Daily Life
Friday’s are for relaxing
Sarah and I went to the gym right after work, for only the second time this week meaning we’ll have to go sometime this weekend.
When we got back, we both just chilled out. I made a quick post on the blog, and then I got to take a bath, it’s been awhile. I think I knew I had plenty to do, and had one of those overwhelming segments of time. I just tried to focus on what absolutely “had” to be done for tomorrow.
Sarah slept on the couch for most of the night. I played a little bit of Jr. Pac-man, but I also reviewed my online IUPUI app and figured out some things. Also canceled the Blockbuster account for a little while to help me focus and have one less distraction.
Then, it was out to the garage to dimension out the board we’d be cutting in the morning. This was the only necessary thing I had to have done by the morning. Paul was coming over fairly early and we were going to cut down that piece of plywood to fit in the Tetris cabinet and to mount the monitor in there. It took me over an hour to think through all of the cuts, it seemed like it too me too long for how complex it actually was.
I studied for only a half hour tonight, it was so late that I knew if I started before I went to bed it would be useless. Tomorrow I will be better.
Tennis, Rotheblog launch & Candlelight
After church today I got to talk with Jim a little bit about his experience with the GMAT. He went to U of I, and he had the good fortune of having Cummins help with his education. He did really awesome on his exam, and I got some good information that helped me focus my direct that much more and my plan of attack.
When we got back from church, we ate lunch with my parents quickly, and then they had to leave. It is always sad when visitors go, I know both Sarah and I always visit slumpsville for about the hour following their departure.
Eventually I went and played the Jr. Pac-man for about an hour. Sarah stayed upstairs and continued to read her Harry Potter book.
I got back to work, and started finishing up the final details to launch Rotheblog. I didn’t finalize everything before Dave and I got in touch. We were going to play tennis today, the second and last time this year before it got really cold. Sarah headed out to go to a candle light party at Paula’s, and I met him at the tennis courts. We played until about 6:30, the wind was really bad today but my outcome was favorable in general.
Right after I got back I finished up final details and launched Rotheblog and sent out an announcement to friends. Man, my bulk mailing list is really outdated and I had forgotten that it was really difficult to manage that in Gmail. Sarah got back and we took the dog on a walk.
We talked with her parents at about 8, tonight was game 7 of the baseball ALCS series between Boston and Cleveland so there were no cartoons.
At about 9:30 I sat down and talked with a freelance client, trying to finish that up and have one less distraction while I am studying. I didn’t do much for the rest of the night, ending up passing out in front of the game downstairs, I was beat. Red Sox won 11-2 and advanced to the 2007 World Series.
One GMAT down, one to go
I got up with plenty of time in the morning to get a better grip on what was going down for my test.
I figured out that somehow, I got registered for two practice exams, one at Kelly Business school, and one at U of I. I was glad that I was registered for U of I, because as of last night I thought I was going to have to travel downtown, which is in general, that much more of headache when planning for time.
I reviewed what was on the test, one section I hadn’t gotten to yet in my practice book, so I just glanced through that information and headed on out.
The test is grueling to say the least, staying focused, watching your time, looking critically at the problems and weeding out the incorrect answers. I did just a touch better than I thought I would, in unfavorable conditions with people walking in late, lots of noise, etc.
It was about 12:15 when I got back, and everyone was about ready to go. The plan was to bike the great Indianapolis Monan Trail, it was surprising that we hadn’t taken my parents on it before now. We had some lunch, packed the bikes, and headed downtown. We found out regular spot, pumped up the bikes and away we went. It was a gorgeous day, great sunshine, warm but not hot, I couldn’t have asked for a more picturesque setting.
We went at a leisurely pace, but we still did nearly 30 miles, biking farther north on the Monan than Sarah and I had earlier in the year with Dave. We went all the way up to Carmel. The trip back wasn’t as smooth, there was quite a bit of wind. But I had a great time biking with dad, side by side, and talking about life.
Everyone was hungry when we got back, so we quickly made a decision on where to go to dinner. We chose a place just up the road, Madison Grill on Madison and Troy. It ended up being less than stellar. Everyone but me got the ribeye special, and it didn’t look good, and the deserts we got were a way below average. Mom and Dad took us out, so I feel bad saying that, but at least Mom felt that way too that overall, it wasn’t the best place to eat and I doubt we will eat there again.
When we got back we sat down and watched the University of Michigan game against Illinois. The Boston game was going on too, so we flipped back and forth to see who was winning. Michigan ended up winning their game and so did Boston. Good news for Michigan, they need to recover from a terrible start, and with a win Boston has now forced a game seven on Sunday night.
I got a little bit of play in on the Jr. Pac-man before we all went to bed.
Girls night out, guys night in.
Right after work I got over to the gym and met up with Dave. Today was Sarah’s last day of her fall break, and she was spending it with Kim, being a great friend and helping her make it to the mall to take care of some things, including the baby announcements.
I picked up a meat stuffed pizza from Papa Murphy’s and headed home. Sarah got home soon after, and we had just enough time to do some cleaning up and such before Wes and Kate got there. Kate and Sarah rode together over to Sarah’s for a girls night, Wes and I hung out and did the guy thing. Tonight, the guy thing consisted of pizza, drinks, and playing a ton of Jr. Pac-man. I had wanted to do some work on some things in the garage with Wes’ help, but that didn’t work out. Just as well, we had a great time talking and hanging out.
My parents arrived at about 8:45, so we entertained, helped unload, etc. until the girls got back. Then everyone headed downstairs for some more Jr. and Ms. Pac-man playing.
After Wes and Kate left, we all played a round of Euker before I got to bed at a decent hour. Saturday is my practice exam, and although I didn’t get to study tonight, I am as prepared as I should be. The test is supposed to find my weak areas to help me study more, not to pass with flying colors. (Although that would be nice.)
My WordPress Seminar at St. John
Today was the day for the seminar that I had planning at St. John Lutheran for over a month. This was the last step to educate the new group of people running the website so I can officially step away from day to day maintenance. I was still debating on whether I should get up in front of church after the service ended to remind the congregation about my class, but the service took so long that it ran into the time that I was going to use as setup. So, I didn’t announce anything.
Ron helped me get things situated as best as possible. I had not one content editor for the church website show up, which was rather disappointing but I had a great little crowd show up that I hadn’t planned on. (even thought I knew of a couple that had already said why they couldn’t be there. I also came home to a message from John on my cell, glad to at least hear from him)
The class went well I thought. I was talking to a group of people that wanted to learn more about web design in general and I was talking about web topics related to the WordPress church website, so I just hope that they got something out of it. We went over a bunch of different stuff, including some HTML tags, so that at least should have been helpful.
The class lasted until 1:30, a little shorter than I had planned, which was great. At the last minute this morning Sarah grabbed snacky food to set out for the class, which made it feel that much more planned out. She is a great compliment to the weaknesses that I have in planning. No one really ate much, but better to have it and not need it then not have it at all.
When we got back, I had freelance stuff to finish up for a couple of hours. I also did a number of other things, played a couple games of Jr. Pac-man, worked on some of the final touches on this blog launch, and got out into the garage to try some things out on the games and take some photos to get some more questions answered.
The rest of the night was the regular Sunday routine. Sarah talked with her parents, I was on the phone with Justin for awhile. By the time we were done with that, Sarah headed to bed, and I watched a couple of Scrubs episodes before hitting the sack.
Indy Arcade Auction, Jr. Pac and Styf’s
We started the morning off with a power walk for Nokes.
When we got back, I got packed up and headed to the Indianapolis Fairgrounds for the Fall USAmusements Arcade Auction. Pretty good turnout this time, some classics, a good amount of pinballs, and a lot of games in general with some cheap deals on less popular games and average prices on the stuff you are interested in. I did my thing, played some, took photos, took prices, wrote down names, etc. But by 1:00, I figured I had seen and done enough so I headed home.
At home I made a couple of calls. I talked to Rich Ford about a number of things for about an hour – hour half. One of which was that he finally got my payment two weeks after I sent it. Talk about a lesson learned in always sending larger money orders via priority mail.
After that call I talked with Dad for a bit, and then I played a whole bunch of Jr. Pac-man, procrastinating a little bit but more just enjoying a game that I have sought after and worked for for 8 months and had sit at the house for two weeks before it was finally finished.
Just before 5 Sarah asked if I would take her and Nokes to the orchard, sounded like fun. We got fresh apples and cider and I got a donut. We took Nokes on a little walk of the now truncated grounds (new housing division in back). Sarah said tomorrow she would be making apple crisp for breakfast with what she got today. How awesome!
When we got back I worked for over 2 hours on finishing up a website launch. It was a lot more work that I thought it would be. Around 8 the Styf’s came over to visit, they had been out to Red Lobster right here by our house for dinner. That was great to see them, felt like it had been ages, and they go to see Nokes again and said he had grown.
When they left, I was tired from a long productive day. I watched some ALCS baseball between the Red Sox and Indians and hit the hay.
We saw a lot of Dave tonight
We lifted after work, around 4:30 – 5.
When Sarah and I got home, we had some dinner and then I was determined to finish up this Jr. Pac-man cabinet, it had only been sitting at my house for two weeks now.
I went and exchanged some bolts, and then with a lot of trial and error, by 8:45 I was playing the game in a non finished setup. Sarah was on the phone talking with mom and when she finished, we headed out. Dave had invited us over to Tom’s house to watch the episode of “The Office” for the week. It was actually pretty funny…long, but funny. Tonight was the first 2007 ALCS baseball game, and the Red Sox trounced the Indians.
He offered us a drink, and showed us the astonishingly extensive liquor cabinet. I had the opportunity to make up some Pina Coladas, so that is what I did.
We left pretty early, around 10:30. Sarah sat down and watched a little bit of tv before going to bed. I finished my monitor mount brackets and setup the Jr. Pac-man where I wanted it to stay, and finally got to play some games on my new stools. I also watched an episode or two of Scrubs.
