Archive for October, 2005
Quick Update
Posted by Lane in Uncategorized on October 27, 2005
A lot has been accomplished since my last update… Bridesmaid dresses are ordered, met with Rev. Jacob, finished with the registry (I think), booked the DJ, getting close to a finalized guest list, etc. So we’re whittling away at it bit by bit. Tonight we’re going to pick out the tuxedos – fun fun.
Honeymoon is booked
Posted by Lane in Uncategorized on October 17, 2005
Today I hopped on sandals.com and booked our honeymoon. A fun and sun-filled week on the lovely Carribean isle of Antigua – looks like it’s really nice, and I haven’t heard anything but good things about the Sandals Resorts.
The really fun part is, our flight leaves at 6 AM the morning after the wedding. So that means getting out the door of the hotel before 5 AM. And the reception will probably go until midnight – it’s going to be an exhausing 48 hours or so.
There were later flights, or we could leave on Monday or Tuesday, but those options really were worse. It’s either leave at the crack of dawn on the 1st, make a short hop to Atlanta, then arrive in Antigua at 3 in the afternoon; OR leave at the same time next day, fly to Chicago (I’m not kidding), fly to San Juan, have a 3 hour layover, then finally get to Antigua around 8:30 at night. And the flight costs more to boot.
So yeah, I think we can deal with leaving on the 1st, being a bit tired and getting a good snooze on the plane.
Begging for stuff
Posted by Lane in Uncategorized on October 17, 2005
…though I believe the official term is “Wedding Registry”. Emily and I spent the better part of Sunday registering for gifts at the Pottery Barn, as well as Bed Bath and Beyond. That is a tiring process… we were at Bed Bath and Beyond a good hour after they closed, zapping stuff with the registry gun. But a lot of fun as well.
At Bed Bath and Beyond I noticed their little electronic kiosks were still using Netscape 4 as their browser… icky icky.
My first "Rarity: 8" cartridge!
Posted by Lane in Uncategorized on October 13, 2005
On a gaming website I frequent, I’m probably the only person actively interested in anything pre-Nintendo. So whenever someone has some old Atari games to unload, I’m usually the one they unload them upon 
Recently a guy said he found 40 or so cartridges in his basement, as well as a 2600 and a few joysticks. We worked out a deal, and I ended up getting the whole deal for $80 plus shipping.
I received the package yesterday, and the first thing I noticed was how nice all the carts were… they were all in excellent condition. The Activision carts had virtually no “plaque”, all of the labels were secure and clean, no grime anywhere – they looked like they had been pampered from day one.
But even more exciting was the handful of 4- and 5- rarity carts… the “Pole Posit’n” label, Donkey Kong Jr., Mr. Do., etc. But the coup de gracie was the pristine Mr. Do!’s Castle cartridge. I knew it wasn’t common, but looking it up on the Atari Age rarity guide, turns out it’s an 8. I’d say that made the bundle worth it right there.
I looked it up on ebay, and it’s not quite going for the fortune I expected it to command There are quite a few games that are rare that aren’t exactly well known or highly sought after, and apparently this is one of them. No matter – I just like the fact that I have an “8″ now
…and we've got a preacher
Posted by Lane in Uncategorized on October 11, 2005
Just talked to Jeff Jacob, associate pastor at the church I grew up in. He said he’d be glad to do the wedding, so that’s great too!
The Dress
Just got a call from Emily – said she is now the proud owner of one (1) wedding dress, to be revealed at a later date. Guess there’s no turning back now! 
OK, so I lied.
One *MORE* thing…
The reason I’ve had time to write much more this weekend than I normally do is because Emily is in Miami with her family. It’s 56 and overcast here. I’m not jealous. Not at all But at least I’m able to get my guest list together, finally get around to doing my laundry, and watching Jessica’s Firefly DVDs. What a good show… can’t wait to see Serenity this week.
One more thing…
Posted by Lane in Uncategorized on October 9, 2005
My brother celebrated his 27th birthday today – hope you had a good one Clark!
Losing weight
Posted by Lane in Uncategorized on October 9, 2005
I keep joking with Emily that we need to just go to the courthouse and get this thing over with. Of course I’m kidding; I want her to have the perfect wedding, and as long as I’m going to be there, it might as well be something I can enjoy too One of the nice things about taking a few months to plan a wedding is that it gives me the time and incentive to get into shape.
I’ve lost quite a bit of weight this year, but I lost motivation this summer when I hit the low 190s. When I saw some of the pictures we took Tuesday, I couldn’t believe how fat I looked – the one picture at the bottom of Wednesday’s entry is the only one where I didn’t look disgustingly obese. What’s really scary is that I’m 20 pounds lighter than I was back in January – I can’t imagine how large I looked then. I’ll admit I’m somewhat vain – with that beind said, I refuse to look back at our wedding pictures and only see “fat”. If there’s ever an event to look one’s best, this would be it
Emily has had a lot of success with Nutrisytem; I thought she looked great before she started using it, but she has lost nearly 20 pounds since then, so it obviously works. I ordered a month’s supply myself, and started this weekend. It’s not the greatest tasting stuff in the world, but it’s palatable, and there’s enough variety to keep it interesting for a while. I can definitely suffer through for the next month or two.
I’m a little concerned with my ability to stick with it considering the holidays are right around the corner. But at least I’m starting from my lowest weight in 2 years, so getting down to the 170s should be doable. I have all the head knowledge I need as far as exercise and diet go, I just need to put it into practice.
One thing that will help – We bought new running shoes a couple of weeks ago, and they make a HUGE difference – I’m running much faster than I normally do, without any shin splints or pronation problems I normally deal with. So the easier it is to run, the longer I run, the more weight I lose, which makes it easier to run, so I can run longer…
Anyway, we’ll just consider getting back to my pre-2001 weight a fringe benefit of the wedding planning
Resident Evil 4
Posted by Lane in Uncategorized on October 9, 2005
I’ve been a fan of the Resident Evil series since the Resident Evil Director’s Cut for the Playstation way back when. A lot of people complain about the now-cliched gameplay and “tank” controls, but I still love ‘em.
Even so, I have to admit that the REworking (pun intended) of the series with Resident Evil 4 was a huge leap in the right direction. I played the first couple of chapters early this year, but just now have gotten around to (almost) finishing it. This is such a great game – on one hand, it is so stressful and tense that I hate to play it, but it’s so good that I can’t stop. It’s that perfect combination of challenge with a sense of progress. I’m probably an hour or two from finishing the game, but from what I understand there is a lot more game left once you finish the actual storyline. I just want to finish it though! I don’t see how people can play games like Baldur’s Gate 2 that require upwards of 100 hours to complete… even with a great game such as RE4, I’m 17 hours in and am ready for it to be done.
With that being said, once I’ve seen the ending, I plan on playing through it again Just a brilliant game. And supposedly the sequel isn’t too far off – can’t wait!