Category Archives: Electronic Arts

Abby and Emily Free Day

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Yesterday was the first time I got to experience what it was like to have both Abby and Emily in school. It was great. The house was so quite. Me and Jennifer (with Isabelle) went out to lunch to Logan’s and it was great being able to sit there and actually eat. I went ahead and extended my vacation one extra day and I’m glad I did so I get to experience one more Abby and Emily Free Day.

Abby and Emily went to “Kid’s Connection” (the Wednesday night children’s activity get-together at church) in their Halloween costumes. Abby is going to be a princess (no surprise there) and Emily is a poodle puppy. I’ll have pictures of them in their costumes on Halloween. They got candy and made Halloween crafts.

Tonight was the Madden Next Gen Wrap Party. Most of the team met at a Chinese restaurant called The Crazy Buffet. We had dinner and toasted champagne to celebrate finishing the game. Unfortunately, the game is still going on. I haven’t been called in, but my boss, Brian, has taken over what I was doing in order for me to get some rest with the family.

Well, the Astros lost again, getting swept in the World Series by the White Sox. I don’t think the Astros did a bad job. It was a thrill for them to get to the World Series for the first time ever. Every game came right down to the last few innings. Hopefully they can make another run next year.

Tough Oil Change

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Well, it was a pretty bad day at work. I ended up being there all day and into the evening. One issue after another kept coming up.

Abby went back to school today while Emily, Isabelle and Jennifer went to get the oil changed in the Sequoia. When we bought the truck, we got some free oil changes, but the dealership is quite some distance from our house so it’s a pain in order to go and get the oil changed there. Then, Jennifer had a bad experience waiting in line to get the oil changed. You have to go through the regular repair line where everyone lines up their cars and the attendants come out and ask you want is wrong with your car. Jennifer waited around for twenty minutes while everyone else but she got waited on. Even after she got out of the car and complained they still helped other people before getting to her car. She’s sworn not to go back there to get her oil changed again.

The poor Astros. I’ve just stayed up until 2:30 a.m. as their game went to the 14th inning and they came up short again. If they don’t win the next one that’s it. Every game has been close, but they just haven’t been able to follow through.

Restaurant Test

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I was correct. I got the call from work today that a major bug that was found with our game. So, I have to go back into work tomorrow in order to get that issue resolved. Hopefully it won’t be too long and I can get out of there at a regular time.

Hurricane Wilma was pretty weak in our area. There were just a few dead limbs down on the ground at that’s about it. Once it blew through the skies were blue and it turned real cold (for Florida).

Jennifer braved the storm to take Isabelle to the doctor. The diagnosis was an ear infection and we got some antibiotics and are keeping her nose clear. Hopefully she gets over it soon. She sounds so pathetic when she coughs.

I was able to get a reader for my camera’s memory card so I’m now able to extract my pictures. Today’s picture is of Isabelle from a couple of weeks ago (before she got a cold).

At work they raffled off the right to purchase an Xbox 360, since they will probably be in short supply when the new console comes out on November 22nd. I’m not guaranteed to get one when it comes out, but hopefully I will get one before our trip back to Texas so that I can show my parents and grand parents the game I worked so hard on this year.

We also went out to dinner tonight to Carrabba’s Italian Grill. All five of us. It’s usually difficult to take all the kids out to a nice restaurant, but they all did really well. Abby colored on the kids’ menu and Emily played with some dough that the waiter gave her. They ate all their dinner and did such a great job that we were amazed. We’ve attributed it to our eating breakfast all the time. We think it’s teaching them the right way to act in a restaurant.

Lazy Sunday

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I didn’t have to go into work today! The phone was silent, so everything must be going fine at work. Although, it’s Sunday, if something goes wrong, it probably won’t happen until tomorrow.

We didn’t do much today. We just hung around the house. I played several games of NFL Street 2 and Abby and Jennifer went to the nail parlor and go get their nails painted. Abby came back with orange toe nails with white ghosts on them.

Isabelle is still not feeling well. We may take her into the doctor’s office tomorrow.

For those who are following the news on Hurricane Wilma. It’s going to the south of us. We will probably get some wind and a lot of rain, but that’s about it. They canceled Abby and Emily’s school for tomorrow, though. I was looking forward to finding out what it was like with a quite house.

I’ve lost the cable to my camera, so I can’t take any of the new pictures off. I’m having to post a picture which is a couple of months old. I’m going to go to Best Buy tomorrow and see if I can find a replacement cable.

The Astros lost again in the second game of the World Series. They came back and tied it in the ninth after giving up a grand slam, but they gave up a home run in the bottom of the ninth. The series goes to Houston for the next three games. The rain and the cold in Chicago has looked like miserable playing conditions. At least Minute Maid Park has a roof.

I finished The Drawing of the Three today. Even though I’m having a great time with The Dark Tower series, I decided to pick up The Da Vinci Code for my next book. A movie is currently in production and I would like to have the book read before the movie comes out. Dan Brown became popular with this book, but I read Digital Fortress and Deception Point before reading this one. I enjoyed both of these books and since this one has had so much press (both good and bad) I’m sure I will enjoy it as well.

I’m Back

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I can’t believe it’s been exactly a month since my last entry in Frenchville. It’s been a wild ride at work. A whole lot of extra hours for many days in a row. It’s been: go to work, come home for dinner (sometimes), go back to work, come home and go to sleep. It’s finally letting up. We aren’t done completely (I had to go into work for four hours today), but it’s slowed down. I don’t plan on going back in for the next two weeks unless I’m called in.

Let’s see. Month in Review…

We were having our shower re-tiled since I found water underneath the old tile. We had door problems, but that finally got resolved and we are back into the shower in our bathroom.

Abby and Emily finished up their swim lessons. They are both now “expert swimmers”. I haven’t actually taken them swimming yet, so I don’t know how well they are doing. Next week we are planning on going camping at Disney World. They have a swimming pool at the camp grounds and we will probably be swimming there.

The whole family had coughs and more recently fevers. Currently Isabelle has been sick. She’s had a pretty bad runny nose and you can tell she’s been pretty miserable.

The Texas Longhorns defeated OU and then took on Texas Tech and crushed them today. We went ahead and bought tickets to the Rose Bowl, where the National Championship is being played this year. Hopefully the Longhorns can keep up their winning streak alive. The tickets include a tour of Pasadena and tickets to the Rose Parade. Jennifer has always wanted to go see the Rose Parade and so we got the tickets as our anniversary gift to one another.

The Houston Astros have finally made it to the World Series for the first time. I remember watching them against the Mets in 86 and of coarse last year against the Cardinals and making it one game away from the Series. It’s too bad they lost tonight’s game, but hopefully they can come back and win the next four.

It’s good to be home and to finally have a couple of weeks off. Now that I have more time, there will be more and more entries in Frenchville.

Texas Wins! Texas Wins! Texas Wins!

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All of a sudden everyone at work was telling me that they were going to root for Ohio State just because they wanted to see my head shaved. That just made me more determined and I’ve never watched a Texas game more closely. It’s a whole different game when you have your hair on the line. Fortunately Texas pulled it out and won in the last seconds of the game 25-22. The Buckeyes did a great job of shutting down Vince Young and I was really worried most of the game. If Ohio State would have made that last 50 yard field goal, it would have been a whole different ball game. And to all those people at work who all of a sudden became a Buckeye fan: HOOK ‘EM HORNS!

Isabelle’s Christening

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I can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since I’ve made an entry in Frenchville. Last weekend was pretty busy. Jennifer’s parents, sister and her husband, Mike, and grandparents all visited. They were here for Isabelle’s Christening at church. Everyone is doing good and they had a good time visiting. Isabelle’s Christening went off without a hitch. No crying and even Abby and Emily behaved during the ceremony. Jennifer did a great job cooking each meal for so many people. Needless to say we were all pooped when everyone left.

Today is a big game for the Texas Longhorns as they take on a pretty tough team in the Ohio State Buckeyes. It has a little more meaning for myself because I’ve made a bet with the Lead Programmer on Madden NFL 06 Xbox 360, Ryan Burnsides, who went to Ohio State, that the looser must shave their head. #2 clippers, so not completely bald, but if my Longhorns don’t pull through then I will probably be nearly as bald as Isabelle in this picture.

Searching for a Photographer

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Wow. Look at this. Two entries in Frenchville in so many days.

Today Jennifer went out to DeLand to visit a photographer, Elizabeth Carol. Ever since we left Austin, one of the things she has missed has been the photographer she really liked: Jennifer Turner. Jennifer was walking through the mall the other day and saw a photograph that reminded her of Jennifer Turner, so she did some investigation and it turns out that this photographer has a lot of the same props that Jennifer Turner did. She was really impressed and has an appointment to get Isabelle’s 3 month old pictures taken with her.

I’ve been clamoring about getting a laptop at work by making hints in several meetings. Finally today, the Executive Producer on Madden said, “If we get you a laptop, it better be attached to your hip. You will be taking notes in every meeting.” I was thinking, “mission accomplished”.

They came to install our shower door today. It was the last piece to our bathroom re-tiling. Unfortunately, there isn’t a stud behind where the shower door would go, so they couldn’t hang it up. We now have to get the tiling contractor to come back and some how shore up that wall so that the door will hang. Right now we are at a loss for what to do. We were thinking that all of our projects would finally be done today, but once again we hit another snag.

I’ve been a little behind on doing the laundry and Abby didn’t have pajama bottoms. So, she had to go to bed in a pajama top and some panties. She didn’t like that. She kept saying that someone was going to see that and laugh at her. It’s funny that lately she’s been starting to get modest. It must be something she’s picking up at school.

For the past couple of days I haven’t had time enough to shave because I’ve been busy at work. Today I decided to shave it into a goatee. When I got home from work Jennifer noticed it for the first time. Needless to say, I will be shaving tomorrow.

Play Gym Vindication

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Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted my last updated. Between Isabelle and work, my plate has been full. At work, this weekend is the end of our Production period as we entering Alpha. This is the time where we switch our focus from creating new features for the game and just fixing the bugs in the features we’ve been creating for the past several months. So, this past week and this weekend are pretty busy for me at work.

Very good news on the play gym front. Our homeowners’ association has approved our play gym for the full height of 11 feet 3 inches. That means the whole this will be going up intact! Yea! Last weekend was spent buying big crape myrtles to block our neighbor’s view of the play gym once it goes back up. I tried to pick them up with our Sequoia, but they wouldn’t fit. I would have been dragging them all the way home. So, that was no good. I had to borrow a friends, truck in order to haul the home. I dug giant holes to bury them in and all was good. We also bought some plants to put along the fence line in order to grow into a hedge row. Next, we’ve hired someone to bring in sand and put it into the sandbox that I made. That will happen on Thursday, weather permitting. After that, we will call the play gym people and they will set it back up.

Last weekend I also bought a friend’s Play Station Portable (PSP). I rented a few games from work, but I spent most of the weekend trying to get videos to play on the device. I bought a case and I’ve been mainly using it as an MP3 player until a really good game comes out for it. So far I’m really enjoying it. I’m going to try and get into some Podcasts which are out there. Podcasts are radio broadcasts recorded to an MP3, which you can download and put on your player and listen to them any time you want. The main one I’ve been listening to is This Week in Tech, which is hosted by some guys who used to host a show called The Screen Savers which was on TechTV before it got sold to G4 and was shut down. I think I’m going to search for some other similar Podcasts once I get some time.

Isabelle has been doing well. However, Jennifer and I are running low on sleep. Me because of work. Her because of Isabelle getting up at 3:00 and it taking her two hours to get her back to sleep. We are surviving, but it hasn’t been easy. Between Isabelle, the two other girls running around the house, and Austin, we really have our hands full right now. Abby and Emily are going to be going to some Vacation Bible School next week, so hopefully that will get them out of Jennifer’s hair for a while so she can get some peace. Even if it’s only for a couple of hours.

Executive Review

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It appears that Isabelle has picked up a runny nose from Emily, so we may have a couple of rough nights ahead of us.

We had our Executive Review of Madden NFL 06 Xbox 360 today. It sounds like it went well, which is a relief. We are now two weeks from going “Alpha”, which is our main bug fixing mode. This is technically when we are supposed to be feature complete and we are only working on fixing bugs, but there’s going to be many features that aren’t quite done yet and so the first three weeks of Alpha may still be feature work for some folks.

Today’s picture is from when my parents were in town a couple of weeks ago when Isabelle was born.