Fall Update

Well hello!  Fancy seeing you all here.

I wish I could say there was some ground breaking news from the BGF House, but there just isn't.  A visit to Four Pines at Rollman Manor would result in any number of friends hanging out, studying, working, singing, making food, playing with children or dogs, watching TV or drinking beer.

Just like everyone else.

There have been high points and low points.  The low points are of the "We don't talk about it in public" type of things, so don't expect to hear about anything calamitously juicy or worthy of repost on a gossipy site somewhere.  (And yes, I fully expect that.  My fans are rabid and uncouth and would push their mom in front of a speeding 18-wheeler if it meant a retweetable twitpic.  Some of you may have to look that up.)

On to the more high of the points then.

Lil Miss Austin is truly enjoying Derby Brats.  She has a scrimmage coming up and I'm excited to attend.  Her group ranges in age from 8-18 so it can be a little unfair to the little girls, but they break them up.  Among the littler of the skaters, she's one of if not the fastest.  She goes to practice twice a week and still has time to complete all her third grade homework.

However, she has been tired lately.  We worried she was not getting enough sleep, but knew she was getting 10 hours.  Eventually a visit to the doctor confirmed she had mono and so she's been at home recuperating for the last two days.  It's been a little stressful for her as she really doesn't like doctors.

Nothing new with G-man, though he is doing fine in kindergarten.  He has taken to reading more and more.  He's able to put letters and sounds together to actually form the words.  He's moved away from knowing what the words in books are because he's memorized them, to actively breaking them down and reading them.  It's quite exciting to see his brain working.  And he's a Rollman so you can tell his brain is working because his mouth is opening and closing like a fish desperate for water.

The BGF as a whole is a little larger as well.  As you may have been able to tell from the photos on Flickr, the house is a bee-hive, though not the dying of indeterminate fungus type of bee-hive.  The ladies have friends who visit at least once a week if not more.  Everyone's social lives seem to have been turned up a few degrees and the house just never seems empty.  I personally enjoy that and I think if I were by myself for too long without kids or company or friends I'd probably become depressed.  We've adopted a derby girl and her daughter as near permanent fixtures in our lives as well.  Also, Ms. A's mom's dog (which I've loving dubbed Jerk Dog) continues to pee and poop his way into our hearts.  (Don't tell anyone, but it's me who leaves the doors open and then feigning shock when he has run off again.)  (Not really.)

The past couple weeks my time's been consumed with design projects of small and helpful kinds, some robots and a LOT of review writing for TVZ.  We recently switched our cable and internet from Suddenlink to AT&T U-Verse.  DVR, HD Channels, faster internet connection AND a home phone and we're staving about $20 a month.  So my TV viewing hasn't stopped.  In fact, at one point I was reviewing five shows for TVZ.  Don't ask where or why I found the time.  Luckily one show was canceled and the other was picked up by Tiger Lily so I'm down to three.

As to the new cable, like most things AV, the equipment and knowledge I have surrounding the available technology is lacking.  Our surround sound system and TV are about six years old and probably about two years old when we bought them.  They are scratched and don't exactly work right.  I don't have the time to muck with repairing or replacing the receiver or getting a new system so that center channel will just have to be out.  The downside of that is you can't hear anyone.  But U-Verse fits our needs so far.  I have a TV in my room that's also hooked up, which means I can watch all my shows in my room without upsetting the non-geeks.  It also means I'm watching sci-fi shows in my room surrounded by Lego.  I own my geek-ness, I have no shame!

I've officially registered for classes at Austin Community College.  Now I have to officially see if the government will pay for it.  I have my financial aid paperwork done, but I may already have too many credits to qualify.

The holidays are coming up and all our plans are still unmade.  We have general ideas about them and I can say that we'll all generally be at our house or somewhere in Louisiana.  As much as I'd like to see my family in CO, it's just too much this time.  I've said that the last five years I think, it's starting to sound dick-ish.

So overall, no complaints.  Life is decent.  Carry on.