My girlfriend plays Call of Duty with me.

So, back in December, I introduced Cat to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. I decided to take some video of this to document that she did indeed play.

Just recently she has decided that she has taken an interest in the game that I play with my friends. As of now, she's getting better. She gets a couple kills each game. She gets very few deaths for the most part, and she's starting to venture out and not camp so much.

There is still the occasional screaming coming from her when someone freaks her out by flying around a corner, and she shoots at everything that moves (friend or foe). But she has taken a liking to playing. Just the other night all I heard was "ooo! I want to play too!" as she was supposed to be doing her homework and I was playing.

Last night, I had her work on playing the single player campaign to which I was told "I don't like this. It's not as fun as the other game" (multiplayer). Yet after all of this. She will still try to say that video games are still "dumb"  and that she doesn't particularly care for them.

We have to play split screen because I'm not about to get a second Elite account for her AND a gamertag, so for the moment, she plays as my "guest". I am also working on getting her a headset that she likes and possibly a microphone too. At the moment, she gets a little loud while playing and everyone can hear her through my microphone while we have game chat through the speakers.

Also, big thanks to Drift0r for the words of advice on how to get her more in tune with the game. You can check out his videos on YouTube.

Quotes from Cat: "I shot him first, why didn't he die?"

Am.Psych Live at Club Anything

Here is the video for Am.Psych live at Club Anything this past Saturday.

The original plan was that my girlfriend was going to take video of just the songs I had solos in that night, but she ended up getting the whole show and it just might be the best video we have of us so far.

Special thanks to i:Scintilla and Dark Clan for playing that night as well. I know Tony and Amie will not forget it.

...ok can we talk about this?

Vegan whole grain lasagna just out of the oven

I haven't had lasagna in ages. It used to be one of my favorites. Thing is, it's a pain in the ass to make sometimes. Then, a couple years ago after going vegan, I just ruled out eating lasagna ever again...

...until tonight. Look at this. I made it. Whole wheat lasagna noodles, broccoli, corn, carrots, onions, garlic, mushrooms, sweet potato, tomatoes, tofu, spinach, cashews (more on that later), spices, and two jars of sauce later and we were in business.

On the plate

So, on the top of it is what looks like cheese, for those in the know with me, it's not. It's ground cashews. You put it on the top of the pan for the last 15 minutes. It gets a little toasty, but it doesn't smell burnt. It tasted like what I remember to be cheese.

 The tofu served as a type of ricotta in here. I used extra firm and just crumbled it up. Up at the top is a sweet potato mash that seemed to hold everything together. 

Next time, I think I need to make a bigger batch. All in all, this took about two and a half hours to get done. It was well worth it. I have leftovers for a while now.

Om nom nom nom.

I wanted more like NOW, but I know I'll just get over full.

Food and exercise log - 2-11-12

Exercise: early morning yoga!

Food:

Breakfast: big bowl of cereal with fruit

Lunch: Totally missed lunch due to falling asleep and waking up too close to dinner.

Dinner: Loaded Veggie burgers with home made rosemary/dill potato puff fries.
Snack: baked corn chips. Berry and OJ smoothie.

Big changes happening...

So, I've been slacking a little bit. Or, as my lady would say "hey, remember when you had a blog?"...

I'm back in school again. Am.Psych is playing another show, and I waited until February to start my new year.

On the school front, the stuff has been busy for me. More reading than I have done for any of my classes, and these are just 100 level classes. One of them in on interpersonal communications, the other one is on race in the geography in America. Some interesting stuff in there, and there is some overlap between the two classes. All I know is that I am doing a TON of reading.

Am.Psych: Yup. We're playing again. Headlining a night with Dark Clan and I:scintilla for our friends, Tony and Amie Asman who just got married not too long ago. We've got some new tricks up our sleeves, so this will be a good one.

As far as the starting a new year business: Over the weekend I watched Forks over Knives with my kids. This prompted them to want to see the next part that talked about the Engine 2 diet. Both are on Netflix instant if you have it. My kids were in to it and it seemed to open their eyes a little bit.

While I was watching it, I am listening as well. Even though I am vegan... and not a damn thing I eat is animal based... there are still aspects of my diet that are not the best. I think they put in best by saying "for most people that are vegan, that means they eat a lot of processed food."  Know what. He's right. I looked at what I was eating, a lot of processed or boxed food that says it's vegan, but when you get down to it... there is a lot of CRAP in there. Too many oils, added sugar, and added salt. Time for me to make a change. I can't stand the belly I have. It's been there for a while. I'd like to make it go away. So, starting on my next trip to the grocery store it's whole grains and oil free cooking for me. I know I can do this. I am not a fan of butter or oils anyway, so I think I can do just fine.

So, along with taking my diet a little more hardcore, I've joined a gym too. I have missed the days where I used to wake up super early in the morning eat breakfast, head down to the YMCA for a swim, come home and head to work. It really boosted my day. I know I had a lot more energy. It was during that time that I actually gained muscle mass and didn't look like a 145lb skinny kid.

I am going to enjoy this. I can go work out while I do my homework. The cardio stations have shelves so I can bring my iPad with me and read. I just have to figure out how my workout is going to work. I want to do 6 days a week of cardio if I can and alternate 3 or 4 days of weights to bring my strength back up.

Hopefully, I can have my belly gone soon. I know it won't happen overnight, getting it took a few years.

I'll keep people posted on progress. There might be some pictures that don't look the best of me in here... but I'm going to track progress of my adventure in this blog.

I think it's a good place to do it.

Today was better because... I got off my ass and got active again.

...I'm recapping last weekend.

So, this past weekend I had a lot going on. I turned 37. I went to a Packer's pre-season game and sat on the 50 yard line for it. Chicago was a blast, and Sunday was nice and lazy.

...I have completed level 36. On to level 37.

For all my geek friends out there, I have dinged level 37 this morning. Level 36 was complicated, tiring at times, and quite awesome as well. Here are the highlights, starting with the Level 36 ding itself.

August: I had a bunch of friends with me to celebrate while I at sushi and hibachi.

September: Back to school. I took a guitar class and learned quite a bit.

October: I learned that some people are REALLY in to Halloween. I also moved jobs from broadcast to corporate.

November: My first vegan thanksgiving. There is a turkey alternative, and it's fucking amazing (pardon my swearing please)

December: I saw a play for the first time in years, and I had a good time with it. Promotion at my job.

...the carpet is in. Now I am home.

Today the carpeting went in. My girl stayed at the house so that I could go to work and not lose any money or vacation days.  As she said to me "It's not like I have anything else to do." So she stayed here and cracked the whip on the installers the whole day. 

Last night was a pain in the ass. I know she'll punch me for saying it, but it was. I had been at work all day and the last thing I wanted to do was move a bunch of furniture around and clean like I was moving. But, I like staying in good standing with her. It helps me out in other avenues. Over the weekend I had moved everything to what is now my office. I had it all in there and I was happy that there were only two things left... 

...baby steps.

This weekend was a good one. It's the first time my lady has stayed at the house for the weekend... while the kids were home. It's a big step. One she didn't know if she was ready for. But, if we are going to move forward with our lives together, she can't just go stay somewhere else every other weekend.

It went quite well. My kids get a kick out of her. They respect what she has to say and don't pull the "You're not my mom" crap I have seen other kids pull on adults. My kids respect authority. They also know that they are at my house and that I won't stand for it.

So, this weekend had a lot of things that were different about it and will continue. My kids kind of got the law laid down about the house and how we need to keep it clean. They were shown the chores that they need to do on the weekends they are home and what they can "earn" for doing these chores.

It totally worked.

Right away Saturday morning, they started cleaning without being told. I was floored. Friday night we had told them they should leave a room "better than when they entered it" and I heard my daughter tell my son "no, you have to fold the blankets up before you leave the room!"

The one thing that was great was that I kept the video games to a minimum. They really should be a reward and not the norm when they are here. I get so little time with them. So, I confiscated the GameBoy that they each have and put them away. No "video" games for the weekend. Games were played though. We had a super long game of Sorry! that was quite fun to play. It took forever, but it got all of us talking and playing at the table instead of in front of the TV.

This needs to happen more often. It really sucks that more families don't do this. Eat at the table. Clean together. Reward for good. Play games as a family.

It was a fun weekend.

...good things are happening around here.

Nine and a half years ago, I moved in to the house I currently live in and own. As odd as it sounds, I can honestly say that it has never been as clean as it is right now. NEVER.

This house has seen quite a bit. Two marriages, four kids, four dogs, a multitude of cats, and various other animals. To say it was chaos around here is an understatement. Now, I will admit this... I am a lazy bastard. And because of such, I do not like to clean. Only one person is really to blame for this house getting to the point that it got to and that was me. I should have got on the kids to make things right around here, I should have got the people who lived here to pitch in more and help me keep the kids in line. All of that is going to change real quick. My kids are not going to like it. I'm not sure how much their mom makes them do around the house, but I am pretty sure it isn't a whole lot. I have to make sure that my kids understand that you get to do the fun things after you do what needs to be done. I have that approach at work so I need to bring it home too. I don't get to play chess at lunch if there are things to do. Why should my kids be downstairs watching TV if their bed isn't made, or if there are dishes to be put away.

I have someone to thank for this. My lady. She made me realize that there really is time for this once you just decide to get it done. That's what I'm doing now. I should have done it a long time ago. Let me tell you this, when you feel depressed, it just grabs a hold of you. You might not know it at the time, but it's something that just makes you want to sit there... do nothing... feel nothing... I'm glad she helped me snap out of it. It took her over a year. Most people would have quite almost instantly. Not her. She stuck with me, believed in me.

For those of you who have been here and don't believe what I'm writing, come over. I'm not ashamed of this house anymore. I still want to get out of it, but I am going to make the best of it while I am here. It's the only think I can do to stay sane... and it might make August 9th that much better for me. I have quite a bit more to get done here. Flooring will get laid down upstairs and downstairs to make it look even nicer around here within a month or so. Painting is going to begin as well. You're not going to recognize this place when it's done people.

...I am posting this ahead of time.

Today will be a great day. I already got to ride in on the motorcycle. I will be leaving work in an hour. And this afternoon, I will be heading up to a nice bed and breakfast with my lady for the night. Tomorrow we top it off with a day at Summerfest and watch the fireworks.

It's going to be a good 48 hours where I don't have to worry about anything really. Just what to eat, and lounge around.

...I went to State Fair Park and it didn't flood.

So, I went to State Fair Park this weekend to attend Greek Fest. My lady dances in it every year and last year I was unable to attend because am.psych was celebrating our latest and only cd release with a 3 day mini tour on the same weekend.

Well, this year, I was able to attend... and, a Jorgensen of Crego decent stepped foot on the fairgrounds and it didn't flood.  Laugh all you want, it's happened twice before.

The fest was interesting. I have never seen so many people just happy to be entertained by dancing. They went late in to the night last night and the band kept playing past 10 even though that was when it was supposed to be done. Greek time I guess.

I liked it. I'll be going again. It was really a fun time... minus the ride where my leg was almost crushed.

...when she makes herself crack up...

She snorts and looks like this picture. I tend to start laughing too.

I love her.

She's going to kill me for this post, but it's true. Love this girl.

...I feel refreshed and relaxed for the first time in over a week.

Yesterday, I had planned on going directly home to do some cleaning and go to sleep. The last week or so has been a whirlwind of not getting a lot of sleep compounded by other stress in my life. Over the last week, I have had an average of about four hours of sleep a night. Some nights were less than that. With school, work, Easter week services, and two shows since the 15th... I was pretty run down.

So, that was the plan. What ended up happening is I went over by the lady and spent some time with her just relaxing. She cooked me up a great dinner, and we just sat watching television and playing chess. At about 9, it was time to go home. After my 45 minute drive home, the effects of my non sleep routine started to really kick in. I won't get in to specifics. It was not pleasant. 

I got some really good sleep last night, and I dont think my body knew how to handle it. I woke up at 2am, and then at 6am. Both times I was ready to go and thought it was a super great day. I haven't had that in a while. 

It was nice to wake up and feel refreshed. Getting that "good morning, love" phone call on the way to work was nice too.

...I got to sleep in my own bed.

I stayed at a hotel down in Chicago this weekend, I'm not going to say which one. But the bed that was there really beat me up. It was way too soft, no support for my body and when I woke up it felt like someone stepped on my head or repeatedly kicked me in the upper back all night.

I go to sleep in my bed last night though, that has really worked out a lot of the pain that I had from that.

So, with that being said, Chicago was a blast this past weekend. The lady and I went down just to get away for the weekend. We had a deal that we bought online a while ago and we needed to use it. This was the ONLY weekend we could. So, we went down there, got settled in at the hotel and just bummed around for a while. Then we wanted to eat. Eventually we ended up at Chicago Diner. As always, awesome food! The Karma Burger is fantastic. Love that place. The chili almost killed me though. Super spicy, couldn't finish the damn thing.

When we got back, we just kicked back and watched Airplane 2 through the wonders of using my phone as a wifi hotspot and connecting my computer to the hotel's TV. I'm way happy it worked. I didn't think it was going to.

The next morning, we woke up late, had to rush out the door and get our stuff to the car so we could head down Michigan Ave. and do some window shopping. I actually ended up getting a couple shirts for work, and the lady, well.... she didn't buy anything. She really wanted to though.

Side note, we were looking for a place to eat, and started going down Rush St. We're walking by this Italian place across from Giordano's and she goes "heh, Rod Stewart"... I stopped, looked at her and said "No, honey, that IS Rod Stewart." Sure as shit, there he was with his woman and what could only be their baby and some other younger girl. It was kinda funny.

After that, we went to the Sushi bar just past there called "Friends Sushi". It's a really nice place. Very clean looking, custom wood chop sticks. Very nice decor. I really like that place. They make their sushi differently than I am used to (they GRILL they asparagus for the asparagus rolls!) but it was all very well done. The presentation was nice and the staff was quite kind.

After shopping a little bit more, we started to make our way back to the car. It was at this time I was suckered in to a shoe shine. It just all happened so fast. The guy was lucky that I had cash on me. I didn't want to be that guy who gets pulled in to something like that and then not be able to pay. But, my shoes look better now than they did when I bought them.

Once we got back we cooked a simple dinner, I did some homework, and we started our venture back in to the Matrix.

But, the highlight was that I got to sleep in my bed last night and wake up in it with my lady again.

...there was an end to the madness.

I'm on vacation in a couple days. I have a lot of school work to get done, but there is always something about those last few days prior to a vacation. You have to get everything in order, and set for you to go. It is quite hectic actually. So much to prepare for, what if something goes wrong?

At least I know will have done everything I could to prepare and then some.

I also have a very loving lady in my life and friends who are fantastic. Tonight, after class, they told me to get my ass over to the place where they were doing food night and sit and eat with all of them so I didn't have to do my usual "Monday night fasting" that usually happens thanks to the schedule. It was really nice. I didn't think I'd get to see my girl until around this time NEXT week because of everything that is going on at home. But I got to see her tonight. She's also been keeping tabs on how my knee is doing. I tweaked it pretty bad yesterday to the point of having to get out the old Rebel99 brace (see picture on the side for reference on what this brace looks like). She's looking out for me. Her dad went through some pretty rough stuff with his knees, so she knows what I am possibly heading towards. I want to be able to run around and keep dancing with her. If this knee of mine gives me any more problems, I won't be able to. And that will upset me greatly.

BUT! Today was better, tomorrow should be fantastic as well... and that's the bottom line...

...I learned some new stuff for the band.

Learned some new stuff for the band tonight. We'll be playing it on 4-15 for our show with The Dark Clan and Red This Ever at Club Anything. There is some special stuff happening that I'm not going to go about saying quite yet. But, I will say it's something I've never done on stage before. That's what made today better.

It's been really hard for me to find something today that made it better because I've had such an awesome 48 hours before it. Spent a lot of time with my lady the last two days and it has been quite nice. I want more of those days and nights. Being able to just sit in bed and talk until we fall asleep is nice. I like waking up in the morning like we did the last two days and just having her there too. It makes getting out of bed a pain, but it's ok. I know she'll be there again.

Until tomorrow, it's time to put the computer and keyboard away. My fingers are way sore from practicing about 4 hours tonight and they are yelling at me quite a bit... and by the way, if you dont have the EP yet, I put the link right up there for you to go get it. It's quite the steal up at amazon.

...I introduced the lady to the first of many awesome movies.

So, I made her watch The Usual Suspects tonight. She had not seen it yet. I consider it one of the best suspense movies out there and I have watched it probably in the range of 40-50 times. This...is just the start. It was revealed a few months back that she has not seen many of the great 80's movies of the late John Hughes, pretty sure she has not seen the Goonies yet, and I have to make sure she knows One Crazy Summer and Better Off Dead as well as I do. I did get her to watch Real Genius, she likes that one. So maybe it's time to get some of the other awesome Val Kilmer movies out of the way too (can we say Willow?).

I am sure there are more that she needs to see. I think my kids may have seen more bad 80's movies than she has thanks to me being obsessed with watching them over and over and not changing the channel when I used to have cable and they would jsut happen to be on TBS or TNT. But, The Usual Suspects is a great start.

...a new year begins.

A year ago today, after weeks of pressuring, I got her to come out to go see a movie with me. The stipulation, it had to be Avatar... in 3D. This was at the END of the first run for Avatar and there was only one theater still playing it. I had tried to get her to come out on multiple occasions, only to be turned down each time. I didn't give up. I kept at it, asking when would be a good time to meet. Finally, I just told her we're doing this movie thing. Meet me there, I dont care how tired you are. It's just a movie.

Just a movie became talking in the car for what seemed like hours afterwards. Text messages and emails flew afterwards. A second date came and went. Then for the oddest of all dates, I experienced Greek Easter with her family and a huge family gathering they do at Easter and Thanksgiving. The summer was one where we got to know each other better. We grew as people and as a couple, finally making it "official" to everyone even though they pretty much saw this first date as the start of something awesome.

I did something with her I've never done before. I took a vacation. We flew off to Tampa. I met some wonderful people that will always make me feel comfortable whenever I am there. I went to the theater for the first time in years. I got back in to going to ball games, hockey games, concerts, movies, and so much more. I dressed up for Halloween for the first time since I was a kid.... and I found someone I can talk to about anything, at any time of the day, for any reason. I'm not going to say all of our conversations have been good ones. But we have this way of being able to talk to each other that is nothing I have ever experienced before. I dont ever have to pull any punches, and she sure as hell doesn't either. That's what is making this work with the two of us. Just being able to communicate on such a regular basis about anything.

So, yesterday marked the end of "year one".  Now we move on to "year two" of many more.

S'agapo, prinkipissa mou.

...I got to share an awesome sunset with the lady.

So, I picked up my girlfriend on the way out to get my kids tonight. Prior to leaving, she gave me my anniversary gift a few days early (Tuesday will be one year since our first date). She got me a very nice pair of sunglasses I have been looking at for a while. They are awesome. So, we hit the road, got some food and drove out to get the littles. Thanks to daylight savings time shifting the clock by an hour last weekend, I got to drive in to the sunset.

It was amazing. A giant orange ball of light that you wanted to reach out and hold just disappearing in to the trees on the horizon leaving a bloody trail of red and dark purple against a pristine clear blue sky. One would think that would be the end of it. The red and purple went away, no clouds in the sky, nothing to make the night really seem all that eventful. Then as we rounded the corner of the highway, the moon rise started. It's not too often you get to see a great sunset and then an almost full moon rise within minutes of each other.

It was a nice ride out tonight.