tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52288001042296527232024-03-13T08:42:05.302-05:00Playing by EarNavigating the real world, one day at a time . . .Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.comBlogger271125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-86937963848265738352015-09-29T16:40:00.000-05:002015-09-29T16:40:00.062-05:00"This is my heartbeat song and I'm gonna play it..."<span style="color: #351c75;">Today is a fun anniversary...</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #351c75;">We heard the heartbeat for the first time today. I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to feel. I wasn't really overwhelmed with an "OMG that's my baby in there!" kind of reaction. There was relief, obviously, that I haven't been living a lie the past several weeks; it was nice to have confirmation beyond a urine test. (Yeah, the nausea was a pretty big clue too, but you never know. Hormones don't necessarily equal healthy baby.)</span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Other than that, well... I was actually more freaked out than anything else. There's something growing in me!</span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #351c75;">I can tell you right now that I'm not going to be a "typical" first-time mother, at least as far as the pregnancy goes. And who knows, maybe "typical" isn't so typical, and there are more pregnant women out there like me, we just don't let on to the rest of the world that we're not overwhelmed with joy at every little milestone. I'm actually pretty worried about what it's going to feel like once the baby gets bigger and starts moving. I'm afraid I'm going to be freaked out (or worse, grossed out) by it.</span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #351c75;">Or who knows, maybe I'll surprise myself and get more attached to our little Snickerdoodle as time goes on.</span></i></blockquote>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">It's been interesting to go back and read some of my rambling writings from last year. A lot of it centers around being miserable, and not feeling the way I'm "supposed to." I can at least say that I was never grossed out. It was actually quite comforting to feel him moving around in there, even if it did get uncomfortable toward the end (when I felt like I was stretched so tight that my belly might just burst open <i>Alien</i>-style).</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Anyway. I'm quite glad that part of it is over. I enjoy the little man much more now that he's on the outside.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-34200172495036053062015-09-26T15:57:00.001-05:002015-09-26T15:57:42.608-05:00Baby's First Comic-ConSo, most of you have figured it out already, but Charleen and I are kind of geeky. We're both into reading, video games, super heros, and many sci-fi/fantasy shows. Well, since those are the things we like, it's only natural that we hang out with other people that have similar interests. It just so happens that I work with a couple of them and they let me know earlier this week that there was a Comic-Con coming to Dubuque this weekend. We've never been to one so we thought we'd give it a shot, and we brought the kiddo along. Thankfully, my cousin out in California had recently sent us the perfect onesie for him to wear; especially since one of my friends was going to be dressing up in a suitably themed costume. This was the result.<br />
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Bat-boy with Harley Quinn</div>
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<br /></div>
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It was a pretty small event, but it was a nice little outing for the family. I tried to get a picture of the costume contest, but the lighting wasn't very good. </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yu5cPVmnJxM/VgcD8pwYYnI/AAAAAAAAAN8/b9dSb_lU9zo/s1600/20150926_135241.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yu5cPVmnJxM/VgcD8pwYYnI/AAAAAAAAAN8/b9dSb_lU9zo/s320/20150926_135241.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So, bottom line, thanks to our friends, Ryan and Celesta, for inviting us to share the comic-con with them. They both have several very good costumes that they've made, but I think they were each wearing my personal favorites today. </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P3Elskoj3Mc/VgcD9aIMYNI/AAAAAAAAAOE/5i2QFA0P0qI/s1600/20150926_141447.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P3Elskoj3Mc/VgcD9aIMYNI/AAAAAAAAAOE/5i2QFA0P0qI/s400/20150926_141447.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Buzz Lightyear-Jedi Knight and Harley Quinn</div>
Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14029302674220969597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-12615272384881598082015-08-02T00:13:00.001-05:002015-08-02T00:13:44.543-05:004 Months in ReviewSo many thoughts! It's been a crazy, exhausting, wonderful, and event filled summer. I've had so many times I've wanted to write a new blog post, but it just didn't feel like I had the time to do so. So now, I'll try to sum up the last 4 months or so.<br />
<br />
At the beginning of April, my son was born. I took 2 weeks off of work and those was the most crazy, hectic, scary, exhausting, and amazing 2 weeks of my life. Words cannot describe becoming a new dad. It's been a wonderful experience so far. Watching him go from a tiny "little" (9 lbs 13 oz) fragile baby into this 4-month-old little boy who can hold his head up and is working on sitting up. His cries can call me running in a heartbeat, and his smile can melt my heart. It's been quite the experience, but I'm looking forward to him being mobile. Slider is going to have a new playmate when that happens.<br />
<br />
Watching Charleen become a mom has been incredible. She amazes me every day with how wonderful she is with our son. I give her so much credit for staying home with him and managing to get anything else done at the same time, but beyond my comprehension, she manages to take care of him, read new library books to him, keep up on the dishes (they've increased exponentially since he's joined us), AND manage to continue her own reading and book blogging. I honestly don't know how she manages it all.<br />
<br />
At the beginning of June, our good friend from high school got married in Minnesota. Charleen was the Matron of Honor. It was strange to leave the kiddo with his grammy (my mom) for the weekend when he was only 2 months old, but it was also a nice break from the baby cycle. The wedding went off with a hitch (ba-dum bum), and I also got to spend an afternoon with my cousin and her daughter in St. Paul while Charleen was busy with wedding duties.<br />
<br />
Somewhere in the midst of all of this, a couple of our good friends here in Dubuque got engaged. (Actually, back in November) I will be standing up in that wedding late fall on another Friday the 13th wedding. Charleen and I also got married on a Friday the 13th. I knew very early that the bride and I would be good friends when she was envious that I got married on a Friday the 13th, so now it's wonderful to see her get special day coming up in just a few months. Thankfully, she met a guy just as fun and quirky (in a good way) as she is so I'm incredibly happy for the both of them. They have become fantastic friends over the last few years and I'm quite honored to be a part of the ceremony for them to start their lives together. I just got back from their house actually for a bridal party party BBQ. It was a great time to meet or re-acquaint myself with the rest of the bridal party and just a glorious day/evening in general.<br />
<br />
And with that, I'm off to bed. I am up far past my bedtime and the kiddo will most likely be up for a feeding in a couple of hours. G'nite all and sorry for being away for so long, I'll try to have more posts soon.Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14029302674220969597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-8581000937010728412015-04-13T10:30:00.000-05:002015-04-13T10:30:01.360-05:00The Fabled Tenth Month<em><span style="color: #351c75;">I know this announcement deserves a bit more fanfare, for those who may only read the blog and don't follow us on social media, but our son was born a week ago. This first week has been filled with so many new things for both of us -- well, all of us, I suppose...</span></em><br />
<em><span style="color: #351c75;"></span></em><br />
<em><span style="color: #351c75;">And while there are a hundred blog posts worth of thoughts in my head, I don't have the time or energy to put words to any of them. Instead, this is something I wrote the Friday before he was born, not even knowing if I would share it, but needing to get it out.</span></em><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">-----</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<br /><em><span style="color: #351c75;">(Friday, April 3, 2015)</span></em><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<br /><span style="color: #351c75;">I can't remember when I first heard the myth that women are actually pregnant for 10 months, but it was from someone who was pregnant at the time, and I certainly wasn't going to argue with a pregnant woman. I've since heard the same argument multiple places, including blog posts from actual pregnancy websites.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Sorry, but no. Just because 4 x 10 = 40 doesn't mean that pregnancy lasts 10 months.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">With one exception, a month isn't exactly four weeks. Those extra days add up, and three months together are almost exactly 13 weeks, depending on which months they are. If it's two 30-day months and one 31-, it is 13 weeks exactly. If it's two 31-day months and one 30-, it's a day longer. And even February-March-April, the shortest possible three-month span, is closer to 13 weeks than 12... 12 weeks and 5 days (6 in a leap year), to be precise.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">So, 13 x 3... those 9 months are going to be almost exactly 39 weeks. (To look at it another way, 52 weeks in a year minus the 13 weeks of those other three months equals 39.) The magic number 40 is one week longer... except that the way the weeks are counted, you don't actually conceive until sometime during the 2nd or 3rd week. So, if you give birth on your due date, you've actually been carrying that baby for just under 9 months. It may seem like an eternity, but the math doesn't lie.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<br /><span style="color: #351c75;">The term makes a little more sense (even though I've just proven it's not totally accurate) in my current situation: I'm now past my due date, which means that, according to some, I've started the tenth month. "Started" being the key word. I'm not ten months pregnant. I will never be ten months pregnant. But if we're going to fudge the numbers a bit and say that 40 weeks = 9 months, I'm now one day into that fabled tenth month.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">I never thought I'd get to this point. I was convinced for several reasons (most of which aren't the slightest bit scientific, I'll admit) that the baby was going to come early. I didn't think I'd make it to April at all.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">But even in that part of my mind that conceded the possibility that I'd get to my due date or beyond, I never thought I'd be making this decision -- the first of many I'll have to make on behalf of my child -- this early. Oh, sure, I've been making little decisions every day that affect us both... but this one feels very different.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">How long do we wait for labor to happen on its own?</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">In my head, when I did let myself think about the pregnancy lasting that long, I figured it would be at least a week before we considered inducing.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">In reality... three days.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<br /><span style="color: #351c75;">Oh, we've been discussing it for longer. This was by no means a snap decision we made on the due date. Our OB first brought it up at my 39-week appointment, when he was concerned about my lack of progress from the week before. And at that point, the idea really freaked me out. It felt way too early to even be talking about it.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">(Which is, of course, ridiculous. It's never too early to start discussing options, to be prepared. But it caught me completely off-guard.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Just so you know where I'm coming from, I've never had a vision of having a completely natural birth. I have a pretty low threshold for pain, and I was expecting to use some sort of drugs to get through it. Breathing and focus points and massage may work great for some women... and I figured I'd start out using some of those methods, but at some point they'd stop being enough, and I was fine with that.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">But even though I wasn't opposed to medical intervention, the idea of things starting on their own was apparently more important to me than I'd realized. I've been lucky this whole pregnancy. (I've been miserable, but lucky.) The baby's health was never at risk. My own health was never at risk. There was never any reason we would need to balance the two and get the baby out at that intersection of risk where it wasn't too dangerous for either of us.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">So I never pictured anything, or prepared myself for anything, other than going into labor naturally. I read all about that, because it terrified me... not the idea of the pain (at first, anyway), or the embarrassment of my water breaking at an inopportune time and place. No, for me it was the thought of not knowing what was going on, of not recognizing what it was when it came, that freaked me out the most. Especially the closer we got, and the more I started feeling things that could be signs that labor was near... or could be nothing at all. Hmm, my back hurts more than usual today, could that be back labor? What about that cramping that feels like PMS? And I knew I'd been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a while, but most of the time I couldn't differentiate between a contraction and the baby stretching out and making everything tight. It all felt so vague.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">And nothing I read reassured me. The most common response was simply, "You'll know when it's the real thing." But then I'd find another story from someone who hadn't known, because it came on so gradually or was so similar to what had come before. Even if they're the minority, they still poke a big hole in the "you'll just know" argument.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">(Of course, the upside of that would be a nice chunk of my labor going by with so little discomfort I didn't even realize it was happening. But it's still scary to not know what's going on with your own body.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Even with all my uncertainty, though, I never imagined it happening any other way. So suddenly looking at induction as a real possibility... I sort of froze. Luckily, we had time to think about it and weigh our options... all the while hoping, of course, that nature would make the decision so we wouldn't have to. But when we got to our 40-week appointment and still nothing had changed... it was up to us. Wait and see, or take action?</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<br /><span style="color: #351c75;">We decided to take action, setting up my induction for just three days after my due date. But it wasn't easy.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">I could weigh pros and cons forever, but what it ultimately came down to was my doctor's advice vs my own gut feeling. How committed was I to letting nature take its course (assuming that it would, before an elective induction became not-so-elective)? But also -- and perhaps the bigger issue -- did I trust that my doctor's recommendation to induce now was in my best interest? And in the end, that answer is yes.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">One thing that makes me feel better about the situation is that, when I had my ultrasound, they estimated I was actually five days ahead of where we thought. They told us they won't actually change a due date unless there's a discrepancy of a week or more, but if we go by that estimate, I'd actually be over a week overdue by the time we induced... a time frame that felt more reasonable.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">So... it may not be what I imagined, and I know other women would choose to do things differently. This isn't about defending or justifying my choice to anyone. It's about how I got here. It's about coming to terms with a decision I didn't think I'd have to make. It's about the realization that my pregnancy (which, despite the assurance of the calendar, felt like it would never end) is finally ending.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">And maybe, somewhere in my reasoning, this is just a last-ditch effort to feel like I have control over something before I lose control over everything. I can't be 100% sure this is the right decision. I can't be 100% sure about any decision. But what I can be 100% sure of is that I'm doing the best I can with what I have.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Seems as good a way as any to start my journey as a parent.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-34336352606253466302015-03-29T14:06:00.000-05:002015-03-29T14:06:36.029-05:00A Question of FaithFaith is something I've been struggling with for a long time now. As I transitioned into adulthood, I became more accustomed to asking myself what I think about topics instead of what I think I should believe. That’s really the root of the following.<br />
<br />
If someone asked me if I was a Christian and I were to be perfectly honest, I’d have to say no.<br />
<br />
I've slowly come to terms with this. For a long time a lot of what I did or the decisions I made were based on what I thought I was “supposed to do.” One of those things was being a Christian. The best metaphor I can come up with is Santa Claus. When I was little, I believed in Santa because my parents told me he was real. As I got older I started to realize that some of the gifts from “Santa” I had seen in shopping bags or closets, but I still “believed” because I thought that if I didn't I wouldn't get as many presents. In the same way, my parents, friends, mentors, etc. told me that Jesus was God’s son and I believed it. Like so many other topics that I just assumed were true because others told me they were, I started to question it. Honestly, the doubt was there all the way back in high school when I was in Campus Life. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful organization and I don’t regret any of it. But every time someone shared their “moment they accepted Christ” story, I felt awkward. I didn't have that moment. I believed I was a Christian, but in reality, I had just never questioned it. For a long while now, I've known that I don’t really believe in Christ as the son of God. I think it’s just taken a while for me to come to terms with that.<br />
<br />
I've also given a lot of thought to how I feel about Christianity in general. Specifically, I wanted to make sure that my beliefs weren't rooted in not wanting to be associated with certain "Christians." For example, I despise the Westboro Baptist Church. Those people are filled with so much hate towards everyone that I can't see how they even call themselves Christians. But, despite my feelings towards a group like that, it doesn't have an effect on my beliefs.<br />
<br />
What do I believe in? I do believe in God or at least that there is a god. Some scientists will say that the Earth is just the place where the right random circumstances came to be to create life. I believe that there’s still something to life itself that science will never explain. Bodies are basically just machines. Wonderful, amazing, growing, self-repairing machines, but still just machines. That spark that makes something more than just a machine, the self-awareness that has no reason to be there and sometimes no reason to go is something entirely different.<br />
<br />
Just because I’m not a Christian doesn't mean that I've lost all of my morals. There are two phrases that come to mind. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It doesn't get much simpler than that. They’re basically saying the same thing just in different ways. Do what you feel is right to make yourself happy, but don’t do something that takes away other people’s right to do the same. Obviously the world is not black and white, but that provides a pretty solid starting point.<br />
<br />
My point? Please don’t take this as me saying that every Christian out there is wrong. That’s not what I’m saying at all. Basically I just wanted to share this with my friends and family because when topics of religion come up, I feel like I’m hiding or lying to them. That shouldn't be the case in the relationships that matter most in my life.<br />
<br />
P.S. I've closed comments on this particular post because I don’t want this to become a place where my friends or family will have an argument. If anyone wants to have a reasonable discussion with me about any of the above, you are more than welcome to contact me about it. I always try to be open to new information challenging my views or the way I think.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14029302674220969597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-10585569834832484672015-03-16T18:00:00.000-05:002015-03-16T18:04:36.346-05:00It's the Final Countdown<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9jK-NcRmVcw" width="400"></iframe><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Well, it feels like it's taken forever to get here, but we're in the final weeks of these awkward living arrangements. 17 days until my due date. Snickerdoodle can leave these cramped quarters behind, and I can get my body back. Even if Snickerdoodle comes late, the end is in sight. And that makes me very, very happy.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Of course, I've been so focused on getting to the end of the pregnancy that the idea of bringing home a baby is still rather abstract. I mean, we've been preparing for this. We know, in our heads, that it's going to happen. But at least for me, it still doesn't feel real... and probably won't until we're getting ready to leave the hospital.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">You might think it would feel real once the baby's born... and who knows, maybe it will, I have no way of knowing. But I just have this feeling that as long as we're in the hospital, we're removed enough from our daily lives that it's still going to be a bit like a dream. (Not to mention the exhaustion of just having gone through labor. I doubt anything's going to feel real at that point.).</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-9319094652026721502015-01-03T09:30:00.000-06:002015-01-03T10:00:17.408-06:00Year of the Baby<span style="color: #351c75;">Happy 2015!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">We're less than three months now from my due date (even though my third trimester doesn't officially start till next week? *shrugs*) and... well, I'm pretty miserable, to be perfectly honest. Of course that's not what I say when people ask how I'm doing. I say I'm doing fine. Because I sort of am. I mean, for all I know, this is a super-easy pregnancy (minus that pesky morning sickness that still hasn't completely gone away). At the worst, it's probably average. But I've never done it before. And I feel big. And awkward. And like my insides are all jumbled up. I'm incredibly uncomfortable. I haven't had a really good night's sleep in at least a month, and I'm not likely to have one for... I don't know, a year?</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">So that's how I really am. But I'll continue to say "fine" when people ask. It's just easier.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Anyway, when I woke up on Thursday morning, it just sort of hit me that this is it. Nothing changed from one day to the next, except that now it was 2015... and that just made this whole thing feel more real.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">So, in a last-ditch effort to hold onto my identity (and not that of this pregnant lady who's completely taken over my life), here's a little survey reflecting over the last year. Let's see how much of this can NOT focus on the baby.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What did you do in 2014 that you’ve never done before?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Stood up in a wedding (that wasn't mine).</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">I'm not much of a resolution person. My main goal for 2015 is survive... hopefully with my sanity somewhat intact.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>Did anyone close to you give birth?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">A couple good friends had a baby in March.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>Did anyone close to you die?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Yes... and quite unexpectedly.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What other countries did you visit?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">I haven't had a valid passport since I changed my name almost eight years ago.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">More discipline.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What was your biggest achievement of the year?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Actually applying for a job that would have been perfect for me instead of chickening out, and making it most of the way through the interview process.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What was your biggest failure?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Not getting said job. Not applying for more jobs. Letting my depression and anxiety get the best of me. (I know it asks for just one, but they're sort of all related.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>Did you suffer illness or injury?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">I did spend most of late summer and early fall puking, though I'm not sure that counts as "illness."</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>Where did most of your money go?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Paying off student loans... completely!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What song will always remind you of 2014?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Billy Joel's "Lullabye." Thanks to my brother's wedding, his dance with his new two-year-old daughter, and my first real hormone-induced (or at least -enhanced) breakdown... I'll probably never be able to hear this song without bawling again.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What was your favorite TV show?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Without a doubt, <em>Parks and Recreation</em>. I can't remember if I started watching it early 2014 or late 2013, but it's a relatively new obsession.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What was the best book you read?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Impossible to pick just one. See <a href="http://cheapthrillsbookblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/the-second-annual-cheapy-awards/" target="_blank">my book blog</a> for a more complete answer.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What was your greatest musical discovery?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Probably not what this question is really asking, but the fact that I can download music from Freegal through my library is pretty great.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What was your favorite film of the year?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Either <em>Captain America: The Winter Soldier</em> or <em>Guardians of the Galaxy</em>. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. <em>X-Men: Days of Future Past</em> was pretty good too.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Just went out for dinner, nothing fancy. BWW, maybe? I turned 31... which was somehow way more depressing than turning 30.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><strong>What do you think would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Not sure, but it was definitely missing something. I can't remember anything significant happening in the first half of the year. Not sure if that's because nothing did, or if the latter half just overshadowed it.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Well, I'm not sure there's much in there to make me feel better... but I suppose the silver lining is that losing myself in this pregnancy isn't such a big deal, since it's not like I had much going on anyway.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">2015, I have a feeling, is going to be a lot more interesting.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-80742635848852929752014-11-17T15:33:00.000-06:002014-11-17T15:41:27.264-06:00Whoooooaaa, We're Halfway There!<span style="color: #351c75;">I've had Bon Jovi stuck in my head for about a week now, which can only mean one thing...</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">(Actually, it could mean anything. There's no wrong time for Bon Jovi.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">But THIS time it means that I'm halfway through my pregnancy! Which is crazy. Really, really crazy. There are some days, when I'm feeling especially uncomfortable, that I feel like it's dragging. (Like when you have a cold that just won't go away and after a couple weeks you forget that there was ever a time when you could actually breathe through your nose... like that, only for me, it's forgetting there was ever a time when I didn't feel like a stuffed turkey.) But on the whole, it feels like it's going so fast!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">I'm finally starting to show... although it's not super obvious, mostly because I'm already so heavy. I can tell the difference, and Pat can, and my family probably will when we head back for Thanksgiving. But a stranger on the street? I don't think my belly quite says baby, unless you already know it's in there.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">And it's definitely in there! A couple months ago when we heard the heartbeat for the first time, that was pretty cool... but we got our ultrasound today, and that was something else. Like... it's really a baby! Not just some hypothetical amorphous blob in there.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Sooo... yeah. That's where we're at. And especially with the holidays coming up, I feel like we'll be in the third trimester before we know it.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-7806003722219699852014-09-30T09:30:00.000-05:002014-09-30T09:30:00.436-05:00An Announcement 13 Weeks in the Making...<span style="color: #351c75;">In April 2007, we got married.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">In October 2009, we brought home Slider.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">In January 2014, we adopted Sammy.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">And in April 2015, our little family will be growing yet again.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Really, though, our new addition is already here, sort of... and has been making its presence known for the last couple months as it proceeded to torture me from the inside. In the words of Lily Aldrin, this kid better be real freakin' cute.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">You may remember this from <a href="http://playing-by-ear.blogspot.com/2014/08/this-week-in-illinois.html" target="_blank">Pat's last post</a>:</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<blockquote>Later in the day we went out to dinner with my mom and Char’s parents to Red Lobster. My father-in-law’s birthday is today so we were celebrating both. Dinner was fantastic as always and we got a couple of free desserts for our birthdays. After that we went out to Roundheads, a pizza pub/bar to celebrate my birthday with some local friends. All in all a very good day.</blockquote>
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">What he didn't mention is that was also the day we told our families and most of our close friends that I'm pregnant. So, yeah, a very good day.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">And now that we've heard the heartbeat for the first time (!!!) and I'm out of the first trimester (officially 14 weeks on Thursday), we're ready to tell the internet. Even though I'm not on Facebook anymore, I still think of things as being "Facebook official" when you're ready to share news with the whole world instead of just your little corner of it.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">In six months... <i>I'm gonna be a mom.</i></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-18652373964887365242014-08-21T10:31:00.003-05:002014-08-21T10:31:38.613-05:00This Week in IllinoisWe interrupt your regularly scheduled blog post for an Illinois special. We are in Lombard for most of this week for my brother-in-law’s wedding. That is this Friday. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re all looking forward to welcoming his fiancée and her daughter into the family (even though they totally already are). I’m also looking forward to standing up in a wedding for the first time. It should be a fun evening.<br />
<br />
Wednesday was also my birthday. It was a very good day. Wednesday morning I went out and played a round of disc golf over at Madison Meadows. I really enjoy this course. It’s got a lot of very long holes with wide open fields so you can just go all out and throw as far as you can without too much penalty for poor aim. It’s also a very nice course to look at around the well maintained pond pictured below.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u0z2QrhKS2s/U_YQZvUF9EI/AAAAAAAAALU/5HGlB9PcEro/s1600/Madison%2BMeadow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u0z2QrhKS2s/U_YQZvUF9EI/AAAAAAAAALU/5HGlB9PcEro/s1600/Madison%2BMeadow.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
Later in the day we went out to dinner with my mom and Char’s parents to Red Lobster. My father-in-law’s birthday is today so we were celebrating both. Dinner was fantastic as always and we got a couple of free desserts for our birthdays. After that we went out to Roundheads, a pizza pub/bar to celebrate my birthday with some local friends. All in all a very good day.<br />
<br />
And today, I got to watch a couple of monarch butterflies hatch out of their cocoons. My mom finds the eggs on her plants and brings them inside to give them a better chance of survival. Once they hatch she releases them. Pretty cool to watch. <br />
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Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14029302674220969597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-59060561145548051012014-08-08T22:03:00.001-05:002014-08-08T22:04:00.978-05:00This week in Iowa - 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well, my favorite news this week is that I got my birthday present a little early! Char and my mom went in on getting me a disc golf basket. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9YlPR2pMRDc/U-WOvr7KP0I/AAAAAAAAAK8/7CENemngaMk/s1600/Disc+Golf+Basket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9YlPR2pMRDc/U-WOvr7KP0I/AAAAAAAAAK8/7CENemngaMk/s1600/Disc+Golf+Basket.jpg" height="317" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Yup, I've already been putting it to good use this evening. This will finally give me a chance to work on a couple of different putting styles to see what I really like. I foresee this thing getting a lot of use in the near future.<br />
<br />
Chicago Bears football is back! Yes, it’s only the preseason, but it’s nice that the wait is finally over. I only watched the first quarter when the starters were playing (had to get back outside to enjoy the new basket). Dante Rosario was looking pretty good on a couple of catches and runs. It’ll be interesting to see if he can provide a good target opposite Martellus Bennett. Other than that…it’s the pre-season. It’s hard to really judge anything. Season opener is in less than 4 weeks.<br />
My uncle’s wedding went very well. The new couple was absolutely beaming. I got to see family that I don’t get to very often. The cake was delicious. The champagne fountain was pretty cool.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wiYTuTNI28U/U-WOzGOVzlI/AAAAAAAAALE/OpP0wjDn5Ig/s1600/Cake+and+fountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wiYTuTNI28U/U-WOzGOVzlI/AAAAAAAAALE/OpP0wjDn5Ig/s1600/Cake+and+fountain.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
I also found out that a couple of my cousins play disc golf. I’m hoping to head up towards their area to play what sounds like a very nice 36-hole disc golf course next weekend. I also might get to see their brother who is currently in the Marines. Depends on when his leave is.<br />
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Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14029302674220969597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-28704788109052950982014-07-30T20:55:00.003-05:002014-07-30T20:55:34.553-05:00This week in Iowa - 1Ok, so this blog has been sitting here unwritten for way too
long. Char’s been posting like crazy on <a href="https://cheapthrillsbookblog.wordpress.com/">her other blog</a> so it
looks like it’s up to me to keep this one alive. I've decided I’m going to try
to post at least once a week. It’ll probably be a bunch of random stuff that
went on that week, but it’ll be nice to start posting and keeping people up on
what’s been going on with us out in Dubuque.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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So basically, I've been working a lot lately. Due to a couple
of days off and some overtime that I was fortunate enough to get, I've been
working 10 hour days for about the past 6 weeks. While I enjoy the extra money
and I've always got more than enough to keep me busy for those extra hours, I’ll
be looking forward to going back to 8 hour days next week. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I haven’t been playing nearly as much disc golf as I’d like,
but I’m still getting out about once a week with some friends from work. I've
also decided that I’m going to give a different putting style a try. It’s still
probably the weakest part of my game so it’s worth a shot. It’s called push
putting. I've tried practicing out behind the apt a bit and once I got the hang
of the technique, I seem to be able to keep the disc on a relatively straight
path (which is the idea). I want to get a portable basket so I can actually
practice instead of throwing at an imaginary basket. I also still want to try
to enter a tournament at some point this year. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Exciting news on the cat front: Sammy is now fully trained
to use his feeding box. </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UlMZSEts9zw/U9mheApQ-rI/AAAAAAAAAKo/bM7WRP8YFOE/s1600/Sammy+Box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UlMZSEts9zw/U9mheApQ-rI/AAAAAAAAAKo/bM7WRP8YFOE/s1600/Sammy+Box.jpg" height="328" width="400" /></a></div>
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He hasn't thrown up in months and now we can just leave
his food out all the time for him to eat at his leisure. We decided to train
him in slow steps since he’s an older cat and isn't the quickest to adapt to
new situations. I’ll be honest, when we were only part way through and he didn't
seem to like the tunnel with a wide open door, I was a little nervous that I’d
spent money on the cat door. Sammy, however, pleasantly surprised me when he
picked up on pushing the door open all on his own within a day of us adding the
flap into the equation. So nice to be able to accommodate both of our cats’
eating habits. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Char and I have gotten out and done a lot of bike riding the
past 2 weeks. It took us a little bit to get going with all the traveling and
extra work I've been doing, but we've finally got our momentum going. Hopefully
it continues for the rest of the year. I’m also hoping to bike to work a little
more often starting next week when I’m back to shorter hours. (trying to be
ready to leave at 5 AM to bike in was just not going to happen)<o:p></o:p></div>
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This has been a summer of weddings. We were out in Dublin,
Ohio two and a half weeks ago to celebrate my friend Andromeda getting married.
I was afforded the honor of giving a reading in the ceremony, and I couldn't be
happier for her and Jacob. They are an excellent pair and will take good care
of each other. This weekend, my Uncle Ed (godfather) is getting married. It's supposed to be a small ceremony, but like any wedding seems to have gotten bigger as we get closer to the date. In any case, he and Jan seem to make each other very happy and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to meet some of her family. In just over three weeks, my brother-in-law, Marcus, is getting
married. Char and I are standing up in the wedding, a first for both of us. I’m
pretty sure Marc’s still only fifteen, but we’re excited about welcoming Molly
and her two-year-old daughter, Sophie, into the family. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Well that’s enough for now, but this is the type of post I’m
going to try to put out once a week. Just little blurbs about what’s going on. I
pretty much stole the idea from <a href="https://cheapthrillsbookblog.wordpress.com/tag/bookish/">Char’s updates
that she posts on Fridays</a>, but as the saying goes, “imitation is the
sincerest form of flattery.” Have a great week!<o:p></o:p></div>
Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14029302674220969597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-14226707756166198762014-03-18T20:23:00.000-05:002014-03-18T20:23:50.475-05:00So, the bike theftAs promised, here is the full story about our bikes being stolen.<br />
<br />
For the last 3 years, we have kept our bikes locked up at the bottom of the stairwell here.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZzajzK5p8uM/UyjwGa1r3uI/AAAAAAAAAKA/HIF4af2SjZ8/s1600/Stairwell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZzajzK5p8uM/UyjwGa1r3uI/AAAAAAAAAKA/HIF4af2SjZ8/s1600/Stairwell.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
It's a very convenient spot for 2 bikes since our apartment isn't really that big. Even though the building itself isn't locked, the bikes are out of sight from the door and there are only 2 apartments downstairs (including ours) so we don't get a lot of traffic coming by them. We also always have them locked to the stair railing.<br />
<br />
Last Saturday, I left at around 1 to run some errands. On my way out, the bikes were there. On my way back, I didn't notice if they were there or not. I did notice that the door to our hallway was open, but with my attention focused on that and carrying stuff, I didn't look back in the direction of the bikes. Charleen mentioned that she had heard a bunch of banging around earlier, but it's an apartment building, that's nothing out of the ordinary. On our way out to dinner, however, we were shocked to walk out and see our bikes missing. That night an officer came by to record what was stolen. He left his card and we were going to call him back once we confirmed the serial numbers with the bike shop the next day. We also called our landlord right away on the off chance that someone had complained about them and maintenance took them.<br />
<br />
The next day, we confirmed which numbers on our receipt were the serial numbers at the bike shop and called the officer to add those numbers to the police report so that they could flag them if the bikes showed up at a pawn shop. Our landlord also called me back to let me know that she hadn't told anyone to take the bikes, but our next door neighbor had skipped out on her and it was possible that one of the maintenance guys thought the bikes belonged to them and might have moved them. She'd have to check the next day when they were in.<br />
<br />
Well, on Monday, I called her back and she confirmed that none of her guys had moved them. They had definitely been stolen. Thankfully, we do have renter's insurance, but I didn't want to call them right away. Even though the weather was getting nicer, I didn't want to start with the insurance since I still wanted to give it a couple of days on the off chance that the police got a hit on the serial numbers. I figured I'd rather not go through the process of paying our deductible $500 and getting new bikes only to recover the old ones. Well, on Thursday we still hadn't heard anything so I called up to start the insurance process. A rep got back to me on Friday and I had some paperwork to fill out over the weekend. Yay...<br />
<br />
On Sunday, one of the maintenance guys knocked on the door to tell me that he knows where the bikes are. He happened to see them the day before in the pawn shop downtown where he pays his bills. He was one of the guys that was in the building the previous week to clean up some of the mess with the sewer backing up so he was pretty familiar with what they looked like. He also mentioned that one of them had a light on it and the other one didn't. I was pretty excited to have possibly found the bikes, but there was a problem. The pawn shop wasn't open on Sunday. The maintenance guy, Wayne, wanted to meet up with me and the land lord the next morning to tell her what he had found out. The pawn shop wasn't open until 10 AM the next day so I called in to work to make sure I could take the morning off to get this resolved. Thankfully I have a pretty understanding boss who knows I'll make up the time later in the week.<br />
<br />
So here I am for the rest of the day Sunday looking up what goes into the process of getting stolen property back from a pawn shop. The good news was that pawn shops due to their nature, typically take down a driver's license and sometimes even finger prints of the people who sell things to them. Also, as long as the serial numbers hadn't been scratched off, I knew I could prove that the bikes were ours. One would think that that would be that. Buying or selling stolen property is illegal, and the property should still belong to the original owner. The pawn shop didn't do anything wrong since they didn't know the bikes were stolen when they bought them, but it should be like counterfeit money. Whoever ends up with it last after discovering it's fake is out the money. Well...it turns out that different states have different rules. Many victims of theft have to pay the pawn shops what they paid to get their stuff back. In other cases, the police will take the property as evidence until everything is processed through. The more I read, the more I realized that we might not be getting our bikes back the next day. Yeah, I didn't sleep well that night.<br />
<br />
So Monday morning at 8 I met up with the landlord. She wanted to know right away who took the bikes because if they had anything to do with the apt complex, they were going to be either evicted or fired. So, she was going to meet me over at the shop at 10 when they opened. I also contacted the police to see what they wanted me to do, as expected, they told me to verify that the bikes were indeed there and if they were, call them back and they'd have an officer over to get the information from the shop on who sold them. So after I had been home for about an hour twiddling my thumbs until it was time to head over to the shop, there was a knock at the door. It was my landlord telling me that she knew who had taken the bikes. It was one of her maintenance guys. He had thought that the bikes belonged to the neighbors that skipped out and had taken them without her permission to pawn them. As a result, he was now fired and would be going to the pawn shop to get the bikes back. I was a little uneasy about this and was wondering if I should meet him down there to take the bikes back myself, but it ended up not mattering. The pawn shop wouldn't give them back to him anyway after finding out they were stolen. They needed my permission to sell them back to him.<br />
<br />
So, I threw the bike rack in the car and headed over to the pawn shop. On the way over to the shop I was thinking about what I would say to the guy who had stolen our bikes. The landlord had told me that he was very upset when he confessed to her that he had taken the bikes. Apparently he couldn't afford to lose this job. Well, there wasn't anything I could do about that now. That was the landlord's decision, not that I didn't agree with her. I decided that in this case, less was probably more. Besides, my main priority was getting the bikes back in one piece.<br />
<br />
I walk in and there they are, both bikes, undamaged with sale stickers on them. And there was Jeff, the guy who had stolen them. Quite honestly, he looked pretty pathetic. I was glad I had decided not to say much. I pretty much just didn't want to talk to him. I just wanted to get in, get my bikes back, take them home, and not have to think about him again. He on the other hand apparently needed my acknowledgement that what he did was "just an honest mistake". He kept repeating that phrase. I'm not sure if he was trying to convince me or himself. Anyway, one of the guys in the pawn shop said that he needed to take the money directly from me. This is the one plus that I will give to Jeff, he had the money ready to go and handed it to me without any fuss. So, I gave the money to the pawn shop and they started the process of getting their paperwork straightened out. Jeff once again was still trying to get me to acknowledge his "honest mistake" and now that the bikes were mine again I responded that if it was an honest mistake, why didn't he fess up as soon as the landlord asked him and the rest of the maintenance guys about taking the bikes a week ago. He then started muttering something about trying to figure out how and I turned back to the pawn shop clerk. After another minute, Jeff asked if I wanted his help out with the bikes or transporting them back to the apartment. I simply told him, "I think you've done enough." He left, one of the clerks helped me take the bikes out to the car, and I loaded them up and took them home.<br />
<br />
Now instead of feeling a bit depressed when I walk past where the empty spot where the bikes used to be, I smile every time I walk into our kitchen.<br />
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<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14029302674220969597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-9220173653180702932014-03-18T20:13:00.000-05:002014-03-18T20:13:02.855-05:00Crazy year so farSorry I've been so quiet recently, it's just been an interesting year so far.<br />
<br />
To start off, we brought in a new addition to the family. Meet Sammy.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Sammy is roughly a 13-15 year old cat that we got from my friend Nathan. Nathan is living in a condo with a roommate and just felt like he wasn't able to provide a good home for Sammy anymore due to having to basically confine him to 1 bathroom so Charleen and I talked it over and decided that it might be nice for Slider to have some company. For the most part it's working out just fine. Sammy just has some quirks. He has a tendency to throw up if he gets upset and eats too much, and he occasionally has bathroom accidents. So it's a bit of an adjustment from a cat that only needs to be fed twice a day and almost never has any health problems. Either way, we love him and he and Slider have a pretty good if just a bit brotherly rough-housing relationship.<br />
<br />
Near the end of January, one of our neighbors slid into our parked car in the lot outside our building. It wasn't much damage, just a cracked rear bumper, but there's a bit of a communication barrier so it's been a drawn out process to work through him to get a check to cover the damage. Thankfully that just came in the mail yesterday so we can now go about getting the appointment set up and finally get the car fixed.<br />
<br />
A little over 2 weeks ago, I woke up to hear the toilet gurgling at about 3 AM. Charleen mentioned that both of them had been doing it all night. Strangely enough, I was the one sleeping through it all. Typically, she's the heavy sleeper between us. Anyway, I took a look at them and we didn't have any leaks that I could see, they just didn't seem to want to flush right. I decided to wait 'till a decent hour to call the landlord and have them take care of it during the day. I called around 6:50 as I was finishing getting ready to go to work. The landlord mentioned that someone else was having some plumbing issues as well and she'd send someone over when she got in that morning. About 10 minutes later, Charleen noticed water seeping out from under the utility room door and into the kitchen. We managed to get everything out of the way of the water and called back the landlord who came over within 30 minutes to shut off the water. All said and done, nothing was damaged, it only collected on a linoleum floor, and after the maintenance guys used a shop vac to collect most of the water, I mopped the floor with bleach before heading in to work.<br />
<br />
Last Saturday, Charleen and I were heading out to dinner with friends only to discover that our bikes had been stolen from inside our building where they were locked up. Long story short, we got them back 9 days later after they were spotted at a pawn shop. I'm going to write out a separate post on this one since I think it deserves a bit more background. It's a big relief to have them back, but the whole process was frustrating and stressful for both Charleen and me.<br />
<br />
So yeah, that's been the start of 2014 for me. I'll post the bike story soon, and I've got a lot of other thoughts that I keep meaning to post about, it's just a matter of finding the time and energy do writ them.Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14029302674220969597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-26968691150973611912014-02-03T12:00:00.000-06:002014-02-03T12:00:00.021-06:00How You Got Sick of Waiting to Learn How I Met Your Mother<span style="color: #351c75;"><i>How I Met Your Mother</i> has been one of my favorite shows for years. This final season, though... it's been a mixed bag. It's had some great moments, but on the whole it's just not what I expected and hoped for. A lot of long-running sitcoms get criticized for not quitting while they were ahead, but HIMYM has taken that to a new extreme, dragging out one weekend to last an entire season.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<iframe width="400" height="225" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/UpoRTLe413Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">One bit of good news is that we're less than two months from the long-awaited series finale.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Another is that last week's episode, the 200th, was a great one. That episode, combined with some great moments that stand out from the filler of this wedding weekend that won't end, give me confidence that the end of the series will be everything we're hoping for... even if the road to get there hasn't been.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><b>*** Mild Spoilers Ahead ***</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">The best parts of this season have been those featuring Cristin Milioti as the mother. I absolutely LOVED her introduction at the end of last season. It made me so excited for this final run, especially as I heard the creators discussing how we were going to get to know her this season. We already want Ted to meet her... but we have to want her to meet Ted too.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Unfortunately, we haven't gotten as much of that as I was expecting. I've liked the glimpses that we have seen of her, either over this weekend or in flashback. (The flash-forwards to her and Ted are cute, I guess, but I'm just not as interested in THEM as I am in HER.) I like seeing how she meets each member of the group, and "Bass Player Wanted," the last episode before the holiday break, was probably my favorite of the season.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Until now.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Last week's episode was perfect. It's absolutely the best episode this season, and will probably go down as one of my favorites of the whole series. There are so many callbacks to little things we've learned about the mother up until now, but it's all given context. I feel like we finally got to know her and where she's coming from.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Even if we still don't know her name.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-84228110578161865302014-01-03T12:00:00.000-06:002014-01-03T12:00:00.934-06:00Fantasy Football Rookie - A Wrap Up<span style="color: #351c75;">Fantasy Football is finally over. Yes, we did play Week 17. Yes, I was paying attention and set up my roster ahead of time. No, I didn't post about it. We were out of town and computer time was rare. Pretty sure the only change I made from the previous week was taking out Calvin Johnson and putting in a backup receiver.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Despite Week 17 being my lowest scoring week ever, I managed to end the season in 3rd place. Go me!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I'm pretty sure I won't be doing fantasy football again. It was fun for about a month. After that it just became something I had to remember to do. I do sort of appreciate getting a broader look at the other teams and players in the league, but I don't need fantasy football to do that.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">It was fun to do once, but next year I'll go back to just being a spectator.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-1892582965602139602014-01-02T10:31:00.001-06:002014-01-02T11:21:56.446-06:00Goodbye, 2013... Goodbye, Facebook<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ktgt02Wi4-M/UsWOeGl13AI/AAAAAAAAD_0/NRrdE04gNJE/s1600/goodbyefb.png"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ktgt02Wi4-M/UsWOeGl13AI/AAAAAAAAD_0/NRrdE04gNJE/s1600/goodbyefb.png" width="450" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">It's been a long time since I've actually gotten anything worthwhile out of Facebook. Well, that's not entirely true, but it's been a long time since the positives have outweighed the negatives. I joined as a way to stay connected to friends and family... but now it's all just noise.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">So, I'm done.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I posted the above status two days ago. I deleted my account this morning. I would have done this months ago if it weren't for a couple ongoing group things. And, of course, there's the nagging feeling that I'm going to miss out in the future simply by not being so easily available. But I just don't care anymore. It's not enough of a reason to stick around.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Even if I change my mind in another few months - who knows, stranger things have happened - I have a feeling I'll appreciate starting from a clean slate.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-50770049362943624562013-12-20T12:00:00.000-06:002013-12-20T12:00:01.057-06:00Fantasy Football Rookie (Week 16)<b>Friday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">QB - Cam Newton, Kirk Cousins</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">RB - Matt Forte, Eddie Lacy</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">WR - Calvin Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Riley Cooper</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">TE - Julius Thomas</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">K - David Akers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D/ST - 49ers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D - NaVorro Bowman, Nick Roach</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I picked up Kirk Cousins to start in place of Joe Flacco, partly because Flacco has a minor injury, but mostly because Cousins had a great game last week and is going up against the worst passing defense this week. It might be a risk, but at this point it's one I'm willing to take.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-41999320848363642682013-12-13T12:00:00.000-06:002013-12-13T14:50:29.328-06:00Fantasy Football Rookie (Week 15)<b>Tuesday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">BEAR DOWN!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">A great ending to a lackluster fantasy week. Joe Flacco's incredible fourth quarter saved my week from being completely abysmal, but I was kind of killed by the fact that my kicker (Detroit's, of course) didn't get a single point in that crazy blizzard, and all of my wide receivers (two of which were also in that game) had pretty sad games. The silver lining is that no one on my bench had a great game either; my best possible score this week would have been just seven points above what I got.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I have two players in Thursday night's game, both of whom I'll probably start. (It figures that Julius Thomas finally has a game before my backup Fleener's... now that he's healthy again.) I'll take a look at the rest of my roster later this week.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b>Thursday Afternoon - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">QB - Cam Newton, Joe Flacco</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">RB - Matt Forte, Knowshon Moreno</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">WR - Calvin Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Riley Cooper</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">TE - Julius Thomas</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">K - David Akers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D/ST - 49ers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D - NaVorro Bowman, Nick Roach</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b>Friday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Wow, Thomas and Moreno both had pretty disappointing nights. Seems to be my running theme lately...</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-5083838875241874492013-12-06T12:00:00.000-06:002013-12-06T12:00:00.736-06:00Fantasy Football Rookie (Week 14)<b>Monday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I'm back in third, and the two people ahead of me aren't even done yet...</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">On the plus side, I don't have anyone in the Thursday game next week!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b>Friday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">QB - Cam Newton, Joe Flacco</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">RB - Matt Forte, Knowshon Moreno</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">WR - Calvin Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Riley Cooper</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">TE - Julius Thomas</span>*</b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">K - David Akers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D/ST - Ravens</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D - NaVorro Bowman, Nick Roach</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b>*</b><span style="color: #351c75;">Thomas once again has a late kickoff while Fleener has an early one, so I may need to make that call before I want to. But it sounds promising that he'll be back this week.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">(Can you tell I'm losing my enthusiasm for this? I don't think I'll be doing fantasy again next year...)</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-23828364390193379202013-11-27T17:30:00.000-06:002013-11-27T17:30:00.298-06:00Fantasy Football Rookie (Week 13)<b>Monday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">This was a much better week, and it's not even over yet! I'm back in 1st place, I still have two more players to go tonight, and everyone within 100 points is done for the week, so I get to pad that lead a bit heading into Week 13. Still, I'm not totally without disappointment, since my highest scoring quarterback and highest scoring running back were both sitting on my bench.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b>Tuesday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Well, I didn't get much padding last night... only 4.8 points from my wide receiver and a respectable if not impressive 7 points from my defensive guy. But at a total of 170.22 I had the most points in the league last week... which is actually pretty sad. Guess it wasn't a great week for anyone.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">This is a weird week; I have players in all three of Thursday's games, including at least one player in every position except for tight end. So I have to make the majority my decisions early this week, and then wait three days before finding out if I made the right ones.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b>Wednesday Evening - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">QB - Cam Newton, Eli Manning</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">RB - Eddie Lacy, Reggie Bush</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">WR - Calvin Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Riley Cooper</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">TE - Julius Thomas</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">K - David Akers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D/ST - 49ers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D - NaVorro Bowman, Nick Roach</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Blargh... I hate Thursday games.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-17322874771403184122013-11-25T08:30:00.000-06:002013-11-25T08:30:00.779-06:00I Just Don't Get It<span style="color: #351c75;">For those of us living in the U.S., Thanksgiving is this week. A time to get together with family... which may or may not be a good thing. Last week, I was part of a Twitter conversation that left me completely flabbergasted:</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">@otherperson:</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">I swear. Thanksgiving is the worst holiday. We both have family in town. Which means we have to fight every fricking year about where we're going and when and it's AWFUL.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">@me:</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">My parents and my MIL live two blocks from each other, so we get that any time we visit for the weekend. For holidays we just alternate and too bad for whoever doesn't like it.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">@otherperson:</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;">Well, both sides of the family would stop talking to us completely if we did that.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Umm... what?</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I didn't continue the conversation, because I honestly didn't know how to respond to that, at least not without completely ripping on this person's family. But my knee-jerk response is simply, "Their loss."</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I get that it's disappointing not to get to see people on holidays because they're spending the time with the "other family," but really?!</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Where did this idea come from that family is such a sacred bond that you can be so disrespectful and it doesn't matter because the other person will always forgive you? This whole "nothing is more important than family" thing is actually kind of crap. There are lots of things that are more important than simply BEING a family. For one, how about ACTING like a family? Like you actually care about each other... that includes dialing down the guilt and manipulation.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Personally, I like the way we do it. Thanksgiving with one side, Christmas with the other. And every year we switch. On Pat's side, all family get-togethers almost always involve the same people, but with my side, it gets even more complicated because we might be with my mom's side or my dad's side. Which means that, the people we don't see one year, we won't necessarily see them the next year. And when you factor in the fact that others might also be dividing their holiday time... there's really never a guarantee.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">(The "no guarantee" thing is true to an extent with Pat's family too, but it's pretty uncommon to go two years without seeing someone... whereas that's the norm for a lot of my side.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">So, trust me, I can see the benefits of trying to fit everyone in... but personally I think it's too much of a headache. Especially if those who are insisting on it won't compromise. So, family is important... but the other side of the family doesn't deserve the same quality time?</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">If seeing your family is really that important, make time to see them throughout the year. And if you do see them throughout the year, then why make such a fuss over one day? I know there's something to be said for tradition, but when people come together and create a new family, you can't expect everything to always stay the same.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">If our parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins can't respect the decisions we make for our new family, then that's their problem. And if they'd take it so personally to the point where they'd actually stop talking to us because of it... then why would I want make more time and effort to see them? Just because they're family?</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Family is NOT a get-out-of-shitty-behavior free card.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">And I know I shouldn't be judging this other person's situation, because I don't know all the people and all the factors involved, and it has nothing to do with me. But I feel like I see so much of this kind of thing. And I just don't get it.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Maybe it's because I've never been involved in family drama. Maybe someday I'll end up in a situation where an outsider would say, "It's not worth it, why do you put up with that?" and I'll respond, "Well, they're family."</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">But I hope not. I hope I go through my whole life never "getting it." The price of understanding is too high.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-74121056228194261842013-11-22T12:00:00.000-06:002013-11-22T12:00:04.518-06:00Fantasy Football Rookie (Week 12)<b>Thursday Afternoon - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Last week was a little more reasonable, despite the fact that Eli Manning had his best game in weeks the minute I bench him (of course). A couple other disappointments, but at least I was in the top half of scores in my league, and I'm sitting solidly in 3rd place.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Starters for the coming week:</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">QB - Cam Newton, Eli Manning</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">RB - Matt Forte, Eddie Lacy</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">WR - Calvin Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Rueben Randle</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">TE - Coby Fleener</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">K - David Akers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D/ST - Ravens</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D - NaVorro Bowman, Nick Roach</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I'm following the collective NFL suggestions, which for the most part match up with Yahoo!'s (is that the correct way to punctuate that?) projected points.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">The only time I went out on my own was for Coby Fleener. Once again, he kicks off before Julius Thomas this week, and Thomas didn't practice yesterday and was limited today. I'd probably be hesitant to start him even if he does play, plus Fleener has a great matchup this week. I'll keep an eye on Thomas's status, but probably won't be changing anything.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-42732290176991040462013-11-15T12:00:00.000-06:002013-11-15T12:00:00.721-06:00Fantasy Football Rookie (Week 11)<b>Monday Night - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I had a pretty bad week. I won't officially know how bad until tomorrow, but I'm already bumped down to 3rd place and I don't have anyone playing tonight... though 4th place is pretty far back so I don't think I have to worry about anyone else passing me up this week.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Both my starting quarterbacks were terrible. My receivers were actually pretty good, as was my tight end (I did end up going with Julius Thomas, trusting the "probable" status as of the early kickoff). But neither of my running backs met their projections, my kicker had a really slow game, and my defense - team and individual players - did fairly well but just not enough to make up for the low numbers in other areas. My final score was 141.06, my lowest all year. With a few starter switches, I could have had 158, which still would have been my lowest all year. And if I hadn't taken my other kicker off my roster, I could have had 165... which STILL would have been my lowest score all year.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">So, yeah, this clearly wasn't going to be a good week for me.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">And on top of that, the Bears lost an extremely winnable game because Cutler got injured AT THE END OF THE FIRST HALF and the coaches didn't put in his backup until the final drive of the game.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Nope, not a good week...</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b>Thursday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Remember how last week I was nervous about the three-hour difference between my backup and starting tight ends? And how I was like, well, at least it's only three hours, it could be worse? Yeah... this week it's worse -- Thursday night vs Sunday night. But Julius Thomas doesn't look nearly as iffy this week as he did last week, so hopefully it won't be an issue.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I'm pretty frustrated with my <b>quarterbacks</b> right now. The NFL fantasy guys are still putting Eli above Joe Flacco, but at this point I think I have more faith in Flacco. I don't know what happened to Cam last week, but I'm going to go ahead and start <b>Cam Newton</b> and <b>Joe Flacco</b>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">I'm solid at the <b>running back</b> position, like I mentioned last week. My guys are projected at #5, 6, 7, & 9 on the NFL rankings. With that in mind, there's always a chance that one of my benched players is going to have a breakout game, but I'm going with <b>Reggie Bush</b> and <b>Knowshon Moreno</b> this week.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">In the <b>wide receiver</b> position, I picked up <b>Riley Cooper</b> in free agency this week. He's been hot the last couple weeks, and while it might not continue, he seems worth a shot considering neither Steve Smith nor Denarius Moore have had double-digit games in weeks. <b>Calvin Johnson</b> and <b>Pierre Garcon</b> are my other two starters, as usual.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Tight end</b>, <b>Julius Thomas</b>, unless he doesn't play... in which case hopefully I know about it early enough to pick up someone to replace him.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Kicker</b>, <b>David Akers</b>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">For my <b>defensive players</b>, <b>NaVorro Bowman</b> and <b>Nick Roach</b>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">As for my team <b>defense/special teams</b>, neither San Francisco nor Baltimore looks all that promising... I may change my mind before Sunday, but right now I'm leaning <b>49ers</b> if only to avoid the conflict of interests that comes with the Ravens playing the Bears this week. (On the other hand, getting fantasy points out of the Ravens could be a silver lining if we end up losing the real game.)</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5228800104229652723.post-82127994239057549512013-11-08T12:00:00.000-06:002013-11-08T12:00:00.536-06:00Fantasy Football Rookie (Week 10)<b>Tuesday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Bears win! Plus, after a rather mediocre Sunday, both my running backs had great games Monday night, and I'm still at #1 in the league (with Pat creeping up close behind me).</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Unfortunately, Kyle Rudolph got hurt this week and is going to be out for several weeks, and Julius Thomas is still questionable coming back from an ankle injury. So, I need a new backup tight end.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b>Wednesday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">Roster changes for this week: I dropped Kyle Rudolph and picked up Coby Fleener. This one I actually used my waiver option for, figuring I definitely didn't want to be without a decent backup for Julius Thomas. I also swapped my kickers so I have David Akers again after his bye week. Forbath has had some good weeks, but Akers just seems to be a little more consistent.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b>Thursday Morning - </b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">The NFL analysts (on average, of course) and the Yahoo! projected numbers for this week are in agreement as to who I should start and who I should bench, so I'm going with their suggestions; I have no real reason not to. Some of the calls are close, and I might end up getting more points from the guys on the bench, but I don't have anything to base that on one way or the other. Also, it's weird sitting guys in one position who are better than my starters in another, which makes me wish this league had a flex position.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">My main issue is that I have four running backs ranked in the top 10 this week (and most weeks) by the NFL guys. Looking at the points so far this season, my "worst" running back is 13th overall, and that's because he missed a couple games and had a slower start, being a rookie. My wide receivers, on the other hand... after Calvin Johnson, my next best guy is ranked #12 this week, and is #15 by total points for the season. ALL of my running backs are (comparatively) better than my 2nd best receiver... let alone my 3rd and 4th. I guess maybe that's an imbalance I might want to correct...</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">But anyway, here are my starters this week:</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">QB - Cam Newton, Eli Manning</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">RB - Reggie Bush, Eddie Lacy</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">WR - Calvin Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Steve Smith</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">TE - Julius Thomas</span>*</b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">K - David Akers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D/ST - 49ers</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #351c75;">D - NaVorro Bowman, Nick Roach</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<b>*</b><span style="color: #351c75;">Julius Thomas is currently listed as questionable. If it doesn't look like he's going to play, I have Coby Fleener to put in. But, Fleener plays at noon on Sunday and Thomas not until later... if he's going to be a true game-time decision, I'm going to have to go with Fleener just to be safe... which is probably going to suck for me if Thomas ends up playing. But, a few hours difference in kickoff is a lot more promising than, say, Fleener playing Thursday night and Thomas playing Monday night.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14674797906040858983noreply@blogger.com0