Two weeks later.........

I've been away from Xbox Live and 2o2p the last 2 weeks. I doubt I'm popular enough for anyone to have said "hey, what happened to that guy with the ugly monkey avatar?" but rest assured... I have, indeed, been gone the last two weeks.

First things first... There is a new little member of my little family. Tyler Aaron was born August 22 at 7:25 PM. The missus was having contractions for 2 days before the doctors finally said "alright, let's have a baby." Despite the intense contractions they still had to induce her but sure enough we had a baby without any major complications.

So while I've been at home, there has been zero usage of the computer or Xbox. When we're not making sure the baby is fed, clean, comfortable, and happy, we just kind of sit around and watch him do baby things, like... um.. move his arms.. and stare at my shirt... and make little noises.. well, right now he's not doing anything super exciting but give it time - I give him six months before he's jumping over school buses on a riding mower.

Yesterday I got home from work, and the house was empty for a couple hours. I just bought a copy of Shadowrun off another 2o2p'er right before the baby was born, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get some time in on the game. Halfway through a training bot match and the 360 freezes - no error message, no red lights, just a freeze. OK, check the disc, and while I was back in Dashboard it froze again. So I do what most Xbox 360 owners do in their first year of owning their console - call Microsoft and raise hell. The support kid asked me to turn it on again so we could check something in the Dashboard and sure enough, once I hit power: 3 red, blinking, evil lights. Laughing at me.

Well, I'll see you all on Xbox Live again in 3 weeks. In the meantime, I have a 7 pound human to stare at.