we’re having a baby!

i’ve been wanting to post about this for a while now, because i obviously have a lot of thoughts on the subject, but i’ve been waiting patiently while we both slowly spread the news to our loved ones.

anyway, li’l fitzpatrick is 13 weeks into pregnancy. the only ultrasound we have in electronic form is back at about 7 1/2 weeks, but i’m happy to share that now:

i’ll try to get nicki to scan the ultrasound pics taken last week before we leave for florida.

we’re driving with the dogs all the way down to florida. we’re going a little out of our way on the way down, so that we can spend a good portion of a day in new orleans. we leave this coming friday, perhaps i’ll post a report about the trip here.

one year ago today we were married! we’re on a tight budget, especially given our back to back weekends of travel, so our actual anniversary will be somewhat low-key. all we need is each other. a bottle of wine doesn’t hurt, either…

some exciting stuff is coming up in the next few weeks, however, so watch out for updates. this weekend we’re going up to galena, illinois with friends, and the following week we’ll welcome bonnie, marc, amy, eric, and baby riley before we head up to saugatuck, michigan for labor day weekend. hehe, knowing me, i’m sure there will be plenty of pictures!

nestled in between these two trips, nicki and i will have a very low-key celebration of our first wedding anniversary! (can ya believe it’s already almost been a year?!)

so with all these exciting events coming up, it’s time to give a little detail on what’s kept me from spending any time updating this site: i’ve been feeding my video game addiction!

on my own personal front, i’ve had two major successes since the last time i posted about this stuff. so pay attention, kids, this is important.

first of all, i beat super mario galaxy AND super luigi galaxy! i have the 121st grand finale star for both of them.

nicki doesn’t like this game any more than she likes super mario 64, so all the game time is mine. enough to know that the hardest course in the entire game, for me, was luigi’s purple coins in the toy time galaxy. i easily spent over one hundred lives each time trying to beat that damn board. it’s really tough. you have to keep moving, there’s no time to collect your wits. you have to collect 100 of a possible 150 coins. of course, there are overachievers out there that needed to get all 150 coins and make it look like an easy task. maybe i’ll try that feat someday. i’ve become pretty good at the game. well, obviously i had improved after beating the game as mario. after playing the whole thing over again as luigi, it gives you your total death count as each character. i died roughly half as much the second time around as luigi as i did with mario. obviously, then, luigi was a much quicker run-through for me.

i have to say: super mario galaxy is easily my #1 favorite video game ever. i can’t even begin to fathom what will top it.

i was inspired by this win to go back to super mario 64. i’d beaten bowser for the final time after getting 70 stars, but didn’t really bother getting the other 50 stars. so after beating Galaxy, i went back and completely beat super mario 64. you get to see yoshi at the end, which is cool. you get a super extra jump and 100 extra lives, which is nice. too bad they didn’t write luigi in even as a cameo. oh well. it was still cool to beat the entire game. hey, if you’re gonna accomplish something, it might as well be something completely meaningless, right? yeah? are ya with me?

the funny thing? i never did beat the original super mario bros. i know i can warp directly to world 8, but i’m not very good on that style game. i’m much better with the 3D mario games. i’ve therefore been trying to beat each world at a time, to help increase my mad gaming skeelz. however, i can’t pass world 5. i can’t get past the world 5 boss. ah well. now that i’ve beaten these two games, i’ve been trying. the original SMB and super mario bros 2 have now been played rather often. hell, i can’t get past world 1 in SMB2. it’s so radically different than any other mario game.

anyway, i haven’t gotten any farther in donkey kong country or guitar hero III, either, than i had the last time i wrote a video game progress report here. i should play those games more often.

new games since last time are Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution.

yeah, as far as i’m concerned, those are nicki’s games. DDR is tough, though. even when i help her (she does the leg work, i do the arm work with the wiimote/nunchuck), the game is tough to beat. wii fit is okay. more interesting than DDR. but wii fit holds her attention longer.

finally, i have to mention the latest game to our collection, given as a birthday gift from eric and amy: Major League Eating: The Game.

now we’re talking.

nicki thinks it’s gross. and it is. in every way that is awesome.

here’s a promo video for the game. it’ll give a good idea of what it’s all about. it’s genius.

eric told me about it a while ago. i’m glad he sent it to me: i’m gonna have a ton of fun with it. soon enough, when i’m getting good at it, he and i will have to play each other remotely! that will rock. and that’s why i can’t wait to get mario kart wii. it’ll be fun to play them on that game too!

that’s more than enough for now. i just wanted to get back into this site to prepare you for what’s coming up in the next few weeks! in the meantime, go play a video game, dammit! it’s good for your soul!

–uncle robert and aunt nicki

Minor Nine Media

and

Superstition Mountain

well, the second link just redirects you to the first, but still…whatever…

M9M is my best friend’s production company. Superstition Mountain is the first movie under its flag. check out the trailer!

if you’re interested, stay tuned! if you know anyone else that would be interested, please forward the links! link to your blogs! link to your social networking sites of choice! please, spread the word!

it’s not just for my friend’s sake, either… the screenplay i wrote with him is currently in pre-production to become the second film produced by M9M. we’re taking over the world!

we finally kicked bowser’s butt.

well, of course, nicki’s the one that got us through most of the really tough stuff. she’s the one that actually faced and finally defeated bowser. she’s better at beating the insanely tough boards like the tank brigades in world 8 or the bosses. she has better video game reflexes than i do. i’m better at the game-action that requires more finesse, like flying mario to narrow places or finding my way out of the puzzling mazes or even discovering secret passageways and short cuts. so, anyway, after expending maybe 30 lives on bowser’s castle, she finally beat bowser!

that’s so awesome. we spent more time on the last two worlds than we did on the first six combined! it took us weeks and weeks, but we finally made it through!

so of course, we had to keep going in the series. the next in the series was super mario world, but i decided to skip that one (and its sequel) and download super mario 64. NOW we’re talking.

i’d never really spent any time on a 3d platform game before. there’s a billion of ‘em out there, but i’ve never really been into video games before our wii. i’m not about to get a billion different games, and become a gaming geek, cos i don’t care all that much. my tastes are still pretty simple; i don’t really take any of it seriously. it’s nothing more than entertainment to me. a distraction. nevertheless, if she was obsessed with SMB3, then i’m obsessed with SM64. it’s such a large game, and it requires you to think in three dimensional terms. you think you’re jumping left, but if you’re not paying attention to the angle you’re facing, you might be jumping diagonally, resulting in a fall into oblivion. ‘mamma mia!’, as mario would say.

i’m having an easy time transitioning into this mode of thinking. nicki, on the other hand, is having troubles. so, basically, although she kicked my butt in SMB3, i’m kicking her butt in SM64. if she continues to have troubles, i think i’ll go back and get super mario world for her. that’s closer to SMB3’s format, from what i’ve seen.

meanwhile, i’m about two-thirds of the way through guitar hero 3 on medium. greeny came over recently, and strapped on the guitar to play a few tunes.

yeah.

i need to practice.

he’s good.

he mentioned bringing over his guitar, so that we can duel. that’ll be fun. he’ll kick my butt, but it’ll be fun.

another one i’ve been playing quite a lot of is donkey kong country. i’m actually right at the beginning of world 5, which means i’m pretty far in the game. after world 6, there’s only one last level (as opposed to an entire world of levels), the final boss level, where i face king k. rool. i played this game at someone’s house, when it was new. i forget where. but i liked it a lot at the time. i love it now. it’s a lot of fun.

all of these games will keep us busy for a while, including all the other things we have going on in our lives right now. it’s been great going back to the old nintendo games and playing them–some are old favorites, others are brand new to us. as time goes on, we’ll buy more games specifically for the wii system, but we’ve been perfectly content visiting the older games.

there you go, that’s our video game progress report, brought to you by countless wasted hours.

…for reasons i need not state.

so, today, another st. patty’s day has come and gone. on saturday, we pulled some green clothes on ourselves and went out!

as usual, we had a good ol’ time. a few pic highlights…

Slainte!

i’m concerned for nicki, though–she’s becoming obsessed with Super Mario Bros 3. it is an addictive game.

anyway, there are tons of new photos on our photos page, with the most additions to the old ‘two doggies file’, which has been around for some time.

so, until the next time i check in here, enjoy the photos and have some fun!

the flight down itself was fairly smooth. charlet was sedated for the flight. her stoned look is a sad look. we gave her half a pill before we left the house. we had a hell of a time getting to our gate, though. we started in terminal 2 of o’hare, in the US Airways check in line. our flight was one of those weird alliances, which confused us. it was a US Airways flight operated by United. whatever that menas. while waiting in the line, i called US Airways to find out where we’re supposed to be. it turns out we were in the wrong line. we had to be in the United line! aah!

this required a transfer via train to terminal 1. tons of fun when the escalator is out and everyone else in chicago is also traveling south for christmas. so we finally make it to the united check in line and patiently zig zag back and forth until we finally find ourselves in front of one of those touch screen machines. after entering our confirmation number, we’re kicked out of the check in process with a message saying “unable to process pet request.” we flag down a united employee, who leads us to another line–the one for odd sized/kennel check ins. there were several groups of people in front of us, and time was beginning to run out. at the time, we were unaware our flight was delayed. that information might have been helpful to keep nicole relaxed. since we didn’t know that, she was on the verge of freaking out. waiting patiently is not my wife’s strongest suit.

after waiting a small eternity checking in, we had our final obstacle. security. luckily, though, things were looking up from here. we made it through the security line with a minimum of fuss. we made it to our gate with quite a bit of time to spare, thanks to the delay. a gate change, and another quarter of a sedative to calm the suddenly jumpy charlet, we finally boarded the plane. about halfway through the flight, nicole removed charlet from the carrier and held the pup in her arms hidden by a doggie blanket. charlet was shaking and nervous, and nicole felt bad. never mind the airline’s rules, i would’ve done the same thing. she’s our baby, after all.

the sedative did its job, though. charlet mostly slept or sat around peacefully. she didn’t pee, poo, or puke once at any point during the trip down here. she whined a few times, but never to a point that might’ve embarrassed us.

today charlet seems to be happy here at ‘dog camp’. she’s socializing well with the other dogs, it seems. she tends to be a bit of a chicken, since chloe can sometimes be a little cranky around her. however, she’s thriving. currently, as i type, she’s exploring the back yard. i’m sure she enjoys the freedom of not being on a leash while outside. she’s gained a bit of that freedom back at home in the new house, but our yard is a lot smaller than this one.

anyway, the gang is stirring, it’s about time for us to get something to eat. i should probably finish getting ready and get off this computer.

till next time, have a good day!

and now, as i reach this point in the post, the sun is up and the air is warmer. bring it on, ra. shine on us, freyr. warm us, surya. even today, on the winter solstice, shine. warm my cold bones.

we’re still living out of boxes, although nicki’s mom has done a hell of a lot of unpacking while we’ve been at work. nicki is off the rest of the week, so they’ll ultimately take most of the credit for getting things in order. when i have been home, i’ve been putting furniture together or hooking up the technology. i haven’t really had the time yet to organize my media, put away my clothes, or anything else. it seems like i’ve been spending more time running errands than unpacking or organizing. in the end, i’m not really going to have the time to get my stuff in order until after we return from florida. if i get anything done at all before we leave, it’ll have to be tonight, since tomorrow i’ll have to pack for the trip.

bonnie (aka mom) returns tomorrow, we follow her on friday. we’ll be in florida until next thursday. our friend mike is dogsitting chloe (thanks, mike!) while we’re gone. charlet will be flying down to florida with us, and will stay at her grandparents’ house with the other animals when we’re all down in the keys.

exciting times, to be sure, but also exhausting!