How bored is Brandon at work? Bored enough to actually post to LiveJournal. I'll make Kristen happy and steal her Facebook survey thing.

( Survey and news. )

Date:	2009-04-12 23:19
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	sunburned

The KCaras have asked us if we were planning on having a baby shower for Ficklet #2. We pretty much have everything we need (we hope), but having a shower would allow a lot of us to hang out again (which is more important than baby stuff anyway). So, instead of coming to a baby shower, we are hoping you can come to Ethan's 2nd birthday party. It'll be May 17 16 (Saturday, the weekend after Mother's Day). Last year, my dad boiled crawfish, and I cooked hot dogs/hamburgers. I'm not sure if we'll do the crawfish again, but I'm sure we'll have tons of good food, and Susan will probably do some elaborate cake decorating.

Ethan had a pretty good Easter, seeing as how he was being spoiled by both sets of grandparents. My parents came in on Friday morning and helped me put together Ethan's new swingset (his birthday present).

From Ethan 48 - Easter

More photos here.  (Ugh, ignore the ugly dead grass.  Hopefully it'll be in by May).

Susan's family got in town on Friday evening, and the weekend was spent doing Easter stuff and eating way too much food. My parents left tonight and Susan's will leave tomorrow.  And then poor Ethan won't get sweets every time he says "Oooh, cookie!"

Anyway, we hope schedules can work out we can see y'all at Ethan's party.  It'll be like a baby shower, only with less cheesy baby shower games and more New Orleans alcohol!

For those of you who do not look at our Picasa page (or those of you who are not as cool as air_bubble, who actually subscribes to our Picasa page and gets update emails (you're our favorite, Kara)), here's the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/brandonfick

We have two albums for the wedding and three for the rest of the trip.  I took a few videos also, so I'll try to remember to put those up too.

Susan and I always have fun when we are able to hang out with everyone, and this past weekend was no exception.  Also, every wedding from now on should be required to have a photo booth.  Greatest idea ever.

Date:	2007-10-23 11:50
Subject:	Can we please set some bananas on fire now?
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased

I know I'm repeating what everyone else has already said, but man this weekend was fun. The pre-wedding dinner, the "last night out", the wedding & reception, the bar... we need to figure out how this happens more often. Maybe one weekend a year where we all meet in N.O. and just party for 3 days straight.

Anyway, here's the link to our Picasa page: http://picasaweb.google.com/brandonfick. And yes, Kristen, you can make it an RSS feed. I did it for my mom and while she has no idea what an RSS feed is, she loves that when we add new pictures of Ethan they automatically show up on her homepage.

Here's the album for the wedding pictures:

Dave & Jen's Wedding (Photos)

and the album for the wedding videos:

Dave & Jen's Wedding (Videos)

The first video is the one everyone wants to see. When I get home from work I'll put it on YouTube also so it can be embedded by itself. Also, there are 2 more videos I need to upload - Bartley discussing Kristen's "discovery" in his room and Bartley recount of his faux pas at the pre-wedding dinner, but I need to shrink them down enough to allow Picasa to upload them.


Here are Paul's pictures from the weekend:  http://picasaweb.google.com/pgjackson/DaveWedding2007

(Yay, Cara and Paul knowing the greatness that is Picasa!)

One last thing - Kara, Kristen tempted us with this little nugget: "I'd put a note about Kara here, but it would embarrass her, so I won't. She knows what it is though!"  Want to fill us in? :-)

Anyway, keep sharing the pictures, everyone!

**EDIT** Here is the link to the last two videos:  http://picasaweb.google.com/brandonfick/DaveJenSWeddingVideosPart2?authkey=9YugEbLOoho

I separated them from the others to make them unlisted (so you can only get to them by clicking on the direct link).

Now, this may come as a shock to you, but the work of a structural engineer isn't very comical.  So, when I snuck onto the internet in the middle of the day and ran across this story headline on ESPN.com:




and I laughed out loud, I kinda gave it away that I wasn't actually working.


Whoops.


(hehe...waving a magic wang)

We just got back the Kwik E Mart. I was relieved to see that we weren't the only dorks taking pictures:

Kwik E Mart

Here are a couple of the ( funniest pictures: )


And just because this picture is awesome:

Hey current (and former) Texas residents,

I got my first speeding ticket on Saturday while driving around Susan's family's house in the Panhandle.  I didn't see the "Reduced Speed Limit  Ahead" sign and was caught going 73 in a 55.  I called today, it's a $200 fine.  I asked about taking Defensive Driving to get this off my record (and not on my insurance), and they said that I can.  They said that the full fine of $200 was still due to them by the end of the week, but the $30 course would get the ticket "dismissed".  She definitely said the word dismissed.  I would have guessed that getting the ticket dismissed would mean that the $200 fine went away, but I guess that's not right.

bartley, does this seem similar to when you took DD?  You paid the fine in full but took the course to get it off your record?

superponible, you couldn't do this for some reason, right?

blawssom, does this all sound normal for Texas, or are the details on a county by county basis?  Also, would you like to put your fresh laywer career on the line by getting me out this, using your vast number of contacts in the Texas Panhandle and your mad lawyering skills? :-)

It's probably not polite to put a deadline on comments, but since for my check to get to them by Friday, I probably have to have it in the mail tomorrow (Tuesday).  I just want to make sure I have to pay the full $200 fine and not a lesser fine/court cost/etc. (since this is my first run in with the man).

I want to start posting more. However, I don't really have a specific topic, so here are a bunch of random topics and thoughts.

( Fatherhood )

( Memorial Day )

( TV )

( Video Games )

Date:	2007-05-11 21:48
Subject:	Our little dude
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

I may be biased, but I really do believe that this is without a doubt the most perfect baby ever born.



I've uploaded some more pics to the website.  If you need a baby fix, that website is the place to go, since I plan on adding pictures to it continuously.  

A few of you have shown interest in visiting.  Of course you're welcome.  However, we'll be in the hospital until Monday morning, so that's where you'd have to come to see the little guy if you're in or coming to Dallas this weekend.  After you've gotten your fill of coos and sighs, though, you're on your own in terms of entertaining yourself. :-)

As I type this, Susan is conked out in her bed and Ethan is sound asleep in his.  I'm tired too, but I know that I won't be able to sleep... I just can't stop thinking about our new family.  This really is amazing.

For anyone interested, I posted the pictures we took at the baby shower here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/brandonfick

This is also where I'll post daily pictures of the Ficklet.*


*by order of both grandmothers

I think I'm ready for April to be over.  Susan, my family, and I have had bad luck this month, and while nothing that happened is really that bad, all in one month is just a little much.

1. When I started doing our taxes, I was actually looking forward to doing them, because I wanted to see how big our return was.  Since we underpaid last year and owed $150 for our 2005 taxes, I changed our paychecks to take more out so that we wouldn't have that happen this year.  Well, this year we underpaid by $1400.  I've double checked everything and there's no mistake.  We just couldn't take advantage of the things we thought (the house, primarily).  It was a surprise expense.

2. My mom was walking my brother's dog when she tripped on some broken sidewalk and face planted.  Her front teeth actually broke through the skin between her nose and upper lip.  She needed ten stitches and chipped her front tooth.  I haven't seen her yet, but she says her upper lip has healed and you can't really see anything except the chipped tooth, which she is getting fixed soon.

3. A few Mondays ago my contact was bothering me so much I had to leave work.  I got home and took it out, but it kept getting worse.  I went to the doctor the next morning and they said it looked like a chemical burn combined with a viral infection.  I have no idea how this happened.  I had to go back to the doctor daily for the rest of the week, meaning that I had to cancel a work site visit to Shreveport.  It's fine now, but it took about a week and a half for my eye to stop hurting and actually focus on something.

4. My idiot cousin Gary (Jeff's roommate at LSU) got arrested for DUI, speeding, refusing the breathalyzer, no seatbelt, and an expired license.  He spent a night in jail and had a $4000 bail, which my mom had to pay to get him out ("He's definitely paying me back," she says).  He's 22 years old and still acts like an idiot.

5. Susan and I went to get another ultrasound and found out that the Ficklet is breech (not head down like he/she's supposed to be).  The doctor said that the chance of a turnaround at this point is very low, so we should expect a scheduled c-section.  This was always a possibility due to Susan's small size and the Ficklet being a big baby (8 pounds already, projected to be over 9 pounds), but Susan wanted the option of everything happening naturally.  We have scheduled the c-section for Friday, May 11 at 12:00pm.  Of course, the Ficklet may get impatient and come early, but that's probably the day our little fatty will arrive.

6. My mom's credit card number got stolen and about $1000 of charges were put on it.  VISA is covering all the charges, but still, it's a pain in the ass to cancel your credit card and update all your bills.

7. We had a water leak in our house.  On Sunday, we noticed the carpet in the office was a little wet under the AC vent, so we put a towel down thinking that we just had some condensation dripping.  The next day, the smell of mildew was very strong, the towel was now soaked, and the back corner of that room was now all wet.  I go turn off the water and call our home warranty company.  They call a plumber, who doesn't come until Wednesday, comes in, looks at it, then leaves and never comes back.  I call the home warranty company back and complain.  They say that we can now call any plumber we want, but that our warranty has a $500 limit (which we didn't know about), and that's how much they would pay us.  We finally get a competent plumber out on Thursday who fixes the leak that was from the hot water heater to the washer, costing us $1800.  Our carpet is pulled up and there's fresh concrete filling the hole in the slab, but we now have water in our house again after 72 hours without it.  Ahh, the joys of home ownership.

8. Susan is about to chew her hands off.  We don't know what it is, but she has itchy little bumps that started on the back of her hands and have now moved all over her hands.  There is a pregnancy thing similar to this called PUPPP, but it normally effects your stomach, not hands.  She's tried all sorts of creams and stuff but the only thing that helps even a little bit is Benadryl, which conks her out like crazy.  All she's done the past few days is sleep and scratch.  She has a dermatologist appointment on Monday, so hopefully it gets better soon.

Here's to May, which looks to be tons better than April.

Date:	2006-10-01 16:29
Subject:	May 15, 2007
Security:	Public
Mood:	very happy

Date:	2006-08-21 21:57
Subject:	The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Security:	Public
Mood:	detoxed, full, and sassy

The Good:

I finished my detox diet last night.  The total weight loss for the 3 weeks was 16 pounds.  Counting the 6 pounds I lost in the 3 weeks leading up to the diet, I'm 22 pounds lighter than I was on July 10.  I'm glad I did it, but I'll never do it again.  Because of the strict guidelines I had to follow, the monotony of the same meals over and over really started to get to me towards the end.  Adding fish on Day 11 helped, but I still couldn't easily go out to eat or have the same meal as Susan.  Everyone at work lost about the same amount, and we all celebrated by going out to lunch today.  I had the most wonderful hamburger ever at Kona Grill, a restaurant our office designed.  With the Sonic Spicy Breakfast Burrito for breakfast and the 2 pieces of pizza for dinner, I had a very good "retoxification" day.  Tomorrow, I'll go back to what was working before I did the detox:  a turkey sandwich with a banana and some yogurt for lunch, only eating half my meals at restaurants, and working out 4 times a week.  

A few weeks ago superponible mentioned the pictures we took of each other freshman year making puppy chow and at bee_stung's grandparents' house, and I realized that from then until July 10 of this year, I had gained about 50 pounds (I did look damn good in those freshman pictures, if I say so myself).  In 6 weeks, I lost almost half that weight.  If I can lose the other half in the next 6 months, I'll be really happy.




The Bad:

My parents put my dog Meg to sleep on Friday morning.  I don't remember who actually met Meg (bartley and superponible definitely, bee_stung yes, jenbarbiedoll11 maybe?), but I probably talked about her enough for all of you to know at least a little about her.  She was close to 13 years old.  She went blind about 3-4 years ago, but still managed to get around OK.  A few months ago, an embolism developed in her spine that made her paralyzed from the waist back.  The doctors said that it wasn't that uncommon to happen to labs, and that many regain the feeling in their legs in a few weeks.  Meg started to wag her tail, but her legs never came back.  My parents visited her at the vet every day, and said that she didn't act like how you'd think a blind paralyzed dog would.  She still wagged her tail, ate well, licked your hand, pretty much the same things she did before this all happened.  They decided to take her home and see how she did at home.  Meg actually was able to get around relatively freely by scooting herself around.  If you didn't know she couldn't walk, you'd see this lazy happy dog on the ground and not know.  This lasted a few months without any real issues.  The problems started when she got a bladder infection.  Then she stopped eating.  My parents took this as a sign.  They were pretty bummed this weekend, but I'm betting that there is a new yellow lab puppy in the house within a year.




The Ugly:

Did anyone else suffer through the Saints - Cowboys preseason game tonight?  It was really bad if you were a Saints fan.  I don't know if the Saints' head coach didn't want to show off the crazy "Bush and Deuce at the same time" plays in a meaningless game, but the playcalling was extremely conservative.  Drew Brees didn't throw to a receiver or farther than 5 yards until 2:00 left in the 2nd quarter.  Either his shoulder was bothering him or Coach Payton didn't want to test it.  Dallas' defense was really good, as expected, but their offense was unbelievable.  I haven't been buying into the hype of Dallas being a Superbowl team, but they sure did look like it tonight.

Work should be interesting tomorrow...I talked a lot of trash about the game tonight.  Hopefully when the Saints play the Cowboys again this year (December 10, Texas Stadium, I'll be there), they'll put up a better fight than they did tonight.



Edit:  Gotta love LJ's suggestions for spelling:  superponible should be "spoonbill" and jenbarbiedoll11 should be "phenobarbital."

Date:	2006-08-17 19:30
Subject:	To all my alcoholic friends...
Security:	Public
Mood:	still hungry

Alright, drunkies:

To celebrate our finishing the detox diet, me and a bunch of guys from work are going out on Tuesday night (why we're doing this on a night where we have to get up and work the next day, I have no idea).  They know I'm a drinking lightweight, but I still have to attempt to drink, at least a little.  I need you suggest some drinks that I might like that (a) aren't gay, and (b) aren't ridiculously strong.  Since my standard Amaretto Sour would fall into the gay category, I need some new ideas.  A guy a work mentioned a Colorado Bulldog, which he described as a White Russian with a little Coke added in (I have no idea how that isn't as gay as my Amaretto Sour, but I don't make the man rules).  He says it tastes like chocolate milk, so I may have to try that.  Any other drinks?  C'mon, impress me and others with your booze knowledge.

Date:	2006-08-08 22:03
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	hungry

First off, thank you, Jen, for putting it in the heads of all our friends that we are pregnant. Because of you, any “big news” that we have will not compare to our announcing the future arrival of Brandon Dulymus Reginald Fick. I was gonna get around to posting sooner or later, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Seriously, we’re constantly busy. Of course, if all of you would just move to Dallas instead of living in Austin, Temple, College Station or California, we could have told you in person like we did with Dave and Jen. Anyway: 

Date:	2006-03-14 22:23
Subject:	A great day to be a Saints fan!
Security:	Public
Mood:	jubilant

Drew Brees is now a Saint!



I was all about Matt Leinart for the Saints at #2, but this move is sooo much better for the Saints.  Today, We got a proven QB suited for the Saints' new West Coast Offense, run by a head coach that used to be a QB coach.  Also, our defensive coordinator, who was a linebackers coach at Dallas, got a really good outside linebacker, Scott Fujita, to follow him here from Dallas.

The draft can go so many different ways now:

1. Stay at #2 and take D'Brickshaw Ferguson (to protect Brees)

2. Trade down to #4 - #6, gain a 2nd rounder & 3rd rounder, and still probably get D'Brickshaw (our #2 is worth a ton, teams would have to (and are willing, it seems) to give us two first day picks for this spot)

3. Trade down to #4 - #6, gain a 2nd rounder & 3rd rounder, and get A.J. Hawk (instantly, we have a new awesome LB corps, with Hawk playing weak and Fujita playing strong)

4. Stay at #2, take Mario Williams, and then trade Charles Grant for a 2nd rounder  (best defensive player in the draft, making our current defensive end tradeable)

5. If someone jumps to #1 for Leinart, stay at #2 and take Reggie Bush (unlikely, but the idea of Deuce and Bush behind Brees is just UNBELIEVABLE)


With the signing of Brees, we jumped from getting two impact players this offseason ( Leinart and whoever we took at #34 (we have no 3rd rounder at this point)) to getting AT LEAST four (Brees, our 1st, our 2nd, someone elses 2nd, and possibly a 3rd).

As I'm typing this, I'm reading on SaintsReport.com that suddenly, players that we were not even thinking of are starting to flock to N.O. as a possibility.  This Brees deal let the players know that we are for real and really want to win.

I know this pretty much guarantees that Matt Leinart will no be a Hall of Fame QB (especially since he won't be on the Saints), but Brees is cheaper, he has proven that he is a top 10 QB, and this allows us to fill other holes (offensive line, linebacker).

I love the offseason... it's (historically) the only time of year that the Saints look promising.  Hey, they're tied for first place right now.

Date:	2006-01-30 22:12
Subject:	He looks like a Steelers fan to me
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased

( 24 dead people, continued )

Well, you can blame Microsoft for this one, but...

YOU ARE ALL INVITED TO A SUPERB OWL PARTY!

( Details: )

Date:	2006-01-27 23:05
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	embarrassed (not really)

( 24 body count )

I got back from my 24 hour trip to Seattle.  I spent maybe 2 hours in the JCPenney checking to make sure that the columns would be OK, and for that, JCPenney spent over $800 to get me out there:

$550 for ticket and parking
$150 for car rental
$100 for hotel room
$50 for food

Seems like a waste of money to me, but whatever, the trip was fun.  I was able to play videogames and watch Veronica Mars on the plane, and it got me out of a day and a half of real work.

air_bubble is coming to visit us tomorrow.  bartley  and cheapmetaphor , y'all are next, right?  The Superbowl is next weekend and we have pretty pretty HDTV.

And now, for my humiliation (and your enjoyment):

( blast from the past )

Date:	2006-01-16 22:01
Subject:	NOO, not President Pedro Cerrano!
Security:	Public
Mood:	refreshed

I've decided to keep a 24 body count.  If anything, it'll get me to post once a week.

( Dead people )

In other news, work is good; we're not as busy as we were, and I'm getting to do more.  Next week I'm going to Seattle to make sure a new A/C unit won't crash through the roof of a JCPenney's.  Everyone's making fun of me because I'm too young to rent a car.

Susan's family is coming this weekend, and I think Melanie is gonna stay longer to interview with places in Dallas.

Susan and I (along with superponible  and jenbarbiedoll11) are going to Mardi Gras.  Susan and I are flying to NO on Friday, coming back Tuesday.  I know school schedules aren't the most flexible, but anyone who wants to come is invited.  You can stay at our newly fixed house!

Hey bartley and cheapmetaphor and air_bubble and blawssom, you should come visit Dallas.  We were thinking of a Superbowl party, but pretty much any weekend you can come would be fine.  Who knows, you may even get us to go drink (better chance with me than Susan, but whatever).  However, while I'll pay $100 on videogames, I will NOT pay $100 for something I'll just pee out in 4-6 hours.

Date:	2005-12-28 23:43
Subject:	Christmas 2005 and New Year's Eve Info
Security:	Public
Mood:	just a little insane

Christmas 2005, or “The day I got 16 video games”