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.
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.
With this video.
Now that's dedication.
Also, I may be getting a promotion at work. We'll see.
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.
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.
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.
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.
