Welcome to duty

Last weekend was a pretty well rounded weekend. Friday night we went to a party. Saturday I did chores around the house and hooked my computer up to my TV just to see if I could. Saturday night we watched Texas win the first game of the College World Series with the Riches and Jerry at Waterloo. Sunday we saw Episode III in digital and then went swimming at the condo pool.

I've been playing a good bit of Battlefield 2 lately, averaging about an hour a day. The game is just awesome. Sometime a year or so ago Taylor and I had this lunch where we talked about all the improvements we would make to Battlefield 1942 if we were going to design a game and it's as if someone from DICE was eavesdropping on our conversation. You can check out my stats and awards here. Last night Jerry and I had an excellent two hour gaming experience. We started off on the same team but then I was booted to the opposite teams so we spent the last hour going after each other. Good times.

The other day I went to check my blog and I noticed the formatting wasn't acting quite right. It turned out to be some code Blogger had added to support pictures. I spent a good bit of time trying to alter my template to get it to work with Blogger's new code. I finally understood the problem, but the only way I could think of to fix it was to basically redesign the site. So, as you can tell, I just decided to throw out the old design and pick up a new template from Blogger. I will likely tweak it a little more in the coming weeks, possibly adding some more stuff to the sidebar. Any suggestions?

NOLA

There was an excellent article in the Times-Picayune the other day about Melissa and Andy's wedding. There's some excellent information in there about the Donner Lodge and all the family connections. I know those of you who were around for all the wedding hoopla are probably tired of hearing about it, but for those of you who weren't check it out. The only downside to the online article is you can't see the pictures. For the record, the 'Aili' in the article actually spells her name 'Ailie,' and I think there is more to the story about the wood and the cobblestones. Anyone care to add anything? Click on the comments link below to let me know.

Speaking of pictures, I have my shots from the wedding weekend up on Yahoo Photo. Enjoy.

The Horror, The Horror

For the past year or so I've been trying to read more books. Sometimes it's just silly stuff like Harry Potter or the most recent Robert Jordan. Other times I like something non-fiction like Gerstner's IBM book or America (The Book). And then occasionally I like to read a book that is a work of literature, which I why I am now reading Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. All of these books that I have read, I have bought. When I was younger I was a frequent visitor of the library, so much so that I knew the librarians by name. Now I hardly ever go. I remember thinking at some point that I would buy the books that I read so that I could look at a bookshelf one day and see all the books. Is that really the best way to go? I mean sure collecting a few of your favorite books is nice, but I am ever really doing to read a Faulkner book twice? Not likely. Any comments from the readers out there? Buy vs library?

Here's a great Mark Twain quote a ran across recently that relates to the above. "A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."

Had a pretty good weekend. Friday a few of us went over the Riche condo pool for some R&R and then headed over to the original Kerbey. Saturday was mostly household chores and the US Open. Saturday night Melissa and I went to the Riata Bar and Grill, which I think is a really good burger for the money, and then watched Apocalypse Now. Sunday was more US Open and Taylor cooking red beans for the group. Good times all around. Of course late Saturday night I wound up reading about the Vietnam War for two hours but really, who didn't see that coming.

One of my most treasured Father's Day memories is watching Payne Stewart win the US Open with my father. Golf is something my father and I have always shared and Payne was my father's favorite golfer so those two things combined with it being Father's Day made it a day to remember. Not long after Payne died in a plane crash and I think that helped to crystallize the memory. Watching the US Open together, whether in the same room or giving updates over the phone, is now somewhat of a tradition for the two of us and it's one I hope survives to pass on to the next generation.

a rambling recap

Thursday is the day we read from you letters. Here's one from Joseph Puglia in New Orleans, LA. He writes, "Get to work and write, blogger." Well OK then. I present to you a one month recap written in the style of the page in "The Sound and the Fury" that I stopped on last night.

Right after the last blog post we headed to New Orleans for my sisters wedding Had a pretty good time while there The day of sport was fun starting with golf with the family at Timberlan then onto the first event of the bachelor party the softball gamme followed by bowling at Rock N Bowl My uncle's theater room is awesome Is it a rule that all bachelor parties wind up on Bourbon even if that isn't the intent The wedding stuff all turned out well It was funny that I stayed with Melissa's parents and she stayed with mine Really like the view at the rehearsal dinner Why can't I give a good speech without crying The ceremony went well Man I wish I had enough money to buy the Donner Lodge Andy's friends really are muscial Boy was it hot Cassie sure likes that dress We stayed in town the next week to be around after Joan's scheduled surgury I got to work from home that week which really just meant too much time at PJs using the wireless and drinking too much coffee Was nice to visit with people like Fritz and spend time with Isabell Spent the next weekend in Houston for Lizzi's 2nd birthday party She really is getting old It's weird when a two year old asks you the color of something and you have to say you don't know Swing set take a long time to put together Had a four day weekend memorial day weekend and turned it into the week of movies I think we say a movie of some kind every day And on Monday we watched all three Lord of the Rings movies, the long ones Got to play golf with Taylor's dad and had my best ever round of 95 Saw the new Star Wars somewhere in there, twice in fact, and watched I and II at the house courtesy of Netflix What else Watched a UT baseball game Spent time in Austin with the usual suspects Taylor and Carrie's pool is getting some use Oh and the LAN party That was last weekend Had a good number of people there and it all went well People seemed to have a good time We didn't blow any fuses and the temp didn't get above 81 but the house was a cool 60 that morning

Yogalates

It's been over a month since I posted and honestly that's just sad. I apologize. I would say that it won't happen again, but you and I both know that would be a lie.

So what's on my mind? Right now I've got Battlefield 2 on the brain and that's just with the demo. I keep debating whether I should buy the game or not. Shouldn't I just use my new computer to play 'Battlefield 1942' now that I can actually play it on the highest quality settings and get decent frame rates? I often don't buy things because I think I should get more use out of what I already have. Overall I think it's a good trait but sometimes I feel like it's just me being silly. Anyway, the demo is cool and a good bit of fun, though after playing online I think it would be more fun for me if I was a little bit better at it. They guys are coming over to play so maybe that extra practice will help.

I've been thinking about the process of moving back to New Orleans a lot lately and inevitably that has me thinking a good deal about money. It's interesting that in such a money oriented society that we don't seem to talk about money much. Discussions about how much one makes are taboo and sometimes the topic of being thrifty is met with a "but why." I guess it just amazes me sometimes how much money it takes to live. Then again, when I look over my budget, I have a pretty generous definition of living. Would we all be better off financially if we sat down and talked about money once in a while? But how do you start that conversation and not sound either like you are bragging or lecturing? Ugh.

Watched On the Waterfront tonight. I had seen it a while back, '98 I think, but Melissa hadn't and wanted to see a good Brando flick. It was better than I remember it being and I remember it being pretty good. I'm starting to have more of an appreciation for Marlon Brando as an actor. Growing up I just thought of him as the Godfather and as kinda crazy. I also connected with the morality play aspect of the movie more this time.

Netflix has also been sending us the first season of The O.C. and we are about halfway through so far. Peter Gallagher and Adam Brody crack my shit up.