Average Grod's Average Blog

I added a quick poll at the bottom of this page. I think I have been over this before but the truth is I no longer have the file for this page. There will be no updates. EVER. I kind of put it up here once it was functional and I never really finished it up as well as I would have liked. I am going to be working on a full flash site that will integrate this blog but that is still months away from completion. In truth I haven't even started building it. I am still designing. Right now I am leaning toward blogger. It has the funtionality and usability that I hope to provide someday but didn't with this first build. I also don't like that I never finished a preloader and now you are stuck watching the intro movie. Let your voice be heard and VOTE! Unless there is an overwhelming love for this site I am switching back. My feelings will not be hurt. This was just a project I took on to see if I could make a Flash blog. I did. I consider it a success but my skills are beyond this site now. If I switch back I will save it to show how wildhog 2.0 looked.

Today we took Emma to her 6 mo checkup. Yeah Yeah Yeah you caught me. This was actually her 4 mo appointment at 6 mo. I guess that probably makes us bad parents. I'm not quite sure but I think that may even mean that she has to get extra shots. Hopefully she will never read this and it will just become one of those things parents do to kids but never get caught. Like setting all the clocks in the house back a couple hours on Christmas Eve and telling the kids not to wake you until a certain time so you can get more sleep. Regardless, she took those shots like a champ. She screamed. Ohhhh how she screamed. But 20 minutes later when we took her to the mall to return some shoes she was happy as ever. Entertaining the store ladies as always. You would never know she had received 4 shots earlier. Much better than her mother would have handled 4 extra shots.
As far as development is going she is coming along splendidly. 28 inches long. Off the charts for her age(100th percentile). She is either 19lbs 5oz. Still up there for her weight but only 90th percentile I think. Shanna would know for sure. Her head is only 16.5 inches or so. Only the 25th percentile. Basically she is taller than she is heavy and she has a small head haha. I asked if that is ok and the nurse said they just check head size to make sure it is growing. There is no problem if it is small and that she is developing normally and tall for her age. As a short and round person I think it would be pretty cool to be taller than you are round.
Hmmm Garrett, nice segue to....Yourself you dirty attention hog. This is my blog after all so now it is time to take the spotlight from the cute baby for a while. I weighed in today and I have lost a gross total of 24 lbs of fat. I have put on 9 lbs of muscle so that makes a net total of 15 lbs lost. I still have about 35 lbs to go until I have hit my surgery goal of 50 lbs but when you look at the total of 24 lbs it is an accomplishment that I am very proud of. I have been doing those killer "stomach" exercises and I am up to two sets of eight. Not much but better than collapsing after just 5 :)
Shanna is enjoying Emma more and more each day. What mom doesn't. Last night she got Emma to go to sleep in her own crib all by herself. This has been an ongoing struggle and it means a lot of just letting herself cry. Hard to do but probably better now than later. Shanna was just telling me that during and shortly after labor she thought that she would never forget that pain and wondered how anything could ever be worth it. Today she has decided that the has finally forgotten the pain and is positive that she does want to have another child. Something that I have always been sure of. After all I have the easy part. I spent part of the pregnancy on bed rest and I was the one wheeled into the delivery room but there is no need to rehash all that. I guess it takes about 6 months of baby time to equal 41 weeks of pregnancy and a day of labor.
I have taken up enough of your time today. Now that I think about it I have a sleeping baby, 2 hours to kill before I have to be at work and a wife downstairs that wants another baby. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that I should get off my computer and head downstairs ;) ;0 ;P

Once again I have been devoting all my free time to working with Flash. I have been dabbling in Freehand and Photoshop as well. With the release of Macromedia Studios 8 this month all the Studio MX stuff is dropping price so I was able to pick up three good books for under $20 including shipping. That gets me up to five books total on Flash. I now have a pretty good library and my projects are starting to show it.
I was able to get into the gym three times last week which was good. I didn't go yesterday. Probably because I was tired or something. I am not going today because I slept with my leg weird and it is killing me. I actually have a bit of a limp this morning.
Big new on the Emma front:Sunday she crawled. Both Shanna and I were able to experience it together for the first time and the was cool. There is a mad rush in our house to better baby proof things we missed on the first time through. She also discovered how to clap. Now she is banging on everything. I need to get going because right now she is "clapping" on the Gamecube.

Now that Emma is a bit older and on a pretty predictable schedule I have been able to get into the gym a few times. Not as often as I should but better than none. One of the things we do while working out is keep track of our heart rate. Mine used to stay around 80% of my max heart rate. Not too dangerous but not exactly where it should be to workout. Essentially my heart rate was running at the rate of someone my age of superior fitness doing an intense workout. That's not me. I used to need a break to bring my heart rate down a notch. I didn't feel like I had to but my trainers would make me, just to be on the safe side and to stay within optimal workout range. After taking so much time away from the gym I figured I was going to have to start all over. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my heart rate has dropped 4 beats per 10 seconds putting me right where I am supposed to be. Maybe even on the lower side. It has been this way for 2 weeks.
There are two ladies who run the gym I go to and this past week I have only been there when one of them was in. Today I was in while the second lady was working. She saw me taking my heart rate and asked where it was at. I told her and I explained that even though I hadn't been in the gym I was walking on a regular basis. This had helped to lower my heart rate. I said "No matter what I do it doesn't seem to increase." Word of advice:DON'T EVER say that to a trainer!!! They will find a way to raise it! She said "just give me a minute and I'll get in there to push you." "HUH?" She finished up and sure enough she was right next to me pushing me to go harder. Let me rephrase that. She beat me like a red headed stepchild. She worked me as if I were a draft horse. She pused me so hard my face looked like a 6 month old pinching a loaf. She added three new exercises to my routine too. After one of them I pointed to my chest just below my ribcage.
"OOooooohhh I realy feel that right here."
"That's your stomach."
"What?"
She looked at me confused.
"I thought it was about 6 inches lower where the rest of my stomach is :)"
We both laughed at that. Actually she laughed if gave more of a "huh, huh" which was about all I had left in me.
Overall I had a good workout. I guess since my heart rate was so low it did mean I had made progress, but it also means that I am ready to go to the next level. Yay!(ohhhh the sarcasim) I feel pretty good now but I am still a bit sore. I don't think my "stomach" will ever be the same but that is probably a good thing. Sooner or later I will even be able to do more than five of those stomach stretcher things. Remember, there are certain words not to use around a trainer unless you are really ready to sweat. More, harder, this is easy, push me, I barely felt that. You have been warned.

Let me paint a picture for you. 10 minutes ago I was upstairs working on my computer. Emma was sitting on the ground next to me playing with a four foot inflatable hammer. Honestly. 9 minutes ago she started crying. 8 minutes ago it turned into screaming. 7 minutes ago, yeah I know I am a bad dad and I took longer than I should have, I got off the computer and and carried her downstairs. 6 minutes ago I set her down and started making a bottle. 5 minutes ago I laid down with her on the bed and started feeding her. 4 minutes ago she started rubbing her eyes. 3 minutes ago she was finished with the bottle and rolled toward me. 2 minutes ago when she rolled toward me our eyes met. Hers widened for an instant of recognition and she gave me the slightest hint of a smile. 1 minute ago she closed her eyes all the way and fell completely asleep. I fell completely in love...again.
I was thinking to myself that it is pretty cool to be able to actually see her fall asleep. I usually get her to the very edge of sleep and then sneak out so I don't accidentally rouse her. More often than not my mere presence will awaken her. It's times like this when I envy my wife and the opportunity she has at 3AM to go upstairs and put Emma to bed. I have been trying to help out and Emma is getting better about sleeping for me. At 3AM neither one of us wants to be the "lucky one" but once she is in our arms we realize that we are lucky and the sleeper downstairs is missing out. It is so worth trading 10 minutes of sleep for what seems like a priceless eternity of a beautiful sleeping babe in your arms.
Another observation I take away from this experience is that I knew exactly what she needed. Regardless of what she wanted. She was asleep in only a couple of minutes. It made me think about all the times my parents put me down for a nap and I fought with them. Then it made me wonder about all the times growing up when they said "no" or made me do things their way. Maybe they weren't so mean and dumb after all. Too bad it took me two decades and lot of dirty diapers to realize it.

OK OK so that title is way too dramatic for the topic at hand. I called the cable company today and we are back on the $13 plan that includes just the networks. I know. I know. There are bigger tragedies out there and I give you permission to laugh at the title now.
Last year when we bought our house I called Comcast and explained to the rep that I had bought a house, I was moving, and I wanted to cancel service at my apartment and transfer it to my house. Maybe it was the use of the "C" word that flagged him. Maybe he was new. Maybe there was an unknown deal that I had stumbled onto. Whatever the case may be he pleaded with me "Please do not cancel your service." Before I could remind him that I wasn't actually canceling but rather transferring my service he offered me the digital cable package for only $19.99. The catch is that it would only be good for one year and at the end of that year I would have to remember to call and change it or automatically be billed the regular price of $39.99. I signed up at once.
One year later I am calling to see what my options are. I told the rep that I would like to return to the $13 network only plan. I waited. No plead, no offer, no attempt whatsoever to drain more money from me. What I was really hoping for was an offer to extend my current promo at which point I would agree and then inquire about the new DVR box.(Digital Video Recorder) For only $10 more per month I can get a box that will record anything on TV. This would be great. I watch no television. I watch a lot of movies and even TV series but only on DVD. I work until midnight. I will probably try and watch 1 or maybe 2 series this year but I have to rely on the VCR. She didn't go for it. I asked how much it would be. Just to get the DVR the lowest monthly price would be over $60 including taxes and fees. NO WAY. I would sooner buy a TIVO.
Truth is, I am probably better off. I will save over $550 per year on the cheaper plan and when you look at what television really is and how important it is(or should be) to your life it is just mindless entertainment. Sure there are some good or informational shows such as Alton but they are too rare to pay the $60 to be able to see them. Until they start offering actual Bachelor degree programs via cable I will stick with the cheap seats.
Is it the end of an era? In a way, yes. Will I miss it? Probably not when you consider I haven't watched a single episode of any show in my house for the entire summer. Am I better off? Well I did get into the gym today and if I had the DVR I would probably be spending my mornings catching up on shows from the previous evening. Just my thoughts but cutting TV is probably the easiest way that Americans could give more time to family, a constructive hobby, or even shed a few pounds.
Well, I gotta go. I just borrowed a game from my buddy Tim and the story is really starting to pick up :) Have a good day.

I have been doing some training this week and it requires me to be in Renton at 08:00 the last couple mornings. I am leaving my house at 06:00 and getting back about 12 hours later. If I had to do this for more than 3 days I think it would kill me. The training is going well and I am learning a lot of useful stuff.
It is really cool to see Emma get so excited to see me when I get home. Shanna says that she thinks Emma actually looks for me during the day and misses having me around since she is used being with me during the mornings. It was cool to see her start crying when I walked across the room to get a drink. Not so cool about making her cry but it sure felt good to see her reaching for me and then stop crying and get excited when I came back and picked her up. I am starting to get pretty good at doing stuff with just one arm. Guess it is a good thing we don't have twins.
Once I am back on a normal schedule I will try and work on this page or else take some more pictures of her to post. Don't count on anything though because at this point I feel like I could out sleep Rip Van Winkle.

Every year my friends and I go to Bumbershoot. Every year there seems to be a little bit less to see and the price goes up. Every year we say this will probably be the last year we go. Every year we go. The only real changes are that there are no hangovers involved any more and we seem to make it to all the shows, even the early (noon) ones. I guess that's what happens when you grow up and get respectable jobs. Ironically, the early riser with the most respectable job is also the one we used to have to drag out of bed, revive with a hair of the dog, and throw into the car. He was also the reason we missed early shows. If I'm not mistaken he was the first one on the scene this year. One other big difference was that we were all there with a significant other. My how times have changed. We didn't just run around in a pack like we did as kids. We all split off to spend time with our dates and then met up at big shows.
Overall it was a great day and the beautiful weather only added to the event. Shanna and I were able to see Dashboard Confessional which is one of her favorites. Lucky for her they played Hands Down, her favorite DC song. After that we took the Monorail downtown and went to Pike Place Market. Apparently she had never been there before. Oddly enough she has been to Mexico and Disneyland but not Pike Place. On the way back to Bumbershoot the Monorail was out of order so we hoofed it back to the Seattle Center. It was a great day so the walk was no big thing. It felt pretty good. We did a lot of walking that day and it sure helped me to keep shedding the pounds this past week.
I was glad that Shanna was willing to stick it out til after 11PM so I could see Iggy and the Stooges. He isn't exactly her type of music but he is so energetic that she enjoyed him just the same. She also realizes just how influential he was/is and that she had a rare opportunity to see a true rock icon. I was just elated to hear I wanna be your dog! It is a pretty sweet song and I don't think that Guy Ritchie could have made a better choice when he threw it into Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Bumbershoot was great as always. I am glad I got to go and I will probably be there again next year.

It has certainly been a while. To be honest I just didn't feel like posting anything for a couple days. Then my computer died. I am pretty sure it is the processor or some part of the motherboard that is fried so I was without a computer for almost a week. I know, I know. There are people dying in wars and floods God forbid I should be without the internet but regardless that was my situation. The good news is I had 2 people offer to let me use spare PCs so I am up and running and better than ever. I now have 2 monitors! Let the Flash development begin!!! On that same page... I lost all my earlier Flash files. "What does that mean?" you ask. It means that you are stuck with this page looking the way it does for a while. When it changes the entire thing is going to look completely different but that won't be for a while now. I am actually going to help someone else with a Flash project first.
I am going to have my Google Talk up from now on so if you want to get in touch with me use it. Other big news: I am up to, or rather down to (depending on how you look at it) 15 lbs gone. Yay me! Probably due to all the PC tower moving I had to do over the weekend. Actually it probably has more to do with Bumbershoot but I will leave that for another post. Anyways I am back now so be sure to check regular like because I am going to keep the posts coming. This is #75 baby!

I am not doing anything worth typing about. Come back in a couple days.