The big move is over. Boxes are almost all unpacked. Garage is cleaned out. The work on the gameroom/man-cave section of the garage, plus the new Transformers collection shelves, is in full swing.

First, the gameroom. I managed to convince Deana to keep half the two-car garage as a gameroom of sorts. It's coming together nicely. The centerpiece, of course, is the arcade cabinet. Last night, I fired it up for the first time while "working" in the garage. Bad idea! I ended up playing Marvel Super Heroes for a half hour. Of course, once Connor saw it up and running, he played for an hour or so himself, while I worked. I'm not sure which one of us had more fun, him playing, or me watching him.

We have a table hockey game, too. It's like foosball but hockey instead of soccer. One of the players is broken, but it's still playable, and it's probably the best $30 I ever spent at Target. On the wall behind the table hockey, I framed and hung my Star Wars posters. If they aren't the best looking movie posters ever, I don't know what would be.

A dartboard is on the wall, near the entrance inside. It's at regulation height, even, and I taped down a line at the standard 8 feet away. So far, the hole in the wall count is at 4, 3 Connor's and 1 mine. (Don't tell Chad Tate.)

The air hockey table is no longer a place to throw stuff on. It's all cleared off and ready to go. Seems there's not much air pressure, the puck doesn't slide very well. Going to have to look into that. Now if I can get a pinball machine, and eventually, a cocktail arcade cabinet, I'm set for big stuff. The rest will be fun stuff: rope lights, a disco ball, and maybe even a jukebox or some sort. I can't wait!

Yeah, yeah, it's been over two months. Quite frankly, our lives have been so busy and filled up to overflowing that I've had less time for pretty much everything. But, I've got a few minutes here to rant and ramble a bit, so here goes.

First of all, school. March and April are by far the most stressful months of the year for teachers. Pressure is mounting for the upcoming state tests. The new addition to the school has been completed and six classes had to move to new locations. All of this means more meetings, more computer work, and less time to actually be teaching. It has been a real headache, plain and simple, and I am getting a serious case of burn out. I simply must cut back on my workload next year, that's all there is to it.

Deana and both boys were sick a week ago, each of them down with strep. Luckily, I made it through with only a sinus infection. We're on the mend now, but it couldn't have happened at a worse time.

We concluded a gospel meeting with Kevin Presley last week. Crowds were huge! I can't recall the last time I saw the building so full. The singing was really uplifting, for sure. It was nice seeing so many friends from different congregations.

I've been reading more comics lately. Partially, this is because of an excellent sale on hardcovers and trades a month or so ago. It's also due to the fact that after working on computers all day, playing PC or 360 games loses a bit of its appeal. Especially when my connection has been flaky and I am sicking of troubleshooting it. I can't bring myself to fix cables at home too...

Reread Watchmen in hardcover, with the new coloring. It looked amazing; Dave Gibbons has one of the cleanest lines you'll ever see. The movie was better than I expected. The adult elements were pushed a bit far for my tastes, but that it what the comic was known for, so it was hardly surprising. I look forward to watching it at home, since the theater I saw it at was slightly out of focus and the sound appeared to be coming from a 1950's record player.

Work at Co-Optimus and Let The Bible Speak is going well. Both of these projects are keeping me busy, maybe even a bit too busy.

I'd write more, but just got another tech phone call. Someone's SMART Board isn't playing sound anymore...

I think there is something wrong with me. I am actually looking forward to the end of the football season.

Blasphemy, you are thinking? Yeah, I'd have thought so too. Let me tell you, I am a fan. I dutifully record each Chiefs and Rams game. I also watch every Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and any Saturday NFL games too. Additionally, I watch the four best games of the week on NFL Network's NFL Replay each week.

Folks, that is a lot of football. In fact, it's too much. Even with the ability to fast forward and skip commercials, that's about 9 hours a week of gridiron action. As the season wore on, I started dropping games. The first cut was the Rams, then, NFL Replays of teams I don't particularly care for. By the end of the season, I had even stopped taping Chiefs games. I heard them on the radio, watched them at my Grandpa's a bit, but didn't rewatch at home later. Two years ago, I never would have let a Chiefs game go by.

I really enjoy the postseason, as there are few games, and each team is good. This usually makes for interesting TV (sometimes not, thank you Carolina Panthers). But all in all, I'm glad the season will be over soon, and there's only one more game to watch.

Hopefully, the Chiefs won't be a laughingstock next year and I'll enjoy the season more. In the meantime, I'll just have to pull for the Cards and former Ram Kurt Warner!

So, I'm over a month late with an update. Unsurprisingly, December was extremely busy. Here are some of the highlights.

My love of snow days is well known, and I haven't been disappointed yet. The week before Winter Break, we were out of school for four days! It was mostly ice and sleet, not snow, and new layers kept coming each night. We used this time wisely, of course: mainly we watched movies, played video games, and snacked. It was cool watching one of my favorite films, Gremlins, with the kids. Connor wants a Gizmo now, but I think Moon would probably eat him. When we did go back, it was for a half day, and it was about as fast paced as you can imagine. Each period lasted about 25 minutes... I kind of wish it was that way all the time!

We've been spending quite a bit of time at my Grandparent's place lately, and we all were there for his birthday. He is pretty good with his new power chair, for sure. Still, he's not getting around well and I know that's hard on him and grandma, especially.

We spent a week in Michigan during the break. It was extremely cold, and when we arrived, there were 13 inches of snow on the ground! Awesome. The kids got to play in the snow every day, and loved it. Each day it kept snowing a bit, just enough to keep it looking nice. Thankfully, the weather warmed up for our drive back home. We had a very nice time up there, it was one of the best visits I can remember. Lots of food, games, and movies. (See a pattern?)

New Year's Eve was spent with friends from Church. I learned to play Spoons, and I am quite terrible at it. Still, it was a nice way to spend the evening. Dana and Kelli are quite vicious when it comes to this game. I was afraid Brent was going to lose a finger at one point.

The January blahs are in effect now that we're back at work. Good thing January Jamboree is just around the corner!