I bought a Nerf gun.  I'm such a nerd, but I still think Nerf guns are way fun.  I'd never own a real gun, but for some reason, firing off little foam darts out of a plastic toy shaped like a storm trooper blaster is just a joy.  I think everyone loves Nerf toys.  Seriously...I think it's a universal thing.  Anyway, I'm sure I've been really annoying to my roommates as I run around the house shooting them in the butt with it.  I have grandiose plans of having a nerf gun war this summer.  How cool would that be?!!

Things have been pretty decent lately.  It took me a few weeks, but I finally got better from my cold / infections.  It's nice to be able to breathe clearly all the time.  No major worries about my car or money.  In fact, I've even had a lazy weekend recently.  Those are uncommon at best.

The most exciting thing that happened since my last post was my mother's 60th Birthday.  I drove home, and thankfully, this time it wasn't a nightmarish drive through a blizzard.  That was nice.  Anyway, my Mother didn't know I was heading down until a day or two beforehand. So it was a nice surprise.  We all chipped in to make it a really nice birthday for her and my dad (He has a birthday a week afterwards).  We got her a Kitchenaid mixer.  She's been wanting one for a while, and my sister got a great deal on one.  So we all chipped in.  I also gave my mom my old laptop.  We were all surprised at how excited she was to get it!  She was thrilled.  She never spends time on the computer, and now she can whenever she wants to.  I was happy to pass that on to her.

My Dad has been coveting a new monitor for his computer for quite a while.  Since we couldn't quote afford the one he wanted so much, we gave him about 100 bucks towards the monitor of his choice.  He's since bought a 28 inch flat panel and loves it.  We also passed on some used surround sound speakers.  So he's all set for watching Hulu now.  He loves it.  It was a good visit home.

The following weekend was my lazy weekend.  Saturday night, Chris came home at like...11:00 and asked me to go to the bar with him and his friend, Dave.  So on a whim, I got all dolled up and went out.  We met a very cool guy named Andre.  Andre is a New York City Fashion designer and architect.  He had recently returned from Sweden after designing and building a room in the famed Ice Hotel.  He was in Eau Claire visiting some friends and had also attended a party in his honor earlier in the day that Chris had also attended.  Andre seemed to really appreciate our conversation because we apparently had interesting things to say.  At the end of the night, Andre gave both Chris and myself his card and gave us hugs.  Several people noted that they didn't get hugs, but we did.  Apparently Andre thought we were cool.  I've since friended him on Facebook, and Chris has been conversing with him regularly.  It was a good time.  Otherwise, no hottie girls hitting on me or anything...what else is new.

This weekend should be interesting.  I'm going to Ruby Camp to learn how to develop websites using a technology called Ruby on Rails.  Ruby is a programming language, and Rails is a platform in which developing is made faster.  I'm anxious to dig in.  I've spent time with it in the past, but never enough to actually build anything exciting.

Thursday is my first 29th birthday.  hehe.  Seriously, I'm not a person that worries about turning 30.  Of course I say that now being that it's a year away, but I really think my 30s will be great.  My parents are coming to visit to celebrate.  Otherwise, I'm not really going to do much.  Birthdays have never been a huge thing for me.  I mainly look forward to the time off.

I'm planning on taking the 22nd and 23rd off just so I can enjoy a couple days.  My friend Addison has offered to come up on the 22nd so we can get Genderverse online.  I think it'll be nice to have a personal work day to get that project live.  Then we can actually use it as a platform.  Then the 23rd will be a sleep in day.

Speaking of projects, I've had lots of ideas floating around for my super hero story.  I really need to get some of these projects and ideas moving instead of just floating around in the ether.  Maybe once Genderverse is up, I can put some energy into writing.  That'd be nice.

My life schedule is picking up though.  So we'll see.  My plan is to start going to fencing every Wednesday now.  I'm also about to start being an LGBT youth mentor again.  We have our open house on the evening of my birthday.  It should be good.  I'll be bringing some video games to draw in the kids.  I'm looking forward to being a mentor again.

I sat down tonight with Quay, who is organizing the youth group at the community center, and we had a great talk.  She shared some stories about being in the old youth group when I was mentoring before.  She told me that a lot of people were sad when I left for Milwaukee back in '06.  The group didn't last long after I left I guess.  I feel a little bad about that, but at the same time, I needed the experiences I had in Milwaukee.  They really helped me grow and understand what I want better.  Still, it's heartwarming to hear that I mattered and made a difference in those kids lives.

I mentioned in my last post that I have had something on my mind lately, and that's still the case.  I've actually written out all of my thoughts already, but I haven't posted it.  I think it needs a few revisits and rewrites before I get it out to the world, but it'll definitely get posted soon.  It's very personal and introspective, and I'm sure it'll help me to get it out.

On a parting note, I've given thought to doing some video blogging again sometime soon.  I've had a lot of fun, creative ideas on how to approach it.  I don't want to do it exactly like I was doing the experimental podcasts from a year ago, but I do want to have some fun with it.  We'll see.  I'll keep you posted.

That's it for me this time. Here's the question of the blog this time:  Do you still play with Nerf toys?  If not Nerf toys, are there any goofy, childish things that still put a smile on your face?