I Am The Messenger

…I haven’t blogged in a while.

Over the weekend, I purchased the book: Retribution, by Max Hastings at Borders with a 40% off coupon that I had. The hardcover edition was $35, so the coupon really helped out, and Megan had a Borders gift card she let me use which, although a small gesture said alot to me. I don’t think I’d ever share a gift card I got as a gift with anybody, including Megan. Sometimes I have a hard time letting go of what I cling to as being mine. Nothing is really mine, and nothing is so important that I couldn’t give it to the person I love the most in this world. I felt like an ass for taking something I’d never give.

Anyways… I’m excited for this book as it deals in detail with the Pacific theater campaign of WWII and is written about topics usually overlooked by history texts. Such events as the Tokyo firebombings, Burma, and an in depth look at the island hopping and navy battles operations. This should prove interesting, and if I can judge the book by the (short collection of ) pictures alone, this book will be amazing. I have never read Hastings, so I am unfamiliar with his writing style, but I’ll make sure and blog about something I find in the book that is interesting.

    Over the weekend, I purchased the game Noby Noby Boy. This game was created by Keita Takahashi, of Katamari Damacy fame. Instead of rolling a ball around collecting things on earth to create a star, you are a boy whose body stretches and is able to stretch even further by eating things. Your stretch length can be reported to an online database, and the amount in meters that you stretch is then added to a cumulative score of meters of stretching by everyone in the world playing. You are trying to report enough meters so that you can contribute to the cumulative stretch to reach the moon. After reaching the moon, planet hopping will then begin and so on and so forth. It is a relaxing game with no enemies or time limits, a nice soundtrack, unique controls and charming graphics. For $5 on the PS3, you can’t go wrong.
  

Griffey is a Mariner again. Here’s a pic from Geoff Baker’s blog of him back in an M’s uniform and reported in for Spring Training:

He will be wearing number 24 again.

    In other news, I was in a car accident last week (this shortly after our other car no longer runs). Through this, I am learning about having more faith, and trusting that God will provide for me and my families needs. It’s amazing how many people have reached out to help. I was offered by a couple of people their own personal cars if I ever needed them. Sometimes it’s too easy to believe that I have things figured out, that I have taken the necessary precautions to provide for my family; however most of that faith is placed into material things I felt I needed, and when that is taken away, I began to realize in what I need to place my reliance in.

    It’s been an expensive past couple of months. Chuck got into some Lisinopril which treats high blood pressure in humans. He ate 12 of them. We had to drop him off to stay the night at the vet; he was fine. He slept more than usual, but his heart rate and blood pressure never lowered, so it was basically a very expensive hotel stay for him. The bills for this came shortly after paying the better portion of a grand to  uncle sam for taxes. On top of that are medical bills for both Megan and I having Dr’s. visits, pre-registrations for childbirth, and whatever other baby things we’ve needed. I think these things would normally frustrate me and stress me out more, but I am learning to again rely on God and rest in His care, and to have faith that He will provide.

The Lathrops have moved again. We’re now on the south side of Division ave, but still on Cushman Avenue. Easy to find. Right now I’m in the process of trying to make the would be spare room, into a girly baby room…which is not easy cosidering it’s maroon colored. We’ve been working pretty hard on the place and it’s still not done. Part of this is due to the fact that I got a PS3 for my birthday. And that I’m lazy. But I’m working on that. We did get a lot of stuff done this weekend and that was good.

A couple of weeks ago I got allergy tests done. This is done with syrums injected into the arm. I got about 20+ shots and was allergic to just about everything in the world. Especially dust mites in which the swelling took over my shoulder and turned into a little rash a couple of days later.

The baby has been moving alot and I’ve even gotten to feel it. This is the first time I’ve ever felt a baby move before, so the experience is pretty cool. I recommend getting your significant other pregnant so that you can experience it for yourself.

By the way, I plan on our baby’s room being really freaking sweet. One that I’ll even be jealous of, so come check it out when it’s done…if it gets done.

Megan and I just found out the gender of the baby she is pregnant with: a Girl! The coolest part was seeing her open and close her fingers and stretch out to get more comfortable in such a cramped area. Anyways, cool beans and here’s some pictures for you to look at or whatever it is that you do.

Foot and toes.

Leg and foot.

I can’t wait until tomorrow cause Megan and I will be heading to the beach with the Landon family. It’s always nice to get away for a while. We’ll be gone from Friday evening until Sunday afternoonish. Should be a nice little getaway, even if the weather sucks.

Last night Megan and I went to the library. Last time we went to the library, Megan rented a movie called “The Business of Being Born”. It was very informative in the areas of mid-wives and home births, and how some hospitals tend to operate. A good dvd to watch for anyone planning on becoming a parent someday. I had to stop watching though at one point. They were showing a shot of Riki Lake (you remember her, eh?) at home going through painful contractions. She was leaning against a counter one second wearing a hospital robe, and the next second she had flipped it off and was disgustingly topless. My eyeballs exploded and my scrotum sack retreated far up into my stomach. But other that kind of stuff, it was really informative.

I got the movies this time: Run Lola Run (haven’t watched it since I did with Aaron Carioto and Jason Hornby in high school), The Seventh Seal, and Rashomon (a Kurosawa film). So far, we’ve started Rashomon. About two weeks ago I watched The Seven Samurai which was amazing. I was a bit hesitant to even watch any Kurosawa films as his fanboys are always such nerds, but so far I really do like his films. I also found Radioheads: In Rainbows at the library. An album I have yet to even listen to.

Version 3.0 of the Zune software came out and it’s quite amazing and fun to play with and the latest iTunes also came out. I updated that for Megan but haven’t had the chance to play around with it too much yet.

I finally got into armor this last weekend in Kendo. It’s hard to see and having not worked out in over a month and a half now (no room to continue p90x in the current place we live at) I lost all of my endurance and training has been a real struggle for me the past couple of weeks. That and my feet keep getting tore up. I got a nice bruise on the top of my head from last week. I suck at Kendo so far in this advanced quarter, and the month or so off didn’t help any. 

Megan and I are getting ready to move again. We knew this current place was only temporary as it is for sale. We are going to be moving to the top floor of another Cushman 9 home in the hilltop area. Last weekend I went through some stuff and threw away a huge bag of stuff. It always feel great to do that. I’ll do some more of it through the next couple of weeks. 

It sucks fall is here already, but I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. Hopefully it doesn’t rain when we start to move. 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7008748856381833702

A classic that I had forgotten about. Please enjoy.

So who’s into tea? I’ve been drinking alot of this stuff lately and love it. What are some good flavors that you’d recommend? I’m currently enjoying some Vanilla Almond tea with a tad of milk and some sugar. I use filtered tea packets over the loose leaves, but usually by nicer brands of it. 

I’ve also gotten myself into a couple of cool games for the Wii. One being No More Heroes, and the other Medal Of Honor Heroes 2 online. I usually play after Megan goes to sleep, so if you’re into first person shooters online, I like to play capture the flag. Using the Wii remote and nun-chuck is an excellent FPS setup.

This weekend was pretty busy or at least it felt busy. I’ll start with Friday I suppose. After a busy day of work, I stopped by the lisencing office and got a new drivers lisence. That was good. I then went over to Borders after picking Megan up and got some money back on a book I recently bought with a coupon I got in my email. Saving 25% is good. Megan and I hung out the rest of the night, and after she went to bed, I went downstairs in our house and hung out with Grant and Rachel until about 2:30am. I didn’t know it was 2:30am cause Rachel had a broken clock in her living room that says it’s 11:35 all the time. 

On Saturday I woke up at about 10:30am. I rolled out of bed and called my parents. I had wanted to be out of the house by 10am to head up to Snoqualmie falls with them and Megan, but by 10am I was still stuck in a bad dream in which I had to pee really badly. The reality of the situation was that I really did have to pee so badly that my bladder, in an effort to survive explosion from overflow, decided to become the forefront of my dream subject matter. This also happened a couple of nights beforehand. Anyways, I started to get ready to leave. We didn’t make it out of the house until after 11:45. When we had made it to Division ave. I realized that wearing long pants was going to be a bad decision. So, we turned around and I changed. So, we actually didn’t leave the house till a little after 12pm. About 15 minutes out my dad called to see where the heck we were. We arrived at the parents house at about 12:30 and proceeded to Auburn where we ate at Jackpot Teriyaki. A family friend owns the resteraunt, and it was the first time I had eaten there. It was very tasty. There was a friendly old guy there with very hiked up pants, suspenders, and a white mustache. He had on a hat that said “Jesus is my boss”. He seemed like one of those guys you could have a long conversation with, even though you didn’t know who the heck he was.

After lunch we made it to Snoqualmie falls. It was a very nice day, so it was really crowded. We decided to do the 1/2 mile hike down to the observation area at ground level. Megan alluded to hearing an ambulance siren echoeing throughout the woods “kind of takes the feeling away from being outdoors and away from it all.” I added “not too mention the hundreds of people on this overcrowded trail.

Snoqualmie falls was fun, and as I learned from Megan, Snoqalmie fall is actually higher than Niagra Falls. It’s just not as cool, especially since Superman had never saved a kid at Snoqualmie falls as he had at Niagra.

Sunday was supposed to be my brother and his friends 6th annual softball game, but it got rained out. We hung out at his place anyways which was cool and had a BBQ. My parents were there too. Afterwards, Megan and I went up to Lynnwood and had dinner with her sister and her husband Aaron. Kathy is due to have a baby in a few days, so it was cool to see them pre-baby one more time. Then we watched the closing ceremonies for the Olympics. I have to admit that this years Olympics were one of the best I had ever watched. The venues that China built this year were all amazing looking. We bought a new antenna for our t.v., so on Saturday night I couldn’t stop watching the games. I stayed up until 3am watching ping pong.

Anyways, it was a good weekend.

I am now twenty seven. I have officially reached the twilight of my days.

My birthday was on the 16th. Megan and I had people over where we played games, ate pizza and cupcakes, and talked. It was a lot of fun. Later on in the evening we went to Parkland Putters and mini-golfed. If you have never been to Parkland Putters before, then you are missing out on a pretty good time. The 18th hole is an uphill shot into a PVC pipe. If you make it into the hole, you get either a trophy or a free 18 hole game. I have never made the shot yet. I did have a perfect putt that fell just short in front of the hole, but it didn’t go in; however a friend of mine, Rachel, did. She better treasure that trophy.

For my birthday, Megan got me a box of Allen and Ginter cards by Topps. Allen and Ginter make art cards featuring basball players and historical/current icons of today. It’s definitely a fun set. My favorite cards include: Joey Chestnut (hot dog eating champion), The Golden Gate Bridge, The Grand Canyon, and a David Wright autographed card.
 
Megan also allowed me to get a new t.v! Now we can actually watch t.v. shows and the Olympics. This can only be good.