Category Archives: Abby

A Really Long 4th of July

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On Tuesday, I headed overseas on a business trip to Frankfurt, Germany. I can’t tell the details of the reason for the trip, but we were heading over there for a potential new project and we had to meet with another video game developer. The trip was 12 hours of flying: 4 hours to New Jersey and then 8 hours to Frankfurt. This was the first time I had gone to Europe. The biggest thing I took away was that next time I’m going to do a little work learning a little bit of the language. Even though most people spoke a little English, it would have helped to know “Yes”, “No”, “Hello”, “Goodbye”, and number 1 – 10. The time difference between Houston and Frankfurt was seven hours. On the 4th of July, we woke up at 8:00 a.m. Frankfurt time, which is 1:00 a.m. Houston time and headed to the airport for the flight back. I saw sun light for 20 hours. It was a long flight and needless to say, I pretty much collapsed when I got home.

For the 4th of July Abby and Emily went with Jennifer’s mom over to Pearland High School where they had a carnival and fireworks show. They got temporary tattoos and sat on the football field and watched fireworks. They didn’t get home until 11:00 p.m. and needless to say I was already sleeping so I didn’t see them until the morning.

Price Reduction

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On Thursday we gave in to the request from our Realtor to drop the price of our house. Another house around the corner from us, which is just like ours, but with a pool, was now just $25,000 more than us. They felt we should drop our price by another $25,000 in order to stay comparable with the other house prices in the neighborhood. We agreed to drop our price by $20,000. Every price drop means less house we can buy in Houston, so we are trying to keep hold of every penny. We hoped this would peak more interest in the house this weekend, but I guess it was too soon to expect a flood of people. We didn’t have any showings this weekend.

On Friday, Jennifer was very brave and took all three girls out to our favorite date restaurant: The Melting Pot. I can’t believe she went there with the three of them all on her own, but she said it was a success. They went early so to avoid a big crowd. They had a full four course meal and Jennifer reported that they all behaved themselves very well. Emily enjoyed it so much, she told Jennifer that she would “love her forever” and she gave her a big hug.

Bidding on a Parrot

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It’s been a while since I posted anything. Probably because I’ve been upset since the deal to purchase our house in Orlando fell through. That had a cascading effect of us having to let the house we put an offer on here in Houston pass. The house in Orlando is back up on the market and we’ve had a few showings, but no more bites.

In order to get out of the house, Jennifer and the girls used our Disney World season passes and once again went to Magic Kingdom. This time they tagged along with our neighbors John and Laura and their two kids Sadie and Nathan. Sadie is in Kindergarten while Nathan is three-years-old. They had a great time walking back and forth from ride to ride. The one ride they were looking forward to riding because it was so hot outside, Splash Mountain, kept breaking down, so they didn’t get to go on it.

Abby lost another tooth and this time wrote a thank you note to the Tooth Fairy thanking her for all the money she has been giving her. Abby has saved up all her money and is now bidding on eBay for a talking parrot that she’s been wanting for some time. She’s a little young for eBay, so Jennifer had to help her out. For some reason Santa Claus wouldn’t bring her the parrot, so she’s resorted to spending her own means at getting the toy. Santa mentioned to me that he thought the parrot talked too much and would bother her parents. That was the reason he didn’t get it for her for Christmas.

A few weeks ago I was up in Tomball giving a talk about the game industry at Tomball College. Since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped by my old house in Tomball. Today’s picture is from my drive by the house.

Standing on a Soap Dish

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The biggest issue Jennifer has had with having to watch the kids all by herself culminated this evening with a stunt pulled by Abby. While taking a shower she decided it would be cool to stand on top of the soap dish. Although still a little girl, soap dishes were probably not stress tested with seven-year-olds standing on top of them. The result: the soap dish came crashing down and put a nice hole in the tub. Basically the kids are either messing up the house faster than she can clean it, or repair it in this case. Jennifer was so furious that she had to walk away to keep her cool. She ended up grounding Abby for the rest of the week: no television and she couldn’t go next door and play with her friend. She tried to explain to Abby the cost of repairing things and how no one will want to buy the house if it’s damaged. Abby went to her room and came back out with the money she had been saving up from the Tooth Fairy and Easter, around $50, and offered it to Jennifer to repair the tub. Jennifer told her to keep her money. Maybe there’s a glimmer of hope for Abby after all.

Welcome and Now Get to Work

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It’s been a while since I’ve written because I’ve been busy at work. I started on this new project right when they were trying to get a demo out to their publisher. So, I’ve been putting in a lot of hours in order to get that out the door. It’s been fine since the girls are all back in Orlando, but it gets tiring after a while. Well, we delivered it on Monday and today was the first time in a while that I got to go home at 6:00. (Yea!)

Last weekend Abby got her ears pierced. I guess she’s a “big girl” now. She’s very happy and has been very good about turning and cleaning the earring studs. She was really brave and they pierced both sides at once, which was a pretty good idea since she might not have wanted to do the second ear once the first ear was pierced.

One thing I’ve noticed since being away from the girls is that I’m getting more read. I just finished Stephen King’s Cell in just three weeks. This is something that would have normally taken me 2 – 3 months. It was actually a pretty good novel, which might have also been part of me reading it so fast.

Still No Television

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Nineteen days without a TV and one thing is for certain: Mitsubishi has guaranteed that we will never buy one of their televisions again. They have the most incompetent service organization working for them in Visions Electronics. They told us (without ever coming to see the TV) that it was the bulb. We waited two weeks and guess what, it wasn’t the bulb. They plugged in the bulb and drove off. Within a few minutes, the television was shutting itself off again. They then said it must be a sensor (again without really looking at the TV to diagnose the problem) and said they would be back the next day. They never showed up. When Jennifer called them today: their phone had been disconnected. Mitsubishi, whether they know it or not, has this company representing them. I consider them an extension of their brand. And if they are that incompetent, then how am I supposed to have confidence in their company? Jennifer called Mitsubishi and complained. First they called Visions Electronics because I suppose they didn’t trust Jennifer when she said that their phone had been disconnected. They then put her in touch with another company which proceeded to tell us it was a fuse again without really coming to see the television. So, we are once again in a waiting game while the fuse is ordered. As stated before, will probably never order a Mitsubishi television again just based on their level of customer service.

One Week In

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I made it safe to Houston and just finished my first week at TimeGate Studios. It’s a whole new game and a whole new company to get used to. A lot to take in over the last week. It funny how you don’t really know what it means to miss someone until you have to do it for a long period of time. I really miss Jennifer, Abby, Emily, and Isabelle. I will be flying back to see them in a few weeks, but the time can’t pass fast enough. I know this has been though on Jennifer. The three little terrors nipping at her heels while she has to try and keep the house cleaned up just in case that last minute house hunter wants to jump in and see. It’s hard to say “no” because you know that person who just drops right in might be the ticket that sells our house in Orlando and reunites us. Anyway, next time to see us wish us luck, because it’s only been a week and I don’t know how we are going to last very long.

On the Road

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With the coming of a new job at TimeGate began the part of my life you could call my life on the road. Today I hit the road back to Houston leaving behind Jennifer and the girls in Orlando. A man and his dog traveling the country side looking for a good cup of joe. Actually, me and Austin we were trying our fastest to get out of Florida and back to Texas. It was sad leaving everyone back in Orlando and I will miss them. Hopefully the house will sell soon for several reason beyond the obvious: being reunited with the family.

First, the house keeps breaking. No major breaks, just little annoyances, which keep digging me deeper in debt. We replaced the carpet and the blinds. Yesterday our kitchen faucet broke and we had to get a plumber out to install a new one. I tried to do it, but the connections were way up behind the sink and I couldn’t get the wrench to twist because of the tight quarters. At first we tried Roto Rooter, but once they got to our house and told us how much it was going to cost, Jennifer turned them away and called a local plumber. They fixed us up and it didn’t break the bank for something so simple.

Second, the neighbors are driving us crazy between our across the street neighbor, Jane, who pealed out backward from the bus stop today; and the old wind bag behind us who loves yelling at the girls telling them to be quiet. The Wind Bag decided to pay us a visit today to tell us what she thought of our kids. Now granted Emily can shriek at a pitch that can hit your spinal cord just right and make your eye twitch, but coming over to my house and complaining that the kids are too loud at 3:00 in the afternoon. What’s the home owners association going to do about that? Are they going to start advertising that our subdivision is not a family-friendly place to live? I doubt it. Wind Bag, go find a nice retirement community, there’s plenty of them. It’s Florida after all.

End to an ErA

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While in Houston over the Christmas break, we made a family decision to go ahead and move back to Texas since we missed it so much. Since we both like Houston so much, I looked up the only game company I knew there, TimeGate Studios. It turned out that they had a position that fit me perfectly: part manager and part software engineer. After much debating with myself and encouragement from Jennifer, I put in my resume. The following week I flew in for an interview and liked what I saw. This past Wednesday, they made me an offer and I accepted. We are going to be moving back to Houston.

This left me with the unenviable task of informing the company I’ve worked for for the past seven years, EA-Tiburon, that I would be leaving, leaving in the middle of production. I didn’t get much sleep the night before, but like a Band Aid, I just went ahead and did it quick. They are all sad to see me go and I thank everyone at Tiburon for all being so understanding.

Tonight we told the girls. The only one who really was sad was Abby. She said that she was going to miss all of her friends, especially our next door neighbor. It was tough seeing her cry. I remember my mom and dad tell us when we were moving away from Houston when I was in the seventh grade. But, I think this is for the best. We’ve really missed being close to family over the past five years and we feel it’s time. I will continue to update Frenchville letting everyone know what’s going on during the big move back. The first step is getting the house sold and that starts tomorrow with a visit from a real estate agent.

Universal Day

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Today the company I work for, EA-Tiburon, bought everyone tickets to Universal Studios Florida. It was foggy and misty this morning, but we decided to head out anyway. I had visited Universal once before, but this was the first time for Jennifer and the girls. Overall, everyone had fun. However, it wasn’t anything that you couldn’t see at one of Disney’s parks. The one exception being the Revenge of the Mummy, which is one of the best roller coasters I’ve ridden. We ended up riding the following rides: Jimmy Neutron, Shrek 4-D, Twister, Revenge of the Mummy, Jaws, Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster, Fievel’s Playland, and E.T. Adventures. We had to explain to Abby how each ride was based on a movie, since she had never seen Twister, Jaws, or E.T. We told her it might be a while before she can see Jaws, but we would try and add E.T. to our Friday movie night. Isabelle was quite funny during the Jaws ride. She kept burying her face into my side each time the shark would pop out. Everyone kept saying “awww” every time she would do it. By the afternoon the fog had burned off and the sun turned the park into a sauna. After that we only spent a few more hours because we all were starting to get cranky.

One other event of note is that we’ve been potty training Isabelle over the past week, starting last Monday. So far it’s looking like success. She now tells us when she needs to go instead of us asking every hour or so. It has been two days straight of her staying dry and she even survived the trip to Universal Studios and stayed dry all day. This is quite a momentous occasion for me as a parent. This now marks the end of seven straight years of changing diapers. Yea!