Happy Birthday Grant!

I did call him today, but forgot to put the obligatory post up.

Happy birthday Grant!

Looks like my little bro got a Wii yesterday... soon my clan of Miis will invade and take over your copy of Wii Sports.

I should have named her Zelda...

And you thought that I'd cut back on the game stuff just because we have a new baby.

HAH!

Check these videos out. Awesome stuff.

1) The Legend Of Zelda theme on a theramin. Man, I want a theramin. Or just Theramin Hero for the PS2... :)



2) String Quartet arrangement of several Zelda themes. Also awesome, esp. given that they're not the professional orchestras that usually do these arranged sessions of game music.



BONUS!

This performance of a variety of Nintendo themes acapella is fantastic (and hilarious).

I Got Pearl For My Baby Girl

Yeah, I picked up Pokeman Pearl (which puts me in a club with 1 million other people this week).

DIY Tech Support

I love calling the tech support people at the digital cable place and having them tell me that I should look up my problem on Google since there's nothing in their system about it.

I've been having this annoying light green tint/line thing on my TV since shortly after we upgraded to HD. It only seems to appear on the HD channels but I don't see it in games or anywhere else. It wouldn't be so bad if it appeared all the time, but it changes shape and opacity. Sometimes it's not even visible.

So I called Cogeco and they looked around, couldn't find anything in their database to fix it and basically told me to look it up for myself.

I could get a technician out to have a look at things, but I don't want to have to pay for the call if they decide it's not on their end. On the other hand, I'd like to be able to watch my HD programming without an annoying green line moving up the screen all the time.

Grr...

Kara Koming Kome, er, Home

I went down to the hospital around lunch today and stayed till around 8ish tonight. Kara was just getting out of the incubator/tanning bed and seems to be doing well. Julie still has to wait until tomorrow morning to get all of the bilirubin tests done but we should be on our way home by around lunch on Tuesday.

It was funny listening to the family next to us. It was a young couple who had twins (their first kids too) and I just wanted to go over and say, "It's ok. Don't worry!" I remember feeling as freaked out when Garrett was born and they were dealing with two at once!

Oh, here's the nice epilogue to my day.

There was a pretty strong windstorm this afternoon. I remembered that we had the window in the nursery open a bit and hoped that the rain hadn't gotten in.

Garrett & I get home tonight and I go upstairs to get his PJ's and change his bum. Oh, what's this? The door has blown shut to the nursery. No biggie... till I tried to open the door.

The door wouldn't open. The knob was spinning, but the latch wasn't moving. I'd actually noticed this a bit earlier in the week but it was more that the latch would only move if I turned the knob one way. Not tonight. It just wasn't opening.

So at 9pm, Garrett and I got out the screwdrivers and hammer and went to work on the door and were eventually able to pry it open. I unscrewed the knob shortly afterwards. I don't really want Julie or Kara to get locked in the room and have to call the fire department!

Fond Childhood Memories

Maybe I'm a little fuzzy, but I remember going out videogame shopping with my dad and it was just like this...

Or maybe it wasn't.

I'm blue, la dee de la dee da

So, we're home tonight. By we, I mean Garrett and myself. Julie & Kara are still stuck in the hospital, possibly until Tuesday.

Why?

From Kara Wager

So yeah... Kara has jaundice and is doing the light therapy. Thankfully it doesn't seem that bad, but it's enough for them to start the bombardment.

We had some visitors today and hopefully will have some more tomorrow. Julie's going a little stir-crazy being cooped up in her room (the bed next to here has some twins moving in... should be a restful evening :P )

Anyway, I'll likely be at the hospital for a good chunk of the day tomorrow with the ladies and if the jaundice is clearing up, they'll hopefully come home Monday afternoon. If not, they should be home Tuesday at the latest.

It's a girl!

Hey! We had a girl!

Check her out!

I'll post more later.

How To Be A Bad Husband: Tip #389

Julie woke me up last night at around 3am or so, handed me her watch and told me to time the contractions.

I said, "Sure!"

Then I rolled over, put the watch down on my bedside table and fell back to sleep.

I figure that if Julie WAS in labour last night, I would have received a few sound kicks to my head and had the watch firmly pressed into my grasp.

Sigh. Suffice it to say, there wasn't any actual labour. Julie's been feeling a contraction here and a contraction there, but nothing to actually indicate that Kid Furious is actually ready to make an appearance yet.

Of course, this has given Julie some stories to tell the various ladies around town that we've bumped into about how bad a husband I am :)

We're hoping that she goes into labour this weekend as Julie's doctor is going on vacation on Monday. Don't worry... We'll keep everyone posted.

Happy Birthday!

It's my mom's birthday today!

Happy birthday, Mom!

I was hoping we'd have a new grandkid for you as a present but it looks like that's not in the cards. Maybe it'll be a day or two late... It had better not be much longer or else Julie is going to start smashing the house apart, Hulk-style.

I'm Running Out Of Tricks

Ok... I'm running out of tricks to try in order to get this baby to come out. We tried the Swiss Chalet sauce theory... Julie even had the spicy chicken and fries (and they were pretty spicy!) to no avail. I even finished Zelda on the Wii tonight, which was one of the things I had told myself that I wanted to finish but didn't expect to get through before the baby came.

Sigh.

Julie has been having a lot of trouble sleeping over the last few days (more like a week) and has been feeling pretty claustrophobic too. I think we both want the baby out if only to help her feel a bit better in this regard. Julie thinks it's a girl because she's been so emotional lately :)

Ah well. The due date isn't until Wednesday, so technically we're still early. I think it's just that she's been off work longer than she was before Garrett came and we've also been sick and such. The fact that the baby isn't early like we thought it would be doesn't help.

Now, if I'm still typing things like this NEXT week, I'll be worried.

I've Heard Of A Computer Mouse, But A Computer Beaver?

This is the coolest (and most surreal) case mod I've ever seen.

And I want it... NOW!

This Guy's Eyebrows Deserve An Oscar

There's a pretty cool commercial out for Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. (Of course, I finally tracked down another copy of the Cube edition a few weeks ago prior to the announcement of the Wii version...)

Anyway, the acting is horrible, but it's still pretty cool. That said, why doesn't Julie ever act like this when watching me play games? Granted, I'm not sure that I would WANT her to act like that...

Wha?

Garrett's wierd.

He was standing at the sink 'doing the dishes' and I went over to help him finish up and get going so we could go out.

I squeezed out the cloth he was playing with in the sink and as I did that, he exclaims, "Oh! It's Team Canada!"

I have NO idea where that came from...

Sign Language

Ok, this is too fun. There's an LED sign up in Brandon, Alberta that lets you input text or pictures onto it via the internet. I'm going to use it to announce the baby's birth.

Upgrade, Shmupgrade

Arg.

I don't know why I bother. Sympatico recently announced that they were upgrading the security on their e-mail and also bumping the e-mail space from 2-3 megs to about a gig or so.

Hooray, I thought. Less spam and a chance of not having all of my e-mails bounce back because they've got a picture attached? Sign me up.

Yerg. While I haven't really had a huge problem since I upgraded, Julie's having some major problems. She can check her e-mails... it's just that nothing seems to be actually going through to the server that she switched to.

Sigh.

And I wonder why I'd rather just use Gmail.

Still No Baby

Yeah, no baby yet. We had a LONG weekend though, since Garrett seemed to have colic, or at least acted like he had it. He was up crying for a good hour on Saturday night and I was ready to take him to the hospital since he seemed in pain. Thankfully a few loud farts (from him, not me) calmed him down and he eventually settled down. He has been doing this fake cry/temper tantrum thing over the last couple days but we just carry him up to his room and plunk him down and a few minutes later he'll stop and come down and be in a relatively good mood.

Sigh.

Anyway, today we went to Springridge Farm down near Milton for their Easter On The Farm shenanigans. It was fun. Garrett got his face painted like a bunny, searched through hay for an egg, went for a wagon ride around the farm and got to paint some eggs and a basket while eating the yummiest chocolate chunk cookie ever (we had to buy a few for ourselves after lunch). I also picked up some yummy onion dipping sauce for dipping my crackers in at snack time.

Um... anything else? Nah. That's about it. I'm trying to finish Zelda on the Wii before the baby comes. I think that I'll get it finished tonight or tomorrow if all goes well, which would rock. Super Paper Mario is out this week for the Wii and looks like a lot of fun, but that's about it.

I'm feeling better than last week too. I've still got an annoying cough that sounds like a death rattle but aside from that, I've been sleeping a bunch and am almost able to get through the day without feeling like a vampire has drained my blood every 2-3 hours. I'm so glad that I didn't have to go to work on the weekend as I'd probably still be sick.

Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted when the baby comes. I'm hoping that I'll get a couple of days of work done this week and then I'm off for two weeks as of Friday night, so hopefully the baby will come Friday or later! It hasn't dropped yet... but then again, Garrett didn't drop until Julie was in labour, so that's not much of a barometer...

I'm HOW sick?!

Well, after being run out of work by germaphobic coworkers yesterday, I figured I'd rest up and see if I felt better for today's shift.

We all ended up sleeping in until almost 9am (unheard of!) but I felt worse than I did yesterday. Gah. So I went to the doctor.

Turns out I've got at least a sinus infection if nothing else. I'm on a pile o' meds (blech) and still feel crappy.

The upside of things is that I was able to get a note from my doctor for work so I don't have to go back until next week. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in and I'll be good to go by next week. I only have 3 days to work next week and then I'm off for another two weeks, hopefully with a new baby to look after. I just don't want to be super sick when Julie goes into labour!

It was funny to go into work today to drop off my note and have my manager tell me to get lost because he didn't want whatever I have. I've never felt the love like that before!

Typhoid Brockie

Yeesh.

I actually got sent home from work today because I obviously sound and look a lot worse than I feel. I actually had one of my co-workers chasing me around with Lysol disinfectant wipes to sterilize any- and everything that I touched. Yeesh.

Not that I was going to complain. I do feel better than the last few days of cold-induced misery but I'm not 100% yet. I just got sick of being cooped up in the house all day long and needed to go to work for a bit.

Hmm... that should have been the first sign that I wasn't feeling good as I definitely wouldn't go to work voluntarily if I was feeling ok :)

Ah well. I got to hit the comic shop and get my weekly stack o' books and I'll be able to go to bed at a decent time tonight now that I'm not stuck at work until 11pm.

I wonder if I'll have them out with pitchforks and torches when I show up tomorrow.

Hey You?!

This is a fantastic acoustic version of Hey Ya by Outcast. I'm not sure which impresses me more... The song or the guy's massive beard.

I'm still sort of sick but I'm going to trundle into work today and see if I can't stay awake for the whole shift. I went to bed really early the last couple days... I think this cold was my body's way of telling me, "HEY! GET SOME SLEEP!"

Unfortunately, now Julie seems to be sniffling and snurfling like I have been for the last two days. Sigh. I just hope we're all over this cold before the baby comes so that we're not fighting sleep deprivation AND a cold!

Garrett, the walking petri dish that he is, seems to be doing just fine. He's still got a cough but otherwise is bounding about with all of the energy that Julie and I are lacking at the moment :P

[Transforming Noise]

I've been keeping myself from getting too excited about the upcoming Transformers movie, mainly because I'm worried it will suck. Plus there's the fact that they've radically changed the style of the robots so that they're no longer blocky and boxy like in the 80's cartoon.

That said, I saw what looks like the latest trailer and also saw these awesome pictures (thanks Extra Life) and man, I cannot wait. I've heard the movie had received an R-rating just from the insane amount of action but that Spielberg (or was it Michael Bay) talked the MPAA rating board down to a PG-13 without having to make any cuts to the film.

Woo!

While it looks like I probably won't get a chance to see TMNT in the theatre (sigh) 300 was amazing and this summer looks to be pretty sweet, movie-wise. We've got Transformers, Pirates of the Carribean 3, The Simpsons and a few other cool movies that escape me at the moment. That makes up for last year's rather lackluster parade of movies.

You Tube Makes The Day Go By

What's a guy to do when he's home sick and can't snooze any more?

Look for silly things on the internet, of course.

Penny Arcade linked to this funny trailer of 300: The PG Version.

And if you want to feel as ill as I do, check out Alanis Morrisette's version of "My Humps".

I must be sick because I actually like her version of the song, even though the original makes me want to retch whenever I hear it.

Oh, I also found the ultimate Rock Paper Scissors chart.

Sick and Tired

Garrett had a pretty nasty cold over the weekend and it seems like it's my turn to get it. I know I must be sick because it took me 2 hours to debate about calling into work sick tonight. I was going to tough it out and just go in and be a sad sack at work, but given the fact that I felt worse after an hour or two of taking a Contac Daytime pill instead of better, well, I didn't want to chance it.

Julie just wants me better so that I'm not sick when she goes into labour. Gotta rest up today then!

Slimy Monkey

Want to know how messed up my brain is?

I was watching Curious George on TV with Garrett this morning and suddenly it hit me.

Whoever does Curious George's voice also did Slimer on The Real Ghostbusters cartoon back in the day.

I did some digging and lo and behold, I was right! Frank Welker did both voices.

The thing is, I haven't seen an episode of Ghostbusters since the late 80's or early 90's. Why does something like that stick in my brain?! ARG!

Bejeweled For Dorks

I've been caught up in the Puzzle Quest craze that is sweeping the nation. I picked it up last week (it's quite cheap at Walmart) for my DS and I don't think I've played anything aside from a few rounds of Command & Conquer 3 since then.

Not that I haven't tried... I just can't stop playing it.

It's a pretty deep RPG by the guys who did the Warlords series on the PC that uses Bejeweled for the combat engine. Sound nutty?

Try the PC demo and tell me that's not insanely addictive.

If you can find it, grab it, preferably for the DS since it doesn't have the bugs that the PSP version has. Of course, finding it might be a bit tricky since EB seems to have sent back most of their copies a week after it was released and it's just a matter of tracking it down at less game-oriented stores.

Codeboy & Blitzy were down to visit yesterday and I almost had to physically pry the DS out of Blitzy's hands at the end of the night. She spent the 4-5 hours after dinner just bejeweling her way across the land of Eternia. Crazy.

Flashing The World

So I was at church this morning, running the video stuff like usual and just before the service when I thought, "Hmm... I wonder where I left my flash drive."

It wasn't in the usual pocket but I figured it was just on my dresser.

Later this afternoon, whilst giving Garrett a bath, Julie walked into the bathroom and asked if I had any important info on my flash drive.

"Not really."

"Good, because it just went through the washer and dryer."

Sigh.

Luckily the thing still works, though I was almost hoping it was wrecked so I'd have an excuse to go get a 1 gig or so drive that wasn't oddly shaped like the one I have. Ah well.

Here's some of the funnier April Fool's jokes on the net today.

Gmail Paper

Loney Guy Dream Vacation Digital Photo Frame

Americans Defeat Russians In First Space Quidditch Match

8-Bit Tie (I think Dan should wear this to work)

Surgestix

Power Outlet Tester

Wheatonix

Laser Fish

Heck, anything on ThinkGeek today...