June!

Its been an odd week for me actually. I think having a baby around the house has slowly caught up with me physically. The slightly less sleep every night for 3 months has started to take its toll. The stress of trying to move house isn't helping either.

Its hard to believe that Z is 3 months old now...I can remember first holding him in the hospital. He's still massive but thankfully the growth is slowing now...no need for new clothes every 2 weeks. The only problem is all the advice we keep getting from all corners. Its hard to keep focussed and confident with what we are doing without all the opinions but then I suppose it shows people care.

The slow build up of exhaustion is affecting my work somewhat in that I just cannot be arsed to do any! Had a meeting in London on Wednesday and was hoping to cruise by on autopilot but with so few attendees I had to contribute, and the bit where my PC Lead put me on the spot and said "As Knowledge Management Lead Leigh, what do you think we should do next?". Fortunately despite my empty mind I managed to come up with something and agreed to write up a project plan for next week. My boss will be back as well expecting to see great things from the P2 data that I should have ready and reconciled back to the system...hmmm I think I'm going to have a busy Monday!

We did actually have a house viewing this week! A call at 16:45 yesterday with people wanting to come around straight away...fortunately K managed to negotiate 17:30 and we set to work clearing up the shit hole! They seemed to like the house but had others to see and may well want a second viewing today. From their feedback the fact that our house doesn't need much big doing to it (e.g. double glazing, central heating etc) is a big plus as far as they are concerned. We shall have to wait and see. The other bonus is that all the weekend housework was crammed into 40 minutes and is all done now!

The impending house move (it will happen eventually) has brought into sharp focus how much less money we'll have floating about once it happens (and especially when the maternity pay dries up). I have responded in my usual way to get all anal about it and demand to see all K's receipts for the money she spends each month! (not quite, but thats not a bad idea!) I have also resolved not to spend any money on new board games, books or video games for this month and see what I have left at the end of the month (the theory being that this could be used to plug the gap when we move).

So far not too bad...although things that I ordered months ago and ready in June have thrown a little spanner in the works. I've resolved that Super Smash Bros Brawl will be the only video game purchase, despite the delicious looking (and 2 player) Lego Indiana Jones. I'm consoling myself with the music from Smash (downloaded here).

Also annoyingly my ipod's select button has stopped working which renders my ipod unusable! Fortunately its pay year end this month so there should be a bit of a bonus winging its way towards me. I'm stuck with whether to replace my iPod nano with a new nano (now with video) or go all flash and get an iPod touch. The web browsing, email checking is appealing on touch but the size is off putting, I don't want another phone sized item to carry around with me. Plus the fact that the touch is double the price!

Other things I'm obsessing about are:

1. If we get an offer on the house, should I lower the offer we're making for the house we want in Long Eaton since the average house price has fallen 5% in the last 2 months. But what if they then accept someone else's offer!

2. D&D 4th edition. This looks great and I'm tempted to buy the rule books even though I have no-one to play with! Listening to a podcast over at Penny Arcade/D&D website and the new rules sound fantastic. Am wondering if I could get a group going when we move back to the Midlands...I wonder if K will want to play?

3. Cradle Cap. I shouldn't be allowed to hold a sleeping baby who has cradle cap...too tempting to pick until 've picked it too much. Fortunately the Nurse Prac. at the surgery wasn't too worried and just gave K some Coconut Oil so we're giving that a whirl.

A dangerous precedent

K and I have started snacking in the evening. It started with a bit of chocolate, then with bowls of crisps over the last few days and we're currently working our way through a mammoth bowl of popcorn, although to be honest, its a little tasteless! And I can fit 16 pieces in my mouth at once, compared to a paltry 11 for K!

In other news K successfully expressed this morning and I gave Z his first feed. He gets this odd spaced out, ecstatic look on his face but I was concerned that there wasn't enough for him. Well, 90 minutes later and he's still asleep (I did have some help from the mobile)

Gaming has been a bit frantic as well. Playing Lost Winds on Wiiware, nice and gentle and well worth the 1000 points. Downloaded Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 1 as well and am enjoying the writing, the game cliches and the turn based combat. Great fun.

Still need to play some more GTAIV, get back on Wii Fit (its been 10 days now) and play some more Mario Kart Wii, let alone The World Ends With You. Also wondering whether to buy a new DS lite for K (I can't really buy a new one for myself, can I?)

Or perhaps I should just put my bonus into the house moving fund?

Things I have Learned from GTA IV

I cannot handbrake corner around bends at high speed and expect not to hit/maim/kill pedestrians and/or myself.

That is all.

Will it work?

I'm hoping so...

My aim is to lose a stone and a bit in 3 months...thats about 2 lbs every fortnight.

Of course I'm talking about Wii Fit! The problem is its day 2 and I can't be arsed to go down stairs and get on the thing!

Edit: Just done 30 minutes on it. Strangely addictive quality...just wanted to breech the 30 minute mark. Hopefully it will continue!

Under duress

I'm updating my blog because K wants to read it. Not sure I've got much tp blog about but there you go.

Been an interesting couple of weeks and the weekend promises to be a challenge too. We're going to look at houses in Long Eaton & Kegworth tomorrow and we have to get up, dressed and out by 9 and then hope Z doesn't cause a super fuss on the way there. He was as good as gold this morning but has done nothing but cry and eat this afternoon/evening. He's finally asleep and we even managed to wash his hair without any complaints.

There's been plenty of gaming undertaken too. Shadows Over Camelot saw some action (and we actually managed to win!) Hopefully adding the possibility of a traitor in the midst will spice things up even more! Hive and Mr. Jack are two good 2 player games as well. K has been playing a lot of Professor Layton and the Curious Village and I've restarted Pokemon Diamond and I'm determined to finish it this time. We've also been playing a lot of Mario Kart Wii (although K does get a little frustrated)

Also this is far too addictive/cute...

Still no sign!

After a great weekend away we're now back to a holding pattern of waiting for baby to arrive!

The final bits of clothes have now been washed (including a "I love my Daddy" jumpsuit for when baby comes home). I'm really looking forward to it but there's nothing to be done but wait.

I must admit its going to be a little odd though as all the important people to tell about the birth have all said that they only want to know when it's all done with (i.e. when the baby has arrived). Hopefully the labour won't be too long otherwise I'm going to have no-one to tell other than K (who presumably will be aware what's going on!)

Managed to resist the urge to spend more money on board games today...it helps that we've already instigated the "Leigh pays for everything policy" and I can see what's left in my account to spend on frivolities. Its really good actually as some of the games I've bought over the last 2 months I have probably only played once! I'm not even going to mention the video games I haven't even put in their prospective video game consoles!

Damn you Foster!

Its a quarter to midnight and instead of being tucked up in bed I'm updating my blog while I wait for a computer game to manufacture a perpetual motion device so that I can finish my quest early and get the bonus mining lasers!

Its all Alex's fault! An offhand comment on K's blog now means not only have I checked out, downloaded and created a trial account for Eve Online, I'm sat here thinking about how much quicker I'll be able to mine stuff with my new lasers! And even when I go to bed, I suspect that I won't sleep for thinking about it!

I suppose I have to do these things now as anytime soon sleep will be the only thing I want to do at night.

A pleasant diversion

Weird hand drawn thingy courtesy of 1up's 100 Free games 2008

Objection!

Gaming Update

Xbox just had its autumn update and with it came Xbox Originals, stuff that you can download that you might have missed the first time around.

Downloaded Fahrenheit and Pyschonauts and enjoying them both so far. F is a moody mystery thriller so far that starts off with your character clearly under some kind of other control killing a man in a diner bathroom. From there you need to decide whether to mop up the blood, hide the body, escape the diner etc. The action has just shifted to the lead cop and I have been questioning witnesses. Great stuff!

Pyschonauts is a game that I've heard about but not really known what it was about. Simply it is a platformer/collectathon but it seems like there's real effort been put into the story and characters. Its set in a kind of American summer camp setting and so far quite enjoyable...but after playing Super Mario Galaxy (105 stars) the controls don't feel nearly as tight or responsive! Although I suspect that's pretty much going to be the case for everything other than SMG now!

Looking forward to what Christmas has in store gaming wise! I suspect I have Orange Box & Mass Effect coming. I think I may also be getting Link's Crossbow training as well as Pit & Rummikub! Gamerariffic!

Massive Update pt. 2

Ok so you know about the holiday...I better talk about videogames. For those of you that don't realise this time of the year is a nightmare for videogamers, not because there aren't any new games out but because there are too bloody many to choose from! Pre-holiday releases designed to soak up Christmas present money is all well and good but for those of us lucky enough to have multiple platforms to play on its a pain!

I finished Metroid Prime 3: Corruption at the weekend and my golly was it an enjoyable romp! A fitting end to the trilogy but perhaps a little too easy? I may have to play through it again on a harder setting! I just need to find someone else with it so I can share my friend vouchers!




After MP3 I back engrossed in Oblivion which seems never ending (although I have now started the main quest)



I feel I may have to pause briefly in that to appreciate Endless Ocean this week and Super Mario Galaxy next week. I guess its lucky that Zack & Wiki has been pushed back to next year and that Mass Effect is on my Christmas list or I may have found myself too tempted to buy them all!

Massive Update pt.1

While the dogs away the cat will play...well in my case while K is away L will eat bacon sandwiches, play video games and update his blog! I didn't quite realise how long it had been so hopefully my 3 readers haven't given up all hope of updates never to return and will find this update informative and entertaining (or a complete waste of time, I'm happy with that too!)

I have a big list of things that I need to cover but I'll start chronologically for pt 1 at least and then go from there...

So, Florida! We had a superb time on holiday and could have done with a little more time to be honest, although my confusion with the dates didn't help! Not sure how I expected a Thursday flight in the US to return to the UK before it had taken off. Needless to say this caused all sorts of shenanigans with visitors back home and my car being nowhere to be seen at the airport.

Aside from that debacle the trip itself was brill! The automatic car took a little getting used to but it has convinced me that a Prius wouldn't be an altogether awful idea for my next car at home (it too has an automatic gearbox).

I picked the least obvious 'tourist' car to make us less of a target!



Highlights of the trip for me were Magic Kingdom and Key West but most of it was great. Miami was a little disappointing but I think that was mainly because it just wasn't as friendly as the other places we stayed and the less said about the frankly bizarre hotel the better!



The weather was good too and the exchange rate meant that we were able to spend and not worry too much...although it did mean I came home with 4 DS games that I'm not sure when I'm going to get around to playing, but I'll talk about rampant video game playing in another update!

All in all I can heartily recommend Florida! And now to find that bacon sandwich!

The name change explained

Hopefully it's obvious and hopefully anyone I should have told already will have received an email or a phone call but we are expecting a baby! Went for the first scan today and confirmed that the baby (or is it still a fetus at this stage?) is 13 weeks and 3 days old!

That and the fact that I seem to be reading a lot of comic books at the moment inspired me to change the name of my blog! I've been wanting to post for a while but obviously needed to wait until we'd had the first scan. I'll hopefully be a bit better in updating posts and filling in other news (like the fact I bought an Xbox 360 Elite!)

Ooops!

I appear to have been very lax on the blogging front recently...almost a month since I last blogged!

I can only say that I've had a lot going on and video games have kept me occupied in the 'Leigh Time' that would usually be used for blogging.

Those games being Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition & Paper Mario on the VC.

Also work has been a bit of a drain recently and I didn't want to vocalise it all on my blog...it would have been a bunch of whining basically. Hopefully there'll be some developments in the next couple of weeks that'll help things become clearer.

K and I have also been talking seriously about our future plans and the upshot is we've started to think about moving house (groan!).

To stave off all the heavy stuff, preparations have been in full swing for my 30th Birthday party on Saturday! (Hmmm...I'll have to think of a new blog name!) We travel to Derby tomorrow to help with the set up, but I need to put the finishing touches to my iPod playlist for the party! Richard sent through a load of tunes to K so I've just got to sort those out and start to gather all the things we'll need for the next few days at my mum's.

I know there is going to be cake, I know there is going to be a whole lamb roasting on a spit and I know about the bubble machine. What I don't know is what K has been cackling about every time she receives mail or a letter from one of our friends/family...hmm I have my suspicions!

In other news we're going to Florida for 11 days in October! A jaunt around Disney, then a couple days in Miami & Key West...hopefully every tourist isn't murdered in some bizarre and scientifically interesting way as depicted on CSI: Miami. I don't so much mind being found dead in a pool of blood but I do worry about K having to put up with some ginger haired, sunglasses wearing Lt. spouting comforting one-liners before gazing off into the sunset.

We've also finished all the flowers for my sister-in-laws wedding! 85 hand folded lilies, nestling in 85 hand-folded day lilies along with 15 orange shrimp. They better like them!

Reverse Blog

Ok the...just finished doing the washing up after enjoying a lovely dinner of pasta with chorizo, onions, peppers & marsala. K away living the high life (shooting things and attending posh meals) so I was forced to do the washing up!

Tai Chi was fun before that although I tend to ache afterwards. We learned how to do 3 'splits' in a row which forms the next part of the form. Very relaxing!

Spent most of today at work marvelling at my new 17in flat screen monitor. The site where I work is suffering a power crisis so they were forced to replace all the CRT monitors with LCD. Amazed at how much easily it is to manipulate bugger large spreadsheets when I can see much more of them at once!

Also had a chat with the person who is going to help me sort out my business case for my role review.

Had quite a good Neverwinter Nights game last night despite dying 3 times! Also caught the last minute of Saturday's Doctor Who. Contemplated buying an Xbox 360 with my bonus (despite already having bought a digital camera) but decided that there simply wasn't enough software I want at this point to warrant a purchase...maybe after Christmas.

Watched Saturday's Doctor Who while stuffing pretzels that K bought me from Norwich...a fleeting chance to chat before she went off to Manchester for the High Life. Told her that I had decided not to enroll on my Open University Digital Photography course as I realised that for a 10 week 10 credit module I would be expected to do 6-8 hours a week work on it! Stuff that....I'm gonna get a book!

Played a lot of Okami while K was in Norwich getting her bridesmaid dress fitted.

We watched Hot Fuzz Saturday night with Becks & Ralph after a day of shopping, eating very large ice-creams and playing card & board games. I must have been feeling off as I failed to win a single thing! Also got my hair cut.

Got up very early Saturday morning to contemplate my role review and write some thoughts into my working record so that I could enjoy the weekend without thinking about it too much.

Watched Hot Fuzz (*raspberry noise and the V sign* "Jog On!") on Friday night with K after realising that Earl doesn't start for a few weeks.

Friday afternoon got a late call from my manager telling me that my role review had been unsuccessful at this time and needs more detailed evidence. Feel surprising fine about it.

Loose End

K is at some some of training conference and I'm at a loose end! I've even spent the last 30 minutes watching old title credits for Home & Away and Neighbours on TouTube...that's 30 minutes I'll never get back.

There's lots of things I should be doing but for some reason I can't settle on one...

* Cook something with apples. We have a glut of too soft to enjoy eating apples and I need a recipe to use them up but it can't be a cake! I might just turn them into apple sauce and freeze for another day. Apple Jam apparently is not good and we don't have the space to strain and make apple jelly.

* Tidy up. There's the last remnants of camping stuff ready to be sorted and put away. K is much better at this sort of thing than I am.

* Think of things to cook avocados in. The new veg box arrived today and contained avocados (as well as cabbage, squash and bean sprouts...at least there were no potatoes!)

* Practice first 2 stages of the Tai Chi form we learned yesterday. It was our first class and despite wearing inappropriate clothing (ideally arms and legs should be covered and loose enough to really move) it went really well. The 90 minutes literally flew by! Not too achey today and looking forward to next week's class. Hopefully this'll help with work stress and get us a bit fitter. I have to watch out for my bunchy shoulders and big toe and K has to watch her turned out feet.

* Decide on an Xbox 360 or Digital SLR camera as a 30th birthday present to myself. Its not for another month but a quick decision will mean that family and friends have something that they can contribute towards in the way of accessories! An Xbox would be great but I can barely play everything I have now, although Mass Effect & Bioshock may be too great a temptation. They are being made by the people who made my all time favourite games of Baldur's Gate & System Shock 2. On the other hand with the camera I can develop a new hobby, learn a new skill and maybe do the OU course I was looking at. Should I decide on a camera I then have the task of deciding between the Canon 400D (more AF points, wider selection of lenses) or the Nikon D40x (better kit lenses, uses SD cards instead of CF, better grip, I used to have a Nikon). Or I could just save my money!

Right I think I'm going to go and play some video games!

Catch Up

Finally finished Hotel Dusk!

More of a interactive novel than a game and fortunately the story is really, really good. Some twists that you could see coming but some that were genuine surprises. Highly recommended!

At last I'll have time to focus on Pokemon!

Bank Holiday Blues

Its 8.30am on Bank Holiday Monday and I'm blogging...my life is thrill a minute. Its also raining and has been for the last 24 hours at least. I can foresee a lot of sitting around, playing video games and watching DVDs today. Although after a cider sauce debacle on Saturday I may need to pop out and buy a new lidded saute pan.

I've actually got a fair amount of blogging to catch up on as I haven't really been in the mood over the last week...where to start?

Video game round up...

Managed to get hold of a copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance for £15 from Game last week (half price offer plus points from previous shops) and so far we're really enjoying it. The gesture recognition system seems a little wonky but my biggest problem is having a clue about who we should have in the team! Obviously a nice bonus is if you can assemble a recognisable team (for the bonuses) but so far it appears that Iceman, Spiderman, Mr & Mrs Fantastic haven't ever teamed up in the comics! K is playing as Spiderman and I'm controlling Iceman. We're just working our way around some of th others to see what they are like. I'm pretty sure Mr Fantastic has secured a long term place if only for his Propeller Arms! Its good that there is a selection of lesser known heroes in there to chose from, Spider Woman for starters but its also got Luke Cage & Ms Marvel...now if only there was Jessica Jones!

Also picked up a copy of Mario Strikers charged Football and found myself really enjoying online matches! They are certainly very tense! I just need to find some friends who have it now. (369467 799525)

Fantastic!

Can't...stop...playing

I think the only way to go now is to power my way through until the end and hope the urge doesn't take me to play through as a different character...I am of course talking about Puzzle Quest! How glad am I that this isn't never ending!

Browsed the Penny Arcade index earlier and here's their take on Puzzle Quest.

First Impressions

An Excerpt From The Book Of Deeds

In related news I finished God of War yesterday and snapped and ordered Picross DS, Eledees & Mario Strikers Charged. Fortunately they will arrive at sensible intervals but I now have approximately 3 days to finish Puzzle Quest & Hotel Dusk before the first one lands...oooops!