Just threw some fresh photos up in the gallery … in case there’s anyone out there interested …

http://www.black-box.ca/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1520

So it’s a new year … which always seems to bring about those pesky resolutions … and apparently also those holiday pounds. So that must mean it’s time once again to try and lose some weight! Colour me ecstatic … woo … hoo …

Once again our little circle of friends is engaging in what we like to refer to as the Fat Losers. Clearly a riff on the NBC show Biggest Loser, but ours has a little bit more of an edge don’t yah think? Anyway our merry little band is keeping an eye on each other … watching each other’s waistlines and eating habits … trying to make sure that everyone is doing all they can to reach their goals.

But there are challenges. Take today for example. I’m out for a walk with a coworker … and he suggests a path … which goes RIGHT BY a sidewalk sale in a market where they’re selling half price fudge. I’ll let that soak in for a second. Half. Price. Fudge. I hope anyone who’s reading this can appreciate how hard it was to walk past that. After all, it’s been my wife who has instilled into me a sense of thriftiness and taking advantage of a sale wherever you can. Stupid fudge …

So here we stand at the threshold of a new decade? Are you excited? I am! I’ll be entering this decade with two toddlers and leaving it with two preteens … god that sounds scary to say right now …

So what’s on my mind? Well let’s see … clearly the world’s been going to hell in a handbasket … Mark McGwire is in the news again about steroids, eroding what little love I have left for baseball … plus it irkes me that all of this will reduce the resale value of my McGwire rookie card … whoops, I almost typed that as WOOKIE card … that would have been a completely different beast now wouldn’t it?

Conan O’Brien is losing his late night spot … which although it doesn’t really affect me because at that time slot I’m either asleep or more likely on my XBox, I still feel bad for the guy. The letter addressing the People of the Earth really hit the nail on the head, and he didn’t get a fair shake at earning his own audience.

I’m in yet another weight loss challenge with the circle of friends. Yes, there will be a web site going up for said challenge soon enough and yes, it will be designed by yours truly. It’s amazing how Shari one day suddenly turned into a project manager from work and started assigning deadlines on me for having my code done.

The kids had a great holidays, and Shari and I had a blast watching them enjoy themselves. The two of them were perfect angels at every function and it was wonderful. We’re just now left wondering where those two kids have gone two because that’s NOT who’s living under our roof.

Sooooo … that’s about it for right now. As more thoughts cross my mind I’ll try and be mindful and make them public here on the site. It’s always a little unsettling to get a couple of complaint e-mails from people asking why I haven’t posted. Kinda freaky to know that people are actually reading this. So for those who are put out by my lack of posts please be understanding. As I’ve tried to point out above … I’ve got a couple of things going on. I’ll post when I can!

Wow … little did I realize just how busy this time of year would end being for me … we had Boo’s birthday a couple weeks back …  and then this past weekend was a double combo of Shari’s b-day AND Mother’s Day … holy cow is that going to tap my wallet going forward …

Well … I’ve manaed to get some photos up from her get together at the zoo … it was a pretty good time despite the slighty damp weather … it was a bit of a hike to get to our arranged picnic spot … which meant a bunch of trips up and down a hill for daddy … but it was for the Boo, so it was ALLLLL good … click on the pic above for more photos …

… to the Birthday Boy, Sean Hart … if you see him today, make sure you wish him a big ol’ Happy Birthday!

So the guys over at Penny Arcade and PvP have hooked up with Wizards of the Coast … (was that enough obscure references for you?) … and they’ve been playing a D&D 4th Edition campagain … so in English …  a bunch of webcomic artists hooked up and played some Dungeons and Dragons … and recorded it … and released the recordings as a podcast … oh, and Wil Wheaton was there too …

So for those of you who may not know what exactly D&D is … it’s from back in the late 70′s … and it’s a pen and paper game, where it’s basically an interactive story using nothing more than your IMAGINATION as a canvas … freaky eh?  Back in high school me and the boys used to be big into playing all kinds of Role Playing Games … not neccessarily D&D but the same idea …

Soooo … listening to these guys has given me the urge to pull out my dice and play a campaing or two again … the problem is that to play these things is a HUGE time sink … unless you can find someone to run a game for you, who will then shoulder the majority of organizing things … you can’t just kinda pick up and play D&D like you would an XBox … you need TIME … and I don’t … HAVE that …

Anyone wanna DM?  Please?

Confusing title?  Well allow me to explain …

Kate and Lee hosted a canal skating party yesterday … which was a lot of fun!  It was a get together for the Craft Class crowd … if you don’t know who that is, then there’s no point in explaining it … … but this represented the longest amount of outside time which the Carders (Oakville Chapter) have had all winter long.  And it was nice!

Brie was out in her little snowsuit … and looked kinda like Ralphie’s little brother from A Christmas Story … she couldn’t get her arms down … she wasn’t too keen on the whole outside thing at first … but she took a turn for the better and was laughing and giggling with the whole crowd by the end of the day … the fresh air totally wiped her out … as she passed out immediately upon being put into the car … and then slept for almost two hours straight for the ride home …

And then the Oscars were on … on the ride home Shari and I briefly discussed whether or not we had any interest in watching them … which we agreed we didn’t … which of course means that we then watched the whole damned show …  I was actually surprised … not only by Hugh Jackman’s stage performances … but also just in the general quality of the show … it was clear that some thought had gone into how to make the show a bit more streamlined and compressed … but yet the overall feel seemed to harken back to the old glamour-filled days … an enjoyable show, and Shari and I are now going to have to take in Slumdog Millionaire …

Hey everybody … yeah I know … once again I’ve been slacking off in the blog writing department so I’ll try and make up for it here with a big ol SUPER blog post … just picture a cape fluttering behind me in the wind or something …

Yes it’s the New Year which means it’s once again time to look at one’s self in the mirror and try to figure out how many pounds you can lose … and yes, even I fall prey to this line of thinking … I can’t recall if I mentioned it back in November or not, but the friend squad chipped in and picked up Wii Fit for me for the b-day … well, they said they were going to buy me one once they found a copy … well that copy was found and Wii Fit is now in our house!

What does this mean?  Well it means that I am now attempting such Yoga poses as ‘The Warrior’ and ‘Tree’ while a generic character on screen tells me that my balance seems a little shaky … I don’t think you need to worry about me too much unless you hear me moaning a lack of Lululemon apparel for men …

We Carders had ourselves a nice little merry Xmas … the real tree we bought only fell over two or three times so I’d chalk that up as a win … Brianna was cute as hell in just about every picture we snapped of her … i’ll get around to posting some of those soon enough … the whole family made out pretty well in terms of Santa delivered treats … i won’t go into a specific list but there were many smiles under the tree this year …

So what am i vowing to take care of this coming year?  Well … aside from installing a yearning for ladies yoga wear … I guess I’ll once again vow to cut out sweets and to keep excersizing … I’ve actually done the Wii Fit thing 5 days in a row thus far!

Oh yeah … and I was excited and then VERY dissapointed with my Miami Dolphins … yay for the turnaround season … boo for the four or five picks which Pennington threw in the playoff game …

Next story?  My 35th birthday …

My wonderful wife arranged a surprise party for me last weekend to celebrate my 35th … although she would tell you that I ruined the surprise by constantly trying to guess what she was up to.  Apparently I’m never going to have another surpise party … ever …

So … the party itself … Shari managed to arrange for the gang to get together at Playdium out in Mississauga for some electronic fun.  She even managed to convince Sean and Tina Hart to some in from Windsor!  Which they passed off as being in town for something else and spent the previous night at our place.  With me being none the wiser!  You can click on the pic above for some of the shots or click on this link …

So to my wonderful wife and fantastic friends, I say thank you for coming out and having some fun with yours truly!  I had a great time!

(Except of course I’m soooo old now that I felt Playdium was too damned loud.  I blamed the damned kids of course.  Shook my cane at them and everything …)

So I’m sorry I haven’t written … I guess I’ll have to make up for that with a couple of really quick hits here …

Last weekend I went out to Ohio for the Semi-Annual Cedar Point-athon … attendance wasn’t quite what I was hoping for from our crew … although those of us who DID go ended up having a spectacular time!  Even if one of us was being a big fraidy cat and wouldn’t sit on the front of the Raptor and ended up snoring throughout the night in the motel room …

Last night was the season premiere of CSI … where they had to tie up the situation involving Warrick being gunned down … although the crime fighting aspects of the show weren’t the best I’ve seen, they did handle the other aspects, namely losing Warrick, EXTERMELY well … Shari made a comment saying that usually they don’t do funerals very well on TV … well last night’s was pretty damned good …

Brianna is still being a handful … she’s going to celebrate Turkey Day this weekend … maybe some of that triptophyn (?) will work it’s way through mommy and into her little mouth … so she can nap out and catch up on all the sleep she seems to be missing …

Uhhhh … Dolphins won this weekend … Leafs won last night in Detroit … sooooo … I think everything in the world is right!  Except of course for the financials markets … but hey, I’ve got at least a little bit to go before that hits me, Joe Consumer, right?  Right? … sigh …