Monday & the weekend recap

Yesterday I went to church and heard out pastor talk about how God will lead us into the teeth of the battle because He wants to grow our faith, or because he wants to do something great in us, or because He wants us to better understand our standing with Him and in the Kingdom. And, like our pastor said yesterday, I'm all about God blessing me and protecting me and providing for me, but I'm not so crazy about being on the front lines, even though I know I'm on the side that's already won.

Today I feel awful, physically. I'm tired and sore all over and I have no idea why. I got plenty of sleep in a real bed and everything. Despite drinking bottles of cranberry juice and eating AZO like candy, I've got an infection that's probably taking some (OK - a lot of) steam out of me, but I have antibiotics (Cipro) I'll be picking up this afternoon. I have a new-found sympathy for you girls out there - these things are terrible.

I don't like that I can still be a horse's ass to my wife, even unintentionally. I hate that a lot of the bad habits, most notably saying one thing and not following through with it, still follow me. Don't get me wrong - we're doing OK, but that initial adjustment period that I think all couples go through has both of us trying, and when I say that I mean it's trying for her and I'm trying not to be such a tool.

On a good note, though, I think we had a pretty good weekend overall. Let's recap that, shall we?


Our jack o' lantern, designed by Code Name Diamond & carved by yours truly.

Pumba was obsessed with the "pumpkin guts" - we couldn't shoo him away, and after several repeated attempts we just gave in and let him gorge himself on the pulp.



It was like watching an all-you-can eat buffet - he just kept eating, and eating, and eating!

As promised, I went as a zombie. In this pic I'm applying a 1/1 ratio of water and gelatin to my face and head. When dry, it looks like scabbed-over skin. Plus, it's green. Toni swore up and down it would stain my skin, but I figured it'd be worth it. (It came off in the shower, but it took a little scrubbing.)

Code Name Diamond seemed pretty fascinated by the process.

Ah....the good ol' Tom Savini recipe for fake blood - Karo syrup, red food coloring and chocolate syrup. It's even quite tasty. We used buckets of this stuff when we were younger, making short (and sometimes comically violent) short films.


A little more makeup (and a pastry brush)....


....and Zombie Ian (version 1.0) is born!


Code Name Diamond was a delightfully adorable Gabriella from High School Musical 2.Also - if I ever see this view and it's not me standing behind her, I'm emptying the magazine.

Toni made an awfully endearing Zombie. Even all that horrible makeup couldn't really cover those big eyes and her sweet smile. Of course, you can't actually see any of it here.

Zombies love Sonic. It's science.


And yeah - I went to work like this. All I did was change shirts.


Carrying around six pounds (we actually weighed it) of candy wore her out, I think. I'm not sure if having Toni and I follow her around dressed as zombies was embarrassing or fun for her, but we sure had a good time shuffing around the neighborhood.

She recovered enough to cheer her heart out on Saturday, though, before spending the night with her BFF Code Name Emerald (or Ruby - I can't remember which one they chose).


I went to work on Saturday, watched Texas Tech beat #1 ranked UT (another bouncer and I almost got kicked out of our own bar for screaming too loudly at the game) and got to leave early.

Sunday after church we made huge burgers & fried potatoes for lunch. After cleaning the kitchen, we watched "Wallace & Gromit", which Toni had never seen before. After a quick trip to Cabelas we dropped Diamond off at her Mom's and called it an early night.

And yet - I'm still bushed today. I sure had a good weekend, though.

OK - back to work. See you guys tomorrow.

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