooked. Though she probably was scrapbooking because I was playing...

Basically the game boils down to find colossi, kill colossi, revive girlfriend. All I know is that if I had to do this for Amanda, I better be getting a sizeable "reward." You know what I am talking about... that's right... a quasi heartfelt "thank you."


I have had a lot of things "go wrong" as of late, but I digress. Things are going well here, just been busy with a number of "tasks" to complete. I am just happy with where I am in life right now... And who doesn't want that?