Yes indeed, Andrew arrived yesterday morning at 6:30am (groan). We sat in the airport an extra 45 min because Andrew didn’t see his bag on the belt. The airline people were nice enough to find it and return it after we spent another 30 min in their office filling out a lost baggage report. We spent all of Monday running around getting him settled in with all the things that an upcoming 13 year old 7th grader needs. He has his bike, his room with his computer, his cell phone (prepaid that he paid for). Today is School stuff. So it should be great fun! I do plan on making a larger post when I have time. I am off of work all this week doing lots of running around. In the meantime here are a few pics:

So I finished day 2 of my new exercise regime. One word comes to mind. OW! Every day when I start up the workout, Maya (the virtual personal trainer), picks an area that she thinks I should work on. The first 2 workouts have been core body strength. These start off harmless enough, with some simple aerobics to get warmed up. She then takes you into all sorts of body twisting and deforming exercises that would seem easy, if I were a computer generated character dancing around inside an X-box. Crunches are now my nemesis, and Maya knows this somehow through some x-box enabled virtual to mental link. I see along the time line that I have to do 10 reps of right side crunches. I guess this would be fine, but I know that if I am doing right side, I will inevitably be doing left side as well. I scream in pain as I work my abs into oblivion and all she does is giggle and shout out “I’m feelin ya!” Then, of course, she lines up another set of right side crunches!

Over all I think I am doing good. The exercises have been tough, but do-able. I am guessing that is good because it’s killing pushing me. I am still glad I am doing this and, even though it’s causing me serious pain with being sore all the next day, I know that after a while I will be getting used to it and my body will stop cry out “dear gods what are you doing to me!”

Today is Thursday so that means that in less than four days Andrew will be here. We have been doing some super deep cleaning of the house in getting it ready. I know he will enjoy it here. Oh, and in all that cleaning…… Still no gloves found.

Ok, I am not sure how many of you remember a year ago, while I was getting ready for DragonCon, I was doing some serious working out. I was down at the Gym every day after work and it really felt good. The primary reason for all of that working out was the Spiderman costume. I didn’t want to look like “Beer gut Spidey” so I hit the work out hard. The downside of course being that after DragonCon was over, I didn’t continue. It’s been a year now and I still haven’t continued. This isn’t good. I have often told myself that I need to get going again and just make the move to do it. Those of you who know me know how well that works. I know this is having an effect on Amy as well. If I am not motivated to do it, it drags down her motivation as well.

So it’s now time to stop that. One of the things I kept thinking to myself while I was working out is that I would really like to have a Personal trainer. I am far too cheap to go to a real gym and have one though. I don’t like the Idea of using these DVD’s of workouts because they are far too static and impersonal. So yesterday I am reading one of my computer gaming magazines and they have an article on a new “game” that’s all about fitness. Only it’s not a game, it’s a full workout program. It runs on the X-box and saves your profile for tracking. Enter Yourself Fitness. (Here is where I start sounding like one of those late night exercise commercials) I did a good amount of reading up on what all is contained in this little X-box disk. Needless to say, I was impressed. It is indeed a fully tailored workout regime, meal plan, and stress reliever all rolled into one.

I headed out last night to pick up a copy. The website said that it can be purchased at Target, EBGames, and Best Buy. Well, there is a Target right close to work, as well as an EBGames. I walked into Target and browsed through the visible games. Of course I see nothing pertaining to fitness. Just for S&G’s I walked over to the fitness section and browsed there… nothing of course. Here is where it gets fun. I walk up to the counter and start asking the guy there about this ……. Wait, what is it again? Is it a game? Well, it’s for the x-box, but it’s not a game. It’s a Fitness Video, but it’s not a video… How the heck do I ask about this? I do my best to explain that I am looking for an X-box title of “Yourself Fitness” and that it’s not a game. The guy looks at me like I have 10 heads. I gave up on Target at this point. Next stop, EBGames!

At least at EBGames I didn’t feel like a moron. When I asked about it the guy said “Oh yeah, that fitness program. I’ve heard about that and it sounds like a cool idea. Sadly we don’t have any in stock though” GAH! Ok, that’s only 2 stores, how hard can this be? I have an hour before I need to pick Amy up at work (we carpool) so I head off to Toy’s-R-Us. Again, the guy knows what I am talking about, and the computer there even said he had 4 in stock. Now the problem is that he can’t find them. We pour through the X-box titles out on the floor, then again through the case behind the counter, nothing. A quick scan from the back room and he comes out with a sad look on his face. Ok, well, there is another Target and a Wal-Mart nearby. I go and glance through them (I don’t bother asking in these stores) and also nothing.

When I was looking up information on where to buy it I noticed that I could check, via their website, store inventory. The store that is near my house didn’t show any in stock, but the store in Manassas had a few. Problem is that Manassas is west of where I live and at 5:30pm that’s a bad idea as traffic is all pouring out of DC and heading west. Ok, so this is probably just a better idea to wait and pick up Amy, then go get it. I haven’t even told Amy that we were doing this yet! She gets in and we head off. Thankfully they have a few in stock and we were able to get one. Finally! Homeward bound.

We arrive back home and it’s about 7:30. Not really enough time to start a full workout, but we can at least load in some profiles. The trainers name is Maya. She asks me all of the normal information, Name, Age, Weight, etc. then rolls into my starting heart rate. Ok, I rest for a while and count. 10 seconds and 10 beats, guess I am pretty relaxed. Ok next step, she wants an escalated heart rate. Ok, this shouldn’t be too rough, what do I need to do? Jumping Jacks, for 2 min. Wow, 2 min, well that doesn’t seem so hard. She has a little computer generated figure there I can keep pace with. How hard can Jumping Jacks be? About 1 min in I am wishing for a power failure. I haven’t done jumping jacks in about 10 years! I had to pause a few times but never for more than a quick second, but I did make it all the way to 2 min. I believe my next heart rate was 25 beats in that 10 second window. Now I had to do squats. Squats were easy, it had a max of 50 and that’s what I did. Push-ups were next. I suck at push-ups. I mean horribly suck at them. I have very long and skinny arms, and with my gaining weight over the years, it hasn’t helped. It said a max of 40 push-ups, I think I did 20. (Sigh) Next Maya asks me to do 60 crunches. I think to myself, “Last year I was doing 60 crunches easy (after I had worked up to them).” She was so encouraging too, every now and then she would shout out “Let’s keep it going” and “Good Job!” I guess it’s good that she couldn’t really see me straining on number 15. Last up is flexibility. You sit down and basically try and touch your toes, then using the models on the screen, you show how far you got. My finger tips got to about mid shin.

So much for it being too early to start a workout! I was already wiped! Maya determined that I needed to work on a cardio workout for 30 min a day for 5 days out of the week. That’s not too bad at all! The program will keep track of my heart rate and my weight and track my progress. It even has a meal plan with calorie tracking and recipes. If I have too stressful of a day at work there is a meditation garden option where I can do Yoga and center myself. I plan on starting this tonight so it should be interesting the rest of the week. I will, of course, keep you all updated. I may even take some before pictures with the hopes of taking some much better after pictures. Wish me Luck!

So here I am, just 2 weeks away from instant fatherhood. Not that I wasn’t a father before. Now it’s going to be a full time deal. To be honest, I am not even that nervous about it. I have made all the arrangements as far as school and such. We have a full week after he gets here to take care of signing up and registering. (I asked and they told me he needed to be living in the area before registering.) I know Andrew is excited about the move. Of course I realize that this is probably going to be the toughest time period to raise a child. He is just getting ready to hit 13 which means I get to face all of the teenage years. This would be where my dad gets to sit back and watch me while laughing because he knows what I did to him. It’s going to be an interesting time to read the blog soon.

In other news, I am not sure if I had mentioned it here yet but it looks like there will not be a DragonCon for me and Amy this year. If you were reading last year at this time you know that we were ramping up for the big DragonCon. DragonCon is THE convention for costuming and the like. The 501st play a big roll there, and it also allows us to play around with other costumes. Last year you may recall I did the Alien Spiderman and Spike. Well, this year it just doesn’t seem feasible to have Andrew come in on the 29th of Aug. and then the 2nd of September head to the Con and then back here to have him start school on the 6th. It’s just not going to happen. I don’t think it would be right to jump start Andrew into the Con scene with DC anyways. It’s a little much to be a first con. The current plan is for his first big Con to be Farpoint in Feb. I am sure we will be having different garrison events he can attend as well.

You may have noticed a slight decline in posting to the blog in the last few weeks. This is mostly because of an increase in workload at work. We have had a few problems with servers and a number of new projects that have kept me busily tapping away at my keyboard and pulling out my hair. I am somewhat surprised that I have been able to post today. What I don’t find surprising is that I started this post at about 10am and it’s getting finished up at 6pm. I really hope to be able to post more through the week. We’ll see if we can’t ramp this baby back up.

BTW, the past few weekends weren’t all that action packed. Mostly they have been filled with cleaning and getting the place ready for Andrew’s arrival. Still no gloves yet.

I am still at a loss for words over Katie’s passing. To be honest I had never met her, but I do know her family, and through them I feel like I knew her quite well. We followed the stories from when she started getting sick, and how the entire 501st pulled together to show her support.

I wish I could paint a memorial, or write up a grand story, but I don’t have the skills. But I took what I do know and created this Tribute Video in memory of Katie

Today, Albin posted this letter to the 501st boards. It touched me, and since I have posted quite a few times about Katie, I thought I would re-post it here.

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As some of you may have already heard, my daughter Katie finally ended her battle with cancer on Tuesday when she passed away around 5:30 pm. Katie’s health had been declining so I began my leave of absence from work that day, not knowing that would be the day she would pass. Katie enjoyed a quiet morning with me and Kathy, watching t.v. and playing with her kittens. She asked me to put Star Wars Episode II on, then laid down to take a nap. Hours later she passed away in her sleep. She was surrounded by both sets of parents, her oncologist, her hospice nurse, and her pastor. It was a minor miracle that everyone managed to be there at just the right time. I held Katie in my arms as she struggled with her transformation, holding her close and reassuring her that it was okay to let go. She let out a deep and satisfying sigh with her last breath and it sounded just like when she was a baby. I must have held her for two hours.

Katie’s older sister, Allie, was devastated by the news. But she’s a trooper at heart and today she marched bravely to her first day of school in spite of her loss. I asked her if she was sure she wanted to go, and she said she had to – Katie had wanted to make the first day of school and couldn’t, so Allie would do it for her. Katie’s step-mom, Kathy, turned in the math book Katie worked so hard on over the summer.

It was a beautiful day. Katie had passed at just the right time – waiting long enough to see Hilary Duff in person and seeing members of the Carolina Garrison who visited her on Saturday. But soon enough for Allie to have _just_ enough time to start fresh at school.

Katie’s funeral will be held tomorrow, Friday August 12th, at Riverland Hills Baptist Church on St. Andrews Rd. in Columbia, SC. Service will be at 4 pm. Everyone who attends is encouraged to wear something pink, as that is what Katie would have wanted.

This is the most horrible experience of my life, but it is also the most incredible lesson I’ve had the privilege to witness. Katie fought cancer every step of the way, never complaining about her treatments or her disabilities. She was a plucky, wonderful child who told me she was not
afraid to die. A big fan of the LOTR character , Frodo, she remarked to me a couple weeks ago that Frodo was lucky to go in the boat over the seas to the undying lands, and likened that to real-world death. She said that there was no reason to cry, because over there there are no monsters and whoever goes over is happy and too busy having fun to
miss those they left behind.

God was at work here, no matter what anyone says. Katie had two fathers, and her heavenly one just wanted her more than her earthly one and took her home. Through all the praying and hoping, I have always felt the spirit of calm that God’s will would be worked even if I couldn’t understand it. One day I will. I’ll be in heaven and Katie will take me by the hand and show me around and reassure me that everything was fine.
It’s a nice dream I have.

I can’t thank everyone adequately here for the love and encouragement you’ve all shown me and my family and to Katie herself. If you could only see the hundreds of cards and gifts and letters Katie received you’d know just how loved she was. I will forever be grateful to everyone for their support.

I will be mostly out of touch for some time but promise to return soon.
Please hug someone you love.

God bless you all.

Albin Johnson
Katie’s dad
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Rest now Little one, The journey is over.

This last weekend defiantly had it’s plusses and minuses. The lead into the weekend was absolutely rough though. I am having issues getting my RIS server working on a network. Something is wrong with my PXE boot and it won’t register with the DHCP server. Now that I have most people confused, I’ll just say that it’s been stressing me out a lot over the past week as it’s a very high visibility project. I need to find a new picture for stress. I think my fish in a blender picture is getting over used.

Saturday I slept in a little bit. Amy got up early so she could attend her work’s open house. She was gone pretty much the whole morning with this. I woke up slowly and did some stuff on the computer before getting ready for the Art Insights Gallery event. One of the great Star Wars artists was being showcased, John Alvin. John is responsible for many many Movie poster artworks such as E.T., Blade Runner, Lion King, and lots more. There were 4 of us to troop the event. We wandered around the shopping area that the gallery was in and pulled in many onlookers. The kids were enamored with Darth Vader of course. One of the works that John had done was the poster art for the Star Wars Celebration I. Yes, the first one out in Denver. I was there for all three days of it (Heather joined me for some, and the Rest I was with John Myers.) Funny when you look back on it. I remember sitting in line (In the mud) with John M. and seeing all the Star Wars costumes around us (not too many troopers back then.) Who knew that both of us would be as involved as we are now! So, Mr. Alvin did the artwork for the posters, and only a few of them were available for sale. He brought one of these posters with him to the Gallery and was kind enough to sign it and sell it to me. As a thank you for trooping the event they also gave us a really cool Star Wars montage print. Pictures from the event can be found here

On Sunday I slept in as usual and got the standard late start. We made a quick run to the store to pick up a few things. While we were out we stopped at Red Robin for lunch. This was of course my undoing. I ordered my usual Freckled Lemonade (Lemonade with strawberry bits in it) and within the first few seconds I down the first glass. The waitress was quick to pick up that I was a bit thirsty. She brought out a HUGE mug-o-lemonade next. I drank 2 full ones. On top of that I ate a chili burger. I spent the hour after that laying on the couch with a stomach ache. This wiped me out for the rest of the day. Thankfully we didn’t have much planned. We sat and watched White Noise as our Sunday movie. I rate it an Eh. It was good for creepy and scarey, bad for plot and storyline.

So an early night later my PXE problem persists. sigh

Today is July the 26th. Andrew is due to arrive on August 29th early in the morning. Preparations have already begun. This last weekend was spent doing another Purge and cleaning spree. As one of my friends said, “Wow, is your place really that dirty? Seems like all you do is clean!” No, it’s not that dirty. As a matter of fact, the house is usually quite clean. It’s just that I have so much Stuff that it tends to turn into clutter around everywhere! I still haven’t found the spider-man gloves yet, but the house is starting to become less cluttered. I took out another truck full of crap to the dumpster. Its crazy the amount of stuff that I was just holding onto for the sake of holding onto. For instance, I have a subscription to a magazine called Maximum PC. It’s a great magazine, I highly suggest it. But I never read any of the old issues. I had a box outside that was filled to the brim with old issues. Not any more.

So now Andrew’s room is completely set for him to arrive. I have cleaned out the desk, the closet and everything else that isn’t supposed to be in there. There are some Toys, and furniture. I have also added his computer to the room, but it’s not working yet. I bought him a new case but something isn’t working on it and I haven’t figured out what yet. I am almost to the point of just going and buying one of the $400 HP machines and upgrading it with a new Video card (I have spares). Well see if I can get this one working, but it may just turn into a project PC for Andrew to tinker with. Outside of that, his room is ready to go. (It’s no longer the evil Den)

Things have not lightened up at work either. I have been focusing all of my work time on building a RIS server. For those that don’t know, RIS stands for Remote Installation Services. It’s a server on the network that can remotely install full machines with new operating systems and baselines. Using this, we can place a new computer at someone’s desk and just set it to download its OS from the RIS server. Since it’s all done over the network and automagicly, there are no disks needed and it’s relatively un-attended. For some odd reason, the first few times I tried to get the damn thing to work it kept saying I didn’t have the right permissions. So I wiped it and started over.

As for the rest of lifes goings on. I have finally posted the pictures from the Fourth of July, and from the children’s hospital event. There isn’t much to the pictures for the 4th, mostly just fireworks and a cute picture of me and Amy. The children’s hospital was a very informative event. This was not your average hospital. This was an “Advanced Care” facility. Basically, this is where children come after the extended hospital stays for long term care and, hopefully, recovery. Many of the children were un-able to respond but we were told that the stimulus of seeing us in costume was good for them. The parents that were on hand for our visit also appreciated our efforts. It was a sad trip, but overall rewarding.

Who knows what will happen this weekend. For that matter, the week isn’t up yet…

I guess that means I should probably write a little more often. The sad thing is that there hasn’t really been anything great to write about. Life has progressed as normal, well as normal as can be expected with the life that is mine. I have purchased Andrews ticket to come out here. I got a great deal through a site called Kayak. So in roughly a month he will arrive to shake things up around here. It will defiantly be an experience, but I am more then willing and ready.

In other saddening news, it would appear that the great Scotty, James Doohan, has passed away this morning. I don’t believe that in all my years of con going I ever got the chance to meet him, but from what I have heard, he was a great individual. There may be rifts between Star Wars and Star Trek fans, but when it comes down to it, when a good person passes away, everyone connected feels it. So today James Doohan has become one with the force and has beamed up for the last time. Thanks for the Memories Scotty!

On a happier note, the newest trailer for the Serenity movie came out today. For those not in the know, Serenity is the movie that was born from the TV show Firefly. This was a show that was picked up by Fox, but being Fox, they f’d it up beyond belief. The actually aired the episodes out of order, they threw it in a Friday night death slot. I for one loved the show. I started watching when they first aired it and was hooked. I was really upset when the show was canceled. Like wise I was very excited when I found it all on DVD. Last year, when it came out, I sat and did a firefly marathon. It was great to watch all of the shows in the order they were meant to be seen in. So now, about a year later, we prepare for Serenity! There have been two trailers released and both just make me want to see the Movie more and more. Amy has even made plans for when Andrew arrives, we will be sitting and watching the Firefly episodes again to catch him up.

This last week has been crazy. There have been so many changes going on, it’s not even funny. Things at work are on the verge of ballistic and it’s defiantly having an effect on me. I have been a little more stressed out than usual, and the sad thing is that I don’t know that it’s going to get better for a while. You see, we have Tons of shakeups here at work going on around the end of July, Andrew coming in at the end of Aug., Andrews school starting up in September, and all of the miscellaneous stuff in between. This is probably the reason I haven’t been writing much.

The last weekend went really well. I bought me a new storage closet for the back patio that works out great! Plus we really got a lot accomplished in the way of cleaning up. They may or may not be more of that this weekend. On Saturday we have a few things going on. In the afternoon we will be making a stop off at one of the children’s hospitals in Richmond VA to do some trooping and give the kids there a few smiles. I know troops like this are tough, but knowing that the kids will enjoy it makes it all worth the effort. After that it will be down to Mark’s place for a Luau party. Not sure what time we will get back from that. Hopefully my inspiration to write more will manifest soon.