Category Archives: Jason

Long Awaited Update

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Jennifer has been getting on to me for a while to update Frenchville. Especially, since I had a Christmas tree at the top. Well, it’s now changed. We’ve been pretty busy for the past month, so I guess I will do a month in review.

For me, it has just been work, work, work. We are starting to wrap up our planning phase for the game I’m working on and we will start the actual construction of the code and making of the art assets. I can’t write any details on the web, but hopefully soon EA will put out a press release and then I will write a little bit more about it.

Jennifer has been getting more and more stuff for her photography studio (a.k.a. our front office). She has lights and a couple of sets she’s is working on. She’s been taking test photos of the girls in order to get the lighting just right. She will be starting to take photos of some of the neighbor kids in order to practice. 

Abby has been doing fine in school. I’m amazed at how much they learn in Kindergarten. She has spelling words she has to learn. I don’t remember having to take spelling tests way back then. Of coarse, I don’t even remember Kindergarten, but oh well. She’s been struggling with writing out the numbers 11 – 99. She sometimes gets them reversed. We’re working on it often.

We had sad news a couple of weeks ago. Jennifer’s Grandmother, Helen Musselman, passed away. Her funeral was the following weekend, so we had to buy plane tickets and meet Jennifer’s parents in Muskegon, Michigan. The high temperature the day we arrived was 17 degrees and snow was on the ground. We flew into Grand Rapids and then had to rent a car and make a forty minute drive to Muskegon. We stayed in a hotel there in Muskegon and had the funeral on Saturday. On Sunday, we dove over to Jennifer’s other grandparents and visited with them and all of her aunts and uncles. Abby and Emily had fun playing in the snow, having never seen it before. It was tough having to always bundle up when we went outside. We were happy to get back to the warm weather in Florida.

Up on the Roof Top…Scratch…Scratch…Scratch

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As I write this there is something trashing around in the ceiling. It all started on Christmas Eve and we though it might be Santa’s reindeer on the ceiling, but then we noticed the noise was coming from within the house. A critter has gotten into our attic once again. This morning we called a person to come out and set traps and seal any holes in the roof.

Today was a day of chores around the house. Jennifer took the tree down, which proceeded to drop the rest of the needles. It had been raining down needles for weeks. We learned our lesson: no more live trees. We like fake ones. Less up keep. I installed a soap dish in our shower and a rack for the brooms in the laundry room.

On a completely different note, we’ve been playing Fantasy Football up at work for the game I’m currently working on. Last night was the final game and my team had made it to the Championship against my boss, Jeremy Strauser. My team had finished with a 29 point lead and he had the Dolphins Special Teams/Defense. I finally had an excuse to watch a Monday Night Football game. It wasn’t looking good as the Jets-Dolphins entered half time tied 0-0, but the Jets came back and ended up winning and thus giving me the Championship in our league.

Today’s pictures were taken by Abby of their new playroom upstairs. They took over my office, which was upstairs so that Jennifer could set up her photography studio in their old playroom. My desk has been moved in our bed room.

Nana and Poppy Visit

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The past month has been pretty much a big preparation for Christmas. We’ve been shopping, going to the EA Holiday party, and shopping. This all lead up to Nana and Poppy flying in last Saturday. Allegiant Air now has a direct flight from Shreveport, LA to Orlando-Sanford, a smaller airport which is only about 15 minutes away from our house.

Abby was excited when Poppy said he was coming because she had a long list of movies for them to see. So, on Saturday, Poppy took Abby and Emily to see Flushed Away. They had a great time, even though there were no Nerds on a Rope at that movie theater. They came out of the movie singing “Roddie got flushed down the potty.”

On Sunday, we went out to eat at Peach Valley Cafe and took a tour of Baldwin Park, a nice neighborhood which is closer to downtown. We’ve been thinking about moving closer to downtown so that my commute times to work would be less. Also, Jennifer and I went to see the musical The Lion King, which was playing at the Bob Carr. It was okay, not stupendous. Jennifer said that she knew all the funny lines because she’s seen the movie a thousand times.

On Monday, we took Nana and Poppy to our new favorite pizza place, American Pie Pizza Company. We played video games and ate very good pizza. When we got home we decided to go ahead and open our Christmas presents so that we could share Christmas with Nana and Poppy. The girls got a whole lot of new toys and were running around playing with them the rest of the day.

On Tuesday, Abby, Emily, and Poppy went to see Happy Feet. While Jennifer and I escaped to go out and see The Holiday and then go out to eat with the kids in tow.

Early this morning it was time for Nana and Poppy to catch their flight home. We had to leave the house at 6:30 a.m. so that they could make their 8:30 a.m. flight. The girls enjoyed having them and Emily gave Poppy her ceramic hippo that she made at Abby’s birthday party. Poppy wrapped it tight so that it wouldn’t break and told her he would put it in his bike room.

My Poor Xbox

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Today my Xbox died. The past couple of days it’s been locking up randomly and today it finally gave up and just flashed some red lights on the front when I tried to turn it on. I called customer support and they had me send it back in to get repaired. I heard a rumor on the Internet that some of the early Xbox 360 models were overheating because a heat sync on the graphics chip wasn’t installed properly. Oh well, it’s coming up on a year, so I was afraid that my warranty was going to expire soon. So, I made sure and called them today.

Today Abby went on a field trip with Jennifer for Jennifer’s photography class. They went to Rollins College to take some pictures of their unique architecture. Jennifer had been enjoying the class and has learned a lot. Her ultimate goal is to start her own business taking children’s photographs. Today’s picture is one of Abby posing for Jennifer while on their field trip.

The Longhorns rolled all over Oklahoma State tonight. Winning easily: 36-10. I was worried more about this game than I was against Texas Tech. Fortunately, Texas didn’t let OSU get ahead like they did Nebraska and Tech. They started out strong and kept it up the whole game.

Parent’s Night Out

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On Monday Jennifer and I had our seventh wedding anniversary. We didn’t do much on Monday because Jennifer had her photography class. Also, for the first time ever, EA Tiburon had a “parent’s night out” on Friday. All the kids of employees came up to work and they had hired a company to watch all of them while the parent escaped for a night out of the town. They had crafts and watched Finding Nemo on our giant projection screen. We took all the girls up there and then Jennifer and I went to our favorite “date” restaurant: The Melting Pot.

Texas once again crushed Baylor, this year 63-31. It wasn’t looking good when Baylor jumped to a 10-0 lead, but I had faith that Texas would come back. there was no way that Baylor would beat us. The defense once again looked great. They stepped up and caused turnovers, two of which they brought back for touchdowns. Florida lost, so that should move Texas one step closer to a rematch with Ohio State in the National Championship.

Disney Camping 2006, Day 4

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We are finally home. We had breakfast at the camp and then packed it all up. It barely fit back into the truck and I was slamming the hatch back down. Jennifer then spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning it all the Disney dirt off the bottom of the tent and getting all the dew off of everything. I spent the afternoon washing all the clothes.

I’ve put some pictures from our trip back into my previous three entries.

Disney Camping 2006, Day 3

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Today we woke up and cooked breakfast at camp: bacon and eggs with tortillas. It was good but it’s been tough getting used to our new camping stove. It burns much hotter than our electric stove at home. The bacon ended up a little over cooked. Later in the day I tried to cook popcorn on the stove and ran into similar problems: burnt popcorn near the bottom.

Today was the first time since we got here that we turned on the truck. We headed down to International Drive to go play some putt-putt golf. Isabelle was quite upset when she had to give up her golf ball at the end. The lady at the place was nice enough to give her another one before we left.

After dinner at the camp, we headed over to Chip and Dale’s Campfire Sing-a-long. It’s actually the only thing that I know of at Disney which is free. We sang songs and watched the first 30 minutes of Robin Hood on a big projection screen before the girls started to fall asleep.

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September Month in Review

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It’s been a while since I’ve written, so I thought I would do a “month in review”. For the most part September was pretty much another ordinary month in the French household.

After the Knight of the Week event, the Longhorns ended up loosing to Ohio State. The defense just looked terrible. I thought Colt McCoy still looked good under the circumstances, for a red shirt freshman. We have him for four more years and he can only get better. After the loss to Ohio State, the Longhorns went on to beat Rice, Iowa State, and Sam Houston State. If they can continue to win out the Big XII, they can still be in the hunt for a BCS bid and a chance at the National Championship once again. But first they have to beat Oklahoma, which is next week.

On the subject of sports, it was a good and bad day for Houston sports. Today the Astros lost the last game of their regular season which puts them out of the playoffs this year. It was an amazing last year getting to the World Series and all, but it wasn’t meant to be this year. On the good side, the Texans finally won. They beat the Miami Dolphins 17-15, in a very exciting game. They are now 1-3, which isn’t a great start to the year. Their number one pick in the draft, Mario Williams, got his first sack in the game. So far, the Texans have looked terrible. I’m hoping that they can turn it around, but I’m not holding my breath.

On the 8th, I went in for a “touch up” on my Lasik. My left eye wasn’t 20-20, so they offered another session. It was really easy, much easier than the first time. Apparently the “flap” that they cut in your eye doesn’t heal in six months. So, they reopened the flap and re-lasered the eye. Immediately after the surgery I was seeing much better. It’s amazing.

On the 9th, we went and witnessed our first shuttle take off. We discovered that the place the shuttle takes off from is only about twenty minutes from our house. We just parked on the side of the road and walked up to the bridge that goes out to the Kennedy Space Center. Someone had their radio tuned into the countdown and when it reached zero, there was a brilliant light and the shuttle was lifted into the sky. It was amazing and can only suggest that if you haven’t seen it you should come to Florida to try and see the shuttle take off. Currently the next shuttle is schedule to go off at night. We are thinking of making a trek out for that one as well.

In other news Jennifer was named Abby’s “room mom”. So, she helps out and coordinates parties for the class. This week she went up for Apple Math and Science Day. They had four different stations and Jennifer manned the “less than or greater than an apple” station. She would name an object and then the kids would have to say whether it weighed greater than or less than an apple.

Abby’s doing really good in school. She got her first report card this past week. She got all “Satisfactory” grades. They don’t start getting letter grades until second grade.

Knight of the Week

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A few weeks ago, Abby received her first award of excellence. Because we were so proud of her, we all went for ice cream. Since that first one, she received two more and we were wondering how often these things are getting handed out. We can’t go get ice cream multiple times per week! Well, we were floored when yesterday Abby brought back a note that said that she was selected to get a special award: Knight of the Week. (Their mascot at school is the Knight). She was one of about thirty kids who received the award and the only one from her class. She received the award on KNN (Knights News Network) a television show that the fifth graders put on every morning. We went up to the school and watched the program from the office. The principal handed Abby the award and she waved and smiled to the camera. We were so proud of Abby we went to Chuck E. Cheese tonight for dinner.

In other news, I went back to Filutowski Lasik Center to get an enhancement to my left eye. I was only seeing 30-20, so they offered an enhancement to get it to 20-20 for free. It was much easier than last time. The flap in the cornea is already there, so they just have to break the seal that has been developing over the past six months and re-laser the eye. It was easy and I was seeing better instantly. Now I just have to put medicated eye drops in my eyes for a couple of weeks and I should be home free. I also have to lay off of playing softball for a week, but oh well.

Hook’em Horns

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Well, from earlier in the week, Tropical Storm Ernesto was a bust. It barley rained when the storm moved over us. We got more rain and wind on Friday will after the storm was long gone. The most frustrating part was the local news blowing it out of proportion and because of that Abby and Emily’s school was canceled.

Today was the first game of the season for the Texas Longhorns as they took on the North Texas Mean Green. Needless to say, it was a blow out. The Longhorns routed North Texas 56-7. The new Texas quarterback, Colt McCoy, looked good. The first pass he threw was a touchdown, although North Texas wasn’t much of a test. It’s going to be a tough battle next week when the Longhorns take on #1 Ohio State.

All the girls were dressed in their Texas outfits. Today’s picture is me posing with Emily and Isabelle. Emily learned how to do “Hook’em Horns” all by herself.