Joey's Big Weekend

This past weekend was Joey's baptism, so we had a ton of people to our place to celebrate the big event. It all started Saturday when Kerry's parents rolled in, followed shortly by Kerry's brother Keith and his wife Beth. Kerry's dad had brought a bottle of rum and a bottle of whiskey, so we settled in and prepared ourselves for a night unlike the one we had expected (you know...sober) and put on the party hats.

Ryan and Meghan arrived shortly after that, and we also invited Lars to come over. My parents and grandparents arrived after that, and it was time to get supper going. Kerry's dad had brought a turkey burner (since I think mine is still in Rhyno's garage) and a fry pan, and 200 perch fillets. Kerry, in the meantime, had sliced up a bunch of potatoes. Soon the cooking oil was a'bubblin' (well, what hadn't spilled on my garage floor, anyway) and the fries were cooking, followed shortly by the fish. There was also cole slaw and other vegetable type things, and although I enjoyed a bit of it all, my focus was on fish with tartar sauce and fries with malt vinegar. OM NOM NOM NOM.

We stayed up late playing video games and drinking. The next morning was...well, it was awful for me. But, you do whatcha gotta do, right? Coffee + Advil + Vitamin B-12 and I was back in the saddle and ready for church.

Joey was a little angel for the whole service, and Gwen was pretty good too, because her cousin Charlotte was there and they just colored the whole time. Ryan and Meghan and Keith and Beth are now officially Godparents, and both Ryan and Keith can now make offers you can't refuse.

OK seriously

I suck at blogging this year. I really do. My first excuse (and really, that's all it is) is the new job. Yes, I have more responsibility now. There is, however, still down time, and I should really update the world on my life. Because seriously. The world needs to know. Don't you?

Life in the old town is...well, it is. Honestly, it's kind of like living in a fish bowl. Everyone knows who I am, who my family is, and what I'm up to. You'll notice that I didn't even mention said town in this post, because there are only a few people here, and google is good at finding things. Anyway, it's good to be back here, but there's definitely a culture-shock style adjustment.

The job is going well. I can't get into specifics, due to the lack of privacy on the internet, but I'm doing lawyer stuff. I've been to court, and although the first time was terrifying, I'm confident that I'm in the right place, doing the right thing. For essentially the first time in my life, I'm happy with my job. I probably already said that.

My family is doing well. Gwen is super into dancing now. Kerry found a pair of old ballet slippers from when Kerry was a little girl, and gave them to Gwen. Gwen now wears them at all times, and is freaking adorable.

My Grandpa recently celebrated his 90th birthday. We had a party for him at their church, and well over 200 people showed up. He gave a speech (well, so did all of his children, but we'll focus on his) and he said that he was talking to his doctor. The doctor said that getting to 90 was a great milestone, and Grandpa said, "Now what?" The doctor said, "Well...try for 100!" Funny.

I've happily been playing a lot more D&D, which is awesome. I have the coolest friends in the world, because they're willing to truck all the way out here to play every other session. That's been awesome, and as a result I'm playing the most D&D I've played since back in the epic days of 2001 - 2003 when I had a weekly session. I'm all geared up for another session this weekend, and it's going to be a blast as always.

I had gotten out of playing WoW, in favor of my shiny new PS3. Monday night, though, I had woken up with Joey at about 3:00 am, and couldn't get to sleep until 4:30 because I was thinking about WoW. I actually got out of bed at 4:00 and downloaded the latest patch, so that I could play last night. The problem was that by the time 9:30 rolled around last night, I was all set to play, but I was tired as heck. I still played about an hour, though, and it was blissful.

Settling In

Another day, another dollar. So, I woke up to the realization that I've been at this lawyerin' thing for a full quarter of a year now. I started with the firm back in October. You'd think that by now I'd have a little confidence about what I'm doing, but that's not the case. Friends and colleagues tell me that it takes a good year to start to feel comfortable, and I believe them. A word to law students: They don't teach you anything in law school about being a lawyer. Even the stuff that really seems like you'll need to know in the future can be rendered close to useless, depending upon what path you take.

That said, I know that I'm more comfortable now that I was at the outset, and I am confident that I will be able to learn everything I need to become a good lawyer. On to other, more fun topics.

Joey, whose official nickname is "Bubs" now (although he'll answer to Bubsy, Zubs, Zubsy, and other variants) is growing at an exponential rate. The lad is huge. I think he's gonna be a bruiser. He could surprise me there, though. I was a little blubber baby as well, but I turned out short and relatively lean. I also turned out generally terrible at sports. We'll see.

Gwenner is basically completely potty trained now! It's amazing -- she just decided that she was able to go on the potty, and now that's what she does, every time. She's a very good and very smart little girl, who astounds me daily. It's amazing to come home and sit down for a conversation with my little girl. She's a chatterbox with a frightening command of the English language. She's also freaking adorable. I'm biased, but it's still true. :)

I got a new toy for Christmas, in the form of a shiny new PS3. It's freaking awesome. As a father, however, my video game time is limited, and I'm afraid that I'll have to give up on WoW for a little while. At least until Cataclysm is released. Although, as an addict, I still feel the pull to play. Perhaps I can devote 1 of my gaming nights per week to WoW. Woo! Justified monthly payment!

As far as PS3 games, I've acquired three that will soak up a lot of my time. The one I'm currently in the midst of is GTA 4, and it's a beautiful and engaging installment of the series, very true to its predecessors. Rock Star seems to have taken out a lot of the more outrageous things that made their way into GTA: San Andreas. Missions where you fly jetpacks to pick up alien goo may be fun (and seriously, GTA:SA is one of my favorite games ever) but they kind of detract from the gangsta feel of the game. GTA 4 is another romp in Liberty City, and so far has provided me with a lot of fun and a minimal amount of swearing.

I also picked up Dragon Age: Origins, a game that virtually every one of my friends has played or is playing. I'm very excited, because I've heard nothing but good things about it. I know that one's gonna be a time consumer.

My brother-in-law got me Assassin's Creed for Christmas, another title that I'm extremely excited to play. It's gonna be a good few months for gaming.

Too much going on

Yes! I have TONS of free time now! It's a crazy, weird feeling. Yet amazingly, I'm able to fill it up with a whole bunch of stuff going on. Too much! How do I do this to myself?

It's not entirely true. Yes, there's a lot going on -- mostly stuff having to do with unpacking boxes and organizing furniture -- but there have also been plenty of TV watching nights. Those fill up fast when I'm watching all three CSI shows, a bit of V, a touch of Survivor (for whatever reason) and a bit of Biggest Loser (to feel good about m'self)...yeah. Sloth is the NEW homework!

So yeah. Time to haul that treadmill back downstairs and get back to exercising. Or maybe just wii fit, which almost counts as exercise. It'll be nice to actually do some of that without a GIGANTIC PICTURE WINDOW through which the neighbors get to watch me doing yoga poses and running in place.

I went for a rousing D&D session at T-Rav's place last Saturday. We finally got a chance to try out 4th Edition, and it exceeded every expectation. Absolutely awesome. Thanks to Lars for driving me down, and to T-Rav, Lundo and Amy for playing.

Lars drove me back to Benson on Saturday night. Then on Sunday, I woke up and drove back to the cities for my new nephew's baptism. Sunday night we drove back to Benson. Know what? That's four trips to or from the cities in two days. Know what else? It wasn't bad at all. So to all ye bold heroes with qualms about the drive to Benson, COME VISIT ME! IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL! ;^)

I signed up for NaNoWriMo again, but I think I'm giving up. I just don't have the motivation that I had last year, when I was completely insane. My new motivation is to hit level 80 in WoW before the baby comes. We'll see how that goes.

One week

It has come to my attention that I only have one full week of law school left, ever. Holy crap. That actually went really fast. It's amazing how quickly four years can go by, but it's even more amazing how fast time starts rolling along once you have kids.

Speaking of kids, I'm going to be an uncle again. My sister and brother-in-law just found out that it's a boy, as well. That's pretty cute. Even cuter is Gwen's cousin Charlotte, another 2-year-old, talking about the little brother in mommy's tummy. Hee hee.

My week was pretty eventful, I guess. I spent some time in Juvenile Court for a class, observing things like CHIPS hearings and petty traffic misdemeanors. The traffic judge cracked me up when he brought the hammer down on a stupid kid. It was hard not to start laughing in the courtroom. I'll refrain from posting any details on the web, but let's just say that this kid was stupid and leave it at that. Kids often are. Heh heh.

I started playing a little Starcraft again over the last couple of nights. That's a game that I personally have been playing for 9 years, and has been out for 11. I'm flabbergasted by its staying power, and that Blizzard has kept the online play available. Great game, though. I love it. It has an easy spot in my top 3 favorite games of all time.

That's about all I've got. I have a busy weekend ahead of me, but my brain is still wanting some release. I've got a bunch of songs rattling around my head that need to be written. There's something very Jabberwocky about them, and yet not. Several crazy riffs in 7/8 and lyrics about pinkeye are parts of them. If I'm able to find some time, I'll record some demos. Fear this, and expect some very interesting rock that may or may not be filed in the Captain Beefheart bin.

Nerding!

I adore Half Price Books. I just discovered this store for the first time, and it's freaking awesome. I walked into the store, specifically looking for an item of nerdery (in other words, an item so powerful that it makes the bearer an instant nerd.) I perused the shelves of paperbacks, and there it was: The second book of the avatar series. Yep. A D&D genre novel.

I'm going on vacation later, and I've learned in the past that taking giant bomber 1000 page epic books isn't the best idea. Gripping, yes, but when I'm on vacation, soaking up the rays of Grand Cayman, I actually want to read something that's completely mindless. Therefore, I'm getting some cheezy 300 page paperbacks, and it's going to be freaking awesome.

I just started the third book of the Emberverse series (also known as the Dies the Fire series) by S. M. Stirling. These books are so freaking full of win. I know that the idea of all modern technology suddenly stopping and everyone having to revert to medieval processes is a little far fetched, but you have to admit that it's a belief at the very core of every D&D player. Admit it: You'd like to see what would happen if suddenly everyone had to use bows and swords and horses and the like. This book series properly displays the absolute chaos that would occur. I recommend it highly, and will lend the novels on a first-come, first serve basis.

I'm playing some D&D on Friday night. WOOHOO Here comes super-nerd, flying into the sunset! Hooray! I can't wait.

Last but not least, after successfully beating both Mega Man and Castlevania 2 last week, I downloaded Castlevania 3 (a game that I remember from my youth but have never completed). It's not nearly as good as Castlevania 2, because it reverts back to the style of Castlevania 1 (level, boss, level, boss, etc. instead of the free form of CV2.) I'm a sucker for things Castlevania, though, and I'm enjoying it. It's also the debut of Alucard in a video game, and he goes on to pwn in Symphony of the Night, another fantastic installment of the series.

New stuff!

Woohoo! New president! Win!

In other news, I downloaded Mega Man 1 and Simon's Quest (Castlevania 2) for the Wii, and have been playing them with much glee. As mentioned before, I love old video games. They make me feel...eleven. Also, they're just plain fun. This subject has been detailed before, but it's worth mention.

This semester is a definite problem for my motivation. (How's that for a subject change with no warning?) Last semester was also a severe problem for my motivation. However, somehow (according to my grades, anyway) I still managed to do well. I think that the professors of high-level classses generally don't like to fail students, but dang, I really thought that I would have done worse on my Creditor/Debtor class. Pleasant surprises are good.

Kerry and I have decided that we need new tattoos. We've discovered (after much recommendation) a place called Electric Dragonland. Kerry's going there today to check some stuff out and schedule either consultations or appointments. The place is by appointment only, no walk-ins, because they're insanely busy and have to operate by a schedule. I know what I'm gettin', but I'm not tellin'.

As a segue from that thought, we started watching the first season of Miami Ink last night, and it's freaking awesome. Tattoo parlors are interesting places. I don't usually get into reality TV shows, but this one is fun. Buncha punks.

Wii, Weather, Wife, Weecordings.

Wii fit is fun. I've gone from having a "wii fit age" of 32 to 34 to 28. Hurrah! I'm younger now! Woot! Of course, I've now started school again, so I don't have all the time in the world to worry about fitness, when I have a ton of other crap to worry about. Such is life, of course.

Class started last night, and I had perhaps the worst two drives of my law school careers. The drive there wasn't all that bad except for driving 5 mph the entire way to St. Paul. Miraculously, I was actually on time to class. Wonder of wonders.

The drive home was full of suck, though. I actually watched an idiot in a volvo come screaming down an entrance ramp onto 94, lose control, spin and fishtail for a while, then plow into the snow bank on the side of the road. Other cars stopped for him, and I could see that he was ok (if shaken) before I drove away. Perhaps he'll think twice about driving like a dillhole from now on.

The accidents and spinouts continued all morning, and roads were sucky. They're better now, though, so that's good. We won't be getting more snow until...aw crap! Tonight!

So my wife called me at work today, and left a message on my voice mail. It said, "Call me right away. It's an emergency." Of course, I panicked. Then I called her and listened to her sad tale. She had gone out to my car to start it and make sure it was ok for my drive tonight. Then she somehow locked her keys inside it, while it was running.

The problem with this scenario is that she had dropped me off this morning. Therefore, I didn't have a car at work with which to bring her a key. I actually borrowed my boss' car and drove home to play the role of the knight in shining armor. Or, at least, the knight in shining Civic. Either way, the crisis was averted. Sorry I laughed so hard at you, honey.

We had a Kobolds practice on Sunday night. (OK, the actual band name is "A Flock Of Kobolds", but that's a lot to type. Perhaps we should have a discussion on that tip, gentlemen? ;D) It was super cool. I must admit, we sound hella awesome together. We've got this Irish thing down. The Irish thing and some other strangeness. We've even worked one original tune, and I've written some more so there is more coolness on the horizon. I'm already chomping at the bit for more, and my fingers haven't stopped hurting from Sunday.

Mario Madness

I love video games. I just adore them. And in particular, I adore old video games. That's why I really love my wii.

You see, when I fire up an old NES or SNES game, I'm instantly transformed into me at age 11. OR 14. Or even 22, depending on the game. But seriously, the nostalgic effect of video games is wonderful to me. On a lot of levels, old console games are simply more fun than the new games that I play, console or computer. They just are. I can't explain it, but sometimes when you take away all of the gaudy flash and realism and you make the game a simple mechanic of move + jump + fire, the result is much more fun and relaxing.

Then again, it can be incredibly frustrating. I won't deny that I had my fair share of controller tosses and the like at ages 11 - 22. It happens.

I'll get back to that. I had a wonderful and fun, albeit low-key, NYE. Kerry and I did the hotel thing again this year, and it was a very good time. After my awful hangover from last Sunday, I decided to take it easy on NYE. And easy I took it. I drank more mountain dew than beer, and I was still able to go to sleep at 12:30. I woke up blissfully clear-headed.

Gwen had a huge nap yesterday afternoon, because she had been up late with my parents. Kerry decided to match Gwen nap-for-nap, which left me with a wonderful three hours of doing whatever the heck I wanted. This is where I get back to video games.

I looked through a couple of the old school gems on my Wii, and decided on a little Ninja Gaiden. I got bored with that rather quickly, and saw Super Mario Bros 3 staring at me...taunting me. I decided to make it my mission to go through the entire game. Every single level.

See, with other mario games like Super Mario World or Mario 64, going through every level ain't no big thing. You can save your game and go back to it at any time. Historically, with Mario 3 (and 2 and 1), completing every level was much more of an undertaking. Especially 3.

There's a reason that 3 is even harder to accomplish in this fashion than 2 or 1: 1 and 2 are very linear. If you don't warp, then you go through the game in essentially a straight line from point A to point B. Mario 3 introduced the overworld them, wherein you can go either this way or that way, and you often don't have to do every level in a world in order to get to the airship at the end. (Super Mario World continued the overworld theme, with even more levels, but see my previous comment on the ability to save).

Yeah, well things are different now. Now, when I turn my wii off and go back to the game, I'm in the same place that I was before. Mua ha ha.

So anyway, I've gone through worlds 1 through 5 thus far, and I've beaten every level available to me. It's been wonderful, and will be for the remaining three levels.

Also, that may seem like cheating, because I can now essentially save. To that, I must answer that once upon a time, Corey and I took it upon ourselves to go through every single level of Super Mario Brothers 1, 2, and 3 in one day. Pretty much one sitting. We did this on a 15-inch TV in my grandparents' bedroom. That was hardcore.

Wacky Wednesday

I have a bad case of senioritis. Well, I'm not a senior, per se -- I'm a fourth year law student. It pretty much amounts to the same thing, though. I've been doing this for far too long, and I have very little motivation left.

It's not like I'm going to completely neglect class or anything, it's that I have a very large aversion to studying. Getting myself motivated is becoming increasingly difficult. I can only imagine that next semester is going to be even worse, but next semester I plan on taking ridiculously easy classes. Heh.

Last night, Kerry and I booked a vacation to Grand Cayman Island for the first week of March (my spring break). I'm freaking stoked. A nice week in the sun will be just what my aching mind needs. (Oh, and all of the pirate stuff around there, too. Woot. I love pirates.) We planned this vacation with Megan and Kristian, a couple of friends of ours, because Kristian is also a 4L and will be celebrating his final spring break as well. There will be reckless drunken abandon. This is sure.

Gwennerpants will be staying with her Grandparents that week. They'll have a good time.

Speaking of my lil' girl, she turns TWO YEARS OLD on Friday! I can't believe that she's such a big girl. She acts like it, too. She's been talking up a storm lately, and it's fun to sit down and have actual, real conversations with her. She's excited for her birthday party, which will take place on Saturday.

I used a gift card that I got for my birthday at Target the other day, and purchased some Wii points. With the Wii points, I downloaded the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, which is absolutely hilarious and much more fun than I honestly expected. It plays like Space Quest, Maniac Mansion, and other games of that type, and it's a lot of fun. So far there's been quite a bit of play time, considering that it's only part one of an episodic game series. Good times.

I also downloaded the Secret of Mana, a classic SNES RPG that I hadn't played back in the heyday. It's a lot of fun -- thus far it's fairly typical of Squaresoft games, but is a Zelda-style hack and slash game as opposed to a true RPG. Either way, it's loads of fun thus far. I love video games.

Another Weenend Down

Admittedly, I'm becoming a tad lackadaisical with my blog posting. I've gone a week since the last one, and that's just not acceptable. My readership is suffering! I feel a bit like Robert Jordan...except not dead. Maybe more akin to George R. R. Martin. That's it.

The tile floor is now finished. On friday night, Kerry and I did all of the grouting. I managed to literally wear a hole in the tip of my right hand index finger. I had to plug this oft-bleeding hole with superglue. As such, I've now got a blob of superglue sticking out of my finger. This makes typing interesting.

Last night, Greg and I had plans to go to a metal show at Station 4, featuring the viking stylings of Amon Amarth. Well, we got there and they had already started, and it turned out to be $25. Since we're a couple of cheaparses, we went with plan B: Not seeing Amon Amarth. We went back to my house, drank some beer, and spent some time playing Golden Axe on the wii. That was quite fun.

I was dismayed to find that my Wii Sports disc has a hole in it. Yep, a hole going straight through the disc. I blame Nintendo for not giving me a case for it, but I really know that the blame somehow falls squarely on me for not taking care of it, or on Gwen for somehow managing to put a hole through the disc. Anyway, if anyone has a copy of Wii Sports that they don't want anymore, I would be interested in making a purchase from you.

I'm old!

They're married! Rhyno and Meghan tied the knot this weekend in a beautiful ceremony and a superfun reception. I was successful in most of my best-manly duties, and gave what I thought was a pretty darn good speech. The day was a lot of fun, and I offer sincere congratulations to both of them. Have fun in Cabo.

Yesterday was the anniversary of my birth. I am now officially 32. Funny, I don't feel a day older than 31. Har har har. It was a pretty low-key day, as the mornings after big weddings usually are. I took my tux back, did some hanging out with my parents, racked my mead, played some video games, read some more geek book, and watched most of a movie with Kerry. It was nice.

Kerry got me a kegging system! This means, ladies and gentlemen, that I will have my own homebrew on tap at my house. That is sofa king cool. No more running upstairs for beer during D&D sessions. Oh no! Just reach over to yon tap and fill thy frothing mug with ale! My lovely wifey also got me a Flogging Molly T-Shirt, because she rules.

Yesterday afternoon, our 2nd realtor came over after having done a market analysis. It was like night and day compared to the first lady that came (see previous post). The news was much more to our favor, and this lady really has her stuff together. The last chick seems to have been doing exactly what I thought: Trying to get a quick, small payment now rather than wait out the winter. Well, good luck to her in her endeavors, she won't be selling our house.

It sucks to be back at work, because the weekend went by like lightning. That's always the problem with a power-packed weekend. So, here goes. Time to work.

Fond Memories of the Stick

Mario Kart makes me want to break things. I have had more juvenile outbursts playing this game than I have in a very, very long time. The funny thing is that when I go online, I can actually hold my own against the real people around the country (despite the game’s lack of any good online interaction…Nintendo, please add a “PWN3D!” message button that you can just hit during the race. Mua ha ha). My problems with the game arise when playing against the computer. It’s freakishly frustrating.

Last night I was about to finish a grand prix and got so angry at the system that I just shut the power off. A similar occurrence happened very often back in the days…of the Casbah.

Let’s drift off into memory. It’s story time, kiddies! My Sophomore year in college, I lived at a house in Morris, MN that my geek roommates and I had lovingly named “The Casbah”. It was not a party house, as we lived right next to the Sherriff. We participated in our share of shenanigans, though, and had a lot of hazy, delightful, drunken old times. There were a total of five of us that lived in the house. Of the five, I still talk to two on a regular basis. Of the five, three went on to law school. These are just factoids, not really terribly important details.

This was the fall of 1996. It was a happy time. I was a strapping young lad of twenty summers. Almost every night, we would shirk our homework duties and gather around the magic box: The Super Nintendo. See, the N64 came out that fall, but none of us could afford one. So we played oldschool games on one roomie’s SNES, and it was a ton of fun. One of these games was the original Mario Kart, and as it supported not one but two people playing at the same time, that was often our game of choice.

The SNES didn’t have a remote control like modern consoles. Oh, no. It had two big purple sliders on top of the box, one marked “power” and one marked “reset”. Frustration with @#$%@ Mario Kart became the mother of invention, and the owner of the SNES (in his mighty wisdom) came up with a brilliant device that stayed by our couch for the duration of the year: The Reset Stick.

The Reset Stick was…a stick. It was a broom handle, actually. However, it was a wonderful way for us to remain comfortably seated on the couch whilst resetting the SNES in our frustration. It was amazing. In fact, I like to think that it was the Reset Stick (and other similar methods likely concocted all over the gaming dens of the world) that led to this bold new renaissance of remote console. I thoroughly enjoy being able to turn off the power to the Wii whilst comfortably seated on my couch, turning purple with rage. Stupid Mario Kart. Why must I love you so?

The Weekendy Weekend

Well hey, whaddya know, today is my anniversary. Kerry and I have, as of this day, been married for 7 years. I’m trying to say this as romantically as possible…ok here I go.

I just wanna give a shout-out to my sweet sugar mamma, who’s been wit’ me all of these years. Baby, you so sexy. Awwwwww yeeeuh. Thanks 4 makin’ this pimp’s heart all a-fluttery.

Sorry sweetie, that’s the best I could do with this early A.M. timeframe. I love you, wifey.

Moving on! The weekend was pretty rad. Well, it started out un-rad, because I was back in class on Saturday morning. That wasn’t such a big deal. It’s an interesting class with an interesting professor, so it should be ok. After class got out, my girls and I went to my Grandma’s birthday party. Gwen had an absolute blast. She got to hang out with her cousin and my youngest cousin…the three of them are all within a few months of each other in age. They had a very good time running around like maniacs, playing ball, and riding on Grandpa Don’s shoulders.

Sunday morning I decreed that we were going to the MN State Fair. So, we hopped in the car and did just that. After causing my lovely wife of seven years to nearly have a heart attack from my driving “skills”, we parked and went in. Gwen had a ton of fun looking at sheep, horses, and cows. I managed to hungrily consume my greasy fair food trifecta: Cheese Curds, Pronto Pup, and Mini Donuts. The deliciousness is still oozing from my pores in the form of batter-fried sweat.

Our fair day was awesome – perfect weather and good times – until we got back to the parking lot. It turns out we had a completely flat tire. I have some sort of back-right tire curse, because this is the third one I’ve had to change in as many years. The other two were on my other car, though, so once again I had to figure out the silly little tire-iron and jack that came with the vehicle. Luckily, even though these items are small and hard to get out of their hidey-holes, their basic function is pretty straightforward. I’m also happy that my Jeep has a full-sized spare tire, because donuts suck (except state fair mini donuts, as previously mentioned).

My WoW experience has become much, much faster, as I am now the proud owner of an epic flying mount. Awwwww yeah.

So last night I was going to brew up my first batch of mead, and I couldn't find my spare BUNGSTOPPER! (seriously, a word like that has to be in all-caps. Sorry.) So, I've gotta hit up the beer store again for an extra one. (oh darn.)

Kobolds and Kart

Well, tonight’s the night that I get to start studying again. Blech. It’s always an awful feeling. I would have put it off until tomorrow night, but I’m going to be far too busy playing Irish music, work songs, pirate ballads and songs from the wood to busy myself with a schoolbook. So there you have it, a Flock of Kobolds shall invade tomorrow evening. May the world tremble.

I picked up MarioKart for the Wii the other day. The game does the franchise proud – it’s incredibly fun. One especially cool feature is the ability to play online with friends. However, there are some gripes I have.
1. Far too many of the tracks involve places that you can fall off. It gets annoying.
2. All of the weapons cause you to lose your weapon when you’re hit. That’s LAME. The fun of the old versions was having that red shell in your arsenal for that moment that the jerkwad that hit you with the shell passes you. Lightning bolts aren’t supposed to rob you of your defenses.
3. The addition of motorcycles and different karts for each character was unnecessary. Come on, each of the characters is different from the others…there’s no need in my opinion to clutter the game with more choices to make.
4. Online play is fine and dandy, but Nintendo should REALLY think about some sort of voice chat or typing thingamajig or something. There is simply no way to communicate with your friends while playing this game, and that’s who I want to play with: My friends. I don’t care to test my mettle against the kid in Beijing. Nope, he can have the trophy, he’s way better than I am. But I want to be able to actually converse with my friends during online play, rather than resort to canned messages that I point at with my wiimote in between games. The only alternative is to have Skype running on a nearby computer, which neither of the dudes I was playing with last night have.

That’s all I’ve got, really. Despite my grumblings, the game rocks.

Small World

The following story might seem a bit convoluted, but if you follow me to the very end, it will all come together. Kind of like the movie Memento, which is awesome and I highly recommend seeing. On with the show.I went golfing last night with Kristian and Ryan. More on that later.

Just after getting out of the car, I got a phone call from Kerry. She told me that she had just gotten a call from her boss, who relayed to her that he was vacationing with some friends on Madeline Island. Said friends have known Kerry for years, as they are residents of the town she works in and frequent the nature center that she works at.

Making a long story very short, it turns out that they own the building that was the one-time residence of none other than Creepyguy himself. Yep. They’re his landlords. Crazy small world. They also confirmed that he no longer lives there, which is reason in itself to cheer and whoop and celebrate.

So last night’s golfing was fun. The night started well for me, but soon some darkish clouds started inching their way across the sky. By the fourth hole we started to hear some thunder rumbling, but the three of us pressed on, trying to convince ourselves that the thunder was far away and that there was no lightning.

By the end of the fifth hole, the lightning was becoming a bit obvious, and the sky was looking a little grim. The horn blew as we were on the tee box from the sixth hole, which signified that the course was closing. The problem was that that tee box is literally the farthest point on the entire course from the clubhouse and parking lot. So, we three brave golf warriors set out across the wide open course, dodging lightning bolts all the way to the parking lot. OK, all except the part about the lightning bolts.

We hopped into the car and drove off, and not two minutes after we started driving it started POURING. It was an absolute deluge, to the point where other cars had pulled off the road because they couldn’t see the road. It was an adventure, to say the least. That would not have been fun to have been stuck in.

After that I went home and played a little Starcraft with Reuben, who fell asleep. I stayed awake way too long after that, playing poker online (for fake money). I discovered this fun little browser-based site, which unfortunately screws up every once in a while. I blame Safari, Apple’s browser, which has some nice features yet still gets all wonky from time to time.

We're not gonna pay...we're not gonna pay...

Woohoo, tonight is another date night! Tonight, Kerry and I are going to see Rent for the third time. I’d say that we’re junkies, but that comes nowhere close to the lengths that some people go. A former boss of mine was seeing Rent for the 15th time when I ran into him on our first viewing. Interesting.

I am a bit of a sucker for Broadway musicals, though, I must admit. Especially Les Miserables. Yeah. I’ve seen that one seven times (if you count the Chanhassen Dinner Theater. I’ll call it six-and-a-half).

Tonight’s production is (groan) starring one of the finalists from American Idol. What’s even funnier (to me) is that it’s also starring someone from South African Idol. This is funny to me for a number of reasons. First, I had no idea that there was a South African version of the show. I don’t imagine many people DID know that, outside South Africa. (Hey, sorry! I’m not worldly, I guess.) Second, the show title sounds more like an Indiana Jones film.

The wife has been going to bed fairly early this past couple of days, so I’ve been left with not much to do. I’ve entered video game mode once again. I got bored with GTA, so I went back to the wonderful World of Warcraft. However, I usually don’t see anyone I know online, so I’ve also been playing a couple of console games. I decided to give Dragon Warrior VII another try (wow, this is a PS One game…old school) and it still bored the bajeezus out of me. So I decided to play Shadow of the Colossus again. I got a decent way through the game on my first play (I killed 11 colossi) but it’s been a LONG time since I played it.

I ended up starting over. The game is truly beautiful, though, and I’m excited to play it some more. Maybe after that I’ll actually finish Zelda.

Maybe not.

One down

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Classes have been drawing to a close, and finals week has been thrust upon me like a heaping scoop of aunt Mabel's potato salad at a family reunion.*

Ugh. The first final that I had to take was for Income Tax. I actually didn’t mind the class at all, but the final sucked. Generally I go through a bit of a ritual when taking finals. I take some deep breaths, and then I read through the exam twice. On my first read-through for this test, I actually seriously wondered if I had been given an exam for the wrong class. Everything on the page just looked completely different than anything I’d studied.

After another read-through I kind of figured it out (at least to the point that I had an answer to most of the questions) but still suffered through two brutal hours of torturing my brain to give up the information that I hoped was secreted away there, somewhere in the deep caves of memory. Alas, sometimes it doesn’t matter how much digging I do…there’s just nothing to remember. Hopefully I didn’t bomb the thing too badly. It was yucky.

Lately I’ve been entertaining myself by playing some Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Yeah, I’m kickin’ it old school. The only trouble is that everything on my PS2 looks like utter crap on my TV, because my TV rules and my PS2 is old. For a partial solution, I need to go pick up a component cable for the thing. That will help. I’m using composite right now, because…well because it didn’t matter before. It matters now, therefore the view will be at least slightly better after I spurge and spend 15 measly bucks on a cable.

I’ve got over a week until my next final. This means that I’m basically free every night this week, which is more than just a little bit awesome. It’s a whole heaping load of awesome. My next final is a take-home exam. As a rule I hate take-home exams, because they’re always harder and take WAY more time than an in-class exam. However, after last night’s pile of stress, I’m eager for a change of test type. After that, I’ve got to wait until May 10th for my last test, but then I’ll be DONE FOR THE SUMMER. Sweet, blessed freedom, I can’t wait to taste thee.

I can’t believe how fast it’s gone, but I’ll only have one year left after this one comes to a close. Three down, one to go, and they keep going more and more quickly. I imagine next year will fly by like a rocket, but right now all I want to think about is summer.

Speaking of summer, could we please get some nice weather up in here? This cold and snow is getting fraking ridiculous. We had more snow this past weekend. Seriously, it's the end of April! Enough already! GRR.

*I do not have an aunt Mabel, and if I did I'm sure that she would make excellent potato salad.

WOILL!

I’m not in a metal mood right now, but I’m in a “surprise me, iPod!” kind of mood, so I’m listening to songs on shuffle. I’ve been skipping any metal that comes up, but “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr” by Trivium just came on, and I just had to listen to it because it makes me laugh so hard. BOAT! RUDDER! STRANGE MOUNTAIN! Twigidee. You know, maybe I should listen to their newer album, because as it stands I just think their band is kind of a joke. I heard they got better. Meh.

I went to Lundo’s place last night and played Rock Band with him and Rhyno. That was holy-crap-awesome. It really is just Guitar Hero +, but the + is a +20 to awesomeness. I would buy it if a) I had friends that came to visit more than once a month and b) it wasn’t so darned pricey. I was also surprised that the song selection was so awesome. Many of the tunes were actually repeats from the GH games, but there was a ton of cool stuff. Songs would come up when we were doing “mystery setlists” that would make all three of us cheer. (Enter Sandman! Hell yeah!) Great fun was had, especially when making Lundo sing songs that he didn’t know at all. Yay for the Pixies.

Tomorrow night my family and I are heading out of town, this time with the baby in tow. We’ll stop for a night at my parents’ place, and then it’s off to the wild world of Alexandria. Yeah, you read that right. It’s vacationland USA for those who can’t travel far! We might, just might, visit the Kensington Runestone museum. You just NEVER KNOW what wild craziness we’ll come up to!

Actually, Kerry and I have become addicted to hotel rooms with hot tubs, so this is just another fix for our devastating habit. ;) No, really, we just love getting out of town from time to time.

Ding 70!

Woot. I knew that it was a better idea to play WoW last night than to finish my stupid paper. I caught the carrot on the stick...at least until the next expansion.
It all turned out for the best, because I was home with a sick child today, and ended up finishing my paper while she took a nap. The fates aligned so that I could hit level 70.