So last Sunday evening, December 6th, my father had a sudden cardiac arrest.  Today when I left the hospital, he was in his hospital room, glasses on, newspaper in hand.  If you ask him how he feels, his answer is always the same –  ”Shitty”.  I think I would feel shitty too if my heart stopped and I had to be shocked 5 times.  Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.  He is totally on the mend and I am so happy to still have my dad around.

He was fine at 2:00pm when I saw him.  I never just hang around at my parent’s house for no reason.  I did today.  Looking back, right at this moment, I regret that I didn’t hug him good bye when I left a couple of hours later. 

My mom called me from her cell phone at 6:15 tonight.  I knew immediately that something was not okay and when I answered “What’s wrong?” I heard my mom just say the words “Your father, somethings wrong, a stroke or a heartattack.  I just don’t know.  The ambulance is here.  They’re working on him.  Can you come now?  Come now!”

There is no other awful image I would wish on anyone than seeing the man who raised you, the smartest man you know and love with all your heart get shocked.  I got to see times 4 and 5.  My mother had to experience all 5. 

If you are the praying kind.  Even if you aren’t the praying kind, but think that some good thoughts would go a LONG way, please send them.  He needs all the help he can get.

Okay, I joined WW back in August.  Finally disgusted with myself and how I feel I decided to join and stick with it this time.  I made my 5% loss relatively quickly, but shortly thereafter fell hard off that wagon.  I fell into a rut and had a hard time climbing back out.  When I went back to a meeting, I had gained 6 of my 13 lost back.  Then the next week I had gained 2 more!  Ack.  Somewhere in those floundering weeks, I kind of got back on the wagon and on weigh in day, I had lost 2, then the next week 4.  I was a happy camper.  Wednesday night I went to weigh in and I had dropped 4 lbs!  And over a holiday!  Woohoo!!  So, here I am.  14 lbs lighter than I started back in August and feeling pretty damn skippy about it.

Weekly photos to come beginning next week.  I hope everyone has a marvelous weekend!

So my day started off with one of the dogs horking at 5am.  Oh joy.  :(  Then, neither my son or I remembered to make his lunch for school and neither of us had any money to buy lunch.  That was okay, I had to run back to the house before I went into work, no big deal.  It’s raining here today, so I had left the dogs inside and barricaded in the kitchen.  I thought we had removed everything from doggy reach.  Wrong.  They decided to rip open a bag of cornmeal and it was scattered all over the kitchen floor.  Erghhhh.  So, I cleaned that up, threw their asses outside.  Rain or no rain, I just didn’t care.  I finally got to the office at 9:30.  I am spent.

I hope your hump day is better than mine.  It has to get better, right?

I work a local science fiction/fantasy convention here in Atlanta.  A couple of years ago, the person that I work for was driven crazy by a couple of people that worked for us.  He plainly told me that he did not want them working for us again.

So after the convention ended and we were into January of the following year, he posted on our yahoo group asking who was planning on being on staff with us for the year.  I forgot that when one replied on the group, it went out to all members of the group.  I posted about the couple in question and stated that he did not want them working and did he not remember stating that.  As soon as I hit the send button,  I got an email.  From me.  Of the post that I had just put out.  I immediately felt sick, and hot, and awful.  I tried to retrieve it, but was not able to.  It went out to the entire group, including the couple who I had been told he did not want working.

I had to totally backpedal and immediately email the woman and tell her I meant someone else and not them.  It was awful, she probably knew I was lying, but played along.

I work in a cube farm.  There are not any other people outside our group sitting near us, but right around the corner, there is a group.  One of the group members name is Fatima and every time I pass her cube, all I can hear is Camper Van Beethoven singing "I am the eye of Fatima"…

Back in August I decided to join WW again and stick with it this time. I have joined so many times in the past and never stuck with it. I have taken inspiration from my great friend S, as she joined and made it to being a lifetime member of WW.

Last night at my weigh in I hit 5% of my body weight lost. Here we go towards 10%

Have a great weekend everyone!

This past Wednesday afternoon, I packed my bags, said goodbye to my son and headed to Indianapolis with some of my very favorite people, S&J and their teen son.   Destination: GenCon.  After our 8+ hour car trip we arrived at our hotel a little after 11pm.  We immediately went to bed when we got to our room, all in anticipation of the first day of the con!

We got up pretty early, considering the drive we had made the night before.  I was up first and got coffee for all the adults.  After everyone was ready, we left the hotel for the first of many walks to the convention center.  I had purchased all my gaming tickets and membership online and opted to leave it all at Will Call.  Thank the gods for that, because this was the line for those people who had not purchased prior to arrival.

And that is just the back half of the line!  Will Call was a breeze.  There was no one in my line and I walked right up.  After getting the badges and lanyards and swag bags, we needed sustenance.   We ate at this little place that dubbed itself and adult student union.  I had the best breakfast sandwich.  Then we hit the convention center.   The Dealer’s Room was HUGE.  Lots to see and spend money on, which is what I was happy to oblige.  One of my favorite comic book artist/writer was at the show, and he has a new book out.  He does the writing this go round, while another huge talent handles the art.  He signed both books for me and I can’t wait to read them!

After wandering around the dealer’s room for a while, it was time for J and I to go play a game of Munchkinquest.  I was a little nervous because I had not played before, but it was not a problem to pick up the game.  Actually the session that we played in was a prelim round for the Munchkin Quest World Cup.  It was a great deal of fun and my friend J made it into the semifinals!  He had to cancel playing D&D with us, but hey, it was the semifinals!  After Munchkin Quest we just stayed at our table because we were in a Munchkin game next.  S and the son joined us at that time as we all had tickets to this game.   We had a great time playing.  And, the son made it into the semifinal of the Munchkin World Cup!  Like father, like son!  By the time we were done with the games, we decided to go to dinner.  S&J are awesome homebrewers and I am always down for a good beer, so off we went to The Ram.  They totally catered to the gamers.  Check out the top of their menu:

Cthulhu also had appetizers with us:

It was a pretty nice place, very friendly, not bad beer.  And they loved the gamers!  After dinner we walked to the Monument and walked around and took pictures.   I had a 9pm game of Illuminati:NWO, so we parted ways.

My game was underwhelming, and ended relatively quickly.  After we were done, one of the guys playing told us that he was ranked as the world champion.    Wow.  So, after the game I met up with S&J at the hotel bar and had a nice Newcastle, then we called it a night.  More tomorrow with Day Two!

I am a gamer.  I attend science fiction conventions.  Today, I leave for gamer mecca.  Ever since I got into gaming there was talk of GenCon.  And the dream of attending GenCon.  So, off I go.  Back on Monday with pictures and some tales!  Oh, it’s in Indianapolis.  I am excited!

Well, my baby boy started high school today.  Wow, I can’t believe that he is there already!  It seems like just yesterday I was taking him to his first day at preschool.  Back then he screamed and cried when I left him.  This morning he couldn’t get out of the car fast enough when I dropped him off. 

Ahhh, adolescence.  He is pushing me away, but at the same time, I think he still wants me around.  Not that he would ever admit to it.   I just hope he has a great high school experience and keeps to the straight and narrow.  I can only hope!  I know what I was like at this age!