So, after purchasing Unreal Tourny 2004 a couple weeks ago, I finally got time to install it. Unreal goes way back in our family. :) Back in the day, when I first started working for Spacely I was stuck on a crappy ass graveyard shift — 11pm to 8am if I remember right. Talk about suck. So, obviously this left very little time for us to do many of the normal everyday things. Enter Unreal. :) Unreal kept both Heidi and I very well entertained back in those days. Our house was quiet all through the day, then around 10pm when we woke the LAN was energized and we entered the fragfest. This has to be one of the only shooters that Heidi actually liked, so of course it was one of my favorites. There’s nothing like gaming. And gaming with your soul mate is next to heaven — at least for a gamer it is.

So, I installed Unreal Tournament 2004. This is quite the leap from the original Unreal that hooked us back in the day. Thanks to the magic of the “nocd” USE Flag in Gentoo I’m able to play without the CD. This frees up the CD for Heidi’s Windoze XP machine. :) Yay for Linux. :) Now we can both play the game with only one CD (of course, we purchased two games… of course we did).

Ok, the game is 6 CDs! You can get it on DVD as well if you like. That should give you an idea of the scope of this game. Unreal has always been and always will be the best shooter out there, hands down. Certain games excel at certain things, but Unreal has always been well-rounded and a game you never tire from. There’s a few new game modes in the new one: Onslaught, Bombing Run, and Mutant are a few of my favorites. There’s the standard CTF and Deathmatch as well. Gotta love CTF! I won’t go into a full game review here, but suffice it to say that if you are a FPS fan, you must add UT2K4 to your collection. It is worth every penny and then some. :)

It was just like the good ol days. Heidi stomping me into the ground. I swear I think she hunts me down specifically in the game. ;) Anyway, back to the game. Take care out there!!!

So, today was Rhys’ appointment with the doctor. If you recall from previous posts, he’s been having issues with gaining weight. He’s gaining weight, just not as much as he should. He should be gaining about 1 oz a day, and he was gaining about .5 oz a day. Well, he was started on a higher calorie formula and alternated this formula with breast feeding. He weighed in today at 11 lbs and 6 ozs!! That’s up from 10 lbs even about a week and a half ago. :) He’s gaining well over 1 oz a day now! :) Looks like we found the magic formula (::rimshot::).

After the Goo Goo Monster’s doctor visit we decided to go drop in on the NICU nurses and see all of Rhys’ aunties. We were both very excited to see them again. But, let me tell you, that quickly changed from excitement to a flood of emotion as I walked down the hall to the NICU. Just when you think you’re over something, you realize you are so far from healed…. It was tough walking down the hall and seeing the chairs where we waited while they did various procedures on the twins. We saw the sinks where we washed up every chance we had because we didn’t want the little ones to get sick. We saw Leilani’s old stall…. There was another baby in the stall…I don’t think I will ever feel comfortable in that room looking at the place my daughter died… Again, I thought I had dealt with this… We also saw a familiar face there. One of the babies that was there when the twins were admitted is STILL there! His mom also had twins and already lost one while we were there. Her baby boy has an infection and I couldn’t help think of Leilani. His face reminded me of hers. I feel so bad for this girl. She’s so young and to have gone through so much at that age. It’s just not right… Everyone, if you can spare the minute then say a prayer for her son. If anyone deserves a break it’s her and her little boy.

It was nice to see all the nurses and doctors. They were all very excited to see Rhys and how much he’s grown! I’m still in awe to see how much he grown in just the last week!! We didn’t get to see all the nurses. :( And only saw one of his primaries. But, we’ll head back there to see the rest of them soon. It felt so good to see all of them again. I could never repay what they have done for me, and my life is truly in their service. What a bunch of simply amazing people.

That’s about it for me. Here’s a pic of Monster. :) He looks like he just stuck his finger in the light socket!!! What a head of hair!!

So, I received my Faster DVD the other day! It was everything I thought it would be and more. :) If you are a racing fan/motorcycle fan, you should definitely give it a look.

Rhys is doing fine all things considered. He’s been put on a 22 calorie formula because he hasn’t been gaining as much weight as he should… I swear, does it ever become “normal”? He’s sleeping through the nights now, which is nice for Heidi, but he’s still pretty cranky at times when he’s awake.

Nothing really profound or interesting to write about so I’ll close this one for now.

Happy belated Memorial Day folks. :) Hope everyone had a wonderful time. I took the week off of work for some R&R. Man, I had five days off for the price of one. You can’t beat that. So, what did my time off find me doing? Well, you’d think perhaps I’d decide to buckle down and get some shizzle done around here. You know, get organized, get some direction, or be productive. Well, you’re absolutely right! That’s what I decided to do… However, at the end of this week I now feel like a compass in a magnet factory. I’m still unorganized, have no direction and I didn’t accomplish diddly! Yay for me! What a waste. I didn’t even get drunk! So, as much as I’d like to report there’s news around El Loco Rancho, I have nothing to report… Nothing. Not a damn thing.

Rhys had no appointments with the doctor, which was a nice change. Felt like a regular family for once. He’s doing fine these days. Just hanging out. Getting more and more alert, and starting to show some muscle control. Yay!! Here’s a pic of the little man. I was showing him the finer points of Linux. :) Notice dad’s huge eye bags… What a loser…

So, do you want to know what kept me from being productive? Games my friend… I got my Linux Box to dual boot with the evil empire and can now play all my games again. I forgot just how fun some of these games can be. However, I did remember exactly why I erased my Windows box in the first place… What a life suck… Hopefully next week will find me getting some stuff done…

Oh… And I STILL don’t have a bike. :( hhehehe