Monday, January 31, 2011


A big part of getting married seems to be making an entrance. Or entrances. The constant fanfare of entrances and exits.

For instance, we're officially announced husband and wife, we walk down the aisle and exit out of the front of the chapel. We're then directed to quickly run around the side of the chapel to the back door. We sign the marriage license in the little room back there while all our guests shuffle out the front door. Then we walk through the empty chapel and out the front door again for another big entrance. Surprise! It's us again! You saw us heading out this door a few minutes ago but now we're magically exiting out of the same door again! AAAAAHHHH... BIRD SEED!!!

Sunday, January 30, 2011


Nick and Trupe on usher duty. Ushers are the unsung heroes of weddings.

Nick: Well, we ran out of seats early, so there was that woman and baby that I had to ask to move so that ________ had a seat near the front. That was stressful. _________ seemed really angry with me the whole time. Trupe and I also had to calm the sweaty wedding planner assistant down and make sure she was okay. Oh my God, and the boutonniere disaster....that wedding planner really had it out for us. She had a lot of carefully laid plans and was very upset with us for not being aware of them.
Trupe: There was a lot of mystery and scandal surrounding the boutonnieres. Fortunately our innocence and honesty rendered us victorious in the end.

Saturday, January 29, 2011


Sarah, half-awake half-asleep, said, "I had a dream that a bicycle was People's Sexiest Man Alive."

I laughed so hard I woke her up.

Friday, January 28, 2011


So, when exactly was the moment when we became married? Was it when we said, "I do," or when we were pronounced "husband and wife?" Was it when we signed the marriage license? Was it when the license was officially received and filed away in a court house somewhere?

This picture was taken the day before the wedding, at the Galena courthouse where we picked up our marriage license. We filled out some paperwork, we paid some money, we got the license. The woman on the other side of the Old West-style bank teller window made us raise our hands and pledge that we were who we said we were. Was that, secretly, bureaucratically, when we were really married?

Thursday, January 27, 2011


Signing the marriage license in the little back room behind the chapel.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011


Sarah's begun watching the first season of the X-Files on her laptop.

Sarah: When did you watch it?
Me: College. Freshman year I started watching it, I think.
Sarah: How old were you?
Me: I don't know. 17, 18.
Sarah: So... half your life ago.
Me: What?
Sarah: It was about the halfway point between the beginning of your life and now.
Me: Um... yeah. Yeah. Huh. I guess so.
Sarah: I meant it as a good thing.
Me: Really? Oh man. Yikes. Wow. Okay. Huh. I'm not feeling so good.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011


Someone posted this picture on Facebook. It's the house I lived in (along with my friend Tom) in college. Someone from my old college speech and debate team tagged me in the picture.

The picture has comments from people who lived there over the years. Some say, "I lived upstairs from 88-90" and others say, "I lived there last year!"

I e-mailed the picture to Tom, who isn't on Facebook.

Tom: Wow, it's funny to see how shitty the place looks.
Me: But the same.
Tom: Oh yeah. The same amount of shitty.

I noticed that the picture, on Facebook, is part of a photo album of all the houses on that street. And the album sits next to separate albums for all the streets in the small southern Ohio town where I got my undergrad degree. And those albums were posted by the "Alumni Association." Clever.

I expect to be contacted for donations very soon.

Monday, January 24, 2011


The reviews (for the game, not the wedding) have started coming in. Game Informer gave us an 8. Official XBox Magazine gave us an 8. Good reviews.

Maybe you shouldn't read reviews, but it sure seems like a good idea when they're all positive.

Sunday, January 23, 2011


Not sure who we're looking at here as we walk out of the chapel, but we seem incredibly excited to see them.

Saturday, January 22, 2011


Stacey: To close out the ceremony, and to celebrate their first moments as a married couple, Sarah and Arnie wanted there to be one more song, something that we can all sing along to together. In the program it’s listed as ‘By Vows of Love Together Bound’ but that’s a misprint We’ll actually be singing Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ from the motion picture ‘Mannequin.’ It’s a power ballad so fist pumping is encouraged.

And then Jeanine and Evan played the song and most everyone sang along, several people reading along as if it were a hymn. "And we can build this dream together, standing strong forever, nothing's gonna stop us now. And if this world runs out of lovers, we'll still have each other, nothing's gonna stop us, nothing going to stop us noooowww...."

And there was some fist pumping.

Friday, January 21, 2011


After a long day of meetings, the Games crew at work decided to trek out to the suburbs to visit what is supposedly one of the largest old fashioned coin-op arcades in the country. $15, play all you want.

I ended up focusing primarily on the Simpsons game that I loved back in junior high. Finally finishing it all these years later felt like closure.

I remember that game seeming huge when I was a kid. Four people could play at once. But now as an adult, it would be tough for more than two people to play the game comfortably. I've grown up (and out).

Thursday, January 20, 2011


Sushi and drinks with Brooke and Glynn.

The place was packed when we first sat down.

Maybe we overstayed our welcome. Maybe we had too much fun.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011


More You Don't Know Jack marketing. It's crazy to think the game will be hitting store shelves in a couple weeks (Feb. 8).

Here's a marketing picture from Denver (I think, or maybe Minneapolis) where some special questions we wrote are being used on pizza boxes.

Meanwhile, I'm getting a crash course in social media marketing, manning our Facebook page (which you can "like" here) and our Twitter feed (which you can find at @youdontknowjack ).

Tweeting things like, "What part of our ESRB rating are you most excited for? Crude Humor, Drug Reference, Language, Mild Blood or Sexual Themes?" Also, "Pleasantly surprised to hear we won a Golden Globe. Didn't realize they give those to video games."

Tuesday, January 18, 2011


I was messing around with a new app for my phone that allows me to send little cartoon emoticons in my text messages (but only to other iPhone users).

I randomly sent just a picture of a VHS tape to my friend, Adal. No reason.

It led to this funny (and still ongoing) exchange.

Monday, January 17, 2011


Had lunch with Hansen.

Hansen: My wife's out of town. Her grandmother's funeral.
Me: Oh. Sorry to hear that.
Hansen: I'm in the middle of this court case so I couldn't go. But my wife gets out there, they open the envelope with all her arrangements... and she'd wanted me to do a reading and be a pallbearer. [sighs] I had no idea. It's too late now, but that... you don't mess with that.
Me: She must have liked you.
Hansen: I liked her. My wife is speaking at the funeral. She was thinking about quoting me, that I used to say she made a douchebag feel like a king. But she doesn't want to say douchebag at a funeral. I said, say it, you can say it. I think she's going to skip that part entirely.

Sunday, January 16, 2011


Sarah: [half whispered] ...we're married now.

Saturday, January 15, 2011


Meador declaring us married.

A few moments before that....

Meador: Will you friends and family, bless Arnie and Sarah, keep them safe, keep them in your thoughts and prayers, share jokes with them, occasionally get dinner or drinks with them, touch base with them, post messages on their Facebook pages, every once in a while see one of their shows, nothing crazy, maybe once a year, tops… and generally be a part of their lives? If you are willing to do, let’s say, 75% of those things, say, “We will.”
Congregation: We will.

Friday, January 14, 2011


Sarah and I's yearly joint birthday party at the Grafton. A good excuse to get a bunch of our friends together. Like a wedding, only less expensive for everyone.

Meador: I really did enjoy being a part of your wedding. It was great. You know my favorite part? Just belting out, "Ladies and gentlemen, I now present to you for the first time, the bride and groom, Sarah and Arnie!" That was really awesome.

Thursday, January 13, 2011


Uh... Nick still hasn't changed his profile picture back from this gross one of me from a trip to Blueberry Island a few years back. How long is he going to keep this picture up there?!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011


Among our many wedding souvenirs are these rubber mallets that I bought at a Home Depot because the gong we borrowed didn't come with anything to hit it with.

Jeanine's Musician Boyfriend: I usually just punch it.

Someone along the way someone prettied them up with mallets.

I remember walking out of the Home Depot thinking, "I could probably return these after the wedding. One of them at least. Get $15 back."

Now that seems crazy. Those are our wedding rubber mallets!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011


Then we used the Unity Gong.

Sarah hit the gong. I hit the gong. We hit the gong.

It was Sarah's idea and it made us laugh. I asked around, thinking, "Someone we know must own a gong." And yep, someone did (Jeanine's boyfriend).

We thought it would be a sly joke. Some people would think it was funny, others would think it was some weird tradition they'd never heard of before. We thought it would get a few subtle giggles.

But it got a big laugh. A big resonant gong-sized laugh.

Monday, January 10, 2011


The marketing for the You Don't Know Jack game release is starting to ramp up a bit.

Here's a photo the marketing team sent us of some special ads we have up in the New York subway, with questions on them.

You can juuuust barely make out one of the special New York-centric questions I wrote, "How old was New York City when its New Year's balls started to drop?"

New York friends, if you see these ads, take pictures and send them to me. Even better, get yourself in the picture. Just don't get run over by a train, it's not worth it.

Sunday, January 9, 2011


As if this blog wasn't self-involved enough, on Facebook I asked people to change their profile picture to a picture of me for my birthday. And about 20 or so did it, which is more than I expected.

Nick changed his profile to an embarrassing pic of me shirtless, playing Rock Band, which I suppose serves me right.

Saturday, January 8, 2011


Final rehearsal for the Backrow's Sketchfest show tonight.

Here we are rehearsing the show-opening scene which involves the full cast, a power point presentation, Meador and Trupe being handcuffed together (hopefully they don't lose the key or the rest of the show will be real real interesting), and me getting shot in the chest with a shotgun in slow motion.

The show's already sold out so, sorry.

Friday, January 7, 2011


Inside my birthday card from my mom, there was this post-it note and a few pictures of me growing up, most of them adorable, but at least one from the unfortunate awkward phase I went through from, oh... age thirteen to approximately age thirty five.

Thursday, January 6, 2011


My birthday. A wonderful dinner with my wife.

Sure, maybe I shouldn't have pasta on the second day of my diet, but oh well.

35th year of life: off to a great start.

Biggest Loser weight loss competition: off to a less good start.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011


The first weigh-in for our office's bi-annual Biggest Loser competition.

Steve-o: [in response to an e-mail giving the "current list of contestants"]: "The number of repeat contestants from year to year does serve to underscore the futility of the event doesn't it?"

Tuesday, January 4, 2011


Sarah's birthday.

She's been dropping hints lately that she wants some new pajama pants, so I took note and bought her two very comfortable looking pairs of PJ pants, which she seemed to really like.... except...

Sarah: Uh... you know... I think this other pair are... they're maternity pants.
Me: What?!

It's hard not to mess up birthdays a little bit.

Monday, January 3, 2011


As someone who posts pictures of themselves on the internet semi-regularly, it's kind of surprising that people don't do gag photoshop jobs of me MORE often than they do.

But it does happen a little. And this is one of the funnier ones, from Glynn.

Sunday, January 2, 2011


And... I'm sick.

Good thing I now have this massive stockpile of over the counter drugs.

Saturday, January 1, 2011


Home safe.

Riding in a cab through Wrigleyville as the bars were closing in the early hours of New Years morning, I felt like we were in a montage from a movie about the end of the world. People flooding onto the streets lost and desperate, stumbling, holding each other up, eyes darting around for any hint of salvation in the form of an available cab, tempers flaring, undecipherable yelps and screams ringing out, several people trying to open the door to our cab even though it was already occupied. I wanted to hold my hand up to the glass and whisper, "We can't help you..."