The Star Trek: TNG Episode Song.

I bow to this man.

Most beautifulest baby ever

I'm in love.

New car

So, since I thoroughly thrashed the Ion, we started looking for a new vehicle. We'd been talking about possibly getting a minivan for some time - well before the accident - since we now have a newborn, and will possibly have another in a couple of years, and seating room could become scarce. We looked over a few, and finally decided that, well, the gas mileage just wasn't what we really needed. That basically left us with large cars.

Bridget was in love with the PT Cruiser, and we almost bought one a couple of years ago. The Chevy HHR was similar enough to it, so we compared them and finally came to the conclusion that, despite outward appearances, they weren't that much larger than the Ion on the interior.

Eventually, we found a beautiful blue 2006 Chevy Impala that I fell in love with, and the price was just fantastic. I spoke to the dealership in Shreveport several times about the vehicle, Bridget got a loan from her credit union, and we were all set to go buy the car yesterday afternoon. Except they'd sold it.

Thankfully, I found this out on the phone before we'd left. So we looked around some more, and found several 2007 Impalas at another Shreveport dealership that were the same price as the 2006 we'd been looking at. Bridget, now faced with the impending decision of buying a new car RIGHT NOW, was kind of freaking out, and called her parents to be assured that, yes, this was a good decision.

We drove to the dealership today, after speaking to a salesman several times last night, and looked at several models. We settled on a bronze one - the only real differences between all of them was the color, and white we just did NOT want (side note - the white ones were the only that were supposed to be sold at the price we were quoted, the others were supposed to be $1000 more - the sales guy just went with it when I asked).

The next part was the really cool part - we had some extra stuff we wanted to purchase - GAP coverage, and the extended warranty since this one's warranty mileage was almost up. We had calculated a base amount that would cost us, based on what it had cost us on the Ion - a little over $2000 for the warranty and $600 for the GAP.

First, though, they beat the APR we had for the loan from Bridget's credit union. Then, the warranty on the car was almost $500 less than on the Ion. Our monthly payments ended up being less than we'd anticipated. It was a great experience.

And here's our new car.

Test 2, Nathan's Immortality: Success!

So I wrecked my car Sunday.

And when I say "wrecked my car," of course I mean I did this to it:



I fell asleep at the wheel, spun out, flipped it over and slammed it into a couple of trees. I hit my head and was out for a while.



Yes, that's my blood. Looks worse than it is, really. I have a lot of lacerations on my scalp, mostly from hitting the windshield there, I think. I have a couple of small cuts on my hand and arm, but nothing major. But my neck hurts like crazy. And there was blood everywhere inside.



That's the area of the ceiling that was directly over my head - or under my head, since I was resting upside down.

Major reason behind the minor injuries - the driver side was barely touched.



So, as the title suggests, I'm thoroughly convinced of my immortality, though funding for further tests has been cut off.

The cost of a child

We got the "Explanation of Benefits" from our insurance company today, covering the hospital stay and the anesthesiologist.

Anesthesiologist: $1050.00
Amount we owe: $0.00

Hospital: $8367.00
Amount we owe: $100.00

That brings the grand total that we paid to have Eleanor to $215 or so.

I love insurance.

A Memory of Light

That's the title of Book 12 in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. If you've never read the series... well, now's not a good time to start, as Robert Jordan died yesterday.

My heartfelt condolences to his loved ones.

Oops, I broke it.

I was filling out a poll at Wired, which uses Reddit for its polls and user submitted stuff, when this error appeared:



So, I apologize to anyone whose internet experience I have ruined.

Happy Birthday!

Eleanor Grace, well, graced us with her presence at 5:33 am on August 29, 2007.



Weighed in at 6 lbs 11 oz, 18 inches long.

Bridget's holding up well after the 11.5 hour labor, which didn't go as well as we'd hoped. Both girls are doing fine, and we're home now, but Bridget is sore, and on pain medication. Ellie likes to eat, ALL THE TIME, and is quite the stinker. But she's beautiful, and she's ours.

Yes, I have a new job

Which is the main reason I haven't posted in a while, though I have had chances on occasion and have just been lazy. I am now the Accounting and Human Resources Manager, which, in a nutshell, means I am responsible for all expenditures from the resort, and ensuring we receive all payments. I answer directly to the GM, am his equal in all financial matters, and in some convoluted way still am in charge of the front desk. Sort of. The position I used to be in, which is directly in charge of the FD, answers to me.

I'm loving it, so far. Although, on my two recent days off, I had math nightmares. Weird. I spend all day in my office, balancing checkbooks, managing spreadsheets, signing paperwork, going through stacks of receipts... I deal with guests much less often, which interestingly has lowered my stress levels considerably. As, I think, seeing my wife more often. I actually see her EVERY DAY!

Well, those days when I don't have to work 2 shifts; the person who is taking my place can't, well, take my place, until we have someone who can take HER place. Which should be happening at the beginning of this coming week. Then I just need to train the new manager, and we'll be set. I'll be working days only. WOO!

In other news, I've recently discovered a band called Dragonforce. I'm not normally a metal fan, but it's pretty meoldic. And their songs have a very epic quality to them: Through the Fire and Flames

I first heard about this band, and dismissed them as metal, when someone figured out how to hack Guitar Hero to accept custom songs, and someone made Through the Fire and Flames as a playable song.

Now it's a bonus song on Guitar Hero 3. Woot for community efforts.

In other hilarity: Jack Black performing Kissed by a Rose.

I end the silence...

With this video.

Now that's dedication.

Also, I may be getting a promotion at work. We'll see.

We're geniuses

A few years ago at one of Bridget's pool parties, Seth and I jokingly created a theory of 3-dimensional time, and had a fun time imaging travelling sideways in time.

Now, it seems, we were ahead of our time, pun intended. Admittedly, this is far beyond what Seth and I joked about.

Next time, Seth, we patent or copyright our fun times.

Calvin and Hobbes

I love StumbleUpon. It led me to a a searchable Calvin & Hobbes database. Thus far, I think only the text is searchable, so you can only find, for instance, strips in which Susie's name is mentioned, but not every strip she's in.

A familiar face... and name

So I'm sitting here at work, killing a little bit of time on Digg, and I'm watching this video of a Penn & Teller's BS show when I see a somewhat familiar face maybe 3 minutes in. And then it's clinched when he says, "I'm Tarracas Obremski, and I hate Wal-Mart."

I literally JUMPED in my seat. There's NO way there can be two of them, although he does pronounce it differently on the show than he did when checking in at the hotel several years ago. Apparently, as he said, he hates Wal-Mart. Even runs a website dedicated to hating Wal-Mart.

A little glimpse into the mind of the man with the greatest name ever.

I'm going to Jackson

Actually, I've already been. We drove over Friday evening for the biannual Jackson throwfest that we attend every year, said hey to some folks, and then went downtown to this place called Hal & Mal's, which we also hit every year. It's a great little restaurant/bar, and we started going because they brewed their own beers. Alas, they stopped a couple of years ago, and buy some locally brewed stuff instead. The atmosphere is still fantastic, though, and the food is really good. The place was PACKED compared to when we usually go; we had to park about 3 blocks away and walk up. Charlie had a friend that was singing in the "auditorium" next door, and the band that they were opening for was apparently kind of big, though we had never heard from them. So we watched them for a bit, and then ate, and went back to the hotel to sleep.

Saturday we woke up early and went to one of the meeting rooms and worked out for a while, as Charlie and I were testing for our new ranks that morning. The test went relatively easily; I was worried, as I seemed to not be able to not messing everything up when we'd driven down to Houston a couple of weeks ago, to work out with Charlie's instructor. I felt good during the combos, great during the one steps, and fantastic during the forms. The testing panel chided Charlie and I as we were getting ready to spar that it was to be a "friendly" sparring match. Charlie and I just smiled, and we actually did take it pretty easy. Great match, too. Afterward, one of the panel members said he'd hate to be our friend.

So Charlie and I now have some blinged out new black belts, with our names, in Korean, on one end, and Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan on the other. Gold bars indicating our rank sit below our names. We likely won't wear them much, as we prefer the plain belts, but they'll be there if we need them. Our dan certs are also the size of a small table. Ask me to see it the next time any one is over.

He was more important than I thought...

Who knew that Lando was pope? Must have been at the height of the corruption of the Catholic Church.

Ah, the glory of management...

One of my employees just had surgery to remove a growth from one of his testicles. I'd known about it for a while, so I was prepared for it. He works the evening Manager on Duty shift on my off days, but I was only going to have to pick one of his shifts up, and we could security to come in early to cover the others. Total, though, he'll be out for 8 days. His surgery was Monday.

Monday evening, my full time night auditor asked me what we'd do if she got sick - not that she was planning on getting sick, or anything, but, what were our emergency plans, cause our other night auditor has sever arthritis, and working more than his two nights a week really made it act up. I told her that I or the guy out for surgery could easily cover that for her if she were sick, or needed some time off.

Tuesday morning, the part time night auditor calls me to tell me his mother died. She's been a terminal cancer patient for almost a year now, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. I offered my condolences and called my manager, telling him I'd be working the night audit on Wednesday and Thursday, and we'd need someone to work my MOD shifts those nights. He asked me to get the full time girl to work one, so we'd only need to find one MOD. She agreed, for a box of Runts, her favorite candy.

So, Bridget and I got to spend Valentine's Day together, or at least the part of the day after she got off from work and before I left for work. We had a great dinner, and enjoyed a lot more of each other's company than we had in a while, and then I left to spend the night at work - I had a room set up, because I'd be getting off work at 7am, and going back at 3pm to MOD.

My full time auditor calls me shortly after I get off: she's running a 102 degree fever. There are 4 people at this hotel that can run the night audit, and three of them are now down for the count; looks like I'll be Night Audit again tonight. Won't be a problem, I can be a lazy MOD. Mostly stay in my room. They can call if they need me. Only problem is, because we only 4 occupied rooms, I'd also scheduled myself to work the 3-11 desk shift. *sigh* I managed to get someone to come in to cover that shift, though - which could have been very difficult, because of the way some of my employees schedules work, and considering the number of them that were now out.

The full time girl called again today, and thanked me for working the shift last night, and she'd be in tonight, she was feeling somewhat better. When she showed up, she was still running a 101 degree fever, and looked it. So I took a 3 hour nap and relieved her about halfway through her shift, sent her home. I have to MOD again this afternoon, during which there is a freaking Mardi Gras Ball, and we'll see how she's feeling for the night audit tonight.

Bridget, I did tell her I wouldn't be able to work Sunday night. So she'd better be well by then.

And that was far longer than I meant it to be.

Oh, and if anyone is interested, I'm testing for my 2nd dan in Jackson, MS, on Feb 24. If all goes well, I won't look like an ass while I'm doing it.

I wish...

... we had done this at our wedding. I was a HUGE Michael Jackson fan growing up.

Soccer Kid Commercial

Yeah... this kid loves playing soccer. Great plan, man.